Guild Wars 2

Scarlet Briar

Ever since I came out of Omadd’s machine, you’ve been taking credit for my ideas. They are mine! Not yours. Let me be clear. I’m not doing this for you; I’m doing it for me. Nobody tells me what to do. Not ever.

I won’t list all the evidence here; there’s too much of it. And after this thread, I think it will all speak for itself. What I will say is this: I believe I know almost exactly what Scarlet has planned. And it’s not an attack on Lion’s Arch – well, not quite.

We know Scarlet has always strived for independence. From the moment she stepped out from her pod, she has striven to forge her own path through the world. But this was not always possible. Early in her life, she was faced with nightmares, nightmares of an entity, but we are never told anything about this entity except that it is like staring into an abyss. Many people have suggested that this is Mordremoth, and I believe those people are correct – and this is only backed up by the fact that whatever finally broke Scarlet, inside Omadd’s machine (an isolation chamber, remember), must have already existed within the mind of Scarlet – and possibly every other sylvari, too.

So what’s the theory? Mordremoth wants Scarlet to attack Lion’s Arch? There’s a few reasons that this would be tactically viable – it’s a symbol of unity for the races that took down Zhaitan, for example, but I don’t believe this to be the case. This would require Mordremoth to have won over Scarlet’s mind, and I don’t believe that’s happened – or at least I don’t believe Scarlet thinks it’s happened.

Scarlet knows something that we’ve suspected for a long time. There is a bomb in the heart of every sylvari, waiting to detonate and bring them under the control of the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. And this is the crux of my theory: Scarlet’s going to – or at least she thinks she’s going to – stop it. Once you realise this, everything else falls into place.

At the Thaumanova Reactor, intending to study draconic energies, Scarlet learned of the magical ley lines that are integral to the functioning of Tyria. And something else we’ve suspected for a while – the ley lines, if followed, will eventually lead to the Dragons. If she had some way of detecting them, she could locate Mordremoth and kill it before it even wakes. This is where the Molten Alliance comes in. As well as powerful new molten weaponry, they provided Scarlet with the means to drill into the the earth for magic, and while Scarlet put her engineering abilities to the test to create a set of energy probes, she spent a year gathering armies, unifying disparate races into a dark Pact of her own.

Scarlet attempted to gain a foothold in the Captain’s Council, but failed. But with the help of the Inquest, she succeeded in building a fleet of airships to rival the Pact’s, and secured the loyalty of a crew of Aetherblades to pilot them. Knowing that Queen Jennah used technology from the steam creatures to build her watchknights, Scarlet was able to take control of them and have a massive fighting force of her own – one that would only ever obey her.

Scarlet now had advanced weaponry, a loyal fighting force, and air superiority. But she wasn’t finished yet. Her Toxic Alliance built a Tower of Nightmares in Kessex Hills, which spread poison across Kryta. But it wans’t the poison that she was looking for. It was the antidote. I believe that the corruption that the Toxic Alliance cultivated was similar in nature to Mordremoth, and Scarlet needed a way to reverse it, which was eventually provided by the player character him or herself.

Now: the probes. Using Molten Alliance technology, Scarlet placed these probes across Tyria, searching for ley lines, and ultimately, the Elder Dragon. Meanwhile, in Lornar’s Pass, she tested her greatest weapon yet, a weapon powerful enough, perhaps, to even kill an Elder Dragon: her aethercannon. As her weapon tests concludes, one of the probes, in Old Lion’s Arch, turns green. It’s found something. Scarlet has her target. Scarlet rescues Mai Trin from captivity, informing her she has a task for her “in the Mists”, and whisks her there. From the Mists, Mai can lead her Aetherblades through the portals into the heart of Lion’s Arch, unopposed.

My conclusion: Scarlet is attacking Lion’s Arch, sure. But there’s nothing material there that she could want or need – her true target is sleeping beneath Lion’s Arch – Mordremoth. Her armies are converging on the city, her aethercannon stands primed, and her antidote is ready. Scarlet is going to kill the Elder Dragon that has been tugging at her mind for all these years, not because she wants to save the sylvari of the Pale Tree, and not because she’s after the fame or glory of Trahearne and the Pact. But because nobody tells Scarlet what to do.

