Guild Wars 2

Aaron Ansari.1604:

As far as the statues go, all of them got changed dramatically (and inconsistently, I might add: it seems to have been totally random, which statues were changed to the new style and which were left in the old). The difference between new Grenth and old Grenth really is no greater than between new Balthazar and old Balthazar.

I would disagree here. While they’re all dramatically changed, there’s two things to note:

• The only statue seen in GW1 that was replaced with the new version is at Reaper’s Gate. The rest of the new statues were in places not seen in GW1, or lacked a statue in GW1 (the latter being places like Ascalon Settlement).
• Grenth was changed from an old man in a robe with a goat-like skull into a young, muscular, armor-clad man. Dwayna was a winged female, is now a winged female; Melandru was a winged female, is now a woman sitting on/coming out of a tree; Balthazar was an armor-clad warrior with a greatsword, is now a armor-clad warrior with his hounds at his feet; Lyssa was two women wrapped around each other, is now two women back to back; Kormir was herself standing atop Abaddon’s second mask, is now a woman with straight hair with waves around her.

Only Kormir and Grenth’s got drastically changed – and Grenth far more so. As if the GW2 statues of Grenth are depicting a younger Grenth while the GW1 statues are depicting an older Grenth. Balthazar’s statue is perhaps the least dramatic in terms of what it depicts (on par to Dwayna, though the early rendition of the new statue for her was even more dramatic, being armor-clad and sword-wielding as well).

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Icdan Sevaen.4628:

Everyone’s talking about Malchor being the father of Grenth, but as far as I know we still don’t have any actual evidence… ?

A lot of theory is based on that, while afaik, we just don’t know if it’s true or not.

We don’t have any direct evidence, but we do know that his father was a sculptor, we do know that Malchor is the only sculptor ever associated with Dwayna, we do know that the gods only went to Malchor because they tried not to spend time among the general populace, and we do know that the only evidence against the theory was deliberately removed by ANet and replaced with something else. That makes a very strong case, as far as the theories around here usually go.

There is also minor indication that it was not a one-sided love between Malchor and Dwayna:

“When it was done, he asked Dwayna if she favored the image, and weeping, Dwayna allowed him to touch her face, that he might know the precision with which—even blind—he had carved her image.”

It’s not a heavy indication, but that depiction makes it feel like there was some feelings – even if only spontaneous – from Dwayna towards Malchor.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Again, we lack information. How old was the seed before Ronin brought it to the glade? How old were the plant creatures that were guarding it when he took it? What was their function? All we know is that they were ‘powerful plant creatures’ and that the Pale Tree was but one of many seeds. It’s possible that the creatures were left over from the previous rise and their function was to spread the seeds when the next rise was imminent. Obviously the seeds were important, otherwise they wouldn’t have been under guard.

And there are many, many plant creatures out there beyond Mordremoth’s minions – which, I should note, haven’t even been proven to be plants yet! (even if it is most likely) But in your scenario, the seeds would be corrupted and we know two things:

1) Dragon minions cannot create new life, except when twisting inanimate objects into new living beings (e.g., Destroyers, the Shatterer).
2) The Pale Tree nor any sylvari (Dreamer or Nightmare Courtier) are not fanatic to any Elder Dragon, which is one of the two sole commonalities amongst dragon minions. And there’s no indication of Forgotten magic being used on them.

IF sylvari are dragon minions – and that’s a bit if – then they were purified by the Forgotten during the previous rise. But there’s a very important question to ask: why is there no documentation of sylvari or sylvari-like beings? If the sylvari were Mordremoth’s minions, there’d be documentations in ancient jotun and dwarven relics of sylvari-like beings.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

No, there is no magical freeing of the pale tree, but that does not mean she did not reject it of her own accord. Similarly to how Jora rejected Jormag. The Pale Tree is her own sentient being, and perhaps due to the interference of Ronin and Ventari she made the choice to reject the influence of Mordy. This does not rule out being born with the darkness within her, or her having been intended for something else previously.

You don’t seem to get that that is not actually possible.

Once corrupted, there is no going back. This is emphasized many times. Jora was able to resist Jormag’s corruption because Jormag is unique amongst the Elder Dragons – he prefers to persuade or seduce individuals to willingly join him, and then corrupt. Not willing? He batters you down until you are willing (and then corrupts). But you can win that attempt – just like Zojja and Snaff do against the Dragonspawn in Edge of Destiny. The Sons of Svanir break this code frequently, and he and his champions do use corpses whom lack will, but it’s a frontal point that Jormag seeks to persuade rather than enslave – unlike the other Elder Dragons.

No other dragon does this. And Mordremoth certainly doesn’t show this. But again: once corrupted, there is only one solution: ancient Forgotten magic that’s only been recently discovered.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

No, there are no known records of there previously being Sylvari; however, it is pointed out in the game that most of the old history has been lost. There is much the old races do not remember. Just because there is no record saying they weren’t there doesn’t mean that they weren’t. Those records simply could have been lost due to time. Of course, previous incarnations may have different as well. We don’t know.

Yes, most old history has been lost.

But there are still knowledge of Jormag, Zhaitan, Primordus, risen, icebrood, and destroyers all about. There’s still knowledge of six Elder Dragons existing. There’s still the knowledge from Glint. There’s enough knowledge to argue that if there were dragon minions made of plants that mimicked other races much like destroyers whom are made of rock and lava mimic other races, one would expect knowledge of such to have existed in some form.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

She could very well have been created / born with the corruption within her, but actively fights it. Using the dream as a means of protecting her offspring from it. It wouldn’t be the first storyline to go that route. Scarlet’s back story sort of implies that something along those lines may be happening. Thus, the dragon may be trying to ‘re-corrupt’ or at least subdue her.

Corruption isn’t really something that can be fought. Once corrupted, the individual’s mind is fully fanatic to serving the dragon whom it was corrupted by.

Thus far, the only counter to dragon corruption that exists is the Forgotten’s magic.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I think our sylvari a bit different than how they should/ would have been, even the Nightmare Court is affected simply due to the Tree’s shielding.

One dragon’s minions are also not corruptible by the other dragons, and Sylvari are seemingly the only race immune to becoming risen, or branded. An interesting coincidence.

Crucible of Eternity shows that dragon minions are corruptible. And nothing indicates that CoE’s cases is impossible in other situations.

Again, Forgotten had magic immune to corruption (and even capable of reverting the mental side of it).

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Malyck seems to have been prematurely separated from his Pale Tree. At least that’s what I get from his back story anyway. It’s possible his ‘programming’ was not complete. We really don’t know enough about him, beyond that he comes from a different tree. It’s potentially possible that the tree he comes from was destroyed, which if that turns out to be the case, one would wonder why.

