Guild Wars 2

Hey guys and girls, I recently bought my Precursor of the TP, but I would have loved to get it on my own.

Since we got word of a possible new way to get Precursors through a scavenger hunt, I thought I’d wait to get it but I finally was too impatient for that.
So I decided to set up a Scavenger Hunt of my own. What is gonna happen depends on how much the community appreciates this post:

1. I’ll post here several pieces of Lore I’m currently writing (nothing too long, but long enough to set up a background)

2. When I’m done with the Lore I’ll post the first steps of the Scavenger Hunt I’m designing.

At this point, depending on how people liked the first lore/steps I’ll ask all willing participants to pay a small fee (probably on a voluntary basis)

3. I’ll gather the funds and buy the prizes off the TP

4. I’ll post the remaining steps and from there the Scavenger Hunt Event will be launched.

5. When all steps have been posted, I’ll be waiting for competitors to bring me specific elements at a special place and will hand the prizes over.

I do know that it would require for the community to trust me with some coins, but I do not think that a small fee would be a problem.
My second main concern is that since I’m EU based, I may not be able to include NA servers in the process in which case I’d refund NA players, or, if the EU event is a success, redo a NA event.

Thank you for reading, please do post your comments on this, and enjoy the first (short) piece of Lore I’m posting after this.

The Creation of Tyria

When Tyria was first created, the Ancient Gods designed it to be a perfect land, when balance and harmony reigned above all. Melandru designed the land and added plants on top of earth. Balthazar brought light, inseparable from darkness, upon the land. Dwayna and Grenth gave life to multiple living creatures and Lyssa gave superior intelligence to several of them, creating order among the races. Abadon, at last endured the burden of being the End that must follow every beginning and designed the world of the dead that he ruled from then on.

Therefore, two worlds co-existed: one for the living creatures, and one for their dead spirits.

Soon, it became obvious that some of the most gifted creatures were eager to gain power over others and so kingdoms and tribes emerged, fighting for their piece of land. And this was normal, expected by the Ancient creators…

What wasn’t expected however was the development of a brand new race of creatures which essence was nourished by the hopes and despairs of a whole continent. In every region, massive changes appeared throughout the landscape, finally giving life to what would soon be called Dragons.

Dragons

South West, peoples of the sea witnessed weird changes in their fishing areas. Water temperature gradually rose for years, chasing fishes from their usual habitat, with the result of driving sea peoples away from what finally appeared to be a volcanic island.

After years of activity the volcano calmed down and the basaltic island went from bright red to a deep black mass and the tribes lived in the shadow of this mountain of rocks and ashes for decades. Then came a day when a glowing spine emerged from the dark crust, followed by a spiked tail and a jagged head bursting with hot lava.

Primordus was born.

North, across what Humans now call Shiverpeaks, a huge fragment of eternal ice floe began crackling, revealing house-sized scales that would reflect sunlight like thousands of mirror shards. Deep under water and ice a blue glow was sighted by kodan fishermen and rose toward the surface. When it finally reached it, a massive head broke through the thick layer of ice.

Jormag, named after an ancient kodan word for “Shining”, was born.

East, deep into the desert nomads noticed a change in the winds that would bring them dew early in the morning. After investigation, it appeared that several new mountains had progressively formed between the nomads’ lands and the eastern sea, blocking the progress of the dew that would settle miles before reaching its usual landing area. One day though, the dew mysteriously came back, and the mountain had vanished. Some legends tell that the mountain shook sand off, revealing thousands of shining facets and went North. From then on Nomads refered to it as the “Crystal (Kralt) Mountain (Torrek)”.

Kralkatorrik was born.

South Est, the spirit world managed to break the barrier between the two worlds for a glimpse of time, when an old tribe living in the swamps performed an unholy ritual trying to bring the fierce leader they lost back to life. Consequently unusual numbers of sickness cases occurred among the tribe, which rapidly fled the area, leaving a land that became darker and darker each year.
Eventually a monstrous creature climbed its way up from the ground and spread its wings above the whole swamp. The few survivors of the tribe that performed the ritual talked about it as their punishment for the rest of their lives.

Zaithan was born.

