Guild Wars 2

Two things stuck out to me about Countess Anise as odd:

• Nearly all NPC’s that talk about her refer to her beauty, and some view it as unnatural, i.e. the writers are making a point of her beauty and want us to notice it. Same thing goes for her past – NPC’s make a point of pointing out that we don’t know much about it.
• For someone who has been guarding Queen Jennah since she was a young princess, she looks remarkably young. The ages don’t add up.

I’m going to put my tinfoil hat on here and make an outrageous claim. It’s outrageous because there’s nothing solid to back it up, but it is able to explain the above to mysteries – albeit, by opening up a possibly larger one.

Countess Anise, the Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade with a ruthless “ends-justify-the-means” attitudes, seems to have an unnaturally long lifespan and magically-enhanced beauty. Where have we seen all of these attributes before? You guessed it. I am saying that some way, somehow, the true identity of Countess Anise is Livia.

Now, Livia is not, at least at the time of Guild Wars, trained as a mesmer. The two look nothing alike (although mesmer magic could be involved, but then we return to our first problem). There is no obvious reason that I can think of that Livia would want to disguise herself, given that by the time of Sea of Sorrows she had served as leader of the Shining Blade for 177 years, so people being suspicious of her apparent immortality was of no concern. And yet, there is no other straightforward explanation that I can think of that addresses the above questions. No straightforward explanation, that is, that isn’t incredibly mundane (which we can rule out because why go through the bother of intentionally setting up a mystery if your solution is an uninteresting one – this is narrative, not real life).

There is other, far more circumstantial evidence of Anise’s deception:

• “May Grenth keep you safe.” Seems like a strange blessing coming from a mesmer, doesn’kitten Dwayna would be the god you pray for protection from, surely, if not Lyssa, the patron god of mesmers.
• “There hasn’t been one in over fifty years…or at least, that’s what I’m told.” The punctuation here suggests that Anise correcting herself, that she found it necessary to clarify that she hadn’t been around fifty years ago. A writer somewhere sat and typed that afterthought into that line of dialogue, and I think the balance of probabilities would weigh in favour of that being a hint rather than an attempt at naturalistic dialogue.
• “Ruthless and efficient, eh? You remind me of …someone.” Whoever this someone is, they are known to Anise but for some reason she wants to keep that to herself. I can’t think of anyone who this might be, but if we assume Anise is actually Livia, then Gadd might fit the bill quite nicely. Again, why have the dialogue trail off if you’re not setting up a mystery to solve?

Now I’m not usually one for an “X is actually Y!” theory, but in this case I feel like the evidence is too compelling to ignore. And I can’t explain why or how Livia would do such a thing (although I’m sure the Scepter of Orr is involved somehow, as that’s one Livia-related plot thread that still needs tying up). But I just can’t think of any other explanation of the mystery of Countess Anise.

Beware all ye who enter, for what follows is baseless speculation.
Could this mean anything going forward? Well, we’re likely to be heading into Magus Falls soon with the Pact to confront Mordremoth, but Belinda Delaqua has told us that there’s bandit activity in the nearby area. Bandits have ties to the White Mantle and the Krytan Ministry, so as others in this forum have already pointed out, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if along the way, we saw a continuation of both the White Mantle and Ministry corruption plot lines from the personal story (and if we’re lucky, maybe even the Lazarus the Dire story from Guild Wars). The arch-rivalry between the Shining Blade and the White Mantle will have been forgotten by most, but I can think of one person who’s been around long enough to hold a grudge…

What other related mysteries are still unsolved? How about the murder of Mendel, and the identity of “E”? What the hell happened to Evennia (although to me, the prime suspect is King Adelbern rather than the White Mantle)? There’s no way that at least some of these questions aren’t gonna be answered in the next 12 months folks, and I, for one, am excited!

Perhaps more than 1 person is capable of living for 300 years. Since Anise most likely knows Livia personally, they may pass secrets and magic between each other.

Perhaps they are all part of a group of ancient mages. These hidden guardians of Kryta will come out when necessary.

