#eod speculation

[where-is-caithe]

here's something fun and neat that I noticed in the Hole

I've seen these funky little dudes somewhere before

around the Maws of Torment in the Desolation! haha! neat!

[dualumina]

*brain who grew up on anime like Naruto and Yugioh and other "eye color has MeaNinG" shows waking up during the middle of the night*: So what if Miyani actually had golden eyes like a lot of other Elonians seem to have and enough exposure to the "blue" water magic of the Forge's realm caused her eyes to turn green?

our tired ass: it's 4 AM

[agent-calivide]

Okay. I've been thinking about this for a while but it could still be incoherent.

So in IEYTD 3, there are some agency announcement transmissions after you beat a level. If I remember correctly, there was one after Hot Water which mentions Southern Philippines (along with other countries). (I, unfortunately, do not have access to the game but have watched gameplays.)

I have a few theories into why that (the agency doesn't have EOD agents in the Northern part of the Philippines) is (I can go on about that but it's likely it won't be historically accurate but let's just say the 50s were pretty wild and I have several agency headcanons if my suspicions are true.) and I was wondering if you have any more insights on possible points the games diverge from our timeline.

oh the can of worms this opens- /lh

So, this is all in the wonderful world of messing around with speculation, but for possible points of timeline divergence we first have to take into account the actual year IEYTD takes place, that being 1967. In addition, we need to look at the political systems in place, which is where this gets... funky.

See, in IEYTD 2 it is established that there are 4 world leaders:

Chancellor Magpantay, head of the Pacific League (Asia and Australia).

PM Markopoulos, head of the Mediterranean Commonwealth (Asia, Europe, and Africa)

President Okafor, head of the South Atlantic Union (Africa and South America)

Premier Sucre, head of the Hudson Federation (North America)

All of these positions are either elected or appointed by either the general public, or the country's parliament/whatever political system they have in place. So it's not like a monarchy where any of these people were born into these positions.

But, all that being said, these are not countries, but they're not continents either, they're some unique additional territory. We know this due to a detail where Juniper's jet took off from the JFK airport.

Why does this matter? Because the JFK airport was named after John F Kennedy after his assassination as the president of the United States. This means that all of the countries as we know them still exist, and this is also confirmed by the map in Juniper's jet and that radio broadcast that you reference. The long list of differing countries make it evident that the systems in place are one more level of authority on top of the heads of countries.

The reason I go into all of this is because a lot of "timeline divergence" things are tied deeply to politics, spies are innately political after all. Borders, international boundaries, treaties, all of this is what leads to the divvying up of the world like this.

So the question is no longer "why is the world laid out like this" it is now "why would all of these countries agree to this system/get pushed into this system when they were already established as individual powers?"

If I had to guess, the split would be around WWI/WWII, specifically either the foundation of NATO or something similar happening right after WWI, the results are the same either way.

Either after The Great War, which was the first war to take over the entire planet, or after WWII which took place so close after the first one, there was an international agreement that something needed to change to keep this sort of incident from occurring ever again.

So, rather than having dozens of people arguing over treaties, the political powers at be decided to simplify it to four people, four territories.

Now, meta wise, this is because kidnapping 4 people is a lot easier to depict than 40+, but there still are ramifications on the rest of the world building due to it. This may even impact how countries interact with each other normally.

Handler affectionately jokes about "the alien we met with the Russians!" Regardless if he is supposed to be English or US American like the devs, there is no undertone of space race, international conflict, or anything similar despite this occurring in the late 60's right when the space race would be happening between the US and Russia. Just delight over this thing that happened with those chums from Russia!

And it makes sense for individual countries to not be at each other's throats. Everyone is a bit too worried about what Zoraxis is doing at that point, the Mediterranean Commonwealth's representative saying he doesn't trust Zoraxis and the South Atlantic Union having a strong isolationist stance at the moment. There is no word of the territories fighting, just that they don't trust anyone at this moment.

And this why a system like this would be in place, it would make discussions of conflict easier, as it would be discussion between four people and their teams rather than dozens or even hundreds of conflicting sides. There likely would still be internal conflicts within the territories, but picking a fight with another territory wouldn't be possible.

The US can't pick a fight with Russia, they're part of the Mediterranean Commonwealth and the US is in the Hudson Federation. That would be like Texas bombing California or attacking Canada, they just don't have the jurisdiction for that.

This would explain why the politics in place are so different, as well as why real world politics are never brought up and don't have a tangible impact on these games. The EOD is dealing with Zoraxis rather than representing a specific country because the way the countries have conflicts is fundamentally different.

TL;DR

The way there are only 4 political leaders makes everything super funky in terms of international conflict that is fundamentally different from how we experience it irl

[rosewoodroad]

What if the legend of the Commander made it onto Canthan shores way before EoD even began?

Rumours of a Dragon warrior from across the ocean, speculation of their origins ranging from a half-dragon hybrid to a dragon disguised as a mortal.  A being who rescued empires of crystal and felled giants of metal. Perhaps they were sent from the heavens on behalf of the Gods. Perhaps they were sent to oppose the Gods.

And- hear me out- what if this spawned local plays about the Commander? Picture your comm just walking down the Shing Jea shoreline and seeing a homely theatre set up in the distance featuring what looks like a bad cosplay of them and Balthazar and hold on a second-

[kenren]

The Great Hunt ❄ Aokiji (Kuzan) x Female Reader ❄ Chapter 5 of 7

I cannot tell you now;     When the wind's drive and whirl     Blow me along no longer,     And the wind's a whisper at last— Maybe I'll tell you then—                         some other time.                                 The Great Hunt, Carl Sandburg                        

A story of departures and returns. And sex. Of course there's sex.

Previous

.・゜゜・Author notes: Deux ex machina in the form of a masked revolutionary. I like to think that it's Sabo but his rank is probably too high to do shit like this lmao. This was originally two chapters but I decided to combine them, as well as the two I was going to post into tomorrow, on Tumblr. The story will now be out of seven chapters on Tumblr but nine on AO3. Obligatory tag for @thehanging-gardens. (づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ♡

.・゜゜・This chapter is mostly SFT but contains references to previous NSFT acts I guess. Minors, please still don't interact lol.

