Guild Wars 2

Members of the Inquest work towards goals that defy asura ethics. Through their view of the Eternal Alchemy, they believe that the world is a machine which can be run.

With Scarlet being much “in line” with the Inquest philosophy, she must be trying to get to the bottom of why/how the magic in the world works, I see no other explanation. We know she spent time with the Inquest, and we know she put her head where it didn’t belong. The question for me is, how could she NOT be in the reactor? The reactor messed with Dragon Energy, which is definitely where I would start looking, if I were to understand the magic of Tyria. When too much magic is leaking into the world, the Dragons come and take it back. If you shouldn’t start with dragons, where else would you search for the origins of Magic? The Reactor was a perfect place to tap into this knowledge. Unfortunately we know how it ended, from Wiki:

It was recently destroyed by an Inquest experiment gone awry

- Something to note for the people claiming that she could not have been there. This reactor meltdown was in fact recent, so there is no reason she could not have been around. We already know she spent time in Metrica Province.

Now one last quote, spoiler warning, as this is from the new Story:

Scarlet Briar: I told the Inquest chaos energy was a misnomer. Mind you, dragon energy is tricky, so I can see how they flubbed it. At least they helped identify the network of magical channels that crisscross the globe. That was a breakthrough. Now we know how NOT to do this kind of research right on an intersection of those channels. Live and learn, right? That’s progress. Hooray for progress!

Okay, “magical channels that crisscross the globe” – Ley lines anyone? Pathways of magic. Surely they are not just random. There is something here that we don’t know.

To sum up my theories:

Scarlet is a knowledge-hungry kitten. She wants to understand Magic, but not in the sense of normal use and understanding. She wants to understand the very roots of it. She has been with the Inquest for some time, stuck her nose where it didn’t belong. She knows about Dragons and ley lines, whatever their purpose is. She has spent time in Rata Sum, Metrica Province, and she has been in the Thuamanova Reactor where she possibly learned for the first time about the “network of magical channels”. Scarlet is looking for the origins of Magic, and she is getting closer. Something is up with the ley lines, and my guess is that Scarlet is looking for their origin, assuming she will find answers there.

Someone is going to ask how the heck this fits into the Living Story and all its alliances. The truth is I don’t know. There are many theories, but I’m not going to cover that, as I don’t have a solid idea.

The purpose of this was to state that while she may or may not be a bad villain, the lore is not broken. It’s actually a good plot, if I am interpreting it right. I hope she finds the source!

With all the hate going on, it seems the rage train only want to hate Scarlet, and keep her in the Living Story only, at any cost. What I find annoying is that people keep claiming she does not belong in the Reactor.

Soooo…. Lore time. The game actually does have lore you know.

Back to basics. Scarlet used to have another name. From Wiki the first thing we learn is:

Ceara emerged from the Dream of Dreams with an innate fascination with the interlocking systems of nature, and a determination to forge her own path independent from the Mother Tree.

In my translation she is looking for the answers to “everything”. She wants to understand how things are connected and put together. In a world infused by magic, there is sure something to get to know. Magic is a part of the world, and everyone has access to magic. With Scarlet being so thirsty for knowledge, this is the ultimate mystery to be solved, the ultimate tome of knowledge. (This seems like guessing, but read on)

From an interview with Angel McCoy:

Magic is the lifeblood of Tyria. The entire world is infused with it, and it flows through everything via ley lines that criss-cross the planet.
The natural role of the dragons is to keep this magic balanced. From time to time, in the long history of the world, the dragons have awoken and begun to draw the world’s magic into themselves, reducing the level of magic flowing through the ley lines.

When the dragons have consumed enough and thus reduced the world to a low level of magic, they go back to sleep. From then on, the magic leaks from them, back into the world at a reasonable rate. Eventually, it builds up in the world again, and the dragons awaken again to tip the teeter-totter back in the other direction.

Now why is this relevant? Well. First of all, the dragons are very much active in the game, meaning we have reached a peak in the magic flowing around the world, so a loooot of magic must be flowing through those ley lines. Furthermore, Zhaitan is dead (surprise spoiler!). That must have released a lot of magic. I dare say there have never been more magic flowing across those ley lines.

Ok, so far we got Scarlet wanting to know how things connect, a lot of magic and dragons. What then? Back to Scarlet!:

Ceara’s ideas were understandably unpopular with the colleges of the Arcane Council, but very much in line with the ideology of the Inquest. She spent a brief time with them, but was ejected from Rata Sum after she and Teyo were found meddling with designs in the city’s archives

Scarlet DOES have history with the Inquest. With the lore describing her being in Rata Sum, being with Inquest, and also running around with Hyleks after again being an outcast, I think it’s safe to say she was in Metrica Province where all these can be found. Now for the sake of Inquest:

Post edited and recreated for mod approval:

So I saw the post with descriptions of all the new items including RNG chests
Can we please not have these? I would rather not see the items in the game at all than have them through wallet grabbing luck chests. Seriously. We have had enough RNG for a while. Make it stop. Even if you go through with it, make sure everything is tradeable. That’s the least you can do to the people spending gems on it.
No one likes your lucky chests. We like fixed prices or obtainability through play.

The exact description:

Get packed for the return to Southsun Cove. An assortment of souvenirs from the Southsun islands. This chest contains Southsun crafting materials and a chance to get a wide variety of items such as shoulder skins, new boosts and conveniences, and a rare chance to get new weapon skins and mini pets.

No one wants chances or rare chances in something we buy with our real life cash. If you must, make the items expensive, but let us buy the items. You know you will have people complaining after “OMG having openened 100 chests, no mini!!1!” anyway.