That passage is far more likely to be referring to the Druids (or proto-druids) – a group of human Krytans who (for still unknown reasons) retreated into the Maguuma jungle and, there, turned themselves into treants (and later left those bodies to become spiritual protectors of the jungle). Druids are also rumored to have been followers of Melandru, so it fits.
Nothing about that screams “sylvari” to me, given how sylvari are born from a tree, not transformed humans. And treants are, effectively, mobile trees.
As for why humans don’t worship/revere/idolize sylvari… even if they were sent by Melandru, there’s no way to prove it. And just worshiping humanoid plants for being humanoid plants is as Stooperdale said – shallow. I mean, if that’s the case why don’t they worship treants or the reed stalkers from GW1 which were even more humanoid? Tyria has a long line of mobile and sentient (though not necessarily sapient) plants. Worshiping a new race of them that came to be after the Six Gods left (200 years after in fact), would seem very odd.
The new TA path was LS – as was Tequatl but not directly linked to the current storyline (as far as we know). The new TA path is Scarlet fully, so while it isn’t temporary like most of the prior LS stuff, it was LS stuff.
4. The Inquest practically banished her for breaking into the archives.
False.
The Inquest got Ceara to hack into the archives for them. It was the Peacemakers who banished (literally, not “practically”) her from Rata Sum.
Honestly, the OP is really why I don’t like Ceara. Everybody loves her and gives her what she wants. Until she meets us. But how does she react to us ruining her plans?
Well, she didn’t seem to care or be affected by it one bit in Twilight Arbor. So it seems that she just doesn’t give a kitten. She’s unaffected by anything bad to her, and everyone listens to her – even the Flame Legion who are sexist against females and the dredge who are xenophobic to all non-dredge.
Her working with the Nightmare Court ruins her further, given how her backstory is all about not working with the Nightmare Court or the Pale Tree. And now she seems to have managed to get the krait – a group that’s even more xenophobic than the dredge – working for her.
And let’s not forget the millions of pirates who’s entire group should be enough to populate an entire continent by all the corpses we’ve made.
The sad fact for Scarlet is that she just isn’t a threat. She’s a joke. Literally. She plays the clown and tries to make that clown into a big bad villain – but where The Joker succeeded, she fails. She’s not a threat at all to us. The only way she or her forces ever got the upper hand was by popping out of nowhere, with her forces in the shadows until they sprung. And we, the Good Guys, somehow never really seem to find the mind to obtain the upper hand – not even Kiel who promised to look into the Aetherblades and Molten Alliance (ironically, just before Scarlet decided to reveal herself). And lo-and-behold, Kiel’s not doing much about it (but Magnus is, thank god).
Scarlet isn’t amazing. She’s a pathetic joke. Everything’s handed to her, she expects more, and when she loses she doesn’t react. There’s no development. She’s a flat character made to be introduced to us as a perfect psychopathic genius. There is no depth to her. There is no development to her. We’ve known her personally for 3 months now. If there’s still no development with her plot after November (presuming that she is, indeed, behind the krait activity) then she’ll just be all the more flatter.
Quaggan+Karka
Because then we’ll have enraged quaggans riding on karka mounts into battle. And nothing can be more epic than that.
“Oooooo! Too much spiiiniiiiiing! FoooOOOooo!”
She sounds like she’s queen of the zerg.
I think it was said it’s the same voice actress, back when she was first used with Tequalt Rising’s preview.
Honestly, I don’t mind her this go. But she felt way cringe-wringing with the Tequatl Rising update.
But I’m confused why they brought in someone who’s not voicing an NPC in game…
Makes me think there’s someone acting behind the scene of the LW events. Someone pulling Scarlet’s strings, perhaps (and Tequatl’s… ugh).
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
The MA had some reason of logic behind it. Especially given how both factions (dredge and Flame) were in a civil war after the deaths of Shukov and Gaheron. Though maybe not with Scarlet’s involvement being the one to unite them (though I did call “female sylvari focused on technology” on that one – was expecting something completely different personality wise though).
Either way, Anet get rid of Scarlet? HAH!
Allow me to quote our very own Bobby Stein a few times:
Thalador.4218Thalador.4218The problem is that Jeff and Ree are either very busy with building the overarching lore (and giving into the subpar ideas of the new writers) or are held back so the LS writing team can have their “fun.”
I can’t comment on what Ree and Jeff are working on, but I can say that I’m ultimately responsible for the quality of the Living World story. I don’t imagine we’ll please everyone with our new direction, but that’s true of any story. That stated, I encourage people to leave their feedback. Just please be respectful.
Windu The Forbidden One.6045Windu The Forbidden One.6045The only problem I have with Scarlet is her motive. She’s been behind so many things, and the only motive we have is “she’s crazy”. That just doesn’t cut it.
We haven’t revealed her motive yet. I can understand the confusion and/or frustration surrounding that so we’re looking at ways to accelerate the plot and implement some features that will make it easier to track Living World content. The first phase of that system will be implemented before the end of the year.
Maybe I wasn’t clear in my other post. Tequatl becoming stronger (and Rox being present) are both tied into the overall LW story. More will be revealed later.
