Guild Wars 2

Son of Elias.5420:

If I had to guess about Thruln the Lost’s story, it’s the result of a people who have largely abandoned civilization trying to make sense of a history that has been passed down orally.

That’s pretty much my interpretation. Minus the “trying to make sense” part. But history passed down by oral tradition often leads to changes – be it intentionally (glorification) or accidentally (memory is an unreliable thing).

draxynnic.3719:

We actually see jotun magic-users in Eye of the North, although they probably have less magic then than humans do (and no elemental magic, which is interesting when you consider that Thruln the Lost dismisses elemental magic as primitive). One could argue whether the mechanics actually match the lore there, but it could be that the loss of jotun magic was a slow decline that only reached conclusion in the last couple of centuries.

Ahem

“Jotun organize themselves into large tribes, related by blood or union, led by the strongest. This strength may come from arms, or magic, or any other ability—but it is always shown through physicality and brute force.”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Savage_Pride_of_the_Jotun

It’s pretty obvious that some magic users and lore tellers survive – Thruln is a show of this in game, and I think there’s a jotun in an event which uses magic too. It’s just that it is very very rare and in a decline.

But they were fallen by GW1’s time, according to NPCs in GW2.

draxynnic.3719:

Magic was sealed in the Bloodstone at the time the dragons were last active – and it seems that there was in fact some magic that was missed (or appeared since) as the asura at least had magic before Abaddon unlocked the Bloodstone.

Or, alternatively, magic continues to grow in the world. Which would explain how magic would still be around if the Elder Dragons had devoured it all in past risings (sans the latest one before current).

“I’m pursuing that line of inquiry now. In jotun stelae writings, we’ve found references to a sextet of “swallowers” who are said to have consumed the world several times over. "

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scholar_Caterin

If the dragons have consumed the world several times over, it’s fair reason that they had consumed most of – if not all – magic in the world. They could not do this multiple times.

Magic has to be coming from somewhere. And it may be that there was magic in the world before Abaddon’s actions. That is, magic not contained in the Bloodstone and not exuded from the Elder Dragons at the time Abaddon released magic from said Bloodstone.

Gregorius.1024:

Lyssa’s muse never said that the gods ascended, only that they walked Tyria. WHich they did prior to the event know as Exodus. I thought this was common knowledge.

Your point? We know Kormir and Abaddon ascended. And we know Grenth ascended too, even though originally a half-god, as he replaced Dhuum. Who are you responding to here, anyways?

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Apostate
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Four_Horsemen

Gregorius.1024:

Its possible that only Abaddon and two others attended Doric’s plea because Abaddon fought and struck down two gods at once before his defeat.

Erm, not quite.

“Abbadon was so powerful, even two gods together could not stop him.”

http://www.guildwiki.org/Talk:Abaddon/Archive_1#Background_story_on_Abbadon

It was never actually said Abaddon did defeat two gods, just that he could.

Do we have any evidence to claim that Tyria doesn’t come from, say, the dwarves? Sure, we learn of it through human history, but we’ve never seen indications or implications that races older than humans called it something else. The name might have been devised by the Giganticus Lupicus, or the jotun who seem to have survived multiple ED risings, and it just spread to dwarves and then to humans.

There’s a major flaw in your speculation. And that is that you make four large assumptions.

Assumption 1:

I theorize that the reason Cantha has been so… bountiful, so to speak, so lush and verdant, is that the Elder Dragon of life is underneath it.

Nothing – and I do mean nothing – implies or states that Cantha has been bountiful. We’re literally going off of 100 years of complete unknowns, and even before Zhaitan’s rise 100 years prior to GW2, there’s been another 100 years of Cantha being isolated while there was still sea travel for Tyria.

That’s basically 100 years of loose contact where all we got were exiles, and a total of 200 years where we get either no or biased information about Cantha. And naturally, those exiles were out of Cantha for 100 years unless they were humans. Meaning although the tengu arrived in Tyria 100 years

In other words, we’re going off of 200 years of no information. Cantha’s state is 100% unknown. They could be bountiful as you speculate. They could be technologically advanced far beyond the charr. Or they can be in worse states than in GW1. They may have opened their borders – the Canthan Empires hold a habit of contradicting their predecessor (look at Canthan history and you’d be surprised how many times they opened and closed their borders – I think Usoku is the fourth or fifth emperor to do so), or they may have become worse than before.

Anet has left in such a way that they can make anything happen in Cantha itself. It can be a complete utopia for all, or just one for humans, or hell for all.

