Guild Wars 2

Gandarel.5091:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

SoS spoilers.

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That’s not as far-fetched as you might think. As of 1256, a mere seventy years before GW2 present day, Livia was still alive and well. She was also still a member of the Shining Blade guarding the royal family. What the motive be? What reason would she have to aid parties hostile to humanity’s allies?

“mere seventy”

Now that is curious. I wonder now how many exemplars there have been prior to Elise now.

My first thought of the image was that it was a dock structure with buildings on it going out over water but I couldnt really think of anywhere in game that would fit that. The people look human as do the buildings which is why I thought it was likely DR.

We still havent found out what the deal with that mountain in Gandarren Fields is yet have we. You know, the one making funny noises and with pipes and steam coming out of it. I assume its a part of the Aetherblade base. Maybe we will find out next week.

@Konig Des Todes: Are you sure they arent new? I went out there after F&F to see the fate of the areas and while Braham and Roxx had written dialog for you there wasnt any scripted spoken evens like this dialog was. Plus it mentioned being able to catch up with Roxx, Braham and Kasmeer in the guide blog on the 25th.

Not that it really matters. We dont find out much from it apart from that Braham’s girlfreind might not be a perfect fit for him.

Minor side note but I ran out to see how Roxx and Braham are doing and they both had little voiced bits I hadn’t seen before. Not much really. Braham’s girlfriend has him hunting rabbits (Im starting to think she isnt really a good match for him) and Roxx is being sent all over the place on errands for Rytlock which is leading to Frostbite, her devourer, to play up since she has to leave it behind since its still being trained.

The image on the Release page makes me think the next update will be moving things over to human territories. Considering they just introduced Mr E, Kasmeer and Marjory it would make sense that we head over to kryta next. Ill be curious how Roxx and Braham are brought back into the plot later.

Well we have our first appearance of E in the second half of the Marjory short story and Im pretty sure that E isnt someone we have actually met yet. Curiously, it sounds like he is a spy or assassin considering how easily he sneaks up on Marjory.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/marjorys-story-the-last-straw-part-2/

Im thinking theres a much bigger consperacy at play and Im thinking the alliance between the bandits (read as ministry proxies), the Nightmare Court and the Inquest could be playing out here. To what end? I have no idea. Something bad.

Foul things are afoot on in the streets of Divinity’s Reach. Perhaps we may find out the real story behind the great colapse soon.

This isnt really clear cut. We certainly see the potential of the Skritt in Skrittsburgh and get a sense of what they can become. Skrittsburgh actually lead me to respect the Skritt as a race.

The Skritt are developing quickly but really, probably have the furthest to go.

The Hylek have found their place in the world through alchemy to the point where they are highly sought after by the ‘major’ races for their skills and knowledge.

The Ogre are an old race and I dont see them developing much at the moment.

The Grawl are being left behind really.

The Quaggan are and interesting case. Like the Skritt they have quite a bit of potential. Quaggan face to major hurdles. First is how scattered and divided they are. As individual tribes there is always a limit to how fast and far they can develop. We also dont know much about inter tribal communication and deplomacy for Quaggan. For the Quaggan to become a ‘major’ force they would need to group up more at least by open communitation between tribes.

The second is their habit of being extremely passive. It means they always avoid threats and always run away hoping others will protect them. This part I found pretty interesting as playing through the personal story and the open world. We see quite a few quaggan questioning the habit of running away. We see a few cases where quaggan are openly saying that some times its ok to get angry. We even see a quaggan who embraces his agressive side and still keeps a sense of control.

Like the Skritt in Skrittsburgh, if the Quaggan can overcome these obsticles they could become far stronger as a race. Quaggan already have very strong magic, many valuable skills and their weakness is combat is a lack of will to fight rather than a lack of capacity.

I think its probably the ship that will be used to transport the contracts. Sadly we may not see that ship again much. At least Im not sure what else Kiel needs a ship and lots of blackpowder for if it isnt a plan to ‘solve’ the settler riots before Dragon Festival.

Charr have probably the most advance mechanical engineering in the game with dredge the only race that seems to compete on scale, but engineering in general has been around for a very long time. Infact, if I have it right, the Charr got their start on engineering from abandoned dwarven sites they salvaged.

