Guild Wars 2

It’s also a norn model that’s the hologram. And I think it’s due to it being the most sex-appealing dance among the playable races’ dances.

The Bazaar of the Four Winds and the Zephyr Sanctum are two separate locations. Given the wording, I believe the Bazaar to be a place on land, located within the Labyrinthine Cliffs – this location will probably be permanent like Southsun Cove, or will end up being like Claw Island (always on the map, but can never return to until prompted) – I hope the former, as I always wish Claw Island was an instance to visit at any time.

The Zephyr Sanctum and related elements will likely be like the rest of the living story – something to come and go that have a chance of returning in the future (like Canach or Mai escaping, or remnants of the Molten Alliance restarting a new threat, or yet another karka threat).

You could easily have given them “ripped” bodies during character creation. That would likely alter the armor designs enough to make it look like they got muscle beneath that cloth and leather armor.

A Massive Headache.1879:

That doesn’t necessarily mean quartz won’t have anything to do with it, I wish people would stop making assumptions as though they know how the reward system will exactly work.

I can wait for the codes for zenith weapons, they do look cool though

There probably are folks who know exactly how the reward system will work. These folks being playtesters, presuming ArenaNet has kept player testers after development of the initial game at least.

Anyways, as xCrusadentx.2784 said, the achievement rewards is just one aspect of the update, while the quartz is most likely to be akin to the Azurite Crystal/Orbs, which were limited-time, though one’s able to get one for their home instance. Think on it: would ArenaNet be so stupid as to limit achievement rewards which will be permanent to something available for only a limited time?

Anet has done some dumb decisions merchandising-wise, but that’d be an all-time high of stupid, and I doubt that they’d be doing such.

You found her words a lot more interesting than I did, that’s for sure Lutinz.

Mai’s words definitely make out the Aetherblades to still be a threat, but for all she knows we never found the Gendarran Fields hideout. Of course, it’s possible that she does know this but is confident enough of her men will be out there to bust her out. Her words came off more to me as “my men will free me, just wait and see” rather than “you think I’m the leader? Hah, guess again.”

As to Scarlet being an organization… while Mai’s wording is vague enough, the way it’s said and worded doesn’t really come off as being about a group but an individual. But that’s all a matter of interpretation I guess. Both cases would be.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

“Kite City” seems to be a place holder for the Zephyr Sanctum.

This is my guess.

ArenaNet tend to give internal names during development – these internal names tend to be descriptive to indicate what it is supposed to be viewed as. For example, Ascalon was referred to as “Regrown” during GW2 development, and Kryta as “Valley.”

The Zephyr Sanctum’s internal name was likely Kite City.

That’s Caledon Forest. If by your question on if the content will be there, unlikely. Connected to there? I doubt it, but that’s my opinion of the content not being tengu related.

Sieg.8439:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There isn’t a single frost/ice armorset in the game. Or nature.

Err… All sylvari cultural armor, Twilight Arbor sets?
Something with chunks of ice or crystal really would be seriously awesome though.

kitten . That deserves a facepalm on my account.

But to be fair, I was actually thinking of rock rather than plant. The two just tend to meld together in my mind, I guess. And there is only 1 plant theme for non-sylvari still, which is an “evil purple thorns of death” (well, purple for the weapons).

Zeivu.3615:

Gabby.3205:

Hermes.7014:

I think it looks cool but really they should start making some ice themed armor too.
Something like the armor of the Son of Svanir woman they later scrapped: http://www.theroundtablet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/guild-wars-2-norn-svanir.jpg

This looks pretty cool, but it was probably scrapped because the Sons of Svanir are misogynists. It wouldn’t make sense to have women that were Sons of Svanir.
Still, awesome armor. I really wanted to see something like that.

It’s true that they misogynists, but IMO, I don’t think it’s reason enough to cut them entirely. There could be off-shoot, secretive cliques that include women or see them as equal. After all, Pyre Fierceshot’s granddaughter trained female charr in the arts of war in secret. And historically speaking, men have shared once forbidden knowledge with daughters and wives, leading to real events in our everyday lives.

You don’t need female Sons of Svanir in order to have female icebrood-themed armor.

Buttercup.5871:

There is an entrance to the dominion of the winds in Lion’s arch. Where the road stops in the east is a gate, closed, guarded by Tengu.
Edit: look at the map, it leads straight to the dominion. Haha, this is the last thing I needed for confirmation, together with that last spoiler picture in the other thread.

Please read my post

It doesn’t lead straight into the Dominion. The Dominion of the Winds ends on the western side of Garrenhoff, which is between the Dominion of the Wind sand Lion’s Arch.

What exactly the deal with the Shuttered Gate is, is quite unknown. The merchants near there complain that the tengu won’t let them through, but the Dominion of Winds has been around for roughly 100 years. I doubt that said merchants would be so ignorant as to believe that they’d be able to get into an area isolated for decades. Rather, it implies that the Shuttered Gate is a new addition.

But again, the Shuttered Gate does NOT lead directly into the Dominion of Winds. Despite what the tengu says, as we can very easily observe such for ourselves.

Zallis is probably under the mistaken common conception that Rata Sum is of mursaat origin, when that’s only highly-spread player belief and there’s actually more evidence now for Rata Sum’s original ruins to be of asuran origins (as ironic as it may be).

Gandarel.5091:

Once human druids gave up their body to become one with nature, taking up a treant form. Maybe this is one of the forms.