.・゜゜・Chapter word count: 2334.

.・゜゜・AO3 (See first chapter for tags.)                                                

                        .・゜゜・

You didn’t get the chance. He was gone by morning, and something in the stillness of the morning air told you it was indefinitely.

Two years and a handful of bitter months passed. Handful after handful of stocky men came by boxed up armful after armful of your stocky piles of documents, unloading them into your new but no less soulless office in New Marineford.

Pressed against one wall was Kuzan’s favorite couch, which you had made enough of a fuss about to convince the higher-ups to salvage. You were pretty sure the rest of the furniture at the old base had been scrapped or left behind. 

It was on that couch where you now sat with a huff, smiling wryly at the corner of your office designated for documents related to ongoing and future operations.

You estimated that you had leaked at least three stacks’ worth to the Revolutionary Army by now, and you managed to mail a couple anonymously to Nico Robin. Just because you liked her style, from what Kuzan had told you.

His name made you wince as it crossed your mind.

Well.

Whatever.

At least one of you had to keep fighting the good fight.

And you had kept fighting…until today. When you were finally caught. By Smoker, of all people.

“I’ll let you go if you resign.” You had just stared at him, immediately knowing what he was referring to, but unsure whether to be taken aback by his laxity. “In exchange…don’t think too poorly of him.”

“Who?” 

He had fixed you with a look that told you everything. But before you could go to argue, he lit up both of his signature cigars and turned to leave. “I expect to hear of your resignation by EOD tomorrow.”

Did you regret it? No. Did you regret getting caught? That was���a question. You weren’t sure how you could keep contributing to the fight against the World Government in your current situation. You weren’t trained in combat; without your access to classified documents, you had no weapons with which to fight.

But now you were sat in a bar, sipping a stiff drink as you eyed up a television broadcast on the latest in the series of occurrences in the New World. The reporter rattled off a list of “facts”—nothing particularly informative; the World Government’s extraordinarily persistent censorship team made sure of that, but as someone who had had an insider’s perspective until recently, it was enough to make you speculate that things were in motion that could no longer be undone. And…well. You were confident that the harm you had done to the World Government by leaking those documents far outweighed the good you had done by fixing a few typos over the years. You smiled to yourself. You had earned the right to relax for a bit.

“A quick question for you, miss.”

Ah fuck.

Another foiled plan. You briefly wondered whether this interruption was tied to your having been caught.

You eyed up the inquisitor. Their voice was masculine enough, but their face was mostly obscured by an effective albeit poorly-crafted mask. You caught the faint gleam of their irises through the eyeholes, and their mouth was left uncovered, twisted into a disarmingly friendly smile. You scanned their body for any identifying details, but their tall frame was wrapped in a simple black cloak. You cleared your throat and turned back to your drink. “Who are you?”

“I mean no harm, just have a quick question. Answer it quickly so I can get out of this stupid getup.”

You snorted. “What is it?”

“Are you happily married?”

Your eyes snapped to theirs once again, the deliberate wording of their question making your hair stand on end. “And what if I am?”

The person laughed good-naturedly. “That’d be a real shame. But on the off chance that you’re not, I’d like to give you my number.”

They passed you a slip of paper with an address and time scribbled on it. You squinted as you tried to remember Kuzan’s handwriting, but instinctively, you knew it was his anyway. “He’s under the impression that I’ll actually show up?”

“He said you owe Smoker a favor.”

“What, did Smoker tell him what happened already? I know news travels fast, even in this mess of a world we’re living in, but there’s no way he could have planned to meet me within the past…3 hours.”

“Who told you that Smoker only found out today?”

You froze. “How long has he known?”

“Since a little birdie told him.”

“Kuzan ratted me out?!”

“Only when your services were no longer needed. When the finish line was in sight regardless of a few, ehm…misplaced documents.”

“He put my life in danger!”

The person giggled. “You can slap him around for that yourself, if you’d like.” They nodded toward the paper now crumpled in your grasp. “I gotta be on my way.”

                        .・゜゜・

“You know, I never got to ride your dick.”

It was the basement floor of a pretty generic abandoned building. Concrete floors, a handful of beams, a ratty Oriental carpet forgotten in one corner of the room, a desk pressed up against a taped-up panel in the wall.

From where you were standing, you could see Kuzan stiffen, but he didn’t turn around.

“...”

“You passed out. And then when I got up in the morning you had disappeared. Like, indefinitely.” You couldn’t stop your lips from curling into a smile as you looked upon your…uh…companion for the first time since his departure.

Hearing that smile in your voice, Kuzan turned around. He looked you up and down, but…well. In terms of holding a blank expression, you never could beat him out. “You’re as insufferable as I remember. Wonder if I can talk Smoker into giving you your job back; I don’t get paid to deal with this anymore.”

“Well I was looking forward to it.”

“Hm?

“Riding your dick.”

Kuzan coughed to hide his laugh. “Arara, I’m deeply sorry.”

“Are you?” You squinted at him just long enough to make sure he grasped the hidden meaning in your words, but he chose to ignore it.

“You know I am. Unfortunately I can’t dismantle governments from between your thighs.”

“What’s between my thighs is enough to dismantle governments on its own.”

His lip quirked. “Why do you think I told you to become the Navy’s resident slut? You could have saved us a lot of time, you know.” You snorted, and he smiled at the familiarity of the sound. “My associate informed me that you are, not, in fact, happily married.”

“Mm.”

“So…it wasn’t a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“Maybe not for me.” His face fell slightly, and you smirked. “Besides, what if I’m unhappily married?”

“Then my point stands.”

Your hands twitched at your sides, your body practically begging you to throw yourself into his arms. You resisted, still grasping at the power you held over him in this moment. You held your smirk like a blade and fixed him with your best unimpressed gaze.

“Why did you come here? Do you have something to say to me?” 

“You know why I came here, brat.”

“You have some nerve calling me brat when you’ve been gone for over two years.”

Kuzan fell silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“I was partially kidding.”

“I know. And you’re still a brat; I’m not taking that part back.” He took a tentative step toward you, and you debated stepping back. “I would say I didn’t know it would take so long, but that would be a lie. I was…not unaware of the risks. Just certain that I could make it back to you eventually.”