Certainly in areas such as civil engineering, humans have been very advanced for a very long time, possibly more so than any other race including the charr. The sheer scale of the constructions that humans have built can attest to this. Further, engineering amongst the humans wasnt unknown even back in GW1.

Humans have probably learned alot from the charr. The charr have currently pushed ahead of anyone else and so copying their tech would be of interest to many other races. However the other thing to consider here is that the other races likely would take a different approach to the use of engineering due to cultural concerns. Magic is also far more prolific among human society so it would often be seen as a valid alternative to mechanical solutions.

If we look at the mechanical engineering used by humans it leans towards favoring more domestic uses than the charr such as water pump stations and mechanised irrigation technology. Its unlikely that humans would favor the industrialised development of the charr, particularly due to the worship of Melandru and the damage such industry does to the environment.

A dev actually posted in another thread about Canach. Apparently he got his gauntlets in a similar fashion to our players.. Raiding a Molten Allaince base. It seems that he has, in his mind, been trying to reinvent himself as some type of protector of the weak as his self image. He sounds like a guy who is very egotistical.

To me it sounds mostly like hes mainly after revenge. Ive started to think that this episode may not infact have any connection the the Nemesis and Im actually ok with thakittens not like they have to turn up everywhere we go. I suspect it will be the Kasmeer investigation thread that will lead us back to whats happening with the shadowy workings of our Nemesis.

As for the ‘huge machine’ the Molten Alliance was building ie. the KOM-PEW-something, that was the first ‘boss’ of the Molten Facility. That hole set up was a weapons testing device and in a live stream a dev even refered to it as a primative computer. Thats why we had the coolent rooms behind it and the overheating core we had to destroy.

I dont expect Kasmeer to end up the Nemesis. I think it is likely that her plot thread will tie into something in Kryta though.

She states that she works for a private investigator in DR and came here to meet clients. She also seems to want to hide that meeting, particularly from her established social circle. She finally doesnt see Faren as a threat.

This makes me believe she is involved in investigating something occuring in Kryta that either the ministry or a group tied to the nobility are potentially involved in. Faren, for anyone who has done the noble personal story is, at heart, a good guy. She did have the option to have him dragged off after all.

Alternatively, its possible that her investigations are tied to the Great Collapse and the mysterious murders going on in DR. We still have no idea of the cause behind either events. The Great Collapse used to be the Canthan District so it could tie into the Dragon Bash Festival. Patch wise this would also fit the introduction of the Pub Brawl.

On a side note, I’ll be curious if they explore Faren more or introduce any of the other PS characters such as Riot Alice. If it is related to the Great Collapse it would make alot of sense for Riot Alice to be involved since she is convinced there is a cover up related to it (her father died in the Collapse). Faren also is at one time in the noble personal story mentioned as having been part of the Ministry for a short time. Odd his best friend didnt know about this. We also dont know why he left.

moonstarmac.4603:

Ah good ole Faren. He’d never hurt a fly…he would instead run away and hide. Ok ok just kidding…he would be too busy flirting to notice it. Poor guy, can’t even buy him a break…or a date for that matter. Alas, how did we poor nobles become friends with this man? Seriously I want to know how…and why?!

Anyway…back to enjoying the wonders of Southsun!

Thats not fair! Faren is many things but a coward isnt one of them. Sure hes a flop and a womaniser but hes got a good heart and is more than willing to leap to the defense of people who are in trouble. Hes also not a snob like many nobles.

Poor Faren. He’s so misunderstood.

Im suspecting we may find ourselves in DR in some future Living Story step which would be awesome. Theres a lot of unresolved plots in Kryta.

Kasmeer says she works for a private investigator. That makes me suspect it could be someone looking into either the events involving the bandits or alternatively the Great Collapse. If its the bandits then avoiding other nobles would be necessary since she would want to avoid word getting to the Ministry. If its related to get Great Collapse then… who knows. The hole was the site of the Canthan District and we do have a Dragon Festival thing comming up.

She could be the nemesis but I hope not. Firstly I think she could be an interesting character and secondly Id feel terribly sorry for poor Faren. Frankly, Faren himself has connections to the Ministry. He worked for them for a while before being kicked out apparently.

