Guild Wars 2

I know the basics of it, they wanted to gain a seat on the Captains Council by assassinating one of the councillors, and presumably arranging for their own candidate to be chosen to replace him.

But…why? What would they gain by having a seat on the council? As I understand it they decide things by voting so one seat wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Are they a small group and this is the best they can aspire to right now? Was it just the first step in a bigger plan? Is it something we’re going to find out later?

Having a seat on the council would give them inside information and access to the council members. Most noticeably if you had a seat on the council you would be able to assassinate and replace the existing council with much greater ease.
But really we don’t know what their motives are. I’m assuming it’s all going to be revealed later and will have something to do with who Scarlet is. There is a story step coming up where we talk to Mai Trin in her jail cell, maybe she’ll reveal part of it to us?

I would think it’s just the first step in a bigger plan, they have the aid of the inquest and there is obviously someone financing them from behind the scenes.

Also side question, correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t all the members of the Aetherblades either Human, Charr, Asura (the Asura are all inquest I think, but they’re still working with them anyway) or Norn? Aka everything except Sylvari?

Aside what FlamingFoxx said:

• Having a council seat allows you to vote for things you want, pushing the chances of getting it closer to your favor even if not fully so.
• It gives you reputation, acknowledgement, and a field of power and wealth within the city – the Captain’s Council’s individuals run (1) the Lionguard, (2) the entier continent’s banking system, (3) the Lion’s Arch’s asura gates, and (4) manages the information network (each number being one individual captain). Each member of the Council has some sort of large fame to him or her. I imagine that Mai would get pretty far with focusing on her steampunk gadgetry if she was on the Council.

And specifically for Mai, she seems to have been persuaded or hired to doing so by a “Scarlet.” Though that’s all I’ve heard on it – that Mai mentions the name as someone who’d be annoyed by their screw-up. I suspect Scarlet to be the personal nemesis. Like FlamingFoxx said, I suspect taking a position on the Captain’s Council was just step one.

If Scarlet is the personal nemesis, then there’s the Molten Alliance’s actions to be considered in Mai’s own actions. Scarlet would have made two powerful alliances in order to strike at the heart of norn, Iron Legion, and Lion’s Arch livelihoods. But more importantly, both groups have been advancing magitech to high degrees. Molten Alliance produced the Fused weapons, that jetpack, and so forth, as well as (most importantly IMO) the Azurite (gems that are highly magically conductive). The Aetherblades have the steampunk designs but with those incredibly deadly lasers, advanced golems (they used the “brand new” golem models from the personal story, and they seem to have gotten a good boost thanks to Frizz), and there were those dancing holograms among other things (leaping pads, for example).

It’s all seems to be boiling down to “what groups when put together can make a lot of improvements on pre-existing technology?” And then pitting them together with some sort of goal in mind. The Aetherblade/Inquest alliance goal? Likely for the Inquest to get a hold of the Captain’s Council like they do the Arcane Council – through Mai.

But what would Scarlet’s goals be? I presume she saw what the Pact accomplished, and is using underhanded means of getting some sort of technology to rival the Pact’s own. Combining Dredge and Flame Legion; Aetherblade and Inquest… who to be next, I wonder?

@FlamingFoxx: Yes on the races. There’s no sylvari, or asura – as you said, all asura there are Inquest.

I suppose at least if technological advancement is one of their goals it explains the lack of Sylvari.

But then of course if we’re going through combinations surely the Nightmare Court would be next on the list? But then that seems odd to me, their goal is to ‘revert’ the tree back to a state in which it isn’t affected by Ventari’s teachings, so I can’t see why they would want to support anyone else unless it achieved that.

The thing that I find a little odd is that the Aetherblades launch pad things scream Charr technology to me, yet there’s not really any mention of Charr influence – so perhaps if you’re right about the Molten Alliance having some bearing on all this that would explain partially where that technology comes from?

Those jumping pads are in Lion’s Arch’s sewers as part of Dragon Ball, created by the sylvari who takes you there and inspired by the Bane from the Black Citadel. I suspect it comes initially from the Iron Legion, and adapted into the Aetherblade’s base by the charr members there.

