Guild Wars 2

I know this is a case of gameplay getting in the way of the story, and not strictly speaking related to her personality, but I want to chime in and say how jarring it is that this super-genius marshaling secret armies that stretch across a continent repeatedly damages herself with her own explosives.

Gandarel.5091:

Basically whatever they experience, the Tree will know and can reflect it in the dream or forward it to the others.

That’s not how it works. The only things that get fed back to the Dream and, by extension, the Tree, are moments that elicit a strong emotional reaction. Even then, what is received is a snapshot, a brief moment, and all but useless for intelligence purposes without a linked context.

For instance, if a Whispers agent is particularly surprised by an assignment, the Pale Tree might get a glimpse into the Chantry- but that would be useless, as it in no way shows her where the Chantry is, or what defenses it might have, or even how many agents are present within it.

The Dragonbrand doesn’t just erase human construction- see Serenity Temple. Either Kinar is built on Ranik and it just is in a different place now than in GW1 (not unprecedented, see Beetletun) or the charr demolished it, which might account for the comparatively large concentration of Ascalonian ghosts just south of the area with little in the way of accompanying ruins.

I didn’t say he wasn’t from the future, I said he wasn’t from OUR future. As far as the outright statement goes, all of those statements were from Shodd, and when the situation allowed the player character always stepped in to correct him. Other than that there’s just Zojja’s line, which also makes a point of stating that said dictator was from a separate dimension, and was half a joke to boot. As to how the Sovereign ‘knew’ the technology wasn’t around, it could have been a simple inference in any of four scenarios: A.) Zojja died before the technology came about in his world (likely, given his talk of being ‘held back’), B.) The player asura was clearly not as old as the Sovereign when he invented the technology, C.) The Sovereign was never without the steam creatures after creating them, or D.) A similar event happened in his own reality before the creation of the steam creatures (something I hope is not the case, because recursion is a headache).

My final argument: if he was from the player asura’s future, he would be creating one hell of a paradox by killing his past self. If, however, he came from a similar yet separate timeline, there would be no inherent inconsistency in events, and therefore no problem. While time travel is a fun device in theory, true time travel is necessarily paradoxical, and therefor can’t exist, neither in the real world nor in any fictional world created by writers who value their sanity.

The Searing crystals are the same shade as the Branded ones- it’s just that the Branded ones are most often seen under much dimmer lighting. That they changed the color from GW1 only drives home the point- the devs consciously decided to make the Searing crystals the same as the Branded ones. At the very least, there is an intentional red herring in play.

It’d be pretty bizarre if there were two completely unrelated occurrences of purple incendiary crystals plummeting out of the sky…

Actually, technically, the Infinity Ball storyline makes a point of stating that what was accessed wasn’t your character’s realities future, but a different one. Relevant quotes:

" Shodd: That was unbelievable, unprecedented! We made history and saw the future, all at once.
<Character name>: Empirically, it shows an alternate version of reality, not the future. And based on those mechanical monstrosities, a reality we’re better off without. "

" Shodd: Well, there’s no denying we got results. But if that’s the future, I don’t want to live there.
<Character name>: It was A future, not THE future. In terms of quantum arcanics, we accessed other possibilities…but the connection was extremely unstable. "

“Shodd: No, I’ll live forever- as a genius! Now shut up, and enjoy a glimpse of another reality! "

“Mysterious Stranger: But I left you behind, and achieved greatness: I am the Grand High Sovereign of my reality. "

“Mysterious Stranger: I can do anything I want. And here, as in my world, the only obstacle to my transcendence is you. "

" Mysterious Stranger: Wait until you get to know my creations. In my reality, they conquered Tyria. "

" Mysterious Stranger: You don’t stand a chance. In your world, this technology hasn’t even been invented yet!

“Zojja: If you turn into a dimension-travelling dictator from the future, I’ll have to put you down like a rabid skelk. "

So alternate realities do exist- there just isn’t much at all known about how they work.

But we know that the Orrian peninsula was there- Glaust was freed on the site of what was later Arah.

The simplest explanation is that Zhaitan went into hibernation in a cavern beneath Orr, and that the Cataclysm collapsed it on his head and he therefore had to push up upon awakening. Other options would be that he sunk/was buried in a manner similar to, but more exacerbated than, Kralkatorrik (after all, terrain can change a lot in 10,000 years- or 2,000, if you subscribe to that theory), or that he was in fact killed in the/a previous cycle and his corpse was simply left where it fell (a theory that I favor, given my belief that EDs function on the same general principles as elementals and that the point about terrain is even more valid when you double, or triple, the number).

