Guild Wars 2

Does anyone think we will be getting more information on these guys? So far, talking to one of the guides, I found their history very interesting. I mean the Guide states that an elder wise one chose the dwarves to be keepers of history, and that later certain humans took this task and eventually went to the air to avoid corruption from those below (assuming of course corruption in this instance is greed, anger, etc… not dragons). In my mind I personally keep coming back to Glint over and over again, being the elder wise one. I mean, this elder wise one would most likely have been popular among the dwarves, and we know for a fact that there was a brotherhood of dwarves that worked to protect Glint and her children, among other things (perhaps). It makes sense that humans, over other races, would pick up on this charge, because of their close friendship with the dwarves. I’d just like to see if anyone else has found something I missed.

Should go to the back of the ship, you’ll find an interesting dialogue :P

The Bazaar of the Four Winds thread was talking about it the other day.

I really personally suspect that the Zephyrites are the “descendants” of the Brotherhood of the Dragon. And yes, what they fled was conflict of the races (maybe not greed and anger, but war at least – they’re pacifists it seems). They seem to share a similar concept to the Elder Dragons as the kodan do, except unlike the kodan, the Zephyrites don’t fight back against the natural balance-fixer-uper.

What I find odd is that they don’t seem particularly curious about the Sylvari, I think a couple of the NPC’s have even called me Sylvari by name which suggests they know what they are?

If it is Glint then I would suspect they built their airship to avoid both corruption from those below and also from the Elder Dragons – just a thought since Glint obviously knew of their existence :P

It may be that since they have traveled the world (perhaps, they’re certainly not limited to continental Tyria), they may be used to seeing new species that they haven’t before, so the “ooo, ahhh, some new creature!” is probably lost on them.

That, or their last landing in continental Tyria was within the last 25 years, even if not announced.

Edit: OR they have seen sylvari outside of continental Tyria. Like perhaps Malyck’s tree?

But still… somehow they are linked to Cantha. Structures, faces, and so on. In the harbor, the Durmand Priory golem says that they are probably of Canthan or Elonian descent. But shouldn’t they be Tyrians, if dwarves are the root of the organization?

Maybe the Echowald structures (that are possibly dwarven) and their inhabitants got something to do with it?

I would say it’s likely that they’ve had a chance to see Sylvari before. I mean seeing the Zephyr Sanctum at the Bazaar does seem to be a somewhat rare occurrence, but once in 10 years (especially for people who can’t go every time) can be considered somewhat rare. Plus it seems like LA and the Sanctum have had conversations in the past, I wouldn’t put it past them to have dropped down at other locations or times. I’m kind of hopping that they become a randomly occurring instance within the game, coming once and a while for players to enjoy before it vanishes once more.

EDIT: In addition to this I remember talking to one such person who states that certain factions, rulers, races, etc… come aboard the Zephyr Sanctum as a neutral ground for negotiations. So they aren’t entirely unreachable.

Vergil Huragok.3967:

Should go to the back of the ship, you’ll find an interesting dialogue :P

Agreed, I plan to go back and listen in full later today, but there is a Zephyrite woman talking to a group of Zephyrite children on the airship about their history and such, and Glint is mentioned by name! I’ll have to check the full context, but I’d be willing to be their song is about her.

I thought it was lovely for ArenaNet to hide relatively subtle lore hints for us

I believe you are wrong about the sylvari. I remember hearing a conversation between a Zephyrite and a Sylvari with the sylvari describing how they are born and the Zephyrite saying “The world below grows stranger by the day”. It doesn’t go exactly like that but w/e.

Curuniel.4830:

Vergil Huragok.3967:

Should go to the back of the ship, you’ll find an interesting dialogue :P

Agreed, I plan to go back and listen in full later today, but there is a Zephyrite woman talking to a group of Zephyrite children on the airship about their history and such, and Glint is mentioned by name! I’ll have to check the full context, but I’d be willing to be their song is about her.

I thought it was lovely for ArenaNet to hide relatively subtle lore hints for us

I created a transcript the teacher and her student’s conversations, as well as Braham’s new one. I think there’s a connection between them both.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1i3lnw/braham_and_a_zephyrite_teachers_words_could_be_a/

Yeah, I was pleased to listen to that ambient text with the teacher and children. It was nice to know I was right about their connection to Glint

I do know that the teacher mentions knowing about Glint’s death and about others like Eir Stegalkin who fight the dragons. Because of this I would say that they are up to date on Tyria, at least relatively up to date. I would say that the chat about Sylvari birth probably has to do with the process being strange and unknown to them, but not Sylvari themselves.