“Selfish marine, and selfish ‘something else’…did you ever figure out what that ‘something else’ was? Pirate?” You cocked your head. “...Revolutionary?”

Kuzan grimaced. “Both…and neither. We can go over all that happened another time. But now…I am selfishly yours.”

“Another time? You seem quite sure that I’ll want to see you again.”

“...Observation haki.”

“Or a gut feeling?”

“Or wishful thinking.”

Your smirk widened. “Sounds about right.” He stared listlessly at you for a moment. You realized that he looked exhausted. Slightly older, even, which came as a surprise. The sudden reminder of his mortality had you sucking in a breath, and a thought crossed your mind, only partially formed—something about love and wasting time. “Don’t look at me like that. I’ll give you your chance to explain yourself…another time, like you said.”

“I’m not sure what that means. Are you telling me to walk away for now? Sakazuki only left me one leg, you know.”

You snorted, and Kuzan averted his eyes. “I heard about that. But you seem to be managing. Whatever prosthetic you must have MacGyvered out of ice let you run away from me for two years.”

“Not away from you. Just in one large and painful circle. I…” He trailed off, dragging his eyes back to yours. “Am home.”

The enormity of his sentiment hit you with such force that your face fell. Your feet moved as though on their own; without thinking, you pulled him into a tight hug, burying your face in his stomach. “I missed you, you big oaf. Where are you living, anyway?”

He chuckled. “I guess I have to figure that out, don’t I.”

“Were you expecting to stay with me?”

“Expecting is a strong word. Hoping might be more accurate, but it’s not like I’ll get the same sleep anywhere else that I got on that damn couch in your old office.”

“It should still be in my office; I insisted that they have it transferred to New Marineford. Maybe you can have Smoker steal it for you.” You shifted in his embrace. “Kuzan.”

“Yes.”

“You should kiss me.”

Kuzan pressed your head more firmly against his torso, no doubt trying to hide his reaction to your sudden request. “Oh? And why is that?”

“It might make me forgive you.”

He released your head and looked down with a soft smile. “Arara…you’ve sure changed over the years. The woman I know would never give up such an excuse to hold a grudge against me.”

“I want to forgive you.”

“For what, exactly?”

“...Leaving me?”

Kuzan was silent for a long moment. “Would you still want to forgive me if I told you I would make almost all the same decisions all over again? I have no remorse to offer you.”

“Remorse is not what I asked for. You wanna kiss me or not?”

Kuzan looked mildly startled. “You…”

“There you go with that again. You never told me what you were about to say…that time.”

…

Kuzan kissed you slowly, like he was afraid you would disappear before his eyes the second he pulled away. When he finally pulled back, his gaze was fixed on a point somewhere above your head.

“You are it for me.” You froze, waiting for him to continue. He finally looked down, meeting your eyes. “That is to say, you wrenched me from complacency. None of my small acts of rebellion, from the time I spent under Garp until now, could measure up to the enormity of my feelings for you. No empire I could hope to dismantle could produce enough scrap for me to build a barricade high enough to offer the love I bear you the protection it deserves.” He hesitated, then took a seat on the ground. “That is why I left. I am too simple a man to have parted myself from you for any purely political reason.”

“You left…”

“To create a world in which this can be cultivated.” Your eyes widened at the implications of his words. “You should have seen the look in your eye when I went to drop off my report after Marineford. I decided, in that moment, that I would rather turn the World Nobles into snow cones than ever see that look again.”

You grinned. “And that was before you even kissed me.”

“Like I said, there’s been no one else for me since we met. And there will be no one else. You…are it for me.” He huffed. “You are the first and last love of my life. Do with that what you will.”

“Who knew a little time apart could turn you into such a romantic.” You settled onto the ground next to him, although doing so made it harder to meet his gaze. “It’s the same for me. I…I didn’t even try to wait for you; hell, when I heard you joined up with Blackbeard, I even tried to make myself go and fuck someone else out of spite, but…”

“Again, like I said. You didn’t have to try to wait for me.” You looked over at him, just barely catching the teasing gleam in his eye. Your eyes narrowed at the shift in emphasis on the words in that sentence.

“There’s no way you could have known that I wouldn’t move on even if I tried.”

“...Observation haki.”

“Bullshit!”

“Perhaps. The truth is, I didn’t know. Although I am quite enjoying the idea that no one has touched you since I last had you under me.”

“Should have ended with you under me, you damn icicle.”

“Popsic—”

“Shut up.”

Kuzan patted your head and looked down at you with a fond smile. “I wouldn’t mind being under you. I have no other place to sleep tonight, after all.”

“Arara, Kuzan, are you whoring yourself out for a place to stay?”

“Yes. Let’s hope the dissolution of the World Government solves the housing crisis once and for all.”

“Hm…I don’t know. I quite like having you at my mercy.”

“No roof over my head could ever take that away from you.”

You stood up, dusted yourself off, and offered him your hand. A symbolic gesture, since he was obviously too heavy for you to actually help up. “Let’s go home.”

He took your hand. Another symbolic gesture. “Yes ma’am.”

[mistswalker]

Some thoughts on the Void and the Mists

End of Dragons has been on my mind a lot. I found the Void fundamentally and thematically intriguing beyond its clear reception of the real-world emotions contemporary with the EoD release.

It raised many questions— About the difference between the Void and Mists. The differences and reasons for the differences between the apocalypses of Kralkatorrik's rampage and Soo-Won's void corruption. About the nature of the Void and its role in the Eternal Alchemy.

What I hadn't expected was the way those questions were answered, or the greater implications they seem to have. I felt like many things about the larger metaphysical lore clicked into place with this new understanding— The deeper nature of the Mists. The "madness" of the Elder Dragons. The role of the Forgotten, and the lasting and unintended impacts of the Six on Tyria. While I'm sure I'm extrapolating and reading a bit much into certain things, as I always have with this series, I'm definitely glad to have this understanding of these concepts for moving forward with my own fanworks, and I haven't quite been able to shake the high of cracking this metaphorical Da Vinci code.

