Guild Wars 2

Spoilers ahead.

Feedback about nightmare tower.

1: Nailed it
Sort of. The toxin is causing the effect, but it is related to ascension and/or prophets.

I like the idea of the krait prophets. […] a component of the process of krait ascension that is recently re-acquired knowledge, previously forgotten due to the oral nature of krait lore. Basically the queen is trying to ascend […]

2: Krait Cooperation
I’m really sad to see that Scarlet is behind this one, again. However, a very reasonable explanation is given. If you were to ask me if the krait would ally with someone on the premise of acquiring parts of an obelisk, I would honestly have to say “I don’t know, but I will err on the side of: they wont.” I guess I have the answer to that now.

So I’m not incredibly charmed that they are now in cahoots, but I am happy that at least an explanation was given. It would have been far better to not get them involved with each other at all. There is no reason that we couldn’t have had the krait doing this out of their own accord and Scarlet doing something by herself while we are otherwise distracted – it would have been beneficial to her either way.

I’m waiting for us to learn that Scarlet also mastered krait numerology.

3: Explanations
I really like the inclusion of Ela Makkay. Instead of dodging around the issue of the krait being xenophobic you openly admit it.

Overall
I think out of all the options getting the krait and the Sylvari and/or Scarlet was by far the weakest way to introduce this. However, credit is due for explaining it. I’m not annoyed at all with her involvement, however I really wish she wasn’t behind this. I guess I am trying to say I have mixed feelings, which is an improvement over my previous perspective of “The Slayer of Lore”.

Edit: Once again, Sylvari getting their leafs on everything – that still really annoys me.

Interesting that this is tied to the krait prophets’ ascension. Makes me more certain that krait prophets = DSD champions because the toxin and physical change really makes me think Mordremoth – and given oral tradition, it’s possible they’re mistaking one ED’s corruption for another.

Though I note you didn’t specify how it’s related. I’ll have to dig into it myself and see if my initial thoughts redact.

zamalek.2154:

If you were to ask me if the krait would ally with someone on the premise of acquiring parts of an obelisk, I would honestly have to say “I don’t know, but I will err on the side of: they wont.” I guess I have the answer to that now.

I would argue that the krait would gut the land-dweller for defiling their sacred object.

I’m guessing she somehow convinced a krait leader to listen though.

zamalek.2154:

I’m waiting for us to learn that Scarlet also mastered krait numerology.

Krait numerology? I’m guessing that’s something mentioned in-game.

Scarlet supposedly has shards of Krait obelisks, which is why they’re willing to work with the NC. Also, the NC are just a splinter faction, which somewhat lessens the blow that they’re involved in this as well. And there are a bunch of NPCs in the camp now that speculate on the alliance, claiming that Krait are the ring leaders or that the NC are the ring leaders. As for the numerology, one of the NPC’s talks about both species, and the PC can say something about how the Krait seem primitive, but the NPC replies that they’re pretty smart, they’re good with math.

The Nightmare Court seems to have a lot of splinter factions…

One ones in Sparkfly Fen and Mount Maelstrom are a splinter faction. Twilight Arbor features three splinter factions. And now Tower of Nightmare has another(?) splinter faction.

Don’t shoot the messenger ;p
But yeah, this patch makes it known that it’s not the whole NC

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Krait numerology?

“Numerology is any study of the purported divine, mystical or other special relationship between a number and some coinciding observed (or perceived) events.” (Emphasis mine)

It’s merely an accurate word for the krait and their mathematical predictions of their prophets’ return. It hasn’t been used in-game, or by ANet (as far as I know). I have always just understood the word as a religion or myths surrounding mathematics and numbers.

Basically, from what I understand, the krait are supposed to be extremely good with mathematics and they have attempted (and failed) to use it to predict the return of their prophets. I am assuming that we will learn that Scarlet has somehow mastered their mathematics and was able to use it to manipulate them. Basically, another thing/race that she has mastered. Blegh.

I don’t know where else to post this, but is it me, or does the Oratuss look a lot like a miniature Leviathan?

