Guild Wars 2

So, Lazarus has returned, which begs the question, exactly what is our favorate Mursaat going to do with his new found demi-godhood and power of rediculas levels of magic?

Lets remember a few things:

The Mursaat are literally the most powerful race of magic users in Tyria

Unlike the other races that decided to tone down magic, the Mursaat, did not and they gained great wisdom and power from that which most Tyrians cant hope to rival. Adding insult to injury, Lazarus already grand level of expertease with magic not only makes him a formiddable sorceror, but also a demi-god, considering he just absorbed a BLOODSTONE’S worth of power.

That literally is some of the largest quantities of magic in the world, Lazarus could literally kill a dragon, with that kind of power, which brings us to the next part.

Better to be loved than feared

Lazarus obviously realizes that the Mursaat were all but wiped out because they enslaved, killed and tried to conquer everyone, perhaps now he sees a “new” way to win over the people of Tyria to his side.

Love, peace, respect, and a new face for the white mantle.

Lazarus is strategically being clever about this, rather than conquering the Krytan throne, and trying to usurp people and rule them, hes showing his hand as an “ally” to the world, a powerful demi-god who could lead everyone to betterment. He is taking the other approach to evil, the much cleverer one.

Hes making “you” seem incompitent, the commander, the pact. After all, if Lazarus kills a dragon, with just one shot of his power, then he has prooven there is NO need for you anymore, no need for the pact.

The White Mantle will expand beyond humans with Lazarus influence

This will allow Lazarus to draw other followers from beyond just human worship, asura curious for power, norn that feel the spirits are not helping enough. Charr who see a chance to return to worshipping a new god (flame legion or otherwise) and Sylvari who no longer feel the Pale Tree can guide them.

Lazarus could amass power over night and become just as powerful if not “more” powerful than the pact ever was just through godhood alone.

Having his followers find new ways to empower “him” personally and making them Reliant on his power for protection he essentially cheats by making himself seem like the benevolant dictator that rules everyone for the greater good.

He essentially “removes” the commander as a threat to him without ever needing to draw a sword.

This makes Lazarus a very interesting villian indeed

Unlike typical villians trying to destroy the world, conquer it, or simply get edgy dark revenge, Lazarus could trancend the common typical villian and go for a “I am the better option” approach.

By doing that, he actually makes himself even more interesting than I had thought, making him more engaging as an antagonist as instead of being a typical bad guy, hes actually a good, bad guy, a redeemed villian albiet, one with personal gain in mind at every corner of his ascention.

And if he becomes too powerful, well then, by the time anyone tries to oppose him, nobody will be able to, as his power base will swell so far and his power itself so great that no one would dare.

He would become a clever dictator.

This is where I hope A-net doesnt mess this up

I think Lazarus could be a VERY interesting “long term” antagonist, as opposed to a steriotypical seasonal antagonist, I think we have room here to make him a “reoccuring” ally/enemy who helps us at every turn only to claim the glory for the mantle, and himself.

That constnat getting in our way will eventually put the commander at odds with Lazarus, and even cause the two to go against each other, but by then, the pact will look incompitent and out of date, while Lazarus, will look significantly better.

Basically, we will look like the villian.

Thats kinda, how I hope A-net paints this story.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

That literally is some of the largest quantities of magic in the world, Lazarus could literally kill a dragon, with that kind of power, which brings us to the next part.

1. He very clearly did not absorb all the magic in the bloodstone, only ‘the lion’s share’ as our character says.

2. How did you get from absorbind bloodstone magic to ‘could literally kill a dragon’? That is a huge leap of logic.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Lazarus obviously realizes that the Mursaat were all but wiped out because they enslaved, killed and tried to conquer everyone, perhaps now he sees a “new” way to win over the people of Tyria to his side.

Love, peace, respect, and a new face for the white mantle.

Literally the first thing he does is kill dozens of white mantle. How does that tell you ‘love, peace, respect’?

Everything we know about the mursaat tells us that they are only concerned with their own wellbeing. When they stood together with the other ancient races during the previous rise of the dragons, they fled to the mists. When a prophecy foretold of their demise, they sacrificed thousands and enslaved a nation.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Lazarus is strategically being clever about this, rather than conquering the Krytan throne, and trying to usurp people and rule them, hes showing his hand as an “ally” to the world, a powerful demi-god who could lead everyone to betterment. He is taking the other approach to evil, the much cleverer one.

