Guild Wars 2

Lore enthusiasts could be on the verge of an important discovery: The location of (at least some of) the ley lines that criss-cross Tyria. The recent update (26-27/11/2013) has included the addition of mysterious “thumpers” to the face of the continent and Arenanet’s forums are bustling with the intrigued, seeking to use these machines to help map the lay of the lines. In the midst of the din of opinion, a few have voiced some sagacious angles on not only what the “thumpers” might be for but also more pertinently, the course of the ley lines.
The nature and purpose of the “thumpers” is not what I wish to discuss in this post. My intent is to direct you to first this link (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Thaum-Cavern-channel-and-Scarlet-s-facilities) and then to continue to explore the idea presented in it – which is this: That a ley line exists between the Thaumanova Reactor facility and the Chaos Crystal Cavern.
To begin, we cannot ignore the role that crystals – in particular, those at the Chaos Crystal Cavern – have played in the development of ley lines. The Asura transported crystals from the cavern to Thaumanova in order to conduct their experiment(s) and it is precisely this that is of significance. In Guild Wars 2, crystals form magical conductors (and batteries) as much as anything else and as such probably form the conduit (or infrastructure) for the ley lines. What this means is that you could probably trace a number of ley lines merely by following the trail of crystals – but not just any crystal. We’re looking for Chaos Crystals in particular. As yet we have at least three confirmed locations for Chaos Crystals, all given by the strange porting effects observed at them: 1) The Thaumanova Reactor Facility; 2) The Chaos Crystal Cavern; 3) The Crucible Of Eternity. Tentatively, these may be indicators of ley line intersections, but they may also be false positives. Why? Because, as with Thaumanova, the Chaos Crystals present at The Crucible Of Eternity may have been relocated from the Chaos Crystal Caverns to Mount Maelstrom. In other words, any location to which Chaos Crystals have been transported (that is to say, where they have not naturally formed) may be a false positive for either 1) the intersection of ley lines or 2) the presence of a pre-existing ley line (in placing Chaos Crystals somewhere, however, you may inadvertently create a “spike” of chaos magic).
We believe that the Thaumanova Reactor facility is located at the intersection of at least two ley lines. If this is correct (it is assumed, as Scarlet does not directly state the location – for all we know it could be at the cavern) we may be able to trace any ley lines coursing from it. Let us turn our attention back to Thaumanova and identify possible pre-existing sources of magical energy at this location suggesting the existence of a ley line intersection. To do this, we’ll need a map of the continent of Tyria (I invite you to print one out if you can for ease of consultation). The most obvious candidate for a point along a ley line is a Place Of Power. According to the Wiki, a Place Of Power is “a location that is infused with a high level of magical energy, appearing as a pillar of light”. (This is significant, as the pillar of light is an optical phenomenon shared by Thaumanova, The Crucible Of Eternity and all other “Places Of Power”.) Most Places Of Power are denoted by a Skill Point. (If this theory is correct, tracing the route of each ley line therefore, would merely be a matter of filtering Skill Points for Places Of Power. For anyone game, you’re free to try).

Let’s reconsider the idea that we can trace ley lines by following the trail of Chaos Crystals. The only naturally-occurring example of Chaos Crystals in Tyria thus far is at the Chaos Crystal Cavern. Now think about how crystals form; the forming process is closely associated with both the formation of rocks and also ice. Obviously, ice is a water crystal so the idea that they may somehow be related to Chaos Magic shouldn’t surprise us. Moreover, Kralkatorrik creates mineral crystals, which appear to be of a uniform colour. The crystals he creates and, consequently, the Dragonband itself, may also have something to do with Chaos Magic. Previously some have been skeptical about associating Kralkatorrik’s crystals to those of the Chaos Crystal Caverns and I certainly do not wish to jump to any hasty conclusions, but there is every possibility that we have failed to conclusively link him to the Chaos Crystals because of the unnatural phenomena they are currently exhibiting. Remember, the Chaos Crystal Cavern is not normally like this – it was supercharged by the Thaumanova catastrophe. It is entirely possible that when they are not “supercharged” they exhibit properties more in keeping with Kralkatorrik’s abilities, making the association with him easier to discern. Let’s keep in mind, though, that Kralkatorrik’s crystals are only of one colour and the crystals of the cavern are multi-coloured, so if Kralkatorrik is associated with the Chaos Crystals he is not responsible for all of them.
Returning to the idea that mineral crystals form in close conjunction with rocks, we can surmise that the Chaos Crystals may run in Tyria’s seams: Mountain ranges, valleys and areas of seismic activity (such as where new ocean floor is forming or volcanoes are erupting). Thus, we should not be surprised if a number of Places Of Power are located underground or have an “earthy” feel, such as an abundance of nearby elementals etc etc.

An Observation From The Crucible Of Eternity
In each of the six zones of The Crucible Of Eternity we see a different set of coloured “pillars”. These pillars emanate a specific light, which can be generated by filtering white light through a crystal. For Primordus, we have red cystals; for Zaithan, black crystals; Kralkatorrik, purple crystals and so on and so forth. Each colour may be involved in the role of transmitting Elder Dragonic energy. Moreover, consider what would happen if you recombined these colours: What would you get? You might get white light…

Unanswered Questions About Azurite
Are these crystals useful for traveling via ley lines?

