Guild Wars 2

MokahTGS.7850:

So people are complaining that LW is driving ANet developers away who left the company long before GW2 was created…hmmm…yeah that makes sense.

• Jeff Strain left ANet in 2008 for NCSoft West and then left NCSoft in 2009.

• Patrick Wyatt left ANet in 2008 for NCSoft West and then left NCSoft and is currently part of En Masse Entertainment.

• GW2 was announced in 2007, shown off to the public in 2009, and released in 2012. Those guys were long gone before much of GW2 was even developed let alone the LW.

While I agree that the LW stuff may come a tad too fast…personally I’d like to see every 3-4 weeks instead of the current schedule, but people cannot claim that game developers are leaving because of the current LW plan.

According to Colin at the PAX panel, ArenaNet had plans of the “Living World” during Guild Wars 2’s actual development (which, knowing this, I believe they were doomed to fail from the very beginning even more so than I would have said before). Furthermore, even Guild Wars 2 vanilla itself has problems with a lot of fields, the lore the least of them.

Take note that other prominent members left during the development of Guild Wars 2 as well – two of them being Kekai Kotaki and John Hargrove.

road range.6293:

I agree. Some new content is fun. But, It’s killing the rest of the game.

-snip rest-

I fullheartedly agree with this post. A shame for your son, since at the current rate, in 2015 we’ll just have what we have, but one month’s content available temporarily.

Well, you may have a few pointless new instances or structural changes in the open world that add nothing to the long-term plot, though.

Anet needs to take a step back, seriously look at things, and create retroactive changes. Allow all of the living story (The Lost Shores, Flame and Frost, Secret of Southsun/Last Stand at Southsun, etc.) to be available in some form after release. Issue comes in with Dragonbash’s story… sigh

I think I may end up joining your son in leaving GW2 until 2015.

You are an asura.
They are asura.
I am an asura.
We are asura.

Asuran is only the possessive form. E.g., “the asuran language” “the asuran technology” “the asuran laserbeam that cut off half of Zhaitan.” When something belongs to the/a asura, it is asuran. Otherwise, the word is asura.

It may be due to slight angle change, but the placement of the tower’s edge is different between the two images, in regards to where the background (Wizard’s Tower) meets the foreground (the trees and chimney). Miniscule in that image though.

It likely is just angle position change though.

Dondarrion.2748:

-snip OP list comparison-

That GW2 list only uses the titles of updates, and not the updates themselves. Under such a listing, then you need to combine Sorrow’s Furnace, green update, and Titan Quests changes into one update. As well as everything from Factions into its own content update too with Tomb of the Primeval Kings.

So if you want the lists to be equal it should be:

Guild Wars 1

• First Halloween (3 redecorated towns; several collectors; Thorn’s intro)
• Sorrow’s Furnace update (green weapons, Sorrow’s Furnace/Grenth’s Footprint (2 zones; 16 quests), Titan Quests (five quests), and chests)
• First Wintersday (2 temp quests, 3 redecorated towns, several collectors, some new low-req/dmg weapons; 1 new temp PvP modes)
• Factions (~30 new explorable areas; 13 missions; 200+ quests with some temp quests (preview/Day of the Tengu); 2 new professions; 30+ new skills per profession; new PvP arenas and guild halls; Alliance mechanics; 2 competative missions; three challenge missions; two new elite missions; new PvP format (AB); new cap designs; miniatures!; Tomb of the Primeval Kings update

Guild Wars 2

• First Halloween (temp jp; temp zone; temp boss fight; 2 temp PvP modes; 3 new temp metas; temp scavenger hunt; new temp-available weapon and armor skins; 1 redecorated town)
• The Lost Shores (new zone with a handful of events; several temp events; temp scavenger hunt; new temp-available weapon and armor skins; new permanent dungeon with new permanent Ascended Rings and Backpacks; new minis)
• First Wintersday (temp jp; temp dungeon; new temp-available weapon skins; 1 redecorated town and 5 semi-redecorated towns)
• Flame and Frost (temp NPCs; temp story instances; temp events; temp dungeon; new temp-available weapon and armor skins (some available again later); new minis/tonics; new Ascended amulets)
• SAB (five temp levels that later returned again temp; new temp-available weapon and armor skins)
• Secret of Southsun (perm events; temp story instances; temp “dungeon”; temp PvP mode (later made permanent); temp scavenger hunt; return of old temp-available armor/weapon skins + 2 new temp-obtainable armor)
• Dragon Bash (1 town redecorated; temp story instances; new temp-available armor skins; 1 temp dungeon; 1 permanent jp; new Ascended earrings)
• Bazaar of the Four Winds (1 temp zone; temp story instances; new semi-temp crafting materials; new weapon skins; 2 new PvP modes and 1 temp PvP mode)
• Queen’s Jubilee (1 temp zone; new temp events; new perm meta; 1 temp “dungeon”; temp story instances; temp-available weapon skins; new runes and sigils)
• SAB Return (some of old temp content returns; ~3 new temp levels; new temp-available armor and weapon skins; temp story instance; Ascended weapons)

I’m sure I forget some things, but you should tell that most of what Guild Wars 2 gives… is temporary. While most of what GW1 gave… was permanent. Sure, there’s a lot more content updates in GW2, so for the constant players more things to do. But in the long run, players don’t give a kitten ation about the temporary stuff. It’s the things you can still enjoy years from now that truly matters. I mean, think how it would be if Sorrow’s Furnace was only around for a few months at best, and the Tombs of the Primeval Kings stopped becoming available? I’d saddened enough I missed the Day of the Tengu and other Factions preview stuff…

Traveller.7496:

But as you said, we have to wait and see if they actually deliver. This is a comparison on what they have done so far. For me personally it’s not even an argument that GW1 content updates were more substantial, even if the OP is leaving some GW2 stuff out.

I’m often quite negative on the forums but it’s mostly because I wanted this game to be as good as GW1 and in my mind it hasn’t delivered and the direction it’s taking is not as it should. I guess the term I would use for GW2 so far is “underwhelming” … or “so much wasted potential” but I can’t put that in one word.

QFT

Mastruq.2463:

Fafnir.5124:

Not to mention that Anet already said that first year was going to be all temporary where 2nd is more perm content.

Do you have an actual quote for that?

I do know that Bobby Stein (?) said that future LS is hoping to add more permanent content into the game. I’m guessing they realized they couldn’t keep with so little permanent content, even if they’ve been setting up for reoccuring content (Bazaar, Jubilee, Dragon Bash, SAB, Halloween, Wintersday).

The main problem, for me, is that the “Living World” is not a living world. It’s a step-by-step linear story focused around Scarlet and Kiel and those they interact with (Rox, Braham, Marjory, Kasmeer, and Faren mainly it seems). And with each step, the previous step is removed.

It’s like building a staircase, but to create the next stair up, ArenaNet’s removing the bottom stair.

The saddest part, is that they claim they wanted a living world from day one. Which means right off the bat they failed. Why? Release content is static, and permanent. “Living World” content is not. It comes, and it goes. It alters what it affects, and leaves everything else in place.

If they really wanted a living world, they should have begun with releasing the initial content in steps – keeping it all permanent of course. For example, just off the top of my head, releasing each chapter of the personal story every week or two, having zones that are lvl 30+ sans Gandarren (Harathi Hinterlands, Bloodtide Coast, Fields of Ruin, etc.) cut off at release, slowly accessible as more of the personal story is released.