There is a lot more to come. The Living World story is paced very differently than other content in the game, partially due to the nature of how we build and release it. I won’t spoil anything other than say that we’ll reveal more in time.
And my personal favorites:
Glad some folks are enjoying Scarlet’s introduction. There is more to come. As always, thanks for your thoughtful feedback and constructive criticism.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/speech/Scarlet-is-fantastic-Merged/first#post2666543
Thanks for the positive comments.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/flameandfrost/Fantastic-Story-Content/first#post1813601
With crowning achievement post:
Thanks again for all the constructive feedback. It matters.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-Living-Story-far-too-vague/page/5#post1656754
In short: Not trying to be offensive to Mr. Bobby Stein – by no means – but he really mainly only responds to positive feedback and to negative feedback he pretty much just says “we cannot please everyone.”
The other writers? Angel responded to criticism of her interview by just saying “as we grow up we learn the things we once knew isn’t what we thought – that’s why we’re changing the lore” without actually answering any of the issues. Scott McGough only responds to clarify a confusion once in a new moon (and thank you for that Scott!) but never addresses any points of criticism. The other writers aren’t heard from at all.
To me, that’s little different than saying “if you don’t like our story, gtfo” and “we have no plans to change it just because our long-time fans no longer like story direction.” Even BioWare had the tact to try to fix ME3’s ending. But I don’t see Anet going to improve their story at all.
And folks, killing off Ceara will not fix the lore or Anet’s attitude for it (hell, one may argue it’d make it worse depending on how she’s killed off).
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
I actually made a joke theory about that and the future plots of Halloween….
When Dhuum continuously rose in the Underworld after the PC fell, Thorn took it upon himself to fight the evil god – for a time. And in doing so he stole Dhuum’s skeletal minions, making them follow him as a personal joking spite to Joko (“Look! I can be a snot-nosed undead lich too!”).
But now Edrick has stolen the undead in Ozzy’s army… undead that belonged to Dhuum. Soon, Dhuum will come after the “Painlord” and either a deal shall be struck, or the Bloody Prince will be dhuumed.
That Sir it sums it all up what pve has become all about.
Fixed for you.
And I’d love an explanation of that fact too. She’s supposedly brilliant, yet doesn’t know that instead of delving into the EA she simply got into a sensory deprivation device and tripped? Then why the sudden madness and murder? And the vines thing…can all sylvari do that?
The sensory deprivation is what drove her mad (and gave her the misguided goal that included killing folks). The vine things…. all sylvari can grow plants to varying degrees – that’s how they grow their armor, weapons, and houses. So I would argue yes.
I’ve started having an Idea that Scarlet, and maybe even the whole Sylvari race are minions of Mordremoth. No, it doesn’t revolve around the idea the Pale Tree is the Dragon. It’s more like Glint in my eyes, and the Pale Tree is a redeemed Champion of Mordremoth. So rather than making the Sylvari as minions for the Dragon’s rise, she is trying to separate them from that life. There are a few odd ones, like the Nightmare Court. Who aren’t minions, but just Sylvari who have gone down a sole evil path. Scarlet however broke everything the Pale Tree was doing, and opened herself up to Mordremoth. And now everything she’s doing is working to bring the Dragon to wake.
How that involves The Dredge, Flame Legion, Nightmare Court, or Atherblades? …I honestly don’t know.
Yes this is a very loose and weak theory, but a theory none the less.
OR the nightmare court realizes that they were made as dragon minions and wants to be set back on track. I’ve had this idea since like month 4 of release. All sylvari were made to be minions and that one discoverer guy broke them free from that. They don’t realize this but the nightmare court.
The theory that sylvari are Elder Dragons has been practically debunked.
Malyck and their immunity are the two strongest points (ED minions are not immune to other ED corruptions; Malyck acts no different than standard sylvari). If there is any amount of connection to the ED for sylvari, it is either that they were made specifically to counter them, and/or the Nightmare in the Dream of Dreams (which btw is not unique to sylvari – see White Stag) is originating from Mordremoth.
And @Songarg: Glint was able to be redeemed because of the Forgotten’s magic. Ventari’s Tablet is not magical in any way shape or form therefore it would be impossible to give a dragon minion (powerful or weak) free will (which is what the Forgotten’s magic did for Glaust aka Glint). Furthermore, the Pale Tree was sentient and has been told to us to have been friendly even before Ventari’s death (and the creation of the tablet). You’re oh-so-VERY common theory has been debunked for months now. All variations of it, really.
Kralky and Jormag use living beings that fell flawed (not powerful/not perfect enough)
Zhai and Primo use dead (corpses and fossils)
Bubbles is known to create beings from water, so Mordre could fall under creation of beings from plantlife (would explain not only the disappearance of the plant beings so often fought in GW, but also the Sylvari origins if it aint tied to the druids).
The thing about Kralkatorrik and perfection is merely a theory. He is capable of corrupting anything physical (it seems the only thing he doesn’t corrupt is souls and water).
Primordus doesn’t corrupt fossils. And Jormag has been known to use corpses himself (probably Kralkatorrik too). Primordus creates minions from rock and stone – though it is possible for him to corrupt living beings via encasing them in stone and turning the body to lava, he hasn’t done this (to our knowledge). Similarly Zhaitan is capable of corrupting living beings – and Jormag’s capable of corrupting via means other than his typical mental corruption.
