Guild Wars 2

It still feels underwhelming.

But then, it’s difficult to really pinpoint a real-world equivalent of Tyria’s current era. The charr are in a stage of industrial revolution, the asura have lasers and something akin to nuclear power plants, the humans wield muskets and use trebuchets, the norn seem to eschew anything short of bows and giant weapons, and the sylvari just grow everything themselves.

Everything is in a melting pot of historical eras. Couple that with the limited information we have available and it really is no wonder that we’re having trouble determining the population size of the charr, let alone any of the other races.

Tequatl the Sunless appears to have increased in power and influence following Zhaitan’s death and continues to lead risen forces against nearby inhabitants. It could well be that the Elder Dragons aren’t unique and that their champions can replace them given time and the proper circumstances.

As for risen invoking Zhaitan’s name, that’s just ANet being lazy.

I’m just not sure how we’ll get a charr populations in the hundreds of thousands to fit into the figures provided by ANet. I agree, but I can’t see it happening with the information we currently possess.

It’s stated specifically that Iron only has 6 tribunes.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vivika_Venomspit

As for Ash, for all I know, it could very well be larger. Let’s say it’s as big as Blood, and Iron is only under strength because it’s right in the thick of everything. That would send the total sum of charr in the True Legions up to 62690.

But I digress, and you’re right: this works off a lot of assumptions when it comes to exact figures.

I’m not sure where you get hundreds of thousands of charr. As far as I can tell, we’ve got ~50k charr across Blood, Iron and Ash. Probably ~63k if we include Flame.

Gladium are a minority, but are still technically part of the Legions, and a lot of the charr in the Orders will be gladium. The amount of charr who operate without any influence from the Legions, some perhaps never having been part of the Legions to begin with, is going to be a miniscule amount.

These numbers are all really vague. It’s borderline impossible to say for certain.

The total charr population, including gladium, Flame Legion and charr outside the High Legions is bound to be a lot larger. The Flame Legion alone would probably add numbers similar to Iron, give or take, but it’s hard to say with recent events, what with the Molten Alliance and Baelfire’s death.

Again, bear in mind, that this is all just guesstimation.

So I did some research and calculation on the amount of charr in the True Legions (Ash, Iron, Blood). I might be wrong here, so don’t quote me as a legitimate source.

According to the wiki, every charr warband has 5-15 soldiers. That makes an average of 10, which we will be working with.
Every centurion commands a company of undetermined size. According to a military buddy, a company in real life is 2-3 platoons of 20-50 men, giving us a 150 max. We’ll be assuming a company is 150 charr.
The wiki states that a primus centurion controls 3-5 large companies, which is stated to be a “sizeable amount” of a tribune’s forces. I’d argue that this means that a tribune controls 15 companies, as 33% of something could generally be considered a sizeable amount.
The wiki furthermore states that Iron Legion has 6 tribunes.

So 150 charr soldiers in 15 companies makes for 2250 charr per tribune.

With 6 tribunes, Iron Legion has 13,500 charr soldiers.

Blood is known to be the largest of the True Legions, and the wiki says that a Legion will “rarely have more than ten tribunes,” so I’d clock Blood in at 10 tribunes, giving them 22,500 soldiers.

Ash is likely the smallest. They have four known tribunes in Ascalon, and I’d assume they kept at least one back at home, so let’s say they have five tribunes in total, netting them 11,250 soldiers.

The grand sum of the True Legions is then 47,250 soldiers.

If we then include the individual warbands of imperators, tribunes and centurions, then that adds another 970 to Iron, 1610 to Blood and 810 to Ash, giving us a new grand sum of 50640 soldiers in the True Legions, gladium not withstanding.

I don’t know if there can be said to be any truth to my calculations here, and I did fail maths in college, so take this for what it’s worth: pure speculation by some nitwit at nearly one in the morning with nothing but better, more productive things to do.

And let’s not forget that the charr are basically the krogan of Tyria; they suffer constant heavy losses which keeps their population at a somewhat stable number, but because they churn out so many cubs and because they grow up so fast, in the event that the Foefire is actually abolished, the charr would probably spread like wildfire.

You’re extremely daft.

Waypoints from a lore perspective is dumb.
It raises more questions than it answers to say that they’re “asura-made devices created to facilitate travel” or whatever.

There’s no good reason.
There has never been a good reason.

Someone please explain to me why Scarlet is suddenly in the Mist.
It’s bad enough that we have to deal with her faffing about in the Living Story, but now she’s been thrown into WvW as well. Just… Why?

Also, where does she get the manpower to simultaneously invade about 80% of Tyria AND the Mists? We’ve been at war with this crazy plantsue for ages now. She has not won a single encounter. We kicked her kitten every single time and foiled her alliance plans. How is it we’re still seeing Aetherblades after we destroyed their base or Molten Alliance after we destroyed their research bases? Or the Watchknights – just how many of the kitten ed things does she have? They don’t look cheap, and I doubt Scarlet has this much money.

