Guild Wars 2

So by the end of this episode we learn there is a traitor among the Summit, does anyone else believe it’s the countess? I get she’s supposed to be a mystery of some sorts, but her conversations with Canach at the Summit are downright suspicious. Also keep in mind that in the previous episode Mordrem’s minions attacked the caravan with the Locket, that very few should know

Does anyone else think evidence is pointing towards Anise being the traitor?

I actually wondered if the boss fight dragon was really a giant illusion created by Anise, for the purpose of galvanising the world leaders… a bit like Canach’s philosophy, ie doing bad things for good reasons, which would be interesting given her apparent fascination with him and his motivations

But could an illusion do actual damage though? The Pale Tree Avatar looked pretty damaged to me.

I don’t believe that the dragon is an illusion. That seemed very real to me. What is interesting is that Anise and Canach both seem to have that same philosophy of “whatever the cost to succeed.”

Regardless, she’s a mysterious, if not fishy, character.

@Greyhound, you apparently didn’t go to the Umpalumpa chamber after that whole ordeal to check up on the Avatar… guess that is more of a Sylvari character thing to do … but you might still want to do so, you know, just to check if she is ‘ok’

@OP, due to their obvious presence they were the obvious candidates, sort of like the ones you suspect most because they are highlighted. I personally suspect that duo of Quaggans they were behaving way to non-suspicious and lets face it, they were present at a lot of the events as well! Always playing the innocent bystanders… yeah right! … and they obviously know of the Inquest involvement in all of this, as they were amazingly quite as those Asura passed by…

@Arghore You’re right! I totally forgot about those Quaggans! I guess you could say they’re fishy as well! Good find!

The quaggans!!! I wondered what the kitten they were doing there

Ever since the nightmare towers those quaggans have been there in every disaster that has happened…

Well, other than the player character… wouldn’t it be interesting if it turns out we’re the traitors?..

Possibly unintentionally. Who knows what effect us stepping into The Machine had. Maybe Mord or other Elder Dragons have access to our thoughts

I think Countess Anise & Canach are too humourous for the Countess to be a traitor. If she is, that would be sad. And if so, the Queen is supposed to be the most powerful mesmer there is.

It’s surprising how many people want one of the characters to be a traitor.

Anise really is a terrible spy, and we are terrible commanders of the Pact.

I mean, Anise orders Canach to spy on the Pact. Out loud. While we, the second-in-command of the Pact can clearly hear it.

And how do we respond to this threat of espionage? Not at all.

I don’t think Anise would compromise the Queen’s safety tbh. Even if she does turn out to be a villain, I feel like she’d be aligned with the humans still. Probably wishful thinking on my part, since my main is human. XD

I seriously doubt it’s Anise. Her and Canach were a great addition to the story, and her actions didn’t say, "Let’s randomly betray the world" to me.

But, I was unable to find Caithe after the boss fight, which led me to recall Scarlet's taunting of her about her secret or whatever. I truly hope this isn't the case, but I can't help myself from being suspicious of her, given how the Player Character and Trahearne and others agree that someone set this up.. It’s possible that I just missed her, but I ran around after talking to everyone to no avail.

As I’ve said before, I expected Anise to be revealed to be a traitor, seeing just how close she is to Queen Jennah. But two years later, she’s siding with Mordremoth? I don’t think so. Countess Anise is trustworthy, a rarity in this style of storytelling.

@Greyhound: Clearly you haven’t been around mesmers enough. Yes, they create illusions, but those illusions still do damage, some more effective than others. The scale of the illusion, though… That giant dragon, numerous Mordrem on the lower levels, and all their attacks? I don’t think they could be done by one mesmer, not because of the power level (although it is an issue), but because they would need so much coordination to pull it off. Plus, why would the dragon look so much like the one in the sylvari dream? I doubt she talked with that many sylvari to coordinate this plan. Pretty sure the attack is genuine.

There’s just too much here to conclude who the traitor is yet. I don’t think Caithe disappearing is too surprising, either. She’s a thief, and she tends to sneak off to investigate or attack when something big happens. Plus, I’m pretty sure Destiny’s Edge is above reproach after all their anti-dragon work. Someone definitely is coordinating Mordremoth’s attacks, but there aren’t enough clues yet to accurately determine who yet.

I really hope it’s the quaggans. We need more quaggan participation in the story!

Am i the only one that thinks the Pale tree got corrupted and is acting on behalf of mordy? And does anyone wonder who the hell are dragons, yet?

FoXX.4159:

Am i the only one that thinks the Pale tree got corrupted and is acting on behalf of mordy? And does anyone wonder who the hell are dragons, yet?

Did you even play the story? The pale tree is the one being attacked. And we know exactly what the dragons are, it’s in the lore.

Anise isn’t a traitor, she’s the queen.

Here’s my theory:

Queen Jennah is just an illusion that Anise uses to protect her true identity.

