Ogden has transformed (though at the end of Eye of the North, he wasn’t the only who didn’t yet). All dwarves have transformed to stone – according to Ogden, within 50 years of the Great Destroyer’s death.
Er…
Blazeridge is about The Shatterer (you see branded crystals called “Dragon Shards”). Frostgorge is about Claw of Jormag (you see ice shards called “Dragon Scales”).
Tequatl wasn’t flying across the continent. Hunting signs for him is only in Sparkfly.
And about them Dragon Shards, I was about to make a post regarding them…
Is this further proof that the Dragonbrand is spreading? There’s 7 crystals you hunt down that’re outside of the Dragonbrand, and 4 (arguably 5) aren’t exactly close to the Brand either.
Regional Invasions
These are like the zone themed ones, except themed to a specific zone. They would consist of two waves and would be more difficult overall than zone themed invasions (thus more rewarding too). For extra cookies, they could interact with the zone themed invasions to create either an unexpected temporary alliance (both invading forces allied, making it harder for players) or being a case of “the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy.”
A suggested list of these:
I exempted Orr from the list, since the only enemy there that’d make sense to me is more risen…
Progressional Invasions
These would begin in one zone, and if failed would trigger an invasion in another zone – they could use the mechanics we see with the Orr temples, to create an army’s progressional invasion throughout the land (to a certain point, of course). This invasion type would be themed based on that starting zone, sometimes possibly sharing with that zone’s themed invasion (or with the regional invasion’s themed enemies). Along with triggering an invasion in the next zone, the invasion forces would remain, respawning until the current invasion event is beaten – where then the previous zone’s invasion would “retrigger” but as a “push out” event instead (only a cosmetic different really), and this would continue until the first zone’s invasion is pushed out.
A suggested list of these:
I’ve seen elsewhere that there are plans to make invasion events like the Scarlet invasions to be a more regular thing. What I’m suggesting here is how, in my opinion, ArenaNet can make the most effectiveness out of the invasion event concept. Basically it delves down to having four kinds of “invasions” occurring.
Zone-Themed Invasions
These are unique unto a specific zone (e.g., Queensdale, Blazeridge Steppes) and, if possible, no two zones would have the same enemies for the invasions (exception being Orr). These would also be scaled in difficulty (how many players are expected to be needed to complete; how many events, how difficult the hardest mobs are, etc.). And they would all have a single wave to complete (the rate of progress on that bar being dependent on the zones’ levels). There would be no exempted zones unlike the Scarlet invasions.
A suggested list of these:
In some cases these “invasions” would be more of a “enemy forces are bolstered and need ‘pruning’” rather than invading.
I exempted Orr zones from the list, since the only enemy there that’d make sense to me is more risen…
It was said somewhere in… I think the Tequatl Rising forum that they do intend to make the overflows function like it did with Scarlet’s invasions (and now with Tequatl) in the future – for world bosses to spawn within 10 minutes of overflow creation when its active in main server(s). So your desire is already on Anet’s to-do list. It’ll just depend on when they can get to it.
@Player Character: world bosses do occur in Overflows but currently they have their own timer, like a separate server, so those you’ve went to were pre-existing overflows that just happened to have a timer at a similar rate. That Frostgorge overflow likely existed due to champ farm trains.
Some people say that Orr will stay corrupted… but ANet say that GW2 is a living, breathing world.
Anet’s been saying a lot of things, and said a lot of things. Not all of them are true or come to pass.
The so-called “living world” or “living story” is no more than a progressional linear tale about Scarlet and her after-effects (which just about always deal with Kiel cleaning things up). Only exception of the Super Adventure Box and this Tequatl update.
What do you guys think of getting new adventures in the same scenery and watching our previous endeavours have a major impact on the world (like Orr being rebuilt)?
In one way, I think that’s a great idea. However, at the same time, I think it’s a terrible idea.
Say, for example, we remove the corruption of Orr. We reduce the risen. Then what of the personal story? What of new players?
Already, players now will never know the experience of the Ancient Karka and the karka invasion (lag infestation excluded, it was an interesting plot even if too short). Nor would they know of Flame and Frost’s plot and the Molten Alliance’s foundation to the game, or Mai Trin’s acts. One can now only learn of such – in full – via second-hand sources. Eventually the dungeons will be put into Fractals (supposedly this year), but that’s still only part of the story, and they’ll likely be altered to be fitting of other fractals.
Now, imagine if Orr becomes cleansed. To those who have completed their personal story and has defeated Zhaitan, this makes sense. But… now you have folks invading Orr in the personal story, and once they leave it’s… cleansed? What? It creates that paradox that ArenaNet’s trying to avoid (but doing so with too many ‘precautions’ imo).
Anet said that they were planning the living story concept before release. But they kind of messed up, having static content as a base that was released as a full off the bat, then having coming and leaving content afterwards. Should have released the main story bit by bit instead… but aw well, what’s done is done.
That concept art is most definitely Caithe. TA = Twilight Arbor makes sense with Caithe’s involvement. Maybe we’ll get to see a return of Faolain.
As Sir Vincent III says, we only know of the troubles of Tyria post humanity’s arrival because most of the history of the world as we know it comes from humanity (and more and more of it is proving to be wrong by the whims of ArenaNet >.>).
We have learned that the conflicts easily predate humanity – the jotun were a brutal race even before they fell, fighting to rule the Shiverpeaks back then. There was the previous several risings of the Elder Dragons that predate the Elder Dragons (the last one being roughly 10,000 BE). The charr were also hostile before humanity’s arrival, and subjugated the grawl and kicked out other races from Ascalon.
