Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody!

Few weeks ago I posted a topic about that the episode 5 will be the last one. Now I wanna speculate about the new map [http://imgur.com/a/GVMJC].
I think that the new map will be near Dry Top, Thaumanova Reactor and Rata Novus. If ANet won’t be lazy perhaps it will be near Rata Sum as well [picture above].

Why there?

We still don’t know what happened there after Scarlet’s death, perhaps we will discover unknown secrets of Sylvari, Asura. Maybe some unknown inventions of Scarlet [that would fit to the Taimi’s storyline].

Perhaps some changes in the Mists [rework of Thaumanova Fractal] are the sign…

Some people think we will come back to Ring of Fire or perhaps to the regions of Norn.
Like I said I think it will be the last episode, because it would be weird if we would go to these locations, anyway I am sure dragons feel that we wanna do something bad to them. We have to kill them fast. With or without Norn.

We’ll see and I hope we will get a new episode in ~30-35 days or so.

I am waiting for your opinions. Do you think we will go to the location near Metrica, Dry Top Rata Sum and Novus, or perhaps to Ring of Fire [Abaddon’s Mouth?], or will we force Norn to ignore their legend and stay with us?

I doubt episode 5 will be the last one, it’s too early for them to announce new expansion. I think there will be at least 2-3 more episodes. And about map, your type is pretty possible, but personally I think we’ll visit area south of charr maps, near Crystal Desert.

I would prefer to see this map or a map close to the new raid wing giving us more backstory on that area and just what’s going on up there. But I don’t think it will be the last episode. I think people are right in that there are three more episodes. As much as I like the idea of an expansion this year, I just don’t think it will be coming out anytime soon. Honestly, I don’t expect this episode to even come out until the beginning of May after the pvp season ends. But I am hoping every Tuesday for more current events and have yet to see any. Who knows. I have wanted to see this area though and they definitely had something planned for rata novus with the huge hole in the terrain in tangled depths to the right of rata novus.

I also think at some point fractals are going to get a big tie in or reveal with the living story whether it has to do with the new raid wing, ring of fire, rata novus, or a rhytlo k revisit.

I’m still expecting us to return to the Ring of Fire, although the Shiverpeaks seems to be the other logical course. It depends if they are keeping to the 2 White Mantle, 2 Primordus, 2 Jormag episode many theorise.

The Crystal Desert feels a bit left field and random based on where we are, but I guess it is possible.

if the leaks are correct 1 episode is to little to justify us going to crystal desert and confronting the crystal dragon. Also eso and ff14 will release their own expacs so im not sure if gw2 can compete.

we stile have 4 dragons to go and the Kralkatorrik i think will be the second last dragon

and last the sea dragon

but first jormag and Primordus

and both jormag and primordus already will gain the power off Zhaitan and Mordremoth

and if we kill those to the power off the last 2 other dragons is going out the roof

it will be a epic battle all those mops will have undead plant mind fire and ice magic

The last episode ended with the cliffhanger of ‘what is really going on with Lazarus?’ So my guess is that the next episode will address (perhaps not answer, but certainly address) that question…

Where that ends up going depends on how ArenaNet wants to play it. If the story ends up with Lazarus instantly becoming hostile, we could see more of the White Mantle’s holdings west/north of Kryta. If Lazarus remains an ally, then in order to have something to fight, it’ll probably be whichever frontline in the fight against the dragons Lazarus has chosen to go to.

In the long term… I don’t think it’s necessarily guaranteed that ArenaNet would repeat the model they used with HoT being initially revealed at the conclusion of the Living Story. ArenaNet could announce the expansion and start revealing features (such as elite specs) before Season 3 concludes, they’ll just need to be careful about spoilers.

A-net announced that theres 2 more episodes, in one of their recent livestreams.

Episode 5 wont be the last, also, we wont be going back to the Maguuma, Episode 1 was designed to be the final episode of the Maguuma storyline for a reason, so we could finally get away from Sylvari storyline for a good while.

Which is exactly why the mantle has become a big deal in Season 3, and why were looking at other dragons for once.

Episode 5 will take us further north beyond Bitterfrost, its almost a certainty, because the Braham storyline is likely to be next so they can move into the Taimi stuff. Episode 6 will likely reveal the identity of Lazarus, and culminate with the second expansion reveal.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

A-net announced that theres 2 more episodes, in one of their recent livestreams.

Episode 5 wont be the last, also, we wont be going back to the Maguuma, Episode 1 was designed to be the final episode of the Maguuma storyline for a reason, so we could finally get away from Sylvari storyline for a good while.

Which is exactly why the mantle has become a big deal in Season 3, and why were looking at other dragons for once.

Episode 5 will take us further north beyond Bitterfrost, its almost a certainty, because the Braham storyline is likely to be next so they can move into the Taimi stuff. Episode 6 will likely reveal the identity of Lazarus, and culminate with the second expansion reveal.

That would be great. Anyway I don’t watch GW2 streams and by the way I didn’t know they would say something what’s upcoming on the streams. Weird.

If there will be something big with Taimi I will be pleased.

Yeah you are right, back to Scarlet storyline again… that would be interesting but this is unlikely.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Episode 5 will take us further north beyond Bitterfrost, its almost a certainty, because the Braham storyline is likely to be next so they can move into the Taimi stuff. Episode 6 will likely reveal the identity of Lazarus, and culminate with the second expansion reveal.

