Guild Wars 2

Thz.7569:

This is kind of confusing. If his body was destroyed back then, wouldn’t his energy have leaked out for someone else to take at that time?

It’s a shame he wasn’t able to still be here in some form like Dhuum has. Oh well. I’ll just continue wishing more people voted for the Abaddon fractal.

Dhuum wasn’t fully usurped. There was a transfer of power, but Grenth couldn’t kill Dhuum.

As for why Abaddon didn’t destroy… who said he didn’t? Remember, his defeat is the moment that the Crystal Sea became the Crystal Desert…

Valik Shin.9027:

On another note (please correct me if I’m wrong here) I think Kormir was actually dead and it was her sprit that follows us in the realm of torment.

She was very much pulled into the Realm of Torment living and alive, and we see her in the same appearance and form.

However, it should be noted that Koss’s autobiography, Koss on Koss, does mention that Kormir sacrificed her life and died when she became a god. However, this may be metaphorical in one of two ways – first, that she’s no longer mortal; second, and more likely, because the ‘identity’ of Kormir is no more, as when she absorbed Abaddon’s godly power she also absorbed his knowledge, memory, and even his will (though she said it is broken). When asked if she was still Kormir, she replied with “No. Yes. Kormir. And much more.” indicating that ‘Kormir’ was dead, and replaced by a new being – a being of both Kormir and Abaddon merged.

Ivan.3401:

Also, what happened to Abaddon’s main henchman the fortuneteller? Surely he/she (cant remember) must still be around?

We killed all major players under Abaddon’s chain of command. And in some cases, went after and defeated their spirits.

The only one that escaped was the nigh immortal Shiro’ken called The Hunter. We did defeat it, but couldn’t kill it. So that fella may still be around wrecking havoc.

In lore by all indications, his original body was destroyed when he rebelled during the events leading to the Exodus. According to gw1’s dat, some descriptions of locations were found which described various gates in the Realm of Torment as where Abaddon pulled materials to create a new body – hence why his body in Nightfall is just a giant head and two gigantic arms which look rather sinewy and twisted.

When killed in Nightfall, we see this ‘body’ of his – this head and arms – fall into an abyss as his godly essence is forced out of him through cracks as his body breaks apart. To quote the PC: “Abaddon is breaking up!” This was rather literal.

So it seems to me that in order for his godly essence to leave his body, his body literally disintegrated.

@Ehecatl: It was a forum post, I believe. Or an interview. I’ll go digging later, don’t have much time atm.

@Scratcherclaw: True, but later Ree Soesbee clarified that what she meant when writing that was that they don’t have organs that would be easily recognizable by shape or relateable to what animals have, rather than entirely lacking organs.

It was never said they had no organs, what was said was that they don’t have organs “like animals”. They have a digestive track, but they function more like a carnivorous plants thank a stomach, intestines, etc.

The only organ stated to be lacking is a heart.

Which does make the other mordrem having hearts and bladders odd – and it makes it odd that Caithe stabbing Wynne in her chest (where/near where a heart would be located on humans) killed her so fast. But do keep in mind that thrashers, teragriffs, husks, and trolls are not sylvari – especially trolls who seem to be corrupted animals. So it’s only expected that their physiology would differ somewhat.

Like I said in my second post, I only denoted the path to Tyria because that’s the information we have. It’s possible for the DSD to have spread out in multiple directions naturally, but we have no way of telling. IF the DSD went towards Cantha, it’d be recent – within the past 50 years by my estimation if my map is anywhere close to correct.

SirMoogie.9263:

Prior to introducing megaservers they were capable of having cross zone effects in the separate realms/shards (e.g., Orr temples). I once suggested during the first CDI they did on the Living World that they should leverage this more and have more zone spanning effects, such that we as heroes of the realm have some duty to keeping it stable. For example, If we let Spark Fly Fen fall to the Risen threat there, those threats should bleed over into Bloodtide Coast (replace enemies and events there with more Risen, less pirates) and then eventually Lion’s Arch. It would be massive amounts of effort to be sure; but if our “safe zones” were no longer safe and our economy could actively be disrupted by ignoring the threats to the world, I’d think our actions would feel a great deal more meaningful.

This is the biggest disappointment I had from that feature patch that introduced megaservers.

I made similar suggestions, though my main example was regarding centaurs. For example, failing to kill Ulgoth would trigger a centaur invasion across Harathi Hinterlands (akin to the Scarlet Invasions), and if that failed then the map would have a lot more centaurs – even in ‘safety zones’ like Seraph’s Landing – than usual, and in Gendarran a new centaur invasion would trigger with similar effects, and should that fail a dual-invasion trigger in Queensdale and Kessex Hills. With each invasion failed, the previous maps would have tougher centaurs but have events to take back the land; for each previous map retaken, the invasion force in the next maps would reduce. So for example if Queensdale and Kessex were centaur occupied, then Harathi Hinterlands would be crawling with elites and champions, while Queensdale and Kessex would have only regulars and veterans, and if Harathi was taken back by players then the Queensdale/Kessex veterans and regulars would reduce in numbers making them easier, alternatively if Queensdale/Kessex were taken back by players the number of champions and elites in Harathi would dwindle, being replaced by lower ranked foes (regulars, veterans, and for the champ replacements, elites).

But alas, megaservers removed such epic potential.

In conclusion to above post:

This is naturally just a rough estimation, but I think that given all our facts this is the most likely scenario to occur.

What’s interesting, as I found out after putting the map together, is that where I place the DSD’s likely place of rising is more or less the same place that the Durmand Priory’s map (note: aside from the Inquest and quaggan, the Durmand Priory are the only folks who have information on the DSD – the Movement of the World being written by one of their prominent members) has an sea serpent design. A subtle hint from the developers on the mysteries of the DSD, perhaps?

In regards to the arrows, I only listed those we can obviously make part on. Naturally, the DSD could spread its forces elsewhere. It’s movements marked seem to be following civilizations and otherwise high body count locations though, starting with the deepest dwellers – krait, quaggan, and karka.