And let’s not forget that during the last Elder Dragon rise, the mursaat betrayed and nearly wiped out the Seers before fleeing the world to save their own rear ends.
Hidden lore is good.
Lore out of the game is… not so good.
Important lore that’s hidden is… not so good.
Important lore that’s out of the game is bad.
Let’s take Nightfall for example: In it, you learn that the one behind Prophecies and Factions was Abaddon pulling strings. You find this out in Gate of Madness, where you see a return of Khilbron and Shiro. But you don’t really get why they’re there. In some side-quests, three of four of which are began in outposts (Gate of Fear, Gate of Secrets, and Domain of Pain), you get more details about it – titans whom the charr worship work for Abaddon, Terrick who converted Khilbron into a follower of Abaddon was a demonic agent, as was the Fortune Teller who made Shiro go mad.
This is an excellent case of “hidden important lore” – it’s not in the main story, but you get hints of it in the main story, and it’s not terribly hard to fine it in the side content.
Another good example is Relkyss the Broken – a forgotten who tells you everything about the RoT’s side of Prophecies’ titan invasion and Dhuum who invaded the Dragon Festival in 2006. And in Gate of Pain’s cinematic, it gets confirmed that Abaddon was behind the invasion of Tomb of the Primeval Kings too; a mere side comment of an old event.
Those are good cases, not handed to players, but isn’t hidden within a NPC dialogue that you have to talk to during a very particular place within a non-repeating personal story (yes, side quests weren’t repeating, but their lore wasn’t hidden in talking to an NPC at a very specific step; it was placed at the top of the screen). The GW2 equivilant of lore from quests is “We need to hold this ground!” “Come follow me!” “I need more siege engine parts!” etc. etc. during dynamic events. No lore, just instructions – that’s what the top left UI box is for.
Off the top of my head, there is only one dynamic event that functions how I think far far more should and need to: Escort Historian Vermoth to the Altar of Tempests and following ones, where you get spoken lines regarding some lore about a festival held to honor Dwayna and Malchor.
I think the main problem is that ArenaNet put too much focus in voicing lines, that now players expect all the information to be voiced, and nothing to be within those dialogue boxes when talking to NPCs.
Edit: For clarity since I rambled, I like hidden lore. It’s just that Anet’s not giving enough lore upfront to show people that there is lore. And Anet’s advertising has given people a wrong impression for how they present things (thinking back now… how much of the manifesto trailer held true, I wonder?).
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
We actually don’t know much of “the Order” – we know that some necromancers and an elementalist refer to it, and that they forbid experimenting on magic on civilians, but that’s more or less it.
Due to how it’s referred to, I’ve always wondered if the Order is… the Order of Whispers. Who act rather similarly – though more geared towards politics than magic that we see out of this Ascalonian “Order.”
They did, though like many things it’s very obscure.
During the norn storyline, you have to defend the Durmand Priory and Ogden; during the Vigil option for that lvl 28 step (if not Priory and Whispers), if you talk to Ogden after completing the step, he mentions that “by 200 years ago, there wasn’t a single dwarf of flesh and blood” (paraphrased!).
The Rite was not a one-time thing (nor is there anything to imply that it was). Over the course of roughly 50 years the dwarves underwent the rite.
In SoS they say Zommoros is a Genie
Zommoros isn’t met in Sea of Sorrows.
There is a djinn, who is with the Capricorn, but that’s the only djinn in SoS and nothing says it is Zommoros.
Anyways, Zommoros is a djinn. Genie is just another way to spell djinn – it’s the same exact thing in our world. And it seems the same in the GW world too.
What about the new zone Labyrinthine Cliffs? It wasn’t permanent, but it was definitely a cool new zone.
Preface note: I didn’t read the wall of text you quoted for this response.
I agree, it was a cool new zone even if a bit empty on the activity side. However, the bold is why Labyrinthine Cliffs is meh.
About the avatars of the gods being seen, those skills are just magical representations. None are summoning actual avatars. Only the personal story step features an avatar of the gods.
It’d be like saying the dervish avatar skills in GW1 were Avatars of the Gods (they werne’t; the Avatars of the Gods are actual and specific beings). For example, the Voice of Grenth/Avatar of Grenth (not the skill) is one of the Seven Reapers, who were mortals that Grenth elevated for helping him fight Dhuum. Similar situations are likely for the other gods’ avatars – the souls of mortals elevated to avatar status for service.
@Swift: No, I was talking about in-game idle dialogues.
The Living Story is already officially taking place after the personal story, so there’s not issue there.
No it’s not. ArenaNet has not yet officially made a statement in the story when it takes place, although it both takes elements from the end of the personal story (pact airships) as well as making contradictions with the end of the PS (Logan returning to Jennah).
Yet they said they don’t want to make any paradoxes for those who either completed, or didn’t, the personal story…
Based off of Ghosts of Ascalon, humans portray him as a hero who stood in the face of death, and that the Foefire is not his fault but caused by the clash of Magdaer and the Claw of the Khan-Ur.
Since GoA is based a year prior to GW2 (’s time at release), I doubt their view has changed much, though the more educated would probably know the other side of the story (charr side; which is accurate or at least very close to).
Cobiah only guesses at his age. The kid’s real age is never revealed actually revealed. It’s just said that Cobiah believes the boy is 3 years old and thus cannot be his – it’s Cobiah’s little denial and self-pity that the woman he loves fell for someone else.
And I recall the 7 years thing being tied Cobiah finding Isaye at the tavern with the king’s spy – she remained in Lion’s Arch for a bit afterwards, until he threw a “public” tantrum at her in the Captain’s Council meeting – the date for that being unclear.
