Guild Wars 2

What if I told you that…

Mr. E is Evon Gnashblade.

Scarlet, the leader of the Aetherblades, is Ellen Kiel.

Supporting facts: They both have their motives for wanting to be on the Captain’s Council. Evon has his business, and more importantly, his profits to look after. He benefits from the Aetherblades being removed by eliminating some of his pirate brethren and furthur securing his position as one of the kingpins of the Lion’s Arch criminal elite. He chose to remain anonymous. Kasmeer Meade is his lieutenant, and through her he oversees many of the goings-on of the world, such as the Dragon Bash investigation and the Southsun corruption. His deeper motivations are unknown, but researching the fall of Abaddon is particularly suspicious.
Ellen is the mysterious Scarlet, one of the leaders of the Aetherblades. She is known as Scarlet for her red hair. She destroyed the Consortium contracts to eliminate a competitor with a strong armed presence in Lion’s Arch. She took on Mai Trin personally to eliminate her chief competitor within the Aetherblade hierarchy. Now that she captains her own ship and has the full trust of the Captain’s Council and the LA populace, she’s ready to swoop in and seize control of not only the city, but also the Aetherblades and the Lionguard. She hopes to study the Thaumanova Reactor as a part of her association with the Inquest.

I would expand more if I wasn’t at work. Thoughts?

You just blew my mind. If that is true, then both of them are manipulating us like crazy. It almost sounds too good of a conspiracy to have come out of the writing team of GW2, I’m sorry to say. But my compliments to them if this is actually true.

If Kiel actually turns out to be a villain, that would be a great plot twist. But that would mean Mai has never actually met Scarlet face to face. Otherwise, she would have recognized Kiel right away.

Problem with Mr. E=Evon is that Marjory would have probably denoted in the short story that the hand that covered her mouth was not human.

Furthermore, Kasmeer doesn’t show any recognition of knowing who E is, and works for Marjory, not E. At least as far as she tells.

Problem with Scarlet=Kiel is that her hair isn’t red or reddish. It’s brown. And furthermore, Mai would probably have made a comment about Scarlet coming to thwart her own plans, and it would seem odd about being told that Kiel interviewed Mai about the plans (and gloated at Mai).

Yes, I considered the points that both of you are making, and some possible workarounds—

It’s possible that Mai had never met Scarlet/Keil face to face. Kiel might wear a mask. Furthermore, “Scarlet” might be a nickname, alluding to some other part of her personality aside from her hair. She’s sort of a brunette, not a redhead, so that is a bit of a stretch, but maybe there’s some clue that we’re missing that would connect Kiel better to Scarlet.

Concerning Evon and Marjory’s short story, it’s possible that the “Mr. E” that covered her mouth was, in fact, Kasmeer. She may have used magic to mask her voice, and delivered the message for Evon. The article also says that the hands that wrapped around Marjory were intimate, hardly noticeable and not-at-all alarming.

The biggest conflict that I can see is concerning the Scarlet/Kiel tie—the short story between Kiel and Kasmeer during Secrets of Southsun seems to get into Kiel’s head and reveal her to be rather one-dimensional. Anything is possible though.

Kasmeer has shown no signs of being a magic user – and a mesmer, to pull of the trick to make her seem like a man. Similarly, the two are childhood friends, iirc. Why would Kasmeer need to lie to such a person?

Perhaps Kasmeer is a liar to her core—she acts innocent but she is apparently well-trained in combat, investigation, and social customs. She clearly has plenty of history that so far is left unexplained. She doesn’t open up about it. In one of her dialogues, she says,
“I miss the man who used to hold my hand at the carnival, yes. But, let’s not talk about that.”
—Implying that her father was originally a good man when she was young, but turned bad as she grew older. She also said that he died in the last year. Perhaps Evon was involved, and through some turn of events she ended up in his employ. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Kasmeer could find or use some kind of magic to change her voice and approach Marjory as Mr. E.
Where did you hear that Kasmeer and Kiel were childhood friends?

Another point of interest—The Molten Alliance dredge claimed that it was a fast-talking city type who incited them to war. One of the Anet Devs stated that this culprit was female. Could it be possible that Kasmeer (a smooth-talking female from the city) incited the Molten Alliance, at Evon’s command? Evon stood to profit from the Molten attacks with his Consortium connections. Kiel managed to foil that ploy with her brazen actions in Southsun, however, one-upping Evon for her own similar goal of control of LA.

