Guild Wars 2

Direct repost from Reddit

http://i.imgur.com/u3RbsDe.jpg

The yellow lines and the yellow area are “magic” and the red dots are the DO NOT TOUCH towers.

I know it is a bit of a stretch and maybe I just saw this because it sounded the most logical to me, but I thought I should share. Big credit to /u/FloweryFluff (reddit username) for making the map! Now as for my analysis of the map. If you think the pattern looks like complete fan-fiction it is probably useless to read on :P

We begin on the right: There is a trail there of which I thought was following the trail Kralkattorik left behind. This is, I assume, a trail of magic, so this would explain it. I think the DO NOT TOUCH towers are for guidance of magic. I know not all dots are on this map and I hope there will be more in Frostgorge sound. This will explain the path I drew. This path might be from Jormag, seeping magic into the world.

Then there is a path from Mount Maelstrom. I don’t really have an explaination for this map, but it might have soemthing to do with the Zephyr Sanctum and Glints energy they might carry. Let me know if you have a better theory!

The path from Orr is obviously from Zhaitan.

The path from the Karka map is also hard to explain but it might be from the Deep Sea Dragon, AKA Bubbles, as it seems to follow the trail to the unending ocean.
Then we have the last path, the one which comes from the Maguuma Wastes. This path has probably got to do something with the Jungle Dragon or with Thaumanova.

It is strange that no pillars are on the trail from Twilight Arbor as this is one of Scarlets facilities, but it might be there and just not on the map.

Now the reason why I drew them all to one spot on Lornar’s pass: I think Scarlet is trying to accumulate as much magic as possible to that spot. She needs it because she wants to make either a giant portal to the Steam world or a permanant portal to the Steam world (OR BOTH!). I drew this location on purpose because that location is in my opinion the location where the thinnest barrier between the two universes is. Now obviously, these aren’t the only points if high magic in the magic network she mentions, but the only needs the trail to her location of choiche.

HYPERSPECULATION MODE ACTIVATED: PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!
I think, building on the theory above, that Scarlet wants to conquer the world with steam creatures. I also think she will build them herself in the future. Yes this is a paradox, it might not become clear due to my lack of storytelling skills. I am saying she is making the future of herself come true. She is making the Steam universe real!

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading this piece of good ol’ fan-fiction

I imagined the “ley-lines” as continuous lines that circled the entire planet —not as segmented lines that stop and changed direction. We know both the Thaumanova reactor and Orr are built on top of crisscrossing ley-lines.

EDIT: OP’s map is incomplete. Here is all known locations in case anyone cares.

If thats the case, it is assured that the DO NOT TOUCH towers have nothing to do with the ley lines as far as our knowledge of them goes. Why? Because the Thaumanova would be right on a spot where two lines intersect. With the complete map, i dont see a way how any 2 pairs of points being connected to form an intersection on the Thaumanova site.

A simpler explanation is that these pillars are in the level 15+ zones and will be generating some combat events in the next update. With that in mind, anyone connecting the dots has to decide whether the lack of pillars in certain areas is part of the grand design, or not.

well, some of them are in orr. this was offlimits before and we didn`t have any LS stuff there…
Could be something bigger this time?

Something to note: There are none in starter areas.

This is VERY important for a very particular reason: There’s none at Thaumanova. This makes it highly likely to be unrelated to the ley lines like everyone seems to think.

They don’t seem to make any shape or some such either. I’m going to say they’ll be wide-spread combat events – I say wide-spread in the feeling of something on par to Scarlet’s invasions. Why? LS combat events also fall into Queensdale (Tower of Nightmares) and Wayfarer (Flame and Frost); the invasions avoid all 25- areas.

I don’t think we can discern their purpose based on location.

Nice try, but the map is bogus. It doesn’t have all the DO NOT TOUCH stations located.

Alright, I get why there aren’t any in the complete map in starter areas. Why none in Fireheart Rise, though? Assuming the second map is actually complete.