He hasn’t shown this ‘ally’ side yet, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Hes making “you” seem incompitent, the commander, the pact. After all, if Lazarus kills a dragon, with just one shot of his power, then he has prooven there is NO need for you anymore, no need for the pact.

Yeah, that’s not happening.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

This will allow Lazarus to draw other followers from beyond just human worship, asura curious for power, norn that feel the spirits are not helping enough. Charr who see a chance to return to worshipping a new god (flame legion or otherwise) and Sylvari who no longer feel the Pale Tree can guide them.

There already is an alliance between asura, nightmare court and bandits (the latter of which we know are related to the white mantle) i.e. the sinister triad. I can see Lazarus using that to his advantage. Charr I don’t see happening though. Remember, it were the Mursaat that stopped the Charr from taking over Kryta at the end of the Guild Wars.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Lazarus could amass power over night and become just as powerful if not “more” powerful than the pact ever was just through godhood alone.

Yes the pact is weakened but again, I think you’re seriously overstating the extend of his power.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

I think Lazarus could be a VERY interesting “long term” antagonist, as opposed to a steriotypical seasonal antagonist, I think we have room here to make him a “reoccuring” ally/enemy who helps us at every turn only to claim the glory for the mantle, and himself.

We’ll see but I don’t think he’ll live past this season.

Diovid.9506:

CaptainVanguard.4925:

I think Lazarus could be a VERY interesting “long term” antagonist, as opposed to a steriotypical seasonal antagonist, I think we have room here to make him a “reoccuring” ally/enemy who helps us at every turn only to claim the glory for the mantle, and himself.

We’ll see but I don’t think he’ll live past this season.

That, I sincerely doubt. You don’t just resurrect someone from the past to have them killed off again quickly. It might be more like Cadecus as an enemy, where it takes 3 years for the seeds of his plans to pay off, but he’ll be around for a little while, at least. He was a bit vague on what his grand plan will be.

I really don’t see him taking on a dragon, even if he is that strong. Killing an elder dragon is a big deal. So for one to die from anything but our own actions will definitely be anticlimactic. There are probably a lot more ways to demonstrate his strength besides killing off a dragon.

I’ve actually said the same thing after the raid’s ending, anet has seemed to be setting this story up all the way since launch, most people I talk to are more interested in the white mantle/ lazarus than they are interested in going for another dragons. Anet doesnt seem capable of making the dragons a very threatening antagonist. It also seems highly likely to me, at this point, that Lazarus will be the main antagonist for a looooong time to come, especially because we’ve already seen what happens when too much magic releases into the world and this will only become worse.

Hyped for the future of the story, hoping we’re going to focus more on villains with actual personality than forces of nature.

It is not made clear by anything that Lazarus was the one to absorb the dispelled magic, it is just speculation from the PC – minutes earlier the PC speculates it must be Caudecus. I trust that as much as I can throw it.

I doubt it is Lazarus who did that, because it would simply be too much for him. The amount of magic involved is stupendous and the Mursaat are not gods, nor immortal, they’re just dudes. Far more powerful than humans, but just dudes nonetheless. Given the lore, I find it very hard to believe that any one mortal being can absorb that much magic.

My money is on a foreign agency, which so far has been represented by the ley-line anomalies – you know, the glowy dudes we chased in the last events, or the one from the Thaumanova fractal. It is they that somehow absorbed the energy which they have constantly chased throughout all the events in which they appeared. Who are they, and what are their motives? That remains to be seen. This has a lot of potential to be really cool, I hope ANet does not mess it up…

Diovid.9506:

1. He very clearly did not absorb all the magic in the bloodstone, only ‘the lion’s share’ as our character says.

2. How did you get from absorbind bloodstone magic to ‘could literally kill a dragon’? That is a huge leap of logic.

1. Thats what our character says, not what necessarily happened, he could have honestly absorbed all of it, considering his race was the only one out of the 5 old races that did “not” lower itself to giving up magic, meaning Mursaat have ALOT more expertease in controlling it.

2. Technically see above, but also, consider that Primordus is the WEAKEST of the Dragons, canonically meaning that he DOES have a fairly reasonable chance of taking him down.

Diovid.9506:

Literally the first thing he does is kill dozens of white mantle. How does that tell you ‘love, peace, respect’?

Everything we know about the mursaat tells us that they are only concerned with their own wellbeing. When they stood together with the other ancient races during the previous rise of the dragons, they fled to the mists. When a prophecy foretold of their demise, they sacrificed thousands and enslaved a nation.