Assumption 2:

Ultimately, the similarities between Urgoz and the Pale tree are more about superficial and narrative similarities. Even you must see the pattern of a mighty tree-avatar (in this case, the Pale Tree and Urgoz), that constantly creates human-looking sentient minions (in this case, the Sylvari and the Wardens). There are certain patterns, so to speak.

Urgoz doesn’t make Wardens. He just guides them. The Wardens are closer to the Druids than anything, though their history is still unknown to us in large amounts. Urgoz’s nature is outright stated too – he’s a forest spirit. One of many in the Echovald Forest, and the only one known to be corrupted by the Jade Wind. Yes, the reason he is, and by extension the Wardens are, evil is due to the Jade Wind. No dragons involved.

Assumption 3:

Anyhow, to tie this all back: My guess is that the upper echelons of the Empire of the Dragon, including the Emperor himself, have been (either knowingly or unknowingly) ‘feeding’ the dragon through the yearly rituals at the Harvest temple. It was also this dragon’s power that Shiro tapped in order to create the Jade Wind (similar to how some theorize Vizier Khilbron’s scrolls tapped in to the power of Zhaitan beneath Orr).

However, this is not the case.

Firstly, we were outright told that the Cataclysm held no effect on Zhaitan. (source) “Not in the least. Zhaitan is unaffected by such small things as wrinkles in the world’s crust, and in the mere sinking of continents.” Secondly, we know that the power taken from the Harvest Ceremony comes from the (then) Five Gods themselves – with Dwayna specifically mentioned (source) “However it began, Shiro consummated his plan on the final day of the Harvest Festival in the year 1382 CC. On that most holy day of the Canthan year, when all of the gods were praised to the heavens and the emperor’s divine blessing was placed on the land, Shiro accompanied his sovereign to the Harvest Temple.” and “He struck the moment the emperor had received the second blessing of Holy Dwayna,” And we also know the origin of what corrupted the power too: “He learned the ways of forbidden sorcery and engaged in studies and rituals well beyond the disciplines of the Assassin. He found that these taboo powers were second nature to him, and the darkest forms of magic were the easiest of all. "

Assumption 4:

Oh. And in regards to the Deep Sea Dragon, I don’t really see that as a major impasse to getting to Cantha. After all, it wasn’t Bubbles that cut off all contact with Cantha, it was Zhaitan.

That’s because the deep sea dragon woke up roughly 50 years after Zhaitan rose. In other words, the only individuals on continental Tyria who had any dealings with the deep sea dragon and its minions are those who were forced out of their homes by it – the quaggan, krait, largos, and karka. The quaggan of Timberline Falls confirms the long-standing theory that they were pushed out by an Elder Dragon(‘s forces), and there’s only one that could influence such.

The deep sea dragon couldn’t cut off contact because contact was already severed.

My favorite jumping puzzles in order:

1. Mad King’s Clock Tower – I loved the frantic fast-paced-ness of it all, and I loved to watch as folks fall into the green mist of death. This is by far my favorite jp and I want more like it!
2. Loreclaw Expanse – this one I’m biased to. This was my first jp ever done (both attempted and completed), so it holds sentimental value in it. And it holds a bit of challenge even after having done it dozens of time.
3. Sharkmaw Caverns – over time this got really really easy, but I still like the flavor of it. The taunting ghost narrative and the straightforward but easily threatening traps was nice. And I did like how you had to guess one of three death drops at the end (and I loved how three of my friends attempted it at the same time for the first time, they couldn’t figure it out so they just chose one fall each lol)
4. Spekks’s Labratory/Geomm’s Lab – all of the asura themed jumping puzzles and mini-dungeons are just too fun for me. They’re inventive, time-based, and/or just cool looking.
5. Fawcett’s Bounty – only because of the falling-floor-into-a-massive-pit-of-spikes room.

It’d be off the map just above Blazeridge Steppes – the only Ascalonian city struck by the Dragonbrand, ironically enough. If my placement deduction’s right, at least.

WP makes a lot of mistakes, so him having a mis-speak isn’t unlikely. But as Techstriker and Killul said, the Black Citadel was built over Rin, the second capital of Ascalon (after Drascir fell, Rin became the capital until its fall). You can even find an area in the Black Citadel to the south dubbed “Ruins of Rin” – the ruin placement is actually pretty accurate to their placement in GW1.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Cantha was my favorite GW1 region to work on. And I worked on every GW release. I know a lot of the dev team loved it and would love to revisit it. I kinda agree with critickitten about the negative aspect of tight corridors. Most of that came from hitting technological limits while trying to keep the epic quality of the concept art. I think we could do some really amazing things with those themes in our new engine. Certainly nothing is ruled out. I certainly encourage anyone to express your desire for a Cantha region in GW2 in a positive and friendly way. It could be years away, but it’s worth asking for.

