Guild Wars 2

highlandish.9784:

how about extending that to interspecies marriage, and keep it gender neutral and allow same sex marriage, say my fem asura can marry a fem sylvari, titles being partner instead of wife or husband….

and allow my lesbian interspecies couple to adopt a baby canthan or eloni cus thats what they do
/s

Tyria’s population is already too low to sustain an attack out of the Mists. If we do not enforce same-sex same-species marriages, then our population will drop even further. We need to make children for the future of Tyria!

Raine.1394:

And, then a justice system to handle the dissolution of marriages and the handling of joint property.

Which is biased against men, because men’s rights don’t matter.

Nyraxx The Necromancer.1728:

So I just saw a weapon pack titled “God-slayer”

WHAT IS THIS HERESY?

Anet, are you hinting that the six will fall?

DO NOT EVEN DARE IT!

The six must remain, what is Tyria without them?

Even as I write this, words escape me. DO NOT STAND AGAINST THE SIX.

You would seek to remove the six from the world of Tyria? Would you also seek to make the oceans vanish? The sky shatter? The Earth be torn asunder? Would you seek the death of faith and the end of civilization? I care not for what plans you have made or thought, I care little if you must take time to weave another fate. But only one thing is certain THE SIX MUST REMAIN. LONG MAY THEY REIGN.

I agree. I stated to all my friends that if Balthazar falls, I would be leaving the game entirely. I’ve been playing since the launch of GW1— and I have been loyal to the series even with its current crappy story. However, the Death of Gods is in bad taste— and the brainwashing of current community is mind numbing.

In fire Balthazar forged the chains of Abbadon; Bathe in the ever-presence of his glory!

Yea it really is a shame that an RPG game has to focus mainly on core features rather than storytelling and roleplaying because of casuals. The entire genre has been moving further and further into the seas of casual drudgery simply because companies have to show a large profit for their work. The days of games sacrificing their business for quality is long over and the watering down of the genre has been here for almost an entire decade now.

Horrible in-game astmosphere due to the lack of simple features such as rain? Watered Down Storytelling? No attachment to your main character(s) let alone story characters? That’s profit for you!

Alas! We still have single player games for the real good stuff.

I preferred the Instance system, tbh. Open World Exploration is nice and all, but that wasn’t what made GW1 great. Alas, all but a memory.

Gem Cards are always cheaper. You can get them on sites or stock up during black friday sales. Stuff like that.

ugrakarma.9416:

armaduras.8972:

The Guild Wars Universe is a serious one.

Do not make me laugh, at this point it’s a complete joke.

It was clear that the anet, it seems, concluded that plushies of Taimi and Aurene sell more.

Expect Rytholock to be killed, He speaks thick and is too adult.

The dragons are sleeping, they are big and too aggressive. Villains will now be plushies versions of Gods.

And of course, the legendary weapons, will all be comic style.

Just arrived in my hands, Exactly at this moment in which I wrote this post, a video leaked , a video-trailer of the next expansion. WARNING Leaks/spoiler of next xpac at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI2Wyi-V6Q8

Do you read before replying? I did mention the same concerns that you pointed out and thus, I agree with you. The Guild Wars universe is serious, and my previous post was directed towards the watering down of the lore.

There is no doubt that crowbars are easier to get than any of them. Airship Parts too are the easiest currency to get. If I run around the map doing events from start into late meta— I will end with something like 45-75 crowbars for an hour of running about. Making the drop rate much higher than in zones like Auric and Tangled Depths.

Alas, I have really effective farming paths in Verdant Brink, which I developed when farming HoT Achievements.

Edit: With that stated, I used to generate more Exalted Keys in Auric Basin when the community was larger and multimap was still happening— just by farming Auric Events on the generic farm path that was needed for supporting Multimap. Again, something I learned to do farming HoT Achievements.

As for running out of crowbars, if you’re in doubt to how fast you can run out of them… bring two stacks (500) crowbars to Verdant Brink and run around farming Airship Cargo & Hitting Short Events while you’re at it. You’ll find that 500 bars lasts you for roughly under two hours. I was always impressed by this.

A lot of the Jennah theory of her being one of the Lyssa twins is due to the ironic turn of the events leading up to Zhaitan awaking. Without the Queen, Charr and Humanity would have still been fighting, which is an undeniable lore fact. Thus, Mainland Tyria would have been largely divided and the effort towards assembling the pact would have been more half-baked than it already was/is.

I don’t give much thought to the Theory, however the beauty of it is that Jennah has shown massive talent with her skills, as has Anise. The upcoming expansion to has a lot to do with Lyssa. Little GW2 screenshot for the GW1 Lore Fans.

