Guild Wars 2

There are hundreds of prophecies – even Nightfall was a prophecy foretold in the stars.

There are two things that come to mind with the trailer’s mention of prophecy. First:

Priory Novice (sylvari): In my Dream, I saw dragons, and a spire of light drove them off.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Durmand_Priory_(location)#Ambient_dialogue

(Fun fact about this one: the Forgotten’s ritual to cleanse dragon corruption takes form in spires of light)

Second:

14 “Glint’s legacy is far more than just her offspring, and you must protect it all.”
“The legacy’s potential will only be realized in the fullness of time when all its pieces have developed and become defined in response to the world around them.”

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Study_in_Gold#Tablets

It’s probable that we’re finally moving on to “Stage 2” of Glint’s legacy and plan to save Tyria from the Elder Dragon threat. Stage 1 was the egg and Aurene, Stage 2 is not directly related to Aurene or Gleam.

Vesuvius.9874:

Glint’s Flameseeker Prophecies were complete as said by herself, so we can safely rule her out.

Glint foresaw more than just the Flameseeker Prophecies…

@Ugrakarma: There’s more than one Priestess of Balthazar (just as there is more than one Priest of Balthazar). And that last quote of yours doesn’t refer to the gods, actually, but the Shadow Behemoth and its ilk – or more accurately, the leaking influence of the Underworld in the area, caused by some old Necromancer’s foolish attempts to open a portal to the Underworld.

@Squee: One can hope…

@Aaron: Well, semantics but wraiths were the common foe; not all risen liches had the wraith model, just the generically named ones (and a couple others), and they were very few.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

One other big bomb in here- the text at the start says “The human gods have left Tyria, but one stayed behind.” That implies that Balthazar never joined the Exodus, and if true, it completely upends all the theories we’ve had about what happened to him.

That line has three possible meanings:

1) Hyperbole about Balthazar’s return.
2) Balthazar never left during the Exodus.
3) A different god never left / returned early enough that it might as well be that they never left.

I’m personally betting the first one. Anet has a habit of exaggerating things for hype. It seems unlikely to me that one of the gods – especially Balthazar – can remain in the shadows without any major influence on the world for a thousand years.

However, the third possibility does lead to an interesting twist… what if the line refers to Kormir, who never left with the Exodus? She did promise that she’d forever watch over Elona, and would not have held the same lesson the other five got during the Exodus while knowing enough to not interfere willy-nilly because of the kitten she caused as a mortal.

Thus finding and working with Kormir and Joko to stop the Elder Dragons without killing them, and stop Balthazar’s uncaring quest for power, can become the premise for the next expansion.

Jaken.6801:

Observations

• An six eyed flamegolem with following statues of Abbadon? I don’t have many hopes.
• A lich, but i expect us going more towards the temples in Orr?
• Another new flame golem type?
• A new coast? I don’t know of any grassy coast with a Tyrian transport ship, however the structure hidden in the back looks like a lighthouse. Maybe it’s claw Island?
• A flying Monkey and an undead dragon that isn’t Tequattle…

• Pyroclastic Jade Construct from Ember Bay.
• Risen Wraith, not lich, but now in shade of blue instead of usual green.
• Burning Earth Elemental, basically. I suspect Flowstone Elemental gone GW2.
• Orr has its own lighthouses. We’re likely looking towards Scavenger’s Causeway.
• Undead Wyvern, actually. You can see wings on the forearms.

Vesuvius.9874:

It seems we are looking for allies among Elder Dragons and/or their minions as a way to fight Balthazar.

Amaimon.7823:

To me the trailer sounded almost like we’re gonna treatiece with the Risen. What if that Wraith in the trailer is the new “leader”

I’m doubtful. I bet that line is our lead in to our reason to go to Elona.

We’re going to look to Joko for aid.

Would explain the leaks showing a waypoint in the Bone Palace.

It would be VERY weird for us to treaty / ally with mindless hordes that lack free will. And the other line about the risen “blocking magic” and that someone must “feed them to his fire” implies that either a) Balthazar’s mercenaries are going dragon minion hunting, or b) we’re going dragon minion hunting.

Sock.2785:

Braham: “Your divine lord is threatening all of Tyria. If another Dragon dies, we all die.”

That’s not Braham – nothing like Braham – it’s the male norn PC voice.

Sock.2785:

Generic krytan female voice(?): “At a time when Elder Dragons endanger the whole world, Kryta must make uncommon allies.”

And that’s Anise.

Sock.2785:

Mercenary 1(?): “These roaming undead ended the flow of energy!”
Mercenary 2(?): “We must feed them to the lava, to his fires!”

Nope. You can tell by the soft echo effect that the speaker in the first part is a ghost. Likely the Orrian female ghost seen at 0:31. It’s also the same singular voice.

Sock.2785:

Livia (?): “The time has come. You ready to fullfil a prophecy? Go! Save the world. Save Tyria.”

[/quote]You’re attributing one voice actor to two very clearly separate ones.

The second line – “Go, save the world, save Tyria” – line is said by a clearly younger voice (at least the first one sounds like a “mock old voice” to me), which is the same voice actor who does a bunch of generic female voice acting, including various bandits.

I don’t respond to your extrapolations since it feels like you got the lines’ speakers way off.