There really is no reason to believe that, and corruption would be instantaneous anyways, as it is with all other Elder Dragons.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Why would Mordy grow his own army? Because he’s a plant creature maybe and that would seemingly fit his nature? Of course, in the previous rises he may not have encountered any issues with his grown army being corrupted against him in any fashion, there weren’t humans at that point.

This really isn’t any different than what the Great Destroyer did in EotN. Primordus wasn’t awake then, wasn’t truly in control. The Great Destroyer was in control of the army, building it for his master. Spreading their control.

Similarly here, the Pale Tree is the one in control of the army. If all Sylvari were like the Nightmare Court, and the Pale Tree evil, you don’t think their actions would be similar?

Personally, I think there are too many “coincidental” similarities. As Gibb’s would say – “There’s no such thing as coincidence.”

Why would Mordremoth grow an army that don’t listen to him and are wanting to kill him and his ilk?

The Great Destroyer existed from the previous Dragonrise. Elder Dragons don’t corrupt when they’re hibernating, their champions left behind (Great Destroyer, Drakkar, etc.) do it for them. They are not born while the Elder Dragons hibernate, and the dragon champions are always just as fanatic for their master whether their master is awake, sleeping, or even dead (as shown with Arah explorable). I think there’s a very fine difference between the Great Destroyer – or any other dragon minion, even Glint – and the Pale Tree (even if we were to assume for argument’s sake that the Pale Tree is a champion).

The Nightmare Court is still anti-Elder Dragon though. They just have a different belief for how to go about it.

Coincidences don’t exist in NCIS because the NCIS writers ensure there are no coincidences. If a writer wishes for a coincidence to exist, it will exist.

The alternate version of the player character that invades isn’t actually from an alternate reality/world, but from a potential future that exists within The Mists.

See the bold. It is not an alternate reality or world. At best it would be no more than a Fractal-esque thing, but given the wording, it seems to be more intangble, more abstract, like a thought or a dream or a vision. Something that can be, but currently isn’t. The Infinity Ball gave a medium so that the “can be” became “is” – and only, as far as we can tell, for those which went came out of the portal.

As to how to know Tyria is a world and not just a potential future. Well, simple. Firstly, we have developer confirmation. Secondly, it is a world and not just a fragment of a world (e.g., a Fractal). Thirdly, we can leave the world (inhabitants of the Fractals don’t seem capable of this – see Dessa during Fractured! where she tries to leave but she herself seems to “reset”). Sylvari are real, if it is physical. Same with Steam Creatures – it started out as a mere “thought” of the Mists (I use the term “thought” loosely and only so because of the terminology of the questioner’s reposting of the responses) but became real when it entered Tyria through the Infinity Ball (in that example); or it was part of a Fractal, this tiny little island of existence that would not hold what your theory requires it to hold. How do they ensure their possible future isn’t destroyed? Technically, only by acting to guide their future to occur (but the Infinity Ball storyline actually shows that tells that the potential future won’t occur because the Grand High Sovereign showed himself).

To your final point: that actually feels like an argument for Scarlet being the origins, not some alternate dimension that has been proven to not exist. Also: wind riders, minotaurs, and ogres. And her Twisted marionettes didn’t include any minotaur-like force, but hylek-like, wasp-like, and a combination of 2 or more Watchknights made the Nightmare (it’s literally two+ combined to make the spine and limbs twice as long and twice as numerous).

Malchor lived for quite some time after he did Dwayna’s first sculpture, during such a time he slowly became insane as he attempted, though blind, to recreate the “perfection” of Dwayna’s beauty – each time believing he failed, that the sculptures were inadequate.

And that appeal to Grenth is actually what Desmina shouted to the winds back in (supposedly) 48 BE, and Grenth answered. It wasn’t directed at Grenth, but to the Six Gods in general, as Desmia wished for power for vengeance (what that vengeance was is unknown). It may be that was the very first act of Grenth as a god (to the mortals’ eyes).

Mounts function differently depending on the game, really, and those in GW1 were used to get from point A to point B quicker (and/or safer).

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/25iqrv/i_attended_the_gw2_china_beta_festival_heres_some/

As said before, The Mists hold “memory” of both past and future. These “memories” include possibilities, or “potential energy” of what CAN happen in the future. An example of this would be the Infinity Ball in the Asura Personal Story. The alternate version of the player character that invades isn’t actually from an alternate reality/world, but from a potential future that exists within The Mists.

It sounds to me that the future accessed by the infinity ball was non-existing except for what was to come through that portal, which is just a “memory of the future”. Basically, from how I understand it, the infinity ball went and made a “possibility” into “reality” but only in that one isolated location.

There really is no evidence to point to Lornar’s Pass invasion being caused by the Grand High Sovereign, and less reason to believe such given this new lore. Furthermore, this new lore pretty much debunks the theory that Scarlet traveled to this possible future since it doesn’t actually exist – not as a place one can go to, just as a “thought” of the Mists for what can occur (and is avoided by seeing that “memory of a possible future”). It seems to me that the description I quoted is also perfectly matching for A Light in the Darkness with the exception that rather than something/someone bringing things from that memory, someone (Pale Tree) brings people to that memory.

Nothing says that Grenth assumed godhood “in the abandoned seat of his father” but rather “where his father fell, Grenth rose.” Which can mean a large variety of things – the first thought that came to my mind was “Dhuum is Grenth’s father.” But that doesn’t seem likely unless Dhuum was a god for so short of a timespan.

GW1 actually had 2 mounts. But they were region specific. Junundu (the Desolation) and Siege Devourer (Charr Homelands). But they functioned more like transforms than mounts – similar to the mechanical devourers in Edge of the Mists, actually.

We never got confirmation of where the invasion into Lornar’s came from, and given thatthe portals there got changed to match Scarlet’s portals it seems unsurprising if the Priory is wrong about Scarlet reverse engineering the Steam creatures and their technology. Especially when we take into consideration the new lore about the Infinity Ball sovereign coming from a memory of the future within the Mists (by description, sounding to be no different than what we experience in A Light in the Darkness).

That looks like a situation of shading and lighting making the gray look different color. Some are lit up while others are not. I don’t see any wood going in there.

I wouldn’t say “nobody knew of Abaddon after his fall” given the existence of many statues and scriptures related to him throughout the world. There’s even mention of Reza being a devout of the six gods, and a post-fall mention of Abaddon in the Orrian History Scrolls written in prose which heavily suggests them not being Priory written but Orrian written.

And honestly, “only the priesthood of Grenth knows this” feels like a “we wiped it from history” to me. It’s just that one group decided to keep it known amongst themselves so they didn’t become among the ignorant masses.

