Abaddon didn’t blind us and he was a God…
And aggravate the Blood Legion into declaring war to kill Rytlock for becoming what they see as an abomination. Blood Legion Homeland right after Path of Fire I say is coming!
Even his forces seem to be akin to a duplication of Abaddon’s – his mercenaries seem no more, replaced instead by these “Forged”, and just as Margonites were demonic-like beings with watery bodies, these are demonic-like constructs with fiery bodies… Next we’ll learn the Forged are the mercenaries… Or better yet – they’re the Zaishen!
spoiler about the first instance and open world below
In the first instance you see the streamers play, one of the forged, the ‘herald of balthazar’ has combat dialogue where she says “every life i claim is another conscript in Balthazar’s army!”
I also think somewhere she states somewhere Balthazar chose her, inclining she was human before, and you see Zaishen in the open world trying to recruit people to join him as well. Given all that I reckon we can predict the Forged are mercenaries, or just souls in constructs.
Which kinda just makes him another Abaddon, except with Forged rather than titans and shiro’ken.
Heck, even at first glance the Forged have a shiro’ken vibe, except based of Balthazar-esque themes rather than Canthan creatures. They also have a certain resemblance to the Blades from the Spellforce series.
Abaddon was chained within his realm while Balthazar is fully active.
I’m kinda hoping that there is some difference from the Nightfall plotline. Right now, it sounds like a shot-for-shot remake.
Abaddon was still in his cell. Balthazar is fully active. We had to kill Abaddon before his escape because he was stronger than 2 Gods combined.
Our goal is to prevent Balthazar from killing Kralkatorrik not to prevent Balthazar’s escape from some cell.
….. I should hope Cantha takes inspiration from one Asian Country and not all of them at once like in Guild Wars 1.
The Country used as inspiration should preferably be Japan(study Inuyasha, Naruto and Bleach for inspiration ArenaNet) as China has already been done by WoW MoP.
Yeah…that’s a bad reason to pick a specific nation/culture as inspiration. Also REALLY bad sources to use.
Plus I’ve never seen using multiple nations/cultures as inspiration for fantasy as being a bad thing, considering how its done all the time with western/medieval Europe style fantasy all the kittening time. Why is it a bad thing specifically for Asians? Seems a bit like a double standard to me.
Didn’t South Koreans and NC Soft complain about the blending of Japanese style fantasy with Chinese and Korean Fantasy? Didn’t NC Soft make ArenaNet get rid of the Canthan District in Divinity’s Reach because of such reasons?
If the Deep Sea Dragon does infact hijack the Canthan Empire(like how Abaddon hijacked the Guild Wars Game, how Mordremoth hijacked the Sylvari and how Balthazar duped the White Mantle in LS3) it better resemble the Canthan Dragons considering they all have an aquatic look to them(which is suspiciously similar to the 3 headed dragon in that art).
Ares was a coward. Most War Gods were Cowards(and literally the same God using another name) aside from the War Gods of Shinto, El Elyon from Canaanite/Christian/Hebrew/Islamic Myth and Odin of Norse Myth.
Calling it now, the new emperor of Cantha will turn out to be Bubbles.
You want the Deep Sea Elder Dragon to be that small!?!
I’d much rather that the Emperor be Ecclesiate Xun Rao going by the name Usoku who should turn out to be Menzies himself thus giving us some tie-in to Path of Fire.
Of course considering Cantha’s new policies as well as their full subjugation and absorption of the Kurzicks & Luxons I should hope Cantha takes inspiration from one Asian Country and not all of them at once like in Guild Wars 1.
The Country used as inspiration should preferably be Japan(study Inuyasha, Naruto and Bleach for inspiration ArenaNet) as China has already been done by WoW MoP.
The whole valuing Valor reminds me of Odyn from WoW who’s quite the nasty character regardless.
Balthazar’s treatment of a scared guy who happened to end up on the battlefield(most likely due to being drafted) shows that Balthazar’s view of Honor and Valor is unjust and cruel(the God of Israel didn’t treat scared soldiers like that but rather had them sent home to preserve moral among the army and as for Greece’s War God Ares: he’s a coward himself).