The Eternal Alchemy is a religion, it’s just a religion practices by rationalists, so they don’t call it that. Still, it’s a belief in a higher power, perhaps not conscious, but it does seem to imply a guiding influence on the world, more akin to Karma.
No, it’s the belief that all things work together. It’s just basically saying “all things are connected” and it’s the study of such. It’s not a higher power.
Who decides that? The Grawl believe it is so. Because the humans and norns do not believe that their gods are legitimate, they are not? Who is the ultimate arbiter, within the lore, of who objectively counts as a god, and who does not?
The developers decides that.
In a more serious aspect – the very nature of what’s worshiped decides it. It’s got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with views on beings. This seems to be the fact you cannot step beyond. It deals with what the beings are themselves.
Just believing something is a deity doesn’t make that something so. And you’ve been arguing the Six Gods are only gods because humans (and others) believe them to be deities. But that’s not why they’re gods, but you seem to be too dense to listen otherwise, despite me stating this in different words time and time again.
I think that given the evidence we do have, it is the most reasonable assumption to make in the situation.
You do realize that your “most reasonable assumption” not only outright ignores a developers’ comment, but also ignores the actions of the Six Gods – both on an individual and combined scale.
The point is not that the achievement’s Zhaitan’s had are greater than the ones they have done, and his power is clearly rooted in one element so he would not have the same variety that they do; the point is that Zhaitan is marking his territory all over theirs, and there doesn’t seem to be anything they can do about it. There are small cases where the gods are shown capable of reclaiming a very small portion of their hold on their own home turf, but only with significant mortal help. If each god were supposed to be equivalent in power to each dragon, you would think that the gods would be perfectly capable, and perfectly well motivated, of driving Zhaitan out of Orr entirely on their own.
So if a thief breaks into a house and defiles the house after the owners have abandoned it, that thief is now more powerful than the owners of the house?
Because that’s exactly what you’re claiming, just on a more real-life level. The Six Gods have left, they’re not paying attention to the world or its events. And Zhaitan’s just using what they left behind for his own goals.
They don’t drive Zhaitan out because they are not present.
ut it also says that he was not powerfully enough to slay Dhuum, which implies that there Is a power level, in theory, that would be enough. If the intent was that Dhuum could not possibly be killed by an outside force, then the appropriate phrasing would have been “Dhuum was not fully destroyed, as he could not possibly be killed by any force.” All that does is reinforce Grenth’s limitations, not indicate Dhuum’s lack of them.
I highly doubt that ArenaNet is so careful in their vocabulary and syntax to watch out for such semantics.
Besides, ArenaNet likes leaving doors open, so they avoid absolutes when possible. For example, the absolute that the Elder Dragons are either weaker or more powerful than the Six Gods.
As part of the peace talks, the charr have already relinquished a good deal of land outside of Ebonhawke – at the moment, they’re already expanding into Blazeridge Steppes. And it’s possible that more land may be given to the humans. I suspect that they’ll end up controlling the lands between the Dragonbrand and the Blazeridge Mountains, with exception of some charr settlements sprinkled within (such as Deathblade’s Watch in Mithric Cliffs – which seems to be the biggest Iron Legion settlement beyond Black Citadel and Smokestead).
Things like the mursaat and the various things worshipped by the grawl (including, I would say, “Badazar”, since I suspect in that case they’re worshipping the statue itself and not what the statue represents…) are distinctly not gods because they fit in other categories, and do not appear to have any of the properties that we do know are associated with the Six. The category of “elder race”, for instance, or “demon”, or, simply, “rock”.
That’s a purely Divine-centric viewpoint though, it may be true for a human researcher who believes in the human gods, but it would not be true of a Norn or Asura, who would place their own spirits or Eternal Alchemy equal to or above the human gods. The term “god” may be defined for humans by its relation to the six Divines, but to those outside their culture, the six human gods may be respected as powerful forces, but they are no more “gods” than any other creature that claims to the term.
And this is where you’re wrong. You see, norn view the Six Gods and Spirits of the Wild to be on par; Eternal Alchemy is not a deity but a concept so it isn’t in the same category as any other deity (nor should it be) by either asura or human; and humans count the Spirits of the Wild as gods.
However, the things grawl worship as well as other similar things, like the mursaat, are not gods. Even if they’re worshiped as gods, that does not make them so.
I think that until we have evidence to the contrary, it’s fair to assume that the Dragons are stronger than the gods. I mean, Zhaitan alone dominates Orr, and all their various temples and followers and the such, pretty much at will. And he’s just one dragon. The human gods can push him back, to some extent, but they certainly don’t seem to be equal forces.
“Because we do not have conclusive evidence, we should presume the situation is one specific outcome, rather than other implied possibilities.” This is your argument, given all the facts. And it is flawed.
As Narcemus said, in early pre-release reveals of the lore around the Elder Dragons, they were repeatedly stated to “rival the Six Gods” – never overpower.
So Zhaitan lifted a peninsula. Big deal. Balthazar burned that same peninsula to a crisp (and then some), and Melandru took that crisp and made it a verdant landscape. Though Shiro Tagachi, Abaddon used Dwayna’s power to solidify an entire inland sea and a huge forest (both the size of Orr on its own). And Zhaitan can control the magical flow of a few statues within his territory – the gods do that from across the Mists to statues in three separate continents.
Zhaitan has not one-upped the gods in any way.
I was speaking more broadly of the other “deities” of Tyria, which includes the Mursaat, the Dragons, the Spirits, etc. Clearly the inanimate statues got nothin on the human gods, but against many other forces the human gods did not seem capable of dealing with them without human support.