Each Elder Dragon has a preference of corruption, but in the end they can all corrupt the same thing. Primordus prefers rock and fire; Kralkatorrik prefers the physical; Jormag prefers corrupting mentally (and having those who desire strength work for him); Zhaitan prefers raising corpses; the DSD to all our knowledge prefers corrupting water.
But they’re not limited to that.
And even if, for some reason we don’t know about, a copy of the personal story log in the top right corner isn’t possible, Anet’s been using achievements to catalog progress – that can be done the same. But it’s not really needed to have such logging – take Dead Drops from Flame and Frost.
2. ArenaNet has, in the past, made allusions to the idea of introducing a “jungle dragon” as the next elder dragon to fight.
This is where you’re wrong first. The only hint to a next ED has been the in-game comments (which lead to Jormag as next, with Kralk and Primordus as possibles), and Colin from an interview in which he lists every ED but the DSD.
So in point 2, you can say “Any Elder Dragon except the deep sea dragon is possible to be next, with Jormag hinted the most by Pact NPCs.”
2. Sylvari are resistant to Zhaitan’s corruption. Could this be because they are already linked to Mordremoth somehow, and therefore can’t be turned into the minion of another dragon?
No.
Elder Dragon minions are NOT immune to dragon corruption.
Also, on the vision thing – Scott McGough said in an interview with TowerTalk that the device that “let her see the Eternal Alchemy” was just a sensory depreviation device of sorts. Her vision was just a hallucination. Nothing more.
The Aetherblades and the Molten Alliance, APPARENTLY (don’t quote me) have stated they would rather serve Scarlet than the alternative. Does that mean what they’re afraid of is not Scarlet, but something else entirely? Could that be Mordremoth?
The Aetherblades are being paid. And they also work to avoid being killed. The Molten Alliance only said to work with each other only for the benefits of becoming stronger to take out their enemies – mutual goals (though the Flame Legion intended to enslave the dredge).
Mark’s comment pretty much confirms to me:
“There’s nothing else but Mad King’s return on the 31st planned for Halloween this year.”
The dungeon, Ascent to Madness, was part of last year’s story – the metas and scavenger hunt didn’t return, I doubt the dungeon will. Don’t look up for it, it’ll only be a disappointment.
Draconic corruption is magical. Not really a virus. Plus you’re only taking isolated cases (while refusing others).
Jormag’s primary means of corruption is mentally – most like a mesmer – without the use of blood. The Sanguinary Blade is rather unique for him. It is Jormag’s Kellach, so to speak (who is corrupted by an artifact (what kind unspecified iirc) corrupted by Zhaitan, thus spreading Zhaitan’s corruption to him while he still lives – if memory serves me correctly; this is also done to Howl, a member of the charr PC warband, who was wearing an amulet corrupted by Zhaitan via a “Dragon Crystal” and done so by Necromancer Risa (?)).
Though Kralkatorrik’s primary corruption seen directly by us is that of his breath (the dragons’ breath is the means of corruption claimed for them all), his blood doesn’t corrupt as seen in Edge of Destiny as is his spine. However, with his minions encasing in crystal has shown to spread the corruption.
And you’re tying something with no clear connection to Mordremoth as something tied to Mordremoth (the Deadly Blossoms or w/e they’re called). And you mix in mechanics to it.
Nonetheless, while an interesting theory, it really falters in the fact that it’s pointblank said even by the developers to be magical corruption, rather than viral. And it wouldn’t take into consideration how each Elder Dragon who’s corruption is shown has corrupted the land itself – or with Kralkatorrik’s case, even lightning. Primordus very clearly cannot corrupt via virus since its primary minions are made of rock and fire – though it is capable of corrupting creatures, it does this by encasing them in rock and effectively liquifying the body into lava.
Plus, I’d be kitten ed surprise if you can explain how a viral infection can transform a being’s insides – everything but the skin (and if concept art is to be used, skeleton is spared sometimes as well) – with solid but mobile crystal, which can even fly at times. Or explain how viral infections would make the dragon champions.
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How about, even if Scarlet is behind the tower, not have her show up – remember the Molten Alliance? She didn’t show up there. Let’s have more of that.
Or, let’s go the simple route. Solution to Scarlet? 1 bullet. 1 gun. 1 good aim. You do the math.
I’d rather have something build up and improvement to Scarlet, than just killing her outright. I’m kind of tired of Anet sweeping their “failures” under the rug by blatantly ridding them (and the failure with Scarlet is less the character and more the story development and showing – which the new Tower of Nightmare shows hopes of improvement there) – they’ve done it a lot. I mean, what was their response to the charr armor clippings? “They’re not popular, so we won’t take care of it for a while.” (Ever wonder why they’re not popular? Maybe a major armor clipping being in your face the entire time playing the character has something to do with it…).
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
I’d say she’s more unpopular than popular. To the fans.
It seems to be the opposite to the writers. They must have some “grand reveal” they think is so awesome to be worth all this tedious wait.
I’ll hold out hope, as ever, that they do have something that’ll improve Scarlet from a saturday morning cartoon villain to something better, but I’m not seeing it yet.
