Guild Wars 2

Fascinating. But according to the schematics, the reactor core is nearby. We need to access the console and take a sample.
/Ellen Kiel/

She just wants to retrieve a core sample, nothing is mentioned for what she needs it.

yayuuu.9420:

Fascinating. But according to the schematics, the reactor core is nearby. We need to access the console and take a sample.
/Ellen Kiel/

She just wants to retrieve a core sample, nothing is mentioned for what she needs it.

Well that core sample eventually ends up in our/Vorpp’s hands. It was the core sample that was in the Dead End Inn, right? Or am I mistaken?

Anyway, at this point I’m absolutely certain that Ellen has absolutely no dealings with Scarlet and she is not in a team with her, nor being manipulated by her. So the day this is finally proven in-game will be a happy day.

On a side note, when Ellen said “Fascinating” it kind of made me giggle and think of Spock.

That was a cooling rod, not a core sample.
The core thingy was from Omadd’s machine.

Dalanor.5387:

That was a cooling rod, not a core sample.
The core thingy was from Omadd’s machine.

Right, thanks for the clarification. See this is why I wish we could replay this particular instance more than once. There’s just so much info thrown at you that it’s hard to remember it all in the momentum.

I’m not 100% sure that Ellen Kiel is working for Scarlet, but it’s one possibility.

Ellen Kiel might be a liar and she didn’t informed council at all, selling us a cheap story that the council is not going to prepare city for the attack even if they:
1. Know what Scarlet can do and that she is dangerous,
2. Her probe turged green,
3. Marjory predicted Scarlet’s next step as an attack on Lions Arch.

We have 2 possibilities:
1. Ellen Kiel is nice and good and the Council is stupid and arrogant.
2. Ellen Kiel is Scarlet’s puppet

Until now, all of the Scarlet’s plans have succeeded (except putting a puppet in the council??) even if we thiught, that we have stopped her.

I’ll try to get more evidence when I come back home. Until now I have to leave you with my suggestion to think about. It would be nice if someone could find that “core sample” we gave to Ellen, if it really exists somewhere then my theory is 100% wrong.

yayuuu.9420:

snip

far as we know, kiel is actually the one trying to reinforce LA’s defenses. there isn’t really much evidence (actually there is none) that indicates kiel is working behind the scenes to sabotage the council. let’s try to keep speculation within the realm of the information we have.

also, let’s not forget that this isn’t the first time lion’s arch has put the stubborn face and took a massive blow. they knew of claw island, and look how well that went.

for the sake of keeping things concise, here’s what we learned:

• Scarlet created the molten alliance with the intent of adapting dredge technology with flame legion magic to create those energy probes she placed everywhere

• Scarlet planned to “soften up” lion’s arch’s defenses by having Mai Trin infiltrate the council

• Scarlet created the aetherblades because air superiority wins fights, so she needed an air fleet

• Scarlet attacked the queen’s jubilee not on a whim, but to steal the watchknights.

• Scarlet created the toxic alliance to create a powerful toxin, and counted on us countering that toxin to create an even more powerful one based on the antitoxin. the characters speculate that it’ll be used as part of an attack.

• Scarlet has constant arguments with… something.

• Omadd’s machine isn’t something that “expands” the mind, quite the opposite. whatever Scarlet saw in the experiment, she brought it with her. the machine “broke her mind’s defenses” and she was “exposed to a side of her psyche that had been carefully walled off, perhaps for her own protection”

• Scarlet was able to steal the watchknights because they are based on the same technology as the steam creatures, so she reverse engineered the latter to take control of the former.

• in a rather cheesy moment, we find out that Scarlet’s true target are the ley lines in lion’s arch. the probes seen throughout tyria were being used to map those ley lines.

• her plans with said ley lines might involve recreating thaumanova. Jory refers to thaumanova as “turning a risky research experiment into a time bomb to see how it ticked”, and claims that she might be using that info on her next attack.

• the journal does indeed take place throughout months and months. the player character deduces/implies that the journal takes place after the experiment.

Special thanks to ElysianEternity, who made it easy for me to recall the parts i couldn’t remember from the instance

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Um… you’ve actually got that backwards. Kiel is doing everything she can, by her own word. It’s the rest of the Council that won’t lift a finger.

Yeah, reading through all that it sounds far more that Scarlet has compromised everyone on the council except Ellen and presumably Magnus.

Not sure that Scarlet “created” the Aetherblades. She said that they need them to make the ships for her or that she would replace them with holograms.