The mursaat hold nothing on the Six Gods. See above regarding the Spirits of the Wild and of the Elder Dragons.
But we don’t know for a fact that their power is in any way absolute. It has been tested, and succeeds, that is not proof of being absolute. […] I mean, Grenth may claim dominion over the dead, but clearly he can’t just shut Zhaitan down in his tracks.
You’re arguing about unknowns and unprovables. You cannot prove that something can kill Dhuum, when even a demi-god couldn’t (or the heroes who killed a different god, and aided by the spirits of those who helped Grenth defeat Dhuum, couldn’t either).
Grenth shutting Zhaitan down is irrelevant if you’ve been listening, since Dhuum still lives and thus would have his power still – Grenth was originally representing mortality, ice, judgment and sorrow. Dhuum is attributed with Death. While their domains are similar – should Grenth have that kind of “indestructible power” the gods do – he wouldn’t be able to prevent undeath with a wave of his fingers – unlike Dhuum supposedly could, given how when Dhuum wasn’t imprisoned, he disallowed resurrection and undeath.
Has there been a lore mention that I have not heard of? Last I had heard there was speculation that perhaps Grenth WOULD not kill Dhuum because of his morals or some such thing. Plus wasn’t one of his attributes judgement? Or am I mixing him up with post “godhood”.
Since I missed it before:
“You see, Dhuum was not fully destroyed; Grenth was simply not powerful enough to slay him.”
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes
What we’ve been told so far tells us that Grenth tried but couldn’t kill Dhuum.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
But that doesn’t make sense. As seen in the queen’s jubilee apparently Rytlock and Logan still hate each other, even though they’ve kissed and made up. Even though that was an illusion, how Logan reacts to the illusion proves that.
There’s no indication that they hate each other still. Rytlock just hates seeing how Logan acts around Jennah (which has been true since Logan first laid eyes on Jennah in Edge of Destiny, I believe). And how Logan reacts to the illusion just shows that he’s sore that Rytlock hated him – which is a good development and, imo, a realistic response even if the two became friends again.
I don’t think they have an issue with testing.
But I do think they’re releasing too fast for the player bases’ and in turn their own good. I would agree with moving 2 week updates to 4 week updates. We don’t really need bi-weekly updates. As someone who has a lot of time on his hands (sadly), I support pushing things back.
I don’t think those who don’t have as much time should be forced to “pick and choose” what they want to do. And for just about everyone – either you do the LS content, or you ignore it. It feels… restricting and punishing. And don’t give me “if you don’t want to do it, don’t” because what if folks do? Then they’d never progress in the older content.
I doubt that he was referencing that levitation – doing such a thing is probably one of the more easier things to make for mursaat – take the Risen Wraiths for example; they use a krait frame (same animations as krait), but are placed a few feet off the ground in order to levitate. With mursaat, their movement didn’t require leg or arm movement, so it could be a (mostly) still animation.
With the comment of mursaat, I’m sure it was more of the new model, new frame, new voice (for the effect grunts as well as aggro/killing/dying voiced lines), and new animations (attack, etc.) than the levitation animation.
As to Lazarus extending his life unnaturally – unless you refer to the splitting himself that he did between Prophecies and Eye of the North, we don’t know the natural lifespan of mursaat.
The cultists from Cliffside Fractal are unrelated to the White Mantle, so I don’t see why one would take resources from them… Especially since the only unqiue thing they have is their screeching aggro noise.
And yes, the conspiracies and plot points available when dealing with the White Mantle and related individuals is indeed large. This was just a quick thing that popped in my head, without going too into theorycrafting in the post.
Since I remembered this thread ankitten ot on my phone like before:
On a fundamental level, mesmer magic is bending reality itself, as well as one’s own perception of reality. That is what chaos magic (the field of magic mesmers use) does. As Narcemus said, how mesmer magic works hasn’t changed any more than the other caster professions – they were always able to manipulate reality even in GW1, it’s just that the two games’ engines allow different visuals for it (and gamestyles require different visuals).
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Research_Journal would perhaps be helpful in reading, as it is about the study of certain mesmer skills. The shared theme to them is the manipulation of ether around oneself or the enemy to alter perceptions or the air itself.
What makes a god a true god in the Guild Wars universe is what I bolded – their power.
But that’s just the thing, you consider them “true” gods because you buy into the kool-aid, as it were. You accept the human-centric viewpoint that their gods are special and better than the gods worshipped by the other races. They are stronger, in some cases, but there’s no definitive evidence that they are in any way more special than just being very powerful beings. If nothing else, they seem to be weaker than the Elder Dragons, at least, so would that make the Dragons gods above gods? How many accounts of the immaculate divinity of the human gods come from those who do not in any way worship them?
we do know that a human can become a god,
Theoretically, any race can become a god. We don’t really know the requirements for godhood. We just know that it is actual godhood.
that they all came from (or at least visited, I suppose) the human homeworld,
Actually, we only know three did – Dwayna, Melandru, and Balthazar. Dhuum, Abaddon’s unknown predecessor, and Lyssa’s origins – or even if those four (said 3+Abaddon) even visited or knew about the “human homeworld”
And yet they were equally “gods” as the human gods. They were in some ways weaker than the human gods, but in some ways seemingly stronger. They were just a different class. Perhaps lower level, or an underpowered class, but they were still equally gods, in that they attracted worship.
No, there weren’t. The only one who can be argued as such would be Badazar, which is just a misspelling of Balthazar.
None of the grawl “gods” are “seemingly stronger” than the Six Gods. Not a single one.