It’s potentially possible that there is another reasoning for this movement – aside from the fact that developers wanted its influence in Tyria while providing far-flung refugees (quaggan): Krait obelisks and Bloodstones. The krait obelisks have been stated to be very akin to the bloodstones, which hold a high amount of magic. Bloodstones would no doubt hold interest to the Elder Dragons who consume magic. If this is so, then there’d be no reason for the DSD to divert its forces in other directions.

If its movements are based on populated locations though, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t send some of its forces south just as Zhaitan had been sending his forces both north (which we faced the brunt of) and south towards Elona.

EdwinLi.1284:

We yet to know how much DSD reach is and so far only two Elder dragon we know that have the ability to reach Cantha is Zhaitan and DSD due to the Ocean being the only thing that is cutting them off.

Zhaitan is removed but DSD current remains unknown but may be the only one that can reach Cantha.

Actually, nothing says that the DSD cut off contact with Cantha, as the earliest interference we’ve had from the DSD came from the krait and quaggan 50 years ago.

Thus far, we’ve only seen the DSD affecting the underwater dwellers.

As for location, we can make an approximation of its location – both current and original. In fact, we can even create an approximation of the original southern quaggan kingdom as well as the krait homeland. People presume otherwise because they forget certain facts. Let’s start with those wide-known:

1. The Movement of the World states that the DSD’s territory is ‘every river and lake’.
   • Issue: The Movement of the World was written by a Tyrian, “was revised multiple times,”: and there’s no influence of the DSD in Tyria. Makes the situation suspicious.
2. The Movement of the World states that the DSD awoke in the ‘deepest part of the sea’.
   • Question: Which sea? Sea of Sorrows? Clashing Seas? Something else?
3. Approximately 50 years ago, the krait forced out the quaggan from their homelands. The krait, in turn, were fleeing from something. The quaggan and hylek attribute this to the Elder Dragons’ influence. Angel McCoy indirectly confirmed that the krait fled from the DSD.
4. Most recently, largos and karka have shown up on Central Tyria presumably due to the DSD’s power. Karka specifically have been stated to avoid Orr due to recognition of dragon influence – since they don’t seem to hold a rich and long historical knowledge, this can only indicate seeing dragon influence in their lifespan.
5. The DSD’s orb in The Machine’s cinematic lights up first. With the possibly exception of this orb, all other orbs light up in order of awakening.
   • If one were to note that all ED that awoke had a champion to wake them sans Kralkatorrik (Primordus had the Great Destroyer and awoke 50 years late due to its death; Jormag had Drakkar and awoke ‘on time’; Zhaitan had the Giganticus Lupicus and awoke ‘on time’; Kralkatorrik had none and awoke 100 years after Big Z; Mordremoth had Scarlet), one can conclude that Primordus and the DSD likely awoke close to each other like Kralkatorrik and Mordremoth, placing the DSD’s awakening only a few years after Primordus’.
   • This in turn means that the DSD has been awake for 200 years but only had notable-to-Centra-Tyria activity for the past 50. What has he been doing for 150 years?
6. Given that the quaggan and krait fled into the Sea of Sorrows rather than Janthir Bay, they lived south of Central Tyria.

Thus far, this doesn’t really give much. But this is where we add in knowledge people don’t often take into account:

1. Before fleeing their homeland, the krait lived not far from human sea trades. Source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Mostly_Harmless_Quaggan – “That changed 50 years ago, with the invasion of their territories by the krait. This slave-keeping, aquatic race had been denizens of deep trenches, but they suddenly erupted into traditionally quaggan lands, destroying their civilization.”
   • We see the rough placement (direct straight lines) of human trade routes on this map
   • Krait also lived in the deepest trenches of the seas. Source: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadows_in_the_Water_%E2%80%93_The_Krait – “The slaves are allowed small fires in which to cook their allotment of fish; sometimes the light from their flames can be seen for miles, warning away ships that might pass too near krait waters.”
   • Trade routes between Cantha and Elona are stated to contain hidden reefs, indicating shallow waters. Source: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Corsair (Nightfall manual, Corsair entry) – “Between the northwest coast of Cantha and the southern rim of Elona, a deadly sea is troubled by sudden storms and cyclones, hidden reefs, and dangerous sea creatures.”
2. Given first list, we know the DSD influenced the aquatic races in this order: Krait -> Quaggan -> Karka -> Largos
   • Karka were influenced before Largos despite us seeing largos sooner due to the fact that karka fled their homeland while largos are still fighting them. Both largos and quaggan know of karka so the karka lived primarily inbetween the two species’ homelands.
   • Largos knew of krait because, while krait homelands were furthest out given this order-of-attack, the krait would often make raiding parties on the coastlines thus they would pass ‘above’ largos territory.
3. Humans didn’t know of quaggan, indicating that they either never surfaced or were not near human trade routes.

To summarize the list above, we can conclude:

• The DSD has been awake for approximately 150 years. Since humans haven’t known of the DSD since it woke, it had no interaction with the surface around human trade routes until after Zhaitan’s rise 100 years ago. Its first 50 years were either far from human trade routes, or fully submerged.
• The krait were closest of the four aquatic races to where the DSD woke up, but held against it until 50 years ago. According to the Shadows in the Water article and comments by Angel McCoy, the DSD was the first loss to the krait civilization in large. Either they held their ground for 100 years, or did not interact with the DSD until 50 years ago.
• The DSD did not wake up between Cantha and Elona. With hidden reefs, those waters would be shallow. Between Cantha and Tyria is equally unlikely, given the presence of the Battle Isles making a good portion of that too shallow – the DSD’s influence would have been denoted!
• We can cut out the entire northern hemisphere for the DSD’s location – it’s either too close, or too north to make fleeing into the Sea of Sorrows a logical choice; quaggans would have just swam past to land in Elona or further into Cantha, presuming they wouldn’t land on the western Maguuman coastline.
  • Similarly, we can cut out the eastern hemisphere; quaggans would have just landed on Elona if they fled northwest. The only reason the DSD would wake up in the eastern hemisphere would be if it then traveled solely west until it reached the western hemisphere – not likely unless it was already close to the western hemisphere and was attracted by something (say, dense population or magic).
  • Note: These two end up reducing the entire world to more-or-less one quarter for the DSD’s location.

