ANSWERED:Fourth Avatar

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

In a couple of recent threads, an idea has been brought up about a fourth Avatar.

 

In particular, an Avatar to represent Neutral Affinity dragons, and which would appear when a Guardian of Nature is bred to a Neutrally-aligned dragon.

 

One idea for the fourth Avatar was suggested by @olympe, who said, with a nice LotR ref:

On 10/3/2018 at 9:08 PM, olympe said:

Avatar of Balance?

 

One Avatar to rule them all,

One Avatar to find them.

One Avatar to bring them all

And in the balance bind them. 

 

 

I am not posting this as a Dragon Requests thread because I don't believe it's something that should really be a public project, nor do I believe we (as the public) should be designing it - this is just a thread to suggest the idea and raise it to TJ's attention, and to show a general consensus.

 

So, what do people think?

[Sazandora]

I like this idea. I like the Avatars we have right now, a fourth one could be really nifty.

[Lantean_Pegasus]

But what would that fourth Avatar represent, exactly ? Because, as far as I understand it, the "Avatar of Balance", the embodiment of the concept that weights the three others against each other, is the Guardian of Nature himself. It represents the whole nature/cosmos itself, which is the result of a balance between creation, destruction and (in between) change.

(As the One ring was master of the other three kinds - or would have been if the elves hadn't "tricked the trickster", so to speak. )

 

I don't want to shoot the idea down, I'm neutral about introducing a fourth guardian, but I think "Balance" just isn't the way to go with it.

 

It would be more like either "indifference" or "acceptance", depending if you define neutrality as just not caring either way, or as accepting them all as equally important. But making an avatar from that seems complicated, because elemental affinity usually isn't a conscious decision of any dragon breed, just their nature. Which would leave "indifference". And the embodiment of that, not meant in the way of "don't care" but in the way of "that's just the way it is", seems really hard to find.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Lantean_Pegasus

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

10 minutes ago, Lantean_Pegasus said:

But what would that fourth Avatar represent, exactly ? Because, as far as I understand it, the "Avatar of Balance", the embodiment of the concept that weights the three others against each other, is the Guardian of Nature himself. It represents the whole nature/cosmos itself, which is the result of a balance between creation, destruction and (in between) change.

(As the One ring was master of the other three kinds - or would have been if the elves hadn't "tricked the trickster", so to speak. )

 

I don't want to shoot the idea down, I'm neutral about introducing a fourth guardian, but I think "Balance" just isn't the way to go with it.

 

I’m very open to more suggestions of what a fourth could be - Balance isn’t the only one to consider! What would you suggest instead?

[Lantean_Pegasus]

Tried to think about it, without much success. But what I found I edited in while you posted, it seems.

That's not really a suggestion, though, because I can't come up with one. Others might have more ideas.

 

I'm sure the old Greeks have a word just for the state we are looking for, maybe someone can find it.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Lantean_Pegasus

[Sazandora]

Neutrality? Balance between the various elements?

[olympe]

1 hour ago, Lantean_Pegasus said:

But what would that fourth Avatar represent, exactly ? Because, as far as I understand it, the "Avatar of Balance", the embodiment of the concept that weights the three others against each other, is the Guardian of Nature himself. It represents the whole nature/cosmos itself, which is the result of a balance between creation, destruction and (in between) change.

Well, the (hypothetical) Avatar of Balance might represent the same stuff as the GoN, but there'd be a difference in power level, considering the GoNs are supposedly like "dragon deities", while the avatars are the equivalent of demigods.

[Ruby Eyes]

I'm pretty neutral *snerk* about neutral Avatars

[Dohaerys]

The main way I would support this is if the avatar of neutrality / balance was like a mini-me of the GoN ( same colours) so we can use it in lineages since GoNs can't breed true

[hazeh]

What about going in a slightly different direction with neutrality and balance? If the GoN is supposedly the "balance" already, and we already have three 'active' types of avatars (change, creation, and destruction) what about an Avatar of Stasis? Or Harmony or some such. Something that counteracts the 'active' natures of the others. 

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

5 minutes ago, hazeh said:

What about going in a slightly different direction with neutrality and balance? If the GoN is supposedly the "balance" already, and we already have three 'active' types of avatars (change, creation, and destruction) what about an Avatar of Stasis? Or Harmony or some such. Something that counteracts the 'active' natures of the others. 

 

Harmony sounds really nice to me, and I think would work really well!

[Shokomon]

I'm also still interested in a neutral Avatar.

 

Maybe the 4th Avatar is like a Trio Master (lol) to the other 3 Avatars, and stops them from wrecking things if 1 or more of the Change, Destruction, or Creation Avatars gets out of hand.

 

Idk

 

Edit:

Harmony: "If you don't stop, I WILL call Dad on you!" >:[

Change: "No! Don't!" 😧

Destruction: "You're always such a tattletale.."

Creation: "...But, D started it!"

Harmony: "I. DON'T. CARE.

 

Just.

 

STOP."

--

 

Lol

Edited December 2, 2018 by Shokomon
Typos and lols

[Pixxelation]

The role of a neutral balancing 'deity' type figure is already filled by the GoN itself. An Avatar of Balance would undermine its purpose and weaken its role, and thus seems entirely unnecessary to me, especially being added as an afterthought to the other Avatars.

[TJ09]

@PieMaster is correct here. In this instance, what's being requesting simply does not fit with the lore. The neutral element is a single element, compared to Change, Creation, or Destruction which are entire groupings of elements. The concept of "balance" between those is already covered by the GoN, whose entire lore-purpose is to keep all of the different aspects in check.