Maybe if they make it that Mordremoth twisted Scarlet and she doesn’t realize it. Or they stop tying everything to Scarlet or a repercussion to it.
I’m using it as the idea of we’re getting very little bit – instead of a whole loaf of bread, or even a slice, we’re getting only crumbs at a time.
Hence why I never used trail. Just bread crumbs. Because it’s not a full slice.
Too predictable and not lore-breaking enough.
It’ll be Renegades and White Mantle. Or Sons of Svanir and centaurs. Or maybe it’ll be Margonites and Ministry of Purity.
Fair point on the Queen bit.
But about independent-of-gate portals… there are multiple cases of such in the game prior to Scarlet – all made by asura, without mesmers known to be involved. Synergetics personal storyline (though that was destroyed); there’s Professor Portmatt’s Lab jumping puzzle; Crucible of Eternity explorable experimental teleporter; and iirc, the Inquest gal in Arah explorable teleports out. That’s just off the top of my head. Though Portmatt and CoE have a starter gate, the former and last do not.
Then there’s Snaff’s little device from EoD.
And keep in mind that Scarlet stole blueprints from Rata Sum… could have included the Synergetics teleporter before it was destroyed.
Clearly she’s getting better at it to because she managed to hide an enormous tower from view completely.
Who says that’s an imitation of mesmer magic, and not bonafied mesmer magic?
Also, Trouble at the Roots does not have holograms. The images seen during that mission are there because you had to drink the drugged beverage with Waine to get him to drink it. That mission is the Guild Wars 2 story version of a bad trip.
Drax already pointed it out, but it does have a hologram – which I stated, was for amplifying Ellie’s voice. I was not talking about the hallucinations. You don’t fight the hologram there.
Nonetheless, Ellie’s hologram returns later on in the personal story – where at that point it becomes capable of fighting physical forms. In Troubled at the Roots, it wasn’t capable of fighting physical forms.
Plot? Plot?! You’re wanting a plot, are you?! deep breath Oh, okay. I’ll show you where the plot is!
grabs Errant Venture and throws him out a window
That’s where the plot went!
/end bad joke
I’d have to say what Kingmutez said – they probably thought that spacing out the plot for so bloody long would entice players. And we didn’t quite prove them wrong with Flame and Frost. Now we get as much story development as each F&F chapter, but the amount of “content” (and I use the term loosely) as all four in one.
Now we’re just given a few breadcrumbs of a plot development every month, and are being expected to have that satisfy us, especially when they break it up every other month (or less) with celebrations and non-plot relevant updates (see: SAB, Halloween). Honestly, with as little of Halloween we got this year, why couldn’t they split Twilight Assault’s content update in two – having a lead in and then releasing the new dungeon with Halloween?
She just jelly of the mesmer confederation we never heard of in even hints until now.
More seriously though…
Her portals are technologically based – closer to asura gates than to the mesmer portals.
But if she was after kidnapping Jennah – rather than killing her like she tried (you wouldn’t shoot a rocket at the person you’re trying to kidnap) – then why not be semi-happy with Faren who is also a mesmer (if memory serves me correctly).
The holograms are similarly not illusions. Their existence is explained at various points in the personal story, including how they became capable of fighting physical forms. The holograms are based off of asura magitech; not sure if the specifics is ever told in detail but if memory serves me correct it was first introduced in Trouble at the Roots and re-introduced in Stealing Light – the holograms seem to me to have been obtained by the Lionguard from the Pact/Whispers’ expansion on Elli’s holographic voice amplifier (before being stolen by the Aetherblades).
And they’re not shattering, but exploding. Explosives are fairly different.
While I can certainly see how they’re “mesmer-like effects” you gotta keep in mind that such things are probably easily doable in varying different forms by other magical professions too. I mean, necromancers can make their minions explode, and are known to make portals to the Mists open (granted, different, but still goes along the same argument as yours really).
I think it’s really that ArenaNet are using too much focus on tech/magitech and mesmerism to do all their plot devices for them (see how many mesmers were involved in the later personal story plot…), so we’re not seeing all the potential of the other professions and just seeing the potential of general magitech and mesmerism.
Chances are there won’t be direct confirmation in the first patch. So I’ll be waiting for Nov. 12th to facepalm at being right.
Edit: http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/tower-nightmares
“Working in secret, the sinister reptilian krait have created the Tower of Nightmares with the help of the Nightmare Court and some other mysterious benefactor.”
“mysterious benefactor” sounds like Scarlet to me.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
It’s gonna be Scarlet. Calling it now.
Why? Because all of LS is based on Scarlet. Scarlet, Scarlet, and moar Scarlet.
I’m hoping they include a Priory scholar who’ll give us lore on the krait and a recap of the tower events when the event’s done, standing next to the obelisk shard (and perhaps studying it).
I’m just wondering what’s up with the lame voice to the trailer.
No need for an echo-spooky voice.
They’ve been doing that since Tequatl.
I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a story plot point to it or if it’s just for advertisements. That voice actress isn’t voicing any characters in the game yet AFAIK, so it seems weird to hire someone new just for the trailers when they could use someone they’ve been working with already.
I guess it’s supposed to sound like a Krait Seawitch.
