Guild Wars 2: Dark Reality

by Azeena Videll

Originally written in April-May 2014, this is the first of five stories in the GW2 Dark Reality series, based on the GW1 series of the same title that I made years before that. An experiment to change the past results in the creation of alternate future timelines, where the roles of good and evil are reversed.

1. Prologue

There have been scientific discussions within the Asuran community involving the possible existence of parallel realities. Some believe that there is not just one timeline, but many. And that our actions split into alternate realities, where each possible result of an event splits into its own separate timeline. All these timelines would exist at the same time and in some cases, in the exact same places.

For example, you are in a battle with a hostile soldier during a war. Unknown at the time, this encounter will determine the future of the war itself. By killing the soldier, the timeline forks to one side, where the war rages on for years to come. But by sparing the soldier's life, the timeline forks the other way instead, where this act of mercy would eventually lead to a ceasefire with talks of peace and perhaps ending the war completely. Yet, both of these timeline exist together simultaneously but each with its own different future.

However, not all Asurans believe the multi-timeline theory. Zojja was one of them. She is a highly respected elementalist, golemancer and member of the College Of Synergetics. Zojja strongly believes that only one timeline could possibly exist. By changing events of the past, you alter the future of the same timeline instead of splitting off into a new one.

Some argue that doing so would create a paradox that contradicts itself. With history being changed, the events leading to the creation of the time travelling process might not occur. So if that time travel process never happened, then how were those past events altered in the first place?

Zojja was determined to prove her theory correct and her plan involves the awakening of the elder undead dragon Zhaitan, which took place over a century ago. The plan is to send two individuals back to the past at the time of Zhaitan's awakening, with magically enhanced absorption crystal shards and a device on their wrist that Zojja calls a "Vortex Manipulator". The travellers will wait for Zhaitan to rise from its slumber and after emerging from the watery depths where it slept, the shards would then be driven into Zhaitan itself, absorbing the dark energy magic it possesses and prevent the destruction to the world that the energy originally caused. The reason for sending a second traveller is for backup purposes. If something happens to one of them, the other will attempt to complete their assigned task.

Unfortunately, that same temporal protection could not be made for anyone else in the world. Chances are that many Tyrians will end up never being born as a result of this planned outcome. Zojja was actually willing to alter future history and prevent countless souls from coming into existence, including herself, to accomplish this seemingly near-impossible task. As long as the world is saved from Zhaitan's corruption, that was the only thing which truly mattered to her.

That is, assuming her calculations entered into the timegate portal terminal were precisely correct.