Guild Wars 2

Hi folks, I posted this on Reddit and people were really receptive of the ideas. I figured that there are some people here who might not have seen it.

I plotted a path between the Thaumanova reactor and the Chaos Crystal Cavern (the source of Thaumanova’s technology). It turns out that this path accounts for all of Scarlet’s facilities (as well as Steam creatures).

Pic: http://i.imgur.com/zl6OxyM.jpg

Video with details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V56zVCsZzZY

After this discovery, I went on a hunt to find the locations of crystal formations around Tyria, and found that almost all of them fall on Scarlet’s channel.

I then developed three criteria to help narrow the search for the second channel that supposedly runs through the reactor:

-The path will ideally cross through some crystal formation
-The path should account for the various creatures warping in/out of the reactor
-There should be evidence of ‘otherworldly’ events occurring on the path (see Aurora’s Remains; also Underworld Portals)

With those in mind, I started plotting out the next path.

First, I plot the only remaining crystal formation that didn’t fall in line with the primary channel from last time.

Then, plotting the locations of some of the more unique creatures ported into the reactor.

Then the locations of ‘otherworldly’ events around Tyria.

Full album of pics: http://imgur.com/a/Ncu12

I go into much more detail in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH8gIRF6HQ4

Hrrrmn. It’s certainly interesting.

One thing I would beware of, though, is that the lines you’ve drawn are probably pretty close to the line someone would draw if asked to draw a line that covers the most explorable mileage possible in the game. So it might be that, rather than there being something interesting about those lines that causes strange events to occur along them, it could just be that because those lines cover more mileage they just happen to have more stuff along them that is of interest.

Of course, the flipside of that is that it could be that those regions are accessible because they’re more interesting, and part of the reason they’re more interesting is because of the ley line(s).

So… it’s certainly possible that you’re on to something here. It’s also possible, though, that it’s simply a matter of numbers – there’s more explorable territory along those lines, so there’s more interesting stuff there.

What would probably be an interesting test of this theory would be to see if a similar means could be used to identify the ley lines that don’t pass through the reactor. For instance, a line passing from Glint’s Lair through the otherworldly events and crystal deposits in the area might go a long way towards explaining those.

One interesting thing on that part, actually, could be to add Elona to the map and mark the positions of otherworldly breaches in Elona, as well as sites of significance in Prophecies and EOTN that haven’t translated into GW1 yet (Glint’s lair, Augury Rock, Lyssa’s ice cave, the EOTN itself, that spot in the Far Shiverpeaks that had all the undead…)

A lot of Scarlet’s actions also happen in low level areas. I believe part of this was so they could include as many players as possible in the Living Story. If they had put large Living Story elements in higher level areas, many players would have been excluded. There have been a few cases of content being level 80 but utilising the level scaling system (Southsun Cove, the Crown Pavillion) and minor Living Story elements taking place in mid-high level zones (krait obelisks) but I believe the only real break from the trend is Tequatl which was built by the features team not the Living Story team. It’s possible that the location of Scarlet’s bases was dictated by a line between Chaos Crystal Caverns and Thaumanova but I suspect it’s more likely that’s (at best) a happy coincidence and the real reason is those locations are in low level zones that give increased access to as many players as possible.

If there is a correlation between Thaumanova and the Chaos Crystal Caverns I doubt it was created as part of the Scarlet plot but rather it’s a loose thread they had in the game at launch. The Thaumanova Reactor was largely undeveloped as a plot point but I believe there are links with it and the Chaos Crystal Caverns long before Scarlet was even conceived. If this does pan out, I suspect it’s another case of Scarlet wedging herself into a pre-existing piece of the world.

As Draxynic pointed out, that line intersects with much of the playable world as it is available to us today.

Shiren.9532:

snip

Lots of points here. I do want to stress that the Thaumanova reactor has a very deeply fleshed out background. Anet was planning on releasing a novel based on the reactor’s story. Further, Scarlet’s story was in place years ago, at least a year before the GW2 launch (according to Scott McGough). So at least for the reactor, it isn’t some site that has been shoehorned into the story; it’s an integral part of Tyria’s current events.

That diagram would be really interesting if it didn’t ignore dozens of DO NOT TOUCH towers that don’t fall anywhere near that line.

Nike.2631:

That diagram would be really interesting if it didn’t ignore dozens of DO NOT TOUCH towers that don’t fall anywhere near that line.

Well, we have to consider what the towers are actually for. If they are surveying the land for some kind of activity underground, then it makes sense to place them everywhere until they find sites of interest. If they already knew what they were looking for, then what would be the purpose of the towers in the first place?

Just thought of something while watching your video, but on the topic of Kralky’s line and your mention of crystals, I started thinking of the Zephyr Sanctum. They use crystals, their Aspects, to power their flight, and they seem to move freely around the world as they don’t usually dock their ship or come by often. I’m thinking perhaps that they sail and fly via the ley lines using them to power their Aspects. I’m not 100% sure, but I also think that where they docked was near or on the Kralky-Thaumanova line, so it may not have been a complete coincidence that they chose to dock where they did.