A Tengu dilemma: Who to side with?


Is there another option?”

I mean we are facing this massive threat!! ELDER DRAGONS! They’d annihilate us in seconds!”

They have to help us…”

Well, apparently they do have a choice. Don’t forget we’re talking about this ancient race, one that has been around for aeons, and who have gathered wisdom beyond any of us. A race that once was spread across the world and was around, even back then when the dragons woke up centuries ago. You know what is striking? They are not at all like the other sentient races, whose only knowledge left is found in Glint’s legacy, shadowstone like relics or any questionable information Lazarus might be willing to share with us. This race is different. They are here, living among us, preserving their knowledge. Dragons, ascension, magic. They probably even have knowledge on bloodstones, ley lines and the cycle of the dragons, and more than we do. A lot more.

They have witnessed it. They saw what was about to happen.

Two centuries ago they realized, the first time Primordus started stirring, they remembered.


It was not just because of emperor Usoku they left Cantha. He was the reason why they fled, leaving behind just a few of their tribe, but he was not the reason why they built their new sanctuary there, in Sanctum Cay. That island, with it’s ancient monastery, was the perfect place for them to build their refuge. The place that could keep them safe from the other races and any other threat they could think of. Dragons. Magic.

And they needed to.

Around that time something happened that showed them they had no choice, they had to build it. During those Winds of Change in Cantha, Zhaitan decided it was time for him to wake up. Rising from below, forcing the kingdom of Orr to the surface, he caused the Great Tsunami. And they knew that the cycle of the Elder Dragon had restarted once again. Those catastrophic forces of nature would wake up, one by one, destroying life as they knew it.

They had seen it happen before. They were there, the last time and the one before, dating back to those days when their race was just young, newborn like the other races that walked the surface of Tyria these days. The only difference was that back then there were other races around, whom they could count on. Races who helped protect the world against the rise of the Elder Dragons. But they were no longer around. Forgotten, Seer, Dwarves, it had been ages since any of these had been last seen. The ancient Jotun achieved a level of wisdom that made even the Grawl look intelligent. And the Mursaat? Besides the fact that only Lazarus was rumored to be alive, they were not a race to be trusted anymore. They had lost faith in them.

Who would help them now then? These newborn races? Those Jotun lookalikes, walking plants, Skritt cousins, or those ever-fighting, over-sized cats who thought Titans were gods? Titans? Really? The numerous humans were an option of course, but they seemed to like the Mursaat too much, trusting them, worshiping them. And certainly none of them would be a match against an Elder Dragon.

So this left them with little to no choice. They had to prepare themselves for that moment when they would need to hide in plain sight, just like the Seer did last time, preserving their race and maybe pick the few lucky ones they could aid.

When Scarlet did what she did (and this was not the inevitable awaking of Mordremoth, but her experiments with the ley lines and magic, resulting in the havoc in Lion’s Arch) they decided it was time to protect themselves. They barricaded themselves in their sanctuary, the Dominion of Winds, and they waited.


It didn’t last long though. Soon enough they realized that this time the threat of the Elder Dragon’s was very different. Magic shifting, unbalance, chaos, dark times were approaching fast.

Astonished they had witnessed some unexpected events. Charr and Humans stopped fighting, Norn turned out to have more brains than Jotun, Sylvari were remarkably versatile and even the Asura, those over-sized Skritt, turned out to be smarter than they appeared to be. But what was the most impressive was the fact that these newborn races started working together.

Those Asura, Sylvari and Humans showed a lot of potential. The amount of knowledge they had acquired in their short lifespan was already massive and if they would continue at this rate they could turn out to be viable substitutes for the lost races.

There was just one big ‘but’… They were not the nicest ones. The Inquest were relentless, the Nightmare Court, well, the name says it all, and those White Mantle used to worship the Mursaat (worshiping Mursaat is definitely worse than worshiping Titans).

Their Pact looked promising though. Formed by three organizations, Vigil, Priory and the Order of Whispers, they had all the major sentient races in their ranks (Norn, Charr, Sylvari, Asura and Humans) and they showed they could use each and everyone’s field of expertise. Best thing for sure was that they seemed to be nice and tried to do the best they could, if only they were a little bit more stable as an organization.

But who was that new group, or guild as they called themselves, the Dragon’s Watch? They had been around all the time, they were there when Zhaitan was killed and that Sylvari called Scarlet would still be around if it wasn’t for these people. And they received Glint’s legacy, and the trust of a little baby dragon, which undeniably showed they definitely had potential. A small group, but a skilled one, they seemed to be a viable option as well.

Choices, choices, choices…. Slowly they started to form their final decision.

Two Elder Dragons down.

Magic threatening the globe.

It’s almost time.

Time to decide who to side with.


Fun fact: The Dominion of Winds is situated on an island formerly known as Sanctum Cay. On this island the ruins of an ancient monastery said to have been the first to teach the art of Smiting Prayers.

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