Guild Wars 2

Narcemus.1348:

Saying Verata was right in doing what he did is like saying the Inquest are the good guys.

Who knows… I don’t even know if Scarlet is that evil. I’ve not seen true evil yet in this universe. The closer one to true evil was Abaddon. But he is in abandon now.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

MatthewMedina.5419:

It hasn’t been forgotten. But it hasn’t moved either. :-)

applies super glue to Matthew in order to keep him tied to this forum

Don’t you see that a blood sacrifice is needed to create a red post? Narcemus just died.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I think you mean agent of the Whispers since Vigils has no agents.

Got it, that sound’s better.

I was in the lore forum and due to a song posted there I came with an idea for a living world series. I wanted to elaborate more here.
This is the original plan:

But first…

Legal Disclaimer
I hereby declare my agreement that all the content ideas posted by me in this topic are freely usable by ArenaNet™ in any type of content like(but not limited to) patch releases, books and short stories.

I give up my copy rights about this ideas to ArenaNet™.

You know how legal disclaimers have a lot of useless information within. Things like please don’t use this ideas to create nuclear bombs or to commit terrorist acts. Well, I think this one is no exception.

I Just wanted to fill this space with meaningless words to make it dull and boring. But since I’m getting out of ideas I will sing a song: Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.

Now seriously… who’s the sick dude that uses a fantasy game plot to create a nuke?

Chapter 1: The Hoelbrak gathering.
The gathering begins and you can feel the mood in Hoelbrak. Songs, fires, drunken men all around the city.

• Honor Bear in barfights. (pvp activity)
• Honor Wolf by aiding the orphans. (item collecting)
• Honor Raven by learning about the lore of the Norn. (reading and taking tests)
• Honor Snow Leopard by exploring Hoelbrack (exploration, jumping puzzles, vistas, etc.)
• Boasting Contest at the Great lodge.

Chapter 2: The chipped tooth.
A great hero raises from each spirit lodge. All claim to have chipped the tooth.
But no one knows who’s telling the truth. The sons of Svanir are not happy.

• Finding out who’s the hero(investigation activity)
  The "hero" was an Asura that knew that a dented tooth of Jormag was all the Norn needed to go face the dragon. He's a whisper's agent. He dented the tooth with alchemy and very powerful tools. The truth cannot be told.
• Securing the north. (dynamic events change in Frostgorge Sound)

Chapter 3: Bear friends.

• Regaining balance. (a new path is added to Honor of the Waves in which you clear it from Jormag’s influence and Svanir’s presence)
• A new activity location is put where the claw of Jormag is and only when he’s not up.(a balance game. Thin paths with wind and other hazards that can make you lose balance) You help building better defenses against him with that activity. It is cooperative rather than competitive.

Chapter 4: The ice beyond.

• A new zone is opened north of Frostgorge Sound as friendly as Straits of Devastation, but with Jormag minions.
• The claw of jormag retreats from Frostgorge Sound to this new zone.
• You can spot Jormag flying from time to time to the north of this new zone (hinting the opening of a new zone in which you will face Jormag).

The full elaboration is in the fan generated content forum:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/Living-Story-Idea-The-War-of-Ice/first#post2906163

Narcemus.1348:

Ha, I laugh at largos! Ha!

Your blood got spilled to make a red post. I told you, but you wouldn’t listen. You need to respect the largos assas-

I’d like to elaborate these points, but only if there’s people interested.
On the other hand. This could be posted on the living world forum.
I’m tented to make a full thread about this idea there.
But I’m not fully motivated due to the irrelevance of it. It would never be implemented and that makes me sad.

Edit: I decided to do it anyway. I suggest you go to the Fan Generated Content Forum if you want to find out more about this idea.

Narcemus.1348:

IT’S NOT VERATA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KILLED HIM 250 YEARS AGO!!!!!! QUIT TRYING TO MAKE ARENANET BRING HIM BACK!!!!!!

Do not say such blasphemy, the largos assasing might get you in your sle-

Chaotic Storm.2815:

its only a matter of time till karazan….I mean the wizard’s tower! opens up.

I guess they’ll open the portal to outland in blasted lands too, I mean, the portal to the realm of torment, near the tomb of the primeval kings.
The wizard tower resembles naxxramas more that it does karazan btw.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Ludovicus.7980:

Where does this quote come from ??