(edited by Mickey Frogeater.1470)
Anyone else see the blatant foreshadowing concerning Braham? They make it quite obvious that he’s going to at least try to wake Jormag up and that we will have to fight him at Jormag’s inland sea.
Now we have two Zones for Living Story Season 4(Blood Legion Homelands for the Rytlock plot thread and Jormag’s inland sea for Braham’s plot thread). The only other Zones left that could be used for Living Story Season 4 would be Tangle Root, Verdant Cascades, Abaddon’s Mouth, Domain of Winds, Deldrimor Front and Scavenger’s Causeway.
Of the 6 Zones I have no idea of which 4(if 4 is indeed the number planned for use) will be used alongside the 2 foreshadowed Zones for Season 4.
Okay, I just went trhough it and of course: Spoilers
- New Orr area is interesting. Didn’t have much time to explore, but it seems like Balthazar was always a danger, according to the ghosts? Was our view on him over thousands of years so wrong?
So Balthazar threw away Honor before the Exodus of the Gods then(explains why the Canthan myths mention a general lack of sportsmanship from Balthazar with Kaolai being the exception to this). The Zaishen Order was deceived the whole time.
The shrine of the traitors is actually in the domain of pain, in the center of the Battlements of Bec’qessor. Not the domain of secrets.
West of the Battlements of Bec’qessor(which is the city east of the Shrine of the Traitors) actually. Still in the Domain of Pain obviously.
Aaron Ansari.1604“The human gods have left Tyria, but one stayed behind.” That implies that Balthazar never joined the Exodus, and if true, it completely upends all the theories we’ve had about what happened to him.
By how it is phrased, it’s definitely suggested that Balthazar was not “left behind”; perhaps he was forced to stay, or in other words he found himself unable to leave Tyria.
However, one crazy theory that came up following your find of (what appears to be) Balthazar’s dagger in the Bastion of the Penitent might be a bit more credible now: Lazarus was Balthazar’s alter ego since the beginning.
If the Abaddon statues shown in the trailer are an indication of the new fractal (and it is highly probable to be the case), we might get an answer to what happened to Balthazar when Abaddon was defeated and imprisoned. Perhaps it was then that the “God of War” was weakened and he’s being trying to get his power back ever since (since the Exodus), but an unexpected (and quite recent) event deprived him of the magic he had slowly been gathering for centuries, hence why, given the opportunity, he’s now all: “kitten Tyria and kitten the humans”.
If you are right than Balthazar is behind the Unseen One plot, is infact the mysterious Unseen that Abaddon was summoning to the Domain of Fear and the man behind the man of everything in Guild Wars!
That would mean that Menzies’s forces’ not actually speaking to Abaddon’s forces like Dhuum’s forces(we only see them in the same general area) were may not be a coincidence.
The only indication that they are allied with Abaddon are Forgotten and since Balthazar is likely using his Ghostly minions to perpetuate the façade that he’s still on the side of the Gods they’d believe anything he tell them.
All they know for a fact is that the armies of Menzies are tracking down the Margonite leaders. No actual statements on the actual reason.
I like the idea of Grenth staying home in Tyria and being Tyria’s protector. I’m still holding up hope that he’s both Mister E and the Master of Whispers from Guild Wars Nightfall.
Do we have exact text of him hating Deception? Honor is not the same as Honesty. Honor means Pride so if there are text of him ever having Honor he wouldn’t back down from a challenge.
I’m also wanting the samples of text referring to him having honor aside from the player’s words to him while fighting him(didn’t see any ingame text from GW1 despite checking both the Fissure of Woe quests’ text, the story of Kaolai, the Priest of Balthazar’s words + the Champion of Balthazar’s words & skills and haven’t been able to access the manuals). It’s quite vital.
(edited by Mickey Frogeater.1470)
Kudu is merely a high ranking member of the Inquest not the leader. The leader is either Councillor Yahk(confirmed Inquest member) or High Councillor Flax himself(he has the Inquest personality traits and has accused Zojja of sabotaging Kudu).
The Inquest’s goals are enlightenment at any cost.
Of course it could be possible that Rodgort was an Elder Dragon AKA another world’s Primordius. That wouldn’t prevent him from being Balthazar’s father yet if that is the case that would make Balthazar a rogue champion like Glint.
