Guild Wars 2

When asking the pale tree about scarlet she now says.

“Ceara looked too deeply into the mysteries of the world, and something there was looking back at her. It managed to crack her defenses and has been trying to consume her ever since.”

I dont remember her saying this before can someone verify if this is new or did i somehow just miss this when i talked to her before.

Checking the wiki is always helpful
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Avatar_of_the_Tree

A quick look suggests that yes that dialogue is new

Hmmm, wasn’t there a topic on here earlier discussing the possibility of Scarlet having been possessed by a demon? I’m not saying that she is… but this sheds some possibility on the matter.

You’re kidding? Nailed it!

zamalek.2154:

If she’s not a demon there is the possibility she could have been corrupted by one (maybe the experiment connected her mind to a demon which shared the hallucination/lie with her?).

Hopefully this line of speculation can be resolved soon, since Scarlet’s journal features in this patch.

Possessed and corrupted are strong words i feel like influenced fits better with whatever is going on with scarlet and her shenanigans.

As much as I want Scarlet’s demise to involve anything other than an Elder Dragon, I think that the deepest, darkest being gazing back at you could only really be an Elder Dragon. Still, she did have an out-of-body experience and might well have encountered any number of beings. Who knows. I’m looking forward to any other nuggets that you dig up.

abbadon confirmed !? ^^

OneHitWonder.5741:

abbadon confirmed !? ^^

For the billonth time, Abbadon is DEAD

I’ma just throw this out there. But since we’re being ridiculous. IT’S ALL KORMIR’S FAULT.

OneHitWonder.5741:

abbadon confirmed !? ^^

Careful what you wish for. If Abaddon possesses Scarlet, it sets a precedent for Kormir to possess Trahearne.

There’s a lot of things there could be other than a demon… And Abaddon is dead. Dead, dead, dead. Dead, dead, dead. Dead, dead.

(Sorry, had to)

In less seriousness: Obviously Ceara looked into the very consciousness of the world. And it will soon be revealed: Tyria is no planet like we believe. No no no, it is something far worse. It is a giant dragon, having been hibernating in a ball-shape as it slept. And Ceara poked its consciousness, stirring it in its dream. Soon it will unfurl, expand its wings and the world will shake… but we won’t feel it. And the Elder Dragons? They are but its children in the most infantile of states, not yet ready to become colonies of their own.

Anyways, in actual seriousness, my bet is on Mordremoth. Here’s why:

• “the mysteries of the world” – what in this world, that is part of the world like nothing else, is fully unknown? Magic, leylines (the flow of magic in the world), and the Elder Dragons (which consume magic).
• “something there was looking back at her” – what happens when people try to look at Elder Dragons mentally like Ceara did? They look back. Edge of Destiny, when Queen Jennah and Anise tried looking into Kralkatorrik’s mind, it shot back at them; when Snaff tried to delve into Kralkatorrik’s mind, it looked back. And Jormag’s all about mental powers too. Smells like Elder Dragon to me.
• “has been trying to consume her” – what out there consumes? Elder Dragons. The entire thing when Snaff delved into Kralkatorrik’s mind was that it was trying to consume Snaff, trying (and almost succeeding) at corrupting him.

This all to me points to “Elder Dragon” – so why Mordremoth? Simple:

• It’s the only one not awake.
• It’s implied to be related to the Dream and Nightmare. This is what Ceara’s vision was about.
• If it did influence her, trying to corrupt her, and it is an Elder Dragon, then it 1) cannot be Zhaitan (he be dead), 2)
• Tower of Nightmares. Giant plant and poison? Screams like Mordremoth, our dear Elder Dragon of Vegetation, to me.

An alternative could be:

• Primordus. Scarlet’s first action in alliances was bringing in two groups related to the destroyers somehow. Her relations to fire. She seems interested with something underground (the probes), perhaps searching for a clear route for Primordus.
• Zhaitan. Tequatl’s power boost was said to tie into the Living World. Though said to be dead, how can everyone really be sure? We haven’t seen a corpse and I believe it was said that Zhaitan’s corpse will eventually come into play. What if Zhaitan isn’t yet truly dead?
• The DSD. She had to get those obelisks from the DSD’s territory. How?

I cannot see Jormag or Kralkatorrik being tied in. Nor do I see some demonic possession being tied in, but that’s because ArenaNet seems to be avoiding demons of that sense (the only demon we got are imps, which were in Tyria even in GW1 – we have a total lack of the more mental demons thus far – probably too tied into Abaddon for their tastes. Meh.).

