Talk:Vekk's Thesis

While I don't want to edit out the Lore discrepancy right away, I'd like to at least talk about this first as this has to do with the improper colloquial term "theory" and what a scientific theory is.

Vekk's Thesis does not create a Lore discrepancy as mentioned. What Vekk made is a hypothesis based on observation and what Gorr made is a theory. The difference is that a hypothesis (in science) is a claim that must be tested time and time and time again in order to prove its validity, and a theory has gone through that process many times and has yet to be proven false. The difference between a scientific law and a theory is that the law is proven true for all cases. Upgrading a theory to a law must mean that the proof was trivial enough that it can be proven or all possible cases for such a theory has been proven true. A theory only need one case to prove it untrue.

Back to the subject at hand, what is in the Durmand Priory basement is Vekk's hypothesis on the matter. At the time Vekk wrote it, he would not have been able to prove it true for all cases as not all the dragons had been revealed to Tyria, nor that there had been enough circumstances that dragons devoured magic had been seen to make this a theory as well. Due to the large gap in time, there is sufficient enough time for multiple studies to have been done on multiple dragons (see Inquest) to prove that the dragons do indeed devour magic with a high degree of certainty. So Gorr's theory is not negated by this find.

There is also a second point that I'd like to make on this matter as well. The Arcane Council (through the Arcane Eye) specifically suppressed information regarding the dragons. It shouldn't be a leap of faith to judge that if Vekk had developed a thesis (or even a theory) that the Council would suppress and destroy information on this. It's also evident that this could be the case because the Thesis is found in the Durmand Priory basement (which is guarded both inside and out) and not the main Priory Library (that presumably the majority of Tyria have access to since all players can enter it).

I suggest that instead of a Lore discrepancy that we add in a note explaining that this thesis (while related to Gorr's theory) does not undermine Gorr's theory due to the vast difference between a thesis and a theory, as well as noting how much the Arcane Council suppressed knowledge of the dragon and thus such knowledge would be EXTREMELY difficult for most Asura (outside the Priory) to gain access to and then distribute.

Fadewind (talk) 01:50, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi Fadewind :)

It's a reason we went with "discrepancy" instead of "inconsistency". It allowed us to list cases like this one; where instead of a straight-out inconsistency: it's more in the "weird, unexplained, unlikely event - but still theoretically sound" -category.

I talked with Bobby Stein about the list earlier this month, and he's fully aware of this "liberty" we've taken. Therefore, I propose we leave it as it is for now. That will give ANet the chance to explain this event, or correct it - as they wish. Titus 21:08, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Please see reply given by Angel McCoy at Category talk:Lore discrepancies. Titus 21:27, 31 March 2015 (UTC)