Guild Wars 2

Hi all

I’ve been reading “Ghosts of Ascalon” the Guildwars novel. Flippin awesome read by the way, love GW lore! It mentions in the book the telling of the “Foefire” which was King Adleburns last attempt to rid the city of the Charr.

However portrayed in the book their are two versions, one told from a Charr known as Ember saying that the Foefire was caused from a clash of King Adleburns sword, “Magdaer” and the “Khan-Ur” which was wielded by a member from the Charr invasion.

In the second mention of the book it then goes on to tell that the Forefire was caused when all hope was lost when the Charr overran the city and thats when King Adleburn drove the sword into the ground announcing he will never retreat.

I apologize now if I have misunderstood the text or am missing something here but the story seems to contradict itself and I feel their is a good explanation for this, which of the two actually happened, and are their two different versions because the humans have accounted for it differently than the Charr?

Cheers, James!

Anet has been very deliberate in how they’ve created the current story between Humans and Charr in that ever since they revealed that Charr would become a playable race they began to include their voice in the history of the world. Now the Humans and Charr have always been battling against one another, so two stories are always present when the discussion of Ascalon comes into play.

What you have in the book (haven’t read it myself unfortunately) are those two separate accounts of what caused the current situation. The Charr version of events is actually the most dominant one we encounter in the game, this is chiefly because our guide in the Story-Mode version of Ascalon Catacombs is Rytlock.

So it’s fairly important to remember that there are two very different sides to this coin. Similarly how the Charr have viewed Ascalon as their land and subsequently justified in their annahilation of an entire kingdom. However, people who were unfamiliar with GW1 lore often forget that the Charr not only destroyed an entire Kingdom but were well on their way to committing Genocide after the searing that devastated not only the Kingdom of Ascalon but reduced the landscape to a burnt wasteland. The Charr invasion spread past Ascalon and into Orr and Kryta, and were only stopped by the Cataclysm caused by Vizier Kilhbron and the Mursaat at the behest of Saul D’Alessio. A story they don’t really touch on much in GW2.

So, I think your interpretation is actually quite spot on. The story is divided because both sides have come to read their own interpretation of event but I think a combination of both stories is likely the most accurate one. We know for a fact that King Adelburn is an emotionally stable individual, and largely stubborn figure with deep racial hatreds. He did not even trust his neighbouring human Kingdom of Kryta after the events of the Guild Wars, and his hatred for the Charr was even worse. He refused to abandon flee his Kingdom to the Charr even after the Searing, and fought to the bitter end. However to think that he simply shattered the sword on his own seems to be very implausible. I suspect there was some magical effect when the Magdaer clashed with the Khan-Ur that caused the weapon to break. More interesting will be to find out the state of the Khan-Ur weapon to see if it is in a similar state, but I suspect we won’t get any word on that situation until later expansions that deal with the peace-treaty being forged between the Krytan Monarchy and the Iron Legions.

iirc in AC dungeon the sword is seen in the ground. apparently unbroken* citation needed

DonQuack.9025:

iirc in AC dungeon the sword is seen in the ground. apparently unbroken* citation needed

Actually at the end of the Dungeon, Eir goes on to say that she knows a smith who can repair it with the intent of giving it to Logan Thackery. However we never hear about or see the sword there after. Although I agree, the sword appears relatively undamaged, as far as we’re told though it’s borked.

the story matches the charr’s vesion of the story. IIRC, the book even brings it up later on.

It’s one of those things where “historical” accounts of the same event differ, with each trying to put their own side in a better light.

It seems to me that after what we read in Ghosts of Ascalon and what we’ve seen in the game, the Adelbern did it on purpose theory is probably the correct one.

BrunoBRS.5178”

the story matches the charr’s vesion of the story.

Of course the storymode matches the Charr’s version. A Charr is the one who tells it.

I’d also like to point out that our only instants actually talking with Adelbern in the storymode of AC is with Rytlock being a jack kitten and antagonizing him. Of course Adelbern is pissed when we meet him, he think he just reunited with his long lost/dead son and it turns out to be some smack talking Charr. Further we have already seen the Foefire’s effect on the other ghosts of Ascalon’s mental state, who knows how much more damage it did to Adelberns less than stable mentality since then.

I still think that the most likely scenario is that both versions of the story have elements of truth to them.

Ratphink.4751:

BrunoBRS.5178”

the story matches the charr’s vesion of the story.

Of course the storymode matches the Charr’s version. A Charr is the one who tells it.

I’d also like to point out that our only instants actually talking with Adelbern in the storymode of AC is with Rytlock being a jack kitten and antagonizing him. Of course Adelbern is pissed when we meet him, he think he just reunited with his long lost/dead son and it turns out to be some smack talking Charr. Further we have already seen the Foefire’s effect on the other ghosts of Ascalon’s mental state, who knows how much more damage it did to Adelberns less than stable mentality since then.

I still think that the most likely scenario is that both versions of the story have elements of truth to them.

i meant the actual story. the charr version tells of adelbern smashing the sword against the ground, whereas the human version says it was the result of the claw and magdaer clashing. when you visit the catacombs, you find magdaer stuck on the ground, like some mockery of excalibur.

in fact, Ghosts of Ascalon spoilerswe have a witness of the foefire, one that has kept his sanity even after death, because he died before the foefire happened. this witness is human and he confirms that the charr version of the story is the accurate one