Guild Wars 2

Mushroomz.4280:

The Sylvari are an odd subject, their origin is very mysterious, but it seems be rather clear they are tied to Mordremoth.

You’ve just contradicted yourself.

If their origin is mysterious, then it is not clear if they’re tied to anything in regards to their origin.

Besides this is a tried and dried hypothesis that, in the end, has no solid support and has plenty of debunking factors.

To counter:

Mushroomz.4280:

In Arah, it is revealed that the forgotten, one of the ancient five races, developed a ritual, that freed Glint from Kralkatorrik’s influence, what’s not known is, was that the only time this ritual was used? It seems unlikely that such a powerful tool would go unused. I think it’s possible that the Pale Tree’s seed, which we may soon learn much about, was created in a similar process to the Glint we known.

The magic Elder Dragons use to corrupt things is ancient, powerful, and barely understood by the greatest magical minds on Tyria. There have been spells that could successfully cleanse a living thing of dragon corruption (see the Ruined City of Arah dungeon’s Forgotten path, or the climax of the Pact’s campaign in Orr) but they are not well understood, require significant resources to cast, and must be cast in a particular geographic location, so they are not universally available.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/New-lore-interview-to-Anet-lore-team/first#post4226670

This easily explains why it would be used only once. On top of that, the Arah dungeon path makes it sound like the races were on the losing end, and that Glint hid the races shortly after being given free will and breaking from Kralkatorrik.

The most important part, however, is the requiring of a particular geographical location. Singular. That means the ritual can only be cast at The Altar of Glaust in Arah.

There may be other, unknown, rituals, but I presume they’re just as difficult and requiring.

Mushroomz.4280:

Recent evidence points at the forgotten having some involvement in the Silverwastes, which strengthens the likeliness of this connection.

The Forgotten had presence all over the world. That’s not very unique.

Mushroomz.4280:

Glint, like the Pale Tree, clearly does not like the Elder Dragons, both also are capable of reproduction.

Questionable in Glint’s case. Dragon minions are incapable of reproduction via natural means – the “minion factories” are really just spreading corruption to create new minions – be the subject of the corruption be corpses, prisoners, or the land itself.

This actually acts against your own statement: The Pale Tree is capable of reproduction – of creating things, not twisting them – thus is unlike any dragon minion we know.

In Glint’s case, we don’t know if the eggs are traditionally laid, or are akin to the destroyer eggs we see in the skritt storyline – or akin to the branded crystals, icebrood ice, etc. that spawn corrupted beings made out of inorganic materials (unless a creature was trapped inside). Glint had Crystal Spiders and Crystal Guardians in GW1 – they may be her form of “corruption of the land”. These eggs may be too. Alternatively, it’s known that dragon minions can lay eggs if they were pregnant when corrupted – thus Glint, who’s heavily hinted to having been a corrupted being rather than a corrupted construct (like the Shatterer), may have been pregnant when corrupted by Kralkatorrik. Thus once more ruining your comparison.

The only hope this comment holds is if we discover something brand new – if we discover a case of dragon minions holding natural reproduction. However, creatures of crystals and creatures of plant doing this are two very different things, so even if we see a Mordrem doing such, does not mean all dragon minions can.

Mushroomz.4280:

It’s tough to say how dragon influence works, but it doesn’t seem to be that simple, Mawdrey is all elder dragon, and yet doesn’t follow Mordremoth, instead it’s a vine on your back that gives you gifts for magic dust and protects you a bit.

This isn’t entirely true.

First off, we know a good deal on how dragon influence works. Their minions lack free will. They cannot make choices that deviate from serving their dragon. But there are means of returning free will back – such as with Glint. Whether this has happened to Mawdrey or not is unclear, but the ritual used on Glint has been stated to require specific geological locations and is not well understood – we fed the generations of vines various magical objects attuned by various magical locations – from ley line dust to Foefire magic (Foefire magic known to alter mentalities, btw). Such combinations of things could have given free will to one of the three generations.

Secondly, I’m not exactly sure Mawdrey is “good”. Maybe just too small to cause harm. After all, it’s “tenderly” trying to wrap around you… and Mordrem vines are known to strangulate. Mawdrey (and the lesser versions) could very well be a ticking bomb, so to speak.

Mushroomz.4280:

So what if Jormag can corrupt the dead and Primordus can corrupt the living? That doesn’t really counter the main argument.

But it is important to take note of. Why?

Because it shows that Elder Dragons have preferences.

Maybe instead of “they can’t corrupt other dragons’ minions” it is “they don’t want to corrupt other dragons’ minions.”

Mushroomz.4280:

It’s been said that dragon minions would likely fight each,

But only if they wander into each others’ territory. And this has actually been called into question in an interview with Angel McCoy (yet another retcon of Ree Soesbee interviews it seems…) in which her response was effectively “it’s speculated they fight, but unknown”.

Mushroomz.4280:

if Sylvari are truly Mordremoth creations

I have yet to see any sufficient amount of evidence that points to this hypothesis that cannot be easily debunked.

Mushroomz.4280:

they resist and desire to kill Zhaitan, it’s unclear where that desire stems from, maybe the Pale Tree seeks killing Zhaitan and other dragons.

The Pale Tree is fighting all Elder Dragons – including Mordremoth. Where your very first statement fails – sylvari fight Mordrem, Mordrem assault sylvari in pre-emptive strikes.

Mushroomz.4280:

the Acura subjects in COE are infused with dragon energy, not actually corrupted.

Same thing, really. Just different method. The end result is still corruption. The method of corruption is the only change.

Mushroomz.4280:

We know a lot about how different dragons corrupt, Primordius does not corrupt, his minions are simply created, to my understanding, Zhaitan raises the dead. Kralkatorrik’s breath brands his minions, and Jormags minions generally seem to accept his influence as he more or less seeks to corrupt the thoughts and minds of his minions, with promises of power. It’s said the DSD generates it’s minions from water, much like Primordius does from lava possibly, and Mordremoth isn’t clear yet.

• Primordus does corrupt – though he usually doesn’t corrupt living beings but instead lava and land; it has been stated in an interview by Jeff Grubb, Scott McGough, and Ree Soesbee that Primordus is very much capable of corrupting living beings.
• Zhaitan is also seen corrupting the living (both plant and animal) as well as the land. Corrupting the dead is simply Zhaitan’s preference – like corrupting land and lava is Primordus’.
• It’s more than just Kralkatorrik’s breath – that’s how he made his first batch of modern minions and how he made the Dragonbrand, but in Iron Marches we can see crystals imprisoning Sentinels, and corrupting them.
• While it is Jormag’s preferred method to convince minions to join him willingly before corruption, both icebrood and Sons of Svanri have been seen corrupting in other means (though primarily Sons of Svanir).

Point being: While it is true that each Elder Dragon has an apparent preference for corruption, they are all capable of equal corruption.

Mushroomz.4280:

Some of Mordremoths minions do appear to be corrupted Wildlife, but he doesn’t seem to corrupt, what we know of, the more important and intelligent species.

Sylvari don’t count as important and intelligent species?

Mushroomz.4280:

another dragon they’re a lifeless corpse that they can’t corrupt.

Jormag has been seen corrupting corpses (Edge of Destiny novel) – and in fact, icebrood end up as skeletons encased in ice by the time they’ve reached full-on corruption. I imagine Kralkatorrik, who has twisted the very land itself, is capable of twisting physical corpses too.

So the argument fails there.

If a dragon cannot corrupt another dragon’s magic or minions, then it is because they are corrupted, not because of their state of existence.