Gonna leave this here for those who haven’t visited Scarlet’s lair already (I haven’t, but I couldn’t hold the excitement and watched the video anyway :P):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/madness/Scarlet-s-Journal-Entry

So the video explains what the thing up above is – it’s an incomplete giant flying drill. You can recognize the top half of the drill diagram at the end of the video as being the thing above the Marionette. The spinning blades and the like.

The maps seems to point out where the Energy Probes are. The black dots match up to the fan-made map of their location at least. But I noticed some X’s and arrows to… Now that’s interesting. The X’s are placed over Vigil Keep, Durmand Priory, Chantry of Secrets, and Lion’s Arch (Fort Marriner I think – the Lionguard HQ), the arrows pointing into that general field.

The only thing in the journal that really hints at anything new is the mention of “images of death, destruction, and destiny.” This would hint to what the possessor wants. Which interesting matches up with what Zhaitan’s goal was (as stated through his minions, particularly in Sea of Sorrows – eternal reign (destiny) through undeath (death must come first)), as well as what’s believed Primordus’ goal is (all his minions do is kill the living – aka ultimate genocide); we don’t really have any indication on Mordremoth’s unique persona and take on the whole “consume the world” agenda (each dragon seems to want the same outcome of consuming the world’s inhabitants, but in different flavors/methods).

BTW, anyone got a transcript of the instance’s dialogue? My laptop can’t really run events and I am unsure if I’ll ever get to that instance because of such (no desktop until Feb 10th or 11th), so I would love to see as much dialogue from there that can be provided.

Not a big fan of WP, but this is all I could get for now (instance part starts at around 11min mark in the video):

I like this patch for one main reason – it gives us a confirmation that Scarlet isn’t crazy for the sake of it; something/someone is consuming her mentally. She isn’t at the top of the chain in this chaos after all. I also think Marionette is a way of Scarlet (sub-consciously) showing Tyria what she is – a puppet of destruction. Puppet for who remains to be seen however.

Now that is a very interesting interpretation of Scarlet’s mockery of Jennah’s Watchknights that she stole (update note page outright calls it an intended mockery). A hidden message by her to show that she herself is just a puppet…

I love it but feel it’s too in depth for ArenaNet’s current quality of writing…

Heh, I agree that in the past Scarlet had a pathetic delivery as a character. But if we go by the video of her journal (I don’t think the voice is of the uploader. This patch has lots of voiceovers to the regular GW2 NPC dialogue windows), she sounded to be in pain, and insecure.

Slightly off-topic: Does anyone else see the similarities between Scarlet and Person of Interest’s (TV series) character “Root”? Both of them cause chaos, both are psychotic nerds, Scarlet takes instructions from someone while Root “talks” to the machine created by Finch (as in converses with the machine like it is a human being which Finch never managed to do despite being its creator), and both Scarlet and Root’s intentions are unknown. Root warns Finch of a war more dangerous than herself that is gonna come; a lot of NPC’s in-game have been saying the similar thing. Except the machine is (so far) a good entity helping the lead characters while whoever is behind Scarlet doesn’t seem to be so nice. But as a character there are a lot of similarities, just saying!

Why would an Elder Dragon be in the dream? Makes more sense for it to have been a god like being. Abaddon could always return.

Wooden Potatoes got one detail wrong in his video and that was that Kasmeer’s father is dead. He died in Jail. Got shived by the sound of it.

I might be reading too much into it but Im kind of wondering if they are laying the groundwork for future living story there. Something like Kasmeer’s father getting set up by members of the ministry so he could be removed from power. Kasmeer does state that a minister now lives in her old home.

As for Scarlet, its pretty clear now she is a puppet. Interestingly the Durmond Priory Erin(?) in the instance who gives the summary of what we know of Scarlet points out that each of the Alliances seem to have an elemental theme. The Molten Alliance provided Earth and Fire. The Aetherblades and Inquest Air. And the Toxic Alliance Water.

Between the probes and the drill thing Id say its safe to say she is looking for something. The fact she is also testing a superweapon makes me wonder if she is hunting for something specific beneath the earth to unleash said weapon on.

Nihilus.3015:

Why would an Elder Dragon be in the dream? Makes more sense for it to have been a god like being. Abaddon could always return.

How? Even if some trace of his will survived his power and knowledge was taken by Kormir.

Nihilus.3015:

Why would an Elder Dragon be in the dream? Makes more sense for it to have been a god like being. Abaddon could always return.

Except that what Scarlet witnessed was not the Dream of Dreams. We aren’t really sure what the heck that was, but it wasn’t the Dream. Not as we understand it.

And if the Nightmare is caused by an Elder Dragon as it is heavily influenced to be then it would make perfect sense for an Elder Dragon to have presence there.