This would not only make the content of Orr’s invasion feel like it takes more than a few hours/days (in-game it’s supposed to be “several weeks” between Forging the Pact and The Source of Orr’s completion), but it would have given ArenaNet time to improve the fight with Zhaitan and later PS which were very buggy, as well as create a sense of true preparation with the attack and retaking of Claw Island (and of course Orr), and giving us a pacing for completing the main game’s storyline.

And on top of this, only have a select portion of the full amount of available events/event chains available and slowly add the rest that were tested to work together in.

By the time we are given everything we had prior to Halloween content, it’d have been the new year. They could have put more time into The Lost Shores, into Flame and Frost, and so forth as they would have had 2-3 more months to work on them.

But that’s in the past. Nonetheless, they really messed up with their “Living World” in my opinion. (I say the same for how they treated Guild Wars 1 after announcing GW2 – should have kept working and expanding GW1 with expansions or even just BMP-sized DLCs while slowly working on GW2, again IMO).

Main point: No, this isn’t a living story or a living world. It’s just a linear story told in steps, and not giving even a wide enough change to things that are indirectly affected by the changes.

Moto wants to raise asura children with violent collaboration.

Asura children are currently being raised by laying down and looking at the sky or watching fishies all day (see one of the labs in The Hinterlands/Soreen Draa), or with holograms that summon full out monsters… wait, what? (that heart never seemed logical to me…).

Not sure what’s better, but I’m pretty sure Moto’s overall goal is to raise an army of violent asura children to take over the world. Or at least get revenge for being dumped. Either or.

We already had the Afflicted, we don’t need Halo’s Flood too. :P

Joking aside, I think we’ll be getting plenty of underwater stuff when we get to the deep sea dragon. Until that happens though, we have Honor of the Waves explorable for “underwater” dungeons – given how few folks do those two paths anymore, until underwater mechanics get improved I don’t think there’ll be much favor for new underwater content.

Though given Colin’s response about improving charr armor, this means that Anet’s never going to touch it because they apparently think it’s best to ignore the parts of the game players avoid because of xyz rather than improve that xyz.

(For those not getting what I meant – at PAX, apparently it was asked if Anet’s going to improve charr armor to make them look better; Colin, I believe it was, responded with effectively saying that since most players don’t play charr, they’re on the bottom of list of priorities but it will eventually get to it. The fail in the logic is that a lot of players (at least that I know) avoid charr characters because of those armor problems – so instead of fixing the problem, they ignore it and work on “fixing” things that don’t have problems, to make them “better”).

Different rankings in the order, I’m guessing. Lightbringer seems to be an overall “third to best” ranking (only Preceptor and Master being above Lightbringers), which would place it above Creator, Agent, and so forth. Furthermore, Tybalt was recently promoted to being a field agent. He likely was a Creator before we met him.

BobbyStein.2315:

This is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

We’re currently discussing ideas on how to “catch people up” with past Living World events to give them context on current events and recent history. The system that’s currently in development will hopefully go a long way in presenting a clearer picture of some of the story content in the game. That stated, having a newspaper is a neat concept.

What I would do/would have done from the get go:

Take the instances, and the mail, and slap them to being at the end of the personal story. Make the Living Story a continuation of the Personal Story, with the new content as the “it’s introduced at this point”. During the month of the release, the living story stuff is available to all per account, but afterwards it gets locked into place in the storyline position.

Not much work should be needed to be done with this as the instances exist already – maybe, if really wanted, some instances needed for The Lost Shores (could even provide a split between investigating the karka, or making an anti-karka weapons like was done, for the old customizing of the personal story).

Then use this in mind for future stories, to bring back the personal story characters with relation to the earlier choices.

This way, even new players later on can experience the living story, rather than simply getting told about it. And on top of that, less temporary content in a retroactive manner.

Zaxares.5419:

Type 3 Villain = Canach.

Was going to say this.

Although ArenaNet did a rather poor job of showing this in-game, from a forum post we learn that he is more or less an anti-villain. He views himself as a hero of the people, trying to protect the weak, while being chased across the continent by assassins hired by the Consortium, even went and raided a few Molten Facilities (how he got the gloves). In Southsun, he’s trying to “save” the people (or so he claims) and destroy the Consortium’s opressionistic acts on the refugees, but in doing so he puts all the refugees at risk (and knowingly so), even sets up some of the refugees as scapegoats.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

I would add Faolain to the list of type 3 villains as well. She believes she is championing the true meaning of being sylvari by rejecting all the human- and Ventari-inspired morality. By rejecting common morality, she comes off as a monstrous villain to us, but she still believes she is doing the right thing. (Although there are some type 1 villainy traits in her, to the extent that the Nightmare Court sometimes appears to act from blind fervor.)

I disagree. Faolain’s a villain of vanity – her only shown goal is simply to draw Caithe into the Nightmare. She herself shows no interest in leading the sylvari to be “their true selves” – the Nightmare Court claims such, and Cadeyrn certainly was attempting such (at first), though over time they seem to have changed.

Cadeyrn started as a Type 3, but devolved into Type 2.

Faolain was always Type 2, more or less. Just a very unique version of it.

BobbyStein.2315:

Actually, there are a lot more details in the game than you realize. Either you’re not catching them because they are subtle, or you may have missed the content entirely. I’m not sure in your case because I have no idea what you’ve played, what you’ve seen, or what you remember.

Some people understand what’s going on, others don’t, and some of that is due to a distinct lack of direction in regards to experiencing the Living World story. We’ve been aware of that limitation since day one, and we’re currently working on a system to address that before the end of the year. I sympathize with that. Trust me.

I think the problem with the “tidbits” is the pacing and temporariness. And that they’re a bit too subtle in cases (made worse with the temporariness).

Things need to be in the game longer, especially the more subtle things. And things happen with too much in too little time. You basically give us 10-20 achievements to do, on top of the story itself, which again is on top of the “subtle tidbits” – which in turn is on top of the mini-games you introduce each month (sometimes more than one), and effectively give us only two weeks to do all of that.

The hardcore players will end up skipping over those tidbits. The casual players won’t have the chance to get at them because they’re too busy doing the more obviously-to-do things.

I cannot think of any system that can explain it, other than you telling us everything and not giving us a chance to find it out for ourselves. Like those guides you post for the content, before the content’s even released.

BobbyStein.2315:

It’s understandable why some people would be upset or impatient by not getting these details all at once, but rest assured that we’re not conveniently forgetting about these tidbits—we’re just saving them for later.

What’s upsetting most people – myself included – is not the lack of details so much as the details we’re given make her to be a flat character with an annoying personality, with actions that are contradictory to her stated goals, with a past that makes her very Villain Sue-like.

And you have to keep in mind that even though you claim otherwise, a lot of important things are left open-ended. Take, for example, Canach’s Fused Gauntlets. We had to be told in a forum post that he got them from raiding a Molten Facility, and that in the time since The Lost Shores he was being chased by the Consortium (learned only in the short story) and turned to make himself a self-proclaimed “protector of the people” (only learned in the forum post – because let’s face it, his actions in Secret of Southsun/Last Stand at Southsun show that he doesn’t really care for “the people”). We had so little of Canach’s story in the game itself, it made him feel like a flat and unimportant figure. But for those who delved into it, there was plenty to be found. This is one of the main issues of the Living Story – and the main reason why Wooden Potatoes’ Living Story recap videos are so fascinating to people. He tells the story far better than the game does, and people like him for that.