Unanswered questions:

• What is the role of Mai Trin? Scarlet needed someone on the Captain’s Council, but why? Kasmeer believes that it is so Lion’s Arch’s defenses could be weakened from the inside, but this was before Scarlet knew that LA was her target.
• What does Scarlet know about Caithe? Something that even Faolain and the Pale Tree don’t know, evidently. My guess is that Caithe had some role, perhaps accidentally, in causing the first stirrings of Mordremoth, but really your guess is as good as mine on this one. But whatever it is, Caithe doesn’t want word getting out, and she’s willing to kill to ensure that it doesn’t.
• How does Tequatl fit into all of this? I believe it was said that his increase in power fits into the rest of the LS, but this theory does not account for why.

I realise that this theory isn’t going to be watertight. There’s a lot of moving parts to make work here, there’s probably a lot of evidence I’ve missed and some minor chronology issues, but frankly, I wrote all this in quite an excited rush – and I do believe that it is the theory so far that connects the most dots.

Maybe caithe already knows about Mordremoth… And Scarlet found that sooner or later. If that’s the case, the twist a la game of thrones would be “caithe was always working for a dragon”.

about caithe:, in one paths of personal story of sylvari ,caithe will kill nightmare member while the hero((or player)) gave her/his promise of protection in exchange of cooperation to the poor nightmare court member,caithe ignore the promise and killed the poor thing,so there is a lot more to caithe than simple good hero of tyria.
about Mordremoth if the theory of this dragon and sylvari going to be true,this going to be the most stupid story ever really.you know why?
because the so called Mordremoth is so stupid he creates a race ((sylvari)) who become one of the most important races in all tyria who are heroes of tyria,helping other races in killing zhaitan and eventually they help in killing all other elder dragons including Mordremoth itself and become the most peaceful race in tyria.
it is just stupid and funny.

saye.9304:

about caithe:, in one paths of personal story of sylvari ,caithe will kill nightmare member while the hero((or player)) gave her/his promise of protection in exchange of cooperation to the poor nightmare court member,caithe ignore the promise and killed the poor thing,so there is a lot more to caithe than simple good hero of tyria.
about Mordremoth if the theory of this dragon and sylvari going to be true,this going to be the most stupid story ever really.you know why?
because the so called Mordremoth is so stupid he creates a race ((sylvari)) who become one of the most important races in all tyria who are heroes of tyria,helping other races in killing zhaitan and eventually they help in killing all other elder dragons including Mordremoth itself and become the most peaceful race in tyria.
it is just stupid and funny.

Who says that Scarlet is going to be successful? Her actions, rather than killing Mordremoth, could be just the kick it needs to wake it up. All we can say is that Scarlet believes that she is the one in control of her actions here, whether or not is the case remains to be seen.

Someone asked how Mai Trin would be needed in the future. Well there are lots of possibilities here but an obvious one would be the the governor of a conquered Lion’s Arch.

From my sources, I’ve learned we have yet to see more from the last patch, probably in the next few days. Also, according to my source, the community has not figured out yet what we’re into.

So, maybe it has nothing to do with dragons just yet.

I disagree with your theory, though I only skimmed it briefly so I won’t really touch it. There’s just too many “Scarlet’s going to fight a/the Elder Dragon(s)” and “Scarlet’s twisted by Mordremoth!” that it really seems unlikely (and yeah, I know my first choice is Mordremoth – I’m biased for wanting Mordy into the game) and I recall reading a mention that Anet confirmed that someone’s theory was already right, but it was an uncommon one (and fighting/corrupted by Mordy are both common ones). But on your first unanswered question:

Tamias.7059:

• What is the role of Mai Trin? Scarlet needed someone on the Captain’s Council, but why? Kasmeer believes that it is so Lion’s Arch’s defenses could be weakened from the inside, but this was before Scarlet knew that LA was her target.

One of the three holograms of Scarlet has Scarlet stating that she needs to soften Lion’s Arch up and lower their defenses. It isn’t just Kasmeer’s belief – it’s what Scarlet said into the recordings. The placement of the recording is between talking about the dredge and Flame Legion, and talking about the Queen’s Jubilee (which is followed by making an airport in Twilight Arbor, and the krait); so by placement, her mention of weakening Lion’s Arch would be Dragon Bash – aka Mai Trin.

This heavily implies that Scarlet already knew she’d be attacking Lion’s Arch. The lore on the Thaumanova also implied that she knew what would happen but did it anyways because she wanted to study its effects.

saye.9304:

about caithe:, in one paths of personal story of sylvari ,caithe will kill nightmare member while the hero((or player)) gave her/his promise of protection in exchange of cooperation to the poor nightmare court member,caithe ignore the promise and killed the poor thing,so there is a lot more to caithe than simple good hero of tyria.