I had a friend look at this, and he said they were suspending the arenas where you fight the Queen’s Gauntlet.

She did know where he was- Logan let her know they were leaving to take on Glint- but she didn’t know the situation he was in, nor that his departure was all that could stop Kralkatorrik from dying. As it was, Logan did in fact change the outcome at Ebonhawke- by freeing and arming the charr prisoners, and thereby tapping into manpower that no one else was willing to exploit. As for Jennah’s part, she likely wasn’t thinking at the time. She had just made direct contact with the mind of an Elder Dragon, and that’s enough to shake anyone. Her call to Logan was likely an act of panic, without forethought or planning.

It’s not necessarily true that wherever there’s a volcano, there are destroyers. I don’t think Primordus has filled every possible corner of the Depths, or else the destroyers wouldn’t be limited to the small pockets in a handful of zones that we see. Also, there is no destroyer activity at all east of the Shiverpeaks, indicating that Primordus, and his armies, have moved west.

Actually, you’re pretty spot-on with a lot of the speculation on this forum. I personally would agree with you on all of that, save perhaps the Cadeyrn bit- I don’t believe the Nightmare Court are necessarily aware of their own corruption. If you’re interested, you can browse through the lore forum’s topics- just about any recent one involving Mordremoth (the supposed name of the Jungle Dragon) has touched on its possible relation to the Nightmare Court.

Blocked as in not occurring. In the specific examples I can remember, one of the participating NPCs would move across the building to talk to another on a regular basis (every five minutes), and then simply stop- the moving NPC stays on the other side of the room, and no dialogue occurs.

I feel dirty just responding to that, but I suppose someone has to bite…

Both YouTube and these forums indicate when something was posted. On the top right of Konig’s original post, you can see that he posted this 11 days ago. The video where Potatoes first speculates on the link between the steam creatures and what’s going on now was his “Thaumanova Reality”, posted 6 days ago. Now, since 11 is bigger than 6, that means 11 days is a greater span of time than 6 days, and that Konig, in fact, posted his ideas almost a week before Potatoes did, just like Targuil said. Another thing to note- something Potatoes himself explains in his latest video- when he’s talking about theories, he is trying to share what he feels are the most interesting lines of speculation he has seen taking place, usually on forums like these. Oftentimes he didn’t invent them, and if you actually bother to, y’know, listen to what he’s saying, he never claims credit for them.

One complication I have noticed while doing personal research in the Grove is that sometimes dialogue seems to get blocked, especially when NPC movement is involved. I honestly don’t know if there is any way this project could account for that, though.

Actually, the graffiti in Beetletun is the centaur’s symbol, not the White Mantle/bandit’s one. We know that Caudecus is guilty of many things, including playing patron to bandits and conspiracy responsible for the deaths of Krytan citizens and soldiers, but there is no evidence tying him to the White Mantle beyond that both use the bandits to their own ends.

EDIT: No, it’s not centaur… what is that? Looks almost like grawl.

Actually, according to the books in-game, it turned out there were charr to the south. Rather Adelbern knew that, however, is questionable. A lot of the earlier books make it sound like he was trying to rid himself of undesirables.

This is well out into left-field, but if the Mantle play into this at all, I hope it’s on our side against Scarlet. So far, we only have a few possible links to suggest their motivations, but they seem to be more about control than destruction, whereas that poem quite blatantly spells out Scarlet’s intentions to see Kryta fall. That would make her an enemy of the Mantle by default. Furthermore, I’m rather tired of the whole “stronger together” theme. Between the Pact in the personal story, the Molten Alliance in Flame & Frost, and the Aetherblade-Inquest connection, it’s become predictable, and worse, it’s polarizing. With the Pact on one side and a web of alliances and cooperation that now connect the Nightmare Court, Inquest, White Mantle, Aetherblades, centaurs, and feasibly the Flame Legion and dredge, the narrative has taken a turn towards black-and-white, clear cut, simple, bland good vs. evil. If, however, the White Mantle come to Kryta’s aid- even if only that they might usurp power at a later date- it would add a much more interesting shade of gray to the mix. An alliance of convenience, or, if ANet isn’t willing to go that far, a three-sided slugfest, would be much more compelling storytelling than the White Mantle being yet another enemy in cahoots with other enemies.

I think you guys are missing the point of the “fog and sand” bit. It makes no sense for that to be meant literally, but they are both symbols of impermanence, things that are wiped away as if they never were. Combine that with the “Kryta in flames” bit- either this is ANet overselling their release, or Scarlet has sufficient means to bring down an entire kingdom. Scary thought, and it means that we’ve been underestimating her.

