Guild Wars 2

@IsaacSin: THere’s a big difference between looking undead and being undead.

@Cicero: He’s on that tower because he got crippled. Most of his wings got destroyed, so he couldn’t fly. Though I agree that it was a bit lackluster, him having to cling onto the tower made sense.

They serve forest spirit*s* – multiple, not just Urgoz.

I highly disagree on wardens (concept art or in-game version) looking like sylvari (again concept art or in-game version), though in the end this is subjective. Furthermore, wardens aren’t plants. And where do you get that Urgoz has a tie to “dreams” – that’s Kanaxai, who torments people in their dreams (aka nightmares).

I’d also like to take this time to denote a similarity with Ancestor Trees of the centaurs, which is said that “the spirits of their forebears watched over them” and that “the fruit of these trees was seen as divine, possibly as a way to pass down spiritual wisdom from one generation to the next.” (NF manuscripts; transcribed here )

Mechos.5640:

Well, yes. But that still doesn’t raise the question of the ones that existed in tombs/graves/etc., which would’ve been blocked off from Khilbron since they were underwater. Again, since Zhaitan raiseskittennear everything it can find, there would have to be some elements of the Orrian army that were raised at some point, statistically speaking. A nation that exists for 1000 years, as the centre of human culture, doesn’t seem the type that wouldn’t have large military gravesites.

Except that underwater wasn’t blocked off to Khilbron. That’s actually how the undead invaded Kryta in gw1 – by walking beneath the waves. During the GW1 mission D’Alessio Seaboard, you see the undead spawning at the water – this is to show that they’re coming from beneath the waves.

Undead don’t need to breath, so why would something being underwater prevent an undead?

It’s possible that we do see ancient Orrian warriors, but they’re just not called “Orrian Warrior” or the like, and they don’t have armor.

Also, we see more than one “Admiral” that has a coral-covered body. One assaults the Order of Whispers (others possibly assault the other order bases) and a few are in the retaking of Claw Island.

And actually, large military graveyard does sound highly unlikely among Orrians. Simply because they’ve been a peaceful nation over the millennium (GW1 Prophecies manual states this – and by the sounds of the Orrian History Scrolls, they kept out of all major wars in Tyria until the third Guild War, which they only joined due to fighting in their streets and attempts to stop the war). It might be possible that their army consisted of militia alone, given their magical prowess.

You know, I really don’t get the argument behind the claim that Zhaitan is undead. Yes, he’s the Elder Dragon of undeath, but does that mean that Kralkatorrik is crystal? Concept art of him, or that piece of him in GW1, certainly doesn’t look that way. Primordus in GW1 certainly doesn’t look to be made solely of fire.

They have powers over that aspect of “nature” they’re attributed to, and in the case of Kralkatorrik at least, can turn into it (he turns into a sandstorm); but that doesn’t really mean they are the aspect at all times.

So I just completed the personal storyline and the skritt, Ftochak, says “Underground rock dragon next, yes-yes?” as part of his dialogue. So people are relating Primordus to rocks as well as fire, so Mordramoth is more likely, at this point imo, to be a champion of Primordus than the sixth Elder Dragon.

Personally, I suspect the Bone Dragons were tied to Zhaitan. Those “heads” that was Zhaitan’s mouth looked very similar to Bone Dragon heads. Furthermore, just like Bone Dragons, Zhaitan lacks a lower torso – it’s just tails and more wings. No hind legs.

Except that nothing really states that the Elder Dragons were defeated last time. The Tome or Rubicon only mentions the defeat of a Great Destroyer, and jotun history only mentions five surviving races against six Elder Dragons. I don’t think it’s mentioned anywhere that they were actually defeated. Even the lore on Glint states that she hid them from the Elder Dragons, making her lines in Edge of Destiny – that they went to sleep due to the lack of “food” – to be most accurate thus far.

Thing is, Elder Dragon’s utilize elements of nature, but they aren’t those elements themselves. Zhaitan utilizes undead, and looking at his body he is undead too. However, undead can die just as well as living – they’re just “studier” (until they become rotten).

Also, Zhaitan’s not the Elder Dragon of death – just the Elder Dragon of Undeath. And the personal story makes it pretty clear he is dead and won’t be a threat anymore.

I’m not exactly sure how one would defeat an Elder Dragon if not using powerful technology. Think of it. Mundane weaponry wouldn’t scratch them; they feed on magic so bringing something like, say, the Scepter of Orr, to them would just give them a chance to feed off of those powerful magical weapons thus leaving you weaponless and them stronger. And the storyline seems to indicate that they have a harder time corrupting technology than anything else – the lack of any kind of corrupted golem, for instance, or the effectiveness of various kinds of Pact-enhanced weaponry shows this.

So an airship with a mechalazer sounds like the most logical weapon to defeat Zhaitan. The issue with his death is just that he doesn’t give much fight – which based on Lutinz’s post, is a bug. I sure hope so, personally, since I found the Mouth of Zhaitan fight far tougher. Perhaps having to deal damage to Zhaitan while he’s flying like with his champions would be better than fighting a horde of risen…?

How can Zhaitan take control of undead when they’ve been killed again, and are not in Orr (mind you, he does turn Mazdek who was buried in northern Gendarran Fields into a lich… however, we don’t know where remaining undead went since we don’t see any non-risen Orrian undead remnants in either Godslost Swamp, Caledon Forest, or Sparkfly Fen – the only places they were at in GW1 where we can go in GW2)).

Those wandering dead in Orr are probably the Orrian risen we see, considering many of them retained their personality and/or went about their normal lives.

Keep in mind that Orrians were highly magical. Where Ascalonians had to train vigorously for years to use magic well and even then only used it for where it was needed or best used, Orrians used it for trivial things like showing off their fishing catches in floating, glowing, orbs filled with water to keep them alive. In Shelter Docks in Malchor’s Leap you can find documents regarding this as well as another stating that Orr’s influence in the third Guild War made the casualties eclipse the previous two. As such, it is not unfathomable to believe that Orr’s army was small yet easily far more powerful than others twice, perhaps even thrice, their size. Imagine a unit of mursaat going against a full battalion of Ascalonian soldiers. Who would win? Same concept, but different magical preferences really.

The lack of Cataclysm charr undead is an interesting question. One I hoped to see answered in GW2. But the lack of an Orrian army is not so.

The Arah explorable mode dungeon has tokens called Shard of Zhaitan with the quotation “A small piece of Zhaitan, forever dead.”

Also, I doubt that they’d really leave the area without checking the body. That’s too amateur for the Pact’s professionals.

jebidiah ubershiet.2580:

rata sum also happens to be built on the ruins of an ancient civilization that no one seems to know the origions of. hmmmm…what kind of ancient peoples might have had a great city full of pyramids and such that would have been somwhere in that regeon…

Orrians are known to have had a presence in the Tarnished Coast. They are also known to be very magical.

