Showing Posts For DorDor.8617:

[Demo] I Just Got 400 Free Gems

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Well… this might just be the single most convenient bug I’ve ever come across.

Here’s the story: You know how our demo characters are technically playing on a different account, so that our progress isn’t saved when we earn loot/achievements and stuff? Well, on the mirrored demo account, I just passed 10,000 Achievement Points, and got a really big sack of rewards for my trouble. Inside that big sack was 400 Gems. I know rewards aren’t SUPPOSED to be carried over to the main account, but I had a hunch. Maybe this was something A-Net overlooked?

So I logged into my main character and checked the Gem Store. Sure enough, I found myself 400 Gems richer. Even though my AP is still, technically, in the the low 9900’s. Because the achievements I earned weren’t saved to the main account, I’m slated to earn that chest a second time, in another couple hours of play. Earning double the Gems I was intended to earn from that chest.

And making feel a little dumb for buying a bunch of Gems less than two days ago, but that’s not the point.

I got the feeling that using an exploit like this is DEFINITELY against the Terms of Service. Figured I should report it to protect my hindquarters. Also, something something ethics.

So, uh… now what? Do I, like, hand them over or something? Because DorDor DOES have his eye on one of those discounted character slots… hopeful smile

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Sylvari's racism ?

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Champions are self-aware – they can acknowledge their own being, their place in the world, their level of strength, and are intelligent to varying degrees – but they are still enslaved to their Elder Dragons’ rule. The Forgotten removed that enslavement, giving Glint back her will.

Are we totally sure that’s all they did? Because if Tequatl and Arah explorable is any indication, there are still plenty of Risen champions out there, even though Zhaitan is dead. We know dragon champions can comprehend and desire free will, and Zhaitan’s no longer pulling any of their strings… so why haven’t we seen champions in the same camp as King Reza laying down their arms? Same question goes for the Mordrem Guard, all of whom retained their memories and intellect after corruption.

Also, when we performed the same ritual, we weren’t converting a self-aware minion. We freed Twitchy the Undead Chicken, who wasn’t even sentient in the first place.

Based on what we learned about magic from the last patch (high concentrations of it change your physiology so that you need to consume it to live, but doing so makes you axe-crazy), I don’t think corruption works the way we thought it worked. I think Elder Dragons corrupt using a process similar to what the survivors of the Bloodstone explosion went through. They’ve just found a way to weaponize it, by establishing a mental link with their victims while they’re being force-fed ley energy.

That explains why the Risen and Mordrem continue to fight, and why they all retain the skills they learned in life despite supposedly being little more than husks. It’s not a lack of free will that’s the problem. The real problem is the ever-present, uncontrollable desire to consume magic.

The lack of free will is just a convenient side effect.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

(Spoiler) Living Story S3E2 Discussion

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I don’t think Arenanet is pushing us toward fighting Primordus. I think that’s what the characters in-game BELIEVE is about to happen, but I’ll be very surprised if the focus stays on him for more than two episodes at most. Lazarus is clearly the big bad of this season, and taking us to the Fire Islands is probably a way to give us some background on the Mursaat race before we set out to kill one.

Plus… there was some dialogue at Eir’s funeral where a norn NPC told us that the Icebrood were becoming more active after Mordremoth’s death. It was easy to miss, but it suggests that maaaybe Primordus won’t be the only Elder Dragon to stir by the time Lazarus is done. With all the ley line craziness going on, I expect other dragons to throw their hats into the ring as well.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Forest of Niflhel Knockback Bug

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Don’t know if anyone else has discovered this one yet, but I just accidentally exploited the crap out of it and my karmic slate needs clearing. So, devs of Arenanet, listen closely…

Short version: I was PvPing in Forest of Niflhel, using a longbow-Ranger build and fighting a two-on-one battle at the Henge. Just before I inevitably went down, I used the longbow’s knockback skill on one of my opponents, pushing him into one of the stone pillars on the map. And when I say ‘into’, I mean INSIDE the pillar. He was trapped in there for the rest of the game. He couldn’t leave, he couldn’t hit anything, we couldn’t kill him, and he couldn’t kill himself. He was able to use a finisher once I went down a few seconds later, but that final act of vengeance didn’t really mean anything in the long run. They lost, we won. We were neck and neck just before it happened, too, so they might have actually won if things had gone a bit differently.

It is the one, singular time in PvP gaming history where accusations of ‘hax’ actually had a ring of truth to them.

This bug looks pretty difficult to exploit, because the victim has to be standing in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. I was a very lucky son of a quaggan. Still, it’s game-breaking and it cost someone a potential win, so it seems like something worth fixing.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Guild Wars Tabletop RPG lore and history

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I’m a tad too inexperienced with tabletop games to really involve myself in any meaningful way, but I’ll definitely be watching from the shadows—a Guild Wars tabletop RPG sounds really awesome. However… if you ever need someone to help you whip up a story for your campaign, I’m your guy, and I constantly talk about obscure bits of Guild Wars lore on my blog if you need a resource for that kind of thing.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

They have nothing in common with dragon minions.

As far as we have seen.

I find it highly unlikely that we have seen all kinds of Dragon Minions. In fact we have probably seen rather few of them all in all.

That doesn’t make it inconsistent.

We haven’t seen Tom Bombadil go skipping through the meadows either.

But Tom Bombadil skipping through the meadows would be ridiculous in Guild Wars. A dragon minion different than the others we’ve encountered is significantly more plausible, and can still make sense in a larger context if written correctly.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Basically to summarise this thread:

- Konig broke.
- His horde of sycophants begged him not to leave because he is the ‘loremaster’.

And it’s hilarious.

I might not agree with everything Konig has said and done since the reveal (in fact, I disagree with pretty much all of it), but that’s just a cheap shot, both to Konig and the people that support him. Please have some respect for your fellow human beings.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Smart =/= predictable. And Risen mesmers don’t need to be smart, per se, they just need to have enough knowledge to know how to cast their illusions.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Labwan_the_Deceiver

This one planned to kill Tactician Syska then disguised as her for at least a week, at the same time she also speaks and act like Syska without rising much suspicion before she carried out of her plan-Frame the PC then ambush Traherane. That require quite a lot of intelligence.