Unlikely. Of all the spiritual druids and the physical husks of their treant bodies, they’re all of the same size as your standard treant. I doubt that they’d become roughly 5 times larger.

Anyways, these stone faces were present in Eye of the North, and were carved from the stone itself. The most noticable of them being at the waterfall of Riven Earth. Given those were made of stone, and the nature of the stone face of “Itlaocol,” I suspect that these face carvens are remnants of a now-gone group, human or humanoid.

This doesn’t really seem like something druids would do, given their described nature and the personalities of them we’ve seen, and no other human group other than Orrians and Krytans were in the Maguuma, and the former don’t seem to do such things either. So my guess is that these are remnant statues from a race wiped out – or nearly so – by the Elder Dragons. If the jotun’s belief that they once held reign over all of Tyria (or at least influence), then I can easily see them being of jotun origin – or of ogre origin, should they have ever reached as far west.

About the game box quote, during development it was supposed to be that which dungeons you do or don’t do would affect who returns to Destiny’s Edge – all, some, or neither. This apparently got scrapped mid-development.

Anyways, the “decisions” that “change a game world” is more in reference to the choices of the personal story, and not which dungeons you do or don’t do. All you did was skip some of the story, and you’re left confused for it. No different than what would happen if you picked up a book and started reading the last chapter of the story before the rest.

Except for the fact that dev rarely comment on things except to clarify misunderstandings or about future content, and some of the lore-interested developers have explicitly stated that they enjoy reading debates on lore in the lore forums, so they like leaving things for people to debate about.

If they were to comment frequently to clarify lore, it’d leave us little to discuss really. So I don’t think that their lack of comments on this forum shows how little they care for it at all, as they could be not posting out of the enjoyment of keeping discussions of the lore going.

Firstly, charr don’t have lords. They’re a fully militant culture, they have ranks – and they all earn their ranks through militant deeds (Legionnaire, Centurion, Tribune, Imperator – the last two being limited in number, the last being the three leaders of the charr). Then on top of those ranks they have position titles (such as quaestor, aide-de-camp, primus, scrapper, etc.).

Every charr goes to a fahrar – fahrar’s are basically the charr versions of single-school classes which are enforced by the legions. Upon graduation, the charr within your fahrar are your warband. Each legion has their own set of fahrars, within their own homelands (so in-game we only see Iron Legion fahrars, I believe – there’s 3 Primuses that can be found within or around the Black Citadel; Primus being the “teacher” of a fahrar).

The only charr to not have a rank or went to a fahrar would be the children of gladium who got outcasted or of charr who left charr society (such as moving to Lion’s Arch and raising a kid there, though some charr still send their cubs to the Legions to go to a fahrar and upon graduating from a fahrar, join a warband).

Anyways, on general charr lore I suggest the following four links:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Movement_of_the_World#Charr
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ecology_of_the_Charr
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Legions_of_the_Charr
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Charr#Culture – warning, fan-written and I noticed someone recently removed the fact that their claws are retractable (despite in-game models which didn’t have such due to modeling issues).

Whether or not your character could read and write would really depend on the education system for Divinity’s Reach – and then whether or not there was ever anyone willing to teach someone who can’t read/write how to do so. Which isn’t delved into so much.

But lore wise, the New Krytan alphabet was supposedly developed so that it would be easier to use than the Old Krytan alphabet, and thus allowing even the common folks to learn how to read and write, which is why it is now used everywhere while in GW1 even Ascalonian (which uses the same language system but different letters even in lore) wasn’t used much (folks didn’t know how to read, but they learned to recognize the symbols well enough for when it was placed on store signs).

Edit: Ah, while going for my source on the last but, I found this in said source:

The Durmand Priory set out to promote literacy and make the use of the new alphabet commonplace, so that all intelligent beings could read and understand the words that were appearing all around them.

Today, every citizen of Tyria, regardless of their origins, is given the opportunity and the education to read and understand the alphabet of New Krytan.

So I think the Priory would be teaching the poor how to read and write, so as to improve the passing and recording of history and knowledge.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_Diffusion_in_Contemporary_Kryta

There’s been a few threads on this in the past. Sadly, ArenaNet needs to really improve their search engine. Google search helped me get these results:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Legendary-Weapon-Lore-Request/first#content
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Legendary-Weapons-Lore-Wise/first#content
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Legendary-Weapons/first#content

And here’s the most recent one, from another forum: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80647-lore-behind-legendary-weapons/

To quote myself there:

Overall, there’s no lore to them. However, there are themes that many hold.

Twilight/Sunrise/Eternity is wielded by the RIsen High Wizard who guards the gates of Arah. So they may be of Orrian origin.

Frostfang utilizes a weapon with the Corrupted Skeggox skin for its precursor and Frostfang itself has a draconic appearance; with the ice effects Frostfang seems to be a “furthered corrupted” form of the Corrupted Skeggox (furthermore, it’s made from Honor of the Waves tokens which is heavily dealing with Jormag’s influence).

The Flameseeker Prophecies holds a New Krytan transcription of Meerak the Shouter’s… shouts from post-Searing GW1 Prophecies.

The Moot is, as said, likely a norn thing. The Bifrost too.

Kraitkin is likely something similar to the Blue Orb found during the Apatia storyline (fear that you’d have to cause harm to another), which is (imo) heavily implied to be tied to the deep sea dragon and is believed by the krait to be tied to their prophets.

Rodgort likely has ties to fiery charr/a dragon given the shape, but may just be a reference to the GW1 fire elementalist skills which in turn were a reference to Trogdor.