My observations:

• Up to 0:30 – all old shots, nothing new (that six-eyed thing was the Pyroclastic Jade Construct from Ember Bay, you can even see Ember Bay background there), except the line “one stayed behind” – that’s implying Balthazar has been around for the past 1,330 years or at the very least the past 260 years since Nightfall. Is this a hyperbole about Balthazar, talking about another god (Dwayna was in Tyria in the past after all), or has Balthazar truly been in the shadows twiddling his thumbs for the past thousand plus years?
• First voiced dialogue comes from male norn PC.
• Second voiced dialogue comes from Anise. Why is she here, I wonder?
• 0:31 – Orrian ghost, looks similar in clothing to the ones that show up during Cathedral of Silence story mission.
• 0:33 – Ice-infused Risen Wraith?
• 0:38 – why are there statues of Abaddon? Knowledge of Abaddon was wiped clean of the world – or attempted to be. Giant statues in an obvious place would not have survived…
• 0:40 – Does the Flowstone Elemental return!?
• 0:41 and 0:44 – Seems Orr isn’t as verdant as many hope, which I like. But there is now clear vegetation growing. These kinds of plants could easily be added to old Orr maps upon completing The Source of Orr, replacing old corals or fully out of reach of players landing on them/colliding with them (or just allow no collision happening).
• 0:47 – Seems we’ll be fighting more of Balthazar’s mercenaries!
• 0:50 – This doesn’t look like Orrian soil, or cliffs. So perhaps we’re at another edge of Orr in this map, similar to Straits of Devastation. This would put the map at Scavenger’s Causeway, most likely.
• 0:52 – I cannot tell if this risen giant is poisoned, or is influenced perhaps by Mordremoth’s energy?
• 0:52-55 – “These all new undead hinder the flow of energy. We must feed him to the lava, to his fires.” Are they referring to Primordus, or to Balthazar here? Probably the former… The voice is also ghostly – you can hear the common effect used on ghost voice overs. Perhaps the voice of the Orrian ghost at1?
• 0:57 – New undead appearance. Looks like an evolved Risen Knight (more buff, lacks draconic head, but same harpy/imp skeleton) (EDIT: Nope, just an upclose of the Risen Knight so that the draconic head is off screen)
• 0:59 – New dragon champion appearance? That thing looks epic. A lot closer to the original Tequatl etc. concept art than Tequatl etc. and SO much more kitten looking.
• 1:02 – Hmmm, this looks a hell o a lot more verdant than the earlier Orr shots. Not your usual Orrian architecture (lack of circles) but I do believe it is such, probably on the far end like the Oakheart shot?
• 1:02-1:06 – “The time has come, be ready to fulfill the prophecy” – Are we talking about Glint’s legacy going to the next step, or perhaps is this an allusion to this old foretelling about a spire of light saving us from the Elder Dragons? (second conversation); Don’t recognize the voice actor, but maybe, just maybe, Glint from Herald skills?
• 1:08 – Sparks around that Abomination, but not very prevalent. Skill effect used on it, or perhaps he has some of Kralkatorrik’s / Glint’s energy?
• 1:11 – Hard to tell, but it looks like that Risen Knight has water dripping from it… DSD energy? Are we seeing risen with one of any dragon’s energy now?
• Final voice actor line sounds like one of the generic human female voices, often used for female bandits. Could explain the lack of care in the line, if it’s coming from one of Balthazar’s mercenaries – say, after being defeated by the PC.

We were already told there’s more to Glint’s Legacy than just Aurene.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Study_in_Gold

“Glint’s legacy is far more than just her offspring, and you must protect it all.”

“The legacy’s potential will only be realized in the fullness of time when all its pieces have developed and become defined in response to the world around them.”

“The legacy’s most essential elements will seed the new dawn of civilization. This is the precious treasure we leave in your hands. You must preserve it with no expectations of laurels.”

We’re likely going to focus on Step 2 of the legacy, which is not directly related to Aurene.

RoseofGilead.8907:

I think the “Go on, save Tyria” line was delivered that way on purpose and that the character saying it likely isn’t trying to be an encouraging influence.

This is my interpretation. The voice actress sounds like the same one who does a lot of generic human female voices, especially bandits.

I suspect this line will be delivered by a female mercenary who will taunt the hero and the role of “saving Tyria” by aiding the dragons.

Odokuro.5049:

Hey guys/gals, I have recently started into the HoT story for the well, more times than I would like to admit. And I was having a few, “What-if” moments.

First off, what if, Eir isn’t dead?

Now bare with me on this. You know how at the later part of the story where you need to go release Logan/Zojja from the blighting pods and how one of them would have multiple copies of each other, looking very alike?

Now what if the Eir in that prison cell wasn’t actually the real Eir but a copy, and the true Eir is off in an actual blighting pod, a pod that was next to Garms? Garm returned but had a green glow to him, maybe he escaped his Blighting pod and has returned to get help for Eir to get her back, maybe, we find her before Braham goes to confront Jormag, bring her back, and that stops him from going and potentially getting himself killed on some, fools errand?

Problem:

Mordrem are made out of plants. Even if they look almost exactly like their non-mordrem counterparts, they’re still green and barky. Mordrem Hylek, Saurians, and yes, Logan and Zojja were all green with albeit smooth but obvious plant textures for skin.

Logan and Zojja were the worst done, but I think this is more out of time restrictions or something, otherwise I’m sure they’d have been more than just Mordrem Guard Punisher / Mordrem Guard Preserver copies (respectively).

Eir, on the other hand, was very clearly not plant.

