Guild Wars 2

In GW2 itself, there’s but a single airship named after her. However, she is a late secondary character in the novel Sea of Sorrows, where she is more or less just being a member of the Shining Blade. No word on what she did with the Scepter or rather she still has it, but a lot of people draw a connection between that artifact and her unnaturally long life.

EDIT: Ninja’d by Larynx, but the wiki makes a mistake. Anise is the Master Exemplar, the head of the Shining Blade. Livia, as of Sea of Sorrows, was addressed simply as Exemplar, which appears to be the rank immediately under the leader. For an example of normal Exemplars, play CM explorable mode.

I guess that makes me feel very slightly better about this Nolani thing- although it doesn’t excuse the fact that the Academy has been reduced to one big storage room for a single up-to-now unknown artifact.

And again, something that should have been in game. Even giving Tassi a single line saying the Reliquary was passed from hand to hand until it arrived in Nolani would have mitigated a lot of my disappointment on patch day.

That witch in Caledon is actually my primary reason to believe that the role isn’t religious- she was operating completely by herself, to transform hylek to keep as pets. Very traditional witch-like, not very religious as krait define the term. As for the Blood Witch, I freely admit that I didn’t pay too much attention to her, but the only line about her sacrifices I recall is “The Blood Witch is feeding quaggans to her pets!” No sacrifices or altars are actually in evidence in the lake itself.

Summed up, my argument isn’t that krait sacrifices aren’t religious, it’s that the witches aren’t conducting those rites.

As for your rhetorical question- well, anyone, really. The Voice had by that point degraded into insanity, a natural occupational hazard disconnected from Jormag. And I disagree with the indoctrination comparison too- when you save a sylvari just before they fall to Nightmare, they say they could, and in cases can, feel it- this isn’t some insidious change, they will certainly notice that it is happening. Jormag’s corruption seems to induce physical agony, so the same thing goes there.

But to your point, and minor corrections aside, I do agree. Once one falls to Nightmare/Jormag they are no longer free agents, and those who willingly choose that fate in the first place are thereafter slaves.

I doubt they are building an obelisk, however, Viathan Lake is the only place we’ve seen anything that could even possible be an obelisk. It doesn’t look anything like the concept art, but the is a stone spire right above the Blood Witch’s cave that emits a weird blue flame. Only problem is that it’s the same color of the surrounding stone, but that could be waved off as detritus covering the real obelisk over.

As to the Scarlet-as-prophet, I literally have money riding on that not being the case… but I do think that this is a case of expecting a prophet to return. One of the things we were told in the article, and have yet to see anywhere in-game, is that the krait “constantly foretell of the prophets’ return” using math, numerology, and magic to try to pin down the date. Maybe one of those dates is upon us, and this new frenzy of activity is typical of such times?

We actually aren’t sure what exactly the Lunatic Court is up to- “activities” like Lunatic Inquisition are always of questionable story canon.

That tidbit aside, I believe the answer to your question is no, for two reasons- first, the Lunatic Court had not been seen in almost two centuries, so at the point Cadeyrn formed the Court it was just an obscure cultural myth of another race, if indeed the Court themselves were remembered at all, and secondly, one of the largest reasons Cadeyrn had for forming the Nightmare Court was to purge the influence of other races from the sylvari mindset, and so it is unlikely he would have used a human organization as the template.

It doesn’t look alike… and apparently there was a Krytan king’s personal crypt/torture chamber under the Ascalonian Academy. But hey, it’s old and human! All humans are Krytan, right?

We don’t know that the witches are religious leaders, or even leaders, do we? They’re the most powerful krait in the vicinity, but I don’t recall any examples of other krait following them. Even their sacrifices don’t seem religious- they’re usually said to be to control sharks or the like.

Edit: 50 gold is a bit beyond my means, but I’ll put up 35.

To be fair, Malafide, that village has always been destroyed and (mostly) abandoned. It looks like the krait have just torn down the ruins for stuff to build with.