Kamohoali’i Kotaki is clearly named after the elusive artist of grandeur, Kekai Kotaki.

I suspect Kudzu is tied to the sylvari somehow.

Given design, I suspect that Frenzy and Quip hold shared origins.

Based on their looks, The Predator and Incinerator seem to be of charr origins.

The Minstrel is all that’s left of Helder Torlack, a minstrel who was done in by a mesmer. Its his flesh and bones forged into a weapon to eteranlize his musical voice. Also, The Dreamer comes from Canterlot, made by Princess Celestia with the aid of Twilight Sparkles. (yes, I’m joking on this)

The rest are still a mystery.

This may be due to cultural ignorance in the Middle Eastern area of the globe (as that and South American are the geographical regions I have spent the least time looking into foreign cultures), but aren’t a fair portion of the Arabic cultures similar (not the same mind you – but being Islamic, the etomology, and other such things, and not the castes and groups (whatever they may be called)). Whereas Korean and Chinese are much more noticeably different.

Then there’s the whole rivalry between the cultures, where Arabic have/had rivalries in groups and not nations, the East Asian ones were between the nations themselves.

I suppose a closer comparison would be to mesh Sunni Islam with a rival Islam sect, or Catholicism with Protestant – each created rivalries, and some may be insulted to find people who’re either meshing or unable to distinguish the groups. But as I understand it, it all lies in patriotism with the issue over the Canthan district fiasco – which is something I’ll probably never be capable of comprehending properly. I just lack that kind of motivation for such things.

I think the thing is that Cantha uses a mixture of Asian cultures, and it’s that mixture that offends/offended folks; on the flip side, Largos and Orr seem to take only from Arabic culture as an influence.

There are some in-universe depictions/descriptions, according to an NPC in northern Dredgehaunt (the Priory base in jotun ruins, forgot location and NPC name and too lazy to look it up atm) which says that according to what they’ve found, they looked a lot better than they do now.

But I doubt we’d actually see these things, unless those ethereal faces in GW1’s dungeons were ancient jotun.

Stooperdale.3560:

The living story timeline isn’t mean to be fully integrated with the personal story timeline. A new player can do the aetherblades then the personal story, creating their own history and timeline as they do it. This means that the elder dragons are not doing anything different from what they were doing at the end of the personal story since that is near past, contemporary, and/or near future for players. Like Orr, the elder dragons are locked in time.

This is solely a mechanical explanation and utterly ignores lore.

In the canonical lore timeline, The Lost Shores – and all of the Living Story – takes place after Zhaitan’s defeat. Halloween and Wintersday likely takes place canonically in the same order as the other content updates, which would mean Zhaitan→Thorn→Lost Shores→Tixx→Flame and Frost→Southsun Stuff→Dragon Bash and Aetherblades→Bazaar

In the lore timeline, several months have passed since Zhaitan’s defeat then, as NPCs stated that the Molten Alliance has been attacking for months during the third installment of Flame and Frost. This means there’s been several months where the Pact has been acting off-screen since Zhaitan’s defeat.

Well if its goal was as the two norn in Hoelbrak I mentioned before is what Jormag’s goal was – divide and conquer, effectively, to bring the norn race to extinction – then he would care if the norn is male or female, in order to separate them, reduce chances of procreation, and lower the number of norn. Norn alone have proven to be a threat to Jormag, so I can easily see him going at them with the mentality of “corrupt them or destroy them utterly, take no chances” and strengthening the Sons of Svanir’s misogyny would certainly serve that.

The fight caused the trap due to the trap being stuck by spiderwebs. There were support beams within the pre-designed pit, but there was no unintended wreckage. The pit was always there, the only thing that collapsed was a false floor, so if the Great Collapse was caused by such, it would have happened long ago before the spider webs were made and probably while making the trap itself.

Well, I guess it would be possible, if they knocked a support beam out of place or something. But I don’t recall such happening (but it’s been a long while since I read the book so I may be wrong).

mercury ranique.2170:

Izu is not a weaponsmith he is a crafter asked to make weapons for the pact. In war all tools are considered weapons, so do the airship. But it looks like you bend the facts to your own conclusion.

I suggest you go to Caer Aval, and he will tell you outright that he made those weapons with the other two. And he only mentions the weapons. That’s on top of what FlamingFoxx replied to you with.

The airships were made, explicitly told to us – no bullkitten included – by asuran, human, and charr technology. If the tengu were a heavy contributor, I think that they’d have been mentioned, even if Izu was the only one involved among the tengu.

mercury ranique.2170:

Sanctum Cay did have clifs, tidal waves could have changed it to what it is now.

Yes, the tidal wave could have, but we have no reason to believe that it changed beaches (to which all edges of Sanctum Cay had) into cliffs with towering rocks jutting out of the water. And that’s on addendum to the definition of Cay, and the fact that most of Sanctum Cay is mostly swamp and low hills. A tidal wave doesn’t add land, as FlamingFoxx said.

Serromus Jakta.3987:

I know the Elder Dragons are not supposed to be super intelligent, as they described them as forces of nature and destruction

They know everything the beings they corrupt know.

I’d say that makes them pretty kitten smart when they’ve corrupted many civilizations and living beings over thousands upon thousands of years. Primordus may be the least intelligent, since he seems unwanting to corrupt living beings.

mercury ranique.2170:

A more important question could be why we defeated Zhaitan first and why now. He was the third to wake up. In the personal story it is told that we fight him first cause he was striking against Lion’s Arch. So why did he think he was ready for the fight before the others.