Episode 4 ended with a huge deal about Marjory’s new floaty friend, to the point where the commander seemed desperate about contacting Marjory. It doesn’t make sense to leave that to the side to deal with Braham first. Marjory is in immediate possible danger compared to Braham, who has not only Garm, Rox and Frostbite and the entirety of Destiny’s Edge 3.0. He seems to be able to handle himself, but if Lazarus goes rogue, well, there is little Marjory can do on her own compared to someone that absorbed a bloodstone explosion (little we could do as the commander either).

It makes more sense to directly deal with Lazarus first and then go after Braham, especially because of Braham’s attitude towards us last time and the group he surrounded himself with. Marjory had a similar attitude, but at least she is officially part of Dragon’s Watch, she’s alone with Lazarus AND she’s possibly in danger because of the commander (or so the commander would think to themself). In every way it makes more sense to tackle the Lazarus issue first.

probably janthir/ring of fire for this one
Episode 6 (the last one) will take us into Deldrimor Front (close to Mount Maelstrom) or south of charr maps to introduce the crystal desert.
If the leaks are real , i dont expect to see Braham for quite a while

castlemanic.3198:

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Episode 5 will take us further north beyond Bitterfrost, its almost a certainty, because the Braham storyline is likely to be next so they can move into the Taimi stuff. Episode 6 will likely reveal the identity of Lazarus, and culminate with the second expansion reveal.

Episode 4 ended with a huge deal about Marjory’s new floaty friend, to the point where the commander seemed desperate about contacting Marjory. It doesn’t make sense to leave that to the side to deal with Braham first. Marjory is in immediate possible danger compared to Braham, who has not only Garm, Rox and Frostbite and the entirety of Destiny’s Edge 3.0. He seems to be able to handle himself, but if Lazarus goes rogue, well, there is little Marjory can do on her own compared to someone that absorbed a bloodstone explosion (little we could do as the commander either).

It makes more sense to directly deal with Lazarus first and then go after Braham, especially because of Braham’s attitude towards us last time and the group he surrounded himself with. Marjory had a similar attitude, but at least she is officially part of Dragon’s Watch, she’s alone with Lazarus AND she’s possibly in danger because of the commander (or so the commander would think to themself). In every way it makes more sense to tackle the Lazarus issue first.

Lazarus is not likely a threat while id almost like him to betray us in some way I hope he doesnt, it’d be too cliche and defeat the point of what he himself said, that the Mursaat of the Past were like that, not the Mursaat of now.

Also…

Lazarus isnt truly Lazarus…, and honestly, im already suspecting its going to be Gleam…

There is “one” other candidate but im not buying that its “him” because I dont believe for a second that A-net would do something that mary-sue kittened, though I have been wrong once or twice before, much to my letdown.

Most of the time though im confident the story goes a general direction ive paid attention to, my suspicion, Lazarus “is” an ally, but decieved both us and the mantle to amass followers.

Who?

Gleam, the son of Glint, who basically gave the master of peace the Egg, who was protected by the dragon cult of dwarves branded traitors to their own (Which is why we find the clawmarks in the mursaat room of Ember Bay).

The “real” Lazarus, was either destroyed in the raid, or is still licking his wounds somewhere, in pain and agony from the curse that GW1’s chars placed on him.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Lazarus is not likely a threat while id almost like him to betray us in some way I hope he doesnt, it’d be too cliche and defeat the point of what he himself said, that the Mursaat of the Past were like that, not the Mursaat of now.

Whatever the likelihood of Lazarus being a threat, our characters see him as a threat, and that’s what makes sense going forward in the next episode. Whether he actually turns out to be a threat or not is something we can’t predict at the moment. Also, I wouldn’t trust the word of a mursaat if it told me the sky was blue, let alone that he had changed his ways. Maybe a single mursaat might be able to change, but Lazarus is probably not that mursaat.

Also…

Lazarus isnt truly Lazarus…, and honestly, im already suspecting its going to be Gleam…

There is “one” other candidate but im not buying that its “him” because I dont believe for a second that A-net would do something that mary-sue kittened, though I have been wrong once or twice before, much to my letdown.

Most of the time though im confident the story goes a general direction ive paid attention to, my suspicion, Lazarus “is” an ally, but decieved both us and the mantle to amass followers.

Who?

Gleam, the son of Glint, who basically gave the master of peace the Egg, who was protected by the dragon cult of dwarves branded traitors to their own (Which is why we find the clawmarks in the mursaat room of Ember Bay).

The “real” Lazarus, was either destroyed in the raid, or is still licking his wounds somewhere, in pain and agony from the curse that GW1’s chars placed on him.

Honestly, what reason would Gleam or ANY benevolent character that was not Lazarus portray themselves as the most distrusted race in the existence of Tyria the planet. The krait are more trustworthy than the mursaat. Unless it’s some lore-bending “prove yourself worthy by trusting an untrustworthy person” thing, there’s no logical reason why someone would present themselves as a mursaat. It’s more likely that Lazarus has changed his ways rather than it being another entity, that’s how low of a probability it is.

There’s also plenty of reasons why you can assume it WAS lazarus (Bauer appearing to lie to Xera but in his personal journal appearing to lie to Caudecus). The situation is confusing but it seems more than likely that it IS Lazarus himself, because why would Bauer lie in his own journal. The truth is we don’t know whether it is Lazarus or not, so we’ll have to see. But to me atleast, with the Bauer diaries, it’s more likely to be Lazarus truly reborn.

There’s also no evidence to assume that Lazarus was destroyed in the raid, considering we got to him too late. Lazarus was GONE by the time we arrived, so there’s no possible way that we could have gotten to him. Considering everyone else nearby was White Mantle loyal to the Unseen Ones, there’s literally no evidence as to why Lazarus would have been killed by the end of the raid.

