Guild Wars 2

“Into the Jungle
The road to war is paved by points of no return. Tyria has already decided to take the battle to Mordremoth. As we go on this journey we’ll learn dark secrets of Tyria’s past, venture into stories with roots deep in the very heart of Guild Wars lore, and visit places that have only been rumored to exist.
Season 2?s final episode will feature an unforgettable end for all of you who go on this journey with us. So make sure to jump in and join the ride starting on November 4.”

Visit places that have only been rumored to exist….. hmmm. Considering we’re going into the jungle, there is only one place that immediately pops into my mind that has been rumored to exist. And that’s the city of the Mursaat.

Like it says in the story of Saul D’Alessio, founder of the White Mantle:

“Alone, broke, and lost, Saul wandered through a dense forest for several days, surviving on only roots and berries. On the fourth day, delirious with hunger, Saul emerged from the trees to see what he thought was a hallucination—a city of massive towers reaching into the heavens. The architecture was astounding, and the creatures who lived here were unlike any he had ever seen. Walking down into their city, Saul got a closer look at the denizens of this place. They were tall and thin with strange wing-like appendages that waved about in the slightest breeze. When they walked, their feet seemed not to touch the ground, and when they spoke, it was the most melodious sound he had ever heard. Surely these creatures were the stuff of divinity. Hungry and exhausted, his clothes ragged and dirty, Saul dropped to his knees and touched his forehead to the ground. He had found his gods, and they in turn had found their most devoted disciple. "

Thoughts?

Hrrmn. It is a possibility, yes. Probably abandoned, so we won’t see a return of the mursaat per se, but I could see the old city of the mursaat being a target for Mordy.

Mind you, it could be referring to places which, according to the people alive in Tyria today, are ‘rumoured to exist’… rumours that are about two and a half centuries old :P.

My thoughts exactly, which is what I mentioned in my post in here as well. I’d love to get a chance to see that city!

However, and this could be rather large, unless we are going to be travelling beyond Magus Falls(which would thrill everyone that is seeking a huge content update to the GW2 world), I find it rather hard to believe we never came across this city in GW1. Since the majority of the area we are in and approaching we did comb through in the first world, granted it was not as detailed and the areas were more compressed that we are seeing now, still, it’s an intriguing possibility.

It was years ago when I read this, but wasn’t there some strong speculation that the Mursaat (or at least A Mursaat city) was along the Ullen River somewhere? On the GW1 map there’s a spot next to Riverside Province that we never get to see, so we probably don’t have to go TOO terribly far from where we are to see a Mursaat City. Also, the unexplored area immediately west of the Thaumanova Reactor seems to be the area where most of the Ullen River is today. It could just be one spacce below Dry Top if they make it an oblong sort of map like Lornar’s Pass or something. Or just extend Dry Top to the south and put a map next to it. Dry Top is much smaller than other maps as it is now.

That spot that we couldn’t see resides within Metrica Province now, actually. The river that is directly west of Thaumanova is the Ullen River – it flows from the Inquest Complex to Fisher’s Beach Bend and then to Jaztar Falls (well, the flow is from both ends towards Fisher’s Beach Bend, technically – and lorewise should go further west, though is blocked off for mechanical reasons, at least, if my GW1 memory is right).

Fisher’s Beach Bend is actually where Old Joness was in GW1 – though on a side now mechanically cliffs.

And it was speculation, but I wouldn’t call it “strong” – the entire thing came from a single line:

“Its real name is Ullen River, but those of us who know it best never call it that. It’s the Dark River to us. Dark as in absence of light, yes but that’s only part of it. A shadow lies over that region, and it is cast by something…unseen, I suppose you could say.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Old_Joness

This very vague line was hardly “strong” to be honest, and as we can see by going into Metrica Province, there is no such Mursaat structure.

There’s been a lot of speculation about the idea that the Mursaat city might be hidden with magic. They are called the Unseen Ones after all. Maybe the whole city is cloaked, and right underneath our noses?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There’s been a lot of speculation about the idea that the Mursaat city might be hidden with magic. They are called the Unseen Ones after all. Maybe the whole city is cloaked, and right underneath our noses?