Odokuro.5049:

What if Mordremoth wasn’t originally evil? What if scarlets influence on him when she died and the ley-line opened up and waked him, with her essense seaping in, you know, how it looks like her, “Fluids” are leaking into the ground. What if her crazy/angry self kind of impossed itself on a slumbering Mordremoth and sort of drove him to do these things? Because I feel that the Mordrem, would have been a bigger thing if he was always evil, you know, more of them, and alot of different types?

Unfortunately we know that Mordremoth gave Scarlet visions of “death, destruction, and destiny” in Fall 1323. Three and a half years before the finale of Season 1.

Mordremoth is the one who drove Scarlet to insanity, after all.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scarlet_Briar%27s_Journal

The reason why the mordrem were so limited is because he had so little time to create a wide variety (ensuring such was why the Pact launched their fleet so early despite lack of knowledge on Mordremoth – to prevent him from making a massive army of mordrem). But even with the little time he had, he made a wide variety all the same.

Alternative Universe “What Ifs” are always interesting to consider, but aren’t these more of theories on what actually happened rather than “What Ifs”? :P

Malchor wasn’t unique in being able to look at a god for a short period of time without going blind. He rested his eyes between and during each sculpting but could not resist looking away from Dwayna whom he fell in love with. He didn’t hate his sculpture because he went blind while sculpting but because he felt he could never capture the beauty he saw – he had memorized her appearance so well he sculpted statues of Dwayna long after going blind.

As for Kormir and Abaddon: There are three things to consider: 1) we didn’t look upon any of them for long; 2) the gods blessed the PCs before we fought Abaddon, immunity to blindness is probably among the blessing’s power; 3) the whole “going blind upon looking at a god” wasn’t part of lore then, so it’s rather a bit of an inconsistency.

As for Lyssa (and Dwayna) who both appear before humans under a guise, it’s probable that under an illusion like they lived the blinding aspect could be hampered to non-lethality. The entire point of hiring Malchor was so that humans could know what the gods actually looked like, so outside of then they likely were always under an illusion that dimmed their light, so to speak.

zealex.9410:

Nobody said there couldnt still be risen while tree gorw theres birds and other animals.

So if all you’re doing is adding a bit of greenery (I doubt wildlife would move in so fast, especially with what is effectively warfare going on, and risen killing every living being they see), why bother?

Besides, dialogue from The Sword Regrown (caladbolg quest instance) tells us that Orr’s not changed much. It’d probably take a while – more than five years – for even magically growing plants to greatly overcome Zhaitan’s corruption.

Kind of looks like one of the shield effects for some enemy animations. Probably glitched up and didn’t go away or something?

Where in Verdant Brink was it? I think some of the central meta foes use that / a similar shield effect animation.

RabbitUp.8294:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

What plot is more important?

Balthazar? Nothing else is more important right now, he’s the single biggest thread, even the dragons are not that dangerous right now, 2 of them are asleep, while Kralka and Bubbles are not actively threatening us right now.

Balthazar disappeared at the end of Episode 5. Until he returns, he’s as good as put on the bus just like Primordus.

And he’s far from the biggest threat – we don’t know what his goal is now that he got power. All signs show that he’s not out to destroy Tyria or wreck havoc on the civilizations of the world, just that he doesn’t care if his actions result in such. So he could easily become an ally in the near future – akin to Vegeta in Dragonball if you would.

Until we get confirmation, however, Jormag is as good as being both awake and active still. And even if he is asleep, Braham has the full intention of killing Jormag – and you heard Taimi in Episode 5, didn’t you? Kill one more Elder Dragon and the world dies. Our goal at the end of Episode 5 wasn’t just to stop Balthazar – it was to keep the remaining four Elder Dragons alive.

So I think a norn with both a world-ending goal and the power to fulfill it is a more immediate threat than a god who’s goal is to kill someone who probably isn’t even on this world.

Vayne.8563:

Not really sure why anyone thinks Braham, magic spear and all, is a bigger threat to an elder dragon than the God of War though. I don’t look at those two guys and think Braham is the bigger problem.

I think Balthazar is a much bigger problem.

When people say “bigger threat” they often mean “more immediate threat”. In the same manner that during Season 2, Mordremoth was the more immediate threat compared to the other three nearby Elder Dragons despite the fact they’ve likely absorbed far more magic than Mordremoth had. Mordremoth was not necessarily a bigger threat than Jormag, Primordus, or Kralkatorrik but he was by far the more immediate threat.

If Braham kills Jormag, world ends.

If Balthazar kills whoever weakened him, we don’t know what happens.

Unlike Braham, Balthazar’s goals may not result in world or even continental or even national destruction. His goal is very clearly vengeance against who weakened him, but that person or people is not the Elder Dragons – or even on the world, chances are. We had to stop him in Episode 5 because his actions then were threatening the world, but now that he got power like he wanted and we kept the world from dying the threat level of Balthazar is unknown.

EdwinLi.1284:

Also, i believe both Balthazar and the death of Jormag are both Nuclear bombs ready to blow since we learned that balthazar plans may not stop at just gaining power from one Elder Dragon which wold means he is going after the other Elder Dragon and may kill one

Nothing implies that he is going to go after another power source. At the endo f the instance, Balthazar says “I am feeling much better.” and willingly leaves before the machine explodes.

This implies to me more that he has the power he wanted, rather than he wants even more power.

Either way, all we know for certain is that Balthazar’s goal is vendetta against an unknown individual or group of individuals, not necessarily something that will result in world devastation, unlike Braham’s goal.