Well, we’re actively seeking people in our active hours that would like you to bolster our fractals presence, during our active hours and be interested in raiding. This will require you to be friendly to casual mindsets, yet put the work in to strengthen our more than casual players’ resolve. It’s not a guild for the extreme progression, however, we are getting there.

LS1 was the best because the world was changing and the events were serious. There was so much hate and yet no one really gave them (Arenanet) a chance to work out the bugs. Therefore you get this watered down and really crappy Politically Progressive storyline which, like all things Progressive, lack focus and enough oomph for you to give a crud about what is going on after it has burned itself out. Thus the interest dies and the work & effort put forward is all for naught because the plan/story was always doomed to fail due to its own lack of morality. In Short: Bad Storytelling from Writers limited by the limited attention span and imaginations of their viewers/readers.

The debut of Balthazar was lackluster, not because of his behavior in the story, but the lackluster fluff environment of GW2. Nothing is serious, it simply doesn’t have the atmosphere to make you care unless you ignore the horribly written romance pushes on the community between two women (that obvious have teenage angst for one another and still believe in the illusion of teenage love, like the children they are), Poor Development on Braham’s Character/Background and his Love for his Mother (Eir, well she was poorly developed also— time constraints and all that) which left us caring nothing for his loss or the loss to Tyria with her death. At least Rox and Canach are well written, albeit that Canach should have been burned on a Pyre in the middle of Lion’s Arch over a year ago.

The Guild Wars Universe is a serious one. It makes that of World of Warcraft look like Child’s Play. Yet, it is consistently losing its structure, its canon, and its epic power plays. The Dragon’s themselves were watered down from their true magnificence for the sake of soothing the player’s illusion of importance—- and even that illusion has of importance has been directly targeted by the HoT and LS3 story arcs.

Should the Pact have been able to Defeat Zhaitan? No.

Should the Exalted have been more important to the defeat of Modremoth and the further Unification of Mainland Tyria? Absolutely.

Will the ‘Human’ Gods be revealed to have never left Tyria and/or come back to Tyria? I hope so!
—————-
We will only know what it will be like as the expansion is hinted towards. I hope the damage can be repaired, but that requires a community that cares about more than game mechanics.

PopeUrban.2578:

-snippet-

I agree with everything you wrote. Praise be to Balthazar; Savior of Tyria.

Balthazar won’t be overthrown, it would be the worst decision that Arenanet ever made, right up there with making Charr a playable race over Skritt. People that are okay with Balthazar losing his powers, are straight out ignoring his role in the games’ lore. Plus the entire downplaying of the Gods’ powers is just laughable. Did Balthazar look like he was afraid of Primordius in the current episode? Absolutely not, he was using the Elder Dragons like a Circus Performer uses a Tiger/Elephant.

Alas, I prefer the theory that Kormir was chosen due to her proximity to Abbadon and her exposure to his Divine Magic from the start of the Nightfall story. She inadvertently prepped herself to be a vessel via her contact.

We will always come back to the fact that Player Characters in Guild Wars 1 are the equivalent to entire armies in GW2.

Feanor.2358:

armaduras.8972:

My heart hopes that instead of continuing this nonsense with Balthazar as upcoming Villian, that the story truly places him in a position of an Antihero. The Batman of Tyria per say.

There are two problems I see with that.

First, consider the GW2-only players, who barely have a clue about Dhuum and Menzies. Dropping supervillains you never heard of isn’t particularly good writing in my book.

Second, the Batman of Tyria is obviously Lord Faren.

@hlaraujo: It was clear we’re not going to kill all the dragons. The story warned about it long ago, so this was expected.

Dhuum has risen! The Fissue of Woe has fallen to Menzies and his Shadow Army. Balthazar has been cast aside and now the forces of Dhuum and Menzies are besieging the Underworld and demons are being let loose upon into Tyria. You would let the architect of the safety you bask in, the mighty Balthazar, simply be forgotten?

Mark my words, the existence of Tyria as it is today is due to the foresight of The Five, and Balthazar was the most invested in advancing Tyria forwards so its inhabitants could stand up for themselves. Any writing that differs from this is ignoring the care put into Balthazar in GW1 and the structure of the story from that point out.

His actions in the latest living story can be dismissed. Seeing as the pact commander themselves are ignorant pups. Did it appear that Balthazar was afraid of Primordus? No, he was on a mission. There is a bigger fight out there and there isn’t much the PC can do to change it. Alas, GW2 Characters are not nearly on the level of that of a GW1 character. A GW1 character’s abilities could crush entire nations in GW2. Tyria has truly fallen into chaos if these are the heroes they produce.

Fear not the flames of our devotion; Fear the outcome of our failure. Bask in the Flames of Balthazar; Bathe in the ever-presence of his glory! Never forget! Praise be to Balthazar, He That Shows Us the Final Truth.