But why would it be a god-like being? The Dream has nothing in ties to the gods. And Abaddon is dead. Confirmed. Stated. Fact. For over five years now I think.

Lutinz.6915:

Between the probes and the drill thing Id say its safe to say she is looking for something. The fact she is also testing a superweapon makes me wonder if she is hunting for something specific beneath the earth to unleash said weapon on.

As I posted in Bruno’s dragon painting in Scarlet’s lair thread: the map in her lair has X’s over the Orders’ and Lionguard’s HQs, and all of her attacks have been attacking the main supporters of the Pact sans the Orders thus far – the Aetherblade even got their ships by stealing from the Pact per Scott McGough a few months back. All her actions seem to hinder the Pact in some way, and she has yet to attack any group (major or not) that doesn’t heavily support the Pact (sylvari and asura give the least support for the Pact and are the only playable races not attacked by Scarlet yet – the best there is would be Twilight Assault which isn’t really an attack on the sylvari).

I also theorize she’s after leylines – in hopes of tapping them to give Mordremoth (whom I still suspect is behind the Nightmare) enough magic to rise. The seed used to become the Tower of Nightmare’s plant may have come from Mordremoth (or influenced by him) – the Tower of Nightmare’s affects are compared by a Lionguard in Overlake Haven as being on par to dragon corruption, after all.

So my thought is her overall plans are:

1. Destroy or hinder the greatest threat (the Pact) to the Elder Dragon she is influenced by (most likely Mordremoth – other possibilities can include Primordus, Zhaitan, or DSD; most likely to least respectively).
2. To give a direct source of food for said Elder Dragon to have (and if Mordremoth, to use to rise).

I could see the plot ending with Mordremoth’s rise – thus the face of Tyria will be “changed forever” – a new Elder Dragon is around.

There’s a probe in LA, underwater, south of docks. Not that it adds much except that there’s a high probability that a war could indeed be coming to LA, either from Scarlet’s minions or another bi-product of thumpers, like the new Jungle Wurm.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Anyways, in actual seriousness, my bet is on Mordremoth

But but but you reprimanded me for mentioning EDs with the LS . Still ANet have gone against what they said regarding that and Taimi does mention dragons – probably because of the forum warriors demanding dragons.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

If it did influence her, trying to corrupt her, and it is an Elder Dragon, then it 1) cannot be Zhaitan (he be dead), 2) Tower of Nightmares. Giant plant and poison?…

3) EDs cannot physically corrupt Sylvari; but we have had debates about mental corruption a few times on the lore forum.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zhaitan. Tequatl’s power boost was said to tie into the Living World. Though said to be dead, how can everyone really be sure?

Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead! I couldn’t resist either. Either way the magic leaking out of Zhaitan’s corpse is still corrupt and if Scarlet was dilly-dallying with it; it could have done something to her.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The DSD. She had to get those obelisks from the DSD’s territory. How?

But she was loopy before that, so there’s a chronological issue. However, knowledge gained from one of the other EDs could have given her the tools/knowledge required to [relatively] safely extract the obelisks from DSD’s territory – so it does make sense in that regard.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

that’s because ArenaNet seems to be avoiding demons of that sense

We have asked for darker storylines compared to the current Happy Tree Friends stories: demons would certainly fit that requirement. This patch has shown that us forum warriors can make a difference. I guess we will have to wait and see if we will get more Happy Tree Friends or if we will get The Depths. Both could work given the current evidence – it depends entirely what ANet have planned.

Slightly off topic – but you know that Happy Tree Friends is like, ridiculously graphic and violent right O_o?

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Slightly off topic – but you know that Happy Tree Friends is like, ridiculously graphic and violent right O_o?

Still unrealistically cheerful right up until the violent moments (and even during them in some cases) – much like GW2.

What if the Human gods are dragons? What if they brought the humans from another world to be food?

zamalek.2154:

But but but you reprimanded me for mentioning EDs with the LS . Still ANet have gone against what they said regarding that and Taimi does mention dragons – probably because of the forum warriors demanding dragons.

Actually what I “reprimanded” you for was stating that Scarlet was directly involved with such. But that was before we got this bit. And what I really said was what ArenaNet said – that Scarlet is an “in-between” arc. After Scarlet should come an Elder Dragon. I never said that the LS will be without EDs.

Adding a potential of ED influence was likely ArenaNet’s attempt to salvage Scarlet a bit.

Oh, and I wouldn’t take Taimi for jack squat in regards for reliability. She obviously views Scarlet as a hero – no different than a young boy looking up to Superman. She outright states that she wants to become Scarlet’s apprentice and that Scarlet would make an exception of her and whatnot. She views Scarlet in a far brighter light than reality.

zamalek.2154:

3) EDs cannot physically corrupt Sylvari; but we have had debates about mental corruption a few times on the lore forum.

