I do not need more fic ideas.
But the idea of a post-canon soto-centric time travel fic where interacting with a relic results in hestia having to jump through time to get to the current era, all while trying not to tell any of the past wizards any personal information ~~while leading to her fighting Eparch solo in the lonely tower fractal -- inadvertently inspiring Sorrow and Knaebelag's creation because Scary Wyvern~~
Isgarren wouldn't know what to do in a time of peace with no more large scale threats to think about. Ojisan who has never taken a vacation in 10,000 years
Luci is exactly the same. Commander who has not known peace all her life. when the other wizards convince the two of them to take a break...they probably still get up to heroics. Mostly accidentally but sometimes on purpose. There are hijinks.
Characters that crumble without any pressure, characters who can only function when the stakes are high and fall apart in normalcy, characters who are so honed into weapons of the narrative that when the narrative slows they are left with nothing
I don't think Hestia handles the transition between that initial JW drop where Waiting Sorrow returns to the tower and the Godspawn drop gracefully.
Specifically, I think that the moment Waiting Sorrow says that she had an idea of what caused the titans to emerge, Hestia turns around and walks out of that meeting because she feels like if she doesn't--she's going to fight everyone.
And I think Dagda (not wanting to deal with WS and Isgarren fighting at that moment and being genuinely concerned that the Wayfinder has walked out) follows her, tracking her down and sitting with her and realizing that Hestia is absolutely terrified of an eternity where she has to handle the Wizards being noncommunicative eternally, to the point where she might just walk away. Which considering Hestia has been very much working towards a good relationship with the Wizards, would be a big deal.
Faced with that possibility-- I think Dagda would just share stories of the past with her. Explaining to her about how the Wizards aren't unchanging. That things have gotten better interpersonally even since Lyhr's ascension, and that while things are stressful now (Because everyone is dealing with dredged up trauma and unsolved resentments), they wont always be.
Basically-- I really want to see Dagda and Hestia be friends. I think it would be fun and heartfelt.
Tragic EparchGarren thoughts, but since Eparch couldn't passively feed from Isgarren because he was 'empty'
I must feed. I hunger.
Why is he so empty? Alone?
Hunger. Nothing.
This meant he starved because there was nobody else at the Tower during this time (Mabon was in Janthir and Sorrow was wandering Tyria) and since we know Wizards don't have basic functions after Ascending, there would be no reason for Isgarren to have food of any kind at the Tower (the Ward didn't exist yet). Even if it was possible Isgarren rectified that after Eparch started saying he was hungry, it was likely not right for what Eparch needed, or wouldn't have been enough depending how long Eparch had been starving for.
Anyway, Eparch has dialogue towards the Commander at the end of Treachery
Eparch: Ah. There you are.
Eparch: I thought I felt something...different. It's fascinating, what you smell like. What you feel like.
[...]
Eparch: You, though. Not only do you remind me of the seer, but... Your fear tastes like his.
And this means that, at some point, Eparch was able to taste Isgarren's emotions, feed on them somewhat. Specifically, Isgarren's fear. Of course, it's possible that this could have occurred during Lonely Tower, a time when Isgarren's emotions would have been haywire over the loss of his partner, as well as one of his closest friends, and with the general horror that his greatest enemy had found him again...
But, consider
Hunting. Blood. Centaur village, drained. Regret...
He watches. Disdain. Fear.
I plead. He does not hear. Shouting.
Imagine how utterly tragic it would be if the first time Eparch had ever been able to feel Isgarren's emotions was because his own actions had disgusted and horrified him so, during the one time he would never have wanted to make Isgarren feel that way.
So in figuring out fixing a plot hole, I may have made Demmi Beetlestone's whole deal more Horrifying.
Specifically with the concept of 'What if Caudecus had been microdosing Bloodstone for decades--even before Demmi was conceived-- and what would that do to her?"
As most ideas at three am do-- I was punched directly in the face by the hypothetical question of "So are there thematic similarities for each Elder Dragon's Lore for every Gen 3 Weapon?" (IE: "all of the tidbits from X weapon talk about Y theme)
So I made a spreadsheet. And then I added the mechanical keywords for each weapon in case that was relevant. I am, however, one person-- and if any other GW2 Lore Nerds have thoughts, I would love to hear them!
I don't know if I am overthinking this, but if stuff WAS found-- it might give us some new insight on older content!
This was originally going to be part of a longer post I'm working on, but I decided it warranted being its own.
And yes I know the title sounds insane! But in the grand scheme of SotO's narrative, Isgarren is an idealist at heart wearing a cynic's armor, and Mabon is a cynic at heart wearing an idealist's mask.
And Isgarren is an idealist because you kind of have to be one to dedicate yourself to 10,000 years of protecting a world that doesn't even know you exist.