Sure, you don’t need to know those facts to play through the story or understand the main plot. But you need them to be interested in the main plot. And that’s the key fact you guys are missing out on, and what all your “don’t tell them everything in the game (yet)” ruins – our interest, not our comprehension.

Oh, and regarding your pacing… I suggest you slow down the content just a tad bit. Because lets face it – the content going away every month, with new and equal amount of content every two weeks (the second update of the month only lasting 2 weeks)… that’s going to burn players out. Sure, you got a rise of players now, but what about when they’re burned out?

I love the game, I love the story, though I’m sad in the direction the story’s going in the apparent retcons that I’ve seen happening (see this interview here which seems to retcon everything and anything about the Bloodstones and magic as presented in GW1), and though I’d like to consider myself a casual player I’m more than likely a hardcore player… but even I’m starting to get burned out at this point. With the SAB stuff – which I thought was merely an April’s Fools joke (and now it seems there _was no April’s Fools joke!) and with which the content is 99.99% an orgyfest of popcultural references (more so than anything else in GW2, which is saying a lot) – I’m just burned out already. And seeing all those achievements, including the ones I missed previously because at that point achievement points didn’t matter (and don’t say “you don’t have to do it” – I’m a completionist by nature, and I feel the need to complete the metas at the very least)… it’s just too much.

And now that the SAB, what was previously to be taken as purely a joke on 90s video games (which as a joke I LOVED), as serious content with a real story and being canon to lore… I just… I feel like closing out of Guild Wars. And maybe it’s because it started out as seemingly pure joke content, that I feel absolutely no strive to try and find that story hidden at the end of the content.

Like I said, I love the game and the lore, I’ve been part of the community since Dragon Festival 2006, and I have remained as strong a part of the community as I could be, being part of the Test Krewe and other NDA stuff, expanding the wikis as much as possible, and participating in all events I could. So I’m still holding out hope, but honestly, all I see ever since the end of Flame and Frost, has been more negative points to enjoyment than positive points. Yes, there’s some good stuff, but the story definitely does not contain many of those positive points.

-more in next post-

BobbyStein.2315:

It seems like there’s some misunderstanding regarding the purpose of the short stories that we publish on the Web site. They are not meant to “write outside the game” such that the game is unplayable without them, nor are they meant to provide vital information to the in-game story for a particular Living World release. They are purely optional stories meant to provide additional context and lore for those who care. If we felt that the inclusion of this information was critical to understanding the plot or playing the content then we would put it inside the game, plain and simple.

And yet, if you want to see Scarlet as anything more than a teenage Harley Quinn with no Joker to adore, you need to read her short story – and for that short story to not make her out to be a Villain Sue, you must listen to the recent “TowerTalk interview”:

To realize that the Zephyrites are not something pulled out of thin air in a very literal sense, you need to read the journal short story (which you cannot even get to in the News archive on the main site).

To know of the interaction between Kiel and Kasmeer/Faren, you must read the Welcome to Paradise short story.

Are these things needed to understand the main plot? No. But they are needed to understand the characters of the main plot. Otherwise you may as well provide the story in the form of stick figures with names floating over their heads and monotonous voices (aka all voiced by Trahearne!).

Some of the short stories – the ones on Rox, Braham, Canach, Marjory, and Kiel’s pasts are very much just flavor text, and they’re fine not in the story. But the ones I mentioned – What Scarlet Saw, Trek of the Zephyrites, Welcome to Paradise, etc. – are very much needed in the story, if you want to understand the story’s characters themselves (the last mentioned, least so though). If you want to have any depth to Kiel and the others, you need them. Rox and Braham have depth even without them, since their stories’ events are mentioned in-game (much like how the main events of the three novels got placed in the game here and there).

The “A Message from the Queen” I didn’t even see or know about until today, and I try to keep tabs on all the lore stories provided. That should have and easily could have been provided as a mere mail message like the ones from Faren and Scarlet.

BobbyStein.2315:

On a related note, some of the lore stories use imagery or situations that would be more difficult, time consuming, or expensive to replicate in the game. Some wouldn’t add anything meaningful to gameplay. So if you’re finding it stressful that these optional pieces exist external to a Living World release, I suggest not reading them.

That feels very… negative? Poor? Unprofessional?

“if you don’t like it, don’t do it” – but what if I don’t like how it’s done, but want to know what’s being presented anyways? I don’t like it how it is, but I do want it.

And besides, some of the short stories could have easily been placed into the game – Trek of the Zephyrites? A new interactive book object in the Durmand Priory library (or multiple if need-be). Welcome to Paradise? That would have taken a bit more effort, best placed as an intro instance like the one made for the Bazaar of the Four Winds. What Scarlet Saw? A journal item dropped by Scarlet during one of the invasions, just change the writing to first person.

They don’t need to add anything to the gameplay. They add something to the story, and that’s enough to include them in the game. Or does ArenaNet no longer care about their lore?

Nonetheless, that very last sentence there? Really reduces your credibility.

-more in next post-

“advanced engineering degrees” kind of implies having done the fundamentals, and then extra curriculum. I suppose we don’t know how the asuran colleges work compared to our own, but still…

Anet, you must put these clarifications in the freaking game. I’m beginning to become tired about how important lore is established and elaborated upon out of the game – either in those short stories or the “aftermath interviews” Scott and Angel do.

Examples of good out-of-game stuff:

• Braham’s Story – this stuff got hinted upon in the game immediately, this was like Ghosts of Ascalon to Dougal and all the other minor hints to the book in the game (Ember, Gullik, Killeen’s grave, the Plinth on the Viewing Hill, etc.)
• Rox’s Tale – got hinted upon later in the game after the content, so similarly acting like how GoA acts with all the stuff from the book mentioned in the game (same as SoS with those Marriner Plaques, though those feel more forced).
• Canach’s Story: An After-Hours Meeting – just a nice background to delve into Canach’s character; though delving into Canach’s character was greatly needed in the content, this story itself wasn’t so much
• Aetherblade Pirates: Look up! – half lore, half mechanics; the lore half would have been nice as an interactive object, but not needed to understand the story
• Marjory’s Story: The Last Straw – another delving into a character when delving is needed but not this story itself
• The Kiel and Evon background short stories; though a mention of the events/facts learned here would have been nice in-game (like what you do with Dougal!).
• Short Story: Delegation – a nice but unnecessary-to-know bit

Examples of out-of-game stuff that should be in-game:

• The fact that the Molten Alliance has been working undercover for some time before Flame and Frost, told to us only in an interview/aftermath talk
• Welcome to Paradise – should have been an intro instance to the content, like the meeting between Kiel and Magnus introducing the Bazaar and Zephyrites
• A Message from Queen Jennah – should have been an in-game mail like what Scarlet and Faren sent
• Short Story: The Trek of the Zephyrites – could have been a new interactive book found in the Durmand Priory, like those small interactive objects found in Dredge and Flame Legion bases that were added with F&F’s fourth chapter, or the objects added throughout Southsun to elaborate on lore that should have been included during The Lost Shores (and on the contract lore)
• Short Story: What Scarlet Saw – should have been a journal Scarlet drops – like Marjory’s Journal but giving a unique cinematic.
• The clarification of how Scarlet didn’t do a full college coursework, put it in the journal Scarlet drops!