When Scarlet tried to kidnap Queen Jennah, Jennah turned out to be an illusion. It was said that she had anticipated the attack, so she replaced herself with an illusion, but if she had anticipated it, why were there no other preparations?

It’s noted many times how Countess Anise is never far from Queen Jennah’s side. This is likely so that she can maintain the illusion.

When Kasmeer requests that Anise ask the queen, she gets a response so quickly that she mentions to the player character that the reply came surprisingly fast. This is because Anise doesn’t actually have to consult anyone else to make the decision.

At the end of Party Politics, Anise says “The queen sends her gratitude as well. She can now attend your summit.” before even leaving to consult Jennah. This implies that not only that Anise was the one making the decision of attendance, but that the queen’s gratitude is really Anise’s gratitude.

During the Entanglement chapter, the Royal Krytan Locket was introduced as a powerful magic item that shows the image of the rightful heir to the Krytan throne. It was not only kept under very high security, but its very existence was kept secret. Some players have wondered what role the Royal Krytan Locket will play in the story, but I haven’t seen anyone ask why its existence was kept a secret. Keeping it safe makes sense for a powerful artifact, but keeping it secret implies that there’s something to hide, which means that Jennah’s image isn’t the one shown.

I would like to add that so far Mordremoth has at least gotten into the minds of 2 sylvari. Canach is a sylvari, and being close to Anise, he would have obviously known of the Summit… He also has the same ‘all means necessary’ attitude that Scarlet seemed to have.

So I rank him high on being a culprit as well…

EnemyCrusher.7324:

Anise isn’t a traitor, she’s the queen.

This is exactly what I’ve been thinking all along! Ever since the first time I learned of that locket. It would make me so happy to have Anise revealed as true queen. It’d throw Divinity’s Reach into upset, maybe even civil war as ministers try to lay claim to the throne. Buuuut we do already have plenty of unrest in the land. Maybe it should wait.

Right now I do not believe it is Anise but rather, unknowingly, it may have been Canach. In order to see whether this was true, I suspect Anise has him going to Fort Trinity in order to test her “theory” since I highly doubt she’d let Canach wander off on his own without some kind of oversight. Which could entail that she’s studying the interaction from afar.

Then again that’s just my guess at this point. I am fully capable of accepting that it may have to do with something else entirely.

HyruleanHyroe.1473:

EnemyCrusher.7324:

Anise isn’t a traitor, she’s the queen.

This is exactly what I’ve been thinking all along! Ever since the first time I learned of that locket. It would make me so happy to have Anise revealed as true queen. It’d throw Divinity’s Reach into upset, maybe even civil war as ministers try to lay claim to the throne. Buuuut we do already have plenty of unrest in the land. Maybe it should wait.

Not to mention a heartbroken Logan when he realizes he’s been in love with an illusion. Besides, the queen is real. The main evidence I have is at the World Summit: Anise is already in the Grove, and yet Queen Jennah and her procession are not. Not only that, but Kasmeer is in the royal procession. So either Kasmeer is holding up the illusion for Anise (unlikely, considering she stopped to talk to Marjory while the Queen kept walking), or Anise is powerful enough to maintain illusions through asura gates.

Or if the Anise = Livia theory proves to be correct, then Queen Jennah might be her minion, Livia now being a n/me

I see so many speculations on Queen Jennah being Anise’s illusion, yet Anise’s illusion of herself (in the first instance of Dragon’s Reach Pt. 2) could barely speak. The only thing she could say was ‘’Hmm?’’ all the time. Queen Jennah on the other hand can form normal sentences. That makes me believe Queen Jennah isn’t an illusion. :P

Maybe Anise is an illusion... dun dun dun?

Arctinus.7824:

I see so many speculations on Queen Jennah being Anise’s illusion, yet Anise’s illusion of herself (in the first instance of Dragon’s Reach Pt. 2) could barely speak. The only thing she could say was ‘’Hmm?’’ all the time. Queen Jennah on the other hand can form normal sentences. That makes me believe Queen Jennah isn’t an illusion. :P

But maybe Anise can indeed make her illusions talk and interact normally with people and was doing the “hmm?” thing just annoy Canach..

locoman.1974:

Arctinus.7824:

I see so many speculations on Queen Jennah being Anise’s illusion, yet Anise’s illusion of herself (in the first instance of Dragon’s Reach Pt. 2) could barely speak. The only thing she could say was ‘’Hmm?’’ all the time. Queen Jennah on the other hand can form normal sentences. That makes me believe Queen Jennah isn’t an illusion. :P

But maybe Anise can indeed make her illusions talk and interact normally with people and was doing the “hmm?” thing just annoy Canach..