Under our noses… getting on the ground in Rata Sum sends you to prison… Rata Sum is an anagram of Mursaat…

…I smell a conspiracy!

Tuomir.1830:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There’s been a lot of speculation about the idea that the Mursaat city might be hidden with magic. They are called the Unseen Ones after all. Maybe the whole city is cloaked, and right underneath our noses?

Under our noses… getting on the ground in Rata Sum sends you to prison… Rata Sum is an anagram of Mursaat…

…I smell a conspiracy!

To obvious…or is it? Only time will tell.

Tuomir.1830:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There’s been a lot of speculation about the idea that the Mursaat city might be hidden with magic. They are called the Unseen Ones after all. Maybe the whole city is cloaked, and right underneath our noses?

Under our noses… getting on the ground in Rata Sum sends you to prison… Rata Sum is an anagram of Mursaat…

…I smell a conspiracy!

Wait wha…

* mind is blown *

Cerbeius.7129:

Tuomir.1830:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There’s been a lot of speculation about the idea that the Mursaat city might be hidden with magic. They are called the Unseen Ones after all. Maybe the whole city is cloaked, and right underneath our noses?

Under our noses… getting on the ground in Rata Sum sends you to prison… Rata Sum is an anagram of Mursaat…

…I smell a conspiracy!

Wait wha…

* mind is blown *

Prepare for more mind blownage:

Rata Sum (pronounced rahta soom) is the capital city of the asura and is in the form of a giant, floating cube. When the Great Destroyer drove them from their homes in the Depths of Tyria 250 years ago, they arrived at the ruins of some previous civilization, setting up geomystical generators for power within these already fortified confines and establishing the area as their new capital.

I don’t even…

The huge issue with the whole Rata Sum = mursaat city ruins is threefold:

1. Rata Sum is an asuran name. See Rata Pten and Quora Sum, two asura settlements. The anagram is merely out-of-game easter egging (or completely unintentional; don’t think we’ve heard if it was intentional from the devs).
2. Rata Pten is a confirmed asuran structure that is pre-Cataclysm. It has the exact same ruin models as the Tarnished Coast ruins. Similarly, Rata Sum and the other “couldn’t be asuran” (or so players think) ruins in the Tarnished Coast back in GW1 used the exact same models as the Central Transfer Chamber (one of the biggest asuran gate hubs).
3. Mursaat structures look like this.

While people love to use that anagram for “they must be mursaat” – in all honesty, there is nothing to support the claim other than an easter egg, and everything to support that those ruins the asura settled on… were asuran – simply lost and forgotten by the asura.

Perhaps I should add that t’was but a joke – didn’t think people here would take it for serious lore speculation.

People have countless times since Eye of the North first came out.

Which was more or less what I was referencing with the joke – but enough of that. If we look at the Into the Jungle teaser text, it mentions “the very heart of Guild Wars lore”. I really don’t think this refers to the Guild Wars of tyrian history, but instead refer to the series – so, game lore, not necessary lore known to characters or factions.

Which raises the question: what is at the very heart of Guild Wars lore? The only things I can come up with right now are the mists – pretty much all major stories can be traced to mists, though that might sound obvious as it is the protomatter. It is very much universally relevant as a plot element – and Tyria itself. While we don’t know very much deep detail about the world and it’s inner workings, GW2 has expanded it’s importance quite a bit from GW1. Quite possibly we’ll learn more of what exactly Tyria is, and about it’s significance.

The very heart for me is magic.

Depends on what they mean by “the very heart”.

The most important?

The most common?

The central aspect?

And even then, can we trust this is accurate? Besides what makes the “heart of GW lore” being subjective, it is from typical hyping article, which are usually over-exaggerating.

What I can think of as possibles:

Magic
Glint
Six Gods
Elder Dragons
Scarlet Briar
Scarlet Briar
Scarlet Briar

Seriously, Scarlet’s been such a heavy focus that at this point I don’t doubt a certain writer at ANet would consider her the “heart of GW lore”. >.>

Hopefully, there will be no more mention of her. And if so, my bet’s on magic or Glint or the nature of the Elder Dragons. All three are connected anyways.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

~Snip~

Hopefully, there will be no more mention of her. And if so, my bet’s on magic or Glint or the nature of the Elder Dragons. All three are connected anyways.