Do this, and your lore and story improves exponentially. Stop giving us only half of the details, give us 80% of them or only 10% of them (and split them up properly)! The 10% should be the kind of things that are background, open to being delved in further and thus gives us good speculation possibilities – like, in GW1, how the Watchtower Coast towers were.

Avariz.8241:

There is a Charr memorial east of Ascalon Catacomb upon a low rise plateau. It placate commemorate the Char General who is the only survivor on the siege on Ascalon City. His prophetic vision foresaw what would to come on the final assault on the city, but no one listen to him and only he, himself, stayed behind while all his comrades went in. This tells me that the foefire only obliterate Ascalon City itself and its immediate vicinity which should leave the rest of Ascalon Kingdom and remaining surviving human refugees who lived in other parts of the kingdom apart from the capital at the mercy of the Charr.

You refer to this I take it?

A few corrections must be made:

1. He was no general. He was a legionnaire who led the Fireshadows, an elite scouting and assassination warband for the Flame Legion.
2. His legion was tasked with assassinating King Adelbern before the assault on the city. They succeeded in infiltrating the palace but instead of Adelbern found the dying Savione (the “steward” ghost mentioned several times above), who warned them that the king had gone mad and intended to curse everything with his sword Magdaer. There was nothing prophetic about it (nor does the plaque even make mention or hint to such a thing…).
3. Frye and his warband attempted to warn the Flame Legion Imperator who was leading the assault. Said Imperator laughed it off and treated the Fireshadows as cowards and traitors, and their punishment was tying them to posts atop The Viewing Hill (that plateau with the plinth), to force them to witness the “victory” they would not have a chance to take part in.
4. From witnessing the Foefire, he and his warband’s fur was turned pure white and they were the sole survivors of the Foefire, being just outside of the effect on charr. He was not the sole survivor (as said in the plinth), as his warband also survived.

But we know for a fact that the Foefire’s effects on humans, and even cats and cows went far beyond the city walls. Barradin, the ghosts in Blazeridge, those in Iron Marches and Diessa Plateau, these were all ghosts made by the Foefire.

Foefire ghosts are unique in that they cannot be sent off to the Mists. Killing a ghost sends them off to the Mists (at least in most cases), but the Foefire’s curse prevents this. The charr in the city were just that close to the blast center that they were killed.

Please, go buy and read Ghosts of Ascalon. It explains this in detail. That plinth is based from events told in far more detail in the novel as well.

Edit: I would prefer that it was Narcemus’ second reasoning, but sadly we’ve been told time and time again – in Ghosts of Ascalon, in game, and in interviews – that the effects of the Foefire covered Ascalon almost in its entirety (though sometimes it is said to be “in its entirety” but “Ebonhawke wasn’t part of Ascalon at the time” which to be is just excuses for a plothole in wording better fixed by saying “it didn’t reach that far southeast”)

SpeedFiend.4521:

Yes, I’m aware the book states her gravesite is outside the Brand. In-game, however, we see a whole other story. The book came first, so the in-game thing is the “latest retcon” the way I see it. That and there appears to be no other way to get into the glen than through the Brand.

You’re taking mechanics as lore. In lore, those huge boxes of mountains likely don’t exist in any way shape or form – just like in GW1, otherwise there would have been HUGE and very strange tectonic shifts in the past 250 years that are completely undocumented. It likely is a case where the developers created that little patch after the fan reaction for wanting to see Killeen’s grave, and they likely added in Ember, Dougal, and Gullik into the game at similar times (given how little interaction they have, even Ember during the personal story step where we fight and kill her father/uncle aka Ajax), lore-wise, it is possible to get from the Secluded Glen to Plains of Ashford. Just in the same way that more than likely, 90% of those mountains acting as borders of the zones don’t exist.

CHIPS.6018:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crystal_Desert

1) Crystal Desert is now a grassland because Palawa Joko diverted the rivers from Vabbi to this region.
2) Palawa Joko’s Awakened undeads are there.
3) Zhaitan’s Risen undeads are there.
4) Kralkatorrik’s branded are there.
5) Possibly there: Undead elder dragons and undead elder Giganticus Lupicus (those huge giant bones got resurrected by the undead lords), Dhuum’s minions (from the now undefended Chaos Rift in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings) including Aatxes and Shades.
6) Possibly “still” there: Giant wurms, Junundu, Hydra, Scarabs, Forgotten, Losaru, Abbaddon’s demons (from the same Chaos Rift), masterless (or now Komir following) Margonites.

Long story short, its Total War over there. Until our level cap gets increased to 100, I won’t bother going there. :P

1) Only the parts near the river, technically, as Narcemus said. In comparison to GW1, not much would have changed – in GW1 there was a canyon of water pools which made the whole canyon an oasis; this canyon is actually the same path that the Elon takes in the GW2 world map. So there’d be simply more of an oasis along that path.
2) Technically, only in the southern parts.
3) Same as before, but western. Though now, they’ve probably gotten wiped out.
4) Same as before, but northern (as far as we know) and holding no known conflict with the Risen or Joko’s undead.
5) All of those bones are of Giganticus Lupicus – in an interview between GuildMag and Jeff/Scott/Ree, they said that the term Giganticus Lupicus actually refers to a set of species, initially meant to solely be those Crystal Desert bones. No undead Elder Dragons likely to exist. The threat to the Hall of Heroes was removed as well, and was led by Abaddon’s forces (well, technically, led by Menzies’ forces following Abaddon’s orders). Dhuum’s forces were only the Banished Dream Riders and with the invasion defeated, there’s no need to believe that there was another one later on.
6) Forgotten likely are no longer there, given the lack of Forgotten in Edge of Destiny when their sole purposes in the Crystal Desert was protecting Glint and defending the tests of Ascension (for the Flameseeker Prophecies only, perhaps?). The former purpose gone, the latter possibly gone, they likely all moved into the Rift to serve the Six Gods again. Even if they remain, they’re good guys. Furthermore, the Priory has recovered artifacts from the Crystal Desert (see sylvari lvl 20-30 storyline, second split following Priory), which further implies no Forgotten otherwise they would have been bombarding them with questions about the Elder Dragons. I doubt that Margonites were left to reside when Kormir – with the help of the Forgotten and Order of Whispers – were cleaning up Abaddon’s mess (Domain of Anguish stuff is where we helped out); I highly doubt they’d go to follow Kormir, given their super fanaticism.

Technically, the sylvari believe themselves born to destroy all Elder Dragons, not just Zhaitan (and we don’t know if they actually were, it’s just belief as far as we know). It’s just that Zhaitan recieved most of their attention due to Caithe’s and Trahearne’s Wyld Hunts as well as his proximity – not only to them, but to the other races as well (out of all dragons, thanks to Kralkatorrik moving to the Crystal Desert, Zhaitan is the closest to the other races with the most prominent threat, which is why we went after him in the personal story instead of Kralkatorrik who’s weakened or Jormag who influences the norn a lot even now albeit indirectly, or Primordus despite him being awake the first and fighting the dwarves already).