Now, this all gets a big disclaimer that some of this includes extrapolations and headcanons I've previously built for my stories, but that aside, let me just rehash some of the basics of the Mists. As we know, the Mists are potential incarnate. The Mists, "the All", and the "Void" are all facets of this same concept, and each of these facets are interconnected. Each culture in Tyria seems to interpret what it knows of the Mists in different ways. The way most of Tyria seems to best understand the Mists' nature of infinite potential is when it's represented as a physical space. Areas of manifested potential all chaotically swirling, building, deconstructing, and rebuilding. The God realms. The afterlife. The Fractals. The Mists War.

This facet of the concept is what's most observable. But that aspect of the Mists is only the answer to the question "where?" "The Void", on the other hand, is raw coalesced magic. The clay of reality. The raw potential that could be shaped into anything and that manifests reality as its observed to its inhabitants. In this sense, the Void could be considered the Mists' answer to "what?"

"The All", also known as the Eternal Alchemy, is what ties these two pieces together. It is the fractal-pattern of how that reality manifests. The "blueprint" for what the clay is built into. Each new reality's blueprint is slightly off from the last, creating the infinity of the butterfly effect, and the in-world nod to the multiverse of commander timelines. The Mists' answer to "how?"

I speculate that the overlap of The All is an important factor in the distinction between the two potential apocalypses of Kralkatorrik and Soo-Won.

This is what the people of Tyria have decided is the most genuine representation of "the Eternal Alchemy" at work: Six magical aspects that balance and sustain a world. We see this with the elder dragons, obviously. But where's the other notable place in which six magical aspects tried to balance and sustain a world, only to strangely leave theirs and seemingly planehop to the setting of our story?

The Human Gods.

They aren't perfect matches for each of the Elder Dragons— but they didn't have to be. They were what was created with the clay of their universe, following the larger scale "pattern" in their own unique way. They also exhibit a parallel ascension to that of Aurene taking the mantle of Elder Dragon, and we witness this with the birth of the goddess Kormir from the spearmarshal Kormir.

Another noteworthy parallel between the Gods and the Dragons is something only observable over time in their lore and history— we notice the Gods beginning to go mad, and manifesting in darker and more twisted aspects of themselves as time goes on during their ultimately brief stint in Tyria.

We see it clearly with Abbadon. We see implications of it with Dhuum. And finally, we see further hints of it with Balthazar (including some very creepy deep-lore and environmental storytelling in his realm, but I'll get to that some other time...) But to get into the Gods and the God Realms further, I need to explain what leads me to believe that the Human gods are the reason for the distinction between the Kralk apocalypse (where all of the Mists began coming undone), and the Soo-Won apocalypse (where this facet of reality began dissolving into Void). And to do that I need to talk about inter-planar travel. So we know that many finite universes within the Mists share many aspects with each other, just altered in small ways that stack up over time. We also know that the people of the world experience the Mists to be a sort of afterlife in addition to being a source of all history and potential. We have also seen and visited different "domains" within the mists. The part of the Mists that is the physical living realm, influenced by these forces is the globe in the center. The gray and colored areas outside of it are pieces of reality concretely formed enough to influence that globe very strongly. Tyrians perceive those things as "real", and those include the "domains" in the Mists.

Everything else out here? That's what Tyria thinks of as "the Mists" in a small-scale sense. The parts of reality that don't have strong shape. The place where potential fragments. This is where the Fractals are. This is where Rytlock was trapped. This is where Kralkatorrik rampaged.

When Kralkatorrik fell back out of the Mists on this rampage, he pulled parts of the God Realms with him. Aurene noted he was being drawn to familiar magics— Melandru's realm and that of Grenth were included alongside the Fissure of Woe this despite Kralkatorrik having only tasted the specific magic of one of those three gods. We could take that a number of ways, but, to me, that speaks to not only a continued parallel between the Gods and the Elder Dragons, but also as a hint to how the Six gods stepped over the border between their original shard of reality and ours.

The Six were magically fluent inherently. They were gods—the Elder Dragons of their homeworld. They used the aspects as a tether between their own domains and the matching magic here in Tyria. They were able to find stasis in the magic aspects themselves.

If we accept the Gods as parallel Elder Dragons, then we can further extrapolate that the Elder Dragons potentially have their own connected pseudo-realms within the less firm parts of reality. Personally, I've long believed this made a great deal of sense as to the nature of their hiveminds, and have talked about that in other non-tumblr babbles about the nature of the Dream and Nightmare to Sylvari.

That aside, since the Elder Dragons were asleep and any "domain" aspect of the Mists connected to them was only utilized for their hiveminds, the Gods would be free to shape some of these mirrored domains to match their own preferences. This borrowing of the Elder Dragons place in our world, ultimately, is what I believe utterly destabilized things when Balthazar was killed.

It wasn't an immediate destruction because of the other Five's foresight. They'd had the good sense to drain most of his magic when they detained him, but they couldn't drain all of it without destroying his essence itself.

So despite their best efforts to mitigate the risk— taking their personal exodus of not just Tyria but the Tyrian Mists as a whole, and draining Balthazar of as much of his magic as they could safely take with them as only 5, upon Balthazar's death there was still excess otherworldly magic lingering in the Tyrian Mists. And the Mists had already become very volatile due to the destruction of two of their own six structural guardians. Magics were mixing in ways they hadn't since the formation of structure in the realm. Things were already heading toward Void and unmaking of this reality, but what tipped the scales into an unmaking of all reality was that lingering excess magic from another realm. One that's very nature tied two realms together.

Kralkatorrik, with Balthazar's ability to walk between planes, began rampaging in multiple facets of reality, ripping bigger and bigger holes and mixing the contents inside like containers of different liquid.

And because of the fractal-like way the Mists infinitely follow the same larger-scale patterns, this was happening not just in several planes, but several iterations of those connected planes. (which you can visualize with the different commander-timelines. Each different commander who reaches season 4? Is another "iteration" of that fractal.)

Aurene, when she ascends to Kralkatorrik's place as an Elder Dragon, spends a huge chunk of time repairing the Mists after this. And the most important part of that would have been isolating Balthazar's magic and putting it back in the realm it belongs in. Limiting any future fallout to their plane. Now that each plane has the same amount of clay it started with, things are more stable in that sense.

