Guild Wars 2

So, ive been going through alot of speculation lately as to who E could potentially be, gathering som evidence from Season 1, 2, HoT, 3 and even Vanillia GW2.

Im beginning to have a very clear indicator as to who it might be.

So before I get to the identity, lets go through each major clue or two from each season and content update:

Vanillia: Your Herald

Your Herald, a mysterious benefactor that has been in touch with you since GW2’s launch seemed to be someone that was very interested in you. Now regardless of which race you play, this person exists from the start and constantly gives you information about all the characters in GW2’s Destinies Edge and their ongoing’s…

Now that could have been Treesus and very likely was Treaherne, however…

Im not entirley convinced it was, and heres why:

The manner in which E speaks to us in later episodes through mails is directly similar to the Herald from the launch of the game. Giving us tidbits of information worth knowing, then leaving it to us to handle the matter.

E clearly knows who we are, and has vast access to information beyond Kryta but also beyond alot of things.

As did the Herald.

Season 1 Clue’s, E’s identity part 1, and the clues in Season 1 that link him

So getting to E’s actual name lets go to the point.

E is Lord Faren.

Lets look at some clues in Season 1 that actually make this plausable:
- Faren was convinently present with Kasmeer when Southsun was introduced, at first he is seen trying to hit on her only to get rejected, but maybe he was here because he knew we would be.
- E is noted to be male in Jory’s backstory, and is supposedly involved in the political affairs of DR, saying the city is corrupted and that they could be an ideal team in exposing that corruption.
- Faren appears to directly come to the aid of Jennah during Scarlets reveal, only to fall to his seeming death, a death that no normal person could have survived. But Faren isnt normal, and we will learn why in later explination.
- After defeating Scarlet, Faren sends you a letter directly asking you not to speak of his involvement in Season 1 at all to anyone.

Season 2, E talks to us

- In the finale of Season 1, just before waiting for Season 2 to start, you get a letter from E saying that he’ll be in touch.
- Most of E’s letters refer to alot of broad information around the world, but he especially takes an interest in Krytan politics.
- E seems able to follow us, literally everywhere, and is clearly keeping tabs on us, via Kasmeer, which we will learn about soon.
- E was teased alot in Season 2, but we never saw his reveal, we were falsely believed to suspect chars like Ogden might be E, but thats unlikley, given Ogden is not interested in the world beyond the priory and keeping an interest in archived information.
- Faren is present during the events of Kasmeers investigation, convinent coincidence?

Heart of Thorns, the Playful Fool:

- We dont learn much of E here, but we do see Faren convinently appearing on his flier, something that he obviously purchased with alot of expensive money to afford a travel into the Maguuma.
- Why else would Faren do this if not to keep an eye on us, while acting like he’d gone native, he was actually able to keep monitoring us through the stranded refugee’s on his side and loyal pay.
- Faren may not show up again in the Maguuma, but he was convinently in the same region that only a heartbeat away, Season 3 begins aswell as the raid.

The White Mantle ties, the Mesmer Order, Kasmeer, and Faren:

- Season 3 clues are much more clear still, Faren is involved as ever in the protection of the Queen in the recent episode.
- Kasmeer is mysteriously missing, and letters from E suggest Kasmeer is Involved with E directly, via the mesmer order, that he supposedly owns.
- If this is true, then Faren surviving the fall in Season 1 makes sense, he could have easily created a clone of his own to trick everyone as that would make Faren a mesmer too.
- Faren is seen being fawned over by a white mantle agent in cadecus manor, a comedic jape, or a convinent teaser as to what we are ignoring?
- Finally, E clearly has influence on even the court itself. Going back to human noble personal story, Faren and Anise can work together and do work together to help defeat certain affiliates of Cadecus. Affiliates that E seems eager to be rid of, among many others. E is also convinced that Cadecus will involetnarily lead you to him, which is part of the reason he wants him to die.
- E clearly has influence on the shining blade, as Anise herself is distressed and willing to do anything to see Cadecus die, clearly she knows who E might be, or, she knows he is powerful enough to make even her uncomfortable.

Faren is E, but theres more:

- Faren isnt just E, Faren has always BEEN E from the start, he has had the power to do alot to us but chose to let us do things for him instead. He is rich, powerful, influencial and clearly has little damage done to his economic power even having lost an entire airship.
- He is your Herald, the one thats been keeping an eye on you, why? We dont yet know, he could be a villian, he could be an anti-villian using you for his own gain, but one thing is clear, hes using you, for some reason.
- He acts like a fool because that is exactly the point, hes a fool to the public eye, an idiot that couldnt POSSIBLY deal with the complex workings of Kryta, but remember, as a human noble, he activly fights to save people from bandits, hes not a coward, even if hes not exactly brave either.
- Hes clearly a Mesmer, theres no way he’d survive falling from the pavilion any other way, and theres no way he’d be able to pull off as many deceptions as he has without that kind of power. He could be on par if not stronger still than Jennah herself.
- If he truly is E, and im right on this, then he apparently has plans for Logan, which involve keeping him alive for now, and getting him away from Jennah.

