#as always fivebrights thank you for your diligent attention to detail

[pyreo]

That's a great question @tyrian-wanderlust!

It was the Zephyrites who returned in All or Nothing to sing Aurene's song! You could call their 'Alas, Alas' song for Glint and 'Aurene, Dragon Full of Light' two halves of their musical identity, one about their past and one for their future.

Thunderhead Peak, and the whole crescendo of the Kralkatorrik arc, has crystals as the central theme, so of course this is where the Zephyrites and their crystal magic was always meant to come to the forefront. Introducing the Zephyrites early as a festival, having them get into an early game mishap before Heart of Thorns, that was just foreshadowing for their real purpose.

Zephyrites (and Exalted) are the ones who've kept the Dragonsblood Forge all this time. A choir of them sings Aurene's new theme to you as soon as you enter the map. Because it's about resonance - Aurene and Kralkatorrik resonate as crystal dragons, weak to each other, and the Zephyrites know how to sing to resonate and shape crystal, to amplify or shield you with song. That's why the ancient Forge of Thunderhead Peak is next to the Auditorium - so the Zephyrite choir can use their power over music.

That's why the Zephyrites in Labyrinthine Cliffs were always humming about Glint. Music is as much part of their identity as crystals and airships.

And multiple motifs from the past and present are woven into it! At 2:04 they sing Glint's Legacy, a theme from all the way back in Heart of Thorns! At 2:00 they sing a tiny snippet of The Ascension, foreshadowing Aurene's fate at the end of the season, like a musical partner to Aurene's power to see visions of the future.

One other thing I just discovered - in Four Winds in 2018, half a year before All or Nothing's release... the Zephyrites in Labyrinthine Cliffs also started humming Aurene, Dragon Full of Light. Half a year before Thunderhead, before we heard the actual piece, they were rehearsing it. Thank you @fivebrights for recording this!

Since we're in the Festival of the Four Winds again I wanted to mention one of the collest things (to me) about it. Because I think it exemplifies how gw2 is crammed full of interesting lore but for the most parts, waits for you to put in a bit of effort to find it.

This festival is the only time you can visit Labyrinthine Cliffs, where the Zephyrites - a solitary group of humans who live on airships - come to moor once a year and trade with mainlanders, one of the few stops around the world they ever make.

They play into the history of the plot a large degree. They stewarded the last of Glint's eggs after her death, ensuring its safety while it was in stasis. They were the first direct victims of Mordremoth. They're staunch pacifists who accept all converts, revere their own Glint-specific type of magic, and have a specific naming convention.

While you're in Labyrinthine Cliffs, this music plays:

It's got a very slow build, and it's very airy, it's like a folk tune these nomadic people might play to themselves and you overhear it as you investigate the bazaar.

This song actually has lyrics. The only way to find out what they are is to happen to overhear the Zephyrite NPCs singing the words when you're nearby.

I didn't realise this for years of playing. It really is a folk tune that has words being passed around by word of mouth. You're not even very likely to hear any of the words being sung, or even realise it maps onto the background music.

This person did the work of grabbing all the snippets from the Zephyrites on the tethered ship - a ship which doesn't exist any more.

Alas, her magic strewn in sand. Alas, her soul undone. The clouds shed tears upon the land for the loss of our crystal sun. No more to tame the wind and rain, the skies to swallow whole. She flies no more in glinting beam and leaves a hollow hole.

When you piece it together, the whole song is about Glint. The importance she had to them and their grief at her loss. Integrated into the world so you know what it meant to them - intrinsic enough to their society that they idly hum a song in rememberence that every one of them memorised.