Guild Wars 2

Last SPOILER WARNING! Turn away if you did not complete the 1st episode of Season 3. Once your eyes cross this line there is no turning back from the spoilers. Unless you want to be spoiled.
You have been SPOILER warned!
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So a lot of things happened all at once in this episode.

The pact is now searching for a new leader and the Commander declined since the New Leader will not be allowed to be in the field and will be commanding Pact activity behind a desk in Lion Arch.

Cadacus reveals himself to be the Leader of the White Mantle this entire time.

Lazarus the Dire has returned fully powered by the entire Bloodstone in Bloodstone Fen.

The White Mantle is split between those loyal to Cadacus and those loyal to Lazarus.

Primordus is now active and soon will begin his assault on the surface world.

Canach and Marjory got new outfits with Canach’s new outfit being sold first in the Cash Shop. The others may get new outfits as well.

New Mastery path being “Ancient magic” focus stuff.

With all this how do you think all this will play out lore wise.

For me I think this may end with a 3 way final battle between White Mantle (Lazarus) vs Primordus vs Dragon’s Edge (and the Pact)

I bet we’re going to go to the fire island chain to deal with some sort of Mursaat / Jade Construct stuff ANet will come up with. And because it’s a fiery volcano island chain I bet they’ll write in some stuff with Primordus there too.

Doesn’t have to make sense. It’s just an excuse to get us there. When else will we have reason to?

If Lazarus is interested in the bloodstones, it would give us new reason to go underneath Sparkfly/Maelstrom/Straits/Timberline areas (not sure which it would be, if a single one) as the Shiverpeak Bloodstone is there, as well as reason to go to the Ring of Fire.

Unless the destroyers are also going after the bloodstone magic all of a sudden, I don’t see their involvement.

Whatever Lazarus is planning, it’s big enough that he doesn’t care about national leadership, but still wants his cult. He did swear revenge against asura and humans for countless generations though, so it could all just be a revenge plot in the end. Question is how he will go about it.

Whatever happens, I sure hope Lazarus doesn’t purposefully power up Primordus to achieve his “revenge” against humanity. That would make no sense seeing as how it would be dangerous to him: remember the Mursaat have ran away like cowards to the Mists during the previous dragon rise; and also have come about their own end because of how scared they were of the Flameseeker Prophecies. Even the battle for Lion’s Arch in GW1 didn’t make so much sense, seeing as how the Mursaat would hardly run straight into death like that.

I actually have a faint hope that Lazarus will actually come up with something smart and not kill himself like every Mursaat ever, eventually even draining magic from Primordus and becoming the main villain for our new guild to focus on before Kralk/Jormag. Or maybe he even stays there as a persistent villain, inducing the dragons to rush into us just so we kill them and he can acquire more and more magic. Whatever, as long as he doesn’t end up with the classic self fulfilling prophecy of death Mursaat plot (at least not so fast).

Since this thread mentions “key figures”, there is one figure that no one has brought up so far it seems.

Lady Wi.

We first meet her in the noble human story where she seems to be your generic gossiping noblewoman who only knows the quality of shoes and who’s flirting with whom behind everyone’s back and nothing else. Her husband is one of the ministers, and is the host of the party that we meet her at – her husband is presented as a proud and honorous man who fully supports Queen Jennah (much like Minister Arton – these two ministers are presented as the most trustworthy of ministers for Jennah).

But then we met her again in the Order of Whispers storyline where we learn that she is in fact a spy for the Order of Whispers – and hints that her husband does not know, IIRC. She is also a capable mesmer, able to make Tybalt look like Demmi Beetlestone or capable of turning Demmi, Tybalt, and the Commander all invisible for an extended period of time.

But Out of the Shadows comes with an interesting thing. You know that female mesmer next to Caudecus? The one that made the portal that helped him escape? Her name was Lady Wi (also had first name but didn’t catch that).

So now we find out that Lady Wi is not only in the Whispers, but the White Mantle as well. And rather high ranking since she seems to be Confessor Caudecus’ aide.

Was she Whispers who infiltrated the Mantle? If so, why did she let Caudecus escape?

Or was she Mantle who infiltrated the Whispers? (The journals mention the Mantle sending spies into all sorts of orders) If so, why did she help Demmi who had critical information on Caudecus escape so easily?

