Guild Wars 2

So When will we find out more about the floating wizards tower?
What is the mystery behind it? It’s eluded us since guildwars . What about verata? We may have defeated him 250 years ago but there are still signs that either he/disciples are still working.

For anyone who needs to be caught up to date

I don’t get why folks believe that there are signs of Verata.

There aren’t.

At all.

Well the towns ppl under the tower ( forgot towns name) Speak of hearing screams in the cayons to the west. as well as body snatching seem to happen as well. Oh and the elementals working there don’t seem to happy to be slaving around for the towns people

There are ettins to the west.

There’s no case of body snatching as far as we know. Isgarren invites people to the tower. If the people who are invited up are being used as experiments or some such, this matches the White Mantle’s MO as they’ve done it before (Chosen) and had 2 members trying to enter the tower in GW1.

Elementals have nothing to do with Verata, who was a necromancer.

While I am abolutely not in favor of this theory whatsoever either, I am wondering about something:
Wouldn’t binding souls to elementals (if that is indeed what’s happening, which is still pure speculation as far as I’m aware) fall under the category of necromancy?
It sounds an awful lot like Oola’s research, who combined golemancy and necromancy by binding her own soul to her golem, if I’m not mistaken.

The apparent connection is this.

Verata had an intrest in permanent minion raising, and was.. Prevented, due to being a public safety hazzard. Now whilst you’re right in saying Necromancy and Elemental magic are two different schools, summoning is a single sub school that covers both Elemental summoning, Necrotic summoning and presumably things like demon summoning and what have you.

The term is presumably as broad as the word ‘Call’. I can call someone via phone, via direct voice, via telegraph, via telepathy, but in every case they can all compose as being a call. The principal is the same, Verata wanted to permanently summon minions. Presumably, Isgarren, if that isn’t the facade of the individual living there (Note, Im not implying it’s Verata or any of his actual disciples), or his ancestor, was present at the time of Verata and both had an interest in advancing magical summoning methods. That’s the presumable connection between the two.

Which to be fair, is a possible story route..

Vereta wanted to raise minions from corpses that lived without degenerating. They were from corpses, and that’s the difference from elemental minions. Perhaps an advanced mage of some caliber could conjure minions from some other media and make them look or function like bone minions, but that’s another idea.

As Konig pointed out, there is NO mention of Verata in GW2 at all, nor of his followers. Just wanted to emphasize that point. Various people have come to the assumption that there is a connection, due to various videos on youtube. But here are the facts:

• Verata was a necromancer. Verata and his followers were a mob of enemies in GW1, underneath the Wizards Tower. They never entered it, as far as we know. And they were killed by the players (a bounty was placed on Verata’s head).

• Verata and his followers are never mentioned again, and certainly not in GW2.

• Galrath, a White Mantle, was also interested in the secrets of the Wizard’s Tower. We killed him too, and as far as we know, he never got inside either.

• The White Mantle ARE still around, and active. Increasing their numbers in secret, and forming alliances with various bandits and other groups.

• The Wizard’s Tower moved, which is why it is in the location we see in GW2 (not far from the original spot, mind you).

• There are rumors of people going up to the Wizard’s Tower and never returning.

• There is a secret Arcane Eye base hidden in the village.

• A wizard called Isgarren is said to live inside the Wizard’s Tower. No one has ever seen him though.

• Elementals protect the village, and perform various labor. They listen to the commands of the villagers, and are said to have been tamed by Isgarren. Sometimes they become hostile to each other. (Not sure if the boy is commanding them to fight each other, or simply watching them fight)

If I recall correctly there was some mention of an obscure maliciousness about the elementals. Sure, they serve the villagers, but somewhat begrudgingly it seems.

As others have pointed out villagers are sometimes invited into the tower, never to return. Elementals in general tend to be quite kitten ed off at everyone and everything, so it’s likely the key to what makes the Garrenhoff elementals so docile may be in the villagers that never return.

Spinning the speculation wheel a little further, it’s likely the elementals that protect and serve the people of Garrenhoff only do so because it’s a convenient “proving ground” for Isgarren’s creations, located right under his doorstep where he can observe his experiments’ behaviour.

This would also explain the Arcane Eye having a secret base in the village (though I’ve never seen it myself, will go take a look after this post) – binding elementals long-term and on a large scale (elementalists can summon elementals already, but those only last so long) seems to be some real cutting-edge stuff the Asura would be interested in. That and using villagers for these presumed experiments is a very white mantle-y thing to do.

SpeedFiend.4521:

This would also explain the Arcane Eye having a secret base in the village (though I’ve never seen it myself, will go take a look after this post) – binding elementals long-term and on a large scale (elementalists can summon elementals already, but those only last so long) seems to be some real cutting-edge stuff the Asura would be interested in. That and using villagers for these presumed experiments is a very white mantle-y thing to do.

You get access to the Arcane Eye base during the Asura personal story. Although there is a house with some Arcane Eye equipment on the top floor, and it is this house that is directly connected to the hidden base through a secret door. Like I said, it is hidden, so you may have trouble finding it unless you are doing the personal story.

Konig’s White Mantle hypothesis so far is a far more credible story than the Verata idea (for which there is little to no connection). How ever, it is also possible that the whole village is simply an experiment of the Arcane Eye. Does Isgarren even exist? Or is it just a deliberate myth?

Or the Inquest – they sure don’t have any qualms about experimenting on live subjects. Though I find white mantle/rogue wizard a bit more plausible than another Inquest presence, the notion of subtlety is rather lost on them.

Sometimes we get a bit carried away with our clever theories though. It is also quite possible that it simply is as straight forward as it is presented to us:

Maybe there is a wizard named Isgarren, and maybe it is just him and no one else. No Inquest, no White Mantle, no Arcana Eye. Just one wizard, taking people up to his tower for some sinister/mysterious purpose. It would be boring (I like Konig’s hypothesis better), but I wouldn’t put it past the GW2 writing team.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Sometimes we get a bit carried away with our clever theories though. It is also quite possible that it simply is as straight forward as it is presented to us:

Maybe there is a wizard named Isgarren, and maybe it is just him and no one else. No Inquest, no White Mantle, no Arcana Eye. Just one wizard, taking people up to his tower for some sinister/mysterious purpose. It would be boring (I like Konig’s hypothesis better), but I wouldn’t put it past the GW2 writing team.

Well look on the bright side, if they did that there wouldn’t be many complaints about retconning and shoehorning in new lore in the place of the old.

Oh who am I kidding . . .

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There are ettins to the west.

There’s no case of body snatching as far as we know. Isgarren invites people to the tower. If the people who are invited up are being used as experiments or some such, this matches the White Mantle’s MO as they’ve done it before (Chosen) and had 2 members trying to enter the tower in GW1.

Elementals have nothing to do with Verata, who was a necromancer.

They do if they are powered by human souls like in the theory. All the disappearing children is a really strange occurrence. That if we don’t/can’t investigate is a real disappointment.

By the way, Verata and his little cult? I always assumed the local tengu got tired of them mucking around and took them out.

Of course, wouldn’t be technically opposed to some remnant of that group or record of it reappearing.

Fafnir.5124:

They do if they are powered by human souls like in the theory. All the disappearing children is a really strange occurrence. That if we don’t/can’t investigate is a real disappointment.

There are no disappearing children. >.>

There are people who are invited into the tower, and are just never heard from again. People suspect that life in the tower is just that good.

There are no disappearances. It is known who, when, and where people leave.