Guild Wars 2

Dustfinger.9510:

The less powerful the elemental, the more flesh and blood it will be comprised of. We can see evidence of this in Flame legion that have gone through rituals to give them more power and magic. And the branded creatures that lay eggs. So even the processs of egg laying is acceptable for elemental creatures. It’s just that the eggs might also be elemental.

This is based on the fact that when Oola says “We embody magic” it is to the question “What are we?” I always remembered that because it didn’t flow to well. So if A-net was giving us a hint to a greater “truth” of Tyria, this may be that truth.

To counter your theory: Shiro Tagachi’s Shiro’ken creations as well as ghosts all seem to be of the opposite effect where they’re more powerful to be flesh and blood rather than some sort of object like metal or stone (hence why Shiro returned to his actual body rather than his possessing of Shiro’Ken bodies, and why spirits who can barely influence the physical would become stronger as undead than as animated objects). It’s an equally large stretch as using the Flame Legion, who are just fanatically obsessed with flame – that’s more of them seeking to become flame, rather than becoming flame because they’re becoming stronger.

Also, that question is quite fine. Do you expect it to be “Who are we” or something? Because I must be missing why it “didn’t flow so well.”

However, personally, I think Oola’s line is in reference to the soul. Souls seem to be used as energy (eaten by demons and scarabs as food, used by mursaat to seal the Door of Komalie, death of such empowers Dhuum, used to animate Shiro’ken, ritualism, etc. etc.), and magic itself is energy as well. I suspect, personally, that souls are an embodiment of magic – hence, to me, Oola’s line is not about the flesh and blood, but the soul of beings being an embodiment of magic.

Beetle.2476:

A couple things.

1. The more magic they eat the more powerful they are, no? And the longer they live the more they eat. And also, judging by the magical beings lifespans in the games more magic = longer life, So if we work with an idea that all dragons absorb magic, some just do a much more efficient job then others, we could assume that all Elder Dragons simply absorb magic and use that as their own.

2. To see that drake are sort of dragons, look at the original concept art for them in Guild Wars 1, and the actual wiki entry that states they are a type of dragon.

3. Never played factions, my bad for getting the Jade Wind stuff messed up.

4. All the dragons in the skies of Arah, yet we never get an explanation on how some dragon champions take dragon-like shapes while others keep old shapes or alter themselves only slightly. If there were dragons in Tyria and Elona before elder dragons reached full potential, that could explain why there are so many, by corrupting all other dragons on the continent. Cantha is a bit too far out for them to bother flying too when they got all that life in Tyria to corrupt already.

1. Problem is that no drakes are known to eat magic. Furthermore, most magical beings are elementals or demons of some sort.

2. See previous post (yes, I know this is written before my previous post where I only responded to the OP). The GWW entry on “drakes are a type of dragon” is meant is solely and purely in a mechanical sense. No lore has been attached to that as of yet. And given the remodeling for GW2, it seems like that’s not lore.

4. Personal theorycrafting is that Tequatl and the others are made similar to Abominations – they’re sewn or magically crafted together to make large dragons. Perhaps using Leviathan bones (those giant fishy bones found in waters throughout, or decorating Dhuum’s Last Stand). The Shatterer is an earthen construct, while the Claw of Jormag seems to be a mix of bone and ice – the bone likely coming from those large semi-draconian bones seen in the Far Shiverpeaks in GW1.

I suspect those gargantuan bones seen in abundance in GW1 – especially the Crystal Desert – are remnants of ancient, fallen, Elder Dragons – or rather, the race the Elder Dragons are born from. Original dragons, and that the Elder Dragons could be viewed as “Dragon Lords” “Dragon Kings” or whatever you want to call them (various different fantasy stories call them similar things, but all mean the same thing): powerful alpha dragons that live longer, are stronger, and are far more crueler.

True. My point was the date itself – October 31st – has no placement in the Tyrian calendar. The Mouvelian calendar lacks months, and keep in mind that their year would start in the Gregorian calendar’s March, so off the top of my head, it’d be placed probably around the ides of Scion (45th day of Fall – ish).

That is an interesting point to bring up, and very true. The Sea of Sorrows is even potentially going to become a large lake, rather than simply an inland sea, since the Southsun Cove really reduced the size – after the size was reduced by the island increase via Orr’s rising (however that works).