Also during the same quest chain, you will encounter a illusion of Trahearne. You can obviously find that his speech pattern and behavior is different than the real one. So even with illusion, one would need enough intelligence to disguise the speech pattern and behavior.

Yeah, but given the sheer amount of power she and the fact that she plays a unique role in Zhaitan’s army, she can easily be considered a champion. Also, I didn’t say that grunts couldn’t have such intelligence (my theory actually relies on it), only that they are, for the most part, mindless.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Dragon minions are savage and bloodthirsty and ferocious, but unless you’re dealing with a champion, they are oh so predictable, and that makes them very vulnerable to the sort of out-of-the-box thinking common among sentient beings (which just so happen to be the dragons’ greatest enemy). That’s been used to our advantage countless times in the overall story. We know the dragons themselves are self-aware and actually pretty clever when they put their minds to something. What’s stopping Mordremoth from realizing that this is a problem, and creating new, more independent minions to compensate? We know that dragons are capable of creating minions with some level of independence (champions), and there’s nothing in-lore that says they can’t apply those principles to their foot soldiers.

Quite a few non champion Risen(the mesmers) are quite smart, which makes them very dangerous.

Smart =/= predictable. And Risen mesmers don’t need to be smart, per se, they just need to have enough knowledge to know how to cast their illusions.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

By the way, Konig is right in saying that the vast majority of his arguments come from in-game knowledge (with the exception of lieutenants, which has no legs of its own to stand on). That includes the lore on dragon reproduction.

No, we’ve seen dragon minions that can reproduce before.

That’s true. But they’re exceptions. The general rule of thumb is “If a creature was pregnant when it was corrupted, then it can still pop out babbies”, but it can’t get pregnant after the corruption takes place. There are also instances where a champion looks like it’s laying eggs, but it’s actually just creating more minion constructs (the Destroyer in the skritt Personal story step is a prime example, and so is Glint).

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Please, tell us where all these inconsistencies are. Just because someone doesn’t agree on something doesn’t mean it is incorrect or goes against established information.

They have told us that the Sylvari being minions was planned from the very start, and as such it is very unlikely that they didn’t also plan out the whole story around the fact that the end game so to speak would be this reveal.

Sure, you will probably claim that the writers simply lied about it being planned from the start, but the fact that people have been speculating about it since they would very much suggest that there have been hints all along. Even if you refuses to see them.

They have nothing in common with dragon minions.

I think there’s a possibility we hadn’t considered. Think for a moment about all of the differences between sylvari and every other minion we’ve encountered (including other Mordrem). Many of them share a common theme. Free will. Independent thoughts and actions. Lack of uniformity. In other words: unpredictability.

Dragon minions are savage and bloodthirsty and ferocious, but unless you’re dealing with a champion, they are oh so predictable, and that makes them very vulnerable to the sort of out-of-the-box thinking common among sentient beings (which just so happen to be the dragons’ greatest enemy). That’s been used to our advantage countless times in the overall story. We know the dragons themselves are self-aware and actually pretty clever when they put their minds to something. What’s stopping Mordremoth from realizing that this is a problem, and creating new, more independent minions to compensate? We know that dragons are capable of creating minions with some level of independence (champions), and there’s nothing in-lore that says they can’t apply those principles to their foot soldiers.

And yes, I know, there is no evidence whatsoever to back this theory up. I’m purely spitballing here. But it would patch up any problems with the reveal quite nicely, and it would give us a pretty good reason to fear Mordremoth (because he’s the only dragon with enough mental moxie to come up with such a creative ace in the hole).

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

On the Forgotten: There are only two instances that we know of in which a dragon minion gained/regained free will. One is Glint. The other is Twitchy the Chicken, when we recreated the Forgotten ritual. Before you mention Mawdrey, remember that it isn’t the same plant as the Mysterious Vine, only an ancestor (and before you mention the fact that minions can’t reproduce, remember that there are caveats to that rule).

All the theories that were created to try to debunk the Sylvari aren’t minions are based on “rules” created only by players. How can you argue against their “rules” when they say that the exceptions don’t contradict their “rules” but instead errors in the lore? It’s like a scientist holding on to a theory that has been thoroughly disproven, only far less significant.

By the way, Konig is right in saying that the vast majority of his arguments come from in-game knowledge (with the exception of lieutenants, which has no legs of its own to stand on). That includes the lore on dragon reproduction.

Is it firsthand witnessed things such as Abaddon’s death or the ritual of the Great Dwarf . . . or is it things other characters have said or have been written down in books/scrolls?

One is necessarily concrete. The other is not.

It’s a mix. Some of it is backed up by dev statements, some of it is backed up by in-game lore, some of it is backed up only by characters’ conceptions of the ideas. A few are backed up them are backed up by all three. But all have their caveats (for in-game lore, we might not be seeing what we think we’re seeing; for dev statements, they might be speaking out of hand without really thinking about it; for character knowledge, they might not even know the truth).

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Clarification

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

In that case, maybe it was leftover magics of the Forgotten.

The Pale Tree was planted in the soil and took root. We don’t know how deep her roots reach, but we can assume based on her massive size that they go extremely deep. Maybe she “unearthed” some of their magic or came in contact with it deep in the earth. Or maybe her roots spread wide rather than deep like Mordremoth’s vines (or are they Vinewrath’s vines?), and she spread to a location with the leftover influence of Forgotten magic.

I do believe that the magic of the Forgotten is the only method of purifying a Dragon or champion (as having multiple methods of doing so would just complicate the story)… It’s just a matter of how or when.

It’s the only one that we know of (which is why I’m positive the Forgotten are connected to the seeds). But the other elder races, notably the Seers and Mursaat, were well-versed in magic as well. They could have figured it out as well.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Clarification

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Maybe the Forgotten interacted with the Pale Tree(s) during that 200 year growth period. It’s come to my attention that even Glint required magical influence to have free will, so maybe the Pale Tree(s) had the same thing occur.