This actually could make sense… I like the idea! Livia could have altered her appearance just like Vizier Khilbron. Interesting, I’m curious to see whether your speculations are correct

It’s definitely plausible:

1) In Livia’s time, dual-professions were a thing, and N/Me was a popular combination for non-MM necromancers (although a large part of the reason for that is now explicitly a necromancer skill). Canonically, she may have been part mesmer all along.
2) The main reason we’re given for why one person doesn’t learn multiple schools of magic is, basically, that someone who’s spent a lot of time mastering one magic doesn’t want to start from scratch mastering another. Someone who’s achieved an indefinitely long lifespan may be quite happy to use some of it expanding their repertoire, especially if it would be more useful for the role they have chosen (such as mesmerism for a spymistress, particularly a spymistress who wants to conceal her true identity).
3) If we’re entertaining the possibility that Countess Anise is actually Livia… does the person that we remind her of have to be an NPC? Maybe the reason the “someone” remains nameless isn’t just a case of Livia avoiding dropping a name that will reveal her age, but also one where ArenaNet doesn’t actually have a canonical name for because it’s a reference to the GW1 PC, who incidentally may also have passed on an inheritance to human GW2 PCs.

draxynnic.3719:

3) If we’re entertaining the possibility that Countess Anise is actually Livia… does the person that we remind her of have to be an NPC? Maybe the reason the “someone” remains nameless isn’t just a case of Livia avoiding dropping a name that will reveal her age, but also one where ArenaNet doesn’t actually have a canonical name for because it’s a reference to the GW1 PC, who incidentally may also have passed on an inheritance to human GW2 PCs.

My thought exactly!

Hmm.. What with the Scepter then ?

And dual professions were straight gameplay mechanics, not a port of lore. Sure, there were some explanations by Devs but they feel very forced and don’t make much sense.
Remember that only players could be dual-spec in GW1, none of NPCs as far as I remember could’ve been dual at the same time. So N/Me as far as it was quite popular matchup for GW1 players wasn’t accessible for NPCs (apart from Heroes, but Livia was not one of them).

I doubt your theory. I belive that we will see Livia in Maguuma maybe, but not soon and not under disguise of Anise.

Um… Livia was a hero. She was the necromancer hero for Eye of the North.

Also, there were dual-specced non-hero NPCs in EOTN. Many of them are enemies.

Maybe she’s an old hag and her young look is just an illusion. She is a mesmer after all.

It would seem that it would be easy to determine if Anise was Livia. Just have Ogden help you out. He knew Livia.

There’s a small glitch in the second point made for what’s weird about Anise:

When Queen Jennah’s father died and she was invested to the Krytan throne, she appointed Countess Anise to the rank of Master Exemplar.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Line_of_Duty_%E2%80%93_The_Three_Military_Orders_of_Kryta

Anise is also said, as pointed out, to have been Jennah’s bodyguard when Jennah was so young. I also recall reading that they were childhood friends, though I don’t recall where so I may be misremembering. Even not including the last, I see no reason for her age to be really an issue – it is a trope to have children, especially very important ones, to have a personal bodyguard or servant that is roughly the same age of the child in the hopes of giving the child someone to relate to and in turn become friends – royal children would often be kept from other children simply due to the nature of such. Nobilit Jew too. Anise could easily have been one such person. And with Jennah having appointed Anise, it means she couldn’t have been leader of the Shining Blade, which seems to be what the OP is getting at.

I see nothing strange with her mention of Grenth either, since she is talking about death and killing. It isn’t like mesmers can only revere Lyssa. Grenth also makes sense on an aside from Dwayna because she is basically saying “may death stay his hand in this battle”.

And the other two, despite the ellipses, do not sound like pauses or self-correction when spoken (at least to my memory and it never struck out) – and if this is intentional then they would have told the voice actress to include such in the voice over.

And I would take what the gossiping citizens with a massive grain of salt. Otherwise we’d have to believe that Jennah is training a secret army of quaggan.

On an aside – nothing says Livia was the leader of the Shining Blade in Sea of Sorrows – just the superior of those on the boat.

