Guild Wars 2

(cont’d)

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ogden Stonehealer: Glint has the power to communicate with her mind. She learned language from humans this way.
Ogden Stonehealer: According to her, other dragons speak and think in something I hesitate to call a language. But not Glint.

Scarlet Briar’s Journal: It communicated with me through images of death, destruction, and destiny. I must know more. I must confront it and put an end to this madness.

Yay for inconsistency?

The key thing here to me is the following: “According to her.” In other words, this means that it was a subjective statement from a character, and Glint may not have the full truth and the Elder Dragon was far more versatile in language-learning than she assumed. Perhaps Kralkatorrik communicated in a different way with her because she was a dragon whereas humanoid, intelligent minions would’ve heard actual understandable language being spoken in their minds instead.

Or then the answer could be a bit more complex as I’ll present below.

If we’re bringing established lore into this, let’s not forget this piece of a foreshadowing gem from A Study in Scarlet:

Scarlet Briar: Ever since I came out of Omadd’s machine, you’ve been taking credit for my ideas. They are mine! Not yours.
Scarlet Briar: Let me be clear. I’m not doing this for you; I’m doing it for me. Nobody tells me what to do. Not ever.
Scarlet Briar: It’s not true. None of it. I don’t have to listen to you. Get out of my head!

Sounds to me that by this point Mordremoth was definitely having arguments in a language Scarlet could fully understand. He even had the nerve to bully Scarlet and belittle her superiority complex by claiming he was behind all her ideas, which made her furious.

I can’t find a reference to when Scarlet’s ramblings from above were taking place, but based on the timings of the other two holo-recordings in that instance and how those two were in chronological order, it’s possible that this third holo-recording only took place after the Tower of Nightmares story. It would make thematic sense too, as ToN was the first time we heard Mordremoth’s leitmotif playing in the game alongside Scarlet’s leitmotif, which hinted at the true mastermind behind Scarlet and might have also indicated that ToN was the true turning point of ol’ Mordy finally winning this mental game he’d been playing with Scarlet, possibly thanks to him being boosted when his corruption was spread by the Toxic Alliance and the Toxic Hybrid (briefly) while ToN was still standing.

Maybe Mordremoth initially didn’t have the kind of language the modern, intelligent Tyrian races would understand, which is why it only sent images into Scarlet’s mind at first. However, as Mordy kept playing around in Scarlet’s mind, he learned the modern Krytan language over time, being the intelligent Elder Dragon that he is, and could eventually communicate with her with complete and complex sentences as implied with the mind games he was playing with her?

Also, based on how fast the Toxic Hybrid evolved and expressed some rather interesting philosophical statements which showed self-awareness during our fight with it in ToN, it may have been Mordy’s attempt at testing a more intelligent Mordrem capable of speech in action, hence showing Mordy becoming more proficient linguistically. Of course this theory depends on whether the Mordrem Guards and Mordrem Court only came into being after ToN or if they were already in action by the time we were all busy fighting in Scarlet’s War. Then again, we don’t yet know if Mordy had minions capable of “understandable” speech during the earlier Awakening, but perhaps HoT will reveal more about this.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I agree that Zhaitan wasn’t done so well, but that doesn’t mean Scarlet was better because she blew up LA (that was, quite literally, all because Anet forced the good guys to play hot potato with the idiot ball).

As I look back on it, the writers could still save this by giving an explanation that by this time Mordremoth was already expanding his Mind powers and was subtly messing with the minds of the Captain’s Council ever so slightly, making them act like fools for a while to allow Scarlet to invade LA successfully. I mean, Mordy is the Elder Dragon of Mind, too.

…One can dream, right?

I did enjoy hearing Mordremoth’s voice while playing the story instance. However, I was initially disappointed by the voice sounding rather similar to the Mordrem Guards and Mordrem Court (yes, Verdant Brink actually had both much to my surprise despite Colin Johanson’s earlier statements implying otherwise, but this may have been a “bug”), but then I reasoned that maybe his voice only sounds that way because that’s how our sylvari perceives it: as a kind of deeper Mordrem Guard voice.

I also liked the nice touch of hearing what sounded like demonic whispers in the background during the sylvari creation screen. Makes sense that sylvari currently in the Dream would hear ol’ Mordy’s whispers before even being “born”. It was suitably creepy.

However, only sylvari hearing Mordremoth’s voice makes me wonder how this storyline will play out for the other four races. Regardless of race, the Pact Commander did step into Omadd’s machine which let them peek at the All, so shouldn’t this technically have some consequences for other races than just sylvari even if it means them not hearing Mordy’s voice in their head? Could it mean that, once/if we confront Mordy directly, other races than sylvari can actually understand him when he addresses us out loud in person (if such were to happen), or will our little machine trip give us some other side-effects? I look forward to seeing what these consequences end up being.

Shiren.9532:

I think it’s for the better this time. Zhaitan set the bar very low for Elder Dragons, between it’s limited characterisation in the Personal Story, very limited personalities among its minions and the terrible fight mechanics at its defeat, Zhaitan made Elder Dragons look kind of pathetic. Three years later, a lone sylvari succeeded where Zhaitan failed and had a campaign that was all about her for over a year.

The force of nature concept wasn’t working imo, it didn’t make for an interesting villain.

I’m with Konig in saying that there are plenty of hints (and outright statements depending on whether NPC dialogue can be deemed trustworthy regarding an Elder Dragon’s feelings) in the game to show that Zhaitan very much had a personality.

While most people in Tyria may see Elder Dragons as forces of nature, we learn through the Risen’s statements (their adoration of Zhaitan, promising eternal life via undeath, and outright lies as they gloat about the dragon having devoured the human gods;) as well as comments from Trahearne etc. (that Zhaitan is afraid and angry at our successes during our campaign in Orr in the Personal Story) that Zhaitan very much did have a distinct personality. A true force of nature wouldn’t have cared to get these message across or worry about what we were doing; it would’ve just continued “mindless” corrupting until it had been brought down.

However, I do agree with you that what we got left us wanting for more as far as Zhaitan is concerned.

(cont’d)

That track is called The Nightmare Court and it was composed by Maclaine Diemer for Living World season 2.

It originally played very briefly during the last cutscene in “Meeting the Asura”, the second instance of the “Seeds of Truth” Living World episode, where Caithe and Faolain talked after the main antagonist of the instance got away. It also played during the cutscene where Wynne told her secret to Caithe in “The Mystery Cave”, the final instance of the “Point of No Return” Season 2 Finale.

megakittytron.5971:

A Happy Ending=)

Sadly Peter Fries may have a word or two to say about that, so our lovely quaggan story is not over yet…

Milea.6043:

p.s. Still want an ingame Quaggan festival.

That would indeed be cooOOool. So far all we have are the Quaggan Games to quench our thirst.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Shiren.9532:

The only link between Mordremoth and the minds of non-sylvari’s is based off of the assumption that Scarlet’s toxin had something to do with Mordremoth.

There’s actually very heavy implication of this.

[…]

While we haven’t had confirmation that the Toxic Alliance are corrupted by Mordremoth, it seems highly likely to be the case.

Let me present a very convincing piece of evidence for this theory from a point of view people may not have considered. It’s a little something I’d like to call the Mordremoth leitmotif, composed by Maclaine Diemer, which can be heard in the soundtracks for Living World seasons 1 and 2. A leitmotif is a term in music theory which basically means a recoccurring theme representing an idea, mood, place, object or person (for example, the Imperial March from Star Wars films is a leitmotif which represents Darth Vader and the Empire as a whole).

The music track that was playing during our adventures within the Tower of Nightmares in S1 was the first canonical appearance of the Mordremoth leitmotif in GW2 story (to my knowledge, anyway). The distinctive and sinister four-note theme can be heard around 0:15 into that track and is occasionally joined by Scarlet’s leitmotif which plays alongside it (e.g. around 1:18 into the same track). These two themes playing in unison signifies a connection between the two characters, and I would even dare say that Scarlet’s leitmotif is based around the general Mordremoth motif (after all, the Scarlet Briar persona wasn’t born until Ceara accidentally opened herself to Mordremoth in Omadd’s machine). Of course at the time we didn’t yet know this threatening, mostly ambient theme would end up representing Mordremoth. We are given even more hints of this connection when we face Scarlet in the Battle on the Breachmaker track and hear some of the chords and notes of the Mordremoth leitmotif being played by the brass underneath Scarlet’s leitmotif which drives the theme forward, signifying that Scarlet has become little more than a mad puppet and minion of the dragon by now.

The connection between the Tower of Nightmares and Mordremoth became apparent in the story by the time we saw the final cinematic of S1 that would set up S2. As Scarlet dies and her drill hits the leyline under LA and redirects it, a very familiar leitmotif starts playing from 0:22 onward in that cinematic as we follow the leyline into the Heart of Maguuma and to the very dragon that leyline is now feeding with magic.

If that wasn’t enough, we hear the same leitmotif again in S2, giving us even more proof of the connection between Mordremoth, Mordrem, Scarlet, the Tower of Nightmares and thus also the affected Toxic Alliance. The Mordrem track actually shares certain chords with the Mordremoth leitmotif underneath it as well as some of that leitmotif’s melodic progressions, revealing the sinister master behind these invading minions.

Not only that, but by the time we confront the Shadow of the Dragon and its thrilling battle music start playing, the Mordremoth leitmotif returns yet again (first appearing at 0:10 in a somewhat evolved form and later appears throughout the track in various guises). This time we hear the Mordremoth leitmotif in its most glorious form as the Shadow, being the Elder Dragon’s lieutenant, heralds the rise of its master Mordremoth as the greatest threat to the existence of Tyria and its free races.

All of Diemer’s musical foreshadowing and storytelling, in addition to the other pieces of evidence Konig presented above, are all the proof I need to say that the Toxic Alliance were slowly falling under Mordremoth’s corruptive power, with the Toxic Hybrid being an experimental Mordremized krait. If we want to look at how Mordremoth might affect other races than just sylvari, perhaps we should start looking closer at the Toxic Hybrid, its rapid “evolution” and also its quotes to figure out what sort of horrors might await us once we take the fight to Mordremoth’s turf.

BrettM.9062:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Mordremoth’s primary corruption isn’t exactly clear yet – likely to become clear in HoT – but we see corpses being corrupted (Mordrem Wolves and Trolls)

I must have missed something. Where did we see this?

[…]

But you tell me that actually he’s making them from corpses? Well, assumptions seem to have led me astray, as they often do. When was this information revealed to us?

What follows is a mild spoiler from the Heart of Thorns demo story. In that story instance the Pact Commander and his/her companions talk with a Pale Reaver whom they managed to free from the Mordrem Guard, and the Reaver tells them the following:

Pale Reaver: Mordremoth’s forces overpowered us. They locked us up here, with corpses from the crash site. They took the others south ‘to join the jungle dragon’s army.’ We would have been next.

Although it’s not an outright confirmation as far as the fate of the corpses goes, the above lines, along with the specific looks of the Mordrem Wolves and Trolls as Konig explained, do imply that Mordremoth has plans for the corpses. Why else would his minions have gathered the corpses to the same location the sylvari prisoners were being held in as seen in the linked video? This actually reminds me of how Zhaitan created the Risen Abominations in the Personal Story where corpses were similarly being collected to a specific location to be ‘processed’ into minions.

The fungi discussion and the process of turning into Mordrem raises interesting questions as some clues (or red herrings) may have already been planted in the game even as we speak.

