Guild Wars 2

So as well as know the Pact finally decided to show up in Lion’s Arch with one airship. They apparently only came once it was made clear that a dragon was awakened. My question is this: why? The pact knew that the Aetherblades had stolen their ships, and so they should have known something was up. Also why would Trahearne just sit by and let one of the most vital cities in Tyria get destroyed? Is the pact that occupied? Or were they so weakened by their fight with Zhaitan that they could only afford to send one airship?

I think it’s a combination of things.

First, the pact is fighting on multiple fronts. They’re trying to push back Jormag’s influence in the Shiverpeaks, keep Tequatl under control, clean up Orr, and prevent the Flame Legion from becoming a threat again among other things. All these various tasks probably keep troops stretched thin. New threats may arise, but the troops can’t just leave their stations to deal with them. If you leave old threats untended to deal with new threats, then you’ll just lose control of everything.

Second, since the Pact has already lost a ton of airships to Scarlet, I’m sure they’re stretched even thinner then the troops. Taking airships away from their posts to help Lion’s Arch presents the same problems as sending troops—but since airships are a scarce resource right now, they’d be even harder to replace.

Third, Scarlet has an army that rivals the Pact in power. If the Pact needs to stay strong to fight dragons, they can’t afford open combat against another army—not unless they are forced into it. Really, their best option is to resist Scarlet indirectly—which they have been doing. The individual Orders have been providing resources and shelter to those displaced by Scarlet’s army. Also, heroes and adventurers with connections to the Pact (us), have organized to create an offensive. Since we haven’t been formally stationed anywhere, we aren’t restricted like the typical Pact soldier.

ya what Weindrasi said…

The Pact is very restricted now with their forces scattered at mutliple fronts.

As of now only the Heroes can head to these dangerous events to handle them personally since they are the special forces of the Pact with no restrictions placed on them where they can go.

People have explained countless times on this forum on why:

The lore reason being it’s not the Pact’s function to protect LA and chasing down Scarlet. The NPC in LA now explains this. Now I fully agree that there could be more padding within the context of lore to explain Trahearne’s reasoning of inaction. Maybe a Pact meeting scene, or even an in-context mail. It’s poor writing on ANet’s part for not giving sufficient and satisfying explanation of the Pact’s inaction.

The real reason being ANet doesn’t want to mingle Personal Story and Living Story. It’s a design pattern that’s been observed since the start of LS updates and there shouldn’t be any surprise nowadays?

And yes, this is the core reason why LS sucks from a lore and storytelling point of view.

Wait, the airship in LA is a pact airship? I thought it was the one Kiel took from the Aetherblades and never paid much attention to it.

Did Scarlet steal Pact airships? Didn’t she just make her own? O.o

Yes to both
The ones at dragon bash were stolen
During twilight assault she used twilight arbor as a place to manufacture a whole fleet of them along with aetherblade holograms