Speculation

[Crim80]

Perhaps this thread should go in the "General Discussion" section, but I put it in "Lore" because you guys are usually more educated about the background and progression of the game.


So it looks like Rift is presenting an opportunity for us to kill all of the dragons in raids. Granted, that's really the role of an Ascended anyway, right? Killing them makes Telara safe. But then I started to wonder --- Once they're all dead, our "role" in the game seems to go away. We won't really have a "purpose" anymore (except to kill some rogue goblins, etc.)

Any speculation as to where Trion is leading us?

[GothWulfe]

The next step is killing the Vigil

[RyanCE]

A. We didn't really kill the dragons but just defeated their physical manifestation on Telara and they are still out there causing mischief.

B1. We killed the dragons and Regulos grabs himself new cronies right out of the soulstream who continue causing mischief.

B2. We killed the dragons but Regulos grabs them right out of the soulstream and simply resurrects them.

C. We kill them, Regulos goes brain-afk and doesn't fiddle with the soulstream but the slain dragons left some presents behind - like those half-Laethys-half-Maelforge half-breeds that are going to whip yo twinks in ID.

D. Boring new stuff that isn't based on pre-existing lore but is put in because the Devs burned through content too fast.

[ItsFriday]

The creatures of planes are still a threat, even without the blood storm calling the shots. Until we can seal off the planes for good there will always be bad guys to deal with.

[Crim80]

A. We didn't really kill the dragons but just defeated their physical manifestation on Telara and they are still out there causing mischief.

B1. We killed the dragons and Regulos grabs himself new cronies right out of the soulstream who continue causing mischief.

B2. We killed the dragons but Regulos grabs them right out of the soulstream and simply resurrects them.

C. We kill them, Regulos goes brain-afk and doesn't fiddle with the soulstream but the slain dragons left some presents behind - like those half-Laethys-half-Maelforge half-breeds that are going to whip yo twinks in ID.

D. Boring new stuff that isn't based on pre-existing lore but is put in because the Devs burned through content too fast.

I imagine "D" will be the final answer, and the dev's conversation will go something like this:
Trion Dev #1: "Uh oh. We're out of content. What do we do?"
Trion Dev #2: "Hmmm. Good question. What did Blizzard do when they ran out - ya know, since we copy everything they do?"
Dev #1: "They brought in pandas."
Dev #2: "Sounds good. Let's do it. Oh - and first aid too!"

BIG TRION ANNOUNCEMENT: Coming in Patch 2.0 - Rifts of Pandaland

[tro44]

Perhaps this thread should go in the "General Discussion" section, but I put it in "Lore" because you guys are usually more educated about the background and progression of the game.


So it looks like Rift is presenting an opportunity for us to kill all of the dragons in raids. Granted, that's really the role of an Ascended anyway, right? Killing them makes Telara safe. But then I started to wonder --- Once they're all dead, our "role" in the game seems to go away. We won't really have a "purpose" anymore (except to kill some rogue goblins, etc.)

Any speculation as to where Trion is leading us?

its comfusing at first. But keep in mind, Rift's lore is inspired by Warcraft lore on many ways, including the Elemental lore in Warcraft.

if you know anything about Warcraft lore, I can give you a better way to understand whats going on here.

The Dragon Gods in Rift under each elemental plane, are similar not to the dragons in Warcraft, but the Elemental Lords in Warcraft.

Remember in Warcraft we defeated the Fire Elemental Lord's physical body, but he returned once again, because that was just a shell of their true self, aka true power, which lies in their own planes.

same thing here. The Dragon Gods invaded Telara in Avatar form, not physical form, meaning they are in a lesser power state than their true form, which lies in the planes of their world.

[The Protector]

Guess I should bite on your fishing hook (just don't waste too much bait on me).

My theory is that after we defeat the Dragons and their cronies , we will eventually have to invade their planes (which will most likely be HUGE HUGE zones 5x the size of Ember Isle to grind and quest ourselves in) along with a level increase probably and new rewards and gear. Plane by plane, we truly defeat the dragons once and for all (or will we?) and eventually have ourselves positioned with a brand new enemy!