1. As everyone else has said the bandits are a) misguided and b) hurting innocent people. All three human personal stories delve into this. In the poor one, the bandits try poisoning the entire city which if you fail to stop it leads to deaths.

Queen Jennah is a pretty benevolent ruler. Further, she isnt trying to weaken the power of the Ministery. If anything, its the Ministery trying to do a power grab. If you ask me who is acting more in the interests of the common citizens of kryta its very clearly Jennah.

2. The Asura’s dealings with the skritt are probably now better than they have been in the past. We havent seen any Asuran research on skritt that has been ‘approved of’ by the game. The Asura however arent a very singular society.

There governance definately has problems and corruption as shown by the fact the inquest still has a presence in Asuran society. However Asura as a race arent simply amoral. They are more individualistic than that. Ethics is a concept they understand.

3. On southsun our job has become enforcers of law. The long and the short of it is that all the settlers agreed to their conditions when they signed the contracts. Legally they are bound to them. Law is important, particularly with a city like Lion’s Arch which is held together by commerce and common interest more than cultural or national identity.

Our job on south shore is to insure both sides behave. This isnt one sided though. The Consortium is under pressure to accomidate the Settlers too. The Consortium may not care about ethics but they care about their public image.

4. The Dredge are their own worse enemy. Apart from corruption in their leadership, they are starting all the fights these days. Its not that we are oppressing them. The dredge are already free. The continue to attack us. This is why we fight the dredge. You might find the explorable version of Sorrow’s Embrace interesting if you want more insight into whats going on with the dredge.

I think alot of people dont quite get how this Living Story thing works. The Bonfire is about letting us know where the people involved in the story now are headed and how things are progressing in the world and to set up what comes next.

Think of it like your favorate TV show. Story builds up, dramatic fight and ending then after bit where the characters talk about it, say something about the future and then walk off as the credits for that episode roll.

The Molten Facility was the dramatic fight and ending and filled that role pretty well. The bonfires, the people around them with story text and the stuff at Cragstead and the Hatchery are the after bit.

This is a story hasnt ended yet. This was just the end of a chapter. The events from the first and the mysteries connected to them continue into the next chapter.

Since the MF dungeon was the end and my reward was the Molten Gauntlets I was quite happy with the finale. As for rewards…. I dont like the RNG aspect but its quite understandable for them to sell things like skins on the Gem Store. I just dont like how its tied to the chests. If they selled tickets for Gems, I would be much more happy. However they do need to make their money some how and the Molten skins are purely cosmetic.

If you do Owain’s DE she explains what happened to her. She is the last survivor of a survey ship sent by the Consortium to assess resources on the Island. She got trapped on the island surrounded by the Karka and watched all her friends die. Those are probably the graves of her former crewmates.

Loneliness and greef caused her to snap. Poor girl seems so far gone that she doesnt even realise she has a way off the island now.

If you go out to Southsun on the live game now you can see them already building the new settlement. Theres a tourist there who complains about them having refugees at a place he payed money to go on holiday to.

My guess is many of the updates to Southsun Cove including the new resort stuff and the refugee town will be permanent along with at least the minigame. The story quests though will probably be for a limited time.

Its worth noting that the Consortium maybe exploiting the refugees and using them but they sound like they covered their bases here. Remember all the refugees signed lengthy contracts so legally the Consortium is probably covered. The rest they can cover with spin.

I expect the Consortium to be more the extremely unethical evil corperates rather than part of some huge conspericy. I actually expect that if we have agents of ‘our nemesis’ in Southsun Cove, they will be behind the animal attacks as a means to drive the Consortium away.

Resources you see. In Flame and Frost we discover that the Molten Alliance are harvesting and using some new mysterious ore. We see prisoners used as miners, harvesting crystals. To the question of what a third party might get out of the Molten Alliance, this occurs to me to be quite likely the prime contender.

So what about Southsun? Southsun is a volcanic island, highly likely to be resource rich. What if there are deposits of a similar ore or something like it underneath Southsun? What our mysterious third party has already set up shop there or intends to set up shop there but needs to drive the Consortium away before they discover the truth?

Curiously the Flame Legion guy seems very sure that the Flame Legion can sit out the distruction of the Dragon’s safely though he clams shut when you try to press him as to why.