As for accusations that Balthazar is honorable… In GW 1 his killing a guy who beat him in a game is treated as normal for him yet his induction of Kaolai into Tahnnakai Temple is treated as a rare thing.
Balthazar having any sportsmanship is treated as rare not common.
In fact, the wiki or lore never put much emphasis on the honor factor in Balthazar, but a “suspicious” and violent God. This is not uncommon in Greek-style narratives of Gods.
Gods who do not mind lying or cheating even their own devotees.
It was Balthazar who urged humanity to engage the other races in battle and claim the world for themselves, believing the other races would fall easily.
Untrue. GW1 definitely colored Balthazar as an honorable god. Even that line you quote isn’t lacking honor or being suspicious in of itself – not just because lack of context, or Balthazar’s line of thought, but because urging war with hostile races such as the charr is not necessarily bad, and he didn’t advocate the slaughter of other races, but to rule them.
Though Balthazar was more prone to violence than others, he was remorseful when he unfairly killed a mortal in rage
“When the gods walked Tyria a thousand years ago, the Ritualist Kaolai, an old man even then, challenged Balthazar to a game of Nui in exchange for sparing a village that had offended the god through some long-forgotten breach of etiquette. Balthazar laughingly accepted and the game began. Seven days later it ended with Kaolai the winner; the villagers were spared. But in a fit of anger, Balthazar slew Kaolai. Afterward, in a rare gesture of sportsmanship, the god ordered Kaolai inducted into Tahnnakai Temple."
Apparently such sportsmanship from Balthazar is rare. I also do not see the term remorse in their at all!
In the cutscene Balthazar has yellow eyes though.
Nevertheless, he is pretty cool looking villain.
He looks like a cross between the leader of the Knights who say Ni and the Knights themselves!
(edited by Mickey Frogeater.1470)
I suspect that we will unmask multiple Gods in Episode 6(namely Melandru who’s hinted to be allied with Balthazar due to the vine that helped him distract us and Grenth).
After that we go to Jormag’s inland sea in order to either stop Braham from killing Jormag or failing that get someone to absorb his energies before it can go anywhere.
Once the Jormag matter is resolved we’ll confront Jennah and Anise at Divinity’s Reach and unmask them as Lyssa who will escape and make a beeline towards the Crystal Desert to claim Kralkatorrik’s power and since there is no monarch we won’t need a secretly long dead Queen’s permission to go after them.
On Halloween we’ll replace the Queen with a reigned in(by the Durmand Priory) Mad King Thorn due to his vendetta with Palawa Joko who is in the Crystal Desert we are invading. He gives us his Skeletal Horses as Mounts and has Bruce the Herald riding around Divinity’s Reach and is only allowed in Lion’s Arch or the other Regions of Tyria outside of Elona on Halloween by the Durmand Priory’s Asuran technology.
Did his break his horn off or what? It also looks like his jaw accumulated a lot of solidified lava too.
Palawa Joko being behind Zinn’s Golems allows ArenaNet to finish up all lose ends left by GW1 on the Continent of Tyria and Elona in one Expansion.
The Inquest is likely going to be the final group of villains in the Continent of Tyria once the Gods are taken care of.
The Ring of Fire Islands seem to be all Jungle in order to tie everything in to Heart of Thorns it seems…
What does everyone suspect the next Map to be?
I personally suspect the Sea of the Shiverpeaks to be the next one resolving the Branded once and for all and only leaving the area next to the Hall of Monuments to be the only Far Shiverpeaks area not appearing in the Branded storyline.
She set up Aurene and Gleam to help her usurp 3 Elder Dragons.
By claiming the full power of 3 Elder Dragons Glint and her offspring could safely kill Jormag and Primordius without threatening Tyria. The reason that killing the Elder Dragons isn’t viable is due to Glint’s death.
Glint’s death ruined all of her planning. We need a substitute for her if we are to save Tyria.
I suspect Mr. E was watching out for Balthazar making an attempt at the Elder Dragons’ Magic and Balthazar didn’t want to tip him off out of fear that he would interfere with his plans.