Agreed. What I would have liked to see is equality achieved through playing up the other races, not downplaying the humans. There was a bit of both, sure, but the downplaying seems to have wiped clean just about everything pre-Guild Wars 1- everything the humans believed back then is wrong, nothing that they accomplished matters anymore, the timeline has been contorted, and that’s just the human side. Besides for a short anecdote about the origin of the great hunt and maybe the ruins around Maelstrom, I don’t see anything in-game to suggest that norn or asura even existed before we met them in Guild Wars 1. Certain allowances can be made for the asura, but how is it that a race obsessed with legends and legendary deeds happen to only have stories going back to our first contact with them? Even charr history seems to start when humans began interacting with them. It creates a downward spiral- human history is no longer important, and all other races can only be measured by the stick of human history- when it would have been as feasible to create a mutually enriching and empowering narrative.

I agree with most of what Narcemus said, but I do think both Jormag and the nightmare lean more towards mental war than a choice. Both can be thought, and under certain circumstances won against, but in cases where the conditions are favorable to either of the two, resistance can be overcome and the mental change can be forced. The power is not entirely in the victim’s hands.

I’d take that bet, Thalador. Even that maniacal vegetable would meet her match in the krait. This is a race that believes they and they alone are above all others, and unlike the Flame Legion or the dredge, they have suffered no crushing defeat to force them to relent on that policy. There’s nothing for Scarlet to leverage to force them into her League of Evil-Doers.

That, and I find myself in need of a couple dozen gold.

1.) More on the war between the gods. Specifically, what was Abaddon’s motivation? We’ve a little about it, sure, but it is at times contradictory and bears the feeling of “the victor writes history.” What was he after? What was he like back then? What was the cause, what forces did each side bring to bear, why did the others go so far as to strike him out of history? It’s always fascinated me. And before anyone brings it up, one of the major reasons I voted for Kiel was because I don’t want to see it given the Fractal treatment. That would be far too brief, too snapshot-esque, and we wouldn’t be able to reliably say anything that we saw is accurate. I know Guild Wars is big on subjective truths, but in this especially I would love some objectivity.

2.) Palawa Joko. I’d dying to see what he’s done with Elona, and perhaps get some tidbits on his early history (we know next to nothing prior to his emergence from the Desolation), but I’d settle for seeing his name worked in to a few more places than just the Ossan Quarter.

3.) Several contenders for this spot, but I think my curiosity about the other races in the Depths, only briefly mentioned during asura week, edges out the rest. We know about asura, skelk, oozes, and skritt, but what other things lived down there, exclusively in the depths of the earth? And might we find any still alive? The possibilities in that field are expansive. (Personally, I’m hoping for an insectoid race.)

Of course, and you still may well be right. The vista relocation seems to just be a temporary measure on account of the map compers.

The video isn’t cut short- at least I don’t think it is- it just starts from where the vista used to be before the force field went up.

Drakkon, we aren’t confused as to how or why things are the way they are, we are disagreeing with them. We do not require a lecture on the facts- we’ve got those down, and now we’ve moved on to formulating and expressing opinions. You’re missing the point.

Now I really want to see branded moa chicks…

Personally, I’m of the opinion that the krait are trying to rebuild- they too lost their homes to a particularly nasty Bubble, and compared to what we had described to us in their lore article (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadows_in_the_Water_%E2%80%93_The_Krait) the Deeps we see in-game are nothing more than temporary lash-ups. I’m hopeful that Viathan Lake will shortly become our first look at true krait architecture.

’cause they said one was forthcoming in the TowerTalk interview.

Yep. You gotta dig out-of-game to know when you’re supposed ta dig out-of-game.

To be fair, he can’t model his appearance off someone who doesn’t exist in his continuity. But yeah, in other words he’s everything you’d expect to come of a father like Oswald Thorn. Keep in mind though, that these uber-archetypical/shallow characters are often only so while the short story is pending. I’m not saying I like it, but I suspect some people may change their tune when it hits.

They’ve lost, but always in a “the other party kept what’s theirs” sense, not a “the other party took what’s ours”.

Mhm. It’s what they need all that power from the meta for- they intend to serve as the central power grid for a city the size of Rata Sum.

That isn’t the group’s name… Marjory just made that up on the spot, thus the “or whatever it is they call themselves.” It’s just her humor mixing with the conception of mesmers as prancing ninnies.

Petty? Maybe, but the point isn’t the land. The point is that Ascalon was the only piece of territory the charr ever lost. For a race that exists to wage war, retaking it isn’t just a matter of pride- it’s a necessary validation of their culture, their entire way of life.

*Western shore.

