Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been wondering about this for quite a while now and I couldn’t really find any recent topics on the matter.

So my question is; what is the lore behind the PC being able to die and resurrect. Why can we resurrect and NPC’s like Eir are killed and can never be resurrected.

Furthermore, even the NPC’s themselves seem to be randomly able to res. I mean in the story during normal battles they’ve died several times (at lest for me) and you can just res them again.

I’m assuming that when they die outside of actual cutscenes it’s more of a pokemon style fainting than actual death.

Rawr.9467:

I’m assuming that when they die outside of actual cutscenes it’s more of a pokemon style fainting than actual death.

Pretty much this. Technically, when our screen greys over we are ‘defeated’, not dead. Same goes for any of the NPCs we can pick up. The ones that die are the ones that don’t give us an option to revive.

Resurrection did used to be part of the setting, but by GW2 it’s a lost art, and possibly impossible, a decision the devs made for the reasons you listed above. It was odd to be able to bring the slain back to life, but not when the corpse was someone important who we’d most want to resurrect.

PCs do not “die” – this is why the states are called downed and defeated, not downed and dead.

Only NPCs can die in GW2. Those that can be revived aren’t dead, just “defeated”. Defeated state is basically being unconscious – equivalently to tabletop RPGs would be the bleeding out state. Similarly, “reviving” is not the same as resurrection, but closer to resuscitation.

Resurrection existed in GW1, but something happened in the past 250 years and it no longer works anymore, so no one can be resurrected. Gaheron Baelfire tried a round about method of resurrection via powerful magic granted by the Eternal Flame, but this is the only near-successful case of resurrection in GW2.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

PCs do not “die” – this is why the states are called downed and defeated, not downed and dead.

When I fall from a great height, get crushed under a dragon’s feet or have a gigantic spear forced through my chest (wvw finishers) I’m pretty sure I’m dead lol.

I only use arenanet’s words. This was their explanation for why they can get rid of resurrection in the world, which they did because they felt it cheapened character deaths.

be careful with overthinking, this hurts the immersion.. Mortal Kombat doenst have a lore to explain why players are fit for a new match after suffering a fatality. In the Street Fighter it was already clearer that the loser did not “die” was just “defeated”, with some scene appearing beaten up.

Well… since Garm returned, he had a mist aura around him… maybe that’s Eir’s Spirit.

That was just the effect Filthy – it goes away when you dump water on Garm. It’s not a mist aura… it’s a stink aura, like you’d see in kid cartoons.