And the Realm of Torment was Abaddon’s realm before his fall – it was made into his prison because it was his realm.

Seeing the effects of the Living Story on actual residents is good. The two back in Kessex was good. Their showing in Origins of Madness was okay since it showed them in LA (but they would have been better off being added in the open world, not instance) but they didn’t need to have such focus to them.

A better done effect of seeing how the Living Story affects the citizens would be Aftermath NPCs in Lion’s Arch – all the people looking for their children, spouses, lost belongings, etc. That was well done. Tower of Nightmare aftermath NPCs were done good.

Peneloopee and Bloomanoo began good, but now feel overdone. Especially knowing that they’re going to Kessex again… despite stating that they hated it.

And no one, in a thousand+ years, asked “where do the gods come from?” “well, Grenth usurped this one god… what was his name again?” I find this hard to believe. It’s not like we’ve forgotten the names of the Roman, Greek, or even Babylonian gods. Furthermore, from Cathedral of Silence personal story:

Grenth is Dwayna’s son, but only half-god. His father was a mortal sculptor, but that is one of the greatest secrets of our church.

Why keep such a thing a secret? Let alone “one of the greatest secrets”? The only reason I can think of is “to keep mortals from thinking the gods can be usurped” in which case, removal of the knowledge of Dhuum is equally imperative than removal of knowledge of Abaddon.

My point on Abaddon’s predecessor is that it seems not even the Margonites or the Realm of Torment itself holds the predecessor’s name.

To your third point: Again, knowledge of Dhuum seems to have become as common as knowledge of Abaddon at the same time. Rhie mentions Grenth being a half-mortal is the priesthood of Grenth’s greatest secret, but that doesn’t mean outright that they knew of Dhuum pre-Nightfall (and even then, if they did, that likely fell into that same “greatest secret”).

So… why keep Grenth’s origin a secret? And why the greatest secret (at least, greatest post-Nightfall)?

@Faerun: I just wrote it using the typically exagerrated and utterly wrong stereotypes.

@Teofa: I hate to break it to you, but I’m aware and I was making a joke in my post. I’m sorry you didn’t realize. The joke, btw, was in that it is a knee-jerk statement (as you call it, everyone seems to call it something different) and completely not serious but making fun of it in the form of pretending like I was serious.

So then why don’t we know anything about Abaddon’s predecessor? Or the origins of Lyssa? Why is there no mention of ANY kind about Dhuum in all of Tyria beyond what was gained in GW1 (which was via the Mists) and the location of his fall (which, might I add, we only know due to the name of the object… which no one else would know outright – the PoI is equally questionable).

That piece of writing was the aforementioned “removed” inscription on the Divinity’s Reach statue of Grenth – which changed slightly and was requoted to be Desmina.

Dhuum’s tower is in the Underworld, it isn’t where he was defeated (which was the ossuary of the Cathedral of Eternal Radiance). I fail to see why Dwayna would have to be at her temple (especially given that she lived in Arah), I think that bit is metaphorical and not meant to be that Grenth was accepted/standing before Dwayna near where his supposed father died.

Anmida.4058:

All fair points in their own way! -snip-

1. It’s also said that they’re keeping a very close eye on those asura technicians, and how much they see, which is actually my main basis for the charr not giving things out willy-nilly.

Lion’s Arch is probably the primary – if not sole beyond Orders – means of charr or asura tech being traded. And this would be via low-time merchants, nothing government orchestrated. Your mentioned “eventually adapt, re-use or apply knowledge and technology” is exactly what we see beginning to happen – in the form of the Orders and the Pact, primarily.

Most people don’t trust the other races – and with good reason, given that humanity and charr have been at war for a millenia, the sylvari are really too new to know charr much, norn are too independent, and everyone’s rather untrusting of the constantly-failing-and-being-innovated asura technology.

2. I like to think that the LA fundraising is a testing tool: one to ensure that the Watchknights are good for use outside of an arena where they’re going to be bashed and hacked by adventurers who know the risks. If you recall, there were a lot of nobles on the little niches along the sides of the Great Collapse – now, I don’t think there are any. Only Faren and one other noble are seen in the entire Pavilion, rather than the dozens there were previously. It’s subtle but there.

About LA refugees – that’s not much of the queen’s job to give them a place, and she’s doing more than any other government in hosting a fund-raising event so that they can be given places to live.

3. I wasn’t saying that they removed Cantha from the lore, but that the Canthan district may not exist in the lore anymore – that Canthan refugees were so few in number that a district just for them wasn’t worth the effort, and they’re displaced amongst the six (now five) districts.

Cantha obviously still exists in lore, as do those of Canthan descent humans, as Marjory herself is of Canthan heritage (as I noted above), as are most tengu we seem to meet, and it is beyond heavily hinted that Cantha was where the Zephyrites last visited.

4. Erm, what was in Twilight Arbor? A brand new (not a “it was there all this time and you never notice it” thing) airport which was unrelated to the Breachmaker (your “city-sized airship” which isn’t really that big, more of half-city-sized) but was for building an Aetherblade airship fleet.

I think the activities of the alliances is exactly why such a big project wasn’t unnoticed. What went unnoticed was what Scarlet Briar was gathering from those alliances (we knew what the alliances were gathering and producing, just not what amongst those things Scarlet got too).

5. It’s hard to do that, because often times you’re excluding anyone who isn’t part of that particular order. And other times – like the Order of Whispers’ subtlety, well… how are players to know they’re there, other than them saying to players “hey, I’m of the Whispers.”

It’s just upscaling of events. Tequatl has champion risen grubs for example.

Lorewise, stronger minions are given more corrupted magic by Zhaitan when they’re turned into minions.

4. There’s actually hints in A Study in Scarlet that she’s been working on it since she stepped into the machine, much longer than the year. Furthermore, most of her materials seem to have come from her alliances – the Molten Alliance mined out her metal, the Toxic Alliance got her wood. The pirates stole goods for anything else. Her contacts in the Inquest likely helped.

Either way, I doubt her story’s over given the biconics’ mention of going after the voice in her head. So we may learn about her pre-Season 1 antics in Season 2 while going after the entity (which I’ll stress is not yet proven to be Mordremoth, even if that’s Occam’s Razor’s spotlight holder)

5. They actually did notice the Molten Alliance’s plans, and had an inside agent giving dead drops which we collected. But yeah, the Orders were underplayed. And the out-of-game response for why this is would be that the Orders had been so pre-occupied with the Elder Dragon threat that they just didn’t notice these other things.

