Guild Wars 2

I logged in with my normal charr engi and received some reward chests that contained some of the ??? coming soon items from the beta as well as a mastery point. Has this happened to anyone else?

I agree that the bow dealt a little weak, but I found that setting up traps and kiting with the cripples gave me more survivability. I like the new virtues. The leap is super useful, and has a decent heal on it. The sheild you can throw up with the third one helps protect your group from snipers as well.
All in all I’m having fun with it, and it definitely feels different than traditional gaurdian.

In my understanding both the Arcane Council members are elected… by the members of the Arcane Council. It’s more of an oligarchy than a republic.
While it is true the ministry is not run by the Queen, it is by no means run by the common people. It is run by the aristocratic elite, who are power hungry.
The Charr government has had its ups and downs. Take the Flame Legion for example. They used to be the leaders of the Charr, but due to social issues (crazy religious zealots and oppression of females) they were, effectively, overthrown by the other three legions. There is also a bit of infighting and tension between the legions. You don’t see too much of it outside of the Charr personal story (and even there it is quite mild) but it does exist.
We also know that the human government isn’t exactly efficient. The large number of bandit and resistance groups within their territory can tell you that much. Walk around Ebonhawke for a bit and you can see that not all the people are happy with Queen Jenna’s leadership.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

What puzzles me is the whole Tower of Nightmares episodes. Scarlet’s creation used a poison gas that invokes hallucinations in everyone. And she was apparently serving Mordremoth. Is this what Mordremoth’s mind affecting powers are like? In the form of pollen in the air, that causes hallucinations? I wonder if there are some parallels between the Tower of Nightmares, and the abilities of Mordremoth. It’s also note worthy that despite his sphere of influence being the mind, we haven’t seen a whole lot mind affecting things since his rise. Not from his minions for sure.

It should be noted that the threshers don’t use poison to kill us. They use torment. Torment implies a type of mental pain rather than physical. This was also the main condition spread by the Toxic Alliance, which just adds more parallels.