The miasma which Scarlet unleashed on Lion’s Arch during the attack was a modified version of the antitoxin she had manipulated the Commander to create as we attemped to destroy the Tower of Nightmares. Even when the miasma was cleared, it left a lasting effect on some of the victims: Scarlet’s Rattle, which keeps affecting not only sylvari but also members of other races as well such as Lionguard Atrix who has developed a raspy cough because his lungs were ravaged by it. We even hear that Durmand Priory members like Scholar Ailis are presently comparing Scarlet’s Rattle to the toxic debris of Tower of Nightmares to find a cure, possibly hinting at future developments with this plotline.

What if Scarlet’s legacy continues and the Rattle is more sinister than we’ve been led to believe? What if the effects are a symptom of some Mordrem fungi, which spread via the miasma, attaching itself to the lungs of the victim and slowly finding its way into blood circulation before taking over the brain cordyceps style and turn the affected body into a host of a Mordrem plant/fungus similar to the Mordrem Wolf or Troll? I may be reading too much into it, but after Peter Fries, one of the writers, specifically called out biological weapon stuff when we discussed what exactly the Consortium would hope to use the Nightmare Tower toxins for in another thread, it does make me wonder if he wasn’t just joking but was actually hinting at some sinister developments—not from the Consortium but from Mordremoth who wouldn’t be above using parasitic Mordrem fungi/flowers to infect the free peoples of Tyria. But this is just wild speculation, of course.

Thanks for sharing! I too enjoy running around the world exploring its nooks and crannies and learning lore from NPCs. Your comments during the video were insightful and funny, and you managed to take quite a comprehensive tour around the city.

Keep up the good work.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I think Leif would prefer you refer to him as ‘he/him’. ; )

She actually came out as a transgender in late March/early April (based on her twitter posts) and presently goes by Lena Chappelle. Most of the tracks she composed on Soundcloud now refer to her as Lena Chappelle if you check the descriptions (although some of the earliest tracks still refer to her as Leif, but I expect the Anet team at Soundcloud to edit those few outdated descriptions accordingly when they get to it).

I look forward to hearing what Chappelle has cooked up for Heart of Thorns. If tracks like “Battle on the Breachmaker”, “The World Summit” and “The Golden Cave” are any indication of what we can expect, I’m sure she and Diemer will wow us with their artistic vision for this upcoming content.

Both Diemer and Chapelle are composing for Heart of Thorns; Chapelle has even mentioned in her recent twitter post that one of the music tracks she’s been working on will be something awesomely emotional to look forward to in HoT. Based on the hints in twitter posts, it appears HoT recording sessions are either already ongoing or underway. I don’t know how many orchestras they’ll be using for HoT and how they’ve scheduled the sessions, but we know they had to move to several locations in Europe and use different orchestras for Season 2 at least, so I’d expect the same to happen with HoT too. It’s likely we’ll hear pieces from Stan LePard as well as he’s a freelance composer who has occasionally provided extra tracks to GW2 when the other two have been too busy to compose additional pieces.

Diemer has discussed the soundtrack situation in two interviews found here and here (both are well worth listening to as they’re quite informative for any fans of GW2 music). In those he explained that there’s been plans for at least one hour to at most two hours of orchestral music for HoT depending on how quickly they can compose and “finetune” the music and have orchestra sessions. Basically it boils down to there having been tentative ideas/plans at some point to possibly release a soundtrack (physical or digital) for Living World seasons and HoT in the future although it was nothing really concrete at the time of the interviews.

However, now that the orchestral tracks from Season 2 have recently been made downloadable on Anet’s Soundcloud page (when previously one could only download the sampled tracks there), it appears that the situation has changed since those earlier interviews. There now seems to be just as big a (if not arguably bigger) chance for HoT tracks simply being released on Soundcloud in an initially-undownloadable form until some time passes after which they become downloadable.

If HoT follows the route set by LW Season 2 and does release its high-fidelity tracks for free, however, I’ll be quite surprised in a positive way. Considering the possibility that we might get 1-2 hours of orchestral music (which costs quite a bit to record), I would expect some sort of purchasable soundtrack release instead, whether digital (which is easier for Anet to produce) or physical, so Anet can get some of the recording costs back. Then again, I didn’t expect Anet go move in the direction of orchestral music in LW Season 2 either until they released that beautiful teaser video with the orchestra , and I can only wonder what kind of mesmer magic Minstrel Maklain must’ve used to convince the powers that be to have orchestral music in game content past LW Season 1, which must not have been an easy task considering the costs of recording orchestras.

If you stick around Moorookoo Village long enough, you’ll hear other quaggan refer to the pair’s adventures (among other things), and you’ll also hear a sweet lullaby sung by Peneloopee and Bloomanoo.

I’m glad to see that Maclaine Diemer’s tunes from Heart of Thorns have been placed in the login screen for this event. We don’t yet know the official names for the tracks; so far fans have been calling them with the placeholder names Heart of Thorns Theme and Ambience of Maguuma. The latter track (which follows the more bombastic HoT theme) does contain some ambience, mainly bird noises, to give it a jungle feel. I look forward to hearing the final, orchestral version as right now this “Ambience” track is still the same sampled version we initially heard during the expansion reveal in PAX South and does stand out after hearing the fully orchestral HoT theme.

What I like about the HoT theme is how it works like an overture, introducing not only the actual new main theme of the expansion in a very heroic fashion but also hinting at a few other motifs and even referencing the main GW2 theme. It would’ve been great if we also heard snippets of leitmotifs for Mordremoth (its most recognizable form so far has been the “Shadow of the Dragon” track) and the Nightmare Court (heard in the eponymous “Nightmare Court” track) in this track as those two will certainly play a role in the overarching narrative of the expansion, but I’m sure we’ll encounter them later in the musical narrative.

Also, any composer who likes Yoko Kanno’s works (e.g. Vision of Escaflowne) and references the musical mannerisms of great composers like Miklós Rózsa, John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner like Diemer has done is cool in my books.

Yes, but the Zephyrites didn’t play that big a part in the Scarlet saga in general and were only tangentially related to the other plot which centered on the Kiel/Gnashblade shenanigans in S1, which is why I left them out. The Zephyrites’ importance is gradually revealed in S2, and OP should be able to understand what’s going on there by playing the related S2 episodes without having to know that much about the Zephyrites’ S1 appearance. I feel the Dry Top map’s NPCs and the S2 episodes involving the Zephyrites give a good enough explanation of the Zephyrites and their beliefs to understand the basic gist, and the story progresses naturally from there.

Hey, and welcome to Tyria! I hope you’ve enjoyed the story and lore so far.

If you want a brief-ish summary of the main storyline of Season 1 (surrounding the main villain Scarlet Briar and her overall scheme) without going through the wiki, I’ve provided it here. I left out some of the subplots from S1 in that summary (mainly the Consortium and Ellen Kiel/Evon Gnashblade stuff), but the Scarlet saga is ultimately what you need to know while going into S2 because S2 continues not long after the events of S1.

I for one am happy to see Anet embrace same-sex couples and even give transgendered people a voice through Sya.

I can understand why some people might be troubled by this development, though, due to their beliefs and whatnot, but Anet has been on this path since the beginning and will continue to walk down this path. You either accept that this is how it’s going to be in Tyria, ignore those specific NPCs and story moments when they pop up and continue adventuring in Tyria, or leave and find entertainment that better suits your taste.

I hope you’ll give Tyria another chance and try to look at this from another perspective, though; this is a fantasy world with giant eldritch dragons, gods, undead and whatnot, after all, so surely it can’t be too much of a stretch to accept that Tyria also happens to have relationships of different kinds, which just so happens to mirror our more mundane world. We’re going to beat the Elder Dragons with the power of love and friendship based on hints in game, so we might as well embrace love and friendship in all their forms.

As for those criticizing the OP and a few others in this thread, please stay respectful and try to look at things from their perspective too instead of being blinded by your own point of view. There’s no need to act rude when you can discuss the topic in a polite and intelligent manner instead. Let’s show that GW2 has the friendliest community around.

Arioso.8519:

There are several prominent gay couples in the game’s story and an ENTIRE race that seems to be bisexual by default. Though Sylvari have no sexual organs, so the “sexual” part of that is kind of a misnomer. Their genders are purely aesthetic.

What we know is that sylvari can’t impregnate others or get pregnant. However, they’re still equipped (as confirmed by devs) with parts that allow them to have sex and enjoy it. As for how they view gender:

“Sylvari believe very much in the concept of love. Emotion, the empathy that I spoke of with the tree. Because they are created by the tree, – they have a sense of sex like male and female, gender – but it is based very much on what they chose in the dream or what the tree chose for them. And when they come out they don’t reproduce like humans do, they don’t think of it that way, they think of it as the spirit inside the person, no matter gender the person is and they very much fall in love with each other and even with the other races, when they do, because of the spirit.” —Ree Soesbee, Wartower interview

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Show me what verse in the Bible says God is against same-sex marriage.

I checked the Bible’s online versions out of curiosity. Based on what I found, interestingly enough the Bible doesn’t seem to directly state (as in, give an outright order or such) that God is against or would punish same-sex marriage. However, it does identify marriage as being between a man and a woman, and very specifically condemns intercourse between same-sex couples (based on the original text’s wording, it appears many of these passages condemn male homosexuals in particular, but this is likely because of the patriarchal context of the time the text was written in), so take that as you will.

As for the sources I used if you want to check them yourself:

About marriage: Genesis 2:24, 1 Corinthians 7:2-16
About same-sex relationships: Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9

So, Peter, is there any chance we might see an eventual continuation of that hair-raising subplot cliffhanger from Season 1 where the Consortium was very interested in the remains of the Tower of Nightmares (and was pestering quite a few NPCs about it in Kessex Hills)? It could become an interesting tie-in to Heart of Thorns as we now know ToN was connected to Mordremoth (who is the Elder Dragon of Plants and Mind, both of which fit the Tower of Nightmares and its effects quite well) as well as seemed to be a juvenile Pale Tree if the hints in-game are to be believed.

Not to mention there’s also Scarlet’s Rattle which has plagued many survivors from Scarlet’s miasma attack and which the Consortium could be just as interested in for all we know…

I do like the recent hints at Consortium leadership in NPC chatter; I could imagine one of them being charr based on that “lucky he didn’t eat you” comment, but who knows. I’ve wondered since the very beginning who the leaders are and why they wish to remain unseen. It’s just as intriguing why at least one of these leaders has decided to come out of the shadows now and go to LA. I look forward to seeing how this plot develops and if we’ll see more of the Consortium (and maybe the legacy of the Tower of Nightmares) in Heart of Thorns or beyond.

The reason Season 1 isn’t available for purchase yet is because S1 had many large-scale group events (invasions of Scarlet’s alliances, Marionette, Battle for LA etc.), different map instances (Kessex Hills when Tower of Nightmares was still standing, the LA inferno, karka invasion etc.) and because Anet were still experimenting with the Living World concept back then (the content wasn’t meant to be replayable).

The developers hope to include S1 in gem store one day to bridge the gap between Personal Story and S2, but they’ll need to reorganize the stories to turn them into cohesive chapters and to make the group content soloable first, and that will take coding time, money and manpower.

There have been some good suggestions from some of the players on the forums on how to turn S1 content into S2-like chapters and organize said chapters under thematic story arcs with a good balance of story exposition and battles (as the original releases were somewhat uneven content-wise), but we’ll have to wait and see what direction Anet will take with reintroducing S1 into the game. And considering how busy the developers will be with Heart of Thorns and the future continuation of later Living World seasons, we’ll likely have to wait for a replayable S1 for quite some time.

We shall see, but even if it gets cleaned up eventually, I expect that something will still remain there to remind us of the Tower of Nightmares that once stood there, so Kessex Hills will never quite return to what it once was.