Tower in malchor’s leap not marked on this screen.

calankh.3248:

Alright, I get why there aren’t any in the complete map in starter areas. Why none in Fireheart Rise, though? Assuming the second map is actually complete.

I don’t think it is. I recall mention of one in Harathi which is not where the second map shows a tower.

Updated the map with all find-spots, and i assined every line to a dragon.
This is so exciting.

EDIT:
I had the idea to lay the GW1 Map on the GW2 Map with the lines i made.
The result is this!
The Source, if the pattern of the lines is like i draw, would be exactly the “Heart of the Shiverpeaks” from GW1 o.O!

Except for the “dragon champion → Pale Tree” line under Mordremoth (a theory which has more points against it than the number of points for it (which is 0)), I doubt that the lines are tied to the Elder Dragons. Especially Southsun to the DSD, given the DSD is probably closer to Orr than Southsun by a long shot… unless those tentacles attributed to the karka are really to be attributed to the DSD. But I doubt that.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the magical ley lines were related to the Elder Dragons originally. I mean they are one of the sources of magic found in the world. They seep the magic out and it has to go somewhere, and there are “natural conduits” which the magic flows through. It could be similarly occurring with the bloodstones, which must also seep out magic of some sort, for it to be available to the races.

They look like drilling rigs of some kind, and they all look and act identical.

Definitely Scarlet’s doing.

Nasedo.5349:

Updated the map with all find-spots, and i assined every line to a dragon.
This is so exciting.

EDIT:
I had the idea to lay the GW1 Map on the GW2 Map with the lines i made.
The result is this!
The Source, if the pattern of the lines is like i draw, would be exactly the “Heart of the Shiverpeaks” from GW1 o.O!

This does not have all the stations on it. Nice try, no cigar.

You need to look harder in Sparkfly Fen.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Something to note: There are none in starter areas.

This is VERY important for a very particular reason: There’s none at Thaumanova. This makes it highly likely to be unrelated to the ley lines like everyone seems to think.

They don’t seem to make any shape or some such either. I’m going to say they’ll be wide-spread combat events – I say wide-spread in the feeling of something on par to Scarlet’s invasions. Why? LS combat events also fall into Queensdale (Tower of Nightmares) and Wayfarer (Flame and Frost); the invasions avoid all 25- areas.

I don’t think we can discern their purpose based on location.

Well hold on a second, there’s two possible compelling reasons why there’s none at the Thaumanova Reactor.
First, we don’t have access to the entire reactor, it could be in the “basement” we see in the Fractal. The reactor was built on the ley line in the first place, if they set up one of those “DO NOT TOUCH” things, it wouldn’t be out in a field, it’d be in the reactor facility.
Second, the ley line at the reactor may no longer be intact after the explosion. You can see the after effects of the explosion at Thaumanova if you go there in the open world, so at the very least the ley line there is pretty screwed up.

Edit: Also, the “Scarlet Invasions” now make sense if the DO NOT TOUCH beacons are something she set up. The invasion have been criticized as motiveless “hey we’re going to attack this random field!” situations. But if Scarlet was trying to find ley-lines and tap into them, we now have her motive for the Molten Alliance (manpower), Aetherblades (deployment of forces) and the invasions themselves (find ley lines and establishing the ‘beacons’).

As much as I like that theory, I’d like to point out that the Molten Alliance appears to be the least used of Scarlet’s alliances, and therefore is a poor source of manpower. I’d suggest instead that they have something to do with locating and identifying the lines, a mixture of dredge tunneling expertise and Flame Legion magical expertise.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

As much as I like that theory, I’d like to point out that the Molten Alliance appears to be the least used of Scarlet’s alliances, and therefore is a poor source of manpower. I’d suggest instead that they have something to do with locating and identifying the lines, a mixture of dredge tunneling expertise and Flame Legion magical expertise.

