Guild Wars 2

Hi,
So since the living story seems disjointed, sparse, fluffy and without a lot of detail, combined with the fact that I’ve taken several week to month long breaks from the game, I am a bit lost as to the entire living story ‘saga’.

Could someone explain to me (in a cliff notes version if you don’t want to go into detail), from the beginning starting with the Flame and Frost all the way to cutt throat politics..what has happened? Or if you know of a source that has all of this information in a one or two tidy page location, that would be good too.

I just want to catch up with the story because it really isnt clear to me whats what anymore. Oh sure some…sky pirates are here. And someone died…? Now some nomads called Zephrytes are here. Im totally lost.

ps. I’m TRYING to like this living story stuff.

I’ll try ‘briefly’.

Lost Shores
A Secondborn Sylvari, Canach, and his team of Consortium members accidently tick off the ancient Karka that had made their home on Southsun Cove. These new enemies attack the city of Lions Arch, but are fended off by the heroes. We bring the fight to their home and win, bringing something alike to peace back to the place. Canach is captured by the Lionguard Kiel.

Flame and Frost
The Dredge and Flame Legion Charr have made an alliance, orchestrated by some ‘silver tongued person’ from ‘the city’, in order to both advance their military power. The Dredge bring in machinery which gets powered up by Flame Legion fire magic. In their bases they both test their weapons and mine Azurite, a new gem which has very potent magic conductive power. The weapon facilities are assaulted by the Vigil and the alliance is eventually crushed.

Return to Southson
Some of the refugees which we’re driven out of their homes by the alliance between Dredge and Flame Legion have signed contracts with the Consortium, a shady business society, to be relocated to the Southsun Cove. There they find out that their contracts basically reduce them to slaves while the Consortium continues to build their resort. The Lionguard, which was sent there to maintain the order, has no choice but to support the Consortium as those contracts are legally binding. Canach returns to Southsun Cove in order to act revenge on the Consortium which has sent several assassination attempts on his life since his escape from the Lionguard in the initial Karka attack. He tries to get back at the Consortium in a twisted attempt to free the refugees by making the local wildlife go haywire. The heroes stop Canach (again) and in a ploy to get the contracts off the island, Kiel makes the transport (and contracts) explode, thus ending the slavery on Southsun Cove.

Dragon Bash
During the new festival, more specifically at the Dragon Pyre ceremony, something goes wrong and the council is attacked by the Aetherblade pirates. In all this commotion, a single member is successfully murdered, namely Ashford. Because of old ties with the family, Loghan decides to hire an investigator to figure out the identity of the killers. In a search alongside said investigator we realise it is Mai Trin, a healer who aided the first victims, who is the real brain behind the attack. We confront Mai and her pirates, who seem to be aided by the Inquest and have stolen their airships from the Pact, and in a final showdown we defeat and capture her. She does mention a certain Scarlet will be very displeased by her failure and that she is ‘dead either way’.

Bazaar of the four winds
Right after Mai is captured an opportunity arises and Magnus of the council sends Kiel to the Bazaar in order to procure a trading agreement with the elusive Zephyrites (meaning we get no real time to grill Mai). This will ensure her acceptance as the new Council member (which Magnus seems to prefer). Unfortunately for her, Evon Gnashblade, the Charr behind the Black Lion trading company has overheard said conversation and is also running for this position of power. The Aetherblades, which still seem operational thus meaning Mai is not their highest leader, also attack the Zephyrites to plunder. At the moment we are fighting them whilst gathering support for either candidate.

And that’s where we stand.

Thank you very much, very informative.

Story still lacks cohesion. It is not your abbreviation of it, but it just seems like it lacks cohesion..a fluidity from one arc to the next. Things just “happen”. Flame legion and Dredge form a military alliance, but for what purpose? Just to get ‘stronger’? No ultimate goal? Canach escapes…how? We didnt know who the aetherblade pirates were until they arrived…has there been any explanation on them and their origins? We dont know who the Zephyrites are until they arrive…any information on their origins?

Seems a bit disjointed to me. Small stories that could exist on their own lightly sown together to form a “living story”. They need to do a better job to tell the story. Not everyone has been around for each event, and unfortunately even if people are around…not everyone is intimately reading each line of text to gain better understanding of the story. TBH, I was a bit put off by Flame and Frost..poorly told..Refugees ran from something and it turns out there was some alliance but to what end? Just left me with more question marks. I took a break from the game, came back and now have been completely lost because theres little cohesion.

But thank you very very much for your summaries. Would be cool to get some more info from folks.

Here’s some more info:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Summary

If you want a more detailed storyline of the events with references, I also wrote up one here on the forums: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Living-World-The-Story-So-Far/first

It’s the little bits of info that really matter here. In F&F, the Flame Legion and dredge were actually convinced to join up by a so-far unknown person, using their potential combined power as incentive. That person has yet to be revealed, as well as their goals. Canach escaped during Lost Shores during the confusion at the end. We don’t see it and it’s not detailed how…I don’t think it matters, they only really had him under a couple guards. Subdirector Noll, also involved, sent some assassins after him but failed. The Aetherblades did arrive out of nowhere, but there has been a couple news posts detailing their (behind the scenes) origin as well as an excerpt from a report by Kiel. Mai revealed that someone named Scarlet was directing her (and the Aetherblades), but like the person behind the Molten Alliance we don’t know who it is and it could very well be the same person.