There’s also the unresolved cliffhanger from Living World Season 1 where the Consortium is interested in the remains and seeds of the Tower of Nightmares as seen in NPC dialogue throughout Kessex Hills. Whatever the Consortium hopes to use those for remains to be seen, but surely it can’t be anything good based on their previous, shady business practices. As if having karka hatchlings hidden in LA’s building materials shipped from Southsun Cove isn’t already enough…

Basically the most important overarching plotline in Season 1 dealt with the threat posed by Scarlet Briar and her “Anti-Pact” of villainous factions, and Season 2 deals with the repercussions of Scarlet’s campaign and the sinister force that was behind her actions and what exactly this force is after.

Ceara was an intelligent sylvari engineer whose quest for more knowledge and desire to leave her mark on the world made her mind vulnerable to the influence of the Elder Dragon Mordremoth who hadn’t yet risen and who planned to speed up the process. Ceara, manipulated by Mordremoth, slowly slipped into insanity and started calling herself Scarlet Briar. She covertly formed alliances with various villain factions around the world to form an “Anti-Pact” of sorts.

By the time the Elder Dragon Zhaitan had fallen (the end of GW2’s Personal Story), Scarlet had already set events in motion where these fragile alliances of hers provided her and her hidden master with knowledge and resources that served Mordremoth’s goals while making said villain factions believe that they would gain something of value out of this arrangement. Some factions followed Scarlet out of fear after she had intimidated them, others hoped to outsmart her and come out on top by the end of it, using her to further their own nefarious plans and betraying her later. However, all these villains remained unaware that they were actually playing into Scarlet’s hands all along as Scarlet only viewed them as disposable pawns in her grand scheme.

The players, who had decided to take a leave of absence from the Pact after the successful campaign against Zhaitan, faced these evil alliances one after another in S1 and eventually learned that these seemingly separate threats actually linked to the same source: Scarlet who finally revealed herself in public during an assault on Divinity’s Reach where she threatened Queen Jennah’s life. The players thwarted the alliances and gained many new friends in the progress (the player’s fellowship who you meet again in Season 2). But even when they kept defeating Scarlet’s lieutenants, Scarlet always gained something out of these events and managed to evade capture while gloating about how she was so many steps ahead of everyone else.

The players and their NPC friends pieced together what little evidence they had and eventually discovered that Scarlet’s alliances had all provided her with stuff she needed for her ultimate goal: the means and knowledge to locate a source of magical leylines. By the time the players figured out that one such prominent leyline was underneath Lion’s Arch, Scarlet began her endgame by assaulting LA with her “Anti-Pact” which consisted of the remains of the alliances the players had been fighting against throughout S1. The players came to LA’s aid and fought their way through these armies to Scarlet’s flagship, the Breachmaker, and cornered the mad sylvari there to prevent her from escaping yet again and end her schemes once and for all.

Scarlet was ultimately killed but not before she revealed that her death changed nothing: Tyria would bow before a new master. At that moment the drill of her flagship hit the leyline underneath LA, redirecting its flow into the Heart of Maguuma where it fed Mordremoth with magic and made him stir and roar, a sound which was heard all the way to LA. Scarlet’s alliances, which had already been reluctantly working together after their previous defeats, finally disbanded after Scarlet’s demise, leaving behind a destroyed LA.

The players’ victory over the “Anti-Pact” was thus a bittersweet one. Scarlet had succeeded in her goals despite her demise, and the very Elder Dragon who had manipulated her to feed him was now ready to awaken and made preparations to eventually unleash his army on Tyria.

Yeah, I noticed these karka hatchlings by accident when I was exploring LA. I hope it leads to something interesting and that maybe one day we can actually get to communicate with the karka as they’re said to be quite intelligent.

There’s also the as of yet unresolved plot thread from Living World season 1 about the Consortium being interested in the remains and seeds of the Tower of Nightmares as seen in Kessex Hills. What purpose would plants which cause nightmarish hallucinations serve in the Consortium’s plans? It’s also somewhat troubling that the writers once stated that there’s a reason why the Consortium’s mysterious leader(s) have chosen to remain in the shadows instead of making a public appearance and that we might find out why someday…

Clearly Evon Gnashblade, Hero of Lion’s Arch, was right to have Hero-Tron spy on the Captain’s Council. Being the clever charr that he is, he must’ve figured out that one or more of the councillors must be getting bribes from the Consortium to put the Southsun Cove incidents behind them and let the Consortium rebuild LA instead of Black Lion Trading Company. Thankfully Gnashblade will be our vigilant guardian, looking after LA and its people even when the short-sighted Council is blinded by false promises and carrots from a shady corporation.

Tachenon.5270:

And yes, the lore of GW2 IS silly. Unless you have some other description for a GW2 character pretending to be a cow to train cows to fight?

I think you’re using a bit of hyperbole there.

Yes, GW2 definitely has its silly elements (which I find rather charming), but it’s definitely balanced out by its share of drama, tragedy and horror. The Claw Island arc in Personal Story shows us the horrors of war against an unthinkable foe as did the Orr campaign where we lost many allies and friends, Scarlet’s assault on Lion’s Arch showed us the civilian cost with those rather graphic depictions of the miasma’s almost mustard gas like effect which cost the lives of adults and children alike, leaving many families broken forever when parents/children perished. We also get psychological horror during the Tower of Nightmares arc as well as Scarlet’s backstory itself which we gradually learn through her journals and recordings. “I’ve seen the Eternal Alchemy” with that distorted voice as Ceara becomes Scarlet Briar is quite creepy and not comedic at all. Let’s not forget the death of Belinda which downright traumatized Marjory, or Wynne’s ultimate fate in Caithe’s story. And now we have the destruction of the Pact fleet and the revelation about the sylvari’s intended destiny which will put the sylvari through their toughest challenges yet as their loyalties are put into question.

Orr itself is heavy on tragedy, not only because of its majestically gloomy music like Hope Falls which I’ll forever associate with the once prosperous kingdom’s fall from grace and tragic perversion into an Elder Dragon’s playground, but also because as you speak with NPCs there, study the landscape and learn the history and fall of the nation and its people, you see just how depressing a place it really is. Not only that, but we even have stories with elements of classical tragedy there such as Malchor’s story which resonates throughout the Malchor’s Leap map.

I feel the writers of GW2 have managed to balance silly elements with drama quite well; too much silliness, and the story loses its weight, but too much doom and gloom, and the setting becomes grimdark just for the sake of being edgy, which is never a good thing either. We need to have moments of comedy for this reason, and that’s part of the reason why the sadness one feels in Orr is all the more powerful as it differs so much from the more cheerful adventures of earlier maps (which, however, also have their share of drama in good doses). As we venture deeper into Maguuma Jungle, we’ve already seen hints of fanatic hylek trying to convert their itzel and nuhoch cousins, and I’m pretty sure more dramatic stuff is also on its way as the fight against Mordremoth intensifies.

Pyro.4765:

The centaur use human aggression from hundreds of years ago to justify their war for territory and are pure black villains […] Guild Wars lore simply is not a consistent thing, and in hindsight it doesn’t make a lot of sense to care about it that much.

Actually, the lore seems to be quite consistent for the most part from what I’ve seen, and the centaurs aren’t pure black villains. Even if we don’t count the more peaceful Maguuma centaurs into the equation, there are clues in Pact Tyria (aka the vanilla game) that the Modniir are actually forcing the Harathi and the Tamini to work alongside them and provide the Modniir with soldiers and engineers for the war against humans. Ulgoth the War King, a high-ranking modniir, is in charge of this large-scale campaign until we defeat him in the meta event chain in Harathi Hinterlands.

If you want to learn more about the centaur and their rather intriguing lore, I’d suggest checking the GW2 wiki page about centaurs as well as this informative Dolyak Express post (look for the section in that post with Scott McGough’s reply) where the writers tell us, among other things, a bit more about centaur society and pretty much confirm the clues already found in Pact Tyria about this rather shaky and abusive centaur alliance.

I understand that the Ulgoth meta event chain in Harathi Hinterlands will remain as it is because the vanilla Tyria maps are pretty much stuck in time (see Orr) with few exceptions made by the Living World, so we’ll continue seeing “past” events occur and reoccur indefinitely even though canonically Ulgoth is now dead. However, wouldn’t it be great that if we ever get to see maps beyond the Hinterlands and enter actual centaur settlements with children and the elderly, we’d see the centaur story move a bit onward on those future maps to show the centaur alliance post-Ulgoth defeat and if the Harathi and the Tamini will eventually get fed up and organize a rebellion against the oppressive Modniir with help from the player?

Lots of great story possibilities in there and giving more players a chance to see the centaurs as more grey antagonists in a similar vein to the Lionguard/centaur treaty events. It would be cool to visit centaur settlements and talk with more peaceful centaur NPCs there with that little hint that perhaps the centaur/human conflict can eventually have a peaceful resolution. A Dawn Cycle sylvari like my character can dream of such a day, right?

Yeah, noticed this new tune while exploring Lion’s Arch, and I’m glad others have taken notice as well. It’s a pretty piece although I’m intrigued that it appears to be synth rather than orchestral; perhaps this was one of the tracks which couldn’t be composed in time for the HoT recording sessions (which will contain from 1 to 2 hours of new music based on the Audio Team interview) or was not deemed important enough to be orchestrated? Either way, I’m always happy to hear more uses for piano and choir (synth or live) in the score.

Maclaine Diemer.7693:

Nice catch! Yes, there is a new piece that goes with the rebuilding. I wonder if it’s the only one?

Does that mean you’ve also hidden the orchestral Heart of Thorns theme somewhere in this new patch? Just kidding, but that’s still a wonderfully robust cue fitting our epic journey into the Heart of Maguuma, so it’d be cool if we had a preview of it and/or other HoT-related tracks somewhere in the vanilla game (perhaps briefly replacing the theme played during Vinewrath battle with the HoT theme?) before the expansion is released. I personally hope we get to hear the Marionette battle tracks in some form in the expansion, not to mention “Fear Not This Night” whose message is more important now than ever before as the sylvari face their greatest challenge.

There was a previous Heart of Thorns demo event where a select few people got to experience a small section of Verdant Brink (the first map we’ll enter in the Heart of Maguuma), fight a wyvern as well as play through a little story snippet which shows us the aftermath of the Pact fleet crash, the aforementioned Mordrem Guard’s involvement and hints at Mordremoth’s plans. You can see the story portion in this video if you’re curious.

Those enemies are called the Mordrem Guard (even though Colin Johanson called them with their earlier alpha name, the Mordrem Court, in interviews, which may or may not hold some significance). They were shown to be quite intelligent in the HoT demo (capable of speech, trying to lower your squad’s morale with taunts, calling for reinforcements, and, interestingly enough, recognizing the player as the Pact Commander and thus a primary threat to the dragon they serve, which means Mordy took notice of our trip to Omadd’s machine, especially after what happened to the Shadow of the Dragon).

My bet is that they’re sylvari who embraced their “true nature”, grown from other Pale Tree(s) in the jungle near Mordremoth’s location. They were shown to take captured sylvari Pact members (who hadn’t turned) somewhere to be “converted”, and this happened relatively shortly after the Pact had been attacked, so that implies these Mordrem Guard are native jungle sylvari rather than turned Pact members.

It’s interesting that in that video the surviving guard chose to flee from the Reaper, but I suppose that shows that the Mordrem Guard, unlike most other dragon minions, actually value their survival when the odds turn against them (as seen with them calling for reinforcements in the demo) so they can continue serving their master in the future rather than dying “pointlessly” against a superior foe. I do hope we get to have conversations with them during battle and learn just how much dangerous they can be compared to your usual dragon minion mooks.