I can easily see The Grove, Rata Sum, or renewed Orr being turned into a new primary port city of Tyria. I suspect Orr to be the most likely, with Lion’s Arch’s territory (aka “united nations” Tyria version) extending from southern Gendarran Fields to Orr. Reason I go with LA taking over Orr is because of the whole multi-racial and neutrality aspects of it – if Orr becomes the main port, they seem like the best candidates to “receive” Orr. Unless Trahearne just claims it for the Pact (for research as well as a primary HQ base since Fort Trinity was just an assault base).

Siphaed.9235:

You guys maynot be aware of it, but A.Net has given away that they’re already linking it to somewhere. How?

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/c6129Living-World-Pivot-Point-1.jpg

That’s how. See, that’s the far South-East encampment of the Consortium where they’re building one of their resort spots. In the last few patches, Golems have been gradually working on building that Asura Gate in the background. According to that picture, it looks like it’ll be complete with The Secrets of Southsun patch. Where does it link to? 10-to-1 bet that it’ll link to one of the batches of in-active Asura Gates inside that cavern area in Lion’s Arch.

They have two entrances from Lion’s Arch. They’re making an asura gate, and they’re going to make it a third entrance from Lion’s Arch.

Sense: 0

It’s more likely to be an isolated instance ala Chantry of Secrets. Or a dungeon.

Beetle.2476:

drakes in Guild Wars 1 were also referred to as “A kind of dragon.”

This is mechanical only. It has absolutely no (confirmed) lore value. Just like how jotun, ettin, and yeti were all called ogres in GW1 – but they are all, very much, 1) not related and 2) not ogres.

Switcha.4713:

So i was reading vast amounts of the lore and i’m a bit confused.
Titans blow up ascalon’s big wall -> charr invade -> people evacuate to kryta -> heroes come from kryta’s ascolonian settlement -> heroes kill unseen ones and accidentally free the titans -> titans rampage around the world -> charr find titans and worship them as gods -> char use titans to destroy ascolon wall -> ascolonians have to evacuate to kryta… wait what?
Is it just me or did the lore loop? What did i miss?

The charr discovered titans 200 years prior to the Searing, where they were given the Cauldron of Cataclysm by said titans – which seems to have been copied into many cauldrons. 200 years later, the charr, not the titans, blow up Ascalon’s big wall in The Searing.

Then as you said, until “titans rampage around the world” (just continental Tyria). That’s followed by the Ascalonians killing the titans in front of the charr, and the titans are no longer viewed as gods by the charr.

Swizzle.7982:

It was never really explained what the Titans were doing in Hrangmer, if they escaped, or if they’d been hiding there since Abaddon was sealed away.

It was also never established what happened to all the Titans that the Charr found, or how many they found (Ignis Cruor was likely one of them, who was killed in the realm of torment). We know that the Charr stopped worshipping them and that most Titans were killed, but as we never went to Hrangmer in GW1 there’s always the possibility that some might still be there, even up to the present in GW2.

Maybe the flame legion keep there ex-gods as pets, who knows…

200 years prior to GW1, Odran created portals to the Mists. A few years later, the charr find the titans in Hrangmer, and Shiro is confronted by the Demonic Fortune Teller. I suspect that some agents of Abaddon escaped via Odran’s portals.

All the titans the charr found 200 years seem to have disappeared – I suspect that it was just one titan, Saevio Proelium, who was captured by the Order of Whispers 100 years prior to Nightfall (aka 100 years after the charr found a titan(s)). Those from the Titan quests were all killed, except one, which was killed in Eye of the North.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Dhuum is likely the reason Mad King Thorn was absent for 250 years due to not wanting the dead souls to leave the Underworld.

The question now is: Why did Dhuum give Mad King Thorn permission to leave the Underworld permenantly(It would have been permenant if the Durmand Priory hadn’t reined him in limiting the Mad King to the terms of his ancient curse)?

Dhuum doesn’t have that control anymore. Grenth does. Why Grenth allows it when he and the other gods supposedly toss souls in the Mad Realm to calm Thorn down is an oddity though.

But if Dhuum is related to why Thorn was absent, then it’d be that Thorn and Dhuum were battling in the Underworld, because Thorn views Dhuum as a full-out threat. And he is – because Thorn wants to return to Tyria, and Dhuum would not ever allow such.

Kenage Achalarus.4276:

As a spirit (referred to as a Spirit Lord), he lives in the Mad Realm within the Underworld and, because of a series of seals restricting him, he is able to return to Tyria for only one day each year: Halloween.