I never said he was taking the high road for “good” reasons. More importantly, he makes it clear he is removing the competition, setting a “good” example, ergo, for now at least, he seems keen to make sure the mantle belongs to him, and him alone.

For what agenda? Who knows, but a higher purpose sounds to me like something clever, like killing a dragon, and taking the glory for it.

Diovid.9506:

He hasn’t shown this ‘ally’ side yet, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

If he was going to kill you he had “more” than an opportunity to do it there and then, clearly, he needs you for something.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Hes making “you” seem incompitent, the commander, the pact. After all, if Lazarus kills a dragon, with just one shot of his power, then he has prooven there is NO need for you anymore, no need for the pact.

Diovid.9506:

Yeah, that’s not happening.

You basically relinquish the pact as Soulkeeper states “Im sorry to hear about your early retirement” after your asked if you want to become marshal and reject the offer, you also make it clear you can do more for the pact as an ally, not as a commander.

So basically you threw the pact away, and honestly, its popularity tanked after Treesus made a massive screwup with the verdant brink so Lazarus could “easily” make himself the better option.

Diovid.9506:

There already is an alliance between asura, nightmare court and bandits (the latter of which we know are related to the white mantle) i.e. the sinister triad. I can see Lazarus using that to his advantage. Charr I don’t see happening though. Remember, it were the Mursaat that stopped the Charr from taking over Kryta at the end of the Guild Wars.

The Flame Legion did “not” care who they followed as long as someone gave them power and they are basically decimated at this point, the same goes for the Nightmare Court in many respects. As for the normal Charr, renegades and malcontents may be convinced to find a “higher purpose” in joining team Mantle after they felt abbandoned by their own.

Diovid.9506:

Yes the pact is weakened but again, I think you’re seriously overstating the extend of his power.

There are only 5 bloodstones in the world of Tyria, each one containing an absoleutley staggering amount of magic, and most of it, went into Lazarus, which makes him near enough on par with a dragon in terms of power.

Diovid.9506:

We’ll see but I don’t think he’ll live past this season.

If they pulled another Scarlet I think people would be more irritated than anything, and after Mordremoth, A-net knows the Dragons alone will “Not” carry the franchise, they need another villian, one with a humanoid appearence and motive.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

1. Thats what our character says, not what necessarily happened, he could have honestly absorbed all of it, considering his race was the only one out of the 5 old races that did “not” lower itself to giving up magic, meaning Mursaat have ALOT more expertease in controlling it.

2. Technically see above, but also, consider that Primordus is the WEAKEST of the Dragons, canonically meaning that he DOES have a fairly reasonable chance of taking him down.

1. Except we see bloodstone magic all around the zone, both in pure form and as part of all kinds of creatures. So no, he did not absorb it all. Secondly, bloodstones were mostly the doing of the Seers, not of Mursaat. While Mursaat will probably have more understand of magic in general and bloodstones specifically, that doesn’t make them allknowing in that regard.

2. What gave you the idea that Primordus was the weakest? And even if that were true, how do you now have any indication of the power Lazarus wields so that you can make that comparison?

CaptainVanguard.4925:

For what agenda? Who knows, but a higher purpose sounds to me like something clever, like killing a dragon, and taking the glory for it.

A higher purpose to an ancient selfish being might be something entirely different than what it sounds like to us though. Like I said, Mursaat feared the dragons enough to abbandon their allies and flee. If the Mursaat as an entire race didn’t dare to face an elder dragon when combined with 4 other powerful races (the Forgotten, Seers, Dwarves and Jotun), I don’t see a Mursaat going up against an elder dragon without the rest of his race and without those other races.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

If he was going to kill you he had “more” than an opportunity to do it there and then, clearly, he needs you for something.

How can you tell he would be able to? Canonically we have killed two dragons. Maybe the reason why didn’t try to kill us was that he feared he wouldn’t be able to defeat us.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

You basically relinquish the pact as Soulkeeper states “Im sorry to hear about your early retirement” after your asked if you want to become marshal and reject the offer, you also make it clear you can do more for the pact as an ally, not as a commander.

So basically you threw the pact away, and honestly, its popularity tanked after Treesus made a massive screwup with the verdant brink so Lazarus could “easily” make himself the better option.

You’re still allies with the pact and they are still allies with you. You are just no longer part of the organization.