Kinda spoilers below

The Zephyrites have been revealed to be the descendants of an organization called the Brotherhood of the Dragon, who safeguarded Glint’s secrets (Gling was a crystalline dragon in GW1, and for GW2 we learned she was one of the Elder Dragon’s champions before the Forgotten managed to free her). It used to be a group of dwarves back in GW1, but the mantle got passed to humans when it was determined that the time of the dwarves was ending. They later renamed themselves the Zephyrites and at some point they discovered the Aspects, basically the power of sun, wind, and lightning. They recovered Glint’s corpse and built a flying sanctuary, known as the Zephyr Sanctum. They occasionally trade with land-dwellers to restock supplies they cannot make on the sanctum, and right now they’re trading in the Bazaar of the Four Winds.

1. The Molten Alliance was formed by the Dredge and Flame Legion being brought together by a third, currently unknown party. They allied because of the potential power that their combined technology offered. Using Azurite, a material they found below ground, they could create mechanical technology powered by Flame Legion magic (Charr tech still uses steam). Both groups end goal was conquest. The third party’s goal is currently unknown.

2. Canach escaped at the end of Lost Shores. I dont think they go into detail. He spends some time getting hunted by the Consortium before turning up on Southsun again.

3. The Aetherblade pirates are a group of pirates that use high tech gear and airships. They are allied and supported by the inquest, who provide the tech they use. Apparently the pirates themselves lack the technical knowledge to mantain their own vessels meaning they are dependent on the Inquest support.

There are hints that the Aetherblades may be a newly formed group to act as proxies for someone else. The head of the Aetherblades that we took down during the Sky Pirate release mentioned a ‘Scarlet’ who would ‘have her head’ for her failure.

4. The Zephyrites appear to decend from Elonian and Canthan origins. They are decendents of a group of people who took over the role of the old dwarven Brotherhood of the Dragon as servants of the Dragon Glint. When Glint died fighting Kralkatorik the Zephyrites recovered her corpse and hid it away.

The Zephyrites themselves use an advanced wind magic called the Aspects that they developed over the last 250 years. This allows them to make their vessel fly and to live high above the clouds so that they can avoid the conflicts of the surface. It also allows them to keep Glint’s secrets safely out of the reach of most people.

On an interesting note, the Aetherblades are probably one of the few groups who have the capacity to potentially attack the Zephyr Sanctum while its in the air.

There are overall plot threads to the living story though many have only been shown in hints. Its quite possible that whoever was behind the Molten Alliance was also behind the Aetherblades. Similarly the Aetherblades seem particularly well equiped to target the Zephyrites who just happen to hold some very valuable cargo up in the sky. There has also been lesser tie ins between the patches as they lead to each other.

I think the picture will become more clear in the next couple of months as events move forward.

Well it is supposed to be rather disjointed at the moment. We are deliberately only fed a few clues to a greater connection. It’s not unusual for certain events not having a clear link until later information provides this insight.

I think it’s just player impatience that causes this “we must know NOOOOW”. If indeed the main villain was already known now, most would complain the story is too predictable now.

In the end you can never please everyone, even more so for MMORPG players

cesmode.4257:

Thank you very much, very informative.

Story still lacks cohesion. It is not your abbreviation of it, but it just seems like it lacks cohesion..a fluidity from one arc to the next. Things just “happen”.

Take a look around you at life. Notice something?

Real life lacks cohesion. Things just “happen”.

Or maybe that butterfly flapping its wings outisde my window will cause the hurricane on the other side of the world a few story arcs later.

Funny enough I’ve been reading a few books recently where the plot does in fact jump around from one area/arc to another with only small connections to each other, before coming together more cohesively. The jumping around is used a lot in the early parts of tons of fiction books to establish characters, areas, and plot points for later. One of the much higher-quality takes on this is the Song of Ice and Fire series (eg Game of Thrones), which I only bring up because it’s a well known story from a skilled author that does in fact jump around while presenting its plot (even to another continent).

Maybe the disjointed feeling people mention (I’ve never experienced it because I read a lot of books that do it early on in the plot) comes from those players having an expectation that everything from one arc must flow into the next arc like a simplistic quest chain. In other games, all the plot points would be experienced without even thinking about it because players would have a quest line that would lead them around and show them each NPC’s lines and narrative text, each relevant plot point only appearing to them when it was time to show them. No exploring needed or encouraged, no actually finding a journal describing a plot point, you have the story told at you.

Of course, not even that method is fool-proof, since I’ve seen countless times on other games’ forums where players reach the end of the arc through hundreds of quests, including times where a quest line was specifically marked “Hallmark” which always refers to the main plot even from launch, and then wonder where all the plot was when they’ve ignored it the entire time, even unintentionally. “You can lead a horse to water”, perhaps?