And one of the only things we know about him from before his ascension was that he tried to go help the mursaat fight Zhaitan anyway even after Sidony decided against helping them. Most of what he calls his mistakes were also born from his attempts to help others - taking in Eparch and ascending Waiting Sorrow being the biggest examples. And still he keeps helping others. Still, no matter how many times his attempts to better the world led to another "mistake", led to his own exile from his kin, led to the deaths of people he loved, Isgarren still kept doing it because he believed in doing good no matter what.
He figured out at some point that the Elder Dragons were vital to Tyria's magical ecosystem, so he turned his efforts to fight for the good of Tyria outward, especially once Eparch gave him reason to think all kryptis were threats. He wasn't going to step in with the Elder Dragon wars until it literally threatened the destruction of all Tyria not because he didn't care, but because he had faith in us.
Keep in mind that in the personal story, the Commander and Trahearne successfully united the world to fight Zhaitan. Isgarren had seen this before. He saw Sidony unite all the other elder races to fight Zhaitan, only for them to suddenly betray each other and leave the mursaat and Forgotten to die on their own. The Pact succeeded where the elder races failed. Why wouldn't he believe in the strength of mortals at that point?
Not to overuse and refer back to my favorite conversation in SotO too often, but Isgarren doesn't save farms not because he doesn't care, he doesn't save the farm because he knows the Commander will be there to have his back and do it while he takes care of the dragon minion.
Isgarren, for all his faults and his grumpy and bitter attitude, is an idealist.
Mabon called him naive for a reason. He even calls his own choices naive.
And speaking of Mabon...he's a cynic at heart.
This might seem contradictory to the way he is characterized as an optimistic and positive force among the Wizard's Court and for the Astral Ward (and he is), moreso than Isgarren being a hidden idealist under his sour armor, but consider that Mabon's entire character rides on his idea of atonement.
In his journal from shortly after his ascension, he doesn't remember what he was like before it. He just remembers that his own people are cruel and evil. He assumes Isgarren is avoiding him because he's afraid of him as a violent mursaat and never truly trusted him at all (when this could just as likely be because Isgarren is feeling guilty of the ascension wiping Mabon's memories, but that's just me speculating). He assumes that he must have been just like all other mursaat and he must have been a terrible person himself. So he must atone. And atone he does for 10,000 years.
Isgarren tells you, when you ask him about Mabon, that Mabon was not like other mursaat when they first met.
In SotO, Mabon's arc starts shortly before we meet him. Asthenes is attacking him mentally the whole time, but he puts on his outward mask of idealism and strength to save Dagda and Lyhr and to lead the Astral Ward while Isgarren is missing.
Knowing the Wizards, knowing the Commander, wouldn't we have found some way to save him too? If we knew? If we had realized? Isn't that what the Wizards and the Commander do? Wouldn't we have just made it possible to save Dagda, Lyhr, and Mabon?
Mabon didn't want to die, but he felt at that point "there is no other way this can end" and he outright asks us not to hesitate "when the hour arrives." He doesn't bother to ask for help with his own possession because he thinks he's beyond saving, and he needs to save the others first.
He also notably meddles with Tyrians more than Isgarren does. Many of the Astral Ward's recruits are his specifically. He travels to Tyria frequently to meet people and experience the world "on the ground", so to speak. Compare this to the historical mursaat modus of sitting back and manipulating an entire society unseen.
Even when it's someone Isgarren (and Uenno) recruits like Frode, it's not until Mabon involves himself that they heal and find their place in the Astral Ward.
That's not to say he didn't believe in mortals at all, just that as part of his trying to be a better person than he believed himself to be, he ended up taking it upon himself to help those he felt no one else would.
Finally, it's notable to me that both Isgarren and Mabon attempt to distance themselves from their races in some manner, and they both go about it in very different ways.
Isgarren made himself blue so he might be mistaken for a djinn at first glance but he still takes great pride in being a Seer. He wants to be seen as part of the rest of Tyria despite sitting above it, but will happily answer your questions about Seers.
Mabon hides his wings to be less threatening, but he's still very obviously a mursaat at first glance. He's still other from the rest of Tyria, but he distances himself from the other mursaat so much that he considers his own race extinct with Lazarus's death.
And somehow, it's so very fitting that these two found each other and created the Wizard's Court together.
actually insanely funny and also brilliant to me that SotO out of all of GW2 has the most stereotypically medieval high fantasy stuff going on out of the entire game
Peitha is the rebellious princess against her tyrannical king of an uncle. She's going through her own kind of hero's journey when we meet her—her familiar world is Zakiros, Mosyn's protest was the call she refused, Febe was her wise old mentor, the Tyrians (us!) are her allies, eventually she returns to Zakiros and defeats Eparch.
For the others: Cerus is essentially a sadistic prince type with faint implications of having once believed in something greater. Nephus is outright a "knight" type of kryptis and probably close as it gets to a sour paladin. Charybda is a royal mage with a tower and apprentices. Aurkus is the shady advisor and spymaster. I even place Febe as having been the high priest in my headcanons.
it's just that yknow. Kryptis are kryptis.
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