Guild Wars 2

So… one thing I think should be noted is with the reveal of Mordremoth, its safe to say we will be seeing more Sylvari oriented storyline, and while there are a lot of theories about where he awoke, its generally consensus that the lay line trailed past the Thauma Nova Reactor into the Maguuma, so its highly likely that it will be the Maguuma we explore next.

Now my beliefs are this:

1. The Nightmare Court

Something tells me we will be seeing A LOT more of them in the next ‘expansion’ or rather Living Story S2, since these guys will likely be very interested in the awakening of a dark psycho jungle dragon that clearly proved they were right the entire time.

This means more Faolain, more Caithe, possibly the secret Scarlet knew about them, and maybe a small flashback as to how Scarlet even knew Caithe (most likely while she was still Ceara).

I wont be surprised if Faolain becomes the main “humanoid” antagonist of this storyline, given that this is all her kinda thing, practically screams “I was right” I can almost see her dancing around madly laughing about it.

Plus… I am still waiting to see Faolain turn into this:

http://www.talktyria.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Sylvari_11_concept_art_A_Dark_Queen.jpg

Ancient bit of awesome concept art, id love to see this theme revisited for Mordremoth’s corruption.

2. Treahearne

This is not the best time to bring him back but I also get the feeling this is also a pretty good opportunity to bring him back, Treaherne could suffer from the arrogance of defeating Zhaitan, and ultimately get too kitteny, which could lead to a major defeat or two of the Pact trying a bit over enthusiastically to defeat Mordremoth and ultimately screwing up.

His death is something I strongly for see if he is involved in S2, he is a char few like but he could be atoned for by having a pretty epic ending if they do it right.

3. Mordremoth and the Nightmare Minions

Its awakening has now stirred the very likely chance we are going to see jungle dragon minions for the first time, proper ones, not the nightmares experiments, but actual jungle dragon corrupted Sylvari, among other races.

4. The possible redemption of Faolain and the Nightmare Court

This is something of an interesting idea ive had for a while now but after initially going after Mordy’s corrupt influences perhaps she see’s the destruction wrought by the dragon to her own distaste or perhaps regrets it after realizing the raw destruction it unleashes.

I personally find the idea of the Nightmare Court “eventually” pairing with the Dreamers to be an interesting twist, the idea that the former enemy becomes your eventual ally, and the two finally mingle as one, in the balance of all things.

Caithe, Treaherne and Faolain could be very central to this.

5. The other races

While I do think Mordy is gonna be a Sylvari and Jungle heavy figure I think the Asura will get a lot of love and hopefully given the vicinity to the Maguuma they will have the closest impact to it.

The inquest is likely to make a prominent return with this new interesting dragon energy to exploit, and possibly a replacement for their former leader Kudu (in fact Mai-Trin would be perfect for that given she no longer has Scarlet telling her what to do).

As a secondary villain Mai would be ideal for the secondary antagonist role, and I actually like the idea of a reoccurring bad guy, she seems perfect for this since she’s now escaped our clutches and is off causing more chaos once again. I kinda hope she doesn’t die, she could be fun for a fairly long while yet.

I also like the idea that home front escalations, such as the Humans and Charr having increased tensions over Ascalon, while the Norn mediate things, which could explain why the Sylvari/Asura become the central races of this season, assuming they go that way.

What ever happens, id like to see two major things happen with this arc:

The return of the Pact.

And the Return of Mai Trin and Faolain.

I really hope the rise of Mordrimoth isnt showing what going to happen in season 2 but rather a preview of the next part of personal story. I would hate to be a player that came in late and find out you can’t kill the Jungle Dragon cause it was temporary content.

It would be nice to have the White Mantle return in the next LS and maybe bring the bloodstones back too.

Silvercyclone.1462:

I really hope the rise of Mordrimoth isnt showing what going to happen in season 2 but rather a preview of the next part of personal story. I would hate to be a player that came in late and find out you can’t kill the Jungle Dragon cause it was temporary content.