Thus, we have this map of the DSD’s placements! Map legend:

• Light blue line = Northern hemisphere cut off; couldn’t logically be north of the line
• Light red line = Eastern hemisphere cut off; couldn’t logically be east of line
• Yellow line = Too shallow waters near trade.
• Green lines = Likely approximation of krait lands.
• Dark blue lines = Likely approximation of quaggan lands.
• Purple lines = Likely approximation of largos lands.
• Dark red circle = Likely placement of DSD’s awakening.
• Dark red arrows = Likely movement of DSD’s sphere.

But nothing even indicates that the DSD would have territory in or around Cantha. There is, quite literally, NOTHING that indicates such.

There’s no reason why dervish magic wouldn’t work any longer. They might have been empowered – in part – by the gods (mysticism) but that was only a portion of their power and furthermore divine magic still exists in the world. The human racial skills are stated on the official page for humans to be “granted by the Six Gods.” So ‘dervish magic’ that’s tied to the gods would be no different than human racials.

ArenaNet has stated multiple times – via both Colin Johanson and Bobby Stein – its intent to make S1 permanent content in S2’s format. With them apparently publishing GW2 personally instead of via ncsoft, the likelihood of that has increased IMO.

However, this won’t happen until after HoT is released – and how high of a priority it is… is beyond dubious at the moment.

I do not think that it’d take as much effort as most people tend to think, as there’s a pretty strong mentality that Season 1 was mostly open world which just isn’t true when considering the main plot (most open world content was, in fact, side content/effects of main plot and not the main characters/plot – very similar to the events throughout Dry Top and Silverwastes, for example). But it would still take a lot of effort to turn those 30 story instances triggered by achievements, 2 dungeons, 3 zones, and ~6 event chains into permanent story instances triggered by the story journal. (all other events can actually be put back into the game, more or less, as they originally were with little to no change to the grand scale of things).

All things considered, I’d watch the recap video then read the wiki’s story summary then move onto Season 2, unless you don’t mind waiting another 6-18 months for S1 to be made permanent.

It’s more than just that, Shiren, about Aerin’s sudden change. The exact dialogue about him being Soundless is this:

Player: He was Soundless, we believe.
Master of Wind: He was open—almost obsessive—about that. He claimed his connection to the Pale Tree and your Dream made him less of an individual. He called you all “the hive.” I don’t believe he meant to flatter.

So not only does he go from praising the Pale Tree and saying he’d record his trip in the Dream to being Soundless, but he goes further into bashing the Pale Tree and the Dream.

As for the Pale Tree’s protection post-Shadow of the Dragon attack, it’s stated in Episode 7 when you return to her that she ‘protected the Dream’. An odd thing to point out since it wasn’t even asked about, which means that the Pale Tree/wardens believe that’s very important to the situatino.

While it’s hard to argue the aging of demons (aka entities of the Mists), its far from certain to fall them unaging.

However we do know that many demons are capable of living hundreds and even thousands of years. So there is a good chance of Razah surviving (he is, in fact, one of 4 heroes from GW1 that are likely to still live in some form – the other three being M.O.X., Ogden, and Livia).

That’s incorrect, Kalavier. Each active god has an avatar:

• Balthazar’s was the Champion of Balthazar
• Dwayna’s was the Avatar of Dwayna
• Grenth’s was the Voice of Grenth (the seven Reapers also act as avatars – whether the Voice of Grenth is a Reaper or not is unclear but highly likely given that it’s summoned in manner similar to how the Seventh Reaper was in GW2)
• Lyssa’s was the Lyssa’s Muse
• Melandru’s was the Melandru’s Watcher (which appears like nature rituals and druids – aka a spectral treant)
• Kormir’s was the Seer of Truth (also called Avatar of Kormir – under such name, the avatar talks as if she is Kormir)

I think you might be thinking only Grenth and Balthazar had avatars because it was via their avatars – and only via their avatars until the scrolls – that we gained access to the elite missions The Underworld and The Fissure of Woe. Though Kormir’s avatar is used for initial access to the Domain of Anguish.

Rrangar merely experimented on the fleshreavers. That’s what the dialogue meant by his ‘creations’ – he altered them thus those we fought in his menagerie were different.

They were already found elsewhere in Tyria (Heart of the Shiverpeaks) and in GW2 we find them tied to the Underworld and ancient dwarven structures.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

In GW2 we learned that, in Grenth’s case at least, it’s the former, the reapers being originally mortal comrades of his. I’m not certain it applies to all the gods (would raise the question of who Kormir got to volunteer for the job so quickly), but since it’s the only case we can answer for, for now that seems more likely than not.

In Kormir’s case, she seems to be her own avatar – at least in GW1. When we talk to said avatar in the Throne of Secrets she speaks as if being Kormir herself.

As Aaron said it’s a ratings thing. This issue is also why we don’t ever see children being in attacked or attacking. In the while of the game there are only three areas where kids are in danger, but the most dangerous scenario is when a Norn kid is trapped in ice. The evtnt says he’d be sacrificed if you fail a timer but even if you do the kid comes out unscathed.

Therating issue is also why Scruffy exists. Taimi will never fight directly, or be damaged directly. If fighting or taking damage, it will be Scruffy who does it.

Again, all for the sake of a teen rating.

Jaken.6801:

Still wouldn`t solve the problem of them being a Pact Comander. There needs to be some mist time hopping, but as it has been said, ANet might not adress that.

Rytlock: Remind me, Commander, what profession were you before being a revenant, when you became Commander?
Player: <pick one of eight>

Solved? :P

I imagine it’d just be ignored and never mentioned, like how it is never brought to attention that the savior of Tyria who slaughtered the Lich Lord was some Elonian dude prancing around in skirts and shouting at people instead of one of the core six professions. Despite the fact that the Elonian hero didn’t really become such until three years after Khilbron’s demise.