It is possible Anise = Livia, but I don’t think it’s so sure cut as folks make it out to be. Also, isn’t this like the 5th thread on this very exact theory with the same exact support (nothing new, nothing forgotten…). Gods I wish the search function worked. -.-

I like it, good find the dual proffesion thing isn’t neccasarily just a mechanic. The reason we are all one proffesion was explained by magic in general gaining in strenght so the one proffesion based classes were a lot stronger by itself.

I can understand that when someone has all the time in the world one doesn’t have to be limited to just training in one form of magic but can sufficiantly become master in more than one. Besides, if she is livia then the dual proffesion thing would be with her from the start.

CHIPS.6018:

Perhaps more than 1 person is capable of living for 300 years. Since Anise most likely knows Livia personally, they may pass secrets and magic between each other.

Anet explicitly said people could do that. GW1 humans could use magic to live all the way to GW2+.

Rym.1469:

Hmm.. What with the Scepter then ?

And dual professions were straight gameplay mechanics, not a port of lore. Sure, there were some explanations by Devs but they feel very forced and don’t make much sense.
Remember that only players could be dual-spec in GW1, none of NPCs as far as I remember could’ve been dual at the same time. So N/Me as far as it was quite popular matchup for GW1 players wasn’t accessible for NPCs (apart from Heroes, but Livia was not one of them).

I doubt your theory. I belive that we will see Livia in Maguuma maybe, but not soon and not under disguise of Anise.

The GW universe goes by the “degenerative” model. All the new life forms are like ants when compared to the older/ancient life forms.

We can see from the history of the GW universe that the older something is, the stronger it is. We heard about how crazy strong the Jotuns used to be. We head about an army of Lupis that used to rule the world. We also has seen first hand how dangerous the Mursaats were. The heroes only beat the Mursaats by the help of an equally ancient race: Seers.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the heroes from GW1 would be stronger than the heroes in GW2.

Perhaps in GW1 having duel professions was indeed the norm. And perhaps having 200+ skills was also the norm. Skills like Empathy, Eviscerate and Spiteful Spirit were clear indicators on how strong GW1 heroes use to be. We didn’t think much about all of that at the time because everyone was that strong.

CHIPS.6018:

The GW universe goes by the “degenerative” model. All the new life forms are like ants when compared to the older/ancient life forms.

We can see from the history of the GW universe that the older something is, the stronger it is. We heard about how crazy strong the Jotuns used to be. We head about an army of Lupis that used to rule the world. We also has seen first hand how dangerous the Mursaats were. The heroes only beat the Mursaats by the help of an equally ancient race: Seers.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the heroes from GW1 would be stronger than the heroes in GW2.

Perhaps in GW1 having duel professions was indeed the norm. And perhaps having 200+ skills was also the norm. Skills like Empathy, Eviscerate and Spiteful Spirit were clear indicators on how strong GW1 heroes use to be. We didn’t think much about all of that at the time because everyone was that strong.

Not really. For certain races perhaps, but it was always more implied to be their civilization had advanced so far. The Jotun are an example. Once they were a mighty, proud, very powerful race. Now they are wandering barbarian tribes basically.

IIRC, somebody pointed out how several aspects of some GW2 classes point toward a more seamless ‘duel class’ combination.

Like the warrior maces causing a shockwave (ele) or the longbow skills (ranger). Guardians are basically Paragons, rits, and monks mixed together.

Honestly, I see it more as “Those civilizations got very advanced and powerful” not “Ancient things automatically are more powerful” like why Orr has powerful relics. They were a very magically powerful nation close to the gods.

The way I had actually heard it(unsure if it was from anet), it was more of a case of "Back then, the players had a ‘smaller’ focus of magic, and thus could learn the two professions at same time without harming their power. However in the 250 years that passed, magic has changed somewhat. Was either changed or the professions basically became more focused so a master necromancer would spend his entire time studying necromancy, instead of taking the random mesmer or monk course on the side.

NOW, a human (or any race) who used magic to prolong their life to GW2 and spent that time studying/improving themselves/getting better (instead of sleeping on a couch all day) will basically stomp a GW2 era person due to experience and power. IE, my GW1 necro who I describe as living to GW2 era would stomp any ‘modern’ necromancer because she kept getting more powerful and skilled.

