Guild Wars 2

1304: Ceara is born. She is immediately dismissive of Mender Serimon and the Pale Tree.

1312: After 8 years of study in the Grove, Ceara leaves to study smithing under Beigarth in Hoelbrak.

1313: Ceara leaves Hoelbrak to study firearms and explosives with Asagai.

1315—1320: Ceara leaves Asagai to Rata Sum. She completes completes Dynamics and Statics coursework each in under a year, then Synergetics (which takes longer), spends some time with the Inquest, and spends several months wandering.

1316: Scarlet finds proof of ley lines, in Prosperity. This would have been her first exposure to ley lines.

1318 (approx): Ceara is with the Michotl tribe studying alchemy. She is found by Omadd.

1319 (approx): Ceara ceases writing her diary longhand. She begins clumsily building steam minotaurs, and is offered a position as Omadd’s lab assistant.

1320: Ceara begins experiments with steam portals.

1320 (approx): Ceara enters Omadd’s Isolation Module, and emerges as Scarlet Briar (N.B. at this point she hasn’t heard the Pale Tree’s voice in “years”, making her effectively Soundless for this time). She kills Omadd, and purchases a room in Prosperity with Omadd’s gold. The steam creatures, no longer necessary, are sent to Lornar’s Pass and Brisban Wildlands.

1321 (Season of the Colossus): “I wake from nightmares—screaming, confused, and scared. It’s getting wOrse. I’ve decided to talk to a mender. I’ve probably just been working too hard.”

1322 (Season of the Zephyr): “Every night, the same terrors. It never changes. The mender was unable to help Me, and I feel like I’m losing control of myself. Dated Season of the Zephyr, 1322.”

1322 (Season of the Phoenix): “When the nightmare starts, an entity calls to me. I run—run into a seA of darkness. But no matter how hard I try to escape, it keeps calling me.”

1322 (Season of the Scion): “I’m trying not to sleep—too scareD to even close my eyes… So scared. Whispers come from the forest all night long, calling me, taunting me, possessing me.”

1322 (Season of the Colossus): “Tonight, I saw it. I started into the abyss, anD it stared back at me. So much power. I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t anymore.”

1323 (Season of the Zephyr): “Control of my world—of myself—is slipping through my hands. And yet, I’m no longer scared.”

1323 (Season of the Scion): “It communicated with me through images of death, destruction, and destiny. I must know more. I must confront it and put an end to this madness.”

1324: Thaumanova Reactor disaster.

1327: Battle for Lion’s Arch; Mordremoth awakens.

Notes:

• The timeline currently says that Scarlet sends the steam creatures to Lornar’s Pass in 1320, but Priory scholars near the Lake of Lamentation suggest that it was closer to 1324 or 1325 that they began appearing there. This would make more sense, because it would mean Ceara became Scarlet after her encounters with the entity, and it would not be necessary to have to explain why Scarlet Briar was going to a mender for help with her nightmares. However, Short Story: What Scarlet Saw and the holo-recording in her room in Prosperity put Ceara becoming Scarlet much earlier.
• I believe that Scarlet’s time with the Inquest was originally supposed to be five years to a decade later than the timeline currently says, since the suggestion that she interfered with some of the Snaff Prize entries seems like it was supposed to be a hint toward certain events in the personal story. Not to mention the fact that the Snaff Prize didn’t even exist until after 1320, since it was named in his honour. But in the current timeline, it would seem that her tampering was over a decade before our player character becomes the Snaff Savant.
• The Thaumanova Reactor event is implied to not take place until just before the events of the game, and yet according to the fractal it is where Scarlet first got confirmation of ley lines (and yes, at this point she was Scarlet). She was also working with the Inquest, which must be a second stint with them since she was Ceara the first time around.

This looks good. Just one small point though. The discovery of ley lines may not have happened at Prosperity. The room in prosperity was rented after her time in Omadd’s device, as seen in the hologram where her voice changes. The initial discovery may have happened anywhere. It seems that Prosperity was an ideal location to study them further.

Heh, I was going to compile this in a similar fashion yesterday but the four points of contradiction (the three you bring up, and the year of her birth) was annoying me to much to do so.