Valky.2574:

1 thing i loved about this game is i can do pretty much what ever i wanted and get what i want eventually but with legendary armor we can only get them in raids but what if i don’t like the raid mentality or guild mentality it’s why i quit eq2 and wow and now maybe gw2

So you take 1 step foreword with pre hunt and 1 back with legendary armor raid gate

You can’t make legendary weapons without dungeons or WvW (or at least this was the case originally).

You can’t make the legendary backpacks without PvP or Fractals.

You can’t get the new precursors without doing the hunts.

This is in no way different than ever before.

And knowing ANet, if the raid isn’t part of the achievement hunt, then it’ll be for tokens and the raids will have unlockable PvP reward tracks which will give the needed tokens.

Jaken.6801:

The explanation of an Revenant is… Oh look a shiny Quaagan, quick catch it.

Yeah, they kinda dropped the ball so far in that regard.
Our only hope is the HoT storyline, however this only means Timey Wimey conundrums in the end.

They should really clear things up about: Rytlock becoming the first Revenant and then having people in the past (pre Zaithans fall) be able to become them and even have them be common knowledge (btw. big plot hole if traveling to HoT regions isn`t required to gain access to elite spzialisations, as the Herald is able to summon and talk to Glint herself , because it would make a lot of S2 meaningless).

They should have just given the Revenant a special starting zone, with quick level and the option to relive the core games story in flashbacks .
Problem solved and everything is in order.

Though if their power is to shape the mist, maybe they integrate themselves automaticly into the past storyline, after becoming a Revenant in the future.
Stil a big time mess, but that would kinda make sense (or implant an image in the worlds mind, without the need to be there in the first place)

A Net has a habit of not limiting gameplay based on timeline conundrums.

In GW1, they merely solved this by slapping a message that said “these events take place in the past”, but only half-so. For example, Prophecies took place in 1072 AE, but Nightfall took place in 1075 AE. All the same, a Nightfall character could go through all of Prophecies, however only the missions prior to the transfer point had the message of the events being in the past. Similarly, regardless of campaign origin you can play through any campaign in any order once you reach the transfer point.

I see the revenant player situation to be the same. They weren’t always a revenant but due to ANet’s way, revenant could go through past events.

I would not be surprised if all of the PS is in sepia for revenant characters like the old LA instances are now.

Ticky.5831:

Ohoni.6057:

In the presentation he said raids will not have a new loot tier.

It will though, it’ll have Legendary armor precursors, he said that. It won’t have a stat tier above Ascended, but it doesn’t need to, that’s not the point.

There is no reason to complain.

Not your call.

Is there any reason to assume that the legendary precursors will be BoP and that they are exclusively available though raids?

Well we were told that raids will be required for making legendary armor – whether the precursors are limited solely to them (be it entirely or as part of the step to obtaining them in that scavenger hunt is unclear) or as a similar method to the original dungeon gifts hasn’t been detailed.

But it was stated that raids = required for legendary armor.

But I don’t see why this is a big deal. After all, dungeons were originally (and IMO, should still be) required to make the original legendary weapons (sadly, now you can do the pvp reward tracks 3 times to get enough tokens for the gifts).

So the new masteries page on the HoT site has this three-headed dragon attacking LA from the seas….

DSD?

I find the presumption that we’ll fight all six Elder Dragons laughable, in all honesty.

3 1/3 years just to face down the second one. At the rate Anet goes, we’d face the sixth in 20 years post-intial release.

Honestly, the plot will have grown so stale by then that I cannot see Anet – or the playerbase – thriving on it so long. Even if we include a seemingly non-ED plot in between like Scarlet originally seemed to be (but wait it wasn’t!).

GW1 had completed its main development within 4 years. Killed by GW2.

I’m sorry, but who can honestly think GW2 to last so long?

Either we’re going to start facing off multiple dragons in one go, or some will be left to remain distant threats like Primordus already is. And given that Mordremoth is possibly the most interesting Elder Dragon due to the sylvari tie-in, I’m expecting both to happen immediately after Mordy – we kill off Jormag and Kralkatorrik in expansion #2, and leave Primordus ans Scleritethin to become distanced threats.

hourglasseye.9617:

I am asking because lore-wise, Fleshreavers appear due to summoning or through underworld portals.

While this is a fairly noticeable scenario for fleshreavers in GW2, this is not absolute.

Take, for example, the fleshreavers in Lornar’s Pass – in the tunnels just north of the Durmand Priory. There has been no summoning or underworld portals there.

In GW1, this is also true for their appearance in the Depths – no portals or summoning around them there.

In fact, the whole summoning/portals to the Underworld is a rather rare occurance for the fleshreavers, occurring about 3 times (Godslost Swamp portals, Kolkorensburg event chain, and Grawlenfjord event chain).

There are at least six other appearances of fleshreavers where summoning and portals appear to be lacking – in Lionshed Outcroppings, in Blackroot Cut (though there are underworld portals there none seem related to the graveyard fleshreaver ambush), in the tunnels north of Durmand Priory as mentioned, Onager Bivouac, Gyre Rapids, and Frostgate Falls (though that last one is a prison and we don’t know how that fleshreaver got there – could be via portal, could be elsehow).

Berelious.3290:

I know the big hype is for the release date, and I’m as psyched as everybody else is, but here’s a question… what does this do for Halloween? Will they recycle the last couple years or will there be a new celebration in LA?

Guild Wars Nightfall was released during Halloween celebrations. The only uniqueness was that Kamadan had halloween decorations and quests and a finale three days after.

I imagine that HoT would have minimal affect on Halloween – the question is: Will they add more content to Halloween, or will it be like Wintersday and last year’s Halloween?

And I feel that’s irrelevant to HoT’s development.

I did not take your two posts in the same context, thst being due to them being separated posts, that was all.

And you have two things wrong. First, Oola’s golems aren’t over 250 years old. She didn’t use necromancy in GW1 (even in Beyond), and GW2 began 247 years after Oola is met. But here I’m just nitpicking.

The other is M.O.X.’s energy. He utilized standard energy but with dual power cores. There was nothing else special about him or what allowed him to take on the avatars powers. That was never actually given context. He just could.

Wychmire stuff is called Blighted (Blighted Husk, Blighted Grub, Avatars if Blight,etc.).