Nothing says the civilization who built the ruins were ancient, just that the structures were run down by 1079. Given their location, this could have happened within 100 years easily.

One of the Orrian History Scrolls in Shelter Docks of Malchor’s Leap states that King Reza had sent most of its armies out in an attempt to end the third Guild War.

Also, these guys: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Undead

Specifically the ones in Kryta. Those are Orrian undead with armor and weaponry, supposedly the remains of the army. Remember that two armies of undead came from Orr. The first had military-looking individuals (particularly the rangers and Necrid Horsemen), the second had the civilians.

Combine these two, you get that the Orrian armies returned to Orr to get killed and turned into undead by Khilbron (then a lich) over the year between the Cataclysm and the undead invasion on Kryta. That or the mentions of “few surviving Orrians” that weren’t in Orr during the Cataclysm would be the main army, and those seen in GW1 are the reserves left behind.

Interesting, sure, but not very likely. Along with this, it’d be rather boring and disappointing, to me at least, if Anet goes around linking everything to the Elder Dragons – which they said in the past they wouldn’t do (rather, what they said is that they will be making new stories and plots, to create more width in the world than depth – it’s why Abaddon’s story is only briefly brought up in GW2).

Cadeyrn in the blog post really is little more than a spoiled brat. His very first set of words proves this with his "The Pale Tree must have wanted to see me right away. She knew that I was special. I am first!” and at the end with his “I will never be one among many, Caithe. Not even to the Pale Tree. I will make you hear me, Mother, like it or not.” This is narcissism at its finest. Sadly, Twilight Arbor ruined his personality by having him glorify Faolain (whom he was said to have disdain for in interviews) – unless Faolain enchanted him greatly that is.

In short, Cadeyrn thinks that the “true sylvari” is himself. The Nightmare Court want to spread the nightmare in order to – as they claim – be free. Thing is, they’re literally just replacing one set of shackles for another, if one were to call Ventari’s teachings such, because just as the Dream sylvari are “forced” to follow Ventari’s teachings, the NC are forcing them to follow the nightmare’s teachings. It’s hypocricy at its best.

I find it impossible that the Pale Tree is a champion which broke away from its Elder Dragon – reason being is that the sole example, Glint, only could thanks to the forgotten performing a powerful spell to give her own independent will. That is to say, all dragon minions – champion or not – do not have free will (yet retain a personality). So unless their lost-until-Zhaitan’s-death (perhaps – the spell is searched for during the Arah explorable dungeon, but I haven’t finished such) spell was somehow used on the Pale Tree and Malyck’s tree (remember: whatever happened to the Pale Tree must have happened to Malyck’s tree too, otherwise Malyck would be like other ED minions – seeking destruction and corruption and the appeasal of his Elder Dragon, nothing more), then the Pale Tree can’t be a reformed minion of any ranking.

In short, we quite literally have nothing in support for the hypothesis, and everything we have disproves it. But yet still, people think it’s possible just because it’s an “interesting” plot twist and there’s a “Zone Green” with plants in the ED-research institution of the Inquest.

All of the dragon champions of Zhaitan seem to utilize the same model. The three fought in the Arah storymode dungeon, as well as the numerous ones throughout Orr and the Ara story dungeon all have the same model as Tequatl and Blightghost.

The Orders’ storylines merge/end at lvl 60, when you kill Blightghost – after that, it’s the Pact’s storyline which divides at two parts: what your fear is, and the one of three plans chosen for invading further into Orr (specifically, invading the Cursed Shore).

Strang.8170:

If they really always speak from races viewpoint it´s a bit problematic as it can be used to trump pretty much all theories, since races perception can be oh so wrong in so many occsions.

For example we could use that to refute Zhaitan feeling fear like the characters say many times it feels by saying that it´s just them perceiving reactions as fear when they really are something else totaly.

Not everything can be refuted that way, since a lot of things are deduced from studying them intently – especially the later discoveries in the personal story regarding their nature. The fear thing, certainly, can be debunked in such a manner since we don’t actually hear Zhaitan say “I’m afraid!” or the like. It just roars whenever something bad happens to its strongest allies – which could be frustration and anger as much as fear.

Strang.8170:

Nope, that´s how new attacks won´t happen. The initial attack happens way before the pact is even forged. And after the attack on LA risen still control the claw island, but strange enough they don´t launch another attack before the pact is forged and pushes them away. As if they didn´t have intelligent leader to do so. Might also be because there´s not enough of them to do so.

Actually they did – after the initial light attack on Lion’s Arch, a larger attack force were sent to each of the Orders’ main bases. So it would seem Lion’s Arch wasn’t the target, per say, but Bloodtide Coast, Lornar’s Pass, and Gendarran Fields were. And Claw Island was the biggest obstacle between Orr and there. But indications are also given that Lion’s Arch is on a complete defensive. While no dragon assaulted Lion’s Arch, it’s likely that Zhaitan was gathering minions on Claw Island before a full assault on LA – a lot of minions had to leave Claw Island to then attack the three orders, after all.

Furthermore, immediately after the attack on Claw Island is the light attack on Lion’s Arch, and immediately after that is the attack on the three orders’ HQs. Those story steps are fairly fast paced, it feels like. The only slowness is the gathering allies bit which, during that time is when Zhaitan’s sending his forces to the HQs (they just didn’t reach there yet).

Strang.8170:

It´s also said that Jormag himself slept under that lake too, so it´s open to interpretation which ones in the work there.

No, it’s not. There was a bit of a controversy because it was incorrectly interpreted as that being the case due to the original concept and idea was Jormag being under a lake, but that was changed during development and it was never said Jormag was under Drakkar Lake. There was a norn NPC in Hoelbrak which falsely mentions this though, but that lake is not big enough for Jormag to fit in, especially under Drakkar who reaches the bottom of it. Jormag has been confirmed to have been hibernating north of the EN map.

Strang.8170:

Still could fall under self preservation in my opinion. Minions being extension of dragon himself ofcourse he would utilise them like any other bodypart, like bringing hand up to protect head. I don´t know what the last change of plan was, but even still i could count this under selfpreservation, unless ofcourse it was some really elaborate strategy.

First he tried corrupting the area, then he had to fight Glint (during which he turned into a literal sandstorm), then with the lauret on him Snaff entered his mind and was almost corrupted (Zojja snapped Snaff out of his trance, saving him). Snaff re-enters Kralkatorrik’s mind and is proving a minor neusance and Kralkatorrik tries once more to corrupt him mentally, but fails. Given this, he then sends his minions after Snaff specifically (whereas before they were just out to kill those fighting him – e.g., the whole of Destiny’s Edge). Since they can’t get anywhere near Snaff thanks to the rest of Destiny’s Edge, whom the minions are now trying to bypass instead of kill. With that failing, Kralkatorrik starts going after Snaff physically himself.