Could Faren be planning to kill the Queen? Maybe.

But its clear hes not all innocent or naieve as he appears to be.

I agree with you and you pointed out a lot more details than I have in my past posts on the subject. I just want to stay on record with my certainty that Faren is pulling a Scarlet Pimpernel act to the max.

If I didn’t have a nasty headache right now, I would search out all my posts saying exactly that and link them here …

Now, I won’t be upset if I turn out to be wrong on this. I was wrong about no gliding in central Tyria, for one thing. Generally in life I try to avoid ever stating categorically that something is a fact (it’s the lawyer in me, always leave room for caveats) but since I want E to be Faren, I’m going to stubbornly maintain that he is until ANet proves otherwise.

Hmm…there used to be many Heralds in the game.

Can Mesmers make illusions of other entities, other than themselves?

No idea if Faren is E. Lol, maybe it’s Blaine, or maybe Faren is Blaine. Who knows???

CaptainVanguard.4925:

- Kasmeer is mysteriously missing, and letters from E suggest Kasmeer is Involved with E directly, via the mesmer order, that he supposedly owns.

THIS has no founding, and your argument banks on either E or Faren having that kind of power. Unless you have proof that E owns the mesmer collective, you don’t have a standing.

Plus, Faren was captured by Scarlet, being freed by Rox and Braham, so he definitely wasn’t an illusion when he fell. He also, as you mention, specifically asks you not to tell anyone about his involvement and capture by Scarlet.

Also, Kasmeer could be missing for a variety of reasons, including, as you say, possibly working for the mesmer collective. No evidence suggests that E has ANY connection with the mesmer collective at all (though this may be due to both E’s secrecy AND the secrecy of the mesmer collective), and E contacting Kasmeer in the lake doric messages says this exactly:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/E's_Correspondence

There is NO connection to the mesmer collective implied in this note. Remember, E has contacted us before for seemingly random things that turned out to be kind of important before. In this specific case, we the commander had no special skills that E would need, but Kasmeer did, opting to contact her instead of us or the group (though apparently the letter never reached her if we find it in lake doric) (it is possible that a second letter could have been sent out and DID reach her). To add on to this, he specifically mentions to go to a member of the shining blade or seraph guard, not one of his agents or the mesmer collective, either of which could have significantly more sway with the shining blade and seraph than someone who had her nobility taken away from her.

Also, the least intelligent thing for someone like E to do would be to get in on the action himself, as Faren does in the Maguuma jungle. If your job is to be an informant, you generally stick to the shadows and stay out of the limelight. Faren does things that could immediately lead to his demise, because the jungle has a TON of things that could instantly kill. How could Faren continue to communicate with his agents if he was stuck in the jungle, fighting for his own survival. Faren eventually does lead the nobles to safety, but that’s still a long road to take.

Also, I don’t see why your herald could be E. There just isn’t enough information to connect the two. I don’t see why E would be so concerned with you until you kill Zhaitan. We’d have proven ourselves far before then in the eyes of, essentially, every character in existence. That’s WHY we were raised to commander of the pact, second in command to Trahearne.

It’s an interesting theory, but there’s not enough evidence to prove your theory and some evidence to go against it. It’s not a strong case.

Interesting theory!

One aside: Faren could have the fall-damage-reduction trait. No mesmering necessary.

Please no more mesmers. Last episode got Queen Jennah, Lady Valette Wi, Minister Estelle, many white mantle mesmers, Anise.

I have never deleted the mail from Faren. It reads far more as “please don’t tell anyone you saw me in my speedo in a cauldron being groomed as a toy by an insane plant” rather than a clandestine superspy missive. I mean, yes, I do think he’s E, but I think that letter was in line with his cover persona

Btw I still have the letter, never deleted it.

You have a few interesting counter points Castle, but heres mine to counter them:

Faren HAS been seen in the past with Kasmeer on at LEAST two occasions, in Season 1 during Southsun as I pointed out, he was hitting on her, or at least pretending to which suggests he could have been doing that to keep an eye on the activities of the COMMANDER while he was there using that as a false pseudonim, he probably knew she was gay.

