Guild Wars 2

The only real good news out of any of this, is that if we’re lucky we’ll get to see this whole thing blow up in her face soon. I personally find it very likely that once the krait find out that they were duped, they will shatter their alliance and bring the full brunt of their anger on her (if or when they can find Scarlet). I personally think one of the best ways that this could end would be finding this location on the other side of the second portal type (the steam-pipe location) and fighting out way through it only to see that Scarlet is already failing utterly. Her Molten Alliance and Toxic alliance are fighting each other/her, the Inquest have abandoned her, and the Aetherblades are starting to think that perhaps protecting her isn’t worth what she pays. We get to the top/end just in time to land the final blow, destroying her completely.

I was gonna say, farming Empyreals in WvW towers or short JP’s like Urmaug’s is way more worthwhile when it comes to rewards than these chambers.

For someone who was angered by the existence of this Living Story (and still thinks that ArenaNet has lessened the character of the krait by making them so gullible) the cut scene at the end was pretty good. It made me actually have a halfway decent opinion about Scarlet’s design for a few moments.

I would agree with drax on the power source to the flame thrower just based on it’s description in GoA. When the hose gets broken, instead of fuel leaking out, flames do. Now in a normal flame thrower, the fire doesn’t start until the fuel reaches the tip of the gun, allowing the fuel and the air to mix well before ignition. It could be a lack of understanding as to how flame throwers work, but I’d say for now that it is likely that the source of the flame may be magical, but it doesn’t make it any less techy than anything the Asura come up with.

I personally found him halfway decent in the books, although I personally enjoyed Edge of Destiny (mainly because of the huge lore drop of Glint’s connection to Kralky) but so many others write it off as the worst piece of writing ever. I personally disagree, I know I have read the worst book ever because I remember reading it. Do not bother asking me the title or author though, because most of it is suppressed memory which would probably be fully irretrievable :P

I may be wrong, but I think JenLo is referencing Jennah/Logan.

Honestly, when I was doing invasions in the Clockwork Chaos, it felt like she was surprised that I (and 10,000 other adventurers) were able to defeat her. Her dialogue seemed to point to her expecting to succeed at something, sadly this isn’t visible in game anymore as her invasions always fail due to diluted rewards or champion farming.

Although it should be noted that there are different kinds of magic. The magic of Tyria is vastly different from the magic that is embodied in the human gods, and could very well be different from the “magic” that makes up what the Mists truly are.

The thing here is that when Ceara came out of the tree, it was explained that she had a good understanding of the intricacies of nature. “Ceara opened her eyes to a vibrant world of greens and golds and earthy browns. Sunlight streamed down through the canopy, nourishing the great trees and warming the ground level vegetation. All around, creatures of every shape and size called to one another, exploring, chasing, being chased, always in motion. Ceara blinked, pleasantly overwhelmed by it all. The world was a fascinatingly complex system of smaller, interlocking systems that affected one another in an ever-changing dance. It was beyond fascinating: it was life itself, and now she was a part of it.” I would say that in Scarlet’s case, her understanding of the intricacies of the earth was able to help in her understanding of mechanical systems, as opposed to the other way around.

True, but at the same time you have to have more than just heritage. I mean, among the charr military power is the true ruler. For someone among the charr to become Khan Ur they would have to have military might to back them. In fact, if the proper treaty with humanity comes into play, with all of the decisions that Smoldur has been making, plus his owning of the Claw of the Khan Ur, the game seems to be setting him (rather than Rytlock) up for the position. If he could get Ash legion to agree, he might just have the power to bring Blood Legion under his wing. As is, it seems that the only reason that they are “joining” in the treaty effort is because they are trying to avoid a possible two sided battle.

Yeah, the likelihood that she was “around for everyone’s personal stories” is unlikely. It seems more likely that people have been praising our characters since the earliest parts of our story and that because of this she has been able to glean as much information as she needs in order to get at us.