CHIPS.6018:

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the heroes from GW1 would be stronger than the heroes in GW2.

Perhaps in GW1 having duel professions was indeed the norm. And perhaps having 200+ skills was also the norm. Skills like Empathy, Eviscerate and Spiteful Spirit were clear indicators on how strong GW1 heroes use to be. We didn’t think much about all of that at the time because everyone was that strong.

Actually, it is pretty blatantly stated by the ghost of a NPC in the Eye of the North that the GW2 PC is far more advanced than the GW1 PC.

It would explain why she is so OP

Rym.1469:

Remember that only players could be dual-spec in GW1, none of NPCs as far as I remember could’ve been dual at the same time. So N/Me as far as it was quite popular matchup for GW1 players wasn’t accessible for NPCs (apart from Heroes, but Livia was not one of them).

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Norn_Fighting_Tournament

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Maybe she’s an old hag and her young look is just an illusion. She is a mesmer after all.

Same with Queen Jennah, she’s also a mesmer and I can remind myself of reading something about “Queen Jennah never shows her true look”.

Remember back in the days of Flame and Frost when we thought that the mysterious Scarlet might be actually Livia?

Kalavier.1097:

Not really. For certain races perhaps, but it was always more implied to be their civilization had advanced so far. The Jotun are an example. Once they were a mighty, proud, very powerful race. Now they are wandering barbarian tribes basically.

{snip}

Honestly, I see it more as “Those civilizations got very advanced and powerful” not “Ancient things automatically are more powerful” like why Orr has powerful relics. They were a very magically powerful nation close to the gods.

I think this is a large part of it, but on the other side… are they more powerful? As far as we know, the elder races didn’t succeed in bringing down a dragon…

They were more advanced in magic, to be sure – I don’t think even the modern asura could match the achievements of the mursaat, the forgotten, or the seers magically. However, those races show little in the way of technology. Jotun had the concept of telescopes, but the telescope in Arah is augmented by magic, and humans had observatories in GW1 as well – the telescope in Arah might not actually be anything special by modern GW2 standards, the significance is that on the way you learn how the jotun used the stars to predict dragon awakenings. Apart from dwarves, humans and (back then, more primitive) charr, though, everything else we see in GW1 or from that era is magic-based.

Furthermore, the greater magic from those days may not have come about because old things are inherently more powerful, but simply because there was more magic around in those days. Between the seers and the gods, magic in the last cycle was at pretty much rock bottom until less than fifteen hundred years ago, and then it rapidly swelled – modern civilisations have only had that long to learn how to use it. In the sleeping period before the dragons devastated the elder races, though, they would have had a steady buildup of magic, potentially giving them many thousands of years to learn how best to harness it before the dragons rose. The price is that they didn’t have the incentive to develop technology that wasn’t based on magic, as the dwarves did (and then passed on to other races, willingly or otherwise) in the most recent sleeping period.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Maybe she’s an old hag and her young look is just an illusion. She is a mesmer after all.

Same with Queen Jennah, she’s also a mesmer and I can remind myself of reading something about “Queen Jennah never shows her true look”.

Plot twist: Countess anise is Queen Jennah.

I think it helps to view magical techniques as just another technology. Professions were merged into the Guardian because people simply discovered better, more powerful ways of using magic. You could become an old school ritualist, but why would you – you’d just be hopelessly outclassed unless some new advancement is made (expansion, cough).

As long as Livia/an immortal GW1 PC kept up with new advances, I don’t think they’d be any weaker – just ridiculously experienced and probably with some old tricks nobody is used to dealing with any more.

Toastehh.5832:

I think it helps to view magical techniques as just another technology. Professions were merged into the Guardian because people simply discovered better, more powerful ways of using magic. You could become an old school ritualist, but why would you – you’d just be hopelessly outclassed unless some new advancement is made (expansion, cough).