The Uncategorized Fractal. It’s what the crazy Asura at the end keeps yelling.

Oh, I remember now XD

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Christos de Soufre.3802:

All of us. Abandoned. She’s not real. She can’t be here!

Hahahaha. Good one. +1 to you and your splendid timing, darling.

Where does this quote come from ??

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I never really understood why people tried to connect Dwayna, a goddess of warmth and light, to Jormag, the Elder Dragon of ice and snow. The themes are complete opposites, while all the other comparisons are “matched up” (sort of).

But I’m detracting…

@Ludovicous: the glassy eyes in that scene is due to looking into Kralkatorrik’s mind. This means that Kralkatorrik, whom has only altered the physical and eletrical, had minutely altered Jennah. Plus, glassy is the last thing I’d use to describe an illusion’s eyes.

There are many other scenes too, by the way, where Jennah is treated as her own. In fact, and this is all pure memory so I may be wrong, when Logan woke up after killing the destroyer harpy-with-a-name, Jennah was there, with Anise said to be elsewhere.

In page 162 it says that aside from the seraph she had other attendants, too – blue-robbed men and women in courtly attire, their eyes sharp an scanning the crowd.
It doesn’t explicitly mention Anise, but it’s likely that she was one of the women with blue robes.

Ok, guys. So this is the full quote from Edge of Destiny.
I sincerely think that even given this whole scene, Queen Jennah can be a clone.
Anisse being so close to her all the time, her mirrory eyes and Anisse channeling his mind into Jennah are key points for me.

But I leave you to decide for yourselves.

I’m giving it a spoiler tag just in case.

If the mods do not allow me to post this (copy right and stuff), just tell me. I’ll delete it at once.

draxynnic.3719:

Ludovicus.7980:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Humorous, but you do realize that Caladbolg was a piece of bark, and not a seed or the like, right?

It doesn’t matter, so long as it has stem cells. Some plants, like roses or cacti can sprout from parts of the original plant. They don’t need seeds even though they are capable of producing them.

Indeed. If the Pale Tree species can reproduce through cuttings, it’s possible that Caladbolg could indeed sprout a clone of the Pale Tree.

I think it’s more likely that the ritual was simply a rallying of Orr’s own power through the medium of Caladbolg, but it is plausible that Caladbolg could grow another Pale Tree. From a narrative perspective, though, I doubt it – it’d be too easy if it was possible to grow Pale Trees from cuttings.

I agree with you. I find it very unlikely that Caladbolg was meant to create a new pale tree, but being it a piece of bark doesn’t invalidate that theory.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Humorous, but you do realize that Caladbolg was a piece of bark, and not a seed or the like, right?

It doesn’t matter, so long as it has stem cells. Some plants, like roses or cacti can sprout from parts of the original plant. They don’t need seeds even though they are capable of producing them.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Because lets face it, even if they give it the voice of Gilbert Gottfried,

-cough-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR1f6XQE4Aw

Anyway, I don’t know if a better art style had made the game better. The problems mostly just seem to lie with the writing, and the overall lack of ambiance. I’m not feeling anything close to that feeling of desolation, like in GW1’s old Ascalon.

OMG, THAT FEEL.
I felt so depressed when I wandered post searing Ascalon.
I agree that this game lacks epicness.
The problem is to define what epicness is and how do you make something more epic.
Taking the world seriously is a good start though. Not that much comedy.
But you cannot get insta-serious without risking being awkward.

I wonder how serious will the next patch be. I know the devs are aware of this topic, since it is at the top of the forum. But I don’t know how much weight they give to the opinions displayed here. We’re like 10 – 20 people posting in this thread. I guess the forum only gives them food for though and that’s it.

Maybe we should try to focus on the parts that they’ve done well, so they find the people responsible for those parts of the game. I like the ogre wars in fields of ruin. And in general I think they’ve done a good work with all ogres in general in Ascalon.

The centaur in the Harati lands are good too.

If I was born in 1300ish Tyria I would believe in the eternal alchemy. Regardless my race.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

It’s clear that GW2’s writers have seen game of thrones, or read a song of ice and fire, because why else do you think Minster Zamon’s asked for trial by combat? That was literally ripped from game of thrones.