He awoke in a land full of corpses with a lot of magical items. Was said outright by Trahearne in one of the personal story steps that Zhaitan took light of the world because he woke up with a nation at his feet already.

While the other Elder Dragons have had to build their strength and forces, Zhaitan basically woke up with breakfast in bed. Probably why he invaded north right after waking (during the novel Sea of Sorrows) too.

Plus he was much closer to civilization than any other Elder Dragon – Jormag and Kralkatorrik being next closest, and the former pushed the norn out of their homelands a few years after waking and is now steadily invading, while Kralkatorrik fled from being almost killed and hasn’t been heard from since for (now) 6 years.

Honestly speaking, I’m now expecting Jormag and Primordus to launch a simultaneous (by chance) assault – Primordus has had 200 years to build up a Destroyer army, and had all the asuran artifacts to consume at his leisure (well, except for dwarven interference), while Jormag has had the aid of the Sons of Svanir even before he woke up.

You mean the trap that was triggered in Blimm’s Tomb? All that did was collapse the false floor in that room, nothing more.

hamsteak.1368:

the gate to the dominion of the four winds is in lion’s arch as well

Dominion of Winds*

And not really. The Shuttered Gate is dislocated from the wall. It may be a blunder on Anet’s part, but if you look at the Kessex Hills map you can see the wall heading south before reaching Garrenhoff, which matches the novel map perfectly. Besides, if the Shuttered Gate was directly connected to the Dominion of Winds, then Garrenhoff is a huge kitten lore flaw. Why? 1) Karka invaded there, wouldn’t be possible if the wall extended to the Shuttered Gate, and 2) Garrenhoff is an active trading port where ships come and go, which wouldn’t be possible if the wall extended to the Shuttered gate, and 3) we don’t see a wall in the distance.

So despite common belief, no, Lion’s Arch does not lead straight to the Dominion of Winds.

If you really think about it…

If it was tengu related, ArenaNet would tell us in the preview. Why? Because so many people love the tengu, and telling us beforehand “hey, we got tengu stuff coming!” would excite people to the nth degree, bring players who have taken a break back, or have folks anticipating the content more than without saying such.

Because of this, I doubt it’s tengu related.

There isn’t a single frost/ice armorset in the game. Or nature.

Weapon wise, you forgot Warden for nature, and Krait (perhaps Pirate) for sea, and Inquest for lightning (basically red version of Mystic though).

MokahTGS.7850:

Compete in the Sanctum Sprint for a chance at one of these
three special back items, representing the Aspects of Wind , Sun,
and Lightning.

Directly from the release page. RNG for the “win”

Also directly from the release page:

Put your account achievement points to good use! From now on, you’ll be able to unlock rewards like exclusive new armor skins, weapon skins, and permanent account bonuses as you earn achievement points on your account. You’ll also earn laurels, gems, gold, powerful items, and PvP and WvW rewards as your achievement score grows. These rewards will be retroactively awarded for any tiers of account achievement rewards you’ve already earned on your account.

By the sounds of it, the limited time gear is going to be RNG (perhaps some unannounced gemstore stuff too?) while the permanent new gear will not be RNG.

Gabby.3205:

Anhellbro.7213:

new skins from official website its Achiv points. Im hope 10000 =))

Wait. Will they be bought with achievements points or will they be unlocked with them, like HoM points?

Says unlocked, so I don’t think they’ll be bought.

You may only get 1 one-time item per “amount” of points reached, or it may be like the HoM (hoping), but they’re not bought.

I wouldn’t be so sure, BlueSoda. It seems that Anet’s beginning going into aerial combat with Dragon Bash’s introduction of those launch pads. The Bazaar of the Four Winds may be introducing more launching mechanics, which can easily evolve into aerial combat if given the right incentive, motivation, and ingenuity.

Besides, we know that free movement in the air would be possible, given that we have underwater movement. Change animations and skills, and you more or less got it. Though I imagine it’d be a limited playstyle, such as unique unto dungeons or personal/living story instance or triggered by specific events.

And no one thought that it may be a new villain enemy, and that those three pieces are to be NPC-unique.

Well, I hope not, as that head is rather sinisterly cool, but what’s wrong with having some fire themed stuff so long as it’s not all fire themed? And this is speaking without knowing what the dyeable areas are… dyeable fire would be neat…

I would love some lightning, ice, and hell, lets have some Branded Crystal themes going. But fire is probably just the easiest kind of elemental-themed armor to imagine while looking “cool” or “sinister” (the later definitely the intended look).

Indeed. This is a “to all those other threads on this topic” kind of topic. One which, like many of such topics, I agree with.

“Four Winds” isn’t exclusive to the tengu people.

“He’s not as powerful in this realm as he is in his own. We believe it’s because we scattered him to the four winds.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wynn_%28Ghost%29

Looking at the wallpaper concept art, I’m seeing lots of water, cliffs, and some mountains in the background. I place my bets on the Steamspur Bay area.

Logically thinking about the whole tengu thing:

Tengu are a HUGE part of GW lore. They’ve been around since day 1. If ArenaNet were to begin going into the tengu, I’d expect it to be done on a higher level of quality than what we’ve seen of the living story thus far. Given that there’s a new location that seems to be a persistent area rather than instanced (this “Labyrinthine Cliffs”), that means that the new location is most likely to be on par to Southsun Cove.