Glint gives Aurene advice on Ascension posthumously prior to this. That same Ascension that was tied to the Forgotten, and "True Sight", and the equivalent of the Canthan concept of "Weh no Su" ("Closer to the Stars") and described by humans as being a "state of communion with the Gods". Which leads me to the next piece of this larger puzzle: The Forgotten.

We know the Forgotten appeared in Tyria during the last Dragon Cycle. We also know they reappeared and made their presence known in association with the human gods— but we also know that the Forgotten originate from the Mists. They are yet more planeswalkers.

I've mentioned before believing that the Forgotten worked with the human gods to minimize the fallout from their arrival in Tyria. We see Forgotten philosophies echoed in Glint, the Exalted, as well as in Ventari and his peaceful centaur clan. They were very dedicated to Balance. I hypothesize that they were some of the first planeswalkers. They likely learned about the impacts of mists-travel firsthand and resolved to dedicate their existence to preserving stability as a result. (Which may be why even they call themselves "the forgotten". They've existed for so long on the fringes of reality that they may not remember where they came from, only why they're still there. But I digress.)

Ascension and the Forgotten were something integral to fighting the Mursaat (yet again, even more planeswalkers in Tyria) because of how it granted the subject "True Sight" and the ability to see between the realms where the Mursaat liked to slip away and hide.

The Forgotten also had found a way to cleanse individuals from the elder dragon hiveminds as we see in Path 3 of the Arah dungeon, allowing them to preserve free will. I think these two concepts are related in a way.

if Ascension is what taught Aurene how to re-stabilize multiple planes of reality from such a catastrophic mixing of magic, and was also what turned her from a being of crystal into a being of prism? Something that filters light into its base components and sorts it all out? Ascension must be something gives one a sense of their place in the All, their role in the broader workings of the Mists, while helping them reshape themselves to fill that role.

(As a brief tangent, that may also play into Scarlet's fall in Omadd's machine— Omadd's machine was intended to "see and understand the Eternal Alchemy". An artificial ascension. And she certainly embraced her larger role.) Now back to Soo-Won, the origins of Tyria and the Elder Dragons, and the Void-based apocalypse...

Soo-Won talks about being the mother of the other elder dragons. The first one. How she eased her own pain of loneliness by creating children to share the magic with. We see a similar narrative in some senses with the human gods-- Dwayna is looked at as the "first" and the "leader". she's the literal mother of Grenth.

We also see Soo-Won hold off the madness of the Void the longest. Her elemental representation is water-- the foundation of life as we know it. I think that her account of history as being the mother of the other elder dragons and raising them as hatchlings is in some ways true and in some ways metaphorical, as it likely predates Tyria as a concrete reality.

It makes sense to me that Soo-Won was the first consciousness to manifest in the Void as reality began to shape itself. The first sense of will to help the blueprint unfold. the other elder dragons are, in that sense, her "children", but also nearly peers in terms of age in concrete reality. They were created by her will, her loneliness, but reality only solidified into what we know as "Tyria" when all of the aspects found a natural balance.

It makes sense that the Elder Dragons lived lives of isolation— if their distinction had created structure from chaos— something that clearly frightens even Soo-Won, the most familiar with it — of course the answer to that would be separation. Isolation. Loneliness even when no longer alone.

Of course this forced isolation would slowly erode loneliness and despair into selfishness and resentment in many of them. And so of course, then, their own madness and corruption stems from that internal agony. And what is it's drive? How does it take from the world? Consumption. Forced assimilation under their own domain.

"Become part of me. Not the void. Me."

What is the Forgotten's answer to this? The way to preserve balance? To replace the cycle of consumption with a cycle of distribution. willful sharing. Social sharing. A bond between dragons and mortals.

The answer to the fear of being alone isn't to force others into your realm. It's to learn to coexist with them. That's how you fight the instinctual call of the Void.

This is what finally made sense as the answer to Aurene's question. "Why do they all go mad?" The "madness" of the dragons is that— the instinctive call of the Void as they become overwhelmed by pain and suffering and can no longer stand their isolation. They consume and consume more and more to try to sate that emptiness. They grow imbalanced in their identities as they struggle to process all that they consume that doesn't fit.

They don't want to give it back. They don't want to be alone again. Eventually though, it seeps out of them and they awaken more pained and ravenous than before.

[mystery-salad]

Can I get 1, 3, 10? (@commanderhorncleaver)

Since you didn't specify which one, I'm giving you Cora! Since I've so rarely talked about her or her partner ;3c

1. Who are they and what's their dynamic with the commander?

Cora is a very eligible handsome gal, and for years she was incredibly single and ready to mingle. But a little after lws4, she's snatched up a lovely partner who's a sylvari-turned-mordrem named Mae ( @ascalonianpicnic ). After HoT, once the mordrem were free of Mordremoth's influence, the team ran into Mae in the exalted city while checking on the egg.

Mae wanted to join the team, wanting to help people, and Cora saw a teammate and friend in her rather than a monster to fear. For a long time that's all she saw in them, but then she dealt with her own changes that really pushed Mae from teammate to confidante she could trust with her very being.

After so many years saving the world and being exposed to magic and binding with Aurene the daughter of Glint...she started experiencing some changes. The exalted were once humans until with a promise and an agreement they changed themselves using excessive magical energy. Cora had no such agreement, but she had intake far more magic than any humans body was made for. She felt her body crumbling away and in her terrified state she tried to hide it, but Mae cared so deeply about her and was all too familiar with trying to hide things away. They knew something was going on even if Cora wouldn't say what.

They made it clear they were here for anything, whatever she needed to lean on. And when the changes became too big to hide, she asked Mae to accompany her back to Tarir so she could ask the exalted what was happening to her. It was a very meaningful trip that put a lot of extra trust in each other, and Mae was the first teammate to see her new form and warmly accept her. The two dating didn't take long to happen after, and they anchor each other well with their love.

