Guild Wars 2

To be fair, literally everything added this update i loved.
The epic space time travel seeing everything.. i wish we had a gemstore item to get back in there… i LOVED it.

The weapon department did a fantastic job, I love the black lions ley line skin, And the bug hunting weapons are very very cool especially the way on how to aquire them.

Thanks Anet, Thanks for making me have your game in my playlist.
I will now proceed with trying to find that unidentified bug!

But this really has been a great update.

I agree with everything above. This episode blew my mind, and I did not think something this epic would happen this early in the season! Mind. Blown.

I thought the episode is amazing myself! It built on the awesome first episode of the season, showing that ep1 was not just a frontloaded bunch of shiny content, and manged to get me invested into the story, making me want to see more. I had a couple of minor gripes with it here and there, but the plot has gone leaps and bounds ahead of season one.

Keep it up, folks!

I was absolutely blown away by this episode (and the entire season so far). I am loving what is going on. Arenanet, you have outdone yourselves. I can do nothing but applaud you. Oh my goodness. Waiting 2 weeks for episode 3 is worse than waiting years for a sequel. I need to know what happens next!

What are you guys even talking about? Did you play ANY game that had a decent story?
The Storytelling in this LS isnt even acceptable anymore: 98% of the story is delivered through boring dialogue and text, what absolutly kills the tension, the charakters are generic at best and have no depth whatsoever.The death of majories sister was just a joke.We didnt know anything about her, why should we care that she is dead?The game tried to make us feel with majory and failed completly doing so.
And to get the achievments, we have to repeat the story! This is the worst content recycling mechanic I have seen in years…
The update sshowed once again that A-net is incapable of delivering a story
They have created a great mmo, but the living story is disappointing at best!

Thank you! I was sort of on a fence after the first episode, but now I’m totally a fan. Blown away, nothing to add.

Mitar.4962:

What are you guys even talking about? Did you play ANY game that had a decent story?
The Storytelling in this LS isnt even acceptable anymore: 98% of the story is delivered through boring dialogue and text, what absolutly kills the tension, the charakters are generic at best and have no depth whatsoever.The death of majories sister was just a joke.We didnt know anything about her, why should we care that she is dead?The game tried to make us feel with majory and failed completly doing so.
And to get the achievments, we have to repeat the story! This is the worst content recycling mechanic I have seen in years…
The update sshowed once again that A-net is incapable of delivering a story
They have created a great mmo, but the living story is disappointing at best!

I have never played an MMO with a decent story and i played a lot of them A-Net is average in that department

Mitar.4962:

What are you guys even talking about? Did you play ANY game that had a decent story?
The Storytelling in this LS isnt even acceptable anymore: 98% of the story is delivered through boring dialogue and text, what absolutly kills the tension, the charakters are generic at best and have no depth whatsoever.The death of majories sister was just a joke.We didnt know anything about her, why should we care that she is dead?The game tried to make us feel with majory and failed completly doing so.
And to get the achievments, we have to repeat the story! This is the worst content recycling mechanic I have seen in years…
The update sshowed once again that A-net is incapable of delivering a story
They have created a great mmo, but the living story is disappointing at best!

>Disappointing at best
>People talking about how they love the LS

We get it, you don’t know how arguments work.

Total appreciation geek-out incoming.

This update adds to the well written and presented story that season 2 debuted with. Every conversation between Destiny’s Edge 2.0 was fantastic and revealed something important. There were even times I laughed out loud (Taimi, you little comedian!).
Every twist and turn had me excited and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

Season One had me skeptical about where GW2’s narrative was headed and I wasn’t a fan of Scarlet very much. I thought her motives had potential to be awesome but weren’t presented well often enough. Intrigue was sparked when we found some of her labs and little hideaways with "Inspect"able items lying around. But for me the hype was solidified with S1’s closing cutscene. Since then season 2 has taught me to downright love Scarlet and her craziness. This goes for Destiny’s Edge 2.0 as well, I’m attached to them now <3

Great job Anet.

P.S. Holy kitten that cutscene was astounding!

Gonna agree, this episode easily beat everything prior. Personal story, LS1, you name it and it has been beat. It’s obvious Anet has learned from the past.

Great job of the devs!

Amazing update with big improvements in storytelling, emotion, maps and other content!! Keep it up ArenaNet!!!