This comes about from Faolain – Caithe’s former lover and the current leader of the Nightmare Court. Caithe has a very strong hatred of the Nightmare and by extension Nightmare Court because of Faolain.

Do Twilight Arbor (story mode) and read Edge of Destiny.

Truth be told, you’ve just spurted out what theory has been said a few times before, but after an update that has more supportive evidence merely adding things such as purpose …

nobody tells Scarlet what to do.

I personally had a theory of her attacking an elder dragon for a short while, and when we were able to set foot in the secret lair almost confirmed it from the red dragon on the cave wall. Combine this with the knowledge of LA as a “target” signals Primordus, not Mordremoth, as, correct me if I’m wrong, It is the Elder Dragon that sleeps deep, deep below LA and not Mordremoth.

It personally feels “too obvious” to be Mordremoth, and for that reason is a red herring.

I’m sure we’re finding out next update.

Also, the dialogue with Marjory in the Dead End reveals that more recent toxin samples are immune to Marjory’s antitoxin, suggesting that Scarlet further refined it after obtaining the antitoxin/injector so it’s no longer stoppable. So it WAS the poison she was after, not the antidote.

At the same time though, why would she need a toxin that’s so deadly when she already has overwhelming forces AND a super weapon? I do agree with your theory that Lion’s Arch itself is not the target; all her armies and her super-toxin and her giant Aethercannon are intended to kill something else. Something very big and very powerful, that would need to be gravely weakened before the Aethercannon could take it out.

I too believe that LA isn’t the true target, and I think when they say she found the leylines under LA, that is her literal target. It’s another intersection akin to Thaumanova, and she plans to utilize it one way or another. It’s simply that LA is in the way.

There is the point that only now has the probe turned green, and honestly I don’t really have an answer to that. BUT! I do have random musings!

Scarlet herself may think she has a reason to attack LA(to get to the leylines or what not), but this may very well be a delusion. She’s arguing to the entity that her actions are really her actions, and it’s set up to be a “her plan was the entity’s plan all along” sort of deal. Maybe the entity wants LA to be attacked and that’s it(this makes all ED’s a suspect, not just Mordy).

Additionally, I might be wrong, but the attack on LA very much seems like the next patch. We know it will be a climactic 4 part series, and it stands to reason that the last part will be the most climactic part. All the parts are in place to battle in LA next patch(there’s no current plan the NPC’s have to stall the attack, they are literally telling you to get ready to defend LA). So that means whatever happens at LA, it’s not the endgame plan, be that part of Scarlet’s original plan, or the revelation of the entity’s true plan.

How exciting

One thing I have been pondering about. During the Thaumanova fractal Scarlet says:

“Now we know how NOT to do this kind of research right on an intersection of those channels. Live and learn, right? "

So, could it be…

• She’s looking for an intersection of leylines?
• Trying to prevent what ever she’s trying to achieve from blowing up again?

This dialogue seemed to suggest that a bomb might not be what she is after. Maybe she’s trying to utilize dragon magic and leylines in a safe way.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

One thing I have been pondering about. During the Thaumanova fractal Scarlet says:

“Now we know how NOT to do this kind of research right on an intersection of those channels. Live and learn, right? "

So, could it be…

• She’s looking for an intersection of leylines?
• Trying to prevent what ever she’s trying to achieve from blowing up again?

This dialogue seemed to suggest that a bomb might not be what she is after. Maybe she’s trying to utilize dragon magic and leylines in a safe way.

We’re I to cripple the dragons, I’d cut off their magic supply. If they function like a network, discovering the intersection of major ones would be the most effective.

Last bit of speculation- if the lines can carry magic, why not toxin?

To be fair, it could also just be a dragon champion of Mordremoth (or another dragon). Remember Svanir and the thing in Drakkar Lake?

pswendel.8179:

We’re I to cripple the dragons, I’d cut off their magic supply. If they function like a network, discovering the intersection of major ones would be the most effective.

Last bit of speculation- if the lines can carry magic, why not toxin?

Good point, poison the well so to speak. I too think she is trying to “break” magic, poisoning the leylines might do that all too well. It would be interesting if anything with magic put a debuff on you and we all had to find “white” gear or suffer while magic is tainted.