Also, minions are not an extension of the Elder Dragons’ bodies per say. There is a connection between them, but it appears to be a “shared magic and connected mind” situation. A hive mind and magic scenario with the Elder Dragons being the base/core of it. I view the minions being more of having an internal headset that the Elder Dragon’s constantly issuing orders from, as a comparison.

But why would pirates want to take over? If you’re a hunter, you don’t want to kill all your prey, nor do you want them to flee your hunting grounds (because it becomes a hassle to find new ones). You want to manage your hunting so that your hunting grounds remain plentiful enough for you, while allowing you to continuously hunt. You’re not going to go into the forest, clear it down, and build a house on top of it.

Same concept with outlaws and their targets. They want people to use the same known routes, just as they want to keep a low profile so as to avoid too much law enforcement and, worse, your prey going elsewhere. If the pirates took control of all the docks, then the merchants will just find or make other docks and you start all over.

This is in fact the most likely reason why we’re able to go after the leader of the Crimson Skull in Factions – they became so bold that the Imperial army had to take force and they had taken docks so that their location became more well known and an actual assault on their home base was possible.

Whether the Imperial army had no navy or an armada capable of ruling the entire world with an iron fist is irrelevant to the fact that pirates would not want to, as you put it, “completely take over.”

Freya Norgarde.4517:

I hated him long before the irritations with his tendency to run off without the party. The person who does his VO just…irked me. His lines had a tendency to sound entirely too wishy-washy as well. Something about him just sets people off, I think, beyond the mechanics.

Kormir and Mhenlo also get the vote in my books as being crazy annoying right after Rurik, simply because of how they come across. Kormir is blinded. She then proceeds to do absolutely nothing up until Abaddon needs killin’. Mhenlo is just presented as this amazing wonderful faultless dude who just happens to have way too many adoring fangirls.

You dislike Zhed’s voice? I can see how some of his lines can irk folks though, but all Prophecies VO, even though they’re good voice actors, when I watched the cinematic again this summer it was just… Gah. Some great lines, but equally as many aweful lines (the Sanctum Cay cinematics come to mind… “You are chosen.” disinterested but exaggerated “What?”).

Kormir does nothing? Right, because sending scouts across the Realm of Torment and organizing an army to fight a tyrant is nothing. :P Thing is, her ‘doing nothing’ is poor mechanics choice. She collides yet doesn’t have a support build. Her not attacking makes sense. Would have made more sense to have given her a full out leadership/command/motivation support build and put her to passive like heroes. Or at least remove collision.

As to Kormir becoming a god while the others don’t – this reminds me of the story told during Cathedral of Silence personal story. To paraphrase Priestess Rhei (if I recall her name correctly), Grenth and seven mortals (aka a party of eight) fought Dhuum. Grenth ascended into godhood. The seven mortal heroes became Grenth’s avatars – the Reapers.

It’s possible the nightfall heroes received a similar reward when they died – being ascended into immortality as Kormir’s avatars.

Nothing links the Scepter of Orr with turning people into undead, let alone sex demons (what succubi are) or wailing female ghosts (banshees).

It, supposedly, can control spirits, and possibly in turn control undead/titans, but doesn’t turn folks into undead.

You pretty much answer your own question. They’re not the same. Lord Kitah is a male Orrian noble – most likely one who died during the Cataclysm like most other Orrian risen.

Kitah from Factoins was a female Canthan of the Imperial army (no indication of being a noble) who died in Cantha 300 years prior to the game (and thus the Cataclysm), we can meet her spirit in Tahnnakai Temple.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Kitah_statue.jpg – how Kitah looked
Lord Kitah’s body is nothing similar. Unless her corpse had a sex change operation and was taken to Orr instead of being buried in Cantha (likely in Tahnnakai Temple as well), it’s beyond unlikely to be the same person.

Different people, same name, that happens quite a lot.

These are more questions for roleplayers, rather than being “a roleplayer’s questions” :p

1) I felt it was mostly fine, perhaps a tad bit fast for all the “Pact technology” unless the Priory, Vigil, and/or Whispers were already working on them. Trahearne’s relation to the PC can easily feel rushed if you’re not a sylvari (and, tbh, I feel like GW2 is a sylvari-centric story – you get the most out of it if you’re a sylvari; at least the initial installment). One thing that has been bugging me: what’s with the giant thorn vines (sylvari magic) with the light blue veiny lights? That’s never explained as far as I can tell. It’s just “there” unlike the airships, helicopters, and submarines.

2) Not at all. The Pact is designed as an anti-Elder Dragon group featuring the three most prominant orders. Groups such as the Sentinels are left out, despite also being anti-Elder Dragons, just as groups like the Zaishen and Lionguard are, despite being multi-racial. It can create limitations, but these limitations – not being a major order – was imposed from the beginning if one were to stick to canon.

Curuniel.4830:

Primordus twists fire and stone; Kralkatorrik’s minions utilizing lightning, crystal, and earth. We already have two Elder Dragons connected in some form to earth/dirt. A third would get relatively bland imo.

It depends how it’s done. There are theories floating around that the sylvari/the Pale Tree are connected to a sixth dragon in some way, and while I do love the sylvari as their own independent thing, it could be cool if handled well. They did just happen to be born as the other dragons were rising.

I’m hoping for an epic reveal if there is a sixth dragon. Think about the spiny ridge in Eye of the North, and how epic it was to find out that was part of a slumbering Elder Dragon. So… how large a piece of our map might we lose when we find out we built on top of an earth dragon?!

Firstly, that spiny ridge in Eye of the North? That’s Kralkatorrik. :p Well, part of him.

Secondly, the sylvari as a race appeared 25 years ago, the Pale Tree appeared ~250 years ago. The Elder Dragons awake every 50 years – Primordus was meant to awake ~250 years ago, but was pushed back by 50. Meaning that if the sixth Elder Dragon is awake, it likely woke up around the same time as Primordus.