We don’t see cross-corruption in the open world. However, as Aaron mentioned, we have two cases of cross-corrupted beings (Kudu’s Monster and Subject Alpha) which are corrupted by Primordus, Jormag, Kralkatorrik, Zhaitan – and in Alpha’s case, Mordremoth as well.

Some people use this as claiming there’s no “natural” way to do it and in turn use this for the dreaded and practically debunked “sylvari are dragon minions” ‘theory’ but in all honesty: if it can be done, then it can be done. There’s no asura out there I’ve ever seen capable of messing around with nature to the point where they can create things not possible at all in natural scenarios (given that 99.9999999 with a lot of 9s % of what they do is tech based not bio based).

Also as Aaron said, we do see corrupted plants – corrupted by Kralkatorrik and Zhaitan, if not others too. Bloodtide Coast, Sparkly Fen, and all across Orr we see corrupted plants and corrupted living beings by Zhaitan (well, in the later, scratch out Orr).

Furthermore, despite there being many branded plants, Kralkatorrik’s corruption is the second of the two examples presented for “sylvari cannot be corrupted” scenarios.

And finally: we now know the reason why sylvari cannot be corrupted: the Dream, via the Pale Tree. Without either, sylvari can be corrupted.

The reason sylvari can be corrupted by Mordremoth is questionable. Both cases we know they were disconnected from the Dream – so maybe Soundless are vulnerable but no Soundless have ever been corrupted before. Alternatively, it could be the Nightmare (said to be irreversible and acts rather similar to Aerin and Scarlet – except subtract the schizophrenia, and we have the Nightmare Pods in Silverwastes). I suspect that in E8, we’ll see the introduction of Nightmare into the Dream (it’s said that Caithe and Faolain both encountered it in the past, though iirc it was said to be in Orr maybe this has been retconned as that may have been an interview, and while Caithe pulled back Faolain didn’t – maybe that’s Caithe’s secret – introducing Mordremoth’s corruption into the Dream, making the entire race vulnerable to him).

Ranger: Hammer
Necromancer: Greatsword
Thief: Rifle
Warrior: Main-hand Dagger/Off-hand Torch
Guardian: Main-hand Axe/Off-hand Mace
Mesmer: Main-hand Pistol/Off-hand Shield
Elementalist: Greatsword
Engineer: Main-hand Mace/Off-hand Torch

No new weapons needed. But all professions get 5 new weapon skills

You presume that Dwayna means “other humans” and not “other living beings”.

Remember that Dwayna was trying to make a paradise in Tyria. She – like Melandru – were for world peace.

So why would she not try to create peace with other races? Why wouldn’t she speak as if all races, despite how different they are, are brothers and sisters in life?

Molenin*

Not Molin.

I think what you said, Titus, is just three paragraphs of saying what Ascimator meant with that one sentence.

Not to drive the topic further off-topic, but, the lack of waypoints in Silverwastes actually had praise… but no mount outcries.

OMNIBUS.2913:

Well my main concern is necromancer is the least favored class for pve usefulness. I’d rather build on a class thats alrdy behind than introduce another dark themed class. People would just opt for the new class and just brush necro aside.(cant speak for everyone here but thats what i see happening). And like i said they can incorperate knighthonors ideas onto necro alrdy. If it proves useful it will encourage more necromancer play. The only difference is they will still wear light armor. Marjory and Trahearne use greatsword, give necro that instead.

The necromancer’s fallpoint in PvE typically falls to the over-reliance on conditions and the caps that have been put on them. To better the necromancer profession, fixing the issue of condition caps and condition effectiveness is what’s needed. In large numbers, a profession that just simply adds more conditions will become pointless because all professions can give conditions – and in large numbers, even with just the least conditioning profession can max out the caps.

OMNIBUS.2913:

Also, your theme comparisons are kinda vague.

So were yours, and that was my point.

If you’re going to discredit the idea of a “dark soldier” profession just because we already have a dark profession, or because we already have two other soldier classes – which is what you and krapmyself (how is that account name not banned?) were doing, effectively – then that fails because we have more than that for other, equally general, profession themes.

Leo G.4501:

Elementalist is the only elemental themed class. Ranger is a nature themed class, it just so happens that certain elements are a part of nature.

Deception isn’t a theme. Thieves are more a shadow themed class while Mesmer is an illusion themed class.

You’re speaking in more specifics than the posts I was responding to – and in turn, the post of mine you’re quoting.

However, while elementalists are fully elemental in theme, the ranger does have elements in their theme – Lightning Reflexes, Flame Trap, Frost Trap, and Muddy Terrain are just one set of skills that utilize all four elements. While the elemental theme in ranger is lighter, this is no different than thieves holding the same theme concept as mesmers.

Mesmers are illusions, yes, and thieves use shadows, indeed. However, both utilize the general concept of deception – hiding in shadows, tricking foes with illusions, etc. – as their base theme. Just like how in GW1, Monks and Paragon shared the same holy theme.

Leo G.4501:

Non-magical isn’t a theme, it’s a motif. Theme is an overall idea (the theme of a ‘warrior’ or ‘barbarian’ is repeated over many games) while a motif is an attribute or symbol that supports a theme (most of those ‘barbarian’ themes are supported by the contrast of being a force that does not/cannot use magic compared to other casting classes in their respective games).

Again, you’re being more specific than the posts I was referring to – and in turn my own post that was using their argument against them. In the grand generalities that they were speaking, then “non-magical” would be as much of a theme as “dark” is.

Leo G.4501:

I don’t think posters are opposed to another heavy armor class, but just repeated themes. Death, in the case of necromancer, is certainly covered and no other profession uses it. Darkness as a theme is also covered. The concept of dark isn’t the same as it is in other games, though. Thief is the shadow/darkness class and shadow magic is defined in the game world by the way Thief functions.

Thieves are hardly “dark” as a class, technically speaking. Shadows for thieves is just a visual medium – like blue light for guardian or purple butterflies for mesmer.

But why is “darkness as a theme” unavailable to be used twice? We saw the same themes used multiple times in both games!

Knighthonor.4061:

Well for starters, the Reapers in GW1 (which is where I go the concept from) are Demonic Dervish, as well as undead magic users.
Just like my suggestion implies, they use both demonic transformation as well as powers of the undead.

They were not dervishes nor demonic… they were ghosts – phantoms specifically – that were necromancers.

lrn2lore

krapmyself.2817:

Well, you’re not wrong there. But the class that is being suggested is basically a necromancer in plate, which is what I’m trying to say here.

I don’t disagree with that, hence my first post: I’d like to see a dark soldier class, but not in this form.

The argument used in those two posts I quoted, however, were attacking in the wrong direction. “Visual theme” doesn’t really matter in such general concepts.

krapmyself.2817:

I thought I was being clear but I guess not. I’m personally not opposed to a DARK themed soldier class, but a DEATH themed one won’t work because it’s already being done. And a death themed class is basically what the OP is suggesting. (I mean, even the mechanic is basically the necromancers except it can choose more than one form to take. The OP seems to just really really want a “death Knight” style class.)

And this I must again disagree.

To be clear, I am using “dark” in the semi-lore terminology of the classes. All magical classes can be divided into the “four schools of magic” or the four damage types back in GW1; and in GW2, it’s just the four damage types’ names, but now it’s four magical energy types. You had light, dark, chaos, and the unnamed ‘elemental’ – light (Preservation) was monks, paragons, and now guardians; dark (Aggression) was necromancer; chaos (Denial) was mesmer, assassins, and now thieves; ‘elemental’ (Destruction) was elementalists, dervish, now ranger as well.