Very good point about the tunneling/magic expertise.
The Molten Alliance is fairly prominent during the invasions though.
My impression of the dredge and flame legion has also been that they’re quiet numerous, and as such would make good “cannon fodder” as the manpower of Scarlet’s forces. This of course isn’t representative in game with the hundreds of mobs we slay regularly, but from a lore perspective may be. Any info that could prove/disprove my impression of the in-lore size of flame legion/dredge forces would be appreciated.

On the other hand, I don’t imagine the Sky Pirates of Tyria/Aetherblades are all that numerous, flying ships aren’t easy to come by. Presumably the inquest members/contributors of the Aetherblades would be be none-combat forces limited to a number of krewes working on the tech. Similarly, the number of Scarlet’s watchwork machines/mobs would be limited by the number of engineers who are capable of making them that are at her disposal.

If all this was Scarlets doing, and she would be after the ley lines, what are these machines? They are just pounding the ground and have a shielding that would solve containment and warding issues a hundred times over if it was implemented.

But thats not my point. If these machines were actually about ley-lines which are the lines that magical energies follow, what about the places of power, the skill challenges where you meditate or whatever? Why arent those the target of anything like this? We know that these points exist in lore, as some of these places of power give more lore away than most NPCs.

@ wookiee:
I connected the points in this way, because:
1) Every Energy has a source! So there must be a point, from where the energy radiates.
2) I found it interesting, that there is a line, which goes directly to the gates of arah. This brought me to the idea to link the lines to the dragons.
3) We know, that there are 6 of them (elder dragons). So i tried to make 6 replicable lines with a center (the source).
4) The lines must also have an ending like at the gates of arah. Exactly at the position, where the elder-dragons absorb the energy! Some lines just point into the direction of the elder dragon, because we don’t have this regions in game.
5) For me, the pattern like i draw it, is the most replicable one.
6) Finding out (by overlapping the maps GW2,GW1), that “Heart of the Shiverpeaks (GW1)” is exactly at the same position as the point i have chosen for the center/source confirmed in this pattern.

@DarkShriek
Yes, i already found out, that there are a few towers missing on my map.
But you can link every addinionaly tower to one of those lines, and the map fits nevertheless

lakdav.3694:

If all this was Scarlets doing, and she would be after the ley lines, what are these machines? They are just pounding the ground and have a shielding that would solve containment and warding issues a hundred times over if it was implemented.

But thats not my point. If these machines were actually about ley-lines which are the lines that magical energies follow, what about the places of power, the skill challenges where you meditate or whatever? Why arent those the target of anything like this? We know that these points exist in lore, as some of these places of power give more lore away than most NPCs.

Well we pretty much know it’s Scarlet’s doing, EVERYTHING is Scarlet’s doing in the LS at this point. It’s just a question of whether or not it’s connected to ley lines.
I’m not convinced it is, there’s just compelling reasons for why it could be, and I don’t feel the existence of ‘Places of Power’ really does anything to disprove that. The places of power were put there for gameplay reasons in the first place, not story. And while some of them have heavy lore reasoning for their existence, others are just “oh, some guy did voodoo here”. Even for those that do have heavy lore reasons for their existence, they aren’t related to ley lines.

More then anything though, I HOPE it’s connected to ley lines, because that would finally start to explain the constant disjointed random stuff they’ve been putting us through.

As strange as it sounds, I actually believe the Aetherblades to be the largest of the three alliances- first off, looking at the story, the Molten Alliance conducted raids for a few months, were not heard from for a long time, and have only returned as part of Scarlet’s invasion force. That’s four months without them, and they’re only back in a minor support role. The Aetherblades, by comparison, have barely missed a release. In June, we saw them assault the government of Lion’s Arch, and loot hologram projectors across the continent. In July, we saw them attack the Bazaar of the Four Winds to make off with ill-gotten bounty. In August, they were the only non-clockwork component of Scarlet’s assault on DR, not to mention sending full crews out to harass the hot-air balloons, again across the continent; and on top of that, they were at least as big a part as the MA in the invasions. In October we found that far from being inconvenienced by all this activity, they’ve found the time to create a full-fledged airship factory. They are without question Scarlet’s go-to goons for when her clockworks don’t cut it.

