Guild Wars 2

What exactly is her significance in the ruins she is in? Who was she a pet to? How was she turned into a ghost in the searing, and if animals can become ghosts from it, why aren’t there more animal spirits roaming the land? Also, why is she chasing the frog? What it ever do to her?

Why do cats – living or dead – chase smaller animals? Food, playing with, etc. (Cats can be quite sadistic if you really think about how they “play” with their food until it dies).

Alfa wasn’t in GW1 as far as I know, and I believe you mean Foefire. Which we do see Ghostly Cows in one personal story (honorable soldier charr storyline) – though past this and summoned minions, no such animals were affected by the Foefire. Remember not everything was treated equally – charr were only affected inside Ascalon City itself, being outright killed, whereas the rest were perfectly fine. Cows seem protective of certain ruins (so are some ghosts, but cows seem to only go hostile when certain ruins are disturbed). Alfa just… plays with a frog. Eternally. Forever and always.

Could also just be a ghost, with no connection to the Foefire at all. I mean we know from Ghosts of Ascolan that there are other ghosts around.

A friend of mine made some kind of connection that makes a bit of sense.

It might be a ninja shoutout to Chrono Trigger. The ruins contain a sword stuck in a stone with engraving unreadable. There is also an odd frog, and a cat named Alfa.

Friend thinks the cat is Alfador, Janus (Magus) ’s cat in the era of magic. The frog is...well...Frog... and the sword is the Masamune.

Greiger.7092:

A friend of mine made some kind of connection that makes a bit of sense.

It might be a ninja shoutout to Chrono Trigger. The ruins contain a sword stuck in a stone with engraving unreadable. There is also an odd frog, and a cat named Alfa.

Friend thinks the cat is Alfador, Janus (Magus) ’s cat in the era of magic. The frog is…well…Frog… and the sword is the Masamune.

Considering Anet has a long history of easter eggs and vague references to other things of significance and you pretty much got a 3 for 3 hit on that assumption, I’d call this mystery solved. Good job gang, back to the Mystery Machine to solve another!

It would be nice to get some developer confirmation of this. I think there are too many connections for this to be just a coincidence

- The sword looks like the Masamune
- Interacting with the sword makes a reference to an inscription faded by time. Melchior’s name is inscribed on the Masamune in CT
- A frog is jumping around it
- The cat is named Alfa. I can’t find any connection to a cat named Alfa in GW1 or 2, so the only thing I can think of is Alfador from CT. And I may be reaching a bit here, but given Square’s tendency to protect their intellectual property like hawks* and threatens to sue everyone who uses it, it would make sense for Anet to avoid directly mentioning anything from CT to avoid Squeenix from calling in the legal artillery on their heads.

But yeah.. Any developer care to comment? Would be nice to update the wiki.

• http://www.destructoid.com/square-enix-shuts-down-chrono-fan-game-crimson-echoes-131702.phtml

• http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/

Maybe she’s necromancer Munne’s cat? That’s where she used to be in Prophecies.

So today I stumbled upon some further evidence that this is a legitimate reference to Chrono Trigger. An escort event culminated in the Abbey Ruins and ended with Alfa walking away from his usual spot and up the stairs to the entrance where he stood for a few moments. Then, a veteran ghost mob spawned next to him named “The Prophet”. As combat begins, The Prophet states “The power of Ascalon is unimaginable. Oppose it, and meet your doom”.

The Prophet was Magus’s nickname, and in Chrono Trigger he states something to the tune of ‘unimaginable is the power of lavos.. anyone who dares oppose it will face certain doom’.

There are too many things here for this to be a coincidence. I’ve made a post on the wiki about it, it would be ideal to get some developer feedback so we can update the wiki confidently. Nudge nudge..

Here is the event I was referring to http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defeat_the_Ascalonian_ghost_leader_in_Abbey_Ruins

Great catch! Mystery solved!

Also, the rest of the dialogue is a reference to Ghostbusters:

Maris Spiritbane: “Grab your weapons!”
Loculus Wildbane: “Holdin’!”
Varian Ironbane: “Holdin’!”
Veteran The Prophet: “The power of Ascalon is unimaginable. Oppose it, and meet your doom.”
Maris Spiritbane: “Light ’em up!”
Loculus Wildbane: “Smokin’!”
Varian Ironbane: “Smokin’!”
Maris Spiritbane: “Let’s show this ghost how the charr do things… torch it!”