Guild Wars 2

I don’t think Zintl would count. They hylek aren’t worshipping a god of the sun, or a sun god, just the sun as a god. They don’t seem to attribute it as being any entity in the traditional sense.

Kalavier.1097:

Part of why it has poor physical defenses. Lovely city sure, but once you are inside those four ways in, you can’t be stopped. My hope is when they rebuild it they include more defensive emplacements. Like those passageways in (groundside) have walls/manned gates. The city itself has some walls and defensive towers, etc.

Maybe contract Maeva and get a city-sized version of that forcefield for emergencies while they’re at it.

Screenshot, as requested.

CureForLiving.5360:

Seagloom.1263:

Rytlock did ask Rox to kill Scarlet in an instance following the Marionette battle. Rox’s connection to the other LS iconics and player character would point her toward Lion’s Arch. The sooner she fulfills Rytlock’s request, the sooner she gets admitted into his warband. So if anything, Rox has more motivation to show up than her counterparts.

I must say in that case Rytlock isn’t taking Scarlet too seriously, or significantly over estimating Rox.

Well, seeing as he sent her out to kill Tequatl, and she came back with his tail, it isn’t entirely unjustified.

Darkbattlemage.9612:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

MAGpie.7962:

Six elder Dragons.

Six human gods…

Mmm

A lot of people who are new here make that jump, but we shoot it down every time. Once you get past Balthazar-Primordus and Mordremoth-Melandru, the whole thing just falls apart.

Technically there more than six Gods, which I think needs to be explained a little bit better. Lyssa lore says she is a twin goddess so technically she represents two goddesses. Also to consider Dhuum still retains his divinity status but is not recognized by the humans, same for Balthazar’s half-brother Menzies ( I might of misspelled his name), as a god. So there are nine human gods active unless I’m missing something that makes Dhuum and Menzies not eligible to hold the definition of a god in the Guild Wars universe.

Menzies, as far as we’ve been lead to believe, doesn’t possess that indestructible divine power that makes a god a god, just an army the size of Balthazar’s. Dhuum should still be eligible, though some argue he might only be a half-god now.

The nature of Lyssa’s duality is really ill-defined, but since there’s nothing pointing her out as being more powerful, it’s likely that the two sisters share a single god-power/essence.

Nike.2631:

By players, maybe. Somehow she ends up being the voice of reason in the teenage angst festival that is her guild . Or maybe its just the gushing even other Sylvari do about her (“Have you ever been hunting with Caithe?”) piled on top of the general fawning heaped on Sylvari by NPCs the world over .

Her guild distrusts her. The people that associate with her guild distrust her. Just about every non-sylvari NPC we see her contact distrusts her. The only praise she gets is from other sylvari, and it’s just the praise the sylvari give to all of their firstborn.

MAGpie.7962:

Six elder Dragons.

Six human gods…

Mmm

A lot of people who are new here make that jump, but we shoot it down every time. Once you get past Balthazar-Primordus and Mordremoth-Melandru, the whole thing just falls apart.

Nike.2631:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Caithe is the only NPC in the entire game who is unimpressed in some fashion by Scarlet.

Probably because Caithe is annoyed at being displaced as this game’s biggest Mary Sue.

What are you talking about? Mary Sues are unreasonably liked. Caithe is unreasonably disliked.

Durzlla.6295:

Not to mention her and bro-ham are both members of the Vigil and the slogan, “some must fight, so that all may be free.” Kinda goes along well with rescuing villagers from a city burning to the ground due to a maniac…

Um… no, they’re not….

Are you misremembering the Molten Facilities? Because yes, they work alongside the Vigil there, but the Vigil NPC in charge straightup says “Oh, and a young male norn and female charr, but they aren’t affiliated with my team.” Also, “There’s also a young male norn and female charr, but they’re not with us.”

EFWinters.5421:

Well, think of it as watching CSI vs Game of Thrones. Like with episodes of CSI, Scarlet is both introduced and ended (presumably) in this “episode” of the living world, and has no connection to the last “episode” (Zhaitan). Contrarily, Game of Thrones is ever expanding on its lore and developing existing characters, allowing the story to proceed without introducing circumstances that may seem weird to the viewer.

Both shows can be fun to watch, but CSI will never feel as fulfilling, entice you to watch the next episode, garner as much interest, or win as many awards as Game of Thrones will.