And although the pact did fail and possibly did take a hit to its popularity, they still helped take down two elder dragons. As well as helping in the fights against the Flame Legion and Jormag’s minions (and possibly more). On the other hand, Lazarus and the white mantle have to prove against a history of murder and enslavement that they would be a good option. I don’t see it. Caudecus could rise to prominence exactly because he was able to hide his white mantle connection.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

The Flame Legion did “not” care who they followed as long as someone gave them power and they are basically decimated at this point, the same goes for the Nightmare Court in many respects. As for the normal Charr, renegades and malcontents may be convinced to find a “higher purpose” in joining team Mantle after they felt abbandoned by their own.

Except those outside the flame legion are very adamant against the entire concept of gods, while Lazarus calls himself a god. Even the malcontent charr will not bow to him. I just don’t see it.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

There are only 5 bloodstones in the world of Tyria, each one containing an absoleutley staggering amount of magic, and most of it, went into Lazarus, which makes him near enough on par with a dragon in terms of power.

1. It was the magic of a single bloodstone.

2. You still haven’t proven how you go from ‘absorbed bloodstone magic’ to ‘being on par with a dragon’.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

If they pulled another Scarlet I think people would be more irritated than anything, and after Mordremoth, A-net knows the Dragons alone will “Not” carry the franchise, they need another villian, one with a humanoid appearence and motive.

Maybe you’re right here.

Was kinda joking with some friends after we finished the story saying that I think the Skritt are going to start worshiping Lazarus as the great shiny. This will cause them to gather in great numbers (or maybe Lazarus will bring them together) making them as smart or smarter than the asuras. With all this collective brain power who knows what they would work towards… Power? Or possibly revenge on the Asuras for all of the experiments on them.

On a more serious note though, I could him helping us (or whomever really) kill more dragons to increase the amount of magic in Tyria thus making him stronger.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Diovid.9506:

1. He very clearly did not absorb all the magic in the bloodstone, only ‘the lion’s share’ as our character says.

2. How did you get from absorbind bloodstone magic to ‘could literally kill a dragon’? That is a huge leap of logic.

1. Thats what our character says, not what necessarily happened, he could have honestly absorbed all of it, considering his race was the only one out of the 5 old races that did “not” lower itself to giving up magic, meaning Mursaat have ALOT more expertease in controlling it.

He definitely did not absorb all of it. Only the lion’s share. It isn’t “just what the character says.” It’s an observable fact, judging by the amount of unleashed magic in the area of Bloodstone Fen.

2. Technically see above, but also, consider that Primordus is the WEAKEST of the Dragons, canonically meaning that he DOES have a fairly reasonable chance of taking him down.

NOTHING suggests that Primordus is the weakest of the dragons. He’s been awake the longest. He has access to any and all magic sources beneath Tyria’s surface. If the death of Mordremoth and/or the shattering of the bloodstone fed him magic in a similar fashion to Scarlet’s ley-line force-feeding of Mordremoth, he could become the next big-bad dragon and the entire plot device around Taimi’s ley line map suggests that this is the case.

Diovid.9506:

Literally the first thing he does is kill dozens of white mantle. How does that tell you ‘love, peace, respect’?

Everything we know about the mursaat tells us that they are only concerned with their own wellbeing. When they stood together with the other ancient races during the previous rise of the dragons, they fled to the mists. When a prophecy foretold of their demise, they sacrificed thousands and enslaved a nation.

I never said he was taking the high road for “good” reasons. More importantly, he makes it clear he is removing the competition, setting a “good” example, ergo, for now at least, he seems keen to make sure the mantle belongs to him, and him alone.

For what agenda? Who knows, but a higher purpose sounds to me like something clever, like killing a dragon, and taking the glory for it.

This is interesting speculation and I wouldn’t mind it being true, though this should not come at the cost of an Elder Dragon battle. We need to be able to fight that dragon. Perhaps the dragon overpowers us and Lazarus saves the day.

Diovid.9506:

He hasn’t shown this ‘ally’ side yet, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

If he was going to kill you he had “more” than an opportunity to do it there and then, clearly, he needs you for something.

This is true. Or, more likely, you’re insignificant to him.

Diovid.9506:

Yes the pact is weakened but again, I think you’re seriously overstating the extend of his power.

There are only 5 bloodstones in the world of Tyria, each one containing an absoleutley staggering amount of magic, and most of it, went into Lazarus, which makes him near enough on par with a dragon in terms of power.