Remember that the Living Story is supposed to be a continuing thing. As the stories continue threads will run through them. Think of your favorate TV series. All most all of them have plots that play out over a long time and only get hints during the weekly episodes. Eventually that plot will come to the fore.

Don’t leap to conclusions yet concerning Eir and Braham, their relationship and their history. We still don’t know much about the details.

A few key points though:

- Eir didnt find out Braham’s father had died till probably quite recently. Borje forbid anyone from letting Eir know he had died. There is a short story about this.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/brahams-story/

- Braham is 17. In the recent situation her hope was to keep him safe which is why she wanted him to stay in Hoelbrak. Hes not even an adult yet. As for Eir, she had to chose where she placed herself to protect people. If the Molten Allaince was preparing a major attack on Hoelbrak then she would have been desperately needed in Hoelbrak if the attack came. If she was in Cragstead at the time she would be too far away to do any good.

- Eir was younger and not well known as much more than a sculptor back when she had Braham. She has made her legend only really in the last 7 years or so. Borje was probably far more famous than she was. Its not suprising that someone of little renown who has had little contact with her son would be widely known as having a son.

- Braham wasnt abandoned. The family that raised him after his father died he probably knew far better and was far closer to than Eir.

Also a note on Caithe. I found her very interesting. Caithe’s challange was dealing with loneliness and hopelessness. She struggled with an seemingly impossible mission and no matter what she did, it seemed she kept ending up having to face those threats alone. After doing ‘A light in the Darkness’ personal story mission I wanted to go out and slap all the members of Destiny’s Edge and tell them all how crappy they were as friends.

‘Why do you get to be the ram?’

‘Im the one with the horns’

I do like the pair Rox is pretty cool headed which balances out the passionate and impulsive Braham. All over I think they have done a very good job of selling these guys.

I dont think youll see them as a couple but as partners I suspect youll likely see alot more of them. Rox certainly sounds like her trials are just begining.

The focus is apparently going to be shifting to the fate of the refugees next patch but I look forward to seeing more of this pair in the future. If the NPCs we see develop with the refugee fate story are as interesting it will show alot of promise of GW2’s developing story.

I beleive I heard in a interview that the patch at the end of may will turn our attention to the fates of the refugees that got displaced. Several of the ones we helped recover items for will have their stories continue and we will get to find out what the consortium is up to trying to relocate them to Southsun Cove.

Apparently they have the next 12 months of Living Story planned out. As it progresses it will shot off plot threads that will develop into new stories. As it develops we will play and see the stories of several plots throughout tyria play out.

I dont know if they will be adding any new full zones at any time in the near future. I think they want to expand on areas already in the world. That doesnt mean we wont discover new smaller and instanced areas and we will see older areas have new things appear in them.

Personally I think one of the threads we will discover in this last chapter of Flame and Frost is we will discover that a third party was behind the Molten Alliance. We might not find out who they are straight away but I thing they will be an enemy that we will be clashing with into the future.

I had a similar problem to you. Since the spawn points seem to be different on different servers Im not sure I can help you. I ended up finding mine close by to one of the locations listed on Dulfy but not actually the location listed.

One option is to try guesting to a different server and checking the spots you know it may spawn again. It could quite likely have been spawned in one of those spots on that server.

Sorry I cant offer you more advice. It should be near one of the spawn points listed on the internet but it might not be exactly on the spot listed.

From my memory the Claw of Khan-Ur’s discription made it sound like a the name. A Claw. A fist weapon basicly.

The Legions were established by the children of the last Khan-Ur. The problem is the Khan-Ur has to be the strongest, toughest and smartest of Charr. He needs to convince every other charr that he is top dog. Thats one of the reasons there hasn’t been a Khan-Ur in over a thousand years.

Its possible that Smoldur could challange to become Khan-Ur but it has a risk. Its basicly a move to take control of the other Legions. If those legions arent convinced hes both worth it and strong enough it could trigger a civil war. For now the Claw gives Smoldur political leverage because his holding it gives him prestige.

Note that even when the Flame Legion ruled over the other Legions no Imperator of the Flame Legion ever managed to earn the title of Khan-Ur. That might give you an idea how hard it is.

Actually the May content apparently will follow what happens to the Refugees we helped in feb so we will probably be heading out to Southsun again.