Alright, I’ll say my 2 cents on the matter…

In GW1, I hated Cantha. Overall, it was my least favorite game. Voice acting aside, I hated it because the entirity felt too kitten depressing with half of the continent – the entirety of Kaineng City for all we saw and knew – was basically slums. The only part of Kaineng City not slums or full of sewage was Raisu Palace, which held no incentive to go, and by the time we visit was already wrecked thanks to Shiro Tagachi.

On the other hand, I also hated the gameplay design – it was “pure numbers to make difficult” (Winds of Change even furthered this…), which makes sense from a lore standpoint – Kaineng City is an overpopulated place, and the best way to show this would be to have hundreds of foes in small areas, rather than hundreds of allies in small areas.

This said, I loved the appeal of the Jade Sea and Echovald Forest, though I didn’t like mobs there either, and I loved the lore of the entire continent (more so than I loved the lore of Elona, sans the part revolving around Abaddon’s and the Realm of Torment’s lore – particularly the canon-questionable Arachnia). Furthermore, where we go in Kaineng also makes sense seeing how we’re battling a plague, which contract first and foremost in low-health areas. Namely, slums and sewers.

So long as explorable Kaineng City is less than 90% slums/sewers, I think I’d enjoy returning there. And I would absolutely love for the lore on human origin to be explained further and that currently makes the most sense to do in Cantha, seeing how all given indications put humanity’s first placement on the world in Orr, but yet the timeline tells us they were in Cantha hundreds of years earlier than they were on continental Tyria (and that, to both locations, they sailed rather than walked through a god-made portal).

The lore potential for Cantha is far larger than Elona, so being a lore lover I’d love to go there sooner. But if and only if the aesthetics are less depressing and the gameplay design for foes doesn’t revert to GW Factions’ designs.

On the flip side – I can’t see Cantha being visited without a revoking in one form or another of “all non-humans got kicked out” – a continent full of humans and wildlife just makes for a bland(er) game expansion. And I can easily see naga, dredge, and possibly wardens all surviving either way.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

No I think they should not do that. Anet should do with the continent what they want to do with and not what people with false national pride want it to be. If they think a fantasy culture is a wrong representation of their actual culture (which makes of course no sense at all) then it is their problem. I want to see Anet’s version of Cantha, not “we changed it according to the wishes of some people in the asian community” Cantha.

Even taking out the Canthan district in DR is going to far, imo. I’m all for respecting different cultures and not offending anyone, but this is ridiculous and borderline oppression of the artistic freedom of Anet by a vocal minority.

I cannot +1 this enough times. Your words=my mind.

Mechos.5640:

To the theorycrafting part, my guess is that we’ll most likely try and go to Cantha since the only thing blocking us from reaching there has now ended. Story-wise, I’d suggest that we’ll most likely be joining a Tengu attempt to return home for the promise that they’ll help fight the dragons, as well as looking towards the Empire of the Dragon to help provide in the fight against the various elder dragons. The latter achieved by supporting a non-isolationist claimant to the throne of the Empire of the Dragon.

You forget that there’s an Elder Dragon of the deep sea between Tyria and Cantha still. And that one managed to push out not just quaggans, largos, and krait, but also karka from their homeland.

That dragon has to be one hell of a kitten.

Now, I see no reason for your explanation for going to Cantha – the tengu were forced out of Cantha, so why would they return to Cantha for the promise that they’ll help fight the ED? Furthermore, why would the Empire of the Dragon aid in fighting ED? There’s no benefit in it to them as far as they’re likely concerned, presuming there’s no ED conflict in Cantha already.

Mechos.5640:

In pure speculative mode, I’d even go so far as to suppose that the Empire of the Dragon might not be as untouched by the dragons as some might think; it is simply that they have been used in a very different fashion. I’m nursing something of a pet theory regarding the fact that there might be an Elder Dragon underneath the Harvest Temple, one tied with the element or facet of ‘life’ or ‘nature’, and is responsible for the creation of both the Pale Tree and Urgoz. But… that’s pretty much pure speculation based upon inferences at this point, so I’ll not go further. I feel I’ve rambled enough as it is.

