Guild Wars 2

In “Burden of Choice”, you talk to Historian Tranton in the Durmand Priory at least twice. Once after talking to Ogden, and then again after you’ve been waylaid by the Consortium rep.

My guildie and I, who were partied up whilst doing these events, noticed something really weird. Talking to Tranton for the first time showed him as a youngish-looking Canthan man — black hair, Asian features, mask over the lower half of his face.

When we came back after talking to the Consortium rep, we honestly didn’t notice what sort of face he had, but in the same instance I chose to have him use the Shadowstone on me. Cue crazy light show. And after THAT: he appeared as a ginger-haired Caucasian in perhaps his forties or fifties. See screenshot attached!

My guildie, who was piggybacking on my instance, did not choose either of the final options, instead opting to hold off for a few days. And when we switched places and I piggybacked on his instance, Tranton appears consistently as the ginger guy.

Anyone else notice this? Is it just a bug, or is this part of the story somehow?

I didn’t notice it when I experienced it but now that you mentioning it in hindsight I was kinda irritated and thought “Didn’t he have a mask on?” but didn’t think about it that much. :/ Weird!

(scratch that, doing more testing)

We’d thought for a while that his appearance was due to whether or not you were carrying the Reforged Shadowstone in your inventory, but after further testing it looks like it’s randomised each time you go in — sometimes he’s Canthan, sometimes ginger, may have nothing at all to do with the story per se … or maybe the player character is just going crazy.

very wierd not sure if its a bug tho do you think it might mean something?

This just happened to me, but the other way round, he was the older man before, now has the mask on.

I don’t have a screenshot from the first visit to him, but I got one of my second visit:
http://i.imgur.com/Z6QMNqu.jpg

Plot twist: there’s only one historian. He keeps slipping, slipping into the future (and the past), as a result of studying the rifts a little too closely.

Parallel Universes. I’m not joking.

I thought we heard something about a spy of the White Mantle in the Priory. Maybe he’s the one we’re talking about, disguised as Historian Tranton to get the Shadowstone.

He could be walking around without anyone noticing (similar to the fake Evon Gnashblade in L.A. – hey you look different?) and everytime the real Historian shows up, he just hides away.

However I think the spy was more related to the Bloodstone Dust dialogue of the cook. But maybe there are several spies.

Could be an interesting plot twist.

Maybe ‘the first one’ is just a generic historian. I found this one in Sparkfly Fen, and he looks quite familiar..

http://imgur.com/a/5LcYU

Lascax.2163:

Parallel Universes. I’m not joking.

That would explain a lot of what was going on with Auris as well. What if the Rifts are not just moving someone through space but also (through the mists) to a alternate reality? And now let’s grab our tinfoil heads for a second, what if our REAL world is just another reality in the mists, that once upon a time, had magic in it but is was all consumed buy elder dragons. O.o

mindblown

Glott.7239:

Lascax.2163:

Parallel Universes. I’m not joking.

…
mindblown

I’ll copypaste my theory posted on reddit.

Hear me out on this crazy theory ( SPOILER HoT Story ), but first here’s some speculation points I’ve made:
– Once I heard about a Prophecy being in the GW Lore that if the Magic would get too much unstable, Tyria will fall into the Mists
– Anomalies started to appear after Mordremoth’s demise, but there was also an anomaly at Thaumanova because there was an instability of the Leyline ( also it happened before Zhaitan’s death, so it’s possible the Leylines were unstable even then, but not like now ).
– Rytlock went back as Revenant after visiting the Mists. It’s clear that when he entered through the failed Ritual, he somehow got into unknown Mists caused by his act ( maybe there is even a Leyline in that place? ) and got his way back.
– Revenants started to appear, so people must have been visiting those Mists somehow since then ( maybe got into incidents like the Thaumanova ones or some Rifts ). Yeah, I’m accusing Rytlock to have caused more trouble to the Leylines through the Ritual.
Auris is an Aetherblade, acts like Thaumanova stranded asuras. I think he got into the Mists through the LA breach incident, during the Leyline excavation.
– Anomalies started to appear in the world after Mordy’s energy wave got through the Leylines. they mostly run away and they appear sad sometimes, even as a temporary mirage.

With those points, I think that Anomalies are just people stranded in the Mists that could not get back like Revenants. That’s why they’re mostly sad and rarely counter-attack. In fact when we transform as anomalies, we’re hostile to the others and we did cross some unstable rifts to cause that. Moreover, if we get back into the body we left in place, we’re back to normal.
But does it mean that all anomalies are people trying to get back in their bodies and that they could eventually do so? I THINK NOT. My speculation is that this explains WvWs maps in the Mists. Think about them: there’re armies that get arranged from time to time that battles each other in a plane that’s between the Mists. This means that parallel universes are real and that maybe those anomalies are people but NOT from our universe. Maybe even one universe where Tyria did fall into the Mists.