Also consider the fact that a lot of players are interested in the tengu, it would only serve to disappoint if it isn’t done properly. Now, also given the players’ view on tengu, it would be advertisingly foolhardy to not mention tengu if the tengu were a focus.

The best we’ll get of the tengu, I think, will be a new outpost outside of the Dominion of Winds – and this is only if the new zone is the area west of Lion’s Arch (despite common belief thanks to a wrong NPC, that area between Kessex, Gendarran, and LA is not part of the Dominion of Winds – if it were, then Garrenhoff would be isolated and it is an active trading port with ships coming and going, and we’d see a huge wall from Garrenhoff looking into the Sea of Sorrows; we don’t – plus, the novel map shows that the Dominion of Winds doesn’t reach that far west; it is likely an expansion attempt by the tengu). But there’s no mountains really nearby, unless we count the new jumping puzzle.

Don’t get me wrong, I love tengu and want them to be more influencing in the game and be playable even. But I just don’t think ArenaNet would be able to do them proper justice with a living story step.

I don’t think you can really take “four winds” to only be similar to the tengu houses.

“He’s not as powerful in this realm as he is in his own. We believe it’s because we scattered him to the four winds.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wynn_%28Ghost%29

The term “four winds” is used by more than just tengu, for starters. This group, whomever are, is a group viewed mythologically – that means that they’re rarely seen, to the point where most people don’t believe they exist, or they’re just that old. Given the Durmand Priory was around long before the Canthan tengu arrived on Tyria (via boats, might I add!), I doubt that anything of the tengu’s would be viewed as mythological. In fact, I’d argue that this “Zephyr Sanctum” would be last seen before the Priory’s establishment.

We already know that they live in the sky, given that this Zephyr Sanctum is flying, and everything about the theme is sky-related (with “Aspects of Wind , Sun,
and Lightning” among other things on the site page). This doesn’t fit tengu at all, but rather a civilization – regardless of size – that likely lives in the clouds. The “Bazaar of the Four Winds” may be tied to that concept of people who live among the winds of the world.

However, then again, there’s something to note:

The Bazaar of the Four Winds is gathering— merchants are converging from all corners of Tyria to sell their wares. But this time it’s not just shady characters and risky trades; this year, the mystical, flying Zephyr Sanctum has landed […]

The Bazaar of the Four Winds and the Zephyr Sanctum are two utterly separate and possibly unrelated things.

But still, looking at the conecpt art and images, I don’t really see the land as being surrounded by a giant wall. At best, it’ll be the outside of the Dominion of Winds, perhaps above the Aetherblade Retreat (which despite the wiki’s claim is NOT part of the Dominion of Winds, even though the tengu have seemingly cut off access to that area – most likely the area is being used an expansion attempt on their part), and the Zephyr Sanctum unrelated.

dunnberry.2964:

Just saying there are some corrupted largos, there’s either a vet or champ one in frost gore at the end of the guild rush quaggas one in the water! And the jungle wurm I think is corrupted by something(mordemeth maybe?)

afaik, and according to the wiki, that largos is just this guy who spawns a nearby random-timed event. He’s not corrupted.

Furthermore, the jungle wurm being corrupted is 100% speculation by players.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

But I don’t agree with your point. I’m not sure if centaurs have been in contact with Jormag’s influence much at all, and I don’t see any use in corrupted bats. And as far as the Jotun are concerned, many of them have fled. Also, there is a corrupted Jungle Wurm in Caledon Forest. Not by Jormag, but corrupted none the less.

Centaurs are in contact with the risen, at least in one personal storyline; the modniir are also pretty close to Jormag’s realm of influence. There are jotun and grawl who worship Jormag. Jungle wurm is as said still speculation. Elder Dragons corrupt all things – why would bats be exempt?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The female Norn are a different matter though. We are told explicitly that their fate after facing Jormag, is unknown.

And by observation, we can explicitly see that the fate of jotun and grawl – at the very least – is unknown in regards to corruption. They outright worship Jormag the same way the Sons of Svanir do, yet we see no Icebrood Grawl or Icebrood Jotun.

To believe that the female norn are immune to corruption simply because we don’t see them is foolhardy.

I do not disagree on you saying “That is a clear hint that more is going on.” but to believe them immune is ill-advised given the lack of information. And I’m sorry, but it is on equal footing with the lack of other creatures being corrupted – by any Elder Dragon who’s influence is nearby those said creatures.

However, in most cases we can blame it on the designers not creating an Icebrood Wurm model, or a Branded Wurm model. This is different, but still does not merit drawing the conclusion that female norn are, for some mysteriously unknown reason, immune to Jormag’s influence. Because Jora was most certainly not immune, just resistant. There’s a fine difference between the two, and you seem to blur the line between them.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

You of all people should recognize a lore mystery when you see one.

You utterly missed my point entirely. You’re drawing a baseless conclusion only on the notion that something is never seen – your conclusion being effectively summarized as “what’s not seen, doesn’t exist” and I was saying that conclusion shouldn’t be reached based on what immensely little we have on the notion.

You only seem to take into consideration two points: “Jora was not turned into an icebrood” (a skewed view of the truth at that); and “no one has seen an icebrood norn.” What you ignore utterly is: “Jora resisted but was not immune to Jormag’s influence;” “female norn can be corrupted by Zhaitan, utterly;” “we have not seen all of Jormag’s forces, territories, abilities, or capabilities;” and most importantly “Elder Dragons corrupt similarly, but with different methodologies, meaning what one dragon can corrupt, another should be capable of – regardless of whether it does or chooses to.”