As long as Livia/an immortal GW1 PC kept up with new advances, I don’t think they’d be any weaker – just ridiculously experienced and probably with some old tricks nobody is used to dealing with any more.

The way I see it, the GW universe is just like real life. Some things gets further advanced and became more popular. Other things gets forgotten.

For example I can’t see any person giving up the GW1 versions of Spiteful Spirit, Eviscerate and Empathy unless they couldn’t learn these powerful skills.

And Ritualist spirits would be just as OP in GW2 as it was in GW1.

Toastehh.5832:

I think it helps to view magical techniques as just another technology. Professions were merged into the Guardian because people simply discovered better, more powerful ways of using magic. You could become an old school ritualist, but why would you – you’d just be hopelessly outclassed unless some new advancement is made (expansion, cough).

As long as Livia/an immortal GW1 PC kept up with new advances, I don’t think they’d be any weaker – just ridiculously experienced and probably with some old tricks nobody is used to dealing with any more.

A Gw1 era person who used magic to live until GW2, but never stopped learning/practicing, they’d be legendary in power. A friend made the comment “Thinking about it, if My ele lived from gw1 to Gw2, and kept improving her ice magic, she could easily be one of the most power ice magic elementalists of humanity”

A fitting viewpoint. My GW1 necro (who I state as using magic to live until GW2+), would easily stomp a modern necro, simply because she is far more powerful, durable, and experianced.

I considered this but it doesn’t quite sit right with me. Livia never had Anise’s personality. Anise has a swagger to her while Livia was very reserved and straight to business. I think its more likely that Anise is a protégé of Livia’s, perhaps acting as head of the Shining Blade in Livia’s stead. We really don’t know what happened to Livia in the last 70 years but we do know the White Mantle have been active enough to be killing off agents of Kryta’s royalty from the PS.

With out a doubt though, Livia is insanely strong. She is well known around Kryta at least back when LA was rebuilt and we got to see a display of her power during Sea of Sorrows when the Risen trying to climb onto the ship she is on disintegrated to mush the moment they touched the hull.

Lutinz.6915:

I considered this but it doesn’t quite sit right with me. Livia never had Anise’s personality. Anise has a swagger to her while Livia was very reserved and straight to business. I think its more likely that Anise is a protégé of Livia’s, perhaps acting as head of the Shining Blade in Livia’s stead. We really don’t know what happened to Livia in the last 70 years but we do know the White Mantle have been active enough to be killing off agents of Kryta’s royalty from the PS.

Anise as Livia’s protégé does have its merits as a theory – the Grenth blessing could be due to her spending a lot of time around her necromancer mentor, the “ruthless and efficient” person that the player reminds her of could be Livia herself, and (although it doesn’t fit quite as well) her knowledge of trial by combat could come from her knowledge of Livia’s experiences. But then why drop all the hints about her unnatural beauty and mysterious past?

As far as I know, the only people who mention “unnatural beauty” and “She must use magic for it” are gossiping civilians.

Hardly the people we want to take as solid lore sources.

“All the hints”? It’s mentioned in her basic description, and otherwise… I don’t recall it being brought up in my human noble’s storyline much at all.

What is the big rock with carvings inside queens throne room?

Is it one of the bloodstones? Sry for my lacking lore knowledge.

It’s basically unexplained atm.

Horst Hortensie.5420:

Camarell.5648:

What is the big rock with carvings inside queens throne room?

Is it one of the bloodstones? Sry for my lacking lore knowledge.

It’s basically unexplained atm.

Hmm…it’s not the location of the Fountain of Truth is it? I’m just trying to think about where Shaemoor was relative to the current position of Divinity’s Reach.

It isn’t a bloodstone as the Bloodstones are red and more crystal-like.

And the Fountain of Truth would be closer to where the graveyard is now, I believe, as it was uphill and east of Shaemoor (in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the fountain in the graveyard is meant to be the Fountain of Truth….).

IIRC, we’re told that stone in the throne room holds GW1 significance, but no one’s figured it out yet. Honestly, the only thing that pops into my mind is the little platforms you summon druids from in GW1, as the carving designs are a bit similar (but not by much).