Nope. Those krait witches sound a lot different.
A lot worse that is.
Just go to Nonmoa lake and wait a couple minutes and you’ll hear one (since no one ever does that meta).
Is doing the Mad King’s jumping puzzle once every 3 days is somehow so “grindy” that one must complain about it?
Again, is this seriously what people categorize as “grindy” these days? The achievements are incredibly trivial to do: that people would compare them to the massive skin-grind in the same update is mind-boggling.
I was more referring to the close x doors, carve x pumpkins, etc. Over the days it may feel like a grind.
If you even actually bothered to read my post, you would have noticed that I don’t mind such achievements and I in fact promote those jumping puzzle ones.
What people categorize as “grind” is what grind actually is – repeating the same activity several times over with no profit until reaching a very high amount of having repeated that same activity.
E.g., if the daily was instead doing the clocktower 10 times – rather than once – that could be considered a grind, because it wouldn’t be rewarded until that 10th time.
The dailies in of themselves is rather non-grindy. But the requirement to do dailies for the meta, the motivation/conditioning to do dailies for the chest, and their frequency (being dailies), tend to make people feel like their grinding. The issue isn’t so much the process, but rather the fact that rewards are only available via that process (or rather, the best rewards are). It creates a skinner box system and compels people to do what they consider to be grind – the repetitious task of profit only occurring after multiple repetitions of said task.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
The 60 would be pushing it indeed, though the 14 I originally placed, not so much.
However, it was most likely the original 3 – the one in the JP, and the two in the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon.
In Twilight Assault, Scarlet somehow got the Nightmare Court’s cooperation. In Tower of Nightmares, we see purple thorned vines reminiscent of old NC weapons and what looks like a giant flower at the top of the tower, with a lot of use of toxins (NC love their poisonous plants).
My bets are that Scarlet formed the alliance when she was settling the deal with the NC for space in Twilight Arbor.
Now, we haven’t officially seen any corrupted minions of Mordremoth that we know of, but the Krait in this trailer, well, that green glow, kinda has me thinking that maybe they are corrupted by an elder dragon? Just a thought
That glow reminds me of something – something that made the karka and other wildlife on Southsun go crazed. Remember those yellow-greenish fungi spoors? And the crazed animals have yellow pollen. And now the krait are yellow-greenish skinned.
Calling Mordremoth corruption all throughout here.
It is impossible lol. Don’t believe that editorial. The krait will never ally themselves with another race. Nightmare Court is not even mentioned on the official release page.
“Behind a veil of illusion, dark alliances toil in secret. Driven by whispers of power and madness. Unseen by all, they constructed magnificent, something terrible. It is more than a weapon. It is a monument to fear.”
^ From the trailer
Krait allied with someone. This is pointblank obvious. And they did so for power and/or madness.
Krait in it for power; Nightmare Court in it for madness. Sounds like the same kind of set up Scarlet used for the Molten Alliance.
If so, this will be another poisonous plot twist in the lore and the story is going incredibly wrong. Scarlet had a secret base in Twilight Arbor but that did not mean that she allied herself with the Nightmare Court. I don’t see the krait allying with the Nightmare Court at all.
You didn’t read the short story, did you?
“Though I can’t say why the Nightmare Court is,” Sparki added. “I’ll never comprehend how she got those poisonous peonies to let her have her way with this place.” http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Short_Story:_Twilight_Preparations
Why would it be a “poisonous plot twist” when it is something that is quite logical to do?
Krait are not stupid, and they would do anything to make their Prophet return, and I don’t doubt they would use Nightmare Court in order to achieve that if necessary.
So just because they are Krait they must be stupid?
I doubt they would kill everything they saw if they managed to figure out another way to use them in order to help with their bringing back the Prophet.
They may not be stupid, but religious fanatic zealots don’t tend to use reason and logic in their actions.
And the krait are about as fanatically religious as you can get. They view that all surface races, undeniably, are inferior to them. Without exception – any exception. That is the lore we were given. They aren’t just xenophobic, they’re narcissistically xenophobic. They don’t just hate all other races, they view themselves superior in every way possible, more so to the pitiful races that cannot breath underwater.
Honestly, the one and only way for Scarlet to have gotten the krait to ally with her – or anyone else for that matter – would be if she went directly to their leaders, the Oratuss, and convinced them. The rest follow their leaders without question or remorse, fanatically viewing the Oratuss as the voice of their prophets.
And chances are, Scarlet somehow managed to do that – because who else but Scarlet could do something so outlandishly impossible without a hitch? And besides, we all know Scarlet loves unusual combinations.
Kind of hard to do when he turned into a literal sandstorm (no neck to shoot), or his body is covered in crystals unpenetrable except by his own crystals (reason why that spear made from Kralk’s spine was needed, iirc).
It really depends on how far Dhuum’s gaining power from the deaths within the Underworld goes. I doubt that all deaths empower him, given he’s a fallen god, so it’d likely just be a case that all deaths within a certain proximity empowers him.
@Getefix: It certainly isn’t that only Dhuum’s minions’ deaths empower Dhuum, but any deaths there (which merely includes Dhuum’s minions). Plus, Aatxes are not minions of Dhuum (they’re natural Underworld inhabitants which are hostile to all – some of which though got tamed by Dhuum’s minions), and the Shadow Army belongs to Menzies (and is never in the Underworld).