I hate to shoot you down, but that’s almost certainly a krait obelisk. ANet snuck some major weirdness into Viathan Lake.

Gotcha. Maybe the Blood and Ash legions are? Iron is tied down with problems in their own territory, but I doubt they other two are throwing everything they have into Ascalon.

Odd. I got that Firstborn comment on my human (it’s been far too long for me to remember from my sylvari).

His point is that they are in the process of designing a new city cube, not that the lab itself is the Fractal. Although the zoom-out at the end of the Fractal shows what appear to be supportive pillars at the bottom, so I have my doubts as to rather it ever floated.

@Lostwingman There are indications that they have. The charr week article, still visible on the wiki, mentions that the Blood Citadel is east across the Shiverpeaks, and while we don’t know where Ash is headquartered, process of elimination would indicate that it too is beyond our m map.

Purecura, that second video is over a year old, from before launch. It is hopelessly out of date. Back then that was a valid theory; now it has been rather thoroughly disproved.

I believe Exosferatu meant roleplayers. If not, I have not even been paying remotely enough attention.

Yes, but in Cobiah’s case they were in a life-or-death situation, where every extra hand meant that much better chance of survival. They were planning on going their separate ways as soon as the crisis passed. When that plan changed, the entire group went to live in (well, found) Lion’s Arch. No higher officer than the one also facing death on the ship ever knew about it, and as soon as the crew as a whole adopted Cobiah during that scene you mentioned they deserted the Legions.

Maybe he had no sense of humor?

Honestly, I expect the charr would leave the kid to the human parent and not publicly acknowledge it.

Maybe, maybe, IF everything goes according to plan with the treaty, IF other races start integrating into the Black Citadel, IF the kid learned to fight by him/herself… I can see one of the looser knit, more unorthodox warbands possibly taking on another race unofficially. One would never be allowed into a fahrar or fully into a warband though- the officers wouldn’t allow it, because at the end of the day other races can’t be relied upon to be accountable to authority the way a charr can.

I would agree to most of that- however, a charr could perfectly well raise a human in Lion’s Arch. In the situation you describe, my bet would be that cultural stigma and suspicion from his superiors would drive the charr to either pass the child on to the human population living in Gladium Canton or to live as a gladium themselves in Lion’s Arch. I doubt anyone would go so far as to officially exile/kill them though.

Note that even after the treaty is signed, though, a charr wouldn’t be able to raise a human child, because they do not raise their own children. As soon as they’re weaned charr cubs go to a fahrar, and I cannot see one of those being opened to other races for any reason- nor would it be fair to a human child to be forced into one.

That’s because the book is written in past tense. It doesn’t mean anything.

Back to the idea of Iron Legion borrowing from other races, it does indeed happen. The ghost containment unit, which is one of three major recent advancements in the war against the ghosts, uses in part asura gate technology.

I disagree. The distance is greater than it is in the overworld, but it still doesn’t look like it’d take more than a minute or so to cross.

My two cents on that- from Scott’s answer, I believe they either did not have any particular concrete setting for it, like you said, or that it is something earmarked for potential future stories and therefor not something they’re willing/allowed to talk about- I personally lean towards the former, but I am not willing to discount the later out-of-hand.

As for the statues, the only reason I ever jumped to the Elonian connection is because Istan is the only extant human culture to employ large statues of humans on a large scale. The style does not match at all, neither for the Istani sculptures nor the ones of uncertain origin in the Crystal Desert.

@Antara Personally I see no Melandru connection in that Fractal, specifically as regards the Mossman. If you have a group that doesn’t try to strong-arm you on as soon as he’s dead, you’ll see the area around is shack is littered with bones, both on the ground and on display. The only human god to accept remains as an offering is Grenth, but I wouldn’t jump to that connection either.

No, no XD. The interviewers suggested it may have been a crossover in the question.

EDIT: The relevant text: http://www.guildmag.com/magazine/issue9/interview.htm

GuildMag (Draxynnic): Fair enough… okay, let’s move onto some questions we had regarding Fractals. Okay so, in a previous interview with TowerTalk there was a tease of a mention of about just when the Cliffside Fractal takes place, but we still don’t know much about the Underwater and Volcanic Fractals. In the former we see some sunken statues which look a bit Elonian but the surrounding ruins feel Ascalonian. Can you shed some light on when and where that takes place?

ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : Uh, not very much I’m afraid. I feel like I’m letting you down here. But yeah, the existing fractals are all scattered far and wide throughout Tyria’s history and pre-history. Some of these things are from the time of myth and legend and so we can’t exactly verify exactly how they happened or how they connect to the modern world. That one, uh… yeah, I’m afraid that’s just going to have to be my answer for now.

ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : One of the things with Fractals is because they’re in the Mists, they are echoes. They are not true history, they are basically the resonant history.

ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : Exactly, yes.

ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : So therefore you’re seeing a lot of combined feelings coming in sometimes. Maybe there is a place that had that Ascalonian Elonian crossover area. But just as easily, it may be the effect of the Mists.

ArenaNet (Scott McGough) : And, check me on this guys, the Mists as we define them – the Mists by definition: anything that can be there, or has been, can show up in the Mists. So we get some strange pairings sometimes.

After that they swerve into discussing Urban Battlegrounds, and then the questions move on.

@BuddhaKeks It was a question in the latest GuildMag interview. The interviewees really went out of their way to avoid answering the question, but in the process it came up that “Maybe there is a place that had that Elonian Ascalonian crossover area.” Mind you, none of them actually said that that’s what Aquatic Ruins is, or gave any concrete explanation of what Aquatic Ruins is, so take that with a grain of salt.

I think the lines, even in that interview, strongly give that impression, so I’m inclined to take your word for it. The question then would become rather that is something that was changed before launch, like several other parts of the interview were; in addition to the origin of the Wyld Hunt, Ree also at that time stated that Valiants work almost exclusively alone, whereas in game we almost always see them in groups, and that there is a lingering and significant distrust and animosity towards asura, which as has been stated in other threads was downplayed nearly into non-existence in the game itself. Personally, I’m inclined to conclude that the humanoid design was in fact a conscious choice by the Pale Tree, absent any refuting evidence… which Malyck very well might be. We just don’t know enough to say for sure.

EDIT: Also, my apologies, Stephen, for derailing your thread.

“Because they are created by the Tree, they have a sense of sex, like male and female, gender, but it based very much on what they chose in the Dream, or what the Tree chose for them.” Very interesting.

Hm… Yes, I found it. http://www.wartower.de/artikel/artikel.php?id=651 What she specifically says is “they’re built very much like a plant was trying to replicate humans.” In typical ANet fashion, she makes it sound like the sylvari were actively shaped, but leaves that “very much like” backdoor. Still, especially given the following sentence, I cede the point.

EDIT: You can tell it’s an early interview too. Ree goes on at one point about how the Wyld Hunt stems from the Pale Tree, something the Tree herself denies in-game.

Gah, shot down by no longer accessible comments once again!

Maybe, but his video revolves around the unanswered question of where Rytlock got the sword, and only briefly touches on the main topic here, which is the belief that the sword can undo the Foefire.

Oh boy… first off, full-grown is a physical description- they awaken the size of a human. It in no way connotates the the basic knowledge that a full grown human would have received- that knowledge is not part of the growing process, it just happens to correspond to it the way humans do things. As for your bullet points- it’s never stated that the Pale Tree shaped the sylvari after Ronan. That is described to be one, asuran, theory. The truth is no one knows for sure why the similarity exists. And even the asura stop short at saying the Pale Tree could access their memories. Additionally, why would the Pale Tree be able to decide what her children were shaped like? No creature, in this world or Tyria, possesses that power.

It’s fully possible that hylek planted Malyck’s tree (less likely to be an asura, though still not outside the realm of possibilities). However, that would have, as stated above, no probable effect on their shapes. It could also be that the tree simply grew on the site of the cave where the seeds were.

Back to Konig, amnesia was only a possible component to one of the three possibilities I vetted. I could expand at all three if you like- I know I tend to explain things in fewer words than it takes.

Small correction: what is said isn’t that he didn’t have a Dream. It’s that “We cannot see your Dream; you cannot see ours.” Indeed, the quest’s name is “A Different Dream.”

His vocabulary isn’t particularly small (I have it screen capped, just need to update the wiki with it) and he uses words like “disguise” that he really had reason to have learned from the Wardens.

Now I’m trying to recall- who was it that said that Zhaitan was dead?