But anyways, Elder Dragons aren’t really tied to the playable races. If you think about it – Primordus was a problem not just for asura, but humanity, charr, and norn (as well as many lesser races, such as skritt, and the dwarves); Jormag is only primarily tied to the norn due to location, and the Branded are a threat to both charr and humans (Ebonhawke humans specifically) – just more so charr due to proximity (though also humans through Glint, who was a long-time ally of humanity, and through her, the Zephyrites whom are mostly human).

Besides, you have six dragons and five playable races so it wouldn’t match up well enough anyways.

Mularc Templare.5063:

What I was suggesting is that they make have broke the mechanism that kept the magic sealed in the first place; over time the magic stored in the stone has leaked out at a faster rate then the previous eras (this is assuming it leaked magic at all. I unfortunately haven’t been able to do the Arah explorables as much as I would like.) thus resulting in more magic being around in the modern age (relatively speaking) then we would’ve anticipated given the amount of time between the two games.

Precisely. But they didn’t really “break” it, not accidentally at least – as far as we know, it merely contained, never leaking. Abaddon tampered with it to unleash magic – how or in what way is unknown. And afterwards, the other five gods reduced that unleashed magic – again, how or in what way, unknown. And then they shattered it. And at some point, Zhaitan’s magic was used (unknowing that it was Zhaitan, so we’re told) to strengthen the Bloodstone (again, how and in what way, unknown). But ever since, given the Arah explorable information, it seems that the release was never closed off since the Bloodstones have always been in effect. Though there were hints from dat mining that they’ve weakened, which is furthered by the professions of GW2, they were still in effect…

Until this interview.

In other words, using Drax’s short analogy, the seers made a Magic Vacuum and filled it up with all the magic in the world. Centuries/Millenia pass with it stationary (or as far as we’re given to believe, with the whole “no magic”/“magic only at very few hotspots like the Artesian Waters and Elder Dragons” in the world info we’re told). Then Abaddon comes along and reverses the Magic Vacuum at max power. The other five come along, says “no,” and reduces the power but keeps it in reverse before breaking Magic Vacuum into four pieces, each piece being its own nice little vacuum of specific stuff.

One can say they did break it, but we cannot really say they couldn’t or didn’t intend to stop it from releasing magic.

Mularc Templare.5063:

Not trying to say people we’re restricted to schools, and still aren’t (to a more limited extent) but could this account for people being able to use more then one school at a time? (for example the Elementalist being able to use both Destruction and Preservation magic depending on the element they’re attuned to.)

It was never said a person can never use more than one school. Only that they could never use all four. GW1’s dual professions – as I said earlier in this thread – shows us that using two schools is very much possible. It’s been theory for quite some time among myself and others that the GW2 professions had adapted multiple schools whereas GW1 had only used one. Though a counter to this is that we were explicitly told that Elementalists use Destruction magic – with no mention of another school of magic.

Tuomir.1830:

Exosferatu.2961:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Exosferatu.2961:

Ascalonians were not wiped out. They retain their human forms but their flesh has been replaced by a pale-blue ectoplasm.

Not completely, no, but no human survived near the vacinity of Ascalon City. Of the Foefire, at least. Many survived the Searing, but that’s not when they were turned into ghosts (their flesh was not “replaced” – they were outright killed and their souls forced to remain as ghosts, unallowed to pass on).

According to Ghosts of Ascalon, Ascalonian ghosts retain their human forms but their flesh has been replaced by a pale-blue ectoplasm. Killing an Ascalonian ghost outright is difficult – attacking them only removes ectoplasm from the form until they dissipate and, after a period of time the ghost will simply reform.

That means they are dead. They have been turned to ghosts that retain their human forms, but they are ghosts, killed by the foefire and so dead. Basically, what you are saying is that turning into a zombie is surviving a zombie apocalypse.

…It is seriously weird how all of Exosferatu’s posts seem to be unavailable to me now..

Anyways, what Tourmir said. If you watch the Ascalonian Catacombs story mode opening cinematic, or read the explanation of the Foefire in the later parts of Ghosts of Ascalon, it is clearly stated and shown (anti-respectively) that they were killed and they had physical corpses, but their spirits remained as ghosts. This wasn’t a transformation like the Margonites where their bodies became what looks to be etheric and more demonic in nature.

But the Ascalonians struck by the Foefire were killed and their souls bound to the land to relive the day of their death until interaction with sentient living beings whom they all view as attacking charr and outright assault in frenzied anger (Adelbern’s anger, according to Rytlock). Only other ghosts not affected by the Foefire can trick them (hence the method behind the AC explorable path where you coat yourself in ectoplasm to trick Ghast).

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I never said humans in the vicinity of the foefire survived, I said ascalonians survived, there’s a big difference. The foefire didn’t obliterate the entirety of the ascalon region, just the areas around the city. Not to mention people (refugees) that had fled or were fleeing. don’t forget the settlement in ebonhawke too. If it had cleaned out the whole ascalonian region there would have been no charr at all left because they got incinerated by the blast.

It affected most humans in the entire region. Only those on the outskirts were unaffected – even in Rebel’s Seclusion they were affected (unless it turns out those weren’t Foefire ghosts).

The only charr incinerated in the blast were those in the city itself – those just outside the city were left alive and saw the Foefire in its entirety. But as evidence by the ghostly presence throughout the region of Ascalon, the Foefire’s effects was far greater than just the city.

Narcemus.1348:

Or possibly, the Foefire blast had an effect on the ghosts remaining within the Catacombs and bound them to Adlebern’s will as well.

Unlikely. It didn’t affect the steward or whatever-he-was that was inside the palace when the Foefire occurred.

I don’t see why ghosts underground would be affected when a closer ghost wasn’t.

Tachenon.5270:

redslion.9675:

Hey, is there a chance Sylvari are alien beings?

“Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Where?” ~ Han Solo

I am… sylvari. I am… I…

-snip rest-

I am the first true sylvari.

I, Scarlet Briar, am FIRSTBORN!

(I originally posted this in a thread about Scarlet over in the Living World Discussion section, but since it ties in with my Master Plan theory I’m hoping it’s okay to post it here, too. /e fingers crossed)

Okay, your little post feels familiar… did you make it in reference to something?

draxynnic.3719:

Exosferatu.2961:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

SpeedFiend.4521:

Killeen’s gravesite also seems to have de-branded the area immediately around it.

No it didn’t. She was buried on the edge of the Dragonbrand.

Killeen was buried in the Secluded Glen of Fields of Ruin not on the edge of the Dragonbrand. Her resting place in Fields of Ruin contains a communing skill challenge.

I’m not sure if you’re clarifying or refuting here, so consider this clarification or counter-refutation as appropriate:

Ghosts of Ascalon is quite clear that Killeen’s burial place was close to, but explicitly NOT within, the Brand. There’s no evidence that her glen has had any influence on the Brand.

Strictly speaking, there should be a method to get to the Plains of Ashford from the glen without having to re-cross the Brand, but the point is that the Secluded Glen area was never part of the Brand.

…Am I the only one who is no longer able to see Exoferatsu’s posts? Even old ones seem missing now…

The wording around Glint’s obtaining free will is done in such a way that it seems she was a corrupted former living creature. The Claw of Jormag also seems to have an actual skeleton that’s corrupted – similar to the Dragonspawn from Edge of Destiny which was made from minotaur skeleton, fog/mist, and ice. The Shatterer is hollow and its “skin” seems to be rock (as opposed to the typical crystal bodies of Branded).