Underdark.3726:

Not sure that Scarlet “created” the Aetherblades. She said that they need them to make the ships for her or that she would replace them with holograms.

Except the poster in her lair suggests otherwise. There’s a line drawn between pirates and the Inquest and it’s unlikely they got together without her influence.

One thing I want to point out that I found interesting.

When talking about Scarlet only taking in what she had with her into Omadd’s experiment, Vorpp said that he cannot speculate too much further without more information on how the Dream works. Perhaps Ceara’s connection to the Dream allowed her to still bring in something other than herself…

I am hoping that this brings new light into how the Dream works in some sense, we have been speculating about it for a year now :P.

Narcemus.1348:

One thing I want to point out that I found interesting.

When talking about Scarlet only taking in what she had with her into Omadd’s experiment, Vorpp said that he cannot speculate too much further without more information on how the Dream works. Perhaps Ceara’s connection to the Dream allowed her to still bring in something other than herself…

I am hoping that this brings new light into how the Dream works in some sense, we have been speculating about it for a year now :P.

yeah, there’s that. and there’s the ever-favorite sylvari/minion theory (that konig loves to hate). not to use this as a point in the theory’s favor (i’m not much of a fan of it either), but vorpp makes it sound like she had something in her mind that was sealed off on purpose, for her safety, and that the machine broke that seal.

makes you wonder if all sylvaris are like that, or if it’s something just scarlet had. and if it’s only her, then why?

Mortifact.3102:

Except the poster in her lair suggests otherwise. There’s a line drawn between pirates and the Inquest and it’s unlikely they got together without her influence.

from wiki:
The Aetherblades are a multi-racial group of sky pirates ….. They are allied with the Inquest…
meaning that the pirates from the poster are not the pirates that we know… those pirates do not know anything about flying ships, nor the inquest…
so, imo, Scarlet did not create the aetherblades

Zaxares.5419:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I have. Didn’t get anything that acknowledged my order.

Bleh. Guess I’ll be doing the story instance on my Priory Elementalist then.

Infinity Ball asura may have unique dialogue if you do that, maybe?

We should get folks going in with different combinations that may affect dialogue – all races, and infinity ball asura mainly.

ElysianEternity.6215:

Phew. Took me a while but here is all the dialogue of the LS instance A Study in Scarlet on Imgur.

Merry theorycrafting. ;P

I’ll post my own thoughts later.

Awesome. Thanks. Will read it later and theorycraft from that since my laptop can barely handle GW2.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zaxares.5419:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I have. Didn’t get anything that acknowledged my order.

Bleh. Guess I’ll be doing the story instance on my Priory Elementalist then.

Infinity Ball asura may have unique dialogue if you do that, maybe?

We should get folks going in with different combinations that may affect dialogue – all races, and infinity ball asura mainly.

no unique dialogue from infinity ball asura. at least none that my friend mentioned. and he usually tells me everything that sounds like specific dialogue (even when it isn’t :P).

human whispers, nothing noteworthy.

i think the only special dialogue you might get is if you’re priory, due to the priory-tied part of the story. honestly, there’s so much information on that instance that if they tried to sneak in specific dialogue, the chances of no one finding them would be way higher than the chances of missing rytlock after the wurm :P

I’m pretty pleased with how close my theorycrafting was.

Either way my final bet is:

Lots of interesting things. I didn’t really read the thread since ElysianEternity’s post (tyvm for those images though some, such as some bit on the Toxic Alliance, seems missing). Things that catch my eye:

On the journal: (I see no need for a spoiler tag).
Elysian – you put the entries out of order. This confused me as I thought at first that they were placed out of order in-game. xD

But to end the journal’s timeframe argument for all… Though we don’t know when she was born or went into the machine we know that:

• She was in the Grove for eight years.
• She was with Beigarth for 1 winter.
• She was with Asagi for 2 years.
• She was in each college for about 1 year each (roughly 3 years total), and spent additional but less time with the Inquest.
• She wondered about for “several months” (less than a year though) after being exiled before going to the machine.

The journal cannot start with her as Ceara in the Grove and end with her coming out of the machine. Why? You have roughly 6 or more years between Ceara leaving the grove and her entering the machine. The journal is dated from Winter (Colossus) 1322 to Fall (Scion) 1323. Just shy of 2 years. If it ends with her entering the machine then it begins with her in the colleges – at which point she had already known Omadd too.