Hahaha, yeah. I forgot that part. I did the noble line back in the beta.
Back on topic. The kidnapping of Farren was like if Kormir had been kidnapped by Varesh and she would’ve ended alive and in underware while saying that Varesh likes to play with her hostages and she plays rough… Just picture that.

Anyway, I hope that this whole Scarlet plot ends with something serious. That Scarlet herself is only an introduction to something grim.

Rhaegar.1203:

They know their Ice&Fire, bro. Why else keep the characters you like less? Scarlet? Trahearne?

They took that lesson to their hearts. Kill the Starks, leave the Boltons.

Oh come on, the Boltons are way better than the Starks. They know their medieval ways. They’re survivors, not knights in shining armor. They know who to ally and who to betray.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

They should have made Faren lose an eye or a hand. That would have added a bit of much needed drama to his comic relief role, and would have created a foundation to build up his character. How would such a vain character react to having his eye removed? Would it completely change his personality and outlook on life? Would he perhaps become a stronger, more human character, that we can have empathy for?

And how would this change Logan’s feelings towards Jennah? First Snaff gets killed because he has to rush to her aid. Now an innocent man is horribly mutilated, just because he thought he was saving the life of the Queen. Would it give Logan feelings of doubt whether he should continue following this woman?

There are so many opportunities here to allow these ridged cardboard characters to step out of their cliche roles, and become fully fledged characters. I wish the writers would take that gamble, and not play it so safe all the time.

I wish the could learn a thing or two from song of ice and fire.

Dustfinger.9510:

There are different kinds of intelligence. Scarlet is shown to be naturally proficient when dealing with engineering and schooling form various races. So, she’s real booksmart. That doesn’t neccesarily mean she will understand peoples tactics as well as she does their technology.

Plus we don’t know if her goal was to actually killing the queen. She was rather interested in spreading chaos across Tyria. And she was quite successful.

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

The Hot Springs Murder is a quest that most people will play after 2 (or quite possibly 3) missions, in which the Mantle fight beside you as allies.

And, even so, there is quite a gulf between “Probable Mantle intimidation used in a murder investigation” and “The people you believed you were helping at Divinity Coast were murdered by the very organisation you fought with to do it”.

As for the Vizier, yes, it was obvious he was hiding something— but it wasn’t obvious he was the Lich, who had been tracking you and the Scepter since it was found.

My only point is this— you (and others) may have disliked them, but I (and others) did not, and I didn’t think it was fair to say ANet have always been as straightforward and predictable as they are in the story of GW2.

I agree, but even though I proposed theory I think it’s unlikely due to the way GW2 is written.

Rhaegar.1203:

The narrative in Edge of Destiny, around the middle of the book, felt a lot like a Megaman game; choose a boss, jump into their stage, kill, and get out. Next face in the selection screen. All of this, separated by impersonal letters with subtext from the Queen of Divinity’s Reach.

Yeah, that part of the book disappointing me greatly.

1. Let’s kill a dragon champion!!
2. Letter from Jennah
3. Next!!

I mean, the Icebrood was fine. But Morgus Lethe and the destroyer of life felt like unnecessary repetition. If you’re going to read the book, you can skip those fights (like 100 pages)

Thrudrheim.8143:

To be quite honest with you I don’t find this world dark at all, it can get a bit like that with ghosts but everything else seems light hearted. Yes I don’t really find anything in this world really that scarey.

The only think that seems a little scary is Mad King Thorn, but he’s a joke.
If next Halloween he comes and does something really bad, like killing Kiel, the queen, the imperator or causing major permanent damage to any city and of course, killing innocents, that’d be great.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

What also bothers me, is that a lot of the personal story and the dungeons, hinges on characters from the book. And I do not care for the books. I think those two should remain entirely separate. I realize that the books are a great bit of merchandising, and they allow the writers to expand on the lore a bit in ways that would not be possible in the game. But the way the books and the game are intertwined, bothers me. It was as if the writers expected us to like Destiny’s Edge, because they expected that we had read the books.

I just finished reading Edge of Destiny. And let me tell you that it doesn’t provide any vital plot points that are not presented in game.
I like the story that is presented in the dungeons. It has the drama, the comedy and the seriousness. The last fight failed, but only due to its mechanics. The psychological frame to kill Zhaitan was right.