Last, far beyond the southern frontier of Orr, villagers reported increasing activity among the Deep Sea species. Like their cousins from the Western seas they first noticed fishes disappearing from their usual fishing spots quickly followed by more evolved species such as Kraits, Largos and Quaggans (oooOO). Although many adventurous sailors went to gather information about this southern threat, none of them returned alive of with the capacity to talk about what they had seen. The only thing that was certain was that whatever it was it was huge and yet incredibly swift. After several people died or lost their sanity trying to figure out what was actually going on, villagers decided not to pursue and taught their children to avoid those dangerous water. They taught them to fear the Spirit of the Sea.

Tayomatua was born.
(Yeah I’m taking liberties with "Bubbles’ " name here but afterall, it’s the first rule of creativity; sorry Anet. I made it up from two Maori words, Tai , the sea, and ihomatua , the mind)

Sounds like a good idea. We’d need quite a few people to take part in this, but if there’s a chance to get a precursore, then I’m in!

The Beginning of the End

For centuries they lived peacefully ( as peacefully as mountain-sized creatures can live), acting as guardians of the balance that ruled the world. Habits though, tend to lead to boredom and one of the Six Ancient Gods began to wish for more power. For several hundreds of years, Abaddon meticulously prepared his plan, progressively corrupting one Dragon after another, planting in their mind (mother of Inception oO) a growing thirst of power.

Soon (from a God’s point of view that is, not from humans’) Dragons began to grow larger than normal and developed a need to expand their territory. Peoples of Tyria began to fear them as they became more violent , and fear added to the Dragons’ powers. The Ancient Gods, bored by the routine they had been seeing every day since the dawn of times, did not pay attention to the evolution of their creations until Dragons’ plans of conquest collided, bringing unprecedented chaos to all regions of Tyria.

Abaddon, who was overseeing the world of the dead gained thousands of subjects, victims of the fury of those monsters the peaceful guardians had become. In fact he quickly got himself a full size army which could overwhelm the other Gods’ powers. The only step left in his plan was to break through the barrier between the two worlds. For that purpose he chose a precise location, the origin of all things, where he designed a huge mineral Arch made of lodestones aligned in parallel and enchanted obsidian. Once built it would channel the Dragons’ powers and help him tear the barrier open, allowing his army to flood and take over the living world.

At first, the sight of such preparations briefly got the better of the five remaining Ancient Gods. But after thinking about fleeing to the most remote corners of Tyria Lyssa pointed that Abaddon’s whole plan relied on the Dragons: if the Renegade was already too powerful to be dealt with, these creatures, as monstrous as they might be, would not be a problem. And so began a hunt for the monsters that used to be the Guardians of balance.

Assault on the Dragons

When they were born, the areas they around them changed, becoming a huge nest for those magnificent creatures. And yet they were not there, as the Ancient Gods quickly noticed. Instead of wandering around their usual spots it appeared that each and every of them had begun a slow but indubitable journey to an unknown destination.

Given their size and the amount of energy they needed to move, locating them didn’t take long, neither did figuring where they were going. Leaving a trail behind them the Dragons had begun to head towards the origin of Tyria, the spot where it all began, where now stood Abaddon’s huge Arch.

According to Lyssa’s calculations, one Dragon’s power alone was already a serious threat to the barrier between the two worlds, but if the five Dragons’ were to collide there would be no way to stop the veil from shattering. Hence it became clear that the Dragons should be eliminated or at least “put to rest” as Melandru put it into words. The choice was quickly made to bury the Dragons as quickly as possible and each God went to meet a Dragon to finish the job. Within a week all dragons were in sight, and the Gods made their move, charging the corrupted Guardians.
Confident in their powers, they sliced scales and chopped limbs up, using their own talents to destroy their targets. What came as a surprise though, was that Abaddon had encrusted several shards of his own power within those living mountains, becoming a fantastic puppet master and shielding his marionettes from most of the godly powers that were raining down on them. Not only did the Gods fail to kill any Dragon but they only managed to slow them down for a brief moment and the entities resumed their slow movement immediately.

Upon consulting with each other, the five protectors of Tyria resolved that even though they might have a shot at killing a Dragon if they acted all together, the timeframe left to defeat all the Dragons was to reach and kill them. In order to successfully interfere with Abaddon’s plan the Ancient Gods would have to think out of the box, and bring a new variable in the equation.