It was okay. Certain things stood out, like finding the hub, dealing with the new enemies (which, admittedly, made me switch from berserker gear to handle them better), and the very last cutscene was pretty to look at.

The downsides are a pointless character death that was made to make more drama and failed to spark emotion in me (Aside from being a bit surprised at first, I just felt like “Why did they even do that”?). Also, the story ending with us trying to get an audience with the Pale Tree could’ve instead ended up with us talking to her first, and then preparing to warn the other leaders, as despite how they make it to be a big deal, we can just talk to her whenever we want throughout the game, so….

Meh. Okay continuation of the previous episode, with some nice bits here and there. Passable, but not much more than that.

amezing! the vision the drama the area everything was simply awesome

Yeah I admit I actually like the second episode of season 2.

The death was unexpected (we will never get to know why she kept her distance from Kasmeer) and an interesting plot development at the end. Still I don’t get why we need an audence with the Pale Tree especially when if you played as an Sylvari?

I guess they no longer let stranger enter the importance people room? Even then if they want them to listen to him, as much as I hate typing it out, they should go to Trehame first, the people will definitely listen to the mary sue him.

Lastly yest, both the ambtite AND the lay line weapons are good looking (well in my view).

Renkencen.6127:

we will never get to know why she kept her distance from Kasmeer.

I didn’t think it was subtle but some people seem to be missing it. Marjory’s mother seems to have issues with the nobility. There seems to be some kind of class prejudice story going on with Marjory’s family and Kasmeer’s former status as nobility. I’m confident the plot won’t be dropped though, Belinda’s… hesitations about Kasmeer will become clearer when we meet Marjory’s mother.

If we meet Marjory’s mother. No guarantees on that happening.

I like this update too. The new map, the exploration, brings back so much of what was fun about GW from the beginning.

Mitar.4962:

What are you guys even talking about? Did you play ANY game that had a decent story?

From more important: BG, BG2, ME1,2,3, DA1,2, Witcher1,2, all Fallouts, KOTOR1,2, NWN1,2. Also many MMOs, inlcuding SWTOR which is known from good story.

And you know what? This LS, for MMO standards, is epic. It could use better “presentation” (or how to say it in english) – more cutscenes, voiced dialogues etc.

@topic

I’ll just copy my post from my guild forum:

Ok, it’s getting better and better. I was happy LS became actual story, and not just excuse to grind some stuff, during last few parts of LS1, but now it’s simply epic. NPCs nicely remind PC how important he is (guess ANet considered all the complains), characters use some new/better fitting animations, everything is less cheesy. Now it only misses some good twist (and maybe option to choose path :p )

Haven’t finished this episode yet, but I am really loving this LS so far.

Wish it could be a little less linear but then all players need to be on the same page at the end of it, so it’s all good. I am enjoying the story more, they have toned down Marjory’s accent which did irk me, and I am finally warming up to Braham and Taimi. Belinda’s death is a bonus.

Only thing I could possibly fault is the ‘putting words into my mouth’ sort of dialogue with Taimi in the first scene of this episode, but I can dig it.

The death of Belinda was really dramatic, not because we all loved her so much, but because of the dramatic tension in Marjory’s relationship with Kas. It isn’t just Marjory grieving we see, but Kasmeer watching her grieve and feeling helpless to make her feel better. I really loved it – the look on Kasmeer’s face in the cinematic was priceless. She didn’t know Belinda any better than we did, but she knows what this must feel like for Jory.

I love it so far!

Mitar.4962:

What are you guys even talking about? Did you play ANY game that had a decent story?
The Storytelling in this LS isnt even acceptable anymore: 98% of the story is delivered through boring dialogue and text, what absolutly kills the tension, the charakters are generic at best and have no depth whatsoever.The death of majories sister was just a joke.We didnt know anything about her, why should we care that she is dead?The game tried to make us feel with majory and failed completly doing so.
And to get the achievments, we have to repeat the story! This is the worst content recycling mechanic I have seen in years…
The update sshowed once again that A-net is incapable of delivering a story
They have created a great mmo, but the living story is disappointing at best!

This post summarized:
(Warning: Loud at the end)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d3r-AZMI1Y

or

“STOP LIKING THINGS I DON’T LIKE!”

I REALLY love the direction this is going. I’m really immersed in the story and couldn’t even go by any named npcs but had to talk to each and every one of them.