Mordremoth takes that theme already, and all indications put in closer to Tyria than the deep sea dragon (which is between Tyria/Elona and Cantha). Furthermore, there’s no similarity between Urgoz and the Pale Tree. At all. Except that they’re sentient trees – but so are oakhearts and the like.

The Pale Tree is closer to the Ancestor Trees found in Elona that’s the center of centaur faith.

I am presuming that the reason why you pick the Harvest Temple is due to the line of the GW1 description? " Legends say a powerful dragon was trapped within the temple and lives there still. " – this line is in reference to Kuunavang.

My personal theory on the matter of Elder Dragons and Cantha is that there’s an Elder Sky Dragon, of which kuunavang is the champion of (Kuunavang is compared alongside Glint in The Movement of the World; though this may have been written prior to Glint becoming Kralk’s champion in Anet’s mind). I’d personally like to believe this dragon is more benevolent than not, compared to Kuunavangs actions – that, or, the forgotten who were in Cantha did the same to Kuunavang that they did to Glint in Tyria.

To explain the notion of “there’s only six Elder Dragons” – there’s only six that the jotun new of, and there’s no traces of jotuns in Cantha (I’m actually surprised they knew of the DSD – or maybe they didn’t, and there’s still an unknown ED close to Tyria somewhere). Same goes for surviving races – of which, I think kodan, tengu, and krait are survivors from the last ED rise alongside the five known by jotun.

Sylvari. She’s a sylvari. And she’s forgetful and bubbly personality. She doesn’t remember what she dreamed about in the Dream of Dreams – she wasn’t paying much attention.

@Icarus Pherae.4680: Technically, no. But I’d imagine that movement of sap would be different than other plants given how they’re more active and differently shaped.

Narcs.9418:

I remember reading that their sap (blood) is yellow.

Golden, but yes.

This is not lore, so wrong forum. But no, not a bug as far as I know.

Southsun Cove’s western island is highly volcanic (there’s lava just a few feet under the ground, such as where the Ancient Karka died. This is also the source behind those geysers and hotsprings, I’d imagine – little different than Yellowstone Park.

All I know is I’ve heard that Factions wasn’t well received by Asians due to Kaineng City (being annoyed that one poor aspect of one culture was made so predominant and that this was a poor representation of Asian cultures, iirc), and similarly neither was the Canthan district of Divinity’s Reach (due to it being a mixture of asian culture influences) which was thus made into the Great Collapse (this same argument was used against Pandaria, I hear).

Its overly silly to me, but basically pride in being represented properly by Westerners more or less makes the audience at large upset if there’s a mixture or prevalence of an aspect they don’t like.

As such, I can see it happening to try to keep the asian audience, however, I see it overall silly. While I don’t think Cantha will be visited anytime soon, it would be foolhardy to remove it completely.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

And then look below that at the scientific definition: “the communication between people of thoughts, feelings, desires, etc, involving mechanisms that cannot be understood in terms of known scientific laws”

Magic in the GW2 universe is scientific. The Asura know this. Mesmeric magic can be understood. Therefore it is not telepathy..

Ehhhhh, not really. Magic, by definition, is the use of power which isn’t, or isn’t explainable by, science (more or less). The asura gives magic a sci-fi appearance and work to describe it with science, but magic itself isn’t so.

But regardless of this, telepathy is, as Son of Elias said, direct mind-to-mind communication, be it one or two way. Hell, telepathy is directly an attribute of psionics which when you boil down to things, is just the scientific explanation (or attempt of explaining) the same exact thing that magic is said to do. Human society over the course of thousands of years went from calling things “shooting fireballs from your hand with MAGIC and SORCERY! -handweaves-” to “pyrokenesis is caused by superior mental abilities” – with the advancement of science, we take ancient aspects of our mythology and made it scientific. Telepathy is just the more “advanced” way to call mind-reading. And mind-reading is magic -handweaves- by all explanations and definitions.

Actually, we’re outright told the Six Gods brought humanity to the world (yes, Tyria the world not Tyria the continent). All indications actually say that humans sailed to continental Tyria (at the same time as they did to Elona).

Here is one case:

GuildMag: In the Original Guild Wars, seers were a pretty mysterious race, what can you tell us about them and what role will they play in either GWB or GW2?