Maybe that information we never learned was that Caudecus was White Mantle, and Wi used that information to infiltrate the Mantle? Or she was willing to risk the information being such and played a gambling game with letting the Whispers find out?

<hr>

A less important but also interesting note: Councillor Haia is alive.

You may remember her from the VAL-A storyline for asura, where she acts like the sweet old granny with baking cookies and all that, but turns out that she’s the one who sabotagued the PC’s VAL-A golem design into murdering machines to kill the Arcane Council. Curious that Flax said he’d make sure she would “get a lethal gift of her own someday soon”, we never see her again for four years not even in the Arcane Council instance, but here she is.

Blunder on the writer’s part? Or Flax’s implied message of killing her not all it seemed? Or is that “someday soon” just not yet coming… four years later…?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Was she Whispers who infiltrated the Mantle? If so, why did she let Caudecus escape?

My first thought was because she wanted to escape too, there being a mad demigod smiting the area, but then I recalled that Lazarus had trotted off after flaming everyone (except for Caudecus & Friends, I don’t understand what saved Caudecus there other than plot armor).

Now I can rationalize the answer another way. Perhaps she’s not done with her mission and needs Caudecus to continue to trust her (as much as he’d trust anyone). Perhaps Whispers has other plans than having Caudecus caught or killed by Crown agents. The Whispers are the illuminati, the powers behind thrones, putting their thumbs on the scales of history to promote their own anti-dragon agenda. Maybe Lady Wi, if that was her, I’ve seen conflicting comments, maybe she and the Whispers feel Caudecus is now necessary to counter whatever Lazarus might be up to and she made a split second decision to save him.

Or maybe she was just getting herself out of there and didn’t have time to make the portal exclude him when he was standing right there. His order to get him out jolted her out of her daze from the recent events (did you see her jaw drop in the cinematic?) and she was all for the idea of leaving asap so she did it for herself, not at his order, and he just lucked out.

There are all sorts of reason she might have done it without having any particular loyalty to Caudecus.

The OoW Lady Wi had grey hair though, and if I remember correctly the WM Lady Wi had darker hair and overall looked younger. But we know that Minister Wi and his wife had a daughter. We never saw her, we can only hear her playing an instrument. So it could be her, technically she would also be Lady Wi.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

But Out of the Shadows comes with an interesting thing. You know that female mesmer next to Caudecus? The one that made the portal that helped him escape? Her name was Lady Wi (also had first name but didn’t catch that).

I’m more under the impression that the mesmer might turn out to be Lady Wi’s daughter.

From the VA and character models, Minister and Lady Wi are more of an older couple (both with grey/silver hair and most likely pushing 40-50+), but the mesmer shown next to Caudecus looks much younger (by gw2 model comparison) with black hair. Not to mention, the added first name might to be distinguishing fact to separate her from her mother. Because if it was just Lady Wi from the PS, why would the first name be needed at all?

Edit: Ninja’ed by BuddaKeks! =P

True, I had considered that myself, though I would find it odd that both mother and daughter are mesmers, and work for opposing secret orders.

I would suspect that Lady Wi from the PS would initiate her daughter into the Order and not let her fall to Caudecus.

As to why adding first name – could simply be that they wished to define her more than her husband’s last name for this arc. After all, why would adding a first name distinguish her from the one we know, when we don’t know old Lady Wi’s first name?

Though looking through the wiki, Lady Wi nor Minister Wi ever mention a daughter. Still, a possibility.

The tour guide for Rurikton mentions her.

The way I see it, we have two possibilities here- the elder Lady Wi is disguising her appearance and voice, but the storywriters wanted us to know who she is, but added a first name that we didn’t know because… I feel like the line of logic falls apart there. Or, this really is the daughter.

It isn’t surprising that she’d be a mesmer too- we had that interview ages back that established most humans learn magic in the home. Her showing up with the White Mantle is convoluted, but no more so than the elder Wi doing so- the younger could just as easily be a spy, or (although I find the prospect less likely) be an honest Mantle zealot who her mother never thought to suspect. We know Caudecus is a canny old fox, despite his rather crass treatment of those he has no need to manipulate, and he might’ve clued on that Wi was more than she seemed and worked to subvert someone inside the family (or it might’ve just suited his fancy to turn the daughter of one of his enemy’s closest allies into his own mistreated accomplice).