Gleam is an interesting theory, but again, why would Gleam present himself as an untrustworthy character? Why would anyone trying to gain the trust of the commander present themselves as someone who is inherently untrustworthy. Our final words to Jory are “it’s probably a trap”, except three iterations of it, so our characters definitely do not trust Lazarus, whether it’s the mursaat himself or whatever entity is hiding itself as Lazarus.

I totally agree with you.

I think Lazarus is Lazarus, because we have not any proofs that he could be an another person, because:

1) He said he is Lazarus and he was Lazarus the Dire, but he wants to fight with us.
2) Canach and the Commander found the “last aspect”, but they did not say: its Lazarus for 100%, the Commander said clearly: " I’ll send this to Exemplar Caulden with the Shining Blade to authenticate it; make sure it’s not just more propaganda…"

And I believe its a propaganda because of Bauer’, Xera’ and Caudecus’s tough relationship.

3) In GW was not clear Lazarus is necromancer or elementalist, in GW2 I think he showed up as elementalist and this is why he used Fire to burn the enemies. And perhaps Jory was excited, because of Lazarus’s necromancy. Because during the Dragon Vigil we could see an area around Lazarus, perhaps its one of his necromancer’s skills.

4) Anyway Luminate didn’t show that he doesn’t believe Lazarus. He asked Lazarus about everything, about the past and Mursaat’s acting years ago, when they disappeared.

5) I don’t think so Lazarus will want to attack Marjory or something, he wants to stand with us against any enemy. If he would make something bad to our allies, he would die from our weapon.

I doubt if any God of Tyria would pretend to be Lazarus. Why would they start to fight with us now? Why would they wanna White Mantle as their army?

The left us for good and I really doubt it would be Balthazar, Kormir or Lyssa or anybody else.

Why not Gleam? As you said we cannot trust Lazarus fully, and I doubt as you that he would not pretend to be Lazarus.

Why not Kasmeer or Queen Jennah? I don’t think so they would pretend to be someone else. That would be weird and that would show them as mad people.

there are 3 locations I would find logical:
Isles of Janthir, in case of Lazarus
Rings of Fire (obviously)
and further north of the Bitterfrost Frontier.

About the B-Frontier, I don’t think we will go there in episode 5, but rather, episode 6.
I think episode 5 will be a white mantle aftermath and some secondary trouble, and at the end we’ll hear that Braham has gone north.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Most of the time though im confident the story goes a general direction ive paid attention to, my suspicion, Lazarus “is” an ally, but decieved both us and the mantle to amass followers.

Who?

Gleam, the son of Glint, who basically gave the master of peace the Egg, who was protected by the dragon cult of dwarves branded traitors to their own (Which is why we find the clawmarks in the mursaat room of Ember Bay).

Why would Gleam care about the Mantle, though? Sure, Lazarus didn’t hesitate to kill some of them. Sure, he might have the “mursaat loyalist” fraction of the Mantle relocated and having nothing to do with the attack on DR. But still, why? Gleam has no use of the White Mantle. If anything, he’d be interested in Bloodstone’s power, and he already got it. Why keep the masquerade, what purpose does that serve?

Feanor.2358:

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Most of the time though im confident the story goes a general direction ive paid attention to, my suspicion, Lazarus “is” an ally, but decieved both us and the mantle to amass followers.

Who?

Gleam, the son of Glint, who basically gave the master of peace the Egg, who was protected by the dragon cult of dwarves branded traitors to their own (Which is why we find the clawmarks in the mursaat room of Ember Bay).

Why would Gleam care about the Mantle, though? Sure, Lazarus didn’t hesitate to kill some of them. Sure, he might have the “mursaat loyalist” fraction of the Mantle relocated and having nothing to do with the attack on DR. But still, why? Gleam has no use of the White Mantle. If anything, he’d be interested in Bloodstone’s power, and he already got it. Why keep the masquerade, what purpose does that serve?

That is exactly my issue with all of these theories. The purpose of the deception would only be to be a deception as a misleading plot point. That would be 100% self referential, pointless, and very lame.

My suspicion at the moment is Braham decides to remain inpatient and attacks Jormag winning, causing Taimi to rejig her idea into sending Primordus into the Desert against an awoken Kralkatorrik. Or he attacks, comes close to failure before we end it as the final boss of Ep 6.

Potential areas for future two episodes, more of Rata Novus? Further North? Isle of Janthir? South of Ascalon…even North of Ascalon for a side adventure. Scavangers Causeway as well. Simply put, there is a lot of potential here.

And thats if, if the rumors are true about the expansion in the first place.

What I don’t understand is why my commander seems to know so well Lazarus. We are speaking of a very famous figure, yes, but one that dissapeared centuries ago. Our character is no doubt one of the more informed individuals in Tyria, but nothing prepare us to even suspect the commander would be some kind of expert on mursaat and with a personal opinion on Lazarus.

I don’t like when they mix the character with the player. That is cheap and doesn’t work well: I didn’t play GW1, so when Lazarus appeared I was simply asking miself “Who the kitten is this guy and why I’m acting as if I know him?”

So, I don’t care who he really is. Please make us know him first, within the gameworld, as protagonits and as players, before expecting to surprise us with him.

GW2 IS NOT GW1.

Moonyeti.3296:

That is exactly my issue with all of these theories. The purpose of the deception would only be to be a deception as a misleading plot point. That would be 100% self referential, pointless, and very lame.

