Guild Wars 2

This is basically some stuff I wrote for my guild, so I’m just going to copy paste it here. But I really think it would be interesting. Just for your info, i’m not sure about all of this, but most of the facts are actually from the Living World itself or the Guild Wars 1 and 2 Wiki.

And there will be a lot of possible spoilers, guesswork and stuff like that o.o.

I’m just copy pasting it, cause i actually don’t feel like rewriting it all. And it’s a lot of text to read as well, so enjoy it.

Fearan

Postby Fearan » Thu Jan 08, 2015 9:08 pm

Next Tuesday will be the release of the next Living Story Season 2 episode, that might be the final one for this season. As usual Arenanet has given us a nice trailer to get hyped up about it, and I have to say it is working for me so far. And it’s all about some tiny hints they put into the trailer that, I think at least, could open up some amazing possibilities for the future of Guild Wars 2. There is going to be a lot of speculation here and I hope you guys can keep up with me .

Here is the link to the trailer for those of you that haven’t seen it yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US3iSXm333I

A lot of things in this trailer is about the pact preparing for the final battle against Mordremoth, events in the Silverwastes and Caithe. But for me these aren’t the things that are actually really intriguing, for me the amazing things are basically some small parts of this trailer. And those little, and at first unimportant parts could imply so much for the future of the game that I just have to share it with you guys.

Some other things, not related to this trailer, are also interesting to mention. The first being that Guild Wars is celebrating it’s tenth anniversary this year.
The second is the announcement of one of the main stage acts of PAX South 2015 at January 24th, (south.paxsite.com/schedule/panel/guild-wars-2-beyond-the-point-of-no-return), featuring both the president of ArenaNet as well as the Guild Wars 2 game director for 1 hour and 30 minutes of main stage time to discuss

how we’re setting up a new framework for how a MMO can grow its universe. The Living World was just the beginning.

Interesting! And for some reason I cannot imagine those guys going on a stage to talk about a next feature pack or just a season three like the ones we had so far, so it should be something impressive.

So lets just start with the first of the things that is so interesting, the text that they put in that trailer :

When your world is threatened you must preppare. You can study your enemies and rally your allies. But then, you will face a decisive moment. You will reach a point of no return.
POINT of NO RETURN JANUARY 13TH

One of the things that is so obvious, is the constant repeating of the Point of No Return, but so far no one knows what that point of no return actually is going to be, but it sure is a promising sentence and I guess everyone has noticed that one.
The sentence that really stands out to me in this text is “You will reach”. I just always read “Elona Reach” after it, silly right? But I even did it the first time I read it, so just keep it in mind a bit.

The other two interesting things are actually related to each other and to Glint, the dragon from one of the previous LS episodes (and this is an important part of Season 2 lore). It’s the bright runes we get to see and the very short part in which a ghost appears.
The runes are without any doubt three of the Ascension Runes, from some missions we did during GW1 (and funny enough, one of them is Elona Reach) in order to reach that state, meet Glint and become one of the Chosen. The ghost is open for discussion, because it’s such a short frame and difficult to see him good enough, but he immediately felt somehow familiar to me. A lot of people think it could be the ghost of Prince Rurik (which could make sense considering Rytlock carries his sword), but I don’t agree. I’m actually convinced that this ghost is the Ghostly Hero who aided us through this same mission from GW1.

These two images, I think, directly point towards ascension. Ascension is one of the basic game mechanics in Guild Wars. It’s impossible to type all of it down but there is a lot about it to find in the GW Wiki. I will just show you something that is really interesting relating to GW2 and it’s future.

Ascension is described as a state of communion with the Old Gods. Among other benefits, those who succeed in attaining it are able to travel through the Mists, and with the right help can unlock hidden reserves of power. As well as being masters of their primary chosen heroic profession, Ascendants are able to grasp, to an extent, elements of all the other professions.

Ok, it’s not really that much that is written here, but if you look at it close enough you can see the enormous impact this could have. Communion with the Old Gods (Ritualists could do that). Travelling through the mist (o.o like we all know, the mists is where we can find our PVP arena’s, our borderlands, Eternal Battleground and even Edge of the Mist, in WVW, so could it be?). And Ascension is also one of the gameplay reasons why people could master two professions. Have you thought about our ascended gear and weapons, also related. This Ascension stuff could explain a lot of changes they might make, maybe? And there really is a lot more about this to learn, but I will leave it with this.