Founding a new Balance

In order to overcome the power seeking to disturb the balance of the world, the Protectors would rely on unity, the unity of the peoples of Tyria willing to fight for their freedom. Calling upon the best crafters of each race, they would forge a weapon able to embody Tyria’s hopes and unity, a weapon able to bring Abaddon’s Arch down, and entrust it to a warrior chosen among the best of the best.

To design such a weapon it would have to be able to contain the power of life and death, of light and shadow. To craft the sharpest blade, the best materials wouldn’t be enough, it would have to be forged according to the best technique of each Master crafter. The finest orichalcum was gathered from dwarven mines and shipped to the forge of Blaze Moltenclaw, Leader of the Iron Legion, renowned for the unmatched quality of the edge of his blades. On top of being sharp, the weapon needed to be strong, to allow its wielder to take on the thoughest foes. Together with Blaze Moltenclaw, the Gods called upon the weapon smith Kodans looked up to as the best craftsman to have ever lived, the only individual to have ever embodied both leading roles in a Kodan tribe (Voice and Claw roles). Rumbling Torrent alone could harvest the strengthening power of the northern ice floe, beating metal over and over again before plunging it into the water of the Frozen Sea.

On top of their technique, it was rumored that both Blaze Moltenclaw and Rumbling Torrent added secret ingredients to their basic forging materials. The rumors were based on several testimonials of the few Charrs and Kodans to have witnessed those two on the battlefield. For most battles they would use their usual great swords (sorry guys I’m a fan of those, and like Anet I’m gonna focus on them), already dropping a sizeable amount of bodies among enemy lines. But when a real danger would appear, like when rogue shamans sent a dozen of fire effigies against the Charr capitol or when a particularly large wave of Kraits would try invading Kodans’ homeland from the South, the two leaders would ask their soldiers to stand back and build up defenses to protect their people, while they marched alone to meet the enemy. The rare individuals to have ever seen Gloom or Glare drawn out of their sheath that as soon as it was out, the air around its wielder began to melt either into a deep black whirl or a blinding white storm. The following events were always more and more epic, each teller adding his own version of the facts, hiding that they were usually to afraid to stay until the weapon was actually fully ready for battle.

Once they were gathered, the two weapons smiths began the construction of the forge that would give birth to the weapon that would be handed to the Gods’ champion in order to bring the Dragons down. The camp was set up North, close to the ice floe frontier, where the ground begins to freeze and for three whole days the Iron Legion and Rumbling Torrent’s clan dug the ground and built a forge containing a bed of ancient wood embers that would burn for the next week. Once the gigantic oven was arranged they began melting the orichalcum, blending their mysterious secret ingredients in alloy bubbling into the crucible. At the beginning they struggled to get along and learn how to work together. But after two days, the only things soldiers outside the foundry reported apart from the never ending sounds of hammers striking metal were bursts of laughter and snatches of battle stories.

Dusk is the last item I need for Twilight, and at current prices it will take me several months to get it.

I’m in.

Slicing stones

After six days the two crafters finally came out of the foundry, exhausted, black of ashes and soot, but smiling. They dragged out a huge forged metal case, which alone probably weighted more than them, and handed it to the Gods who already felt the power of the weapon nested among the folds of silk hidden inside the rough case. After thanking the two masters they let them to rest and promptly left the temporary camp, heading East, to meet an ancestor of Asgeir Dragonrender, who would become their Champion.

They arrived in Brávellir as the first glows of the morning light shone on the snowy plain and frosted pines, through a freezing haze. Brávellir was not as huge as the Norn capital, but it was the main camp of the fifth northern expedition launched to expand Norn territory, and it was led by the most famous Norn warrior at the time. As they passed the reinforced entrance door they were greeted by Brynhildr Dragonrender, daughter of the Snow Leopard. Since her youngest age she’d been trained to wield the most massive weapons, and took out her first icebrood wolves earlier than any other Norn. Without losing time they headed to the training arena, where huge ancient pine trunks and monoliths of granite had been installed.