-snip-

and if im correct mad king had help from the lunatic court and also the barrier from the mad world to the living world is at the weakest on October 31. but i don’t think mad king and dhumm don’t have anything in comman

Corrections: The seals prevent him from returning to Tyria, except on Halloween where his magic is weakened to the point where he can only be a practical joker rather than the mass-murdering psychopath that he really is.

Also, October doesn’t exist in the lore. Halloween does, but what day it lands on in the 360 days of the Mouvelian calendar is unknown.

Anyways, the seals weakening is indeed why he can return – it’s stated by Wynn (the last of the scavenger hunt NPCs for his history) that the magic of the seals placed on his body is fading now.

He doesn’t say such a thing. He does think that the Flame Legion will be there after the dragons wiped out others, but he never mentions the word “little” nor does he imply there’s a bigger threat out there.

And there’s a thread on his dialogue already. Though it got derailed when Mordremoth got mentioned.

I’ve heard the lines many times. I heard no possible romantic connotation in the human’s voice. Hell, I get the opposite in him – he seems as uninterested as possible to me. He’s just a con artist styled trader, and the skritt is a trader as well who doesn’t seem to fall for the human’s ploys.

I didn’t really see Edge of Destiny all that great as you make it out to be, personally, but to each their own. Like Eluveitie said, I doubt we’ll get another DE novel – Edge of Destiny was about their full interaction prior to GW2, except for some time skips, so if there is another novel on Destiny’s Edge, it’ll be during one of those time skips which is mostly spent preparing to take on dragon champions (not much plot there), or will be post GW2 personal storyline – which I think they’d rather save for the game itself, rather than a game.

Though they could make a novel on a specific character’s background before Edge of Destiny’s timeframe. For example, telling a story of Rytlock which led to his leading out with the Stone Warband that put him in that distanced position in Edge of Destiny’s beginning.

The eastern island – especially Pearl Inlet – seems to be somewhat older. Maybe Owain’s Refuge too, but the main island’s western part is fully new (from the geysers on, except possibly Owain’s little island). So basically 2/3 small islands got turned into 2 large adjacent islands thanks to volcanic and karka activity.

@Thalador: Ah yes, I forgot that line, however, the second bit you quoted is “the Song of Dhuum” not necessarily the “noise of the Void” – though reading through it, the meaning seems to be that the two are one and the same.

The old friends likely refers to the Consortium fellas involved in The Lost Shores (Noll, Canach, that CITIZENS! guy whatever his name was, etc.).

And tbh, given the norn culture, there’s absolutely no reason why Braham and Eir have to make up with each other or be associated with the other. Norn are very individualistic so they can easily remain distanced.

@Narcemus: That seems too unlikely to be true, though. He’s of the Six Gods pantheon. This has been so since forever.

@Thalador: Keep in mind that “the Void” is only mentioned in one of Dhuum’s title – The Voice in the Void. (And, iirc, Linsey said that it had no lore behind it, precisely – though this was just after the Halloween quests’ introduction).

This was discussed a lot during The Lost Shores content. The conclusion was that the most likely explanation is that the island is new. If you go there, you’ll find it’s volcanic – in the center you’ll find a lot of geysers indicating a lot of underground volcanic activity; the eastern side of the islands are all volcanic rock or that karka-made “webbing” (for lack of a better description) which they build their nests and shells out of. You’ll also find that in the cave, the ground is only a few feet before it reaches lava.

When it formed is unknown, but the reason it wasn’t on the map before Lost Shores would likely be due to the Risen’s activities in the Sea of Sorrows preventing exploration – keep in mind that during The Lost Shores, the plot was that it was being explored and investigated by the Consortium; something old wouldn’t be needing such so it likely formed over the last 100 years (since Zhaitan’s rise).

You do realize, Thalador, that the west and east side of the north and southern edges are either ALL water or ALL land. Thing is, UNLIKE globe maps of Earth flattened out into a rectangle, this is not so for Tyria’s “flattened globe” and that, as Narcemus said, both east and west as well as north and south edges match up.

There’s a full thread on this, where someone went highly detailed in observations of the texture and comparing to the globe in the Chantry. He even went so far to attempt to show what kind of shape that texture would result in.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

They have said that they have no plans for an expansion at this time. It takes 2+ years to fully develop an expansion so if they haven’t even planned on one yet then we aren’t going to see one at least for two more years.

Factions came out a full year after Prophecies, so your 2+ statement is bull, utter bull, since Factions was a stand-alone campaign. Just saying.