3. What does/what would the general population of Tyria think of the relationship?

It was almost secondary news next to the fact that the Commander had become Exalted! For a long time Tyria was abuzz with the way Cora had changed, how strange it was and if she was still the same person underneath. No one had seen an Exalted up close before with all of them sequestered away in a dangerous jungle so she's an oddity to many. As the tabloids run out of sensational things to write though, Cora's saying life is speculated on once more. What had been a very eligible bachelor is now something "inhuman" to many. How do you kiss something with no mouth, embrace something with barely a physical form? Of course it's a mordrem who at the end of the day is attracted to her confusing new look, perhaps they find space in each other for these changes.

The public isn't exactly...mean on a straightforward level, but headlines follow trends that would get someone punched if Cora paid attention to them.

10. Are there any events in the story that happen differently because of/to/involving them?

Not that we've ironed out so far! We're still a few chapters behind in Cora's plot though and EoD is absolutely going to have some big changes due to how Cora's Exalted form will interact with the high magic saturation zones and the Void. And icebrood will have changes, but those will be more due to me not liking the plot progression than Cora dating Mae :p

[rata-novus]

okay final thoughts on the studio update until we know more, specifically about having to *gasp* pay for content that isn’t relying on a monthly sub fee.

i bought PoF in 2017. between that and EoD (bought a week before launch in 2022) i spent ZERO dollars on the game. anything i want from the gemshop i convert gold to gems. that’s just not a sustainable business model from anets side. yes there’s the cash shop, but i honestly do not get why this games player base is so averse to paying for content lmao.

$20-30 a year-to-a-year-and-a-half (speculation on release cadence) is entirely reasonable imo

[agent-flyingfox]

oh, theyre that one smiler from my EOD!

Oh, right! Your Smiler, I've heard of them.

Yes, I've juggled through a few handlers in my training. So far none of them are keen to stay as my handler. Not sure if Smiler was one but...I'm sure there's been talk amongst them.

I'm just speculating. Whatever way they managed to get that info...Ah, Gaymer I don't want you to think I'm evil. I swear I'm absolutely indisputably a Good Agent. Please know this. Please.

Earnestly,

Agent Flying Fox

[fromacatastrophe]

Here's a guide that no one asked for and I doubt anyone will read, to my Skyrim dragonborn OCs. They don't exist in the same timeline (except for when I am imagining funny memes that are too hyperspecific for me to even bother making).

Dalinan : 7' tall orc alchemist who refuses to make/use any sort of poison whatsoever. Favors the bow. Absolute dogshit at stealth unless she has access to her invisibility potions. Half-raised by her cousin. Not from a stronghold and has complex feelings about lacking that cultural connection. War Trauma ™ (child soldier edition). Dutiful to a grim fault. Tends to have extensive and increasingly ludicrous back-up plans for if/when things go awry. Resting bitch face but an absolute softie. Will adopt you if she detects emotional vulnerability (inherited that trait from her cousin, who recently took over the Riften orphanage for reasons only Maven Black-Briar knows in full). Absolutely detests leeks, 0/10, worst vegetal ever. Ends up in a poly relationship with Taliesin and Caryalind. When Cary is ready to go home in a decade or two they both go with him (he takes some convincing, but neither she nor Tali would ever let him go alone). She becomes captain of Cary's personal guard + Tali becomes an advisor; there's no end to the speculation about the relationship between the three of them but no one is going to risk actually asking. Dalinan showing up to formal events in ancient snow elf armor and bearing Auriel's bow and shield is the kind of power move that intimidates even people who don't care a fig about the whole Dragonborn business. And shhhh about lifespans okay, we're going to pretend that orcs age like other mer. Shhhh. Let the lady grow old with her partners.

Amejja : khajiit arsonist. tiny. is on the run from a hefty bounty in cyrodiil. claims that her victims deserved it. plays the 'but this one is just a little kitty. a birthday cat. are you going to arrest me on my birthday, guardsman? sad meow?' card to get out of soooo much trouble. decides that Taliesin is her fun uncle; he's honored and also mildly terrified of the prospect of her meeting his sisters (the mayhem would be legendary). learning to shout is the #1 best thing that ever happened to her. fire shout? AMAZING! dragons? eh. big scaly cats. 'surely we can come to an agreement, can't we my cousins???' super annoyed that she actually has to kill Alduin. when Delphine asks her to kill Paarthurnax she attacks her instead because fuck you that's why. flirts with joining both the thieves' guild and the dark brotherhood but betrays and destroys them both over feeling slighted by them. Decides that being dragonborn = being Miraak's baby sister; decides to rescue him. this confuses the Miraak. Besties with Lucien and Khash (both are mildly afraid of her in a fond sort of way), friendly rivals with J'zargo. Extremely distrustful of anything to do with dwemer ruins or machinery, but tolerates it for Remi's sake (some hissing is involved). Will absolutely destroy anyone/anything that harms Scrap. Doesn't join the Dawnguard. Will purr to heal you (purring is a healing spell) but you'd better appreciate it! She's a young gal with wanderlust who just wants to see the world (and set parts of it on fire).

T'Vreyne : Vulcan, Starfleet officer, aro/ace NB, vegetarian, here via daedric tomfoolery/a shuttlecraft mishap. Doesn't initially speak Tamrielic Common and so communicates mostly through frustrated charades and extremely reluctant touch-telepathy until they learn (...from Tali and Gore, so you can just imagine the vocabulary T'Vreyne ends up with). Their background is in security with a specialization in EOD and they've been working as a 'special collections' (read: highly hazardous artifacts) archivist since The Accident. Has significant scarring, chronic pain, and a prosthetic arm due to The Accident. Prefers stealth to avoid unnecessary conflict, then magic/shouts to de-escalate if possible, and then if violence is unavoidable favors a simple one-handed sword. Absolutely refuses to use enchanted equipment due to the whole Soul Cairn of it all. Mistaken for an Altmer by everyone who isn't Altmer; Altmer tend to assume that they're a [derogatory term for mixed-heritage mer]. Has zero (0) respect for Elenwen & thinks she's utterly incompetent; reads her for absolute filth at the truce conference. Other than negotiating the truce does not interfere with the civil war whatsoever (prime directive and all that). Their EOD experience comes into play during the College of Winterhold questline. Becomes close friends with Teldryn during the whole Miraak thing. When Starfleet finally manages to contact them, they choose to stay on Nirn instead of going 'home'. Settles down in Raven Rock and eventually invites Teldryn, Taliesin, and Gore to move in. Occasionally one or more of them will get the itch to travel, but that's home now and they always end up back there before long. T'Vreyne will not be telling you where all those elder scrolls and black books are stashed unless you have a good fucking reason (they've come full circle and once again find themselves to be a special collections archivist whoops).