The warriors of the camp gathered around the arena, temporarily leaving their duties to have a look at their leader unusual training. By the time the Gods and their host reached the arena, a little crowd had assembled around the circle of sand where stood three pine stumps and six stone blocks. Brynhildr first draw her favorite greatsword from the weapon rack and started her routine, attacking one trump after another, cutting chunks of wood off her inanimate opponent. The first trump fell in less than five minutes, shattering in multiple shards of woods and sawdust. When she hit the giant stone, though, she barely scraped it, adding one more scratch to the countless marks carved training session after training session.

Equinox

Once warmed up, she turned to the Gods who laid down the case they brought from the masters’ forge. The heavy locks let the lid open and Brynhildr looked at the unique blade with surprise and appreciation.

" What shall I call it ? Every great blade shall have a name and I can see this one if far above any other I’ve ever wielded or seen", she asked.
“The blade has been embedded with both the purest hopes and the most evil deeds, in a perfect balance, equally distributed through the edge. Both Masters’ best craftsmanship would be enough to produce a great blade, and their own weapons are the proof of that, but they toiled for a week to design this one. Equinox, that’s what it’s called, and it was designed specifically for you. Pick it up and let’s have a look at how good they are.”

Brynhildr reached down in the case for the hilt and lifted Equinox out. The camp gasped altogether with her at the sight that followed. Already impressive in the box, the blade awoken in her hands; each side of it lightning up as she raised its tip toward the dappled winter sky. In a matter of seconds it went from an inanimate orichalcum blade to a glowing torch: one side sparkled as fresh morning snow under a bright sun while the second side would pulse, pitch black, darker than the purest onyx.

The norn warrior gazed upon Equinox for a moment but soon resumed her morning routine with her new blade. As she swung it, she felt its weight fading away, the blade becoming an extension of her arms, leaving a dazzling trail of mist behind, floating for a brief second before vanishing. After a few reels she was not wielding a new greatsword anymore, but rather dancing with an old friend, as if she’d had been using it for years. The crowd was dazed by the fighter twirling around the arena, cutting through air like a ballerina. Suddenly Brynhildr leapt forward, heading for the last ancient pine trump; she was on it in an instant, hitting it once, her arms arcing from the ground upward. In a crack, the trump wobbled and fell, tore in two massive halves in front of a cheering bunch of norns. Confident she turned to the monoliths and rushed, raising the blade over her shoulder…

Again, she crossed the gap between her and the stone in a moment and jumped, bringing the edge on her target. This time again she only struck once and there was a crack, but the block stood straight, only with a new scratch, bigger than the others. Even after the next several blows it wouldn’t take more than other scratches. After a few more minutes she finally stepped back and turned to the Gods.

“What? How am I supposed to slay Dragons if I cannot even bring this down? How can I take on a mountain if I can’t slay gravel!” she screamed, turning to the Gods.
“Oh… I now see what you meant when you said she might lack the patience…”whispered Dwayna to Balthazar.
“She’ll come around.”, he replied, and stepped into the arena adopting a harsh tone. “Brynhildr! I thought Norn warriors were the most dedicated. Or was I wrong? I’m quite sure your ancestors would not be pleased to see you whine like a spoiled kid!”
“And what am I supposed to do then? Launch the blade at my target? Like this would help…”
“Aww… Did you by any chance forget for a moment who I am?!” Balthazar exploded. “I am the God of Battle for Tyria’s sake! Your rock is a tiny speck of dust!” And in a fraction of second he was on it drawing his hammer and smashing it to thousands of fragments.

“Now…”he resumed more calmly, “My weapon isn’t nearly close to what you just got, show a little of respect and learn to use it properly. Or I’ll make sure you end up just like this stone…”
“Erm…I guess I should resume then…”she mumbled, lowering her eyes.
“The blade is not the answer to your problem Brynhildr, you are the answer. It was forged for you and no one else. Its power doesn’t only come from its sharpness, you have to believe in it first. Then you can embrace it strength.” Lyssa said.
“Believe in it uh?” said Brynhildr walking back to the second stone…

Slaying moutains

After another five minutes there were many new cracks on the new stone but they were not even close to bring it down. However Brynhildr wasn’t ranting anymore, and to the surprise of the assistance a grim was forming on her face. She stopped for a second and soon resumed, changing the pace of her blows; instead of a rain of strikes, she started hammering her target with strong spaced hits focused on one central spot on the rock. After a dozen of them the blade hitting the stone sounded different; it wasn’t the sound of metal hitting a cold surface anymore, but rather the swishing of the peak of a spear when it reaches the hide of a moose. The sound arose only a few seconds later following a new strike, and kept getting louder. Even from the rims of the arena it was now clear that a scar appeared on the new stone, deeper than any other.