It would be nice to have the White Mantle return in the next LS and maybe bring the bloodstones back too.

Agreed. If killing mordrimoth is apart of LS, there needs to be a lead up that is instanced re-playable content, before you kill him in an instance with a lot of npcs to compensate for not being able to do it with live players.

I don’t think killing Mordremoth will be part of the LS admit-tingly but I do think what we will likely see is a lot centered around the actions of this newly awakened behemoth of a beast causing chaos in the Magus Falls, corrupting a certain “other” pale tree now that its no longer dormant, and quite likely leaving a miasma not so unlike that scarlet inflicted on LA all over Magus.

I have also conjured something else around all this…

If we are to assume that the globe located in the order of whispers HQ is the entirety of Tyria’s full world map (including Cantha, Elona, Battle Isles etc) then one must also assume there are A LOT more than 6 primal dragons, since the world would be FAR too expansive for just six.

That implies that dragons could go as far as being an entire world-amassing species, there are probably hundreds of them all over Tyria.

We also know not all dragons are evil, not just through glint, but through the Dragons in Cantha too.

It certainly asks a great question as to the actual number of dragons beyond the continent of Tyria there potentially are, in GW2.

However, that’s speculation for another time, for Season 2:

Id prefer white mantle returning in Season 3, when we have finished up with the Sylvari, so far we have a lot of Sylvari things happening and I don’t think we’ve “quite” milked that ship to its fullest potential, yet, its not sinking, in contrast, Mordremoth now opens an entire new window for Sylvari lore we haven’t explored before, just how untouchable are they?

However, I do think that Rox, Braham, and Kas/Jory can take a back seat for the next season, I think really we should use that season to give more attention to Taimi, Zojja, Vopp, Treaherne, Caithe, Faolain and existing Sylvari/Asura characters that really need more recognition.

I also think its a good time to bring more Kiel and Evon rivalry into the fore, and give us a kitten good reason why we should have sided with Evon in the first place aside from the “I was right” captain smug syndrome he radiates.

I was gonna hope for South Sun stuff and maybe that will come as a one off thing during S2, but ultimately what id like Season 2 of living world to do is “focus” on a single storyline and do all it can to push every part of that singular plot with a couple of sub stories in the middle of it.

Keep the element of consistency that the last 4 updates have had, and that will make LS more interesting in my opinion. That way it doesn’t feel as much of a cluster F- when things go into the territory of random, but rather a small break from the middle of the ongoing things.

I expect that we’ll see an annoying sylvari come into the story and steal the show, torquing off nearly everybody. You know, like we did in the Personal Story, and in Season One.

This time, there’s a reason for sylvari to enter the picture in a big way. Considering how they shoved them at it without reason before, I’m pretty sure they’re going to go at it with both barrels this time.

Beyond that, I hope they work on setting up a group of rival heroes for us to run into. We’ve already got Destiny’s Edge 2: Edge Harder. Consider them Kiel’s team. So, what we should start to run into is Evon’s team. There’s a whole new dragon out there, and new areas should be opening up. (We’ll have to wait and see, though. ANet’s track record with this gives me little hope.) There will be new discoveries, inventions, artifacts, and weapons as the story progresses. And why would Evon not be involved through his own team, especially if Kiel’s the go-to authority for the current group?

A rival team of heroes gives us opponents we can keep running into and being in conflict with, but doesn’t give us the need to kill them. We can run into them in a bar during down time, or maybe share information with them to help untangle a plot. We can’t do that with an actual villain (usually). They might save us, we might save them. They could even have someone go rogue and come to us for help. Lots of story potential there.

Captain Vanguard brings up a good question, which is: how many Elder Dragons are there? Is Mordremoth the last dragon to awaken?

Whether Mordremoth is the last dragon or not, the ending to this first season of LS has severe implications. At first, I found it strange that Anet should awaken another dragon instead of moving the game toward the other Elder Dragons. After all, shouldn’t the Orders and the players be focused on fighting the dragons they already know exist?