In the new achievements for beta, one of the events mentioned that’s new talks about a Blighting Tree.

Coincidence?

Blighted > Mordrem

@Edit:
Since I have a bit more time than I thought, a bit more in-detail post:

pdavis.8031:

It’s also been suggested that the Husks are tied together with the GJW. And we’ve seen “normal” Husks, Nightmare Husks (Husks that have been taken and used by the Nightmare court), and Mordrem Husks (Which apparently are Husks that have been corrupted by Modremoth.)

What confuses me, is that IF the GJW is a champion/minion of Mordemoth, then by extension the Husks would also be minions. BUT we see Mordrem Husks. Which means that Mordremoths Husk minions have been corrupted by Mordremoth….Yeah doesn’t really fit.

I think you’re misunderstanding something.

Blighted Husks != Summoned Husks != Mordrem Husks

All three differ in allegiance. The Wychmire creatures are tied to that ‘greater darkness’ and roam independent of the Nightmare Court despite them both being in the swamp area. Summoned Husks (rarely called Nightmare Husks) are of a different appearance than the Avatars of Blight (which show a more rotten appearance) which again differ from the Mordrem Husks.

It would appear that Blighted Husks are the offshoots of the Wychmire corruption, while summoned Husks are creations of the Nightmare Court – whom we know are mordrem – and the Mordrem Husks are either created by the Vinewrath or are creations of either/both the Wychmire corruption and/or the NC which have ‘returned’ to Mordremoth’s fold.

Ultimately meaning this: same ‘creature’, different immediate origins/current state of being, shared ultimate origins.

EdwinLi.1284:

When the 5 champions attack the fortress in Silverwastes we see Jungle Wurms poping out of the ground and we fight the 5 champions inside the Jungle Wurms which is what caught my attention the most during the Silverwate events

Actually, we see no wurms. What we see are mouths which look more like GW1 wurm mouths (that is, very similar to Dune’s wurms or that one pit the name of which I cannot recall atm from Star Wars Ep 6 – circular rows of teeth).

The inside does seem to use the Triple Trouble wurm-inside texture, but it’s not certain that they’re intended to be the same. It very easily could be shared textures and what we’re inside is not a wurm but the vines (from the outside, I believe if you break the map, we see vines covering these ‘insides’).

pdavis.8031:

What if…
[puts on tin foil hat]

The “Jungle Wurms” are ACTUALLY a part of Mordremoth itself!?
As in they are extensions of it’s actual body….
Similar to the Mouths and Eyes of Zhaitan? But attached, and not as mobile?

But that still doesn’t explain the Husks….

Jungle Wurms are stated to be born from eggs in one of the Metrica Province heart – no different than ice wurms or plain wurms.

So I doubt they’re a physical part of Mordremoth.

Now, minions of mordremoth seems likely given that they’ve only been around in the past 250 years. But there’s one caveat to that idea: This ghostly Root Behemoth uses a jungle wurm model (warning: no image on wiki).

EdwinLi.1284:

We know the Tendrils is how Mordremoth reachs things and tracks down magic as his means to See.

False. Taimi’s line is only referring to the tendrils that were attacking the waypoints – no longer visible in-game. The other vines/tendrils are minions and corruption.

And they aren’t his means to see, but eat magic.

EdwinLi.1284:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I highly doubt that Oola was 250 years old at any point… an ‘exceptional lifespan’ for asura is 120.

Unless you refer to her postmortem soul-in-a-golem state. Though there’s no evidence of her making more golems after that.

I’m talking about her Necro Powered Golems, not Oola herself.

Her Golems are currently over 250 years old but are still functioning due to their power source been Necro Energy.

Also, I mentioned Oola being in GW2 because her Soul is attached to her Golems. Oola’s Spirit becoming one with her Golem was only a side effect due to it being Necro Energy powering them for the past 250 years.

If I remember correctly M.O.X. used similar energy source but that was only one of his Energy due to the multiple forms he takes on each Avatar state.

There are dozens of ancient golems out and about, actually. Not just Oola’s.

M.O.X. would know about Beyond exploits though.

I highly doubt that Oola was 250 years old at any point… an ‘exceptional lifespan’ for asura is 120.

Unless you refer to her postmortem soul-in-a-golem state. Though there’s no evidence of her making more golems after that.

Radakill.3469:

I think your reading too much into this.

No one is saying everything should be free forever.

But what you said in the OP is that it should be free forever.

Radakill.3469:

It was my understanding that AN was developing this game with the promise that all content, past present and future, would be free for a lifetime, […]

Radakill.3469:

However, when you say something will be free, with no strings, you should keep your word.

As I and others have pointed out now, ArenaNet explicitly stated that Season 2 would only be free for the first two weeks after the episodes’ release. This is what they did.

They kept their word.

With each release, they sent out an email to those on the newsletter subscription saying the new episode was released and you had two weeks to get it for free.

And, in fact, the only change to the system they implemented was the addition of a bulk purchase discount. Meaning that they have, in fact, given you options to pay less than they originally stated – not by changing what they originally said, but by adding different methods.

Points of Interests episode 18 outright states that the sylvari’s protection from Mordremoth is two-fold. One half is individual willpower, but the other half is protection from the Pale Tree/Dream.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/points-of-interest-episode-18-summary/

Sure, the Soundless might have enough willpower to resist Mordremoth… but they’re not protected via the Dream.

If Aerin can fall to Mordremoth, I don’t see why others would be so easy to resist Mordy.

EdwinLi.1284:

Zhaitan does use darkness which relate more to his theme of death but that does not mean he is a being of Nightmares.

You related the DSD to nightmare because of its potential ties to darkness. I quote you: “being a Elder Dragon of Nightmares since Deep Sea Dragon is hidden in the Deepest Darkest part of the Sea” and “After all Nightmares are often created in the Dark.”

Zhaitan is the elder dragon of darkness, thus by your argument he becomes nightmares.

And he does attack fears – not just of the PC but others as well.

EdwinLi.1284:

After all Necromancy is commonly related to Darkness and with Zhaitan being a Giant Necromancer Dragon it would be suited for him to use Darkness Magics like any other Necromancer.