I do think ArenaNet can definitely improve on providing more story and better ways to present it, but perhaps the problem also lies in that players expect the story to be told to them (or at them, if you prefer), instead of how ArenaNet is presenting it. No method is going to present the information best to everyone, as players will always have the ability to skip and ignore the story.

I just think perhaps players are acting like we’re on book 4 or 5 of the story arc when really we’re more on chapter 4 or 5, and the beginnings and introductions are still taking place so we’re still moving around. It’s just happening 2-4 weeks at a time, so many are losing perspective.

cesmode.4257:

Thank you very much, very informative.

Story still lacks cohesion. It is not your abbreviation of it, but it just seems like it lacks cohesion..a fluidity from one arc to the next. Things just “happen”.

I think they just aren’t showing the links, they are trying to create a mystery by simply withholding information. A lot of the connections seem to be happening behind the scenes so I’ll point out the obvious connections but focus on the things that don’t amount to anything yet.

Unanswered Questions

To sum it up, here are the main unanswered questions which will probably link all the Living Story plots together when ArenaNet decides to reveal what’s been going on behind the curtains:

Flame and Frost
Who is the silver tongued person behind the Molten Alliance?
Is there more to Braham’s father’s death or the mine collapse that killed Rox’s warband?
The Secret of Southsun
What was Kasmeer doing on Southsun Cove? She said it was more than just a holiday but we never found out.
Is there more to the story behind why Canach had Molten Gauntlets?
Dragon Bash
Who is Mister E?
Why was Kasmeer involved again? Why is she working with Marjory? Is it just for money or is there some other reason?
What is behind the mysterious disappearances in Divinty’s Reach?
What happened to Kasmeer’s father?
Sky Pirates
Who is Scarlet?
Bazaar of the Four Winds
Everything about the Zephyrites and their connection to Glint.
Are are the Zephyrites hiding something?
Cutthroat Politics
What’s going on at the Great Collapse?

Prominent Allies from the Living Story
These are the primary allies we work with or are featured in the Living Story.

Flame and Frost
Rox: a female charr ranger who lost her warband in a mining accident. She is performing missions for Rytlock Brimstone to prove her worth to him in hopes of joining his warband. She has unique albino devourer as her pet.
Braham: a norn guardian and estranged son of Eir. He was raised by his father and worked on his own to help rescue his fellow villagers who were taken by the Molten Alliance. Worked with Rox.
The Secret of Southsun
Ellen Kiel: a female human Lion Guard warrior. Was stationed on Southsun last year to fight the karka invasion. Cleaned up the Consortium/Settler mess, captured Canache, solved the Dragon Bash murder, defeated the Aetherblades, acquired their airship, fighting for a trade contract with the Zephyrites and running in the election against Evon. She also probably cured cancer, won the most gold medals ever in a single Olympic Games, is a former super model and spend her free time volunteering at a puppy orphanage.
Kasmeer Meade: a female human. She is a noble who fell on hard times. Her father disappeared and she has been up to something, but we don’t know what. Wears light armour (my guess is elementalist based off of her armour’s appearance and it’s name as “Phoenix Armour”).
Dragon Bash
Marjory Delaqua: a female human necromancer. She is a private detective working with Kasmeer and a former Ministry Guard. She knows Mister E. Logan hired her to go to Lion’s Arch to solve the murder.
Bazaar of the Four Winds
Evon Gnashblade: is a male charr. He runs the Black Lion Trading Company and is competing for a seat on the Captain’s Council. He wears light armour.

I personally always like how the Living Stories worked and I understood their subtle connections to each other, but I’m used to watching anime/reading manga where the story is literally always in arcs. Especially the longer ones where all the story arcs in the beginning are just different character introductions. The surprises in the end or near the end that reference to things that happened way earlier, I find that totally awesome.

I agree the impatient players are to blame for all the ‘lack of cohesion’ tension that is surrounding the Living Stories. They expect everything to be spoon feed to them and all at once. It reminds of those people that review games and say the story doesn’t make any sense when they purposefully skip the story scenes that are fully voiced. If they are too lazy/impatience to listen to a story being told, what chances they will read a story.

But enough of my rant, back to the living story:

There has been subtle hints on the forums and website by Arena Net that the next story or a soon one will involved The Great Collapse in Divinity’s Reach. Maybe the great collapse is related to why Kasmeer’s father disappeared and if so, she should return and more background info about her will be given. Also given the fact that she was working with Marjory on the Aetherblade incident, maybe while Marjory was working on the murder itself, she was doing more in-depth research on the Aetherblades themselves and this “Scarlet.”

How shocking it would be if her father was this Mister E and he has been in hiding since the Great Collapse to investigate it because Minister Caudecus was behind it, the creation of the Molten alliance, and the formation of the Aetherblades; all to seize the throne from the Queen. For those that have done the Order of Whisper story line, think about what information his daughter could have.

This is all speculation on my part, but that would put an interesting twist on things.

Also note that her armor, along with a new medium and heavy armor set has been added to the PvP lockers.