You theorize that female norn are, for some unknown mysterious unexplained and unhinted at reason, immune to Jormag’s influence, and only Jormag’s influence. But the problem is just how far fetched that is when looking at the whole picture. It’s a mystery for what happens to the female norn, but nothing – and I do mean nothing – except for the lack of conclusion points to immunity to corruption.

About the SoS spoilers (note: I haven’t read the book yet)

As for the personal nemesis’ intention, I think it’s personal glory. Not trying to take over the world, but personal gain by developing technologies for herself. Reasons being:

1. The Molten Alliance was left to their own accord. All the personal nemesis seems to have done was do a bit of match-making. Likely, her outcome of the deal would be to obtain some of that technology; alternatively, she got nothing from the deal and set this up as either a distraction (less likely imo) or to see if technological advancements would be made at all.
2. If she was interested in making technological advancements “for the greater good of the people,” she’d probably be funding the Pact or getting the Pact to spread their technological advancements out of said Pact. Instead, she’s funding criminal organizations. Only reason I can think of for this path to be “for the greater good” would be to find new directions of technology – an experiment to see what different paths and directions technology can go in.
3. Scarlet, should she be the personal nemesis, wouldn’t gain much by setting up the plot to take a spot in the Captain’s Council if she was only interested in technological gain for the “greater good” – in fact, this would act as a determent. I think this act shows that she’s not a good guy at all, as if she was it would probably be done akin to the Molten Alliance – set the group up, then let them do their own thing (and reap from their advancements in the meantime).

So to sum it up, I think Scarlet is after personal gain (monetary? influence? not sure, but not raw totalitarianism) in advancing technology and obtaining an influential place in politics. She seems to be going the route of a puppet-master villain that relies on Xanatos Gambits.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

There is no basis to assume this at all. We have never ever seen a single female Norn icebrood. Not one. So we have no reason to assume they are turned, or can be turned at all. How ever, we also have no evidence to assume the opposite.

When the only thing in the entire world known to be immune/resistent to dragon corruption of any kind is the Forgotten’s magic and the sylvari, it is practically foolhardy to believe just because we don’t see something corrupted means it cannot be corrupted.

That is like presuming that centaurs are immune to corruption because we see no corrupted centaurs. Or largos. Or jotun. Or grawl. Or wurms. Or bats.

You get my point, I hope.

I highly disagree with the Zephyr Sanctum and the Labyrinthine Cliffs being within the Dominion of Winds.

1. Sanctum Cay didn’t have a big cliff area.
2. The concept art hardly looks like Sanctum Cay’s area (the ones showing the land shows tall pillars of stone from the water)
3. Tengu are isolationist and never let people into their home, but the Bazaar of the Winds sounds like a repeating event, even annual perhaps given the wording. This contradicts each other.
4. The Zephyr Sanctum is a mythical flying airship/something. People know of the tengu, but not to the point of mythical sounding. This Zephyr Sanctum seems to be something rarely known, or at least rarely believed to exist.

mercury ranique.2170:

Izu is a Tengu who is asked to work for the pact cause he (she??) is one of the finest smiths and crafters in all of Tyria. It wouldnt surprise me if Izu is asked for this just for the skills of making airships.

Izu is a weaponsmith. Him, along with the other two smiths in the story step, are requisitioned to make the Pact weapons.

The airships of the Pact are explicitly stated to be made from charr, human, and asuran technology.

Getefix.9150:

this is pure speculation but it may be that the mursaat had 2 factions, one that sided with the white mantle and the rest which did not, Saul S’Alessio claimed to have seen a city of mursaat, if there is one city, there may be more. and the others may be friendly, however this is VERY unlikely

Not necessarily so, at the bold.

The Mursaat fled the world into the Mists during the last Elder Dragon rise and we are told that they only recently returned to be known as the Unseen Ones. Indicating that in their return, their presence was fairly small.

There may be multiple factions within the race, but the whole mursaat race fled the world (or at least all modern mursaat (came from those who) fled the world). Those that returned could easily be a minor population of the mursaat race, or it could have been the whole, deciding it was time to return to their homeworld. And easily may have been only one city.

As to friendly mursaat… the entire race’s full history is focused around them betraying other races, willingly committing or trying to commit genocide, and kitten ing the entire world just to save their own skin. At least in regards to those who survived the last ED rise and were present in Prophecies. I cannot see the race ever being portrayed as “good.”

Caerulei.7159:

Is that city on the Isle of Janthir?

Extremely unlikely. The island, as seen on the world map, is brownish. This indicates volcanic or at the very least, barren. The city – if it were even mursaat in origins (we only know they were inhabiting it!) – was within or on the edge of a forest.

Caerulei.7159:

Furthermore, though their actions in Kryta were pretty terrible, they were only trying to power the soul batteries to literally keep hell from breaking through Komalie. Personally I think the Mursaat were an example of the ends justify the means rather than being outright evil.

They betrayed the jotun, seer, forgotten, and dwarves (at least!), nearly wiped out the seer race – certainly wiped out enough so that the race wouldn’t have a chance of recovery – and then fled the world while the Elder Dragons were still active, which in turn took the elder races’ strongest known (to us) weapon against the Elder Dragons – Spectral Agony and their phasing out of existence.

