Mists War: What's the deal?

Mists War: What's the deal?

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Posted by: Sharpclaw.7510

Sharpclaw.7510

This has bothered me, somewhat. And it seems like a small thing but it’s sort of been like a splinter in the mind’s eye of my lore knowledge of Guild Wars, which I admit is small.

Now, I PvP. I understand that the Mists is where PvP occurs. But my question is why? What is the Mists War? Why are we fighting it out? It’s clearly a real thing, sort of. NPCs talk about it and I assume they mean sPvP and WvW (ie. that the “Mists War” is the in universe way to explain PvP)…but again, why? Is it a timeless place? Are we battling eternally like Norsemen in Valhalla, competing for glory and the chance to be known as a great warrior? Why am I conquering keep and castles? Who am I doing it for?

I get why I’m doing it out of universe but is there anything close to approaching an in universe explanation for what’s going on?

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Posted by: Shael.4703

Shael.4703

Here and here

My blog/sites: gameshogun & Tomes of Knowledge

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Posted by: Sharpclaw.7510

Sharpclaw.7510

That…didn’t answer the questions really. Or at least, I should say, yes…I’ve read those pages too and I do know how to use Google.

I know what the Mists is. What I don’t understand is why there is a war there. The most I’ve come to understand is that the spirit inhabitants of the Mists continually match up mortals against each other for sport.

Which is all well and good but why are people entering the Mists then? For a chance to be enshrined in the Hall of Heroes? For blessings from these spirits? (I suppose the allure of riches could count as motivation as well.) It seems that if it is common knowledge that the Mists War is just some game run by vengeful spirits, there’d be a lot less motivation to participate. It also raises another question…

What does death mean in the Mists? Does it even exist there? Or are we dealing with a place where death is cheap and these spirits just keep people in perpetual battle, bringing them back from deaths door for another battle?

(edited by Sharpclaw.7510)

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Posted by: Illushia.3721

Illushia.3721

From what we understand, the Mists War is a conflict created and encouraged by Balthazar between worlds/dimensions/whatever where we fight for his glory, and receive bonuses in our dimension depending on how much or how little the war is going in our favor.

The Treesong Calling. Tarnished Coast RP.
http://treesongcalling.com/

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Posted by: Roxy Painter.3691

Roxy Painter.3691

I get the idea it’s a way to interfere, without interfering. I’ll explain.

The six human gods withdrew from the world so that humans would choose their own path. The gods still observe, but no longer directly intervene. By having the Mists, they can ensure all the races can receive combat training and experience of working with each other. But it doesn’t directly affect the land of Tyria.

They may have been aware that a big series of events were coming that may result in the extinction of one or more races, and knew the only way their humans would have any hope of survival would be to co-operate with other races. So they withdrew so that their direct intervention in some matters wouldn’t cause friction with races who have different belief systems.

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Posted by: Kaffo.2709

Kaffo.2709

This this, a thousand times this. Lore for the mist war is utterly lacking in my opinion. It seems utterly pointless for so many warriors to go fight on a never ending battlefield with no aim or purpose- especially when the world is in peril. We’re never told anything about it by npcs- and nobody apart from Mist Warriors even mention it existing. It seems like a massive oversight. There’s no lore within the mists either- no explenation to how the inhabitant races got there for instance.

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Posted by: Liraz.8062

Liraz.8062

I’d love real answers to the OP’s questions too! The NPCs that talk about the Mist War talk about it as if it’s this thing that has always existed and somehow threatens each world’s existence, but doesn’t explain the how or the why.

Firstwatch Irregular Company – RP, Tarnished Coast

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Posted by: Konig Des Todes.2086

Konig Des Todes.2086

From what I was able to find out in the BWE, the Mists Wars is basically an invasion from an unknown source. Your “allies” (aka the Mist Warriors) are saying that these invaders are “evil” beings of unknown origins – merciless and whatnot – and that they threaten the world. It’s kept vague, probably for mechanical reasons.

Why fight in the Mists, other than these Mists Wars (which is only WvW, btw)? Honor and glory, just as in GW1. That is the primary reason to fight beings from other worlds in the multiverse that is the Mists. Honor, glory, and bloodshed… and defending your homeworld from unknown invaders of eeeeeviiiiiil.

Has shown nothing to do with Balthazar or any of the gods, though personally, I’m hoping it’s somehow tied to the apparent overflow of Underworld creatures into Tyria (such as at Godslost Swamp, Blackroot Cut, Reaper’s Gate, and a few other places). Which I’m personally suspecting Dhuum to be behind. Maybe the Mists War’s lore will turn out to be caused by an alliance between a free’d Dhuum and an empowered-by-Dhuum Menzies.

Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.