The hypothesis primarily resides on two main things: the Dream of Dream (or the mental connection between them, which is also seen among other ED minions to their respective dragon), and the sylvari being “minions.” Both fail in the long run for the following reasons:

• Firstly, I’ll cover the easier one – the minions. While every Elder Dragon corrupts in a different way, none of them creates minions. They all corrupt. However, sylvari are not a corruption, they are created – given birth, per say, by the Pale Tree. This doesn’t fit with how Elder Dragon minions are made at all.
• Secondly, on the Dream of Dream – the sylvari storyline (stop here if you care for spoilers) for Where Life Goes, So Too, Should You introduces a sylvari named Malyck. During the storyline it is discovered that he 1) did not experience the Dream of Dreams and 2) does not come from the Pale Tree. This means that there is no mental connection between all sylvari and the Pale Tree is just unique (it also debunks the theory that sylvari are humanoid due to being planted on human graves, unless that second tree was as well, which given that it’s said to be west – which would place it in the Magus Falls, perhaps near where The Falls was in GW1 – I find that unlikely).
• Another point to debunk the Pale Tree=Elder Dragon/dragon champion hypothesis (I refuse to call it a theory due to the lack of supporting evidence) is the attitude of the Pale Tree. Her personality. She is shown as a caretaker and a protector, kind and wanting to save the world from the Elder Dragons. The Elder Dragons want to “consume” the world, by which that is to say “make it like themselves” (or corrupt everything into being in their image). These are polar opposites. The sylvari are far more likely to be a form of antibiotics to the sickness that is the Elder Dragons, rather than a new kind of ED minion.

Now, it may be possible, given we see husks in the Crucible of Eternity, that the Nightmare Court is tied to Elder Dragons, but this connection does not rely on them being sylvari if so. Not with any current knowledge at least. However, I doubt their presence correlates to the Elder Dragons at all. Keep in mind that the Nightmare Court, Inquest, and bandits are in an alliance – one of the major themes of Brisban Wildlands – and furthermore that the Nightmare Court have bases around Mount Maelstrom, which is not far from the Crucible of Eternity.

The Husks’ presence may be part of the alliance between the two groups. It is possible that the Husks are given because they, like sylvari, may be immune to dragon corruption – this makes sylvari and, possibly, their husks the most preferrably “handlers” of dragon minions. If they corrupt the surroundings, you won’t get Branded sylvari – you’ll just get dead sylvari, whereas if Inquest were to handle them, you’d get Branded asura – and worse yet, Branded who know of the Inquests’ plots to tamper with Elder Dragon magic. Which means that Kralkatorrik will learn of these plots (and similarly, the other Elder Dragons should they be the ones corrupting instead).

That, in my opinion, makes far more logical sense than “sylvari are dragon minions!”

You say not to mix lore and mechanics, yet the reason why Rurik is a “nitwit” (and the reason why he’s disliked – same goes for Kormir, Togo, and Mhenlo in fact) is solely/primarily due to mechanics. :p

They also said that everything they tell us of the Elder Dragons is of the races’ viewpoint. This came up during an interview where Kralkatorrik was called a she – and a lot of theoretical discussions popped up because of that and the possible connotations. The devs then stepped in and correct themselves, stating that they don’t have genders as the races understand and, I’m not sure if it was at that point or another, that most information on the Elder Dragons that the developers are saying is from the race’s viewpoint so as to avoid spoilers. Though Kralkatorrik was called a “he” by Glint so it’s likely they do have genders (this I bring up to help elaborate on the whole “the interviews match the race’s pre-GW2 plot knowledge”).

Which makes absolute sense, really.

The attack on Lion’s Arch stops because the Pact forces push towards Zhaitan’s doorstep – so he has to divert his forces to Fort Trinity… which fails and they keep pushing further and further into Orr.

In GW1, Jormag’s never felt – just Drakkar, a champion of Jormag. However, in Edge of Destiny it is said that Jormag offers power – or rather, at that point it’s more of the norn who became known as the Sons of Svanir turning to Jormag for power. The line about Jormag offering power before corrupting comes from Khrigar Ripaw in the southeast corner of Frostgorge Sound – he’s among the Pact members who’re dealing with the grawl in the area worshiping the Claw of Jormag as a god.

In Edge of Destiny, Kralkatorrik heads to Glint who had betrayed him (and he knew this). When Snaff entered his mind, he changed his main target to Snaff specifically. When he was unable to block him out any longer, he sent his minions on him. When that didn’t work, he changed methods once more. It’s more than self-preservation. The self-preservation came in at targetting Snaff, not in the three different means of going after him.

I’m pretty sure that the original story we were given about Malchor was one written specifically for the interview, which would mean it’s meant to be stylistic, not informative, and with “back door” options – so to speak, by which I mean that they can backpedal out of it without having the word “retcon” come up. Which generally makes it of lesser quality and certainty than in-game lore.

All of the gods have distanced themselves from the world.

The racial skills are unrelated to profession.

Kormir is a deity to all humans, not just Elona, though she’s probably a patron goddess there (much like how Lyssa is to Vabbians during GW1).

Not sure what you were expecting out of a skill for a goddess of truth.

Lyuben.2613:

At least with the way the games lore is set out, its likely that the charr, after defeating the dragons, will attack the civilized races and then, be wiped out as the truly civilized races wipe them out.

You haven’t played much of Ascalon have you?

Role a charr, it may help you realize this line of thinking’s false. Go to Fields of Ruin, you’ll see dozens of charr talking about how they’re interested in seeing how humans fight alongside them and judging their worth.

Charr are already good friends with norn, and have decent relationships with asura. Sylvari are fairly unknown. But a lot of the higher level Ascalon areas feature a lot of charr-human cohabitance beyond the reach of the peace treaty. Only Flame Legion and Renegades are anti-humans more or less. There are still some charr throughout that dislike humans and only pay attention due to their orders from the Imperators, but its those imperators’ opinions and orders that matter. And both Malice (Ash Imperator) and Smodur (Iron Imperator) are set in peace with humanity. Smodur even seems highly willing to give up plenty of land to Ascalonian humans for the peace treaty.

If anything is clear, it’s that to the charr that aren’t Renegades or Flame Legion, what the three Imperators say, goes. Irregardless of their own feelings. And many charr don’t mind the peace treaty (while others only mind due to having been raised to hate humans in the fahrar).

Except that the Durmand Priory knows about it. They were our first indications of a sixth Elder Dragon – with jotun stalae (spelling may be off) mentioning that there were five surviving sentient races (jotun, mursaat, seer, dwarves, and forgotten) during the last rise of the Elder Dragons which mentioned six ED (or rather a “sextant of swallowers” or some such).

I would seriously be put down if the Nightmare Court are tied to this Sixth. They’re meant to be, like Dream sylvari, fighting the Elder Dragons as well. They just have a different means of doing such and view the Dream sylvari to be too weak due to their unwillingness to leave Ventari’s tenants.

I’m hoping this Sixth Elder Dragon is tied more to poison – or perhaps not to plantlife or earth at all – rather than earth. Why? Primordus twists fire and stone; Kralkatorrik’s minions utilizing lightning, crystal, and earth. We already have two Elder Dragons connected in some form to earth/dirt. A third would get relatively bland imo.

arcqe.6734:

Glint actually turned against Kral due to her ability to see inside the mind of Kral’s enemies, and therefore became empathetic to them.