Unanswered Questions About Krait Obelisks
Are the locations of these unique and smooth dark stones with no symbols on them and of unknown origins part of the ley line network?

A lot of very thought-provoking ideas here! I have some thinking to do, and I’ll reply more thoroughly later. Thanks for sharing these ideas.

I have a fourth location to add: Snowden Drifts, Darkhoof Heights. The Raven Shaman has turned to “Raven’s Darkside”.

In this cave you will see multi-coloured crystals. Furthermore, travel to Drakkur Spurs, now look at the ice crystals along the top of the gorge…there are particle effects similar to those of the Chaos Crystal Caverns and also Kralkatorrik’s magic…

Assuming that the “thumpers” may function like oil “thumper trucks” (used to test the rocks using sonic waves generated by “slamming heavy plates into the ground (for exploration over land” it is likely that they are being used to track the ley lines. In particular, the “thumpers” that seem to shadow the Dragonbrand may actually be tracking the course of whatever mineral crystal the Searing Crystals are made of (either possibility is worth noting – indeed, they may be tracking the Dragonbrand and the Searing Crystals). Now ask yourself this question: What happens when Searing Crystals and Kralkatorrik’s Dragonbrand Crystals meet?

Please break up your posts by putting a blank line between paragraphs. Makes it a lot easier to read, which a lot of people, including myself, appreciate when reading walls of text on forums.

My inner physicist is cringing at the idea of black being a colour that comes from refracting white light. Black is not, in the physical sense, a colour, but the absence of colour.

In the metaphysical sense, though, there is precedent for the spectrum to be a different range of colours to the physical spectrum. Warhammer, for instance, has white and grey as magical “colours”. So it’s possible that “black” could be a colour associated with a portion of the magical spectrum, even if it’s not a colour formed by a particular wavelength of electromagnetic radiation.

That said, though, we do in fact know what the various colours of the Crucible of Eternity represent – they’re the colours the Inquest associates with each of the known or suspected Elder Dragons. It’s possible that each of the dragons is associated with one of the colours of the natural spectrum of magic (as opposed to the artificial spectrum created by the tampering of the Five on the bloodstones) but the simplest explanation is that the colours are just associated with the dragons.

When it comes to the appearance of crystals – it is possible, and there is some precedence in other fantasy settings, for rock that is inundated by enough magical energy (like, say, may happen at a ley line) to turn into glowing crystal.

Hi draxynnic,
I can see where you’re coming from about refracting black light from white. It was obviously a part of my post that I didn’t really think about too much.

In hindsight, Zaithan may be associated with calcite, which looks gray (among other hues) to the eye. Does this work more?

I was doubtful of this at first, but then I watched a play through of the Molten Facility from Flame and Frost. Here’s a scene from that dungeon:

http://i.imgur.com/NnAL3mF.jpg

Molten alliance mining loads of that azurite. It has to be important for something! Also, it may be nerdy, but we should set up a guild called Crystal Chasers or something

Is it possible that the Azurite mined by the Molten Alliance is the mineral from which Searing Crystals are made?

I really commend you for this, and I hope there’s truth in it.

The thing that dissuades me is how the line of dialogue in the Thaumanova fractal, which refers to ley-lines, is so… throwaway. That Fractal did not exist primarily for story/lore purposes. If they had something like this up their sleeve, they wouldn’t have given Scarlet so many more lines that pertained to nothing at all.

Actually, that one particularly kinda did – the fractal vote was regarding fractals that pertained to specific events that Arenanet felt people might be interested in.

From that perspective, though, it was a little disappointing – instead of being shown what happened, we basically just got a monologue from Scarlet when the reactor was already in half-meltdown.

Mesmers have a Chaos trait line, are clones of the Shatterer still appearing in Blazeridge Steppes?

Stephen.6312:

Is it possible that the Azurite mined by the Molten Alliance is the mineral from which Searing Crystals are made?

This is a great hypothesis, I like it.

One thing I want to throw into the mix here, is that it is entirely possibly that no one (not even Scarlet) knows exactly where the ley-lines are.

So IF the thumpers are designed to detect ley-lines, it is entirely possible that they are simply scattered seemingly randomly across Tyria. People are quick to draw lines in between the thumpers and conclude that they line up perfectly. But without reading what the thumpers are detecting, and IF they detect ley-lines (at all), all you got is a bunch of machines in a line.

It could also still be possible that the thumpers are designed to bring Destroyers to the surface. But that’s my personal pet hypothesis, and I’m usually terrible at guessing the course of the Living Story.

With all these talks of ley-lines AND crystals, im reminded of Dungeon Siege 2. My memory is spotted about that, but i seem to recall that some sort of crystals were playing a major role, and these crystals were the magic of the ley-lines crystallized.

Dont know if there is any inspiration from that game in what we see here.