I would send Kasmeer and Marjory home. Braham, I would have burned on a pyre for threatening everyone near Jormag’s Domain. Rox could stay and Taimi is a fairly decent researcher, but she would have to be made to understand that she is exactly that and nothing more. Then I would hire only soldiers to Dragon’s Watch. We don’t need Warriors, we need soldiers. The Pact have failed over and over again due to the unprofessional behavior of party members; The Pact is not an army at the moment— it is a rabble.

Seeing as the Seers created the bloodstones and the ‘Human Gods’ seemed to have no issue taking said bloodstones from the Seers and using them for their own means… I would say that the bloodstones themselves were a form of magic/technology that was beneath the gods or so rudimentary in the concept that they could do whatever they wished.

The general concept accepted for years was that the Gods simply left Tyria after Abbadon and his followers literally wanted to Terraform the entire planet of Tyria into this Tentacle Laden hell like planet. If you followed GW1 at all, you would see the ‘Six’ originally used the Jotun & Norn and later Humanity for their colonization/civilizing of Tyria. Humanity turned out to be a more than sufficient tool for this purpose and expanded into the frontiers. They built roads, cities and introduced a modicum of true civilization down the throats of the Native Barbarians. Abbadon didn’t like the governed laws based on the limitation of magic and so set forth on his own path to overthrow the works of the other Five Gods and reshape Tyria in his own image. Throughout GW1, you see how powerful even a sliver of Abbadon was and how easy it would have been for him to succeed at Terraforming the planet to his own image.

Now Balthazar himself has been fighting Menzies (his half brother). Balthazar in all intents and purposes has always been on the edge of a generic Demonic God & his brother Menzies acts like a full-fledged Demonic God. The difference between the two would be sanity and who holds the ‘Divine Magic’ in their vessel/body. Dhuum was effectively shaking his bonds in GW1 and readying himself for another awakening. The Pantheon in GW1 has weakened already, so it would have only taken Dhuum’s power rising to increase the aid to Menzies against Balthazar. Balthazar could have lost this war since he wasn’t doing too hot in it, to begin with. Menzies, therefore, took the Divine Magic from Balthazar and cast him out of his own Realms. This could also lead to Dhuum and Menzies forces assaulting the Underworld (Realm of Grenth) to fully release Dhuum and overthrow/kill Grenth.

My heart hopes that instead of continuing this nonsense with Balthazar as upcoming Villian, that the story truly places him in a position of an Antihero. The Batman of Tyria per say. The Races of Tyria have been screwing around with powers that they barely understand for years now, and every success results in the following disaster. Without the guidance of the gods, Tyria is absolute chaos.

Fear not the flames of our devotion; Fear the results of our failure. In the fires of Balthazar were the chains of Abbadon forged. Through his guidance, civilization was brought to Tyria. The infrastructure for your current defiance against the Elder Dragons was of his design. Here is a god that does not require you to bow and scrap to show your devotion, but to simply fight for survival to show your worthiness. If you are devoted to your struggle, Balthazar will be there to reward your sacrafice.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Balthazar hadn’t exactly accomplished much either. How many wars did he win, again?

Couldn’t even beat his non-divine half-brother.

Balthazar does not win wars, he feeds on them and shows up when the feeding is good. If anything, he is a parasitic god. An Antihero of Tyria. His presence can turn a fair fight with a possible draw, into an absolute bloodbath. I don’t expect much out of the writing team at ArenaNet seeing as they already butchered a perfectly fine story when they created this monstrosity that is the current GW2 story from the ashes of the now absolutely ruined GW1 story.

However, when you stretch the accomplishments of Balthazar out against the eons that he has been on Tyria, it is easy to see his existence as that of inaction. Were/are the six gods all that active in the day to day life of Tyrians? No. At least not to the extent that mortals would recognize. Have GW2 players even met the Glory of GW1 players or even come close to the same challenges? Absolutely not.

As for the speculation of Balthazar failing against Menzies, who is to tell where that will end up. Who we know as ‘Balthazar’ now could even be Menzies posing as Balthazar. Or maybe Dhuum has risen and Menzies and he (aftering defeating Balthazar) are now gutting the Underworld and taking Grenth’s seat. I still believe from my time in GW1 (a speculation after seeing Abbadon in Nightfall), that the ‘Gods’ are not the same species. More of a collectorate of different species from different worlds connected to Tyria by the Mists. Balthazar’s relationship as the God of War would make him closely related in temperament to that of Menzies, Dhuum and even Abbadon. So making him a loose cannon in GW2 is fine and dandy, as long as his road to ‘power’ is constantly gaining more power until he literally becomes unstoppable. Antiheroes are great for story telling. Fear can be worshiped, hatred can drive you to heroic deeds or stupid decisions— and sometimes the most kitten Antihero is what you need when the world is going to kitten.