Unfortunately for you, you can expect to hear more about Scarlet in the future as A.net has already said they are going to explore more of her background(it was stated at least a couple of times on episodes of Points of Interest), but then again, maybe you were just being sarcastic again.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Seriously, Scarlet’s been such a heavy focus that at this point I don’t doubt a certain writer at ANet would consider her the “heart of GW lore”.

LOL! She’s more like the “heart of GW2 lore” not all Guild Wars lore.

It all works out for me— both IC and OOC. I’ve been wanting to know why Scarlet did what she did. Players like myself really deserve an answer since “Bro-ham” (aka Braham) cut her off at the end of Season 1. Lapis’s RP storyline gets to progress as well.

For everyone who hates her, I dare you all to write a fan-fic that includes her. Scarlet is alot of fun to write. I can see why the writers continue to have her in the LS.

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that “the very heart of Guild Wars lore” means “the beginning of Guild Wars”, and they’re going to expand on lore and subject matter from Prophecies.

The heart of GW2 lore is dragons. Scarlet has just been a very large piece in the Eternal Draconity.

But yeah, if they’re going beyond that… we could be looking at mursaat or other elder race references here. In my mind, at this point, the last rise is probably what I’d classify as the heart of GW lore as a whole – that covers important aspects of both GW2 lore (y’know, the dragons) as well as Prophecies lore (four of the five elder races, Giganticus Lupicus).

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2k857x/poi_ep9_w_colin_johanson_livestream_notes/

Look at what /u/that_shaman uncovered. same as the Abbs statues in Orr….

Zaklex.6308:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

~Snip~

Hopefully, there will be no more mention of her. And if so, my bet’s on magic or Glint or the nature of the Elder Dragons. All three are connected anyways.

Unfortunately for you, you can expect to hear more about Scarlet in the future as A.net has already said they are going to explore more of her background(it was stated at least a couple of times on episodes of Points of Interest), but then again, maybe you were just being sarcastic again.

I was only sarcastic in the listing her name thrice.

But wasn’t those PoI talking about E2 stuff?

kta.6502:

LOL! She’s more like the “heart of GW2 lore” not all Guild Wars lore.

And in GW2, GW1 is irrelevant. Thus the heart of GW lore and the heart of GW2 lore are the same.

kta.6502:

For everyone who hates her, I dare you all to write a fan-fic that includes her. Scarlet is alot of fun to write. I can see why the writers continue to have her in the LS.

I attempted a fan-fict that rewrote season 1 with only clearing up plot holes, and I ended up raging to such degree I tossed the concept out.

I do not find Scarlet Briar interesting at all.

Maybe with some tweaks, such as making her to be less ‘oh so awesome she does nothing wrong,’ she could be, but as is she isn’t in the least. A sadistic sylvari genius that doesn’t take things seriously until a ton of elephant kitten hits her fan and has narcissism going through the roof? That could be made fine. But one that also has zero failures even when standard kitten hits the fan? That’s just bull.

Edusd.7893:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2k857x/poi_ep9_w_colin_johanson_livestream_notes/

Look at what /u/that_shaman uncovered. same as the Abbs statues in Orr….

The interesting bits from that link:

Season 1 – What Scarlet Saw short story was very important in setting the story but didn’t happen ingame. We learned that story had to be ingame in season 2.
It wasn’t in-game in E1-4, unless they’re talking about the holgraphic diary. So looks like more Scarlet.

There’s your heart of lore right there.

_Mordermoth is waking up…This is the first time we are seeing an elder dragon waking up live. Other elder dragons mostly awoken in the period between GW1 and GW2. _
Unless you count Kralkatorrik waking during EoD, of course.

_The second half of season 2 will take lore threads from the first game and tie them together. The remaining episodes of season 2 will be some of the most interesting lore wise. _
This is promising. But given the “lore threads from the first game” we’ve had already, I’m not holding breath.