The Molten Alliance’s tech was more of Dredge tech powered by Flame Legion magic, so they wouldn’t have the tech the Iron Legion – or the Aetherblades for that matter – would have. Theirs was more of a sonic tech powered by fire (whereas Iron Legion is steam/clockwork, and Aetherblade is powered by electricity). Aesthetics are similar for all three (dredge, Iron Legion, Aetherblade), but the source of power varies and that shows in the aesthetics, differentiating them clearly.

I made an interesting observation regarding the “tampering” of the Dragon Bash Hologram by the Aetherblades. Figured it’d be better off in this thread than a new one so shameless double posting time!

Anyways, what I noticed is that there’s always a Veteran version that spawns with the group of Aetherblades, but this Veteran is always invulnerable – he or she goes to the hologram, kneels, then disappears.

What’s interesting to note: the cube in the center disappears with the Veteran! When it’s the standard holograms, the cube in the center simply stops levitating, rather than going missing.

So this leaves me wondering: what are the Aetherblades doing with these cubes they’re stealing in the dozens (if not hundreds)?

Ooo. Good find. maybe a-nets way of eventually taking the holograms away as part of the living story. Though, I think the answer ot what they need them for can only be answered once we know more about them.

What, you don’t think they’re using them for the completely harmless dancing holograms that you saw in the dungeon xD? ;P Even pirates need to have fun!
Is it possible that by stealing the cubes they could be altering the way the holograms work in order to use them for other means, like teleporting actual dragon minions around Tyria to terrorise people

Oo, or creating a holographic army for world domination. Those holograms fight back.

Maybe they will turn the Shatterer projection into something like the minion holograms? If they get their hands on the projector, then hack it with all the stolen hologram crystals; they basically get a weapon that’s a portable dragon champion.

All they need to do is make a couple of more of those, load them onto one of their airships, and they are a force to be reckoned with in Tyria.

>.> Ok, I can see that being pretty effective. That’s about how the Inquest conduct their business anyway.

If the it turns out to be true that scarlet want to rival the pact’s technology for unscrupulous purposes then I hope one of these don’t happen:

A) Using the tech to control dragon(s) or dragon(s) power (like Kudu’s failed attempt).

B) World domination through some pointless and forgettable means. (Just anti-climatic in any way)

C) Plot holes that are left for us the community to figure out on our own. (Looking at you random assassination attempt in GW1 MOX quest).

I am actually hoping that the personal nemesis actually motivated to make the heroes life a living underworld for an interesting purpose.

Well it’s good to know I’m not the only one expecting more story later and it’s not that I’ve missed something (I always try to take the time to talk to everyone and otherwise find the story in these things).

I agree that it looks a lot like the various dissident groups are forming alliances of their own and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they eventually combined to make something similar to the Pact (but with different goals), either because Scarlet or some other mysterious figure is behind them all or simply because they’re stronger together. (I would say unless we knock them back hard enough that they’re in no position to do that, but lets be honest, that’s not going to happen. In general we and our allies seem to do the bare minimum necessary to stay alive and hang on to our lands then move on to something else. Or actually make it worse, i.e. Elona.)

Personally I think it would be quite interesting (with a well written story of course) to see the Pact go up against a similar group with opposing goals. And maybe it could end with some of them defecting and our ‘side’ aquiring some exciting new technology to use in the future. (Maybe in expansions?)

Unlike some people I wouldn’t mind at all if we took some time away from fighting the dragons. Honestly with Zhaitan gone they’re not really posing a big immediate threat to the parts of Tyria we’re inhabiting. There’s the icebrood and branded, and the odd Destroyer incursion but at the moment they’re not any more of a threat than any other group, definitely less of a threat than an alliance of our enemies who are actively attacking us.

Ohh…unless it turns out one of the dragons is ultimately behind this. Possibly the crystal dragon – both he and Glint seem to have a lot of mesmer-like mind control/trickery abilities so he could be manipulating these groups, possibly through one or more willing allies. Alternatively maybe it’s our mysterious 6th dragon.

Kralkatorrik showed 0 mesmer ability himself. He only had mental battles when mesmers attacked him, never the other way around. It is Jormag that uses mental powers.

Uniting enemy factions and utterly ignoring the Sons of Svanir doesn’t seem Elder Dragon-ish.