Bathe* in the presence of Balthazar’s fires. For in these fires were forged the chains of Abbadon. From these fires came the orders to conquer and civilize the world of Tyria. Focus not on the race chosen to fulfill the will of the Gods, but the progress made. There was a time in the distant past that Tyria made Heroes, that time has passed and has yet to show its face again.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zinn’s life was actually very long. He was an renowned golemancer already in 1078 AE, and he died in 1175 AE. That’s almost 100 years later.

And exceptional asuran lifespans are only 120. So he had to be in his young twenties / late teens by GW1 in order to live so long.

So chances are strong he would have died within a decade by natural causes anyways.

120 years compared to that of a God or the ‘Druids’? He was a pup, he accomplished nothing.

How about some actual lore on the guild halls. Gilded Hallow sort of make sense in it’s function, but LP just doesn’t have much of an explanation.

apharma.3741:

Who’s Zinn?

What’s a MOX?

Zinn is an unbeliever in Balthazar. His life was short, his achievements are dust and his memory is that of a swindler and bully. He won’t be missed. Balthazar be praised!

ErickDntn.1847:

-snippity snappity-

Heretic! Burn in the fires of Balthazar’s Fury!

ErickDntn.1847:

Oh my gosh! I was thinking this since the first ep 5 launch.

I think we’re gonna have a stand off against Balthy with Destiny’s Edge 2.0. And when he’s dying, getting wrecked by the commander, Kasmeer be like interrupting and make speech about what being a god should mean and eventually kill steal from us and ascend as the Goddess of Peace or sumthin -_-

EDIT: I think it’s gonna be Kasmeer since she’s like the most religious in the group, given there are only two human in your group (three if you play human)

Yea, that’s all we need. A flabberjawed blondie and God of Peace with a dysfunctional relationship. If we’re ‘lucky’ Kasmeer and Marjory will both die in a waypoint accident and we will never have to hear about/of either of them again.

You think you can replace Balthazar? Finder of Wisdom? The Scourge of the Prideful? No, there is no replacement for Balthazar, may he live forever. If the writers at ArenaNet can’t replace his Odin like reputation by the next expansion then it’s just a prime example of poor writing if there ever was any. Feel the Flames of Balthazar; Bask in the ever-presence of his glory!

“As he lay there dying amongst the other fallen, Shinza Zu Heltzer could feel the cold fingers of Grenth creeping through and around his body. The pain from the Tengu spear jutting from his stomach was intense as his refugee caravan burned behind him. Yet, for the sacrifice of his fellow warriors and against such treachery against the realm of man, Shinza knew that his Gods would anger. He steadied the spear inside him and propped himself up on a kneel as the Angchu Warrior readied his sword. Shinza swore at the beast. Spit out his hatred for the broken treaties, his hatred for those fools in Kaineng City for agreeing to terms that the disloyal Angchu would never uphold. He screamed in defiance and plead to his Gods for help. As he glanced to the side and saw the gate of Kaineng open to the civilians that he escorted atleast this far, winning skirmish after skirmish as his own company of warriors dwindled in numbers, he knew that his duty was over and like any good Kurzick, this Tengu beast would know the taste of Canthan Steel. Shinza stood and the pain of a thousand daggers washed through him, the grasp of Grenth was pushed away as fire flowed through his veins. The pain dulled to nothing as Shinza placed his hand on the hilt of his claymore. The Angchu Warrior stared at Shinza and then his eyes refocused behind the Kurzick Warrior. Fear twisted the Tengu’s face and Shinza felt the heart of a blazing inferno behind him as the pain of his injuries rushed back, shocking the Kurzick warrior back to the ground. He fell backward and to his side, as he fell he rolled over and saw that for which the Angchu Warrior had feared. He That Shows Us the Final Truth, Balthazar, had responded to the Angchu betrayal against man. Fire erupted from the ground behind the Angchu ranks and cyclones of magma swept the field in reckless patterns. The Angchu warrior screamed his squawking rage at the human god and charged with his swords ready… he never reached his destination.

Balthazar, God of War, kneeled above the dying Shinza Zu Heltzer and placed his gauntleted hand upon his shoulder. He spoke sympathetic words, "Rest now my champion. You served the brotherhood of man well this day and will be rewarded with a second life. When that has past, I will remember you. You will join me in the after and feast in my halls. Live, Shinza Zu Heltzter. "

The fire gifted by Balthazar seeped from Shinza’s body and the pain from the spear was gone. He gently guided his hand down towards the wound and found it and the spear to be gone. He glanced up, but the God of War had already vanished."

Praise be to Balthazar!