So ahem HAH! Bruno. :P Even if it may be Ceara, it isn’t with her from in the Grove to into the machine. :P

Yeah, pointless “in your face” moment that doesn’t mean I was right (that the whole journal was post-machine). Though indications do point there with the comments after…

ANYWAYS! What I think Scarlet’s master plan is:

Edit: Gotta continue on next post. Too long.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

One more spoiler tag, for what I think Scarlet's master plan is

hide spoiler

It’s heavily implied from the short story she intends to remake the world. Further implied by Canach in his cell. Well, okay, sure. But how will she do it? Simple:

She’s going to kitten up the ley lines with draconic or chaos magic.

Thaumanova was a alpha testing site for this. She tampered with the “risky experiment” and made a time bomb to study what happened with the bomb. It blew up and to quote all the dozens of NPCs related to Thaumanova – reality got flipped upside down; our world will never be the same. It’s literally a madhouse there because of the explosion.

Scarlet’s obviously after the ley lines underneath Lion’s Arch. Why Lion’s Arch? Hard to tell. But she knew she’d be going there for some time, so I don’t think it deals so much with ley lines for her attacking there so much as what Lion’s Arch is. A bastion for all races, a place with the most lenient rules. A Pirate City.

So how is she going to do this? My bet is that she’s going to use the drill to dig as close to the leyline currents as she could (honestly, why call them ley lines Anet? ley lines in traditional fantasy aren’t currents! Might as well just call them “magical currents” or something new), and then introduce draconic energies to it. Which dragon’s – could be any, if she got enough influence in the Inquest still (given she’s a special consultant as of Thaumanova which was shortly before or during the early PS) she could get any dragon’s energies from CoE.

But here’s the kicker: ArenaNet said that Tequatl falls into the living story somehow. I think I figured out how.

From Gorr’s various personal stories we learn that the corrupting magic in the Risen is Zhaitan’s own magic. Their magic is his magic. And vice versa, one can assume. So what if around the time of Tequatl Rising, Scarlet was testing with Zhaitan’s magical energy? She could be unintentionally feeding the Risen in her actions. ArenaNet could even go back and say the temple priest buffs and the size increase of Orrian risen is a result of earlier such acts.

Though I think that Thaumanova was using energies from all ED except Zhaitan. Maybe she picked Zhaitan’s now because he’s dead so “how much harm could it do?” Maybe her actions will result in his revival…

But enough side-tracking. Back to Scarlet. In short:

I think she intends to recreate the Thaumanova disaster right on top of Lion’s Arch itself and use this to recreate the world in her image. A world in insanity, where water flows up and laws make no sense. It would be the perfect place for the insane Scarlet.

How the entity fits in, I’m not sure. If she is being influenced by an Elder Dragon – Mordremoth or otherwise – then it could be trying to use Scarlet to tap into the ley lines to have the biggest kitten buffet ever.

My bet is that it is Mordremoth, and he’s using the Dream somehow – no I don’t support the theory that sylvari are his minions because the Dream is not unique to sylvari – to spread the Nightmare and though Scarlet isn’t of the Nightmare Court, I think she’s influenced by the Nightmare – but on a more direct level.

I think Mordremoth is capable of affecting the Dream because of its location – the White Stag and the Pale Tree are both said to be highly magical and both existing within the Dream and within Tyria. The Dream is said to be very close in existence to Ogham Wilds, a place within the Maguuma where both the Pale Tree and White Stag are. Mordremoth, also highly magical and within the Maguuma, may be partially in the Dream and partially in Tyria and is spreading the Nightmare that way – because it isn’t actual corruption, the sylvari become susceptible to it.

Alternatively, I think the entity is another “pale tree” which likens itself to a red vine (the act of her becoming the “red vine” in her vision was the act of it accessing her mind, becoming one with her rather than her becoming it.

Third possibility that I think may be possible is the theory of Dhuum, though I think that’s as unlikely as you can get while being possible and not “something new.”

Not sure how I feel about the rest of the theory (the sylvari connection to Mordremoth is undeniable at this point, imo), but you make an interesting point about Zhaitan’s revival, actually. ANet have stated time and again that they want to rework that boss fight – this would be a way of working it into the living story.

zamalek.2154:

I’m pretty pleased with how close my theorycrafting was.

Outright Conjecture

hide spoiler

• Dragons are definitely not the goal – they are a means to an end to free Dhuum (Dhuumstone finisher content mining).

The toxin-sample one’s complete, I checked my chat-box. It’s just really short.