It’s entirely possible that Kasmeer is perpetrating these plots for Evon, but sees herself as a troubled hero, similar to Canach. She has shown sentimentality for the downtrodden of Tyria. Maybe she instigated the Molten Alliance attacks due to coercion on Evon’s part, or maybe she hates Charr(leading to an interesting twist on her relation/service to Evon). Perhaps a Charr killed her father, or perhaps her father became a separatist. Maybe she saw the Molten Alliance as a way of strengthening ties between humans and Charr in the face of the zealotry of the Flame Legion.

Another tidbit-during Secrets of Southsun, Kasmeer said,
“Have I given you that impression? I must apologize. I’m actually looking forward to getting back to work. I may complain, but I love my job and my business partner and I make a great team.”
According to her, she had already been working with Marjory for a couple of months by this point. The statement was ambiguous enough, however, that she may have been referring to Evon.

It’s a stretch, but I’d love to see that these two and Kasmeer have each been working independently to incite the attacks over the last several months.

Given that a vacancy might appear on the council over time anyway, it doesn’t seem reasonable for the Aetherblade base to have been built just for the dragon bash attack with a plan of exposing it immediately. If Kiel was actually Scarlet then the better move would be to follow the original plan of putting Mai onto the council as a puppet. If Mai got out of hand then she could still be arrested for the Dragon Bash attack giving Kiel another vacancy on the council. In fact, from her Lionguard position it would have been much easier for Kiel to ‘remove’ one of the least popular councilors to start with.

The way I see it, it was a foolproof plan for Kiel, regardless of the outcome. Either way, Mai Trin could at any moment be apprehended for her Aetherblade connections. By having Mai execute the attack that removed the Captain’s Council member, Kiel both opened up a seat on the council for herself while eliminating her own competition for Aetherblade leadership.

Saitam.9340:

Where did you hear that Kasmeer and Kiel were childhood friends?

Kasmeer and Marjory. It was part of her talks with Faren, iirc, or her text dialogue during Secrets of Southsun.

Saitam.9340:

Evon stood to profit from the Molten attacks with his Consortium connections.

Uhhh.. Evon is a competitor with the Consortium. Evon leads the Black Lion Trading Post, which the Consortium openly introduced themselves as a rival company towards. Evon gained nothing from the Molten Alliance attack and has no connection to the Consortium.

Before you make tinfoil theories, at least get the facts right?

Evon has had nothing to gain by the Molten Alliance as we have seen. Nor has he anything to gain from the Soushsun Cove situation. Nor did Kiel in either situation, since her promotion came after the Ancient Karka incident, and then the second with defeating Mai – which she only got a “promotion” by commandeering a ship (technically she didn’t get promoted in the Lionguard).

Furthermore, you’re making a large presumption that the Flame Legion would listen to a human, whom they fanatically detest just as they do female charr. I cannot see the person who created the Molten Alliance being a human nor female charr. I suspect that the one who instigated the MA alliance is a sylvari, given the dredge hatred for norn and asura (due to Inquest, per SE path 1), the Flame hatred of human and female charr, and our knowledge of the person being female. A female sylvari is all that’s really left, because those two groups are unreasonable in their hatreds.

I further suspect that Scarlet and this unknown indivdual are the same person, because both the Aetherblade and Inquest union and the Molten Alliance’s allegiances have been about furthering technologies as far as we have seen, though the Aetherblades have additional goals as did the MA, the core of the alliances were improving their odds and technology/magitech. I suspect Scarlet is out for such a situation – for whatever reason.

Mr. E I believe is a human in Divinity’s Reach. He seems to know a lot – too much for Evon – of what’s going on in DR, and has shown interest in the Ministry – of which Evon would gain nothing to be interested in.

Evon seems to be a third card on the table for mysterious actions. He’s a briber and blackmailer from what I’ve seen and could tell, who’ll do what he needs to get into a better position without dirtying his hands (perhaps). His interest in the fall of Abaddon is hinted to be religious as well. He’s probably a situation in his own right that should be looked at, but I don’t think it’s Mr. E.

There’s just too much that point at Scarlet and Mr. E not being related to Kiel and Evon. It’s an interesting thought, but too much would point away, and I doubt that ArenaNet would put that many red herrings.