I find it unlikely that any of the Modrem Guard would be friendly (just like you’d be hard pressed to find friendly Branded, Risen etc.), though, unless we find a way to purify them from the dragon’s corruption as happened with Glint and the Risen chicken in one of the Arah explorable paths, but even then we’d need to find some specific magical location where to perform such a ritual, and hope that once “purified”, the minions choose the side of good out of their own free will instead of still acting all evil.

I would expect to see some friendly sylvari from other Pale Tree(s) once we venture into the jungle, however, at least if Malyck (from one of the sylvari starting stories) and some of his people haven’t been converted to the dragon’s cause by now. But with the Mordrem Guard being determined to capture and convert all sylvari they get their hands on, it won’t bode well for Malyck unless he’s crazy good at surviving…

A nice catch. I love when stealth additions like this happen in GW2.

Anyway, the Consortium will play a role in the plot in one way or another even beyond this little project they now have, assuming Anet won’t neglect a little sequel hook they left us with in Season 1: the Consortium has been in Kessex Hills since the fall of the Tower of Nightmares, and dialogue options from NPCs in various havens reveal they’re very interested in the tower and its byproducts. One can only wonder what a shady business like theirs hopes to achieve with plants producing toxic, fear-inducing and mind-altering hallucinogenics…

In the cinematic some Pact ships are quite a bit higher than others. Also in that very same cinematic we see that the vines haven’t actually reached/attacked all of the Pact airships as several airships appear intact in the background during the attack.

What really brought the Pact down wasn’t just Mordremoth using vines to attack but him also simultaneously mass turning sylvari into his minions and having them sabotage the fleet from within. In the cinematic we see one crazed sylvari damaging an airship’s engine with a flaming barrel, and a group of sylvari attacking Destiny’s Edge from behind. We can theorize that the Pact, despite suffering some losses in the initial assault, would’ve likely managed to pull back quite a few airships and attempted another attack strategy from a safer distance, but the turning sylvari didn’t really give them much of a choice but to focus on fighting for their lives thanks to this sudden betrayal, which sealed the fate of the fleet.

It was quite a clever strategy on Mordremoth’s part: let the Pact think they have the advantage and lure them in close range, then retaliate in a massive fashion with the vines while also revealing the trump card at the height of the chaos: turning many of the sylvari against their allies at that crucial moment when the Pact’s attention was drawn to the vines and away from the other danger among them.

What makes all of this quite sad and intriguing, however, is why the Pale Tree chose to never tell Trahearne about the sylvari’s origin. Had Trahearne known, perhaps he could’ve kept the sylvari Pact members at a distance, thus avoiding this tragedy. I can understand Caithe keeping it a secret from him due to her reasons, but to the Pale Tree Trahearne is the first of her Firstborn, the chosen one who purified Orr and led the campaign against one Elder Dragon already. Surely he deserves to know the truth at least in the present day when he’s grown as a character and proven himself worthy as opposed to what he was like in the past? I do hope Heart of Thorns will elaborate on this and give us a decent enough explanation but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Trahearne is a plant. He has cabbage instead of brain. Of course he will lead people to their death.

Kind of interesting then that Laranthir of the Wild, a sylvari who also has a “cabbage brain” is the Vigil’s second-in-command, approved by General Soulkeeper herself. Then again, one could argue that the Vigil consists of mostly brainless people, so maybe a cabbage brain fit in without too much of a hassle?

Derigar.7810:

No. If an individual has locked his mind to the Dream or another Elder Dragon, it becomes free of its influence.

Unless all those sylvari who turned against the Pact during the Episode 8 ending cinematic were Soundless, what you said is no longer the case. As long as the Pale Tree is still in a half-comatose state, her protection over her sylvari will weaken, thus leaving them susceptible to Mordremoth’s siren song (which becomes more and more alluring the closer sylvari get to it).

What remains to be seen is why only some and not all sylvari were affected since we can see Laranthir and the Pale Reavers still being on the good guys’ side in HoT demo while Mordrem Guards go to great lengths to capture uncorrupted sylvari to take them somewhere to be “turned”. Willpower has been stated as a possibility, but that seems like too simple an answer, but we’ll (hopefully) find out for sure once we get our hands on HoT.

Gibson.4036:

I figured the existence of the Nightmare Court was Mordremoth’s influence reaching through the dream to ensnare some. I’m not really a lorehound, so I only know what I’ve encountered through personal story.

At any rate, insisting on some sort of “once and for all” sure is a limiting choice for story possibilities. I’d always hoped to that Caithe’s insistence that no one can ever be brought back from Nightmare is her personal bias, and not objective canon.

We don’t know yet if Nightmare is Mordremoth’s influence or not. They do seem to have a connection as the Shadow of the Dragon, Mordy’s champion, was able to infiltrate the Dream by manifesting through Nightmare.

However, the Nightmare Court remain oblivious of the sylvari’s true origin; Scarlet claimed she knew Caithe’s secret which even Faolain didn’t know, and we learned later that that secret was what Wynne told Caithe. If Faolain, Grand Duchess of NC, didn’t know the truth, then it’s unlikely any of her minions did either, or the news would’ve spread by now.

It was said in an article or interview that the NC are just as opposed to Elder Dragons as Dreamer sylvari are, they just seem to be focusing on changing the sylvari’s outlook on themselves and the world first before committing themselves to battling the Dragons. If NC knew the truth about Mordremoth and/or they were already its corrupted minions, surely we would’ve heard them yell “Hail Mordremoth!” or something of the sort by now since dragon minions are extremely fanatical towards their dragon master.

It’ll be interesting to see where NC will stand in HoT. I personally hope that at least some of them become “enemy mine”, antagonists who work with us in teeth-clenched teamwork, or at least oppose the Mordrem on their own terms. NC want power and change the rules, so the old guard of NC wouldn’t necessarily want to switch one master (Pale Tree) to another (Mordremoth). I can imagine some of them willingly joining the Dragon, though, believing it to be sylvari destiny, but if all of them turn face, that will undermine the lore of an interesting antagonist faction and will diminish the character of Faolain greatly. If anything, I’d imagine us and Faolain having to work together out of necessity at some point, and her eventually betraying us in a pivotal moment to attempt to usurp Mordremoth’s power for herself. But I guess we’ll see what the writers have in mind for the Grand Duchess; I just hope she won’t make a cameo only to be killed by us after all this juicy buildup.

Dante.1763:

Think about, what do the nightmare court want above all else? They want to see the pale tree destroyed.

Actually, they want to influence the Dream by hurting others among other things and hope that if they do this long enough, the Nightmare’s influence on the Dream will eventually steer sylvari away from Ventari’s teachings and allow the race to make its own judgements without outside influences and morals that had been instilled on them.

However, it was indeed stated in the Malyck plot in the Personal Story that if NC learned of the existence of Malyck’s tree, they could burn down the Pale Tree in an instant without worry and focus their attempts on this other Pale Tree instead as that tree might be easier to sway on their way of thinking now that they know more than one tree exists out there. This is why it was imperative that we prevented NC from learning Malyck’s secret back then.

Fade.1743:

Subject Alpha was an Inquest experiment. It is NOT a naturally occurring dragon minion. Therefore, that point is rendered irrelevant. The rest of the Crucible has NO dragon minion hybrids. In fact, hybrids can’t exist.

The reason we haven’t seen cross-corrupted dragon minions out in the wild is because so far no minions of different dragons have confronted one another…as far as we know, anyway. Until that small Mordrem invasion in Iron Marches introduced in one of the LW Season 2 patches, minions of different Elder Dragons were never seen in the same area, and even now the Mordrem and the Branded have yet to make contact to show what exactly would happen if they met. Whether they choose to attack and corrupt one another is unclear but it’s at least possible thanks to Subject Alpha proving that a single being can in fact hold multiple dragon corruption simultaneously.

Sylvari couldn’t become Risen because Zhaitan could only corrupt beings made of flesh. Either living or dead.

Zhaitan can actually corrupt more than just beings made of flesh. We see corrupted stumps in Sparkfly Fen, and one heart is all about clearing them to help slow the spread of Risen corruption.

If you play a sylvari character during LW Season 2, you learn from the Pale Tree in the Rallying Call episode that she has actively been shielding her children from dragons’ attempts at corruption.

The Shadow of the Dragon specifically targeted the Grove during World Summit to injure the Pale Tree enough and thus weaken her protection over the sylvari so Mordremoth could have an easier time taking the sylvari over. This is further supported by a note found on Aerin’s body after defeating him in the “Cornered” episode earlier in Season 2 which foreshadows the aforementioned revelation. The note says “…leader will die. The rest will fall in line. We will not fail.” The leader ended up being the sylvari leader, Pale Tree.

We’ve yet to see anything turn into Branded since Kralk’s revival. So, there’s a good chance that the Branded were only created when the Brand itself was.

Creatures still turn into Branded as seen in the Personal Story’s ogre racial sympathy storyline, beginning with Untamed Wilds. The events of that story take place during the PS which takes place two years before present day LW Season 2 storyline. Note that Lagula, the ogre, is using the present tense in the explanation, which means creatures are still being turned into Branded. We even get to witness the tragedy of it first-hand when we find out that Uldek, an ogre chieftain, has recently been turned into one of the Branded, as explained by the ogre Jonkor.

Destroyers are made from molten rock and lava…which would…well…be obvious why that doesn’t work.

It was stated in an interview by the writers that Primordus can in fact corrupt living beings but prefers not to for whatever reason. As seen with Zhaitan’s example above, dragons can corrupt many things and beings with their magic, so it’s possible that a Destroyer could be turned into another dragon’s minion if it was exposed to said dragon’s power.

Icebrood have all come from northern ice races (Norn, Kodan, and Quaggan). It can be hypothesized that Jormag can only corrupt living beings that are more accustomed to harsh, cold environments. Otherwise, they’d die during corruption.

This seems unlikely. As a being turns into Icebrood, they’re encased in ice and their flesh rots away. The process is best seen with Sons of Svanir who have models in various stages of corruption, some looking more Norn and others looking more Icebrood-ish. Whether the victim is unaccustomed to cold environment or not won’t matter because they will still transform and become a minion regardless. Dragon magic will keep them functional, and the only difference is how much magic a dragon places into a minion during corruption which will determine how intelligent and powerful said minion will become after it has been “reborn”.

(continued)

I agree with you that what LW Season 1 needed was more showing and perhaps even more telling at times instead of sometimes rather subtle foreshadowing. Too many hints and too little payoff, in other words. They did try to rectify this with later LW Season 1 and early Season 2 releases but to many people that was already too late by then although personally I was happy that we at least got some of the hints from the short stories included in-game where they belong. Considering how hectic a schedule they had with the releases, plus the problems associated with having to record lines months in advance and the limitations of dialogue boxes and how much text they can hold in-game, I think the writing team did a decent enough job with what they had, especially because it seems that they only started treating LW as a seasons-spanning, overarching storyline leading to Heart of Thorns by the end of the Flame and Frost release when we got our first hints of Scarlet’s involvement from the mouths of the captured Molten Alliance veterans in Black Citadel.