I also suspect Melandru and Lyssa are in on this due to a vine capturing the guy with the tracker to Taimi’s device and Balthazar having Lyssa’s mirror.
As for where those two are hiding:
1. Melandru is likely posing as the Avatar of the Pale Tree and trying to throw the Sylvari(which she connected to her Realm of the Gods AKA the Dream) at the Elder Dragons in order to gain the Dragons’ Magic. Her attempts to keep Scarlet and us from The All is due to her not wanting anyone to interfere with the Gods’ plan to steal the Elder Dragons’ Magic due to morals.
2. Lyssa’s location is hard to decipher yet most fans assume she’s Jenna and Anise.
(edited by Mickey Frogeater.1470)
Xera became that powerful due to Bloodstone Shards.
Considering Balthazar needed to drain an entire Bloodstone it’s obvious that he wasn’t unspeakably strong before he absorbed the Bloodstone’s energies due to whatever dimmed his light. I’d assume the same would be the case with Lyssa.
For Lyssa to surpass Xera she would have to consume a lot of Magic.
Hell at this rate, Queen Jenna was probably killed by Lyssa and Lyssa is now* posing as her. Melandru has killed the Pale Tree and has taken her place and Dwayna, Kormir and Grenth are pulling the strings of the Pact.
I say that if Melandru is the Avatar of the Pale Tree that would explain her not wanting non-Sylvari characters looking at The All.
She wouldn’t want someone preventing the Gods from claiming the Elder Dragons’ powers due to a desire to preserve Tyria now would she?
As for the Pale Tree being dead the Pale Tree is likely quite fine and is completely silent as one would expect from a mere Blighting Tree freed by Melandru.
If this is all the case we may have to assault Tangle Root(which likely has white flowers everywhere thanks to the Goddess of Nature) to kill Melandru once and for all.
Scarlet looking into The All led to Taimi discovering that we can’t keep wiping out Elder Dragons so it seems her statement that Tyria needs her was accurate even if her new master Mordremoth was killed before Taimi could make her discovery.
As for Jenna and Anise being Lyssa. A lot of players suspect that’s the case. Her actions will lead to us making a move towards Elona in the 2nd Expansion to save Kralkatorrik(who’s World Boss Battle would be all about knocking him unconscious).
Grenth could very well be Mr. E himself and if he is I hope he’s a good guy unlike the other Gods. He might even help us stop Braham from accidentally destroying Tyria(even if he has to completely absorb all of Jormag’s Magic into himself to do it).
Dwayna, Dhuum and Balthazar are likely now located in their respective Realms of the Gods where we’ll kill them before heading over to Abaddon’s Mouth and opening the door to the Realm of Torment which will serve as the setting of the 3rd Expansion where we save Kormir from Menzies.
There was very weak specific build up, Balthazar is the god of war and fire. On his reveal as Lazzydazzy he purged everyone specifically with fire, helped defend Aurene with fire, fire, fire fire!
’cept the real Lazerus the dire was a necromancer that also used lightning/air
So if we see a Air Elementalist Necromancer Mursaat then we’ll know we got the real Lazarus(who doesn’t need all of the Artifacts to resurrect).
Considering travelers in the Maguuma Jungle sense something Unseen I would assume players will eventually be hearing of dead rising and people getting electrocuted by mysterious Lightning out of nowhere during Living Story season 4 or 5. Most likely Lazarus will surface in Tangle Root(which hasn’t appeared yet in GW2).
Primordius’s head looks like the head of this mutt: http://wow.gamepedia.com/File:Ancient_Charhound.jpg
If she is Lyssa then she will have to be replaced…
Considering she is also likely heading after an Elder Dragon and how Kralkatorrik is the only one who’s a threat we need someone who has ties to Kralkatorrik’s region. A Krytan King long dead who would delight in conquering Elona and annexing it to Kryta.
Namely Palawa Joko’s old rival: The Mad King Thorn! Hope the Durmand Priory approves of letting Mad King Thorn move back into Tyria. They were the ones who reigned him in when he was about to reclaim his precious Krytan throne.
Primordius is poisoned into sleep and paralysis at the same time. Same with Jormag.
Our main goal right now is to either keep Braham from killing the unconscious Jormag or have someone absorb the Elder Dragon’s energies just like Kormir did with Abaddon.