On thinking, I’m starting to believe that the 1316 comment was a typo for 1326. Reason being:
Firstly, the document says “alias Scarlet” which implies she was also known as Scarlet Briar when she discovered the ley lines. It is possible this is just a “in retrospect” situation however.

More importantly, however, is that in Fractured! (which happened in 1326), Kiel states: “Scarlet claimed to have identifies the channels that this magical energy follows as it courses in and around and through the globe. If she’s right, it could be a significant breakthrough.”

The reason this is important is that Kiel is no idiot. While she may not be a scientist studying magic, she’d be smart enough to run her findings in the fractal to Rata Sum’s databases – if she can negotiate with the Arcane Council to reduce waypoint costs in lore, she can surely negotiate accessing the Rata Sum archives, if not the Priory’s. Doing this alone would show that Ceara already proved their existence 10 years prior.

I tend not to question these things but we’ve seen Anet make date typos before (example one, example two":http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Statue_of_Ferro_the_Butcher ) and this one seems outright weird.

Nice. Although I’d probably add the year GW2 started and the year S1 started just to give someone like myself (who doesn’t actually know the dates all that well) some means of reference

Another thing I realize:

Her Season 1 journal was spoken in her “pre-Scarlet” voice, and this was stated by Bobby Stein to be a very important detail in the long run.

This shows that she became Scarlet Briar after the journal, due to the voice change, which would put her joining Omadd in 1320, but her entering the machine after spring 1323.

This would thus make more sense with the steam creature unleash point that Tamias mentions with the Priory (and the norn in Hoelbrak) making the steam creature invasion sound more recent than 5 years ago.

We also shouldn’t presume that her leaving one place and arriving at another occurred in the same year. If we take into account the Snaff Prize bit, then we could say that there are a few years blank – that she joined the colleges no earlier than 1317 AE. Given that Omadd got her into the colleges, I’m tempted to say that she joined the first college (Statics) in 1320 AE. But then the question becomes: how did she confirm the existence of ley lines in 1316 (presuming that’s not a typo)?

Ah, the contradictions! The confusion! The conundrums! Makes you wonder if they can make a cohesive story anymore.

DarcShriek.5829:

This looks good. Just one small point though. The discovery of ley lines may not have happened at Prosperity. The room in prosperity was rented after her time in Omadd’s device, as seen in the hologram where her voice changes. The initial discovery may have happened anywhere. It seems that Prosperity was an ideal location to study them further.

No, she mentions finding a ley line hub near prosperity.

Wanderer.3248:

DarcShriek.5829:

This looks good. Just one small point though. The discovery of ley lines may not have happened at Prosperity. The room in prosperity was rented after her time in Omadd’s device, as seen in the hologram where her voice changes. The initial discovery may have happened anywhere. It seems that Prosperity was an ideal location to study them further.

No, she mentions finding a ley line hub near prosperity.

Yes, she does mention finding a ley line near prosperity. However, it wasn’t until after 1316. If you have evidence that says otherwise, I’d be interested in seeing it.

She rented the room in prosperity as a student. So it was before she went in the isolation module. And there are multiple references to her having being interested in ley lines for a long time, before she became Scarlet.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

…I’m starting to believe that the 1316 comment was a typo for 1326.

If you make this assumption, the rest of the timeline starts to make a lot more sense. Kind of frustrating, given that presumably the new content was introduced to help clarify the confusion on the forums and now it has added to it. But yeah, Scarlet’s holo-recording can be cast in a completely new light if you work on the basis that “the ley line hub is real” line was actually at some point in 1326. Except, that would mean that Ceara became Scarlet actually at some point between Flame and Frost and Dragon Bash. If it were 1323 or 1324, her being called Scarlet during the Thaumanova Reactor Fractal makes more sense. But it also means that you can’t line up her dismissing the steam creature prototypes in the holo-recording with her phasing the steam creatures out of her forces during her invasions.

At this point, I think we just need an official timeline. Things like the inclusion of dates in her journal and these most recent books are clearly an attempt to help clarify the situation for us, but clearly there’s been some kind of a retcon, or some of the old sources are incorrect, or (incredibly) some of the new sources are incorrect. And without being told what those changes are, working out a sensible timeline just isn’t possible without time travel (wat).