Being a god just because you’re worshiped is a false notion in a fictional setting. Or even a real life religious one. Just because you’re worshiped doesn’t make you a god. It just means you have followers who think you’re a god. There’s a huge difference between being a god and being believed to be a god. And you can’t seem to wrap your head around that concept.
Was there a direct and objective indication though that it was his soul that threatened to explode, or was it merely just a layer of magical power, a “boon” if you will, that he had affecting him, and that would rage out of control without a soul to direct it? The latter seems more likely to me, since if it were truly his soul, then why would Kormir not simply be “Abbadon 2.0,” identical to him not only in power, but also in personality? Let’s posit that Abaddon’s soul was destroyed, but without a soul to control it, the power he’d earlier assumed would go wild, as the power was a separate thing entirely from his soul, as a jets fuel tanks might survive the plane’s crash, and then explode.
At your Kormir=Abaddon 2.0 question – to quote Kormir herself (part of hte reason I believe such):
<Party leader>: “Kormir?”ANet will either have to actively make a continuation of the PS, or they’re going to have to openly admit the living story takes place post-PS (it already uses elements of late personal story despite their “no paradoxes” claim). At least that’s how I view it happening.
But honestly? Is rather get an actual expansion, even if it means paying for it.
Chapter 4: Into the Wastes
With true cause for concern of Kryta’s safety, Logan and Anise are leading a joint-offensive westward into Talmark Wilderness (accessed via north of Lionshead Outcrops, Brisban Wildlands; and a new path is added in Pinion Trail heading east; incorporates’ GW1’s western Talmark Wilderness, Majesty’s Rest, and Sage Lands (and a bit north of the areas as well, possibly)). In the open world, the push west word (the new zone made to feel like Malchor’s Leap but with Sinister Triad forces) is led by various members of the Triforge; Logan, Anise, and Caithe make only temporary appearances for LS-only events.
Story-related Content Update
Chapter 5: Agonizing Touch
The invasion push has been going well, and the Triforge forces of Peacemaker, Seraph, and Warden has forced the Sinister Triad led by Lazarus further into the Maguuma Wastes, closer to their real base of operations: Bloodstone Fen. Here, after a series of events to push to the fortress built around the ancient bloodstone renovated by Inquest and Nightmare Court magic, the final confrontational dungeon opens for players to assault, and bring an end to the mursaat once and for all (or so the hope is).
Story-related Content Update
(P.S., all of this was thought up over the course of… 1-2 hours, so it’s not meant to be entirely fleshed out in the later half)
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
Chapter 2: Arcane History
The Pavilion celebration has come and gone, but unsatisfied with the results, Marjor continues the job she was hired for and ventures to Garrenhoff. Like any good detective, she quickly finds something to be… strange, and investigates further. To make things more confusing, the Minister who was suppose to have shown up at Garrenhoff is nowhere to be found and no one claims to have seen him beyond his arrival to the town – many believe he simply left shortly after arriving, his business done, but no reports that Marjory found indicates his return. During her investigations, she finds the Arcane Eye’s base and begins suspecting them of having ties to the Minister’s disappearance; upon being proven wrong, however, she turns her attention to the Wizard’s Tower and works to gain access – where she discovers the truth of Isgarren and the villagers he ‘invites’ to his tower.
At the same time, Bandit activity is on a rise, with occasional new events popping up throughout human-controlled Kryta (including Divinity’s Reach itself). Though these Bandits are interestingly supplied with magitech weaponry – Inquest weapons to be precise.
Story-related Content Update
Chapter 3: The Sinister Triad
The discoveries of the Wizard’s Tower revealed the prevailed presence of the White Mantle to Marjory – something that the Shining Blade immediately confront her to keep secret. However, even threats from the Shining Blade doesn’t deter Marjory from looking further into this, as well as the increased bandit activity she believes tied into the Ministers (and her original job of finding dirt on Caudecus) as in the Wizard’s Tower that was ran by White Mantle operatives, she found ties to the bandits. It’s quickly discovered through reports from western Brisban Wildlands that the Sinister Triad alliance between bandit, Nightmare Court, and Inquest was a success in the end.
Working together with Shining Blade Exemplars Salia and Mehid, Valiant Mathair, and some local Wardens, Seraph, and Peacemakers, Marjory and Kasmeer plan out and successfully storm Fort Vandal. This culmnivates in Caudecus’ ties to the White Mantle revealed, and Lazarus has his short moment in the spotlight as he leaves before confrontation in the story mode. Her job done, Marjory returns to Divinity’s Reach with the intent to take Caudecus and his following down for good, while Salia and Mehid realize that there’s far more work to be done with the mursaat’s return…
Story-related Content Update
Inspired by Ludovicus’s ‘suggestion’ on a Living Story arc going to Jormag territory, I wrote one up semi-inspired by a joke story I wrote up on the spot a while ago (with alterations to be more serious of course!) dealing with an expansion upon older characters and factions, including but not limited to the White Mantle, Isgarren, and of course, Lazarus.
Legal Disclaimer
I hereby declare my agreement that all the content ideas posted by me in this topic are freely usable by ArenaNet™ in any type of content like(but not limited to) patch releases, books and short stories.
I give up my copy rights about this ideas to ArenaNet™.
(just because I would be honored if they used this, even an inkling of it – copied verbatim from Ludovicus)
Chapter 1: The Queen’s Pavilion
The story begins in another celebration of the Queen’s Coronation Anniversary (because there needn’t be another reason to celebrate the same day every year in-universe), and the Crown Pavilion and the Queen’s Gauntlet has opened again. But the main story happens elsewhere, in The Upper Palace.