The problem with that, is that Taimi describes the leylines as magical streams that are not physical in nature. So I don’t think you could just mix poison into it. Besides, why would a poison tested on humans/norn/asura/sylvari/charr work against an Elder Dragon?

Just thought I’d offer this thread something I just found…

…the LA probe is now red again. Not sure if that happened with the patch we had a short time ago or another, but there it is.

I wonder if that is a minor goof up. Surely if it’s found what it was looking for, it shouldn’t be turning back to red again?

Taimi also asked if there might be other probes that have turned green. Has anyone been able to locate any other probes that have turned green?

Tanith.5264:

Just thought I’d offer this thread something I just found…

…the LA probe is now red again. Not sure if that happened with the patch we had a short time ago or another, but there it is.

I noticed that too, on patch day. I think it’s not related to the story- as close as I can tell it just changed back when I re-zoned.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The problem with that, is that Taimi describes the leylines as magical streams that are not physical in nature. So I don’t think you could just mix poison into it. Besides, why would a poison tested on humans/norn/asura/sylvari/charr work against an Elder Dragon?

yeah it’s fairly thin, I agree. I just have no idea what the toxin is for.

Tanith.5264:

Just thought I’d offer this thread something I just found…

…the LA probe is now red again. Not sure if that happened with the patch we had a short time ago or another, but there it is.

Yeah I came across it being red immediately after seeing it turn green in the cinematic. I think it’s just a goof.

Phooey. I got all excited, thinking I’d found something significant.

pswendel.8179:

yeah it’s fairly thin, I agree. I just have no idea what the toxin is for.

Neither have I. I really desperately want to think that she doesn’t intend to use it on us, because I have hopes that Scarlet will do something really clever with it that isn’t so obvious.

However, just from a sensible point of view, it makes more sense that she would use it on us. She’s tested it on us. She let us make an antidote, and she made the poison resistant to our antidote. Doesn’t exactly add up that she would use it against an Elder Dragon, after testing it on…. not an Elder Dragon. That just doesn’t make sense.

So I feel a slight conflict between what I want to see, and what the evidence leads to.

The jungle dragon lives in the Maguma wastes

I like this theory but it is also missing an important aspect in my opinion. Considering Scarlet’s fascination with magic and the flow of energy it is striking that her alliances she has formed enabled her to gain access to all different attunement of magic. Elementalists are said to be the most primitive of magic users by the jotun, being a direct manipulation of the elements around them (as the profession’s name implies)
An Elementalist lacks the ability to switch between weapon types with a single press of a key because of this special skill to switch between those four types of magic. Air, Water, Earth and Fire.
Now looking at her “friends” we can see that each of them does belong to a certain type of magic that is constantly used by them. Molten Alliance – Dredge and Flame Legion – Earth from the Dredge and Fire from the Charr part while the Toxic Alliance of krait and Nightmare Courtiers gave her the possibility to gain water. The Aetherblades – Inquest and Sky Pirates, provided her with Airmagic and probably those crystals we saw being used by the Zephyrites. Which are still different aspects of Air magic according to the GW2 Wiki.

I don’t know – but I think that does play some role in Scarlet’s motive…..

Farqual don’t take the lack of weapon swapping as a lore fact. I’m pretty sure it’s only like that to make the mechanics for each profession fair. All professions in GW1 could weapon swap (between something like 5 sets of weapons), so unless they’re going to ignore that I don’t think weapon swapping plays any kind of lore role.

Wow I missed this thread completely, I agree. You beat me to the theory, but here is my thought dump:

zamalek.2154:

Marjory and Kasmeer continually question if whether Scarlet is deceiving us (although, given, they don’t explicitly state it). Scarlet has left loads of clues with really nice big and red cross-hairs directly over LA.

I definitely think that, while it will likely be a victim, LA is not the primary target.

DaShi.1368:

Scarlet has created a ridiculously strong toxin. If her plans just involve blowing up or invading Lion’s Arch, then there is no need for such a potent toxin.

There are two targets. Either the crosshairs over LA are an outright misdirection and she is attacking two other cities; or LA will be targetted in order to dilute defensive forces.

So here are some conflicting theories if you want food for thought.

Scenario 1:

Scarlet is after LA and LA alone (current lead theory on this thread). I originally didn’t like this idea because it lacks strong motive. DaShi has given me yet another reason to dislike it. If it is the actual plan: yuck – foo on the lore writers.

