Saturday, February 20, 2010

Who won the war?

Here's an interesting lore question from Monica Swiftrider:
Hey! I was wondering: in the battle between the Tritons, Dragons, and Giants, who DID end up winning?

Ok, so this is kind of a convoluted story (as are most background stories) to how things got the way they are today in the spiral. As you go back through even our own world's history and look at conflicts, there's always two sides to every story, or in the spiral's case . . . three sides to every story! That's right, three!

(go grab some popcorn, this is going to be one of those LONG posts with a lot of reading)

There's a quest in Wizard City that you complete as a part of the Boris Tallstaff line of quests called The Trees. On this quest you go around jibba jabbering to all the trees in Ravenwood, and this is where the story of the giants, the tritons, and the dragons all unfolds. Here's what Bernie tells us about the war:
Our history is a fiery one, but worth remembering! The Dragons, ancient Titans of the First World, were the masters of Fire. The Dragons ruled the Land and wanted the Sky and Sea. But it was not to be. The Dragons' siblings, barbaric Giants and the greedy Tritons, fought against them. To defend themselves, the Dragons created the Magic of Pyromancy . . . but alas, it was not enough to save them.

So from what I'm reading there, the Dragons lost. Here's what Kelvin tells us about the war:
The history of Ice Magic, huh? It's simple. When the world was very young, the Giants ruled the skies. The Grandfather Tree created them, as well as the ruthless Dragons and the craven Tritons. The Giants built castles in the clouds above and used Ice Magic to battle the Dragons and the Tritons.

So Kelvin doesn't really admit any kind of defeat for the giants. Maybe they won? I don't really think so . . . I think not admitting defeat is kind of the way ice magic is by nature. Here's what Torrence has to say about the whole shebang:
Oh heavens, the history of Storm Magic? But it's such a sad tale. Well, if you insist . . . Tritons, the Lords of the Deep, created the Storm Arts to harness wind and rain, storm and sea. They used their Magic to battle their siblings, the devious Dragons and the craven Giants. But, sadly, it was not enough. They lost the War and their once noble Art was all but forgotten . . . until recently.

So, it reads like the Tritons also lost.

But is that it? Nah, Boris asks you to go talk to all the old men in Wizard City next, and Ambrose kind of gives us the real dirt on the war.
Ah, yes. The Spiral was born out of an ancient conflict. The three elder races could not stop fighting. The Giants, rulers of the Sky, stole water from the Sea to build their great castles of ice. The Tritons, rulers of the Sea, battered the Dragons' lands with endless storms. The Dragons, rulers of the Earth, summoned Fire to melt the castles of the Giants. The War broke the First World into fragments that spun out into the Cosmos. Those fragments became the Worlds of the Spiral.

So even though Ambrose doesn't really tell us who won the war, he does say that they broke the world in the process. He kind of also tries to illustrate the almost circular nature of the conflict: melting, washing, building. (note back to another question this week . . . boy erosion sure does sound like the magic of all these myth creatures doesn't it?)

Now, I've heard the theory that the dragons were attempting peace between the tritons and the giants, but I don't know, melting a giant's house doesn't really sound like peaceful negotiations to me, and even Bernie revealed the Dragons' true intentions, "The Dragons ruled the Land and wanted the Sky and Sea." It just wasn't so. And in fact, the Dragons were probably the most warlike of all three.

Regardless, this process of battering and building and melting broke the world. Bartleby shows us the true tragedy of the story with his quest text:
I am one of the oldest living creatures here. In the first world, there was only my sister, the Great Raven, and me. We were made just after the creator made the land and the sea and hung the stars in the sky. I sang the Dragons, Tritons, and Giants into existence, but my children began fighting each other, splintering the First World. In desperation, my sister and I began to fashion a Spiral. With her magic and my roots, we sent the Spiral out into the Cosmos to hold the shattering fragments together, forming the New World. Headmaster Ambrose discovered me here and founded Wizard City to help me guard the Spiral. I could tell you more, but right now my mind is getting a bit foggy. I must rest...

So in kind of a sad turn of events Bartleby made the three and then they friggen broke the whole shebang up with their war. I imagine that kind of ended things right there, you know? Now you no longer have one land mass or one sky or one sea to rule. Because by the time our characters enter the spiral, the giant land mass has fragmented and now you have many many land masses each with their own sky, sea, and land. I'm sure this fragmented the purpose of the war and destroyed their links between each other.

By the end of the story in Wizard101, what we find is that Malistaire is attempting to channel this old, ancient magic by awakening a giant dragon titan (note, not dragon "triton" . . . it's dragon "titan," or in other words, a giant dragon . . . you get to see his claws and giant eye as you battle Malistaire). So the dragon titan was obviously an agent of the dragons who was large enough to deal with the giants and pretty much anything else that would get in his way. The Dragon Titan was a leader of a great army of draconians who just laid the SMACK down on Dragonspyre. Luckily he was put to sleep (but not after almost completely wiping out dragonspyre), but you know, love-crazed Malistaire wanted to bring his wife back to life and was willing to awake the number one bad dude of the war to bring Sylvia back to life. Yeah, really bad idea . . . The Dragon Titan would not have forgotten the war . . . REALLY bad idea.