6. I think you don’t give the Pact enough credit. Zhaitan was caught unprepared and there were weeks, perhaps months, spent to weaken him. And a lot of the victory actually is in thanks to the Inquest, as when Zojja raided the Crucible of Eternity she took their (or rather, Kudu’s) research on the Elder Dragons which gave her the ability to make anti-Elder Dragon weaponry. There’s also been the whole months/years/decades work spent by individual groups to find weakenesses in the Elder Dragons and their minions who were brought together for the Pact (not just the Orders, but that lab near where Tequatl spawns, Wyld Hunt Valiants, various krewes, etc. were all brought together). Honestly, it’s more a matter of a hundred different groups of varying sizes coming together to work against a single enemy – the sad thing is that half of that was downplayed via random NPC dialogues throughout the world, or the obscure object naming or dialogue that few people would really get a chance to see.

And Trahearne wasn’t a randomer either. He was Tyria’s foremost knowledgeable scholar on the Risen and Orrians, since he spent all 23 years of his life on the topic and was one of the two people to go to Orr, see Zhaitan himself, and live (the other being Caithe).

7. As it seems to be, the Mist War seems to be a case of “everyone thinks the other side is evil and will not talk or try negotiations.” And the entire point of the Mist War – other than defending our own Tyria, is to procure resources. This is, however, not really brought up in lore and only known via an interview with Anet during China’s release.

1. The simple answer is “paranoia, egotism, and general selfishness”. The asura do not share. And when they do share, they share for profit only with constant hands on what services they’re given (they never sell products, they sell services). The charr, on the other hand, have been selling their products. The issue is that everything they develop is for militant reasons. They don’t make things that’ll make your day to day life better. They do not make cosy houses. So what do the other races want of theirs? Usually just the more practical militant stuff like the printing press. And even then, the charr don’t sell everything (let alone their means of manufacturing) because they want to stay on top of that spectrum.

And then there’s the notion of cultural identity. If you’re a leader, you aren’t going to sell your people’s culture and identity for a few quality of life items. If you could even get those – which in Tyria, you can’t, because of aforementioned reasons.

So it wasn’t the Captain’s Council or the Krytan Ministry/Monarch’s decision alone, but the seller’s decision to not sell because their paranoia and rivalry overcomes their desire for money, money, money.

2. In short, Jennah didn’t.

Firstly, you have to realize that despite being the monarch and queen, Jennah isn’t the de facto leader of humanity. Caudecus and those loyal to him (or themselves and not the queen) in the Ministry and elsewhere tries to hinder her at practically every turn. So she can’t just go “you know what? I want to put all the nation’s money into the military so we can end this war with the centaurs once and for all” like Usoku did in Cantha, because if she tried such Caudecus would use that to defame her in one form or another.

Secondly, given the size of the sinkhole, it wouldn’t be feasible to turn the Great Collapse into a living space. Not how it once was, at least. A fundraiser is actually not that bad of an idea. The issue is more mechanical side – in that the developers want the area open only annually.

Thirdly, the original purpose of the Watchknights was to protect the city walls from centaurs and bandits – to effectively reduce the strain on the Seraph. The issue is that Scarlet came in and hijacked them all. Ever since, as explained by Lord Faren in the Crown Pavilion right now during the Festival of the Four Winds, they’ve been put back to the manufacturing table and being reworked so that they cannot be hijacked – magically or mechanically.

Lastly, it should be noted that while the Centaur War is back and forth, it’s pretty much all in Harathi Hinterlands by the time of the jubilee. The zones are stuck in time when not affected by the Living World (and then, only what’s affected by the Living World is moved up in time). While there are hints in Tower of Nightmares that the centaurs may still be an issue in Kessex, that’s the only hint – and it’s only minor. So there’s no longer such a huge issue of “even more refugees and farmers getting murdered outside our city walls by centaurs which we have not yet taken care of at all” – if any issue much at all. That issue was such 6 months prior, and what issue there remains, the Watchknights were meant to help cover. But again: Scarlet.

3. They got put elsewhere. And it isn’t like all houses got removed. That outer ring of Divinity’s Reach (which players cannot access) had their houses rebuilt completely.

And the Pavilion probably produced a kitten-ton of jobs for the unemployed refugees too. But I doubt that “everyone in Divinity’s Reach” thinks it’s a wonderful idea. It’s just that ArenaNet didn’t bother/have the time/resources to show this.

And the whole existence of a Canthan district seems to have been more or less retconned out (though it isn’t really a retcon since it was never part of canon lore in the first place), as except for one very, very obscure mention (which could be an oversight), people called it the Arts district, not Canthan district (and that one obscure mention only mentions a “Canthan area near the arena” (only the Plaza of Balthazar having an arena before the Pavilion). Marjory, whom is of Canthan descent, is a commoner in the Eastern Commons.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why do people see the need in trying to change the game into what they think they want?

Because they think that what they want will be what they enjoy, and what others enjoy.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why do people complain about the game so much?

Because they got onto the internet and thus feel the innate desire driven by anymosity to act like complete kittens.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why do people want mounts?

Because they’re coming from WoW and cannot handle a game that isn’t a WoW clone.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why can’t people let Anet do their jobs instead of trying to do it for them?

It is the innate desire of every male animal – and we all know that there are no girls on the internet – to assert their dominance into the fray of life. This desire heightens when they realize that their enemies do not know their location, thus believing instinctively that they hold the upperhand in the combative struggle for becoming the Alpha Poster.

Thus begins the Epic Battle of the Century. Featuring a lot of fat, pimplefaced, nerds with a moahawk, because we all know only single, fat, lonely, nerds surf the internet.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why do people want to make this game into their old game?

Nostalgia.

Chyanne Waters.8719:

Why do people want expansions, When living story will add more content for free over time?

I’m going to go a bit more serious and point to conditioning for this. All other games release expansions, thus this is what people are used to. This is most likely one of the driving factors for why people want expansions. People also seem to believe that content released in a single, large, batch will be better than content released over time. And they may not be entirely wrong there. But I think the real, digging deep into the matter, issue is that players like to speed through content. And if you speed through a smaller update once every 2 weeks… well, it just won’t feel like there’s much there, because you speed through it and then you’re “done”.

And also, thank you for your post, OP.

@Galphar: they already said they won’t do stand-alone campaigns. So there’d be no “merge the games” and it won’t be like Factions and Nightfall in that they could be bought without the original. You’ll always need the original game to play GW2.

Ohoni.6057:

Bummer. Hopefully they’ll be able to shift gears on that sooner rather than later, because a whole season of solo instances would be a huge disappointment. If I wanted to play solo instances I’d be playing a solo game.

They’re offering both, just like with Tower of Nightmares which had both instanced and open world. The difference is that the open world stuff will now be permanent (or changing old open world stuff, going off of the blog post), and the instances will be permanent but will have to be unlocked. Open world stuff will be like the rest of the game – unneeding to do the story instances to access or understand. They’re making Season 2 like the initial release – telling two stories (open world story, and the story instances story) side-by-side, but separate.