And yeah I got the two 1322 D-entries of the journal with Season of Scion and Colossus in the wrong order. But Imgur doesn’t let me edit the album anymore, hrmph. P:

Anyways, tinfoil hat on and theorizing away!

Do we know why Scarlet is in the mists?
I was just curios because while on the wiki I noticed that the Forgotten supposedly came from the mists. In my mind, it seemed viable that Scarlet could be looking for a way left behind by the forgotten to free herself from dragon influence.

The NPCs at this point all assume that she’s just using the place as a backdoor into the heart of Fort Marriner. I don’t know about that- it seems too simple, but on the other hand ANet showed that they don’t want the plot intermingling with WvW maps, and so are unlikely to include more there. But then again, if it’s just a staging ground what’s the point of the probes she has there? The interplay between the Living World story and ANet’s work to revitalize WvW for Season 2 and launch in China just muddies the waters too much for me to make any clear sense of it right now.

it’s funny you mention ANet painting targets on lion’s arch… :P

also can we please drop the spoiler tags now? it made sense while the update was off-limits due to technical issues, but now? come on, it’s the lore forum :P

ElysianEternity.6215:

The toxin-sample one’s complete, I checked my chat-box. It’s just really short.

Impossible. The dialogue box with Kasmeer shows at the top that you clicks a “more dialogue” option, but the prior talk by Kasmeer isn’t there.

You know how when you talk to an NPC, there’s usually at least 2 clicking options, one with an arrow? The image of the dialogue box (talking to the NPC) shows an arrow option clicked at the top of it. You’re missing at least one image.

ElysianEternity.6215:

Despite the Nightmare having been pushed onto the Dream of Dreams for years, all Sylvari are of the dream. There’s no Sylvari born from nightmare.

Figured I could take this part out of your spoiler tag. This isn’t true actually. There are sylvari NPCs in-game who awoke with an instinctive call to the Nightmare.

BrunoBRS.5178:

also can we please drop the spoiler tags now? it made sense while the update was off-limits due to technical issues, but now? come on, it’s the lore forum :P

Yeah, I think at this point people have a “you have been warned” mentality enough.

They wouldn’t keep going into threads like this if they wanted to avoid spoilers on Scarlet when a new chapter was recently released.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

ElysianEternity.6215:

Despite the Nightmare having been pushed onto the Dream of Dreams for years, all Sylvari are of the dream. There’s no Sylvari born from nightmare.

Figured I could take this part out of your spoiler tag. This isn’t true actually. There are sylvari NPCs in-game who awoke with an instinctive call to the Nightmare.

but an instinctive call isn’t being born a courtier. they still must perform the ritual (or whatever you wanna call it).

they can be influenced into joining the nightmare court from within the dream, but they can’t be born into nightmare. or else the wardens protecting the pods would just kill them on the spot.

also yep, one piece of dialogue from the toxin part seems to be missing, but i think it was the setup dialogue (the one that retells the event before you jump into speculating), so nothing critical was lost.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

ElysianEternity.6215:

The toxin-sample one’s complete, I checked my chat-box. It’s just really short.

Impossible. The dialogue box with Kasmeer shows at the top that you clicks a “more dialogue” option, but the prior talk by Kasmeer isn’t there.

You know how when you talk to an NPC, there’s usually at least 2 clicking options, one with an arrow? The image of the dialogue box (talking to the NPC) shows an arrow option clicked at the top of it. You’re missing at least one image.

No wonder it’s not there.
I’m checking my file in psd and it’s a different one in the album. -_- I guess it didn’t save when I uploaded it. Annoying, but at least it’s not anything too important.

ElysianEternity.6215:

Despite the Nightmare having been pushed onto the Dream of Dreams for years, all Sylvari are of the dream. There’s no Sylvari born from nightmare.

Figured I could take this part out of your spoiler tag. This isn’t true actually. There are sylvari NPCs in-game who awoke with an instinctive call to the Nightmare.

It’s from this interview

(Hooray for more out-of-the-way lore stuff.) All Sylvari awake from the dream, but some reject it very soon after. There are no Nightmare-born Sylvari according to it.

Yeah, it does seem to be potentially overkill. Though the clockwork army makes a lot of sense in light of that – they are immune to it.