…and this is not only the writing, it all comes together beautifully – the animations, the artwork on loadingscreens, the music, the cutscene at the end, the mapdesign, the side-lore (Krytas heir…), the dynamic events, the reward-system which finally has something to be proud of because it can’t be bought from rich guys on the trading post, the fact that a coordinated group can achieve a reward-tier for everyone.

TL;DR: outstanding, please keep up the good work and don’t take trolls too serious

I can’t say I’ve ever went through a story in an MMO that made me go “Wow.”

And… I still haven’t. I can’t say I’m “blown away” or “amazed” or all that particularly immersed.

But ya know what… I’m also not rolling my eyes and reluctantly pushing through the story to play more of the game. It’s doing the job decently of keeping me logged in. I’m interested to hear more, but not to the point that I’m eagerly waiting at my computer for the update.

And ya know what else? It IS getting better. It IS getting more engaging (there were many points in Living Story Season 1 that I really didn’t give one tenth of one kitten about). And that’s okay. And I hope it continues.

sorrow.2364:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

I think that the death of the character was too rushed to the point it did not gave time to the player to build a bond with her. I don’t even remember her name!

His name was Robert Paulson.

Agreed – this seems way too early to just get rid of someone like that unless a whole lot more are going to follow.

. . . can the next one be Taimi?

Totally amazed by everything in this episode. Only downside is it’s actually making me feel a bit guilty for getting it for free.

@Tobias Trueflight – So weird, I just watched Fight Club again last night. OooeeEEeeooo…

YES! Yes! Yesssss! Season 2 has been so amazing so far. I had my doubts, tbh, that they would keep it up with Episode 2. I was pleasantly surprised. If they can keep it as awesome as this in the future – Living Story will be like 10000000x better.

Would also like to add an overly long thank you as well. For the first time in a LONG while I felt like we were actually playing a sequel that is worthy of Guild Wars. Except for the Scarlet references, that brought me back to reality quick.

But on to the positive:

I want to thank the team (whoever they are) for their outstanding work on the graphics. It looks so much more lush and detailed than ever before, even on medium settings. Upped pixel count? I don’t know what it was but everything looked smoother. So yeah you guys basically made the best looking game out there look even prettier. The view from Raptor Prawl was incredible. I never would have thought of a rocky, somewhat empty canyon could look so awe inspiring in a game. You guys captured some of the essence of the rl beauty of these kinds of rock formations and translated it so well into game format. The Oasis included! The sound effects added to the lush, moisture of the environment which was such a stark contrast to the desert landscape. Not to mention the Ley line chamber with all those twisting streams of magic seething through the rock. This look and feel is so much more like how I had imagined and hoped GW2 would look like. (again, not that the core game is bad. This is just mind blowingly beautiful) And last, but most importantly of all…..the grass looks amazing.

I’m so happy that we got a more diplomatic group of centaurs. Though it almost looks too good to be true, I am just happy that we are not killing any more of these guys and that we may get to see their personalities in greater detail. It’s like we got a whole tribe of Ventaris.

Speaking of which did someone say something about GW references??? There were a ton of references to Nightfall. I’m not sure if Scarlet drawing inspiration from Varesh Ossa really gives her a pass since that would make her virtually a carbon copy (possessed and tricked by a greater, evil power, megalomania etc.) but still it was great as a fan to read about our old Nightfall nemesis again. Nicolas the traveler, giving his account of Dry Top, and Vine Bridges! I never thought I’d be so happy to see that little gold circle on the ground where the vine bridge erupts out of.

The strangled bodies were a nice touch to the altered zones, with refugees and Inquest victims mixed up throughout. It was frightening and eerie, but appropriate for this kind of game.

Great job on the Mordem minions! This may be a stretch, but they are somewhat reminiscent of the “salad monsters” from Nightfall, at least to me. They were frustrating but I liked them a lot. Although I think they had more mesmer-like abilities and they didn’t have eyes as far as I could tell. The large, cycloptic eyes of the Mordems is interesting in of itself. I am so curious about what Mordremoth will look like! Though the dragons don’t necessarily look like their minions, I’m interested in how he will turn out.

That last scene where we “steal someone else’s glory” was absolutely epic! Again it reminded me of Nightfall with that whole issue regarding Kormir. I took so many screenshots! I can’t wait to read more speculation regarding that moment though.