I can see a purpose for Jennah. Playing both sides of the board for her own gain, much like Palpatine in Star Wars. Yeah, she’s already a queen, but it doesn’t mean she has absolute power.

Feanor.2358:

Moonyeti.3296:

That is exactly my issue with all of these theories. The purpose of the deception would only be to be a deception as a misleading plot point. That would be 100% self referential, pointless, and very lame.

I can see a purpose for Jennah. Playing both sides of the board for her own gain, much like Palpatine in Star Wars. Yeah, she’s already a queen, but it doesn’t mean she has absolute power.

Even with her, there has been no indication that she is power thirsty to any real degree. It would be a plot twist for no sake other than “Aha! bet you didn’t see THAT coming!” If they started foreshadowing it first, ok, but I have seen nothing of anything indicating a move like that. We would need a look into her motivations for such a move.

I can agree with that, although she has always been something of an enigma. Plus there was “Meeting of Ministers”.

Feanor.2358:

I can agree with that, although she has always been something of an enigma. Plus there was “Meeting of Ministers”.

For me at least, there are 2 questions that need to be answered for these things to make sense.
1) Is she capable of pulling off such a feat?
2) Is she motivated to pull off such a feat?

For the Meeting of Ministers, for me anyway, question #1 was answered as a solid yes. Question #2 though is what is still lacking.

We have every possible lore reason to ignore Queen Jennah as a possibility of being Lazarus. No human is capable of absorbing a bloodstone explosion. This has been discussed in the lore forums so I won’t repeat the arguments here, but essentially not even a human as powerful as Queen Jennah could absorb the bloodstone. The one time something similar happened, that human was blessed by the 5 human gods in power at that time. So yeah it can’t possibly be Queen Jennah or ANY member of the playable races or some of the lesser known ones.

I hope next ep focuses on Rytlock story and what he saw in the mist and introduce a new Ascalon region map.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

A-net announced that theres 2 more episodes, in one of their recent livestreams.

Do you remember which one? I don’t recall seeing it in the Guild Chat shows, and I doubt it’d be on the fan creation show, so I’m curious when they “announced” that.

Rognik.2579:

CaptainVanguard.4925:

A-net announced that theres 2 more episodes, in one of their recent livestreams.

Do you remember which one? I don’t recall seeing it in the Guild Chat shows, and I doubt it’d be on the fan creation show, so I’m curious when they “announced” that.

Yeah, I was even searching on GW2 Twitch, but I am too lazy to listen to every stream. Anyway if someone is going to tell such as this things, should post a source.

Anyway MO wrote that episode 5 will be important, but why?

Was I right that ep 5 will be the last?

Or will they give us something more than episode 5, I mean something connected with ep 5, but maybe the world event such like Twisted Marionette Battle?

Maybe maybe…. I cannot wait, but we have more questions now than before.

castlemanic.3198:

We have every possible lore reason to ignore Queen Jennah as a possibility of being Lazarus. No human is capable of absorbing a bloodstone explosion. This has been discussed in the lore forums so I won’t repeat the arguments here, but essentially not even a human as powerful as Queen Jennah could absorb the bloodstone. The one time something similar happened, that human was blessed by the 5 human gods in power at that time. So yeah it can’t possibly be Queen Jennah or ANY member of the playable races or some of the lesser known ones.

OK, new theory – it’s actually Lazarus who pretends to be Jennah who pretends to be Lazarus. He travelled back in time after being revived with chronomantic powers to pull the trick. Bellaception!

I say we are gonna go to tarnished coast. The last we heard taimi was going to test her theory about how to manipulate the magic of dragons. In that process something must have gone wrong, which made her “flee” Rata sum to the closest non discovered location that would allow her to “interact” with primordius without having to draw too much attention by getting to ember bay.

I for one want Lazarus to be an ally, even if only a temporary one. This may of course depends on how dire A-Net will portray the future threat(s) before all our Allies/friends rejoin for good (or bad). The current “party layout” seems like what I’ve seen in some cheesy drama scenarios (albeit not action/war-based), where the hero is temporary more or less all by himself due to some internal conflict. Here, we have Majory temporary leaving the party, Canach wanting to spend some quality time as a free person, Braham being Braham, Rythlok unavailable etc.
I do not doubt that, eg, Canach would join in on a “freelancer” basis lol, mind you. So that leaves us with Caithe (on her way to regain our trust), Taimi once Scrappy 2.0 is finished and Kasmeer whenever she appears again. And Aurene! I want Queen Jennah in Dragon Watch, seeing her talking about being envious of our "lifestyle.

And wishful thinking: Majory’s comment on becoming “embed” to Lazarus (maybe learning a few tricks as a result), makes me hope that this might have something to do with the new Necro Elite specialisation for the next xpack.

Speaking of Queen Jennah: I couldn’t play LS1 and only a tiny bit LS2, so how comes that our character – regardless of race – is so familar/friendly with her? Was that a (short) aspect in LS1/2?

Mahou.3924:

And wishful thinking: Majory’s comment on becoming “embed” to Lazarus (maybe learning a few tricks as a result), makes me hope that this might have something to do with the new Necro Elite specialisation for the next xpack.

I hope not. Both Jory and Trahearn were the first necromancers to wield a greatsword lore-wise. Also, Jory’s greatsword has her sister’s SOUL in it. There is nothing you could do short of resurrecting her sister to make her give up the sword. So all evidence points to Jory having less than nothing to do with the next necro elite spec.

Speaking of Queen Jennah: I couldn’t play LS1 and only a tiny bit LS2, so how comes that our character – regardless of race – is so familar/friendly with her? Was that a (short) aspect in LS1/2?