The “dark energy”, or Aggression school of magic, focuses on conditions and deathly things in both games (also hindrance provoked through movement in GW1). So I’m not sure a “death” profession would be stepping on Necromancer’s toes. After all: Mesmers can teleport like thieves; Mesmers can stealth like thieves – it’s just that thieves do it better. In GW1, the overlap was in debilitating hexes – but mesmers did it better (because they were OP on assassins at first thus nerfed into oblivion) – of course, stealthing didn’t exist in GW1.

That’s how you focus on making a new dark profession: find a minor aspect of the Necromancer that could be interesting as a profession’s focus, and make them do it better, and expand in a new direction that holds onto the attacking theme of the necromancer.

krapmyself.2817:

edit: I would also like to add that if the Thief is played like an assassin, it could qualify as a dark themed class, but that’s being really nit picky.

Not really. While the thief and assassin both utilize shadows, with a heavy preference in it from assassins (this preference changed from shadow to stealth), it isn’t the same as the necromancer’s field of ‘dark’. As I mentioned above, I refer to the lore classification which is defined by damage type and battle theme of the profession(s) of the same ‘theme’.

Light is a support-first-damage-second and anti-death theme; chaos is a prevention of enemy action (directly or indirectly) theme; dark is a hindrance on action and death theme; elemental is more visual, utilizing the elements somehow (with each element having their own benefit).

Knighthonor.4061:

But the class isnt just about death.
It gets its powers from Bloodstones and can change into demons as well as undead. so it isnt just undead themed. Its dark. Its more of a dark plated Dervish if anything.

And that’s your problem.

The Bloodstones are a huge part of lore that cannot be utilized by just a single profession – it wouldn’t really make sense.

And turning into demons and undead? You don’t simply transform into such things. Margonites were turned into demons – but it was permanent and made them sterile. Undead requires to die, and like Margonites being turned into demons was permanent. Your class profession makes no sense in lore.

All you want is a transformation into something kitten. Go use tonics.

OMNIBUS.2913:

We alrdy have a class with a dark theme, Necromancer. You could potentially give necros new traits and weapons which allow these options you would like. I’d much prefer that over a new dark themed class.

krapmyself.2817:

Nice try. Won’t happen. We already have the full beat em up plate wearer and the magical plate wearer. We also already have a death themed class.

Any 3rd soldier class that comes along, which will probably be never, will have to be original in theme, mechanics, and style. a “death knight” simply doesn’t fit that bill.

Regarding the bold:

We have two elemental themed classes: ranger and elementalist
We have two deception themed classes: thieves and mesmers
We have two non-magical themed classes: warrior and engineer

So why can’t we have two dark themed classes?

Regarding the underlined:
We have three adventurer, we have three scholar, so why can’t we have three soldier? All three scholars are the “magical lightweight” and rangers and thieves are both agile fighters that mix tools and magic, so why can’t there be more than one magical plate wearer?

You’re saying “we can’t have more than one of this very general description for multiple classes!” but we already do, on multiple accounts.

In fact, the only thing we’re lacking multiple of is a dark themed and a light themed profession – but we have a light heavy, so a second guardian makes little sense. A dark heavy, however, can make sense.

Major problem is that your “New Valley of Rin” is heavy ogre territory. The Blazeridge Mountains are primarily ogre territory all along that we see, and directly east of Ebonhawke especially.

A second issue is that east of the Blazeridge Mountains is still Blood Legion territory. And the Blood Legion are the least likely legion to give up stuff for humans given their current Imperator (who’s only going along with the treaty because he doesn’t want to start a war with Iron and Ash at the same time – some theories place him as a supporter of the Renegades, due to his described “wild card personality” and how it seems most Renegades are former Blood).

TBH, I think the smart move would be to use the dragonbrand as the “geographical border” and give them all of Ascalon east of that – to as far as humans dare into the Blazeridge without entering Blood territory on the other side.

I disagree that there “was no conflict of any sort” in 115 BE.

As you mention, Ascalon is established in 100 BE. This is also the year Doric is crowned king. But do you really think they claimed from approximately Rin on south in less than a year? Both Rin and Drascir existed during Doric’s lifetime, and while Ascalon no doubt spread further during the 100 year reign, it’s unlikely that they established a kingdom in a single year when said kingdom is established in the middle of hostile territory.

On top of that, Angel McCoy has told us that the gift of magic was not a one-time thing, but was delivered over a century by all gods. Abaddon’s gift of magic was just the largest one, thus “the” gift of magic.

And on top of that, we have Balthazar’s description from the Orrian History Scrolls: “It was he who claimed Tyria for humanity; he who said the other races would be easy to defeat. It would not be the only time that the Master of War was wrong.”

This, to me, sounds like the events of a lesser gift of magic being given, during the fight with the charr to expand, which was instigated by Balthazar’s desire to see humanity rule all of the world.

It’s not that there’s no known conflict at those times. It’s that they’re not named conflicts.

While I’m a fan of the dark knight concept coming into play, I don’t think this is the way to do it.

/notsigned

lakdav.3694:

I would rather like to know why we dont use the waypoint right over in Camp Resolve to get back, and instead we call in an expensive chopper into great danger to extract us.

One of the freshest missions ignore them when just a few missions before we were actively saving them.

Thus the explanation:

You must be near/access the waypoints (directly) to use them.

They weren’t anywhere close to a waypoint in the mission.

kitten .

Tachenon.5270:

I would jump for joy if Mordremoth destroyed the waypoint system. Or at least made it so that those waypoints not located in the major population centers were rendered impractical/impossible to maintain.

What’s what I thought they were going to do – destroy most non-border non-city waypoints permanently, then over the months remove them from map completion in replacement for PoI/the new zones counting.

Alas, it did not happen.

Tom Gore.4035:

Silalus.8760:

Bazompora.2635:

Heck, there’s even 2 furry races already!

Wait… What’s the second one?

I see someone hasn’t been able to get into a Norn lady’s panties yet. You thought all that shapeshifting to furry animals would not leave a mark in their genetics?

Hey now, women can’t grow crazy norn beards. That’s got nothing to do with genetics and shapeshifting – it’s just them making up for the lack of stylizing their facial hair!

Diovid.9506:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Furthermore, the Eye of the North hero may not be the Chosen of the Flameseeker Prophecies. We had heroes from all three continents, and the Young Heroes of Tyria storybook implied there were three such heroes. ArenaNet has intentionally left it vague in GW2, who that PC of GW1 was, or what their accomplishments were.

Wasn’t there some dialogue which seemed to imply that the EotN hero and the prophecies hero were the same person? Or am I misremembering that?

In EN? Only if you were on a Prophecies PC did such happen, mainly via Gwen and her quests, but otherwise there was no acknowledgement of who you were.

In my personal headcanon, there were three heroes, with all three partaking in Eye of the North. But like I said, that’s headcanon – just like calling all post-Secondborn sylvari “Thirdborn”.

All three Guild Wars occurred post-Exodus. And only Kryta and Ascalon were part of the first two.

The event in the Scriptures of Dwayna is NOT a Guild War.

The Second Guild War was not when you describe either – that wasn’t a Guild War at all, but an unnamed war between various races and groups.

My theory for Season 3:

There is no Season 3.

Just huge savings!

But not necessary to have happened.

In fact, it wasn’t even relevant, so why would it be brought up, exactly? And supposedly Ogden and the GW1 PC(s) went different ways post-Great Destroyer (we can still have him as a hero, but that’s mechanics).

Furthermore, the Eye of the North hero may not be the Chosen of the Flameseeker Prophecies. We had heroes from all three continents, and the Young Heroes of Tyria storybook implied there were three such heroes. ArenaNet has intentionally left it vague in GW2, who that PC of GW1 was, or what their accomplishments were.