To the public’s eye, thanks to the mechanizations of Scarlet, the amount of Watchknights has been reduced (partially out of resources, partially to prevent a repeat of past events). However, thanks to Scarlet’s actions in the previous year, the Ministry was able to worm its way into sending guards into the Pavilion for “extra security” of the emissaries.
Legate Minister Caudecus uses this as a chance to legally escape the house arrest he was evicted under at the end of the Caudecus Manor story dungeon; and further spreads the Ministry Guard’s influence in the city. Jennah and Anise are concerned about this, and Logan – being Logan – suspects him of foul play (again) and hires Marjory Delaqua to dig up anything she can to get him back under house arrest. Players aid her in this, investigating various crimes throughout the city, which has taken a recent rise (this is what the story of the update focuses on), and though there are ties to the Ministry Guard, nothing conclusive comes up to put the blame on Caudecus. But there is one oddity among them – there is a criminal tied to a minister who’s just left the city for Garrenhoff.
Story-related Content Update
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
(at title)
No, though Molten Facility will return in the form of a Fractal – most likely altered due to its length.
(at post)
Doubtful but possible since Molten Alliance has made its return with Scarlet.
Flame and Frost’s tale is closed. It was merely a prologue for the… interesting… plot that is Scarlet.
I would love to get old no-longer-available items again. However, when it comes to achievement-related items like the Fused Gauntlets, I’d rather that Anet provide the skins (aka brand new items) and the mini to be re-obtainable from the very same window that the Zenith weapons and Radiant/Hellfire armor is available from. That way we don’t need a story to bring them back, but we cannot infinitely create an item that can be ‘easily’ made into Ascended gear Would love to see Hall of Monuments skins added there too, so I don’t need to rebuy/save that portal stone whenever I want to re-obtain the skin for xyz reason (such as leveling a character and getting new weapons).
While that summary is (surprisingly, imo) well detailed, it still lacks some things that were mentioned or observable. Like, during Sky Pirates, the Aetherblades could be seen stealing parts of the dragon bash hologram projectors periodically.
Step Three: Lock off the old Personal Stories.
Once the new PS are rolled out, the old ones are locked off, deprecated, and the achievements associated with them moved to the History header in the achievements tab. Everyone will have ample warning that they are being locked down, so this part won’t come as a surprise to existing players. New players should already be started on the new Personal Story.
And you block off content ArenaNet worked kitten to future players, and prevents replayability (more so than already).
I never liked removing non-bugged-to-hell content. I still don’t. I never will. There’s no point to it.
If you must have a case of “out with the old, in with the new” then have that old in a corner, just so it can still be played.
Also: issue with the “new PS replacing old PS” – what about the racial biography questions? Start a character with them, just to have no placement in the PS? Or would the old stories be “presumed done already” thus you have no experience with (for example) your charr sire or your warband members…
There is a lot of things overlooked in the personal story steps. Some of the most lore comes from them. Replayability is something heavily needed, and locking the content forever… I just can’t agree with it. Especially since the personal story is an isolated instance.
I’d rather just have a building on of old stories, rather than a replacement of them. Only time I’d see it reasonable for a replacement of the personal story, would be when new races and a new personal story series get added.
What I would rather have (and think should have been done from the get go; and think it can still be done reasonably), is to take the instances of the Living Story, expand them to be self-sustaining (perhaps requiring the creation of a new instance here and there), and place them to be post-Victory or Death; add in either an instance from Trahearne or, preferably, a mail from them telling the commanders to go get some well-deserved R&R while he leads the mop-up of the risen forces before going after the next Elder Dragon (and slap in another later on shortly before the Aetherblades’ appearance about the thievery of Pact airships), thus explaining why the Pact Second-in-Command is off doing whatever he wants, and gets dragged into the Scarlet mess. Once the Scarlet mess is cleared up, we go on to the next Elder Dragon/other threat.
With new Living Story updates, those instances and story would become available to all temporarily – afterwards, it only becomes available as a continuation of the Personal Story. Aetherblade Retreat and Molten Facility return in their old forms rebalanced for playability with any amount of players (like any other PS instance).
It would allow new players a chance to eventually catch up on the story that’s been getting utterly removed, without having to make some sad excuse of re-explaining why Scarlet hates us (and why we should view her as a “personal nemesis”) every month she shows up.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
The various gods of death have claimed dominion over death, but we don’t know for certain the extent of that dominion. Necros can control death too, to a limited degree, as can a certain Elder Dragon, so why is it unreasonable to believe that the human death gods are just humans of vast magical power, with a special emphasis in the Necro arts?
Dhuum cannot be killed. Grenth has tried, and he was a demi-god, born with a power domain himself supposedly (ice and sorrow). This is something that not even Zhaitan can do. The closest thing to being able to do such is a lich, but even they can be killed – you just have to be… creative about it.
Dhuum can control death; Abaddon’s knowledge gets passed down to Kormir. It seems to me that the Six Gods have absolute powers in their own specific mantle/domain – just like humanity claims, according to Kerrsh.
Their gods are no more “false gods” than the humans’, the Grawl gods are just a lot weaker (in most cases entirely useless), but even so they’re just as much “gods” because they have worship. The Human gods aren’t on some unreachable tier, we know that normal humans can become gods under the right circumstances, and we know that they can be stripped of their powers and killed. The human gods are just humans that have obtained immortality and great magical powers.
I think you’re under this impression because you’re using the definition of the Abrahamic God for what makes a god.