That couldn’t have happened. By that point, the Forgotten were already exiled in the Crystal Desert, extremely far away from Maguuma.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

On the Forgotten: There are only two instances that we know of in which a dragon minion gained/regained free will. One is Glint. The other is Twitchy the Chicken, when we recreated the Forgotten ritual. Before you mention Mawdrey, remember that it isn’t the same plant as the Mysterious Vine, only an ancestor (and before you mention the fact that minions can’t reproduce, remember that there are caveats to that rule).

All the theories that were created to try to debunk the Sylvari aren’t minions are based on “rules” created only by players. How can you argue against their “rules” when they say that the exceptions don’t contradict their “rules” but instead errors in the lore? It’s like a scientist holding on to a theory that has been thoroughly disproven, only far less significant.

By the way, Konig is right in saying that the vast majority of his arguments come from in-game knowledge (with the exception of lieutenants, which has no legs of its own to stand on). That includes the lore on dragon reproduction.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

And if you comb through enough of the obscure dialogue, exposition, and years-old interviews with the authors, you’ll always find things that don’t match up. It’s a fact of writing.

Here’s the thing. I haven’t dug all that deep. Half of what I present is downright stated fact, the other half just takes looking at a wide scale of things.

And the fact of the matter is that all common ground that dragons and their minions hold, the sylvari lack.

Even outright stated things – like the consumption of magic – is lacking by sylvari.

There is something wrong. Perhaps, it is as you said: things just don’t match up. But this is not an obscure thing here – these inconsistencies between sylvari and mordrem are skin deep in how deep into lore you must go.

And the funny thing about your statement and GW lore? Until the Living World, digging “too deep” actually made the lore make more sense. This is why the GWW is so much more coherent with lore than the games of Factions etc. Because I “dug too deep” and put it all together. And it made sense. But the Living World? Season 2 especially? You go deeper than the skin, and it begins making less and less sense.

Not from what I’ve seen, there isn’t. There are all kinds of little things scattered around if you look hard enough. For example, Edge of Destiny mentions Faolain having black hair (something sylvari aren’t capable of having), the Bloodstone lore we received in Arah flat out defies the things we learned in Prophecies, five extra days randomly appeared between GW1 and GW2, etc. But whenever one of those inconsistencies pops up, Arenanet makes an effort to write around it and explain it in-universe (which is why two out of three of those can make sense in hindsight). You appear to be giving them credit for doing that, but they haven’t had enough time to do that to this reveal.

Also, when you keep claiming that sylvari are different from dragon minions, there are four little words you keep forgetting to mention: “that we know of”. As the game delights in telling us over and over, we know very little about the Elder Dragons, and that includes the full extent of their minion-making capabilities. We also don’t how many of these differences are a side effect of the purifying ritual, or specifically thrown in by Mordremoth during their creation, if any . We don’t even know if Mordremoth created the sylvari race, or corrupted/enslaved them during the last rise. There are way, waaaaay too many unknown factors and potential explanations to be calling non-canon.

Okay, now I’m really bowing out. I’ve got places to go and Tumblr posts to edit.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

On the Forgotten: There are only two instances that we know of in which a dragon minion gained/regained free will. One is Glint. The other is Twitchy the Chicken, when we recreated the Forgotten ritual. Before you mention Mawdrey, remember that it isn’t the same plant as the Mysterious Vine, only an ancestor (and before you mention the fact that minions can’t reproduce, remember that there are caveats to that rule).

All the theories that were created to try to debunk the Sylvari aren’t minions are based on “rules” created only by players. How can you argue against their “rules” when they say that the exceptions don’t contradict their “rules” but instead errors in the lore? It’s like a scientist holding on to a theory that has been thoroughly disproven, only far less significant.

The so called “rules created only by players” are in fact taken from observations from the game. While never stated outright, they become apparent if you look at all the lore.

Most people don’t. This is why most people think the lore of GW1 and GW2 are completely incoherent. While the lore has become such with the Living World here and there, beforehand it wasn’t. You just need to look very wide and very deep.

I have not made up a single thing about the shared traits of dragon minions. The only potential “rule made by players only” that you can throw at me is the lieutenant bit. Certainly not what you quoted from Dordor. And certainly not my seven points I presented before.

Right there, Konig. That’s your problem: you dug too greedily and too deep, and awoke a terror of shadow and flame (I couldn’t resist typing that).

Think for a moment on the size of scope of Guild Wars. There are two games, each with a massive game world, multiple writers, thousands of named NPC’s, and potentially millions of lines of dialogue. You, with your powers of persistence and information retention, have combed though almost all of it and remember the vast majority of it. But that’s something not everyone can do. I can’t do it, most of the people here can’t do it, even the guys that crafted the world we’re talking about can’t do it. When I’m writing the little fantasy saga I’ve been cobbling together since the eighth grade, I have to keep a massive spreadsheet on-hand of every character and their appearance, personality, relationships, and location just so I can keep it all straight, and my stuff’s only a tiny fraction the size of this game.

And if you comb through enough of the obscure dialogue, exposition, and years-old interviews with the authors, you’ll always find things that don’t match up. It’s a fact of writing. Maybe a writer said something off-hand in an interview. Maybe they forgot about an NPC in a distant corner of the game world. Maybe one of their coworkers didn’t communicate an idea clearly enough. Either way, they screwed up. It’s an unavoidable fact of human nature. And your entire argument is just a compilation of minor screw-ups, and very little more.

Compare Guild Wars to any other franchise of a similar scope. Warcraft, Halo, Star Wars, Doctor Who, anything with an expanded universe and more than tiny close-knit team of writers, really. And compare the treatment of their canon to Arenanet’s treatment of Guild Wars. As I’ve just mentioned in another thread, funnily enough, several of these franchises have scrapped massive portions of their lore just to make writing a little easier on themselves. Others have just given up all pretense of caring, handing the franchise over to anyone capable of writing bad fanfiction. I come from Marvel Comics—the writers there have been playing ping-pong with Doctor Doom’s personality for half-a-century now, among countless other lore atrocities. When it comes to respecting previous lore, Arenanet have been extremely tame compared to the competition.