Don’t want to do the instances? No need! You can still enjoy the new open world content.

The VIP, as said, is China only. And it gives stuff that is free for us. Like forum access and better connections, from what I’ve heard (though my sources may be dubious). And it only exists because the richer districts of China who play game are so bored into the “pay to win” mentality that they just simply don’t like games they can’t pour money into (again, according to my single Chinese friend, so information may be biased).

It won’t ever come here. And if it did, it will be when Guild Wars 2 dies – and it will die because of the VIP bull.

Abaddon’s foothold in Tyria wasn’t because people knew of him, but because of the rituals Varesh had performed. What would prevent people from doing the same for Dhuum?

Though I had thought the reason for wiping out knowledge was more to keep the thought of “the Six Gods can be overthrown” out. They needent do this with Kormir around because they’re no longer in Tyria. But with Dhuum? Abaddon’s unnamed predecessor? I would think so. Also, Lyssa’s origins are explicitly stated to be forgotten. Coincidence? I think not.

I think the Six Gods are very conscious about their pasts being known.

While the other gods focused on building Arah and beginning a new future, Lyssa gave them joy and helped them forget the past.

Among them was Abaddon—once secret-keeper, now betrayer. How you have fallen from the glorious days of old. What passed beyond in the Mists, only you remember.

Correct. Twin sisters Ilya and Lyss together form the goddess Lyssa. Though their names are known, we have found no stories detailing Lyssa’s origins.

Yeah, A Vision of Darkness as well as A Light in the Darkness steps utilize a hidden western part of the Grove map (which was found during dat diving before release) which is a copy of the southern half of Cursed Shore. A Vision of Darkness specifically focuses around Romke’s ship’s wreckage and Desmina’s Hallows.

The Personal Story step doesn’t involve the mirror, just Tegwen and Carys. The mirror is used later one though in Through the Looking Glass – the name of which is a reference to the Alice in Wonderland novel of the same name, and has us teleported to another place in Straits of Devastation in it. Shards of Orr does mention the mirror, but it holds no relation to it. The name seems to be more a reference to how the objectives is related to Orrians (specifically that champion) and two people who’ve been to Orr (Tegwen and Carys). However, I don’t think the name of steps have as much credence as you’re giving them, especially in trying to relate A Light in the Darkness or the line in A Vision of Darkness to the tengu prophecy since really it’s only in words that there’s a similarity, and the concept of light in darkness or a star of hope has been used even with Nightfall and is a very common concept.

And on that note of the stars. Given the heavy use of star foretelling in both Canthan and Elonian culture on top of tengu and jotun culture, I’m thinking that stars can be used in general to predict the outcomes of Tyria – not just things like Elder Dragon risings, like what the jotun did, but much more things. Elonian culture places stars as foretelling Varesh’s, Kormir’s, Abaddon’s, and the PC’s actions throughout Nightfall. None of which are tied to Elder Dragons obviously. So the tengu prophecy may hold zero relevance to the Elder Dragons.

I’ve always taken that the Six Gods had removed knowledge of Dhuum just as they did of Abaddon, since until GW2 all we knew of Dhuum came from the Underworld and the Realm of Torment. And all knowledge in GW2 sans the Orrian History Scrolls and the place of Dhuum’s fall can easily be coming from the revelation of old gods like Abaddon becoming more well known.

While they didn’t do a good job of removing knowledge of Abaddon, they also left immediately after his fall (“immediately” being within the year), so it’s not surprising they missed stuff (though simply sinking his temple instead of obliterating it… yeah… I’m going to place that in the same place that “movie logic” falls into – aka done because it looks cool, not because it makes logical sense, same reason why every horror movie more or less has people being dumb and putting themselves in the danger knowingly but uncaringly – that, or the removal of knowledge of Abaddon fell to their followers, and not themselves). But with Dhuum, they had at least 48 years going off of Grenth’s scriptures. That’s at least 48 times longer to wipe out knowledge/records of Dhuum than of Abaddon.

Tamias/Santax (which would you prefer?), regarding the size of Shards of Orr, you’re forgetting something: we used an asura gate to get to Gadd’s Encampment from Shards of Orr. Just like how we got to the Central Transfer Chamber from the Battledepths, or from the Battledepths to the Heart of the Shiverpeaks – via asura gate (or for that matter, Heart of the Shiverpeaks and Bogroot Growths).

So you cannot properly measure the size of the dungeon based on that. And in fact, even if you overlaid the dungeon maps, placing exit to entrance, you still wouldn’t have an accountable size of the dungeon because instances like dungeons may not be the same scaling of size as the open world, knowing as we do that the open world is not as small as it seems from a lore-to-mechanics perspective (mechanically smaller than the lore size, lorically larger than the mechanics size) – and given that, even if you did put all the dungeon maps side-by-side overlaid on the open world map… the size of the dungeon maps may not, in lore, be the same scaling as the open world map – take, for example, Honor of the Waves, Crucible of Eternity, and Twilight Arbor in which the dungeons are larger than the open world placement of them).

And I really would avoid using Wooden Potatoes’ videos as much as you seem to do. He has a tendency to extrapolate things which are not quite so (or however you’d word it), like how you used to take Thruln the Lost’s wordings for absolute fact. As well as forget some things that are up on the wiki and sourced.

Livia had to get the scepter before Orr rose, seeing how it rose 150ish years after EotN. Unless she found magical longevity through a means not Orrian tied. Also, Tamias, but I recall a much brighter and more panning in the cinematic itself. Whomever took that picture (was that you?) could have had settings to darken the scene when others didn’t have such (and I recall similar with other images from GW1 you’ve uploaded in the past).

And Aaron, yeah they used places that existed for cinematics but rarely they made places specially made for them – they did thus with Shrio’s flashbacks in Factions with the old Harvest Temple, at the least, so they could have done so for that scene too. But it is equally possible for the location to be found in GW1. Makes me wonder where it’d be if so…

Was going to bring up what Thalador said. That ninja fix feels like a fixing of a continuity error (there may have been more, not dissimilar to how in GW1 the Crystal Desert centaurs were given Elonian centaur models, from their original ones that looked much more like the Maguuma and Shiverpeak (now called Harathi and Modniir) models, when Nightfall came out and was never mentioned in update notes).

So chances are is that Grenth’s statue was not made by Malchor – or if it were, it was post mortem, given that ghosts can pick up physical things and he has remained in Orr since death.