And that_shaman found the Abaddon statue from the Temple of the Forgotten God. So perhaps we’ll visit another temple of Abaddon (which would be mighty weird given the whole “his existence wiped from all history”). Or the Priory excavated the statue and moved it elsewhere.

I look like whe we voted between the Fall of Abaddon fractal and the Thaumanova Reactor fractal, there really as a path that had to do with linking Abaddon to the current events. At least that’s what I’m hoping after what they said and showing that picture.

It’s just a statue so there may not be much relevance between Abaddon and the main plot at all. It all depends on where that statue is.

If it’s in some reliquary owned by the Pact or one of the Orders, then it’s possible that something else there is relevant.

If it’s in some ancient ruins, then it’s possible that something or someone else is relevant.

Etc.

Just like Temple of the Forgotten God was more about meeting the Eye and Mouth than about Abaddon. Abaddon was just pretext. Even the artifact we were going to retrieve was pretext, as we never see it or hear about it again, or even know what it was.

Well there is confirmation from the PoI episode that the rest of season 2’s episodes will be linking the current lore with the lore from GW1. Also, they did say that we’ll see how the events from Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall tie into the lore now. Besides, why end the episode with a teasar of the status of Abaddon if the Six Gods aren’t somehow related to all this?

Edit: I really hope that they do show the Rise of Mordremoth and not have us get there in time to hinder/stop his awakening. I wanna see a representation in game of an awakening of an Elder Dragon. Also about their comment on not seeing an Elder Dragon awakening, I’m pretty sure they just meant that we’ve never experienced that happening in game.

Well, it certainly looks like either a bronze or gold statue inside of a temple. Perhaps the Mursaat had something to do with Abaddon at some point. Who knows, it’s intriguing at least. I’m curious about how/what they will tie together. Until the blog post, I really didn’t have much concern for whatever episode 5+ contained, now, I’m interested.

Much better discussion now than just saying it’s Abaddon, which is really what my point was all about. Yes, it looks like a statue of Abaddon in, perhaps, a forgotten temple, I’m guessing it’s not only the statue that’s relevant but the location itself as well as what else may be housed within.

Edusd.7893:

Well, it certainly looks like either a bronze or gold statue inside of a temple. Perhaps the Mursaat had something to do with Abaddon at some point. Who knows, it’s intriguing at least. I’m curious about how/what they will tie together. Until the blog post, I really didn’t have much concern for whatever episode 5+ contained, now, I’m interested.

Not sure exactly which blog post you’re referring to, do you mean the Points of Interest episode or am I missing something? It’s really intriguing, I always hoped they’d link current events with stuff from GW1 somehow. Hopefully they link it well with something that makes some sense.

Xukavi.4320:

Also, they did say that we’ll see how the events from Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall tie into the lore now.

…What possible relation could Factions have except to try and shoehorn something silly?

Nightfall, I can kinda-sorta see. But Factions I’m having a hard time figuring out a relation.

Though I thought it was just Prophecies.

Xukavi.4320:

Besides, why end the episode with a teasar of the status of Abaddon if the Six Gods aren’t somehow related to all this?

You haven’t seen much of ArenaNet’s hype have you?

While it certainly is the community’s fault for often taking it way out of proportion, ArenaNet almost always give this little piece that acts more or less as a red herring at first glance.

Xukavi.4320:

I really hope that they do show the Rise of Mordremoth and not have us get there in time to hinder/stop his awakening.

He woke months ago, you know.

Each Elder Dragon took a different amount of time to cause their devastation. Jormag took four years to push the norn out after his awakening – despite what the timeline says, unless we believe that over norn.

Edusd.7893:

Well, it certainly looks like either a bronze or gold statue inside of a temple. Perhaps the Mursaat had something to do with Abaddon at some point. Who knows, it’s intriguing at least. I’m curious about how/what they will tie together. Until the blog post, I really didn’t have much concern for whatever episode 5+ contained, now, I’m interested.

Highly unlikely.

It’s been established now that the mursaat fled the world during the previous dragonrise and only returned recently.

They were not in Tyria the entire time Abaddon was an issue, apparently.