What I meant was that the mention by a non-related-to-Scarlet was that proof was found in 1326 AE, and it was found that the discoverer of the proof was Scarlet. Not that Scarlet had revealed to the world her proof – just that she found it, and finding her proof happened in 1326 AE. Given Thaumanova, we know that Scarlet found proof no later than 1325 AE, after all.

Meaning that the book doesn’t directly related to Scarlet’s timeline, just credits her with the achievement of proving their existence (since, as far as we’re told, this is the case).

Specifically, she built a Steam brain. Eventually, when the brain was threatened by a creature, the brain itself constructed Steam minotaurs for defense.

It was first said she built a minotaur, I believe, and later that a brain began mimicking her own building designs to the point where a steam brain created minotaurs in defense.

Though the mention of the Steam Brain is rather nice for a throwback. Sadly, what we see it use for defense aren’t Steam Mechataurs (aka Steam Minotaurs), but Steam Ogres (called Steam Champions).

Didn’t even catch that until now. >.>

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I believe

kittenmit, can’t one of us just go back to the kitten instance to be sure!

Sorry, I wrote that up before double checking. Was not going to post if I was wrong. It is the case, she says she got the materials for the minotaur, and then later on mentioned that the brain is studying her portals.

Technically speaking it’s not absolute mention so they could alter it if they wish, but by all appearances, minotaur→brain. Where the standard Steamriders fit in, as well as the Steam Ogres, is unknown.

Edit: Too much crazy rambling back and forth. Need to re-write the whole thing.

I chronologically listed everything from the hologram/journal entries + relevant parts of the short story here instead.

I’ve intertwined all sources into one big chronological list, while keeping the sequence order of each individual source consistent.

I just discovered that 1316 is most likely not a typo. o.O

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prosperity%27s_Mystery
Check out her written diary. Here she refers to both her “diary-transition” to Hologram technology and “I believe I’ve found one of these mythical ley lines”.

The date, 1316, fits in extremely well in accordance to when she first must have started using Hologram technology. As DarcShriek has already pointed out though, this would probably not have been in Prosperity.

As for Konig’s comment regarding Kiel: Even though Ceara may have found proof already in 1316, it’s possible that it weren’t shown off to the rest of the world (nor the Arcane Council) before later on. Claiming “I’ve found proof” is still only a claim.

I’d guess it wasn’t an official truth before we stumbled upon the ley line hub ourselves.

Well, this is what happens when they try to shove an awful character like that into the story. Sigh. Nice finds though.

The character is quite likeable in “the story” actually. Just not in game.

Titus.4285:

The character is quite likeable in “the story” actually. Just not in game.

Exactly!

A tragic story about a genius, who battled the corruption of Mordremoth. Her passion for the Eternal Alchemy caused her downfall.

Titus.4285:

The character is quite likeable in “the story” actually. Just not in game.

If anyone is interested in Scarlet’s story that didn’t play season 1 of the LW. That timeline is accurate as well

Check out this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUQih3Z4O2E

You know, I actually re-read everything we have on Scarlet a couple of nights ago, and I still can’t wrap my mind around her purpose. The real one. Because it seemed at some point that her defining trait was her will to make her own way, to set in motion her own journey and not be bound by a “Wyld Hunt” or a predetermined path; that’s why she mimicked a Soundless and walked away from The Grove.

Then she had the nightmares, where she finally saw the “dark entity” that spoke with images of “death, destruction and destiny”. Again, she rebelled and wanted to confront the entity and break free from any bonds.

So far, so good, someone who is completely against any manipulation or predetermination. And it seemed like she had a plan to completely forgo previous strings attached to her.

But then we get to the Breachmaker, we battle her and at the last moment, with her last breath, she utters “Too late”. Too late for what? Well, it doesn’t take us too long to know, because Mordremoth’s roar is heard as far as Lion’s Arch.

So it seems inconsistent. Because now she’s playing along; she’s following the desires of the “dark entity” (Granted, no one says it was Mordremoth, but come on), and worked towards its awakening.