This is the most recent thread on the topic that I oculd find so I’m necro’ing this. Been redoing the human storylines and I found something that’s been overlooked. During Minister Wi’s party, if you go up to the various guests you sometimes get gossiping lines. One of which is:

Guest: Oh, look at the countess, will you? Such a beauty. She has the entire room in the palm of her hand.
Guest: Did you know she’s a history buff? Ancient Kryta is her subject of expertise.

Furthers the theory. But on the flip side, it could be used to explain the second bullet point the OP makes – why she would know that there hasn’t been a trial by combat in 50 years.

It actually wouldn’t surprise me if Ancient Kryta was required curriculum for Shining Blade exemplars, particularly those high up in the organisation or involved in the counterinsurgency against the White Mantle – it would be important for anyone involved in that fight to know the full context and history of the struggle, particularly in the GW1 era.

Great and Gorgeous Mesmer Collective

Just read this whole thread through. I definitely see an unquestionable link between Anise and Livia, whatever the exact situation may be! Awesome connecting the dots, btw. I love this level of thinking. Wish there was some way for this to be actively thought out/pursued in-game…

Anyway, regarding the Fountain of Truth: It looks like the Fountain of Truth is used by those administering the Test of the Chosen… White Mantle stuff… So I’d say it holds a possibility in that sense as a trophy of victory (and because of its powers ofc), but otherwise it’s not the Fountain of Truth because there’d be no valid explanation for it being there plot-wise.

And Drax – although we shouldn’t necessarily be paying attention to commoners’ dialogue (although to hell with that – I don’t get why not!), I’d definitely say that there’s a difference between being a history buff with an expertise and being just plain old someone in a covert-ops military unit that might by default be expected to have extensive Ancient Kryta knowledge… No, I definitely think this gossip is a valid clue in many a way, and is meant to further distinguish the Countess from her peers.

The thing is, we have confirmation in Sea of Sorrow’s that Livia is still around, and wasn’t disguised in any way.

Why would she change her appearance? And completely stop using her necromancer powers (Which by then were very powerful it seems, and no mention of illusions).

Anawim: I see where you’re coming from, but the impression I get is that the Shining Blade is trying to keep their secret war with the White Mantle, well, a secret one. Having a reputation as a history buff gives her a reason to ask for resources on Krytan history from third parties while letting those third parties believe she’s asking as part of her own hobby rather than as Shining Blade business is probably a valuable cover story.

Plus, there’s nothing saying she isn’t also genuinely interested.

At this stage, I personally don’t think Anise is Livia. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, if Anise is only the relatively public front of the Shining Blade while Livia is still guiding from behind, or at least being available to provide a been-there perspective on events from the GW1 era.

On the other hand, though, it’s entirely possible that whatever life-extending magic she used as limitations, and at some point she had to train up a successor as best she could and pass on the baton. There’s still about seventy years between the end of Sea of Sorrows and the present day – if we postulate that her youth-sustaining magic failed about two centuries after she found it, that would give her just about enough time to prepare Anise or her predecessor as a successor.

Is Anise voiced by Mari Weiss?

Does she ever say “Be Careful.”?

Drax, Anise knowing history due to the duties of the Shining Blade makes sense.

What doesn’t is her being a history buff and retracing her line about the trial. Alone, either can be easily put aside. Together… Well, why does she make that apparent connection? Even if not Livia, she is hiding something about her ties to the past.

Though if she is Livia the question becomes why she is hiding her identity now when she didn’t in Sea of Sorrows. Even if she is a “hidden leader” that question still exists. It may have something to do due with the Ministry taking power after Jennah’s father’s death.

@Kain, the voice actor isn’t the same as Livia in GW1, or at least isn’t the same tone and pitch. But this doesn’t say much because the PC’s voice actor changed between each campaign in GW1, as did Jalis’ (far more noticeable) between Prophecies and Eye of the North.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Plot twist: Countess anise is Queen Jennah.

Plot twist: Countess Anise was a the imaginary friend of an unusually gifted young mesmer and remains a very well-maintained illusion.