Also, I doubt this was written from an in-universe perspective. Feels more like a deliberate tease targeting the player-base, and there’s nothing in it to suggest an in-universe author, with one aforementioned detail suggesting the opposite.

Good catch with Killeen. I went back to have a look, and while it’s never addressed directly, most of her casting is described in such a way that it sounds like her hands are empty- “She swung her arms and fingers in a complex pattern” (pg 7), “bright green motes bunched and flamed from her palms” (pg 81), “She placed her hands on the golem” (pg 85), “Killeen wove her hands in an intricate pattern.” (pg 190), “carving the air in an intricate pattern” and “Glowing blackness stretched from Killeen’s hands” (pg 253). However, there is also a line that implies that she has some sort of weapon- “Both women kept their hands away from their weapons” (pg 210). All things balanced, though, I personally am inclined to believe that last line was an oversight.

I believe that study of jotun artifacts revealed a link between the formation of new stars and the awakening of the dragons. I haven’t actually done any of the Arah paths, though, so I’m a bit iffy on the details.

Well, considering that the stars reflect dragonrise in the first place, I think it’s safe to bet that they don’t work the same way- that is, at least some of the stars in the Tyrian sky are not gigantic balls of gas burning some inconceivable distance away. We really don’t know anything about space in Tyria, but I doubt it’s similar to what we have in our reality.

The druids/centaurs had magic seeds, which may or may not have been shaped by them, which if planted in special rune circles created an explosion of vines which reliably and temporarily bridged a gap. The sylvari are able to create clothes, armor, buildings, turrets, and weapons, including perfectly functional firearms- in addition to bridges. So yeah, the druids had the same technology. Just like bronze and steel are both products of metallurgy.

In a recent GuildMag interview, it was stated that Orr is basically under Pact jurisdiction for the foreseeable future. None of the races are in any position to be considering colonization right now.

@Lutinz Fun fact- Livia is never referred to as Master Exemplar, but simply as Exemplar. There is at least one of those in-game as well, and it seems to be the rank directly under Anise’s. This indicates that as of SoS, Livia was not the public leader of the Shining Blade.

And as to Anise, I do not buy her ‘personal touch’. Two reasons- first off, from a narrative point, it concluded too rapidly. A conundrum was presented and a solution was readily and neatly supplied, driving forward neither the over-arching plot nor the character arcs, with one possible exception, which people seem to have latched on to- that a conflict is being set up between Anise and Logan. But that doesn’t work either, because this oh-so-neat solution has one gaping hole in it, that was presented to the player’s face, that people are still seeming to miss: Rytlock’s quote was was word for word the same as in the abortive attempt to reconcile Destiny’s Edge during the level 30 personal story step. Now, I don’t know about you, but I somehow doubt that Anise stalked Logan to Lion’s Arch, disguised herself as a civilian, blended into the scarce crowd milling around the square, and then managed to recall perfectly part of the conversation x amount of time later (unclear, because ANet still refuses to touch scale, but nevertheless obviously a significant length of time, likely approaching one year). Nor, by the way, would such an action fit Anise in the least. Yes, she’s playful, but moreover she is wholly devoted to her queen, and her first priority is Jennah’s safety. Unduly distressing the queen’s greatest defender doesn’t quite fit the bill, wouldn’t you say? In fact, just the opposite, which brings me to my theory- Anise saw Logan deliberately attacked on a very personal level, knew Logan’s past difficulties with his guilt and crossed loyalties, and therefor opted to step in and defuse the situation as best she could, by deflecting the blame and thereby nipping in the bud Logan’s already obvious disquiet before his emotions interfered with his performance as Jennah’s shield just as a very real threat to said queen manifested. Quick, clever thinking, and done for the queen’s welfare- that fits Anise to a T.

To be fair, I suspect that the impression that asura rely on their technology derives from ANet overshooting in their efforts to make them iconic and linking them too often to golems. Of the asura we get a close look at in the books, two are enigineers who use no magic of their own, and the other two are fully competent spellcasters reliant on no fancy toys or shiny gimmicks. A similar trend can be noted in the Inquest, many of whom uses magic without accompanying magitech. All in all, I’d say the “magic as a science” approach is seen most strongly in the engineers/inventors who cast no spells, who represent the larger portion of aforementioned asura bosses, and the actual spellcasters are on par with the sylvari- which is still a large step down from some of the feats humans have pulled off.