It in fact wouldn’t surprise me, given the new direction of the statues of Grenth being much younger and muscular and overall different than the GW1 depictions of an old man in robes, it wouldn’t surprise me that the GW1 depictions will actually be of Dhuum. Since it seems a bit weird for Grenth to age post-godhood given how the others don’t. And it would be weird if he had a statue made while not a god just to become a god much later when he is old and yet have that ‘young Grenth’ statue used throughout Orr.

I wouldn’t mind paying for the whole season.

If and only if they released it all at once and called it an expansion. Even if it was gemstore-only. If they made me pay for a story bit by bit, I’d probably ignore it until it was finished and then pay once and only once (most likely at a discounted rate, I’m sure it would end up being).

@OP: Please re-read the blog post. In it, Colin mentions changes in the open world, and that all open world additions or changes will be permanent (so basically think Southsun Cove and Kessex Hills as I understand it, in terms of open world content we can expect – at least in regards to the two forms we’ll see, new zones and new events/aesthetics/heart changes).

The instances would be like a mixture of the personal story and the instances we already had in Season 1 (e.g., “The Nightmare Unveiled”, “The Nightmare Ends”, “Scarlet’s End”, or even Braham’s and Rox’s instances during Flame and Frost – but in the style of being more akin to the personal story).

You’ll still have your community events. It won’t all be instanced.

Bazaar of the Four Winds and Crown Pavilion are both annual events yet occurred at a different time than last year. It is possible that we’ll get Dragon Bash later in the year.

It’s also possible that the Living Story content and the festival content are not exclusive for release.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

The point I was making with Glint is that she was a free sentient creature before being corrupted. People argue that because the Pale Tree is not corrupt by default she cannot be a dragon minion, or was never intended to be so. That’s not necessarily true.

But the sylvari aren’t (well weren’t) actively trying to kill him. They could be grown with the “programming” to follow after he rises, and not realize it. From the looks of things, they weren’t even aware of him. I think the Pale Tree was. If there are other Pale Trees, and their offspring are like the Nightmare Court by nature, the trees could very well be champions, growing an army waiting to be claimed. Similar to the great destroyer raising minions in the depths during eotn, but Primordus wasn’t awake yet (not enough minions yet maybe?) Killing his champion delayed his awakening, something similar could have been happening here.

It’s just a theory, obviously. We don’t have all the bits and pieces, but thus far things seem to line up.

1. While it is possible that the Pale Tree may be capable of being corrupted, this was not brought up in any way, shape, or form in this thread. The argument has been that the Pale Tree is already corrupted – and was, most likely, born so. This is what I’ve been saying holds little to no water in theorycrafting.
2. Sylvari on a whole are actively trying to fight all Elder Dragons, even the Nightmare Court view the Elder Dragons as the ultimate threat! But dragon minions only clash if they happen to cross each others’ paths (and we never see such in-game).
3. I think Malyck proves that other Pale Tree’s children won’t be like the Nightmare Court by nature, since falling to the Nightmare is irriversible and turns someone from spouting “truth and love will overcome even the Nightmare!” to “I will burn villages, slaughter innocents, and bath in their blood all for you my love.” (paraphrasing of Tiachern’s words from sylvari Shield of the Moon personal story).
4. And again, with the mention of “programming” – why would he do such? It’s counter-productive to give your enemy an army while you’re incapable of doing anything. Plus, unlike the Great Destroyer (and Glint, and Drakkar, and the Risen Giganticus Lupicus – if not far more), the Pale Tree isn’t from the previous rise (according to the Priory, this was 11,000+ years ago) but instead is only 250 years old.

Vesuvius.9874:

They’re actually known as Destiny’s Orphans.

Actually, no they aren’t. That was scrapped (read: never came to canon) dialogue. Just like Arachnia or Abaddon’s Dead Children, it holds no weight in the canon story.

Haaznahnuff.1907:

• Granted, the cube’s primary goal was to use the mind to explore part of the Alchemy (and the machine’s purpose was to lower the natural mind defense).
• But, in the case of the sylvari (or perhaps in Scarlet’s case only — it’s not clear), something hidden (walled off) in their mind is harmful. I read that the subjects are not harmed by something laying outside (like an over-exposed sensor), but by something laying inside them. Alright, this could apply to all sentient species if this hidden bit was their soul or divine bit inside of them… but Vorpp clearly isolates the sylvari case.
• Vorpp’s doesn’t say he’s got to study the Alchimy in order to understand what happened, he says he’s got to study the Dream (even if we can see it as a part of the Alchimy). I find that it’s a pretty difference, if all his sayings are self-coherent, that is.

My point was that the “protection” that Vorpp mentions is not unique to sylvari, so whatever was removed from Scarlet is not unique to sylvari.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

So, I just want to toss this out there….

We don’t know how Mordy gets his minions…

Just because the Pale Tree is not corrupt to begin with does not mean she was not at some point intended to be his champion.

Glint existed as a sentient being prior to being corrupted by Kral and thus becoming his champion.

Primordus makes his minions from stone and lava, though according to lore he can corrupt existing creatures into minions as well.

Zaihtan requires dead bodies…

Its really not all the far out there to believe that Mordy grows his minions and then ‘activates’ them after waking up (and not waking up until there are enough of them spawned). It’d make for an excellent cover honestly.

Beyond that, if the Nightmare Court are correct and they are what the Sylvari should have been, would that not lead you to believe that they might be tied to the dragon? They aren’t exactly peace loving…

In regards to Glint – that seems to be no different than normal beings becoming corrupted (e.g., most branded, icebrood, and risen).

It seems weird for the Elder Dragons to make non-fanatical minions just to later make them fanatical minions. What is the point of it? While it is true that each Elder Dragon functions and corrupts differently, it seems just pointblank a waste of energy with no proper positive to make minions that would actively try to kill him and then later corrupt them.

SAB – if it returns (its lack of show thus far has been kind of prophecizing to me that it may not return anymore) – would fall into the “festival content”. Meaning that it will likely, from here on out, show up for once a year for about a month or so, each time with a little something different.

Aurios Mines was also from the Jade Wind. But it contains artifacts from well before, frozen in that jade.

I don’t think there was any jade before the Jade Wind, as all jade we know of comes from petrified Jade Sea. At least there wasn’t any that we were informed about ever to even potentially exist.

But then again, why would anyone mine jade from elsewhere? The jade from the Jade Sea is outright stated to hold magical properties – and the Jade Quarry’s jade held the riches of these properties (which is why it was often fought over, since Kurzicks need that magical jade for making juggernauts, while Luxons need it for commerce and ammunition in their siege turtle cannons).

@Bruno: It seems most likely the Jade Sea was named after the color of the sea, and that color is also likely why it became jade when petrified, rather than say, clear crystal or sapphires (or some other blue-ish gemstone).