What makes a god a true god in the Guild Wars universe is what I bolded – their power. Or as drax referred to it – their mantle. While who wields it may change, that power which is wielded is indestructible and unchanging, and the gods – unlike anything the grawl worship (excluding Badazar, aka Balthazar, of course) – are unaging (as far as we know), and are illuminated by their divinity which blinds mortals.
And I want to make it clear: There is NOTHING that says what race any god beyond Kormir is (with Grenth we cannot actually say he is even half-human at least; we just know that his father was a mortal, but what race? Never specified). We do not know what race Dwayna or Melandru – both winged females – are of, or the race that Balthazar, Abaddon, Dhuum, Lyss, Ilya, Menzies, or Abaddon’s predecessor are of. Nothing other than the depictions by humans to give these gods who are known to be capable of altering their appearance (in both age, size (as they are usually larger than giants), gender and – in the case of Abaddon at least, even physical makeup and body corporeality (Abaddon in GW1 is just head and hands; indications tell us he was more humanoid before his fall in Year 0)) indicate to us that they are human.
The “gods” that grawl worship can be anything from a stone that has no magical abilities, to a statue, to a powerful elemental or demon. These are not gods, no more so than mursaat who were merely just an average race no better than the asura.
That doesn’t make the gods themselves all that special though, it just makes their power sources special, a bit like Green Lantern rings. One could argue that the human gods aren’t anything special at all, but that the six “power globs” the contain are vast and irreplaceable artifacts. It’s also possible that more could be created, we just haven’t heard of that happening, or that the power could be destroyed, we just don’t yet know of a way to do so safely (and just killed the god and letting him blow is clearly not the way to do it).
Except for the fact that they’re not artifacts. It’s best understood if you play through Nightfall, but how I see it, that “power glob” as you call it appears to be little different from their very souls.
I base that off of a few things: gw.dat entries for Nightfall locations indicate that his body was destroyed, yet he was able to regenerate it thanks to Varesh’s rituals (this is why Nightfall could occur at that point in time and not earlier). When Abaddon’s beaten again, his power was going chaotic and risking to do far more destruction than when he was beaten down by the Five Gods – when a soul is killed in Tyria (at least per Guild Wars 1 and Ghosts of Ascalon; the whole repeating dynamic events kind of puts a wrench in that), their soul is sent to the Mists, but when a soul is killed in the Mists… we know nothing of them again (thus far), indicating destruction. By laws of physics, energy cannot simply be destroyed (though it can be turned into a force so minisculely effective it doesn’t contribute to being power for other things); and souls in Guild Wars are treated as that – energy. Thus, when a soul is “destroyed” it would, in theory, just result in dissipation instead – but what would happen to a very powerful soul? It would all release at once, which can be deadly – like how a nuclear bomb acts. Unless it gets contained in something else…
It’s a theory still, but even excluding the theory it shows that the Six Gods are such for far more than just “they’re worshiped and called gods.” They’re not like Yahweh, but then nothing is. And they’re just like polytheistic gods, truth be told – killable, fallable, little different than really old humans who don’t age and have far too much power – power over life, death, creation, destruction, knowledge, war, and so forth. Except unlike the Greek or Norse or Shinto gods, these guys are physically real.
Technically, they can…
if they just admit that it takes place after the personal story.
And your proclamation for something they “cannot” do is already false – many players may not have reached the creation of the Pact, let alone got introduced to the airships. But yet the Aetherblades stole airships from the Pact (that’s where they got their airships from).
Creatures that have the influence of a dragon cant suffer the influence of another dragon…
Wrong. Crucible of Eternity proves otherwise.
I don’t get why people believe that dragon minions are immune to other dragons’ corruption when we see three examples proving such a notion wrong, one of which being the infamous Subject Alpha.
@Siphead: Glint broke free of Kralkatorrik’s influence through a powerful spell discoveredby the Forgotten. Without that outside influence, she would have remained a fanatical servant like all other dragon minions, champions or otherwise.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
Your faith is your weakness, human…
Why did I read that with Rytlock voice in my head?
Because that is Rytlock’s line in the Races of Tyria trailer.
I don’t think there’s a fundamental difference between how one casts a spell between professions, just how they appear and what they affect.
This said, beyond the books ans Gwen’s Story from the Bonus Mission Pack of gw1, I cannot really think of anywhere such an explanation may be.
While that’d be an interesting development I doubt that anet will go such a route. They’ve been downplaying the human race to nth degrees, making them unimportant and their history rather less interesting.
Plus… How’d the gods come about then?
How they say it that they fall several dozen feet before being born. Doesn’t sound metaphorical to me.
While I’ve toyed with the idea as a joke, as have others, in the past there is no reason to believe or suspect that humanity came from Earth.
It hasn’t been forgotten. But it hasn’t moved either. :-)
applies super glue to Matthew in order to keep him tied to this forum
Fafnir, the claim of thousands is about the number of norn. There were only four spirits of the Wild who fought Jormag – Owl, who is known to have died, Eagle, Ox, and Wolverine.
There are indeed more than four Spirits of the Wild – there’s the four most prominent ones (Bear, Raven, Wolf, and Snow Leopard), as well as other minor ones (Wurm, Minotaur), then the “far flung” ones (Gorilla, Otter), and likely many we don’t know about.
We also have no clue what the scroll he had with him did, just that he had it when he came to Hoelbrak (we don’t even know for certain if he had it while he fought Jormag) – nothing indicates it was “super magic” nor claims that it made him “100x stronger than the human gods.” And if you note, I made exclusive mention of both aids he had earlier in the thread.