It should direct you to report back to Rytlock in the Black Citadel. He will be in his office and there will be a scene that will start off the Braham part of the Razing content.

Also the Dead Drops are worth doing. You get the directions for them and the translation tool from an Order of Whispers guy across from the Refugee camp in the Black Citadel. They give hints about whats going on with the Dredge and Flame Legion.

Considering the Super Weapons are reminicant of old platform games Id say its on purpose.

My problem isnt in the SAB itself but that almost all the successful content with meat on it that we have gotten since release has been festivals or SAB.

Lost Shores didnt really work out that well. The first two months of F&F were very shallow. When we finally see things start to pick up in The Razing, it gets completely overshadowed by April first content. I actually want some solid stuff happening in Tyria which isnt either festival or a mostly unrelated sidegame.

Thats whats disappointing me. With the addition of SAB, April has had alot of content but I want stuff to do with Tyria’s storyline, not sidegames. We have had enough festival and sidegame stuff. Give me some actual development in Tyria.

They have stated there will be a second Flame and Frost release towards the end of April.

Im rather disappointed too. I really liked SAB but what I really wanted this month was a focus on Flame and Frost. SAB has completely sidelined it.

I like festival content like wintersday and SAB but it seems that the majority of featured content we are getting is festival content. Its kind of killing the vibe of the game world for me. My great hero spends all his time playing around.

One thing I like about Braham is his story feels like a bit of a role reversal or evolution of role for my character. In my PS, my character was a young untested hero who was mentored by a more experianced hero. Now its like Ive stepped into the role of mentor for Braham, giving him a steadying hand and making sure he doesnt fall in the deep end.

My character certianly has his own invested interests in what the FL is doing by its a cool sort of relationship to form with the young norn.

My brother was really critical and condesending about Braham’s hair… until I pulled out a photo of what his heir looked like when he was 17.

Shut him right up.

Considering that all the refugees getting moved to Southsun Cove are having to sign a lengthy contract, I suspect that we are going to see…. issues… arise from this small town. As to why they would move somewhere dangerous, I dont think the Consortium is being entirely honest with them.

Since we are talking about them, I thought Id quote the Dead Drops directly:

- The dredge and Flame Legion fought today. Cracks in the partnership are showing. Even in victory, they’re uneasy among each other. I’m trying to learn more but keep hitting a wall.

- Was nearly discovered at last drop. Flame Legion are getting suspicious. Or Antsy. They don’t like being this deep underground, away from the sun. Having Baelfire rituals more often.

- Looking into a reason for the alliance. Little success. Something pushed the Flame Legion and dredge together, but it wasn’t desperatation or minions of Primordus. So what? Why?

- A combination of Flame Legion magic and dredge technology scared me breathless today. It was collossal…horrifying. Called “kom-pew”-somthing. Couldn’t catch it all before they hurried away.

- New Prisoners every day. Never heard of Flame Legion and dredge taking so many. Some put in pens, others taken to “Weapons testing.” Haven’t heard anything about that. Not sure I want to.

- Troop movements east, south, and west. Using caverns and digging machines to hasten passage underground. Theyre’re things down here…disgusting…even worse than the Flame Legion and dredge.

- I want this on record: The food down here is the nastiest slop I’ve ever tasted. Just crap. If I survive, I want a raise and a vacation, or I’ll flay anyone who tries to return me to field ops.

- Saw a Flame Legion berserker wearing dredge weapons. Said he couldn’t wait to use the tech on casters. Don’t approach his kind without some seriously heavy-duty armor.

- Big Fight. A Flame Legion shaman refused to give flame magic to moletariat-selected dredge. They burned him alive, and the dredge got their disturbing transformation. Watch out for them.

- Took out a power plant by exploiting unstable elements and valve weaknesses. Caught the engineers by surprise. That’s two dredge and one Flame Legion soldier less for us.

- Got a good look at the dredge drilling machine’s controls. They’re not that different from charr machinery. Probably altered so Flame Legion soldiers can operate it. Could work in our favour.

- I’ve seen things developed down here that make me both excited and alarmed. Excited, because we can steal the prototypes for ourselves. Alarmed, becuase right now they’re in enemy hands.