[Maeloda]

Guess I should bite on your fishing hook (just don't waste too much bait on me).

My theory is that after we defeat the Dragons and their cronies , we will eventually have to invade their planes (which will most likely be HUGE HUGE zones 5x the size of Ember Isle to grind and quest ourselves in) along with a level increase probably and new rewards and gear. Plane by plane, we truly defeat the dragons once and for all (or will we?) and eventually have ourselves positioned with a brand new enemy!

There's more than just the elemental Planes. There are sub-planes (Realm of the Fae and River of Souls come to mind) that attach to Planes, and there ARE other worlds out there that have not been totally gobbled up, I'm sure.

There is as well, likely content regarding Orphiel, and the Vigil. First involving time and space in general, and the second concerning the Vigil's origins.

When it comes to the Bloodstorm, this is just the beginning. We killed their dragon forms and dispersed their energy. That doesn't mean that the corruption has stopped (see Water Saga with Akylios energy, and 1.5 World Event for Akylios and Greenscale energy, and Kain with Regulos energy), and it only gets the cults more and more desperate.

[EtNe]

Well, the Realm of the Fae was a piece of Telara that the Fae "stole" away, which I just see as being bombarded with Life Energy that they then manipulated expertly, as seems the way of the Fae. But yeah, they do mention the River of Souls being on the borders of the Plane of Death and Plane of Life. Makes me wonder of other regions on planar borders. Like a planar icy tundra on the border of Water and Air or a planar bog between Water and Life.

As for the Dragons themselves, does anyone have the direct link or lore quote about us banishing them back to their realms ala the Elemental Lords of WoW? I used to think that too, but I can't remember where I started making that association from and the entire Legacy of the Fallen event combined with parts of the Water Saga make me start to think differently.

How I see it is that we both did and did not "kill" Greenscale and Akylios, and soon Laethys and Maelforge. It seems to me that the Dragons themselves are just sentient large chunks of planar energy, possibly imbued with the actual "personality" of the dragon itself. When "destroyed", they just release/seep out all of that energy that made up their being in the form of the dragon motes and thus, don't truly ever die or go to the Soul Stream or back to their planes. Like, imagine them as giant "immortal" elemental slimes that take on whatever shape they feel suits them best. On death, blam, slime chunks everywhere.

Expanding on that point, I see two potential possibilities to take with this route.

The first is that the cultists go around, gather up all the dragon motes (splattered dragon slime chunks) together, and find a new vessel to pour it all into and presto blamo, re-born Dragon.

The second is that, expanding upon the power Aelfwar cultists got from the dragon motes in the later dailies of the Legacy of the Fallen event; high ranking cultists (or even just curious scholars seeking power) find dragon motes and absorb large portions of what used to be the Dragons themselves and become what can be seen as a new Blood Storm, but born of a select infused group of Telarans who may or may not wrestle with remnants of the Dragons "personality" themselves.

Personally, I would like to see and imagine a combination of the two. A new group of Telarans from various walks of life essentially become the new 6 "Dragons" and, in an attempt to both expand their power base and learn to master their new powers, flee back into the Elemental Planes themselves to seize control of their respective realms. Possibly some of these new Telarans totally succumb to the remnants of the Dragons personalities themselves and act as the vessel to plainly just resurrect some dragons. Then, in an expansion to the Planes, we Ascended follow them to stop their mad plans, teaming up with certain Planar beings who either don't wish to relinquish their new found freedom to a new mad ruler or simply alter the balance of power between various factions already in civil wars to control their realm in the absence of their true dragon rulers.

Heck, this "dragon mote power infusion into a new being" idea could even be something that Orphiel starts to research / become obsessed with in his mad bid to perfect a new or even supreme method of ascension. I mean, if he found a way to ascend someone (or himself) to the power of a Dragon or even the combined might of multiple Dragons, things could get interesting. This is speaking as a Defiant. I like Orphiel, but he does seem one that wouldn't pass on the chance to study the ability to gain new power. I don't see it going well, but a more optimistic scientific mind would see benefits in a beneficial person wielding the powers of Greenscale for the sake of the Telara (or just Defiants).