Scenario 2:

Scarlet is actually after Pale Tree – attacking The Grove with the poison would make perfect sense considering how the poison was conceived (edit to clarify: it would logically be very potent on plants). What cannot be explained is the attack on LA except for the logical “dilute the forces.”

Scenario 3:

Scarlet is not after any city at all. Certain cities may be attacked in order to create diversions (LA), acquire equipment (Rata Sum) or make a statement (The Grove). Scarlet, as expected, will be far from the fight attempting to raise/manipulate/generally-fiddle-with an ED – or something (<cough> Dhuum <cough>).

Scenario 4:

Count the equipment. ley line manipulation, poison, armies, what remains of the drill (I think we only kill the marionette?), stuff I have likely forgotten. Is it possible that she will be attacking all the cities at the same time? For example, LA and the ley lines – it would be logical to ‘nuke’ LA to quell one of the best defensive forces. The poison could be used on the Grove. She could distribute her armies between the other cities; while, again, she is somewhere completely different executing her actual plan.

Well if she was wanting to attack the Grove or any of the other cities I imagine getting hold of the Asura Gates in Lions Arch wouldn’t be unhelpful… Although they would just get turned off from the other end, so yeah. No clue.

She has airships. She doesn’t need the portals in Lion’s Arch, unless she wants access to the Mists.

I think we’re ignoring an important motive for Scarlet here: Ever since the Living Story started, we’ve seen Scarlet trying to improve on existing races. It is a fair assumption I think, that this goal still holds true. So how does an attack on Lion’s Arch achieve this goal?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

She has airships. She doesn’t need the portals in Lion’s Arch, unless she wants access to the Mists.

I think we’re ignoring an important motive for Scarlet here: Ever since the Living Story started, we’ve seen Scarlet trying to improve on existing races. It is a fair assumption I think, that this goal still holds true. So how does an attack on Lion’s Arch achieve this goal?

I don’t think her goal was ever to “improve” on the existing races. It’s more than she realised that in order to defeat the existing races she had to have something MORE than them.

So to defeat Charr you combine Charr with something else – logic would dictate that something with the power of both Charr and Dredge would be more powerful than Charr alone. So I think that was purely about amassing strength and access to technology.

I’m not seeing her trying to improve existing races either.

What I see is her exploiting groups and races that can provide things she can use, to obtain the things she can use.

If you trust the hints, Scarlet is going to attack LA. And the Pact will, against all logic, do absolutely nothing to strengthen LA’s defences. So once again it is up to the players to defend LA, while the Pact sit by and watch. The Living Story so far are predictable like that.

Unless, of course, all those hints were false information left behind by Scarlet to deceit the Pact.

I do hope the true target to be Divinity’s Reach. It will be great for the story if DR is carpet bombed by airships, thousands gets killed by corrupted Watchknights, and the civilians turn on Queen Jennah and vote Caudecus into power. Without world changing dramas like this the living story will never be good.

There is something else that was said during the evidence instance that makes me wonder about the Mordremoth thing. One of the characters (don’t remember which) was talking about what happened to scarlet during Omadds experiment and was asking about what scarlet saw during her vision. The Asura who was there said something about a possible mental barrier that might exist to block whatever had driven scarlet crazy but it would be impossible to know for sure without experimenting on sylvari more. If the sylvari had some connection to Mordremoth and the Pale Tree knew about it but didn’t want it known to any of the other Sylvari, wouldn’t it make sense for her to add such a mental barrier simply to protect her children? The Pale Tree was almost begging Scarlet to not go farther into her vision during the experiment and now the more recently added dialog to the Avatar of the Tree has her basically calling Scarlet a lost cause and stating that she is on her own and much be stopped (paraphrased of course). Sorry for my lack of memory of names and such, has been a long week and haven’t played much. I just have not seen anyone else mention what that Asura said and to me, what he said was a big clue.

CHIPS.6018:

If you trust the hints, Scarlet is going to attack LA. And the Pact will, against all logic, do absolutely nothing to strengthen LA’s defences. So once again it is up to the players to defend LA, while the Pact sit by and watch. The Living Story so far are predictable like that.

The different politics at hand would make that impossible.

For one, the Pact is focused on the Elder Dragons. They might see Scarlet is a threat, but if they step on any toes by going after her, they risk the funding they get from all the player nations. If anything, it would be the Orders that take action against her.