The only occurrence that I think may have changed her position towards “destiny” is Omadd’s machine, where her sanity fractured. And that, folks, is where I think the inconsistency lies.

See, she was so strong-willed, she excelled in 3 different asura colleges, in a year. She forged 3 alliances, put together a secret base, traveled all over the place… but in the end succumbed to something else’s will.

So, not even Scarlet could break out of Mordremoth’s will… but Laranthir can? Caithe? Traherne? The Sylvari PC?

I suspect she became entrenched in a ‘groundhog day’ time loop situation at some point — perhaps even a series of them — and when she at last freed herself, reality itself was compromised. There are probably many other similar inconsistencies waiting to be discovered, but these inconsistencies are readily apparent only to those who are outside looking in, so to speak, and at that only those who are paying attention and not distracted by shiny things, as those living within the compromised reality are themselves compromised. Canon, even more so than reality, is thermoplastic. Not thermosetting.

Anyway. Interesting thread. Please carry on.

Rhaegar.1203:

So, not even Scarlet could break out of Mordremoth’s will… but Laranthir can? Caithe? Traherne? The Sylvari PC?

Scarlet became Soundless, none of the Sylvari you mentioned did that. But we will probably learn a lot more about this in HoT and I’m guessing the Pale Tree will play a huge role in the expansion.

@ Rhaegar
I don’t personally see an inconsistency here. We learn from Scarlet’s journal and holo recordings that Mordremoth was having mind games with her (teasing her by “taking credit” of her ideas, and subjecting her to horrific visions, alternating between different ways to crack her mind’s defenses), thus driving her further into madness so he could get a better hold of her and turn her into a truly obedient minion. Scarlet could sometimes regain some of her sanity, at other times she went into hysterics as the dragon’s whispers drove her onward. It wasn’t until around the time the Twisted Marionette appeared that her voice changed into a similar sinister tone we heard in the recording when she first emerged from Omadd’s machine, and this to me signified that she fully lost the battle inside her mind by the time of the Marionette (likely boosted by her time in the Tower of Nightmares which already spread Mordremoth’s influence further) and succumbed to the dragon’s siren song.

Scarlet realized that she was losing control of herself and she, being the arrogant genius, tried to devise a way to get out of her predicament. However, it was not only trying to regain full control of herself but also to possibly subjugate the dragon under her will to free the sylvari from both of their creators; she did have Snaff’s notes in her lair, so she might’ve heard about Snaff’s mental wrestling match with Kralkatorrik and in her arrogance thought she could do the same to Mordremoth. Like she says in her backstory:

“So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain…it’s all part of a grand design. But I see the flaws in that design. My people don’t have to take what we’re given, or be what we were ‘born to be.’ No people do. We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”

“An insurmountable challenge is rising, and my people have been called to meet it. We are compelled by our creator to do so. But I reject that call. I reject the notion that that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how.”

“I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I don’t know what the world will be when I’m through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I’ll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes.”

For all we know, her alliances may have been her initial attempt to gather enough resources, manpower and know-how to built the Twisted Marionette and the Breachmaker so she could use those, and perhaps the Clockheart from Aetherpath as well, against Mordremoth as well as the Pale Tree. However, Mordremoth let her think she was the one in control except those occasional tauntings to further crack her willpower while actually it was Mordremoth who was subtly directing her to form the Anti-Pact and build all those machines for the express purpose of feeding him with the leyline. What may have begun as an arrogant genius’s attempt to control forces greater than herself ended up with her furthering the dragon’s scheme as a pawn, hence the tragedy of her story.

Mordremoth’s growing influence on her also helps explain Scarlet’s seemingly lore-breaking alliances and how she pulled them off so well. Mordremoth, being the Elder Dragon of both Plants AND Mind, must’ve used his power, what little of it he could muster, through Scarlet to subtly influence the minds of the leaders of the factions to make them work for Scarlet with false promises of power. It wasn’t enough to turn them fully obedient but it was enough to get the job done and have each alliance contribute to the master plan.

Beating the dead horse with the same stick: the problem was the execution, the presentation, not the planning.