Theres some really interesting stuff in there. Its got me thinking that rather than the kidnapping being a key to what is happening, it might be the whole point. The vents we see around everywhere are not a weapon but a side effect of power stations. The dredge and the Flame Legion are trying to develop something new. The attacks on the surface are to raid for new prisoners rather than a focused war effort to conquer territory.

Something is holding this alliance together when its clear neither side is really keen on it. My guess is greed.

A few lines get me curious. One is “There are things down here…. disgusting. Worse than Flame Legion and Dredge.” Gravelings maybe?

Im not incline to give too much feedback until Im sure there is nothing else happening this month. Arenanet has stated that things will change as the weeks progress so there may be more left before the next patch.

As for current feedback.

Pros

- I like the characters. I find they both have potential. Its clear having read through all the dialog that their connections to the story and their plot have been carefully thought out. It also is giving us a chance to learn more about established characters which I like. I found my self curious and wanting to know more about the history and relationship between Eir and her son and wondering what actually happened to Rox’s old warband.

- I like that thought has been put into what important members of the involved powers are up to. It was interesting getting an inside view on the Charr command dealing with the problem and the issues they were struggling with. It also explained why the charr army hasnt mobilised out onto Diessa in force in a way that made sense.

- I like that my rank from my personal story mattered. Being recognised as the Commander of the Pact and being treated as a high ranking official was really cool. It makes it feel like my character holds respect in the world.

- The Dead Drops were easy and quick but I liked the little hints you could draw from them.

- I enjoy how we have having the plot diverge into seperate directions with the Southsun refugee thing on one side and the battle against the Molten Alliance on the other.

- I dig the new enemies.

- Theres alot of great seeding of hints throughout the content that suggest more. This builds a sense of mystery into what is going on and Ive spent a fair amount of time speculating with freinds about it.

- Cutscenes were a good medium for establishing settings.

Cons

- I think the missions were rather too repedative mechanics wise. In both cases it was wipe out a bunch of guys, talk to a guy then take and defend a spot. It would have been nice if things were mixed up a bit.

- A few details might have helped with the story. For example, I was suprised how many people I talked to who didnt realise how young Braham actually was. Having NPCs around during the missions that could explain things helped though Eir walked out too quickly in her scene.

- I didnt mind the rewards but I understand why some people were disappointed. Not sure of a good solution for you there.

Over all, I think its a positive step. I’ll be curious to see if we get anything more before the next patch. One mission each and the Dead Drops for one month seems very slow pacing for a game you can play every day. Ill hold my judgement though until I see how it plays out.

Is it really that hard to read the non spoken dialog. Most of your questions would be answered if you did.

Firstly, Braham approaches Rytlock first because he doesnt want to go to Hoelbrak cause he wants to avoid meeting Eir. He and her dont get on well.

Secondly, the Norn are struggling for the same reason the Charr are. The Molten Alliance is fighting them with hit and run tactics and have been only attacking vunerable targets and in force. Norn are strong but not invincable. They lack a target to strike back against. At this point they can only fight back after taking a hit.

Thirdly, Knut, like Smolder, is expecting the Molten Alliance to be biulding up to an attack on Hoelbrak. He wants to be sure he has enough forces there to fight them off.

Fourth, the people at Cragstead are sticking their heads out. If you listened to what Knut said, he said they should come to where they could be defended. They ignore the threat and so it bits them on the kitten Knut has his own issues to deal with. The steaders being stubborn and foolish.

Fifth, Braham is like 17. The guy is technically still a kid. Hes a very young man trying to protect his people from themselves.

Seriously, its amazing how much people have missed. Do people need everything spoonfed to them these days? Is it really that hard to be a little proactive to find out information?

Its worth pointing out that Eir doesnt talk about her son. The fact she has one is probably not common knowledge and neither Braham and Eir seem to like bringing it up in detail.

Being a lore geek, I like outside sources of lore to flesh out stories. Games always have a limitation to what they can portray and share of stories because of the tools available and the resource requirements to develop the content.

Thats the joy of multimedia appoaches. They allow the development of story from several angles. While its important for them to keep the game as the central source of story, having outside sources like this short story really build on that basis.

I liked this short story and hope we get more.

Couples split up all the time while they still have babies. The problem most people seem to have is that the child went with the father rather than Eir.