I remember seeing a theory a while back- and my apologies to originator, I don’t remember who it was, and thereby cannot properly credit them- but the gist of it was that Elder Dragon are essentially elementals, albeit of otherwise unprecedented size and power. If that is the case, which I personally find likely, then the formation of more dragons as magic accumulates is a natural process. The question would be rather the new dragon/s could form before the magic build-up reaches apocalyptic proportions.

I haven’t been up in the gauntlet much yet, but I’ve been told that the enemies don’t shatter like the ones below, indicating that they’re real. Likely just people with unique powers drawn by an opportunity to display their prowess (and one experimental ooze).

My apologies if I have this wrong- my reading of your post was that the steam creatures need an origin other than the Grand Sovereign encountered in the Infinity Ball storyline.

To expand upon Bruno’s answer, as the steam creatures are from an alternate reality, and not technically the future, the player’s personal story can not impact it. The only difference would be “creatures invented by some asura in an alternate reality” as opposed to “creatures invented by MY asura in an alternate reality”. I certainly do expect to see some explanation for them above and beyond what was presented in the personal story, as they seem to be part of the living story, but their origin remains sufficiently detached and vague to work with non-asura, or non-infinity ball, characters.

Granted, nothing says that the alternate reality’s Inquest couldn’t have been involved.

The Dead Sister storyline? Are you referring to a bandit directly admitting to abducting Krytans on Caudecus’ orders, or was there something else I missed?

And given that it was Caudecus who brought the carnival to your attention in the first place, I favor the idea that the Ringmaster is a rogue element with his own agenda.

In Caudecus’ Manor, it is implied that Uzolan’s work is heavily based off of stolen Asura tech. Presumably, then, the Grizwhirl is either an Inquest device acquired by Uzolan with or without their consent, or possibly an asuran device plagiarized by both Uzolan and the Inquest, either separately or in conjunction. In any event, all things considered, it does not seem feasible that Uzolan invented it.

Also, Bruno, Uzolan did not use it to kidnap anyone. All indications are that Uzolan was not allied with the carnies responsible for that crime. However, I give you credit for not only stating but demonstrating your disinterest.

It’s for the Vigil’s tank plan right there at the end, if you want to see for yourself.

Haven’t read it yet, but I just want to say- another one? Really?

@dunnberry exactly. Eir figured they still had a shot (and they did, they came very very close). Look at the staggering loss of life inflicted by the risen, or the icebrood. Eir was given a chance to prevent such destruction from happening yet again, and she took it. All things in balance, that would’ve been a worthy choice even if the entire guild died for it.

As for Rytlock, he kind of unofficially adopted Logan as a member of his warband, and then Logan abandoned him, and they lost a friend for nothing due in part to that. From the charr point of mind, that makes Logan a gladium of sorts, and one who abandoned Rytlock personally at that.

First off, my apologies if this has been asked before. The search function on these forums is truly laughable.

Does Deborah (dead sister storyline) ever make an appearance in the home instance? I know she shows up in Orr, but my guardian isn’t taking that path, and all things considered it’d be rather a bummer if I don’t get to see her again.

Geographically, and from a lore perspective, they are part of the Steamspurs. Mechanically, and from a gameplay perspective, they are counted as Maguuma, because neither the Maguuma/Tarnished Coast nor Steamspur areas were large enough to be their own (mechanical) regions.

They do acknowledge and remember you in the instance. I think the devs just overlooked making two separate dialogues for the Pavilion.

Hm… very, very good read. Though I would like some clarification on a couple points (she got a bit sidetracked on the first question, and some clarification as to rather the bloodstones ever had a divisive effect would be nice), it is very good to see a dev answer so many big questions in one go. Two big lore interviews in two weeks? Why, I almost feel spoiled.

As to the calender… Meh. I’m a bit disappointed, but it’s not like we didn’t see it coming. The Mouvelian calendar has been all but forgotten, at least from a game content perspective. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of ever seeing a Tyrian season named in-game, but I’ve seen several mentions of spring, summer, etc.

@Konig I’m actually rather surprised you jumped straight to the four schools being retconned. The thought that crossed my mind is that with environmental magic on the rise, the races don’t need to tap into the Bloodstones and their inherent limitations anymore. It’ll be interesting to see which one it turns out to be.

At the end, I think my biggest question is this: if magic can be tapped by practically any person, why is there such a low proportion of spellcasters? Even accounting for the rigors of study and discipline, the fairly even split between martial and magical classes seems odd. Both would take intensive training, but the inherent potential of magic is much larger. Apply that in-game, where most armies are skewed towards martial professions, and it becomes even odder.