I’m still puzzled about why Scarlet would need to attack Lion’s Arch to achieve her goals though. Clear out the resistance so she could build on it or something? Also it causes continuity problems: she’s been building up weapons and armies since before the probes went up, and the probes went there because she was trying to find what she’s just found – she wouldn’t have known Lion’s Arch was the location or she’d never have needed them. Either she was building up her kitten nal “just in case”, or it’s not for an assault on Lion’s Arch – or it is for an assault on Lion’s Arch, but for reasons not related to the probe there lighting up.

Considering the three other red X’s on her map, I’m suspecting there is in fact no direct relation. It might be “merely” terminating any potential resistance to her goals.

P.S. Wondering if she intends to use the convergences of these leylines as dragon lures? They do feed on magic, right? That’s the other option – draw them out and blow them up. She just doesn’t much care who’s underneath them.

Thinking back on the Tower of Nightmares release, specifically the end, there are a few cogs that fall into place, but one significant blank still.

In order to remove the barrier defending the tower from the anti-toxin, we had to do a few tasks, each seemingly explaining the purpose of her actions.

The Molten Alliance terminal now clearly represented the power and control mechanism of the drill.

The inquest computer produced quantitative results based on effectiveness. This could mean many things, but very possibly was used to calculate the number of forces she would need in her assaults to overcome the defences.

The clockwork guard simply showed us how she has control over her clockwork forces.

But then there’s the toxic spore sample. The new instance has the characters speculate that Scarlet counted on us to make her poison even more potent, but that is not what we saw in the tower. What she seemed to do was trying to strengthen the seeds, making them more resistant to heat as that seemed to be their glaring weakness.

So, did she create the alliance to produce a toxin, or is the toxin a side effect of creating a sentient tree capable of producing sentient offspring? And what happens when you root such a being in a highly magical location?

I’m just having trouble assuming Scarlet grew a giant, sentient tower to create an airborne toxin for which there was a purifying technology already. Gas masks have been invented now, so regardless of how powerful the toxin gets, it’s useless when it doesn’t get inside the enemy. That coupled with the fact that her own researched focussed on the seeds, not on the toxin, makes me believe that the detective squad might be wrong on that part.

Let mi say with big words that I LOVED THIS STORY!!! congratulationts to the makers of this update, all conversations are interesting, ad finally we have some answers, some conclusions (and for the unanswered questions we had new clues, which is nice).
So again: CONGRATULATIONS and THANKS.

In other hand, about my theory, i believe that the key point is all about the sylvarys mind and The Dream. All scarlet bad things started when she “opened her mind, revealing what was already inside her”.
I think is a clue, telling us that the silvarys have something in their minds that it is blocked on purpose by the dream. Probably for their own good. I think that would explain the secrets of caithe too, maybe the first borned know all the truth, like scarlet does now, with the difference that they made a pact or they are stronger to deal with that info. Scarlet maybe is more weak, or more crazy and all that revelation has corrupted her, as the pale tree and first borned feared.

About the rest, it is clear that something or someone is comunicating with scarlet, making her doing all this stuff (even when she believes that isdoing it because she wants). She was looking for draon magic, through the ley lines, and she find the peak of her research under Lions arch. A dragon maybe? I believe so, probbably the jungle dragon for the reasons that i comented before.

In any case, Anet, thx for how this story is turning out. Maybe my guesses are not correct but at least you made me think in all that. Thx

BrunoBRS.5178:

but an instinctive call isn’t being born a courtier. they still must perform the ritual (or whatever you wanna call it).

Being born in Nightmare != Being born a Nightmare Courtier.

There are sylvari born in Nightmare. But no sylvar is born as a Courtier.

There is a distinct difference.

ElysianEternity.6215:

It’s from this interview

(Hooray for more out-of-the-way lore stuff.) All Sylvari awake from the dream, but some reject it very soon after. There are no Nightmare-born Sylvari according to it.

Interesting. Forgot about that line from the interview. However…

“Before my awakening, all I knew was the nightmare. I was never meant for the pleasantries of the Grove.”

And a little less convincing:

“Once I awoke from the dream, I found myself drawn toward the Nightmare Court. It was clearly my destiny to join them.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nightmare_Recruit

So yeah, we have a couple sylvari who claim to have been born in Nightmare. What else could “all I knew was the nightmare” mean?

Evans.6347:

I’m just having trouble assuming Scarlet grew a giant, sentient tower to create an airborne toxin for which there was a purifying technology already. Gas masks have been invented now, so regardless of how powerful the toxin gets, it’s useless when it doesn’t get inside the enemy. That coupled with the fact that her own researched focussed on the seeds, not on the toxin, makes me believe that the detective squad might be wrong on that part.