There is nothing suggesting that the power in a single bloodstone – or even all of them – is on par with that of a dragon. We have no metric by which to measure the power of bloodstones or individual ley lines. Plus, the power of a dragon varies wildly based on the magic they’ve absorbed.

Also, the entire reason for the existence of the bloodstones was a last ditch effort to hide as much magic as possible from the dragons. If this was enough magic to defeat the dragons, would it not have been employed to do so?

Diovid.9506:

We’ll see but I don’t think he’ll live past this season.

If they pulled another Scarlet I think people would be more irritated than anything, and after Mordremoth, A-net knows the Dragons alone will “Not” carry the franchise, they need another villian, one with a humanoid appearence and motive.

I agree with this.

See bold. Note that I am not trying to undermine your theory. I think it would be a great direction to the story, with more nuance added, but you’ve made some clear logical mistakes here.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

It is not made clear by anything that Lazarus was the one to absorb the dispelled magic, it is just speculation from the PC – minutes earlier the PC speculates it must be Caudecus. I trust that as much as I can throw it.

I doubt it is Lazarus who did that, because it would simply be too much for him…

It seemed like a reasonable assumption at the start that it was Caudecus who absorbed the magic. After all, it seems like the type of plan he’d have: suck up ancient magic, get super powerful, kill Jennah, rule Kryta. It’s only later, when we actually see Caudecus, that we realize that wasn’t his plan at all.

As for Lazarus, my mursaat lore is pretty rusty and I don’t really remember much myself, but I’m pretty sure he was DEAD or dying when we last heard from him 200-and-some-odd years ago. It would take a lot of magic to bring him out of that state, like that from an exploded bloodstone. I won’t go so far as to claim he’s more powerful than before, but I would believe he was why the bloodstone magic got released.

I rewatched the cut scene with Lazarus a couple times now, and I’m still not entirely sure what his motives could be. He has some sort of grand plan, but it goes far and above caring about humans now, and probably cares little for the other major races. I suppose it’s possible we’re going to find a friendly branch of the White Mantle after this, although they seem more willing to take extreme actions than even an insane Inquest asura.

Diovid.9506:

2. How did you get from absorbind bloodstone magic to ‘could literally kill a dragon’? That is a huge leap of logic.

One of the notes says that the Bloodstone tripled in size immediately after Zhaitan’s death. This suggests that it contained a large portion of Zhaitan’s power, if not the bulk of it. Meaning that Lazarus now contains the lion’s share of a sizeable chunk of Zhaitan’s power, on top of whatever magic was in there.

It’s possible that Zhaitan’s magic split equally into all the surrounding bloodstones. Even then, it’s safe to assume that Lazarus now has a magical power rivaling, or at least approaching, that of an elder dragon.

Also on the “wouldn’t they have used the bloodstones’ power to defeat elder dragons if they had that much magic” bit: the original purpose, as stated, was to keep the magic away. Using it against the dragons would have required a way to utilize it, i.e. absorb it without letting it run back into Tyria. Seems to be exactly what Lazarus is doing, no?

Could go into more spec about whether or not the Seer had the capacity (or intent) to utilize the magic that way, or just to capture it in the bloodstones, but I have to go to work.

I hope there’s some dialogue explaining who Lazarus is with episode 2. It’s like “here’s some dude, he’s bad,” -end of chapter-.

Do ppl hear what I did? or did the episode ended with “Primordius is Active”? If this is so… Who cares about Lazarus, this is the dragon that killed glint! Or even better… What if they join forces!!! There are some epic story scenarios at hand! I LOVE THIS!

Jhoul.6923:

Do ppl hear what I did? or did the episode ended with “Primordius is Active”? If this is so… Who cares about Lazarus, this is the dragon that killed glint! Or even better… What if they join forces!!! There are some epic story scenarios at hand! I LOVE THIS!

Uhm no Primordus wasn’t the Dragon who killed Glint. Kralkatorrik is the one who killed Glint.

And with Lazarus, we don’t know what he is planning, or why he didn’t kill us. Its likely that Lazarus thinks of us as useful for his Plans and that we’ll cross Paths quite a few Times because of it.

Walhalla.5473:

Jhoul.6923:

Do ppl hear what I did? or did the episode ended with “Primordius is Active”? If this is so… Who cares about Lazarus, this is the dragon that killed glint! Or even better… What if they join forces!!! There are some epic story scenarios at hand! I LOVE THIS!

Uhm no Primordus wasn’t the Dragon who killed Glint. Kralkatorrik is the one who killed Glint.