I liked the short stories fleshing out the characters although I wish we could’ve at least gotten some sort of recording of Scarlet emerging from the machine and telling Omadd what she plans to do as she murders him like in the short story and later expressing remorse over what she’s done (this was only ever hinted at in some of Scarlet’s lairs and her journal with torn pictures of Omadd and the diary spelling his name in code, but it was never stated outright). That, added with her changed voice along the lines of “I saw the Eternal Alchemy” (as heard in Prosperity story mission) would’ve been a truly chilling moment like the centaur massacre we witnessed in Caithe’s flashback and could’ve given us a somewhat “sympathy for the devil” moment where we witness Scarlet’s descent into madness instead of having Marjory and Vorpp postulate it in exposition text which distances us too much from the tragedy. We also should’ve seen more of the leadership of her various alliances; what little we glimpsed during Tower of Nightmares and Aetherpath simply wasn’t enough for us to learn what Angel and Bobby later clarified in forum posts and interviews (about the Molten Alliance only having a faction from the Flame Legion, or how the Toxic Courtiers were simply one of the groups vying for power instead of being NC as a whole etc).

We also never got to learn when Scarlet’s hairdo (as seen in “Newly Awakened” instance) changed into her now iconic “cone” hairdo, or what significance her choosing it to resemble the “cone” found in the secret room had. I have my theories about it, and I wonder if we’ll see more of those plants as we venture deeper into Maguuma…

You’re welcome. I admit I was initially rather skeptical of Scarlet when she first appeared and did all the things she did. But when I began putting all the pieces together and tried to solve the clues Anet planted long in advance (some of which only paid off in LW Season 2 like when I discovered that the music theme of “Tower of Nightmares” was in fact a subtle combination of Scarlet’s theme and the “Shadow of the Dragon” theme and shared chord progressions with the “Mordrem” theme, thus foreshadowing musically that Mordremoth was behind the tower’s corruptive nightmare influence), I realized just how intricate the plot actually was and how everything began making more and more sense.

I do think Scarlet shouldn’t be as hated a character as she is since she’s ultimately this verse’s Joker and Kefka except in this case she isn’t just an independent wild card agent of chaos but someone who is manipulated by a far more devious chessmaster villain who remained in the shadows through most of the storyline. Back then people were irritated that she was behind everything but as we now put the pieces together, we see that she was merely one of the many puppets in Mordremoth’s lengthy game of deception.

Not only that, but Scarlet also foreshadowed rather neatly how dangerous an adversary Mordremoth is if the sylvari he turns can cause so much destruction by themselves (Anti-Pact and all the things it accomplished which was like Mordremoth mocking the PC and his/her efforts to save the world from Elder Dragons with the Pact, and the destruction of much of the Zephyrite and Pact fleets) which is comparable to the shenanigans caused by the Risen mesmer Labwan the Deceiver from one of the Greatest Fear arcs in the Personal Story.

Admittedly using a maniacal laugh and silly puns to signify Scarlet’s madness is a cliché dating back to some of the oldest literary tropes but it’s not that big of a problem in the end, especially when we get to compare and contrast Scarlet’s madness with Aerin’s in LW Season 2 which was a different kind of madness and helps showcase Mordremoth’s “mind” sphere of influence and how it can mess people up. I don’t know if the team would’ve had a chance to really delve deep into Scarlet’s psyche considering their busy timetable and having to crank out releases at a steady pace, not to mention having to record voiced lines long in advance. Or perhaps they tried to keep the storyline somewhat simple so teen audiences could follow it too since many of the GW2 villains are already painted rather black to begin with. I guess we’ll never know for sure.

(continued)

@ Rhaegar
I don’t personally see an inconsistency here. We learn from Scarlet’s journal and holo recordings that Mordremoth was having mind games with her (teasing her by “taking credit” of her ideas, and subjecting her to horrific visions, alternating between different ways to crack her mind’s defenses), thus driving her further into madness so he could get a better hold of her and turn her into a truly obedient minion. Scarlet could sometimes regain some of her sanity, at other times she went into hysterics as the dragon’s whispers drove her onward. It wasn’t until around the time the Twisted Marionette appeared that her voice changed into a similar sinister tone we heard in the recording when she first emerged from Omadd’s machine, and this to me signified that she fully lost the battle inside her mind by the time of the Marionette (likely boosted by her time in the Tower of Nightmares which already spread Mordremoth’s influence further) and succumbed to the dragon’s siren song.

Scarlet realized that she was losing control of herself and she, being the arrogant genius, tried to devise a way to get out of her predicament. However, it was not only trying to regain full control of herself but also to possibly subjugate the dragon under her will to free the sylvari from both of their creators; she did have Snaff’s notes in her lair, so she might’ve heard about Snaff’s mental wrestling match with Kralkatorrik and in her arrogance thought she could do the same to Mordremoth. Like she says in her backstory:

“So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain…it’s all part of a grand design. But I see the flaws in that design. My people don’t have to take what we’re given, or be what we were ‘born to be.’ No people do. We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”

“An insurmountable challenge is rising, and my people have been called to meet it. We are compelled by our creator to do so. But I reject that call. I reject the notion that that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how.”

“I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I don’t know what the world will be when I’m through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I’ll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes.”

For all we know, her alliances may have been her initial attempt to gather enough resources, manpower and know-how to built the Twisted Marionette and the Breachmaker so she could use those, and perhaps the Clockheart from Aetherpath as well, against Mordremoth as well as the Pale Tree. However, Mordremoth let her think she was the one in control except those occasional tauntings to further crack her willpower while actually it was Mordremoth who was subtly directing her to form the Anti-Pact and build all those machines for the express purpose of feeding him with the leyline. What may have begun as an arrogant genius’s attempt to control forces greater than herself ended up with her furthering the dragon’s scheme as a pawn, hence the tragedy of her story.

Mordremoth’s growing influence on her also helps explain Scarlet’s seemingly lore-breaking alliances and how she pulled them off so well. Mordremoth, being the Elder Dragon of both Plants AND Mind, must’ve used his power, what little of it he could muster, through Scarlet to subtly influence the minds of the leaders of the factions to make them work for Scarlet with false promises of power. It wasn’t enough to turn them fully obedient but it was enough to get the job done and have each alliance contribute to the master plan.

My condolences to all of you who have suffered losses.

As for sylvari and “willpower”, I have a theory which might explain why some of them fell and others’ minds remained strong enough that it forced Mordremoth to send his minions (the Mordrem Guards) to capture the unaffected sylvari to convert them at another location (as seen in Heart of Thorns demo).

What if all the unaffected sylvari had Wyld Hunts and the ones who were affected by Mordremoth and turned instantly hadn’t yet received theirs? We know from sylvari Personal Story (and from some open world NPCs too if my memory serves) that not all sylvari immediately receive Wyld Hunts upon entering the world and that it might take time for some of them to get theirs. We also know that once a sylvari finishes their Wyld Hunt, they might receive a new one over time (or at least this is implied), and they can also misinterpret their Wyld Hunt. Nightmare Court have Dark Hunts which seem to act similarly to Wyld Hunts: for instance, the Knight of Embers’s Dark Hunt was to capture the Harbinger who turned out to be Malyck, a sylvari from another Pale Tree. The anomaly to Wyld Hunts are Caithe and Sylvari PC who appear to share the same Wyld Hunt for some unspecified reason as we learn in early sylvari PS; usually no sylvari share the same Wyld Hunt.

Perhaps having an active Wyld Hunt grants a sylvari enough “willpower” to resist Mordremoth’s siren song whereas those yet to receive their Wyld Hunts are drawn in by the dragon’s call which compels them to act like a Wyld Hunt would? One could imagine that Mordremoth plants this urgent need to “serve the Jungle Dragon” into the sylvari’s mind, and this call forces the affected sylvari into action just like Caithe and sylvari PC are driven to finish their Wyld Hunts and Trahearne had the need to purify Orr.

This would give us a nifty explanation why Laranthir remained unaffected by the call (his Wyld Hunt is tied to the reason he joined the Vigil and protected his mind from the dragon) and would also hint that not all Nightmare Courtiers turn to the dragon. Perhaps Faolain and several other Courtiers have their Dark Hunts which allow them to resist Mordremoth’s influence while other Courtiers who haven’t yet received their Dark Hunts would embrace the dragon more willingly? Granted, we won’t know the Nightmare Court’s stance on this whole Mordremoth debacle for sure until we get to play Heart of Thorns where their relationship will be explored (despite what the story trailer seemed to imply).

Reviera.5183:

XD wow sounds like Anets skipping the road to head right for the bar, they let you pay for season 2 but not 1. sounds a bit like lazyness to me XD

Anet said that they wish to include a replayable Season 1 in the game at some point although it’s going to take a while because they have other, more pressing matters to focus on at the moment. The problem with transferring S1 stuff into unlockable chapters like in S2 is that much of S1 was originally envisioned as group-based, temporary content in the open world. To make it work, they need to not only create new map instances for some of the large-scale open world events like Marionette and Battle of Lion’s Arch but also tweak them so that they can become soloable.

I do hope that once S1 is added to the Story Journal that it also includes Lost Shores. Unlike the prelude we had for S2, Lost Shores not only acted as a prelude to S1 but also included vital information, introductions of characters and events into the plot (the reveal of Southsun Cove and karka, meeting certain key NPCs like Canach for the first time), which would be built on in later S1 releases like Secret of Southsun.

Yeah, I miss having story instances in the Dead End too. Always liked the noirish vibe of the place thanks to Marjory’s nice introduction from Season 1 and how we had that lovely Holmesian investigation scene with “A Study in Scarlet”.

I would like to see the bar get involved in the story somehow if possible but I’m not holding my breath. However, I will expect us to visit DR at some point in HoT if only to see Canach being attacked as shown in the HoT story trailer as part of the “Can we trust the sylvari anymore?” angle. Hopefully this means some way for Caudecus to make an appearance and have him and his lackeys in the Ministry to blame the sylvari problem on Jennah, considering we’ll likely be seeing some ties to White Mantle deeper in the Heart of Maguuma as hinted in LS Season 2 (the bandit fortress, mentions of “New Kryta”, and the relics with curious information in the Silverwastes) and because Caudecus is linked to White Mantle in some capacity based on human Personal Story.

(continued)

c) Schemes of Mai Trin and the Aetherblades

What exactly are Mai Trin and the surviving Aetherblades looking for in the Mists (as seen in Edge of the Mists if you listen to Mai Trin’s holograms there) since we never brought them to justice after Scarlet’s defeat? I smell a storyline brewing here.

d) Plans for the Clockheart, potential foreshadowing?

What exactly did Scarlet hope to achieve with the Clockheart found in Twilight Arbor’s Aetherpath?

Was it simply a power generator for the shipyard as we were led to believe, or could the cybernetic modifications (put on a treant which is a plant creature) have a link to finding a means to circumvent Mordremoth’s control of plants and mind? Maybe replace one’s brain with a steam creature equivalent, uploading data there and thus preventing mental control by an Elder Dragon?

e) Mystery (and significance) of Scarlet’s changed hairdo

We saw in the “Newly Awakened” instance that Ceara’s hairdo differed from the hairdo Scarlet Briar had. So, what is the significance of Scarlet’s change in hairdo? Granted, it could be due to her changing psyche being reflected on her (as we’ve seen Caithe’s hairdo change due to traumatic events), but then we blur the line when the Biconics discover the ‘cone’ (or whatever that thing was) in Scarlet’s Prosperity lair and comment on how Scarlet based her iconic hairdo on it. And, interestingly enough, that ‘cone’ also looked suspiciously similar to this so is the latter just a cute little reference to Scarlet’s hairdo or does it actually hold deeper meaning which we’re yet unaware of?

f) Consortium and the Tower of Nightmares

As seen in Kessex Hills, Consortium is showing an interest in the remains of the Tower of Nightmares. As we now know for certain that the tower and its powers were definitely connected to Mordremoth (the tower even shared its musical theme with the Mordrem and Shadow of the Dragon, so kudos to Maclaine Diemer for establishing musical continuity between the two LW seasons), what does this bode for Tyria in the future? What exactly does the Consortium (and its mysterious leaders) hope to benefit from such a sinister discovery?