I really don’t get the “dilemma” of escort events.

1. All escort events fall under four categories: poor travelers needing free hire; merchants trying to make a profit (paying for waypoints would reduce said profit); a unit in an army in the battlefield; and/or utilizing beasts of burden
2. Presumably, a four-hoofed animal such as a marmox, bull, or dolyak are incapable of using waypoint devices for xyz reason – this is not unreasonable to presume, due to no doubt how complicated such would be, and more importantly we never see a non-sapient civilized race using a waypoint.
3. If waypoints cost money, then naturally a merchant looking to make the most buck over a short-distanced trip will rather go on foot than using a waypoint – more profit made. Poor people, like the couple seen outside Overlake Haven in Kessex Hills (or was it Kessex Haven?) are likely unable to afford waypoints.
4. For the army groups, they are injured which may hinder the use of waypoints or they’re heading out to uncontest waypoints (or their destination is does not have a nearby waypoint – if it does, it’ll be contested). And most cases are the last one.

Then there are the escort events – like Haze in Dry Top – where neither point of origin nor point of destination are near waypoints.

So why is “why don’t NPCs use waypoints!?” a ‘dilemma’ when there aren’t nearby waypoints, or they’re obvious in for saving money?

The borders of zones are by far abstract representations as it would be pretty much impossible for mountains to form like that – and so would, in turn, the borders of the areas called “Kessex Hills” “Brisban Wildlands” etc. Similarly, due to scaling, places may be ‘lacking’ or hills completely missing, in terms of lore to visuals, as we can’t really expect everything to simply expand – rather, I’d argue that in most cases a small batch of trees is equivalent to a small patch of woods; a single patch of small farmland that barely hits 1 acre is equivalent to a 20+ acre farm.

But I doubt this means that the scaling for Gendarran Fields is any different than the scaling for Kessex Hills, etc.

Stephen.6312:

Thus, policing Lord Odran’s portals became paramount to the elder races, for which reason the forgotten were stationed at those portals most likely to be accessed by human and alien alike, such as the Tombs of the Primeval Kings; and for which reason the mursaat may have attempted to keep portals created by Odran in the western Maguuma closed.

There were no such portals in western Maguuma; there were no Forgotten at Tomb of the Primeval Kings, though they were near there at Glint’s lair.

Stephen.6312:

Yes, the mursaat were trying to hold Abaddon, a fallen human god, back. However, consider that Abaddon’s rage would mean that were he left to his own devices he would waken the dragons, thus holding him back not only ensured that the mursaat were not destroyed but also that they would have a Tyria to return to.

There is no evidence of this, no support in the like. It is a famous old theory, but Guild Wars 2 reveals something vitally important about the mrusaat and the likelihood of this theory:

The mursaat are royal, selfish, kittens. As a race.

They had the best weapon against the Elder Dragons during the previous dragonrise – a perfect defense against them, and a grand offensive against them. But they fled the world, after nearly annihilating one of the four other races in the alliance.

Arah paths make it clear that the mursaat care for one thing: mursaat. They knew of the Flameseeker Prophecies, and killed thousands within five years just to keep their own golden kitten alive.

Stephen.6312:

In days past, there was at least one human spell caster who traversed the Mists without the aid of his gods. This knowledge is the dirty laundry that even Minister Caudecus’ maids wouldn’t wash, laundry soaked in blood. It belongs to a man long forgotten by all but the most ancient of minds: Lord Odran. This powerful arcanist sacrificed countless souls to facilitate his travels into the Mists. When Krytans think of human sacrifice, they remember the mursaat. But don’t let that fool you. The masked stranger is easier to hate than the open-faced friend, and the true monster in this myth is not the bookah under Queen Jennah’s bed, its the man in the mirror. It was Lord Odran – a human – who developed the very techniques the mursaat later adopted; it was Lord Odran who began the mass murder of the chosen; and considering that creating the portals through which the dreaded lord traveled required the deaths of countless souls, its unsurprising to learn that the deaths of countless more was required to stabilize them.

Alright, where to start:

1. The mursaat had their dimensional travel since the previous Dragonrise – this is how they survived – which would be thousands of years before Odran.
2. Odran’s race is actually never stated. Lords exist in other races, no doubt. Though recent lore does indicate that Odran was seeking audience with the gods.
3. Nothing says that Odran sacrificed Chosen. Just that he had many sacrifices. The numbre of which isn’t hinted at other than being large.
4. Odran did not invent the art of sacrificing.
5. The souls of the Chosen weren’t stablizing Odran’s portals, rather they were powering a device – no different than Inquest using souls to power golems, really – which happened to be a barrier around a portal/tear in the fabric of reality/whatever it is (we don’t know the Door of Komalie’s origin).

Stephen.6312:

Truly, the roads into the Mists are paved in blood. It is through death that Tyrians journey them, whether the death of oneself or the death of others. Each path requires the shedding of blood. Indeed, the human gods probably entered the Mists in like fashion. Balthazar is said to have emerged onto Tyrian soil, clutching the head of his father; and the six are said to have departed back into the Mists as a result of the death of Abaddon. Be sure then that murderers walk the Mists.

And yet you so easily forget the Havrouns you only recently mentioned, who can create portals to the Mists without death.

You forget the Avatars of GW1, capable of sending beings to the Mists (specifically the Underworld, Fissure of Woe, and Realm of Torment) without sacrifices.

You forget that there were no sacrifices for the portal leading to the Fractals of the Mists – that was but a freak accident, in fact.

While deaths do seem to weaken the veil between Tyria and the Mists, it is far from a requirement of opening portals into the Mists. For even frequent portal opening to the Mists can result in the very same (Temple of the Ages).

Stephen.6312:

Lord Odran created numerous portals into the Mists across continental Tyria.

Two. He created two portals. One in Drascir, one in Tombs of the Primeval Kings. He opened a third on the Battle Isles – no others are known by him.

Stephen.6312:

The Elder Dragons have fixed their gaze on the planet’s “fertile crescent”, the continent of Tyria. They encircle it, forming a great corral restricting passage in and out of the region, and even seek to prevent movement within it. -snip rest of post-

The major flaw in this is that your supposition presumes the Elder Dragons work together, however, we have been told that they are not allied and that if met, Elder Dragon minions would fight (unless they decide to retcon Ree Soesbee once more).

Stephen.6312:

In the opinion of the writer of the Guild Wars 1 wiki,

coughs

And, uh, who is this “one writer” exactly? Given I’ve written (part of) a majority of the lore articles on the GWW and I certainly wouldn’t say that. :P

Sides, you shouldn’t use wiki opinions as an arguing point.

Because we know the imbalance: magic is high in the world. And the Elder Dragons do fix this – by extremes, letting magic build up too high, then bringing it down too low. The question really is “is this their intention? if so why?”

Stephen.6312:

In contrast, the elder races had developed ways of drastically reducing their reliance on the magic generated by the dragons.

Asura say hi.

Stephen.6312:

Although humanity was introduced to the bloodstone, their spell casting consumed the magic within it at such an alarming rate that it became imperative to reduce the magical profile of individual casters. If this was not done, humanity would soon need other sources of magic to satiate their demands, sources such as the Elder Dragons.

I don’t think this is possible. The issue presented has always been that the gift of magic (which we’ve recently learned was just Abaddon passing the Bloodstone around) was too destructive and caused wars. Given the new information, it would seem that the problem was just like what sparked the Guild Wars: greed.