You’re right, Kasmeer does talk with some familiarity about Marjory. Kasmeer might lie to Marjory, however, if she were being coerced, perhaps by Evon due to something concerning her father’s mysterious death or her unexplained issues with the DR upper-crust.

Evon is openly a competitor with the Consortium. However, he still made a profit selling Consortium supplies and equipment through the Black Lion Trading post. He also gained further customers from the refugee influx through LA to Southsun Cove. Lastly, with the Consortium out of the way in Southsun, having done most of the leg-work of setting up infrastructure, the area is more-or-less completely open to him to exploit for profit.

I understand that these ideas are all based on unexplored theories, and I’m not trying to make tinfoil cap rumors—just hoping to open up discussion to the possible direction of the story. No need to slam my fact-checking. Facts > all.

Part of my interest in implicating Evon in the MA/Southsun affairs is due to the way that Arenanet has handled him so far. He’s basically a brand-new, no-background character seizing an opportunity for the spotlight that had previously been nothing but a shop NPC. I could see Arenanet writing him in as a behind-the-scenes schemer in the end to spice up his otherwise empty character.

Yeah, I agree, Anet wouldn’t throw that many red herrings into the game. But maybe we can at least give their lore team some ideas? ^^

As an aside, your female Sylvari theory—perhaps Faolain? She certainly has the motivation and fits the bill that the Dredge described. Maybe not as Scarlet, but as the MA perpetrator.

Saitam.9340:

Evon is openly a competitor with the Consortium. However, he still made a profit selling Consortium supplies and equipment through the Black Lion Trading post. He also gained further customers from the refugee influx through LA to Southsun Cove. Lastly, with the Consortium out of the way in Southsun, having done most of the leg-work of setting up infrastructure, the area is more-or-less completely open to him to exploit for profit.

1. That seems more like a mechanic, rather than lore. I mean, Anet isn’t going to make a second gemstore just to fit the lore.
2. Not really, the refugees didn’t really have anything to buy stuff with, so there’d actually be fewer customers if anything – as some of those refugees may have been previous customers who now couldn’t afford the BLTP’s pricings. But arguing either way is relatively speculative.
3. The Consortium are not “out of the way” – they just cannot force the refugees to remain on the island. They still own those buildings, and they still try to make a profit out of Southsun (because the Consortium brass are idiots who don’t realize how dangerous the place is because they’ve never been there).

Saitam.9340:

Part of my interest in implicating Evon in the MA/Southsun affairs is due to the way that Arenanet has handled him so far. He’s basically a brand-new, no-background character seizing an opportunity for the spotlight that had previously been nothing but a shop NPC. I could see Arenanet writing him in as a behind-the-scenes schemer in the end to spice up his otherwise empty character.

The gemstore updates always give a little blurb from Evon – an in-character advertisement. He was certainly not a no-background character nor was he brand-new. He has minimal background, true, but he’s had dialogue that gave him background since day 1 of GW2’s release. Though now that he’s in Labyrinthine Cliffs it’s gone (temporarily, I’m sure). Replaced by Sareb, his aide-de-camp (and interestingly, a female sylvari o.O).

Sareb tells some of his background in his places, explaining that he left the Legions (aka is a deserter) because he felt his military knowledge would help him in world commerce.

Saitam.9340:

As an aside, your female Sylvari theory—perhaps Faolain? She certainly has the motivation and fits the bill that the Dredge described. Maybe not as Scarlet, but as the MA perpetrator.

I wouldn’t put it past her and I have thought of it…

But I see the personal nemesis as more of a figure interested in technology for some reason – perhaps personal profit? – which Faolain doesn’t fit. Evon would certainly fit, but he’s not a she, so that cuts him out.

Unless the “she” that the dev let slip was a red herring, which I’ve always considered.

Interesting stuff, great attention to detail Konig!

I’m having a hard time thinking of an NPC who would be interested in seeing relatively uncompromising and zealous groups endanger the public for the sake of enhanced magitech. The only one that comes to mind off the bat is a revenge-fueled Zojja, potentially, seeking to erase the guilt and shame of Snaff’s past failure by making sure that Tyria is never again under-equipped to deal with the threat of the Dragons—by fueling petty wars and inciting these dangerous alliances.

