Guild Wars 2

Wild-Eye Miller is a conspiracy theorist near the lighthouse. He rants about how all races are dragon minions, how Marjory is a long-lost sister to Mai Trin, and how LA was rebuilt using the corpses of its dead. So, everything he says should clearly be taken with a grain of salt. That said, he has one theory that holds some water:

Wild-Eye Miller: We elected Kiel, but Evon Gnashblade runs this city. All the proceeds from the rebuild? Straight into his pocket.
Wild-Eye Miller: But we all know about that. What’s strange is how Gnashblade is always in the right place at the right time.
Wild-Eye Miller: Have you heard the sightings of two Evon Gnashblades?
Wild-Eye Miller: The second Gnashblade is Evon’s twin brother, Tarvan! The twins stay in contact through telepathy.
Wild-Eye Miller: They own this city. You can’t stop two Gnashblades!

Tarvan… Hm. Sure, the telepathy part sounds far-fetched and is likely not true, but the rest has some evidence. In the city, there’s a fake “Evon” Gnashblade, which might be the mysterious twin. He’s dressed exactly the same as he was in the rebuilding patch.

When LA was about to be rebuilt, there was dialogue between Evon Gnashblade and Hero-tron. However, the NPC that spoke to Hero-tron was clad differently than the usual Captain Evon Gnashblade NPC and both NPCs were present in the city at the same time.

When Evon spoke to Hero-tron, he claimed that he knew about Hero-tron’s past with the Consortium. Their discussion was originally about a debt that Hero-tron owed to Evon, but then Evon blackmails Hero-tron into becoming his spy. Now, Hero-tron is situated directly below the Crow’s Nest where the majority of the Captain’s Council presides.

So to summarize:

• There are two Evon Gnashblades in LA and have been since prior to the rebuild (though that seems to be a glitch/gag that ANet decided to embrace).
• The Gnashblade that blackmails Hero-tron isn’t the same Gnashblade that is minding the company prior to the rebuilding of LA.

Now, I can accept that there are two Evon Gnashblades walking around, sure. But who exactly is the impostor Evon?

I don’t think it’s a Mesmer illusion because if it were, it’d be unwise to stay in the illusion out in the open in the same city in which Evon resides. So, if it’s not a Mesmer, then it’s a lookalike (or a clone lol). And if Wild-Eye Miller is to be trusted, his name is Tarvan (the mere fact that we’re given a name at all makes me think ANet is hinting at the name being real). Also, Tarvan doesn’t get the Captain NPC title because he doesn’t own a ship.

So, assuming this is a Charr named Tarvan, who are they?

If they are working with Evon:

• They’d need some way to communicate without raising suspicion
• It’d mean Evon trusted Tarvan with maintaining his reputation
• Tarvan must not have been available when Evon had the Sylvari Sareb take his place when he went to the Zephyr Sanctum
• The desire to make Hero-tron a spy means that Evon is suspicious of or has plans against the Captain’s Council
• Evon seems to be smuggling both from the Vault and at the docks, so the doppelganger could handle his dealings on the other side of LA
• Evon isn’t comfortable with having a known second-hand man (which might explain Sareb’s disappearance)

If they are not working together:

• Tarvan is either lying about how he found out Hero-tron’s identity or somehow impersonated Evon when Hero-tron got its combat chassis
• Tarvan could potentially be a member of an organization that would know about Hero-tron: the Consortium itself or the Order of Whispers
• Tarvan could be independently involved in the smuggling on the docks without Evon knowing since it’s out of his reach
• Tarvan needs Hero-tron to spy so that he can learn more about the Captain’s Council for some unknown reason

Also, there’s the topic of whether they are actually twins. Considering that Tarvan and Evon sound similar, I’d suggest this is true strictly from a writer’s point of view. But there’s no actual evidence beyond that aside from the ramblings of Wild-Eye Miller.

Any theories?

tl;dr Evon Gnashblade has a doppelganger named Tarvan that is either an ally of his or a spy using his identity.

EDIT: Removed personal misconception that Evon was a low ranking member of the Captain’s Council

If you want to see “Evon” for yourself, if I remember correctly he resides under the garden island, with some shady looking people. In his dialog you can confront him about pretending to be Evon Gnashblade to get free drinks.