Who says it’s sentient? At this point it’s nothing but speculation that the Tower is of the same species as the Pale Tree.

It is heavily implied at the end of Tower of Nightmares that the tree does in fact realise it’s going to be destroyed and reacts to it.

Communication between the tree and the toxic hybrid would also explain much of it’s behaviour.

But yea, it’s not confirmed. Regardless, the point remains that Scarlet had more interest in the seeds than in the toxic. I’m also not under the impression that the Tower is of the same species, just similarly engineered.

We all can agree that the poison being used for the attack on Lions Arch seems a bit silly. But I have to wonder if such poison could be used against the Pale Tree. Another tool Scarlet obtained from the tower of nightmares is the injector. She has one of them in her lair. Could it be used to inject toxin into the Pale Tree?

I think the ley lines are potential channels between the Pale Tree / dream and entities that may exist throughout Tyria. I think the pale tree expands it’s roots and connections to the land through the ley lines. The avatar of the tree itself explains that the tree reaches into the deepest parts of Tyria, with its roots deep in Tyria and it’s branches high into the dream. It is quite possible that these roots are entwined with many different entities in Tyria including the dark entity. The Pale Tree seemed to know much about the land of Orr in our personal story. There are probably countless things that the Pale Tree has encountered in the depths of Tyria.

I think it is Scarlet’s intent to separate the dark entity from the Pale Tree and therefore the dream. This, she hopes will free herself from it’s influences. It is quite possible that this is also the dark entity’s goals as it tries to free itself from the grasp of the Pale Tree. Deceptively tying the fruit of Ceara’s freedom with it’s own.

“It was then Ceara saw the thorn vine. It emerged from the roots at the base of the tree and began to climb, wrapping itself around the trunk and scoring the bark with its dusty red barbs”
Maybe this isn’t simply an abstract metaphor.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

One more spoiler tag, for what I think Scarlet's master plan is

hide spoiler

It’s heavily implied from the short story she intends to remake the world. Further implied by Canach in his cell. Well, okay, sure. But how will she do it? Simple:

She’s going to kitten up the ley lines with draconic or chaos magic.

Thaumanova was a alpha testing site for this. She tampered with the “risky experiment” and made a time bomb to study what happened with the bomb. It blew up and to quote all the dozens of NPCs related to Thaumanova – reality got flipped upside down; our world will never be the same. It’s literally a madhouse there because of the explosion.

Scarlet’s obviously after the ley lines underneath Lion’s Arch. Why Lion’s Arch? Hard to tell. But she knew she’d be going there for some time, so I don’t think it deals so much with ley lines for her attacking there so much as what Lion’s Arch is. A bastion for all races, a place with the most lenient rules. A Pirate City.

So how is she going to do this? My bet is that she’s going to use the drill to dig as close to the leyline currents as she could (honestly, why call them ley lines Anet? ley lines in traditional fantasy aren’t currents! Might as well just call them “magical currents” or something new), and then introduce draconic energies to it. Which dragon’s – could be any, if she got enough influence in the Inquest still (given she’s a special consultant as of Thaumanova which was shortly before or during the early PS) she could get any dragon’s energies from CoE.

But here’s the kicker: ArenaNet said that Tequatl falls into the living story somehow. I think I figured out how.

From Gorr’s various personal stories we learn that the corrupting magic in the Risen is Zhaitan’s own magic. Their magic is his magic. And vice versa, one can assume. So what if around the time of Tequatl Rising, Scarlet was testing with Zhaitan’s magical energy? She could be unintentionally feeding the Risen in her actions. ArenaNet could even go back and say the temple priest buffs and the size increase of Orrian risen is a result of earlier such acts.

Though I think that Thaumanova was using energies from all ED except Zhaitan. Maybe she picked Zhaitan’s now because he’s dead so “how much harm could it do?” Maybe her actions will result in his revival…

But enough side-tracking. Back to Scarlet. In short:

I think she intends to recreate the Thaumanova disaster right on top of Lion’s Arch itself and use this to recreate the world in her image. A world in insanity, where water flows up and laws make no sense. It would be the perfect place for the insane Scarlet.

How the entity fits in, I’m not sure. If she is being influenced by an Elder Dragon – Mordremoth or otherwise – then it could be trying to use Scarlet to tap into the ley lines to have the biggest kitten buffet ever.