So I wouldn’t say that the dragon champions are “children” of the Elder Dragons. Technically, we don’t know that Glint reproduced per se – she could have simply made another “dragon champion” since we know that dragon champions can do such (Drakkar turning Svanir into a dragon champion, for example).

SpeedFiend.4521:

Killeen’s gravesite also seems to have de-branded the area immediately around it.

No it didn’t. She was buried on the edge of the Dragonbrand.

Bellyboomer.3048:

Of course it won’t be temporary, the living story is designed to add content to the game.

Then why is everything except the structures only temporary? – even most ambient NPCs get removed.

The only permanent content we got is the Karka Queen meta and the Scarlet Invasion, plus 3 new instances of 0 value and some structural change in Southsun and Divinity’s Reach. All this over the course of 8 months. And honestly, except for promises of future story, what did June and July give us permanently? The Dragonbash stuff’s all gone, except for Mai’s imprisoned self in Fort Marriner; Bazaar of the Four Wind’s stuff is all gone, except for activity rotation and Belcher’s Bluff.

For “adding content to the game”, there’s not a lot of long-term content. Seems that the only permanent content that’s remaining are pointless instances and mini-games.

JohnLShannonhouse.1820:

Iakdav (his later posts), Seven Star Stalker, Evans, Thalador (whose second post was directly alluded to in my post) and Eluveitie seem to accept Scarlet’s version of reality as ANets. This was evident from more posters than Mary Sue accusations*

I see their posts not as “Ascarlet’s version of reality as Anet’s” But rather “we know a good portion of what Scarlet saw, we know what she is supposed to have seen per the experiment’s intention and its previous failed events, and we know what she claims to have seen as well as what others have claimed for her to have seen and what she has accomplished; the combination of all this makes her very unrealistic”

She claims to have seen just the fate and purpose of the sylvari. We know she saw a representation of the sylvari’s life and the Pale Tree’s own etheric existence. We know the experiment allows people to see the Eternal Alchemy and Scarlet is the sole survivor of experiment test subjects. The claim that she saw Eternal Alchemy just comes from Vorpp and the purpose of the experiment. Nonetheless, Scarlet survived something dozen others died from, and did something no other asura, charr, norn, etc. did. She has far too many “I’m the only one who can do this” contributions to her past.

The question of the matter isn’t “did she really see the fate of the sylvari” but rather “did she interpret it correctly” – which doesn’t remove the problem of the matter at all.

@Insanius.4028: Ugh, too much in the spoiler tag. I’m gonna have to skip on reading the hypothesis/theory for now…

Ludovicus.7980:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Humorous, but you do realize that Caladbolg was a piece of bark, and not a seed or the like, right?

It doesn’t matter, so long as it has stem cells. Some plants, like roses or cacti can sprout from parts of the original plant. They don’t need seeds even though they are capable of producing them.

To me, that’s like saying you can create a 1,000 foot tall rose out of one of its thorns.

Besides, we already have 2 cases of special trees at/near sylvari graves. Even if one of which was already around when the sylvari died. As far as conspiracy theories go, the claim that sylvari are seeds to spread Pale Trees across the globe is far more likely (Rionnac’s grave lacking a tree can be explained via Zhaitan’s influence – Elder Dragon corruption kills sylvari rather than corrupts them after all, so death by Elder Dragon may counter Pale Tree seedlings).

Exosferatu.2961:

Grawl can speak and use tools and weapons. They can sculpt, build effigies, paint walls, and much more. Of all the races of Tyria, they are the most under-appreciated and underestimated. They are all not bad, some resulted to banditry. There grawl and among the Pact surprisingly such as Marksman Kamekeck.

‘Charrland’ is what Rytlock Brimstone said in Ascalon Catacombs Story cinematic, presumably that was the name of Ascalon before humans settled in.

Grawl were never enslaved. Grawl had a treaty with the charr, although, they just were scouts because they are unmanageable beyond that rank. The modern grawl that are in Ascalon are believed to be descendants of those who helped the charr take their land back from humans centuries ago.

An asura known as Frainn is manipulating the grawl around The Great Oouo which is cruel. The Great Oouo is only one of those stone heads across Tyria.

These are the faces carved on top of Riven Earth falls. Kotaki made them Colossus alike.

The Grawl can indeed speak… in Guild Wars 2. But all they had in Guild Wars 1’s time was mere grunting sounds. It’s outright part of their lore that they are primitive and haven’t advanced much since GW1’s time. That was a design purpose to make them stand out among the other lesser races, which either have evolved a bit but not as much as the player races, or are new to continental Tyria.

What Rytlock says is “This was originally charr land” – that is, land belonging to the charr. It’s not Charrland.

Grawl were enslaved. This may be of interest to you! Since you clearly don’t know of it – given not only this point, but the primitiveness of the grawl’s point.

“The earliest mention of them is found in early charr military tributes that predate the arrival of humans in the area. In these annals, the charr are always portrayed as victors with the defeated grawl pulling the charr commanders in great chariots. The charr dominated the grawl, forcing them into the Shiverpeak and Blazeridge Mountains and beyond, where they lived at a subsistence level.”

By Guild Wars 1’s time, they were indeed used as scouts and other footsoldiers, but rarely. Only successful use of them in this way is by Vatlaaw Doomtooth. Torch Harrowkeeper tried later, but we saw there was a communication error.

I don’t see what Frainn’s actions hold in relation to what I said. We already know that the grawl find things to worship (see link above – “grawl tend to worship a wide variety of items, ranging from natural features to unusual phenomena to powerful creatures.”). We know that Frainn is just taking advantage of this. The question is whether Frainn made the head to take advantage, or if he just hallowed it out.

The heads existed in different form in GW1 – less vegetation – in the picture I linked in the OP. They were akin to the other stone heads even then.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Why are there tombs for humans who died in an attack that wiped out all humans in the area?

Kormir had been a goddess for fifteen years at the time of the Foefire. Her statue makes much more sense than Ralena and Vasser’s coffins, and the coffins that the nameless Ascalonian ghosts pop out of, and that bloody massive statue of Barradin.

Technically speaking, nothing says Vassar and Ralena (the latter being sick even by the time of the Searing) had died in the Foefire. And nothing says those ghosts who like hiding in coffins had been buried there (maybe they’re the ghosts of cowards who, when the charr were besieging Ascalon City, fled into the catacombs to hide amongst the coffins).

Exosferatu.2961:

Ascalonians were not wiped out. They retain their human forms but their flesh has been replaced by a pale-blue ectoplasm.

Not completely, no, but no human survived near the vacinity of Ascalon City. Of the Foefire, at least. Many survived the Searing, but that’s not when they were turned into ghosts (their flesh was not “replaced” – they were outright killed and their souls forced to remain as ghosts, unallowed to pass on).

Nay of the Ether.8913:

There were also ascalonians that survived the foefire, so it’s possible they entombed the remains fo those killed hastily and left (we don’t know for sure how long of a delay between the foefire activation and the returning of the spirits was, but we do know their bodies lay all over ascalon for a time) and according to the first book there were bodies still laying all over the city that weren't entombed. It's even possible that the king's steward, who helped the adventurers and somehow was not maddened like the other ghosts, did it to honor them As for the statue of Kormir, it’s not impossible for one to be built for her in the time she ascended before the foefire hit. Not plausible, but possible.

