Thread: Predictions for Patch 4.4

As long as they don't bring Haurchefant or Ysayle back, I'm content. I don't mind Gaius returning since he represents the Garlemald that I want to see more of...though I'd have been equally happy with a different character being introduced and slipping into his intended role. Though there is a very thin line being tread already. When death feels 'cheap' it rubs people the wrong way. Every person has characters they like and those that they don't. So bringing characters back from the dead is always going to be controversial as there's going to be those who question why X is brought back but Y isn't.

As for 4.4, I'm hoping that we learn why Varis spat on the coffin of the previous Emperor. He's very much a wildcard at the moment. Varis having met Alphinaud already back in Heavensward makes it likely that the pair will meet again.

I hope we'll get to learn the truth of what happened in the Burn to make it the way it was now that we're journeying to it presumably to rescue Alphnaud from the imperials and/or whatever nasty beasts dwell there.

If it was really a multitude of primals that stripped the land of its aether, someone had to have summoned them and judging from the decrepit building present in the sole screenshot we have of the place as a dungeon, it seems like it probably was home to a civilization before it was destroyed.

Re. the Burn, there's some previous lore set up in the Azim Steppe - I posted about it in the 4.3 discussion thread and I'll copy-paste it here:


The cave-dwelling Uyagir in the Nhaama desert (cave entrance at X:8.8, Y:29.6) seem to claim their ancestors were responsible for what happened.

Baavgai explains:
We live here to make amends for our sins. In the past, having grown drunk off its own greed, our tribe embarked on a mission to subjugate all that it possibly could.
In response to our insatiable greed, the gods punished the Uyagir by unleashing giant, oliphant-like beetles upon our lands.
The beetles left absolute devastation in their wake. Rivers dried up, crops wilted and cavernous holes were dug in the southern deserts.
Our ancestors, faced with the result of their avarice, swore to repent for their mistakes. They chose to live in the caves bored by the giant insects and abandon all greed.

So... did they summon a primal to defeat their enemies? Were the beetles some kind of primal gone out of control or even someone else's primal? (something on the scale and behaviour of Bismarck I suppose.) Or even Allagan bio-warfare or machinery as perceived by a primitive tribe?

It's a little ambiguous whether they are currently living in the bored caves though, or if they moved out into different caves later. But the world map does have a drawing of a giant worm (beetle larva) in the Burn, so that part seems to add up.


They also have cave murals that, according to one of the other tribesmen, "tell stories of our ancestors' greed":

(I only took the one screenshot and forgot to check the other cave walls to see if they had different images. This one doesn't seem particularly useful in the end.)

All on the right seem to be hunters and horses, directly behind the scaffolding are mammoths (?) and at the top is a warrior with a sword riding possibly-a-yol.

I'm not certain but I think this might be the same mural in the cave where you fight the yol at the end of Bardam's Mettle. Whether that would mean anything or if they just recycled the design.


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And now here we are, seeing more of the Burn 'for real', and it has giant worm carcasses scattered across it. Whatever happened, it was something more solid than "just" a primal, and perhaps the worm-tunnels are still there waiting to be explored.

For that matter, perhaps some of the worms are still there.

His arms are completely bandaged.

Originally Posted by Theodric

As long as they don't bring Haurchefant or Ysayle back, I'm content.

Haurchefant, I'm pretty sure is gonna stay dead. Ysayle, I'm not so sure... In her case, we never recovered the body (or even held a funeral, to my recollection). On a more personal note, I wasn't really satisfied with her sacrifice. It seemed pretty pointless, as all it did was slow the Garleans down a bit and temporarily cripple one of their flagships. They still got to Azys Lla and set up shop, so all it really did was give us a minor head start. It really didn't feel like her character arc had come to a satisfactory conclusion, either, regarding her angst at having the rug yanked out from under her with the revelation that Primal Shiva was just a poor copy of the original, rather than the original reincarnated. Additionally, the way she died was just weird, shattering into crystal fragments. I don't think any other individual, including other folks who've been defeated after transforming into Primals, have died the same way. A clever writer could definitely take advantage of that.

She's probably dead, but if she were to make a reappearance, it would not shock me.