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Posted by: MrMacaroli.4286

MrMacaroli.4286

I agree with this wholeheartedly. There was a statement somewhere that Balthazar— last God to actually act on Tyria— threw down the portals in Lion’s Arch, but that seems to have been retconned in favor of Asura commandeering the courtyard and making them. The only thing we get from the Mist Warriors is ’There’s a war going in the Mists! All the best fighters go there.’ And that, as forementioned, these invaders are apparently evil.

All the information we have is incredibly vague and gives no real reason or purpose why our undead-slaying, dragon-slaying heroes should care or seek to understand more about this Mist War. The biggest part I find regrettable about this whole thing is that it seems like a wasted opportunity, a means to tell even more story and explain the Mists further— much like SPvP works to tell the story of great battles that happened in the past. Incorporating the idea of these invaders being demons— because, they are just nameless/faceless evil to us— or having some fouler forces at work that makes the whole thing of defending the world be more believable would be more than welcome.

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Posted by: Superpal.4961

Superpal.4961

World vs World is an idea forged from Balthazar and it is a picture of his godhood and interest in all that is war and honour. He, as the last god to show himself, created this portal entrance to the Mists in Lion’s Arch (was it really retconned?) so that the Guilds of the Worlds could fight each other for honour and glory. This, in lore, is not preprosterous. At the time of Guild Wars 1, a lot of the PvP scenarios were encouraged by Balthazar and the meeting place for PvP players was sensibly called The Temple of Balthazar, located on the Battle Isles. The key word is ‘battle’. It is what the humans strive for to show respect, and to praise their god of War. Norns and Charr are unlikely to turn down an opportunity for battle, glory or hunt. It is what creates legends and battle is what the Charr was born of. Sylvari, we know them as the explorers and they are uncautiously curious in all and everything. The Asurans are tricky, and my knowledge of their culture is vague despite having played for years. It is imagineable that they have their own reasons.

You must remember that the Gods, despite their withdrawal, still play a very big role on the world and culture.

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Posted by: Shael.4703

Shael.4703

That…didn’t answer the questions really. Or at least, I should say, yes…I’ve read those pages too and I do know how to use Google.

I know what the Mists is. What I don’t understand is why there is a war there. The most I’ve come to understand is that the spirit inhabitants of the Mists continually match up mortals against each other for sport.

Which is all well and good but why are people entering the Mists then? For a chance to be enshrined in the Hall of Heroes? For blessings from these spirits? (I suppose the allure of riches could count as motivation as well.) It seems that if it is common knowledge that the Mists War is just some game run by vengeful spirits, there’d be a lot less motivation to participate. It also raises another question…

What does death mean in the Mists? Does it even exist there? Or are we dealing with a place where death is cheap and these spirits just keep people in perpetual battle, bringing them back from deaths door for another battle?

Hehe :p I didn’t say you don’t know how to use google :p

Anyway, I understand what you mean. The answer is in Guild Wars 1 to be honest, but those two wiki entries did not capture all of the explanation. I can’t remember much of it either (too long already). There were also information on GW1 Collector’s Edition which isn’t on the wiki too.

The Mists, if I remember it correctly, is like a central area of a multiverse (I’ll call that multiverse ArenaNet-multiverse). Spacetime is chaotic inside it. Time doesn’t flow. Space is not space as you know it. It is a world unto itself connecting all universes, time periods, timelines, everything, and anything to the Mists.

Some gods, on Guild Wars Universe side – Balthazar, loves battles. He conducts organized battles in the Mists.

However, in GW2, it changed a bit. There is now seem to be other warriors from a world we in the GW universe doesn’t know, and is invading the Mists maybe trying to control it. Gaining control of the Mists = power. You can conquer worlds and time.

(In fact, ArenaNet-multiverse is real, we can actually use the Mists to meet the heroes of GW1, as far as the lore of the Mists is concerned.)

My blog/sites: gameshogun & Tomes of Knowledge

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Posted by: DivineDragoonKain.7840

DivineDragoonKain.7840

My server is being dominated in WvW, and I overheard the Mist Warrior NPCs discussing it. I only caught the tail end of the discussion, but the implication seemed to be that if we lost the Mist War we would “lose everything we hold dear”.

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Posted by: Enenion.8127

Enenion.8127

I view the Mist War as a fight for supplies. Think about it. You have a track of land with literally neverending resources that always replenish themselves to maximum every week. You never need to find new resources or worry about resource sustainability because they will always be there. You can chop down the entire forest with impunity in order to build arrows and bows to fight the dragons’ minions because you know it will have entirely grown back in seven days.

The only obstacle to this neverending stream of resources is the pesky other versions of your world that also want to claim it for their own. Hence the conflict in the region is for who can control the most area to harvest the most resources before the the map returns to it’s original state. This also explains why the world that controls the most of the area gets the highest bonuses, they are extracting the most resources to help their world out, which is represented in the form of player buffs.

[Help],
Fort Aspenwood