No human in the vacinity of the Foefire’s effects survived the blast. The only humans who did were outside of the effect, like in Ebonhawke.

The steward actually died before the Foefire, so he was spared of the mind-altering effects. There may easily be other ghosts like this too, but who’s hatred of charr match that of Adelbern’s.

Keep in mind that all Foefire ghosts share Adelbern’s mentality and they all view all living life to be charr and a threat to immediately be eliminated. They hold little reason though other ghosts can trick them. This implies that a good number of those named ghosts we meet – like Viggo – were dead before the Foefire, but hate charr and charr-sympathizers to the point of having a similar hatred as those Foefire ghosts.

Hoelbrak’s head would just need to be tilted – it can go without a shoulder akittens current placement (though dig a bit and you’d get one. That, or my neck is odd in how flat I can have it.

God’s Skull head would just be like looking straight upwards, wouldn’t call that a crick… especially if dead. Or killed via broken neck.

Was just a thought either way. More likely to be statues. Question is: of what? Perhaps jotun, for those three at least. They are said to have once looked different in the past (now being uglier) and they did have grand monuments… giant statues would be befitting.

Though it’d work better if we saw more. And honestly I’d place the holographic faces in the Far Shiverpeak dungeons of GW1 as more likely to be what jotun used to look like.

Humorous, but you do realize that Caladbolg was a piece of bark, and not a seed or the like, right?

According to The Legions of the Charr, warbands are typically 5-15; according to Ghosts of Ascalon though they can be as big as up to 20.

Sigils by definition are magicaly symbols. Sigils and runes being little circular things that go only on armor or only on weapons is purely mechanical. It’s the symbol itself which should hold the power – at least in old celtic and norse magical practices (and Wicca too I think) that’s how it is. I’d imagine the same for Guild Wars runes and sigils, since runes in GW1 weren’t on circles (even if only able to be put on armor), and signets function the same as they do in typical fantasy settings (among other minor things in similarity).

No, we negative commenters find what she did as portrayed in the short story – as well as her lack-of-depth characteristics – to be rubbish to lore. Those things are canon; they actually happened. Which is where the problem lies.

What’s rubbish is that Scarlet “excelled” through Dynamics and Statics in about a year each, and then went into Synergatics to excell through that. As well as being taught by all the best of everything. All for the point of making Scarlet some “I can do anything I want to, because I can physically do it” kind of character.

It’s got little to do with what she proclaims, and more about what she did and what the out-of-character short story narration tells us.

-taking above post as if it were serious-

Grawl in modern times are either incapable or unwilling to sculpt statues of their gods. They simply find something that was either naturally made, or something that someone else made, and worship it. And while they didn’t advance much in the past 250 years, they have advanced.

Plus, it was the charr who dispersed the grawl, so they were dispersed while they lived – enslaved – in the “Charrland” as you dubbed it. The grawl actually remained in Ascalon after humanity took over the high plains.

@Caledas: The gate’s in human-controlled lands, actually. And Jennah is not only the Queen of Kryta, but the Regent of Ascalon (aka she has ruling power until a king of Ascalon is crowned).

It swhould also be noted that Wade Samuelson, Duke of Ebonhawke and leader of the Ebon Vanguard, has also issued its orders to be sealed – either Jennah or Samuelson’s approval is needed to open the gates.

If I’m understanding you correctly, that’s what we got from Arab – Abaddon tampered with the bloodstone to gift magic to the world, then the other five gods reduced that gift and subsequently shattered the bloodstone so the strongest spells couldn’t be used anymore, even if with less magic.

But that would still mean that folks at that time were limited to the schools, otherwise they’d never stop using unified magic.

Chronomancers don’t exist in canon. Same with everything else that’s only from Utopia or concept art.

Tom Gore.4035:

The reason they look identical is because the devs were lazy and used the same model.

Probably nothing more to it tbh.

The texture on the Dieses Plateau one is different, actually. The other two are smooth and pure stone, the Diessa one is rougher and has moss growing on it.

Stooperdale.3560:

The Nolan head appears to be in the middle of an old ascalonian machine room full of clockwork parts. It makes little sense for the humans to have kept a pagan statue in their town or built complex engineering around it. It seems more likely that the head was moved when Nolan was built by the humans or destroyed by the charr.

On the sleeping dead – I noticed that too yesterday and wondered if they were statues in the first place. As I said in the OP, the colossus seems stone-like in nature… Maybe they’re colossus corpses? The neck is always buried, afterall.

As to the nature of Nolan’s machinery… There is a charr who states it’s just a junkyard of their own broken scraps if I remember correctly. So they’re not human machinery but charr.

I don’t think it’s ever said that warriors are immortal in the Mists. In fact, there’s more to argue against it.

From Tomb of the Primeval Kings in GW1:

One moment I was moving to claim the center of the Hall; the next, darkness filled my vision and twisted nightmarish creatures erupted from everywhere at once. My allies were besieged, and I could not reach them… all I could do was fight my way through the darkness to get to the world outside. Their dying screams still ring in my spectral ears.

The servants of chaos struck like a volley of arrows; most did not even have time to raise a defense before they fell. I resurrected as many as I could and guided them to this portal, but now I fear the Tomb of the Primeval Kings may be lost to us.

Plus, if folks were immortal while in the Mists, then why were demons in the Realm of Torment trying to kill us? Plus there’s the whole Spirit Form during the fight against Dhuum in the Underworld (also part of the Mists); which has a play-on in the form of Lunatic Inquisition during the last Halloween, where those who were caught and killed were turned into ghosts (the Lunatic Court).

I think people misconceive the GW1 acts of resurrection and GW2’s lack of mechanical and lore death as becoming immortal…

Well, while the Bloodseeker uses the Bloodstone Shard from Arah skin, nothing says it’s an actual bloodstone shard.

But yeah, the Bloodstone’s now become trivialized. First used in making Legendaries, then that interview with Angel McCoy where she basically negated everything of value the Bloodstones had, and now this where you’re tampering with dust and shards of the bloodstone (despite it being stated in Eye of the North that physically tampering with the Bloodstone can prove dangerous).

I don’t see the Ascended crafting materials as having anything of lore value – even the Ascended rings and so forth. Khilbron’s Phylactery kind of told me to ignore all lore on them, since such an object would have had to be destroyed in Prophecies to kill him, and let’s be honest – no lich in the Guild Wars universe has a Phylactery as far as we know. Liches in the GW universe don’t function the same as liches in D&D… or at least didn’t.

With how things are going, who knows, maybe they’ll end up retconing the history so that Dwayna was Khilbron’s mother as well.

Well there’s this – definition being “belonging to or deriving from heaven”

That’s all I can really see out of Emphyreal Fragments/Stars. What’s interesting is thakittens sole use is to make Vision Crystals (way to reduce the quality of that item…), which is used to draw the gaze of the gods, supposedly.

Dragonite Ore… beats me. But given the existence of Crystalline Ore, I bet it’s related to the Elder Dragons somehow – the latter too (or the Searing/Glint).