I do want to tell you more about the Ghostly Hero. He was our guide of course, but before that he was Turai Ossa, the guy that defeated Palawa Joko in Elona, the first ruler of an united Elona since the Primeval Kings. In the end he guided his people to the Crystal Desert to find Ascension. He died there, but he turned into a ghost and ended up being the one helping us reaching that state of Ascension.
When I read all this about Turai Ossa it made me think I of something I’ve had read somewhere on the wiki, but it took me a while to find because it was in the GW2 wiki. In the Gladium Canton in the Black Citadel, you can find Alain, a self-proclaime prophet, who has a really interesting dialogue.

Stop. Approach no further. You’re in the presence of the Al’Seen. Show him your respect. What’s wrong with you? The Al’Seen is perfect in every facet. He needs nothing and is nothing, and yet, he is everything! Enlighten me, deluded one. What’s an Al’Seen? It was prophecied over three hundred years ago: an Elonian, long from home, living beneath steel, would rise and lead his people back to the Crystal Desert. So, I’m guessing you think you’re this great hero? Perhaps there’s hope for the heathens who plague this metal monstrosity. When the moment arrives for me to lead my people home, I may allow you to travel with us. You’re aware the Crystal Desert is barren, right? The Al’Seen will make it fruitful again. All will bow to me, be it that pretender Palawa Joko or the Elder Dragons. The Al’Seen will be loved. The Al’Seen will become the ultimate.

Al’Seen? I can’t remember them, but I do remember the Unseen Ones, the Mursaat. They were the ones we needed to fight back then, and the reason why we needed to become one of the Chosen. Very interesting for sure, and I cannot stop thinking our Ghostly Hero might be the one mentioned here.

But how can all of this be connected to the Living Story? Cause during the storyline we have been going in the opposite direction so far, towards Mordremoth in the northwest and not the Crystal Desert in the southeast of the map. Completely the wrong direction for sure.

Let’s just think about it a bit, and this all is going to be purely speculation, what if WE are not going to fight Mordremoth?
What if the gathered troops of the pact would go into battle with Mordremoth, but we would not join in the fight? Imagine something going terribly wrong there and the world we have known so far in-game would actually be in terrible danger, and the Ghostly Hero, Turai Ossa, would be there to aid us and he would turn out to be that hero from legends that will return it’s people to the Crystal Desert? And what if we would be pushed out of those territories and we will reach Elona Reach, a point of no return?

I’m absolutely not sure about this all, and I can actually be completely wrong here, but it does sound intriguing. And, don’t forget, this is something that is massive enough to be announced during a major event as PAX South as something like setting up a new framework how a MMO can grow. And just imagine the impact it could have. Not only opening up new content, but also the things connected to chore game mechanics.

It would be amazing…….

Fearan

Ok, an update already (I just finished writing it yesterday o.o), but ArenaNet has published another teaser picture, just as the ones they did before.

Again, at first glance it looks like we are going to fight Mordy. What do we see here? We see the airships flying towards the sun to fight that dragon and a nice piece of text that says “There is no turning back”. Nice, we thought that would happen, right? We are going to finally fight it and we just cannot stop because we need to fight it, right?

Well, I actually don’t think so. Just take a better look at it, cause what do we really see?
Easiest to spot is the ground beneath the airships and I see mountains, forests and even a lake there, not what I would expect if we are heading towards Mordremoth. This doesn’t look like what I would expect the Maguuma wastes would look like at all.
And I’m not sure if I’m looking at the sun there, it’s a bit large, could it be the impact glow of a massive explosion as well. And that blue light in that airship? It looks like the same glow coming from the ghost from the trailer our ghostly hero (and you all read my thoughts about that guy). And finally, just reread that text there “There is no turning back”, and just take that literally, we cannot go back.