A-net also stated a long while ago in one of its older live streams that we have SEEN E, and that they ARE a character we’ve met before. Which means E is someone we Actually KNOW in game, rather than some red herring new chracter we’ve never met to date.

Narrowing the list down this does not give us many other options, Ogden? Maybe, but unlikley, he didnt have enough of a crucial role in the story to be E.

It could be our infamously missing friend Malyck but I doubt that, E apparently has been around a while. And if E is powerful enough to simply tell Kasmeer what to do, aswell as suggest Logan still has a purpose in his agenda’s, then E is someone in a very high position.

Someone in the nobility.

This doesnt really give us many other options. It might not be Faren, hell it could be Baroness Jesamine but I doubt that. Shes clearly smart enough to lead the nobles to safety which is fine, but Faren is the only one that actually owned the ship to get them into trouble in the first place.

Dont forget Farens famous quote: “Im rich you know!” Faren is rich, he has money, that money means he also has power.

If he wanted to afford people he probably could. Also theres another interesting clue thats actually based on a piece of cut-content.

Lady Wisteria Wiskington.

While that cat is hilariously over-dosed on bloodstone theres something else you should know about her. Faren retreated from DR to Southsun in the first place because he got into trouble with people who wanted Chauncy Von Snuffles to win some kind of cat contest, and he clearly gave the winning prize to Wisteria.

Given she is likley Cadecus pet cat, that means he was bribed, by the white mantle to do just that. Consider Faren’s attire colour, red, white he has the apt look of a mantle agent in disguise.

My suspicion is that E is a former or current mantle agent from a different cell, that he left the mantle or sought to change it, and now he is currently involved in or leader of the Mesmer Order.

More importantly, hes Faren, because he has the money, to make that kind of difference while other members might have the influence.

Faren is also highly involved in politics of Kryta, given the Human Noble story, and E is clearly a politician of some sort.

Put it this way, it could all be an elaborate lie and E could just be a red herring character we’ve never met before. There are a few other posibilities such as Jory’s father who according to Jory “wasnt nice like your daddy” (to kasmeer) but again, thats a character mentioned, and A-net has stated we already know who E is a few years back. If thats changed thats up to them, but im sure they left us enough clues to figure it out.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

You have a few interesting counter points Castle, but heres mine to counter them:

Faren HAS been seen in the past with Kasmeer on at LEAST two occasions, in Season 1 during Southsun as I pointed out, he was hitting on her, or at least pretending to which suggests he could have been doing that to keep an eye on the activities of the COMMANDER while he was there using that as a false pseudonim, he probably knew she was gay.

This is sounding more like a conspiracy theory rather than something that’s actually true. Just because two characters meet twice doesn’t mean that one of them is using the other to keep an eye on the commander. That’s a huge stretch. You also don’t mention the second time that they meet.

A-net also stated a long while ago in one of its older live streams that we have SEEN E, and that they ARE a character we’ve met before. Which means E is someone we Actually KNOW in game, rather than some red herring new chracter we’ve never met to date.

Narrowing the list down this does not give us many other options, Ogden? Maybe, but unlikley, he didnt have enough of a crucial role in the story to be E.

“Met” is a very vague word. It could be any countless npcs that we’ve met or interacted with. Doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a character we’ve been seeing consistently.

It could be our infamously missing friend Malyck but I doubt that, E apparently has been around a while. And if E is powerful enough to simply tell Kasmeer what to do, aswell as suggest Logan still has a purpose in his agenda’s, then E is someone in a very high position.

Someone in the nobility.

“The power to tell someone what to do” is the farthest thing from meaning “nobility”. There’s a much simpler fact to go against this. Jory has had contact with E before. E has been a reliable source for numerous events happening before, he confronted Jory IN PERSON. She never saw his face or what he looked like in any matter. But she knows he’s real and that he’s proved himself to be trustworthy. Kasmeer would, by every indication, trust E through Jory trusting him. This isn’t some conspiracy that kasmeer is in on or something like that. E has power because he has knowledge and information. Not because he has money. Money helps of course, but it is not the sole indicator of power.

This doesnt really give us many other options. It might not be Faren, hell it could be Baroness Jesamine but I doubt that. Shes clearly smart enough to lead the nobles to safety which is fine, but Faren is the only one that actually owned the ship to get them into trouble in the first place.

We know for a fact that E is male because of Jory’s interaction with him.

Dont forget Farens famous quote: “Im rich you know!” Faren is rich, he has money, that money means he also has power.

If he wanted to afford people he probably could.

Again, money isn’t the only source of power or influence.