But, when I think about it, this adds a whole new dynamic to the Elder Dragon conquest. As of now, there is a rough stalemate between the “good” races of Tyria and the Elder Dragons. Now, with another dragon present, the balance is disrupted. Although Zhaitan is dead, his armies still linger, and they still possess the ability to string body parts together into Risen Abominations.

This ending to the LS has great potential in completely altering the mechanics of the GW2 world and the struggle with the Elder Dragons. I really hope to see the Elder Dragons become a stronger, united presence which poses a serious threat to the future of Tyria.

So let me get this straight, you think the pact should have let everyone in Lion’s Arch die so they could go off and fight Primordus, who isn’t even on the surface. Or Bubble, who’s gods know where in the ocean? Or Jormag, who’s way up north in the mountains?

Am I missing something here? Why are you all set on the idea it’s Mordremoth the Jungle dragon in the cinematic. It could be Primordus. The destroyers already feature in GW2 and it’s a story arc left open from the good ol’ GW1 days. I would prefer it to be Primordus.

DarcShriek.5829:

So let me get this straight, you think the pact should have let everyone in Lion’s Arch die so they could go off and fight Primordus, who isn’t even on the surface. Or Bubble, who’s gods know where in the ocean? Or Jormag, who’s way up north in the mountains?

Lol, no. I’m not questioning why the Orders aren’t attacking the dragons, I’m questioning why ArenaNet has chosen to bring in a new dragon. I see great potential in it, and I hope they use the idea for good reasons.

I understand that Scarlet was more important, but that’s exactly it. I’m hoping Scarlet and Mordremoth’s supposed return will distract the Orders, or at least lead to more chaos, war, struggle.

Primarily, I want there to be a reason why Anet is introducing a new dragon rather than letting us fight the other ones. I really hope they’ll take the idea and expand it, make all the dragons a problem rather than just Mordremoth (as was the case with Zhaitan in the Personal Story). Because Mordremoth is being introduced through the Living World, I really hope Anet will implement the dragon into the whole world rather than just building a single storyline with a single dragon.

Animal: They blatantly confirmed its Mordremoth, they even added a Twitter account that Scarlet Briars twitter now follows.

Regarding the future methods of Living World:

Story is a two sided coin, make it too one dimensional it becomes boring, too diverse, it becomes confusing.

The danger is they go for the confusing path that Living World has done this Season that left a lot more people upset than happy because of its frustratingly loophole filled plot devices.

While I don’t think its a bad idea to have breaks from a main plot, I think its better to have “one” story over many, because at least then you can focus entirely on developing that segment of the world, before moving on, which in a way, works more favorably to giving conclusion and letting us change the flow of storyline somewhere new.

Idea for Catchup:
The Atlas System is interesting to generate little snippets of teasers for the future, but using it to reference the past is pretty lame, honestly.

My suggestion, is a lore book, in game, that speaks to the player, using the talented voice acting of that wonderful woman in the trailers for the content. It tells us the dictated story lines of events we have missed in a story format e.g. “The Legend Of Scarlet Briar” (Season 1 Recap).

Season 2 could have something like “The Wrath of Mordremoth” which gives you parts of the entire story that are filled in as each previous piece of content is left behind. That way the story is more complete until you have caught up to the current events.

Idea For Flow:
To make the pacing better again, as suggested at my OP, consider the focus of a story to be generally “the main plot” with a few side stories to help develop stuff going on outside it. But ultimately, keep the main arc of each “season” generally focused on one thing at a time.

The format id go for is:

1 Main Story
2 Side Stories
1 Character Personal Arc (e.g. a personal story about Rox or Braham) and their personal background development
1 Random Event (Not including Seasonal Events) per year

This to me would be the ideal way to make the story work favorably, so you have the main plot, in S2’s case it could be, Mordremoth, while having 2 side stories, which could be…

Evon Gnashblade forming his own Lionguard replacement or joining the consortium and becoming its president, rivaling the Lionguard for rights to control LA’s future.