Though that begs the question of how titans relate to Forgotten/Seers/mursaat.

Well, it is worth noting that what is probably the largest temple to Balthazar we know of outside of Orr was in the Maguuma. It’s possible that, for reasons currently unknown to us, there were cathedrals to all the gods built out there before the falling out happened.

From what we’ve seen, the removal of evidence of Abaddon’s existence seems to have been more ‘hiding’ than ‘eradication’. The Apocrypha remained buried beneath Fahrunar for centuries before the Scarab Plague, the Cathedral of Secrets was simply sunk rather than destroyed, and so on. It’s possible that, if a temple was built in the Maguuma, the gods were content with simply hiding it there as well, perhaps causing it to be overgrown so it couldn’t be reached casually.

Regarding the titans:

While the titans came to be associated with Abaddon, they may not have been so initially. As the god of knowledge, it’s possible that he simply knew how to create them, and made a new crop after his banishment that was not actually connected to the titans the seers originally knew except that they were made the same way. Alternatively, it’s possible that the titans were controlled, but not destroyed, by the gods – perhaps, until Abaddon’s betrayal, they were hoping to find a way to extract the individual souls from the titans in order to rescue them rather than simply destroying them. Putting Abaddon in control of their prison in the meantime was a poor choice in hindsight, but at the time it was probably a logical one (who better to study and try to work out how to redeem them than the most knowledgeable of the gods?)

Excluding the Battle Isles, you mean. :P

Regarding the titans, it’s actually stated that The Fury – a follower of Dhuum – was the one making the titans. So I would attribute their creation not to Abaddon, but to Dhuum/the Fury. The Fury was also to lead the titans in Tyria after coming through the Door of Komalie but was closed (for reasons unknown to the Forgotten and likely the Fury) before he could cross over.

“The Fury and his minions await the opening of the Door of Komalie, a gateway that leads from here into Tyria. Some years ago a powerful lich…another powerful minion of Abaddon…opened a gateway. It only remained open a brief time, but countless souls were sent through to become titans.”

“He is a follower of Dhuum, but served the fallen god, Abaddon until his defeat. Now, the Fury has taken up a new master, Mallyx the Unyielding, the lord of this realm. The Fury uses demonic troops to torment the souls of the prisoners within these walls. Those torments souls are part of some dark ritual to create powerful titans.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Relkyss_the_Broken

Additionally:

“The followers of Dhuum have gathered here under the command of The Fury, seeking to gain favor with Mallyx the Unyielding.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aurus_Trevess

Only the titans, margonites, and the guardians of Komalie are in the Foundry ‘under the Fury’. And the last are in far too few numbers to really say “the followers of Dhuum gathered under the Fury”, imo.

Well, yeah, excluding the Battle Isles. Either way, the presence of a large temple in a remote region seems significant, and may mean there are others nearby.

I’m pretty sure that the ‘brief opening’ related to the end of Prophecies. Either way, the point was that the creation of the titans seems to be not an act of divine creation per se, but something anyone with the appropriate access to souls, knowledge, and lack of mercy could accomplish. Thus, the process could have changed hands several times between when the titans were known to the Seers, to when they became the creations and servants of dark gods in Nightfall.

Incidentally, there are tortureweb dryders and dream riders in the Foundry as well, although I don’t well recall their relative numbers (mind you, that could well be all the Dhuum-followers left after Abaddon’s fall). Regarding the Fury and the creation of the titans… I don’t think it’s really clear who’s provided the knowledge of how to do it. It could be that the knowledge came from Abaddon and that the Fury was simply appointed as the overseer, or it could be that the Fury brought the knowledge from Dhuum and Abaddon simply provided resources.

It could even be that initially Dhuum was given responsibility for the prison of the titans, and after Dhuum’s fall, that responsibility got shifted to Abaddon. Whoops.

The prison was used for Margonites, not titans. According to dialogue. And the dryders and dream riders were part of The Fury’s group – alongside the Guardians – if memory serves me right (it’s been a long time so I could be mistaken).

There were dryders and riders pretty much throughout the Foundry quests.