Either way, like most of that final sequence, I think it was intended to keep us buzzing about possibilities until the next release. If nothing else it probably means that the politics of Divinity’s Reach haven’t been fully written off after all.

The daughter being a mesmer isn’t the surprising part.

The working for opposing secret orders is. I think the mother would be good and experienced enough to catch that.

And yes, her addition was definitely meant to keep us thinking.

It’s one of the few things I’m enjoying speculating about.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The daughter being a mesmer isn’t the surprising part.

The working for opposing secret orders is. I think the mother would be good and experienced enough to catch that.

And yes, her addition was definitely meant to keep us thinking.

It’s one of the few things I’m enjoying speculating about.

I’m thinking she either is working for her mother, and possibly feeding back information for the OoW, or her joining the WM was an act of rebellion on her part.

Though, I wouldn’t doubt that Lady Wi did know that her daughter was a part of the WM if it was an act of rebellion. The problem would be there wouldn’t be much she could do about the situation if her daughter is so dead set against her. She couldn’t risk exposing her ties to the WM because that would mean she would get jailed (at best) and it would reflect poorly on her husband a minister, and given her daughter’s skill in the mesmer arts; there wouldn’t be much way to keep her under some sort of house arrest because she could just teleport away.

Anyone else notice how Magic Hungry the corrupted people are when they became powered by the Bloodstone?

makes me wonder if that is how each Elder Dragon started out similar to them being that originally these “Elder Dragons” originally never had hunger for Magical energy until some how they became exposed to a large amount of magic that made them so powerful that they just began to develop a hunger for magic.

The minds of the corrupted also began to deteriorate slowly the more hungry they became to the point all they care about how powerful and hungry they are for that magical power.

As for Primy, his sudden movement may have something to do with the Leylines all over Tyria popping up. These pre-S3 events were hints to what is to come in Season 3. Maybe the sudden shift in Magical energy within the Leyline, now that Mordy is dead and no longer feeding off of it, has attracted Primy due to how the Leyline is mostly underground. The Ring of Fire is a location with a Volcano big enough from underground for Primy to reach the surface world so it is possible the place may be used as Primy’s enterance and final battle location as it would be a good place for Primy to use as a base and create more Destroyers on the surface.

EdwinLi.1284:

Anyone else notice how Magic Hungry the corrupted people are when they became powered by the Bloodstone?

makes me wonder if that is how each Elder Dragon started out similar to them being that originally these “Elder Dragons” originally never had hunger for Magical energy until some how they became exposed to a large amount of magic that made them so powerful that they just began to develop a hunger for magic.

The minds of the corrupted also began to deteriorate slowly the more hungry they became to the point all they care about how powerful and hungry they are for that magical power.

I’m kinda wondering if the people are magic hungry because the high concentration of magical energy is like a drug, or if they are becoming magic hungry because they’re absorbing properties of the bloodstone itself, since its been stated that the bloodstone(s) are constantly growing in size by absorbing the magical energy surrounding it. The bloodstones’ function of absorbing magical energy could be “infectious” when creatures are exposed to it in such a raw state, and that could take the form of a “magical hunger” to collect more magic.

I had also noted the psuedo-dragon minion form of those… infected by the blast.

Aside from being magic hungry, Taimi states that they need magic to live. They also are now glowing an odd color and their eyes are red. And when bloodstone shards are impaled on them, you get a Matthias Abomination going.

Which makes me wonder if the Bloodstones and dragon corruption might be related somehow. Or if it’s just the result of heavy magical concentrations.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I had also noted the psuedo-dragon minion form of those… infected by the blast.

Aside from being magic hungry, Taimi states that they need magic to live. They also are now glowing an odd color and their eyes are red. And when bloodstone shards are impaled on them, you get a Matthias Abomination going.

Which makes me wonder if the Bloodstones and dragon corruption might be related somehow. Or if it’s just the result of heavy magical concentrations.

I know the Bloodstone got its current name from being sealed by Doric’s blood, but I’m kinda wondering if it could be possible that is was made with blood as well. Elder Dragon blood to be exact.