And that's where you come in . . . you needed to stop that, that's why Gamma and Ambrose searched the spiral to find you. That's why Gamma says, "When we learned Wizard City might be in danger, we began looking for a student with great potential." In the end, if it wasn't for you, that Dragon Titan would have brought holy heck to everything! Malistaire would not have been able to control the Dragon Titan, and Ambrose knew you could end up stopping Malistaire's evil and foolish plot.

whew.

I'm interested to see where the story leads us next. We've stopped Malistaire from harming Wizard City through awakening the Dragon Titan, which is what we were summoned from our own world to do. Now what? Doesn't it kind of seem like you would go back to your own world now? How will Celestia tie in this part of the story?

Perhaps you need to learn astral magic in order to send yourself back to your own world? Are Ambrose and Gamma only able to bring you into this world and not put you back to your own? Gamma says your world is a part of the spiral . . . where is "our door"? Is it in Celestia?

I guess we'll just have to wait to see what the story writers of Kingsisle have planned for us next!

Thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!

10 comments:

smvb said...

We already have the key to get back to our world. It's pressing the "Quit" button. :-)

Lyssie Silverheart said...

I think that Castela (I probably misspelled that)Is going to be the begging of a second spiral almost where we have to defeat someone who is trying to awake the Giants greatest wepon than after the Gianst we have the Tritons then we try to go home this is just my newly considered theory (no joke I was thinking of this while typing the top XP )

Monica Swiftrider said...

thanks for answering! :)

potroast42 said...

hmm.. You should read the History of Fire Magic, History of Storm Magic, and History of Ice Magic.

Here are excerpts from the 3 books involving the war. Thought this might add a sort of flip side to the whole war.

History of the Fire School

In the days of yore, there dwelled the Giants, the Tritons, and the most powerful of all, the Dragons.
For many eons there was peace, that is until the Tritons and the Giants began to bicker on trivial matters.
Finally, war broke out between the two sides and the Dragons became involved as the universe was threatened.
In order for there to be peace, the Dragons used their great power to stop the war and the world became dormant and silent.

History of the Ice School

In the beginning there were the Giants who were great in power and ruled the air.
After the Great War with the Dragons and the Tritons, the Giants went into a state of stasis.
But their powers still inhabit our world and it is from this that Ice Magic derives its basis.
And because it is derived from the Giants, Ice Magic will always be more powerful than that of Fire and Storm...

History of the Storm School
Before time as we know it, there existed the Tritons. They shared the universe with the Dragons and Giants. The Tritons ruled the seas and kept peace in the world, that is, until the Dragons and Giants began to scheme. When the attack happened, the Tritons were ready. They refused to fully destroy their enemy and so, fell into slumber as their price for mercy.

Stingite said...

@smvb: wait a second . . . there's a quit button? OH MAN! Maybe I can finally stop blogging about this game. Why didn't anyone tell me about this before!? ;-)

@Silverheart: haha. Could be could be. I just wish they'd release Celestia already so we could stop making guesses!

@monica: yw!


@Matthew: nice find, Mr. wikia! From reading those it seems that each magic thought they were the most powerful or were the ones keeping the peace. tsk tsk. Silly elemental magics, trix are for kids!

Mike said...

So it seems that the giants won the war, the dragons and tritons admited defeat, but the ice giant said nothing about looseing. so from what it seems, the dragons and the tritons were defeated.


also, it is sort if like greek mythology, chrones created hades, zuse, and pesidon. but greek mythogogy tells us, that they were constantly fighting each other too. so that most likely where ki got it from.

Alex Deathshade said...

where is bartleby's sister? is she the person who watches over celestia?
i think that she is actually the one behind every thing going wrong, because in the guide to brisk breeze, the dude at the top says that something is coming to the spiral.

timma said...

Great read! Thanks for compiling all of that and for your insight on it. It's hard to get the details in the story during gameplay since you get them in snippets and well, I'm so busy leveling up or chasing the next quest.

dakota silverbane said...

on facebook ambrose said something about the key to the stars... or it might be right next to you." could our pets bring us back? wizard101 is starting to confuse many, and a lot of mysteries are starting up.could he war between the dragons, giants, and tritons begin again? if so it will be a long long ways away!

Jacob Rainbowshard said...

Hey! i just thought of something, since obviously the books and trees said something about them wanting to keep peace or who won, maybe...
its all just a lie.
maybe in celestia, we will SEE all of them, i know it, especially the tritons and giants, maybe the dragons too.
i have a feeling that grizzleheim, celestia, and dragonspyre are all attached, think about it, celestia-land of water, grizzleheim-land of ice,
dragonspyre-land of fire.
They Must be connected!
All of this will tie together.....
Friendly, my e-mail is moopdog1122@yahoo.com, e-mail me, maybe we can figure this out :D