Furthermore, the Bloodstone held all uncorrupted magic in the world at the time it was created, draining the open world of all magic. The Elder Dragons may not have been good sources of magic due to this – depending, of course, on how much magic they consumed and corrupted before the Bloodstone’s creation.

Stephen.6312:

So the human gods created “schools” of magic, a process that involved spitting the bloodstone into fragments and introducing the concept of specialization to magic-wielders. Basically, the magic within the bloodstone pieces could only be “accessed” through the practice of the professions associated with the human gods. Over time, these professions were adopted by rhe majority of the intelligent races (in more recent times, races such as the norn, asura, charr, and sylvari), allowing more than just humanity to draw upon the magic stored within the bloodstone shards.

Issue: Ritualists, a magical profession, existed prior to the Bloodstone’s division. And according to Thruln the Lost humanity had elementalists when they arrived by boat onto the continent of Tyria (which would be 205 BE) – and this was called primitive magic by Thruln, indicating that they already had knowledge of mesmers and necromancers that we saw in GW1.

Furthermore, though the link has been lost, there was an interview stating that the asura utilized magic and felt a boost of magic in the world for a short time, but didn’t know why that boost came – or went (ironically, this rather contradicts the new lore of Abaddon passing the giant stone around cultures; which also contradicts the Shelter Docks lore of him giving unique magic to the different groups; yay contradictions! -.-).

Stephen.6312:

The first race to whom we will turn our attention are the norn. Their havrouns are capable of entering the Mists; they can also create portals into the Mists for others.

However, like the charr, they have stories of the Elder Dragons in their ancient history.

In Ghosts of Ascalon, it takes at least 3+ days of night travel to reach Ascalon City from Ebonhawke. And they went more or less straight, whereas we players have to go around – and still take less than 30 minutes. So basically take that distance, and expand it wide enough to take 3 or 4 nights of travel with resting during the day.

Like Psientist said, I think the scaling changes. Arguably, I’d say that the dungeons are the “most accurate” when it comes to locational scale, but they still may be a bit on the small size. Southsun Cove I’d argue may also be rather accurate in size, but the rest much bigger than we see it as making it not so intrusive in the Sea of Sorrows as it seems in our world map.

Aside from the distanced maps like Southsun, however, I don’t think zone scaling changes (that much).

Overall, I’d say the world map of Tyria we see should be at least the size of Europe. Though Orr is repeatedly called a continent on its own right (I presume mistakenly but you never know).

He disappeared into the Mists (so Rox/Smodur claim) in Episode 3. We haven’t heard of him since, except for the teaser images, which we have zero context for, but it seems that he’ll be in the jungle.

CureForLiving.5360:

Psientist.6437:

Would a handheld device be out of the question?

Pretty sure Scarlet had one, so why not.

Which reminds me, so did Kudu:

Kudu: This has been fun, but I think I’ll be teleporting to safety now. Ha!
Kudu disappears
Player: Where’s Kudu? I’m going to wrap his ears around his own neck and pull until his head pops off.
Zojja: Good plan, but Kudu’s long gone. He stole the designs for a personal teleporter ages ago. Whenever things aren’t going his way…he goes away.

(or alternative path dialogue)

Kudu: Time for me to make my trademark well-timed escape. Kill you later, Zojja!
Kudu disappears
<Character Name>: Where did Kudu go? I was going to cram his feet down his throat and make him swallow himself.
Zojja: I like a plan with no drawbacks, but Kudu’s long gone. He stole the designs for a personal teleporter ages ago.
Zojja: Whenever he’s losing an argument, or a fight, or just losing face, zap! He’s gone. Usually after getting in the last word.

This seems different from waypoints, but that may be the “personal teleporter” but.

Maybe there’s two ways to use a waypoint: direct access (standing underneath), and via personal teleporter (access anywhere). The latter is clearly rarer, given the PC didn’t know about it and Kudu had to steal it.

CureForLiving.5360:

We have little lore about our PCs actually being special beyond the ability to be at the center of most major events. So we don’t have any lore stating that we’re the biggest, strongest, toughest or most magically dense.

Said by Draithor the Drill:
“You reek of power. Where did you get it?”
->What are you talking about?
“I can smell the powers emanating from you. Is it magic? Perhaps simply raw strength? Pathfinder would love to taste your power. Would you submit to a small experiment?”

Said by Micah Fergson
“Any skills I once taught pale in comparison to the power you wield, hero. History will add your name to the long list of heroes who have left their mark on Tyria.”

lakdav.3694:

Heading to the WPs and disappearing right underneath them is just how it was easy to code their movement. Its just pathing, directing the NPCs to move to a specific point, that point being the closest point they can get to the WP object, and thats directly underneath them. If there was an actual animation of them reaching up toward the device or doing whatever else, i would be more inclined to believe that they are more than gameplay convenience with poorly slapped-on “lore” explanation. But they just disappear.

I have to disagree with you.

Firstly, I imagine it would be far easier to code them simply going near the waypoint rather than directly (perfectly) underneath.

Secondly, and far more important imo, it would have been easier when they had Rytlock and his engineers going through Bloodtide Coast during The Origins of Madness to simply have voiced lines saying “next is xyz waypoint” – instead it was just “let’s go” (paraphrased; still fully new voicing) and they walked over to directly underneath a waypoint, and appeared directly underneath another waypoint. Player characters also appear directly underneath a waypoint, and when waypoints are activated there is a beam of blue light going directly down and up.

If it were lore that they can use it “anywhere” like players, why don’t they show this? They had the perfect opportunity to.

Thirdly:

In Guild Wars there was Map traveling. I remember this kid in Nightfall who thought that his mother invented map travel. It was written dialogue in the game, everyone had the right to believe that map traveling was actual viable lore that is common to the most common folk too. But it was never taken so seriously as to write it into actual events or quests (outside that few tutorial quests about map traveling). Escape and Escort quests would have been even more stupid than the same with WPs.

All map travel in GW1 was a case of fourth wall breaking. Take the explanation in Prophecies. “Press M and then double click on Ascalon City” (paraphrased) – as if people had a little M tattood onto their skin or something. All of the tutorial quests (or missions for Factions/Nightfall) were full of 4th wall breaking dialogue. So that’s not exactly a good example.

The best lore example we have of map travel would be when Rurik summoned a portal connecting Drascir’s academy to Nolani Academy – and that was a bit of a process; if maptravel was so commonplace and so simple in lore, why didn’t they just press that M and double click Ascalon City? To be a bit more serious: I have always taken that portal to be the original lore concept for map travel – in Prophecies, almost all outposts, as well as almost all resurrection shrines – have some sort of design on the ground where people pop up. Most of them were the famous “rose compasses” seen on Krytan resurrection shrines, on the ground where the portal in Drascir appeared, on the ground in LA and Nolani Academy outpost which were one of the places people could spawn into the outpost.

The reason why it was “never taken seriously” is because it broke the fourth wall – unlike waypoints. In the same manner, morale boost was a fourth-wall breaking tutorial aspect, as well as the boss aura.

lakdav.3694:

Given the fact that the “Mordremoth feeding on the Waypoint Network” situation was resolved so fast and without much of any after-effect, i feel that their inclusion in the living story plot was more like a forced effort to salvage their “lore” rather than anything that has any meaning in the long run.

Everything about the waypoints is rather kitten to be honest, as if they want to make it part of lore but have no clue how to do so.

Psientist.6437:

I tend to be more interested in ‘commoner’ lore than ‘hero’ lore. More accurately, how the two are foils or complements of the other. From what others here have stated, there is no evidence or examples of commoners using the way point system, only the Asuran gate system.

Since the way point system is a web of interconnecting paths rather than a point-to-point path, perhaps a hero’s greater ‘magical density’ (yes, I am making that up) is needed to maintain path finding.