The Seers, knowing that there was nothing they could do themselves to stop them, decided to use the Elder Dragons’ own magical hunger against them. They gathered up the blood from the Elder Dragons to fashion the stone, possibly jailbroke it with enchantments to increase the rate of its magical absorption, maybe added some protection spells to obscure its location, and they simple let it do its thing and slowly drained the world of most of its magic.

They fought fire with fire, and in the end they basically made their own inert ED stand-in device. (And then the Six kittened it all up.)

Erukk.1408:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I had also noted the psuedo-dragon minion form of those… infected by the blast.

Aside from being magic hungry, Taimi states that they need magic to live. They also are now glowing an odd color and their eyes are red. And when bloodstone shards are impaled on them, you get a Matthias Abomination going.

Which makes me wonder if the Bloodstones and dragon corruption might be related somehow. Or if it’s just the result of heavy magical concentrations.

I know the Bloodstone got its current name from being sealed by Doric’s blood, but I’m kinda wondering if it could be possible that is was made with blood as well. Elder Dragon blood to be exact.

The Seers, knowing that there was nothing they could do themselves to stop them, decided to use the Elder Dragons’ own magical hunger against them. They gathered up the blood from the Elder Dragons to fashion the stone, possibly jailbroke it with enchantments to increase the rate of its magical absorption, maybe added some protection spells to obscure its location, and they simple let it do its thing and slowly drained the world of most of its magic.

They fought fire with fire, and in the end they basically made their own inert ED stand-in device. (And then the Six kittened it all up.)

Exactly. And I think Taimi might make this connection by studying that Chack organ.

I wouldn’t mind if the people affected by bloodstones acted like drug addicts and the ones we saw crazed on the map were just starving ones. So essentially, bloodstone magic becoming a drug for them.

Some of the below may be wrong – I’m by no means a lore expert:

Well we still have that overarching plot point of what will happen when we kill the creatures responsible for keeping the balance of magic in check. There’s still the vision we saw from ‘The Eternal Alchemy’ in Season 2 of Zhaitan’s orb crashing into the centre, and now we’ve killed two of the EDs (as far as we know).

The thing about the Elder Dragons is – they absorb magic, they sleep, they leak it back out. It’s a cycle of death and destruction sure, but it’s a cycle nevertheless. If Tyria starts falling apart because we kill all 6 of them, then pretty much any sentient, self-preserving and intelligent race on Tyria that doesn’t have an escape plan is going to care about trying to prevent that.

Are the bloodstones the answer to preventing that destruction? If we destroy a bloodstone (assuming that’s possible, considering they’re growing) are we just going to make things worse? Are they a replacement worth keeping the balance of magic in check?

I’m assuming (and I don’t think it was confirmed in episode 1, though I may have missed it) that Lazarus was the thing responsible for absorbing all the magic that exploded from the bloodstone and I think Lazarus in all of the above is an interesting figure. Mursaat can flee the world, and they’ve shown in the past they WILL flee if the Elder Dragons present themselves as a threat, so does he actually care about the balance of magic in the world?

That’s why I’m excited he’s back now, because in the past we saw the Mursaat without the threat of Elder Dragons looming. Now he’s back, I’m intrigued to see what his plans are, especially since he seems uninterested in helping the splintered White Mantle with Kryta.

Erukk.1408:

I know the Bloodstone got its current name from being sealed by Doric’s blood, but I’m kinda wondering if it could be possible that is was made with blood as well. Elder Dragon blood to be exact.

The Seers, knowing that there was nothing they could do themselves to stop them, decided to use the Elder Dragons’ own magical hunger against them. They gathered up the blood from the Elder Dragons to fashion the stone, possibly jailbroke it with enchantments to increase the rate of its magical absorption, maybe added some protection spells to obscure its location, and they simple let it do its thing and slowly drained the world of most of its magic.

They fought fire with fire, and in the end they basically made their own inert ED stand-in device. (And then the Six kittened it all up.)

A Study in Gold states that the Seers had “divine magic” for making the Bloodstone.