The feeling of familiarity makes more sense with a human character, considering the personal storyline. As for every other race, well we saved her in a dungeon, helped her out during season 1, helped root out traitors in the court and brought together the leaders of the races to defeat moredremoth in season 2 and killed both Zhaitan and Mordremoth. The familiarity with Queen Jennah assumes you’ve been through all of that or atleast know about it, which is kind of a large sum of stuff to expect a player to know about. However, they can’t create unique dialogue for every possible playstyle scenario, so they go with the assumption that the player rose to rank of commander and helped the queen with the dungeon. Specific stuff like killing Zhaitan or Mordremoth may or may not be associated with the player, a more thorough read of the wiki is needed here, but essentially you’ve proven yourself to all the leaders of the various races so they atleast know you by reputation, as you would know them.

My top bets:

• 1: Abaddon’s Mouth at the Ring of Fire islands.
• 2: Somewhere in Ascalon, involving Foefire ghosts and/or branded.
• 3: Underground location, with chak and destroyers.

Lonami.2987:

My top bets:

• 1: Abaddon’s Mouth at the Ring of Fire islands.
• 2: Somewhere in Ascalon, involving Foefire ghosts and/or branded.
• 3: Underground location, with chak and destroyers.

• 4: Isles of Janthir (or the road there-to)
• 5: Steamspur Front (to find the dwarves, since they’re supposed to be keeping Primordus sealed/occupied)
• 6: Far Shiverpeaks

Could be we go and seek help from the chicken people.

Katastroff.1045:

Could be we go and seek help from the chicken people.

Oh my six, dus you just call them chicken people. I’m now imaging their race as humanoid chickens and am laughing to hard to breathe

castlemanic.3198:

The situation is confusing but it seems more than likely that it IS Lazarus himself, because why would Bauer lie in his own journal. The truth is we don’t know whether it is Lazarus or not, so we’ll have to see. But to me atleast, with the Bauer diaries, it’s more likely to be Lazarus truly reborn.

Playing devil’s advocate here, but it’s possible that Bauer was paranoid enough to plan for the possibility of someone reading his journal.

draxynnic.3719:

Playing devil’s advocate here, but it’s possible that Bauer was paranoid enough to plan for the possibility of someone reading his journal.

Its actually kinda funny that you bring this point up. Since I made that post I’ve re-read both bauer’s journal and the letters he sent to caudecus. There’s a disconnect between them from my understanding and it goes beyond the fact that Bauer says in his journal that he hates lying to the confessor,and in the letter to him brags about swapping the item,with the essence in,it. According to the first letter Bauer sent, he’s actually reaching out to caudecus both for the first time and unprompted, while confessor esthel still lived, complaining about her ‘newfound piety’, aiming at bringing the white mantle back as the powerhouse of tyria. But this contradicts his journal, which as you say, he might be paranoid about, which would explain,the secrecy even within his own journal. There’s no mention of the supposed ritual until after kasandra brings it up to him and subsequently loses her head. In fact his entire journal seems to be just recollections of events happening instead of his deep and personal thoughts with the exception of the last journal, but by then everything was already set in motion and the next day the savant was ordered to perform the ritual that they knew nothing about.

I was hoping that we were simply seeing a pure Lazarus reborn who had reformed (no matter the cliche, I love it when bad guys turn good), I personally have every reason to suspect that we are not seeing the full lazarus and,instead the 4/5 version of him, supplemented by the power of,the bloodstone

But then why would Bauer want the bloodstone ritual performed? Is it possible Bauer wanted to drain lazarus of power into himself? I doubt he intended for the bloodstone to explode, but what if that was intentional? Is it possible that Bauer is,working for a third party? These are tin foil hat, very admittedly so, but the Bauer writi,g the journal and the Bauer writing to caudecus seem like they are two different people. One dedicated to lazarus and one dedicated to caudecus.

Arden.7480:

We still don’t know what happened there after Scarlet’s death, perhaps we will discover unknown secrets of Sylvari, Asura. Maybe some unknown inventions of Scarlet [that would fit to the Taimi’s storyline].

Why would that area have anything of Scarlet in the first place? Nothing implies Scarlet was in that area.

That’s most likely where Malyck’s tree is, and we see part of Rata Novus going that way.

Arden.7480:

Like I said I think it will be the last episode, because it would be weird if we would go to these locations, anyway I am sure dragons feel that we wanna do something bad to them. We have to kill them fast. With or without Norn.

There are three teams working on Season 3. We’ll have 6 episodes (since we know Season 3 will be shorter than Season 2, it won’t be nine). Would be a weird number to have only 5, especially when they set up 3 teams.

Arden.7480:

I am waiting for your opinions. Do you think we will go to the location near Metrica, Dry Top Rata Sum and Novus, or perhaps to Ring of Fire [Abaddon’s Mouth?], or will we force Norn to ignore their legend and stay with us?

Anyways, as I see it, the story can go two directions with Episode 5:

• Either the new map will focus on where Taimi is moving Omadd’s machine to. That is, the eastern side of Rata Novus. Here, we’ll also likely see Malyck and his tree, closing that storyline off, and probably see the final answers left by HoT regarding sylvari given that the Pale Tree now woke up with the Current Events stuff. This would also be the best time to solve those unanswered questions (if they ever will be) since the Pale Tree just woke up – and before we carry the momentum of the plot into completely different directions.
• Alternatively, we’re going to continue the pattern left by episodes 1-4 and the teams working on their perspective locations/plots (WM – Primo – Jormag), which will put episode 5’s new map in the Ring of Fire. After all, it would be weird for the Ring of Fire region to have a single zone to it (even the Maguuma Wastes has 2). This would then put episode 6 in the Shiverpeak Mountains adjacent to Bitterfrost Frontier (most likely).