There actually is evidence of commoners using the waypoint system – in Fort Vandal, two of the Seraph have a series of dialogues, one of which is commenting on the waypoint system and how even though the problem is resolved they don’t feel safe using them anymore.

TexZero.7910:

Got my bingo card ready!

Yusssss

Gonna have ta play a drinking game with my friends when they livestream that speech.

A priest of Dwayna’s ghost. Not really an apostle.

Copestetic.5174:

GussJr.1643:

Rurik has nothing to do with the ascension runes…but he does tie in to another part of the story…I know I am repeating myself…but it would make more sense if it was Rurik and not the Ghostly Hero because Rytlock has Rurik’s sword…and for 2+ years, we have had no idea how it came to be in his possesion.

Then Rytlock dissappears…and now we possibly have a ghost that could be Rurick…just my thoughts though.

Turai Ossa’s role in Tyria ended. He is now in the Hall of Heroes.

How does it make sense to have him in Tyria?

Why can’t it be a different ghost that remained in Tyria?

Yeah, except Rytlock hasn’t had anything to do with LS since he took a trip down south. The Ghostly Hero however, makes a little more sense given what we’ve seen in the trailer. Maybe he’ll have some information about Rytlock, though.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I’d guess it’s because the Sons have better luck recruiting from norn homesteads, and thus spreading corruption, than a faceless form of ice would.

A knock sounds on your door. You open. Before you stands a block of ice in a roughly humanoid form, beneath its frosty sheen you can see the skeleton of a norn embedded deep within. In a low, gruff, voice, the block of ice speaks.

“Hello, have you heard the word of our savior, Jormag?”

Let me clarify:

Solid blue with flames and white eyes. This is the Foefire trademark appearance. You will never find a single Foefire ghost that isn’t this – the one and only such ghost that may be such, is Stefan Baruch in the charr Loyal Soldier sire storyline, but he doesn’t act very Foefire-ghost-like.

Belinda actually has a white appearance in the Fort Salma instance – sans the cinematic. Her open world ghost from episode 3 to 5 was blue, so it seems that they changed her model to white during development for xyz reason.

The only ghosts that use the Foefire Ascalonian models are generic or otherwise unimportant figures (or are affected by the Foefire) – not all Demetra spirits are blue, if memory serves me right, some are white too. All pirate ghosts are white, without exception. All non-Godlost/Demetra Krytan ghosts (such as within Aurora’s Glade – both White Mantle and Krytan villagers; the ghosts in Shaemoor Fields/Cemetary are white too) are white without exception.

This is not a generic model, however, so it’s odd that it’s using a Foefire appearance.

Jotun ghosts are a whitish blue, but they are transparent, lacking flames, and don’t have white eyes. Animal spirits are whitish blue, but they are transparent, lacking flames, and don’t have white eyes.

Some do, actually, but not all. It depends on the icebroods’ intelligence and the level of corruption of the Sons of Svanir (they progressively become corrupted due to sharing into Jormag’s power). We have cases like Omni (sp?) in the Personal Story or the champion quaggan in Frostgorge where the icebrood openly assaults the Sons of Svanir; then we have cases like Barrowstead where they don’t (and within Barrowstead, there is a Svanir Initiate chanting with a regular Son of Svanir to “hunt the icebrood, learn from them” (paraphrased) so hostility is both ways).

Some icebrood can be intelligent – some of all minions can be, in fact – depending on how much corruptive magic was put back into them when corrupted. So champions would be more intelligent, be able to utilize non-corrupted individuals, and then order the less intelligent minions to not assault those non-corrupted individuals. Koda’s Bane from HotW story was one such champion it seems, and we see a few others in HotW explorable (such as the shaman that’s fought in only one path).

With the destroyers, the minions were all mindless with no champion to guide them in utilizing the charr. Plus, unlike icebrood/Jormag, destroyers/Primordus seem intent on simply wiping out all life – Jormag seems to want to be worshiped and he obtains willing converts rather than corrupted slaves like Zhaitan and Kralkatorrik. This is why ArenaNet’s continuous claims of the Elder Dragons being without character is fully wrong, because they’ve already shown to us in-game and in the novels that they do have character – through their minions, if not more directly.

Knighthonor.4061:

Bolbo Baggins.8594:

The Sign on the wall at 0.50 is exactly the same as this one:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Elona_Reach_Tablet.jpg

Connections to augary rock, elona reach? Ascencian, the doppelganger? who knows

Good catch
Crystal Desert is the next region in the Expansion.

Take note of the SeaWurm at 0:45
thats the Crystal Sea aka Crystal Desert
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f54/cakeye/MargoniteMesmer2a.jpg
Margonite as the new Race
the new class will be called one of the following:
*Shadow Knight,
*Reaper,
*Ascendant,
*Patriarch

2hander Axe will be added as a new weapon in the game as well as
Land Spears either 1 handed or 2 handed.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/thumb/4/4e/Doppel_female.jpg/364px-Doppel_female.jpg

Man this is making me want to download GW1 now…

You realize that ALL Margonites were killed off or re-imprisoned in the Realm of Torment by the end of Nightfall, right? This was the entire plot behind the Domain of Anguish elite mission.

The only potential survivors would be The Lost and Apostate, both of whom are very, very, very much outliers in the fanatic group of Margonites.

Also, Margonites aren’t their own race. They were humans transformed into etheric demons by a mad god.

Ghosts are dead, Copestetic…

And Abaddon has remained dead. Confirmed by ArenaNet that they will not be bringing him back – in order to tell different stories.

Unless they go back on their words.

Again.

Like their continuous lore continuity errors.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m playing ‘Guild Wars 2’ and not “Guild Wars: Alternative Dimension.”

There’s no logical reason I can think of that would need Turai Ossa’s knowledge, let alone the use of runes that specifically relate to three locations in the Crystal Desert (according to Matthew Medina, those runes relate to the locations of Dunes of Despair, Elona Reach, Thirsty River, and not to the Hall of Ascension or the trials themselves, though the makers of the runes are likely the makers of the Hall of Ascension/Augury Rock).

And in order to not contradict the established lore that Turai Ossa has moved on to the afterlife (and is probably chilling with Prince Rurik if he indeed went on to the HoH like our PCs hoped – unlike Turai we never actually saw him in the Rift), he would have to be summoned from the afterlife. But again: why? Turai was never in the Silverwastes. What knowledge could he possibly supply?

It’s more likely to be Saul D’Alessio, to be perfectly honest, though Saul never wore heavy armor.

And why is this ghost blue anyways? Excluding the Godlost Swamp spirits, only Foefire ghosts are blue. The rest are white (or a pale blue-green for Halloween ghosts). Which hints to the ghost being Ascalonian – but only Adelbern had that beard, was Ascalonian, and of note; but he has his unique GW2 model.

Ayrilana.1396:

I don’t see how GW1 missions were fundamentally any different than GW2 missions. Prophecies were on their own little maps but the mission areas in Factions and Nightfall became Explorable areas for the most part. Everything in EotN were Explorable from the beginning, I believe.

One change that I would suggest is that the bonus achievements in GW2 be doable on the first play through.

The only thing that GW2 is truly lacking that GW1 had is simply this:

A sense of failure.

You get wiped in GW1, it was “sorry, you have to restart.” Wiped in GW2? “You’re in the same place you just gotta run a bit.”

In GW2, you can keep going until you give up. There’s no sense of failure. You flub up the Party Politics and a Dues Ex Mesmer happens that resets everything (wut?). But in GW1, if you failed (either by being wiped or by failing an objective) then you failed and you had to start over. This ended with Eye of the North, which was a walk in the park compared to the others – and somewhat joked about because of it in some niche circles (overall, people didn’t think about it).

