Guild Wars 2

So are the steam creatures and the Aetherblades connected in some way?!

I’ve noticed Aetherblade Campions and the Champion Steam Commander both drop the Deluxe Gear Boxes…seems like a connection.

I think it would be awesome if they were connected!

Please read this thread – short answer: possibly, but not for the reason you point out.

The shared Deluxe Gear Boxes only furthers the connection, but very minutely (after all, there’s no tie between ghosts and Icebrood or Destroyers, yet they share drops; similarly, no tie between pirates and bandits (known) yet they share drops).

Wooden potatoes just posted something on the matter of the steam creatures and the thaumanova reactor , so theirs that.

For the record: don’t take WP as word-for-truth, since he often makes mistakes in all of his videos I’ve seen. Haven’t seen any recent ones but I doubt he’s improved much from what I hear from others.

He does say that it’s this crazy idea of his rather than say it’s all true. What he does is a lot of speculation based on very limited information. To his credit though, he does present a lot of facts that support his theory. Why would the Grand High Sovereign talk about the battle of Divinity’s Reach? It just so happens that there’s this big event going on at Divinity’s Reach right now. It could all just be a coincidence but we know ArenaNet likes putting in these Easter Eggs that in the game that no one would ever find. Sometimes people find them but I bet there are a lot more out there.

I somehow doubt that they had this storyline in mind when they wrote the Infinity Ball story – in fact, I’m pretty sure that Anet outright stated that they plotted this overarching LS story at the end of last year (so during October/November/December) – the Infinity Ball storyline would be probably about a year older in development.

In the end, the mention of Divinity’s Reach in the Infinity Ball storyline was likely just a decision of mentioning a recognizable large non-asura population. Of course that doesn’t prevent Anet from remembering that line and continuing off of it, but I wouldn’t put any real stock into the original line’s purpose – just like the mention of Joko in Prophecies by Turai, we’ve been told that was all there was to it – a random line that would later be built upon.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

For the record: don’t take WP as word-for-truth, since he often makes mistakes in all of his videos I’ve seen. Haven’t seen any recent ones but I doubt he’s improved much from what I hear from others.

i think many people don’t realize that he always brings up that “this is just theorycrafting and speculation, probably full of holes” when he brings up those discussions. he does add a disclaimer, he never says the theories (often not his own, and he says as much) are fact.

all he’s doing in his video is putting in youtube video form the exact same thing we’re doing in these forums.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I somehow doubt that they had this storyline in mind when they wrote the Infinity Ball story – in fact, I’m pretty sure that Anet outright stated that they plotted this overarching LS story at the end of last year (so during October/November/December) – the Infinity Ball storyline would be probably about a year older in development.

In the end, the mention of Divinity’s Reach in the Infinity Ball storyline was likely just a decision of mentioning a recognizable large non-asura population. Of course that doesn’t prevent Anet from remembering that line and continuing off of it, but I wouldn’t put any real stock into the original line’s purpose – just like the mention of Joko in Prophecies by Turai, we’ve been told that was all there was to it – a random line that would later be built upon.

I’d like to think of it as tying up loose ends really. We know the player character decides not to go down the same path as the Grand High Sovereign but we don’t know about Shodd. Yes, they could have easily built the living story on top of what was already there in the personal story. They didn’t have to plan it from the start. Of course, expecting a big attack on Divinity’s Reach would be setting ourselves up for disappointment. It might not actually happen. Instead, some other big and unrelated event could occur.

Since this is the more active thread and more tied to the Steam Creatures themselves, I thought I’d throw in my own speculation again.

After going out and locating the habitat of the specimens that have been modified into the cybernetic steam creatures thanks to a tipoff from a guildmate, we found that one major place is in the Blazeridge Steppes, and also in close proximity to them is an Inquest lab. We know the Inquest are allied with the Aetherblades and we know they’ve worked with the dredge.

Whether or not this has resulted in an experiment that went awry and led to the steam creatures overwhelming them and somehow creating mechagates, who knows. However, it does seem a decent possibility.