I’ve got what I came for. I’ve weeded out the weak and factually incorrect arguments. Now we’ve reached the point in the debate where we talk past each other, and I’m not gonna bang my head against a brick wall. Considering how much you clearly hate being here, I’m not going to subject to you to the same. I’m bowing out, with one little parting piece of advice: if you notice an imperfection in something, ignore it. You’ll be much happier if you do.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Clarification

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

The Pale Tree was initially planted 250 years ago, right? Maybe tree minions are special, somehow. They do take 200 years to mature enough to sprout minions. I’m not sure if we have any timeline evidence for other Dragon champions (assuming this is in fact what the Pale Tree is and not just some “minion tree” that was never meant to be sentient in the first place).

Well, they’re definitely special in that they were clearly meant to be champions, commanding an army of their salad minions (and of course, special because they’ve purified), but I don’t see how the timing would be important.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Clarification

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

  • What are the differences between sylvari and true dragon minions? Konig has already listed several (for example, their ability to eat food). Are those intentional, and why are they there? *

The sylvari born of the Pale Tree may have developed individuality as a result of the work of several contributing factors, not limited to but notably Ronan, Ventari, possibly the forgotten etc etc. As a result, engaging in activities similar to those of other “fully self-aware” races should be expected.

Perhaps another important question we need to ask ourselves is this: Is Anet giving us a hint about the origin of a number of races presently living in Tyria? Have other races evolved in the same way that sylvari are evolving, to the point that they are no longer truly dragon minions but individuals?

But dragon minions can’t evolve, because they can’t reproduce, and freed minions retain any physical changes from the corruption. It’s also been stated in Arah that the Forgotten ritual used to free minions is extremely costly. It certainly doesn’t help that the only Forgotten left live in the Crystal Desert (where they’re probably fighting Kralkatorrik—poor guys). I don’t think they’ll go down this path for other races, and I hope they don’t. I feel like doing this same thing twice is just lazy.

My true concern with that question isn’t ’what’s different?‘, but more ’why are they different?’ With the exception of minor details, Arenanet have always gone out of their way to give canon reasons for lore inconsistencies/retcons. It’s one of the reasons I’ve never had much sympathy for those who claim that Anet doesn’t respect the old lore—other writers in their position have been known to declare entire swathes of lore non-canon to give themselves breathing room (Warcraft, Star Wars), or else not coordinate with each other and leave the canon a broken mess (Marvel Comics, Star Wars again). The fact that those five are all I can come up with is actually pretty impressive.

And if they can write their way around it, that’ll be even more impressive. I’m hoping that this post will let them know where the obstacles are and galvanize them into action.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Clarification

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I’ve been arguing lore a lot since the recent sylvari reveal, and though I’ve been defending it tooth and claw, there are plenty of small details that muddy the issue a bit. I think there’s a lot that the writers need to clarify before we can all truly accept it. Some examples:

  • What are the differences between sylvari and true dragon minions? Konig has already listed several (for example, their ability to eat food). Are those intentional, and why are they there?
  • What is Mordremoth’s relationship to the Nightmare? We know he is related, but we’ve also seen his corrupted sleeper agents (namely Scarlet) reject them both.
  • Speaking of which, how does the Dream fit into this at all? I’ve interpreted it as a connection similar to the one shared by the post-Rite dwarves (with a few quirks and differences). Is that the correct interpretation? Are there details I’m missing?
  • Based on the last question, how does the White Stag fit in?
  • Is the cave with the Forgotten ruins the same one Ronan found all those years ago? I’ve been working on the assumption that it is based on a few peculiar coincidences, but some confirmation one way or the other would be nice.

I’m hoping that Jeff Grubb or someone on the writing team can saunter along and help clear these issues up. I think it would do a lot to help simplify the debate and cool some heads. IN THE NAME OF ABADDON, LORD OF THE EVERLASTING DEPTHS, KEEPER OF SECRETS, I SUMMON THEE!

…You know, if you’ve got time.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

By your argument, treants and all GW1 plant enemies are mordrem, embers are destroyers, ice elementals are icebrood, and Palawa Joko is a risen. It just doesn’t work that way.

I’m aware this is a complete aside, (and I hesitate to mention it insofar as the Lore team might actually make it cannon, and that would be horrifying), but do we actually have any background on Pawala? AFAIK, he showed up in Elona and started taking things over until Turai and co. fought him, and he challenged Pawala to single combat and won, then does all the pre-gw1, Turai sealing off Pawala’s body.

I would truly, truly hope that Pawala weren’t a “freed” Risen champion (I feel like it would ruin his character to be just another ED device, I already don’t really care for ED), but I don’t know of anything in the gw universe that can make something persist after death with the strength and intelligence that Pawala is said to possess. Obviously, the Scepter of Orr has some effect on lifespan in humans, but unless Pawala had the sister staff at some point or something…

I’m reasonably sure that Palawa Joko was just an abnormally powerful/sociopathic necromancer that figured out how to turn himself into a Lich. And I’m positive that he’s not Zhaitan’s champion, because he definitely wasn’t around during the last rise (being a pesky human, and all), and his first brush with recorded history was hundreds of years before Zhaitan stirred. He could have tapped into the power of a dormant dragon like the asura did in Eye of the North to give himself that extra power boost, though. Or used a slain dragon champion, like Duncan the Black tried to do.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

On the Forgotten: There are only two instances that we know of in which a dragon minion gained/regained free will. One is Glint. The other is Twitchy the Chicken, when we recreated the Forgotten ritual. Before you mention Mawdrey, remember that it isn’t the same plant as the Mysterious Vine, only an ancestor (and before you mention the fact that minions can’t reproduce, remember that there are caveats to that rule). Plus, Wynne, the only sylari that knows the Pale Tree’s true origin, not only knows the location of the Forgotten cave in the Silverwastes, but also had the key to get in (Divine Fire). And in addition to that, the Forgotten cave is in the same general area as the cave where Ronan found the Pale Tree’s seed in the first place. In addition to that, this suspiciously-located cave is the only known Forgotten ruin outside of the Crystal Desert. Could be a coincidence, and you’re well within reason to believe it is, but I don’t think it is.