I also suspect that Episode 6 will deal with Lazarus, not Episode 5. Lazarus definitely seems to be painted as “the villain of Season 3” in the same light that Scarlet was “the villain of Season 1” and the Shadow of the Dragon was “the villain of Season 2”. So I would expect Episode 6 to be relevant to fighting Lazarus.

This makes me think the first likely path is more likely, as there’s little reason for Lazarus to go to the Shiverpeak Mountains. Perhaps, then, Episode 6 will take us to where Saul stumbled upon the mursaat (Woodland Cascades? Near the second raid?).

Unless, however, he’s going to head to Abaddon’s Mouth bloodstone (north of Ember Bay) then the Shiverpeak Bloodstone (between Timberline and Sparkfly), and it’ll be at the Shiverpeak Bloodstone (or near it), tampering with them both as he did the Maguuma Bloodstone, and we have our showdown with Lazarus at the Bloodstone Caves. That would end up fitting the “WM→RoF→Shiverpeak” map focus concept.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Lazarus isnt truly Lazarus…, and honestly, im already suspecting its going to be Gleam…

[…]
Who?

Gleam, the son of Glint, who basically gave the master of peace the Egg, who was protected by the dragon cult of dwarves branded traitors to their own (Which is why we find the clawmarks in the mursaat room of Ember Bay).

Multiple problems and errors you have here:

1. How can a large dragon become a humanoid figure?
2. Brotherhood of the Dragon were not branded traitors.
3. Those “claw marks” were made by the destroyers, which we see in that very room, when the stone dwarf was killed as Rhodan told us.
4. We do not know who gave the Master of Peace the egg – while many think it was Gleam (and I find it likely myself), Gleam’s very state of existence remains unknown – it’s indicated that he either went into hiding, or has died since GW1.

And that’s ignoring the questions of “why” – just the questions of “how” and other matters you got false.

Now, there’s the issues that any good guy portraying as Lazarus would face:

1. Why not show us, known good guys, when there are no White Mantle around (Dragon Vigil)?
2. Why continue a masquerade of the most hated and untrusted race in existence? Just having the White Mantle is not worth that kind of disguise – especially in maintaining it 24/7 even when you’re not around those you need to be betraying.
3. Why force the bloodstone’s explosion, other than to absorb that magic? Despite Lazarus’ claims in Dragon Vigil, the journals in Bloodstone Fen indicate that it was “Lazarus” who pushed for the bloodstone’s explosion.

Moonyeti.3296:

That is exactly my issue with all of these theories. The purpose of the deception would only be to be a deception as a misleading plot point. That would be 100% self referential, pointless, and very lame.

Only when the “fake Lazarus” is a good guy, and not a bad guy himself.

If it were, say, Bauer then it would make sense for the deception – not only to deceive the White Mantle, but also the PC, and not for the sake of a misleading plot point but for the character’s own development and agenda.

Ardid.7203:

What I don’t understand is why my commander seems to know so well Lazarus. We are speaking of a very famous figure, yes, but one that dissapeared centuries ago. Our character is no doubt one of the more informed individuals in Tyria, but nothing prepare us to even suspect the commander would be some kind of expert on mursaat and with a personal opinion on Lazarus.

[…]

So, I don’t care who he really is. Please make us know him first, within the gameworld, as protagonits and as players, before expecting to surprise us with him.

GW2 IS NOT GW1.

Did you forget about the ending to episode 1? Lazarus announced himself, that’s how we know who he is.

Beyond that, the PC just treats him the same way they’d treat any mursaat. Mursaat in general are well known about. It’d be kind of like us knowing about kittens. I’ve never seen an actual WWII kitten before, but if someone came up to me and said “Hi, I’m a kitten from WWII, but I want to be your friend”, I’m going to treat him with disdain and suspicion while also acting like I know him because I know what a kitten is.

That’s how the PC (and the NPCs) are treating Lazarus – they know what he is, so they have a basis to reflect his persona as.

The Commander doesn’t need to be an expert on the matter, just have the general knowledge of it.

And we know that the Commander has the general knowledge of it, as Episode 4 shows that the dungeon explorable paths have taken place as well as the main story, but also from Episode 1:

and the plot thickens

Amaimon.7823:

and the plot thickens

And the intrigue is getting thicker too.

O.o

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ardid.7203:

What I don’t understand is why my commander seems to know so well Lazarus. We are speaking of a very famous figure, yes, but one that dissapeared centuries ago. Our character is no doubt one of the more informed individuals in Tyria, but nothing prepare us to even suspect the commander would be some kind of expert on mursaat and with a personal opinion on Lazarus.

[…]

So, I don’t care who he really is. Please make us know him first, within the gameworld, as protagonits and as players, before expecting to surprise us with him.

GW2 IS NOT GW1.

Did you forget about the ending to episode 1? Lazarus announced himself, that’s how we know who he is.

Beyond that, the PC just treats him the same way they’d treat any mursaat. Mursaat in general are well known about. It’d be kind of like us knowing about kittens. I’ve never seen an actual WWII kitten before, but if someone came up to me and said “Hi, I’m a kitten from WWII, but I want to be your friend”, I’m going to treat him with disdain and suspicion while also acting like I know him because I know what a kitten is.

That’s how the PC (and the NPCs) are treating Lazarus – they know what he is, so they have a basis to reflect his persona as.

