Guild Wars 2

How does the Revenant fit in with the lore? If Rytlock was the first Revenant, then how does the lore go around your beginnings and such?

The official answer has been that you don’t actually start as a revenant, you went through the story up to HoT as some other profession and then you learn how to be a revenant after Rytlock returns (…somehow, given his notoriously closed lips on the matter). However, this isn’t shown in-game because they didn’t have technology to allow profession-swapping, nor did they want people to have to grind up some other profession before they could play revenant.

A mesmer did it. Mesmers are the cause of every plot hole.

It would have made more sense if Revenants start at 80 and go through a unique (and VERY abbreviated) personal story where its established that you were another profession, went all through the personal/living world story… but died during the fight with the Shadow Dragon at the end of LS2. You went to the Mists, met Rytlock, and are now helping him find a way to get back to Tyria. You’re quickly introduced to your new Revenant profession/skills along the way, establishing Rytlock was the first Revenant — and he’s now teaching you. You find a way out of the Mists, and Rytlock says something like, “Not sure where this will take us or if we’ll even end up in the same place. See ya on the other side… maybe.” And you’re dropped into the Silverwastes, ready to begin Prologue: Rally to Maguuma.

But that would have required more development work, in an expansion that already felt like it could have used more development work in many other areas.

If you’re any other profession, the whole deal with Rytlock’s “new magic” fits in to the story just fine. If you’re a revenant… you’ll just have to accept that you really were the first, but Rylock had a better PR department.

Maximus Delion.8719:

It would have made more sense if Revenants start at 80 and go through a unique (and VERY abbreviated) personal story where its established that you were another profession, went all through the personal/living world story… but died during the fight with the Shadow Dragon at the end of LS2. You went to the Mists, met Rytlock, and are now helping him find a way to get back to Tyria. You’re quickly introduced to your new Revenant profession/skills along the way, establishing Rytlock was the first Revenant — and he’s now teaching you. You find a way out of the Mists, and Rytlock says something like, “Not sure where this will take us or if we’ll even end up in the same place. See ya on the other side… maybe.” And you’re dropped into the Silverwastes, ready to begin Prologue: Rally to Maguuma.

But that would have required more development work, in an expansion that already felt like it could have used more development work in many other areas.

If you’re any other profession, the whole deal with Rytlock’s “new magic” fits in to the story just fine. If you’re a revenant… you’ll just have to accept that you really were the first, but Rylock had a better PR department.

I love this, it ties up all the loose threads nicely.

I don’t think that the whole situation laid out is entirely necessary. Not only is it never shown that a soul can enter Tyria and regain it’s physical form, an especially hard situation when you include Sylvari PC’s that are never shown to even have souls, but it was explicitly stated that going into the mists isn’t necessary to learn the skills. It is merely that the Mists is where Rytlock discovered it. A story should be included, but this one has too many possible contradictions involved in it.

The same thing happened to every Elite Specialization unfortunately. We just one day could not even touch a weapon and all of the sudden we are not only able to touch the weapon, we can use new powers… just… like…that

Maybe it was an allergic reaction to the Jungle Dragon’s Pollen, or maybe it was Glints egg, idk.

But to quote Rodnik – “A mesmer did it. Mesmers are the cause of every plot hole.”

I have a follow up question to this: Revenants do not have racial skills. I believe a dev said it was for balance reasons, but is there anything lore related? Has a norn revenant lost the favour of the Spirits, á la Jora in the good old days?

Mikhail.4961:

I have a follow up question to this: Revenants do not have racial skills. I believe a dev said it was for balance reasons, but is there anything lore related? Has a norn revenant lost the favour of the Spirits, á la Jora in the good old days?

I wouldn’t think so. By extension, the humans would forfeit their ties to the Six, and the asura forfeit their… research? My guess is that connecting with long-dead spirits requires dedication, which means no time to get involved in the cultural elements. Or something to that effect.

Jhoul.6923:

The same thing happened to every Elite Specialization unfortunately. We just one day could not even touch a weapon and all of the sudden we are not only able to touch the weapon, we can use new powers… just… like…that

Maybe it was an allergic reaction to the Jungle Dragon’s Pollen, or maybe it was Glints egg, idk.

No. It’s from channeling and attuning to the power of the jungle and the land. You can’t take an Elite Specialization without acquiring Hero Points from external sources.

One dev said specifically warriors who became revenants ‘during’ the HoT story.
It was just one dev, during a youtube ama from at the time, so it may not even be
absolutely reliable, even if it came from a dev.