And I don’t think it was announced until 5 or so months prior to release – which would have been December, btw, but I think it got announced in February TBH (I’m not sure on this, I do know that content leading into Factions content began coming about in December). Though I think it was planned from the release of Prophecies – or beforehand.

But either way, ArenaNet not having an expansion planned two months ago doesn’t mean that 1) they don’t have one planned now, 2) unable to produce an expansion before 2 years, 3) they don’t have the funding for an expansion, or 4) that they need to bring out a dragon “now” – storywise, they’re all still far off and not immediate threats, with Jormag as the closest one.

WatchTheShow.7203:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

WatchTheShow.7203:

Alkahla.5016:

Maybe I’m taking it too literally, but the comment made by the prisoner talks about a “snake-nosed” person. When I hear that, the first thing that pops into my mind is Sylvari, since one of the faces we can choose is very snake-like. And since it is a she…

Faolain!

Can’t be. We killed Faolin in the story mode of TA. She’s dead.

You might wanna replay that again and look closer ;-) Just sayin….

Aw man I really don’t like her. Was hoping she died.

You need to replay that dungeon.

Faolain escaped. Though it may be possible to kill her with enough firepower, as she’s not invulnerable (or at least wasn’t long ago) during the final bit where she taunts before leaving.

She and Caudecus are the only story-mode dungeon nemesis who live by the end of the plot thus far.

Most likely only until the June content, which will likely be mid to late June. I’m hoping it lasts at least that long, since I’m out of town as well and cannot run GW2 until the end of the month…

As I said, those “zombied up Sylvari” are early (aka, scrapped) concept art for the Nightmare Court.

Save dragons for expansions, leave Living Story for more mundane threats.

The entire game was NOT built around the growing threat of the Elder Dragons. Rather, it was built around the distant but large threat of the Elder Dragons. Thing is, Zhaitan wasn’t so distanced. We’ve heard plenty of Jormag, though, in-game. But just because the living story content doesn’t cover the Elder Dragons doesn’t mean much of anything.

I really don’t see where you possibly get the thought that GW2 didn’t achieve the funding for an expansion. Do you think such because we haven’t heard of such? With GW1, they released campaigns on a near yearly basis, so we could be learning of such in a couple months for late August release – however, do keep in mind that GW2’s been having a lot more content than GW1 did (being monthly content updates; and GW2 content needs more work due to the event system compared to GW1 and its quest system).

Southsun could have been a dungeon, but that’s not how it was made, and to turn it into one now would just be, well, have an improper feeling. It being designed as an open world zone kind of keeps it from being an instanced area – as well as it showing up on the open world (though I wouldn’t be against other dungeons doing the same, AC, HotW, TA, and CoE wouldn’t work at all).

Roaming modes for dungeons wouldn’t work much either. Crucible of Eternity was destroyed, Caudecus’ Manor and Twilight Arbor (should have been) wiped of threats (possibly Arah too).

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I think in the Beyond Flame and Frost video they said the SoS story will lead into a new story in June, which sounds like they want to make a new arc then, but it could just mean new story part of the same arc.

This. They did say that there will be a new story in June, that the Secret of Southsun leads into the same way Flame and Frost led into this.

So likely this is just an intermission between two story arcs that ties the two together.

Vahkris.6847:

Rico.8574:

After the end of the events, it would be nice to see Southsun Cove become a regular “world completion” map, with Hearts and whatnot. I guess it would make the zone less “abandoned” and more interesting.

Hearts, PoIs, vistas, etc isn’t what’s causing it to be abandoned. It’s the almost complete lack of events (some claim the karka as well, but I can live with that if I have stuff to do). There’s only a handful on the entire island (7, according to the wiki), whereas most full zones around the same size have about 30+. I think players can live without the world completion (although good to add it), but without events it’s going to reach the same point, so hopefully this update adds a good amount of events.

What Vahkris said. However, I would say no hearts. Those tend to be too tedious and it’d fit more along the lines of Orr as it should of non-native lands to not have hearts. Though maybe a couple wouldn’t hurt, around the eastern side (where the refugees and Lionguard are, for example).

Vistas and skill challenges are always a plus, map completion more so, but the main thing needed is EVENTS.

Rash.6514:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Southsun cove will feature a mixture of both temporary story lines and content, as well as permanent additions of playable content as a result of what happens there.

That’s great. Let’s hope the permanent content will be a dungeon like the Molten Weapon.

Let’s hope the permanent content is not a dungeon, but stuff to do within the zone itself – like events or whatever.

I’m not against new dungeons, but Southsun doesn’t need a dungeon.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

no new armor models in the southsun shore story stuff.