I don’t think it’s ever said that the steam creature’s organic parts are from what creatures they mimic.

And side notion that came to me – it is a bit interesting how Steamriders use the shapes of GW1 wind riders, while GW2 wind riders are more like floating brains.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I don’t think it’s ever said that the steam creature’s organic parts are from what creatures they mimic.

And side notion that came to me – it is a bit interesting how Steamriders use the shapes of GW1 wind riders, while GW2 wind riders are more like floating brains.

Frankly, I can’t think of any other specimens we’ve encountered in GW2 off the top of my head that, after modification, haven’t resembled their original form in some manner. Even the exceptions that do come to mind still retain some of their original features, albeit twisted (undead/Afflicted+Shiro’ken/Margonites).

Not to say that I might not be overlooking some key samples, but most beings involved with constructs or organism modification seem to be less creative, making in their own image or in the image of the subject being modified.

Thing is, we’re not given any indication to what the “organic core” is, where it came from, whom it came from, etc. etc.

For all we know, the organic cores could be the brains of skritt, cloned in an underground asuran facility, and nothing else. Or even fleshy tissue taken from the landscape of the Realm of Torment or other fleshy locations in the Mists.

Now, in the cases you presented, most of them are taking the original body and just altering it a bit – bloating a corpse (Afflicted), turning flesh into aetheric-like material (Margonites), or so forth. Druids turned from humans to treants, probably the most drastic difference. Shiro’ken actually could be drastic differences by being powered by (mostly/presumably mostly) human souls and having bodies shaped like phoenixes, dragons, kirins, etc.

But if the organic core is merely a brain and/or heart? Then what it becomes could be anything, really. Even if there isn’t previous precedence for such (then again, there’s no previous precedence for full out body replacement with machines while still retaining some organics).

The issue I take with that idea is that it unnecessarily (in my opinion) complicates things. It’s much easier, I would think, to subdue and heavily override the existing creatures’ biological forms with metal armor and mechanical insides, leaving the basic control systems (the existing nervous systems) intact, albeit likely with modifications to follow whomever made the modifications orders.

If you pull from another specimen, you would have to I would think, train them to become accustomed to their new form. It’s much, much simpler-if organic beings work in any way similar to our own and if we operate under the premise that neuroscience is still either not even a consideration to any beings on Tyria or is highly underdeveloped to the point where such a swapout might not be possible-if we consider it from the existing examples we have to work with than the slight possibility that out of nowhere someone thought to tamper with brains.

That’s not to count out the possibility, but I’m unaware of any aspiring neuroscientists in Tyria, and it seems far simpler and more intuitive to think that since the creatures resemble existing creatures and are deemed biomechanical, that they may very well be heavily modified versions of existing creatures we’ve encountered.

The only exceptional case that comes to mind amongst the steam creatures would really be the steam hulks. These don’t exactly resemble any creatures I’m aware of, however there is a loose resemblance to golem designs (short legs, long arms, broad shoulders if going off the Mark II golems).

Asura infinity ball personal store tells you exactly were the steam creatures came from.

dusanyu.4057:

Asura infinity ball personal store tells you exactly were the steam creatures came from.

It tells you one point of origin. It does not exclude the possibility of other points of origin.

Honestly, I hope they expand upon the Steam Creature lore, since they’re such a prevailing enigma. Hopefully Thaumanova Reactor reveals more about them.

I’ve never bought into the Grand Poobah theory. It gained traction because WoodenPotatoes is probably the number one mainstream source of lore for casuals (sadly, moreso than the game itself) and his audience bought into it. He makes a lot of assumptions.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the Aetherblades to team up with the Inquest (we know from Atherblade Retreat that this is already happening) and reverse engineer or utilise the steam creatures which have already crossed into our world? Why does it have to be someone from another dimension? The asura are known to pick up where someone else left off with technology and expand upon found technology.