Rather than saying both are nuclear bomb issues, it’s more accurate to say one is an unknown threat while the other is a clear threat.

I mean, the entire reason why we were hostile to Balthazar in the first place (aside from poor writing) was that Balthazar was pretending to be Lazarus, a highly hated and mistrusted individual. After that, we only fought against Balthazar because he took the machine and we found out that if he used the machine the world would go “blegh” as Taimi says.

Also, a lot of folks are saying that the norn issue is “delayed by constant partying” but that’s false. In Episode 4, we were told that Braham and Rox took an expeditionary team up north to “see what damage they can do” and were calling themselves Destiny’s Edge. The threat has been there for two releases now. Just because the norn race are partying doesn’t mean Braham is just standing around twiddling his thumbs.

And what exactly would we be doing in the new versions of those maps?

With no risen or wildlife to fight, what threat could possibly be around to fight? What about the temple metas, and all those events tied to collections and other achievements?

Poisoned Outcrops Fumigated

Palawa Owns Faren

Amaimon.7823:

I can’t think of another location.

Orrians had a lot of colonies outside of the peninsula. Tarnished Coast, for example. And there’s this neat little spot between the Grove and Rata Sum that was once Alcazia Tangle. But there were likely other places, too, and those could end up being where we’re going.

I’d say south of Arah or Straits is more likely though.

Squee.7829:

Orr is literally right next to Elona. I think that alone would be a good reason to go back there. On top of all of the other things mentioned in this thread.
You could also go through the disabled Asura gate at Ebonhawke, but that area is probably infested with branded and Joko zombies. Pact race controlled Orr would probably be a much safer (albeit probably still horribly dangerous) jumping off point for any campaign into Elona. And won’t threaten whatever border security Ebonhawke has going on.

Joko’s forces have been fighting Zhaitan’s risen for the past century in the southern Crystal Desert. Given we now know (via leaks) that Kralkatorrik flew south after fighting Destiny’s Edge it’s unlikely that Joko has bothered sending many forces as far north as just south of Ebonhawke.

So Joko’s forces would be closer to Orr, all things considered, and fighting their way there if they had any intention to fight Zhaitan whether they know Big Z died or not (given risen keep acting like he’s alive in Arah explorable).

RabbitUp.8294:

I cringe every time I see someone suggesting Braham and the Norn should be the focus of the season finale. It’s easily the least important part of the story. Who cares if they fight Jormag anyway, they are only going to get themselves killed.

What plot is more important?

Rytlock’s trial? Not even a single word towards that since episode 2.

Primordus? Solved for the time being, and all that’s left is at best a single instance worth.

White Mantle? Gone with Episode 4.

All that’s left is confirming Jormag’s case, keeping Braham from killing a hibernating Jormag (if he’s asleep) so that Braham doesn’t unintentionally wipe out the world, figuring out what happened to Balthazar, and somehow connecting us to the next expansion.

And of those situations, the two former are more important than the third. Only the last really tops it all off.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I’m pretty sure Orr is where we’re headed in the new expansion.

THere’s not enough room in Orr for the whole expansion, and honestly, we got pretty kitten convincing leaks showing us five expansion zones (including waypoints) and a guild hall… And it's in Elona.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

According to Taimi the Elder dragons were returned to their pre awakened state.

That’s still speculative on Taimi’s part. All we know is that Primordus’ power has weakened to a pre-awakening state. We cannot even be certain Primordus is asleep, let alone Jormag, and the other two were fully untouched.

Arden.7480:

I am so happy we are going to Orr. But we can easily ask the priests of Balthazar in Divinity’s Reach. Or just go to Straits of Devastation.
[…]
I don’t know everything seems so complicated. I have no idea why and with what circumstances we are heading to Orr. This is the most difficult speculating I’ve ever had…

Because of Balthazar right? But why there if we have Durmand Priory, Priests of Balthazar? Or why not to Straits of Devastation where his Cathedral is placed??

There’s bound to be a LOT of things in Arah that isn’t in either of those – especially DR. Arah had forbidden vaults filled with weapons, tools, and scrolls, after all.

Arden.7480:

I mentioned that the commander can realize that there can be the camp where possibly the God/Gods are living. That would explain why the commander said in ep 5 that “he is here but not here”.

All I meant is that we have no reason to go there because we don’t know why.

The things about Balthazar or Logan are just speculations.

Know your enemy. That alone is plenty reason enough to make a trek to Orr or at least the Durmand Priory which would have volumes of information on Balthazar.

Doesn’t matter whether Balthazar had been there recently or not, if any knowledge on Balthazar’s capabilities, motivations, or potential hints to his state of being may exist, it is most likely to exist in Orr.

Arden.7480:

But anyway I hope I will find the answers in the trailer. Why to Arah? Why not to Ebonhawke?

Better question: Why go to Ebonhawke? There is literally nothing in our plot that connects us to Ascalon except for Rytlock’s trial and that has no relation to Ebonhawke. The only reason why anyone brings up Ebonhawke is because of the Desert Gate and the leaks of us going to Elona in the expansion. But there are more than one way to Elona – Orr and even Mount Maelstrom (via Judgment Rock) can easily act as such. And given the leaks, they are far more likely unless we’re traveling through branded territory to get to the Crystal Desert – which seems silly when we have clearly-not-hostile territory to travel through (Scavenger’s Causeway / Judgement Rock).

