Disclaimer: If you see anything blatantly wrong or idiotic feel free to explain the reason and I will update the infographic. Corrections on typos etc. are also welcome, as are further additions that could fit in with any of my explanations.
This is some stuff that has been swirling around in my head regarding the living story and how they all tie up. It occurred to me that ANet might be telling a story where you are given different plots along the way and they all really only fit together at the end (for example, The Fight Club). Some of the stories have started to come together in my head, and this is an attempt to put those ideas in concrete form.
A few core concepts:
Scarlet Briar was involved with the whole living story so far, likely behind it (even if she isn’t the person at the top).
I have a few other hypothesis of mine – after all this is speculation, so I assume that all of my ideas are wrong – so I explore other possibilities.
Each character has multiple explanations (e.g. “Manelovent Scarlet Briar”).
1. She is called Scarlet Briar, not Blade. I don’t know what you mean with, she’s only a lieutenant. I don’t recall any rank ever given to her.
2. Dessa is from the past, we know that. She never heard of Sylvari and Lion’s Arch wasn’t as respected back then (spoiler for SoS: probably because Marriner stole Rata Sum’s money). The Grand High Sovereign is from the future. Dessa could still possibly be from the same timeline, but since she was already in the mist before the infinity ball is presumably invented, that doesn’t even matter. (also depends on when the timeline splits)
You don’t win friends with salad! Sorry I just got caught up in the rhythm.
1. She is called Scarlet Briar, not Blade. [snip] I don’t recall any rank ever given to her.
I assume that silly typo was only in my post? I looked over the infographic and didn’t see it. It wasn’t the rank that was important, rather the idea that she isn’t the commander/person at the top.
Thanks for the peer review, I won’t be adding the bit about her in that case (as you are right, it is irrelevant).
I’ll post an updated infographic after some more feedback. I removed enough about her that I am no longer happy that the two concepts may be related (at the same time they have to be because of the infinity ball which is really tied into the concept of the mists, I just can’t come up with a better way to explain it).
Auroraglade Epistemic.8013: Guys this is bullkitten a sentient plant creature is hitting these
wooden doors with fireballs and it’s working.
Asurans have been known to claim other’s peoples work as theirs. I wouldn’t accept the infinity ball revelations as truth until verified.
Good point. I’ll clarify that in the infographic – the theory still applies regardless of who invented it (although a clarification about that would give us a lot more to work with in terms of the core concepts of this theory – especially if it isn’t the Asuran You).
Auroraglade Epistemic.8013: Guys this is bullkitten a sentient plant creature is hitting these
wooden doors with fireballs and it’s working.
2. Dessa is from the past, we know that. She never heard of Sylvari and Lion’s Arch wasn’t as respected back then (spoiler for SoS: probably because Marriner stole Rata Sum’s money).
Dessa is very much from the present. She knows about the consortium. She likely talks LA down because it is, in fact, full of pirates and Sylvari are fairly uninteresting to someone in her line of work. She’s been in that lab for god knows how long, with no intention of ever leaving, so the emergence of some tree-people passing her by is no biggie. Hell, I don’t even remember where she mentions not knowing about the Sylvari.
Dessa is very much from the present. She knows about the consortium. She likely talks LA down because it is, in fact, full of pirates and Sylvari are fairly uninteresting to someone in her line of work. She’s been in that lab for god knows how long, with no intention of ever leaving, so the emergence of some tree-people passing her by is no biggie. Hell, I don’t even remember where she mentions not knowing about the Sylvari.
I think she does when you play a sylvari. I have none myself, but it has been mentioned often enough by people, so I think it’s safe to say it’s true (I also saw a screenshot of the dialog somewhere, probably on the Guru).
But Dessa is heavily implied to be from the past, by her statement about Sylvari. Of course it’s not ancient past, but atleast about 25 years. It’s possible that Sylvari were awakened when Dessa was around, but had not made contact with the asura yet, or just so recently that their existence wasn’t common knowledge.
Besides that, I’m pretty sure a race of scrientists would be up to date with scientific discoveries. Even if the Sylvari are not in Dessa’s field of research, I’m pretty sure she would have heard about them. It’s not like an everyday occurance that an entire race of sapient plant people appiers right in front of your home territory. I don’t think any asura could have ignored that.
And who knows how old the consortium is? As players we only came into contact with it recently, that does not mean it wasn’t around for far longer.
You don’t win friends with salad! Sorry I just got caught up in the rhythm.
Besides that, I’m pretty sure a race of scrientists would be up to date with scientific discoveries. Even if the Sylvari are not in Dessa’s field of research, I’m pretty sure she would have heard about them. It’s not like an everyday occurance that an entire race of sapient plant people appiers right in front of your home territory. I don’t think any asura could have ignored that.
And who knows how old the consortium is? As players we only came into contact with it recently, that does not mean it wasn’t around for far longer.
My point is, from the dialogue I’ve experienced as a not-sylvari-playing player, there’s absolutely zero indication to me that she’s from the past, let alone having it be heavily implied. She’s been locked in that lab since forever and doesn’t know the way into her lab is now in LA thanks to a malfunctioning gate and that seems to be all there is to it from my end.
Dessa is very much from the present. She knows about the consortium. She likely talks LA down because it is, in fact, full of pirates and Sylvari are fairly uninteresting to someone in her line of work. She’s been in that lab for god knows how long, with no intention of ever leaving, so the emergence of some tree-people passing her by is no biggie. Hell, I don’t even remember where she mentions not knowing about the Sylvari.
We technically don’t know when the Consortium were established.
Dessa is, IMO, most likely from shortly after Lion’s Arch was rebuilt – keep in mind that LA was built using money stolen from Rata Sum (well, specifically from Kryta but the money was to pay for Divinity’s Reach’s asura gate, so the Arcane Council got the raw end of the deal since the gate was already built). This would place her as before sylvari, and while asura in general had a poor view of Lion’s Arch. All we’re missing is the foundation date of the Consortium – all we know about their founding is that it is asuran-established, but even that doesn’t prevent it from being established before the asura surfaced – the Consortium could have easily been the Black Lion of Quora Sum and the other five majestic underground cities.
My point is, from the dialogue I’ve experienced as a not-sylvari-playing player, there’s absolutely zero indication to me that she’s from the past, let alone having it be heavily implied.
But her blatant fascination and unknowing what a sylvari is means that she hasn’t even heard of sylvari, let alone seen one. She even expresses interest in it – just not as much interest as in the Mists, so it isn’t that they just aren’t in her area of interest. Meaning that, at the least, she likely hasn’t been to Tyria since around 1302 AE.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Yeah, as a main character Sylvari I can tell you that she does not recognize the race. If you want I can post a screen shot next time I go inside.
That’d be nice, I’m not much for tree people and this dialogue doesn’t seem to be documented on the wiki (or even mentioned) so it’s rather shiny and new to me. In light of this, I’d assume Dessa entered the lab at most a couple of years before the Sylvari started falling off the tree. This explains how she could still know about the Consortium yet be completely ignorant of the Sylvari’s existence. For a time period like that it seems rather hard to discern if she’s just been in isolation that long, or if she’s actually “from” earlier.
As for her ‘tude towards LA – Dessa seems to be one of those kind of people like Lydia from that one show on TV. To her LA is just a bunch of uncouth savages/cutthtroat pirates and certainly not up to her sheltered/snobby/however you wanna word it personality’s “standards”.
, I won’t be adding the bit about her in that case (as you are right, it is irrelevant).