Regaining her confidence, Brynhildr put even more spirit to the task, assaulting the weak point over and over, up until the point when she felt the stone crackling under her sword. Strangely enough she didn’t hear any sound announcing it, nor did she hear the crowd of her fellow norns anymore. Actually there was no sound at all anymore as if air had become solid and didn’t want to let anything through. As she kept going, she felt her tiredness leaving her, her arms and her weapon becoming lighter.

She woke up the next morning in her quarters, with a massive headache and no recollection of what further happened in the arena. Honoring her bloodline of strong fighters she quickly recovered and went out for an early walk. She first wandered around, checking on the sentinels, as she would on a usual morning. Soon she realized something odd: everywhere she went, she was welcome by cheers and big smiles. At the last sentinel post she heard the guards talking about the arena, about her and about some related to some kind of light with much excitement. Although she didn’t quite understand the last part she decided to head there. When she approached she only saw one rock pointing towards the sky. Getting closer she distinguished the three trumps she had destroyed the day before and not one but two piles of freshly shattered stones, only one rock still standing.

“3. I’ll gather the funds and buy the prizes off the TP”

enjoy your permanent ban

Scootabuser.4915:

“3. I’ll gather the funds and buy the prizes off the TP”

enjoy your permanent ban

Not a bad point. The question left is to know if someone would get flagged if sent a low amount of money from several different players.
For big amounts I get it but I’m not sure about small ones.

First Impact

She woke up the next morning in her quarters, with a massive headache and no recollection of what further happened in the arena. Honoring her bloodline of strong fighters she quickly recovered and went out for an early walk. She first wandered around, checking on the sentinels, as she would on a usual morning. Soon she realized something odd: everywhere she went, she was welcome by cheers and big smiles. At the last sentinel post she heard the guards talking about the arena, about her and about some related to some kind of light with much excitement. Although she didn’t quite understand the last part she decided to head there. When she approached she only saw one rock pointing towards the sky. Getting closer she distinguished the three trumps she had destroyed the day before and not one but two piles of freshly shattered stones, only one rock still standing.

Puzzled she stopped, “What happened here?…” Passing by more awakening warriors she rushed back to her tent, where she met the Gods and Billingr, her childhood friend, coming to get news about her state. Immediately jumping to the point, she asked about the second shattered rock in the arena. Apparently in a better mood than the day before, Balthazar smirked: “Well it seemed that you might not be the most patient fighter I’ve seen, but you surely are a fast learner. I bet you’d like to hear it from your friend, she’s been by your side since yesterday morning.”

“You did it Brynhildr!”, Billingr exploded. “After you started hitting the stone with more focus we saw that you seemed more confident and we heard that the stone didn’t like it much. It was weird because it sounded like you were cutting through a big pack of meat. And then we thought something was wrong because you stopped. You paused for like ten seconds, with your blade touching the ground. Dwayna warned us not to get approach you and to wait more. Then there was a weird sound, different from before; we could hear a high-pitched sound and a deep roll both at the same time. Your blade began to shine more brightly and then your tattoos did too!”
“At first it was a weak glow but then it became brighter and brighter up until when we could barely stand the light. And then you finally raised your weapon again, a slow swing at the stone. There was a huge crack, like thunder, and the rock burst into thousands of shards. It was amazing!”

“So you are saying I took the rock down with one hit and then passed out? Well I guess that’s good news… Let’s just hope I won’t meet two Dragons at the same time then or I’ll have a bad time against the second one”, she joked.
“So that’s it?”, she asked Balthazar, “I should go for the kill and learn to control the feedback? I did feel like the blade was becoming lighter and I think I remember raising it but that’s all.”