Yeah, but this episode of CSI has lasted an entire year. Can you think of a single criminal on that show who would seem remotely interesting after being stretched out that long?

Kycoo Grim.9463:

ah, Your right, I did forget about that… Did we ever get an explanation as to how we missed that? Massive mesmer veil?

Yep. It was confirmed to be the work of one of the members of the Toxic Alliance, but I forget which faction. Either way, she’d still probably have access to it.

EDIT: It was the Nightmare Court, according to Peneloopee.

To add on to what Konig said, I really wasn’t impressed with Sea of Sorrows either. I like books where the characters drive the plot, but that one was definitely a case of the plot driving the characters, and as a result they all feel flat to me. Also, there’s a load of minor inconsistencies that grate when doing a close read.

Ghosts of Ascalon, I feel, was a very good book, and I would certainly recommend it.

CureForLiving.5360:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

CureForLiving.5360:

Mmmm well by their nature they’re already corrupted (or else they’d be called ex-dragon minions), however we’ve seen no evidence of them being twice corrupted, so a theory is that once they’re corrupted by one ED then other EDs can’t corrupt them.

Yes we have seen such creatures. Three of them, each corrupted by at least 4 Elder Dragons’ energies – Kralkatorrik, Zhaitan, Primordus, and Jormag. The last linked, by five – the fifth being Mordremoth.

Well then, no non-asuran-experimental multiple corruption :P

But that doesn’t mean anything, seeing as asuran experiments are the only times we see minions of separate dragons interact.

Kalavier.1097:

Do note that really, those camps take place at most a day or two after the actual attack (Scarlet took the city in under an hour or within a night depending on NPC you talk to or overhear).

At this point, it’s unlikely ANY of the cites have a proper response or aid force ready. As noted, the lionguard healer thinks the two Seraph are the “first group of the aid” instead of hunting the golem,.

The camps are actually set more than “a few days” after the attack, according to one of the NPCs in the Vigil Keep camp (human female, called “Beggar”), but I cede the point. Maybe I’m reading too much into the NPCs complaints (both Hao Luen and the head Lionguard healer both express frustration at the lack of a response), which could possibly just be put down to needing something to vent at.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

I suppose so…
Still seems pretty weird considering there is not a single other building in Lions Arch that has gone untouched – disregarding the one underneath a protective force field.

I’m pretty sure the Lion’s shadow Inn is untouched too. And Tokk’s mill.

Seeing as they’re very small buildings built beneath a cliff, it’s likely they were just too much trouble to hit. Sparing them doesn’t do the Consortium any favors- it was just a gift shop for visitors to Southsun, not their headquarters, which is at an undisclosed location iirc. Without any tourists coming through, it’s completely worthless to them.

Will Lucky.8703:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

And put the norn, charr, asura, sylvari, hylek, skritt, quaggan, grawl, ogre, kodan, tengu, and centaur residents under a system of government they can’t participate in. Solid plan, truly.

True, but the Krytan Government only allowed Lions Arch to remain independent so that it could act as a defense against Orr. With that threat gone the Krytan Governments reasons for allowing it to remain independent are gone.

It is kinda suspicious that the Seraph were only sent to retrieve Heal-tron, instead of providing any kind of relief.

Will Lucky.8703:

I’ve got a solution to this problem, replace the Lionguard with the Seraph. Just let Queen Jenna reclaim the city from its incompetence now its reason to exist independently is gone.

And put the norn, charr, asura, sylvari, hylek, skritt, quaggan, grawl, ogre, kodan, tengu, and centaur residents under a system of government they can’t participate in. Solid plan, truly.

wookiee.4631:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

It has to be turned down ideas. Even Scarlet, in the full grip of her insanity, could not have possibly thought a quaggan-centaur alliance would do anything for her.

Not so sure. Would all the players of the world be able to resist an army of Quaggans riding on Centaurs? They’d all be too busy gushing over the Quaggans to notice their own heads being removed from their necks by Centaur swords.

I understand that you’re joking, but I want to take the opportunity to expand on my point- the making-of-armies portions of Scarlet’s alliance system is just a byproduct. She doesn’t care how strong or effective these groups are. Her strategy towards warfare has been outright stated to be “throw more numbers at them until they’re overwhelmed.” Martial prowess, magical prowess, technological prowess, she doesn’t care how these things carry over to the field of battle. What she’s after, each time, is a very specific result that comes from combining the technology and/or magic of one group with that of another. The Molten Alliance was to get her the probes. The Aetherblades were for an airship fleet. The Toxic Alliance was for the miasma.