Technically what Zhaitan utilizes is not necromancy – it’s just very thematically similar. Heck, most of his minions aren’t necromancers either, but tend to be elementalists and illusion-based mesmers.

Also, your argument would again tie Zhaitan to nightmares and fear as necromancy heavily utilize those.

EdwinLi.1284:

The Name for Personal story are mostly just names to describe the situation being how A Vision of Darkness is the Darkest Hour of Tyria where the Light of Hope is lost with the A Light in the Darkness representing how the Player character being a Light of Hope in this Darkest hour where people have given up on hope.

Being transported to Orr via a mirror and saving someone who was transported to Orr via a mirror earlier is “the Darkest Hour of Tyria” how?

You be stretching now.

EdwinLi.1284:

Also a being of Nightmare does not need to be related to Darkness. A being of Nightmare can take on many forms but the concept of Nightmare = darkness is just a concept more commonly used but still Nightmares can take on other forms and other elements.

I’m not the one who made the analogy, you did.

EdwinLi.1284:

Current lore of DSD describes the DSD’s minons as beings of Horrors which would fit more into the Nightmare theme. While the lore describe one of the minions being some kind of Tentecle Horror, the other minions of DSD is described to be Horror look.

All elder dragon creatures are described as horrors and terrifying monsters in The Movement of the World so that’s not a very strong stance to go by.

During Hidden Arcana in Season 2 it is stated that each Elder Dragon has 2 spheres of power. Mordremoth is plant and mind. Zhaitan is death and shadow.

So yes, Zhaitan was about death and that was far more prominent. But he also has a theme of shadow and darkness – much like how Mordremoth is very clearly about plants, but he also has a theme of mind/mentality that’s a bit more subliminal.

The dialogue:

Magister Ela Makkay: In conclusion, let’s recap. The five confirmed dragons are Kralkatorrik, Jormag, Primordus, Mordemoth, and Zhaitan.
Magister Ela Makkay: We believe there is another deep in the oceans, but its entry in the Scroll of the Five True Gods is partially missing.
Magister Ela Makkay: The scroll, written in ancient times, has a section dedicated to the Elder Dragons, but it came to us in bad shape.
Magister Ela Makkay: It is written in an ancient form of old Krytan. We’re still attempting to decipher the damaged portions.
Magister Ela Makkay: Each dragon has two spheres of influence. For Mordremoth, that’s mind and plants. Zhaitan ruled shadow and death.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hidden_Arcana#At_the_Durmand_Priory

Very first things you hear when you enter the Durmand Priory story instance.

By observations of similar themes using Mordremoth and Zhaitan’s spheres as a basis, we can guess that Kralkatorrik is Crystal and Air (though some argue chaos for one of them), and Jormag to be Ice and Soul/Spirit; Primordus is harder to argue, but fire certainly seems to be one sphere (some argue earth is the second, but that’s like saying Zhaitan’s two spheres is death and corpses – all things Zhaitan corrupt holds a theme of death/decay, like all things Mordremoth seems to corrupt holds a theme of plants/fungi, but corpses is what Zhaitan primarily corrupts; everything Primordus corrupts has this far held a theme of fire, but stone is what he seems to primarily corrupt).

Some would say that the first sphere for the DSD is water, but for both Zhaitan and Mordremoth their first sphere is not what they corrupt (which for the DSD is water) but what form their corruption takes (thus making DSD’s first sphere “tentacles” from what limited information we have); the second sphere is a lot more complicated to figure out how they tie in, unfortunately, so it’s downright impossible to guess for the near-no-information DSD.

And though subliminal, it’s actually easy to see the themes of darkness in Zhaitan if you look closely enough. Some simple examples:

• Risen spawn from clouds of darkness.
• Zhaitan’s corruption of land takes form of black fog/smoke rising from the ground.
• Orr is in perpetual darkness from continuous clouds (this is shared with Kralkatorrik’s Dragonbrand – the difference is that the Dragonbrand has a perpetual thunderstorm (nicknamed the Brandstorm), while Orr is just dark clouds with putrid smells and rain).
• Zhaitan’s spells when encountered are wells of darkness (similar to necromancer wells but far more black in them)
• When traveling to Orr in the PS before the invasion – be it via the mirror in the sylvari PS or via the Dream vision – both story step names are named after darkness: A Vision of Darkness and A Light in the Darkness.

Radakill, the wiki is written, edited, and maintained by the playerbase, not ArenaNet.

That FAQ you quoted are our, the playerbase’s, words, not Anet’s.

If you look at the history of that article, that line was added on July 10th, 2014, by Deyadissa. This was before Episode 1 had to be bought, even, so the editor might not have known about that announcement – and yes, it was announced. A full month before Season 2’s release, in fact.

Your entire argument is founded by a player-worded paragraph which contradict ArenaNet’s official statements. What you quote are not ArenaNet’s words.

To quote Anet:

To unlock an episode and have it added to your Story Journal, you simply need to log into a map with any of your characters during the two-week period that the release is live to be given permanent, free access to the storyline of that episode. Once you’ve unlocked it by simply logging in, you can replay that episode’s storyline on any character on your account as many times as you like from your story Journal forever. Past episodes will be available for purchase for 200 gems. (Don’t forget you can earn gold and purchase gems to unlock the episode for your account).

Part of the linked blog post, published June 5th, 2014.

As for sub-fees?

The Living World is not a subscription. You do not have to pay monthly, weekly, annually, or whatever. You do not have to pay at all after buying the base game. You will not get all the content they make, sure, if you miss that 2 week free period, but you still do not have to pay to continue playing GW2 – hell, you do not even have to pay to play Season 2; you can party up with someone who has it unlocked.

Anyone with half a brain would realize that you’re just trying to create dust where there’s none to be found.

Bandit.3856:

I know this is just gonna come across as sour grapes. But I really feel like this is a dishonest move on the part of Areanet. It’s not only that we’re missing out on loot and achievement points and collections and stuff. We’re missing out on lore that is a vital bridge to HoT. For this to be gated behind a paywall as punishment for not logging in at a certain point is not what I thought the Guild Wars 2 ethos was.