And lorewise, this makes sense. The Flame Legion and the dredge both fractured in the wake of CoF and SE, so even assuming that they did manage to pull themselves back together they’ll be severely weakened. The Nightmare Court working with the Toxic Alliance are only a portion of the whole, and rather the alliance itself will survive the destruction of their tower remains to be seen. The Aetherblades, on the other hand, have no history of setbacks, and clearly do have the infrastructure to build and maintain an airship fleet. While the origins of the membership remains uncertain, if they are recruiting from the pirates they must have a flood of potential recruits flocking to the guarantees of booty and power, and away from the instability and power vacuum left in the wake of Taidha Covington.

Anyway, that’s my take on it, for what it’s worth.

I know I rarely post so my opinion might not be look upon with credence, but notice how all the dots skip starter zones. In a one of those start zones is the reactor which is confirmed to be a place for multiple ley lines. Much like Orr. With that said it also skips Twilight Arbor which for some odd reason I have noticed a lot of people assume that Scarlet was there for some reason involving the dragons when theres no evidence of this in the dungeon, Via dialogue or anything like that. When can speculate all day and night about the husk and the blighted creatures during the wurm event. Thats not the point here though I digress. The Pillars may or may not be on ley lines but given there isn’t one in metrica province or near the reactor I doubt it. Then again they could keep adding them to the game until they are ready to reveal what the content involving those are. WITH ALL THAT SAID! I am very excited about it, I love mysteries like that, remember the Tower before it was announced and we just couldn’t get near it. That was exciting

This came with the fractured update right? Maybe these are fracking machines (hydraulic fracturing machines)

Sytherek.7689:

They look like drilling rigs of some kind, and they all look and act identical.

Definitely Scarlet’s doing.

Who esle but Scatlet? gigity-gigity

Sytherek.7689:

They look like drilling rigs of some kind, and they all look and act identical.

Definitely Scarlet’s doing.

They remind me of the device in Frizz’s Lab from the Aetherblade Retreat story dungeon (or Aetherblade fractal). If they are indeed related then they strike me of the refined deployable version.

It’ll be interesting to see where they go with these devices story-wise.

faizaun.9852:

With that said it also skips Twilight Arbor which for some odd reason I have noticed a lot of people assume that Scarlet was there for some reason involving the dragons when theres no evidence of this in the dungeon, Via dialogue or anything like that.

People are linking Scarlet to the Elder Dragons for other reasons. I think it is commonly assumed that one of the Twilight Arbor paths is simply one of her Aetherblade bases.

Nasedo.5349:

Updated the map with all find-spots, and i assined every line to a dragon.
This is so exciting.

EDIT:
I had the idea to lay the GW1 Map on the GW2 Map with the lines i made.
The result is this!
The Source, if the pattern of the lines is like i draw, would be exactly the “Heart of the Shiverpeaks” from GW1 o.O!

That basically means nothing. All you’ve shown is that if you connect the dots the way you would like to connect them, while following the way the explorables are connected, you end up with a convenient intersection. But you could connect those lines in any way you like. The shiverpeaks happens to be in the middle of the map, so logically the most explorable zones connect to it, and thus you could easily draw all the lines towards the Shiverpeaks. But that does not mean there’s any pattern.

All it shows, is that there is basically no clear pattern to the locations at all. The only thing noteworthy, is that they don’t appear in starter areas. Konig is probably right that this will be yet another invasion event.

I appreciate the effort though, but I think you’re grasping as straws. I’m not convinced there’s any pattern. In fact, the theory that was posed before about crystal locations, also doesn’t convince me. Right now it seems like they are just randomly scattered across Tyria.