With Hard Mode in explorables (vanquishing), you got kicked if you hit full party 60% Death Penalty.

You are right that only Prophecies missions took place in areas inaccessible in explorable areas (until War in Kryta, which gave access to three mission areas; and exception of RoF missions, where the mission outpost for the next mission was the ending location of the previous mission).

But yeah, the OP is unnecessary. The suggestion of mandatory grouping would be horrendous if they don’t give us proper NPCs to aid us. The only thing that GW2 missions (and dungeons) really need is a sense of punishment and failure.

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s a bit of an oversight on their part but they have technical limitations which is why they stated they couldn’t (or maybe it was wouldn’t) use maps specific for the time the story instance took place.

Technical limitations my behind.

If they cared, they’d fix those limitations. In fact, they already said they could but don’t because having a hundred copies of the same map would affect the servers too much… but they don’t need a hundred copies; only two (maybe three)! And when this was brought up… they clammed up.

“Technical limitations” is just an excuse they love throwing about, because the solution already exists in things they have, and when this is pointed out they either ignore it or stop responding. Happened a dozen times, particularly by Bobby Stein.

Guardian of Angels.9867:

As he’s also in the priory archives, I’d say he’s summoned somehow to tell the heroes to get past the runed door. As which a guildie of mine claims they are “Sealing Runes” rather then specific for the Hall of Ascension.

throws in ‘wrong’ buzzer

To quote Matthew Medina!

“The three Ascension glyphs (along the with others in that “style”) are just ancient pictographs of the three areas you need to unlock to gain access to Augury Rock (Elona Reach, Thirsty River and Dunes of Despair). It would be safe to assume that the same forces who created Augury Rock/The Hall of Ascension created the “key” for unlocking it and the symbols that go with it."

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_talk:Matthew_Medina#Curious_about_a_few_runes

So not quite to the Hall of Ascension (this comment, btw, was the first time we got a name for the Hall of Ascension), but the three locations in the Crystal Desert tied to the Hall of Ascension.

Which calls into question: Why are they in the Silverwastes?

Potential lore blunder (again)? Perhaps!

There is no resurrection. Being defeated is just equivalent of being knocked out unconscious. This was a mechanical choice in order to try and more sensitize NPC deaths – to paraphrase, Jeff (iirc) stated that having resurrection magic in the world created a case of “why can’t we just resurrect those characters?” so they went and made it so that PCs in GW2 don’t die, ever. Resurrection magic has been lost.

Kodan are 10 feet tall on average – per The Wisdom and Power of the Kodan – norn average 9 foot, iirc (a head shorter than kodan).

As for physical strength being comparable to height – it’s less “height” and more “body mass” that is important. Naturally, having more body mass, larger races will be physically stronger than smaller races. Mechanically we won’t really see this though, because balance.

That is unlikely to be the Ghostly Hero.

When we first meet the Ghostly Hero in Amnoon Oasis, one of the things he says is:

“For many centuries have I lingered here in this desert, waiting for the Prophecy to come to pass. The Chosen ones will come and help me gain access to the Mists and pass into the Hall of Heroes. It has all been foreseen.”

Then later, we see him in the Hall of Heroes and Tomb of the Primeval Kings (post attack on HoH).

The Ghostly Hero – aka Turai Ossa – is not on Tyria anymore and hasn’t for 250 years.

If that is the Ghostly Hero, Anet gone done kittened up lore again. Unless we’re summoning him from the Hall of Heroes, which will include a defend-the-necromancer/ritualist scenario has it has the past three times it was done.

SheiyeSai.6037:

I don’t think it’s related to the Hall of Heroes at all, but I do think there’s a good chance that the next installment of the LS will make reference to the Hall of Ascension and the Crystal Desert. Another couple of things to note are that the wurm is encased in Jade, which could be a hint at how Mordremoth can be defeated, and the other thing is there is a sylvari with Caithe in the video who as far as I know, hasn’t appeared before, soooooo new character? Maybe she’s the secret Caithe’s been hiding? The speculation is killing me

The wurm encased in jade is just a petrified Leviathan (note: Canthan Leviathans, not Tyrian Leviathans).

I somehow doubt the key to defeating Mordremoth will be “create a Jade Wind – which was caused by twisting magic from Dwayna – that turned all things it touched to (gem)stone across half a continent.”

To all those shouting “Ghostly Hero!”

I show you this:

(see attachment)

Chest, gloves, and boots are AC heavy armor. The helm looks like a slightly modified version of such.

My bet is on Rurik still, not the Ghostly Hero.

Also some lore for you folks on the Ghostly Hero:

In life, the Ghostly Hero was Turai Ossa. He believed himself to be a Chosen from the Flameseeker Prophecies and took his people on the Great Pilgrimage to the Crystal Desert to Ascend. He failed however, and was forced to act as a guide for the true Chosen to Ascend. However, once the true Chosen Ascended, he would be released from his mortal bindings, and allowed passage to the Hall of Heroes. This is why we see him in Tomb of the Primeval Kings later on.

Turai’s ghost – the Ghostly Hero – is no longer in Tyria and hasn’t been for 250 years.

Plus, what ties would Turai’s ghost have to the Durmand Priory (what’s in the background is the basement – so it seems we’re returning there)? It would make no logical sense.

Edit: Also, Zietlogik is right, that’s the Throne of Pellentia. Though why we have this is odd. And again, doesn’t make much sense.

Hylgeriak.8250:

erm that ghostly figure is Ogden Stonehealer dude…

New dragon, yeah! Though not Mordemoth…but hopefully a new world boss. That’d be great :-)

The ghost is human shaped and blue – almost all blue ghosts are Foefire ghosts. As said, that Dragon is not new, but the Shadow of the Dragon.

Guardian of Angels.9867:

Don’t believe it’s rurik, or he changed his armor when he was dead…

The ghost is wearing typical heavy Ascalonian armor (AC heavy), which a ghostly FDS by the looks of it.

Either Rurik or a royal guard. I doubt they’d bother making the same exact armor for what may a minor figure.

Jordo.5913:

why is no one talking about the sea wurm encased in Jade?

obviously a Jade Sea reference….we headed to Cantha?

That thing is in the Durmand Priory Basement during Hidden Arcana. The entire “research your enemy” clips come from the E5 preview of Hidden Arcana. At best it means we’ll be returning there.

No Cantha. At this point, Cantha is the Half-Life 3 of GW2.

5) I don’t think it was planned at release. The reason why they added Ascended was because exotics became far easier than they expected. They even said since release – since before release – that they may or may not add higher tiers (and that the legendaries would always be that top tier). But they didn’t know they would, they just thought they might – and they told us this.

How they implemented the crafting side of it… I agree. Not just the cloth bit, but the time gating.

4) Anet says it’s fun to make OP skills, so you rage? That makes little sense. All of Caithe’s skills are basically OP versions of normal thief skills.

I do agree that we need a faster introduction of skills (even if they’re racial skills) and traits though.

New weapon types… honestly? I think we have enough weapons. The only weapon I can see being added that is actually worthwhile as its own weapon set is waraxes. Whips is, to be perfectly honest, very eh and iffy in design and various appearances. I don’t get why they’re so favored.

3) Not just the frequent breaks since 2014 began, but quality of the writing and the constant changing of how it’s done since Shadow of the Mad King in 2012 has been bothering me. They need to find a working model and stick with it, and improve their own skills within that model. Enough continuously changing things so that you never get settled into how you do things!