“You did quite good for a first try, but you’ll learn to use its full potential. That rock was…hmm…nice for a beginner. Dragons are something else though. Once you’re fully rested we’ll start practicing again.”, he answered.
“Let’s meet tonight, I’ll have time to look for the right training spot.”

Yet another helping hand

For their champion to overcome any obstacle she might come across, the Gods also needed her to be able to withstand the mightiest attacks. For that, Lyssa and Melandru had left Brávellir shortly after Brynhildr’s training session, heading South to meet Dušana Spellbender, Humans’ master enchanter, who led the counterspell research team in charge of ensuring that Charr battalions wouldn’t breach the frontier of the human realm. In order to repel the firepower of Charr shamans trained by the Fire Legion, her dedicated team of spell casters designed a brand new type of protective runes and enchantments. In their quest toward that impregnable armor, they experimented with a large range of ingredients. That kind of research quickly piqued the interest of a confidential asuran College, craving to establish their scholar authority between the College of Dynamics and the College of Statics, arguing that most things are usually not in a single state, depending on the point of view you chose, and that they usually follow pre-existing patterns. Unlike any of the two other, its members also considered that working in teams can sometimes produce better results than a personal undertaking. Considering this would be a perfect opportunity to definitely prove their College had its place right next to the two existing Colleges, the asura krewe offered to help in this bookah initiative.

Within two days, the whole asura krewe had joined the outpost close to the border of the human realm where Dušana and her team were designing the armor ordered by the Protectors of Tyria, through a portable asura gate. They brought their crystalline technologies along, carrying their power gems and golem workers, while their transport expert departed for Brávellir in order to arrange for their travel once the armor would be finished…

Birth of a Legendary Hero

Balthazar and Billingr left just before dusk, heading North, across the wide frost plains, and towards the border of the Norn territories. After an hour they entered a thick forest of elder pines, heavy with immaculate snow. Struggling against the numerous branches obstructing their path their speed decreased a lot. Finally they reached a clearing, right at the bottom of a huge cliff. The stone was smooth and dark, cold as ice, like a mirror obscured by the years.

“Here we are. Now that is more like a Dragon…” Balthazar grinned.
“I can’t even see the top…”
“Well at least it doesn’t move like a Dragon. Try hitting it a few times.”

Taking Equinox out of its sheath Brynhildr walked to the stone wall and took a first swing at it. The sound that followed was stunning, like if the mountain was a huge empty mineral shell. Due to the shape of the cliff the sound refracted a thousand times, louder with each strike.

“That’s why I picked this spot, since every sound here is louder, you will know precisely whether you are doing it right or not. When you get it right, you should be able to land strikes producing no more than whispers. The only time your blade should be heard is when you use the kind of power that destroyed the rock yesterday.”, he stated. “First you need to learn to reach the right amount of focus needed to cancel the sound of your strikes. Then you’ll go beyond it and try to harvest the full power of the blade.”

For ten minutes Brynhildr hit the stone wall without getting back into the same kind of focus she had found the day before, producing a joyous cacophony echoing throughout the forest. Losing patience, she swung the greatsword to the cliff, beginning to rant again. And there it was, different from all of her other strikes, carving a deeper mark into the stone, with a soft rustling.

“That’s it. You need to use your anger, to channel it. After you manage to channel your anger into the blade, you need to balance it with calm. Anger and calm, once you succeed in reconciling those two feelings you’ll have virtually no limit as to what you can slay: that’s what we call a Spirit strike. That’s how wandering spirits attack, if they had any physical existence they would do massive damage. And that’s what you started to grasp just before you passed out yesterday morning.”

“Why do I have the impression that it’s easier said than done?..”
Again she hit the wall, loud sounds coming back. This time however half a dozen of strikes were enough for Brynhildr to feel anger building up, and she soon managed to land two silent hits in a row. She then focused on maintaining her anger up while trying to make some room in her mind for calm. She struggled for a moment before she felt a thin line between both feelings, an edge she would have to dance on to bring the best out her new weapon…

Hey, its been a little while since I updated this post but i finished writing the story so i guess it doesn’t have much use anymore.

You’ll find a download link to two versions of The Tales of the Equinox here.