This has led me to think there was once a pantheon of gods native to Tyria – or that came to Tyria from someplace else just like the Six Gods did. This pantheon may or may not have included the Great Dwarf, Zintl, Amyali and Koda – perhaps some god of the Seers as well. And I think that the Bloodstone is, rather than blood of dragons (which are still tied to the Elder Dragons as seen with Kralkatorrik’s blood and the Sanguinary Blade) but the blood of gods. We know that divine magic also seems to counteract Elder Dragon corruption – see the divine fire at the end of S2 – and the Elder Dragons have oddly been ignoring the Bloodstones despite how much magic they hold.

And I don’t think the Six messed anything up, per se. The journals mention that the Seers had devices to tap into the Bloodstones’ magic – it’s likely these devices recovered by the Durmand Priory came from Arah and were used by the Six when Abaddon gave magic and the other five resealed it with Doric’s blood. If so this means they acted within potential scenarios that the Seers thought would occur – the need to spread magic again.

JayMack.8295:

Are the bloodstones the answer to preventing that destruction? If we destroy a bloodstone (assuming that’s possible, considering they’re growing) are we just going to make things worse? Are they a replacement worth keeping the balance of magic in check?

They could be “the answer” and a “replacement worth keeping”, but even the Forgotten had no means to make a Bloodstone. This means that we don’t either – unless Zinn’s study of the Seer turned out fruitful in that field (that would be a bad plot development – anet don’t do it) or the Six Gods wrote such down in Arah.

As for destroying a bloodstone – yeah. Just watch that cinematic. The explosion was basically a nuke, and was only stopped because someone (presumably Lazarus) consumed most of the magic. What magic remained turned Bloodstone Fen into a floating mess of chaoticness. We can probably expect the situation of Bloodstone Fen to be common place if magic keeps overflowing in the world, and destorying a bloodstone without sucking up most of the magic would be very bad – the NPCs and journals all say the Bloodstone exploding should have destroyed even Kryta – even Lion’s Arch. That’s half of continental Tyria destroyed.

Pretty kitten wide radius there. Definitely bad.

Might even be enough to kill all remaining Elder Dragons with just one bloodstone explosion.

We also have to remember how the Elder Dragon’s act due to their mindset.

Each one of these Elder Dragons have some kind of God Complex due to being so powerful from all the magic they consumed with their own vision on what their Ideal World should be. While they kept the balance of Magic in the past through consuming and then releasing it once they enter a Food coma… I mean fall a sleep, I don’t think they actual expect to enter that state of slumber each awakening.

It seems the reality is that each Elder Dragon want to rule the world and the “balance” they had was just a side effect due to their constant stuggle with each other to become the God of this world. A conflict they have been at a stalemate for countless centuries until now.

For each one we meet they have the goal of consuming all magic and ruling this world by shaping it into their ideal world.

For Zhaitan it was a world where people have defied and embraced death itself by becoming undead and he believed he was Death itself.

Mordy wanted a world where it was all nature and even the creatures are born from nature and he believed himself to be the World itself.

As much as it would be dangerous to see a connection here between the Elder Dragon’s way of think and the corrupted Bloodstone people. I can’t help but see a type of connection as if they are hinting on a piece of how the Elder Dragons came to be.

If so the questions remains what caused the Elder Dragons to start absorbing so much magic that made them into their magic hungry and God complex Elder Dragon self all those centuries ago? Also were they always Elder Dragons since even the Bloodstone corrupted began to change in physical forms?

EdwinLi.1284:

For Zhaitan it was a world where people have defied and embraced death itself by becoming undead and he believed he was Death itself.

Zhaitan never made claim of being “Death itself” – that’s Dhuum that does that.

Zhaitan was all about giving eternal life and reunion with lost ones through undeath. Which in turn meant his minions made the claim that Zhaitan (and themselves) could not die (perhaps that’s what you mean by believing it was “Death itself”?).

EdwinLi.1284:

Mordy wanted a world where it was all nature and even the creatures are born from nature and he believed himself to be the World itself.

There’s nothing that’s really “all about nature” for Mordremoth. After all, he got Scarlet Briar to advance technologies in order to give him that power boost to rise. That’s far from “a world of all nature”. Instead, Mordremoth showed via Aerin that he wanted to destroy the world, and throughout HoT (from trailer to final mission) that he saw himself as the world, as what sustains life, and “home” to all creatures.

Basically, he was becoming “the sustainer of life”.