“And Balthazar did cast His gauntlet Northeast, to the lush lands yonder, and to his army, that he did build from men and women and courageous hearts, He commanded in a great voice that resounded with the calamity of strife, “March forth to this land. Fear not the savage demons that dwell therein, for I will protect you as you spill the blood of your virginal war. March forth to this land. Conquer the lesser for glory and the welfare of your children and your children’s children.”
So the armies of Orr did march forth and spread His word with the singing of swords and the sermons of battle cries. We did baptize our flesh in the blood of our victories and spread His fire from Arah to the mountains in the far north.
And thus did we, with His blessing, deliver Ascalon from the hordes of the monsters known only as Charr."

Westenev.5289:

If anything, I think the Druids were in the wrong here. True, Zinn’s typical asuran attitude didn’t help much… but he had a point – it’s his tyria too.

He should have won then, but alas he is an inferior species and therefore is dead. Praise be to Balthazar!

Braham reminds me of that coworker/underling that you work with every day. Who has consistently complained about his pay, done a poor job and has yet to quit or get fired. And because of you, the Commander, are a responsible adult— you just smile and nod as he goes about acting like a teenager/college student. Yet all along he directly affects the moral of the team. If you talk about the ‘team’ though, he’ll bring up his pay again and sulk for an entire month; Therefore putting everyone around him on edge.

At least that’s what I get from him. Which is why I play games— to get away from such behavior.

lordhelmos.7623:

I’m ready to go back to the desert and my home in Elona.

“The world was to be swallowed up into Night, and you yet walk in the day due to Her sacrifice.”

There isn’t enough currently known about the Gods to know the extent of their power. Nor can it be concluded that the Dragon’s can best a God. You can not destroy the power/magic of the gods. However, my speculation from the lore is that they can bolster this power with other forms of power/magic.

Balthazar has/had an established war against his half-brother Menzie. GW1 ended without making clear who the victor would have been. As a Pantheon, Gods are not obligated to like one another either, which is another thing that the game lore doesn’t discuss.

Balthazar seems to be/ have been liked by the other four gods. His brother Menzies is an unknown factor altogether. After learning about Grenth’s story from GW2, coupled with my love for him in GW1— I have always speculated that he would be one of those Gods which after ascending from a Demigod to a full on God, would be harsh on his fellow Gods. Grenth, for example, would have to have a bumpy relationship with Lyssa since the two oppose each other morally. If Balthazar lost his powers to Menzies in their War and Menzies therefore collected Balthazars divine powers and became the new god of those aspects— then Grenth would automatically shun Balthazar. While a God like Lyssa or Melandru would support him in gaining his powers back.

There is also a chance that Balthazar/Menzies relationship is much like that of Thor/Loki or Perun/Veles. In that sense, it is hard for one to exist without the other and each would constantly be struggling to prove the invalidity of the other’s stances/morals.

The Gods are not native to Tyria as they were drawn here through the Mists. The Mist allows for traveling between worlds, much like in Norse Mythology how they travel between the 9 Worlds. It is not even know how much any of the gods actually care about Tyria (or each other like I stated earlier). The fight between Abbadon and his fellow Gods was massively destructive. Even the plans of Abbadon post-defeat were destructive in nature; I quote “Nightfall is revealed to be the release of the god Abaddon into the world of Tyria, changing the world as well into a place more like the Realm of Torment. As befits the name, areas affected by Nightfall become much darker, among other changes to the terrain.” https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Nightfall_

For all intents and purposes, Tyria seems to be a Prison Planet and Celestial Playground. There is just too much going on on the planet for it to be stable. The planet isn’t stable at all— and it has far too many sentient species for it to be natural. Couple that with what has happened in just the last 1000 years— and then pile the rest of the planets history on top of that.. and you start to see what I am getting at.

Guild Missions have gone great for the past few weeks. It’s taken us 3 months to get from level 5 to 39. So proud of those that have stuck around with our casual butts for so long. Oorah!

Balthazar be praised! Gilded Grimoire is recruiting casual players yet again.

Fluffball.8307:

You can kill some of them.

Asura are not particularly ethical though, by human standards, and Zinn was unethical by asuran standards.

Very very well said, Sir. Feel the Flames of Balthazar; Bask in the ever-presence of his glory!

Chadramar.8156:

There are already far too many NPCs and plot hooks that go nowhere, IMO, for them to shoehorn in even more. While I do agree that some positive relationships would be good, let them grow between the characters we have, as friendship and (found) family bonds, not some Obligatory Romance.

That way there would also be room for the actual protagonist i.e. us in the story, if they try to write the NPCs as building real friendships with us instead of making us at best a mute outsider to and at worst a punching bag for all the NPC angst and drama.