If we were to assume that Kasmeer is a mesmer, then she could easily hide her magical powers, and pretend to be innocent. Deceit and masquerading is what mesmers do after all. But by that rule, really anyone could be a mesmer (-and that thought chills me to the bone). So unless we see Kasmeer actually do anything magical, I think that hypothesis has nothing to stand on.

I think another thing to remember is that the Aetherblade attack was on the whole council, and not just one individual. That one spot on the council opened up is simply a matter of unexpected consequences, because really they attacked the entire council, and there could have been a lot more open spots. So could Kiel really have planned all this, and known that exactly one spot would open up on the council? And what good would it do her? She’d still have an entire pirate council to work with. It’s not like she’d suddenly become the one and only ruler of Lion’s Arch. It’s a pirate council, and they all have to agree on things. My guess is that quite often they probably don’t agree on things. Kiel would be but one lone voice on a council of people that like to disagree with each other. Not exactly the best coup she could have pulled of.

^— Except I think in part of Mai’s dialogue she admits that her goal was to open up a seat on the council and then put herself on the council.

Saitam.9340:

I’m having a hard time thinking of an NPC who would be interested in seeing relatively uncompromising and zealous groups endanger the public for the sake of enhanced magitech. The only one that comes to mind off the bat is a revenge-fueled Zojja, potentially, seeking to erase the guilt and shame of Snaff’s past failure by making sure that Tyria is never again under-equipped to deal with the threat of the Dragons—by fueling petty wars and inciting these dangerous alliances.

Sounds like you’re trying to attach the figure to someone we know already.

Honestly, any asura would really fit the profile. More so if Inquest. Certain sylvari easily could, as could amoral humans and charr.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

My guess is that quite often they probably don’t agree on things.

Not just a guess. That’s a fact, and it’s why the position that the Marriner family has held since Cobiah exists which I believe is called Commodore, they’re the tie-breakers when the Council can’t decide, but they themselves are not part of the Council.

If Kiel was REALLY interested in a coup of Lion’s Arch – or anyone for that matter, rather than just the opportunity to join the council itself for the sake of being on the council and having a voice among few, they would go after the Commodore position, which by the way is guarded/spied on directly by the Master of Whispers. Though this is unknown except to Whisper agents. Given how Mai didn’t go after the Commodore position, and she was seemingly ordered by Scarlet to go after a Council position, Scarlet is either merely interested in having a voice in the Council and not running Lion’s Arch with an iron fist (which would require both the position of Commodore and the majority of the Captain’s Council members), or she knows that the Order of Whispers is keeping a close eye on the Commodore.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

^— Except I think in part of Mai’s dialogue she admits that her goal was to open up a seat on the council and then put herself on the council.

Yup, at the end of the Dragon Bash story chain, when Marjory considers her work done.

However, Malafide is correct in saying that there’s no way to know that there would be one and only one seat open on the council.

Saitam.9340:

Perhaps Kasmeer is a liar to her core—she acts innocent but she is apparently well-trained in combat, investigation, and social customs. She clearly has plenty of history that so far is left unexplained. She doesn’t open up about it. In one of her dialogues, she says,
“I miss the man who used to hold my hand at the carnival, yes. But, let’s not talk about that.”
—Implying that her father was originally a good man when she was young, but turned bad as she grew older. She also said that he died in the last year. Perhaps Evon was involved, and through some turn of events she ended up in his employ. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Kasmeer could find or use some kind of magic to change her voice and approach Marjory as Mr. E.

I think you might have misread the dialogue. She never said her father was dead.

This festival reminds me of when I was little, and my father and I used to go to the carnival in Divinity’s Reach.

Does your father still live in Divinity’s Reach?
No. He’s…He’s gone. My mother died when I was young, and my father…He was taken earlier this year.

You must miss him.
I miss the man who used to hold my hand at the carnival, yes. But, let’s not talk about that. It’s too nice a day!

You work for Marjory Delaqua, don’t you?
I work with her, yes. I joined Delaqua Investigations a few months ago. I needed some excitement to break up the boredom, you see?

Even after outright stating that her mother was dead, she only says, very vaguely, that her father is “gone” and more importantly “taken earlier this year”.