The dragons are not described as a intelligent, thinking being, but rather a force of nature. Whether or not this is true, the dragons would likely just corrupt someone before they would agree (if they could) to peace.

Why have peace with something when you have the power to stomp it out of existence?

A few corrections based on lore discovered from GW2:

1) Glint was given free will by a powerful spell the forgotten had used. This, combined with her mind-reading abilities, is what allowed her to betray Kralkatorrik.

2) Zhaitan is repeatedly stated to be showing intelligence in his attacks. Instead of mindlessly pushing forward, he strikes at the three Orders’ main base. He starts laying trap after trap for the Pact as well. He is very much intelligent. Furthermore, Jormag’s described as actively promising powers to those he would corrupt before corrupting them – that is to say, he’s winning them over with coercion before corrupting them. A mindless beast of nature can’t do that.

Besides, Edge of Destiny showed that Kralkatorrik could rethink strategies during a fight he was losing.

The notion that the Elder Dragons weren’t intelligent was from the perspective of the races of Tyria, which had not yet seen any intelligence from them or their minions until the time of GW2, outside the Sons of Svanir who weren’t yet corrupted and some certain champions like Morgus Lethe (but even then he was fairly predictable and not outright tied to the ED).

Despite this, however, all Elder Dragons seem intent to corrupted everything.

First off, Grenth is the son of Dwayna and a “mortal sculptor” – the race of said sculptor, let alone who it was, is left unknown.

Second of all, a father and son can exist at the same time. After all, should Malchor be the father (I agree with everyone else that it’s most likely), he did meet Dwayna before sculpting the statues.

Thirdly, the only source that specifically mentions Grenth being sculpted by Malchor was a french quotation of Malchor’s story, which also said he sculpted Kormir. So that source could be off and that Malchor sculpted Dhuum rather than Grenth. It should also be noted that the Cathedral of Silence doesn’t have a unique statue, unlike Dwayna and Balthazar (though I don’t think Melandru’s or Lyssa’s temples do either, but on this I’m not sure).

@Mercury: We know that Dwayna was the last god he sculpted. Though we also know that there was some time between Dwayna’s leaving and Malchor’s suicide, as he sculpted many more statues after she left – which turns out to be the basis of the GW1 statues of Dwayna. As he made these “imperfect” statues, he became increasingly mad and obsessive if the text on one such statue is any indication (don’t recall exact wording, but it was along the lines of “Dwayna will be mine” yada yada).

The “text” that you’re referring to has yet to be seen in game so it was likely quoting a developer on the subject, and there were obviously errors created. It was from an interview, as I said, and the site was in French. In game, the only god specifically mentioned for Malchor to have made a statue of is Dwayna – though considering Balthazar and Melandru both came from the Mists and were among the gods the entire time, they likely had statues of them too. We’re also told he made six statues – or rather, statues of all six gods. We also see a unique statue of Balthazar at his temple, as a skill point (all other temples have the altar as the skill point).

Furthermore, after Kormir rose to godhood there was no more elimination of the fallen gods from history books. Abaddon and Dhuum became more commonly known. We know this because it’s the very premise of Kormir’s worship, regarding Abaddon at least, and Dhuum is spoken about by the same priestess who spoke of Grenth being a half-god (though given the priesthood of Grenth are secret-keepers, they may have always known) and furthermore both are mentioned in the Durmand Priory library. Though I doubt that many would openly talk of them or teach of them. And Grenth being a half-god definitely wouldn’t be, since that’s the priesthood of Grenth’s most sacred secret.

Depends on what you’re referring to.

The Shiverpeaks defrosted due to Mount Maelstrom, a volcano which erupted and seems to be tied to Primordus (has a destroyer-related event so I hear).

The Far Shiverpeaks were shattered by Jormag when he woke, creating an inland sea to the north.

The game also seems to be taking place in spring/summer which means weaker snow.

If you mean terrain wise – this is more due to different layouts and sizes of the zones compared to GW1’s explorable areas; a bit of suspension of disbelief is needed to realize that Kryta isn’t nicely boxed into rectangles by peculiar mountain passes, for instance (same with Ascalon and the Maguuma). Especially since there is, technically, fewer such small mountains/large hills than GW1.

Similar to Trock, I haven’t gotten a chance to go through that dungeon yet so this is interesting.

What was Subject Alpha exactly? Furthermore, if it had both Teeth of Primordus and Teeth of Mordramoth then it’s likely that the latter is a champion of Primordus. If it is an ED, then the Sixth is most likely.

Zenyatoo.4059:

I also had several problems with the stones resetting even though I was totally in the right order…

for those curious
rising sun is the far east stone.
The pagan is melandru
the oldest law is gravity (the dwyana statue used to be composed of floating rocks)
splitting down the middle is the staircase near melandru, as it cuts into the middle of the area
ascending and descending are the stairs to the west
the pillars one is the stone between 4 pillars
and the final stone is to the north by the crumbled pillar

Not sure if theres some kind of time limit to this, because even doing it correctly, I had to restart about 4 times before it worked.

Dwayna’s is fourth, not third; splitting down the middle (the stone wall – not a staircase, I think) that’s third.

There is a timelimit, though first time I did it, the stone wall one was counted as wrong.

1) The White Mantle are the bandits – this is outright stated in the Unknown Parents storyline, and you can see throughout Harathi Hinterlands, Queensdale, and outside Fort Vandal in Brisban Wildlands the same shared emblem which looks like a modified version of the GW1 WM emblem. This emblems proves all bandits are united. However, most of the grunts seem to be disillusioned (for lack of a better term) citizens – people convinced that the government, specifically Queen Jennah, is ruining the country, or people who were born poor and turned to crime to make a decent living (there’s a couple bandits you can talk to which mention both of these, which heavily implies, along with the use of a bandit hideout, that the street gangs such as Two-Blade Pete’s in the Street Rat personal storyline, are led by White Mantle insurgents).

I suspect that there’s going to be a lvl 80 dungeon added at Fort Vandal, given there’s a bunch of lvl 80 champions in it. In Lionshead Outcrops of Brisban Wildlands, to the north you can also see a zone portal implying that Anet already has plans for going into the Maguuma Wastes and, possibly, further into the WM storyline.

2) This is assuming he’s still alive in GW2, since we don’t know mursaat lifespans. Him hiding is an interesting speculation, though I suspect he’s behind the bandits/White Mantle’s continue attack on Kryta. Considering the mursaat dealt with Elder Dragons before, he may have knowledge on them. If so, and he is still backing the WM, this could explain their allegiance with the Inquest who are experimenting with Elder Dragon magic…

Interesting, and plausible, hypothesis.