By the way, there is a detail wrong in your analysis, Gnashblade is not a member of Captain’s Council, as he lost the election to Kiel.

This whole time I assumed they were both members and were fighting for the top seat. I see now that neither of them were members and they were fighting for the empty seat.

Well technically the top seat would be the Commodore, in this case Lawson Marriner, but he doesn’t seem to care about politicts all that much. Atleast as far as I’m aware he was never part of any storyline, he barely has dialog to boot.

Any theories?

I think the second “Evon” ties in neatly with the fact, that we have never seen members of the gnash-warband besides Evon.
Our doppelgänger might me a member of the warband posing as Evon, to help coordinate the massive enterprise.
The warband’s mission was to establish an ash legion foothold in LA.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/short-story-evon-gnashblade-disembarks/
We learn from the Cutthroat politics short story, that Evon Gnashblade is the current legionnaire, so he could order his warband to act as his eyes, ears and hands.
It may not be an illusion, but costumes in tyria seem to be rather convincing, as anyone, who did the bandit camp infiltration can attest.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infiltrate_and_disrupt_Seanan%27s_bandits
As the OP said, one of them has been seen blackmailing Hero-Tron, while the other crushed merchants in the rebuilding of Lions Arch. This seems to indicate that they work in each other’s interest, since knowlege of political decisions in advance of everyone else on the market can be very profitable. It could also hint that the political disputes of the Captain’s Council are no secret to the ash imperator, who could use this information to stay ahead of the other legions in terms of intelligence.

What do you think, is there a possibility of ash-legion involvement in the politics of LA?

PeterFries.1057:

Note that the real Evon (when he’s in his new office in the Black Lion Vaults) is using a ballot basket as his deskside trash bin.

Oh my.

http://i.imgur.com/sikr8ME.jpg

I wish I could crouch to get a closer look. Since I didn’t play through this part of the Living World, I didn’t even recognize it. That’s a cool little touch.

Also, the entryway just clicked for me. It’s Black Lion Keys.

PeterFries.1057:

Note that the real Evon (when he’s in his new office in the Black Lion Vaults) is using a ballot basket as his deskside trash bin.

Who needs politics when you can get mad paper, eh? Thanks for hint, I didn’t notice it when I was there (so much to discover!)

Koviko.3248:

• Evon seems to be smuggling both from the Vault and at the docks, so the doppelganger could handle his dealings on the other side of LA

How do you get there? I assume it’s beyond the locked door in the vaults.

Kalavier.1097:

Koviko.3248:

• Evon seems to be smuggling both from the Vault and at the docks, so the doppelganger could handle his dealings on the other side of LA

How do you get there? I assume it’s beyond the locked door in the vaults.

as you enter the vault main lobby his disk is at the left of the stairs

Kalavier means the stack of crates in front of the asura gate. Where in the building is that? I looked myself but couldn’t find it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Kalavier means the stack of crates in front of the asura gate. Where in the building is that? I looked myself but couldn’t find it.

Well, I did find this…

Looking at map, there is a huge room as well as another one that we can’t even access yet.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Kalavier means the stack of crates in front of the asura gate. Where in the building is that? I looked myself but couldn’t find it.

I took a look at the Vault in Tyria 3D and it’s in the very back of the vault, which is 6 locked gates away. I wonder how that redditor made it to the back while in-game…

I do not guess exactly what is going on, but in considering it I do think it is important to remember Evon risked his life to prevent his Legionnaire from extorting “protection money” from the people of the city, and killing another member of his wabrand was akin to killing his sister to defend the city. Granted he might not be above less extreme manipulation.

To put a dent in this theory (or to perhaps make it seem like it was planned all along…):

I am absolutely positive that this “Evon” Gnashblade figure existed before Escape from Lion’s Arch – specifically at the Lion’s Shadow Inn (where the Guild Initiative now is). He uses the true Evon’s original outfit which got updated for Bazaar of the Four Winds. The dialogue, if memory serves me right, is more or less unchanged – I definitely recall the mention of seeing Evon on the other side of town and the mention of free drinks (which doesn’t even make sense in the current state – there’s no drinks anywhere where he’s at now!).

Can a dev confirm or deny my memory and/or sanity?