An achievement grind?
The only achievement where you are required to repeat a task is the Trick-or-treat bag (50 bags), and the Door events (50 doors). (2 out of the possible 12 achievements)
Not to mention the meta being achievable doing the dailies, which include easy stuff like carving 5 pumpkins, doing the Lunatic Inquisition once, doing the clocktower once, etc…
And on top of it all, is the fact that you have 4 weeks to do it.
Is this what people categorize as a “grind” these days?
One can argue the dailies to be grind as well. Just grind that alternates per day.
Technically speaking, grind has been in the Living Story achievements since day one with last year’s Halloween, and returned with Flame and Frost (go fix moar signs!).
But lots of people will just go scream “don’t like it, don’t do it” – but what if you want the prizes? Tough.
You pretty much gotta grind for the best stuff, and while 90% of it is only aesthetics, the Ascended gear isn’t and that feels like pure grind to me. But that’s just me.
Sad thing is, there really isn’t any cool aesthetic stuff you don’t have to grind for. Even if the grind has been found to be done an easier way. ArenaNet – despite their claims – have been promoting grind and farming rather than their original GW1 philosophy of “if players find a way to farm, let them, but don’t give it extra rewards and only remove if it causes problems” – this feels abandoned with Eye of the North when they added PvE-only skills linked to titles.
Most of the achievements are “grind but unnecessary/can be done via regular gameplay” – see things like Slayer – but for the cool looks? You gotta pray to RNG gods or do LS achievements, many of which deal with do 50+ of x activity. And to me that feels like grind, even moreso when it’s limited time.
It’s a grind because they can’t do it in 30 seconds and/or just want it now since they’re impatient. I swear they just want a button that gives them everything in the game.
I feel there is a very fine and huge difference between:
“Getting something for doing a long activity – like a jumping puzzle or dungeon or story instances”
and
“Getting something for doing the same short activity dozens of times – like carving pumpkins or farming champions”
The latter should just exist for AP, IMHO. The former should be the requirements for the gear, even if affected by RNG.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
Are we sure about this? If so, wth did they change this one to, 1 billion candy corn + 1 billion skulls + 1 billions fangs + your first born child? Seriously give me a break here!
You forgot the souls of 100 innocents.
That’s 100 globs of innocent souls. You get a glob of innocent souls by merging 250 souls together.
For 364 days of the year (used to be 359 but whatever, their lore, their choice to make a mockery of it I guess), he’s in the Mists.
When he’s not in the Mists – a place that thus far only Jormag has limited access to, and only via sending minions – he’s in Lion’s Arch. No Elder Dragon is near him.
Same with Edrick. Though his power has been sealed until recently, where he went right into the Mists, nevertheless there is no nearby Elder Dragon or forces of Elder Dragons.
I mean, the Elder Dragons don’t go out of their way to go consuming the magic of the Foefire; nor all the magic in the Durmand Priory. Answer why they haven’t: they can bide their time, far more than we mere mortals, and they’re not close to the locations (yet).
He is still technically sealed. Same reason dragons didn’t go after the bloodstones. However, this is just speculation.
Who said they didn’t?
Zhaitan took over the Ring of Fire, and Primordus has been burrowing all over.
were allied*
The ships were originally stolen by the Pact – this was said by Angel and Scott McCoy (and note that there’s never more than 10 or so airships in the invasions, so there’d have been about 14 ships stolen if all pre-TA ships were once Pact ships – unless you counted balloon event ships as well in which you’d probably have about 64 and 10 more when invasions struck – only 2 have ever been shot down) – and likely modified by the Inquest initially. Likely reverse engineered after the first few if they’re constructing them now. But unless there’s Inquest in the new TA path (which I still haven’t done, half out of refusal, half out of lack-of-interest, and half out of laziness to find a team (it’s a pretty big reason)).
But don’t you see… if Livia tries to kill Trahearne…
It won’t end well…
Trahearne will kill Livia and absorb her immortal soul, thus becoming unkillable and will lead the easiest made union of groups that hate each other to kill the Six Gods whom he shall also absorb their immortal powers and become The One And Only, The Salad Head, the god of spotlights, bipolariarity, and monotones.
/end bad joke
The facepaint design seems to be mimicking the Mad Moon. Mohawk look is fairly generic for a ‘rebellious teen.’
True point on stepping down – in the Unknown Parents human story step The Sting Logan says “[…]wouldn’t that seem a little suspicious? You out walking alone, the queen nowhere in sight… At least I move about on my own regularly.” in regards to Anise being the decoy for their ambush.
About the Ministry though, while we don’t know when they were formed they didn’t become a powerful power (per se) until Jennah’s father’s death – he died when she was too young to rule, and the power of ruling the nation was given to the Ministry. That’s part of why they want to deminish Jennah – to get the power they had, back. Or so sayeth Logan during Liberation (not up on wiki, as you got that from talking to him at the beginning of the story step). So even if they were around back then (and there’s no mention of them in Sea of Sorrows), I doubt they would have had enough power and/or balls to argue against the Shining Blade’s long-living Master Exemplar.