2) There’s only 3 things I find annoying about the trait redesign: 1, it’s the same for all professions (should be profession-specific, imo); 2, map completion requirements and WvW requirements (IMO, WvW should be like PvP – auto unlock all skills and traits, if not gear quality too); 3, the high expense for buying (basically saying "yeah, you can play how you want, but you have to suffer to do so).

The other things that are complained about are pointless complaints, imo. There were FAR worse things with the NPE done. Like the butchering of Chapters 7 and 8 of the Personal Story.

1) You know, the players are the one at fault for this, for taking their “we want to do this” as “we will do this” and over hyping, over expecting, etc. etc. growing their words out of proportion.

This is ArenaNet’s response to the community’s reaction to their previous more-open policy.

Good job, community.

I’d place Rytlock and Logan to be late 20s/early 30s by PS/LW time (so mid20s/late 20s for EoD).

Eir is conflicting with age, to be honest, as there was a comment made about her being a child when Hoelbrak was being built – but it seems this comment got removed silently; still, there are a few occasions (particularly by Sons of Svanir) where Eir is called an old woman. However, when Braham was born (he was 17 as of his introduction – making him 18 or 19 now), iirc, Bjorne said she was still young with a legend to make – so I could see her having been in her 20s when Braham was born, placing her to be in her 40s now. Still, being the strategic level-headed member of the group and given that norn can live longer than the other races (norn can be fit and able even at 120, which is the exceptional lifespan for asura, who live 5-10% longer than humans, and charr mature at the same rate as humans roughly), I can easily see Eir being as old as 80 now, with the comment by Bjorne being in terms of nornhood – meaning she could be “still young with a legend to make” in her late 30s. If I even recall that wording right.

Zojja is hard to place. She’s certainly younger on the adult edge of asuran society, but the problem is we know so little about age considerations in asuran society – we just know that Taimi was ~13 (iirc) when introduced, so the restrictions on her now is for young teens. I’d overall argue that Zojja and Caithe are likely roughly the same age.

Well we see some of the Aetherblade’s holo-dancers in the Durmand Priory basement, and we see Priory scholars at the wreckage of the Twisted Marionette, as well as a moved DP camp in LA near the wreckage of the Breachmaker.

So it would be likely that the Priory are studying Scarlet’s innovations.

Third soldier. That’s the only thing that’s needed. And what I want from it:

• Dark Soldier theme (of magical themes, we are lacking 2 lights and 2 darks; sadly we have a light soldier (Guardian) and a magicless soldier (Warrior), so dark soldier it is (Necrowarrior) – thematically, I’d prefer a Chaos Soldier theme but we got two of that theme (Mesmer/Thief))
• Focuses on giving self boons and enemy conditions, and stripping those for power boosts (e.g., give yourself boons then strip them to have skills be more effective; give enemies conditions then strip those conditions to have skills be more effective)
• Only One Weapon Set (akin to Elementalists and Engineers) but with a versatile F1-F4 skill bar.
  • The Professions Skills (F1-F4) change based on weapons, effectively giving a single weapon 5 (main hand), 4 (offhand), or 9 (two-handed) skills. These skills focus on stripping enemy conditions/ally boons
• Weapons: Axe, Sword, Greatsword, Staff, Dagger (offhand), Focus, Torch, Trident, Spear (effectively two options per weapon type)
• Rytlock, Marjory, and possibly Trahearne will become these professions.

CMM.6712:

Where do you get the “Big new content update” from?

I’m fairly sure he’s just pulling that out of his rear end as a hypothetical “if we get a big content update… what new class do you want released with it?”

Pokecenter.3548:

Forgotten, i was thinking about ‘Naga’ as their name but i knew it was something else. The little lore i know regarding gw1 is from wiki.

Naga were a Canthan serpentine race, and they appear far closer to the krait’s GW2 appearance than they did the Forgotten – furthermore, the naga have been outright confirmed to be unrelated to the Forgotten.

Pokecenter.3548:

Im surprised that Jotun seem to have so low of a role, when the Norn have a main one

On top of what Aaron said, they’re not united while the norn are (sans Sons of Svanir).

Pokecenter.3548:

They just lack technology, but so the Norn don’t seem to be that brilliant either.

Say that to the man who rediscovered Deldrimor Steel and is considered the finest blacksmith in all of Tyria, and you may not return. The norn have a lot of undervalued geniuses – undervalued because the charr are a systematic race of engineers and the asura are a race of geniuses – not too dissimilar from the humans in fact.

Pokecenter.3548:

we barely see Jotun even as enemies

EVERY jotun we come across is an enemy – sans Thruln the Lost.

Pokecenter.3548:

even their background story is similar right?

Nope.

Pokecenter.3548:

What about Giants, i imagine them to be very very few, but if that wasn’t the case, where would they fit, a major race, a ‘tribal’ one like Ogres and Grawl, or more on the Ettin, Harpy level?

What about Lupicus before their extinction, if they were still present (ignoring how that could affect nowadays gw events) where could they fit?

We don’t really know enough about the degraded giants or the extinct G-Lupe to say.

Silalus.8760:

In addition to “minor” or “lesser” the grawl, hylek, ogres, quaggan, and skritt are also grouped as the “tribal races”. (You see that alternate term here, for example: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personal_story#Part_V_.E2.80.94_Helping_Hands_.E2.80.94_Level_50)

Purely fan-written and probably because at least three of the sympathy races are indeed tribal (quaggan and skritt are not really tribal at all).

The “official” terms are sympathy and lesser.

Silalus.8760:

And just like on Earth, that word is nearly meaningless except to dismiss their cultures and incorrectly associate them together.

Tribal societies refer to societies that live in small, often nomadic, groups and cultures that tend to keep to themselves and are led by a chieftain and/or shaman. (Note: “Small” simply means “not a nation” in my usage).

During GW1, dredge were tribal as they were led by their shamans (even under slavery). In GW2, quaggan and skritt are not tribal because quaggan had a united nation that’s been fractured (even royalty) and skritt simply congregate (with no real indication of nomadic or isolationist qualities in their cultures, or intentional small groups).

Silalus.8760:

As you get into the story you find they each have their own rich mythology and society, magic, and unique technology. They have cities, languages, agriculture, and political structures. They also seem to have populations that rival the so-called “major” races.

You… are wrong. Only the hylek and skritt have a city (Skrittsburg and Zintl Holy Grounds), but neither are part of the Personal Story; and the knowledge we get of their magic is limited and none of them have unique technology. Their populations do, arguably, rival the major races but they are not united (any longer).

Silalus.8760:

So “major” vs “minor” doesn’t seem to be about technology, population, spirituality, or political organization. It also clearly isn’t about being enemies or allies. So what’s left?

Trade.

Interesting concept, except that dredge aren’t really referred to as a minor race – nor are tengu or kodan. The minor races term has only been used to refer to: Ogre, quaggan, grawl, skritt, and hylek. Whom are not united (lacking political organization), have a spread out population, and have little to no technology.

So while trade is lacking for them, this is because they have no political organization (anymore, in the case of the quaggan).

Furthermore, trade is NOT lacking for tengu.

Before being pushed out by the DSD, the quaggan could no doubt be considered a major race; the tengu, kodan, and largos could still be as well, though for the kodan their shattered political organization is a hindrance to being referred to as such.

• None of the Scripture events were on the timeline, sans Kormir’s since that was the third campaign.
• Because the Scriptures, as Obsidian said, gives an introduction to the gods. But furthermore, this scripture event marks the supposed beginning of King Doric’s reign.
• Because he was a very religious man from a very religious nation (Orr)?