Makes you think, doesn’kitten Depending on what the writers have in mind, they have left doors open (intentionally or not) for many potential plotlines.

Your thoughts?

After looking back on Living World Seasons 1 and 2, I’ve noticed some (potential) plot points which have been left unaddressed, many of which are tied to Scarlet and/or her actions in some way. Are the following just meant to be left open, cute little easter eggs, or actually something that will become relevant later?

a) Mysterious people, mysterious locations

First of all, there’s this hidden cave in Lion’s Arch (accessed from the underwater ruins of Old Lion’s Arch since the Battle for Lion’s Arch) with a boat in it and some other stuff, implying that someone may have been inspecting the wreckage of the Breachmaker before leaving discreetly. If this is relevant and not just some random tidbit in the scenery, I wonder if the writers are setting up something they intend to use later. And if so, who would’ve wanted to use the cave? Could that person be related to that mysterious bearded man we saw briefly observing us in a cave in one of the Living World season 2 episodes? What about the sleeping bag in the Forgotten cave before we plant the last Memory Seed?

b) Fate and future of the steam creatures

Remember Scarlet’s hidden room in Prosperity and her holo recordings? She says something very interesting (see ‘Interacting with Scarlet’s holodiary’ section) about the steam creatures. It’s not just about their origin, but also hints at their future:

Ceara: I may have created a new sentient being. My steam brains are mimicking my building techniques, designing their own version of the steam portal.
[…]
Scarlet Briar: The steam brains have shown ingenuity. When threatened, they build steam minotaurs from whatever materials they can find.
Scarlet Briar: I’ve used a portal to send most of my steam creature prototypes into Lornar’s Pass and Brisban Wildlands. I no longer need them.

Key things to take notice of: Steam creatures are sentient beings who mimic Scarlet’s building techniques and show ingenuity.

We’ve met steam creatures in the meta event in Lornar’s pass (back when many of us thought they may have been coming from an alternate reality based on the asura personal story’s Infinity Ball plot until we learned their true origin). To my understanding we’ve never actually seen any of them causing havoc in Brisban Wildlands, however.

We know that the Lornar steam creature invasion is a relatively recent phenomenon as evidenced by Scarlet’s timeline. So, what exactly happened to the prototypes sent to Brisban who are now nowhere to be seen except those few “scouts” coming out of Tekki’s gate? Considering how massive the Lornar’s invasion is, I find it somewhat fishy that we don’t have an invasion of as big a scale happening at Brisban at the same time.

Could some steam creatures have travelled deeper into the Heart of Maguuma, perhaps establishing a civilization of their own there?

Should the writers feel the need to use Scarlet more in some way (since they liked Tara Strong’s performance so much), they could feasibly do so by having the Steam Motherbrain (or whatever the steam creatures’ leader might be, unless they’re led by a collective of Steam Brains) create a sylvari-sized mecha avatar in the likeness of Scarlet, their Machine Mother, who could be voiced by Tara Strong with a distorted voice. Perhaps Scarlet, before succumbing to corruption in full, may have left hidden messages behind for anyone traversing into Heart of Maguuma, and the steam creatures could help us decipher the clues and help us in the fight against Mordrem since as machines they can’t be corrupted my Mordremoth? They could be to the Heart of Maguuma campaign what the Pale Reavers were to the Orr campaign: uncorruptible, unrelenting.

Just imagine the possibilities of having steam ogres and minotaurs fighting by our side while the brains provide tactical assistance! Their engineering skills could help us turn the remains of the Pact fleet into a formidable steam creature army with which to hold Mordremoth’s forces at bay for a little while and thus give us the valuable time we need in our counterattack.

(continued in next post)

Saturn.6591:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

(when they removed scavengers and added in the crafting stations again).

Hmmm… I don’t remember having ever seen any scavengers. o.o

With that being said; I seem to have no memory whatsoever of Lion’s Arch between the evacuation event and the return of the crafting stations and stuff…

T_T

There were definitely scavengers of many races here and there kneeling besides the ruined houses during the early months of LA after Scarlet’s invasion. Whenever I tried to approach them to get a closer look, they noticed me and vanished.

I haven’t been paying too close attention, so many of the more subtle changes must’ve passed me by. I do hope that this trend of updates here and there continues far into the future, though, and we see LA slowly returning to life and to its former/rebuilt glory over time. However, it seems this might not come to pass if this foreboding conversation is anything to go by about people’s unrest and losing trust on the council to get anything done…

Captain Magnus the Bloody-Handed: Parts of the city are still unsafe. But once we fix—
Citizen: I’m tired of excuses, Magnus. The city’s a wreck. If you can’t get Lion’s Arch on its feet, you’re going to wake up and find this a ghost town.
Captain Ellen Kiel: Who was that?
Captain Magnus the Bloody-Handed: One of the hungry. Jobless. In mourning. And her anger is going to have company when we bring more of them back in.
Captain Magnus the Bloody-Handed: We’re not ready for this. We’ve barely started to make the city livable again.
[…]
Captain Magnus the Bloody-Handed: Look, we’re going to have a lot of people coming back without homes or jobs.
Captain Magnus the Bloody-Handed: No jobs mean lots of idle hands. I can handle a little crime. This city was founded on it. But riots? They’ll end everything.

Here’s to hoping that when the inevitable kitten hits the fan (whether through riots or something else like Consortium shenanigans), Evon Gnashblade, Hero of Lion’s Arch, will be ready to save the city he considers his and our home. He’s not the hero LA deserves but the hero it needs in this time of crisis, and his new, profitable alliance with Hero-Tron will ensure a bright future for us all. Go, Team Gnashblade! ^^

If I were to guess the identity of Mr. E, my bet would be on Magister Ela Makkay. If my memory serves me, I think the devs stated in an interview that we’ve already seen E during Living World seasons without knowing who they were, and Makkay has actually been involved as an NPC during many of the LW storylines as one of those people you may or may not have interacted with/noticed.

She’s exactly the kind of character most people would ignore or not even notice, and yet her being a member in the Priory grants her access to information which she can then deliver to us and explain why E is so interested in uncovering the mysteries behind ongoing events. She’s human, so pulling her stunt on Marjory in DR was easy enough, and for added irony she appears to have been Marjory’s superior during her time studying in the Priory, which might explain the description about E’s touch feeling ‘intimate’ during their brief encounter in DR in Marjory’s short story. Makkay was shown to be very interested in LW events, chronicling the Molten Alliance invasion, Bazaar of the Four Winds and Tower of Nightmares among other things during Season 1, and she even granted us access to the Hidden Arcana later in Season 2.

Whether E turns out to be Ela Makkay in the end or not, though, I look forward to learning more about E’s identity and why E’s chosen to stay in the shadows instead of talking to us openly with the intel that has been provided.

Shiren.9532:

Lytalm.5673:

MatthewMedina.5419:

Just want to clear one thing up since this is out of the bag already. There are no “Mordrem Court” in Heart of Thorns. References to that nomenclature are a bug. These enemies are all called “Mordrem Guard”. Now, continue your speculating. :-P

I don’t know if there is some confusion in the studio but I’m pretty sure Colin called them “Mordrem court” in the interviews he gave for the press test of HoT.

Given Matthew’s comments I think most of us would like to see a source for that.

Ask and you shall receive.

This is the one I could find where Colin specifically refers to them as Mordrem Court, although there could be more video interviews out there including him mentioning such.

Video link here. (exact spot where it’s mentioned is 7:17 but I wanted to start the video a bit earlier to give people some context how that info bomb comes up)

However, with that said, the videos of the HoT demo I’ve watched did show the enemies being called Mordrem Guard InsertEnemyTypeNameHere, so there was no sign of any enemy being called Mordrem Court SomethingOrOther at least in the demo bits I’ve seen.

This, to me, means one of two things:

a) Colin somehow didn’t get the memo of the change to the name used for these enemies, or accidentally referred to them by their initial development name. After all, trying to figure out how much to reveal in interviews and how to word things so people don’t misunderstand what you’re saying can be stressful, so mistakes of that nature are human and understandable, so Colin’s words may be malleable in this instance as far as ‘canon’ is concerned.

b) There actually are enemies called Mordrem Court at some point who are somewhat separate from the Mordrem Guard, but this is meant to be a big twist of some kind so it’s kept under wraps. This, to me, seems unlikely due to Matthew’s comment above, but you never know since devs can be sneaky like that. We see, however, in the HoT demo’s story bit that if we choose the option to aid Laranthir rescue missing Pact people, we end up locating a squad of Mordrem Guards who have been capturing Pact members, sylvari included, and plan to take them somewhere else from the prison area to be "turned" into Mordrem, but we manage to save one such group of captives from such a fate after defeating a particularly devious and genre savvy Mordrem Guard lieutenant (champion?) whose taunts are so delicious. It seems to be implied that non-sylvari may be killed and turned into "hosts" for the invasive Mordrem flowers (akin to Mordrem Wolves) while the captured sylvari may instead be "corrupted" alive and turned into Mordrem Guard (who are capable of speech and appear to be the most intelligent dragon minions to date with their subversive tactics and taunting), although I might have missed some dialogue while watching the demo vids gameplay.

It would be interesting if there was indeed a schism of some sort within the Nightmare Court, and we’d see Faolain’s faction siding with us against Mordremoth in an “enemy mine” situation while some NC openly side with Mordremoth. Since Twilight Arbor, we’ve witnessed the Nightmare Court splitting into squabbling factions (as seen on the explorable paths as well as the Toxic Courtiers at the Tower of Nightmares who were apparently yet another splinter faction) while Faolain fled from the scene and has yet to show her face again. She might be terribly annoyed having lost control over her sizable “army” due to the Commander forcing her to retreat and ruining her chance at luring Caithe to her side, and now this whole Mordremoth business will make things even more dire for sylvari as a whole.

We’ve already seen rather interesting and differing philosophies among the Courtiers and not just Faolain in the Personal Story, so developing such a schism between these subgroups further could be an interesting route for the NC story to take in HoT. On the one hand we had the likes of Gavin and Cadeyrn (depending on how canonical his depiction in the Dream and Nightmare article still is after the Newly Awakened introduced the plot point about him and Faolain being in cahoots even before NC founding) who were the more honourable and almost anti-villain sort of people. Then we had jerks like Sariel and Bercilak who were more than willing to kick a few dozen puppies and cause mayhem just because. And we had the likes of the Knight of Embers somewhere in between who could be downright cruel but still believed in their duty to see their “Dark Hunt” to its end no matter the cost. From what the game seems to present us, “noble/sympathetic villain” types like Gavin appear to be a minority within NC nowadays, and most NC are simply puppy-kicking evildoers, enjoying every moment of their twisted existence while causing misery to others, including their own faction, to gain a position as top dog within their organization.

Wynne said that all Faolain cares about is power, and I can’t see Faolain ever accepting serving a dragon master when that means she’d always have to answer to someone greater than herself. What I could see happening is that we’re forced into this alliance out of necessity and because of Faolain’s intel, magic or whatever else that could help us reach our goals, and it’d be tense teamwork at best. And what if Faolain learns of the plan to use Glint’s baby to replace Mordremoth as a new Elder Dragon once the latter is slain (assuming that’s going to happen at the end of HoT)? She might try to arrange events so that when that crucial magic absorbing moment comes, she’d stab us and the baby in the back and attempt to absorb Mordy’s power into herself instead, thus becoming this god-like being and fulfilling her life-long dreams of obtaining and keeping power. Not only would she be able to create minions who are utterly loyal to her over time in her “immortal” body (I’d assume that as an Elder Dragon equivalent her body would be ageless and she’d only die if slain), she could boost her already considerable mesmer powers with Mordy’s affiliation with the “Mind” control sphere and thus manipulate Caithe into falling madly in love with her. That way she’d gain both unlimited power and Caithe all for herself, killing two birds with one stone, and she could use this newfound power to direct the sylvari to their “destiny”…under her guidance, of course.