Most of my guildies are pretty excited for chapter 3.

I loved it here as well,but the only thing was the fact that Belinda died a bit to early to me. I also wish we could go back and see the cinematic wherever we want to.

I have to agree with the original poster here. (and a few other people it seems)

I love the content ANet has put out with Season 2, and I so can’t wait for more to arrive for me to get my geeky paws on! and I do think they are doing something right when I scream loudly “TAIMI NOO!!” And try to charge in after her before I’m allowed to.

Thanks again ANet for this! It’s awesome!

I am loving Season 2 so far. I also thoroughly enjoy Dry Top. I am a JP addict and part of my pleasure from Dry Top is that jumping is so much a part of it and we get to continue to jump the Zephyrites’ way. And… we have so much to explore via jumping with the Zephyrite’s boost.

Good job Anet!

I was excited for this episode, and got bashed for being excited for it during the first episode.
Eat it, doomsayers!

once again, as with episode 1, i agree with all the rave reviews. i am truly impressed that the devs are putting out this quality stuff, which is far beyond my expectations given season 1. i might just have to consider myself at least a part-time pve player

I must agree.

The graphics at the ending scene really got me sucked into it now. I cannot wait.
Before, I was really just… doing the content. Not much story intrigued me.
But this ending scene really got me feeling like the stories from GW1 did. Excited and wanting so much more.

The story matters immensely . I’m def immersed now. Took long enough.

(Edit to include the sound effects in certain area. It sounds awesome with headphones. Also edit to include the newly opened area. Graphically beautiful, larger than life. What GW2 is supposed to be.)

Very solid update, my only minor issues would be:

- Belinda’s death, as other people already mentioned, felt too early and made me care less for her death than for Marjory dealing with her death. Me listing this as a minor issue might also reflect on how insignificant a character she was, sort of like most characters to have died throughout the entire 1-80 personal story (minus the select few characters that were given more development time).

- Throughout a number of the story missions, the DE 2.0 NPC’s either did not have a dialog, or repeated the same dialog they had at the start of a mission, which then felt out of place. Given how much improved the writing has since LS1, that was a slight disappointment.

- Just like the previous episode, the ending is a little cut short, or feels like it. From the PC perspective, talking to the Pale Tree isn’t a very unusual thing to do, at least not for Sylvari characters. Granted this is perhaps where DE 2.0 falls short; The lack of a Sylvari character. Although I suppose the episode has to end somewhere, and you can’t have ’proper endings’ every single episode otherwise it would play out pretty weird by someone doing the content at a later date.

- The lay line, for something so mythical, certainly seems placed in almost plain sight. For greater believability I’d say the lay line hub should have been further underground and not accessed through a relatively wide tunnel in plain view. That said, the story dialog suggests it is a small lay line hub, which may indicate that the big ones are further hidden within the depths on Tyria.

That’s about it for my nitpicking. I really enjoyed the content, it certainly felt bigger than episode one.

It also looks like we have not seen the last of Dry Top yet, as there are two final areas we have yet to explore (okay, jumping into one of them being possible at the moment aside): An area north of Omadd’s Machine, and an area east of the Lay Line Hub. That doesn’t seem like a lot of space for episode three which makes me wonder if we will see a second new zone, or perhaps we’ll go deeper underground at the lay line, or more likely, we’ll be traveling to the race and pact leaders and protecting them throughout episode 3. Either way I’m looking forward to it... I just wish WvW saw some love as well.

chemiclord.3978:

I can’t say I’ve ever went through a story in an MMO that made me go “Wow.”

And… I still haven’t. I can’t say I’m “blown away” or “amazed” or all that particularly immersed.

But ya know what… I’m also not rolling my eyes and reluctantly pushing through the story to play more of the game. It’s doing the job decently of keeping me logged in. I’m interested to hear more, but not to the point that I’m eagerly waiting at my computer for the update.

And ya know what else? It IS getting better. It IS getting more engaging (there were many points in Living Story Season 1 that I really didn’t give one tenth of one kitten about). And that’s okay. And I hope it continues.

This is pretty much how I feel. I have to admit that seeing people comment about how they LURRRRVVE XOXOXOXO the living story has left me kind of baffled… but I do think it’s an improvement over the last season. And I suppose if there are people who give even Transformers a 10/10 on review sites, there’s a perfect audience for everything.

