Quote:
Originally Posted by Kish
I never thought it was really plausible. Xykon takes some things very seriously indeed. He's not going to stop searching for Girard's Gate within a thousand feet of it--particularly, but not limited to, when that would mean an implicit admission that Girard's magic is more powerful than Xykon's (Girard can conceal the gate better than Xykon can find it).
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I'll grant that it was never really a likely course for the story. For no other reason than that, with the possible exception of Xykon's Fortress-Tomb-Thingy, Kraagor's Gate makes the most dramatic setting for the climax. Powerful monsters and the fact that it's the last one, which means that the stakes are as high as possible for all concerned.
I'm pretty sure that Rich is done screwing with us on the technicalities and loopholes in the Oracle's prophecies, but if he wanted to keep Xykon out of this fight and have the Order take down one of the cosmic flying buttresses all by themselves, it wouldn't be the wildest stretch of the Oracle's words to have it come to pass that way.
Plus, Xykon's explicitly shown to have grown impatient with pointless delays between him and world domination. Pride isn't nearly as big a hangup for him as, say, Vaarsuvius. I think it'd be in-character for him to decide it'd be faster to stop digging in the sand, go to the arctic, beat up a bunch of monsters, take the Gate, and THEN use that power to simply steamroll Girard's illusions. As evidenced by Fyron's murder, Xykon doesn't care
how he wins, as long as he wins.
Of course, as I said, with the illusions having mostly failed, the probability that Team Evil will be slowed down enough for Xykon's patience to become a factor is fast approaching zero.