Secondly, any increase of the defenses of Lion’s Arch would have to be ran by the Captain’s Council, and the majority of the Council already said no on the matter. Neither the Pact or the different Orders can just set up shop and put up weaponry around the city. That would be a gross overstep of boundaries, not to mention it could be taken as a hostile act against Lion’s Arch, and anyone involved on the matter would most likely be thrown out and/or arrested. Afterwards, all ties to the group will most likely be cut, and they will be banned from entering the city.

CHIPS.6018:

If you trust the hints, Scarlet is going to attack LA. And the Pact will, against all logic, do absolutely nothing to strengthen LA’s defences. So once again it is up to the players to defend LA, while the Pact sit by and watch. The Living Story so far are predictable like that.

This is merely weak story telling in my opinion. When you write these factions into the story, you have to take into account that they are there, and would logically intervene. I don’t want to get ahead of the Living Story, because it is quite possible that they will show the 3 factions act during the attack (we saw this with the recent Living Story, where the writers clearly acknowledged some points made on the forum, like for example the Node that was in Lion’s Arch which WAS now acknowledged).

However, it happens too often that certain npc’s are made to hold the idiot ball, for the sake of plot convenience. This was certainly the case for the Queen’s Jubilee, where Scarlet made an open threat, and security was not increase one bit. Heck, they knew Scarlet had airships, yet they didn’t even bother to put up air defenses.

But I digress. We’ll just have to see what the next Living Story brings us. I’ve definitely noticed an improvement in the writing lately. I hope they keep that up.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Heck, they knew Scarlet had airships, yet they didn’t even bother to put up air defenses.

They also saw her teleport an airship directly into an underground structure. With that, she could have bypassed any of said air defenses anyway.

On a side note, have humans even developed air defenses yet? The Charr and Asura have their different types of turrets, and the Sylvari might have some if they can grow the plants big enough. Do the humans have any long ranged air defense though, other than maybe some modified cannons? The threat posed by airship is extremely new after all.

Erukk.1408:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Heck, they knew Scarlet had airships, yet they didn’t even bother to put up air defenses.

They also saw her teleport an airship directly into an underground structure. With that, she could have bypassed any of said air defenses anyway.

On a side note, have humans even developed air defenses yet? The Charr and Asura have their different types of turrets, and the Sylvari might have some if they can grow the plants big enough. Do the humans have any long ranged air defense though, other than maybe some modified cannons? The threat posed by airship is extremely new after all.

Even the charr and asura don’t have air defenses. The technology is there, but the weapons themselves are all still early prototypes, and very clunky- the charr cannon at Skara Braevus has killed the first three engineers in charge of the project without killing a single enemy, and the megalaser the asura developed for the pact had an insanely long charge time. The Pact has improved on it, and a few other devices, but the odds of them getting involved are slim.

The threat posed by flying dragons isn’t exactly new. But Kryta clearly has catapults. So why don’t they have a ballista (basically a large crossbow)? Or a trebuchet? It seems absurd to me that a nation formed under the threat of flying dragons, does not have air defenses, or ranged siege equipment of any kind in their capital.

Also, teleporting isn’t exactly new either (Jennah should know, she is a mesmer). Teleporting of this scale is however new, but in a society where magic plays an important part of every day life, why aren’t there magical defenses?

Side tracking a bit, I run a DnD pirate campaign that involves magic. And pirate ships in my setting often have a sorcerer on board, and magical defenses, so people don’t set their sails on fire. It’s not a big leap of the imagination. That’s all I’m saying.

Actually, the Captain’s Council going “nope” on what obviously is going to be an attack on LA is already some major idiot ball holding (again).

“Oh after Claw Island, a Karka invasion, an attempt to get a seat in the Council by assassinating one of us, an Aetherblade assault and base right in front of our doorstep and a probe somehow put stealthily without anyone noticing right in the middle of our harbor and despite all this proof you gathered, do you REALLY think anyone would attack Lion’s Arch AGAIN? Pshawwwww.”

When I read my mail after the instance and it was “tl dr; only Kiel supports us” I wanted to claw my eyes out. While the way of bringing the story across has improved vastly and the characters themselves are getting better, parts of the story like these still dip deeply into Saturday-morning cartoon and fanfiction-territory.

Alas it can only get better. My guess about the orders is that they’ll be too busy defending their own HQs to do something – remember, her lair had all of them and LA marked so they might be attacked as well.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Also, teleporting isn’t exactly new either (Jennah should know, she is a mesmer). Teleporting of this scale is however new, but in a society where magic plays an important part of every day life, why aren’t there magical defenses?