Faren retreated from DR to Southsun in the first place because he got into trouble with people who wanted Chauncy Von Snuffles to win some kind of cat contest, and he clearly gave the winning prize to Wisteria.

“Giving someone the winning prize” is not how a competition works.

Given she is likley Cadecus pet cat, that means he was bribed, by the white mantle to do just that. Consider Faren’s attire colour, red, white he has the apt look of a mantle agent in disguise.

That is quite easily tin foil hat theory levels of conspiracy theory. This is like saying anyone wearing gold and blue is shining blade. Including players. The colour of clothes one wears is not an indication of faction.

My suspicion is that E is a former or current mantle agent from a different cell, that he left the mantle or sought to change it,

Current? No way. Even former is extremely hard to believe. It’s possible but not likely. Besides E informed us about activity that has nothing to do with white mantle, so there’s that to consider.

(Part 1 of 2)

and now he is currently involved in or leader of the Mesmer Order.

There is literally no evidence to suggest such. None. What reason do you have for suggesting this?

More importantly, hes Faren, because he has the money, to make that kind of difference while other members might have the influence.

I know I keep hammering this point but you can have influence without money.

Faren is also highly involved in politics of Kryta, given the Human Noble story, and E is clearly a politician of some sort.

Again this has no evidence whatsoever. Yes Faren is involved because he is nobility, but there is ZERO indication of E being a politician. Being interested in politics does not make one a politician, and also Krytan politics is clearly not E’s primary concern, considering everything with Scarlet he advised us on.

Put it this way, it could all be an elaborate lie and E could just be a red herring character we’ve never met before. There are a few other posibilities such as Jory’s father who according to Jory “wasnt nice like your daddy” (to kasmeer) but again, thats a character mentioned, and A-net has stated we already know who E is a few years back. If thats changed thats up to them, but im sure they left us enough clues to figure it out.

Clearly there is a lack of evidence as to who E is to make ANY assertions at all. Faren is not more likely than any other character. In fact he is less likely because he’s in the spotlight, which someone of E’s caliber would definitely not be. E works so effectively because nobody sees him. Nobody could possibly think “oh, this person must be the leader of a shadow organisation” because people barely interact with him. Being in the spotlight means someone is going to investigate you. Scarlet knows about the players personal story stuff because we’ve been in the limelight, she knows things that basically nobody knows. Because we were in the spotlight, she could check on our background, look things up and discover things almost nobody else knew. That’s the danger of being up front and center. Faren is upfront and center. His past will surely haunt him. Especially because he’s portrayed as someone who doesn’t think straight sometimes. Your “evidence” is anecdotal at best and based on imaginary information at worst. The theory has zero basis in facts. Quite honestly a red herring character is more likely than Faren considering all the evidence.

One other thing. There is something that could blow your theory out of the water entirely. Does E mail us while Faren is in captivity? If he does, then we have solid proof that there is no way possible for Faren to be E. If he doesn’t, then you’d have your very first piece of evidence to suggest that it’s Faren, not definite truth.

(Part 2 of 2)

Typing from my phone is a pain….

castlemanic.3198:

Clearly there is a lack of evidence as to who E is to make ANY assertions at all. Faren is not more likely than any other character. In fact he is less likely because he’s in the spotlight, which someone of E’s caliber would definitely not be. E works so effectively because nobody sees him. Nobody could possibly think “oh, this person must be the leader of a shadow organisation” because people barely interact with him. Being in the spotlight means someone is going to investigate you. Scarlet knows about the players personal story stuff because we’ve been in the limelight, she knows things that basically nobody knows. Because we were in the spotlight, she could check on our background, look things up and discover things almost nobody else knew. That’s the danger of being up front and center. Faren is upfront and center. His past will surely haunt him. Especially because he’s portrayed as someone who doesn’t think straight sometimes. Your “evidence” is anecdotal at best and based on imaginary information at worst. The theory has zero basis in facts. Quite honestly a red herring character is more likely than Faren considering all the evidence.

The problem is, that’s pretty much exactly how the Scarlet Pimpernel worked. Everyone knew Sir Percy Blakeney. Everybody knew him as a fop who couldn’t possibly manage a secret organisation. Nobody bothered to investigate because everything “knew” he couldn’t hide his underwear, let alone anything significant.

draxynnic.3719:

The problem is, that’s pretty much exactly how the Scarlet Pimpernel worked. Everyone knew Sir Percy Blakeney. Everybody knew him as a fop who couldn’t possibly manage a secret organisation. Nobody bothered to investigate because everything “knew” he couldn’t hide his underwear, let alone anything significant.