In any case, whatever happens, I hope that before we confront Faolain for the last time (with Caithe), we’ll get to learn a bit more about their history, mainly their travels together before the Newly Awakened instance and them encountering the darkness in Orr which drew Faolain in (assuming that story is still canon and not malleable in lore). I’d really like to see a less twisted Faolain in flashbacks even if only once, hopefully with Caithe-like hair, showing us the person Caithe originally fell in love with because we didn’t really get a good glimpse of that kind of person during the Caithe flashbacks in “Seeds of Truth”. But maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part, and Faolain was simply a bad apple from the get go…

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Also, I get the feeling that a lot of the edges have been brushed off of many of the races. Sylvari are either good, or Nightmare Court. And the Nightmare Court so far has been presented to us as just plain evil. They like cruelty and torture, and we haven’t been given anything to make them even slightly redeemable. And the other Sylvari seem just bland in comparison, as in: They seem mostly defined by the fact that they are not their evil counterparts.

Regarding sympathetic villains and Nightmare Court, Gavin says hello. He’s among my favourite courtiers for a reason. I just wish we’d see more courtiers like him instead of the “kick every puppy I see” types.

I do agree, though, that some of the edges have been brushed off, and I certainly wouldn’t mind more moral greyness in the style of the Witcher games and novels. We’ve already seen our protagonists do some questionable actions, and now we need more sympathetic villains to balance things out.

However, I think the underlying reason for this rather black&white setting and having mostly vile villains is simple: anet wants us to be heroes, and if the villains we murder without a second thought are suddenly given sympathetic and perhaps even redeemable characteristics, it puts our heroism in a new, grey area with moral ambiguity. As already seen with player reactions from the centaur massacre scene in Seeds of Truth, this kind of ambiguity upsets some players (both forumgoers and people in game based on what I’ve witnessed in chat), and adding even more ambiguity could lead us in new, darker places narrative-wise.

As for supposedly “bland” sylvari heroes, what about Sieran? Sure, she has a somewhat stereotypic personality, but I found her quite memorable. We have a few other intriguing sylvari in the storyline too although sadly most aren’t given enough screentime to be fleshed out unless you choose specific story paths which let us see their development.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Asura now seem to get along just fine with everyone.

Asura may seem nice and friendly on the outside, but inside those little, scheming heads of theirs they have big plans in store for us. Who better to show what they can be capable of than the esteemed High Councillor Flax himself as seen in Lines of Communication PS mission:

Flax: Your alacrity is inspiring, but you really must leave governing to those equipped to handle it. The council will decide what’s best for Rata Sum.
Player: What about the rest of Tyria?
Flax: Don’t be absurd. The world’s best and only hope is for us to start running it. When Rata Sum defeats the dragons, Tyria will fall to its knees and beg us to rule it.

The ideas are there, hidden in the stories and dialogues. You just have to look for them.

Glad to hear from you, Bobby. I’m playing on EU server (Piken Square).

I think the sylvari revelation works and even if it seems to be at odds with what we currently know about dragon minions (as stated by Konig et al earlier), there’s still lots of uncharted territory out there, and I’m sure the writing team will give us a satisfying lore explanation, hopefully in Heart of Thorns, about the unique minion status of sylvari compared to Mordrem in general and how they can fit into preestablished dragon minion lore so Konig and others who have voiced their concerns over this development can sleep well in the future.

What I like about this twist is that it actually fits into the overarching narrative we’ve had since the Personal Story. We begin in a world where hatreds have been mostly set aside with nefarious factions among each race scheming for their own ends, and we gradually learn that even the “good guys” have some bad or at the very least questionably tasting apples among them who are willing to be ruthless if need be to protect their community’s interests. The threat of the elder dragons is looming but becomes quite real when Zhaitan attacks Lion’s Arch. We manage to make the races work together and form the Pact, and as a side story we also see the racial unification on a smaller scale by reuniting Destiny’s Edge. We defeat Zhaitan, and it seems we’re headed for a brighter future now that we know how to combat the dragons and have people playing nice with each other.

Alas, it’s not to be, as the races quickly become “introverted” again, focusing on their own problems within their borders instead of speeding up the decimation of the greatest threat to everyone’s existence: the dragons. It takes Scarlet forming the Anti-Pact (her alliances) and the rising threat of Mordremoth, as well as some nudging from players, before the racial leaders finally meet in earnest and decide to put some of their manpower and resources on our war effort. We also have Destiny’s Edge 2.0 forming from a younger generation, showing that new heroes rise to meet the challenges among the veterans and we, the players, end up in an interesting spot. On the one hand we’ve been the rookie of Destiny’s Edge, and now we’re the boss of this new guild of adventurers with all the responsibilities that come with it.

Just when everything seems to be going according to plan, things begin unravelling, leaving our future uncertain. Not only does Destiny’s Edge fall apart thanks to Rytlock’s disappearance and Caithe’s dubious actions and the Pact is jeopardized in the assault against a stronger and more devious than suspected enemy, the sylvari race as a whole will be put under scrutiny once their true nature is revealed to the public. The unity of the alliances will be tested, and this leads to what could be Tyria’s darkest hour so far. If the other races stop trusting sylvari and we see in-fighting begin, Mordremoth will have already won. This is our true trial by fire; we either rise or fall together, and Tyria’s fate will be decided in the coming conflict. And the sylvari are in the centre of it all, carrying on the overarching narrative of cooperation and understanding, and friendship, which are key to fighting the coming darkness wherever it lurks. It may sound cheesy, but it’s exactly the kind of uplifting and inspiring story that keeps us going, just like the stories Sam told Frodo during The Two Towers.

This is why the sylvari revelation works so well for me. The Orr campaign and Scarlet saga were mere warmups and foreshadowing for this true conflict where we’ll see if the races of Tyria are truly ready to fight against those who threaten everything they care for as friendships will be tested.

It could be worse. Trahearne could pull an Evon as seen in Lion’s Arch where we can currently find Evon Gnashblade standing both near the northern entrance to the city and at Fort Marriner. Unless Evon is a time traveller or has a twin (or a body double)…

The reason we’re not called Commander anymore is because we’re no longer in active duty in the Pact. As Trahearne or one of the other NPCs stated in one of the earlier episodes, we were the first Pact Commander (and recognized for our contributions), but after we stepped down post Zhaitan campaign and went adventuring and pursuing Scarlet, other Commanders have risen to take our spot in the the Pact’s military hierarchy to keep it running. Any reason that any NPC is calling us Commander anymore is because of respect for our past accomplishments which they witnessed firsthand (like Trahearne and Destiny’s Edge), but the Biconics weren’t part of the invasion of Orr and thus have no such excuse.

It does feel weird being called boss, though, but I haven’t been able to think of a better nickname/title yet, so I let my team call me that for now even if it makes me roll my eyes at times.

And while we’re on the subject, I would like to have a stern talk with my successor Commanders in the Pact someday and ask them how a bunch of Aetherblades managed to steal some airships from our fleet seemingly with no effort. I doubt they would have the excuse of being “mesmerized” by Labwan the Deceiver’s little sister or some such…

I agree with what Nilkemia said.

I was very happy, and surprised, that something like a hairdo would play such a significant role in GW2’s story and in a character’s development in a symbolic and touching way. Like the promotional image we’ve seen earlier stated: “I will bear your pain.”

Shriketalon.1937:

Otherwise you end up with the Belinda ghost scene, a mission that takes time, effort, and resources to produce that does absolutely nothing for the main plot and serves only to shine a spotlight on the author’s personal favorites.

To me that scene looked like rather blatant foreshadowing for Marjory and the sword. Having Belinda die to Mordrem gives a personal motivation for Marjory to go after Mordremoth. Having the family blade infused with ghost Belinda’s essence will likely lead to some developments in the future, perhaps being one of the keys to defeating or stalling Mordremoth or its champion(s) somehow? Why else would we spend so much time mentioning Marjory learning to use the sword, and all those other narrative hints that have been sprinkled around lately? Perhaps Belinda’s death, including the Delaqua mother’s hinted at animosity/unease toward Marjory dating a noble like Kasmeer, will even lead to some personal drama for Marjory and her family in a later season?

Even if we don’t get the overall narrative payoff right away, it doesn’t mean the Belinda scene is instant fillery fluff or shining a spotlight on one character with the expense of others, IMHO. It could have grave repercussions in a later episode for all we know including the things I’ve mentioned or things none of us except the writers have thought of. We’ll just have to wait and see what they have in mind for us, but for now I’m very suspicious of what they’re going to do now that the pieces are falling into place.

Shriketalon.1937:

You never, ever introduce a previously unknown mystical ability to solve a problem, and that’s exactly what Anet did. They needed to introduce the plot point that the Zephyrites were up to something and that Aerin was acting funky, but since they were relying on characters who knew nothing about the ‘rites or sylvari, they pulled a bunny out of a hat and used complete coincidence to push the plot forward simply because "it’s magic." It’s strongarming the plot rather than allowing it to flow smoothly.

I was under the impression that this sudden ability was possibly hinting at the scene from S1 where Kasmeer was pricked by a thorn in the Tower of Nightmares. Since it’s more or less established (or at least heavily hinted at) the Tower’s plant qualities and nightmare-inducing hallucinations being tied to Modremoth’s influence, it wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to think that the wound might’ve infected Kasmeer somehow and thus begun enhancing her mesmer abilities slyly just like Scarlet’s engineering seemed to become even better after she got out of Omadd’s machine. One of Mordemoth’s spheres of influence is ‘mind’, and aren’t mesmers (which Kasmeer is) all about powers manipulating the mind?

Maybe this is the writers hinting at things to come with Kasmeer as her skills, such as lie detection and perhaps her mesmer abilities as a whole, becoming stronger and stronger over time, before Mordremoth’s rise, and then bad things start happening? Think of it like what happened to Brundle in The Fly; initially the symptoms post-teleportation are minor (just like with Kasmeer post-Tower) but slowly but surely he notices enhanced abilities, and then the horrific truth starts revealing itself to him until it’s too late to turn back.

I found that scene of Kasmeer pointing out she’d been pricked really random in the Tower (why even bother with such a comment unless it leads to something?), but if we think about it and if the writers really are sly enough, it could all be leading up to something, perhaps Modremoth’s growing influence on her. Or then it was just foreshadowing Kasmeer’s naked comment in the camp, but that would be unfortunate. Personally I’m not going to write off the sudden lie detector abilities until I see where the writers are going with it. Of course it’s possible it’s just some random out of the blue thing needed to solve a narrative problem like you’ve said, but wouldn’t it be interesting if it turned out to be more than the sum of its parts in the end? That would give Kasmeer a nice personal motivation and a race against time to defeat Mordremoth before its influence can spread even further: stop the Elder Dragon’s eldritch power, or else she’ll turn into ‘Kasdrem’. Yeah, that’s a long shot, but still a cool twist if it were to happen, and it could tie into earlier releases so well.