4) CaptSlate’s wrong regarding the Stone Summit. That was the main view, but we learn from NPCs around Granite Citadel in Dredgehaunt Cliffs that with the rise of Primordus, the Stone Summit returned to Deldrimor ending the civil war for good and we knew from interviews that all dwarves – Deldrimor and Stone Summit – eventually underwent the Rite of the Great Dwarf and went underground to fight off Primordus and his minions. They’re the reason why destroyers are scarce on the surface.

@Danikat: There’s a warband/group of warbands given mining duty in northwestern Diessa Plateau, and there’s a warband in north central Diessa who’s job is to maintain the lake – there’s also mention that a single warband was given the same kind of duty over Lake Feritas in Plains of Ashford, but they mostly died (only one left now), and another warband in charge of farm protection of Charradis Estate in Diessa. So yes, warbands can be given non-combat duties.

As to surnames, Danikat’s right – we’ve been told that they change their surname when they change warbands. Not sure how becoming a gladium affects this. On the other hand though, the PC’s reconstructed warband don’t share a surname (the recruits keep their previous surname).

Elder Dragons have multiple champions (you can see several, about a dozen total, in the skies over each area of Orr fighting airships), though we only see one champion for Kralkatorrik, Primordus, and Jormag more or less in GW2 atm. The Shatterer and Glint are/were both champions.

@Lutinz: Wrong, Glint was Kralkatorrik’s champion before he went to sleep – while Edge of Destiny did make it sound like her purpose was to guard him while he slept, it never stated that and it’s stated in the Arah explorable dungeon that she betrayed him before he went to sleep – she’s the reason why other races survived. Her breaking from Kralkatorrik was a combination of a powerful spell the forgotten used to give her free will along with her mind-reading abilities giving her sympathy for the other races.

And you’re right that it’s about how much effort is put into making them – though for Zhaitan at least it deals with how much corrupted magic is put back into the body (Zhaitan, and possibly other ED, corrupt via taking magic from creatures/objects, corrupting it, then putting it back in – and the more put back in, the more intelligent and stronger it is – at least this is an explanation given prior to the invasion of Orr which is more or less followed up on in agreement though there’s no explanation for why there are draconic minions given as far as I know).

@alfista: technically, it should be “a total of 6 known Elder Dragons” – nothing really says there can’t be a seventh. It’s just that the jotun (and likely dwarves, forgotten, mursaat, and seer as well) only knew of six.

For more information on dragon champions: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon_champion

I’d link to other relevant pages, but a lot of lore on GW2W is out of date, especially on the ED, as no one’s yet updated them.

Phrixscreoth.6895:

The Staff didn’t control titans, as I recall, just undead, and happened to be the key to opening the door that the titans were locked behind.

No and no.

Khilbron already had control over the undead when he recieved the scepter, so it could have been a cover story. However, he was able to order the titans around. Furthermore, it was not the key to opening the Door of Komalie – technically, there is no key. Destroying the five/six soul batteries there opened the Door – the Scepter wasn’t needed for that part.

Alex the Precise.3654:

The Orrian undead probably came from Zhaitan indirectly. He was sleeping beneath Orr when it sunk, how deep we don’t know. When the kingdom went crashing down it might have created a way for his passive corruption to emerge. WE know that the other dragons gave off magic and corruption even while sleeping. Primordius powered the entire Asura gate network and All those bodies mixed with a sleeping dragons years before his awakening started pumping out destroyers. Latent magic could have raised all those undead but without Zhaitan’s conscious influence they were just a wandering force. I am a fan of the “Scepter of Orr was a piece of or somehow related to Zhaitan” theory as it would explain how it could be used to influence Zhaitan’s undead. Brings up the question of where it is now and can it be used against his remaining forces or did he simply reabsorb it at some point?

The problem with this theory is that we have outright confirmation that:

1) Orrians had no clue about Zhaitan, which we can infer to mean that there was no heavy necrotic powers there (however they knew it for being a highly magical place, but then again the Six Gods lived there and brought a kitten ton of magical artifacts, such as the bloodstones, there for years – the bloodstone itself was even shattered in Arah).
2) The Cataclysm did nothing to Zhaitan, so its unlikely that the undead were created by his magic unless Orr always had an undead problem, which by the sounds of it is not the case (since they have tombs – and if there was an undead problem they would have been cremating for centuries).

Source: http://www.guildmag.com/guildmag-special-zhaitans-secrets

Furthermore, the nature of Khilbron’s undead and the risen are fairly separate. The Orrian undead – the true undead – range from skeletons to specters, they appear mindless and follow Khilbron’s orders and afterwards, assuming the undead with similar build set ups are the remains, they divide into groups leading under stronger undead much like Joko’s undead after his imprisonment. The only known undead controlled by Khilbron to have a soul was Rurik. Risen, on the other hand, have varying degrees of intelligence (depending on how they were corrupted, so I’ve been told) and are mostly twisted from their former selves – especially the more powerful and intelligent ones. The intelligence of risen is determined by how much corrupted magic Zhaitan puts into them, therefore under this understanding Rurik should be the most braindead undead of Khilbron’s army – yet he appears to be the most intelligent. Complete opposites. There’s also the whole existence of Rurik that puts a kink into the theory unless you further to say that Khilbron was capable of spreading the corruption like Zhaitan’s most powerful lieutenants and champions.

Strang.8170:

As far as i recall sceptr of orr granted power over things not of this world, and staff of the mists allowed wielder to bend the fabric of reality.
Gameplay wise energy and hp control.

Undead, have souls, not of this world, thus fall under the influence of scepter.
Similiarly titans are created from tortured souls, again not of this world and fall under the influence.

Just a theory ofcourse.

As for a link to zhaitan, i just don´t see any.

Quoting because this is my view on the matter.

So by your argument, we cannot trust a single thing in the game… to be the case of the game’s lore. As the entire game is made (or “provided”) by a writer of fiction.

Mind you, I’m sure that given the current globe that the distance will be large and given the excuse of An Empire Divide being pre-Factions-release lore and/or Ermenred being incorrect (since it’s written from an in-universe standpoint).

Charr invented guns.
Cannons existed long before.
Explosives were made by dwarves though.

Why there are ghostly catapults or cannons… Don’t think I’ve seen any explanation to that. How can an immaterial object have a ghost? Same goes for the ghostly kegs of ale seen in The Shattered Keep of Sparkfly Fen (and yet those ghosts use material weapons…).

Servek, my source for two weeks sailing is this: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/War_Chronicles#June_29th_-_Scribe_Returns_from_Involuntary_Overseas_Journey

Mind you it’s an in-lore excuse for a two-week silence of the scribe during the War in Kryta’s steady release, but "the winds favored us and we arrived back in Tyria in a week’s time. " So under favorable conditions, it takes about a week to go from Cantha to Tyria (saying 2 weeks was a bit of an misremember from it being a 2-3 week break).

