Guild Wars 2

Clarification: This is not a complaint. I am loving the LS right now and discovering this story with Glint etc.

But, it makes me wonder. When I first started playing GW2 (and after reading the novels) I figured that once we approached the Crystal Desert and Kralk that we would be learning all that we are learning now: the future of Glint and her offspring, seeing her lair, etc etc.

Instead, as we go west, the jungle area is more desert-like and we are getting all this information about Glint as we pursue Mordy. I can understand the connection and I have seen other threads talk about the possible interest of Mordy in the egg, but after that is all said and done……where is the story going to go when (and if) we go to the Crystal Desert? I guess maybe the “restoration” of Destiny’s Edge, maybe a “snaff flashback” (Kralk uses him as an apparition or something).

I just don’t see Anet lumping 2 dragons together in one story as the dragons are far too valuable as a story mechanic to rush (once we kill all the dragons, then what? That is, are we even supposed to kill them?)

It just got me wondering, that’s all. While I have enjoyed the recent episodes, I feel like I am playing more in the Crystal Desert than I am in the Maguuma jungle and I was curious to hear from the lore community on what story the desert could bring us. And of course, I am jumping the gun a bit here.

Side note/question: With the Breachmaker incident, is that considered the “official awakening” of Mordremoth? Or was he already awake and now he is just making a move? I considered it the awakening, but I wanted to double check.

The main problem we will have in Crystal Desert is a massive amount of Undeads under Palawa Joko.

Mordy seems to have waken up due to the “attack” on the Ley-lines yes. It also seems like it awoke earlier than it was supposed to, due to it.

Fox.8957:

Clarification: This is not a complaint. I am loving the LS right now and discovering this story with Glint etc.

But, it makes me wonder. When I first started playing GW2 (and after reading the novels) I figured that once we approached the Crystal Desert and Kralk that we would be learning all that we are learning now: the future of Glint and her offspring, seeing her lair, etc etc.

Instead, as we go west, the jungle area is more desert-like and we are getting all this information about Glint as we pursue Mordy. I can understand the connection and I have seen other threads talk about the possible interest of Mordy in the egg, but after that is all said and done……where is the story going to go when (and if) we go to the Crystal Desert? I guess maybe the “restoration” of Destiny’s Edge, maybe a “snaff flashback” (Kralk uses him as an apparition or something).

I just don’t see Anet lumping 2 dragons together in one story as the dragons are far too valuable as a story mechanic to rush (once we kill all the dragons, then what? That is, are we even supposed to kill them?)

It just got me wondering, that’s all. While I have enjoyed the recent episodes, I feel like I am playing more in the Crystal Desert than I am in the Maguuma jungle and I was curious to hear from the lore community on what story the desert could bring us. And of course, I am jumping the gun a bit here.

Side note/question: With the Breachmaker incident, is that considered the “official awakening” of Mordremoth? Or was he already awake and now he is just making a move? I considered it the awakening, but I wanted to double check.

I agree. “Dry Top” was far more “Crystal Desert”-ey than it should been. The Maguuma is a dry wasteland, not sandy-duned desert! Having this type of thing makes me think that maybe they won’t go back to CD, which is a big mistake.

The one thing about your post that I would like to criticize is the assumption that “there is no story if there are no dragons”. There WERE NO DRAGONS before and they did just fine making exciting and entertaining stories! Forget the dragons, I want another antagonist like the Undead Lich or Warmarshal Varesh!

Dry Top was “sandy-duned desert” because, lorewise, of continuous fierce winds. Such winds would erode stone down into sand, and blow the sand away. With Dry Top being full of canyons, however, as it was in GW1, that sand has little to go – which results in it just shifting around in Dry Top itself via the wind that becomes sandstorms.

It was more Crystal Desert-like than it really needed to be, but still works storywise. They could have easily gone without the sand and sandstorms though, obviously.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Dry Top was “sandy-duned desert” because, lorewise, of continuous fierce winds. Such winds would erode stone down into sand, and blow the sand away. With Dry Top being full of canyons, however, as it was in GW1, that sand has little to go – which results in it just shifting around in Dry Top itself via the wind that becomes sandstorms.

It was more Crystal Desert-like than it really needed to be, but still works storywise. They could have easily gone without the sand and sandstorms though, obviously.

It’s only been 250 years. I’m no geologist, but that’s not enough time for all that sand to form.

Can we really base such thing in a fantasy world on real world knowledge?

lordkrall.7241:

Can we really base such thing in a fantasy world on real world knowledge?