Rhaegar.1203:

I liked Killeen better than anyone in Destiny’s Edge.

Indeed

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Yes, there’s comedy all over the place. And not that good comedy. It will give you a small chuckle at best. I wish they’d ramp up the dark mood every now and then, make a threat really feel like a threat, and not like an episode of The Smurfs. You can have humor in there, but sparingly. There’s moments for comic relief, and there’s moments for drama and suspense. Don’t mix the two, or you might harm both.

It’s like having a juggling clown at a funeral. They should allow the drama to play out for a change, without disrupting it with silly humor all the time.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I always feel that every good story, no matter if it’s a book, a film, a game or anything else, needs humor in it, no matter how dark it is. Just look at The Dark Knight, it’s incredibly dark and moody, but it still has some genuinely funny parts, like Lucius chewing out that Wayne Enterprises accountant who asked too many questions.
That gives a pretty good balance, since as the reader/viewer/player you don’t want to feel depressed all the time by what you are experiencing.

However Guild Wars 2 is as far away from this kind of writing, as they could possibly be. Anet doesn’t seem to take Tyria seriously anymore. And if they don’t do that, why should I as a player take Tyria seriously?
I really miss the writing from Nightfall, it was by far the best they ever had. Of course it wasn’t perfect, but it had a pretty good balance between dark (Kormir’s eyes getting eaten, the lost battle of Gandara, the ghost of Dunkoro’s son etc.) and humorous (Koss, Prince Bokka, Palwa Joko etc). They even managed to fiddle in a kitten love traingle. Not perfect, but still better than that cheesy Heart’s of the North drama… yuck!
I also really like the War in Kryta. It had everything it needed to have, drama, tension, humor and a pretty good conclusion. And they did this with the very small live-team, which didn’t have much resources!
Why then, does the living story fail in this regard? Well it didn’t always, I think Flame&Frost was quite good to be honest. It was too slow at the start and I don’t like Rox and Braham, but overall it gave us a rather dark story, dark enough to balance out the humor. Sadly they completly lost this balance right now. Not that I don’t appreciate good humor, I love it, but when I started my adventures in Tyria back in 2005 I fell in love with the rather dark atmosphere, not with some wacky villian-sue and an ensemble of comic reliefs.

I fully agree with you both. I don’t know if the tone should be darker. But it should be more serious.

Nero.8047:

what if Jennah started as herself, later on changed into Anise replacing her old self with an illusion to make sure her safety would be guaranteed. (paranoid maybe?) This way Jennah would be older then her second identity Anise and the current Queen would be the illusion and Anise would be Jennah! * Joins Lud’s side *

That’s one of the possibilities we’ve been considering * ranks growing *

Konig Des Todes.2086:

-snip-

Ok, ok, ok… calm down. I can agree that it is not the most likely scenario based on the writing style of the writing crew.
And I wasn’t 100% trolling in my first post. I just wanted to put this idea in the table to be analyzed.
I wanted to see the “what if” and it ended being an even more sound theory than I thought in the beginning (wasn’t much).
So I’ll keep myself suspicious about the subject until a red post appears here like they did with the uncategorized fractal.
It’s been a nice ride to hear so many comments and see such passion in both sides of the debate.
I had this suspicions on my own and I didn’t saw them in the web before posting.
Was I the only one suspecting this before I posted it?

Crossplay.2067:

-snip-

[Puting tin foil hat on]
I couldn’t agree more. I smell a rat there.
Just don’t say it out-loud in divinity’s reach’s streets. Lest you want to get killed by the largos assas-

robinoz.3958:

Logically, if Anise is the queen and Jennah the illusion then seeing Anise away from the queen does not disprove the premise.

However, seeing Jennah away from Anise when we know of Anise’s whereabouts, that would be something to look for.

Honestly I think this is entirely bogus but fun to analyze. I haven’t read the books so I don’t have anything to go on with those. Is there nothing in the books where we can conclusively prove Anise and Jennah are in two different spots at the same time?

Nope, but they talk to each other when they see Kralkatorrik. And it seems there was no one around paying attention to them, that’s why Konig points to Anise’s mental instability.
I think of that like talking to yourself. She had just entered the mind of a dragon, she was in awe.
On the other hand, the fact that the book doesn’t explicitly mention anyone around doesn’t mean it implies that. Evonhawke was quite a chaos back then. Plus if the theory is to be believed, Anise’s act is supposed to be part of her daily life. She could be performing the act on pure inertia.