Regarding lieutenants: Here’s the thing, though: any in-game grunt that ever holds an extended conversation with us will probably be automatically moved to the lieutenant category instead of being used as a counterpoint, because there are only two differences between grunts and lieutenants, and the other one isn’t a reliable control. It also ignores Sea of Sorrows, where two clear grunts (one was a cabin boy and the other was just killed and corrupted a few seconds ago; neither commanded squat at the time) had extended conversations with the heroes, trying to convince them to surrender and join Team Zhaitan. Both of them used full sentences and referenced their past histories with Cobiah and his norn pal, things that grunts don’t have the brainpower to do, according to your definition. The ‘lieutenant’ classification doesn’t clean up dragonlore at all, only creates more problems. It should be dropped and its occupants moved to champion and grunt.

On Mordrem wolves: Mechanically, you’re wrong. During the early Season 2 missions (where husks and wolves were often paired together), I’d constantly get immobilized by husks, only to watch helplessly as my character got finished off by the wolves. And more than once, wolves approached me from the front only to go around me and attack me from behind for that extra damage/cripple effect. It didn’t happen every time, but it happened often enough to notice a pattern. As for the wolf pups, they’re walking around behind rock cover at the far end of Desperate Passage, as far from the Pact as they can possibly be and yet, just a short walk away from Blue Oasis. Why don’t they join in the attack, or move somewhere where they’re more likely to encounter non-corrupted things?

On Wyld Hunts: I never said all Wyld Hunts were dragon-related, only that sylvari with Wyld Hunts devote their entire lives to carrying them out. Valiants tasked with taking out the Sinister Triad packed their stuff and moved to Brisban. Trahearne devoted every waking hour of his life to studying Orr. Wynne died to keep her secret. The only Valiants that don’t do this are the ones that intentionally defy destiny by joining the Soundless or the Nightmare Court. And I’d like to point out that there a few dwarves you’re forgetting—the Stone Summit. Not only did they not join the fight against the dragons, they tried to harness the Great Destroyer’s power to use against the Deldrimor. That wasn’t very single-minded of them.

Regarding the Dream: Read that quote again. The Pale Tree specifically says it ’isn’t a reality’, ruling out the Mists (which are described by the Wiki as a ‘proto-reality’) or, in fact, a physical plane of existence of at all (going by Wikipedia’s definition, where physical existence is the deciding factor). As for the portal… ever seen Tron? In that movie, the hero was sucked into a computer program. Even though his body was physically gone, he was still running as a strip of sentient data. And even if the portal did take us somewhere physical, it doesn’t explain away the Seeds of Truth flashbacks or the opening instance for sylvari players (where we were physically in our pod while fighting the Shadow). The Pale Tree not knowing much about the Dream is more difficult to explain away, but I doubt she knows much about the specific side effects of the Forgotten ritual, the Rite of the Great Dwarf, or any other nigh arcane magical balderdash that has anything to with this. The ritual that was performed on her was cast long before she was even born. As for the existence of the White Stag… no idea. None whatsoever.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

(edited by DorDor.8617)

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Regarding the dwarves: Yeah, they’ve all been very single-minded about killing the Elder Dragons. But in a way, so are the sylvari. Many of them (I don’t think it’s all, but I’m not sure) are given a Wyld Hunt, a goal that they spend their entire lives trying to complete. Talking to the Wyld Hunt Valiants in Brisban, they all seem extremely driven. Their lust for Destroyer blood (magma?) seems like it works along the same lines—compelling them, but not outright forcing them. Also, if dwarves are all ‘lieutenants’, why can’t the sylvari be the same?

Regarding Destroyers: Yeah, it’s been stated that Destroyers are a complete, literal hive-mind. But that actually supports the theory a bit, because not all dragon minions are on that level. As noted above, Risen, Mordrem, and Icebrood have been seen wielding weapons, doing things independently, and even talking. Destroyers can’t do any of that. Either they’re killing or they’re looking for something to kill. There’s a sliding scale here, and the sylvari are just much closer to ‘autonomous’ than the others.

Regarding the Dream of Dreams: I’ve never seen evidence that the Dream is physical. In fact, there’s quite a bit against it. For example: new sylvari players are both killing the Shadow and growing in our pods at the same time, implying a vision instead of an actual fight. If the Dream is a physical place, where is it? The Mists? Another plane of existence? How do you know Light in the Darkness wasn’t just a vision inside of a mindscape instead of being physically teleported into a facsimile of Orr? And then there’s the memory seeds. We’re going into the Dream during Seeds of Truth (The memory seeds are tapping into the collective knowledge the sylvari passively store in the Dream, and there’s a palette swap during the flashbacks that all Dream-related missions have), and yet Marjory mentioned guarding us, implying an out-of-body experience. Maybe it’s not necessarily in the players’ heads, but it’s not a physical place either.

Regarding the sylvari hive-mind: Well, to my knowledge, dwarves don’t have a sixth sense regarding their proximity to other dwarves, either (and dwarves seem to be the best comparison here). And the Icebrood hive-mind used in Edge of Destiny didn’t seem to involve a sixth sense either; it was just a standing order from Jormag/the Dragonspawn not to attack Icebrood or their allies (the Sons of Svanir). When the Dragonspawn’s hold over them was broken, there was nothing compelling them to remain civil. And even if they did have a sixth sense to detect sylvari cut off from the Dream, it wouldn’t work on the Nightmare Court (who are still technically a part of the Dream, just the run-down, nasty part of it). But it would work on Soundless.