Most of the combinations that are crossed out on that chart have no real value in that regard. Going back to the tengu-largos idea that started this thread, what could she get from that? The tengu are known for making quality weaponry and really big walls, but have no unique technology and no magic at all, as far as we’ve seen. The largos, again, have no technology that we know of, and only stealth magic. Unless she wanted to build a massive invisible wall around Lion’s Arch before the invasion, she stood to gain nothing from the combination.

And don’t even get me started on ettins and skritt.

It has to be turned down ideas. Even Scarlet, in the full grip of her insanity, could not have possibly thought a quaggan-centaur alliance would do anything for her.

Sirius.4510:

I’m not really sure the flood the prior century counts as “stood” – it was rebuilt, certainly, but was damaged at least as badly as it is now.

And virtually the entire population died, to be replaced by a new one of mostly different race.

FlamingFoxx said it all. The only melee monk was Alesia.

Naetell.3815:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Naetell.3815:

I beg to differ. If you look at what we’ve seen ingame, we can tell that Scarlet may call them their minions, but these groups often see themselves as anything but.
The Flame Legion side of the Molten Alliance intend to enslave the dredge as soon as Scarlet’s out of the picture.
The Krait are certain they are superior, and as soon as they have their shards, they’re out.

The problem is that this has completely fallen out of the game. Yes, in the aftermath of Flame & Frost, there was a single Flame Legion prisoner who expressed such a sentiment… and that was it. We never again saw any signs of those fault lines from that earliest chapter, never saw any complaint towards the way Scarlet treated or expression of individual motive, never even heard a single Molten Alliance member speak again. All they’ve done since April is jockey with the Aetherblades and Watchworks to throw away their lives serving as a distraction for Scarlet. And the krait? They have the shards, have had them since the Tower of Nightmares. They took them to a secure location in December. So why are they still working with Scarlet’s alliance system?

Indeed, it never came back. It would have been an interesting venue for the story to explore as well. But that would have been much too experimental for game storylines, I’m afraid. ^^;

As a dev put it right before this patch:
They’re angry because the players beat them, and now it’s time for revenge.

Massively did a couple of good articles on the problems with Scarlet’s portrayal. I encourage you to check them out, I found both to be refreshingly well thought out.

To do those a great injustice, though, and paraphrase the salient points in my own terms- the problem is that Scarlet’s armies have been dealt a much greater injustice. They all had some small degree of characterization in their debut releases, but since then they’ve just been cookie-cutter mooks for us to kill, on par with and not meaningfully different than Scarlet’s mindless clockworks. There doesn’t seem to have been any reason at all to use existent factions rather than completely new enemies, unless it was to give Scarlet grounding, and thus legitimacy, in the established setting. As doing so has created the unpleasant symbolism of Scarlet dominating and discarding the existing content that we as players, and especially us lore-hounds, have become invested in, I would venture that it was not a worthwhile gain.

Can that even work? I’m thinking of one of the Order of Whispers quests that involves an escort through LA- it traveled along paths that aren’t necessarily all there any more, to reach a ship at a pier that has now been sunk.

Naetell.3815:

I beg to differ. If you look at what we’ve seen ingame, we can tell that Scarlet may call them their minions, but these groups often see themselves as anything but.
The Flame Legion side of the Molten Alliance intend to enslave the dredge as soon as Scarlet’s out of the picture.
The Krait are certain they are superior, and as soon as they have their shards, they’re out.

The problem is that this has completely fallen out of the game. Yes, in the aftermath of Flame & Frost, there was a single Flame Legion prisoner who expressed such a sentiment… and that was it. We never again saw any signs of those fault lines from that earliest chapter, never saw any complaint towards the way Scarlet treated or expression of individual motive, never even heard a single Molten Alliance member speak again. All they’ve done since April is jockey with the Aetherblades and Watchworks to throw away their lives serving as a distraction for Scarlet. And the krait? They have the shards, have had them since the Tower of Nightmares. They took them to a secure location in December. So why are they still working with Scarlet’s alliance system?