But on a more exact distance, you have this: “Though only a few hundred miles away from Tyria” http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/An_Empire_Divided A “few hundred” means more than 200 but not enough to dictate the use of “several” which would typically mean 200-500 mile distance. Which isn’t that large, truth be told.

As to your second post… I’m not sure what you’re arguing – that they are, or are not a naval power? And combating pirates can be done by more means and methods than having naval power (though I’m certain Cantha has usable ships for naval warfare, it seems they prefer land battles, though this may be due to GW1 mechanics).

Dunno if it’s Redstaff, but I think that’s the ghost tied to touching the seven odd and perfectly similar stones in order.

That’s just concept art so it’s unlikely to be part of the actual game. Probably just intended to show the size of Hoelbrak’s lodges. There’s no actual skyscrapers in the Shvierpeak Mountains, but I’d say those are just really tall buildings – not yet skyscraper level..

@Masta Squidge: Sure you’re not thinking of the jotun, who had “grand” citadels in the highest peaks of the Shiverpeaks? :P (We can see at least 2 or 3 of them in game, I wouldn’t really call them all that superb, or citadels, though).

@Legion: No one said they didn’t have pirate problems for 600 years. In fact, I believe it’s stated when pirates became a problem in Cantha in An Empire Divided – and yes, just checked, it does. Pirates became a problem in 872 AE, becoming known as the Crimson Skull and still an issue in 1072 AE (200 years later). Along with this, we have mention of pirates 100 years prior to that (merely a “300 years ago” via Kitah’s monument in Tahnnakai Temple). So prior to GW1, they had pirate problems for 300 years. If they were a naval powerhouse like you claim, I doubt they’d have such issues – especially with 2 of 3 Shing Jea Island ports being commandeered by said pirates in GW1.

I fail to see why the strait between Istan and Kourna is why Istan is a naval power. Also, I wasn’t saying Istan was a naval power because of wood – I was instead saying that they have wood unlike your claim and that they are a naval power. Two separate statements (though arguably, one would need wood in order to be a naval power – need resources for all those ships). The strait between Istan and Kourna does nothing to affect Canthan trade to Tyria, so I don’t see how your linking the strait to controlling trade? As far as I know, that strait isn’t used as a choke point and Istan isn’t a naval power because of any trade-related reasons. Yes, they do get a lot of trade via Kamadan, but they’re a naval power because of their navy – their actual military force that wiped the proverbial floor of the greatest pirate fleet led by Lady Glaive.

I also fail to see where Melandru comes in. Also, please provide a source saying Elona’s ecosystem is dead. Yes, Jokokittenthe Elona but that doesn’t mean he can open floodgates to let a smaller river through. Similarly, Istan was 100% uninfluenced by the Elon, as was the coast of Kourna. It was only Vabbi and inland Kourna that depended on the Elon’s flow and thus it’s only that ecosystem – part of which only existed thanks to Varesh daming the Elon – was destroyed. Not all of Elona’s.

If the Whisper’s globe is anything to go by, then Istan isn’t sunk. In fact, the angle in which it is would actually have the tsunami going past Elona, not clashing upon it. Some of Istan probably got hit, but I doubt the whole was.

No, the Cantha we saw in GW1 was being hit by Shiro. His previous attack was 200 years prior, which had already been recovered from except for the excessive population.

Also, you go to say that Cantha will become better because they have more wood but… earlier you said Istan’s source of wood didn’t matter. Contradicting much?

And again, I never argued against a Canthan expansion. And being a fan of tengu, I’m thinking we’ll get them before a Canthan expansion because, quite frankly, they have little to do with Cantha in its modern day anymore (and they’re not Aztec at all – don’t know where you get that from either).

What happened to them? They stepped back in order to let humanity grow on their own without any “crutches” (so to speak) – that is to say, without much help from the gods unless it’s needed. This is the explanation Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee has given since 2009.

But as pointed out in the spoilers above, the Six Gods – or at least one of them – isn’t completely gone. They just don’t actively participate in Tyrian affairs unless they absolutely need to (and considering Elder Dragons consume magic, that’s probably a good thing that highly magical beings are no longer on Tyria).

Regarding that Priest of Balthazar’s line – all risen, except one (Priestess of Dwayna), have denounced their faith in the Six Gods in favor of Zhaitan, but this isn’t free will acting. They’re being forced to serve Zhaitan. It’s kind of odd that, if I was told right about the Priestess of Dwayna, she reveres/worships both Dwayna and Zhaitan separately but at the same time.

Proeliator.8740:

80% is waaay too much but they should certainly be much more creative in the way they scale difficulty.

Pretty much this. Removing 80% health would probably make them – health wise – easier than veterans.

This said, my personal favorite enemy in the game is the Iron Forgeman of Sorrow’s Embrace, though I think he could do with a bit more health (about 30% more). The reasons why I love this enemy are:

• He has lovely, unique, and fluid animations.
• His attacks, though mostly one-shotting, are easily red and thus you can avoid them by paying attention. Most bosses it’s really just a hit or miss on whether he’s targetting you – perhaps it’s because the Iron Forgeman doesn’t target anyone, but just does massive damage all over the place in readable patterns, forcing you to move about to avoid those patterns as your footing is always in at least one attack’s path.
• He doesn’t have insanely high health.

I prefer fights which make you think, react, and move. Not in that they are bouncing all over the place (like Vivien during one of the Twilight Arbor explorable paths), nor in having to dodge-or-you-die, nor in them having crowd control and making your character move for you, but rather that you’re motivated to move about, recognize your enemies actions, and counter proactively.

Another good boss example is the first Son of Svanir boss in Honor of the Waves – he has a skill “Summon Hoarfrost” which basically turns all of one level of the ground into a massive Frozen Ground fest. To avoid it, you have to get onto the other level which is either right up to him, or everywhere else – and in the former case, he can knock you back into the AoE damage. Only issue, imo, with his fight is that there’s not much room around him on that second level so you’re either all clumped together or your in AoE most of the time when he uses that skill.

I’d love more foes like that over foes like the Nightmare Tree – in one path, the one where the spider courtier gets to the tree, there’s so many spiders around that the only viable option was to equip the longest range weapon we had and attack it from a distance. The enemy doesn’t move, it can do decent damage, has a unqiue model, but because of that seemingly endless swarm and it not moving (which isn’t outright bad), and it’s incredibly high health it was just 20 minutes of spamming long range skills – what made it worse was the lack of waypoints, but that’s another matter entirely.

Orr is meant to be “dark, dreary and full of undead.” That’s not the issue, as that’s intentional and, imo, should remain. The issue is that it’s hard to do any map completion solo – the game is meant to be allowing solo ability. The issue I find with the mobs is that they have a lot more health than one would typically expect. It kind of felt, as I went through Orr, like I was solo’ing a dungeon but the foes’ damage weren’t as high as in dungeons – just the health was. That and you can’t really fight like how most of the rest of the game teaches you to – to strafe and dodge, because if you do that you’ll often aggro more (and god forbid you aggro more than one veteran – in Orr that’s an auto-death, some veterans (Abominations and Acolytes off the top of my head) are such on their own in fact, but elsewhere I was able to handle 3 veterans and some regular mobs decently).