Although looking like a crab would be pretty sweet.

March to whoever designs armor and tell them to design armor that matches the already existing Southsun Shoulderpad skins that were introduced with The Lost Shores. They’re near armorpieces, but don’t really match many/any armor sets.

Similar to the Fused Gauntlets – they only really fit the SE armor (and maybe some fire-themed ones like CoF… if there are any others). But they’d be awesomer if they had full armor sets.

Spread it east a little, and there’s a pre-existing path from Sparkfly Fen into a rock wall (which makes little sense – makes more sense if it were a rockslide look, but it’s one large solid single cliff) which can link to Southsun Cove. To the western side of Southsun, the map goes right next to Caledon Forest and The Grove, a slight alteration to Sleive’s Inlet and you go to Southsun – add a little peninsula to connect it, no differently than adding Cragstead. And before one makes a problem of a level 6 area going into level 80 area: Wayfarer and Snowden go into Frostgorge (15 and 17/19 into 70/75).

Tuomir.1830:

exelion.2369:

@Konig Didn’t one of the Princes of Vabbi mention something about some land to the west?

Western coast, which conveniently means that it doesn’t make the continent to the west canon.

Disappearing island. No direction related. Just “far off the coast.” http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Prince_Mehtu_the_Wise

Toumir is likely thinking of Fort Koga’s description talking about the trading route (most likely from when Orr was hostile to Kryta) heading to the western coast.

Dragon minions can. Kudu was attempting to make his own dragon champion, resulting in Kudu’s Monster (a Risen Giant embued with Primordus, Jormag, and Kralkatorrik energies) and Subject Alpha (unknown what it was originally – doesn’t look risen, branded, destroyer, or icebrood).

MauricioCezar.2673:

Hmm.. any gods (Human gods for example) have been killed? No one from what my momory remind me =D . Only their “High priestess”, the real “Gods” abandoned the humans, but not have been wiped..

Abaddon, who was stronger than any 2 other gods and the strongest of the Six Gods, was killed in GW1. And Abaddon’s unnamed predecessor was killed long before that. Other gods may have killed and supplanted predecessor gods too, like how Kormir supplanted Abaddon, Abaddon supplanted his predecessor, and Grenth supplanted Dhuum.

Only Dhuum survived.

@Narcemus: We don’t know how Abaddon, Lyssa, or Abaddon’s predecessor came to be (either as gods or to Tyria). So Dhuum’s far from unique. Most of the knowledge on him was removed, like with Abaddon, it seems. But done better since he seems to have been taken down sooner. Our earliest knowledge of Dhuum came from the Underworld itself, and then the Realm of Torment, but only those two places except the Dragon Festival 2006 due to the Fury. And in GW2, we only hear of Dhuum from the Priory’s knowledge (most of which being knowledge of Grenth’s history) or the Grenth priesthood’s knowledge which is said to be secrets of their priesthood.

Dhuum had a tower in the Underworld which was, iirc, where he ruled from. And the Underworld is definitely within the Mists.

Well now NPCs actively revive others (NPCs and PCs). It was more rare in the past – where only Trahearne and the mentors (both order mentors and DE mentors) did so in personal story, but now it’s (almost?) all NPCs not just Braham and Rox.

Braham and Rox are said not to have unique AI, so the trend is not only going to continue, but is retroactive.

The second one is a Leviathan and krait.

Elbegast.6970:

And NOTHING about the term ‘MMO’ implies that you are expected to form a party to complete content.

Except the word “multiplayer” and the fact that every MMO in existence has some form of high-end group content in PvE. Every. Single. One.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Foddzy.6291:

The problem with required grouping is that it is not easy for everyone to find a group. The cool kids just group up with their guildies and friends but not everybody has that luxury. I stood around for nearly an hour trying to get a group for the F&F dungeon with no luck, it just isn’t worth it.

The real issue here is that GW2 needs some way to make grouping easier for people that are not in the in crowd.

I create PUGs all the time – newbies welcome, all classes welcome, underlevelled and undergeared characters welcome.

When I have people in my group who haven’t done the dungeon yet, I try to make sure that the group sticks together and gives them the time to experience it in full (not run ahead, etc.). Some runs take longer this way, and some are still fairly quick.

It shouldn’t take an hour to get a group together :\

@Foddyz: You’re welcome to join [Lore]. We try to do a dungeon run every weekend with only guildies and friends.