The worst part is that as the story currently stands, the Commander seems to a character outside the main story. Everyone is supposed to look towards you for guidance, yet your own Guild Members completely overpower you— and their importance to the story is more than your own. If there was a picture of everyone in teh story atm, you would be the guy dressed in Gray standing in the shadow away from everyone else. Sure you’re there, but you’re overshadowed by the overly dressed (or barely dressed) other members of your ‘team’— which seems to love throwing YOU into harms way for their own agendas.

“No peace with beasts.” Praise be to Balthazar!
——————
Now your time has come a storm of iron in the sky,
War and murder come again, lucky if you die.
No way to rescue destiny, scream and curse in vain,
You will never be remembered, no one knows your name.

When the music changes then all is broken down,
Mighty cities laid to ruin, burning to the ground.
Murder is become the law; you cannot make a stand,
Chaos rules the world, now mortal, brotherhood of man.

You cannot hide the truth from me I know what’s in your heart,
Greed and jealousy each equal, all your days now dark.
Mighty mountains fall in dust the world falls into hell,
Faith in lying prophets, no one to lift the spell.

Monsters rule your world are you too scared to understand?
You shall be forever judged and you shall surely hang,
We live and scrape in misery; we die by our own hand,
And still we murder our own children, brotherhood of man.

Blood on all our hands we cannot hope to wash them clean,
History is mystery, do you know what it means?
Slaughter, kill and fighting still and murdered where we stand,
Our legacy is lunacy, brotherhood of man.

We are worse than animals, we hunger for the kill.
We put our faith in maniacs, the triumph of the will,
We kill for money, wealth and lust, for this we should be kitten ed.
We are disease upon the world, brotherhood of man.
——————

Genocide is a valid response to Genocide. If you can’t make peace with a species/race on an Alien Planet and the survival of your species relies on you wiping them out.. then you wipe them out. If Humanity truly wanted to kill all the Charr, they wouldn’t have built the Great Northern Wall. What they would have done was simply keep sending full expeditions northward to cleanse the north of all Charr. The expansionist humans did indeed go North of the Great Northern Wall and form settlements, however, to call their expansion a genocide is simply not the case. As it’s explained rather well in Eye of the North, if the Seering never occured, then there would have probably been peace between the Charr and Ascalon.. and eventually humanity would have allowed the Charr to be intergrated into their society.

Humanity in GW2 is not a Xenophobic race. However, they did come to Tyria with a way of Governing and Building Kingdoms/Empires which Tyria had never seen before. This expansionism was efficient and the native Tyrians were barbarians, making the human settlement of the wilds extremely quick and unsettling to the native barbs. This caused races like the Charr, Centaurs, Hylek and Tengu to hate humanity from the start.

Humanity was outnumbered from the start.. and you know what? They flourished even being surrounded on all sides. Said flourishment wasn’t only caused by their favor of the gods. If there is one thing that Tyrians don’t like, it is change.. and Humanity is Change. Praise be to Balthazar.

I really hope not. I have 4,300 hours logged into the game currently with five sets of ascended and five legendary weapons. I am more than happy with the gear provided.. and it would appear that the model would be for new stat sets rather than armor sets. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get the ability to ‘Bless’ Ascended armor too.

Every tier of gear you add to GW2 only increases the stress on inpatient new people… and new players really are impatient. I’ve personally watched over twenty people join our guild, play the game for one to three months, progressively, and then simply quit once they start researching the time needed for ascended gear. Everyone wants the best, even if it isn’t needed. Legendary armor is going to be more than enough of a blunder in the same regard.

You were proven wrong before Justine. Human ruins are all throughout Tyria. They consist of a good majority of the ruins in the Caledon Forest, even the roads there are humans. All the ruins in Ascalon are that of humans. There are Dwarven and Human ruins in the Shiverpeaks… as for the Kryta (The Last Stronghold of Humanity in TYRIA)… ha.

Let’s not even get on about Elona, where humanity tamed the rivers themselves, built cities to rival that of any of the elder races. Or lordy, dare us to talk about the Grand continent of Cantha, where humanity truly reigned supreme.

Unless you completely ignore every single map in GW1 and go about absolutely blind to human ruins throughout Guild Wars 2, then there isn’t even room to argue about human superiority Pre and Post Exodus of the Gods. The Charr didn’t defeat humanity, the Titans did. And the Titans did it through the Charr, while the Gods were no longer watching. Imagine the Roman Empire as Ascalon and one day the Germanic Tribes (Charr) developed a Nuclear Bomb and honestly didn’t care where they used said bombs. That was the type of War between humanity and the charr, and without the power of the Titans the Charr would still be nomadic nobodies behind a wall talking about that never to arrive day where they would reclaim the lands of their ancestors.