Narcemus.1348:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Counter argument to Jennah is an illusion – a theory which is as asinine as Grenth=Menzies (both being related to darkness and destruction; one a half-god, the other implied to be one; etc.) which I came up for laughs a long while back. Edge of Destiny, Jennah and Anise are alone together, and they’re having a conversation. Only counter-argument is that Anise is mentally unstable, in which I doubt she’d be able to maintain such an elaborate act.

robinoz.3958:

How much do we know about Anise? I’ve played through all 3 of the human story lines, and I can’t remember ever seeing Anise and Jennah apart.

End of Street Rat Apothecary step; throughout the Trial of Julias Zammon during Noble storyline (as well as going with Anise’s plan, and choosing who’s plan to go with); Unknown Parents story steps that involve Anise – which is about 3 of them. Honestly speaking, the ONLY time yo usee Anise and Jennah together in the human storyline is the lvl 20-30 chapter that’s shared between all humans.

Anise is separate from Jennah a lot.

But if Anise is the queen, and “Jennah” is the illusion, then Anise being away from Jennah isn’t an issue, unless Jennah is also somewhere doing something. From the player’s perspective it can be said that this theory is sound. Until we see a moment where Queen Jennah is somewhere doing something while Anise is doing something and they are separated by a great distance at the same time… My personal opinion is that on top of this the Shining Blade has assassinated Smoldur and Malice in order to create a situation for the Treaty. Now their scouts parade around will masterful illusions of the leaders of the charr legions Only Bangar knows the truth!

Bangar, you and me. Just be careful with the largos assas-

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Counter argument to Jennah is an illusion – a theory which is as asinine as Grenth=Menzies (both being related to darkness and destruction; one a half-god, the other implied to be one; etc.) which I came up for laughs a long while back. Edge of Destiny, Jennah and Anise are alone together, and they’re having a conversation. Only counter-argument is that Anise is mentally unstable, in which I doubt she’d be able to maintain such an elaborate act.

robinoz.3958:

How much do we know about Anise? I’ve played through all 3 of the human story lines, and I can’t remember ever seeing Anise and Jennah apart.

End of Street Rat Apothecary step; throughout the Trial of Julias Zammon during Noble storyline (as well as going with Anise’s plan, and choosing who’s plan to go with); Unknown Parents story steps that involve Anise – which is about 3 of them. Honestly speaking, the ONLY time yo usee Anise and Jennah together in the human storyline is the lvl 20-30 chapter that’s shared between all humans.

Anise is separate from Jennah a lot.

I don’t know man. I’ll wear my tinfoil hat, just in case.

robinoz.3958:

If this were the case, here’s how it would work:

Jennah grew up and lived a normal royal life, but when she became queen made an illusion of herself and then recreated herself as Anise. Anise would be the one with the fake back story, not the queen.

Since she’s the queen, she could probably go over the heads of the Shining Blade commanders and make herself as Anise the head.

How much do we know about Anise? I’ve played through all 3 of the human story lines, and I can’t remember ever seeing Anise and Jennah apart.

I think in the noble path, when you attend to a party, you see Anise apart from Jennah. And in the street rat path, when she casts an illusion over you, she’s away from the Queen as well. But that doesn’t mean anything.

Anise is mentioned in edge of destiny. She’s the queen’s guard just as she is now. I’m at page 338 of 372 and I’ve read nothing about her background. Just that she’s always besides the Queen, thing that makes it even more suspicious.

If this comes to be true, maybe Caudecus is not such a bad guy. He might just suspicious about the Queen and the safety of the realm.

On the other hand, we have Anise showing frustration by Logan trying to be beside Jennah all the time. That’s suspicious…

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ludovicus.7980:

But in all seriousness, don’t you think that countess Anise is capable of this level of deception?
Or maybe the countess is the queen in disguise… I’m thinking that the queen and the countess are the same person.

Isn’t Jennah older than Anise, though? They’re at the very least about the same age.