Regarding the White Stag: I’m not quite sure what to make of the White Stag, to be honest. There is a little theory I’m working on now, though. Basically: If the Pale Tree functions like a freed dragon champion, she might be capable of spreading her own special brand of corruption. That corruption tagged the White Stag, bringing it into the collective consciousness. I still don’t know how it’s able to enter the Dream at will, though.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

(edited by DorDor.8617)

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

-snip-

Regarding past hints: You said very little I disagree with. It’s true. There wasn’t enough evidence for the theory to stand on its own back then, and most of it only makes sense in hindsight. But the point I was making was that it was there, not that made sense and definitely not that supporting the theory back then (or even during Season 2) was the right call. You stated in your previous posts that you didn’t believe this was the writers’ plan for the sylvari from conception. That was where we parted ways.

Regarding the Pale Tree’s connection to Zhaitan: Remember that in the same instance, we’d just played through a vision of a potential future. The Pale Tree (also like Glint, funnily enough) has some degree of foresight. It wasn’t a sixth sense, it was a prophecy that unfolded just a few seconds later. But when Mordremoth awoke, her exact words were “I’ve known since the moment we’ve heard the roar”. Implying that before the roar, she didn’t know, ruling out prophecy.

Regarding Amaranda’s Vision: These were seeds with a clear connection to the Forgotten. The only cave (or even the only place in all of Maguuma) connected to the Forgotten was the one we fought the Shadow of the Dragon in. Would the Forgotten really go to all the trouble of purifying these seeds, only to leave them in some other, much more vulnerable cave? And regarding ‘distant shores’, that’s a pretty good point. My guess: Tyria’s west coast, which the map in the Priory archives tells us is near or adjacent to the Maguuma Wastes. Maybe that’s where Malyck’s tree is.

Regarding Ronan’s Knowledge: Well, he definitely knew something. Sure, there could be some other dark, forbidden secret on the nature of the sylvari, but that doesn’t seem very likely to me. He doesn’t necessarily have to know about the Elder Dragons, though. The concept could have easily been explained to him as "something very, very eeevil that you should probably look out for.

Regarding Arah: Definitely true, but too much unnecessary detail, and lingering on that detail for a while, is usually a bad move when it comes to writing. I’ve always been taught that the rule of thumb is to linger only on stuff that will be relevant later. It could have easily applied to Glint’s baby, though, didn’t think of that.

Regarding the Forgotten’s reasoning: We don’t know (and we probably never will), but there are plenty of likely reasons. Maybe they were still testing the ritual, and the seeds were the lab rats. Maybe they were hoping to plant the seeds and grow themselves an army, but the plan fell through. Maybe they were planning on using it like Caithe’s planning to use Glint’s egg: plant it, raise it, kill the dragon, and have the benevolent being they raised take its place.

Regarding the skeleton: Yeah, and the CoE stuff was still ultimately hinting at the connection. As I mentioned before, I never said that the skeleton by itself was worth taking seriously, only that the hints did exist at launch.

Regarding terragriffs: Nice catch with that. Never noticed it before.

Regarding minion classification: I’ve never seen anything in-game to support the idea of rank between grunt and champion. How do you know that the ‘lieutenants’ aren’t just grunts, and that grunts have more autonomy than you previously thought? I mean, many icebrood and branded don’t even have mouths (they’re iced/crystaled over), so they can’t exactly communicate with us like the Risen can.

Regarding Zhaitan’s minions: Zhaitan’s not the only dragon to do that. Icebrood quaggan, for example, still use spears (even though they have perfectly capable clawas and fangs) and are capable of speaking (they have aggro and death barks similar to Risen thralls), and Mordrem wolves use the tactics of an actual wolf (attacking in packs, attacking flanks [as the game tells us, they do more damage when attacking from the side], and even protecting corrupted cubs [go to Desperate Passage; there’s a regular-sized Mordrem wolf walking around with a group of noticeably smaller Mordrem wolves, it’s actually kind of cute in a really creepy way]) instead of just mindlessly murdering everything they encounter. It’s just more noticeable with Zhaitan, because Zhaitan deals almost exclusively in undeath and of all the Elder Dragons, we’ve interacted with him the most.

Regarding Icebrood and women: Ah. Knew I’d be wrong with something. Good catch.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

I knew we couldn't trust them! *SPOILER*

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

If anyone’s interested, I just finished a very long article on my blog defending the ‘sylvari are dragon minions’ reveal. I mostly focused on rebutting Konig’s points, because I thought his were the most well-argued (even if I disagree). Anyway, if you wanna read it, just head to…

http://wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com/post/108218954415/rebuttal-why-the-sylvari-are-dragon-minions

…and enjoy. And now I’m going to go take a nap, because I spent an embarrassing amount of time on that post and I’m mentally exhausted. Ciao.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Getting to 500 as an Artificer

in Crafting

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I’m at 434 and have no idea how I get any farther. I’ve been slowly crawling forward by discovering potions and tonics, but my options are starting to get low.

Any ideas?

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Asura building new city?

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Speaking of: is there any particular reason that the Inquest seem intent on sabotaging it, what with constantly attacking the power grid and other such shenanigans? Do they have reasons for keeping the city from being completed, or do they just look over at Luminates and say to themselves ’let’s test out our new exploding golems!’

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

The Uncategorized Fractal is Rata Sum

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I saw this theory from a guy on reddit:
“I like to think that the raving asura was apart of Dessa’s krewe and got trapped inside the Uncategorized Fractal. He and other krewe members were sent in before Dessa knew the dangers of the fractals and they ended up getting stuck.

“All of us! Abandoned! You aren’t real! You can’t be here!”

Time inside the fractal might move faster and he may of been trapped for years and slowly went crazy. For the first time in a long time he has seen other beings besides the harpies and golems. He doesn’t know who we are so he has his golems attack."

Ooooooh, that makes quite a bit of sense. But how come Dessa doesn’t remember that someone in her Krewe is missing? Sure, she loses fragments of her memory if she steps outside, but this Fractal was added to the game long before Fractured, and it’s implied that this was first time she tried to leave (willingly or no). She should remember him… unless the situation is more convoluted than I thought.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Caithe's Secret?