While I wouldn’t doubt that Kasmeer is involved in a dark plot of some sort, just not Lion’s Arch’s, or her being involved willingly. The “he’s gone” and “taken earlier this year” screams hostage situation to me. Plus, her joining Marjory in her investigations into the underbelly of DR, shortly after her father was winds up gone, is suspect as well.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

1. That seems more like a mechanic, rather than lore. I mean, Anet isn’t going to make a second gemstore just to fit the lore.

Kiels “vote for me” video does state that Evon was selling items from the Consortium on the market. That pretty much makes it part of the lore now.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

If we were to assume that Kasmeer is a mesmer, then she could easily hide her magical powers, and pretend to be innocent. Deceit and masquerading is what mesmers do after all. But by that rule, really anyone could be a mesmer (-and that thought chills me to the bone). So unless we see Kasmeer actually do anything magical, I think that hypothesis has nothing to stand on.

I think another thing to remember is that the Aetherblade attack was on the whole council, and not just one individual. That one spot on the council opened up is simply a matter of unexpected consequences, because really they attacked the entire council, and there could have been a lot more open spots. So could Kiel really have planned all this, and known that exactly one spot would open up on the council? And what good would it do her? She’d still have an entire pirate council to work with. It’s not like she’d suddenly become the one and only ruler of Lion’s Arch. It’s a pirate council, and they all have to agree on things. My guess is that quite often they probably don’t agree on things. Kiel would be but one lone voice on a council of people that like to disagree with each other. Not exactly the best coup she could have pulled of.

True. But we don’t know what the initial plans were. Whatever they were, and whoever devised them, clearly it didn’t work out as plan. But a good plan always has a back plan and a back up plan for that etc.

Also, getting rid of the council/a council member will probably only be a step towards the final goal. We are yet to see what this final goal is. Whoever the person is behind all this, we’re yet to see what they have planned next.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

If Kiel was REALLY interested in a coup of Lion’s Arch – or anyone for that matter, rather than just the opportunity to join the council itself for the sake of being on the council and having a voice among few, they would go after the Commodore position, which by the way is guarded/spied on directly by the Master of Whispers. Though this is unknown except to Whisper agents. Given how Mai didn’t go after the Commodore position, and she was seemingly ordered by Scarlet to go after a Council position, Scarlet is either merely interested in having a voice in the Council and not running Lion’s Arch with an iron fist (which would require both the position of Commodore and the majority of the Captain’s Council members), or she knows that the Order of Whispers is keeping a close eye on the Commodore.

I think if whoever is behind all this, if their end goal is to take over the Council and then replacing the Comm, attacking that position straight away would have caused quite a stir. We probably would have seen the Lion Guard called to arms plus any other society they could muster. The attack on the council was very “Spotlight”, sure, but councilors can be replaced. As long as they got 1, or 2, into the council then they could then start manipulating from the inside (Kiel AND Mai?). Other positions for the remaining dead councilors could be filled by whoever the Comm/citizens of LA wanted.

Attacking the Comm head on 1st would only have lead to one of the council being promoted anyway.

Maybe the leader of this coup doesn’t know about the Whispers watching?

Erukk.1408:

I think you might have misread the dialogue. She never said her father was dead.

This festival reminds me of when I was little, and my father and I used to go to the carnival in Divinity’s Reach.

Does your father still live in Divinity’s Reach?
No. He’s…He’s gone. My mother died when I was young, and my father…He was taken earlier this year.

You must miss him.
I miss the man who used to hold my hand at the carnival, yes. But, let’s not talk about that. It’s too nice a day!

You work for Marjory Delaqua, don’t you?
I work with her, yes. I joined Delaqua Investigations a few months ago. I needed some excitement to break up the boredom, you see?

Even after outright stating that her mother was dead, she only says, very vaguely, that her father is “gone” and more importantly “taken earlier this year”.

While I wouldn’t doubt that Kasmeer is involved in a dark plot of some sort, just not Lion’s Arch’s, or her being involved willingly. The “he’s gone” and “taken earlier this year” screams hostage situation to me. Plus, her joining Marjory in her investigations into the underbelly of DR, shortly after her father was winds up gone, is suspect as well.

Those quotations could be read in MANY ways imo.

I do agree that the theories by the OP are rather “Tin Hat” but I just thought I’d reply to those quotes to allow for more “Tin Hat” lol

Tin Hatting (is that a word? Is now!) is fun sometimes