Eir hasnt forgotten she has a child. She has barely seen him since he was baby. He was raised by another family as well. Its not an easy situation for her. We dont know why Borje left her in Hoelbrak. We dont know why Eir chose to stay out of her son’s life. Perhaps Borje requested it for some reason.

Without knowing the details its very hard to guess. Its quite possible that she avoided him because she felt she didnt have the right to barge into his life when he was with a caring family and she was a stranger.

I think this is a good development. They are fleshing out existing characters. Through Braham we are learning more about Eir’s past, her motivations and her failings. To me this doesnt seem forced and makes alot of sense.

I think one of the keys to exactly what the Molten Alliance is trying to do is what they are doing with the prisoners, which hopefully we will learn soon. Both the Charr and the Norn expect that their respective capitols are the true target of the Molten Alliance and that could be true but I suspect there is more going on than that. Many of the hints we have been getting suggest the Molten Alliance actually has a substancial presence beneath the ground.

I do suspect that the Molten Alliance are proxies to another group or person. There alliance is pretty unnatural and sounds like it has some opposition within its own ranks. The two groups have also intergrated suprisingly quickly. There is an endgame here that I dont think we have seen yet and I suspect that it might not be what the Molten Alliance actually expects it to be.

Theres alot of questions and not many answers yet. Never the less, Ive found it interesting to see how the two races are struggling to deal with this foe in their own ways. The norn lack an effective organised response since they dont really have an organised army.

The Charr on the other hand are have the firepower but lack a target. This seems to be causing big problems stratigicly. They arent facing an open war or a predictable foe and as such lack the ability to bring all their strength to bare. As a result they are force to either spread thin and take losses to focused attacks or bunker down in defensive locations.

FantasticHaz.9804:

I don’t understand how they went about designing her like this.

http://i.imgur.com/1hKr6ea.jpg
This is the concept art from the hatchery and she looks perfect in this, then they give her a completely different look. What? What was wrong with the art’s depiction? Now she just looks freakishly out of place.

It doesn’t even make sense lore wise either, NO charr has eyes that big, not even the charr children. Even if the kids are just minimized versions of normal charr models the eyes still make sense to be that small, felines and humans in real life never have HUGE eyes while they’re young.

If you read the Art leads post he states that they wish to have a wide variety of Charr appearance reflecting many forms of cat.

Her appearance looks kind of freaky but I dont mind having characters with odd appearances. If they had made her cutesy it would be annoying but shes not. As a result, for me, her appearance simply becomes an odd querk of her character.

Nightarch.2943:

I like how he’s rocking the Titansteel Destroyer and Neverending Winter. He certainly is an ex-crafter and raider of WoW.

Ok…..

Why the same post in two different Threads?

Nightarch.2943:

Straight outta WoW, looks like Braham got bored of crafting and raiding. Came here instead and brought his favourite items with him.

Not really unless you mean that both weapon and sheild share a glow. Apart from that they are quite different models.

You might want to take a closer look at Brahams weapon. For a start it doesnt have horns on it.

Ive run into a few. Molten Gunners, Molten Brawlers. Those Flamed up dredge that summon an area of invunrablity.

Yeah, theres a number of new enemies.

Braham’s appearance matchs the fact that hes only 17. One of the refugees at the refugee camp refers to him as a kid.

As for Eir, I think its hard to judge her fairly at this point. Eir and Braham’s father broke up for some reason when Braham was a child but we dont know the reasons. She stayed in Hoelbrak and he moved north. Since then the two havent seen each other much and bearly know each other.

When Braham’s father died, its quite possible that she chose to leave him with his foster family simply because they were people he knew. She was a stranger to him and knew little about being a mother.

We dont know why Braham and Eir dont get along. Braham seems to avoid her and be somewhat hostile to her. Thats the reason he approached Rytlock first. Im guessing Eir has never talked about it because its very personal and she felt no need to share. After all its not like Rytlock ever explained why he chose a assignment far from his warband prior to Edge of Destiny.

Personally, I like this. This is giving us a chance to learn more about key characters and their personal lives.

I agree. The Cut scenes were great for conveying the story. Overall Ive liked the VO and the dialog alot in The Razing so far.