There is no turning back because our homes are destroyed maybe? Will we be trapped there? Maybe we didn’t join in the fights, what I originally thought, but it could also be that we did join. That blue light, if that’s the Ghostly Hero, he might even be our saviour. Maybe he guides us to the mists, through Ascension? He is supposed to live there according to the lore (Maybe we even get to see Rytlock again in the mists, cause I think he is there as well).
Interesting again, and they are doing a nice job keeping me excited for sure.

by Fearan » Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:19 am

Replayed the last living story episode to see if I could find something about Caithe’s story, and I’ve found some nice hints. And the true hints are really just a few again I think. Just a quick summary of it (ok maybe not really quick here).

At the start we are in the Grove and we meet the Avatar of the Pale tree, she is dying (is the Pale Tree dying as well?), and she says that WE are the ones that should take care of Glints seed (not Caithe). She gives us some memory Seeds, so we can retrace Caithe’s steps in the past.
The first memory seed shows us the Grove. Basically it shows us that there is a gap between the firstborn and the secondborn, even though they are all Sylvari they don’t seem to be the same. Also we see that Faolain is there, the leader of the Nightmare court (and those are not nice Sylvari imo) and she is talking to Caithe about Wynne and about something that would give incredible power. Another interesting thing here is the mentioning of Ventari, but more about him later.
In the next part we are going to the Inquest, the Asuran bad guys basically, and they hold some newlyborn Sylvari captive there. And I really get the impression that Faolain is actually trying to persuade Caithe to follow the wrong path, but I could be wrong there. Some things that are interesting is that Faolain said “I think Wynne is guarding an important secret. No one should control our fate.” and also that “I know she does. She said to Mother. “They can never know. It could exert unspeakable power over all sylvari. I must know what that power is.””.
In the final part we are going to the Silverwastes to search for clues about Wynne. Wynne has been searching for clues about Ventari (but Faolainn has no interest in him at all). At the end of this part we reach a dead end. A wall with two dragon like images upon it. The same wall we see in the trailer, only there it has the ascension runes in between those dragonlike things. Back in the real world, we show Marjory this wall. And what does she say? Basically Let’s go to the Durmand Priory, so i can investigate it further (again, just like in the trailer).

A lot of interesting stuff here for sure, but I’m not totally sure that I’m making the right connections right now, and it’s getting late, so just read the rest and keep it in mind.

Something that is mentioned a lot in this episode is Ventari, and I actually only knew the Toy Ventari, from Wintersday, but that guy, or centaur is actually amazing. He was a centaur elder in the Maguuma Wastes. He fled to the Tarnished Coast and, together with Ronan, planted the seed of the Pale Tree and founded the Grove. He also wrote down some things on the Ventari Tablet, but more about that later. Do you remember the small town of Ventari’s Refuge from GW1? He used to live there cause all of the planting the seed with Ronan actually starts in GW1, and this used to be here, in the region of Dry Top and the Silverwastes.
Now Ronan, he is an interesting character as well. Remember that he lived 250 years ago, but he was actually a member of the Shining Blade, the soldiers fighting the White Mantle and the Mursaat.He left the Shining Blade cause his family was murdered by the Mursaat. Interesting, the Mursaat connected to Caithes part of the storyline as well.
Now this Ventari Centaur wrote down some of his thoughts near the end of his life in the Ventari tablet, and these things are kind of amazing to read.

“Read the tablet. I. Live life well and fully, and waste nothing. II. Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots. III. The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul.
Continue reading. IV. All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed. V. Never leave a wrong to ripen into evil or sorrow. VI. Act with wisdom, but act.
Continue reading. VII. From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.”

These two people that are major plot figures of Caithe’s story turn out to be connected to my main thoughts as well. The Mursaat, Chosen, Ascension….. But her story was already connected of course, she is focused on the eggs of Glint. And Glint is, I think, a major connection to the Ascension/Mist related things (and I think these are the main reason why it all could be true). The same goes for that mysterious wall, only in the trailer it has the Ascension Runes in between the dragon like things.