What would Scarlet want with Glint’s child? Why would it know anything about Destiny’s Edge when by your theory it’s been locked underground for hundreds of years? Why would Scarlet want a branded army, for that rate? She doesn’t care about armies, she has plenty and still only sees them as something to keep us heroes busy while she digs in the harbor.

I would imagine so- the basis for modern golem control seems to be Snaff’s theories on mind-golem interface, and seeing as those theories are shown in Edge of Destiny to be pretty universal there’s really no reason why other races couldn’t use it. Before Snaff, golem control was “all joysticks and directional pads” which would almost certainly be operable by other races.

As for why other races haven’t adopted golems on a large scale, it seems to mostly be due to a general unease about asuran technology. Other races don’t understand how it works, and as much as they like to talk big, it seems asura don’t have an entirely firm grasp either. Mishaps happen, even when the so-called “experts” are running the show, and when they aren’t… well, see the Queen’s Jubilee. I think the charr are much more comfortable sticking with their own sorts of technology.

Shiren.9532:

Taimi seems to understand Scarlet better than anyone else (she was right about the thumpers during the Marionette and she seemed to know what was going on better than most in Edge of the Mists) and she says Scarlet has moved on from Lion’s Arch. We did see Scarlet during the beginning of the invasion, but I guess she’s moved elsewhere (like Thaumanova – a place where reality was already torn) for her final target?

Again, Taimi is wrong. We know that Scarlet is on top of the drill, because we get aerial surveillance cutscenes, but not a single one of the characters, including the ones we play, knows that. Nobody has seen Scarlet because she’s staying far out of reach. Taimi’s information relies solely on the accounts of people who were fleeing for their lives as their world literally crashed and burned around them. She makes the assumption that nobody seeing Scarlet means she isn’t there.

She isn’t some omniscient Scarlet expert. She’s a kid with a hero complex, and just because she obsesses over Scarlet doesn’t mean she’s developed some supernatural ability to pinpoint her location.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

The other races are not getting involved because they have other things to do (fighting centaurs, flame legion, dragon minions, bandits, seperatists, renegades, ghosts of ascalon, nightmare court etc). And this war his far away from the capital cities.

The Tengu are not getting involved because they are not getting involved in anything, nor do they seem to care about anything that goes on in the world. And this war is taking place at their front door.

This war has already come to three of their cities- Divinity’s Reach was bombed, it’s manufactured defenders stolen, and it’s newest monument turned into a temporary shelter for Scarlet. The outlying norn and charr settlements were hit hard, tying up both cities with the expense of caring for refugees. They’ve been targeted before, and now Scarlet is demonstrating the potential to wipe them off the map. Jennah, Smodur, and Whitebear have significantly more reason to pitch in than the tengu, who have remained almost entirely unaffected, do.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Even the races that do care about Lion’s Arch aren’t doing anything. Why should the tengu?

How can setting up refugee camps, moving key facilities from LA to vigil keep and trying to save as many citizens as possible be counted as ‘nothing’?

The Vigil, the Priory, the order of whispers, the lionguard and many players do everything in their power to contain this threat (yes, players are part of the lore too). And the orders/lionguard/players consist out of the 5 main races (and a few others).

Just because there aren’t any troops from the main cities doesn’t mean the main races aren’t doing anything.

Well, in that case, the tengu race is part of the effort! After all, there are tengu in the Vigil!

The Orders are all race neutral, and what they do or do not do in no way reflects on the races they pull from- there are tengu in the Vigil, but that has no bearing on the tengu on the wall who shoot everything on sight. The racial governments are doing nothing, besides DR tossing in some hand-me-down air balloons.

Even the races that do care about Lion’s Arch aren’t doing anything. Why should the tengu?

FlamingFoxx.1305:

It ‘looks’ like an aetherblade ship because the aetherblades modified the pact airships…

So it’s more that the aetherships look like Ellen’s ship, rather than the other way around.

No, actually, Ellen’s ship is an Aetherblade ship, the one from Aetherblade Retreat. Magnus appropriated it for her as part of his campaign to back her bid for a Council seat.

Kyrel.8942:

There’s dialogue at the Lornar’s camp about the miasma and something about Hylek.

They just say that the hylek discovered it isn’t fatal in small doses, and the way they discovered it had something to do with bonfires. There’s nothing linking it to them though- sounds like the Priory just went to them for an expert opinion.

