Guild Wars 2

So we raised this guy in Nightfall, and I’m sure we will hear from him again, somewhere down the line.

This bro is an undead lord and commands all kinds of undead, and currently runs things in Elona.

With Zhaitan dying and an army of risen still littering Orr without a “master”, could Joko come in and perhaps try to take over Orr with an army already in place, it is actually connected to Elona, and is not very far at all from the Desolation part of Elona, where Joko resides.

Or maybe he absorbs that army into his own in Elona and becomes more powerful and we see him in an expansion?

I think i remembered in an interview sometime pre-launch, that what is stopping Joko from trying to conquer more land, is that Zhaitan was in the Northwest in Orr halting his progress, and Kralkk was to the North in the Crystal desert halting his progress. With one of them gone, will he try to seep into Tyria?

I could see some freed Risen (by the forgotten ritual, seen in the Arah Forgotten path) joinging Palawa Joko.
Why? Simple, as an undead, I doubt they would be acceptet by other societies. They are mostly undead humans, yet I doubt Krytans would want them in their land, in Lion’s Arch people will hold a grude against them, as they suffered the most from Risen attacks next to the Sylvari. Who in turn are the only one I can see accepted the Risen, but not all.
Elona however is used to have undead as a part of it’s population, probably living in relative peace with them. And of course the undead are also the rulers of said continent, so they would be accepted there.
The second point is, undead in GW are prone to flock around more powerful undead. The Risen maybe a bit different from usual undead, but it’s still possible that they have this trait.

I consider it unlikely. Any hypothetical redeemed Risen – keeping in mind that it’s only the stronger ones that have enough sapience to really be considered worth redeeming – is most likely going to revert to the personality it had before death – similar to King Reza’s spirit after he was freed by the destruction of his corrupted body.

As a result, the goals of any such redeemed Risen, assuming they’re not so aghast at what they’ve become that they don’t destroy themselves on the spot, are likely to be renewing their connection to the gods, restoring Orr, and ensuring that what happened to them doesn’t happen to anyone else – in roughly that order. Joining Palawa Joko does nothing towards any of those goals. The most likely home – keeping in mind that most Risen aren’t sapient enough to be worth redeeming – is among the same organisations that were responsible for redeeming them in the first place – namely, the Pact.

Considering that at least one of the organisations within the Pact has an established antagonism with Palawa Joko, they’re not going to be stupid enough to go to the effort of undertaking the Forgotten ritual with a Risen only to cast it aside to be picked up by the enemy. The Priory is going to want to draw out every ounce of historical and magical knowledge, and all three will want them for insight on dragon minions and as more soldiers on the battlefield… and Trahearne will probably recruit those the orders leave to assist in truly completing his Wyld Hunt (the ritual at the end of the personal story showed it could be done, but it’s still a long way from returning to how it was).

If the Pact isn’t intending to make use of a particular Risen, it would be easier to destroy it than to redeem it. Any they do redeem, you can bet your pinky that they’re not simply going to abandon afterwards.

Mind-blowing plot twist:

You know how everyone thinks there’s a slim chance that Zhaitan is maybe hopefully probably not-quite-dead, since we didn’t actually see his corpse disappear or wither away?

Palawa Joko is going to resurrect him into his now-nearly-unstoppable Elonian undead army, and the players will form an unholy alliance with Joko, much like they did in Nightfall, controlling a re-un-dead Zhaitan to take down Kralkatorrik.

Make it happen, Arenanet!

In GW Palawa Joko never struck me as a serious villain. I don’t know what it was (probably the voice acting), but I never saw him as anything more than a Saturday morning cartoon villain. I’m sure he’ll show up in some capacity, but after battling dragons with the power to literally reshape the word, he’s always going to seem like small fries.

darkace.8925:

In GW Palawa Joko never struck me as a serious villain. I don’t know what it was (probably the voice acting), but I never saw him as anything more than a Saturday morning cartoon villain. I’m sure he’ll show up in some capacity, but after battling dragons with the power to literally reshape the word, he’s always going to seem like small fries.

I agree that he doesn’t come off as a real foe whatsoever—but at the same time I wouldn’t write him off entirely. He did teach us to ride around in giant sandworms, nearly conquer Elona in the ancient pass, and command a pretty kitten little undead army of his own. The fact that he was an ally in GW1 gives me the sense that he’ll be some kind of quirky, taking-himself-too-seriously-but-still-dangerous ally in GW2 as well. At least, I hope.