However, if we cannot fill the group that way, we pick folks up. We tend to prefer the non-rushers and don’t mind if folks don’t have full exotic gear or even rares or what-have-you.

Hasn’t there been a new sPvP map with every single non-holiday monthly update so far?

Erukk made me remember something. In the personal storyline, the five individuals whom we interact with in the different racial sympathy stories seem to get together well and can be seen together there. With the idea of a “guild that has representatives of races” I really could see Gara and the other minor race characters from the personal storyline joining into a single guild/joining Destiny’s Edge (they did help in taking down an Elder Dragon). However, I doubt such would happen… though it’s an interesting possibility.

Lokheit.7943:

Rox Whetstone

Where does this surname come from? As far as I know, she’s not part of the Stone Warband yet. And her original surname from her previous warband was Pickheart.

That’s fully wrong, Kenage.

Firstly, Menzies.

Secondly, it was Balthazar’s father who’s head he carried (and we don’t know why, mind you). Menzies is his half-brother. Two different individuals.

Another one? I guess search stopped functioning. >.>

There’s NOTHING that links Dwayna to ANY elder dragon. You cannot count both Grenth and Dhuum, and yet both Abaddon and Abaddon’s predecessor but not Kormir. You have to chose either the most recent or original pantheon. If you go with most recent: Grenth counts for two, Dwayna and Kormir are left without a dragon. If you go with the original: Jormag’s without a god, Dwayna’s without a dragon, and we don’t know if Abaddon’s predecessor and the DSD link up.

Just so you know the gods are not forcibly tied to elements. It changes all the time. Dhuum never had ice – it was initiated into the pantheon when Grenth became a god, as he had ice even has a half-god. Similarly, when Abaddon was killed, Lyssa took up water rather than it going to Kormir. This means that the Six Gods’ and the six Elder Dragons’ both having ties to elements of nature is purely coincidental.

Furthermore, we’re explicitly told in-game that Grenth is 1) still alive and 2) an enemy of Zhaitan. Along with this, the Rises Priests and Priestesses explicitly state that Dwayna, Lyssa, Grenth, and, iirc, Melandru are different from Zhaitan.

Not only this, but Dwayna, Balthazar, and Melandru come from another world – yet the Elder Dragons have always been on Tyria (aka never left it). Thus we know that the Six Gods are not Elder Dragons.

The only relation the Six Gods and Elder Dragons have is that the Six Gods tapped into Zhaitan’s power – and only Zhaitan’s power – when they were tampering with the Bloodstone in 1 BE, to strengthen it. What they did specifically is unknown.

Dan.8709:

Minions:
http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/8362751_orig.jpg
http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/1340336_orig.jpg

Those are risen.

Dan.8709:

Champions:
http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/5092037_orig.jpg
http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/9027365_orig.jpg

Later is the early Risen King concept art; before it got turned into the Eye of Zhaitan. The former, I personally suspect to be a DSD champ. Here’s hoping!

Dan.8709:

Obs: There’s a good portion of possible Mordremoth’s too (http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/1170988_orig.jpg , http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/7506874_orig.jpg, http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/3247899_orig.jpg [he seems to really like mixing beings in one]), I made this thread more for Bubble’s because I believe that’s the least we’ve seen of.

The first is said to be an evil plant, the second and third are early Nightmare Court concept art.

Dan.8709:

Do you mean this ones? http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/4979515_orig.jpg
http://www.kekaiart.com/uploads/5/4/7/6/5476798/8677717_orig.jpg

Those are early concept art for Elder Dragons themselves. Given the them, most likely two versions of Mordremoth. But it was explicitly stated that they’re unused.

Lokheit.7943:

Everytime I see Kekai’s art I start missing him again

Dan.8709:

His art is incredible, dang… What a loss.

Quoted for truth.

Asura “founders” not “backers” – unless you’re just talking about unimplied “whomevers” may be economically backing Consortium activities for who-knows-what-unimplied-reasons.

Kain Francois.4328:

Zhai-chan

…

I am now mentally picturing a chibi version of Zhaitan. Like that Gwen-chan stuff.

Thanks.

Hmm, good point on resources in Southsun. Take note: The Molten Alliance’s “new mysterious ore” is Azurite (or seems to be – those crystals being mined were the same color, and Azurite could only be obtained in MF). Now, what do we know about Southsun other than it being volcanic?