CureForLiving.5360:

Physically speaking Jormag and Kralkatorrik aren’t that far apart, Jormag covers things in Ice and Kralkatorrik covers things in crystals. Looking at the Sons of Svanir we slowly see them more and more ice covered as we go through the Shiverpeaks. Since we only have a couple of areas for the Branded we only see so much of them, but likely they also become more crystal covered.

Actually, the Branded appear to have their insides converted (first?). If you note on each Branded, they retain their skin, but it’s grayed and torn, and under the torn flesh… crystal.

Icebrood is the opposite – first their hair and skin gets caked in ice, turns to ice, and then their insides turn slowly. Head and hands seem to be affected first for the full insides. The latest corruption state of icebrood we see is the Icebrood Colossus, which is a skeleton in blocks of ice.

Primordus is said to have a similar corruption style to Jormag when and if he corrupts living beings (said that we’ve yet to see such outright, but it’s possible) in which the victim would be covered in rocks and beneath the rocks would slowly turn to lava (basically containment then liquification).

vVTheddVv.3896:

I am not necessarily saying naked or bikini or anything… but shorts, almost shirtless (for guys, like leather straps with a ring or something), etc. A lot characters like having a sexy look… and it seems a bit hard to find anything REALLY sexy looking.

Sounds like you want Barbaric heavy armor or Scallywag armor or Gladiator armor (in regards to guys at least).

Honestly, there’s plenty of these armor sets in the game – especially for female characters. There’s plenty of not-this in the game too. But if you want to have “the ultimate skimpy outfit” you’re going to have to mix and match rather than have a single set.

Corax.7381:

However, other Pale Trees – and thus, other sylvari – without the moral anchor of Ventari’s teachings may be more susceptible, and if Mordremoth really needs minions, and has an understanding of their Dreams (unknown whether he does or not since we don’t know if he broke Scarlet’s mind), then it’s not far-fetched to see him corrupting them.

Ventari’s teachings would do nothing to prevent dragon corruption. Dragon corruption forcefully alters the personality of the corrupted, and no high moral standing woudl change that. See all those Orrians? They were fanatic towards the (to them) Five Gods (to others now, Six Gods), and now? They’re all “praise Zhaitan, hail Zhaitan, Zhaitan eats gods, the gods lie!” etc. etc.

Corax.7381:

Probably; there’s still some cool “evil plant” concept art out there, and it’s more than just the “evil clothes” worn by the Nightmare Court. I’m talking full-on, mossman, lurker in the swamp kind of evil plants.

Those are concept arts by Kekai Kotaki from long before release. They were the first iteration of Nightmare Court concept arts and were scrapped.

The Bazaar of the Four Winds is actually unrelated to the Zephyrites. They do show up to the Bazaar frequently (twice in a row this time around), but it is hosted by a different group (and by the looks of it, black market folks).

But yes, “Four Winds” usually means the four main directions of a compass.

Liquidification if you must. The opposite of solidification. :P

Or “melting”.

Dakota.4591:

It’s been stated several times in-game that dragon corruptions cannot co-exist. Being branded makes a creature immune from becoming risen, and being a destroyer makes something immune from becoming iceblood.

Source. Because I have never seen this. There are only TWO cases of dragon corruption immunity ever brought up:

1. Sylvari (and possibly their magic, this isn’t clarified but it is implied a bit).
2. Forgotten magic.

Dakota.4591:

And yes, CoE does have something that’s made up of multiple dragon corruptions, both Kudu’s giant and Subject Alpha. But remember this. Scientists in real life have been able to grow human ears off of the backs of mice. Just because a bunch of mad scientists working in a lab can make somethign doesn’t mean it can happen in nature. Just because Subject Alpha is a creature of multiple dragon corruptions doesn’t change the fact that in normal circumstances the corruptions are mutually exclusive.

But if Subject Alpha (and Kudu, and Kudu’s Monster) can be scientifically made to be corrupted by multiple dragons’ corruption, then that proves that it is actually possible to be corrupted by multiple dragons’ corruption – even if something needs to be altered to make it possible first.

Dakota.4591:

So yes, the fact that Sylvari cannot become risen/branded/iceblood/etc could very well possibly mean that they are just humans who’ve been ‘blighted’, and that Ventari’s Tablet and the Pale Tree somehow are freeing them from Mordremoth’s influence, the same way that Glint was freed of Kralkatorrik’s.

Ventari’s Tablet wouldn’t be freeing them because it holds no magic. It’s just a stone with text on it. Glint was freed by powerful and ancient magic that is immune to dragon corruption for still unknown reasons.

However, dragon minions have not shown to be immune to corruption, unless you can provide a source for that…?

Lucifers Heaven.2167:

The dragon minions aren’t immune to any sort of curruption by other dragons? Have we seen any creature that’s been the product of multiple dragons? (Subject alpha doesn’t count).
When I heard about this theory the Sylvari were likened to destroyers, Primordus’ minions. The destroyers don’t corrupt other things, they don’t breed, and unlike the other dragon minions they are created, rather than converted.
And as we see no Destroyers that are risen or corrupted by ice or crystal, the idea was that they can’t be. That one dragon generally can’t take the minions of another dragon. The Sylvari are the only major players we never see dragon minion versions of of. This is the crux (and I think it was the start) of the whole theory: The Sylvari are Mordremoth’s version of Destroyers.

We haven’t seen any dragon minion interact beyond Crucible of Eternity. And why doesn’t Subject Alpha count? Because he proves your argument invalid? Subject Alpha isn’t the only case anyways – Kudu and Kudu’s Monster in story mode are also just like Subject Alpha.

Tamias.7059:

It’s a pretty bold statement to make that when a sleeping sylvari experiences nightmares, that’s something entirely different from the Nightmare, given the shared name and how little we know about how the sylvari sleep. You’re saying that ArenaNet introduced Mordremoth, a dragon that appears (and is suspected by players) to use Nightmare somehow, at almost the same time as some other entity which influences Scarlet using nightmares. I just don’t see that as plausible.

I fail to see why a nightmare – a negative dream, which in turn is a figment of the imagination, typically – would be the same as the Nightmare – a malignant and twisting force within the Dream of Dreams, which is a (meta)physical place made of memories and ether (not dissimilar to the Mists).

To claim a similarity between nightmares – which every race has – to the Nightmare is a mighty bold statement indeed! Especially without any evidence.