Seriously, at this point, she appears to have a larger and better-equipped army than the High Legions. It’s ridiculous and getting more and more out of hand every update, which is pretty incredible, because at this point, things have fallen through the floor and burrowed straight through and is boring straight for the centre of the earth.

… Because ANet needs to read this first post:

http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/forum/page/1/m/2737230/viewthread/10764684-anet-vs-writing-warning-this-thread-contains-large-amounts-snark-spoilers

This is not how you present a story, guys. You’re supposed to weave exposition into the gameplay, not dump an NPC with verbal diarrhoea who spews out the amazing story so far in all its glory.

Everyone is sick of Scarlet.

Scarlet did it.
That’s the only way Bobby and anyone on the lore team knows how to advance the “plot” anymore.

And in case Bobby reads this: get your kitten together, Bobby. People are outraged.

Xar.6185:

Snuggley.5697:

There needs to be a god kitten petition for Anet to completly remove Scarlet from the game, and keep her locked away and forgotten.

This would actually be a very good use of retcon.

Seconded. Just retcon her. I don’t care anymore, a hole in the lore would be better than this.

Because the plot demands it.

Azure Prower.8701:

why would we let her slowly walk away?

Because the plot demands it, just like everything else Scarlet has ever done.

Has anyone else noticed how Bobby Stein never seems to respond to negative feedback about Scarlet? He usually carefully steps around it in his responses – or he just ignores it altogether.

Curse words are replaced with kitten. Even something as harmless as D—A—M—N.

Eszett.6950:

If you hate her she’s good enough of a villan.

No.
No, no, no.
I’ll stop you right there, because people don’t hate Scarlet because she’s a villain. She’s an obnoxious piece of kitten who doesn’t fit into the GW world, she breaks lore like there’s no tomorrow, she has the most annoying voice I have ever heard in a game (yet she’s supposed to be very persuasive; “silver-tongued” even), she constantly pulls new “evil alliances” that make no sense out of her kitten , she incessantly escapes every attempt to apprehend her (hell, in this update she WALKED RIGHT PAST MY CHARACTER. She just left. Right past a charr with a flamethrower after a five-minute monologue).

So don’t say hating her means she’s a good villain. I don’t hate her because of what she does, because I’m not sure what she does or how she does it. I hate her for what she is and what she represents: ANet’s incapability of writing a good kittening story.

I hope one of ANet’s writers reads this. Hell, I hope Bobby reads it.
You wrote a bad story, Bobby. It feels like you looked to David Cage for storytelling and Matt Ward for character creation.

Neriandal Freit.2810:

• Scarlet Briar –
o A hot topic it seems on here. I LOVE HER CHARACTER and I’m not sure why others don’t.

Then you clearly haven’t actually read anything we’ve posted.

So, what, now we can add godhood to her resume?
God kitten Mary Sue.

EDIT: Since when is “d—a—m—n” a word so dire it has to be censored?

It seems to have been removed from the Wiki.

Yeah, well done ANet, not learning from past experiences and not listening to a large part of the player base.

It’s Scarlet. Again.

I guess it’s technically possible for the Pale Tree to create another aesthetically identical sylvari that looks like a recently deceased one, but a sylvari can never be born with the identity of another. That’s the whole point of the Dream.

Because the plot demanded it.
Scarlet has done nothing but break established lore since she was introduced.

So to sum it up:
Scarlet is a sylvari secondborn(?) who has all the combined technological knowledge of the Rata Sum Colleges, the Iron Legion, the norn, the hylek and the Inquest, unlimited resources at her disposal, an inexplicable ability to sway “evil” factions into evil alliances, can open portals, can teleport, can survive just about anything, has travelled all over Tyria and has seen the Eternal Alchemy.
It feels like Arena Net asked Matt Ward to write the best villain he could.

So here is what I suggest, ANet: GET RID OF SCARLET.

Don’t do it for me, because I’m quitting the game now. I don’t think you can do it – this last update proved to me that you don’t know how to advance the plot anymore without involving Scarlet. Do it for yourselves and the people who still play the game.

You could have done so much with this update. There are a thousand ways the krait could have initiated this on their own without Scarlet, and a thousand more ways for the Nightmare Court to have started it all. There is so much lore to explore, so much we could find out about the krait and their religion, their society, their culture now that they have apparently started their full-scale invasion of Tyria. It could be the Prophets returning, it could be the krait enslaving a faction of Nightmare Courtiers and using them for their own nefarious purposes, it could be the Nightmare Courtiers who infected the krait with their evil poison spores and the miasma the gigantic, evil thistle spews out.
Instead, you just go “Scarlet did it again” – again.

I loved your game. There was so much in it. Everything from the uneasy ceasefire between the charr and the humans to the enigmatic awakening of the Elder Dragons and all the implications of the events leading up to, during and after the awakening of individual Dragons.

You’re ruining it. I’m angry, I’m disappointed, I’m sad and I’m heartbroken. I was getting really involved with the game and its lore. Then it started crumbling, and now I just won’t stand for it anymore.

Goodbye, good luck, and thank you for everything before Scarlet.