Because when you put it that way, yes, it is really tragic and compelling! But why, oh, why, did we have to hear that manic laughter, or go hunting for short stories on websites? Or draw conclusions on the forums (Where they may not even be confirmed)?

Thank you, by the way. I understand her a little better now, and you ALMOST made her “relatable.”

You’re welcome. I admit I was initially rather skeptical of Scarlet when she first appeared and did all the things she did. But when I began putting all the pieces together and tried to solve the clues Anet planted long in advance (some of which only paid off in LW Season 2 like when I discovered that the music theme of “Tower of Nightmares” was in fact a subtle combination of Scarlet’s theme and the “Shadow of the Dragon” theme and shared chord progressions with the “Mordrem” theme, thus foreshadowing musically that Mordremoth was behind the tower’s corruptive nightmare influence), I realized just how intricate the plot actually was and how everything began making more and more sense.

I do think Scarlet shouldn’t be as hated a character as she is since she’s ultimately this verse’s Joker and Kefka except in this case she isn’t just an independent wild card agent of chaos but someone who is manipulated by a far more devious chessmaster villain who remained in the shadows through most of the storyline. Back then people were irritated that she was behind everything but as we now put the pieces together, we see that she was merely one of the many puppets in Mordremoth’s lengthy game of deception.

Not only that, but Scarlet also foreshadowed rather neatly how dangerous an adversary Mordremoth is if the sylvari he turns can cause so much destruction by themselves (Anti-Pact and all the things it accomplished which was like Mordremoth mocking the PC and his/her efforts to save the world from Elder Dragons with the Pact, and the destruction of much of the Zephyrite and Pact fleets) which is comparable to the shenanigans caused by the Risen mesmer Labwan the Deceiver from one of the Greatest Fear arcs in the Personal Story.

Admittedly using a maniacal laugh and silly puns to signify Scarlet’s madness is a cliché dating back to some of the oldest literary tropes but it’s not that big of a problem in the end, especially when we get to compare and contrast Scarlet’s madness with Aerin’s in LW Season 2 which was a different kind of madness and helps showcase Mordremoth’s “mind” sphere of influence and how it can mess people up. I don’t know if the team would’ve had a chance to really delve deep into Scarlet’s psyche considering their busy timetable and having to crank out releases at a steady pace, not to mention having to record voiced lines long in advance. Or perhaps they tried to keep the storyline somewhat simple so teen audiences could follow it too since many of the GW2 villains are already painted rather black to begin with. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

(continued)

(continued)

I agree with you that what LW Season 1 needed was more showing and perhaps even more telling at times instead of sometimes rather subtle foreshadowing. Too many hints and too little payoff, in other words. They did try to rectify this with later LW Season 1 and early Season 2 releases but to many people that was already too late by then although personally I was happy that we at least got some of the hints from the short stories included in-game where they belong. Considering how hectic a schedule they had with the releases, plus the problems associated with having to record lines months in advance and the limitations of dialogue boxes and how much text they can hold in-game, I think the writing team did a decent enough job with what they had, especially because it seems that they only started treating LW as a seasons-spanning, overarching storyline leading to Heart of Thorns by the end of the Flame and Frost release when we got our first hints of Scarlet’s involvement from the mouths of the captured Molten Alliance veterans in Black Citadel.

I liked the short stories fleshing out the characters although I wish we could’ve at least gotten some sort of recording of Scarlet emerging from the machine and telling Omadd what she plans to do as she murders him like in the short story and later expressing remorse over what she’s done (this was only ever hinted at in some of Scarlet’s lairs and her journal with torn pictures of Omadd and the diary spelling his name in code, but it was never stated outright). That, added with her changed voice along the lines of “I saw the Eternal Alchemy” (as heard in Prosperity story mission) would’ve been a truly chilling moment like the centaur massacre we witnessed in Caithe’s flashback and could’ve given us a somewhat “sympathy for the devil” moment where we witness Scarlet’s descent into madness instead of having Marjory and Vorpp postulate it in exposition text which distances us too much from the tragedy. We also should’ve seen more of the leadership of her various alliances; what little we glimpsed during Tower of Nightmares and Aetherpath simply wasn’t enough for us to learn what Angel and Bobby later clarified in forum posts and interviews (about the Molten Alliance only having a faction from the Flame Legion, or how the Toxic Courtiers were simply one of the groups vying for power instead of being NC as a whole etc).