Shiren.9532:

I’ve never bought into the Grand Poobah theory. It gained traction because WoodenPotatoes is probably the number one mainstream source of lore for casuals (sadly, moreso than the game itself) and his audience bought into it. He makes a lot of assumptions.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the Aetherblades to team up with the Inquest (we know from Atherblade Retreat that this is already happening) and reverse engineer or utilise the steam creatures which have already crossed into our world? Why does it have to be someone from another dimension? The asura are known to pick up where someone else left off with technology and expand upon found technology.

in his defense, he does claim those are assumptions. but the internet community has a way of taking any ragtag rumor as the ultimate truth.

Gmr Leon.1846:

The only exceptional case that comes to mind amongst the steam creatures would really be the steam hulks. These don’t exactly resemble any creatures I’m aware of, however there is a loose resemblance to golem designs (short legs, long arms, broad shoulders if going off the Mark II golems).

It’s been a while, but I think the steam hulks and steam ogre use the same model, suggesting a possible identity.

The fact that the steam creatures do all take after existing creatures does seem as if it might be indicative. Although of course it could just be indicative of their inventors being inspired by the creatures they appear as.

I discussed this with my guild earlier, and felt like I should post this here.

Have just been researching the Steam creatures and I found something interesting:

“These gaskets make good rings. I wonder what kind of metal this is.”
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Steam_Gasket_Ring

A kind of metal unknown as of 1325 AE…

Now, in Flame and Frost, we got a few items appearing in Flame Legion and Dredge bases, among these items is a “Mysterious Refined Ore” in Silex Castrum. This ore has a note attached to show it’s from the dredge, saying that this metal is a new discovery that must be mined in its liquid form but is highly magically conductive.

In Molten Facility, it was also possible to mine Azurite crystals and orbs – and in the dungeon we see the kidnapped slaves being forced to mine blue-ish gemstones (most likely Azurite).

This seems to only add onto Scarlet being the one behind the Molten Alliance – and I believe her goal has been to reverse engineer (or rather, to “invent in this timeline”) the steam creatures.

This made me remember something else from Flame and Frost:

Savant,

An individual who claims some preposterous connection with a former colleague of mine recently contacted me, and while his claims concerning that connection are dismissable, he does bring up a good point. Refugees have been streaming into the Black Citadel, Lion’s Arch, and Hoelbrak from the northwestern quadrant of the Diessa Plateau and the northeastern quadrant of the Wayfarar Foothills. I don’t know what’s going on there-and I’m too busy to investigate personally-so, it will have to be you. Go look into it at your earliest convenience. Don’t bother reporting back. I trust you to handle this matter with efficiency and style.

Good luck, and watch your ears out there.

—Zojja

Dear <Player Name>,

I reach out to you with the utmost urgency. It has been brought to my attention by two other members of Destiny’s Edge that they’re experiencing some trouble in Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel. Something, or someone, is burning both norn and charr out of their homes and forcing them to seek shelter and security in the cities. This is unprecedented, and I’m concerned. As a favor to my friends, I’m asking you to travel to one or both of these cities and see if you can offer any assistance. If this is as bad as they say, it may eventually threaten Krytan citizens as well. You’re the perfect choice to deal with this. I’d help, but I have the queen’s business to attend to.

—Logan

Valiant, I’ve got a job for you. My friends (most days) Rytlock and Eir have requested help. I can’t go myself-Nightmare Court trouble-so I’m sending you instead. If you will go, of course. Here’s all I know-some nasty situation in the Shiverpeaks is killing norn and charr on either side of the mountains. It’s gotten ugly, and the survivors have started migrating to Hoelbrak and the Black Citadel to get away from…whatever it is. Take your pick. Go to either the Wayfarer foothills or to Diessa Plateau, and see if you can assist the fleeing norn and charr. watch out for their injured pride, though. It’s likely to be the sharpest thing you encounter. I’ll see you soon.