No reason to go to Orr? We’re fighting a god, and Orr has the most knowledge about the gods, their nature, and the things they did and kept while on Tyria. Balthazar may want something that is in Orr (or Arah even).

But who says only Orr can house Orrian architecture? Orr had many settlements outside of the peninsula.

The new legendary weapons don’t have collections, so there’s only 24 sets of collections for legendary weapons and this won’t change for the foreseeable future.

Healix.5819:

videoboy.4162:

It looks like Orr with a Canthan boat!!

That boat was datamined a long time ago (img). It was back with the Zephyrites, so it could be them. It was also used in concept art, which was used for Bloodtide Coast.

Ah, right, that boat was inside Labyrinthine Cliffs too, I believe, during Festival of the Four Winds. Which would relate it to Cantha, since that was their prior destination.

I’m not expecting a “cleansed Orr”. Remember:

With Zhaitan dead, we’ve made good progress clearing the rest of his army. It’s still a waterlogged wreck though. I wouldn’t invest in property here anytime soon if I were you, sir.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Sword_Regrown_(story)#Dialogue

As for the boat, I want to say I recall similar boats in Kourna or Istan in GW1.

Ubi.4136:

I just need the map space uncovered as I was occupied with real life during that event.

That area was only ever uncovered during the events. After the events, it went back to being the unexplored texture.

Very few jumping puzzles have that.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

According to the wiki,

According to a player written article – and falsely so. You should look at the original sources, not the rewritten parts of wiki articles, since they can occasionally be wrong.

Check out these two links:

The Bazaar of the Four Winds is gathering— merchants are converging from all corners of Tyria to sell their wares. But this time it’s not just shady characters and risky trades; this year, the mystical, flying Zephyr Sanctum has landed, bringing their magical crystals and amazing movement skills to savvy traders and daring adventurers alike!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/july-09-2013/

Magnus the Bloody Handed: By the way, did you hear the bazaar is back? They’re expecting Zephyr Sanctum to make an appearance.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Strangers_from_the_Sky

In other words, the Zephyrites regularly show up to the Bazaar, but not all the time.

I was going to fix that little error you quoted, but it seems someone else already fixed it for me.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

In short, while there is some relevant lore that would need to be dealt,

Except not really. 3 years have passed since Dry Top so even with the Zephyr Sanctum + 2-3 other out of 11+ ships falling and half their leadership dead, the Zephyrites could have rebuilt by now and be back in the sky easily.

Given how often people bring it up, it’s clear folks want Crown Pavilion, Dragon Bash, and Bazaar of the Four Winds specifically back.

Just to correct one thing, Arden: it isn’t so much that the gods “chose humans as their friends” but rather that the gods “brought humanity with them to the world” – nothing would prevent them from favoring non-humans in addition to humans. And Kormir, though alive while charr were enemies of humanity, had no direct dealings with charr all her life.

Also, Balthazar would know that Lazarus was hated, given that the mursaat were active before the gods went silent and given that the gods knew much about the previous dragonrise, when the mursaat nearly committed genocide against the seers in betrayal and left the others to their own fate in the battle against the Elder Dragons while taking (some of?) the alliance’s strongest offensive and defensive known magic (spectral agony and phasing into the Mists) with them. After all, Balthazar as Lazarus talks about that ancient betrayal and seems to know full well how the White Mantle view mursaat in episode 2.

Jennah on the other hand doesn’t really seem interested in the death of the White Mantle or other human threats to Kryta, otherwise she would have been a bit more forceful in her confrontations with Caudecus and his (rather obvious) manipulations prior to Episode 5.

On top of what Zaxares said, the Bazaar of the Four Winds is actually NOT related to the Zephyrites. The Zephyrites were visitors just as Lion’s Arch and the PCs were, arriving to trade there when they got wind of it.

The Bazaar of the Four Winds is Tyria’s black market, which changes locations and shows up “randomly” in the lore. So it wouldn’t even be at Labyrinthine Cliffs next time, necessarily.

Which of course would give reason to make Labyrinthine Cliffs a permanent map, just removing the vendors and Zephyrites as that seemed to have been some local village or some such there (can easily keep some vendors, of course, as well as various Zephyrite crystals since that’s what the Zephyrites were trading in return for food and other supplies).

Ugrakarma, OP is asking about what those crimes are, given that the Exalted had gone through multiple tests and trials before becoming Exalted.

Something Matt H doesn’t mention about the traitor is the lack of a mask, while we’re told if an Exalted’s mask is pulled off it results in “true death”. So how is the traitor still even alive?

And Matt H is also asking about the naming difference for those Exalted in the basement – why are they called “Tarnished”?

That’s a very big difference compared to most hero challenges, which the Tarnished Traitor is not among (that’s the Champion Tarnished Sage that’s the HP, and even that seems different from the typical lore of the hero challenges).

Joko’s origins are still a mystery. The Scarab Plague is one theory, but that makes a nearly 400 year gap between him supposedly becoming a lich and his invasion into Elona – it would not take that long to build an army. And dialogue from Sahlahjar implies he came from the north (his normal dialogue talks about his deal making due to grey giants moving in from the north, while quest dialogue and outpost description tells us it was Joko’s armies from direction unstated that pressed him to making a deal), which would naturally be in the opposite direction of Istan where the Scarab Plague took place.

DevilishLyx.2340:

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

Changes to how the outnumbered bonus is acquired is coming in the next release.