How I am comprehending this post:

“Anet made DLCs that bridge the story of a base game and it’s expansion together. Why do I have to pay for it? Why? I bought the base game and the expansion!”

Well you didn’t pay for the DLCs.

Honestly, your post doesn’t come off as sour grapes, it comes off as wine.

It’s not punishment for not logging in. It’s a reward for if you did log in.

Glass half full, Anet sees. Glass half empty, players see.

Anet has no requirement to give you the Living World for free. It was their choice to offer it free for a limited time, just as any business sometimes offer limited time bonuses to their services.

Radakill.3469:

It was my understanding that AN was developing this game with the promise that all content, past present and future, would be free for a lifetime, and the only aspect of the game that was to be store bought was aesthetics and convenience items. It was the main selling point for me to buy the game and to support AN this far.

Then you were under a false understanding.

Season 1 content was free, but temporary – it went away after 2 weeks or a month, whenever the chapter was ended (chapters were in 2 releases).

Season 2 was content to those who logged on for the first two weeks after the episode’s release.

This was explicitly stated before and during each season. If you thought otherwise, it’s of no fault of Anet’s.

It makes perfect sense for Anet to charge for content.

I think what you’re mistaking is that Anet said they’ll never put pay to win content on their gemstore.

Tapioca.9062:

You make good points, Konig, and I don’t like that

The story of my life.

8)

Although the DSD awoke in the deepest depths of the waters, it is Zhaitan that is tied with Shadow and thus darkness. And he had that plot of attacking the PC’s fear (though it isn’t very clear if Zhaitan actively did such or if it was mere coincidence).

arenta.2953:

warrior became an elementalist after getting drunk in a bar one night, and when he was walking out, he didn’t realize that the weapon he was holding wasn’t his warhorn. it was a torch

the elementalist was surprised to find a warhorn where she left her torch.

Not quite. You forgot mister ranger.

Y’see, when the warrior got drunk and walked out with a torch instead of a warhorn, the ranger in the bar was scratching his head at how his torch grew into a fullblown staff! He figured it had something to do with his nature magic abilities.

Meanwhile, a nearby elementalist scratched her head as to why someone thought it would be brilliant to replace her staff with a warhorn, but in the end she just shrugged and went with it because why not, surely she could find a use for it.

And she always wanted to play a musical instrument so it’s a win for her!

Until I see it, I’m going to argue typo and they meant “Pact” instead of “Seraph”. The Pact were moving to secure Fort Vandal, according to the generically named vigil-pact soldier there.

Tapioca.9062:

I think I’ve managed to convince myself that thrashers are corrupted wind riders. They float, have tentacles, have a prominent central eye and they do that spinny wind rider attack animation. They’re mutated, sure, but there’s enough wind rider there to convince me. It would also explain the complete lack of wind riders in Mordremoth controlled territory. The Maguuma should be absolutely lousy with them and yet the only place we’ve seen them is in Dry Top.

Although, as Konig has rightly pointed out, many different creatures share animations and skeletons. Some of them are wildly different in nature, for instance, air elementals and karka. Yet there’s enough similarities between thrashers and wind riders for me to think there’s a link here beyond animation sharing.

The similarities you point out exist in Eyes of Zhaitan too. But we know that Eyes were not made by corrupting wind riders.

Plus, the yellow thrashes don’t have that big eye.

Further, in GW1 the Wind Riders lived in the heavily jungled areas, not the arid places. So I find it odder that we have seen riders in Dry Top and northeast Brisban than not seeing them in Silverwastes.

And Meerak, who foresaw the Searing a day before it happened. And then whoever foretold the occurrence of Nightfall – the name ‘nightfall’ comes from the a prophecy of the event. And I there were a couple other prophecies – and in turn, prophets.

For the first time, I actually find that this seemingly pointless and poorly coded article Santax made way back has a purpose.

They added hints to a lot of things in the initial release. Some are blatant, some less so.

The Pale Tree didn’t tell anyone about Mordremoth. That was the whole point of the end of Season 2 – the only people to know of the sylvari’s ties to Mordremoth were Wynne and Caithe (until Scarlet, that is).

As to whether or not the Shadow ever had to do with Zhaitan – well it’s very clearly stated that the PC’s Wyld Hunt was to kill Zhaitan – this is explicitly stated by sylvari PC themselves, and that it’s been re-awakened since the re-emergence of the Shadow of the Dragon, now to kill Mordremoth – again, explicitly stated by the sylvari PC themselves; there’s no doubt that it’ll always be to fight the next active Elder Dragon to me. So if the Shadow of the Dragon was not related to Zhaitan, then the question is: why did the Pale Tree lie?

As to the whole “elder dragon relates to a specific race” – that’s far from truthful. The only cause of relation is due to location, and humans are oddly left with no dragon – yet the sylvari have a ton of story relation – or ‘larger pull’ as you put it – to Zhaitan as well. Aside from the storyline about Kellach, the only real tie between humans and Zhaitan is Orr, but that’s not a real tie to Krytan humans at all.

But then, Zhaitan also has a large story pull to charr even.

And if they ever make tengu playable like they originally considered, then Primordus would be affecting two playable races on large. And if the theory of the Flame Legion’s new appearances are caused by Primordus – that’s three races.

It’s not a very solid argument, IMO, as you can draw ties easily between races and world-affecting beings.

@Lord Hammer Hand: Theoretically, but it depends on many questions.

1) How clear are the skies of Orr – what did happen to those dragons that butchered airships while we were out and about in Malchor’s Leap, Cursed Shore, and Straits of Devastation. The skies were FULL of those dragons during the fight with Zhaitan.

2) How far can an airship fly? They’d have to be able to go from one end of subcontinental Tyria to the other three or four times before even seeing Cantha, let alone reaching there.

3) How dusty is the skies above the Crystal Desert? The sandstorms of the Maguuma Wastes prevented the Pact’s fleet from stationing in Dry Top, so if the Crystal Desert gets similar weather, air passage would be impossible. Unlike the Zephyrite airships.