[Maeloda]

Yes.

Water Saga Guardian involves the Abyssal wishing YOU to become the new Avatar of Akylios.

The energy is out there. Yes, the Guardians and Defiants are gathering it and purifying it/using it as fuel etc, but the cults are also grabbing it and going things with it.

After the Wanton are essentially defeated on Telara (Mount Carcera seems to be the headquarters, with Gloamwood just as their base for goblins, Scarlet Gorge as a new area for them due to that fire rift, and Droughtlands/Shimmersand as their long-standing domain), I forsee them not playing a role for a while, but the plot stuff regarding Maelforge's energy, and his dragon eggs with Laethys (eww), may be important down the line.

The Golden Maw will also mostly be defeated.
Stonefield - no titan will arrive here, so its just a bunch of dumb trolls left
Scarlet Gorge - you end operations there
Shimmersand - you defeat any leadership there, resulting in the Maw being scattered and pitiful. The 'King' (rift raid), 'Prince' (quests) and 'Queen' (open world raid quest) there are defeated, but there might be some more to get to. Overall though, they're struck down.
Ember Isle - most of the rest of the Maw head here for Laethys' resurrection. They gain a foothold, and gradually prepare for a massive Telaran invasion (which would likely fail, so this is why they join forces with the Wanton). You stop this entirely and kill off their leadership.
So all we have left to deal with, I think, would be Laethys' energy.

Ideas for the future:
-people possessed as Avatars
-Laethys' energy
-Maelforge's energy
-dragon eggs and what they may mean (unless we really do destroy them all)

But aside from current dragon stuff:
-Titans
-Wanton on Fire Plane aiming to take revenge
-Beings from worlds in or related to Earth Plane noticing that Laethys is gone
-the dragon energy possibly being intentionally dispersed, as part of someone's plan (Orphiel? Regulos?)
-new races, worlds

The dragons are NOT the be-all end-all, but I do think Trion will need to not just progress current plots, but introduce new 'big bads' at the same time. What those 'big bads' will be.. I dunno, but they still have to tie into the Planes.

[Jonus]

There is definitely a lot that Trion can play around with.
They have Slivers to alternate realities that they can continue to play with. As each dragon dies, more and more tears can open up due to the dispersion of corrupted energy/etc.

The death of the dragons will make Telara further enriched with planar energies that the Planes hunger for. It could totally 'tear' up Telara, distort lands, cause further corruption in the Telarans themselves; open up new sourcewells elsewhere outside of the main island and Ember Isle.

The Avatar of Regulos (Kain), the Avatar of Akylios and all those other mentions of Avatars could just as well manifest into new opponents who will (as someone above mentioned) fall back into their respective Planes to regenerate/build up power. The corrupted energies being collected by the cults could very well be sent back to the Planes, because they might have concluded that they have been weakened on Telara and the safest place to store the energies would be back at 'home' in the Planes.
Que us going into the Planes themselves. This would provide an infinite source of imagination and further content for the game.

Also, Telara itself seems rather 'small'. Who is to say that further islands, or even 'New World' could be discovered (new continent where we start to get bits and pieces of as Telarans start exploring). Que new races/etc.
It could very well be after we defeat all the dragons that the cults will decide it would be better to retreat and set up footholds elsewhere, on distant lands to gain ample power there first before invading Telara, instead of trying to continously invade Telara itself.

Also, the dragons and the Planes have invaded countless other planets. Who is to say that before hitting up the Planes, we could end up fighting on other planets to push back their influence and weaken them further. Who is to say we won't discover travel stones, or porticulums that go to distant planets/lands.

Orphiel may discover a way to enter the Rifts themselves. Perhaps before then, we weren't able to push in because the rifts would close on us - but perhaps he will find a way to keep some of them open for us to enter. Perhaps a tear will appear that is large enough to fit a band of Ascended through.