We’re killing people who got lost into the Mists from other universes.

NOTABLE ADDITION: [THIS THREAD ITSELF]
This proves that if you choose to experiment the Shadowstone on yourself, you’re going through a parallel universe.

we absorbed his soul and now he is a soulless ginger case closed.

in all seriousness thou, I would put this down as a bug. I doubt this as any meaning other than spaghetti code issues. mine didn’t change I choose to not use the snake oil and keep bloodstone thingy ma bob, then let the historian use it on me.

I cant tell if I’m cured or not thou yet

Different armor, as well. Odd.

I don’t know if my character (account?) is cured, but I’ve not seen a phantom Anomaly since.

I have, however, seen/heard my character(s?) scream.

I think that our Character is not cured. The Moment the Shadowstone was used on us our Character was in Pain and also transformed into an Anomaly for a short Time and now our Chars can Transform into Anomalies as well under the right Circumstances. We are still somewhat poisoned with too much Magic ( More than we can handle right now ) but I think that we will find a solution in the Future where we can handle this Amount of Magic without any ill Effects.

I can confirm this. My Trenton goes from Canthan to red head in his 40s… maybe its a Consortium spy and the real Trenton is now dead… (sorry for the image quality).

It may be related to the same way Auris (the rift stabilizer charr) seems to remember events differently from how we do while we are acquiring the device.

Also of note: “Tranton” is super close to “Trantor” (the city in Asimov’s Foundation series that is the center of an Empire, holds a vast library, and oh by the way the series features a historian who predicts the future). Could be an homage, could be a coincidence.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Plot twist: there’s only one historian. He keeps slipping, slipping into the future (and the past), as a result of studying the rifts a little too closely.

Look for the Tardis in the back of the room!

Isn’t it also speculated that hes the white mantle priory spy?

Lascax.2163:

Parallel Universes. I’m not joking.

Next expansion in The Upside Down?
http://strangerthings.wikia.com/wiki/Upside_Down

Lascax.2163:

- Anomalies started to appear in the world after Mordy’s energy wave got through the Leylines. they mostly run away and they appear sad sometimes, even as a temporary mirage.

With those points, I think that Anomalies are just people stranded in the Mists that could not get back like Revenants. That’s why they’re mostly sad and rarely counter-attack. In fact when we transform as anomalies, we’re hostile to the others and we did cross some unstable rifts to cause that. Moreover, if we get back into the body we left in place, we’re back to normal.
But does it mean that all anomalies are people trying to get back in their bodies and that they could eventually do so? I THINK NOT. My speculation is that this explains WvWs maps in the Mists. Think about them: there’re armies that get arranged from time to time that battles each other in a plane that’s between the Mists. This means that parallel universes are real and that maybe those anomalies are people but NOT from our universe. Maybe even one universe where Tyria did fall into the Mists.

We’re killing people who got lost into the Mists from other universes.

I’m not entirely sold on this, though the rest is interesting theory to ponder; the fact that the sad anomalies are client-side was, I thought, something to do with the player character’s own mental instability (due to leyline fluctuations or whatever) and that happened before the Shadowstone was used.

The player anomalies are something new, though, and when referring exclusively to them you may be onto something.

Thanks for all the theorycrafting guys, really interesting!

IXIDOR.6278:

Maybe ‘the first one’ is just a generic historian. I found this one in Sparkfly Fen, and he looks quite familiar..

http://imgur.com/a/5LcYU

Intriguing. I’ll confess I’ve not paid much attention to the consistency of NPC appearances unless they’re major characters, so I wonder how often this fluctuating face thing happens.

Glott.7239:

Lascax.2163:

Parallel Universes. I’m not joking.

That would explain a lot of what was going on with Auris as well. What if the Rifts are not just moving someone through space but also (through the mists) to a alternate reality? And now let’s grab our tinfoil heads for a second, what if our REAL world is just another reality in the mists, that once upon a time, had magic in it but is was all consumed buy elder dragons. O.o

mindblown

Lascax’s long theorycrafting post above seems to suggest that different worlds (home servers) in the game could be lore-bound as parallel universes, so yeah, that’s sort of feasible. Would be a little more strength to the theory if Auris disappeared from one instance of Fields of Ruin and appeared in another, and kept cycling through them whilst only ever appearing in one at a time (but that’d be a pain, gameplay-wise, if you were trying to do the rift events near there).

Aerinndis.2730:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Plot twist: there’s only one historian. He keeps slipping, slipping into the future (and the past), as a result of studying the rifts a little too closely.

Look for the Tardis in the back of the room!

^ This!