Well it really depends on why they haven’t been corrupted yet. We’re told they die instead of becoming corrupted, but what if an Elder Dragon figures out a way around it? In-game, the theory is that it’s because sylvari are “too new” and thus unknown. But it’s impossible to tell still.

zamalek.2154:

Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead! I couldn’t resist either. Either way the magic leaking out of Zhaitan’s corpse is still corrupt and if Scarlet was dilly-dallying with it; it could have done something to her.

It’s “die” not “dead” :P

And no,t he magic leaking out of Zhaitan wouldn’t necessarily be corrupted. While hibernating, the Elder Dragons leak magic out into the world. While awake, the corruption seems to be an active process – Kralkatorrik could turn his Branding ability off and on during Edge of Destiny, for example. It’s not a constant passive uncontrollable act – it’s a conscious action.

zamalek.2154:

We have asked for darker storylines compared to the current Happy Tree Friends stories: demons would certainly fit that requirement. This patch has shown that us forum warriors can make a difference. I guess we will have to wait and see if we will get more Happy Tree Friends or if we will get The Depths. Both could work given the current evidence – it depends entirely what ANet have planned.

Just slapping in “DEMONS!” doesn’t make a story dark, let alone darker. ArenaNet has all the tools for a dark story in vanilla GW2 alone, let alone the entirety of the GW franchise. But I see your point.

Chokolata.1870:

What if the Human gods are dragons? What if they brought the humans from another world to be food?

No. This is outright disproven in-game at multiple points. The RIsen treat Zhaitan as differently from all the older five gods, in GW1 we have seen Dhuum, Abaddon, and Kormir personally (none are dragons), and in lore Malchor had seen all six gods at the time (Dwayna, Balthazar, Melandru, Grenth/Dhuum, Lyssa, and Abaddon) in the flesh to carve statues of their true form and thus we have the statues of very human-looking gods across the continent.

The Six Gods look more or less like they’re depicted in the statues. All very human like. The closest to non-human we get is Dwayna and Melandru having wings.

Dhuummmmmm.

May I add something ?

Research have been made saying that actually Sylvari are dragon spawns, I cannot find the topic but this pretty smart. For exemple, from all the races, they are the only one that CAN’T be corrupted by Zaitan (no unded Sylvari). They are also related to dream and nightmare, just as one of the dragon. They are all interconnected and following the orders of the tree.

So possibly, the only thing that made those of the pale tree free is Ventari and its teaching and the fact that they were far from the dragon when born. Yet, the nightmare is strong and some Sylvary can’t fight against it.

This being said, you have much more accurate research about this on the net. This could explain why scarlet have been corrupted by a dragon, he just “reactivated” the link.

Now the cool part:

The event related to Scarlet ends in 3 updates. AND AND AND Anet said they were about to stop those living world event to make a BIG EVENT.

Behold the awakening of another dragon after Scarlet’s defeat (defeat?)

Narcemus.1348:

Hmmm, wasn’t there a topic on here earlier discussing the possibility of Scarlet having been possessed by a demon? I’m not saying that she is… but this sheds some possibility on the matter.

There is no “demons” in GW2 world.

What she saw was omni present, why would an elder dragon be one. That sounds really stupid. Gods usually are. And abaddon could still return.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Narcemus.1348:

Hmmm, wasn’t there a topic on here earlier discussing the possibility of Scarlet having been possessed by a demon? I’m not saying that she is… but this sheds some possibility on the matter.

There is no “demons” in GW2 world.

Um, imps are demons…

And we already know from GW1 that Demons are out there. So I don’t know what you were trying to prove.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Now that is a very interesting interpretation of Scarlet’s mockery of Jennah’s Watchknights that she stole (update note page outright calls it an intended mockery). A hidden message by her to show that she herself is just a puppet…

I love it but feel it’s too in depth for ArenaNet’s current quality of writing…

“This malevolent being out there was so powerful that it started taking over her mind and giving her suggestions in terms of what she should be doing and things like that. There is a big point here, in terms of the battle between Scarlet’s free will versus this creature’s and you’ll see her transformation.”

It may be exactly what she is saying. Maybe you should ease up on Anet a bit.

http://www.gamerzines.com/mmo/sacred-destroyed-pondering-guild.html

Fun fact Ceara means Spear in Irish/Gaelic, which could indicate that SHE is the thorn.

You do know that it was blatantly said in the short story that when she saw the thorny vine in the experiment, she then became that thorny vine wrapped around the pale tree..