So for your tinfoil hat theory to work, Anise would have had to make an illusion of Jennah (as a young kid/baby) while Anise herself was just a young kid/baby. That, or commit a brainwash of just about every noble, royal, Shining Blade, and most citizens of DR/Kryta/Tyria. Or just be some massive conspiracy that, for some odd reason despite being the savior of Kryta, our PCs aren’t in on.

Elesh.6192:

Now, when will we have an actual Charr racial leader, I wonder? Squabbling, desk-dwellers are hardly compelling Tribunes.

We have three. They’re called Imperators. You can talk to one, and he insults you if you’re charr. For being in the wrong place for your puny ranking, Centurion/Legionnaire.

It’s not necessary for Anise to be the only one with the capability of creating the Jennah’s illusion. I don’t think she’s alone in the deception. So that means that when Anise was a child, someone else was maintaining the illusion (Anise’s mesmer master maybe? The order of whispers? The shining blade?)
The point is that there are plenty of ways to make it work.
Or maybe Jennah died a while ago and the Anise is perpetuating the illusion in order not only to be in power, but in order to prevent Kryta from fall into chaos.
I wonder if minister Caudecus suspects something.

Dustfinger.9510:

Amidahla syndrome. eh? :P

Something like that. But with mesmerism.
I think the queen wasn’t prepared to be attacked at the pavilion. The whole event just let us see that she’s been an illusion all the way.

Hahaha. That’s better.
But in all seriousness, don’t you think that countess Anise is capable of this level of deception?
Or maybe the countess is the queen in disguise… I’m thinking that the queen and the countess are the same person.

Come on… not a single comment??
You’re breaking my heart…

Hello Fellow Tyrians.

Maybe this is something that could put my life in risk by saying it but I’ve been suspecting for a while that queen Jennah isn’t a real person.

The last speech and some of the events in Edge of Destiny made me believe that she’s just an illusion cast by countess Anise and I believe that she’s the real ruller.

I would explain more, but I think I’m being followed by shining blade agents.

Now seriously. Do you think this is possible?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The problem with that is that for new players, such fractals would be important to understanding the plot. In turn, fractals are for high end players overall, and more importantly, are random. So most new players aren’t likely to actually see such storylines until well after they’ve witnessed later on things – the story of Ceara will be out of order, like reading chapter 15, 10, 3, 8, 7, 5, 6, 12, 2, 1, 13, 3, 9, 11, and 14 of a book in that order. The plot’s all discombobulated.

For my experience, I’m golden. You too. Everyone else here, more or less, same thing. But new players can and probably will get confused (I mean, exactly how many players out there are only able to keep up with the LS’s plot thanks to WP videos? And how many more players out there have troubles following the lore due to how Anet shows it? Too many, IMO.).

To us, there’s little problem. To others, there are/can be.

I see how that can be a problem, but based on my experience that’s not a big issue. When we started playing GW2 we had to keep up to 250 years of history. Char being friend of humanity, plant people everywhere. Tyria(the continent) being cut out of the world.

There was lot of history that wasn’t out there but we were seeing the consequences of it, like logan+rytlock bromance.

As someone that hadn’t red the books at the time it wasn’t such a big issue for me to enter a world in progress. It felt just natural.

I’ve been enjoying the living story since it started back in last Halloween(and yes, I consider mad king’s thorn story part of the game’s plot). But I would have no problem joining it late or even skipping a chapter or two. It wouldn’t ruin the game for me. I’ve been there at every update just because I enjoy them. That and because I’m an achievement horse, lol.

About chapter disorder… have you seen pulp fiction, memento or cloud atlas?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I would like to disagree with your guildie. What we need isn’t more drama, but more development. And less flat, and worse self-contradictory, characters like Ceara.

We also need more time for the living story updates, for ArenaNet to stop calling it a living world because it is, and for the instances from day 1 to be available permanently (dungeons too) so that the new players won’t get lost in the nether and go “okay, why is Scarlet hated/after me/evil” in a few months when all this here and now can only be gleaned via second-hand posts.

I think they’re going to make the aetherblade and flame&frost dungeons fractals. I guess that in the future we will be able to go to fractals of the mists to remember significant past events in the living story. If they do a fractal about scarlet and it is explanatory enough, the new players could relate to that. Not to mention that would mean that we would have a hell of a lot fractals in the future.