And with Lazarus, we don’t know what he is planning, or why he didn’t kill us. Its likely that Lazarus thinks of us as useful for his Plans and that we’ll cross Paths quite a few Times because of it.

Apologies for my error, still they are epic story possibilities to go from this episode.

Rognik.2579:

I rewatched the cut scene with Lazarus a couple times now, and I’m still not entirely sure what his motives could be.

That’s the most interesting part. We don’t really know that much about Mursaat’ goals, much less Lazarus’ personal ones. We do know, that they were relatively selfish and interested mostly in self-preservation (thus them withdrawing from the 5-races alliance of old, and the prime motivation for their plot part in Prophecies). We also know that, at one time, they were engaged in some heavy war against Seers, but the reason for that war is completely unknown. We do know that they can be ruthless, even cruel. That isn’t much in this situation however.

Personally, it doesn’t seem to me that they were interested in conquest and ruling. Creating the White Mantle, and then ruling Kryta from backseat was just a means to an end. Thus Lazarus’ passing on ruling Kryta again is not that surprising. He is simply not interested in something that, to him, must seem like a rural village of crude mudhouses.

Now, in one point i do agree with OP. The last Mursaat in existence may very well turn his attention to (and against) elder dragons. If he does so, the reason would be, much simpler than OP suspects. It would be, again, self-preservation.

In a world where noone is ascended, they are the only threat to Mursaat, the thread that Lazarus must know really well from history. He might have decided to go into hiding, like his kin did long before, but this time he got presented with the undeniable truth, that elder dragons can be killed. He’d be a fool to pass up on that..

…or he may leave that dangerous task to the others, while he will go after what he truly desires. Whatever it may be.

Come to think, he may also want to get revenge on Glint, since she was the primary cause of Mursaat’ destruction.

Kalarchis.8635:

It’s possible that Zhaitan’s magic split equally into all the surrounding bloodstones. Even then, it’s safe to assume that Lazarus now has a magical power rivaling, or at least approaching, that of an elder dragon.

It might have split among the all bloodstones and elder dragons (there was a book in priory vault that suggested that killing one will make the remaining ones stronger). In which case all the dragons are stronger now as well, by equal margin. And they started with a massive power difference.

Anyway, Lazarus most certainly didn’t get all the magic. Lot of it is still here – so much that it warps the space and creates magical vortices in the air. A lot has been likely returned to the world as well. And of course, quite likely a huge amount got used up just to revive him.

It looks like a single blood stone contains at least as much energy as a nuclear bomb in real life, so you might be right that Lazarur is godlike now.

Astralporing.1957:

It might have split among the all bloodstones and elder dragons (there was a book in priory vault that suggested that killing one will make the remaining ones stronger). In which case all the dragons are stronger now as well, by equal margin. And they started with a massive power difference.

Anyway, Lazarus most certainly didn’t get all the magic. Lot of it is still here – so much that it warps the space and creates magical vortices in the air. A lot has been likely returned to the world as well. And of course, quite likely a huge amount got used up just to revive him.

That’s a fair point. In fact, magic from the Bloodstone going out to Primordus might be what caused him to become active again. I have a couple thoughts to add though:

1) A lot of care is taken for the PC to state, repeatedly, that Lazarus absorbed the lion’s share of the magical explosion. Usually when ANet has a character repeat something so assuredly like this, it’s b/c it’s true. So I think it’s safe to say that he got most of the magic from the Bloodstone. You’re also correct that plenty is left in the area; that should give us a good metric on just how much it was that Lazarus got (a ton.) Any magic that got away from Lazarus, and thus made it to Primordus etc, would be leaking away from the residual magic in the area. It wouldn’t have come from the explosion itself, b/c that’s the part that Lazarus absorbed.

2) As above, it’s stated a couple times, in notes and in speech, that the explosion should have wiped all of Kryta, if not the whole continent. Again, I think this was done to reinforce that it was a lot, lot, lot of magic.

3) The revival seems to have been done with shards from the Bloodstone. As found in Stronghold of the Faithful, there’s a decent amount of shards…but they’re still just small shards. Seemingly on par with the small ones we can interact with around Bloodstone Fen. I’d wager that the amount of magic used to revive Lazarus was actually quite minor, esp. in comparison to the total magic in the Bloodstone as seen in the explosion.

Just posting to thank the OP for this… as a person who never played GW1 I find these threads great reading to help understand what the hell is going on.

cheers.