We also never got to learn when Scarlet’s hairdo (as seen in “Newly Awakened” instance) changed into her now iconic “cone” hairdo, or what significance her choosing it to resemble the “cone” found in the secret room had. I have my theories about it, and I wonder if we’ll see more of those plants as we venture deeper into Maguuma…

Considering Mordremoth’s associations with Mind it’s obvious that he is going to take control of the three factions Scarlet made and exploit their powers.

The Toxic Alliance would hold the Krait(who are Mordrem) & the Toxic Sylvari(which are just Nightmare Courtiers that use the Green glow instead of the more common orange glow by default) and serve as minions that attack from the waters of the Heart of Maguuma.

The Molten Alliance which consist of Flame Legion Charr(with Dredge armor and Fire infusion from drawing on the power of Primordus’s Destroyers) and Destroyer Fire infused Dredge would give Mordremoth Fire magics from Primordus to his control(explaining the fire Mordrem controlling the fire breathing Wyverns in the Heart of Thorns trailor).

The Aetherblades would give Mordremoth the means to attack from the Mists.

The Twisted Watchworks could serve as additional aid to Mordremoth’s cause along with the Steam Creatures.

The Nightmare Court would serve as his main group of tactitions.

The common breeds of Mordrem would serve as the main army.

In the end Mordremoth would control Plants(Mordrem), Nightmares(Nightmare Court), Poison(Toxic Alliance), Fire(Molten Alliance), Air(Aetherblades), Steam(Steam Creatures) and Machines(Twisted Watchworks).

ignores the Scarlet abomination discussion

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The Toxic Alliance would hold the Krait(who are Mordrem) & the Toxic Sylvari(which are just Nightmare Courtiers that use the Green glow instead of the more common orange glow by default) and serve as minions that attack from the waters of the Heart of Maguuma.

While the krait are definitely altered in mind and body we don’t have confirmation they’re Mordrem while the Toxic Courtiers are not. Both easily could be, just as much as neither. Though the ‘both’ is more likely.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The Molten Alliance which consist of Flame Legion Charr(with Dredge armor and Fire infusion from drawing on the power of Primordus’s Destroyers) and Destroyer Fire infused Dredge would give Mordremoth Fire magics from Primordus to his control(explaining the fire Mordrem controlling the fire breathing Wyverns in the Heart of Thorns trailor).

Flame Legion fire magic is not confirmed to be powered by Primordus – nor is that of the Molten Alliance (as their fire magic comes from the Flame Legion). Though there are hints here and there, it isn’t proven nor absolute. Fiery mordrem-related plants are nothing new. The Molten Alliance also weren’t altered like the toxic krait were.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The Aetherblades would give Mordremoth the means to attack from the Mists.

And why would he care? Jormag is the only Elder Dragon shown to care for the Mists. Aetherblades also have no reason to work for Mordremoth, given that they weren’t altered like the toxic krait were.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The Twisted Watchworks could serve as additional aid to Mordremoth’s cause along with the Steam Creatures.

Presuming that he can even control them; the steam creatures are now automatons – e.g., self-controlling – and the twisted watchwork haven’t been seen since Scarlet’s downfall indicating the lack of their continued existence.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The Nightmare Court would serve as his main group of tactitions.

Presuming, of course, he can control them.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

In the end Mordremoth would control Plants(Mordrem), Nightmares(Nightmare Court), Poison(Toxic Alliance), Fire(Molten Alliance), Air(Aetherblades), Steam(Steam Creatures) and Machines(Twisted Watchworks).

Nightmare Court, despite their name, is unrelated to actual nightmares of either the dream variety or the demonic variety.

Mordremoth already has control over toxins, as we can see in the Silverwastes via Vine Crawlers. And if the Toxic Alliance are already influenced by Mordrem, then he gains little but the krait’s magical knowledge.

And the steam creatures are only steam-powered. They don’t control steam in the least. It’d be like saying you have control over charcoal just because you run a furnace.