I would like to see Palawa Joko as a dangerous ally to be honest. In my eyes he liberated Kourna from a ruthless military regime, and he restored life to the Desolation (oh how ironic.)

I think the thing that made me never take him too seriously was when Jeff Grubb stated that should a movie ever be casted, that he would like Christopher Walken to play Palawa Joko.

Risen are not standard undead. In fact I doubt they can be considered undead at all beyond just simply always looking like rotten and 99.99% of the time made from corpses. They are dragon minions and only answer to Zhaitan (unless given free will via the Forgotten ritual used in Arah stoyr).

So no, Joko won’t be recruiting risen. Unless he magically knows a long-forgotten-and-recerently-rediscovered Forgotten ritual. And even then, those undead think for themselves so they’ll only follow Joko as much as any living bloke would.

darkace.8925:

In GW Palawa Joko never struck me as a serious villain. I don’t know what it was (probably the voice acting), but I never saw him as anything more than a Saturday morning cartoon villain. I’m sure he’ll show up in some capacity, but after battling dragons with the power to literally reshape the word, he’s always going to seem like small fries.

In my mind, that’s kinda what he was in GW1…

…but in between GW1 and GW2, one of his schemes paid off bigtime and he basically enslaved Elona and, through it, most of the known human population outside of Cantha. That kicks him up significantly in the threat roster. Personally, I’d regard him as being a threat on the same level as Zhaitan and Kralkatorrik at least – he may not be looking to consume everything, but he does have control of a region the size of Tyria and all its resources, which neither Zhaitan nor Kralkatorrik had… and I’m sure he’d be quite eager to expand given half an opportunity.

And unlike a living army, an army of undead isn’t going to take issue with traveling across a desert in order to conquer.

Okay, so apparently the continent of Elona is being ruled by an undead king. I know this is a bit off-topic, but I feel that someone in-game should have brought this up to me at some point. =P This is the first I’ve heard of him, so this is all news to me!

Out of curiosity, is he ever brought up in GW2? Does he have any presence at all? That may hint at the likelihood of him playing a prominent role in the future.

I think people accidently downplay Palawa because he’s slightly comical in nature, just like Mad King Thorn. I’m sure he would hate getting compared to him though. They both fall under the “more powerful and malicious than they appear” category.

What I kind of want to know, is what the relationship between the Order of Whispers and Palawa when it comes to Elder Dragons? He could be a HUGE asset to have against them, but they still see him as a threat to Elona, since that was one of the reasons they were created for…

The Order of Whispers still have a secret route to Elona, and they’re using it to continue fighting against Joko, according to the Movement of the World. We don’t hear much about that in the game itself, but that’s probably because the agents most directly concerned are doing their thing on an entirely different front.

I’m told there’s an NPC that mentions being a refugee, but can’t remember exactly where (s)he is myself.

EDIT: Hoanjo Belin in the Ossan district mentions that the Elonians in LA and Kryta fled Palawa Joko and Elona

Nerokis.8405:

Okay, so apparently the continent of Elona is being ruled by an undead king. I know this is a bit off-topic, but I feel that someone in-game should have brought this up to me at some point. =P This is the first I’ve heard of him, so this is all news to me!

Out of curiosity, is he ever brought up in GW2? Does he have any presence at all? That may hint at the likelihood of him playing a prominent role in the future.

I don’t think there’s ever any reason for the game itself to bring Palawa Joko up. The background lore has it written in. There are books and such that have that information, the same with individuals that may talk about it, but it is not really pertinent to the story at hand

Erukk.1408:

I think people accidently downplay Palawa because he’s slightly comical in nature, just like Mad King Thorn. I’m sure he would hate getting compared to him though. They both fall under the “more powerful and malicious than they appear” category.

What I kind of want to know, is what the relationship between the Order of Whispers and Palawa when it comes to Elder Dragons? He could be a HUGE asset to have against them, but they still see him as a threat to Elona, since that was one of the reasons they were created for…

Actually in GW1 it was revealed that Palawa and Mad King hate each other.

I highly doubt we’d see Joko before any kind of massive GW2 expansion. That being said, I don’t think that he’d want anything to do with the dragons, he’s far too human. I could see him becoming an ally of sorts, again.