Yeah, I have to agree with Drax and Malafide, the asura are far from anyone’s shadow at the moment, and if anything, I would say that their influence over the story overshadow’s the sylvari as a race. Thus far Scarlet has had very little to do with her race, in fact she seems to be more like an asura in a sylvari’s skin with her super-intelligent-ness and her mustache twirling evil (honestly seems inquest-ish to me). Even the nightmare court aspect of this story and the Twilight Assault story are very diluted. Aside from the fact that you are inside of Twilight Arbor, the area has very little effect from the Nightmare Court aside from the first 10 minutes or so. And the Nightmare court themselves don’t say/do much in this current update, it seems much more strongly focused on the krait.

Redemption could only honestly be in a sort of “lesser of two evils” setting. Somehow her actions, however evil, prevent a greater evil from occurring. No matter what, though, her actions are in fact evil, so she will never be a “good guy.” A true protagonist, especially in Tyria, would always try to find the way to save everyone and not hurt people in the process, as opposed to killing a few to save a lot.

I’d say, along the line of Erukk, that Scarlet’s end would have to be bloody. There is no way that she would give up, and if we were able to stop her she would most likely be executed for her crimes. Her “silver-tongued” nature would make her too dangerous to leave alive, and to be honest, her crimes are well worthy of execution in almost any/every nation around.

I don’t remember anything about anyone saying that since I started the game. I merely remember him saying, basically, that he has been guarding or protecting this stuff for a hero of the same caliber as the GW1 hero. I don’t know the exact dialogue, but I don’t remember souls being mentioned.

Yeah, the original portals from Clockwork Chaos were more steam-pipe oriented, in fact I made certain to take a picture of it back then just for memory’s sake. I’m not certain how clear it will look, but I added it here just in case.

Not to mention that we’ve been told over and over and over again that she’s a silver-tounged individual who is able to coerce anyone into anything, but thus far her talk has been far from what you would expect from someone like that. I mean I would believe that she could do what she does with the alliances a little better if her dialogue seemed to match what we’re told about her.

ThiBash.5634:

What ruined Scarlet for me personally was the fact that when she was first released, she was much too heroic. She was presented as a genius even compared to Asura and that right there broke the lore for me. Because until that point, Sylvari were already the most diplomatic (only they ‘knew’ that the races should work together), the most magical (cleansing Orr), the most heroic (the only race that starts out by saying their purpose is to save the world) and having one of the 3 best smiths in the world (joining the pact). They have an expert on Orr that knows more than any human scholar. And added to that, they were immune to corruption and could foretell the future.

And then they had to make a Sylvari that was smarter than all Asura. At that point, Sylvari literally were the best at everything.

Sylvari would have been so much better if they were more like Seiran…you know, in the sense that they have a flaw (and only at the very end of her life did she understand what friendship was). Regardless, I deleted my Sylvari long before Scarlet came around…

I would prefer if you didn’t confuse scarlet hate with Sylvari hate. It’s been said already that she isn’t smarter than all asura, just that she got a crash course in all the colleges. The only one that she may have gotten any major experience in would have been synergetics.

It would make more sense that Malyck’s tree came from the same cave full of seeds that the Pale Tree’s seed came from.

I do not know that we have answers for any of those questions. From a biological stand point, grafting a branch to a tree is possible, but the way that Sylvari are built is a heck of a lot different from a tree, and if anything, it would be vastly more complex.

Nilkemia.8507:

ElenaDragon.8401:

What I am looking forward to is Wintersday, and I really hope the devs learned from Halloween that they can’t just repeat a bunch of old content for us to be satisfied. They need to add new stuff. And no ridiculous grinds please.

After what Halloween became during Blood and Madness, I’m not hopeful now.

Part of the problem, if we’re gonna be honest, is that they didn’t repeat all the old content. In fact, they removed a lot more than they added, while extending it which makes it a much less enjoyable event.

Yes, that one was the biggest crystal in Pockmark Flats. Another of the larger ones is still around in the Plains of Ashford not far from the statue of Balthazar. I think those are the only two remaining, but my memory isn’t the best. But I would note that those two are not in the way of taking charr siege down towards Ebonhawke, which is probably why they aren’t gone.