I mean, I guess that could work. I’ve been so caught up in basically all the other details that I didn’t consider that this specific thing may be possible. This may be the only legitimate argument for Faren possibly being E. But considering that, it still doesn’t seem likely that E would get on an airship that was going to fight Mordremoth. Wouldn’t E be smarter than that? Especially considering that fighting Zhaitan wasn’t flawless in Arah, E would be smart enough to know that Mordremoth could present a challenge that airships may not be able to handle. It turned out that the jungle dragon could annihilate the entire fleet, I don’t believe anyone could have forseen that, but surely E would consider his own safety a priority over putting up an image, right? Especially after a fall like Faren faced when he tried to save the queen, if E was Faren, he could have come up with the excuse of being ‘afraid of heights’ and avoided getting on an airship to begin with. Faren/E acting like he would forget which half of Divinity’s Reach he lives in to dance around being investigated, I get. Faren/E buying an airship and going forth into what could possibly be a dangerous situation that may result in instant death seems reckless for someone of E’s caliber.

Also, checked up on the Faren being kidnapped thing and whether E sent mail or not during that time. According to the wiki, the time period seems too short for E to have done anything, whether he was Faren or not. After Faren falls, Scarlet uses a teleportation device and we immediately talk to Emissary Vorpp, who ends up reverse engineering a portal into Scarlet’s playhouse. According to the dialogue, we knew where the playhouse was just after Faren got kidnapped, so there’s that too. This just doesn’t provide enough time for E to send a correspondence if he wasn’t Faren, or for there to be a gap worthy of noticing if Faren WAS E, so this point is null.

If we work on the assumption that Faren is inspired by the Scarlet Pimpernel, though, that actually fits. The Scarlet Pimpernel wasn’t afraid of putting himself in the line of danger. Like everyone in the Pact, too, E probably underestimated Mordremoth’s ability to take down a fleet – he probably felt that the risk inherent on being in an airship that was hanging back from the fighting was worthwhile.

In fact, in some ways that sequence is evidence for Faren being more competent than he appears. Everyone laughs at Faren becoming “one with the jungle” and running around in a loincloth, but while they’re laughing at that they’re forgetting that Faren survived alone in a hostile jungle for several hours – or, rather, they’re too busy thinking “how did that idiot survive?” to actually try to answer that question.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

Given she is likley Cadecus pet cat, that means he was bribed, by the white mantle to do just that. Consider Faren’s attire colour, red, white he has the apt look of a mantle agent in disguise.

That’s pretty thin, but even if we accept it, there’s this – we know E had some interaction with the White Mantle, precisely with Caudecus as we know from “Master of Puppets” achievement. The “bribe” could have been the information provided and the outcome of the contest could have been E’s reply.

Personally, I like the “Faren theory”, because it makes a great story. Sure, Faren could be just a comic relief character. But I’d see this as a wasted potential.

Lord “E” Faren distant relative of Lord Humphrey Faren. The only reason I see it as plausible is because of This and This when this was probably written out in story board.

draxynnic.3719:

If we work on the assumption that Faren is inspired by the Scarlet Pimpernel, though, that actually fits. The Scarlet Pimpernel wasn’t afraid of putting himself in the line of danger. Like everyone in the Pact, too, E probably underestimated Mordremoth’s ability to take down a fleet – he probably felt that the risk inherent on being in an airship that was hanging back from the fighting was worthwhile.

In fact, in some ways that sequence is evidence for Faren being more competent than he appears. Everyone laughs at Faren becoming “one with the jungle” and running around in a loincloth, but while they’re laughing at that they’re forgetting that Faren survived alone in a hostile jungle for several hours – or, rather, they’re too busy thinking “how did that idiot survive?” to actually try to answer that question.

I concede, those are fairly good points.

I’m still not on board with the assumption that E is related to or the leader of the Mesmer Collective, nor do I believe that either Faren or E are either current or former members of the White Mantle. But otherwise, Faren might be E.

Yeah, I consider both of those claims to be a bit of a stretch myself. E having influence over Kasmeer does not mean he’s Mesmer Collective (in fact, if E was openly in the Mesmer Collective, I suspect Anise would know. From Party Politics, Anise is at least giving the impression that she doesn’t know who E is, although I note there’s the potential for her to be using Aes Sedai-style misdirection there).

Regarding his profession… there are a few places where he fights in-game, so it might be possible to get an idea of what profession he is by observing what he does.

Nor do I think there’s evidence that E is ex-White Mantle, just that E has an interest in the White Mantle.

E being Faren in general, though, I think is quite credible, and I’ve yet to see a better theory. (Doesn’t mean that there isn’t one, but I haven’t seen it.)