Guild Wars 2

On October 20th, Colin Johansson published the following article:

Point of No Return

Go ahead and read it, it’s reasonably short. But if you didn’t, here’s the part I find the most interesting:

Into the Jungle

The road to war is paved by points of no return. Tyria has already decided to take the battle to Mordremoth. As we go on this journey we’ll learn dark secrets of Tyria’s past, venture into stories with roots deep in the very heart of Guild Wars lore, and visit places that have only been rumored to exist.

As we have seen during Season 2, Episode 5, in the different fortresses spread around in The Silverwastes, some Bandits that belong to the Sinister Triad have left, in their rush to abandon these outposts, different clues to their possible real affiliation.
So… what is the Sinister Triad?

Well, Peacemakers, Seraphs and Wardens agree on some sort of alliance between Inquest, Bandits, and Nightmare Court, based primarily in the Brisban Wildlands. Additionally, some at the Shinning Blade believe that at least one group of Bandit is in reality a White Mantle cell, operating near Divinity’s Reach.

The clues that I mentioned above seem to point to the Bandits belonging to a remnant of the original White Mantle, a military/religious group that controlled Kryta roughly 250 years ago. It was formed by Saul D’Alessio, and was responsible of preventing the fall of Kryta to the Charr. Saul was a drunken gambler who was banished to the Maguuma Jungle because he hadn’t paid his debts. He, for all purposes, was sent to die.

But Saul returned, a changed man. He came back speaking of a city of tall spires, never before seen architecture, and divine creatures that had saved him. These creatures would be known as “The Unseen Ones”, but in reality, they were the Mursaat, one of the races that fought the Elder Dragons 10,000 years ago, on the previous occasion when the ED were awake.

Now, the city that Saul described has never been seen, and was NOT visited in the original Guild Wars.

I theorize we may see the return of the Mursaat as key players in the lore of the world; yes, apparently only one Mursaat was still alive 250 years ago (And granted, much changed after an encounter with a group of human heroes), but the line […]venture into stories with roots deep in the very heart of Guild Wars lore, and visit places that have only been rumored to exist from Colin’s article lead me to believe we can hear from them and their fabled city very, very soon.

Thoughts?

I think the plausibility of this theory boils down to how long a mursaat’s natural lifespan is. Given the benefit of the doubt and assuming at least some are still alive, I would then consider that the only racial characteristics we’ve seen demonstrated by them is pride, and even more so an ironclad sense of self-preservation. Puppeteering the Mantle is what brought about their near-extinction; in fact, it was what caused the doom they were trying to use the Mantle to prevent, and this happened while the Mantle were at the height of their power. While the Mantle were diminished in power, they kept at it, presumably reasoning that the titans were no longer a factor, and it again resulted in what we currently believe to be a significant loss of their remaining numbers. Today’s Mantle, even assuming all of the bandits are at their disposal, is nowhere near as powerful as they were even at that second attempt, while the forces that brought about the second culling are much more powerful, even accounting for centaur distractions. From what we know of the mursaat, I would expect any that survived the War In Kryta, save only Lazarus, to have dropped direct association with the White Mantle and withdrawn into seclusion until they became strong enough to be secure from their enemies- which, with the EDs now romping about, probably means some point after they go back to sleep.

To be honest, I don’t think their longevity plays any factor, seeing that they were alive the last time the ED were active and were still alive during Guild Wars 1.

You can argue that the Mursaat in GW1 were the descendants of the ones 10,000 years ago, but that race strikes me as one that, much like the Human Gods, have certain aura of divinity or power about them.

Although I do agree that the White Mantle, and also their masters in the shadows have greatly diminished the danger they posed, due to their dwindling power and numbers.

I hope they’re not re-introducing the Mursaat to us in this arc of the Living Story. Don’t get me wrong, Mursaat, the White Mantle, and Jade constructs are awesome and quite possibly my favorite enemies in GW1. I would rather see them get the treatment they deserve ( in my opinion ) with their own story arc. Not being somehow fit in just as fan service.

Rhaegar.1203:

To be honest, I don’t think their longevity plays any factor, seeing that they were alive the last time the ED were active and were still alive during Guild Wars 1.