—Caithe

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_and_Frost_mail

While the wiki claims the letter from Zojja speaks of Braham and his being Eir’s son when she refers to someone speaking of a former colleague of hers (something I’m doubtful because at that point ArenaNet were talking about how they don’t want LS and PS to clash, which that certainly would if you completed the PS), I think this may instead tie to the upcoming events. The letter could instead be referring to the events of the Infinity Ball (“former colleague” is still a peculiar word choice there, perhaps referring to Shodd, whom seems to be such) and the connection that seems dismissable may be Scarlet trying to recreate the steam creatures – something Zojja would know came from the future.

On the flip side, Logan’s letter sounds like it may be referring to preparations for the Queen’s Jubilee (since he doesn’t seem caught up in catching ministers or white mantle, that seems most likely). This leads me to suspect we’ll be learning of NC activities when we figure out who this Suspicious Stranger from the opening ceremony (aka possibly Scarlet) to be.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Savant,

An individual who claims some preposterous connection with a former colleague of mine recently contacted me, and while his claims concerning that connection are dismissable, he does bring up a good point. Refugees have been streaming into the Black Citadel, Lion’s Arch, and Hoelbrak from the northwestern quadrant of the Diessa Plateau and the northeastern quadrant of the Wayfarar Foothills. I don’t know what’s going on there-and I’m too busy to investigate personally-so, it will have to be you. Go look into it at your earliest convenience. Don’t bother reporting back. I trust you to handle this matter with efficiency and style.

Good luck, and watch your ears out there.

—Zojja

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_and_Frost_mail

While the wiki claims the letter from Zojja speaks of Braham and his being Eir’s son when she refers to someone speaking of a former colleague of hers (something I’m doubtful because at that point ArenaNet were talking about how they don’t want LS and PS to clash, which that certainly would if you completed the PS), I think this may instead tie to the upcoming events. The letter could instead be referring to the events of the Infinity Ball (“former colleague” is still a peculiar word choice there, perhaps referring to Shodd, whom seems to be such) and the connection that seems dismissable may be Scarlet trying to recreate the steam creatures – something Zojja would know came from the future.

I doubt Zojja was referencing the Infinity Ball Personal Story characters. Don’t forget the Infinity Ball, Val-A Golem, and the other one schematics can easily be found in the archives. Perhaps her former collage isn’t Shodd but an Asura we haven’t met yet that had built their own Infinity Ball.

However I don’t think it references in any shape or form the Infinity Ball but rather she is actually referring to Eir as the former collage.

dusanyu.4057:

Asura infinity ball personal store tells you exactly were the steam creatures came from.

That because we all know that evil maniacs never lie.

DarcShriek.5829:

dusanyu.4057:

Asura infinity ball personal store tells you exactly were the steam creatures came from.

That because we all know that evil maniacs never lie.

Isn’t that rule 1 of being a evil maniac? Always lie to your enemies.

Seeing that the multiverse is confirmed in guild wars, it’s not outside the possibility that more than one world ended up making steam creatures.

Maybe the aetherblades made this universes steam creatures.

Technically, the multiverse always was confirmed, right from the very start. Way back into the Rift lore.

Lord Odran

Over the years, Lord Odran learned to use the Rift to travel across the multiverse.

At any rate, I don’t disagree.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

DarcShriek.5829:

dusanyu.4057:

Asura infinity ball personal store tells you exactly were the steam creatures came from.

That because we all know that evil maniacs never lie.

Isn’t that rule 1 of being a evil maniac? Always lie to your enemies.

no, rule #1 is always reveal your evil plan in detail before you execute it. and NEVER, EVER lie.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Darkbattlemage.9612:

DarcShriek.5829:

dusanyu.4057:

Asura infinity ball personal store tells you exactly were the steam creatures came from.

That because we all know that evil maniacs never lie.

Isn’t that rule 1 of being a evil maniac? Always lie to your enemies.

no, rule #1 is always reveal your evil plan in detail before you execute it. and NEVER, EVER lie.

I think you got the “modified” Paladin’s Handbook instead of Villain’s Handbook.

On a serious note, an Asura would indeed take credit for something not theirs if the person is unaware of the truth. How often do Asura ‘steal’ ideas from one another.