Ree Soesbee: There have been a lot of questions about the Seers and their ancient war with the mursaat. Sadly, these aren’t questions we can answer at great length without giving away some very deep secrets of the Guild Wars world. I can say that they are one of the oldest races of Tyria, dating back long before the Gods brought the humans to the world; to the time of the writing of the Tome of Rubicon. In those ancient days, the Seers fought against the mursaat, but they were in turn defeated by their enemies, and their civilization lost to the ravages of time.

http://www.guildmag.com/guildmag-issue-1-qa-with-ree-soesbee

Thruln the Lost’s story outright contradicts the developers, so it’s clear that he’s the one who’s wrong. His statement that humans arrived like grawl is wrong, and his statement that the gods didn’t notice them until they built kingdoms is also wrong, since the gods noticed them millenia before. At best, the gods just didn’t realize immediately that humans sailed to continental Tyria at the time. But besides this, the jotun’s strongest attribute that they’re said to always have had is pride – and this pride prevents them from worshiping anything but themselves or their lineage. (source) These two simple facts lead everything Thruln the Lost says into doubt. Even the line that magic was chaotic before the Elder Dragons last rose is called into question – how can something so chaotic be mastered by at least four powerful races (jotun, mursaat, seer, and forgotten)?

Regarding Orr, actually yes it is human design – to quote the Kingdom of Orr book found in Orr: “Orr’s proximity to the gods influence their architecture.” – the reason why it’s so magestic is because it was modeled after Arah, which was built by the gods themselves. Though there’s indications that the forgotten had built the foundations unless the Six Gods were building it while the Elder Dragons were last awake – the place where the forgotten freed Glint is called “The Altar of Glaust” and though I haven’t seen it myself, it is something that is said by the scholar researching the forgotten was there during the last ED fight, saying Glint (formerly called Glaust) was freed by the forgotten in Arah at the altar.

Besides, Orrian architecture looks nothing like jotun architecture.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

That isn’t telepathy. Telepathy is the transmission without use of any kind of channel. Magic is a channel. She is using Mesmer magic to speak inside his head/transmit thought or whatever it is precisely that she is doing. But since she is using magic to do so rather than having the ability to simply do it unassisted. It is not telepathy.

You’re not quite right there.

te·lep·a·thy
[tuh-lep-uh-thee] Show IPA
noun
communication between minds by some means other than sensory perception.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/telepathy?s=t

Magical mind reading would count as telepathy, since its not sensory perception.

Dredge tunnel. Not dwarven. And said dredge – if they survived Usoku’s purge (if we go there, they will have, I guarantee it for the sake of having something other than all-humans in Cantha – naga and possibly wardens too). Though there are Deldrimor artifacts said to be in the southern Jade Sea for unknown reasons.

Guild Warrior.9540:

Also a massive air battle with air ships perhaps against an elder dragon would be something id like to see.

You should play Arah story mode and take on Zhaitan then. Because that’s exactly what happens.

Actually, regarding the icebrood norn that walk on all four – in Snowden Drifts there’s an event chain that focuses on Snowdrift Haven and Jormabakke Stead, where if you fail to destroy the dragon totem in the timelimit a veteran Svanir Shaman performs a ritual on himself and becomes a Champion Icebrood Shaman – using the larger Icebrood Norn (all fours) model.

So there’s at least one case of a norn going from living to large with a face that shows a revealed skull.

In the Priory storyline, the norn who takes the Sanguinary Blade also turns into a different Icebrood that has an exposed skull (shared with that CoE explorable icebrood boss).

Well, Soul Eater is a bit more stylized for comedic purposes than Guild Wars, which has a more “this can actually exist” theme behind it all.

Usoku is long dead unless he somehow gained the gift of longevity.

Budg.3064:

Just throwing this out there: As part of helping the refugees I travelled along the path through Diessa Plateau, it was my first time playing in this area. Near the path, I thought I saw a single steam minotaur running around. As it was my first time here I didnt think much of it and figured they must be here as well as Lornars Pass. However, people in this thread and the GW2 wiki say they only appear in Lornars Pass.

Now I’m doubting what I saw, but I was so sure at the time that it was a steam minotaur.

Probably a player with a tonic.

Yes, bring back guys like this

If – and that’s a big if – Anet ever adds another profession, it’ll just be one soldier and no more. But still, what kind of niche can they add? And I’m sure they’ll add new races before this mysterious profession.

That’s a good point. Since Subject Alpha has the energies of five Elder Dragons (supposedly five), it might hold command over the others. It does over risen, at least.

Cavalon was permanent, but you’re correct in that it wasn’t always populated. It’s primarily a meeting place for the Convocation tournament, and acts second as a trading center for Luxons.