This is gonna be fun to see.
Outnumbered is a simple thing, if there is a much larger enemy group than yours, then you are outnumbered. Pretty simple.
So how can you actually change that?

To give some examples:

• Change duration set up – for example, have it a 2 second duration that ticks every second, with a cap of x seconds, so the longer you’re outnumbered, the longer you’ll keep the buff when it would normally go away.
• Alter the numbers for when it appears based on people on your world versus the other two worlds in the map, perhaps reducing the number difference needing before outnumbered appears.
• Turn it from map-wide to area-wide (this would promote going to the far end of borderlands and not afk’ing at the waypoints).

Or since he’s talking about how the bonus is acquired, rather than the buff, they can: change the pip system to determine how long you had outnumbered during the 5 minute period (be it ‘at all’ or ‘more than half the time’ or something else) rather than having the effect at the tick moment.

Many possibilities for changing the Outnumbered effect.

Azukas.1426:

I see nothing wrong with the way it currently works.

If I’m in a BL with outmanned I ping the Outmanned buff into /t and then ping a waypoint in a different BL.

Works everytime and ppl who abuse the system tend to send you hate whispers making life all that more enjoyable for the next 5 minutes LOL

In the chat window options, you can select to show which chat channel a line is coming from, in the case of /team chat in WvW, this shows [RBL], [GBL], [EBG], and [BBL]. So the only folks you’re tricking are those without that open. I’m sure there are many you’re not tricking.

Furthermore, your trickery is part of the issue and why it needs changing.

That’s only true for F2P, not non-HoT. There is an actual difference – pre-F2P core accounts can still access guild bank and other things.

Similarly F2P can access the guild hall and guild missions as it is.

And I wasn’t saying they couldn’t add any guild mission without trouble (hell my second paragraph you didn’t quote says they should), just that Cronospere’s suggestion of guilds “grow[ing] with the new living story and expansions” would still mean guild missions are still stuck pre-HoT regardless. Unless they change things.

And honestly, I feel that guild missions are the one thing among guild stuff that should never be excluded from F2P.

They’re too short to have long hair. They’d start tripping long before any other race.

Cronospere.8143:

My opinion is that guilds need to grow with the new living story and expansions. Not only with decorations (i do love those..) a new target isnt that difficult to add it seems to me.

The biggest difficulty is that ArenaNet has to keep guild missions to core maps, since those without HoT or Season 3 episodes (and soon enough, the new expansion) won’t be able to join in then.

New missions would still be nice, all the same. Even if it’s just a return of Season 1 events, like an instance of Twisted Marionette or Prime Hologram or something.

Little would prevent Jennah from marrying a Pact Marshal. Less than what could prevent her from marrying a Seraph captain, in fact.

The only one of those three that really seems like an error is the Factions one. And I would say that an error is possible if no one caught it – they probably used the same text and merely added the new info when making the following manuals. Since players didn’t catch it (not ever being given dates in general), it could easily end up being unseen by the writers as well if they did not have further proofreading – and why proofread something that was already proofread and published a year prior?

Besides that, the most recent is often the one you want to go with. It’s clear that’s the way they’re going as well.

It’s still very unfathomable for seven years to contain two wars against the same groups with the same name attributed to them, however. Nowhere would you ever consider such to be the situation – most would either not consider one of the two a war at all, given how short it’d be, or the two would be considered the same war with a short respite inbetween. And with a 50-year long war occurring immediately after the two less than cumulative seven year wars, most historians would label all three as merely the same war.

It should be noted that the three Guild Wars did not necessarily span across centuries with hundreds of years in between. Merely that the time frame for them to have possibly occurred has a maximum of 900 years.

It seems more likely that there was a slight miscommunication or rewriting of lore when Prophecies was still in development, and the manuals were not fixed with this. This wouldn’t be the first time, as we have a case of Confessor Dorian being called Schessler in an early short story (there being no timeframe for a separate Confessor to have existed), but Schessler is still referenced in Prophecies. The Prophecies manual has a lot of things that did not make it into the game – for example, reference to the Forest of True Sight (which seems to have been renamed Talmark Wilderness). This makes sense, after all, since game manuals have to be written up before the final day of working on the game for printing/publication reasons.

Abelisk.4527:

Astralporing.1957:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

And regarding Mystic Runestones – unlike Icy Runestones, Mystic Runestones have one purpose: generation 2 legendary weapons. Icy Runestones are used for four ascended backpieces, the Offerings of Koda, a guild upgrade, and a scribing recipe – things in which you may need to or want to save up on. Though truth be told… why did we even need Mystic Runestones? They’re fully identical except easier acquisition due to vendor(s) placement.

That’s actually a good point – why are Mystic Runestones a thing? Wouldn’t just be easier to reuse Icy ones?

Without Scholar of Secrets, you wouldn’t be able to buy Mystic Runestones, therefore you wouldn’t be able to finish the Gen 2 legendaries.

The original 4 Gen 2 legendaries (HOPE, Nevermore, Chuka and Champawat, and Astralaria) do not use Mystic Runestones because you need Scholar of Secrets to buy the Tier 4 recipes for them.

Not to pull this off-topic, but don’t you need that mastery to buy the recipes for the newer Gen2 legendaries anyways? Pretty sure the Scholar of Secrets mastery unlocks the four achievements and unlocks the recipes from Hobbs.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I would find it very bizarre if “Kryta established as a colony of Elona” was meant to read as ‘Kryta was a pre-existing kingdom, but became a colony of Elona’. Wouldn’t some variation on ‘Kryta becomes a colony of Elona’ be what you’d expect to see?