Kiel’s airship is actually over Stormbluff Isle, just kind of hanging out. Don’t think she comes down herself though.

CHIPS.6018:

Shiro’s power came from Abandon. And Abandon is dead.

Not necessarily. It could just as easily been power attained by his status as an enjoy, or by some independent dark means that Abaddon may or may not have pointed him towards. There was nothing to suggest he ever directly channeled power from Abaddon.

I wouldn’t mind Shiro being involved myself, but there’s really nothing to point to it. GW2 has before appropriated GW1 terms and completely twisted their meaning- see ascension, agony, infusion, just about any of the ascended crafting materials (I mean, vision crystal? Really? Was that at all necessary?).

What Foxx said. Those tengu were threatening to shoot even ordinary citizens who approached their wall, even when things were completely peaceful. Their over-riding directive has always been “All others, stay away”, and under the circumstances they can’t post guards out front to warn others off.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Saint, that is North of Lions Arch – and we don’t exactly know how canon it is since there are replicas of that instance both in Elona and in Cantha – it’s quite possibly at least partially just a mechanic for getting us to EoTN.

The entrance was to the north, but the story is that the caves themselves were under L.A.- thus the PC’s alarm at seeing an explosives stockpile. I do agree that the canon is questionable, but at least one of them has to be, and of the three the LA one is the most likely.

The Spiral King.2483:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Kalavier.1097:

The Spiral King.2483:

Nick.6972:

Races will seek new allies, and Tengu will help.

Yeah, the Tengu definitely helped me by one shot me when I was fighting a veteran while scouring LA for the rubble piles. I totally want the help of a bunch of xenophobic kittens who indiscriminately murder whoever gets close to them.

Xenophobic? No.

Protecting their borders and keeping everybody away from the wall that MAY be placing explosives? yes.

That high up (assuming firing from the top, or even middle), you wouldn’t really tell if that charr or human running toward the wall is an aetherblade or adventurer.

They should check their targets before firing. Just don’t indiscriminately murder whatever gets close to their border.

But that would make too much sense. They’re under threat from a serious problem. Those two molten dredge trashmobs that run up to the gate to die every few minutes. They don’t have time to actually check their targets. The fact that said trashmobs don’t have explosives, or drilling equipment, or anything that would actually possibly even scratch the wall is besides the point.

Actually, they do have a wrecked drill right next to the wall.

He’s a djinn, so probably only about twelve feet

Strictly speaking, Maeva isn’t a member of the Priory, just an independent researcher that Gixx knows. But yes, it’s her house. The house of the dead Whisper’s agent is the one at the Smuggler’s Waypoint.

Like the title says, this is just an artless info dump for what’s going on with our new allies, since most people will miss the dialogue- you have to jump off the zerg train early to catch it. Feel free to discuss any or all of the following.

-Taimi: Running around at Vigil’s Keep frantically asking if anyone has seen Scarlet. Feels like this might be her last chance to observe her in action. Interestingly, now claims only to want to observe her, and not to meet or talk to her, but gives no indication of what changed her mind. Haven’t hung around long enough yet to see if she has other dialogue.

-Kasmeer and Marjory: Turns out Kasmeer’s hiccups are just something that happens when she’s scared, and not sinister hinting at the scratch she got in the Tower of Nightmares. Ah well. Getting panicky, but has a touching bit with Marjory where she says that the reason she’s able to handle what’s going on is that meeting Marjory made her want to be a better person. More backstory on Marjory- she joined the Ministry Guard ASAP to get away from home, since her father “isn’t a nice man like [Kasmeer’s]”. Still keeps in touch with her mother and sisters. Joined the Durmand Priory right after quiting the guard in order to build an information network to support her new profession. Opted not to go with the Order of Whispers because “those rats” are “too secretive, even amongst themselves.” Both Kasmeer and Marjory feel like they’re losing the fight, but want to keep at it as long as there’s anyone left to save. Much more openly affectionate in their dialogue, definitely feel like an established couple now.

-Rox and Braham: Nothing really new, just old friends shooting the breeze. Rox is still twitchy around the explosions. Rox needles Braham about Ophelia when he makes a comment about Marjory and Kasmeer being “too busy making lovey eyes at each other.” Both want to jump back into the fray. No mention of Taimi between them.