It’s also possible that the Zephyrites had much closer contact with Glint than anyone else, and were informed of the plan to take down Kralkatorrik with Destiny’s Edge before Glint’s death. By the time of Edge of Destiny, the human Zephyrites would long ago have taken over from the dwarves who were apparently Glint’s first chosen people (so to speak) – Glint might have kept them informed, especially knowing the likelihood of her own death in that battle.

I will laugh if it turns out that Glint is still the mastermind behind our heroics and us being in the right situations at the right time, heh.

ehm. Update on the front page
I like where this is going!
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/community-news/short-story-the-trek-of-the-zephyrites/

Very interesting indeed. If this is ever figured out in-game, someone is going to want to study those sky crystals and compare them to Dragonbrand crystals. What an incredible opportunity for that research!

So, the predecessors of the Zephyrites were the Brotherhood of the Dragon and humans took over as her representatives presumably after it became evident that the dwarves would disappear from Tyria (or possibly before, since Glint knew some of the future!). They’re now flying without guidance and the whole serene airship thing seems to be of their own making, rather than Glint’s plan (just their way of preserving their order). Still, I wonder if they will serve a purpose in some plan of Glint’s? If they practice magic derived from her, it could be significant in future. Or, it could just be a fun lore tie-in for this month’s jumping playground.

For some reason I love the final word in that story. I don’t know why, but it just stands out for me.

Interesting. Some things of interest that weren’t mentioned:

“They [Brotherhood of the Dragon] forged an alliance with her and let her into their minds.” – an interesting tidbit unknown before, not entirely surprising or relevant (at the moment) though.

“We hid ourselves away for hundreds of years, helping her as we could and keeping her secrets.” – So where did they hide for presumably 200 years (as Ogden says the last of the dwarves turned within 50 years), given later wording, seems that they secluded themselves to the Crystal Desert (“I write with some confidence that once we leave this forsaken desert landscape, I will never return.”)… Would make sense given ties to Glint.

“Dragons consume magic, but they do not destroy it. They hold it within themselves like a sponge holds water.” – VERY interesting fact about Elder Dragons. We knew that they reduced magic, but the fact that they merely hold it within. Given what could be done to a mere champion of the Elder Dragons, what about Zhaitan’s corpse? Or that of other dragon champions?

Now, my biggest question about this:
The Brotherhood of the Dragon protected Glint’s children, which have yet to be heard from or about since GW1. Is it possible that the Zephyrites are harboring her children, protecting them from the influence of the Elder Dragons (mainly Kralkatorrik)?

The seclusion that they mentioned could possibly be the Zephyr Sanctum. Although it does seem weird to me that the Zephyr Sanctum is kept afloat by their knowledge of the aspects, but it seems like their knowledge of the aspects was received, if not just greatly improved, by Glint’s corpse. If the Zephyr Sanctum was just created in the time between Glint’s death and present day, there is really no reason for it to hold just as much mysticism as it does seem to hold though.

So, according to that new article Anet posted, we’re all getting those awesome movement skills (and armor pieces) from the shattered body parts of a dead dragon? Well, that makes me feel better!

No, it seems more like they learned what they could from her body and transferred that magic to their own crystals.

Interesting observation about retrieving magic from dragon corpses there – but Glint was unique in that she’d been cleansed by the Forgotten. Without a similar ritual, I don’t think I’d trust magic retrieved from Zhaitan’s corpse not to retain its corrupting properties.

Which does naturally suggest a course of action, mind you. :P.

Cleanse a whole elder dragon? or at least there corpse? I can honestly see some very interesting scenarios in future Orrian areas wherever Zhaitan’s corpse fell.

The corpse, anyway.

Cleansing a live one? I’m not sure that would be even possible – the general effect of a cleansing seems to be to separate the cleansee from the elder dragon’s will, but when it’s the elder dragon itself that you’re trying to cleanse…

I keep coming back to the question of what exactly are the Elder Dragons and what exactly is there ‘corruption’ that we are cleansing. What caused them to exist in the first place and why does it drive them to consume magic?

Also is the cause still in effect? Could whatever caused the EDs to rise in the first place simply lead to a new ED coming into existance to replace the one we have killed? Whos to say that other EDs havent been killed before in previous cycles only to be replaced as a new ED forms?

draxynnic.3719:

Interesting observation about retrieving magic from dragon corpses there – but Glint was unique in that she’d been cleansed by the Forgotten. Without a similar ritual, I don’t think I’d trust magic retrieved from Zhaitan’s corpse not to retain its corrupting properties.

Which does naturally suggest a course of action, mind you. :P.

I have one thing to say about your mention of this:

Duncan the Black and the Great Destroyer.