You can argue that the Mursaat in GW1 were the descendants of the ones 10,000 years ago, but that race strikes me as one that, much like the Human Gods, have certain aura of divinity or power about them.

Although I do agree that the White Mantle, and also their masters in the shadows have greatly diminished the danger they posed, due to their dwindling power and numbers.

How does longevity NOT matter. At the end of GW1 there was only 1 known Mursaat left in existence; so it’s not like we are going to see the descendants of that Mursaat unless Mursaat have the ability to simply replicate themselves…

Reading the GW Wiki article on Lazarus the Dire

[…]Lazarus is one of the few survivors of the Flameseeker Prophecies.[…]

[…]He fled to go into recovery, but not before vowing vengeance against “countless generations”.[…]

Not only it is stated that he was not the sole survivor, it is implied that they can live for quite a few human generations.

Rhaegar.1203:

Reading the GW Wiki article on Lazarus the Dire

[…]Lazarus is one of the few survivors of the Flameseeker Prophecies.[…]

[…]He fled to go into recovery, but not before vowing vengeance against “countless generations”.[…]

Not only it is stated that he was not the sole survivor, it is implied that they can live for quite a few human generations.

The first line doesn’t take into account the Battle for Lion’s Arch, where a lot of mursaat lost there live and afterwards we only knew of Lazarus.

That said, i don’t think its impossible that there are still mursaat around somewhere

A fair point.

One more thing: according to GW2 lore, Mursaat learned an ability where the would phase out of the Tyrian reality and escape the ED the first time around. Who’s to say not all of them came back when the events of GW1 took place?

Rhaegar.1203:

A fair point.

One more thing: according to GW2 lore, Mursaat learned an ability where the would phase out of the Tyrian reality and escape the ED the first time around. Who’s to say not all of them came back when the events of GW1 took place?

I think the more important question would be, if they ran the first time, why would they return now when they are all awake again ((well aside from zhaitan who went byebye)

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Rhaegar.1203:

To be honest, I don’t think their longevity plays any factor, seeing that they were alive the last time the ED were active and were still alive during Guild Wars 1.

You can argue that the Mursaat in GW1 were the descendants of the ones 10,000 years ago, but that race strikes me as one that, much like the Human Gods, have certain aura of divinity or power about them.

Although I do agree that the White Mantle, and also their masters in the shadows have greatly diminished the danger they posed, due to their dwindling power and numbers.

How does longevity NOT matter. At the end of GW1 there was only 1 known Mursaat left in existence; so it’s not like we are going to see the descendants of that Mursaat unless Mursaat have the ability to simply replicate themselves…

“…only one known Mursaat left…”

None ever made the trip(that we know of) to the Isle of Janthir, where they are supposed to be from. So it follows that there can possibly be many more up there.

Called it. Nice cinematic.

Rhaegar.1203:

Called it. Nice cinematic.

No you didn’t. That was Forgotten architecture. Not Murssat… hate to burst your bubble :S

Absolutely Forgotten, but to be fair, there is what appears to be a mursaat in the Heart of Thorns trailer :P

Mushroomz.4280:

Absolutely Forgotten, but to be fair, there is what appears to be a mursaat in the Heart of Thorns trailer :P

It does look like a Mursaat. Hard to be sure because of the style of the art.

It looks more like a Seer to me. It is black and does not have wings.

I didn’t think to take a screenshot, but yeah, now that you mention it, I think it was more Seer than Mursaat.

Unless he’s just not using them, I don’t see the other pair of arms seers have.

All we got was a silhouette, so the extra arms could be hidden. The feathery tendrils of the mursaat are, I think, the harder of the two to hide.

It did have tendrils, though, just longer and curving down around its legs. Looking back, I’m leaning towards seer more because it looks like it has that grown-in mantle thing rising behind its head. It’s still hardly conclusive though, and really I’d be able to accept it being either one.

Yeah, I just found how to re-view the cinematic myself. I’m now leaning towards mursaat – the angle of the tendrils doesn’t fit what we used to see, but it doesn’t have the massive cloak of the Seers, and I think if it DID have the extra arms of the Seers we would see it, even with that silhouette.

I was actually speaking of the cinematic, not the city/ruins in the episode. No bubbles burst during the making of this film.