My bet is that it is Mordremoth, and he’s using the Dream somehow – no I don’t support the theory that sylvari are his minions because the Dream is not unique to sylvari – to spread the Nightmare and though Scarlet isn’t of the Nightmare Court, I think she’s influenced by the Nightmare – but on a more direct level.

I think Mordremoth is capable of affecting the Dream because of its location – the White Stag and the Pale Tree are both said to be highly magical and both existing within the Dream and within Tyria. The Dream is said to be very close in existence to Ogham Wilds, a place within the Maguuma where both the Pale Tree and White Stag are. Mordremoth, also highly magical and within the Maguuma, may be partially in the Dream and partially in Tyria and is spreading the Nightmare that way – because it isn’t actual corruption, the sylvari become susceptible to it.

Alternatively, I think the entity is another “pale tree” which likens itself to a red vine (the act of her becoming the “red vine” in her vision was the act of it accessing her mind, becoming one with her rather than her becoming it.

Third possibility that I think may be possible is the theory of Dhuum, though I think that’s as unlikely as you can get while being possible and not “something new.”

Konig, you mentioned Tequatl, who is of course Zhaitan’s champion. Could it be possible that it is in fact Zhaitan whispering into Scarlet’s mind? He is the undead dragon. Maybe killing him only made him stronger? This would path the way for a revised and much better Zhaitan battle. (fingers crossed)

I’m going to go on record to reiterate that people are probably reading too much into the injector. We know that Scarlet’s was after the anti-toxin. The anti-toxin would’ve been obtained while inside the injector. Also, iirc, the different fluids inside the injector were different colors, implying that they were different chemicals that had to remain separate until it was time to inject them. It would make no sense for Scarlet to not take the injector, since that would require transferring those fluids from an already perfectly adequate receptacle into another, and there is no reason to believe the injector or the technology used in its making are at all remarkable.

You guys are saying that a supervillainess who has mastered teleportation and the hacking of clockwork robots would have been unable to grasp the complexities of a hypodermic needle. You do realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?

Sorry, this is rapidly becoming a pet peeve of mine. I know I’m overreacting, but… grr.

Kasmeer Maede: Did you hear that? I think you made it mad.
Marjory Delaqua: This is going to sound crazy, but what if it “knows” what we just did? What if it “knows” what are we’re about to do?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Nightmare_Ends

And it actually does make noises. First when the barrier falls, and then again when you pump it full of anti-toxin. It cries out in pain.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

-snip-

Konig, you mentioned Tequatl, who is of course Zhaitan’s champion. Could it be possible that it is in fact Zhaitan whispering into Scarlet’s mind? He is the undead dragon. Maybe killing him only made him stronger? This would path the way for a revised and much better Zhaitan battle. (fingers crossed)

Definitely. After all, if memory serves me right, Faolain and Caithe both first encountered the Nightmare in Orr. Caithe turned away and resisted the Nightmare, Faolain embraced it.

Interestingly: like when Jora resisted Drakkar’s corruption when Svanir embraced it, and Jora was “cursed” and unable to turn into Bear Form, after encountering the Nightmare Caithe was poisoned, slowly dying because she was resisting it – it was only because Faolain took that poison into her self that Caithe lived, and she took it in as rot. Though she got better it seems, per TA story.

Interesting. Forgot about that line from the interview. However…

“Before my awakening, all I knew was the nightmare. I was never meant for the pleasantries of the Grove.”

And a little less convincing:

“Once I awoke from the dream, I found myself drawn toward the Nightmare Court. It was clearly my destiny to join them.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nightmare_Recruit

So yeah, we have a couple sylvari who claim to have been born in Nightmare. What else could “all I knew was the nightmare” mean?

(SeemslikeAnetscreweduphere,coughs)

We’ve got Word of God vs Word of God going on here, so rather than breaking our heads about something we couldn’t possibly confirm as righter than the other, we should keep that question in mind and throw it at the devs next time they show up.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Interestingly: like when Jora resisted Drakkar’s corruption when Svanir embraced it, and Jora was “cursed” and unable to turn into Bear Form, after encountering the Nightmare Caithe was poisoned, slowly dying because she was resisting it – it was only because Faolain took that poison into her self that Caithe lived, and she took it in as rot. Though she got better it seems, per TA story.

Uh… that’s awfully incorrect. Faolain poisoned Caithe in the ruins of that village the Destroyers had burned down, right after she’d stabbed the half-burnt, dying man in the throat… it’s right in the bloody prologue.