When they returned, they created a fanatical religious group that viewed them as gods, killing off any who saw them and was no fully devout (including taking away the founder of said religious group into who-knows-where), and then killed thousands of individuals to power the Door of Komalie over the course of 5 or more years – the only motivation of this being to prevent the Flameseeker Prophecies which foretold the mursaat’s extinction, but not how except that the means was behind the Door of Komalie and the Chosen would open said Door.

Then there’s the actions of Lazarus and the 7 other mursaat who survived the titan assault. Lazarus split himself into multiple faithful followers, killing them all to survive the titan attack. The other seven (which may or may not include Lazarus in the background) led their fanatical religious group into an even darker and bloodier path of oppression through the leadership of Isaiah.

I’m sorry, but I think the concept of the mursaat being a case of “the ends justifies the means” unless that end is always “saving myself.”

Caerulei.7159:

the bloodstones may have been what was keeping the dragons from rising again.

The Elder Dragons rise in cycles. If anything, what would have kept the Elder Dragons sleeping would be the lack of magic – as Drakkar took power from the Sons of Svanir to strengthen Jormag for his rise. Which would mean the only way the Bloodstones could aid in keeping the ED sleeping would be to remove any release of magic. Which I don’t think the mursaat were doing, as there’s 0 indication of this.

Caerulei.7159:

I’m being devil’s advocate here, because there is most definitely more to the Mursaat than meets the eye.

Before GW2, I’d agree. With GW2, and knowing their history, I can’t agree. The mursaat are a pure evil race, like the krait but for different reasons and means (mursaat are selfish self-preserving pricks, the krait are brainwashed zealots of a dark faith).

Enola B Twenty Nine.2631:

I prefer the old Oakhearts. They have a “majestic” look about them, fitting for a ancient tree. These little pip-squeeks are ok, but hope they change back to their original appearance.

Hey, even majestic Oakhearts were pipsqueak saplings once.

Sylvari NPCs seem to get along well with all other races.

Human NPCs have been seen being interested in norn and sylvari NPCs.

Asura care more about intelligence than physical appearance, so I doubt they really care for race so long as the partner’s smart. Unless the individual wants kids.

Norn have been seen interested in humans in GW1, and only care for legend so I doubt they really care about race so long as the legend is great. Unless the individual wants kids.

Charr don’t really seem to be much for romance, so I don’t really see them getting with other races unless they’re an oddball of the race. Long-term monogamous relationships are rare in charr culture. Usually it’s just for fun or breeding for the Legion. (side note: sometimes, it seems like sex is like a job for them, which is sad…)

Sieg.8439:

I remember the asura (I forget his name) who was working on the love potion gone awry (that instead attracted hordes of harpies) being rather sweet on the female charr that was camped with him.

Sorry, that’s amazingly vague xD;
I haven’t been in whatever area that was in quite some time, but I remember noticing that there seemed to be some sort of attraction for the charr.

From my memory, it seemed more like he was trying to sweet talk her into becoming a test subject, rather than any romance interest.

I don’t know either. The only usage of knight I recall in regards to GW2 is that it was the original internal name for the guardian.

It hardly looks like DR to me – the structures look fully wooden. So it’s likely concept art for something new. Hopefully just not a half-arsed zone like Southsun Cove was.

As to the mountain in Gendarran, I think that’s the new Jumping Puzzle that’ll be up in the second update for this content.

And I’m pretty sure it was mentioned a while back by folks that they saw dialogue about Rox and Braham being sent on various tasks by Rytlock and Ottilia (or w/e her name is) respectively. I suppose it could be new though. TBH, I never really spent much time in those instances after F&F was over.

I recall mention from a while back from gw.dat digging that there were/is mention of the Bloodstone weakening in power – was to be/is mentioned around Brisban Wildlands (I suspect that it was to be the loading screen text that got removed between betas). So they may actually be containers.

It’s always been hard for me to imagine how the bloodstones filter magic anyways. Certainly couldn’t be done perfectly.

According to a dev way back when the mesmer was revealed as the 8th profession, mesmers always altered reality. It’s just that GW1’s mechanics didn’t show that as well as GW2 does.

I think it can.

Corrupted magic corrupts those who use it. If the Bloodstone’s magic was corrupted, then every living thing using magic would be a Risen by now.

I think that the Six Gods, or the Seers, did something (else) to the Bloodstone – perhaps related to the Forgotten’s magic which was uncorruptable by the Elder Dragons, and even able to revert the mental changes the ED make via their corruption – that prevented Zhaitan from indirectly corrupting the Bloodstones.

The other magical artifacts gathered were just things from the other Elder Races aside from the seers. None affected or controlled magic in the world. There was The Mystic Telescope, some books and vases from the Forgotten, the Bloodstone, some Jotun monuments, and some mursaat statues.

By “corrupted” magic, it is meant magic twisted by the Elder Dragons. So no, the Lost Scrolls wouldn’t count as Corrupted Magic (at least, nothing points to such). Corrupted magic is basically what would twist things into dragon minions.

Technically, Frosch, what was said by Linsey Murdock was that there were some “cool plans” for the mursaat in the future – back in 2007. This, for all we know, could have been referring to War in Kryta.

@Aaron: I don’t think it’s a given that we’ll find out the fate of the Forgotten when the Crystal Desert opens up. By all indication, given their lack of interaction in Edge of Destiny, I think the last of them have moved into the Mists. So we could meet them should we ever go to the realms of the gods.