But how else could all of this be connected? I just really think that it has something to do with the sylvari, more specifically the gap between the first and the secondborn. You would think it’s just about the difference between the nice sylvari and those of the Nightmare court, but I don’t really think that is it. Could it be that the first and secondborn sylvari just have a completely different mindset? They are different, you can see that in this episode. Also Cadeyrn is mentioned, and he was the first of the secondborn, the one that established the Nightmare Court to be freed from the Ventari tablets influence. What is so important in that small piece of text? From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you. ? Or is is “The blossom is brother to the weed.”? Could it even be that the sylvari and Mordremoth are actually related? Is it that the firstborn are maybe under Mordys influence, cause they follow the tablet? Why did the Pale Tree say WE needed to take care of the egg, and not Caihte? She is a firstborn afterall, and so is Wynne. And Faolain tries to persuade Caithe, i’m sure of that, but is Faolain being the bad guy here, or does it just look like that? Mysteries all over the place for real. And how about the Wynnes secret? It’s the egg for sure, I don’t doubt it, but why? This Ronan guy, he found the seed of the pale tree in a cave somewhere, so I think it might be this cave. Could Caithe want to bring the egg there? But why (again)?

There still is a lot uncertain to me, but I will try to find out if I can find some more connections.

Postby Fearan » Sun Jan 11, 2015 6:42 pm

I stumbled upon some interesting about the Dragons. Last time we fought the Dragons there were five races we know of that fought them; Forgotten, Seers, Dwarves, Jotun and….. Mursaat.
And I have the feeling that history could actually be repeating itself. Because if you look at those races and the ones we know of know its obvious to notice that Jotun and Norn are strickingly similar, and the dwarves and Assura as well. The forgotten/Seers resemble Human/Charrs. That would leave the Mursaat and the Sylvari, wich would make the final pair.
Here is an interesting part of my theory, we all know that the Mursaat betrayed the rest, what if the Sylvari are actually going to betray us as well? And it could happen if you look at my thoughts about the Sylvari.

When I shared this with some people, one of my guildmembers mentioned something amazing. He was convinced there were actually six races fighting the dragon, not just five. He remembered this scholar in the Durmand Priory.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scholar_Trueclaw
And this guy has some amazing dialogue going on. I’ll just quote the most interesting part here.

“Jotun, mursaat, forgotten, seer, dwarf. Five against six. It seems so unfair. And, yet…”

AND

“It’s accepted that there were five sentient races who fought the Elder Dragons the first time and survived. I’m studying them and looking for hints among their relics to how they did it. Only five races? That we know of. This was a very long time ago. I’m afraid none of them are coming forward with helpful information. We have the dwarven Tome of Rubicon, but it has been changed over the years. Changed how? Through copying and re-copying as the physical material of the tome degraded with time, I would imagine, though other, more political factors may have played a role.”

AND

“I have to sound smart all the time. Though, I’m learning a lot. I found out that there were five sentient races that fought the Elder Dragons the first time around… and survived to tell about it”

Now this is getting interesting for sure. There were actually SIX races and not FIVE that fought the Dragons, and this makes so much sense to me, but more about this later.
Another interesting stuff lies in him mentioning the dwarven Tome of Rubicon.

“The Great Destroyer has been cast down into the Depths. Never again shall its name be uttered, lest it rise up and bring ruin down upon the world.
— Tome of the Rubicon”

Is this Great Destroyer the dwarves believe in, actually a different way to describe the Dragons. How about their Deity, The Great Dwarf?

“when the Great Dwarf still walked on the world of Tyria, he used Anvil Rock as his forge, and at another time used the Anvil of Dragrimmar to forge weapons with the strength of the Dwarven people and shields as unbreakable as their collective will. Ages ago, the Great Dwarf battled against the Great Destroyer and in order to defeat the creature, stole its name and sealed it within the Tome of Rubicon. It is also said that when he left Tyria, he traveled to the Great Forge that lies within the Rift and currently rules there.”

“Legends tell of an anvil of great power called the Anvil of Dragrimmar. Some say it was used by the Great Dwarfhimself. Upon its face he forged weapons with the strength of our people and shields as unbreakable as our collective will. There’s no doubt the Anvil of Dragrimmar exists, but whether it truly belonged to the Great Dwarf… that mystery may never be uncovered.
The Great Forge is the realm of the Great Dwarf and the afterlife for the Deldrimor Dwarves of the Shiverpeak Mountains. It is similar to the other afterlives, and is said to exist somewhere within the Rift and is connected to the Hall of Heroes.”