Tamias.7059:

Slow down there, tiger! Where is it said that the Dream is not an aspect of sylvari biology? The point of Omadd’s Isolation Module, as with real-life sensory deprivation chambers, is not to separate mind from body (although I’m not saying that didn’t happen in What Scarlet Saw), but to isolate an individual from the outside world—in this case, to separate Scarlet from Tyria. This means that the Dream must be somehow inherent to the sylvari, and as much is said (explicitly so, in fact) in The Dead End: A Study in Scarlet:

Being inherent to sylvari and not part of their body are two very different things. Because the mind/soul/consciousness are not part of the leaves and foilage that is the sylvari body. That is what I was saying. I was not saying that the Dream is not inherent to sylvari (though it doesn’t seem to be unique to them either, given the White Stag and A Light in the Darkness).

Haaznahnuff.1907:

I understand that Vorp tells us that Omadd did allow one sylvari to glance at her very own, deep, and hidden nature, a nature specific to the sylvari. Well, well, well.
I’d bet that the barrier that had to be breached is the one the Pale Tree builds (or has being built) in the mind of all her fruits before they awake.

But Vorpp says, and I quote:

Vorpp: “His notes say its purpose was to shut down the mind’s security system and open it—like opening a door—to welcome in the truths of the Eternal Alchemy. But our minds are protected for a reason.”

To repeat: But our minds are protected for a reason.

He’s not talking about sylvari minds, but “our” minds. As in, given the context, general sapient (or perhaps, simply living) beings.

Those two felt very front and center to me, given that you couldn’t be in the Kessex Hills.camp without hearing them, and you couldn’t go through the Origins of Madness instance without hearing them, and you couldn’t go through the refugee camp in Gendarran without hearing them.

Wherever they are added, you cannot avoid them when going to the real content that we care for.

@Sarathiel: Technically, the whole of Season 1 was an expansion’s worth of content to… just too much of it was temporary or designed for annual festivals.

@Deceiver: we already got a dev stating that season 2 will be permanent content.

1. I doubt there’d be that many new zones. Reason being is that Season 2 effectively added 5 new zones (three of which are annual, one was one-time, and one is permanent), but they were each tiny compared to other zones. And they were stretching it sometimes.

I also doubt that the Ruins of Denravi will become a dungeon – we already see all there is to the ruined Henge of Denravi! What else is there to see or explore? And why would we get a dungeon there?

2. Possible. It’s also possible it will be corrupted by Mordremoth, given proximity. Or burnt to the ground when we get there.

3. Why would there be a war and why would Caithe keep the act of killing Malyck (which would seem weird giving the way she was when Malyck left) a secret from the players though? More likely, the secret is the mere existence of Malyck and his tree, since Scarlet threatens to tell Faolain.

4. I doubt that Season 3 will send us to Janthir or the Woodland Cascades (despite common belief, there is nothing linking Janthir to the mursaat or White Mantle beyond Saul retrieving a single artifact from there – and the White Mantle believe Janthir is south, not north). But a focus on the Sinister Triad is possible.

5. Nope. We won’t be getting hylek as a playable race. Reason why is that one of the requirements for the playable races is to be a major race – a powerful ally. There was, a long long time ago, a post by a dev on Guild Wars 2 Guru about what are thought about for professions and races when considering them. And all the sympathetic races fall short in these considerations (this is why they’re sympathetic aka minor races). I don’t think we’ll be getting a new playable race in Season 2, personally speaking – I expect such for Season 3 or inbetween the two.

The “Sun God,” aka Zintl, is the sun itself. No physical being. Just the sun. That giant, shining, ball in the sky. Some of them even acknowledge that Zintl is nothing more than the sun, and may not be sapient, but still revere it because without it there cannot be life or day or light.

Desmoulins.3517:

Arenanet likes different?

As a Charr player since the start of GW2 i can tell you that Charr’s are extremely unpopular and they seem to be very unpopular and of very low priority (if at all) for the Devs. Charr’s are also different since they are no humanoid-like playable race. So much to your theory of them liking different. Before they introduce any new playable race they should fix up all the problems we (Charr players) face every day with a playable race that is “different”.

Other than that, interesting ideas but nothing new. Literally everyone is suspecting White Mantle and the Sylvaries getting some huge story parts in S2.

Colin more or less explicitly stated that the charr are a low priority because they’re not popular.

The irony is that they’re not popular because of that low priority meaning they’re never getting simple tail clipping fixes.

ThaSlayer.8573:

Another thing people keep mistaking is that the Mursaat are extinct,other than Lazarus, there’s still an entire city of theirs at least if not a nation more.

There is no evidence to support such an implication. There are even Priory scholars who’s focus is on the mursaat who say that all evidence points to their extinction. Though we know Lazarus survived 250 years ago (but we don’t know how old mursaat can be).

But still, no evidence or implication of a city or a nation of mursaat living still.

The one in the picture is male, I believe, as that is the model used for Ventari. But there are some female centaurs amongst the Harathi (and Modniir I think). But they had female voices… What’s weird amongst the Modniir is that there are some with female voices but male-like models, iirc. For both Modniir and Harathi, there are male and female of each type of unit. So you’ll have male Modniir Hunters and female Modniir Hunters for example.

Anyways, centaurs in the Maguuma would not be surprising given the fact that in GW1 there was a tribe – which we now know as the Harathi – living in what is now the Maguuma Wastes. It wouldn’t be impossible if some tribes of the Harathi had managed to escape the Modniir’s dominance. Whether they’re hostile or peaceful is anyone’s guess but since the hostility is very old, they’re either descendants of Ventari’s teachings (which would be weird given the lack of mention of them – but not impossible since he was originally further west than what is now the Grove), or they’re hostile. I can’t see any other option there.

veasna.3675:

What are you expectations from the season 2 of the living world?

What I “expect” is very different from what I hope/wish for, and what I “expect” is rather short:

• An improvement from Season 1

What I hope for, though (in no particular order) in the LW stuff:

1. A better story delivery, and as a continuation of the personal story
2. Fight with another Elder Dragon (I prefer Jormag, but expect Mordy)
3. At least 3 new zones (equivalent to Orr for the new dragon).
4. At least 2 new dungeons (Fort Vandal and Dragon-slaying one)
5. An expansion to Southsun (make it larger, give it map completion with skill challenges and vistas)
6. Side plots in the open world!

And with Feature update:

1. Improved World Bosses
2. Precursor crafting/scavenger hunt
3. New racial skills
4. New elite skills
5. New utility skills
6. More weapons per profession, and not new weapons but more weapon options (e.g., giving thieves off-hand sword and/or rifle with sniping-like skills).
7. Season 1 becoming permanent and both Season 1 and Personal Story being improved (bug fixes, clarity fixing, fixing Zhaitan fight and most boss fights like Blightghast to be more epic), and all three of Season 1, Season 2, and Personal Story being repeatable.

I don’t expect a new class (a 3rd Soldier is all we need there) or a new race (tengu, kodan, and largos) until Season 3. Soonest will be end of Season 2. Or inbetween the two.