Going back to the corrupted energy that is spread out across Telara upon the death of each dragon; perhaps there are greater beings who wish for this to happen - i.e., perhaps the Vigil? Perhaps someone or a group of somethings wish for the energy to be spread out so that they can collect it, and mix the powerful energies of all the dragons to create a massive creature of unimaginable power with the energies of all the Planes combined. I.e., could very well be the 'final' opponent for Telara - what better opponent for the center of all planar energy, then a monster that is the combination of all planar energies.

[Maeloda]

Here's what we do know:


-Rift lore is talking a lot about avatars, even lately. I think this is important. The dragons themselves are not as important as the energy they are consisted of. It may be why they were continued to be imprisoned, instead of killed when weakened. Fast forward to the future, and you'll find people who can't remember WHY, so the dragons start getting freed/killed.

-At least older lore mentioned a land across the sea, which became disrupted after the Shade arrived (because it agitated Akylios). It traded with Port Scion, which made it a vital trading hub even prior to any of the Mathosian Civil War stuff. We may visit this locale.

-The talk of the upcoming new zone has two parts:
1)A whole zone that is basically a city
2)A new race

-The new Laethys lore piece confirms that there were other planets on this 'plane' that were more or less attracted towards a specific plane (where Telara intersects with all six!). Some of the races 'of' the Planes, are actually corrupted forms of the 'good' forms on the home planets. IMO the fae might be this as well - the new pretty pet forms could very well be explained as 'pure' fae, whereas Tyrl's court and those on the Plane of Life are ones touched by corrupt Greenscale power, and mutated into the forms we see.

[Galibier]

We do not kill the dragons though. We destroy their avatars on this plane. It really isn't that different than what we do to the abatar of regulos in the Guardian story line. So maybe we have a story where we are trying to stop their servants from restoring the avatars? Maybe we take the war to the planes themselves? Killing Lord Green Scale on the Plane of life would likely lead ro his true destruction. Who knows, but the manner in which the dragons manifest on telara leaves a lot of wiggle room.

[Morvick]

Nearly every being in the Telaran universe is strictly spiritual, but given form by Sourcestone. Almost everyone, everything, and I would wager even Telara itself, can be thought of as a Sourcestone golem. We mortals are just very fleshy ones.

This goes double for the powerful Gods that reel overhead and in the mortal prisons that bind the dragons. They're only "real" or "alive" when they contact with Sourcestone, and exist as a sort of disembodied consciousness whenever they drift. When they manifest, it could be as a Dragon. Could be as a bipedal hominid. For a long time, Lathys existed as a pile of magic gold coins and nothing else! The Vigil Gods might very well take on human shapes, or they could give everyone a heart attack and appear as Dragons (every Guardian wails in dismay...)

So notice, we killed Greenscale's body, but not his soul (and admittedly he had tied up a great deal of his energy into that body, so when we plucked that weed, he went into remission). The shattered remains of those dragon bodies are the Motes -- sourcestone that "remembers" what it once was. Lingering power, but not really the Dragon itself. (Almost like the Planar Corpse of a Dragon)

Greenscale the Spirit, if you will, is safely sequestered in some fortified position in the Plane of Life. As is Akylios somewhere in the Plane of Water, as will Laethys and Maelforge be retrieved to the Planes of Earth and Fire, respectively. When we stare down Crucia and perhaps even Regulos, I suspect they'll go into hiding in the Air and Death planes, as well.

The solution to these slippery enemies is to enter the Rifts. Like tracing a weed back through it's roots, the Ascended will need to relinquish their mortal ties and embrace their spiritual other-halves, entering the nonphysical Planes and becoming truly powerful, to defeat the Dragons who have, by now, purified and restored themselves.

This will require the breaching of the Ward, a full mixing of the decided-real and infinite-unreality, which would simultaneously worsen the Rifts and unleash all the current power of the Vigil Gods, too (they're held back by the Ward just as Regulos is). I think the term "cosmic war" can start to describe the conflict I see in my mind.

Not even the machine-born Defiant Ascended are truly creations of mortality, but are vessels for incredibly-powerful "fleshsuits of ethereal badassery", as Elrar put it comically. Shed the bones, Ascended, and chase the Bloodstorm to where they can finally be killed for good! =]

And after that, who knows what other creepy-crawlies await us in those primal Planes?
Cue evil laughter.