Tensions between The Ministry and the Royalty escalate in Kryta, leading to a crucial decision that will change the fate of the leadership of DR forever.

Personal story example:

Jory and Kas are having a wedding! They need the players to help prepare for the celebrations while former enemies of both (from their personal past) try to ruin the affair.

Random Event:

Something akin to Dragonbash, with some ceremonial value to a certain race (or races) of Tyria.

Thats’ the format id go for, with most of the additions focusing on Mordremoth, the Magus Falls/Maguuma Wastes, the Sylvari/Asura involvement and the main chars of both races being heavily involved in the plot of S2.

Having Trehearne turn into a Nightmare, and brutally killing him leaf by leaf would feel absolutely amazing.

Animal Uta.6934:

Am I missing something here? Why are you all set on the idea it’s Mordremoth the Jungle dragon in the cinematic. It could be Primordus. The destroyers already feature in GW2 and it’s a story arc left open from the good ol’ GW1 days. I would prefer it to be Primordus.

In books Primordus was stopped from rising to the surface so it will take him a while to find another volcano.

Avascar.9237:

Having Trehearne turn into a Nightmare, and brutally killing him leaf by leaf would feel absolutely amazing.

He is already dead he absorbed all the death magic from soil in ore. There is a reason he didn’t come to fight zitan. you put a plant in bad soil it dies. Which is why he was spent after the ritual and in My Story he never recovered. And we haven’t seen him since.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

5. The other races

While I do think Mordy is gonna be a Sylvari and Jungle heavy figure I think the Asura will get a lot of love and hopefully given the vicinity to the Maguuma they will have the closest impact to it.

I’m willing to be Miss “I’m Obsessed with Scarlet” (the female Asura) is likely the engineer suggested in the consoles aboard Scarlet’s ship.

Animal Uta.6934:

Am I missing something here? Why are you all set on the idea it’s Mordremoth the Jungle dragon in the cinematic. It could be Primordus. The destroyers already feature in GW2 and it’s a story arc left open from the good ol’ GW1 days. I would prefer it to be Primordus.

Well allegedly the Destroyers are hard at work and assaulting Kingdom Of The Winds directly. But I’m pretty sure Primordus was forced back into hiding and that most definitely is Mord.

Now Anet has claimed in the past that the Elder Dragons all have motives of their own. Who is to say Primordus (while supposedly the smallest of them) isn’t the one to go around scorching Mord’s efforts. This could be a chance not only to introduce Primordus in the climax but see “Dragon on Dragon” where Primordus’ disgust for the humanoid races is only quenched with his/its interest to see plant life (Mord) burn.

Interesting idea, dragon v dragon, but I think that if anything like that were to happen it’d be more likely Primordus Vs Jormag.

A actual dragon fight would be ‘awesome’ to say the least, but do remember, even if they fight each other, who ever wins, we loose, they have no redeeming qualities and have no care for anyone between the destruction.

Which means we get to nuke the winner with what ever powerful weapon we develop magical, technological, or old ancient powers to use against them both.

However, Id save the Dragons themselves for Personal Story and expansions, the Living Story could have dragon minions, and dragon influence, but actual dragons might be pushing it too far, plus it eliminates the suspense if we go through the “systematically killing off every dragon” story.

Well considering we (with the Pact) did kill Zhaitan, I’d say any of the remaining EDs will consider us as their biggest threat and enemy. Why would they waste time and energy fighting each other?

They despise each other, as stated blatantly in GW2’s manual, they don’t do “working together” for any reason.

They’re utter primordial disdain of one another is their weakness, they refuse to ally for a good reason, they are primal, primitive, savage, they lack any true sentience.

The Dragons only interest is to devour Tyria’s magic and anything that can create high levels of Magic.

They are basically like the Reapers from ME, destroying civilization to its foundation when it becomes to great, the only difference is, they aren’t some cooperative AI working to achieve it together, they just destroy civilization because by that point it becomes a giant “eat this magic buffet” contest and every dragon is after the first bite, with no care or empathy for their kin.