Well, we’ll find out tomorrow…right?

Tanith.5264:

Well, we’ll find out tomorrow…right?

nope, there will be no scarlet during winters day
aint that awesome?

as to dsd being underneath south sun, i think hes more in the unending ocean

southsun cove wouldnt really be ‘deep’ ocean would it? plus it had to have been far out enough to displace the krait and quaggan

That’s assuming the Forbidden Thumpers are Scarlet’s work. Have we ascertained that they are?

(I may have missed something)

At the moment, I believe all we know about them for sure is that mysterious shielded machinery has sprung up absolutely everywhere that isn’t mechanically a city or starting zone, and there may or may not be three per map.

Any correlation?

If we follow the Thumpers and connect them together in the same way that ‘Ley Lines’ are connected in the way people on Earth think of them (i.e. straight lines that circle the globe), then we come up with the picture I posted. Its a criss crossing spider web of lines. Every line is yellow, except for the reactor which I made green.

As you can see, if the thumpers were on ley lines, then the center of everything where the most lines cross would be in either Sparkfly fen or Bloodtide Coast, or even Southsun Cove. It makes sense since they are in the center of the current world map. However, the Reactor isn’t at the center of anything with the lines connected like this, so, take it with a very tiny grain of salt.

mexay.3902:

Any correlation?

A while ago, I overlaid this globe onto a map of Tyria. It doesn’t seem to correlate with anything other than possible a tectonic plate type of system. You’ll notice that the lines fall on major waterways.

http://i.imgur.com/S8p8DNI.jpg

I updated the map from earlier, adding in some more lines I didn’t see earlier (I only draw a line if three or more thumper sites line up on a single line. They do not line up perfectly, because the map I was working with did not have them perfectly pinpointed, but you can still see the ‘ley lines’ rather well). It turns out that the Reactor has quite a few lines crossing it.

I also made the Reactor lines Blue so they would be easier to see. I also circled the areas that had the most intersections (areas with 5 or more lines crossing through it). (Thumanova reactor, Bloodtide coast, Sparkfly Fen, Straits of Devastation, and Southsun Cove).

I still don’t think this means anything at all because I am not convinved that Anet actually spent that much time mapping them out so they lined up, but, I figured I would leave it here,

My crazy theory is that the machines will bring the Mist to Tyria

Well, nothing has really changed. They are now labeled “Mysterious Probes” and still knock you kitten over teakettle when touched, but now offer no message.

What they’re probing, why they’re shielded so heavily, who put ’em out there…all still a mystery to me so far.

I forgot to upload my new pic to the forum. I have actually drawn a banana peel without intention.

http://i.imgur.com/u3RbsDe.jpg

It is probably nothing as it is just a banana peel that covers ll playable areas but I thought I should share!

I do think the devices are for gathering data about the ley lines esspecially now they’re called probes

Also this random fact:

They changed the model of the steam portal skill challenge from this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/0/08/Steam_Portal_Skill_Challenge.jpg/240px-Steam_Portal_Skill_Challenge.jpg

to this:

http://i.imgur.com/DDAG8ur.jpg

It now shared the same model as all Scarlets portals!

Also: the steam thing in Gendarran Fields is still there only the portal it produced is totally gone.

Another also: I found that Steam Hulks look really much like Husks, as in Blighted Husks and the Mechataurs share quite the same model with the Oakhearts, next to their obvious resemblance to the Minotaurs. Could it be that at the Aetherblade path in TA, Scarlet was trying to create a huge Steam Mechataur?

Am I the only person who thinks these towers look like Maw Hammers? Fingers crossed we get Kalros to dispose of Scarlet for us.

sweetmesquite.5024:

Am I the only person who thinks these towers look like Maw Hammers? Fingers crossed we get Kalros to dispose of Scarlet for us.