The Commander doesn’t need to be an expert on the matter, just have the general knowledge of it.

And we know that the Commander has the general knowledge of it, as Episode 4 shows that the dungeon explorable paths have taken place as well as the main story, but also from Episode 1:

<Asura character name>: The blast released spirits from the bloodstone. If I remember my Human History Symposium correctly, they’re victims sacrificed by the White Mantle.

<Charr character name>: Whoa! The blast released spirits. They may be sacrificial victims of the White Mantle. My ancestors reviled those evil badgers.
<Charr character name>: They tried to exterminate my ancestors, but tortured their own people as well. These spirits were twisted by what they went through.

<Sylvari character name>: How long were they imprisoned? Why? I’ve heard stories of humans sacrificing each other on bloodstones. What mental scars they must bear.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blood_and_Stone#Dialogue

Every race has taken some form of history lesson on the White Mantle/Shining Blade conflict (well, not sure about norn comments there). So yes, there is reason shown for the Commander to know who and what mursaat are. Presented in the game itself.

While I agree with most of your argument, I don’t think episode 1 describes so much about Mursaat. All we know from inside the game is about White Mantle and bloodstone “things”, not Mursaat. I think its easy to get confused there, since they seem to be very close somehow, and that knowledge is part of the lore older players just never question. But I’m speaking as someone that didn’t know the relation until recently.

Even worse, just talking about Mursaat doesn’t say anything about Lazarus. He was a bigger surprise for me because I just didn’t know who he was. I identified him as something Mursaat related, but I had to google it to really understand the situation.

And I don’t think you can compare meeting Lazarus with meeting any “adolf followers”, because we have a great amount of info about them, continuously repeated through books, music and movies, during the whole last generation. They were active less than a century ago…

IMO talking with Lazarus is more similar to be talking with Louis XVI or Blackbeard, very connoted “bad guys” from 300 years ago, who we could somewhat recognize, but I really doubt we will be talking so casually…

Ardid.7203:

While I agree with most of your argument, I don’t think episode 1 describes so much about Mursaat. All we know from inside the game is about White Mantle and bloodstone “things”, not Mursaat. I think its easy to get confused there, since they seem to be very close somehow, and that knowledge is part of the lore older players just never question. But I’m speaking as someone that didn’t know the relation until recently.

Even worse, just talking about Mursaat doesn’t say anything about Lazarus. He was a bigger surprise for me because I just didn’t know who he was. I identified him as something Mursaat related, but I had to google it to really understand the situation.

It’s actually very explicitly stated the connection between the White Mantle, the bloodstone and the Mursaat.

We have the cutscene from Squad Leader Benet:

Which describes almost everything you need to know about the mursaat/white mantle connection. Admittedly you have to talk to him again to see if he has anything extra to say but he DOES have the noticeable green star still above his head after you’re done talking to him, indicating he has more to tell you and the first option is the cinematic. Now it doesn’t explain who Lazarus is exactly, but the fact that a mursaat is alive and in the flesh is significant enough after viewing the cinematic. I’m not sure how you missed the cinematic since it’s a pretty big deal.

Then there’s a few priory mentions of the mursaat (and if you did the human story with the missing parents biography, you’d find out that the white mantle exist) in vanilla GW2, but I’m not sure that there’s any info on the connection between the mursaat and the white mantle. (There’s also the Arah explorable mode which has an entire section dedicated to the mursaat, but again separate from the white mantle).

There’s also the three raid wings that came out before the beginning of living world season 3, which actually has the exact same cinematic and has an actual statue of a mursaat torso and head that you could interact with and get a comment about the mursaat directly.

There’s ALSO a mention of the mursaat in Tarir if you listen closely to two priory members. They mention a passing resemblance between the mursaat and the exalted. There’s a bit more to that dialogue but I can’t remember it right now.

To a pure GW2 player, who specifically this named mursaat is doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as the fact that he DOES exist when previously they were thought to be extinct. There are plenty of times when the mursaat are mentioned if you’re looking for it.

(part 1 of 2)

Also, in Lazarus’ introduction, he very clearly states “And you shall lead no white mantle, for I am their GOD”. Despite everything else, even if you missed everything else, there is a very clear indication in this very specific moment that Lazarus and the White Mantle have some sort of history together. Granted, that history could have been fabricated from the perspective of a player who has no idea what the mursaat are (which i’m sure has happened a couple of times in other fantasy worlds), but there is clearly something going on there. There’s also the rest of the dialogue:

Lazarus: I am the last mursaat. Many years ago, you knew me as Lazarus the Dire. I have returned from the brink of existence!
Confessor Caudecus: No! You are a false god! The White Mantle is mine! Don’t listen to him!
Lazarus: Empty words formed by the forked tongue of a snake.
Lazarus: The human seat of power and its current monarch are inconsequential. We are destined to face more virtuous pursuits.
Lazarus: My true believers, you’re welcome to seek shelter in my light. To those who doubt… you’re welcome to burn.

He clearly states that he IS a mursaat, and the last of his kind. There’s also this bit of dialogue before Lazarus shows up:

Minister Caudecus: Why do I feel like I’m repeating myself? YOU follow MY orders!
Minister Caudecus: I don’t know where these delusions are coming from… There is one White Mantle, do you hear me? ONE!

So clearly, the white mantle have a figure that they consider important besides Caudecus. That turns out to be Lazarus.