Rather than “pre-existing kingdom”, I’m saying it was a pre-existing colony.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Personally, my attempt to solve the discrepancy would be this: Doric’s palace existed on the site of Lion’s Arch before the city was built.

This makes little sense. Why would Doric build a palace in what is literally bordering centaur territory at the time, and dozens (if not hundreds, depending on the scale of the Tyrian subcontinent) miles away from either Arah or Rin?

I’d also like to present The Centaur War which states: The first documented human-centaur battles occurred in 300 A.E. when human settlements began spreading from the fertile Krytan valley into the Shiverpeaks.

In the year 300 AE, human settlements began spreading from Kryta into centaur territory. This implies that before 300 AE, humans had already settled in the Krytan valley(s).

Also, you guys are taking the “discrediting” of Mazdak’s line far out of proportion, I would say. Nowhere does Angel McCoy’s line indicate that Mazdak is from 398 (or 300) AE. And it is a much bigger leap of “rewriting history in his own mind” to go from 25 years old to 500 years old, as opposed to going from 25 to less than 200 (possibly even less than 100) for the “age of humanity” at the time Mazdak was alive if we’re talking from the perspective of humans on continental Tyria (as opposed to humans on the world, which Mazdak may or may not have been aware of or caring for).

Besides there’s Captain Bragen’s line: This is the crypt of Mazdak, royal son of Orr, who came to these shores so that humans may raise a new nation: Kryta.

“May raise a new nation” seems very, very different from “liberating a colony”.

Revenant stances aren’t spirit related. They’re merely calling upon echoes of the Mists – like we did in Arcana Obscura in Season 2, when repeating the trials of ascension, we called upon echoes of the past rather than souls.

@Aaron: They’re not as contradicting as you make it out to be, however. We know that Elona later colonized Kryta, and if we look at the timeline, that’s the actual wording from the books:

Kryta established as a colony of Elona.

“Established as a colony” is not equal to “founded”. This basically just means that Kryta existed as a nation – likely a colony of Ascalon – but in 300 AE it became a colony of Elona.

And royalty can have multiple palaces, and we know that the capital had moved around before (such as going from Drascir to Rin). I’d like to point out that your sources prove that Rin was not the capital for Doric – merely that King Doric had seen to the founding of Rin. Nothing says, iirc, that Drascir was the first capital. But I doubt Lion’s Arch was ever a capital for King Doric (nor does anything ever says such).

@Ahtrenn: that line was written by the fanbase and is always subject to potential errors. Furthermore, the GW1Wiki has a rule of not including lore derived from GW2 – which would include Sea of Sorrows. Back then, though we had lines about Doric ruling in Krytan lands (like Lion’s Arch), we had no statement about it being founded by a prince of Orr.

Also, that wiki editor is me. I admit it was long ago enough I do not recall the “summer estate” part – that may be a typo on my end from back then. But the line about overseeing the expansion but never colonizing it was before GW2’s release, when all we knew was that it was “established as a colony of Elona in 300AE”. We’ve learned more since then, but GWWiki policy is to keep such new lore out of the GWWiki and keep it to GW2Wiki.

The line from Mazdak wasn’t “thrown out” but rather it was realized that there was an error but due to technical issues they cannot fix that error (like they did with Riannoc’s death statement during The Newly Awakened in Season 2). To quote: * Mazdak’s brag — unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do to fix this. It’s voiced and more importantly, it’s in a cinematic which makes it impossible to change. We’ll just have to chalk this one up to Mazdak being really old and crusty, and rewriting history in his own mind. Sorry. The technical challenges of changing this are too expensive at this stage.

There is also the description from Lion’s Arch which tells us that the city was once the city of King Doric’s palace. And as Athrenn quoted from Sea of Sorrows: “the nations of Orr and Kryta were at war when Lion’s Arch was built.”

So let’s put all the facts together:

• Mazdak founded Kryta. – Source: Dead of Winter
• Kryta was founded by a prince of Orr. – Source: GuildMag interview
• Orr and Kryta were at war when Lion’s Arch was built. – Source: Sea of Sorrows
• Lion’s Arch held King Doric’s palace. – Source: Guild Wars 1 Lion’s Arch description
• Doric ruled over territories of the now-called Kryta. – Source: Orrian History Scrolls/Quiz Terminal

I do believe there were several lines that stated Doric ruled “three human nations”, and he never ruled Elona, thus settling this. But the above five points (really, just the third and fourth) settle it as well.

Lion’s Arch was founded when Kryta and Orr were at war, but during Doric’s lifetime it had been under Orrian command as it held his palace. This means that the war was won by Orr, before 1 BE. Since Mazdak was the founder of Kryta, a prince of Orr, and the king of Orr was Doric this means that Mazdak was most likely Doric’s son (though a possibility of nephew, cousin, brother, or grandson is also plausible but unlikely – depends primarily on how Orrians handled titles of royal relatives – if it’s like Ascalon, such alternatives would be dukes more often than princes).

Except that you’ve forgotten that King Doric is repeatedly called the king of the three human Tyrian nations. That being Orr, Ascalon, and Kryta – as he was not ever king of Elona. So Kryta had to be founded before 1 BE, which is the year when King Doric died.