Referring to this from the story viewpoint only:

This was significantly better than chapter 1 so it did feel like some of our voices were being heard from previous forum posts. That gave me hope that one day our characters will have real voices again and it’s not some figment of my imagination.

Gotta say that Taimi is the best character ever …of all time. I rather have missions with just her if possible. She seems like the only character that ever actually tries to address the player character as if they’re more than just an IT or idle standby lackey.

I also loved the Braham/Rox route mini mission. And not for the reason you might think. I didn’t really care about them I just really enjoyed all the illusionary choices I was given. REALLY enjoyed being able to pick and choose and seeing someone recognize me. (I have yet to finish up the very last scene of this chapter, due to the other half going to bed on me, but this was my favourite mission so far.)

But there were several things that jarred at me throughout that just left me thinking they could have been handled better. Most people have already touched on this in other posts so I’ll just mention the one point right now that my tired mind can focus on:

Belinda’s death. Used to make us feel pathos with Kas and Jory, only left me feeling sorry for Belinda’s life being wasted for a story development. There are better ways to do this instead of killing off a side character.

It’s a nice turn of events, I agree. But the best ever?

While on one hand, there was a lot of cool stuff and a very nice cinematic, there was also the feeling of unfinished stuff with a lot of plotholes and questionable continuity.

The ‘audience to the Pale Tree’ I can forgive though. There was no good reason for the story to stop, yet it had to be paused. It makes no sense lorewise, but otherwise, I understand.

It’s epic!
Great story, great map, loving it
Thx Anet!

This is actually the first time I’ve enjoyed LS since its inception. Kudos ArenaNet! I hope to see more content like this in the future.

I’m excited that they are finally involving the major superpowers of the world unlike the main story where the battle was led by three (or two) random alliances with little to no armies.

The way Arena Net are handling the current Living Story works well.

We get new story, we have new regions and we can tackle it all in our own time, no tight schedule. The writing may not be up to snuff, but it is a vast improvement over season one.

Aedelric.1287:

The way Arena Net are handling the current Living Story works well.

We get new story, we have new regions and we can tackle it all in our own time, no tight schedule. The writing may not be up to snuff, but it is a vast improvement over season one.

Pretty much my feelings so far. The writing is a bit better, but because it’s more focused on a single storyline rather than scattered among several “chapters” with little discernible linking matter.

I am not sure how I feel about “Favor of the Zephyrites” but we’ll see. I do pine that we didn’t get an intro video of the vines engulfing Prosperity . . . I logged out one day and it was fine. Logged in the next and ‘someone send me some Agent Orange’.

not discovering it is Mordremoth , but instead just “knowing” is kinda lame…other than that, the narrative was okay (with Taimi once again being great). the ending cinematic was fantastic. kudos once again to your art team….they’re all-stars.

the LS missions lead you through the zones well, but felt a bit less challenging (easier mobs/less mechanics) in this second installment, which i hope is not a continuing trend. I thought the first installment was spot on, in this regard.

the new/added zones themselves are once again excellent to look at and fun to explore. the events within are fine (though some take VERY long for what they are, which hurts raising the event tier) but the new mobs are better.

i greatly appreciate the new mordrem……mobs that reward more than simple AA melee zerk builds (multiple hounds will murder you, but can be cc’d/ranged effectively…husks are faster to take down with hybrids/condis). in general, these new mordrem are a nice step toward adding effective variety to pve combat….so PLEASE continue in this vein.

not a fan of the amberite skins, but do like the implementation of a non-cash shop skin that is earnable.

overall…..8/10. keep up the good work, Living Story Team.

Love it love it I like those visuals and the new mobs are wow zombie plants omg

Indeed the start to this season is incredibly well made BUT i have a few objections:

1. Making audio files calling me “boss” is a cheap way of reminding me i actually matter in the story and sounds stupid. Others also pointed that out.

2. A perfect “ZERO” reward system. I do NOT feel rewarded for anything i do in this LS… Atleast back in the day i used to get a backpack..now everything they add close to being acceptable to use, are cash shop items. Seriously…. literally 0 reward…and yes i count as 0 a few mats and green/white items from dozens of boxes opened. I can get that in less then 10 min in WvW.