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Okay, I’m kind of loving the ‘Caithe killed Malyck’ theory. It makes a scary amount of sense. We know she’s willing to kill a defenseless person if she considers them a threat, and we know that she could consider Malyck a threat. After all, if Malyck found his people, he would probably set up a diplomatic relationship with our Pale Tree, revealing his existence to the Nightmare Court. And Caithe’s entire goal in that Personal Story step was keeping the existence of a second Pale Tree a secret. Caithe summed up the reason well:

“If the Nightmare Court finds out, they won’t have to worry about the future of the sylvari. They can burn down the Pale Tree and… start over.”

Chills.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Pale tree is the final boss

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Your theory is supported only by a very specific interpretation of a very abstract cutscene. Those six orbs could represent anything—the Dragons, the Gods, the Gods’ Realms, we have no idea. So that’s one giant leap, followed by several others in quick succession. It just doesn’t seem very feasible at this early juncture. I’d wait for more evidence to emerge.

It’s clear, though, that it does have something to do with the Pale Tree. Based on ‘What Scarlet Saw’, though, it seems like the Pale Tree is more of a victim than a secret dragon-controlling supervillain. She was being strangled by vines, implying that not only is she fighting Mordremoth, but Mordremoth is winning.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Zephyrites and War

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

This is all really great. Not only did it answer my question, but it gave me a bunch of ideas. Really awesome, guys!

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Naming Mordremoth

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Maybe the Priory put two and two together.

I can imagine the scene now:
Priory Magister 1: ‘Hey guys! I just finished translating this old dwarven text. It tells us of a sixth Elder Dragon called Mordremoth, who controls plants and giant evil vines!’
Priory Magister 2: ‘Vines? Like the ones that just tore up Prosperity?’
Priory Magister 1: ‘Sweet Dwayna’s dress, you’re right! EVERYONE! ANOTHER DRAGON JUST WOKE UP! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Casualties

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

So Prosperity’s been ransacked by killer vines and half of the townspeople are nowhere to be found. Does anyone know who died in the attack, if anyone? And if everyone’s safe and sound, where did the townspeople run off to? I can’t find them in the centaur camp, and I’m worried sick for Riot Alice. =(

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Zephyrites and War

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Thanks a ton, Kalavier! =)

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Zephyrites and War

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

So I’ve writing a piece of fanfiction that’s very Zephyrite-centric. I just reached a spot where they got cornered by a pack of devourers (long story) and have to fight their way out, which prompts me to ask: what is the general Zephyrite stance on combat? Are they pacifist? Do they defend themselves? And if they do, how?

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Interesting things in Scarlet's Room [Spoilers]

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

It was stupid for Anet to defend it, and that defense was very poorly stated, but mistakes happen and they do their best to fix them. Hell, there’ll probably be a clarification in an upcoming patch now thanks to this thread.

Of all the potential retcons or bad storytelling decisions to lose our kitten over, this is not it. Attacking Scarlet and most of Season 1 was justified. This is just crucifying the devs for an extremely minor continuity error, and I think we all need to calm down a bit.

It was not stupd for Anet to defend it. They had loyal players (aka paying customers) wondering why they said and did what they did. If my company did not answer questions posed by customers (even the stupid ones) your customer base would dry up very quickly. The questions and concerns in this case were not stupid and not just based on an extremely minor continuity error. The concern stemmed from a statement claiming lore was malleable.

I appreciate Angel and Bobby for explaining what happened. And I certainly don’t think it was ‘stupid’ of them to do so. That is how they are going to get people to “calm down”.

Fair point; I guess I’m stupid for calling it stupid, then. But I do feel the original defense was poorly stated, and that the reactions from some here were far too severe, which frustrated me greatly. I’ve always loved the Lore thread for being civil while others are toxic, and I really don’t want to see that change.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Interesting things in Scarlet's Room [Spoilers]

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I write high fantasy. I know how difficult it is to keep an entire world straight in your head. It’s not exactly easy, especially with five different people working on it. Sometimes they miscommunicate. Sometimes they fail to tell each other minor points, and those points fall through the cracks. Sometimes they just forget about it. Kitten happens.

The Secondborn’s age wasn’t told to us in GW1. It wasn’t told to us in the novels, or the short stories. It was given to us in an interview. In interviews, it’s very easy to misspeak or run your mouth on a subject you haven’t really thought much about, creating an accidental bit of lore. That’s probably what happened here, and that’s probably why they forgot about it. It was stupid for Anet to defend it, and that defense was very poorly stated, but mistakes happen and they do their best to fix them. Hell, there’ll probably be a clarification in an upcoming patch now thanks to this thread.

Of all the potential retcons or bad storytelling decisions to lose our kitten over, this is not it. Attacking Scarlet and most of Season 1 was justified. This is just crucifying the devs for an extremely minor continuity error, and I think we all need to calm down a bit.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

What happened to Evennia?

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Any reason Evennia couldn’t be the mysterious E who keeps sending us mail?

The fact that she was a mortal human 150 years ago is a pretty big reason. I mean, she (or her captors, if she was captured by someone) could probably use magic to extend her life, but the chances of her appearing in game are pretty slim, barring time-travel shenanigans. But considering time-travel shenanigans aren’t really a thing in Tyria, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Annihilator

Oh… huh. The more you know, I guess.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

[Spoiler] Realm of torment reference

in Living World

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

As interesting as your theory is, there are several major problems with this.

First, the devs have stated multiple times that they won’t be revisiting Abaddon. He is dead, his story is finished, it’s over.

Second, we already have another, infinitely more likely cause for the vines: Mordremoth. He’s much closer, being in the same realm of existence, and the whole point of Season 1 was Scarlet waking him up. Plus, the vines seem to be hugging Dry Top’s southern edge, close to where Mordy is suspected to be.

Third, if that map corresponds with the Realm of Torment, that would put the Pale Tree in Abaddon’s prison. Why would the Pale Tree be there?

Fourth, nothing in Scarlet’s room or the entire patch mentions the Realm of Torment, but ley lines are mentioned constantly. The devs are clearly pointing us in one direction here.