I don’t really put much stock in the lore value of these Ascended materials though. I mean, it’s supposed to be very dangerous to physically tamper with the bloodstones (see Bloodstone Cave mission in Eye of the North), and the art of making Deldrimor Steel was lost per the norn storyline (unlike Beigarth succeeded in figuring out to recreate it).

Kralkatorrik is beyond the gate. Or supposedly is/was. And Jennah did look directly into Kralkatorrik’s mind…

But for your last question – mechanics. Sadly, ArenaNet cannot produce content fast enough for it to make sense for how fast we go through content. I mean, arguably, the Pact should already be making improvements of reducing Risen and going after the next Elder Dragon. Instead we get Scarlet because stuff.

Narcemus.1348:

I’d say, personally, that they are shooting themselves in the foot if they claim that there will not be any futuristic fractals. It is already set up to be a possibility with the lore of the mists. Still, I digress.

That’s not what was said at all.

Just that, presently, there are no modern or future fractals.

We know they’ll want to expand the kinds of fractals over time, so there could easily end up being fractals based off of events we can do in game (imagine a Fractal featuring the Battle of Claw Island, but all three mentors are there and we fight beside them against the Risen forces… then Zhaitan – with its original model to show that his messed up version is, as the latest GM interview says, partially due to the starving and other Pact actions – show up for epic battle time) as well as things that “can happen” or “may happen” (Battle of Divinity’s Reach anyone? Or perhaps when the other ED get models, witness a fight between Primordus and Jormag with us in the middle?).

The potentials are endless. They can still do modern (like the Thaumanova Reactor explosion could be considered as), futuristic, and “alternate versions” of modern/past/future.

Anet’s trying to hard to make her sounds cute.

By psycho girlfriend is really fitting for the personality presented in that “til next time” letter. Especially signing it with XOXOX

That seriously made me cringe.

Those are, geographically speaking, the same falls. Soreen Draa is what was Rata Sum proper in GW1. The river is in the same location, and the falls are placed in the same location (though GW1’s falls were taller so I’m guessing the lore explanation is “the asura removed some land, including the stone heads”). There’s also the floating stone bridge that goes over the river is also still existent in the area (screen from GW1 ).

A dev (already forgot who) said that all Fractals are of past events on the forum. It was in a thread dedicated to speculating upon the nature of the Uncategorized Fractal.

Edit: Found it.

Scott McGough.6897:

We’re not ready to reveal the whole truth about the Uncategorized Fractal yet, but I can tell you that it does not represent a potential future for Rata Sum. All of the other fractals represent discrete sections of the past, recreated. We have the ancient past, more recent past, and mythic/lost to history past, but there are no futures in there.

The similarities between the two maps cited is more a function of asuran architecture having common elements rather than a story-related easter egg. In other words, the maps look similar because they were designed and built by like-minded builders with similar design aesthetics, not because they represent the same place at different points in history.

Hope this helps,

Though one could be nitpicky (as someone has been) and argue that he was saying all Fractals except Uncategorized is of the past, the syntax of his sentence indicates otherwise.

Links to other out-of-game Fractal lore for those who missed:
http://wartower.tumblr.com/post/49691195928/in-this-lorespecial-episode
http://www.guildmag.com/magazine/issue9/interview.htm

Summary of the two links above: The Fractals do not represent perfect histories, the closest to perfect histories that can exist would be how it happened if we were there. Some Fractals may even be a mixture of multiple times and places. Cliffside is a representations of the beginnings of history, inspired by the myth of Prometheus, and Urban Battlegrounds is an alternative version of The Searing. Aquatic Fractal is implied to be a mixture of Ascalonian and Elonian history, and may be pre-historic events. And minor implied confirmation that Volcanic Fractal deals with Primordus corrupting living beings (it was asked if that was the case and we got told that Primordus can corrupt the living though via different means than the others).

Rata Sum is an asuran name (like Quora Sum and Rata Pten). People put too much stock on that anagram for lore. It’s only a nod to mursaat in a game design meaning.

The five races were jotun, mursaat, seer, dwarf, and Forgotten. So the colossus couldn’t have been one of those five. Too great a difference. Though it is possible the colossus was part of a race that went extinct at the time – keep in mind that those five are just the sentient surviving races known to the jotun. We already know of two other races that survived the last rise – karka and djinn – with minor hints of three others – krait, kodan, and tengu.

So the other day guild members and I were talking about some stone heads asked about. We noted that there’s quite a few identical heads in a somewhat large space, perhaps more we didn’t notice yet. Figured to bring them up here and see what you guys think.

The heads found which are identical are found in Hoelbrak (near Sigfast’s Steading), Diessa Plateau (near the hidden strawberry patch), and Fireheart Rise (God’s Skull).

There are other large stone heads – in both GW1 and GW2 – including the well-known giant heads of Wychmire Swamp in Caledon Forest, The Great Oouo of Timberline Falls (though burrowed out by Inquest, the outside looks mursaat-ish so I’m doubtful the outside is asuran-made), and in GW1 the Riven Earth waterfalls as well as a statue off the coast of Sparkfly Swamp (also in GW1).

Personally, the heads (Sans Oouo) remind me of the Colossus – they all seem to be male and bald, and obviously humanoid. The Wychmire Swamp ones look rather eroded so they may have once looked much more similar to the three identical ones. The Colossus itself, appearing male and bald, looks like it could be made of stone or something similar – I wonder if these giant heads are remnants of the Colossus’ civilization in the ancient past.

Others’ thoughts?

Attachments in order: Sigfast’s Steading; Town of Nolan; God’s Skull; Wychmire Swamp

The point, Eluveitie, is that you said it was impossible.

We know it’s not impossible for a dragon minion to be corrupted by multiple ED energies. The question is whether or not the ED would/could do it themselves. You said it is impossible, but that’s not necessarily so. Nothing indicates such, and the presumption you make is what lead people to believing sylvari are ED minions because they’re immune to corruption. There is in fact more to indicate that it is possible and can happen without third party interference than without – after all, we’ve yet to see Elder Dragons minions mix outside of CoE.

If all of Kekai’s artwork got into the game, Guild Wars 2 would be an infinite times better. Even if it was still full of comedy.

Because lets face it, even if they give it the voice of Gilbert Gottfried, Kekai’s Nightmare Court and his Risen King of Orr or even his Giganticus Lupicus makes the game’s versions pale in comparison.
Even his Meteorologicus was far superior to the fluff of clouds seen in-game. If it was that version, I may actually want it. Bifrost too.

I mean, just imagine facing this off in the Dragonbrand, or fighting this thing in Orr.

I wonder why Kekai left ArenaNet, when he provided so much epicness to the game’s art.

For those wanting more Kekai awesomeness, this is his blog

@Loki: The bloodstones’ effect is NOT a cultural psychological effect on humanity. Even in pre-GW2 interviews, such as what drax mentions, this was made clear.

Though with Angel’s interview this is called into question, everything beforehand tells us that everyone was limited to the rules of the Bloodstones (at least in the past) and Abaddon’s gift of magic – hell, even NPCs talking in GW2 claim this.

@Dustfinger: I recall an interview which said they hate magic and distrust magic users – even non-charr magic users like the asura – but utilize them because they realize the usefulness and practicallness of, for example, an asura gate or that portable meteor shower.