Fwiw, from the wiki:
For most of recent history, Palawa Joko has maintained control of the entire Crystal Desert. However, after the Elder Undead Dragon, Zhaitan, rose from underneath Orr, the desert became a warzone between the two undead forces. Furthermore, when the Elder Crystal Dragon Kralkatorrik awoke and flew south in 1320 AE, it claimed the northern portions of the desert as its own. Joko has maintained control of the Desolation and a southern portion of Crystal Desert despite the two threats. The presence of Joko, Kralkatorrik and Zhaitan has cut off the land route from Tyria to Elona, except for the members of the Order of Whispers who have somehow bypassed this obstacle.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystal_Desert

It does make me wonder if Joko could reanimate Zhaitan’s slain minions.

draxynnic.3719:

Hoanjo Belin in the Ossan district mentions that the Elonians in LA and Kryta fled Palawa Joko and Elona

Interesting. Thanks for the information. While looking for him, I also stumbled upon a book cart with a book called “Conversations with Palawa Joko.” Heh.

In gw1 he could be an ally because we were in lack of help, and he was the only one who could tell us how to cross the desolation’s cursed sand that kills the mortals stepping on it.

In GW2, he took over Elona, enslaving the people and conquering the kingdoms. With this, i don’t think he will be an ally. Humans will want to relcaim the land, mostly the Elonian refugees.

This will be an expansion for sure.

People seem to think that an expansion liberating Elona from Palawa Joko would be weak compared to the main game because of the size differentiation but I whole heartedly disagree. A expansion lined up around the liberation of Elona would be a definite throw-back to the old games with a story focused around the threat of an undead army rather than an elder dragon. There’s room for politics, intrigue, and still some massive champion battles as well as just massive full scale battles. You think Palawa Joko hasn’t been testing the limits of his necromancy over the past few years, or that he hasn’t created monsters that could fight against the flying champions of Kralkatorrik and Zhaitan? I definitely think it’s a long ways off, but at the same time it is definitely a lot closer than a Cantha expansion is.

Elder Dragons are mainstream.. things.. GW1 had story, so Palawa would bring back a bit.

Nerokis.8405:

Out of curiosity, is he ever brought up in GW2? Does he have any presence at all? That may hint at the likelihood of him playing a prominent role in the future.

Yes, but only in Ossan Quarter (in Divintiy’s Reach), by about 3 NPCs.

Find the named NPCs, such as Hoanjo Belin that drax mentioned, there as well as the tour guide, and you’ll learn all GW2 gives about Joko. Which isn’t much.

The reason he’s not mentioned – or the current state of Elona – is because it’s simply not important plot wise. I mean, Usoku is never mentioned in-game either except through an exotic dagger named after him. Don’t know who Usoku is? He’s the last known emperor of Cantha – the successor of Emperor Kisu (the emperor during GW1) – who built up the empire’s military and quelled the vassal states that were warring for over 1,500 years and then kicked out all non-human civilizations – including the tengu – and led Cantha into another era of isolationism (which it was in at least until contact was severed with Zhaitan’s rise).

I don’t recall if it mentions Usoku by name, but there is a mention of what’s happening in Cantha in one of the books found within the Priory library in Divinity’s Reach. it’s fairly brief, though – half the text we get in game is a note left by someone along the lines of “They abandoned us to the dragons. Screw’em.”

When in doubt, check. No mention of Usoku, even in the beta version.

However, it turns out that other than Usoku’s Needle and the Lost Seal of Usoku, there is one mention of him, albeit misspelled. Joko, however, has Palawa Joko’s Finger Cuff but Divinity Guide, Book Cart, Miyani, Alain, and Hoanjo Belin. At least as far as the wiki’s documented thus far.

I don’t think Joko could have “recruited” the newly-free Risen, however, I do get a sense that maybe the Order of Whispers are using them for intel, as the Risen could easily slip into and out of Elona (as undead) and report back to the Whispers as payment for being freed. It might explain how the whispers have information about Joko that would otherwise be “lost”

but, then again, I am just theorizing, and have no evidence to back it up.

Any “freed” risen would only be such after Arah explorable – before that, it was thought via experimentation to be impossible to free a risen from being a dragon minion – physically or otherwise.

And the Order of Whispers already has operatives in Elona and has had since the beginning of Joko’s reign which was before Zhaitan’s rise let alone defeat.