This mmo still excels by lightyears compared to all other mmos on the planet (literally…if not please give a counter-example) when it comes to how badly u are rewarded…instead making u pay for decent skins (almost a p2w game considering this game is all about skins)

3. Am extremely tired of having no audio files. I feel literally 0 connection to my own character. I see everyone talking around me and i stand there like a mute. I know u already said u are reworking the audio system so u can implement voices for us, but still i feel like i should point that out. Having 0 voice in a game where all others have voices, makes me feel redundant in that story. (notice i said “that” and not “my” story)

4. PLEASE stop making achievements that are linked to CONDITIONAL events. By that i mean needing to have T3-T4 unlocked for a particular event to spawn (ex chiken..tornado…thing). This is the dumbest system ever. Let’s say i want to come back in 1 month to do the achievements…or let’s say in 1-2 months from now people who buy the game and want to do those achievements.

Can u even comprehand how irritating/hard/close to impossible (SPECIALLY for low pop servers, even with scaling system) it will be to gather enough ppl who actually give a kitten about that map once others are opened, in order to unlock those Tiers…for those events? Please just STOP IT! It is MY achievement…it should NOT be tied to what other ppl do…it should be about what I do! (excluding world bosses where it’s understandable). U are not bringing players together in a good way with this..u are just kittening ppl off, who can’t finish those achievements in the first day of the patch.

If u actually succeed in fixing these issues (SPECIALLY #2 the biggest issue this game has, and the reason why a lot of ppl just give up on it) this will turn into a great game. The LS part is atleast 10x better then the whole last year from almost all POVs

Rebound.3409:

Let’s say i want to come back in 1 month to do the achievements…or let’s say in 1-2 months from now people who buy the game and want to do those achievements.

Can u even comprehand how irritating/hard/close to impossible (SPECIALLY for low pop servers, even with scaling system) it will be to gather enough ppl who actually give a kitten about that map once others are opened,

haven’t heard of megaservers, have you? This is not a problem anymore, take a look at Orr or Southsun Cove, lots of people there.

And about the 0 reward… the craftable weapons are a perfect reward, very unique skin tied to the zone-rewards and can’t be sold on the tp, another reason why you’ll see a lot of people in this map in the future.

I am on BG, one of the most heavily stacked servers…. i have only seen T4 once, last week. This is when people are actually interested in this content. As more content is released, even megaservers won’t cope with the lack of interest from players to unlock Tiers that don’t matter to them once they finished what they needed (besides a few good pre-nerf spots to farm).

As for rewards 90% of craftable items look very similar if not identical, they don’t look special in any way, have no effects on them have nothing overal, compared to everything they put in the cash shop. Ascended gear all of them have practically the same color with a different glow on them..but overall same stuff. Being end-game gear and people making it to end-game in less then a week, ascended is more and more common so nothing special there. If not please link some skins u actually think are worth hours of gameplay, hours of collecting gold/materials and leveling up crafting. I honestly don’t see any as being worth it EXCEPT legendary weapons.

I am talking about both armor/weapon (specially weapon skins) that look awesome but are always on the cash shop, and not only that….with a CHANCE to get it from black lion chests (tickets). I could farm endlessly for that small chance, by exploiting personal story black lion rewards but i thought this game shouldn’t have been more HC grinding then a korean mmo.

All in all, even if i was getting just a backpack, back in the day they were given as LS rewards i was actually motivated to play the game knowing i have that cookie at the end of the line.

Also what u can “already craft” in the game is not considered a reward for the living story itself.

Anyway that’s my opinion…each with his own. For me those 4 points i listed above are major minuses and no explanation or more like excuse, someone comes with, will ever make those points be “OK”.

@Rebound:

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/15/gw2-ambrite-weapon-skins-gallery/

Craftable weapons with unique skins, no gemstore involved

Really amazingly done well. So pleased with this update, thank you so much

Relshdan.6854:

not discovering it is Mordremoth , but instead just “knowing” is kinda lame…

Glad that I’m not the only one who was bugged by this. Four of the six elder dragons were well known in-game, the remaining two (the deep see dragon and the jungle dragon) were mysteries. The only reason that we the players know is because of a combat window in a specific dungeon that kinda gave it away, but there’s no real in-character way anyone could have or would have known. Would have been better revealed from a translation on some newfound jotun monument, or some other corrupted sylvari saying “Mordremoth will destroy you all” with his dying breath, or something like that.