“And I agree with the comments that she perhaps became a lich like Khilbron did after using the scepter’s power” (not in any parentheses) kind of seems like you thought Khilbron turned into a lich after using the scepter’s power since Livia would be “like Khilbron” but eh.
Livia was just higher ranked than the others and more knowledgable due to her age and associated wisdom. She was still called an Exemplar in the novel by the Shining Blade agents, and Anise is a Master Exemplar not an Exemplar.
I never said there was a webpage but that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t have been a video or interview or something. Can’t provide a source or anything other than “at GenCon” and “talk from”/“scuttlebutt” (which doesn’t even place it as coming from ArenaNet rather than fan speculation/rumormongering – a great way info has been distorted in the past).
While we love the website stories and they won’t be going away, we are working on ways to try and get more of that experience (and story) available to see, and read in game.
More of our high-quality cinematics isn’t really an option, since they take months and many people to make and we’re at max (or over) capacity on those at is most of the time.
Any solution will likely include our plans to try and make Living World, and stories around it easier to access, understand, and find out more about even once they have past.
Keep the suggestions coming, we’re always listening and do want to resolve getting stronger, more approachable, easier to understand stories as part of the Gw2 experience.
Here’s a question-with-possible-solution for you:
Would a lore codex using something akin to the Hint and Achievement-registering system be possible?
The Hint system acknowledges your actions – use of skills, hoping on a profession, pressing other buttons (or not pressing when you could for easier gameplay). Achievements have been known to activate upon using items, getting to locations, or interacting with something (NPC or object).
Can these be used to unlock a entries in a new Hero Panel tab for lore information? Kill a jotun, unlock the jotun entry. Pick up ancient jotun weapons and get a new paragraph/bullet point on the jotun weapons. Complete certain personal story steps (retroactively using characters’ personal stories?) and get more information.
Kind of like the Devil May Cry enemy codex thing if memory serves me right – though there it was by witnessing different attacks or killing different ranked foes. But point being to use the registering from the hint or achievement systems to fill out something else.
If this is possible, then this can replace the desires for lore books and can be an easier way to put the information from the short stories into the game – in a more accessible-to-the-players option. Especially since what’s placed there can be out-of-character and thus isn’t limited to what your character(s) find out, but what you (Anet) want to give for doing certain things. And it may even be possible to set it up to add all info that’s no longer possible to obtain because the tied activity’s gone automatically to these codexes (including previous LS update information that was observable – whether caught or missed by the playerbase).
Concur. I’d love to get minor teasers for future LS chapters well before they happen. Even multiple teasers at once.
Imagine if Flame and Frost Prelude was happening while The Lost Shores occured, and F&F: The Gathering while Wintersday was?
Imagine if something on par to F&F’s two chapters was happening in three different, unrelated, places in the game while all at the same time, we got the main focused LS step going. I mean, they split the LS teams into 4, right? So at least 1 preview a month shouldn’t be hard, even if the only preview there is would be a few extra events, a new allied or enemy NPC camp, a change in aesthetics, or something else. Just something on par to the tent over Great Collapse, the changes to Kessex with Blood and Madness, of F&F Prelude/Gathering Storm.
And having 2 or 3 simultaneously is only a plus to make us feel “something’s coming” and not just a case of “one threat down, bring out the new, possibly related possibly unrelated, unhinted at, and completely out-of-nowhere threat.”
I mean, what if while Tequatl Rising got released, some new permanent voice overs were added to Wychmire Swamp talking about some pirates with machinery moving into Twilight Arbor happened? Would have been caught because of the Great Jungle Wurm, and would have been a nice lead into Twilight Assault. And what if at the same time, we can see Tassi in the Black Citadel arguing for access to Nolani?
Would have been nice. And I have enjoyed the “extra unrelated previews” for future updates when they came.
We don’t really know how one becomes a lich. All we know is that a lich is a powerful (often necromancer) undead who’s soul is somehow bound to their body (unlike conventional liches who’s soul is bound to an artifact), and the soul must be ripped out by force – hence why the blood batteries killed Khilbron (there was no shattering of a phylactery there – despite the existence of the Ascended item which I feel really diminishes the uniqueness of GW lore if it ever is made to hold any amount of lore weight).
It never said she put it back. Just that she didn’t keep it for long. What she did with it is fully unknown.
Khilbron was a lich before he got the Scepter of Orr. And Livia is far from some rancid decayed undead like Khilbron was.
Countess Anise is Master Exemplar. Livia was, last we saw, merely an Exemplar – a lower rank.
Never heard anything about Livia being in the Wizard’s Tower… Would ask for a source from a dev about that.
The Ventari Tablet isn’t magical in any way. It wouldn’t have freed the sylvari. Especially since the Pale Tree (and magical trees are not that unique in the world, BTW, nor are overgrown trees) is older than the Ventari Tablet.
That’s more or less what I meant about the map thing (otherwise there’d be more loading screens)
It’s not all one thing, but multiple pieces that mimic each other.
I think it would have been a bit much t o put the entire castle there fore the clocktower’s jumping bit, given they would then have to rotate the entire castle.