They’ve had no need for air or magic defenses before this point. The dragons have never threatened Kryta, beyond some token zombies lurking at the borders, and nothing short of a second Searing could bring down the walls of Divinity’s Reach. Outside the city proper the Seraph fight centaurs and bandits, neither of whom utilize much in the way of magic.

As for teleportation, while it may have existed before, Scarlet’s is completely different. Always in the past, be it by asura gate or mesmer portal, opening such a passage required some device or agent on the receiving side. It was never a tool that could bypass a wall without that wall already having been bypassed… but of course, the Villain Sue doesn’t concern herself with the laws the universe operates by.

ElysianEternity.6215:

Actually, the Captain’s Council going “nope” on what obviously is going to be an attack on LA is already some major idiot ball holding (again).

“Oh after Claw Island, a Karka invasion, an attempt to get a seat in the Council by assassinating one of us, an Aetherblade assault and base right in front of our doorstep and a probe somehow put stealthily without anyone noticing right in the middle of our harbor and despite all this proof you gathered, do you REALLY think anyone would attack Lion’s Arch AGAIN? Pshawwwww.”

When I read my mail after the instance and it was “tl dr; only Kiel supports us” I wanted to claw my eyes out. While the way of bringing the story across has improved vastly and the characters themselves are getting better, parts of the story like these still dip deeply into Saturday-morning cartoon and fanfiction-territory.

Alas it can only get better. My guess about the orders is that they’ll be too busy defending their own HQs to do something – remember, her lair had all of them and LA marked so they might be attacked as well.

I think that may have just been badly delivered… everyone’s homing in on the “she wouldn’t do it again” part and ignoring the much more legitimate “we’ve come out of these encounters with nary a scratch” aspects. The Dragon Bash attack, complete with airships, caused barely any damage, and the Lionguard then proceeded (with player help) to easily total not one, but two of their major bases, not to mention that their captain languished helplessly in a cage for over half a year. The Aetherblades just don’t seem anything close to threatening.

Of course, it’s not just Aetherblades now, and there is definitely a bit of ball-holding there, but I don’t think it’s as bad as people are making out.

After one big attack of sea creatures, there are no heavy defenses to protect Lion’s Arch’s bay.

After one airship attack on Lion’s Arch, and a member of the council was assassinated, there are no extra air defenses in the city. Nor are there more guards.

Heck, not even the pirate council themselves seems concerned with their own lives, even though one of them recently got killed in an attack on all of them. I can understand lazy politics, but aren’t they even concerned with having some bodyguards for them selves?

I would love to see some forward thinking on behalf of the npc’s. We know she has a drill, we know she has a giant robot and a flying saucer, and we know she wants to attack Lion’s Arch. Put up air defenses!

Or are the npc’s aware that any attack on the city would simply involve a bunch of mobs being dropped on the ground, for the players to fight? Frankly, if someone attacked my city with an airship, I would be afraid that they’d simply napalm the whole city. I would put siege equipment on every tower and rooftop, and shoot the next thing that flies by from the sky.

Support the Mad Queen as your new regent of Lion’s Arch for 2014

@Aaron Ansari

If it’s so painfully obvious to the players and the excuse for why the NPC don’t do a thing is nonexistent or badly delivered, we’ve got just that. We know it’s not just the Aetherblades and we also know that they know that it’s not only the Aetherblades anymore and it’s obvious they couldn’t defend against these threats.

It could have been “Ellen failed to convince the majority, only a few other councilors supported her. They let her raise the defenses some, but we know that won’t suffice by far.” It could have been “Ellen informed the council and they agreed with her, but they don’t have enough time anymore to raise their defenses.” It could have been “Ellen is doing her best, but she’s told us that LA doesn’t have the resources to defend against such an attack. It’s a city of merchants and pirates, not a military organization. Even if they requested help from outside it’d probably be too late.”
It could have been a lot of things.

Anything to not make them look completely incompetent by brushing off an obviously existing danger far beyond their capability would have achieved the same ( = LA is screwed) but with less groan-inducement and less elements reminiscent of generic animes aimed at 10 year olds (Government underestimates threat, only our band of heroes can save the day now! u g h)

Hmm…

Tempting, but putting up so much siege equipment, and all the additional guards that need to be hired as well as trained on how to use it, might put a heavy dent in LA’s coffers.