It’s a given we’d learn more about them, but only from an archeological viewpoint – finding relics and the like. Think of it: if they were still in the Crystal Desert, wouldn’t the Durmand Priory have gone to meet them? Thing is, we know the Priory has been to the desert:

“The Priory does a great deal of research into ancient forms of magic, and this ritual was a real find.”
“One of our explorers discovered it while tomb-raiding in the Crystal Desert. I tell you, one learns the most amazing things as part of the Durmand Priory.”

Given that the Priory knows the Forgotten were one of the races to survive the Elder Dragons’ last rise, and that the Priory has been to the Desert… I think the Priory would have sought direct Forgotten aid on how to fight the ED if the said Forgotten were still there.

Anyways, to the OP’s question:

Dwarves are a good chance if and only if we go after Primordus.
Forgotten are a good chance if and only if we venture into the Realms of the Gods IMO.
Seers are a tiny chance.
Mursaat are a decent chance if and only if Lazarus has survived and is running the show behind the White Mantle in the Maguuma; and as such, he’ll only appear should we head westward.

To the facts presented in GW2 that you missed before that I said I’d get to later; summarized:

• Abaddon gave unique magic to each individual group. Perhaps catering the magic granted to their persona? Never explained.
• The original Bloodstone, as said, was created by the Seers during the last Elder Dragon rise. They made it to contain all non-corrupted magic in the world, including that of their allies like the jotun.
• Sometime after the Elder Dragons went into hibernation and the Six Gods came to the world, they found the Bloodstone (and many other magical artifacts) and brought them to Arah. In 1 BE, Abaddon tapped into the Bloodstone to give the magic; then the Five Gods weakened the release of magic, tapped into Zhaitan to strengthen the Bloodstone, and shattered it into five pieces (as said, not perfectly; shards were created). Then history is as said in The History of Tyria… to all our indication. Given how wrong that document has been thus far, I’m iffy on trusting any of it now.

Your summary is correct as up until Arah explorable dungeon in GW2, which shed light on a few things. And come to think of it, the quiz terminal event at Shelter Docks added a bit on how Abaddon granted magic too. I’ll get to these later, first your questions:

1) Yes – or at least supposedly yes. The bloodstones split magic into four schools: Destruction, Denial, Aggression, and Preservation. It is impossible to use all four schools but previously possible to use at least 2 (now in GW2, secondary professions don’t exist – we don’t know why lore-wise). Elementalists are confirmed to use Destruction magic, but beyond that which profession uses what school is unknown. It is a general consensus to believe that Monk/Guardian (perhaps Paragon too) use Preservation; Rangers (as of GW2; GW1 rangers didn’t use magic other than the nature rituals as far as we’re aware) uses Destruction; Necromancers use Aggression; Mesmers and Thieves/Assassins use Denial; what Dervishes and Ritualists used has been fully in the air as has been whether Warriors ever used magic (I don’t think so personally; and I’d place Dervish as Destruction and Ritualists as Preservation with the added attribute of summoning spirits to bypass the school-restriction, so indirectly all four).

However, it should be noted that it is possible to use non-Bloodstone magic. Part of what’s been learned in GW2 is that the Bloodstones were a container made by the seers to hold in all non-corrupted magic in the world, effectively draining the Elder Dragons of their food. Abaddon unleashed this magic and then the other five gods reduced the unleashing (and strengthened it via tapping into Zhaitan). So the Bloodstones have a limited supply of magic, supposedly. At the same time,magic in the Mists would be different and the Elder Dragons are known to have lived in multiple cycles of being awake and asleep, each time supposedly wiping out all life and magic before starving into hibernation once more which would mean that magic is ever-increasing. If so, this means that by now there is magic in the world that doesn’t come from the Bloodstones, should one know how to tap it (the same could potentially be said for when the Bloodstones were tampered by Abaddon even). But for emphasis, this is all still theorycrafting.

2) As said, an individual can only use a limited number of schools (supposedly 1 or 2). As such, the schools seem to have been tapped into via the difference in professions. Each profession uses a different school. This is still partially conjecture, but seems more or less confirmed by the fact that Elementalists do indeed use Destruction magic. So the “effect” would be the creation of the caster professions.

3) I think it’s highly likely that one is underwater, towards the Unending Ocean. The Ring of Fire has water in too many directions to not be so. The fifth, I had once suspected to have landed around Orr but I am not sure. It would be interesting if The Hallowed Point turned out to be the furthest flunged Bloodstone (perhaps the one of Destruction magic), but given how Bloodstone Fen and Bloodstone Caves’ bloodstones are about equal (more or less) distance from the volcano, I suspect the other two are of similar distance from it.

And other than the geography, I hold no evidence. I suspect the Hallowed Point because it’s a highly magical location, which is what the Ring of Fire and Maguuma Jungle are too. But not all highly magical locations would be due to the Bloodstones.

4) The answer to the second part of the question lies in Arah explorable. When the Bloodstone wkittentered, it was not into five perfect pieces. Shards of the bloodstone broke off as well, and some were given to the High Priests/Priestesses of the gods. I suspect those that’re bought by Miyani would be similar shards – then there’s also the Bloodstone Caves bloodstone which had floating shards around it.

As to whether the shards being used in legendaries are part of lore… well, first of all we don’t know the process in which Zomorros does the trading – it seems like he never forges things directly, simply takes from some stash of his in exchange for what we give. And secondly, it depends on what lore – and how much lore – the legendaries contain. To which I think there’s only one of each, each with their own lore behind them, but the process of trading with Zomorros and players owning these weapons is purely mechanical. After all, I cannot consider a thousand copies of Twilight to be “legendary.”

-more in next post-