Guild Wars 2

There’s a lot of talk in the HoT forum that Shiro was datamined to be a legend available to the Revenant.

Wasn’t he supposed to be imprisoned in the Realm of Torment? With Kormir (presumably) in charge, why is she just letting him pop in and out of the mortal world? What’s stopping him from convincing a young hero to help him become mortal AGAIN?

Does anyone else see how this could be a bad idea?

Honestly, I think Shiro is (going to be) the foremost proof that revenants aren’t actually channeling spirits. Essentially, as it’s been presented to us, we aren’t actually contacting Ventari or Malyck or Jalis- we’re just linking up to how the Mists remember these people. I don’t know that a memory could be given mortal form. At best it might be possible to bring a Shiro II into existence as a demon, and even that’s beyond the powers we’ve heard about.

1) Shiro himself wouldn’t be popping into the mortal world, but his power channeled.
2) After his imprisonment, his spirit was killed. What happens to a spirit when ‘killed’ is unclear. He may or may not be imprisoned in the Realm of Torment. Furthermore, his imprisonment was before Kormir rose to divinity.
3) There were a lot of legends considered for revenant and tossed mid-development, so we were told. It isn’t improbable for some of them to have been left impartial in the gw.dat.

@Aaron: Given the roleplaying the reventant blogpost, it seems we are channeling directly to spirits, unfortunately (I say unfortunately because it is not as interesting as calling forth the Mists’ own memories of the Mists). But it’s communing with them and channeling their power, not calling them into Tyria.

I doubt the channeled legends can actually control a person in the lore. Also, Shiro’s first bid at coming back to life worked because he (as a spirit) was free to wander about as part of his job as an Envoy.

I don’t think he could pull the same trick off again.

It was horribly vague, but I got something a bit different from that RP article.

The Mists remember what came before, and echoes of those who left an especially powerful imprint on the world of Tyria can still be found there. A revenant calls upon these legendary historical figures, bringing them back into action to enhance the revenant’s own abilities and power.

Reaching back to the original Guild Wars® for the revenant’s Mist-borne battle companions not only allowed ArenaNet to give a nod to players who remember their roles in the previous game, but also to continue the stories of the legends by making them active and aware.

A revenant’s legends are not merely echoes of the past but are fully sentient, with opinions and personalities of their own.

To me, they seem to always be described as some fuzzy thing between “merely a copy” and the real thing. I’m guessing that while they are beings/echoes born from the Mists (aka: Mist-borne, it seems) the legendary figures that inspired their creation made such a large impact in the Mists that they were fleshed out and given much more detail than the average echo/copy.

Erukk.1408:

It was horribly vague, but I got something a bit different from that RP article.

The Mists remember what came before, and echoes of those who left an especially powerful imprint on the world of Tyria can still be found there. A revenant calls upon these legendary historical figures, bringing them back into action to enhance the revenant’s own abilities and power.

Reaching back to the original Guild Wars® for the revenant’s Mist-borne battle companions not only allowed ArenaNet to give a nod to players who remember their roles in the previous game, but also to continue the stories of the legends by making them active and aware.

A revenant’s legends are not merely echoes of the past but are fully sentient, with opinions and personalities of their own.

To me, they seem to always be described as some fuzzy thing between “merely a copy” and the real thing. I’m guessing that while they are beings/echoes born from the Mists (aka: Mist-borne, it seems) the legendary figures that inspired their creation made such a large impact in the Mists that they were fleshed out and given much more detail than the average echo/copy.

That is basically how I read it as well.

Activating skills will occasionally trigger in-game dialogue from the legends, and the player character will sometimes respond with race-specific dialogue of their own. Depending on the legend your revenant has summoned between fights, you may also hear some small talk out of combat. You’re free to imagine the extent of conversation between your character and their legendary allies in any way you like: Do they beg Jalis for tales of his youth? Do they bicker with Mallyx about the nature of power?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/hidden-arcana-role-playing-the-revenant/

Even if they do not manifest in the real world fully, I still imagine that Shiro would try anything to be alive again, even without his magic Envoy spirit bubbles. If any given revenant can channel him, there will eventually be one that will take orders from him.

Shiro for Pope!