I’m unsurprised by such a view, however I’d say no. The jaws are much different as is the general shape of the Leviathan, which is more fish-like than snake-like (Leviathans are basically giant tusked sharp-teethed fish).

Quite true. Miniature was perhaps the wrong term to use.
Looking back, I’d describe it like a hypothetical transition phase between a krait and a leviathan. Bulkier body, blunter snout etc.
But then again, when I went to get a better look at it after I’d killed it, it disappeared, so I didn’t get too good of a look.

Edit Just noticed a picture has been uploaded on the wiki. Apart from the bulkier body, it doesn’t really resemble a leviathan at all :p

Indeed, I went through the trouble of capturing 20-some images of that guy during the fight. Uploaded the best. But there’s an interesting thing about the model which has peaked my interest more than it just being an Oratuss.

Oh? Would it have anything to do with the fact that it isn’t near as luminescent as the other toxic krait? That was the second thing to jump out at me. Well, maybe third.

Please, do tell. You’ve made me very curious.

I was going to make a separate thread for this, but I’ll post it here anyways.

The Toxic Oratuss, rather than glowing a yellow-green, has cracked skin. And from this cracked skin you have a light blue glow coming forth (again, rather than yellow-green). It seems he has not taken to whatever magic the other krait have. The eyes and inside of the mouth share this coloring.

What’s most interesting to note is that this is the same coloring as the Blue Orb aka “krait orb” from the personal story, which is stated by Sayeh to “have its own dangers.” What if this appearance is the dangers she mentioned?

I suspect DSD corruption. The yellow-green glow may be Mordremoth, though a big counter is that the NC glow now (which means Mordremoth either finally found a way to corrupt them physically, even if minorly, or it isn’t Mordy corruption), and the glow ceases upon death (which would make it unique for ED corruption). Note: the blue glow does not cease upon death.

(had to split due to size)

On a separate matter, there’s the nature of the tower. At the top – as you can also see via the map – you have a giant plant. Flower? Tree? Not sure. However, from the preview article: “A toxic seed has been grown.”

From Twilight Assault, Scarlet mentions a secret Caithe has and threatens to tell Faolain, which seems bad for Caithe – the only secret we know Caithe has is the one of Malyck, a sylvari born of another tree, which she and others worked hard to prevent the knowledge of getting to the Nightmare Court.

I suspect that Scarlet found out about Malyck somehow, and found the cave of seeds. She gave the NC said seed and the krait the obelisk shards to get their cooperations. Sylvari, known for having magic which grows plants, used said magic to hasten the seed’s grown and is using it to spread these pollens. On top of this, tying this theory to my one on Mordremoth and the Nightmare, I suspect that this tree looks so different because it’s been corrupted by Mordremoth via the Nightmare Court, and the hallucinations and poisons are a side-effect of his corruption.

The corruption concept is supported by one of the achievements (though I have not yet seen what it refers to):

Toxic Spore Cleanser
Kill spore-corrupted creatures.
Find and kill creatures throughout the world who have been corrupted by spores.

Furthermore, this reminds me of the Southsun Cove incident, frankly enough, where Canach used the Fervid Censer to spread berserk-inducing pollen across the island. The pollen matches colors with the krait and NC’s glow, and the side-effects were irreversible. When people are struck with the hallucinations, they sometimes go berserk, thinking they’re under attack and fend for their lives – what if the berserking nature of the Southsun wildlife is just this? They’re not going berserk, but rather they’re hallucinating and believe that they’re being threatened.

If I am right about this, then I can then further my Elder Dragon persona theory – the one where each Elder Dragon has its own “desire” that’s extremely strong and what motivates them into their actions beyond consuming magic to survive:

• Primordus and his minions appear to seek destroying all living life (even his means of corrupting living creatures – encasing them in stone and liquifying the body – supports this, as corrupting living creatures is no different than turning htem into the resources he uses).
• Jormag appears to seek out the strong – he’s described as giving promises of power before corrupting his minions, and some related-to-Jormag skill challenges talk about strength and that Jormag can grant it (non-Sons of Svanir related skill challenges at that).
• Zhaitan’s minions talk a lot about eternal life after death, leading me to view Zhaitan as desiring – or promising – immortality through undeath.
• Kralkatorrik’s mentality in Edge of Destiny matches that of greed – seeking to obtain all things, and destroy the rest. In a way, this can be viewed as wanting to obtain perfection or becoming the sole existence (perfection by definition can be either “without flaws” or “contains everything” – it’d be the second definition by this standard, and possibly even the first!). What’s interesting about the Branded is the sole talking Branded other than Glint is rather… masochistic in speech.
• Mordremoth, through the above theory, appears to be wanting to pit animals (as plants may be affected differently given that’s what, if the theory is right, he corrupts outright) against each other. His corruption doesn’t corrupt them, but rather puts them into frenzies via poisonings.
• The DSD, still hard at this point. I suspect he and his champions are his prophets – the Blue Orb and the Oratuss’ appearance support this IMO, but only very loosely – which would lead, should the krait view of them now be the same as the DSD’s goals, to the DSD wanting to flood the world and drown all life, leaving nothing but the aquatic lifeforms.

Heh. Went on a tangent there…

The notion of Mordremoth’s influence in the pollen also leads to supporting the theory that Scarlet has been influenced by Mordremoth (which kind of fits the vision she had, as he would most certainly be wanting to take out the Pale Tree given its existence is to fight the Elder Dragons – be it by nature or nurture).

Edit: Just found a spore corrupted creature and killed it; was just a standard Toxic Krait with a buff sadly, but interestingly I think that the glow on that one didn’t fade away. It disappeared fast and among permanently-dead krait corpses (which remain glowing) so I’m unsure on this and it requires more testing.

And something mentioned to me in-game by Aaron about the krait – post-fading glow, the colors seem different than usual krait. Which means there’s some amount of permanent alteration by whatever’s causing the glow.

Hmm, very interesting. The colorations are indeed strikingly similar.

I indeed always imagined Mordremoth’s corruption as similar to the “Ophiocordyceps unilateralis” (some kind of parasitic fungus that infects ants and affects their behavior), thus explaining why the NC could be corrupted Sylvari: Their bodies aren’t corrupted, just filled with corrupted fungus (or pollen, as seen in today’s release). Though it remains to be seen whether or not all NC have had contact with this pollen, or if this is a new thing, I guess.

About the Toxic Spore Cleanser achievement: I did the Temple of Dwayna event with a few guildies earlier, and Mallyck had a corrupted by spores buff. He didn’t seem any different. I believe there’s just a random chance that any champion or veteran has this buff.

I was talking to an IRL friend about this all; he gave me a very good example of where this happened in reality and it does make the Krait collaborating with another race very plausible.

Adolf Hitler’s original “religious mission” (if you could call it that) was to eradicate anybody on the face of the planet that was not of the Aryan race who he believed were the master race (seeing similarities here?). The antisemitism was merely a result of him believing that the Semitic race was the most dangerous opposing race and the genocide there was merely a part of his ultimate plan. The movement associated with Hitler (which would probably be censored on these forums) believed that Slavs were not Aryan (Russians were also believed to be the Slav race by him and his movement). However, it is a pretty well known fact that the Axis (the alliance that included Hilter’s forces) included the Russians.

So the group of people that most would probably agree are the most xenophobic people ever seen in real life, did create an alliance with their aliens in order to further their motives.

There’s some RL lore for you all .

That’s arguable… Hitler made a temporary cease fire (I think it was such, been a while since I delved into WW2 politics) with Russia because Germany would have then be fighting a two-sided war. Unfortunately, he prematurely ended the cease fire via attacking Russia when his forces were succeeding on the western front. It was in his intentions the whole time to betray the Russians – the “alliance with weaker individuals” was merely to buy him and his forces time.

So I don’t think this is nearly the same as the krait, who have been fanatical zealots for several dozen generations – and not a movement that isn’t even a generation old.

Certainly the krait’s motivations may be similar, but unlike Hitler’s forces the krait have not had any big drawbacks yet. Even a superior individual can be beaten by pure numbers – Hitler had experienced this already, I believe, but the krait have not. They don’t view themselves defeatable so why would they ally with a lesser race, be it to strengthen themselves or give them one less enemy to fight at a time?