Hopefully Mr. E turns out to be a benevolent Grenth so that we can do the latter. I don’t want Jormag causing any trouble down the road.
Grenth has Ritualist Magic as well which corresponds with Jormag’s ties to the Mists.
Grenth/Dwayna = Jormag(either Dwayna or Grenth could attempt to absorb his Magic while we are dealing with Braham)
Dhuum/Menzies = Zhaitan(who’s power is being absorbed by everyone)
Abaddon/Lyssa = S
Lyssa/Dwayna = Kralkatorrik(most likely to be Lyssa’s prime target for power)
Melandru/Lyssa = Mordremoth(everyone is absorbing his power)
Balthazar = Primordius(Balthazar’s prime target for power)
For all we know Jormag is still active due to not having his actual weakness exploited.
Primordius actually being weak to Ice is not surprising considering he is Fire and Rock with nothing else. Mordremoth is Plants and Mind so his weakness would be connected to his mind.
We know that one of Jormag’s aspects is Ice yet not what the other Aspect is so we have know idea what his actual weakness is. That weakness must be exploited in order to send Jormag into hibernation.
If the Six are villains I hope we have allies among them. Namely Kormir and Grenth. Those two have enough ties to Tyria to want to save it. Their place amongst the villains could be taken by Dhuum(located in the Underworld) and Menzies(who’s staging area is in the Realm of Torment).
I’m personally hoping Rytlock is Kormir’s representative and Mr. E is Grenth himself allying with us. I also hope Grenth and Jurah the Master of Whispers are one and the same too.
Without having played the story, I asume Primordus has an actual physical body, that isn’t just a big beeing out of lava/magma?
What a shame. I thought the theory of every dragon being like their “element” was solid.
I mean we had the dead body Zaithan and planty Mordremoth.
He had a volcanic skull sticking out of lava similar to how the Mouth of Mordremoth was growing out of Maguuma Jungle.
At the very least he fights with them during Wintersday during GW1. He really doesn’t seem all that friendly with Dwayna at all!
I’m suspecting that Grenth is both our old friend Jurah the Master of Whispers(we never saw Grenth’s face come to think of it so why not) and our other friend Mr. E.
Hopefully he helps us against the other Six Gods just as he helped the Reapers against Dhuum. In all honesty Balthazar is no different from Dhuum in my opinion so surely Grenth would have no trouble helping us fight him(Grenth is already at war with Dwayna and Melandru you know).
But it was Caudecus who set up the replacement artefact. I can’t quite spin how Balthazar then became Lazarus from the ritual. None of the lead in to Balthazar makes any sense, even if the return of the Gods is a great future hook. All felt a tad contrived.
Are you telling me that you don’t think the human gods could have found a way to trick Caedecus at any point?
Not at all, but we would be getting even further into unneccesary convoluted and contrived territory. Why would he trick Caudecus into making him substitute an artefact containing himself so he could pose as a mursaat. Why not just…pose as a mursaat?
That’s exactly what he did! He took advantage of the Bloodstone being used in a ritual and intercepted it. Bauer of course knew that Lazarus would not be revived(as far as he knew anyways) but he did know that some Supreme Leader had come to him unexpected with a plan to aid in avenging the Mursaat and bringing “Glory to the Unseen Ones”.
The Supreme Leader appeared before the guy resurrecting Lazarus before he resurrected Lazarus.
Balthazar clearly showed up in front of Justiciar Bauer during the ritual, and encouraged it by claiming that Lazarus could be resurrected anyways all for the sake of deceiving the other White Mantle by posing as a Mursaat.
Mad Souls in Nightfall state that Kormir will destroy the other Gods. Balthazar’s villainy shows us the reason for this.
Primordius is unlikely due to his size(he’d demolish Taimi’s room if took his true form) so if anything Lazarus would have to be either the Great Destroyer or Balthazar.
Of course for all we know that huge Dragon thing in the Central Transfer Chamber isn’t Primordius anymore than that Dragon Champion in Drakkar Lake was in which case Primordius could indeed take the form of Lazarus.