1. It has Orichalcum – which is only found in Orr and in Jormag territory elsewhere (and the Mists)… and also Molten Facility.
2. It has unique flora, which can be used for powerful items (Ascended gear). Dunno if the crafting bit of it is lore-wise too though.
3. It has karka. Why’s this important in resources? Two reasons: 1) the webbing stuff the karka spit out hardens into material harder than steel (it’s what their shells and nests are made out of, and why the acid was needed in the Lost Shores content), so that’s pretty strong stuff – not picture obtaining that and crafting it into weaponry… 2) they keep folks away from what someone wanting to mine Southsun wants to mine.

So while maybe not intended to do originally, it’s possible that the personal nemesis either riled up the wildlife, or convinced someone to rile up the wildlife, so as to pit karka versus norn and charr (two of the strongest races) refugees, to get rid of both threats in the area, so that the personal nemesis can obtain the materials there with more ease (perhaps even kidnap a few karka hatchlings or eggs to raise to make that webbing materials).

Invizible.2960:

They may not be after anything more than trying to profit from Southsun, but the questions I have are how far would they go to reach their goals? Are they going to be a new enemy faction? Is the Nemesis among them? What are they planning? Why ARE they so focused on Southsun? I don’t know, they could end up being perfectly legit but they are way too suspicious to ignore.

Edit: Found this video that hint some things http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4usI3LWcHc&feature=player_embedded

That video answers what the Consortium’s goals are 100%:

@ 3:40: “Southsun Cove was never intended to be a vacation paradise. But the Consortium, being the Consortium, once they had started to put in money and time and effort into making Southsun Cove a resort, they’re not giving up. They’re bottom line demands that they have some sort of return from their investment.”

So the Consortium’s involvement is simply getting some sort of coming out even from their costs, if not a profit from it.

Kain Francois.4328:

If you look closely at the screenshot, it shows an opening where you can enter his mouth to explore inside Zhaitan himself.

Not really. It just shows a gap or something not the color of the rest of his mouth within the mouth. Doesn’t mean we’d be able to enter it at all.

Minor corrections about that:

Urband Battleground is said to be an alternate version of the Searing itself.

Also, Dessa is, apparently, trapped (psychologically) within her lab. She says she can leave, but is afraid that should she leave she’d never be able to return.

The exact wording for Cliffside is: “the idea was that that particular fractal was that it reflected something that happened in the distant past. Something that happened in Tryia’s beginnings where there was this kind of colossus around”

The fractal itself was, apparently, inspired by ancient myths like those of Prometheus and was meant to be a throwback to the origins of Tyria (not sure if that bit was talking about the game’s actual lore, or the original inspirations for the game).

This is quite interesting, and makes me wonder if this colossus comes from the Age of Giants that Thruln mentions. We do know that gargantuan races existed in the distant past (those bones found throughout the Crystal Desert in GW1, which were originally thought to be Giganticus Lupicus bones, for example), so the colossus was likely among such beings. When thinking in Thurln’s story, and the Orrian History Scrolls’ with Balthazar’s statements of conquests, I wonder if when humanity arrived on the world they forcibly ended that “Age of Giants” via conflict.

Regarding Thal mentioning a semi-confirmation of it being Cantha/south of Cantha, while not directly it does if we take Jeff Grubb’s statement of humanity’s homeland being south of Cantha, and there are a lot of Canthan flavors in the enemies (specifically towards ritualism and the “Tree Singers”/“Stone Singers” of the Kurzicks in the “Chanters” – which may also be an allusion to the scrapped Factions profession, which I think were called Chanters). And it’s interesting that aside from spirits, there’s a bit of elementalist-like magic going on, and Thruln mentions that elementalism is the earliest form of magic humanity mastered – should he be taken for fact here.

That’s fairly true, Riot. Come to think of it, we learn next to nothing on DE’s personal lives outside of Destiny’s Edge’s internal history from the game itself. I mean, we learn Eir’s father’s name… but without the book we don’t know that he died at the hands of the Dragonspawn, I believe. We wouldn’t know about Dylan Thackeray or the sword he gave Logan or the resentment Logan held for his older brother without the book, nor would we know about any internal strife within the Stone Warband between Rytlock and the others without the book.

Though Caithe and Zojja we did get some personal history on in the game, the other three we didn’t.

The norn are too individualistic to really give large help to outside groups. Knut moreso than others. He cares first and foremost about the safety of Hoelbrak, not the safety of norn. As Blaeys talks about, he acts similarly in the Edge of Destiny novel. And since, as BunnytheSwordsman said, sending help would have left Hoelbrak vulnerable… it wasn’t really an option for him.

