Guild Wars 2

Hey there guys. We’ve all done the stuff from the latest rehashed event , even the ones of us that missed the bazaar last year. So i started wondering what Anet are going to do next, so I started looking for hints. Started from twitter with @GuildWars2 and #GuildWars2 to see people’s opinions on the matter. Found a relatively new blog with very nice theorycraft idea

http://maidenswhisper.net/?p=72

The name is weird so Im wondering if its not on purpose (It’s an inn in Divinity’s Reach AFAIK?!) but beside that, read the post.
When a dev was approached with questions about Livia, all she said is that she can’t talk on the matter. I agree with this blogger. What do the others of you think

I think pulling Lavia into this might be a bit loose, and hard to prove, considering the last time she appeared was over 250 years ago, so if she is still alive, she is prolonging her life with magic.

But otherwise, I think they’ve predicted the sequence of events perfectly. I had the same thought process. As soon as Belinda said shes going to Brisban Wildlands, I immediately thought “Brisban Wildlands. Very near Mordremoth and The Bloodstone. Oh dear.”

I like the idea that the bandits might be planning a take-over of LA. That’d be a great way to keep to place relevant to the story instead of it just disappearing into the background for the duration of reconstruction.

Not so sure about the idea of a bloodstone in the ruins. Those buggers are big, the three we know about are in very difficult to access locations, and those three suggest a pattern that would put the other two on the bottom of the ocean. I find it next to impossible that one of the krytan monarchs could have gone to the trouble of moving it to the city, let alone found a way to hide it, and for all that to happen and then everyone miraculously forgot about it/decided to take it to their graves? Way, way out there.

I like the idea of having us ally with the White Mantle again too. As long as it isn’t done too similar to GW1, it could go over really well. Personally, I’d like to see the game acknowledge from the start that they are bad people, but put us in a position where we think the bad can be kept in check while we’re playing with Mordremoth. Not so keen on the idea of them taking up an anti-sylvari stance, as that should exclude a fifth of the players.

I also agree with the parallels they pointed out between Canach and Livia, though I will point out also that Canach’s change of heart the last few updates mostly erases them. Either way, I would really want a more compelling reason for her to step out of the shadows than “Well, they’re doing it too!”

@Argon Last time she appeared was actually 71 years ago, as a still youthful member of the Shining Blade, so she definitely extended her life with magic. She was a relatively public figure back then, which leaves a lot of room for speculation as to what happened since. Expect to see her crop up several times if you hang around the lore forum.

I hope Livia does show up. Ree went out of her way to bring her into the story of Sea of Sorrows. That kind of fanservice is usually followed by even more of the same.

But followed when? It’s been almost a year since SoS was published. And why would they do it now, in Season 2, when there’s potentially season 3 and 4 and 5? Let’s be honest, when has ANet ever rushed to expand on the hooks they leave for us? The longer the speculation is allowed to fester, the better it is for them as a company and us as a community.

The money being raised by the festival kind of destroys the whole theory presented here. The money from the festival will make it harder for outside figures to gain influence.

The White Mantle is now a bandit organization, there is no way we will ally with them. Even if the Krytan ministry calls for it.

I disagree with that last bit. There’s plenty of room for the Mantle to be allies of convenience when going after Mordremoth- either side would have to be asinine to fight the other when they’re standing in the shadow of an Elder Dragon.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I disagree with that last bit. There’s plenty of room for the Mantle to be allies of convenience when going after Mordremoth- either side would have to be asinine to fight the other when they’re standing in the shadow of an Elder Dragon.

It would be even more asinine to ally with the bandits. Queen Jenna has to be fully aware that they are a front group for the White Mantle and an ally of her enemy Minister Caudecus. It would be political suicide for her to ally with them. The shining blade would never stand for it.

We’ve already destroyed one dragon without allying with the White Mantle, destroying a second one without them should be possible also.

I’m not talking large-scale, political truce, with backslapping and happy feelings all around. Just us, the heroes on the ground, talking to whatever chapter of the White Mantle is still out in the jungle and agreeing to fill each other with arrows some other day. Jennah, and maybe even the Seraph, would never have to come into it.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I’m not talking large-scale, political truce, with backslapping and happy feelings all around. Just us, the heroes on the ground, talking to whatever chapter of the White Mantle is still out in the jungle and agreeing to fill each other with arrows some other day.

The Order of Whispers also wouldn’t stand for it. Anything that gives the White Mantle an advantage would be discouraged by them. They don’t want to risk Queen Jenna losing the throne to Minister Caudecus. They feel it would be bad for the fight against the dragons.

How would it give the White Mantle the advantage? If we work together to take down Mordremoth, they’re left no better than before. By contrast, if we leave them to face Mordremoth alone, we play with fire and risk the dragon becoming too powerful, and if we stop to fight any White Mantle we encounter, we could well both lose.

As for the politics, Jennah wouldn’t have to be involved. And remember that any link between Caudecus and the Mantle is purely speculative at this point- we have nothing to say that Caudecus is aware of the Mantle presence in the bandits, let alone what the particulars of any potential relationship might be.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

How would it give the White Mantle the advantage? If we work together to take down Mordremoth, they’re left no better than before. By contrast, if we leave them to face Mordremoth alone, we play with fire and risk the dragon becoming too powerful, and if we stop to fight any White Mantle we encounter, we could well both lose.

As for the politics, Jennah wouldn’t have to be involved. And remember that any link between Caudecus and the Mantle is purely speculative at this point- we have nothing to say that Caudecus is aware of the Mantle presence in the bandits, let alone what the particulars of any potential relationship might be.

How can you consider a link between the bandits and the white mantle to be speculation when so many bandit outpost fly the white mantle insignia?

Caudecus may not be aware that he is connected to the white mantle, but he doesn’t need to know it. He is connected to the bandits, who are connected to the white mantle.

As for politics, the problem isn’t Jennah’s involvement, but Caudecus’. If he rises in power, he can use that power to challenge Jenna. This something the order of whispers does not want to happen as he does not see the dragons as a threat.

Which is why an allegiance will not happen, the bandits most likely don’t regard the dragons as a threat. Another point that is being forgotten is the bandits relationship with the inquest and the nightmare court. If the other dragons haven’t forced them to ally, the the fifth one won’t either.

An indirect link is useless to Caudecus. If we help the White Mantle, and Caudecus has no interaction with the White Mantle, he doesn’t directly benefit. And again, we aren’t enhancing or benefiting the Mantle- they would come out exactly the same. No gain, for themselves or for anyone connected to them. Continuation of the way things are.

And it’s one thing to not care about dragons on the other side of the world. Mordremoth is in their backyard now, if not their home. They either care or they die.

I’m not sure that even a temporary alliance couldn’t result in gain for the Mantle. Consider how much the Inquest managed to steal from the Pact even when the Pact explicitly considered them enemies (just not as important enemies as the dragons) – thefts which ultimately lead to the destruction of Lion’s Arch. The bandits also have an alliance with the Inquest in Brisban, and Lazarus if he’s still around would probably be no slouch at reverse engineering Pact technology either. Given any choice in the matter, I wouldn’t want members of the Mantle to gain any lessons in Pact technology that the survive the learning.

Incidentally, as a couple of other points from this thread:

First, the Maiden’s Whisper is also the main Order of Whispers hideout in Divinity’s Reach.

Second, we see in Sea of Sorrows that Livia has indeed extended her life and youth, although we don’t know how or whether there was a limit to how much.