4) Is the Pact – the sole users of the airships sans the Aetherblades and Lion’s Arch (the latter stealing from the Aetherblades, who in turn stole from the Pact) – willing to send airships out to distant lands that may be hostile?

But overall, it should be plausible, but it’s a manner of ‘is it worth it’. Same, I would imagine, with naval travel to Cantha at this point – with Zhaitan cutting off the sea for so long, no one would know if the DSD is preventing naval access to Cantha or not. Players mentioning such is just our OOC knowledge.

@Draxynnic: One thing you failed to take note of with the creatures that consume souls is the time it takes for digestion to take effect.

Take, for example, Kefkphekt – that scarab monk boss in the Crystal Desert who has a name harder to spell than Kralkatorrik. 200 years ago, an Elonian killed his two daughters when Kehptekft was approaching; he killed them to save them the fate of being eaten alive, only for their souls to be consumed instead. 200 years later, in comes our GW1 heroes who kills Kephtekk and out comes the souls.

In Nightfall, we have a Marognite who consumed souls in the Desolation by promising that if they sacrificed their soul to him their loved ones would be spared (a lie, of course). When he killed him, out came the soul(s).

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Family_Soul

So yes, creatures can consume souls for energy. But it takes centuries for those souls to be digested. That naturally means consuming a single soul would not give the instant ability to wreak disaster.

As to the mursaat – I’d argue overconfidence. They were killing humans my the thousands, why would they suspect that the few unlikely heroes would slip through their grasp?

As to the combining effect – I’d agree. I’d just argue that life force gives more bang than you argue.

At this point, the argument becomes circular though, as we don’t have enough knowledge to argue how much power a soul can provide – we just know that it can provide energy.

For GW1 Lore (the better stuff)
I would foremost suggest playing through GW1 and doing all the quests you can – in the starter areas of the first two campaigns (pre-Searing/post-Searing Ascalon for Prophecies and Shing Jea for Factions) it’d be worth making native characters of all professions due to origin-and-profession restricted quests (Nightfall just has origin-restricted quests).

If you cannot find the patience to do such, then there’s always WoodenPotatoes’ playthrough of GW1 (not sure if he finished those though). He reads through all dialogue for the main missions and I believe secondary quests too. I would NOT recommend WoodenPotatoes’ lore theory or lore recap videos. He adds in a lot of speculation without making it clear that it is such. Though some can be interesting and he does cover interesting concepts, he presents them all too often as if he’s reciting facts – there are other issues, but people unaffected by them tend to find such… petty.

If that’s too much of a hassle, I would then suggest reading the mission and quest articles on the wiki, as well as their lore summary articles:

From GWW:

• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Prophecies_missions_and_primary_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Factions_missions_and_primary_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Nightfall_missions_and_primary_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Eye_of_the_North_missions_and_primary_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Prophecies_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Factions_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Nightfall_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Eye_of_the_North_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Beyond_quests
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Prophecies
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Factions
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Nightfall
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Eye_of_the_North
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Beyond
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stories
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lore
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline
• http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Category:History_of_Tyria

For GW2 Lore (the okay stuff)
I’d play through each primary personal story storyline – which means making 3 of each race and playing through the first two chapters for all 15 characters, and up to the racial storyline (chapter 5) on five characters, and finally all the way through on at least three characters. Don’t forget the story mode dungeons.

I also highly recommend reading all three books – while they may not be the best literature, they offer good lore.

Unfortunately, the wiki is still very under-documented when it comes to the personal story dialogue and characters. More so for event dialogue. It is very, very lacking even after 3 years (people are more interested in documenting the new stuff than the old which is understandable).

Further unfortunately, the game does not offer many one-stop shops for lots of lore. You get tidbits throughout the game, throughout the various events and personal stories and hidden dialogues. A lot of GW’s lore is all about stitching together these pieces – like a jigsaw puzzle that encompasses the entire franchise. So if it isn’t player-made, there is no short list of places to go to.

Some links to consider:

• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_1
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_2
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Tales
• http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lore (note: this is basically a light version of the GWW’s lore article, covering only up to GW1 events, but with some of the addendums that GW2 has done to old lore)
• https://tyriantomes.wordpress.com/ – an ongoing off-wiki project to document all static (read: non-event affected) dialogue

They share animations with trolls (which I think also use the same skeleton as charr and tengu – akin to how norn and kodan both use the same skeleton, and humans/sylvari/largos do, and icebrood goliath/branded ogre/ogre share the same skeleton, and griffons, rock dogs, icebrood wolves, colocals, and teragriffs all share the same skeleton, etc. etc. etc.).

That is what the wiki means, I believe.

By all indication, Soundless are more vulnerable to Mordremoth’s influence – both Scarlet and Aerin are outright stated to being disconnected from the Dream, and Aerin is outright called a Soundless (only to sylvari PCs though). So most likely the Soundless throughout Tyria could theoretically fall to Mordremoth outright.

However, since maps tend to be ‘stuck in time’ until the Living World comes to them, the only Soundless we currently see in the open world (in Caledon) may be remaining there even with HoT’s release.

My point was less how powerful Koro’s abilities were (however, I’d note that Koro did something in 1080 AE that was done in circa 770 AE by Kitah with the exact same outcome – with the advancement of magic over time, one would think Koro to fair better), and more that tapping one’s life force allows great magic at the expense of one’s life.

Life force wouldn’t be regulated by the bloodstones, thus would hold an overall steady amount of magical power to it. The state of the bloodstones – be it pre-bloodstone or post-bloodstone or what-have-you – would be irrelevant as such. Such a feat would always be capable – the only relevance it has is if it’s possible to replicate that ability without tapping one’s life force (such as what Jennah does at the end of Edge of Destiny – petrifying an army and raising a distant dragon illusion).

A fractal is a singular place/time that is stuck in a loop.

The Dream is many places and times that continues on.

The Dream is more akin to the Mists, which contains fractals, than being a fractal.

But in the end, we don’t know – Anet hasn’t really given us much information and if the Pale Tree isn’t lying (again…?) then even she doesn’t know.