For me, that’s enough. But I can understand if it isn’t to someone else. Is that enough for you, Konig?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ludovicus.7980:

It is sad to read such a bitter post from you, Konig. You used to love this game.

And it’s really hard to make me to stop loving something. Honestly, it’s just the Living Story that’s post-April that I dislike.

I was talking to a guildy the other day and he was telling me about how he feels the living story is not strong enough. That more dramatic things should be happening.
The way I see it, from flame&frost and forward it’s all been just a large introduction to the aetherblade plot and now that we have a face on top(or nearly on top) of the organization, that plot may develop. We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I get that this might feel a bit slow, but I don’t see how’s that loathable.

Cheer up, Konig.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Any existing Mordremoth concept art is from 2007 or so by Kekai Kotaki, all unused in the end and were just early drafts of what the Elder Dragons could be looking like.

The living story has been stated to focus on the “personal nemesis” (so despite their claim of a living world, it isn’t), so it’s unlikely to ever devulge away from Scarlet for a long long time. They’ll be losing players before they decide to kill Scarlet off, I feel.

An actual expansion may still occur – when they see that their plans for a living story will utterly fail. Because quite honestly, they’re robbing new players of an experience – if they ever do succeed at making Scarlet a “personal” nemesis, then it will be through one or a few months’ content. That content passes, while old players have a reason to hate Scarlet and Scarlet to hate old players, new players get nothing.

They had a chance to make the living story work – with making the instances permanent additions on top of the Personal Story perhaps – but they screwed up. They’ll be doing something new before the end of next year, if they’re not too stubborn.

It is sad to read such a bitter post from you, Konig. You used to love this game.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I heard that the Zhaitan fight was so poor due to being pressed for time (lol so much for “when it’s ready”), so future dragon fights should end up being far superior.

But with the route ArenaNet’s going, don’t expect another dragon! Ever! Cuz we got the “personal” nemesis aka Scarlet Briar to slap around for the next century – like any ol’ Saturday morning cartoon villain, she’ll just never die! 8D

The way I see scarlet is like some minor bad guy, in the same league of pilaf in dragon ball.
If you compare her with the joker, you’ll be very dissapointed.
I don’t think there’s a problem with that. We don’t need all enemies to be serious or epic. Things feel epic when compared to other things.

The big mistake with Zhaitan is that he didn’t feel epic enough. And he still doesn’t. You’re just a pact recruit and you don’t have the strength in yourself to do something significant. I guess they’re building up epicness to the next dragon fight. Clearly Scarlet is a bigger threat than the aetherblades alone (I see them like the red ribbon army (dragonball)) and the aetherblades are a bigger threat than the molten alliance that was a bigger threat than the Karka.

So let the epicness build up little by little. And don’t worry.

I mean lore wise we could have lots of possibilities, but game-play wise the only undead faction that could ever replace Zhaitan it’d be Joko’s forces.
I guess we could “clean” Orr lore wise, but I think it’ll be an undead place for a while.
If A.Net decides to actually clean Orr I hope they do a better job than Blizzard with the plague-lands.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Ludovicus.7980:

What I don’t get is:

1. why did the mad king had just awaken now.
2. the crazy inquest/aetherblade/molten alliance activity.
3. why did the karka got expelled so soon after Zhaitan’s defeat.

I can’t answer question one.

Question two is “Scarlet” – we still don’t know the full situation about her, but all of that is tied to her so it’s just one threat really.

On question three: Southsun Cove actually existed for a while without anyone knowing about its existence (hard to imagine but true). How old it is, is unknown. Similarly, the karka could have been on that island for much longer than The Lost Shores – e.g., before Zhaitan was defeated, they could have been there. And in fact, it’s implied they were.

Ok, so you’re saying that the karka attacked only due to the consortium activities?

Stramatus.5219:

With Zhaitan dead and the fact that we haven’t really seen any of the other dragons yet, I think that does give way to Tyria being able to squabble with itself more and more. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Human vs. Charr living story again.

I’d like that too, but it’s not likely to happen.

Drakkon.4782:

Ludovicus.7980:

runeblade.7514:

Charr should want to colonize Orr.
Ascalon is landlocked. If the Charr took over Orr, they will be able to open up ports and begin ruling the seas.

Those kities don’t even like water. It should be quaggans. And shookooshoo the incredible will host shows every day there.