EdwinLi.1284:

As much as it would be dangerous to see a connection here between the Elder Dragon’s way of think and the corrupted Bloodstone people. I can’t help but see a type of connection as if they are hinting on a piece of how the Elder Dragons came to be.

If so the questions remains what caused the Elder Dragons to start absorbing so much magic that made them into their magic hungry and God complex Elder Dragon self all those centuries ago? Also were they always Elder Dragons since even the Bloodstone corrupted began to change in physical forms?

Well we are hinted that other dragons and dragon minions can become Elder Dragons, and we have a multitude of dragon and dragon-like races (two from Tyria and three from Cantha, and a fifth hinted at via miniatures) – of which both Mordremoth and EoD-description for Kralkatorrik match two of them. Glint talks about a world with only dragons in Edge of Destiny, likely not merely referring to the last Dragonrise but some far more ancient time.

So my theory has been that the Elder Dragons were just six individuals among many natural magic-consuming races (not dissimilar to the Chak) who grew ambitious and power hungry and betrayed their races and began consuming far more magic.

EdwinLi.1284:

For me I think this may end with a 3 way final battle between White Mantle (Lazarus) vs Primordus vs Dragon’s Edge (and the Pact)

Kind of hoping they save Primo for his own dedicated Expansion around this time next year. But if you were to ask me, I think Lazarus is going to destroy Caud as he should.

Also, Dragon’s Watch. :P

On the topic of Caudecus’s escape through Mesmer Wi…

It’s mentioned a few times that the White Mantle has successfully infiltrated the orders. Most significantly the Priory, but Caudecus seems to have a pretty good idea of who was behind Demmi’s liberation. Instead of being the Order of Whispers’ mole in the White Mantle, could the younger Wi have been the White Mantle’s mole in the OoW? I could see Caudecus seeing a twisted sense of justice in claiming Lady Wi’s daughter after losing his own…

That is something I considered (and brought up), but it makes it weird that the mother would be oblivious to it – and if she wasn’t, wouldn’t she try to stop her daughter?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

So my theory has been that the Elder Dragons were just six individuals among many natural magic-consuming races (not dissimilar to the Chak) who grew ambitious and power hungry and betrayed their races and began consuming far more magic.

So does maybe Lazarus wants to become an “elder dragon”? And for revenge make humans (and asuras) his minions?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

That is something I considered (and brought up), but it makes it weird that the mother would be oblivious to it – and if she wasn’t, wouldn’t she try to stop her daughter?

Could be that her daughter has outsmarted her… or it could be that she thinks that overtly trying to stop her will only push her further away.

I do think this Episode of the new LS is giving us a massive hint to how Elder Dragons were created, and hopefully how to stop them. It’s possible Lazarus could become the big bad of the entire game, with him absorbing the magic of the dragons after they’re defeated. Even possibly reaching the point where he plans to turn the humans and asura into his minions as a way of having revenge.

I have another theory on where things may be headed in the far future, but its something I’m not willing to share just yet. We’d need another 1-2 expansions before I could consider it a good enough theory to share, otherwise it’s Wild Mass Guessing.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

So my theory has been that the Elder Dragons were just six individuals among many natural magic-consuming races (not dissimilar to the Chak) who grew ambitious and power hungry and betrayed their races and began consuming far more magic.

The best guess I have as well considering what we are seeing so far of the early stages for the Bloodstone Magic addiction on the infected in Bloodstone Fen.

Though I do wonder if there was one odd member who did not become a Elder Dragon and rejected that power before the Elder Dragons became Elder Dragons.

Speaking of Odd members it has been a while since we last heard from E and it seems everytime E sends us a letter it involves leading us to a Elder Dragon or someone corrupted by a Elder Dragon.

E has gone quite silent ever since Mordy’s death and yet E tends to put a lot of faith by sending the Commander and Dragon’s Watch to killing a Elder Dragon or their minions.

E only sent us against dragon minions one time, technically.

Usually, E sends Marjory or the Commander to deal with Krytan politics or LA politics.

And the disturbance in Brisban was tied to the Seraph.

My current theory (original was that E was tied to the “allies” Ogden mentioned in Hidden Arcana) that E is The Errant who sent that first mail to players with the Bandit Death Mark. You see, what better way for the White Mantle to get rid of nosey investigators (Marjory) and distract Elder Dragon killers that is a leader of a massive organization than to promise assistance then send them to threats unrelated to the White Mantle (Scarlet, then Mordremoth).