I do kind of wish that you’re right and we’ll be getting some god lore, ‘cause the gods are pretty interesting, but it doesn’t look likely. Sorry mate.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Piles of silky sand

in Living World

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I don’t think you’re meant to grind the sand. It’s more of a supplemental thing. When you’re playing Dry Top, your main objective is Geodes, but for every event you do and every dust mite you kill, you get a side-helping of sand. Thus, after you’ve farmed your Geodes and bought yourself that Nomad gear, you’ve ended up with a few stacks of the stuff to comb through for extra goodies.

Tl;dr: Don’t farm the sand. Farm the Geodes like A-net intended, and the sand will come to you.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

What happened to Evennia?

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Any reason Evennia couldn’t be the mysterious E who keeps sending us mail?

The fact that she was a mortal human 150 years ago is a pretty big reason. I mean, she (or her captors, if she was captured by someone) could probably use magic to extend her life, but the chances of her appearing in game are pretty slim, barring time-travel shenanigans. But considering time-travel shenanigans aren’t really a thing in Tyria, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Magic, the Mind and Maguuma

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I think Scarlet’s case can be easily explained. Until she entered Omadd’s device, she had the protection of the Dream. Once inside the device, she lost that protection. Similarly, with Aerin, he lacked the protection of the Dream because he was soundless.

This may not be so. Per the discussion in this thread and my calculations on her timeline, it seems that Scarlet encountered the entity (known to be from 1321 to 1323 AE) first several years before entering the machine. So she still had the connections to the Dream at that point.

So the Dream isn’t offering protection. There are no barriers that introduced the entity to Ceara. It might have allowed the entity to get further into her, but it didn’t prevent it.

Up until Ceara entered Omadd’s device, the holograms sounded normal. Upon seperating from the dream in the device, the hologram’s voice changes. This is a good indication that the dream was protecting her.

But she intereacted with the entity before entering the device by 3 years as I pointed out.

The device did alter her, but the entity was with her beforehand. Hence “what was in there was only that she took in with her”.

Unless we take the t-shirt that apparently dates Scarlet’s life as 1304-1327 AE as canon, which means she is in fact older than the Secondborn by 4 years, and would put her entering the machine in 1319 or 1320 AE, thus before the journal, but then we hit the whole “written versus not written” and the voice change issue. It’s much cleaner and less contradictory to ignore that silly stupid propaganda of a t-shirt.

Just because she interacted with the entity before she stepped into the machine doesn’t mean she wasn’t protected. Maybe Mordy was able to contact her, but not take control/drive her insane until she cut herself off. You can still talk to someone through an electric fence, but you can’t get to them as long as the fence is there. Same basic principal probably applies here.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Dry Top concept art

in Living World

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I would love it if it were only a little clearer. All those weird brush strokes make it very difficult to tell what the subject of the painting actually is. Is that a cliff, a crashed airship, or both? I can’t tell.

And that’s unfortunate.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Magic, the Mind and Maguuma

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I do not know if anybody noticed, but there is an interesting thing that Aerin sasys after the first encounter in “Cornered”:
“Unhappy times. Unhappy. Must find the master. Yes you are right. Must not let them stop me”.
It looks like he is speaking to someone, or something else. Maybe the “entity”?

In the instance ‘A Study In Scarlet’, Scarlet was shown directly speaking to the entity that drove her insane, telling it to get out of her head.

I think you may be on to something, sir.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Soundless & Mordremoth.

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I think the connecting point between Aerin and Scarlet isn’t proximity to Mordy or being cut off from the Dream—I think it’s both.

Whether there is evidence that Aerin is Soundless or not, we know the devs wanted us to reach that conclusion, which means he probably was. We also know that his transformation only happened as he was travelling further west, as his dialogue during the Festival was inconsistent with the raving lunatic we encountered later. With Scarlet, we can assume that the experiment with the machine happened somewhere in asura territory, Rata Sum/Metrica Province, one of the westernmost points on the map. And we know that the machine cut her off from most/all outside influences, which probably includes the Dream.

It’s not the most complete theory in the world (it takes some assumption from Scarlet’s angle) but it does make some degree of sense. Getting cut off from the Dream makes you vulnerable, and getting closer to Mordremoth makes you a target.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

(Spoilers) Ley Lines and You

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

It’s possible, but it opens a gaping plot hole if its true. Why did Scarlet attack Lion’s Arch instead of the more lightly-defended Grove? The Grove has very few visible defenses and it’s out of the way (as opposed to LA, which is smack-dab in the middle of Tyria), making it more difficult to reinforce. It’s not like Scarlet wouldn’t leap at the chance to burn the Pale Tree to the ground. The Pale Tree’s tough, but not ‘withstand-a-coordinated-attack-from-sky-land-and-sea’ tough.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Where in the world is Destiny's Edge?

in Lore

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

I’m pretty sure they went their separate ways after Zhaitan. We DO see them in Season 1 (except for Zojja, that is), but we see them in different places, doing different things. Eir’s tracking down her kid. Logan’s investigating the Marionette. Caithe’s infiltrating Scarlet’s death-trap-ridden hideout. But we never see them together.

That makes me think that they hung around for a bit after they killed Zhaitan, slew a few champions, and then went off on their own as their individual lives caught up with them.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Morning! WHY?!(spoilers)

in Living World

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Morning’s not the only one. I saw Aerin at the Festival of Four Winds (at the time, I was running around and cataloging all the characters for a nerdy fanfiction things) and found him extremely likable. He was ever so excited to be joining the Zephyrites and seeing the world, talking about how scenic the view was from the Sanctum, etc. I actually thought at the time: ‘Wow, I hope we see him when the Zephyrites show up again’.

This… was not how I had envisioned our reunion.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Who Died?

in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Doc Halvern is gone… along with his Krait Oil… too bad

Krait Oil-Guy is dead!? This is a tragedy!

Although I do kinda hope that he got killed by the Toxic Alliance, just for a little bit of poetic irony.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!

Who Died?

in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath

Posted by: DorDor.8617

DorDor.8617

Does anyone have a list of the NPC’s that didn’t make it out alive? I’d be really disappointed if it’s just the lighthouse keeper.

wanderingstoryteller.tumblr.com – Guild Wars content that’s only 75% terrible!