[adrisventari]

AIGHT PATCH FINISHED

got thoughts n feelins under the cut

ariaami would have brought canach and yao, she never met ayumi in the canon, and then made a chaotic disaster scene with the two of them. buy one of every drink, break a whole set of glassware, become vastly inebriated and be little shits. she's too ace for this shit, it's a friendship outing. canach and enansi are also finally official so he's getting his smooching elsewhere. yao my beloved I'm sorry you have a crush on my disaster giant cat

she's also still very traumatized, she did wayyyy more collecting of memories bc I require the horrors. she's taking a small step in the right direction, as she has been since icebrood saga.

overall I prefer the first half and the depth of it, the exploration of trauma and expectation. I'm excited for the future, hopeful for more long-form story content akin to LW or expansions, I'm looking at you twitter snippet. already speculating whom that spooky voice could be.

also my dumbass didn't realized they stopped syncing the tyrian calendar so I like to imagine this all happens relatively quickly after EOD. Gehix/Emyij child #3 hasn't happened yet, but they have a name finally! Kiri, and then twins Kav and Kote, triple trouble™

[agent-calivide]

It's so good!!!

This is me waltzing into pure speculation/headcanon territory, but from what I gathered, it's grief. Not some grand idea of power or trickery, Zor's just not moved on from Vitti.

I think it's implied, what with her photo being in a potted plant, that Vitti did not die in an accident (especially since she's most likely the Phantom) but rather she left the EOD and went into hiding.

If she did this without informing Zor, that gives a motivation for their revenge: grief. To Zor, this friend/partner of theirs is gone, and it's because the EOD didn't appreciate her. They pushed her into leaving everything.

When they saw Phoenix, at first they were annoyed. A random ass agent ruining everything? They're just in the way, they need to be killed.

Then they come back, and suddenly the agent feels familiar. Spiteful, a survivor, an asset to the EOD and a problem to boot. It feels reminiscent of the EOD agent in Zor's life from before they lost her.

Initially through the sequel, they found it endearing, maybe even charming, to see someone that reminded them so much of Vitti. But... That's not right.

They can't just replace her with a random agent, that's wrong. She wasn't just some tool to replace, and the way the EOD paints the Phoenix it seems that's exactly what's happening. Sure, they could move on, but for the EOD to act like Vitti was never there?

It's wrong, it's disgusting, the EOD talked about Phoenix as if Vitti was never there, and they know this because Prism said Phoenix was their argument for not accepting her robots!

Was Vitti not enough? She's gone because of them, and now they move on?!

No. No no nononono. Nevermind. Forget the cat and mouse games, Phoenix needs to die. They aren't better than Vitti, they've just tricked everyone into believing that.

"So you fooled Prism into believing in you... Well, even the great Agent Phoenix will eventually burn out. Believe me when I say there is nothing left at the agency worth saving. I would know... Be seeing you."

Those aren't the words of someone who's moved on from loss. Even if Zor is Vitti, this just shows she's not moved on from her anger and grief from how the EOD treated her like a tool that can be changed out.

I feel like Vitti being Zor and the Phantom is too much, honestly. It would have been more interesting to have Zor trying to appeal to Phoenix if they were going to do that, but that's my two cents on it. Either way, this is all very loosey-goosey speculation.

replaying ieytd 3 to research that cigar post has got me thinking about lighters.

because like, in Safe and Sound, Juniper gives you an Agency lighter with the name Agent Phoenix inscribed on it. it’s another fun little tip-off that something isn’t quite right since Juniper is the only one who calls you Phoenix at that time. we know that the Agent keeps that lighter, because when they move into their base for 3, they take it with them and keep it on the radio.

but then, in House Call, you can find an almost identical Agency lighter with Dr. Prism’s name on it. same make, same font… it begs the question: does EVERY major member of the Agency get one of those custom lighters? or are they like,, Zor made custom Agency lighters? because either way i have so many questions.

let’s say it’s the first option. how did Juniper find out about them? or perhaps, why would Zor tell him about this Agency custom? it was given to the Agent as a tool that must be used to escape the false reality that Juniper made, right in front of the camera that Zor specifically requested. doesn’t that seem weird?

or maybe, like the other trends that they set, no one had an engraved lighter until they did, and Prism’s just served as another reminder to her that human agents were so lauded over and praised that one had the arrogance to get a lighter with their name on it and everyone else blindly followed suit.

or maybe Juniper just found out about em and put one in without much thought idk

[scythe-of-house-aurkus]

Okay, I realize I wrote an essay in the tags that last reblog. My brain is still going, so let me write out my little theory about domains of magic, Torment, etc. in a separate post and a little of what I think we may see post-EoD.

There's been a longstanding theory that the human gods and dragons are related. It's an old theory that's legitimately been around since GW1's Eye of the North based off an interesting side quest about Facets of the gods taking the shape of dragons.

Fun theory! Unfortunately it's mostly been debunked at this point.

But you know what? Even if the entities aren't linked, I think there's something to say about their domains of magic. Each dragon and god has an associated element and secondary domain. Standard stuff. Let's look at Balthazar and Primordus. Balthy's all about fire and war. Prim's thing is fire and conflagration (which is pretty much...also fire, but for this exercise, let's conflate that with general destruction). Pretty similar, right?

So the elder dragons are suffering from Torment. Too Much Magic Juice is bad and corrupts them - whether it's their own magic or made worse by 'foreign' magic. Basic stuff. And we know the gods are pretty much just powerful magical entities who have absorbed a whole lot of magic. (Hi Kormir) If a dragon can be corrupted by Torment, who's to say gods can't as well?