Of course if we are suspecting the Central Transfer Chamber Primordius of being a fake than we can suspect other things such as Primordius being Balthazar’s father that he decapitated and usurped if we so desire!
For viable candidates we have:
1. Balthazar(due to the Flashpoint name of the story and would explain Kasmeer’s shock due to Balthazar proving himself worthy of the title God of Murder)
2. Menzies(also tied to the Flashpoint name due to being Balthazar’s brother)
3. Lazarus(would explain Kasmeer’s shock since it’s not supposed to be Lazarus)
4. Anise(would also explain it and she is also a Mesmer) and…
5. Jenna(same as Anise).
I suspect we’ll see multiple villains revealed at once during Flashpoint.
(edited by Mickey Frogeater.1470)
If Kralkatorrik did convert Jenna into a Branded Champion on the level of Scarlet Briar during the attack upon Edge of Destiny than he is smarter than Mordremoth!
Considering this I assume Kralkatorrik is in Kryta standing on the roof of Divinity’s reach taking full advantage of Jenna’s Chaos Magic to cloak his presence.
In the end the real Lazarus the Dire(who obviously doesn’t need all pieces of himself as seen with GW1) may take advantage of Kralkatorrik stealing Jenna in order to seize control of Kryta and unlike that egotistical Confessor he might be convinced to aid us against the Elder Dragons and explain the Mursaat’s actions.
Except that the dragon which “came at [the Pact Commander]” was… Zhaitan’s orb (well, they all kind of did, but Zhaitan’s was the closest and was right up to the camera before crashing into Tyria’s orb; Mordremoth’s was second closest).
Which is actually rather interesting, given Zhaitan was dead at the time that it would be the dragon which “came at [the Pact Commander]”.
Not to mention the PC claimed to have seen their own role in The All (which is also rather interesting and not yet answered, unless the role is slaying the orbs and throwing The All out of balance… WE ARE THE HARBINGER OF DESTRUCTION! ALL SHALL BOW BEFORE US AND DIE! FIRE AND CHAOS FOLLOWS IN OUR WAKE AND NONE CAN STOP US IN OUR CRUSADE OF ANNIHILATION!)
Either Omadd’s Machine showed us our actions with Zhaitan literally lunging at us right before we killed him at Orr or Zhaitan was secretly alive yet we somehow killed him unknowingly using Omadd’s Machine… I would assume the former myself.
When Faolain was first exposed to the Nightmare it was in Orr. Whatever it was that she corrupted Caderyn’s Nightmare Court with came from there.
The Nightmare withers Thorn Wolves into dry versions of themselves so one would think Death Magic is involved.
It can’t be Zhaitan since he is confirmed dead through the Rotting Destroyers and it can’t be the Vizier’s Magics used in the Cataclysm unless it is a corrupting spell like Shiro’s Affliction.
So…. No idea what the Nightmare can be as all Orr candidates are accounted for.
As for the non-Orr Candidates(AKA Death Magic users strong enough to pull it off) we only know of Dhuum, Palawa Joko, the Envoys, Grenth and Mad King Thorn and only 3 of those would want stereotypical villainy spreading throughout an entire race(Dhuum, Grenth and Thorn).
Since the only candidates possible are unlikely I’m completely stumped as to the source of the Nightmare!
It’s been pretty much Word of Godded that Abaddon is gone, never to return. They may retcon that of course, but it does make it unlikely.
Menzies or some powerful demon, now…
Menzies is indeed a good candidate. His Shadow Army already resembled the White Mantle in GW1 so him converting more White Mantle into Shadow Army members isn’t out of the question.
I am going to assume that we will see Menzies reveal himself and see Dhuum as well.
I’ve been wondering what Menzies looks like….
I hope Taimi summons Dhuum through an Asura portal of the type that leads into the Mists on grounds that she just discovered that Dhuum is Jormag’s weakness(Jormag does have ties to the Mists that other Elder Dragons seemingly don’t have).
Considering Mordremoth was assailing Scarlet’s mind from the beginning before she looked into the Machine and the fact that she argued with him one would think she was turned into Scarlet by something other than Mordremoth.
Needless to say Mordremoth had her corrupted by the time she started looking for Leylines yet before that time who knows how her mind worked?