And from that, knowing that Kryta was founded by Mazdak, who was a “prince of Orr”, it’s clear to discern that Mazdak was Doric’s son (or if you want to truly stretch things, grandson or nephew is potentially possible).

They kind of do. They’re both mythical weapons in the lore standpoint – Magdaer even moreso than Caladbolg. Though Caladbolg has had more direct relation in GW2’s narrative, Magdaer has equally – if not more – importance in the lore.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

I’d love to see a longbow that shoots bears, like Brekkabek’s. But I agree that the new gem bows suggest something else will be the new legendary. My money’s on Magdaer, or a sword referencing it in some way.

I doubt they’d do Magdaer – if Magdaer will ever become a player weapon skin (if it even can be since it’s technically supposed to look like Sohothin and the Fiery Dragon Swords from the HoM), it’ll likely be in the same manner as Caladbolg.

Fighting Kralkatorrik and the DSD makes perfect sense.

Killing them does not.

If we fight Elder Dragons still it would be with the intent to hinder and possibly forcibly put them to sleep rather than to kill like we did with Zhaitan and Mordremoth. Whether Jormag (and Primordus) end up being on the table for that in the future is more questionable, but it wouldn’t make sense from the Pact’s perspective (or the Pact Commander’s) to just let Kralkatorrik and the DSD run amok unless there are more pressing matters than ancient, gargantuan, and supremely powerful beings bent on world devastation… Which is hard to imagine.

I also wouldn’t be so sure about fighting Joko after all the leaked images...show a waypoint in the Bone Palace, and the furthest map is the "Domain of Vabbi" (which is central Vabbi from GW1) and the Mirror of Vabbi was heavily corrupted by Kralkatorrik, implying that the end area is more dragonbrand.

I never said every single player that ever existed at that point in time hated Season 1.

I was speaking in generals – which ultimately means the vocal individuals (whether majority or minor is questionable) – as is almost always the case when people say “everyone”. And to try to argue that ‘no not everyone hated it’ (which you long posts have ended up being solely about it seems) is like saying “that’s not what literally means”. Ultimately pointless. Also, I never implied that everyone who hated it did so for every listed reason or that everyone who hated it had hated it for the same reason(s).

Mazdak’s statement that humans were as old as sylvari are now is false, not the fact that he was the founder of Kryta.

We have outright statement by developers stating that Kryta was founded by a ‘prince of Orr’ in hostility with Orr – the interview being linked to in Mazdak’s GW2 wiki article – and in Sea of Sorrows Macca says that it was founded by Doric’s son during wartime.

You’re taking a comment about one line (“When the human race was as young as [the Sylvari race]”), and using it to denounce entirely separate lore (“I conquered these lands and named them Kryta!”). And that falseness that exists is about human race being 25 years old, rather than their actual 500 years (or “less than 200 years on continental Tyria”).

Kryta was established first by Mazdak during King Doric’s reign – before the Exodus. It was “re-established” by Elona, spread further north, in 300 AE. We get this from the sylvari PS and Sea of Sorrows novel (and an interview). We learn that Mazdak, a son of King Doric, established Kryta in rebellion against Doric and that the nation was established during war times with Orr (hence why some of the earliest ports were protected by naturally high cliffs, such as Port Stalwart).

This has been known, more or less, since Prophecies as well – because King Doric is repeatedly stated to be the king of the three Tyrian kingdoms. That being Orr, Ascalon, and Kryta (which seems to have been founded in that order, at 205 BE, 100 BE, and an unknown point between 100 and 1 BE). Elona was never under King Doric’s reign.

mXz.4512:

Because the moment they start introducing flying mounts (incoming WoW), this game will be making it’s way to the back burner for me, sigh.

You’ve not seen the leaks, I take it.

There was no other event in the history of continental Tyria which ceased peace for all three human nations – Ascalon had the charr and Kryta had the centaurs (though the latter only became an issue post 300 AE), but no other major conflicts occurred.

The Guild Wars did indeed began after the volcano erupted, however, it seems to me that was the event that ended the “golden age for humanity”, effective beginning the Guild Wars.

I did not leave that other line out, btw, as I refer to it myself (“the History of Tyria in the Prophecies manual that the Guild Wars each lasted for decades”) – I merely did not include it in the quote. I interpret that to meaning (as I indicated) that each individual Guild War raged for decades. This fits, since the last one would have lasted less than 60 years, and if we have 900 years in which all three occur, then each one lasting for more than 10 years but less than 200 fits as well.

I’m not saying the three Guild Wars happened for 900 years in total, but that they all happened over the course of 100 AE to 1070 AE, with the last one being from 1013 to 1070 AE. Wars lasting for decades is not that uncommon, despite common belief. In medieval and older ages, battles could easily last months. And in fiction, this tends to become more common since it serves to extrapolate the seriousness of the situation (the Kurzick/Luxon war has been ongoing for over 1500 years by GW1’s timeframe).

I want to stress, that it is far more likely to believe that the three wars happened over the course of 900 years for decades (between 10 and 190 years) each, than to believe that *two separate wars occurred in the seven years from 1013 to 1020 AE, and (more importantly) that people would consider those two wars separate not only from each other but from the third war that lasted until 1070 AE. Wars that share the same name tend to be decades apart, like the World Wars or the three Punic Wars, not a year or less from each other.

Also, the Third Guild War is said to be worse because Orrians joined in and death tolls were greatly higher in the same timespan, not because it was longer.