Bloodstone and the spirits
Yes, spirits are a form of energy in some form. Back in the original game krytans were sacrificed upon he bloodstone, not to charge the bloodstone though, but used the bloodstone to take the souls of the dead and place them within the soul batteries used to keep the Portal to the foundry of failed creations closed. Similarly souls were also fished out of the river of souls and consumed as well in Nightfall. Based off of what I have heard it seems that they are using souls to heal or power up someone, many assume to be the last known remaining Mursaat, Lazarus the Dire. So my guess is that the souls do not have any effect of the bloodstone, but that the bloodstone is a means of collecting the souls of those killed on it. As to how magic is charge in a person, I have no clue.
There’s a long standing presence for spirits to be a form of energy. Beyond the situation with the river of souls in Nightfall, we see/hear of Margonites, torment demons, titans, and scarabs all eating souls as a form of long-lasting nourishment, and for power. The demons’ assaults on Dragon Bash and the Hall of Heroes (Tombs) were tactics for apparently similar reasons.
As for human sacrifices on Bloodstones – basically what that does is tear the soul out of the body. We don’t know if this is innate to Bloodstones, or caused by inscriptions seen only on the Maguuma and Ring of Fire Bloodstones (of three seen, two have inscriptions which don’t seem to be part of the Bloodstone). From there, in GW1, the soul was transferred via said inscriptions into the soul batteries, and the soul batteries charged in the Maguuma were transported to the Ring of Fire Bloodstone to power the Door of Komalie (this tormented the souls and resulted in them becoming maddened to the point of recognizing the players as enemies, and fought alongside the mursaat who had imprisoned them – not too dissimilar to the Spirit Vale souls!).
Salvation Pass implies that they’re charging bloodstone shards in the same way that they charged soul batteries (we never did know what the soul batteries were made out of – and like the jade constructs and mursaat towers, they had a similarity to the Bloodsotnes), which implies that souls are stuck inside those shards. But ultimately, we don’t know yet.
Bloodstones weren’t meant to seal magic away so much as contain magic.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Thank you for the answers! I’m still wondering why there are so many spirits running around when they should be inside the bloodtone shards. Doesn’t it seem a bit wasteful for something like Gorseval to emerge when all of those spirits could’ve been used to power up shards for White Mantle’s nefarious plans.
There was a comment that they were released when ‘something broke’ – it was a slip of the tongue by someone at Anet, and I’ve been thinking that something was soul batteries.
Though it’s possible that it’s the Bloodstone itself, which is why we see so many shards.
And I just recalled something about it being Mordremoth’s magic that charged the Bloodstones. Though I cannot recall if this was from a screenshot, from a dev, or just wild speculation. Seems more reasonable than souls charging them, given how many are out and about.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Just a personal hunch, but I don’t think the Mantle made the soul batteries themselves. We see a boat full of them, like a shipment, in Abaddon’s Mouth in GW1, and while we never learned whether they were arriving or departing, I suspect that the mursaat made them. The modern White Mantle, who seem to be operating without the mursaat present (there’s a mention in Spirit Vale that He, commonly assumed to be Lazarus, hasn’t arrived yet), might not be able to imprison entire souls. If bloodstone is just a medium through which souls can be channeled but not contained, those shards might be charged by the sacrifices before jettisoning the spirit out to linger in the woods.
R.I.P., Old Man of Auld Red Wharf. Gone but never forgotten.
There was a comment that they were released when ‘something broke’ – it was a slip of the tongue by someone at Anet, and I’ve been thinking that something was soul batteries.
Though it’s possible that it’s the Bloodstone itself, which is why we see so many shards.
And I just recalled something about it being Mordremoth’s magic that charged the Bloodstones. Though I cannot recall if this was from a screenshot, from a dev, or just wild speculation. Seems more reasonable than souls charging them, given how many are out and about.
I believe that was from one of the guild chats. Some of Mordremoth’s magic went into the bloodstone.
Mysterious Voice: Who released us? (during wall of spirits)
Released from where and why? Releasing implies they know they were locked in somewhere.
Lost in the Rubble note
Ever since that windstorm riled up the ghosts, we can’t patrol the jungle floor. It’s infested with those kitten things. Got a hunch they came from inside the compound. I know what they did.
There were ghosts in the jungle before Mordremoth’s death. Does this mean something broke before the windstorm releasing the spirits and Mordremoth’s magic just made them crazy? Also why would the magic make them crazy?
(edited by NotOverlyCheesy.9427)
The White Mantle don’t need to have made the soul batteries to be able to use them. During All for One and One for Justice we see the White Mantle still sacrificing on the bloodstone with soul batteries attatched. This indicates that they still did their ritual even when the soul batteries had no destination.
Most likely, IMO, the situation is that they kept the sacrifices going until the soul batteries simply couldn’t hold any more souls within them and exploded (think like a lithium battery), which resulted in turn with the River of Spirits in the Spirit Vale. Then these souls go crazy with Mordremoth’s magic seeping the land.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
The White Mantle don’t need to have made the soul batteries to be able to use them. During All for One and One for Justice we see the White Mantle still sacrificing on the bloodstone with soul batteries attatched. This indicates that they still did their ritual even when the soul batteries had no destination.
Most likely, IMO, the situation is that they kept the sacrifices going until the soul batteries simply couldn’t hold any more souls within them and exploded (think like a lithium battery), which resulted in turn with the River of Spirits in the Spirit Vale. Then these souls go crazy with Mordremoth’s magic seeping the land.
Overloading soul batteries does make sense. Oh my, White Mantle really isn’t the nicest bunch. Sacrificing just for the heck of it is pretty brutal.