Guild Wars 2

I notice that its common in both the personal story and in the living story that the NPCs often seem to forget past deeds regarding the Hero (sometimes the Hero as well), So to avoid blaming IRL lazy writing , I here are my thoughts to a in game explanation – for this “mystical effect” and its origin & whats causing it – using ingame lore.
Origin of MadnessIn the living story Rox claiming that she killed Tequatl, and Majory not knowing who the hero is, Despite the Hero actually doing the deed of Killing Teqatl, and helped Majory with both a earlier murder investigation and the Toxic tower.

Even the past Guild wars1 hero is not remembered, One in world explanation for this could perhaps beStorymode FractalThat they like Dessa severed from the fabric due to Thermanova explotion and them beeing exposed to the fractals. Though the heroes opposite of to Dessa its the heros that remembers full details of events, while the world reverts & forgets most of the heroes influence. Oh and since the fractures also goes into the past, they heroes where effected before they & Scarlet caused it. And this fractal effect could also have affected the worlds memory of the heroes legendary heritage

It would be nice if the hero would contemplate about this effect, him/herself though. This would also neatly tie up as to why the hero cant herself mobilize the rest of the world for big things. Like stopping the “don’t touch” much earlier.

ITs otherwise quite hillarious to be asked who are you again from a npc, that the hero have know for at least a year.

I don’t know what you mean… if you talk to her away from Rytlock, Rox is quite honest that a “small army” did all the work and she just nabbed a piece of the tail. And Marjory remembered my character just fine.

Really?, that strange- are your character a human? The npcs seem to be more aware if they are of the same species, Anyway, Marjory didnt remember my character (that was a Norn), nor what “we” did. And from my observation that is common through out the NPCs, much of the conversation questions are essentially asking about things my character already should know, or the NPC should know that my character should know.

the NPCs also use various ways of avoiding using the heroes name,

Just to clarify something, when you go to fractals, you don’t go back in time.
Fractals are echoes of past events, not the past events themselves.
That’s why you can play two fractals and some things are different.
The fact that the quantity of echoes is increasing rather than diminishing is quite concerning though.

Well the echoes seem to be present in the regular world as the same cycle of events repeat themselves and foes respawnig. Except the NPCs dont seem to notice.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I don’t know what you mean… if you talk to her away from Rytlock, Rox is quite honest that a “small army” did all the work and she just nabbed a piece of the tail. And Marjory remembered my character just fine.

This for me. All the characters except Logan seemed to remember me (and vice versa). I was playing a charr.

Wasn’t sure if Rytlock remembered me, though.

As interesting as the theory is, it’s likely a case of lazy writing and/or a bug where the NPC should recognize but doesn’t.

ZYX.6793:

Well the echoes seem to be present in the regular world as the same cycle of events repeat themselves and foes respawnig. Except the NPCs dont seem to notice.

Are you referring to the dynamic events system? That’s a mechanical thing, not story. They don’t all really repeat themselves, and most are written to be generic and a whole case of “oh boy, not again.”

Fractals is actually explained why the NPCs there respawn – all part of the Mists. The open world isn’t on a constant repeat function in lore and story. This is a part of suspension of disbelief and the like.

Yes I was referring to the dynamic events system. And repeats of Living story grand events. And with the idea could thus be included into the story, instead of a “oh boy, not again.” and instead of the xth brother (soon spider food) thats gets promoted and replacing his spider eaten captain brother,

It makes better sense to my suspension of disbelief, if its connected to the fractals.

Well in the case of the living world events, as well as those with events where named individuals die (as opposed to generic NPC 24601), I always viewed those as happening once and only once canonically, but repeat mechanically so that more people can enjoy it. Otherwise we’d have cases like the Ancient Karka meta where everyone would be trying to take part and be lagging to all hell, resulting in disconnects and the like. It gives a larger timeframe for people to enjoy the temporary content.

It would be very weird to be having Draithor the Drill die and resurrect a lot of times.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Well in the case of the living world events, as well as those with events where named individuals die (as opposed to generic NPC 24601), I always viewed those as happening once and only once canonically, but repeat mechanically so that more people can enjoy it. Otherwise we’d have cases like the Ancient Karka meta where everyone would be trying to take part and be lagging to all hell, resulting in disconnects and the like. It gives a larger timeframe for people to enjoy the temporary content.

It would be very weird to be having Draithor the Drill die and resurrect a lot of times.

You might be right, however in flame and frost was stated that you go with Braham and Rox in a lot of different facilities.
Basicly the little changes everytime you go in there (well it was only one change unfortunatly) should have been a sign that this was not the the same you went in before.
Sadly the dialog never changed, which would have been a great thing.

However you are right. Canonically these things are supposed to happen only once, so for this time it would be:
- Fight the worm/marionette and stop them
- Meet the our “heroes”
- Find Scarlet`s layer.

That would be everything for this “story” and nothing more happens. However we have to see if scarlet`s layer is even part of the actual storyline, or not just a bit foreshadowing, akin to a sidequest for the player.

Actually, both the Marionette AND the wurm are both set up to be able to go about their stuff multiple times, the marionette is a weapons test, and the wurm has been said to regenerate.

Well from the conversations (text) the NPCs, Rox etc & – seem to forget that the hero assisted them in earlier chapters – and game mechanic wise that could be explained that it is extra infodump to give a short synosis of what has previosly happen .

But inworld it gives the impression to me that the NPCs “reset” like Dessa, or have amnesia.

They remember still – in Wintersday, be it Thunder Ridge Camp or The Dead End they all acted kindly to your presence. In the instance after the Marionette, they all again – including Taimi for your help with Marionette – reacted with recognition to you. Especially Kasmeer, who said something along the lines of “I don’t like talking about it, but since it’s you it’s alright” (in the dialogue tree box, not the voiced stuff).

The only time they don’t recognize you was really during the Queen’s Jubilee – Braham and Rox didn’t acknowledge knowing you in the open world (but did in instances) even if you did Flame and Frost. This was a confirmed, and never fixed, bug though.