Let's go back to Primordus. I'd like to say he started out just as intelligent and talkative as Jormag. Well, maybe not as chatty - Jormag likes to hear themself talk - but certainly a powerful sapient being. Come present day though all we get to see of Primordus is that 'fire and destruction' aspect. I'm extrapolating this to say with enough time and so much magic running rampant in the world, he embodied his domains to the point that 'fire and destruction' are all that's left on the surface (or at least, all we get to see). Not just that, but in embodying those domains to such a degree, they get taken to their natural extremes.

Now, back to the gods. Balthazar's always been shown to be, maybe not a fickle god, but pretty temperamental. But otherwise still pretty rational, right? Why then did the other gods feel they had to "dim his light?" How does he get from point A to B? My theory is, that like dragons, he was suffering from some degree of Torment. Basically what bloodstones do to mortals, just on a much grander scale. Not even the gods - while that upper limit is much higher than most beings, maybe even the dragons - can contain infinite amounts of magic without eventually suffering repercussions. And that threshold being crossed partially manifests in them personifying their domains to an extreme. That's how we got S3 and PoF.

Almost done here. So dragons and gods aren't directly linked, but their similarities say a lot about their domains of magic and the nature of Tyrian magic in general.

Now let's take a look at the DSD. They're the elder dragon of water, that we know. Secondary domain currently unknown. @astralarias has this excellent post here on it being Secrets, and I'm pretty damn sure we have a basis for it if we look at the gods again. What god has (or had, rather) an association with Water? Oh yeah, Abaddon, god of Knowledge and Water.

So now we've got an association with water and secrets/the unknown, and tbh that's a longstanding trope that makes a lot of sense. Except Abaddon's dead now, and Kormir didn't inherit water as a domain. Lyssa did. Goddess of beauty and illusion. It makes sense. Illusions can be equated with hidden knowledge, and mesmer magic's got an association with mirrors. And ofc, more generally you can associate mirrors with water.

I feel like this is all going to be relevant to post-EoD content. Balthazar used Lyssa's mirror to glamor himself as Lazarus. Lyssa was the one god he didn't curse throughout his PC-induced beatdown. And most recently, there's this line from the Legendary Armory entry for Vision:

"They killed him. Balthazar. If Lyssa ever learns of this...I don't know what she'd do—what any of them would do. They still claim benevolence, but let's hope they weren't watching too closely."

Yeah, so I'm pretty sure someone was watching. And we're probably going to hear from her - or at least, part of her.

[achromant]

I had a GREAT idea for a new legendary shield. Concept is based on a folded paper, akin to traditional origami, because Cantha, eh?

Stowed shield is completely folded up, but reveals its long red ribbon upon drawing the shield. The shield itself changes shape slightly, depending on the skills used. Blocking skills like from Warrior's and Guardian's 5 create paper particles around the character, forming a protective bubble, while projectile skills like Engineer's and Chrono's 4 fold the shield into an arrow shape. Ink patterns on the paper shift with the shield's shape. Footfalls are inky paper scraps that start floating and fold into small paper people (absolutely inspired by Ghibli's Spirited Away, yes), then crumble and vanish.

[commander-coppercogg]

So under a cut because spoilers for the new End of Dragons stuff but the boyfriend and I did some wiki diving last night and found some stuff out:

So I originally thought this was gonna be the commander stand in for Cantha and I even saw some people speculate that this might be Zojja coming back into the story. But turns out this character was discussed during a guild chat episode and already had a wiki page!

I’m so interested to meet her and learn about her and her earrings and her eyes and her design are super super cool and holy shit Gorrick used to work at Thaumanova???? Has this been mentioned before??? Maybe it has something to do with how Blish lost his body???

So I went and read the transcript for the podcast episode (cause listening to podcasts is very difficult for me). The transcript seems to be auto generated so there’s a lot of spelling mistakes but here’s the relevant bit:

Fans of Gorrick are in for a treat!!!! I wonder if she has ties to Inquest at all. Cause the Aetherblades and the Inquest had an alliance in Living World Season 1 right? Maybe we’ll get to find out how and why Gorrick and Lish joined the Inquest cause I’ve always wondered about that. I’m really really hoping for good asura content please anet all of the other races have had their moment in the spot light please.

This gets a bit more personal so uh yeah:

I will say my other immediate gut reaction is “oh god I hope they don’t try and cram a bad romance plot line in there.” Cause like on the one hand I’d love to see an autistic character get an in-depth romance story cause a lot of times autistic people (such as myself) are infantalized to the point where we are denied adult romantic and sexual relationships. But on the other hand I feel like it could really easily fall into some really bad tropes. ESPECIALLY if, god forbid, they try and make it a love triangle with Taimi. I remember Taimi saying something at the end of Icebrood Saga (I don’t have screen caps sorry) that made me go “are…are they trying to…no. No way.” And like nothing came of it so maybe I read it wrong. And Anet has always done an incredible job with Gorrick and his character. And I think that’s the reason I feel immediately so defensive and so nervous. Cause I don’t want it to be bad! I learned I was autistic while playing this game and Gorrick is honestly one of the only autistic character I’ve ever encountered and he really means a lot to me. And I can recognize that a lot of my gut reaction is personal projection and nervousness and I’m still really really excited to meet Ankka and got to Cantha. This turned out a lot more personal and depressing than I meant it to, I just wanted to ramble some feeling out.

[senterya]

I'm crawling up the wall I'm so excited.

Although I have to say it - from what we've seen Untamed is a remastered Soulbeast. The aesthetic is very similar, just now instead of merge/unmerge we have 'ancient power' boosting either us or the pet. We might have to balance something like life force or druid's astral force as an added difficulty.

I'm very optimistic because of the specs ANet showed us so far, but I wonder how the primal force mechanic will work. Because of how pet ai is, it feels more logical that the pet is the one building up the primal force, and it deplates when the ranger is the one imbued with it - so far it didn't seem like what they have going on, but we'll see, we'll see.

Knockdown and dazes on hammer are nothing unexpected, I'm a little sad they didn't go with something less predictable (like making it into a condi weapon cmon Anet it would have been funny). Spec overall looks like a durable power build by default. I'm itching to see the trait lines.