Shiren.9532:

It seems since Taimi’s first appearance, the writers are giving her the answers to what Scarlet is up to. Everyone else doesn’t get it, but Taimi seems to be written with the correct answer. This time she is saying Scarlet isn’t in Lion’s Arch she’s somewhere else (maybe it was just promotional images but I could have sworn I saw Scarlet on an one of the air ships). If Taimi turns out to be right, Lion’s Arch is either a decoy or not her only target (or she’s watching reruns of Blossom until the drill is finished doing it’s work). The map in her lair has arrows pointing to all the Order HQs so that hasn’t come true yet (unless the arrows represent refugees).

Taimi is saying that because none of the refugees she’s questioning saw Scarlet. In the cutscene we see that she’s just hanging out at the top of the drill, but none of the NPCs would be able to spot her up there.

There is mention of dwarvern artifacts being found in the Jade Sea, so I wouldn’t be too certain of that.

zamalek.2154:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

This, at least, is definitely false. We saw plenty of magical races in Cantha and Elona- hell, Elona had djinn, which are advanced elementals- literally sentient beings of magic.

Except I addressed them in the final paragraph. I certainly don’t think that Elona and Cantha are excluded from ED shenanigans – we just haven’t found out about them.

You addressed contact with other continents in the final paragraph. Your theory on the evolution of magical lifeforms specified only continental Tyria. I’m sure you can understand why I misinterpreted your point.

zamalek.2154:

Time, advancement and communication:

• Advancement: Tyria (continent) may be the only place where magical races have evolved. EDs wouldn’t be as interested in non-magical races. Furthermore Tyria (continent) may be the only continent on the planet where magical races can evolve (lack of ley lines and therefore magic elsewhere on the planet?) – this would mean it would be the only place of interest to dragons.

This, at least, is definitely false. We saw plenty of magical races in Cantha and Elona- hell, Elona had djinn, which are advanced elementals- literally sentient beings of magic.

I would have sworn there was a thread about this not long ago… anyway, to reiterate on what was said there in briefer terms, it is suspected that a combination of the presence of the Bloodstones- which were, remember, all the remaining food the Elder Dragons had in the whole world- and the presence of the five surviving races drew the dragons to continental Tyria, and that whatever process it was that put the dragons to sleep then occurred.

yayuuu.9420:

First of all, look at this map. I have marked places wheere elder dragons awoke.

Slightly off there- Primordus awoke at the edge of the Searing, about a straight shot south from the Eye of the North. The only clue we have in regards to Mordremoth’s whereabouts is “jungle”, which is farther west than you put it. For all we know, Bubbles isn’t even on that map- he could just as easily be farther west, perhaps a great deal so.

Let’s give therapite plenty of wiggle room and make it 10AM server time.

They’re the source of water for the city. Pumps up from the lake, iirc.

I think Kio’s referring to the description of Rata Sum, which said something along the lines of “you can feel the geomystic generators sucking the magic out of the air”. That just means that they were utilizing the environmental magic, though- it doesn’t mean it was particularly powerful, though I’d argue that the variety of floating rocks in the area just might.

I’d say yes and yes, but no timeframe.

For the playable race, the argument goes roughly as follows- ANet has expressed interest in adding more of them, and of the established non-playable races, the tengu are perhaps the strongest placed contenders. They aren’t hostile or primitive, they have an interest in combating the dragons, they’ve historically had diverse appearance which would allow for customization, and they already have a reserved city-hub. Certain heart quests and characters also seem to be laying the ground for the tengu opening up and coming out into the world.

For access to the city, see above, plus it’d be an easy place for the devs to go without biting off more than they can (quickly) chew. A jaunt down to Glint’s lair or off to Bloodstone Fen would come with player expectations of the imminent opening of the entire Crystal Desert or Maguuma Wastes, but the Dominion of Winds could quite comfortably be just the Dominion of Winds.

As for the timeframe, ArenaNet appear to be bound and determined to stick with the Living World model unless it proves beyond doubt to be a trainwreck. They insist that traditional expansion content like new races could come from the LW model, but while the releases have been getting progressively juicier, a year on we’ve yet to see anything nearly that big. We have had a couple new maps, but they’ve both been very lackluster, especially compared with the 25 that were already there, and one was only temporary content.