And yea, norn are fairly nomadic. There are norn who settle down, but most keep moving (like Knut’s wife).

The only room where the dragon minions are allied is, in explorable mode, where they’ve surrounded a shielded Inquest member – I’ve never once had a group which decided to save that Inquest member, preferring to self-destruct the shield to kill all minions. So who knows if they fight each other if you save him.

In story mode, they’re recently made by Inquest devices, so they may not have the standard dragon minion mentality (in fact, same can go to the ones in explorable mode, since they may be the same situation).

dunnberry.2964:

I don’t remember where but it has been stated that the elder dragons do not cooperate and minions will kill each other

This. We were told that their minions are hostile to each other, and the dragons themselves are not allies.

Crucible of Eternity does present an odd situation where there’s one room (just one in story, and just one in explorable) where minions of all four main dragons and possibly Mordremoth are together. But I consider this more of a mechanical situation, given how all dungeon foes share the same affiliation (by Anet terminology: armies), and thus would treat anything else in the dungeon as an ally (as well as all counting to the same Slayer achievement). At least that’s the case with most dungeons.

They also have a big crescent moon which isn’t orbiting a planet that has a face – Soul Eater style.

Overall, I say that orrery isn’t absolute truth. It’s likely that they stylized it (a lot of Divinity’s Reach is stylized) and there’s likely some gaps where they aren’t sure about it all.

Well given how I’ve been trying to understand the psychology/methodology of the Elder Dragons, I reactively go further into just pure face value like the above.

Primordus is off the options because he isn’t corrupting living beings (his choice, I imagine), and instead all indications point to him wanting to kill all living beings.

The Risen who live out their daily lives seems to be the civilians of Orr – those from elsewhere who get corrupted become the thralls unless they’re worth making strong. And all the thralls and brutes do is mindlessly zerg everything that’s alive. I’ll pass on that, though the mentality of the risen is definitely appealing (the risen believe Zhaitan offers them immortality and importance from what I’ve seen of the sentient risen).

Branded are a bunch of fanatical cultists when you boil down to it. I wouldn’t mesh.

Icebrood are all about gaining power, so I guess that’s the best of those four.

Mordremoth and the DSD have little known about them, but their goals seem to me based on little to be to inflict pain and flood the world (respectively). I love mysteries and wouldn’t mind being able to breath underwater…

So I go with the DSD.

The Thaumanova Reactor is nothing more than chaos magic going haywire. I don’t see where knowledge of atoms come from this. There’s nothing nuclear about that place.

The OP can be summarized into the following points:

• Guild Wars 2 is fun, and is meant to be fun.
• Other MMOs feel like a job because of grind.
• Let’s add in mounts, because they’re fun!
• But lets not give benefits to mounts, unless you grind for those benefits.

Right, contradictory much? You’re saying you want to make GW2 more fun, then suggest adding something which removes that fun.

The game already has a problem where it favors players who grind dungeons repeatedly (whereas those who do everything else get fewer benefits in comparison). So lets not widen that issue, shall we?

I wouldn’t mind a reduction in the cost, but removal? I’ll pass.

I do think it’s kind of silly that waypointing across the world map costs roughly 4s at level 80 (I’d rather have half), but waypointing 1.5s roughly to waypoint minimal distance (say you were defeated 10 feet from a waypoint…) is far worse, nigh absurd.

At the very least, reduce waypoint costs when you’re defeated, since there’s the whole armor repair money sink anyways.

Sylvari do have internal organs. They just don’t appear recognizable to a mammal’s internal organs. They have an organ that functions like a stomach (digests food), but it isn’t a stomach; they have an organ that functions like a heart (circulates the sap), but they don’t have an actual heart. This is what Ree meant – they don’t have the organs we have. But they have organs which fulfill similar/the same roles. They’re also in different placements, iirc from what was said, so if you go stab a sylvari where the human heart is, you may end up just piercing their psuedo-stomach.

Hoelbrak has been presented like Cavalon among the Luxons (for those who played GW1). It’s just a really big meeting place, but not as many norn live there full time – in the same manner, the nomadic Luxons meet at Cavalon to do trade and share stories, but don’t live there and in fact seldom stay there for extended periods of time.

So while Hoelbrak is huge, it’s more of a trading center for most norn (regardless of what they’re trading) that doubles as a social center to get together, party, drink bear, and tell stories. Those who live in the area live on the outskirts – in Shelter Rock and Frost Basin.