Ive found no problem getting close to them by dodging through the sonic blasts. Once you in close you just need to get around behind it and make sure it doesnt get a bead on you and it goes down easy.

Braham says the reason he appoached Rytlock first was he wanted to avoid meeting his mother. It sounds like they dont get along well. We dont know the details yet. For whatever reason, Eir and Braham’s father Borj the Sun-Chaser seem to have a split after his birth. One of the people in Braham’s home settlement talks of when Borj arrived carrying Braham as a baby.

Hopefully we will learn more later. Id be curious about the age thing too. We know norn can live a very long time but how fast do they actually age? At what age to norn women stop being able to have babies?

Also, considering Rytlock never explained to anyone why he left his warband (the stone warband by the way) I suspect he wont be too angry at Eir if its clear its something Eir doesnt want to talk about.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It seems that only one centurion went towards Kryta (possibly a Tribune though), and I’d presume the same for Orr – though maybe a bit more since they brought Searing cauldrons (which they didn’t seem to have to Kryta). Those two kingdoms were “secondary targets” for the charr. So there wasn’t really much a split and the charr were constantly pressuring Ascalon after the Searing.

Actually I suspect most of the Charr army was driven on towards Orr. In the Realm of Torment a Charr shamam says “Always toward Arah, where the gods once lived. All that awaited us there was death. What sort of god would lead its people to destruction?”

To me, that suggests that Ascalon was just in the way. The titan’s, and Abaddon’s, target was Arah from the very start. The Charr was simply the means for Abaddon to let his servant use a forbidden spell.

Im curious though weither Abaddon targeted Arah because he saw Orr as a threat to him breaking free or for some other purpose. Regardless, the whole charr invasion was quite likely just to set up the scenario that caused the Cataclysm.

Generals that lead from the front lines are idiots. They are exposing the entire chain of command to risk and leaving their forces open for crippling damage.

This is why the PC cant be Marshal. Its also why he ‘doesnt do anything’. He does alot. He runs an army. Infact the only times he actually exposes himself is during critical missions where his expertise is needed or when he has to prove himself to others.

Trehearne’s contribution is fine with me. Fort Trinity didnt build its self. All the gear and tech the Pact has and I got to use didnt invent and produce itself. The support we get from other nations didnt materialise out of no where. Someone had to do all the admin work for that and establish the plans and logistics to make the invasion work.

The player, on the other hand, actually gets the freedom to run around as he pleases, choose which missions he wants to be involved in and use all the cool toys Trehearne spent all the time getting produced and supplied.

The poor kitten deserves some credit. His job would have sucked.

Also, its been said before but Ill say it again. The reason Kormir turned into a god was thanks to the other gods. She didnt ‘steal’ the godhood from the player characters. If they had tried what she tried they would have probably just blown up. The Five Gods made the choice, not Kormir.

rootnode.9546:

BobbyStein.2315:

Thanks again for all the constructive feedback. It matters.

Thanks for a post like that. Would it be too difficult to post a comment like that in the Guild Missions thread? Maybe 3-4 sentences instead of 2? That would be MUCH appreciated.

I dont think that Bobby is part of the team in charge of Guild Missions. Posting tends to be a pretty optional thing for devs. The best he can do is point out the thread to devs who do deal with Guild Missions which the CM team probably already has.

I have alot of respect for devs who actively communicate on forums cause forum goers can be a rough lot.

On the actual topic, Ive decided Im gonna wait till I see how this set of stories pans out in the next two months before giving feedback. Its an exciting idea but I suspect it will take a little while to truely find its stride.

A very interesting slip up. Ive suspected that if there was a ‘plant’ dragon it might be linked to the drying up of the Maguuma. It would explain alot. Lots of plants in nature consume all reasources from the area which basicly kills of all other plants around it. In fact Reyna in GW1 actually has dialog where she speculates its actually the iron wood trees that dried up the desert. Perhaps this was a side effect of it awakening.

I wouldnt be suprised if the Sylvari are linked to the Jungle Dragon but I doubt they are minions. If anything it would seem more likely they were a response to it. If the Jungle Dragon is responsable for the drying up of the Maguuma then the Sylvari could have been created as a counter. I think its much more likely the Sylvari have some relation to Druids than the ED, particularly since they have an Elite Skill that summons a Druid Spirit.