I just re-read the prologue (ty pdfs on the internet). And I see NOTHING that says she poisoned her in the prologue, but I presume you mean this paragraph:

But Faolain rose in her path and set her hand on Caithe’s chest. The touch of her palm blazed like fire. Then a different sort of heat bloomed across Caithe’s chest. She pulled back to see the farmer’s throat fountaining, severed by Faolain’s dagger.

The only indication of a poisoning is “a different sort of heat bloomed across Caithe’s chest” but that isn’t outright poison.

Edit: Read later, and it gets revealed that it did leave a mark on Caithe where she was touched. BLEH. It’s been ages since I read the novel and that was one of the least interesting parts.

Though the nature of the poison is left unexplained and Caithe does say this:

“As I fight the Nightmare, the poison spreads. I must join her, or die.”

Which makes it sound like the poison and Nightmare are akin. And still, Faolain taking in the poison turns her arm to rot, and the Nightmare was encountered in Orr.

So one small bit was mistaken. That doesn’t really make it “awfully incorrect” really – though I’m sure you’d nitpick otherwise. Does make the Jora comparison false though.

Silly theory incoming!

Lion’s Arch the site for the biggest battle during the War in Kryta, which resulted in rather many dead Mursaat and Jade Constructs.
What if the is trying to get access to those?

Can’t. I made minions out of all their corpses… well except the Jade Constructs of course, they didn’t leave corpses.

lordkrall.7241:

Silly theory incoming!

Lion’s Arch the site for the biggest battle during the War in Kryta, which resulted in rather many dead Mursaat and Jade Constructs.
What if the is trying to get access to those?

Sadly, I’m sure Queen Salma had the Shining Blade destroy all the Mursaat bodies and Jade Constructs that littered the ground after the battle. They would present too much of a risk if they were just left there.

The best chance she would probably get to obtains any Jade Constructs is if she were to excavate the ruined Mursaat base in the Rings of Fire. She would have to pray too find some nooks and crannies that didn’t get overtaken by lava though, and pray even harder that were would be some inactive Jade Constructs in said nooks and crannies as well

Needless to say, its would be a very slim chance as best.

That doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t traces (such as magic and such) left though! (And no, I don’t really think this is a likely or even logical theory, but who knows? It could tie in with the voice in Scarlets head being Lazarus )

I’d love for the Mursaat to tie into all this. But the giant painting of a dragon on the ceiling of Scarlet’s lair is too big a clue to ignore. I’d rather go where the evidence leads. Currently everything points to the involvement of the Elder Dragons in some way. We have:

• A painting of a dragon on the ceiling of her lair.
• Sketches of a large red eye.
• A hint by the devs that Tequatl gaining in power was some how tied to the LS.
• A warning by Scarlet about the threat of the Elder Dragons.
• A similarity between the dragon in the Sylvari PS, and the painting on the ceiling.
• Scarlet hunting for the strongest leyline, or an intersection of leylines.
• Scarlet’s involvement with draconic energy in the Thaumanova Reactor.

One Theory i had seen being discussed in my Guild Chat was that Scarlet was planning on “rupturing” a point where multiple leylines intersect so the magic would erupt from the ground sort of like a fountain to attract the elder dragons there (who feast on magic) in hopes of getting them to fight themselves and essentially wipe each other out.

They also believe that she’s a puppet of the Mursaat who are trying to get the Dragons to be wiped out so that they can have free reign on Tyria.

NOTE: I don’t necessarily agree with their view on it, but i thought i’d share it anyway.

I wonder if the uncommon correct theory is the Fractal one lol

Konig Des Todes.2086:

ElysianEternity.6215:

It’s from this interview

(Hooray for more out-of-the-way lore stuff.) All Sylvari awake from the dream, but some reject it very soon after. There are no Nightmare-born Sylvari according to it.

Interesting. Forgot about that line from the interview. However…

“Before my awakening, all I knew was the nightmare. I was never meant for the pleasantries of the Grove.”

And a little less convincing:

“Once I awoke from the dream, I found myself drawn toward the Nightmare Court. It was clearly my destiny to join them.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nightmare_Recruit

So yeah, we have a couple sylvari who claim to have been born in Nightmare. What else could “all I knew was the nightmare” mean?

“before my awakening”. her dream was full of nightmare, then she woke up on the grove and felt out of place. she wasn’t born straight from nightmare, her dream was just corrupted. there’s a difference.

Gnat.9405:

I wonder if the uncommon correct theory is the Fractal one lol

What theory was that, sorry?