I haven’t seen mursaat technology. What are you talking about? Their towers and teleporters are 100% magical.

The spellcasting is explained in the fact that they’re Orrians. Orrians were naturally more magical than the other nations, to the point where they don’t even need to train unlike the other nations, and use magic for liesurely things when others used it when other means didn’t work. So its presumable that as undead they’d be still.

Hitting harder seems more like a mechanical case of level to me.

I wasn’t really saying that there’s a chance Cantha will be soon. Rather, I was disagreeing with the notion that there’s no strong lore reasons for establishing contact other than trade.

Also, I don’t think the Pact would need to overthrow Joko to gain allies. They just need to convince Joko to work with them – for now. Having an army of undead and people who grew up knowing they could be turned into undead to fight for his lord once again would be a strong benefit to the army.

Anet said from the get go that the explorable mode wasn’t meant to present more lore. It was meant for those who want more challenge so they just went and gave minimal narrative for them. That’s why the “choose one of these three options” dialogue always sounds so… bad. Not just in voice acting, but wording. Like it wasn’t reviewed to be good.

While we don’t know how many hours are in a day in Tyria, or how many hours the nights/days are, we know that Tyria’s year is actually shorter than ours.

Furthermore, their new year is actually the same as the middle of March for us. They have 360 days in their year, each season is 90 days long. Their new years begins at the beginning of spring – that is, the Spring Equinox.

So assuming the Tyrian solar system functions the same as an actual solar system, Tyria’s probably closer to their sun than Earth, to account for the fewer days. The tilt might be a little different too, depending on how long on average the seasons last here (I’m not really sure if it’s all equal, never paid enough attention to tell off the top of my head).

Horses always existed in lore. We just never see them in game – the same way we never saw krytan drakehounds in Kryta in GW1, or drakes in Ascalon in GW1 (sans a single River Drake).

An Empire Divided says Emperor Kaineng Tah fell off his riding horse when he died.
There’s the Necrid Horsemen from Orr.
In Edge of Destiny, there’s a scene featuring a plateau with horses seen through an asura gate (meaning that there were horses in a likely-abandoned above-ground gate 5 years prior ot the game).

Horses have always existed in Tyria for lore – specifically we know “Cantha” “Orr” and “Tyria in general, likely Kryta or Ascalon given the description”

Furthermore, horses were featured in concept art since the days of Prophecies, and were heavy in Utopia. However, they still never featured.

So this concept art doesn’t raise the chances. But it is possible they’d add them to be like deer or the like.

And Antarcticans (or would it be Antarcticians? Antarcticas?). :P

That’s the norn NOW, not before Jormag pushed them south.

And besides, in a multitude of interviews, Jeff Grubb would give the example of how a group of norn couldn’t agree on what to order for lunch as for how independent they are and often said that norn armies were out of the question.

They may have learned to work with larger groups now, having been pushed into the proverbial wall, but before that? Nu uh.

And you actually just said exactly what I have been from the beginning: hundreds of norn attacking independently, in competition. Which goes back to my original comment: They’d be shoving each other over for the glory of the hunt. Or drawing straws to see who goes next.

What I meant is that we’d be getting content in those two zones, instead of Wayfarer and Diessa.

That presents a fun scenario.

It’s now cannon that assassins got rich by stealing treasures from the Underworld – this in turn not only brought Dhuum’s constant returns and re-imprisonments (and possibly an ultimate return), but also weakened the boundary between the Mists and Tyria at the Temple of Ages, resulting in the Shadow Behemoth.

If Canthans basically stole all of that money, then those assassins (aka GW1 UWSC players) basically screwed everyone over a third time by providing the funds for Usoku to isolate Cantha.

So let’s recap: How did the GW1 characters screw up? On top of the above, they…

• Abandoned Rurik, leading the Adelbern’s furthered insanity over the death of his sole heir which in turn helped give a push to bring forth the Foefire.
• Unleashed the Titans (even if momentarily), which led to damages to Ascalon (and Kryta/Deldrimor, but they faired better what with only 1 general per).
• Helped the beginnings of the dredge revolution that resulted in dredge enslaving their own kind.
• Seemingly wiped out the remaining forgotten on Tyria.
• Completely ignored the Kurzick/Luxon war renewing after Shiro’s defeat – and in fact, ignored the Afflicted afterwards too (it’s presented in Winds of Change that the hero who killed Shiro is again returning to the fray in 1079 – 7 years later), as well as letting Murasaki and the Ministry of Purity begin their rise, and ignoring the replacement of Togo occuring.
• Unleashed Palawa Joko.
• Fail to finish the Ministry of Purity who’s ideologies led to Usoku

Wow, seems we screwed up a lot in GW1. Two major issues in GW2, as well as a middle-ground potential one (Cantha, Elona, and given the no-resurrections, possibly Dhuum’s release) were caused because of the negligence of the GW1 heroes.