“The Rite of the Great Dwarf, sometimes referred to as “the Rite,” is the ritual performed by King Jalis Ironhammer, utilizing the Hammer of the Great Dwarf and the magic hidden within. It is the key component in the event that would become known as the Dwarven Transformation, where the Deldrimor Dwarves were turned into living stone in order to fight off the Great Destroyer and its spawn."

And I’m just quoting here, because this all is just so easy to find on the Wiki’s. But there is also something to be found about that Tome of the Rubicon that is just absolutely breathtaking for real. And I’m still so in shock that this is actually in there, and I’ll just quote it again:

“There is a river in Italy called Rubicon. Its significance comes from the phrase “Crossing the Rubicon” which means crossing the point of no return."

OMG CROSSING THE POINT OF NO RETURN!!!! And yes this deserves caps for real.

All of this just has to be connected, it’s so adds up to each other. But let’s just take a look at another thing that is actually really important in the Story Line, the Eternal Alchemy.
Now, if you don’t remember how it looks, here’s a picture.

eternal alchemy.jpgeternal alchemy.jpg (7.84 KiB) Viewed 4 times

There have been a lot of people that have connected both the six dragons and the six human gods to this picture, but it also makes a lot of sense if we would be missing another race. Six races to fight those dragons. It looks like 6 is a major theme thing through the story of Guild Wars.
I also found out that the Eternal Alchemy is not just the thing the Assuran believe in, because Ogden Stonehealer refers to the Eternal Alcemy as the All.

“Ogden Stonehealer relates the Eternal Alchemy to The All, but considers the asura’s attempt at quantifying it to be the wrong way to look at it – that by trying to define it, they actually understand less and less of it.”

It struck me, because could this have something to do with Alain, that Al’Seen prophet? But just think of it, it so makes sense. Ogden Stonehealer was one of the dwarves that went trough the Dwarven Transformation, only he stayed on the surface. What if that ritual was actually the Dwarven equivalent of becoming Chosen or ascended? It actually could for real, just let me explain that one a bit, but I will be jumping to another race we know of (one of the races people thought may have been one of the playable races for Guild Wars 2), and I’m talking about the Tengu.

Now the Tengu have been an interesting race for sure, because there they are safe in their Dominion of Winds, where no one is allowed to go and they don’t actually come out of it often. They even sealed the door to Lions Arch shut after Scarlets invasion. But why? A lot of things I wrote before have a lot to do with Ascension, becoming one of the Chosen. Now you would think the only way to reach that state would be through this path, found in the Crystal Desert, but this is actually not true. And I will just put some quotes in again.

“The attitude of modern tengu towards spirituality is unknown, however the Canthan tengu of old believed in an afterlife, which they called the Sky Above the Sky. A sect of tengu were known to have guarded the Celestials during the Canthan Trials of Ascension, meaning defeating them was necessary to become Weh no Su, but their connection to the mainstream tengu belief system is unknown.”

“Weh no Su means “to be closer to the stars” and is the Canthan equivilant of Ascension. One achieves this by fulfilling the trials of the Celestials and the Oracle of the Mists, currently Suun. The location of these trials and of the Oracle of the Mists moves periodically, requiring one to seek out the Oracle’s adepts to find out where he currently resides."

“Becoming Weh no Su allows one to see the spirits of the dead, even if they are hiding from mortal eyes, as well as becoming capable of entering the Realms of the Gods and learn new secondary professions.”

Interesting. I also found this fun trivia thing about Weh no Su:

""Weh no Su" may be inspired by “Zi wei dou shu”, a phrase used in a form of Chinese fortune-telling, which means “The Destiny Path” or “Fate”."

That phrase sounds familiar to me as well. It looks like the Tengu will be playing an important part as well, cause they are connected to ascension as well.

So this brings me to my final thought of today. What if it’s all connected to the Eternal Alchemy, or the All, as Ogden Stonehealer calls it. It almost has to be I guess. Six dragons, gods, races. Could it be that there are even six ways to reach ascension? There are two ways to become it without any doubt, becoming a Chosen or Weh no Su, but I’m also pretty convinced that the Dwarven ritual is one of those ways as well.

All of this is opening up a lot of ways the storyline could unfold in the future, and I already know how I would write the story of Season 3 for sure.

Hope you all enjoyed reading it, just wanted to share it with you as well.

Thanks for reading

Fearan