-Vethrir Blackmoor, Iron Legion

Scarlet needs to go.
I’m tired of every single new release being based on "Scarlet united “evil” races X and Y to form Evil Alliance Z because she has a gift of speech (even though we never see it in-game, she’s annoying to listen to). Now go fight her."

When I saw the changes made in Kessex, I was excited. Finally something new, something which explores and builds on lore instead of demolishing it. The krait are preparing a massive attack? And there’s an obelisk on the content preview? Sweet!

When I saw the huge obelisk with the gigantic, evil thistle growing out of it and the sylvari wandering around, I got a bit sceptic, but I chose to believe a quaggan NPC who claimed that the krait had enslaved the sylvari. Fair enough. I can see that happen. This certainly all seems sufficiently cruel.

I also chose to disregard the fact that the krait are historically xenophobic, having only ever enslaved or destroyed other races and used them in blood rituals. And nevermind the fact that the Nightmare Court was supposedly formed partially with the intent to combat the krait and other malign creatures attacking the sylvari.

It all came crashing down when Scarlet was brought in.
And I don’t understand why.
Why is Scarlet still alive?
Why did the krait accept her terms instead of gutting her and taking the obelisk shards?
Why did the Nightmare Court agree to ally the krait?
Why would anyone at all anywhere ever even consider taking Scarlet’s side after all her recent failures?
The Molten Alliance failed.
The Aetherblade Pirates failed.
The assassination attempt on Queen Jennah failed.
The invasion of all of Tyria failed.
Everything she does only ends up getting her minions killed, and then she goes back to plotting and scheming and breaking lore like there’s no tomorrow.
Not only does she break lore, but she’s also a Mary Sue to boot.

She spent eight years studying in The Grove. We don’t know what she studied, but she studied things, so already at this point, eight years spent learning about Tyria, she should be pretty knowledgeable.
Then she was taught blacksmithing by the norn. I’d be inclined to believe that if she hadn’t apparently mastered everything one of the best norn blacksmiths had to teach her in the span of only one winter.
After that, she was taught firearms and artillery technology by the charr over the course of two years, even though we know the Iron Legion only shares a very limited amount of technological knowledge with other races. They’ve shown some asura scientists some basic metallurgy (enough to prove how awesome the Legion is at it) and gave the Ebon Vanguard some outdated black powder (“here, have this, we have something way more powerful so we don’t need it.”)
Following her adventure with the Iron Legion, she graduated from all three asura Colleges (two of them in less than a year), even though we know there’s competition between the Colleges. Also, I have never heard of any non-asura even attending a College, much less graduating with perfect scores from all three.
We know that she studied at the Colleges of Dynamics and Statics, graduating in less than a year, but all we’re told about Synergetics is that she “took her time” because it interested her.
After that, she briefly stayed with the Inquest before getting booted out of Rata Sum and moving on to learn alchemy from the hylek until she was found by Omadd. This is where it gets even more over the top:
After a few months of preparation, she enters the machine they built and SEES THE ETERNAL ALCHEMY.
This makes her completely crazy (for some reason), and for reasons unknown, she sets out to begin her scheme to destroy Tyria(??).

On top of all this, she is supposedly also gifted with charisma and a silver tongue, even though we never see this in-game. All we ever get is a psychotic lunatic who tells us to die a lot.

On top of that, she has the magical ability to throw endless quantities of hapless minions at us from somewhere. I guess there’s a dimension where everyone is either a charr, a dredge or an Aetherblade pirate.

I hope Anet actually read these posts.
GET RID OF SCARLET.

I swear, if they come out and say that Scarlet was behind the Toxic Alliance, it will just be proof that Anet is taking the kitten . Is this the only way you know how to wrap things up and advance the plot now, Anet? Scarlet formed another unlikely alliance between two “evil” factions to conquer Tyria? Why? Because she went crazy after seeing the Eternal Alchemy? Give me a break.

Scarlet breaks lore left and right. It was ridiculous enough when it was explained that she graduated from all three Asura Colleges (even though it has already been established that you only graduate from one, nevermind the fact that Scarlet seems to be the only non-asura to pull this off), and it only kept going from there. On top of the Colleges, she was also trained by charr and norn. Then she manipulated the dredge and Flame Legion into their Molten Alliance. She built all the Watchknights Queen Jennah spent tax payer money on buying (to protect herself instead of fighting the centaur and securing Kryta). She apparently pulls her Aetherblade minions from another dimension solely populated by magitech pirates with airships. The list goes on, from her stupid hairdo to her apparently inexhaustible supply of suicidal troops.

Scarlet needs to stop. There’s way too much focus on this stupid Mary Sue villain. She feels like something Matt Ward would come up with when asked to design the perfect villain for Tyria.

And what are the dragons doing while all of this is going on? Are they on a break, eating popcorn while watching us fight some ridiculous kitten with a kitten for technology? Is Scarlet also behind the Elder Dragons?

This new content can go two ways:
It can steer Guild Wars back on track.
Or it can wreck it even further.

Signed.