#elemental dissonance

It makes sense that Warlic suffering a fate in this manner would be infinitely more pleasing to Xan than him dying at someone else's hand, as was the case with Nythera during the Storm War saga.

As far as Xan is concerned at this point, Warlic is still the same pompous bully that tormented him every day while they were at the academy together and the same 'monster' that trapped him in a hell without end since that fateful day. So, it is only fitting that, from his perspective, that his demise was caused by being crushed under the weight of his own actions regardless of what those actions were meant to serve.

How long I wonder did he suspect that Warlic might have died this way? Immediately after the Sun was restored? Or perhaps when no one else could find him?

I particularly liked this new addition of characterization for Xan here. It shows that underneath all that insanity there's a person whose probably been reliving the worst day of their life and over again in their mind trying to wrestle with everything that went wrong and knowing that had it not happened their life wouldn't be filled with pain.

It does make sense that Warlic would have had Jaania moved from Swordhaven and into the Deadlands as an olive branch to Xan in the hopes of him being coaxed enough into working together to free her. He obviously can't do that in Swordhaven after making himself an enemy of Greenguard. Although whether or not Xan would have calmed down enough eventually under different circumstances is something I'm not entirely sure about.

So, thoughts:

1) Writers just forgot to mention it (possible, but no fun and, even if true, doesn’t give an in-story explanation)

2) Xan just didn’t mention it. Possible, even likely, considering Xan was aware of Akriloth and the Darkness Dracolich, but not Cryozen. In this scenario, the Realm of Ice is as weak and vulnerable as Fire and Darkness.

3) The Realm of Ice avoided vulnerability due to Cryozen’s heir hatching. Now, Akriloth’s heir hatched as well, but clearly wasn’t enough to make up for the imbalance caused by their father’s death since the Dissonance happened anyway. The difference for Cryozen? Vilmor. We know that baby dragons with DragonLords can assume their adult forms and access adult power, so it makes sense that Ice is at least somewhat more well-protected than Fire.

Additionally, on related train of thought, baby dragons take centuries to grow to their adult forms naturally. Two hundred years is still adolescent, if we use Nythera as a guideline, and she’s half-dragon so that might impact how she grows (though she implies she ages in dragon years). Meaning, the Realm of Fire still should be weak, right? Because baby Akriloth is still... baby Akriloth.

(The Realm of Darkness may have recovered because it wasn’t the death of a Great Dragon but the death of a lot of Darkness elementals, including the Mysterious Stranger, attached to Fluffy that caused the imbalance. That may have already been compensated for, who knows. We don’t have a way to estimate one way or the other.)

Kind of curios as to how the Empress was able to do that. Can she just feel his overwhelming energy? Or does something else let her sense his immediate presence on the planet? I still find myself rather curious as to what the original Wargoth could have done to the Empress when he occupied Somorah and enslaved the Ateala.

The very real chance that Wargoth could have mentally tortured Veyla with this outcome as she tried to resist his control over her is a possibility not lost on me.

This was a delight to see. I'm glad we get to see the elemental dissonance slowly take this shape of constant conflict that's been described to us. Especially, when you have the understanding that the Elements view the imbalance as a means to take over territory from one another on Lore.

So, when they see Wargoth's forces show up, they don't see an existential threat they must unite against to avoid devastation they just see another player in the game and one they will not acquiesce to even if all of Lore is reduced to ashes.

"She's beauty, she's grace, she'll punch her enemies in the face"

Sometimes I forget how rough the flying eyes have it.

Loved that the entire exchange that follows this question is basically just "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down" meme personified.

*totally not flashbacking to the time the games gave you the option to punt Twilly*

And apparently there will be an Imp class.