In the short story they posted on the GW2 website she showed hatred for the control that the Nightmare and Dream had over the Sylvari.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

That actually gave me an interesting idea. What if the Krait’s deities are real, and they are actually Gods with good intentions? What if the Krait really are their chosen people, and are paramount in the battle against the Elder Dragons? That would be an interesting 180 twist.

Well, as we go through, most of the “gods” that we’re introduced to have some real effect on the game’s world. We’re still not certain about the existence of Koda or Melaggan, but the Spirits of the Wild, Human Gods, Hylek Sun, and other such deities are seen to some extent in the world. Even, be it, just a simple meta in Caledon Forest. So having the krait gods be real, wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.

I just had a interesting thought. What if Scarlet didn’t give them obelisk shards as a gift, but as a threat. In my mind, perhaps Scarlet came down to them and said, “Hey you like these Obelisks right? Well here’s one, if you don’t want me to destroy every one of them you’ll do what I say!” and then flew off in an airship where they couldn’t reach her…

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Not to mention this would tie Scarlet to Canach and we were told in a forum post that Canach wasn’t tied to the Molten Alliance’s mysterious benefactor whom turned out to be Scarlet by all accounts known (though there’s still a tiny-to-insignificant chance they weren’t formed by her but overtaken by her upon their defeat by the Vigil, Braham, Rox, Canach, and the PCs). And while Anet certainly go back on their words, even I still have hope that they won’t tie everything (at this point being “Zephyrites, Canach, Consortium, Tequatl, and Moto”) in the Living Story to Scarlet.

That’s not necessarily true. Canach could very well have been doing this stuff on his own, outside of Scarlet’s influence. I personally doubt she would see him as a friend based on his MA attacks. But once he was removed from Southsun Cove and put into a Lionguard prison, Scarlet could very well have moved in and reaped some of the benefits of his research. We know that she has a very good understanding of the ways in which different systems integrate together, and in the very origins this was focused on the earth, not necessarily the technology that it has come to work around.

As to how the Pale Tree could become infected by the spores, I cannot be certain. My thoughts have ranged anywhere from infecting sylvari that are still in their pods, thus spreading madness within the dream by infecting those still sleeping, to somehow being able to corrupt the leaves of the Pale Tree (coating them, somehow infecting them) because of the fact that in normal trees leaves are how they breathe.

Or, as one stated, were taken out by charr technology in order to level out the ground and make moving seige engines faster.

I personally think it is more likely to have a relation to the Fervid Censor than a Pale Tree seed. I personally just do not see the leafy resemblance that you do. In fact, the top of a tower looks more like a dandelion than anything else. The blossom is brother to the weed, maybe, but it just doesn’t seem quite right. I have to wonder if this isn’t building up to what we know she has an interest in, and that is freeing the sylvari. I can’t help but wonder what kind of effect these spores could have on the Pale Tree if properly applied…

I think Konig’s just okay with Scarlet’s existence because he’s making money off her :P

There are 2 or 3 still around, the larger ones.

Scarlet is not who I have a problem with, although I do focus my frustrations on her. I’ve been willing to give her much more leeway than many others. But this current update has brought out a major anger over the very close to lore breaking plot of this Living Story. And this whole lore-break wraps itself neatly around Scarlet, focusing my anger on her.

I’ve honestly proposed something similar to that, having multi-zone battle fronts where players can, in effect, push the boundaries of war for increasing rewards and difficulty. If the players wanted they could push the centaurs out of Queensdale and the remaining hearts would deal with healing the land, building new fortifications, helping farmers start harvesting from their old homesteads, and dealing with the remaining threats (skritt, ettins, drakes, skale, UW portals, etc…). Of course, I didn’t expect them to do something like that with a living world update, it would be a major game overhaul, but in the end it would give the players a greater feeling of accomplishment for your actions and give players more reasons to return to lower level regions. I mean I know if I saw that the Flame Legion were pounding on the gates of the Black Citadel, I’d join in the fight and push them back to the Citadel of Flame, or join the humans in an effort to push out the bandits that eventually turns into a coalition to push the Sinister Triad all the way back to their citadel in Brisban Wildlands.