Yes, I was actually thinking about it after I had already made my post. :P Indeed she might’ve just made her illusion to constantly say ‘’Hmm?’’ to annoy Canach. I don’t know why I even came to the conclusion that illusions can’t create full sentences, when it is clear that they CAN talk. At least Anise’s, since she’s a powerful mesmer. I guess I just assumed somehow that her illusion was just repeating the same word all over again because it was just that, an illusion, and illusions aren’t capable of normal conversations. ^^’

I think you are overestimating Anise’s powers. The way you portray her, she should be the main meal on ED menu

Well, to be fair we have seen Anise create illusions that can properly talk and interact with other people twice, first time with the Rytlock illusion over the watchwork automaton that kept taunting Logan, second time Jenna’s illusion that started to give the speech before Scarlet’s attack.

However, the main difference in both cases was that she was near the illusion and able to focus on it, in the instance she was at a distance and behind a column so she couldn’t see the illusion, and later was focusing on whatever the suspicious woman was saying.

in the personal charr stoy, you can choose a father who betrayed his warband.

The father is a mesmer, and is able to maintain an illusion of himself who can speak with full sentence, and when it dissapear, the guy is already very far away.

If he can do it, Anise would certainly too

But people saw Jennah grow up. Unless Anise has been raising an illusion for more than 20 years, from baby to full grown woman, Jennah can’t be an illusion (or else it’s terribly far fetched writing).

RedStar.4218:

But people saw Jennah grow up. Unless Anise has been raising an illusion for more than 20 years, from baby to full grown woman, Jennah can’t be an illusion (or else it’s terribly far fetched writing).

Perhaps Anise is the illusion, then.

RedStar.4218:

But people saw Jennah grow up. Unless Anise has been raising an illusion for more than 20 years, from baby to full grown woman, Jennah can’t be an illusion (or else it’s terribly far fetched writing).

If Anise is Livia, that wouldn’t be far fetched at all, considering she’s several hundred years old and has presumably overseen the Krytan throne the whole time.

I personally like the idea (that someone on the forums put out) that Warmaster Laranthir, being a member of the Pact and the Vigil and close servant to the Pale Tree, somehow baited the dragon to come attack the summit to convince the world leaders of the threat. However, I don’t think he’s corrupted, or that he intended to injure the Pale Tree as much as he did.

EnemyCrusher.7324:

When Kasmeer requests that Anise ask the queen, she gets a response so quickly that she mentions to the player character that the reply came surprisingly fast. This is because Anise doesn’t actually have to consult anyone else to make the decision.

At the end of Party Politics, Anise says “The queen sends her gratitude as well. She can now attend your summit.” before even leaving to consult Jennah. This implies that not only that Anise was the one making the decision of attendance, but that the queen’s gratitude is really Anise’s gratitude.

As a note, this could be explained by Jennah and Anise having a similar (and likely stronger) mental link to the one with Logan in Edge of Destiny. Anise can communicate instantly with Jennah at any time because they have a telepathic bond.

During the Entanglement chapter, the Royal Krytan Locket was introduced as a powerful magic item that shows the image of the rightful heir to the Krytan throne. It was not only kept under very high security, but its very existence was kept secret. Some players have wondered what role the Royal Krytan Locket will play in the story, but I haven’t seen anyone ask why its existence was kept a secret. Keeping it safe makes sense for a powerful artifact, but keeping it secret implies that there’s something to hide, which means that Jennah’s image isn’t the one shown.

Or it could be that it literally shows the heir. Jennah isn’t shown because she’s currently reigning – she’s not the next to inherit the throne, she already has. For the wrong person to know who the next in line to the throne is might open up potential mischief – someone might try to influence the heir while planning to assassinate Jennah, for instance, or the heir him or her self might be ambitious and ruthless enough to arrange an accelerated “promotion”.

Veltoss.9135:

RedStar.4218:

But people saw Jennah grow up. Unless Anise has been raising an illusion for more than 20 years, from baby to full grown woman, Jennah can’t be an illusion (or else it’s terribly far fetched writing).

Perhaps Anise is the illusion, then.

Or, to make things really twisted:

It’s a double illusion. When Jennah was coming into her mesmeric powers, she recognised the value of having a decoy that everyone believed was the real her. So, possibly with the help of her father or the Shining Blade, she created ‘Countess Anise’ as an alter ego, and wears an illusion at all times to make her look like Anise. Meanwhile, the decoy ‘Queen Jennah’ is an illusion of her true appearance.

(Yes, I just argued two sides of the same discussion in the same post. I do that sometimes. For the record, I’m more inclined to think the two are separate individuals, but it is an interesting line to consider.)

I thought it was obvious by now. Jennah is using magic to disguise herself and parade around as Anise like Drax said. The Jennah we see in public events and inside of the palace is an illusion and the real Countess is disguised as Shadow, the weird little cat.

Also, Logan has been disguised this whole time as the giant rock thing so that he and Jennah can always be close to each other. #Tinfoil

I would actually like Jennah better if she really is disguising herself as Anise and manipulating things from the shadow. Although I don’t know how Logan would feel about that. :/ Maybe he’ll like it.