So even if you never heard the word ‘mursaat’ before that instance, you know SOMETHING is up. There is someone else important enough to get Caudecus frustrated. That person shows up, declares itself a god, calls out caudecus and welcomes any ‘true believers’ to follow him. Now admittedly most of the other information is out of the way or locked behind a raid, but the cutscene that explicitly states the connection between the mursaat and the white mantle was a big give away and is extremely available to get to. Again, I’d like to state who Lazarus is specifically to a GW2 player who has never heard the word mursaat before isn’t as important as the fact that there’s a mursaat alive and well. All we essentially need to know is that a mursaat means bad business.

Ardid.7203:

While I agree with most of your argument, I don’t think episode 1 describes so much about Mursaat. All we know from inside the game is about White Mantle and bloodstone “things”, not Mursaat. I think its easy to get confused there, since they seem to be very close somehow, and that knowledge is part of the lore older players just never question. But I’m speaking as someone that didn’t know the relation until recently.

Those things are so very closely related that the mursaat are very much part of those “things”. You literally cannot review the history books of Tyria about the White Mantle reign without learning something about the mursaat, who were the masterminds of said reign.

When the history of the White Mantle get brought up, so do the mursaat. Without fail. Whether it’s via the Orphaned Parents storyline, Bennet’s summary ( which actively mentions the mursaat, btw ), or other books.

Ardid.7203:

Even worse, just talking about Mursaat doesn’t say anything about Lazarus.

That’s because there’s nothing unique about Lazarus except “he survived” and until Episode 4, the method of survival is never brought up. The only important factor that separates himself from “mursaat” is “still alive” and there’s no need to call it out when we see him in the flesh and blood.

Ardid.7203:

And I don’t think you can compare meeting Lazarus with meeting any “adolf followers”, because we have a great amount of info about them, continuously repeated through books, music and movies, during the whole last generation.

You say this as if there’s no books on or scholars studying mursaat.

You’re acting as if in Tyria, no one knows anything about mursaat.

This isn’t true. Knowledge of the mursaat is so well spread that someone who thought the White Mantle were just a bedside tale to scare children know knew enough about the mursaat to insultingly talk about Jade Constructs.

Lazarus personally may not be well known, but our character never acts to know about Lazarus specifically, the only thing that the PC relates about Lazarus as an individual is: 1) his name, and 2) that he survived when no other mursaat (knowingly) has. That is, until episode 4.

And all this is ignoring the dialogue from Lazarus himself, which tells us a boatload about what Lazarus is, as castlemanic already brought up.

I truly understand all your lore data. I stated before that the commander is without any doubt much better informed than the common tyrian, and way more knowledgeable than a player, and specially better at lore than me.

However, as a player I still felt out of the water with all the sudden reveal.

“I am the last mursaat. Many years ago, you knew me as Lazarus the Dire. I have returned from the brink of existence!”

Fantastic if you really have the background. But if this pops suddenly at the end of a fight against human sorcerers, and you don’t know Lazarus from before, it feels like a very awkward deux-reveal. Follow that with the heel turn in the next ocassion we talk with him, and you have a very complex character that we are suposed to know just trough one and half scenes.

Please understand that a lot of what you take for granted is based on your previous knowledge of the subject: There are lots of people even less informed than me.

Honestly, when you’re directed to Bennet who tells you about mursaat, but didn’t bother reading his dialogue or watching the recap cinematic (which shows mursaat), then you – as a player – not knowing what a mursaat is… is your own fault.

ArenaNet did provide everything for the context that’s needed. Both player and character. GW1 players get more out of it, yes, but the same can be said for Destiny’s Edge’s story and whether you read Edge of Destiny or simply did the story dungeons – the story dungeons provide all the lore you need to know to understand the situation and not feel left out, but you get more details about (thus you’re more immersed with) Destiny’s Edge’s lore through the novel. Similar with Glint.

The entire time, I was not talking from the context of a GW1 player. I was talking in the context of what’s provided in GW2 and GW2 alone. From the upfront to the not so much.

And Bennet – arguably the best summary of GW1 events and the mursaat in GW2 – is very much upfront.

Please remeber me when you are directed to Bennet, I’m interested in play that part again.

Ardid.7203:

Please remeber me when you are directed to Bennet, I’m interested in play that part again.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blood_and_Stone

This is Episode 1 of Season 3, the third mission. You’ll note that after to talk to Squad Leader Bennett, he will STILL have a green star above his head after the small audio conversation. Clicking on him again will bring up the dialogue where the first choice gives you the cinematic.

In fact, here: https://youtu.be/7n-3WqpV6Ns?t=333

This youtube video is a playthrough of Blood and Stone and it’s fast forwarded to the section where you talk to squad leader Bennett. I did leave it at the beginning of the dialogue with Bennett so that you can see after he stops talking, there is STILL a green star in a white text box above his head. This means he can be talked to, EVERY story instance in the game, especially the personal story, has taught you that a green star over someone’s head means they can be talked to. You’ll notice how the player walks away at the end of the conversation, decides to go back to Bennett, clicks on him opening the dialogue box and hovers over the first choice with his mouse and literally comments ‘oh we can replay cinematic’. The text itself states “recap the White Mantle’s origin [Replay Cinematic]”, so it’s impossible to misread it as replaying the bloodstone explosion cinematic. (unfortunately the player seems disinterested in playing the cinematic so you can’t actually watch it)

That is when you find the cinematic with the Mursaat/White Mantle connection.

Plus, I don’t think it needs to be done as part of the story. You can get him to show you the cinematic any time it’s not overridden by story dialogue.

They didn’t make it required because people who’d played through the raids would have already seen the same cinematic. Which is one of the problems of having had the starting raid being essentially the prequel to S3.