Edit: A guildie, Thalador, just gave me an interesting notion as I was writing this. I’ll let him say it though.

@Eluveitie: Nothing in that says the Consortium’s behind anything. Honestly, the Consortium got nothing really going against them, nor have they shown any interest in power – political, militant, or otherwise.

And as I’ve said elsewhere, this thought on the Consortium is exactly what the Bandits (aka the White Mantle behind them) are. And I highly doubt that ArenaNet’s going to make two groups completely the same.

The Consortium’s an economical group established by asura to be an economical group. They’re not the Inquest nor the White Mantle. I can’t wait to see how the Consortium turn out to be victims of the personal nemesis, who were while not innocent, completely unconnected to the MA or the rise in Southsun wildlife aggression.

Personally, I’m thinking the nemesis hide herself (?) among the refugees and showed up in Southsun Cove, and decided to make some havoc before high-tailing it out of there.

The text style and wallpaper reminds me of Indiana Jones movies…

I’m glad that Southsun’s getting content, I’m just hoping that most of it remains because unlike Wayfarer and Diessa, Southsun NEEDS more content to it. As it is, it’s just 2 jumping puzzles (albeit one is fun) and then just a bunch of standard mob farming. With way too much aggro of enemies that are tough to kill solo (the adult karka).

My complaint, however, is that I’ll be out of town for its beginning (maybe even its whole…). ~_~

Ice of Dragons.1637:

should the dragon festival be in february ? the same dat as the chines new year

Dragon Festival=GW’s Fourth of July.

Cantha New Year = GW’s Chinese New Year.

WonderfulCT.6278:

I have to agree, I feel like a lot of the updates we’re given are lacking substance. I don’t even know what the story of this molten alliance thing is or why we’re no longer fighting the elder dragons.

If only there were ships in Tyria, I would sail across the unending ocean o.o

Well, not everything about the MA is revealed, intentionally so, but we do know quite a bit about them (the Flame Legion were approached by a still unknown individual, who convinced them to join with the dredge to become stronger and the Flame were then intending to enslave the dredge afterwards; the moletariate agreed to join, unknowing of the enslavement plans, because they wanted fire magic to improve their tech – probably knowing that tech+magic=great! thanks to their dealings with the Inquest, and they have a thing for fire, what with the furnace history), but the reason why we’re “no longer fighting the Elder Dragons” is two-fold, imo.

Firstly, there are more immediate threats. The only reason we went after Zhaitan is because he was on our doorstep and he was knocking. The closest threat in ED terms is Jormag, who’s still quite a ways north and is only just now starting to get on our doorsteps, but not a huge threat (yet).

Secondly, it’s to give us, the players, a change of pace from going Kill the dwagon! Kill the dwagon! Kill the dwagon!

That would make them WAY too similar to the bandits, IMO, who’s higher ups know their real purpose, while the lower grunts are thinking they’re doing a “necessary evil” to free Kryta from who they honestly believe is a tyrant (Jennah). I don’t think – or at least I hope – that Anet will be making two groups completely the same.

Given what we know, the Consortium only wanted to make Southsun Cove, a brand new unexplored island, into a vacation resort. They sent Canach as the leader of an expedition team telling him not to mess with any of the wildlife there, but in the contract he found a loophole where he’d be legally allowed to study the flora there. He did so. The karka got kitten at this for unknown reasons, and attacked the Consortium expedition team – wiping most of them out except three known members (Canach, Noll, and that insane sylvari I’ve forgotten what her name is), then chased the two who fled (Canach and Noll) to LA and then their hiding places (Caledon Forest and Garrenhoff). Since they got found out, the Consortium decided to place the blame on Canach and cut their ties with him (despite him believing they would defend him to the end).

There weren’t any form of hints or implications of nefarious intentions, and though lots of folks seem to have missed it there was plenty of plot information (I blame it on the events happening too fast for folks, being over a single weekend) – luckily, half of it is on the wiki (if not a liiiitle bit more).

How they treated Canach proves that they’ll do anything to keep blame and the like from themselves, and trying to do harm to the refugees for whatever reason does just what they don’t want. It wouldn’t fit the personality given to them in The Lost Shores if they go about with nefarious deeds. And how they treated Fractals (a malfunctioning gate going to an unknown location full of treasures – perfect for adventurers! Let’s advertise… CITIZENS!) proves them to be opportunistic to the nth degrees, so there’s no doubt in my mind that they just saw the refugee situation flooding into Lion’s Arch and went “hey, we can make money off of this, and improve our rep after that karka incident!”