Well it would be nice to be able to base them on something. Yes it is of course always to be assumed that fantasy worlds don’t always follow real world science because they’re worlds in which magic exists, but if you aren’t able to use any kind of real world science within those worlds then they become less and less plausible (and yes plausibility should be a concern within fantasy and it’s something the devs should consider). Yeah you can say ‘this jungle is now a desert because this is a fantasy world and erosion etc. don’t have to occur in the same time frame’, but the second you say something like that players begin to lose the ability to relate to and understand that world. It’s precisely why we have/like realistic relationships in fantasy, because it makes the world familiar to us.

Actually the wiki hinted at the state of the Maguuma jungle at release.

Wiki

The Maguuma Wastes are an area north of the Tarnished Coast. They are formed from the portions of the Maguuma Jungle that have mysteriously dried out over the years. Although this is commonly attributed to the Elder Dragons, there may be other agents at work.¹

So the area we are in has been known to have become an Arid wasteland-esque area for sometime, as we are still in what is being attributed as the Maguuma Wastes. So this is more or less what I had been expecting when we first started exploring it.

So while ‘BLAME MORDREMOTH’ is true, we could have any number of factors. The Druid Spirits which were known to inhabit the area may have become under attack among any number of things. For instance, I think we’re approaching the areas that were fed by waters with healing properties originally, but these all seem to have dried up. Why?

@Ratphink: I think narwhalsbend is not complaining about the aridness (Dry Top was always arid) but the pure amount of sand.

@narwhalsbend and FlamingFoxx: It should be noted that the place dried out even more than GW1, without water, this would make even dirt to become very sandy. So I would argue that fierce winds eroding rock and lack of just about any moisture would indeed produce that much sand in 250 years. There was, apparently, some magical involvement with the drying of the underground magical water table (my bet lies on either bloodstone tampering by White Mantle, or Primordus).

lordkrall.7241:

The main problem we will have in Crystal Desert is a massive amount of Undeads under Palawa Joko.

Honestly after Orr I’ve had my fill of Zombies. Even 2 years on.

lordkrall.7241:

Can we really base such thing in a fantasy world on real world knowledge?

Suspension of disbelieve only goes so far (unless we invoke the Rule of Cool). Eventually if we keep going back to ‘a wizard did it’ the internal consistency of the universe starts to break down and the experience becomes un-immersive. Although my lack of geological knowledge makes it difficult for me to comment on the factual nature of anything.

There are plenty of things in GW2’s geography and geology that make no sense what so ever. I think this is one of those things you just have to take for granted, since this is a fantasy universe. So tropical Kryta being right next to giant snow covered mountains, it makes no sense, but what ever.

Massive floating islands, with waterfalls with seemingly infinite amounts of water… yeah, it is stupid (You heard me right James Cameron, if you are reading this!). But a lot of these are just esthetic choices, done simply because it looks cool.

There are a lot of fortresses now in the Silver Wastes that I don’t remember being in GW1 at all. But since in GW1 it was a jungle, I suppose you could explain it away by saying that the deforestation revealed these ancient structures underneath the jungle. It still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But with a new game you can expect them to add new stuff that isn’t found in GW1.

So with all of these things in mind, Dry Top’s sand isn’t such a big deal really.

@narwhalsbend

I wasn’t meaning to say that there can’t be a story without dragons, not at all! But, the whole premise of GW2, ever since the introduction of the game in the first trailer was the problem of the dragons and how Tyria was to deal with it. I just get the feeling that if Anet did go on to create another major character/plot arc (while I’m sure I would like it) there would be a lovely amount of complaints from the community saying ’WHERE’S OUR DRAGONS??’ Even with the creation of Scarlet (which I thought was fine) she was a character that introduced the next dragon. So, I brought my point up asking “what else could there be?” as I don’t see Anet lumping 2 dragons together. Depending on how everything plays out in Magumma though, a nice White Mantle/Mursaat arc would be a welcome trek for me.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There are a lot of fortresses now in the Silver Wastes that I don’t remember being in GW1 at all. But since in GW1 it was a jungle, I suppose you could explain it away by saying that the deforestation revealed these ancient structures underneath the jungle. It still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But with a new game you can expect them to add new stuff that isn’t found in GW1.

So with all of these things in mind, Dry Top’s sand isn’t such a big deal really.

Yeah I was wondering about that too. The Silverwood—>Silverwaste transition is far more massive a change than Dry Top just… becoming more sandy.

But the world itself changes in strange ways, every where. I recently logged back into GW1 and took a look at Ascalon…. seems the Foefire created more of the Great Wall, in ruins, than existed when it first was breached.