Does Scarlet deserve such a spectacular end as that Reaper? On the other hand, if she were to go out like Wreav…

I am now picturing a series of great wurms like Issormir and the Great Jungle Wurm swarming across Tyria…

On a side, I’d say “no she doesn’t deserve it, but yes she should get it just to help redeem the terrible delivery that was Scarlet.”

Honestly, I’m convinced Scarlet was meant to be a throw-away plot that would just fill up the time for ArenaNet to get situated with a new form of making content. Think about it: All the concept art we’ve seen seems to have been done by 1-3 artists, we know that there’s only 4 writers on the Living Story teams with Bobby “supervising” them, and the rest of the teams of designers and programmers don’t seem that big. But on the other hand… where’s Jeff and Ree? Where are all those other artists, designers, and programmers? There’s over 200 folks working at ArenaNet and while they aren’t all working hands on directly, there’s far more folks working at ArenaNet than there seems to be working on the living story content at the moment.

Plus, during the live stream with John Stumme and two others (cannot recall who), there was constant mention of borrowing assets from the sound and creature design teams… Which further points to “there’s something we’ve heard nothing about in the works.”

And I think that’s what’s coming after Scarlet – preparation with more writing effort put into it with Scarlet just being some half-baked (literally and figuratively) plot to hold the line, not some tie in or anything. Just a filler who got no real effort put into developing her before releasing her. She’s an excuse for the developers to by them time, nothing more.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

And I think that’s what’s coming after Scarlet – preparation with more writing effort put into it with Scarlet just being some half-baked (literally and figuratively) plot to hold the line, not some tie in or anything. Just a filler who got no real effort put into developing her before releasing her. She’s an excuse for the developers to by them time, nothing more.

You’ve been right before, and I sure as Grenth hope you’re right now. I can’t wait to see some permanent new content that is of higher quality.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Honestly, I’m convinced Scarlet was meant to be a throw-away plot that would just fill up the time for ArenaNet to get situated with a new form of making content. Think about it: All the concept art we’ve seen seems to have been done by 1-3 artists, we know that there’s only 4 writers on the Living Story teams with Bobby “supervising” them, and the rest of the teams of designers and programmers don’t seem that big. But on the other hand… where’s Jeff and Ree? Where are all those other artists, designers, and programmers? There’s over 200 folks working at ArenaNet and while they aren’t all working hands on directly, there’s far more folks working at ArenaNet than there seems to be working on the living story content at the moment.

This. There is a lot of talent in the writing staff that we haven’t heard from in quite some time. I just hope that they tie the knot on Scarlet elegantly. For as much criticism as she has received, she is certainly a character that deserves an epic end just for the mark she’s left on the players and the environment. I also hope that she dies – I’d be very unimpressed if she were “taken in to custody”

The probes remind me of thumpers in the movie Dune which summoned the giant worms.

Makes me wonder, if Scarlet planted these, why hasn’t anyone, you know, touched them? Or at least blown them up?

I mean, they likely wouldn’t know exactly who’s responsible, but they’re suspicious enough to warrant investigation. Considering what’s gone on lately they’re probably not good.

Gnat.9405:

I also hope that she dies – I’d be very unimpressed if she were “taken in to custody”

I actually hope she IS taken into custody, and then becomes an ally later on. Maybe have a quest where the players must actually liberate her from her jail cell. That would add some excitement to the story.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Gnat.9405:

I also hope that she dies – I’d be very unimpressed if she were “taken in to custody”

I actually hope she IS taken into custody, and then becomes an ally later on. Maybe have a quest where the players must actually liberate her from her jail cell. That would add some excitement to the story.

O_o. She’s a crazy woman who has tried to destroy us and you want to liberate her from her cell? Did you not learn your lesson when you unleashed Palawa Joko on the world! Did you not take notes when Kormir indadvertedly helped unleash Abaddon on the world?

Sounds a bit like a stretch to me, those lines just follow where all the maps are we have.

(EDit: fix thread ftw)