Cool story, bro…

Wait… what?

Charr don’t like water? Says who?

Says Rytlock (read edge of destiny)
He didn’t even know how to swim at the beginning.

Now seriously, the most likely future inhabitants of or are Joko’s undead.

For me it is pretty obvious that all the races are able to eat all kind of dishes. My cook is a Charr engineer and even though he’s particularly fond of meat, he’s able to eat salad, bread and vegetable stews. They’re not just as tasty to him.

Free lances:
Tengu were bandits; and let’s not forget we had actual bandits.
The Tengu were just xenophobic, they didn’t raid human lands. They just didn’t allow humans into their lands. Peace was achieved with the Tengu in Cantha.

We had the Stone Summit which were not tied to Abaddon.
Even though the dwarves were tied to Primordious by being the nemesis of its champion, the Stone Summit xenophobia wasn’t tied to that, they were just jerks.

We had the Am Fah and the Jade Brotherhood and Crimson Skull, none of which tied to Abaddon.
Just another group of jerks.

We had the harpy and heket situation in Elona, not tied to Abaddon.
Again, not actively attacking, just defending their lands.

We had the charr revolution going on.
And this was a bad thing… how?

Tied to dragons:
And we had the Destroyers, not tied to Abaddon.
Just tied to the next mega-plot twist, the dragons.

Tied to abaddon:
We had the charr attacking Ascalon – though the timing was influenced by Abaddon, as well as the Searing, this is something that’s been going on for centuries.
We had the centaurs warring with humans in the background (another thing going on for centuries).
The charr attacked ascalon just as the centaurs or ogres did for centuries. They only became a real threat when they got their “gods” that (surprise surprise!) where Abaddon’s minions.

We had the Orrian undead which were tied to Abaddon.
No discussion here.

We had the Naga who were indirectly influenced by Abaddon. Wardens too.
No discussion here.

We had the Mursaat which were not tied to Abaddon.
Mursaat activity was meant to prevent the invasion of Abaddon’s minions. The Mursaat were arround for millennia, they only killed a few to power the door of komalie. They weren’t a threat at all. We were played by an Abaddon’s minion into exterminating them.

We had the Afflicted and Shiro, tied to Abaddon.
No discussion here

We had Varesh and Margonites, tied to Abaddon.
No discussion here.

We had Joko’s remnants, not tied to Abaddon.
The liberation of Joko had everything to do with Abaddon. His birth as an undead king didn’t though.

If you leave Abaddon’s nightfall out of the equation in GW1, you’ve got the Stone Summit, the Ahm Fah, the Jade Broderhood and some indigenous races defending their own lands. And that’s it.

I believe that Abaddon was trying to time his awaking with the dragon’s awakening. He was the most powerful of the gods and he might’ve wanted to give it a shot at killing the dragons while the world was in the Nightfall. After all, he was kind of fond of magic and the dragons have a very large amount of it.
It’s not to be surprised that a year after nightfall the first dragon was trying to awake.

So the great destroyer and the nightfall could be part of the same plot. Meaning that the whole world instability back in the day was part of the same plot (aside from the 3 “jerk” factions)

What I don’t get is:

1. why did the mad king had just awaken now.
2. the crazy inquest/aetherblade/molten alliance activity.
3. why did the karka got expelled so soon after Zhaitan’s defeat.

Meluna.1764:

The Giant Crabs was Bubbles stirring or possibly awaking. Has nothing to do with Zhaitan, there are 5 more of him to go around. The Molten Alliance and the Aetherblades both go back to Scarlet which possibly ties into the Story of one of the Asuran starter storys where they explain the Steam Creatures in an Alternate World Scenario (check the Wooden Potatoes Vid for detailed explanations). Since we are connected to other alternate worlds via the Mists (hello WvW) Scarlet will have found a way to cross to them, since she has been through all three Asuran Colleges and obviously is a smart cookie.

I know the backstory of all those events. My question is why are they all happening so close to each other.
In the story of GW1 we had the excuse that all was part of Abaddon’s plan. And maybe he was trying to time his awakening with the one of the dragons. Kormir only knows why.
But now, all this weird stuff happening altogether, something’s wrong. Maybe we unstabilized reality by killing Zhaitan or something. This is too many things happening at once.