Granted I can see the reasoning behind this – Orr is a dangerous place and home to an Elder Dragon. It’s repeatedly said throughout the NPCs that going in alone is suicide, and while not outright, it is harder by far.

But I agree that it should be toned down. Not in looks as that’s kind of the point behind it all – asking to tone down the dreariness of Orr is like asking for the Realm of Torment to be full of sunny meadows and rainbows… Okay, maybe that would be torment in its own right, but you get my point.

Legion.4198:

Cantha is in the Southern Hemisphere, far from Tyria.
Their capability to reach the northern lands easily proves that Cantha already had a capable navy back then.

I wouldn’t say 2 weeks sailing – or “a few hundred miles” is “far from Tyria” per say.

Furthermore, you’re confusing navy with sailing. Merchant ships are not a military – or naval – force.

Legion.4198:

I fail to see how this does nothing but reinforce the fact that Cantha has more naval capabilities than the rest of the continents. The problems with the pirates and criminal gangs are over with the Ministry of Purity having broken their base. Second, despite the fame of the corsairs, Elona will never be able to match Canthan naval sea power simply because Elona doesn’t have enough wood to build enough ships compared to Cantha. Same reason why Egypt has never been a naval power. Even more when the bulk of the human population in Elona has probably moved north to the Crystal Desert when Palawa Joko diverted the Elon river north and killed the entire ecosystem of Old Elona.

My point was that it doesn’t support your claim. Cantha has just as many ports as any other continent – the difference is that the continent of Cantha – that we saw – was united under a single banner.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Purity didn’t touch the Crimson Skull. Fun fact.

Elona has a lot of wood, actually. Far more to use for a naval than an overgrown city that spends so many resources on building new houses on top of still-existing old ones. Ever been to Istan or the coast of Kourna?

Legion.4198:

There two additional continents besides Cantha and the Tyrian-Elonian super continent according to the world map, and we know that there’s plenty of land east of Elona.

This is assuming that Canthans know of these lands and that those lands have people who both are capable and willing of trading.

Maybe Cantha is exploring via sailors, and most of their sailors are never returning and they don’t know the cause is the deep sea dragon. Very plausible.

Legion.4198:

Yes, it is a possibility his Mediterranean name is just because his family has blended with Krytans, but with him saying “it’s classified” implies that he’s indeed from Cantha. On top of that, it is implied that the Order of Whispers can, somehow, bypass Zhaitans blockade in the interviews. I think you just don’t want to visit Cantha again for some reason or another.

Could also mean that he comes from one of those two other continents which happen to have humans – the globe is indeed in the Chantry of Secrets and therefore the Whispers know of those lands which may or may not have humans.

I do not deny that he’s Canthan, by the way, just the reasoning behind the name may not be that they decided to alter Canthan naming systems. What I was questioning was rather your claim that he’s a Luxon. And I presume they are capable of bypassing via an asura gate in Elona – which is what they bypass, btw, not Zhaitan’s blockade (that is, they bypass the borders of Elona with 2 undead fighting each other and/or Kralkatorriks domain).

Servek.6791:

-snip-

If you want to get technical, the empire wasn’t constantly battling the Crimson Skull at sea. They were hitting them on the ports and at their land camps.

Considering that Cantha became isolationist, if they developed a navy it would have been with the intent of defense. Which would probably mean that they would focus more on anti-ship weaponry and defenses rather than building ships that can go across the vast Unending ocean. They would have no reason to expand their navy for trade or for military conquest. Unless Usoku’s son followed traditional Canthan actions of emperors where the son almost always contradicts the father, there’s nothing to lead Cantha into being a non-isolationist country. And even if they did, it’s far more likely that Elona, being unified under Joko who would have desire to spread his influence in all directions possible, is more likely to have a navy powerhouse – especially since Istan was known as the navy military power in GW1 (though not sure if compared to other navies in the time period).

In GW1, lore wise, resurrection shrines had to be maintained by someone – a priest – in order to work. That’s why Kurzick and Luxon priests have to be bribed if you’re not of their faction, and why there’s 2 or so resurrection shrines in pre-Searing that don’t work. This continues into the PvP side of the game as well, with periodical resurrections occurring until the Ghostly Priest was killed. This was seemingly abandoned for the primary PvE aspect though in Prophecies – considering that pre-Searing was made after post-Searing, I’d imagine it was something developed later on in development of the game.

@DaMunky: Nope, that cat – Alma was it? is in the old entrance to the pre-Searing GW1 Catacombs. At the Abbey Ruins.

I too was surprised by Queenie’s change. Sad. I liked that fun trivial aspect of Jennah. Made her feel more human and less Mary Sue.

Currently, in Hidden Lake of Brisban Wildlands, there are various bandit spawns that run to the waypoint area – dubbed Seraph Observers Waypoint and killing off all the NPCs. The respawn rates are increadibly fast and I have never entered the area where those NPCs were not down. The “Seraph” camp is always swarmed with bandits and the waypoint is never contested.

This is a deathtrap waiting to happen for anyone using that waypoint. And even if someone manages to kill all current bandits at the camp, they won’t have much time to heal, recharge skills, or leave before more bandits come down on them. First time I was there I tried clearing the camp and was fighting for about 15 minutes as bandits continued to come one after another until I eventually just gave up, having completed the heart while trying to revive the heart NPC.

Furthermore, there are ghost NPCs you can talk to throughout the area – and most of them are near or in the path of those bandits.

This kind of spawn rate should only exist for events, and need to be reduced. I know there are a handful (if not a bit more) of respawn rates which are too fast, but this is a specific example and the one that needs changing the most that I know of.

They’re not only game mechanics. They’re asuran technology and have to be set up and established. How contested waypoints work is explained in Orr zones (dunno why they don’t have the base everywhere, but in Orr waypoints have 2 pieces – the typical floating cube and some sort of levitating base).

Though I haven’t seen any mention on how they work on the teleporting side of things. But if you find a contested waypoint that’s not a base under attack, be sure to check out when they’re setting up that base.

Celestina.2894:

I’d like to point out that I recall even willing sylvari are tortured.

The nighmare court is not something one simply says “Yeah, sign me up!” and gets away pain free.

Well, yeah, that’s because “signing up” for it is wanting to bring nightmare – memories of pain, anguish, and suffering – to the pale tree. Since they are sylvari, their own pain goes with their motives.

In other words, being Nightmare Court means you have to be a masochist.