I know I’m probably not saying anything new but I want to see why you wouldn’t say that the Sylvari are Mordremoth’s creation.
Why would I say they’re not Mordremoth’s creations?
what creature holds so much power and magic to create an entire race?
Well, Grenth supposedly made Grenches. And Dwayna supposedly made the ancestors of harpies (if Elonian legends are to be true). Abaddon, Melandru, and Grenth are all known to have changed life from one thing to another (Margonites; Ewan and his tribe; the twin brothers who tried taking Grenth down). I’d say the gods are still on par for the whole “changing/making races.”
The fact that Mordremoth has been described as “vegetation” dragon all adds to the fact that the cave that contained the seeds was protected by plant-like humanoids.
It all makes sense to me. Does it for you?
Here’s a question for you: Why would Mordremoth – who’s last awakening was centuries if not millenniums before humanity arrived on the world – create humanoid minions when all other dragon minions are more draconic the more powerful they become (and the weaker they are, the more like their previous form they are – exception being Destroyers, made in mockery of living beings)?
That’s because it was very early alpha, before they brought in Daniel Dociu, and the first reveal ever of the game. All art then was 100% placeholder. When Daniel Dociu was brought on board, they literally remade all of the art of the game. This was said in an interview with Daniel… some time ago, idk when.
Interestingly, there are a few of those weapons that returned to the game in later additions (with improved art, ofc) – particularly Nightfall. I see Fiery Gladius and the Colossal Scimitar for instance.
Yeah, apparently zoned out over that one sentence then. Didn’t doubt you, just didn’t hear it myself. :P
The water thing is mechanical; I fell through the green stuff once and hit that water too – every individual map has its own level of water. The Mad Realm – even though one can see all maps (or most maps) from any other, are in fact six or seven different maps entirely.
The clocktower jumping puzzle itself is divided into 3 separate maps – because at the time they didn’t have mobile platforms players can stand on programmed (they programmed this for SAB world 2’s release though). The tower’s three maps was the waiting room – in which it was the gears and other debris moving; the puzzle itself, in which it was the clocktower itself that moved; and the belfry which for all we know doesn’t have those debris outside. Heck, the world map for the clocktower is different when in the tower itself compared to when out of it (likely the puzzle itself isn’t part of the Mad Realm area at all).
In Ascent to Madness last year, you could see the clocktower rotating around the place (and spinning itself as well – e.g., moving like how Earth does around the Sun), but there was no castle. It was just two isolated buildings.
They effectively made the tower 5 times, mechanically speaking. Twice as far distanced decorations.
As for the position on the map… they’re within the PvP Mists, in an unused corner in the wide area of the unused Mists map (just press M then click the level up button in the bottom right corner, and you’ll find the Mad Realm is in the lower left corner of the Mists’ PvP/WvW combined map – very very small at that).
Doesn’t seem to be. All achievements last year were in the same category, and Oct 29th’s update is going to be dealing with the krait in Kessex. We may get more in that update though given that Halloween lasts until Nov 11th (I would have preferred TA and B&M being switched in releasing though).
I don’t think that we’ll be seeing a return to Ascent to Madness or the Lion’s Court breaking by Thorn. Scavenger hunt isn’t likely to return either given that was part of the story – replaced by Bloody Prince plot this year (same with the meta).
I’m curious about that town clothing though…
Ok this is going to sound pretty stupid, but could someone link me those stories ? I just discovered they exist but I still can’t find them on the website.
By the way I really wonder how many of the complaints on the living story being devoid of lore and, well, story, come from the fact most people expected the story to be, well, in the freaking game.
What website stories are y’all talking about?
This.. Link pls!
They’ve all been put up on GW2W – though without their images. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Tales
Most of the key points of the story IS in the game however, by listening to the Mad King and the Prince in the Labyrinth. The story on the home-page simply add some more details to it.
The Blood and Madness update is probably on the rare side of “maybe done right.” Though the in-game dialogue paints Edrick as an emo kid who was punished for being a disappointment to Oswald, rather than the prince who incited the populous against his father in order to take the throne and was subsequently imprisoned for such.
Gives context, yes, but the in-game dialogue paint a different picture entirely from the short story. Still, this update was perhaps one of the “better” ones, though still less than Braham’s Story and Rox’s Tale and the important part of those being in-game.
I remember that in alpha was a collection of books and achiev associated with them. Why not just bring back this idea?
They were cut because they couldn’t be done the way Anet wanted to with their current programming.
It was only a paragraph shown at a time in those things anyways.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
When Prophecies was being written, the two main writers were clashed about the direction to go, I recall being told – with one writer wanting to go one way, and the other wanting to go another. Not sure whom wanted what, but I believe one wanted to focus on mursaat/white mantle while the other wanted to focus on Khilbron/undead/Scepter of Orr.
Those enemies, to me, look like Grasping Ghouls (they even move similarly) and the environment looks like this concept art, believed to be of Orr so I think that was when the main plot was to be about undead being the threat from the West (Orr being west of Ascalon).
I believe that dragon was meant to be Rotscale, and the guy with the flail to be an executioner – I think this is just very early concept designs (as such CG cinematics had to be sent early on) meant to portray a storyline that got changed in development.
Either way, it is definitely early concept designs in the video.
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