~Puts on a Team Evon badge next to his Kiel’s~

“Now is the time for Evon! Kiel has the will and vision to defend us against the madness of the likes of Scarlet Briar, but she needs your help (but mostly Evon’s) to bank it all! Plus, he’s the only other notable candidate…”

“VOTE EVON!”

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Support the Mad Queen as your new regent of Lion’s Arch for 2014

/signed. Scarlet wouldn’t know what hit her after your emote spams.

Erukk.1408:

On a side note, have humans even developed air defenses yet? The Charr and Asura have their different types of turrets, and the Sylvari might have some if they can grow the plants big enough.

As MQM said all of the turret tech is relatively primitive – ironically I think Scarlet would be the one person who would be able to cobble something together. Given how things typically went down in the living story: Priory will likely know about some artifact, Vigil will acquire it and Whispers will modify it.

No, the Captain’s Council is actually extremely clever. Why bother spending money investing in more defences when they know there are HORDES of powerful adventurers willing to defend their city for (essentially) free?

Zaxares.5419:

No, the Captain’s Council is actually extremely clever. Why bother spending money investing in more defences when they know there are HORDES of powerful adventurers willing to defend their city for (essentially) free?

Free? I’m not lifting a finger unless I get some rares and a single use back item skin.

The Captain’s Council has authorised me to offer you 6 random blues and greens and a Gift of Barnacles in your Home Instance. They’ll also throw in 100 AP to sweeten the deal.

Zaxares.5419:

The Captain’s Council has authorised me to offer you 6 random blues and greens and a Gift of Barnacles in your Home Instance. They’ll also throw in 100 AP to sweeten the deal.

YUS now I can harvest barnacles to my hearts content.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

After one big attack of sea creatures, there are no heavy defenses to protect Lion’s Arch’s bay.

After one airship attack on Lion’s Arch, and a member of the council was assassinated, there are no extra air defenses in the city. Nor are there more guards.

Heck, not even the pirate council themselves seems concerned with their own lives, even though one of them recently got killed in an attack on all of them. I can understand lazy politics, but aren’t they even concerned with having some bodyguards for them selves?

I would love to see some forward thinking on behalf of the npc’s. We know she has a drill, we know she has a giant robot and a flying saucer, and we know she wants to attack Lion’s Arch. Put up air defenses!

Or are the npc’s aware that any attack on the city would simply involve a bunch of mobs being dropped on the ground, for the players to fight? Frankly, if someone attacked my city with an airship, I would be afraid that they’d simply napalm the whole city. I would put siege equipment on every tower and rooftop, and shoot the next thing that flies by from the sky.

Support the Mad Queen as your new regent of Lion’s Arch for 2014

This. So much this.

It does seems that the NPCs wants to allow the enemy airships to fly right in, just to give the players something to fight. >_>

I am very sorry, but I can already guess what will happen. Scarlet will use those airships and portals to sent troops into the city. The players will stop them. And then Scarlet will use her UFO robot. The players will defeat that too. Scarlet may or may not die here.

That’s it. 2 weeks later Lion’s Arch is back to normal. It would be as if the invasion never happened.

Maybe some of you don’t understand what is wrong with this picture. But let me tell you a fact. When a city comes under air raid, it isn’t paratroopers that the civilians have to worry about. It is the carpet bombing that’s the problem.

After the carpet bombing, and the whole city is razed to the ground, then maybe the civilians can start worrying about enemy troops.

And this is why I was excited, for the story, when I find out the Aetherblades have airships. I know for a fact that, even if the players wins, the players CANNOT save the city. The city will be razed to the ground by carpet bombing alone, and the players cannot do anything about it. The civilians will suffer and be angry no matter what. That means the story and politics will change to a whole new direction, even if the players win.

The players are powerless to stop the giant wheels of history. And that’s what makes a great story.

zamalek.2154:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Support the Mad Queen as your new regent of Lion’s Arch for 2014

/signed. Scarlet wouldn’t know what hit her after your emote spams.

Erukk.1408:

On a side note, have humans even developed air defenses yet? The Charr and Asura have their different types of turrets, and the Sylvari might have some if they can grow the plants big enough.

As MQM said all of the turret tech is relatively primitive – ironically I think Scarlet would be the one person who would be able to cobble something together. Given how things typically went down in the living story: Priory will likely know about some artifact, Vigil will acquire it and Whispers will modify it.

Pact turrets fired at Zhantan from over a Kilometer away and killed him just fine. Pact do have turrects. They just choose not to install them and let us players do all the work.