And we’ve yet to see what the Consortium plans to do with those Nightmare Tower seeds they were so interested in getting their hands on in Kessex Hills, so I doubt the ToN stuff won’t make a comeback in some form or another in the future, which could include involvement from Kasmeer if the writers do intend to follow up on her pricking her finger scene back in ToN release…

The recent discussions on Vorpp and the Inquest have been quite intriguing. When I first entered the instance, I was somewhat expecting to perhaps see proto-Inquest Kudu as the final boss, considering his involvement with sylvari torture based on lore. Imagine my delight when the chief torturer turned out to be Vorpp, a face from Season 1 of Living Story, the asura who aided us against Scarlet during the Queen’s Jubilee. It added some moral greyness to the asura (not that we haven’t seen it before in Personal Story among other things, but it never hurts to see more of it), and it made me wonder if Vorpp is going to be playing a role later in the story in some form or another, maybe some interaction between him, Canach, Caithe and Faolain considering their history? Imagine if Faolain were to finally have her revenge on Vorpp after all these years; it could be a truly terrifying moment if written with enough care. It’s also amusing to me that back then Faolain was still one of the “good” guys whereas Vorpp was “evil”, and in the present day their roles have reversed with Faolain committing despicable crimes while Vorpp helped us in the fight against Scarlet.

If Vorpp was part of a proto-Inquest, perhaps he was able to leave them because by that time the Inquest hadn’t been fully formed yet and thus the “you can’t leave Inquest” rule wasn’t yet in use. Perhaps him leaving in the first place might’ve led to Kudu and company making that rule later specifically to prevent any other geniuses from leaving the Inquest in the future?

Granted, the whole “experimenting on sylvari” thing and Vorpp becoming an emissary does seem rather odd, but perhaps he’d made amends with the sylvari afterwards for all we know or been otherwise convincing enough for the Arcane Council to let him have that position? It’s not like the Council doesn’t have ties to the Inquest already with one of the Inquest representatives stationed there with his cronies, so having ex-Inquest as an emissary, especially if said person has renounced his former ways, could be plausible in that context. I wonder if Vorpp can still be found in the camp outside Lion’s Arch and if he has additional dialogue, or if we can confront him about his involvement in the torture later. It would be a shame to not at least bring up the subject with him just to see his reaction to us knowing his dirty past.

Also, thanks for clearing up that sylvari lore bit, Bobby. I, too, was somewhat confused by it, so it’s nice to see it’s being addressed.

Music-wise it’s interesting to me how one of the new tracks used in the episode is called “Nightmare Court”, yet I only heard snippets of it in the actual instance. Thankfully the whole thing has been uploaded to anet’s soundcloud page so one can hear it in all its glory. The theme itself is rather seedy (pun intended) in atmosphere with its seductive tones (as fitting the Court’s modus operandi with some sylvari, as well as Faolain’s emotional manipulations). but then halfway through it starts sounding melodramatic and, one could say almost tragic with orchestral swells. Is this some musical foreshadowing of the ultimate tragedy of the Court, if the “They belong to the dragon now” promo image foreshadows the Court becoming Mordy’s minions via the influence from Nightmare which the Shadow of the Dragon seems to be tied to (assuming that’s what’s going to happen and it’s not just a very subtle red herring at work)?

Considering how music has been used earlier in Living Story to foreshadow events to come (Scarlet’s mischievous motif morphing into a tragic and menacing dirge by the time of “Battle on the Breachmaker”), I wouldn’t count out that there may be some foreshadowing going on in here with the Court as the devs tend to be sneaky with their clues like that. Here’s to hoping we’ll hear more of this type of interesting music in episodes to come. So far most of Season 2’s tracks have been very enjoyable, and I love the use of a real orchestra which really adds life to the tracks which no fine sampled synths can ever fully replicate.

It was nice seeing Wynne being introduced and how quickly her character was established. The buildup, even if it was a bit sketchy at times writing-wise, did get the point across with nice hints and foreshadowings of things to come. The centraur massacre scene was heartbreaking to me, and I want to give kudos to the team for pulling it off and going to as dark an area (combined with the sylvari torture scene with asura) for a game with this rating.

Admittedly the bit with the PC and Marjory conversing about it afterwards could’ve used some additions and edits as some have pointed out, but overall I found this bit of lore fascinating and showing us some of the darker things Caithe has had to do. The fact that Wynne seems to have Caithe’s present-day hairstyle adds a nice bit of speculation and buildup for the upcoming episode, and I like that attention to detail as the last thing I expected for GW2 lore was for Caithe’s hairdo to ever play a role in the story.

I liked the stealthy elements with the asura bit, and I enjoyed trying to figure out movements as Caithe and how her skills had some differences compared to some of the “ordinary” thief skills. It’s been nice how the devs have tried to include different types of gameplay throughout Season 2 by following up on what S1 did with the likes of SAB and Tower of Nightmares. The stealth bit, using LW clues scattered throughout out of instance world map (tracking down Aspect Masters etc.), the labyrinth, the boss battles and so forth add variety to the core gameplay, which I gladly welcome as it shows the devs are willing to experiment on stuff and flesh out the world with activities.

I also found the map-wide jumping puzzle in this update both frustrating and fun at the same time; trying to find the proper way to proceed in this lengthy puzzle can make one scratch one’s head at times, but thankfully the marker system lets one not to start the puzzle from the very beginning, so that makes it manageable and still challenging enough. As Josh Foreman noted in the recent Points of Interest episode, it’s fun to see a place you’re familiar with from another angle (in this case looking down on the Silverwastes mordrem fort madness from the cliffs above), so big thanks to him for giving us this feeling.

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I found much of the story in this recent episode quite enjoyable as they helped shed light on some of the lore in-game and giving us a glimpse of the way things were. It was nice seeing several named Menders from Caledon Forest and the Grove mending to the Pale Tree in the first instance, as well as finally seeing what Fiana looked like; that was a very positive surprise because I always liked that little story connected to the Revered Terebinth.

Seeing so many half-naked sylvari in one instance did make me smile, particularly when it was paired up by the pretty “Newly Awakened” music cue which made me think of a lullaby being sung to a baby in the cradle, perfect symbolism for the Awakened who are tabula rasa and yet to be molded by their experiences. Seeing a half-naked Ceara, however, was almost nightmare-inducing to me, but that cameo did add to the memorability of the instance.

It was interesting to me, though, how Ceara’s hairdo was different here; she had blooming flowers as a Newly Awakened instead of those “cones” we were used to seeing in her hair. That, added to similar “cones” being found in her room in Prosperity in Episode 1 and the comment on it (Rox: At least now we know where she got the inspiration for that weird hairdo.), make me wonder if there’s some tie-in between that and her corruption.

Wasn’t it mentioned somewhere that she may have been “influenced” even before she stepped into Omadd’s machine? If so, the “cone” might be part of solving that puzzle. The hologram did show a cone-haired Ceara before she became Scarlet (unless that cone hair was simply a gameplay mechanic and they didn’t have pre-Scarlet Ceara model ready yet). Either way, when combined with what Shiren posted elsewhere about the whole flood idea in Silverwastes and a possible champion of Mordremoth beneath the ground (and Ceara having traversed that area), it could have some interesting implications. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

It was nice to see Cadeyrn have some of the spotlight in this release as his lore wasn’t really utilized that well during vanilla game. I still feel sorry for the poor guy’s glorified cameo and untimely demise in Twilight Arbor story mode when his lore as the Nightmare Court’s founder gave him so much more weight, and I wish he could resurface later having only been “mostly dead” to continue fighting against us even if that’s unlikely at this stage.

Cadeyrn’s interactions with Faolain in this episode (the talk about the meeting, and Cadeyrn and company arriving to assist Faolain with retrieving Wynne) seem to imply that the two were already plotting to plant the seeds of a proto-Nightmare Court by this time. Will this mean that Cadeyrn’s status as a founder of NC in the short story will be mildly retconned later on if/once we learn more of the specifics of these shadowy dealings, could Faolain have actually been the shadowy mastermind using Cadeyrn as her front before publicly announcing herself as NC and taking over the Court for reals as she dropped her facade? The lore bit about Faolain taking Cadeyrn’s place in the Court did always strike me as interesting considering how Cadeyrn wasn’t all that happy about Firstborn attitude based on the short story, and yet here he doesn’t seem to mind dancing to Faolain’s tune.

And Faolain…I was so happy to see her at long last after reading all these speculations. As she’s one of the few villains who has survived encounters with the PC, it was nice to see her even if only in flashback form, which did tell us a bit more about her character. I was somewhat surprised to see her rebellious and arrogant streak so soon even before she fell into Nightmare but considering how much the story jumped forward in time between instances, it’s understandable. At least it showed us what kind of person she was and what will lead her to becoming the Grand Duchess in the future.

It would’ve been nice to see her a bit more endearing at times, though, to balance out her emotional manipulation of Caithe and Wynne, so we could’ve seen more of the Faolain Caithe fell in love with. I was also somewhat disappointed to not hear any mention of “dearheart” in the story although I suppose that might’ve been a term Faolain only came up with after she and Caithe had broken up to use as an emotional trigger.

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Heh, I knew I should’ve checked the forums more thoroughly before replying to the other spoiler thread about the possibility of Caithe being Faolain in disguise. Oh well.

Anyway, to answer two of the points you made, Nilkemia:

Nilkemia.8507:

- What has she been doing all this time between all this? She’s been out of the pictur since Twilight Arbor’s story mode.

Unless I misremember, didn’t the writers state at some point that Scarlet made a deal with Faolain so she could use one of the Twilight Arbor paths for her factory? Depending on the canon status of the path the Twilight Assault update supplanted and at which point in the timeline this deal would’ve been made, it indicates that Faolain may have been involved with TA even since the story path while the three Courtiers were having their power struggles in the Explorable paths. The Toxic Courtiers, however, are questionable as they were said to be a splinter group, so either they assisted Scarlet during Nightmare Tower under Faolain’s blessing, or were opportunists emerging after TA story and hoping to gain the upper hand in the Court’s inner power struggle since Faolain’s sudden departure.

With that said, I think it’s possible that, considering the opportunistic moves made by the three high-ranking Courtiers in TA Explorable and our interest in defeating them in said paths, Faolain might’ve wanted to stay in the shadows and let us clean the mess for her while waiting for her time to strike as everyone’s attention would be elsewhere. Thus her ambushing Caithe while the latter was focusing on Shadow of the Dragon in the aftermath of the World Summit (assuming that was still the real Caithe) would work as neither Caithe nor us would see such a surprise attack from a long-dormant enemy coming. Plus Caithe being separated from her friends would make her more vulnerable if Faolain and her minions managed to block her escape; as seen in Twilight Assault, Caithe can be reckless when she gets emotional, which can lead to her being captured.

Nilkemia.8507:

- Why infiltrate the Pact personally? After all this time letting her minions do the job for her, it seems a tad out of character for her to be doing the hands on stuff now.

There are a couple of ways this could work storywise.

First of all, the power struggles in TA explorable showed us that the Court was splintering with at least three major factions within it vying for power under their chosen Courtier. Perhaps as a result of her “defeat” in TA story, Faolain lost simply too many minions to her upstart rivals and would now have to get her hands dirty.

There’s also the fact that perhaps out of all the mesmers in the Court, Faolain would know Caithe the best (to emulate both her mannerisms and fighting style) from their travels together as dearhearts, which would help her infiltrate the Pact with more ease and not even look suspicious in the eyes of as close comrades as Destiny’s Edge. The only thing she’d fail at was keeping her true personality in check, which she couldn’t do fully as seen from her occasional snide comments during this update (such as calling us ‘boss’ in a somewhat condescending tone if you talk to her at the end of the Camp Resolve instance).