It was previously presumed by some that he was after the Great Destroyer’s soul, given that Duncan was a ritualist mechanically, but what if he was after the corpse to do what the Zephyrites feared others would do with Glint’s body?

Now I wonder if people have bothered going after the Destroyer of Life, the Destroyer of Worlds, Dragonspawn’s, or Tequatl/Claw of Jormag (or other dead Zhaitan champions) whose bodies weren’t destroyed upon death.

Granted, trying to take power from an Elder Dragon itself is a different situation, but it nonetheless creates a possibility and I doubt that groups like the Inquest wouldn’t risk it when they’re after studying dragon corruption anyways.

The big difference between all them and glint is that glint was purified an free when she died, while the others were all still servants and under ED influence

There’s also the fact that Glint was much older than most of the other Dragon Champions we see in game, and was active for a longer period of time. If she worked the same way Elder Dragons do concerning magic (and the short story does sort of give that impression), then she must have amassed a large amount of magical energy within her body over the millenia.

My point was more to the fact that in GW1 Duncan the Black was attempting to do exactly to the Great Destroyer what the Zephyrites worried someone would do to Glint.

So I am doubtful that Glint being purified (which btw is mind only as far as we know) has much to do with things.

If The Great Destroyer’s power could be harnessed, then the other dragon champion’s could be too so long as there is a corpse. The magic would be lesser the those two (GD and Glint) but possible nonetheless.

draxynnic.3719:

The corpse, anyway.

Cleansing a live one? I’m not sure that would be even possible – the general effect of a cleansing seems to be to separate the cleansee from the elder dragon’s will, but when it’s the elder dragon itself that you’re trying to cleanse…

I wouldn’t put it past being possible. There is nothing to say that there isn’t something within the Elder Dragons themselves which corrupts. It you were to shield the rest of the Elder Dragon’s mass from this part of them you could perhaps destroy them from the inside out. What this would look like, I do not know, but it is definitely an interesting possibility.

As for the Duncan the Black possibility, I think the idea that he was harnessing the soul of the Great Destroyer was given to us by the Norn who had heard it from the “general” that slipped us the information. Now there could have been miscommunication, or perhaps the norn made assumptions, but looking at it logically, Duncan was nowhere near where the Great Destroyer was when we killed it. Trying to harness the soul, however, is something that can occur wherever you wish. You just need to find a way in which to call it from the Mists. A question I have to pose is, would the Great Destroyer even have a soul? I mean other dragon champions might because of the fact that they were living before they were transformed, but destroyers are made entirely from rock and lava, that we have seen, so it doesn’t make much sense for Primordus’ champions to have a soul at all.

After working out what I just said, I think I see where you are getting at Konig. In this instance the “soul” refers to that which made up the Great Destroyer, or in other words, his magic. So finding a way in which to summon the magic that made up the Great Destroyer was what we were stopping from occurring. Still, I believe Duncan would need access to the pieces of the Great Destroyer (remembering that he blew up in the epilogue cinematic) which again he is still far from. So perhaps he wasn’t much of an immediate threat, but more of a looming one if he isn’t taken care of eventually.

On an interesting side note, I saw two new DEs in the new zone today. Krait attack the merchants on the shore and, more interestingly, Aetherblades attack the outcrop where the Zephyr Sanctum is docked.

So can we conclude from this that the Aetherblades are still a functioning organisation? Perhaps ‘Scarlet’ put someone else in charge.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

My point was more to the fact that in GW1 Duncan the Black was attempting to do exactly to the Great Destroyer what the Zephyrites worried someone would do to Glint.

So I am doubtful that Glint being purified (which btw is mind only as far as we know) has much to do with things.

If The Great Destroyer’s power could be harnessed, then the other dragon champion’s could be too so long as there is a corpse. The magic would be lesser the those two (GD and Glint) but possible nonetheless.

I don’t think that the last leader of the Stone Summit – a group that wasn’t known for its sanity in the first place – was trying to do something as a last-ditch effort to stave off total defeat can be regarded as any indication that what he was trying to do was in any way safe.

He could easily have been unaware of the risk of being corrupted into a minion of Primordus if he succeeded – after all, it took reading of the Tome of Rubicon for the Deldrimor dwarves to understand the situation, and we stopped the Stone Summit from being able to do that. Or he might have known, but not cared. Certainly, given the number of crazy things done by villains in the Guild Wars universe, I wouldn’t take them doing something as being an indication that it’s something any sane person would seriously consider if fully informed of the risks.

In any event, Duncan wasn’t after the corpse. He was said to be undertaking the ritual when we faced him, and I don’t remember anything that looked like pieces of the Great Destroyer in his chamber.