Races in Tyria are absolutely Xenophobic. Humanity are/were Xenos. If they weren’t aggressive about their colonies, they would have been committed to Genocide. Take for example the Tengu in Cantha. Treaties were made and broken, over and over again by different Tengu tribes against the humans. At some point, humanity lost all confidence in the Tengu and started to perform massive cleansing sweeps of genocide against them. The Centaurs have always been extremely territorial, and not just towards humans. Even the Dwarves had issues with Centaurs long before humanity push into Centaur Country. Human in their Golden Age, simply put the stop to the Roaming Centaur tribes. Same can be said for the Charr.

You only own something for as long as you can hold onto it. Nothing, including land, is inherently yours if you lack the strength to keep it. The Jotun and Norn had their favor of the ‘Human Gods’ and the Jotun, at least, squandered the power they were granted. So entered humanity, which did, in fact, shove modern civilization down the throats of the barbarians in Tyria.

Justine.6351:

armaduras.8972:

I still believe that the human gods as a pantheon, are from multiple worlds and/or from the mists. Tyria isn’t native to them, and yet they did make it better. You could think of humanity as the Roman Empire. They built the roads, marked the boundaries and explored the frontiers. They pretty much civilized a portion of Tyria that was wilderness, and it really was. The Charr were not advanced at the time of human discovery, the same goes for the Centaur, the Ogres or the Trolls. With the exception of the Norn, Jotun & Asura which just are what they are, humanity brought the idea of grand civilization to the wretches of Surface Tyria.

On that note, Balthazar has always been a Antihero rather than a loving or caring god. He is the God of War, after all. Like most Gods of War, he isn’t exactly the most reliable or nicest god in the world— but he did have grand plans for humanity and after the conflict with Abbadon, there was obviously a decision between all the Six to put an end to their forced civilization of the World.

The human gods undid the efforts of the Seerers, Forgotten, Dwarves and Jotun by messing with the bloodstones. These races and the Mursaat were indeed civilized before the human gods brought the humans to tyria. And realize that the charr and centuar would have probably advanced if the humans didn’t sort of just exterminate them where ever they settled.

“When the Elder Dragons last rose, the jotun, like the other races of the world, possessed the ability to use magic with no restrictions until the Seers sealed it all within the Bloodstone. They survived the Elder Dragons’ rise due to being hidden by Glint along with the Seers, dwarves, and Forgotten.

According to Thrulnn the Lost, before their fall the jotun and norn were favored by the Six Human Gods and granted magic that led the races to prominence. He refers to this time as the Age of Giants. In time, their power came to rival that of the gods themselves, who began to fear that the jotun would use magic against them. The jotun giant-kings, confused and enraged, turned on one another, and the gods abandoned them, taking their magic away and handed it over to other races, causing the crumbling of jotun civilization. However, Elder Thruln and Priory scholars offer a different explanation for the jotun’s fall. They say that the jotun became too prideful and sought to make their own tribes superior, bringing the tribes into civil war out of their pride and greed. From this same pride and greed, the jotun are said to never marry outside of their tribe, and some Priory scholars mention that based on their ancient monuments, modern Jotun are far uglier than their ancient forebears as well.

Whichever story is more truthful, after the Exodus of the Gods, the jotun regained the ability to use magic in its less potent form. However, their lore-keepers, sages, and mystics had largely been killed off and the knowledge of using their old magic and technology became lost to them, leaving only the monuments and citadels behind as the race fell from power over the centuries."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jotun#History

And no, the Charr were Nomadic Barbarians, same for the centaur. It’s a life, but it isn’t civilization. Building on cities on the scale of the humans didn’t occur until… well the humans. If it was not for the GUILD WARS, who knows where the lore would have went. However the GUILD WARS, set humanity into a downhill spiral. Your character in GW1 isn’t a Hero, he is an Antihero. He puts the world in danger and saves the world. Hell in Prophecies he/she does both! GW1 was obviously the last Golden Era** for humanity— and yet no matter where you go in Tyria, you run into HUMAN Ruins.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Guild_Wars

I still believe that the human gods as a pantheon, are from multiple worlds and/or from the mists. Tyria isn’t native to them, and yet they did make it better. You could think of humanity as the Roman Empire. They built the roads, marked the boundaries and explored the frontiers. They pretty much civilized a portion of Tyria that was wilderness, and it really was. The Charr were not advanced at the time of human discovery, the same goes for the Centaur, the Ogres or the Trolls. With the exception of the Norn, Jotun & Asura which just are what they are, humanity brought the idea of grand civilization to the wretches of Surface Tyria.

On that note, Balthazar has always been a Antihero rather than a loving or caring god. He is the God of War, after all. Like most Gods of War, he isn’t exactly the most reliable or nicest god in the world— but he did have grand plans for humanity and after the conflict with Abbadon, there was obviously a decision between all the Six to put an end to their forced civilization of the World.

This post made me laugh, thanks. I refuse to see Balthazar in any other light than that of an Antihero. ArenaNet needs to make good on this story. Balthazar be praised!