That arena was torn down to make room for the WvW gates. That’s the official story, anyway.

However, your idea is a great one. There are numerous NPCs that refer to an arena within the Grove, and at least one that speaks of one in Hoelbrak, but us players never see so much as a hint of these. It’d be nice for that to change.

Or, it’s possible that Queen Jennah negotiated a temporary claim to the area, and the priests agreed. The area it’s been replaced with is heavily tied to temporary content, so I doubt it will remain once the month is out. LA has already set a trend of replacing structures with festival-appropriate architecture, only to revert back to the original once it’s time to move on. I highly doubt the training grounds will be gone for long.

Well, those clockworks can’t be cheap, and we’ll pretty much be constantly wrecking legions of them for the next 2-4 weeks

The wiki says concept art shows them together. Concept art also shows female Svanir and asura as goblins living in a marsh. It doesn’t mean anything.

Actually, there are hints- not much more, but solid enough to build theories off of.

In the Nightfall manuscripts, it is stated that “many believed the outbreak of plague had supernatural origins, blaming the suffering of the innocent on unseen forces.” And then further: “Warfare brought suffering, weakening civilization against unseen horrors. By some accounts, widespread bloodshed and warfare strengthened malefic forces in the world. A few arcanists claim that such evils could very well have been the cause of such strife….” That is in regards to the Shattered Dynasty era, which followed the short-lived successor state to the Primeval Kings. Note that similar speculative, unclear language is used in the manuscripts to describe anything relating to Abaddon and his demons.

There is also the Apocrypha, which was sealed in Fahranur before it was abandoned to the Scarab Plague, seems to have contained the knowledge necessary to free Abaddon, and was initially regarded as a “gift.”

The fact is, we don’t know. Next to nothing is known of his motivations. What little we do know has the feel of propaganda, history written from the perspective of those who glorified the other five. Supposedly, there’s a translated bit of… Taiwanese, maybe, material floating around that I’ve heard sheds further light on the issue, but I’ve never seen it myself, and I’m not sure something released only to a certain region can be considered canon, and not the localization team taking artistic license.

Actually, Thorn’s emissary describes Joko as an “up-and-coming king with delusions of grandeur.” Given Thorn’s outstanding ego, that could mean anything from Palawa was just crowned to Palawa had ruled for a thousand years and was looking now to expand.

The only dates we have in relation to Palawa are his invasion and subsequent fall in Elona, and more interestingly, the erection of his Bone Palace in 757 AE, over a hundred years before hand. Since that was implied to consume considerable manpower, it stands to reason that he had conquered the other kingdoms in the Desolation by then and could therefor divert the resources.

Seeing as there were human kingdoms in the Desolation, it is evident that it only slowly became inhospitable to human life. We don’t have much to work with there, but we know that Morah was abandoned, “succumbing to the spread of the desert”, two hundred years after it was founded to watch over the Mouth of Torment. Assuming that the desert and, possibly later, sulfur spread from the crater (which seems to be the case), then that means it took at least two hundred years to spread to the areas just beyond the crater’s rim.

Now then, moving into theorycraft. There is some, obscure, evidence that points towards some activity by Abaddon or his agents around 450 AE. As it is implied that simple knowledge of Abaddon and Nightfall can bring about the later, I believe this activity was a failed attempt to free the former. I further suspect that Palawa Joko was around during this time, due to his apparent knowledge of Abaddon, the Mouth of Torment, and the Margonites, and indeed may have played a role in the effort’s failure, given his openly antagonistic stance towards all of the above.

Technically, the Bazaar moves, meaning it’s in a different remote locale every time… but yeah, there are a few things about the zone that don’t make sense. I think consistency was a victim of “Let’s give the players something cool to do!”

For anybody who wants to watch that, the Arachnia bit starts at the ten minute mark- before that he’s talking about Anvil Rock.

A bit of clarification: We do know, from in-game quests, that Abaddon had a predecessor. The gw.dat also states that Arachnia is a dead spider god whose remains are in the Realm of Torment. WP connected those dots, as indeed many do, but there’s nothing explicit yet linking the two (or stating that Arachnia is canon.)

I’m not sure where the Arachnia Plateau as a server bit came from, but if that was ever intended it obviously didn’t make it to launch.

“One down, four to go” during a celebration of Zhaitan’s death? That’s a count of Elder Dragons. Keep in mind that the Priory knows that there WAS a sixth during the last rise. Not which one that was, nor what it does, nor where to find it, nor even if it’s still alive. The Order of Whispers could easily dismiss that as a bit of historical trivia irrelevant to this day and age.