@Konig:

-Well they did say from all the stories of GW1, I’m not sure myself how they’d link Factions to it but maybe its more something like linking Cantha to the Zepherytes in a more direct way?

-I’ve seen a lot of hypse from Anet and sadly a lot has not lived up to it, but I’m not saying that we’re gonna see Abaddon again but we’ve been finding out recently from in game sources that its looking more likely that the gods knew about the Elder Dragons, so it might be that he did something that they’ll be telling us about. Personally, I think that the true reason behind him gifting magic was because of the Elder Dragons’ threat and he wanted to give the races a fighting chance, but the rest of the gods disagreed seeing it would only cause harm. But that would be sort of retconning the lore of GW1 and why the magic was sealed off again.

-I guess I didn’t make myself clear. I know Mordy awoke months ago, but what I meant by his Rise was the devastation that you state Elder Dragons do when they awake. We’ve been seeing a lot of devestation with the vines and all but I don’t think we’ve seen the real devestation yet. Usually when Elder Dragons rise you see huge changes in landscape. Zhaitan rose Orr, Kralkatorric made the brand. That stuff we haven’t seen from Mordremoth yet, maybe just the start of it.

Xukavi.4320:

Personally, I think that the true reason behind him gifting magic was because of the Elder Dragons’ threat and he wanted to give the races a fighting chance, but the rest of the gods disagreed seeing it would only cause harm. But that would be sort of retconning the lore of GW1 and why the magic was sealed off again.

This is my pet theory as well. I think Abaddon may have wanted to protect us from a future threat.

After all, his statue does read: “Act with magic, act within reason, act without mercy.”

Maybe the other gods were content with just leaving the dragons alone, but Abaddon was convinced that they should ACT, because they would awake again. This would shine a whole new light on his character.

Sealing all magic cuz one human king wanted? cuz humanity didn’t handle it well? That what did other gods, they took away something cuz thier prayers couldn’t break throught. It is like took sense of life. Imo Abaddon is challenger, when problems occur he act, ofc it isn’t always “good” as we would like to see in that specific moment, but he doesn’t turn back and take all grudge of others. He still made some points in his behavior. I would like to see that Abaddon take control over Kormir’s mind or he predicted that shemes and act as he lost to lower guard of others. If magic is important and his one couldn’t be destroyed there is possibility for that.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

This is my pet theory as well. I think Abaddon may have wanted to protect us from a future threat.

After all, his statue does read: “Act with magic, act within reason, act without mercy.”

Maybe the other gods were content with just leaving the dragons alone, but Abaddon was convinced that they should ACT, because they would awake again. This would shine a whole new light on his character.

It’s possible, but I’m not sure just how much of a difference it would have made in the end.

The elder races weren’t encumbered in anyway magically, yet that didn’t seem to tip the scales in their favor at all. The outcome might have changed a bit if the Mursaat would have stayed, but even then the Elder Dragons were powerful enough to scare them to flee and abandon everyone else, even though they held a clear advantage in their Spectral Agony. It’s possible that the high magic levels probably empowered the Elder Dragons just as much as it would the mortals.

Mem no Fushia.7604

Sealing all magic cuz one human king wanted? cuz humanity didn’t handle it well?

I guess you could say that humanity being brought to the edge of extinction is them not handling it well.

Erukk.1408:

It’s possible that the high magic levels probably empowered the Elder Dragons just as much as it would the mortals.

Which is of course the primary difference between the current situation and the situation of the previous rise. In the current situation a lot of the capabilities of the races comes from technology (whether that’s steam tech, clockwork, sonic tech, magictech, even plant tech), instead of (or in addition to) magic.

Maybe that was the reason of the 5 all along, to weaken magic so that the mortal races would become less dependend on it and would develop other capabilities, while Abaddon remained convinced that only magic provided the means to overcome the dragons. I’m just thinking out loud here.

Diovid.9506:

Erukk.1408:

It’s possible that the high magic levels probably empowered the Elder Dragons just as much as it would the mortals.

Which is of course the primary difference between the current situation and the situation of the previous rise. In the current situation a lot of the capabilities of the races comes from technology (whether that’s steam tech, clockwork, sonic tech, magictech, even plant tech), instead of (or in addition to) magic.