Balthazar always had the makings of an Antihero. Balthazar and Prince Rurik were my favorite characters in the Guild Wars franchise. So I am not all that happy about the current story of Balthazar… however he hasn’t really done much out of character with his established lore. If the next living story doesn’t redeem him somewhat, then I will have simply lost faith in ArenaNet to deliver.

Balthazar be praised! Other people that hate the Lord and Savior Balthazar being portrayed in such a poor light. Balthazar may not be perfect, he may be some what of a jerk— but to say that the Destroyer of Worlds would actually destroy a world? Nay I say! Balthazar is and will always be an Antihero. He is the God of War. All hail Balthazar! -listens to Brotherhood of Man-

Too much emphasis is put on their relationship, rather than the story at hand. It takes up valuable minutes in the short stories we do actually get, listening to these two constantly talk about themselves.

You’re trying to save the world, people are dying because of your orders— and these two associates of yours are endangering the mission because of their relationship. They both need to be booted out of the team and sent home.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You… you’re saying that GW1 was great storytelling, but think Season 1 was beautiful?

I had just played GW1’s story through again two weeks ago. From Prophecies to Nightfall at least. I read a bunch of the side lore as I was doing it. It has a better-constructed story, with a solid base that never contradicts itself.

Season 1 was beautiful, as it was changing the world and the content was interactive and progressive— not just for the player but the entire continent of Tyria. The direction of the game Pre-HoT was great and the story was very well written.

Now the game is so full of fluff that when something serious does happen, it doesn’t even feel like it should matter. Eir died? Who cares!? Did you see that new Quaggan Backpack on the Gemstore? You were probably wearing it when Eir died. Yep, kneeling over a corpse on your barely dressed female character, outfit died pink with a pink quggan on your back. Oh so serious.

I’m in the same boat as a lot of Guild Wars 1 players which have stuck with Guild Wars 2 because of Guild Wars 1’s structured and MORE THAN WELL thought out story. By structured, I mean it was good storytelling based on you (the player, the ‘Hero’/’Antihero) and around the structured world which was the Guild Wars Universe.

I think Guild Wars 2 started off great and the first Living World content releases were beautiful. Post – Heart of Thorns was the turning point where the story of the game goes past in fast forward.

I’m not going to sit here and write a huge post. I read a lot of books, so I am probably biased on the storytelling in general since I get the good stuff from literature which requires no game development integrated into it. However, I can’t be the only one that is absolutely disheartened by the pace of the story in this game as of late, the absolute obsession with the love life of characters that don’t matter to me… and the overall lack of centralization around the main character (you). I really hope they don’t screw up Balthazar— he’s always been a prick, but to turn him into something evil is just lazy storytelling. Balthazar be praised, have a good night.

Pssh posh cabosh

She exists since the Landmarks for her exist. They do say she is ‘dead’ on the Arachnia Plateau part of the wiki… however, if no one absorbed her power and with the way that Guild Wars lore goes, she’s probably not dead.

Part of me wants it to be her, just because of the Chak. All hail Dhuum, Emperor of Oblivion; The Ender of All; the Omega Death.

Well, I am hoping it’s Palawa Joko and his Thralls. I’m really hoping that it’s NOT Balthazar. Wouldn’t mind if it was Dhuum..

However, in GW1 they never implemented Arachnia into the game, and I was hoping that they didn’t just abandon her all together like the Utopia Storyline. Arachnia is older than all the other gods and her fate was never disclosed.. and she is the God of the Insectoid Beings.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Arachnia

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Arachnia

Well, to be quite frank—- All these living stories are insane when in the background, the entire world is being devoured by ELDER DRAGONS. When you look at the action of Canach/Consortium (Karka Events), or Scarlet, or any of the current living story events.. there is just far too much going on. Build the pact, fight dragons.

Alas, I am not all that surprised or disappointed by the way the story is being handled. After the importance of choosing between the Vigil, Priory or Order of Whispers was pretty much downplayed later in the original story.. I pretty much got the just of how the writers at Anet would treat their story. Your choosing one of these orders doesn’t even directly affect your campaign in HoT, the Living Story.. or really anything about your character— and it should.

Still! PATHETIC MORTAL! THE VOID BECKONS! Dhuum will return, the human pantheon has fallen. All hail Dhuum, The Voice in the Void! The Mouth at the Edge of Darkness! The Ender of All! Emperor of Oblivion!

PATHETIC MORTAL! THE VOID BECKONS! Dhuum will return, the human pantheon has fallen. All hail Dhuum, The Voice in the Void! The Mouth at the Edge of Darkness! The Ender of All! Emperor of Oblivion!

We claimed GH with five people.. and then we got bored of that and claimed LP with four people. It’s not that hard with a few necro tanks.