Well, Cantha has strong ties for both human and tengu history.

There’s also the curious case of Kuunavang, who may or may not be related to an Elder Dragon.

Terrorwebs were sending souls to the Realm of Torment from the Underworld (and keeping evil spirits there with the more benevolent ones), just as the torturewebs were taking souls from the River of Souls, but weren’t part of titan making themselves as far as we know.

But this is all still post-fall Dhuum activity. Though true it’s not unlikely that he made titans before hand – we know something was, given how the seers dealt with them “eons ago” and they’re said to be nearly as old as the forgotten (which predate Dhuum’s fall by well over a thousand years).

Generally, isn’t the debate about placement of teutonic plates?

As to the Crystal Sea – I do believe, personally, that it once reached that inland sea. Though perhaps not widely (a large river would be sufficient). I’m also suspecting that’s the source of the Elon (it’s in the general direction of the Elon’s last direction). Though there are indications that the Crystal Desert also existed in some form at the time the Crystal Sea did.

CHIPS.6018:

Role playing has to be set in a distance past so it won’t effect anything today. So I would say in the Age of Giants. Talk about Lupi, Jotuns, Norns, Mursaats, Seers, Dwarfs, Forgottens and their fight against the Elder Dragons in 10,000 BE.

There’s so much speculation there that it’d take a wall of text to fully explain. :P To bulletpoint it:

1. We don’t know when the Age of Giants was (if it existed, given Thruln’s credibility).
2. Nothing says the mursaat, seer, dwarfs, or forgotten were around for the Age of Giants (it’s a 50/50 chance depending on if the Age of Giants was before or after the last ED rise).
   #Norn most likely weren’t around for the last ED rise as only five sentient races survived it – jotun, mursaat, seer, dwarfs, and forgotten. Unless the jotun don’t consider the norn to be sentient; or alternatively, mention them in their stalea.
3. Indications actually point to the last rise to be around 2,000-1,000 BE.

You’re missing something major, WonderfulCT.

Dhuum was a cruel and unjust god. He didn’t treat the spirits of the dead fairly, and those who managed to avoid a fatal circumstance Dhuum hunted down (think of the GW1 banning – that was probably a more frequent appearance when he was god). This meant that if a monk came along and healed a man who lost half an arm and a lot of blood, well, too bad man-who-was-just-healed. Dhuum’s gonna get you!

Doesn’t really sound “as it should be” – as you put it.

Regarding resurrection – it’s good because sometimes people die by accident, without will or want of their own. This gives them a second chance. Furthermore, bad guys get resurrected too (Shiro Tagachi for one – Gaheron attempted to be another major antagonist coming from the dead). So basically, it’s a double-edged sword. Also, it was always a part of lore, ever since Prophecies (killing atop a bloodstone with soul batteries attached would prevent “any kind of magic from bringing them back”). The qualifications for resurrection is just unknown to us.

Narcemus.1348:

He made the dead into his personal servants, almost a personal army.

Source please.

WonderfulCT.6278:

Well I appreciate the response the wiki doesn’t really say any of this from what I’m seeing and I guess it’s still debateble (imo) as to if Grenth is just or not.

“During his reign, Dhuum ruled from his tower in the Underworld as the God of Death, but was viewed as an unjust God who did not tolerate resurrection or the undead.”

That’s what the wiki says regarding Dhuum.

Yeah, I just looked. It seems that Santax went and rewrote it, putting in some minor-but-likely speculation and removing important facts (while also adding some GW2 facts). I went and fixed that.

@Curuniel: Grenth is called representing judgment by the Orrian History Scrolls I don’t think he’s ever related to justice – Kormir is though. Grenth is, though, as you said a fair judge.

There was a recent thread about this. There, I explained that in GW1, copper and silver coins existed.

Similarly, GW2 does still have platinum coins for money.

We, as players, just have no access to it.

So while something may happen as Ratphink speculates, the changes would be minor. This is primarily a mechanical change between the games.

The only real question is… why does 1,000 gold in GW2 (it’s possible to have 5 or 6 digits worth of gold in the bank currently) not turn into 1 platinum?