:P

I got so excited about the red icon… Should have known.

to the op: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Anise-Livia-GW2-Mystery/first#post3260173
i think you just necroed my old thread by creating this one >.> not nice

Again, Anise shows no necromancer talents or powers. Why would Livia learn some mesmer abilities, then suddenly give up all her necromancer abilities (which are very powerful)?

Yeah. It would make sense if an ancient and powerful mesmer pretended to be a necromancer for whatever reason, but the other way around feels rather forced and also quite nonsensical.

Im quite sure Livia is still around, working for Kryta in the background, but Anise being Livia seems a bit far-fetched, though its reasonable to assume that IF Livia is still around and she still works for the security of Kryta then the Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade would have a working connection to her.

I think the theory is plausible and it would be fun if (a) the devs were already thinking this way (and the OP figured it out) or (b) the OP has gotten the devs to consider retrofitting it into the game.

That said, there are 100s of possible explanations for just about everything we’ve seen, not the least of which is that ANet isn’t always careful when writing dialogue or keeping dates in synch. We can’t read too much into a single line of dialogue and certainly not taking 10-15 lines of dialogue potentially written by 15 different people at 15 different times with 15 different goals.

Instead, what I’d say is that there’s nothing anyone has found to date that prevents the OP’s theory from being true. And that’s interesting enough, without trying to elevate minor lines of dialogue into major foreshadowing.

Well, you can never prove a negative, but I prefer not to give a theory too much credibility purely on the basis of there being nothing that prevents it from being true. It’s a possibility, but there’s not a lot pointing to it either.

I will comment, though, that Livia being a necromancer to our knowledge doesn’t mean she can’t have picked up mesmerism and maybe other magics since, in order to create cover identities and other uses. From the interviews we’ve had on magic in GW2, the main barrier to learning multiple branches of magic is time – basic proficiency is described as requiring an investment similar to getting a degree, and most people who’ve developed proficiency with a school of magic prefer to continue developing their skill in that discipline rather than starting from scratch.

However, if Livia has found a means of living for nearly three centuries while remaining hale… then time isn’t much of a barrier from her. There could easily have been a point where she decided that continued study of necromancy had hit a wall of diminishing returns, and that she would indeed get more out of starting from scratch with another discipline. Heck, secondary professions were a thing in GW1 – she could have spent the last couple of centuries further developing both professions while it fell out of favour with newer generations, knowing that, unlike them, she has the time to do it and the leisure to learn new techniques as they are introduced rather than squeezing the results of centuries of practice into a training regime that can be completed while someone is still in their prime.

While true, that still wouldn’t explain just giving up necro powers and NEVER using them. Anise uses pure mesmer abilities, never anything necro like.

With mesmers, you can only theory-craft so far until it boils into endless “WELL, IT COULD BE ILLUSION!”

Hypothetically speaking, it’d be part of the identity. Anise is a mesmer, so if the Livia=Anise theory is correct (which I don’t think it is, but it’s still worth examining) then she’s refrain from using the necromantic abilities in order to avoid compromising the identity, unless in a serious emergency. And I can’t think of any situations offhand that Anise has been involved in where necromancy would have been more useful than mesmerism.

There may be some point at which she might pull off an ‘I know something you don’t know – mesmer is actually my SECONDARY profession!’ moment, but none of her appearances so far have called for it. Possibly calling necromantic reinforcements in Edge of Destiny, but I think she was focused on helping Jennah with the Kralkatorrik illusion there.

As I said, though, and you said in slightly different words – I don’t think it’s possible, with illusion magic and so on, to prove the negative (that Anise absolutely CANNOT be Livia in disguise) – even seeing Livia and Anise in the same room wouldn’t do it unless you had some way of knowing for sure that illusions were impossible there. However, just because you can’t prove something is wrong is not a reason to believe in it over the dozens of other things you also can’t prove is wrong.

Well, in a situation of protecting the queen (such as when the corrupted Seraph comes after her), it’d be useful to use that magic she did in Sea of Sorrows as opposed to illusions…

That is, if I heard about her using magic to basically instantly kill every Risen who tried boarding the ship she was on is true.