We now know from the journals in the Bloodstone Fen that the White Mantle predicted they’d fight the Pact one day, but were not yet ready for such a battle.

So distract the threats while pretending to be an ally.

Hrrrmn…

checks Marjory’s Story

Yeah, that’s plausible, actually. I don’t think E has done anything that would actually hurt the White Mantle. Closest would be pointing the Pact to the jungle, but… the Seraph was already in the area, and that could have been a calculated gamble/distraction as you say. After all, the White Mantle probably wanted Mordremoth dead too.

I don’t think E is a White Mantle as well.

From the Journey in Bloodstone Fen it seems the White Mantle was never expecting the Pact to even begin moving towards the Maguuma Jungle at all. Not to mention it looked like they were unaware about Mordy’s activity accross Tyria and him even being in Maguuma Jungle until the Pact fleet arrived.

In the Apprentice Journal the unexpected death of Mordy cause the explosion to happen earlier than planned. The other two Journal was expecting the Bloodstone to explode but the sudden surge of Magic into the world accelorated events faster than anticipated resulting in Lazarus rewakening earlier and the Bloodstone exploding earlier.

E is certainly someone with knowledge but it doesn’t seem to point to him, her, or they being White Mantle. However, with events unfolding now in Season 3 I am guess we may finally learn E’s identity or identities in Season 3 as part of a later episode.

To be honest, Justiciar’s Bauer lack of knowledge about the Pact Fleet launching is not indication that E isn’t White Mantle. Consider the following:

1. E only informed the Pact Commander who for over a year had not acted on behalf of the Pact.
2. The White Mantle is splintering the entire time between those who follow Xera (where Bauer falls) and those who follow Caudecus.
3. Even if E and Bauer were on the same side of the above splintering, they could be different chains of command. Bauer was only in charge of the troops at Bloodstone Fen – he may never have gotten the memo that the Pact Commander was directed to the mordrem threat or that the Pact decided to mobilize against Mordremoth (something by all reality the White Mantle should have known since The World Summit called Jennah to deploy troops for the Pact).

The very last fact is the real thing that prevents Bauer’s lack of knowledge from being commonplace among all White Mantle. He didn’t know the Pact Fleet was launching, but Divinity’s Reach certainly did know the Pact was heading in that direction to face Mordremoth. For one reason or another, White Mantle in the Priory and DR did not inform those at Bloodstone Fen.

Mordremoth being killed faster only means that they thought the campaign against him would take as much time (or more) as the one against Zhaitan. The journal denote Zhaitan dying in ~60 Zephyr 1326, but the campaign began in 1325 – which marks at least 60 days of a campaign in Orr, probably more. Mordremoth, however, died in ~45 days – after Mordremoth “slapped [the Pact] out of the sky”.

So it would make sense that they’d expect Mordremoth to take longer to kill. However, that said, I don’t see any indication that any of them expected Mordremoth to die later than it did.

Well it was more of the unexpected amount of Magic being released into the world than Mordy’s death itself.

When the Commander and Destiny Edge killed Zhaitan, he did not unleash such a massive surge of magic into the world at once like Mordy did.

Though of course this surge of magic has caused Pimy to finally go active now in Season 3 right in the middle of all the Races, Pact, and the newly formed Dragon’s Watch still picking up the pieces left after the events of the Mordy Campaign.

To add to Konig’s list, it’s been a theme beneath the surface that the White Mantle has been suffering breakdowns in the chain of communication since the start of Season 2, due to Caudecus’ arrest, Mordremoth’s activity, and possibly other activities by the Shining Blade and Order of Whispers. If Mister E is Mantle, then he’d be part of the contingent infiltrating Divinity’s Reach, not part of the New Kryta contingent (I wonder if there’s still some part of New Kryta left, or if it’s now been wiped out by the combination of Mordremoth and exploding Bloodstone?), so it’s definitely possible his line of communication had gone dark.

Heck, it’s even possible that he sent the PC into Brisban hoping that the PC would clear up whatever had caused the cut in communications without stumbling across anything incriminating in the process.

Now, this is pretty tinfoily, but if there’s any figure that justifies conspiracy theories it’s E.