Maybe that was the reason of the 5 all along, to weaken magic so that the mortal races would become less dependend on it and would develop other capabilities, while Abaddon remained convinced that only magic provided the means to overcome the dragons. I’m just thinking out loud here.

Races can develop others capabilities while magic. Existence of magic don’t mean that it is limited. So it wasn’t that. Gods were just playing role in their own theater, grant wish (for some reason it was their objective to do that in that way and it isn’t something like: “for greater sake” – for their sake rather).

Abaddon didn’t remained convinced that only magic provided the means to overcome the dragons, he didn’t want to close door to magic, he treasured magic, but it doesn’t mean that it was his only way of act, I would say it is knownledge that lead him to magic. Cutting essential part of you, cuz it make your opponents stronger, such a retreat that Abaddon couldn’t accept.

Erukk.1408:

It’s possible that the high magic levels probably empowered the Elder Dragons just as much as it would the mortals.

Probable, in fact. The Arah explorables imply that the elder races might have only survived at all because they prematurely drained magic from the world themselves, starving the dragons into hibernation.

I know this topic has essentially died, but it was brought up before where the next area would be. (I figured Id post it here, instead of make a new thread about it) but I’m pretty sure it will be north. Not that it should come as a surprise. But seeing as how I’ve actually been to the northern half of that map (thanks to some mesmer who is far better at wall scaling glitches than I am) and it is a HUGE area full of explorable looking spots. And it’s pretty, as most landscapes in GW2 tend to be. Just thought you al should know. Im going to go back to taking screenshots of it while I’m there.

Pictures please! Which map?

Dry Top (sorry I didn’t specify)
First two are just pictures of the area taken not TOO far apart (but those are not the same sand mounds you’re looking at in those pictures) and the third is the map location. As of now, that little blue spot of water actually has no water. I don’t know f that will change or not once the map is accessible. I have a few more pictures, but those two above pretty much show what the whole area is to look like. I’ll post some others if people want. But the release is only like 3 days away

I don’t think they’d make two entrances to Dry Top from Brisban Wildlands, when they go and close the second path between LA and Gendarran Fields.

After replaying the World Summit today and looking at tomorrow, here’s my thoughts on what happened and will happen:

1) The person who informed Mordremoth about the World Summit was Warden Ionich, the same person the Pale Tree sent away when she wanted to talk to us about the vision. He’s been at the World Summit and ran down with the leaders too.
His appearance reminds me a whole lot of how Aerin was set up.

2) The Zephyrites goal was the ‘wandering island’, a name that popped up during the snippets of the making of the LS2 music as well as datamining. An island that never appears twice at the same place would make for the perfect secret hiding spot for anything. Also fits the section of places only rumored to exist. Said island could possibly be the towers we saw in the vision. (also what if the whole island phases in and out of existence like the mursaat did and thus keeps’ wandering’ …just in case it has any connection to them?)

3) Maybe Abaddon knew what’d happen if too much magic was released into the world? Maybe the map on the ceiling is used to locate a certain secret artifact?

1) Warden Lochin actually dies during the Mordrem attack. After you send three (?) “world” leaders down, he and the generically named Warden both die, leaving only Caithe and Trahearne as the living sylvari NPCs in the Omphalos Chamber.

When I saw this, I put it up on his wiki article because it is such an easy to miss piece of lore.

Ding dong, the “Gasp! No!” man is dead.

2) Please link on this wandering island stuff! Because that sounds like what Prince Mehtu the Wise described in GW1!

3) The map of the Mists that Lord Odran made, being related to artifacts that Abaddon had/knew of? Seems a bit… far fetched.

Personally, I think multiple entrances are possible. I’d certainly appreciate a second entrance that doesn’t require relying on the temperamental lightning pull skill to get anywhere…

Elysian could still have a point, since being killed doesn’t stop someone from being a traitor. However, I’d personally doubt it as well – more because the Warden is almost certainly not a Soundless, and the indications we’ve had so far is that it’s the Soundless that are vulnerable…

…but with the injuries to the Pale Tree, that might change.