War* not Competition, and Lyssa’s facet isn’t exactly clear cut, so I wouldn’t put it as Inspiration per se (she’s called the goddess of beauty alone, so I’d be more inclined to put her as Beauty than Inspiration – then again, the twin nature of her may allow her to be of two aspects/mantles that are similar).
About Dhuum, I wouldn’t be so quick to say that he still holds the mantle of godhood. We aren’t exactly clear why he couldn’t be killed or why he’s able to still hold power – in a way, you could argue that he couldn’t be killed because he’s a lich (he’s a full blown skeleton in GW1), though that would be demeaning Grenth’s ability as a god of death. It may also be that because Grenth was a demi-god in the first place, that he couldn’t fully take over the mantle of godhood.
Grenth’s nature in of itself is a peculiarity to the whole six mantles bit – did a new mantle get born, or was he no different than a powerful mortal like Oswald Thorn?
Cadeyrn made the Nightmare Court, and he brought Faolain fully into the Nightmare; afterwards, she took over.
This is all explained in Twilight Arbor story mode if you talk to Caithe after beating Cadeyrn.
I believe it was confirmed in a “recent” (e.g., less than a month old now) interview that Zhaitan is dead.
The only difference between a god and a “powerful wizard” is the amount they’re worshiped. The Grawl have plenty of “gods” that are just poorly made statues. There’s nothing inherently untouchable about a character being a “god,” and from what I understand of GW continuity, even human characters have been elevated to godhood in the past. Being a “god” in Tyria just seems to be about immortality, lots of magical power, and some level of dimensional freedom. They are the “gods” of the humans because the humans choose to worship them […]
There’s a fine difference between a god, and a false god. The grawl don’t worship actual gods – just things they find which are stronger or more magical than themselves.
The power of the Six Gods cannot be destroyed, it can change vessels, but that power is indestructible and eternal. That’s what makes a god such a thing in he Guild Wars universe. They are capable of actions far more than any mortal, they rule over the afterlife; though they are killable and fallable. Kill a powerful wizard, and nothing happens in most cases. Kill a god, and unless a new one takes its place, then the entire world and then some gets blown up by their immortal power. There must always be Six Gods, even if who those gods are changes.
Reason for calendar change ~snip
So your problem here isn’t that it’s being changed, but that you know why. As long as it makes sense in the lore it doesn’t really matter why.
Mismatched dates: Christmas:
[…]
The way events are hosted is based more on practicality than the lore. Lets face it, if Scarlet is going to attack a map, she’s wouldn’t do it on the hour every hour. To make sure all can access the content, some continuity of the story is lost. That’s how it goes. If you don’t want to know the reasons behind it, don’t look for them.
A few notes:
1) Wintersday is the Tyrian New Years. While it incorporates aspects of Christmas for us, it is far from the same. And yes, I know that our own historical new year celebration has changed, due to a change in calendars (switching to the Gregorian calendar, for example), but that wasn’t changed. My statement about Wintersday isn’t that it’s not celebrated on the day it should be…
It’s the fact that Angel was wanting to sync up the Gregorian and Mouvelian calendars and the rate of time in both Tyria and us, but failed to realize that in order to do this, Wintersday must be celebrated – by us – in mid-March, since we celebrate it with our Christmas/New Years, but it is in lore the Tyrian New Year – and lore has it established that the Mouvelian calendar begins at the Spring Equinox.
Any and all real-life examples of how we treated our calendar is irrelevant, so stop bringing them up please. The issues your trying to eleviate are not a case of the calendar’s lore-related changes, but the interaction between game and reality’s timeframes.
2) No, the issue is not only that I know why it happened. It was how it was done. As I have explained time and time again. That 1) it was blatant retconing, 2) done in a kitten means (again, doesn’t account to all lore on the calendar for syncing the two calendars up; let alone the mechanics like how the day-night cycle goes is on a 4 hour cycle), and 3) ignores things known by players that are able to be found out within a minute of searching – if they intend to retcon something, they need to ensure it doesn’t conflict with something else unless it’s meant to conflict with that something else – and in this case, I highly doubt that it was meant to.
3) “The way events are hosted is based more on practicality than the lore.” Exactly my point! The events have been hosted on practicality and reasonability for us. But Angel wants to sync up the calendars, and added 5 days to the Mouvelian calendar just to do such. But in order to properly sync up the calendars, then the events should be hosted based on lore rather than practicality. Otherwise, it just isn’t a proper syncing up of the two calendar like they want. They want our years to be the same length, progressing at the same time. Meaning that our spring and the Tyrian spring begins and ends at the same time.
4) It’s got nothing to do with me not wanting to know the reasons behind things, by the way. If that was the case, then I indeed wouldn’t be looking for them.
Have you stopped to listen to the randomNPC convos? There are references to the past and old lore. -snip-
Again, not what I was talking about. Either I’m really terrible at saying what I mean, or you’re constantly side-tracking my points for whatever reason or by whatever cause.
I’m not talking about references to the old lore or what-have you. I’m talking about how they (the developers) are downplaying the gods’ importance so much.
So basically, for the people who are annoyed about all this the extra books and stuff are basically the equivalent of the lore stories in Diablo 3, you still got the majority of the story but there are just extra tid-bits and side story which if you don’t spend your time doing then you won’t experience it but it won’t affect the overall plot. I mean seriously, if you want to go into the lore side of GW2 THAT deeply, you can’t expect Arena net to just give it to you on a silver platter, these guys need some money… Or more money? Or… I dunno maybe they don’t but you get the point.
The bold is where you got it wrong with Guild Wars 2.
We get the bare bones plot upfront, with a little tendons in game, and the muscles and skin of the lore in the short stories and interviews (and other out-of-game mediums).
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