There seems to be very little pointing towards the gods knowing a lot about the Elder Dragons, or at the very least the locations of them as they slept. But if any of the gods did, I would state that it is very likely that the God of Secrets did. I would guess that it is very possible that Abaddon did some playing with Elder Dragon magic. It seems, based on what we see, that Elder Dragon magic only corrupts when channeled in a specific way, so it would be somewhat benign. I have to wonder if this couldn’t be some of the reason that he was “strong enough to take on two gods, but not all five” and if this could shed more light on why such a schism separated between him and the others. It seems clear that Kralkatorrik’s magic was likely channeled during the Searing, and I would say that IF Zhaitan’s magic was used in the cataclysm, it wasn’t him doing the actions, but magic being channeled out of him, thus not creating the minion like mentality within the Lich Lord. The Jade Wind (from what we’ve been told, aka until it gets changed) was a corruption of a magical blessing given by Dwayna. And Nightfall was entirely the machinations of Abaddon from the Realm of Torment. I do not see why Elder Dragons should be linked to either of these evens, Nightfall most of all. Nighfall was an invasion from the Mists, which the dragons held no control over before awakening.

The third solution you mentioned was the one I was pointing towards as a possibility. We already seem to know that the sylvari from the same pale tree are sterile, in the sense that they cannot reproduce within the same colony.

This doesn’t rule out that they aren’t just fruits containing seeds which they spread once they die, but at the same time, most sylvari death sites that we currently see do not show any signs of a new tree growing, and we know for a fact that the Pale Tree was planted and grew to a very noticeable object within the course of roughly 10 years. So places such as Rhiannoc’s grave should show some sign of new growth which it doesn’t.

There are a lot of points like that Fafnir. Although I would like to point out that according to some norn, at points in time there were thousands of Norn fighting Jormag simultaneously and he took them all out with a single swipe. So we aren’t looking at the norm when looking at Aesgir, we are looking at an exceptional Norn. Another instance like this found would be Queen Jennah. She was able to create a massive mesmer fabrication which convinced an army of branded to leave. She immobilized her army, made them appear as branded, and then created a huge projection of an Elder Dragon which was believable enough to convince the branded to leave the city and follow after it. How many mesmers in game can produce this kind of illusion? Does this mean mesmers were brought low in power in order to “balance” the game? The answer is, Of Course! The game needs to be fair to everyone, otherwise a warrior charging an elementalist will be immolated before reaching them, or a norn could trounce an asura just by staring at them.

Interesting thought to cross my mind…

What if the sylvari aren’t sterile? What if the problem is that they are all fruit of the same tree. For proper reproduction to occur, genetic information from a different tree would be needed. So, just a random thought, what if a sylvari from our Pale Tree and Malyck’s tree had intercourse and created a real sylvari baby. One which held a seed to a new Pale Tree.

Thus far, the Pale Tree’s fruit is created solely from within, without the use of the normal pollen-flower method (from what we can tell). So it could make sense that the sylvari are a different type of “fruit.” This fruit, which is living, would be allowed to go out and find other “fruit” with which to reproduce and create new life. The problem is, thus far, all sylvari reproduction has happened within the exact same genetic pool. Perhaps there is some sort of safe-guard to prevent that from occurring.

In some ways I like this, but then I can only imagine what would happen when the next Tequatl-esque LS comes out and makes another Dragon Champ impossible on most servers. Giving players on certain servers no hope or possibility of making their world better just doesn’t make this game good in anyway.

One Month. Flame and Frost was IMO the best content we’ve had so far. It progressed well, was relatively well polished, and gave us time to spend our days doing other progression if we wanted. It just felt more realistic.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I actually made that joke theory before, Narcemus. He’s involved with Jory and Kasmeer, and he’s held past interest in keeping DR Ministry in check (personal story), so he fits. And as a mesmer (though not a good one), he’d be able to mask his voice with illusion and I would be surprised if he didn’t have an easy time with faking his personality.

I had not read this theory, lol, it would be an interesting alteration to Lord Faren though.

Whether or not there’s a “slim” chance that someone else is involved, I’m pretty sure the picture for the next update puts the last nail in the coffin. Although, should the story change somehow with the next update, then I would expect Thal to return the money I’ve sent him. I will not hold out hope for that at this particular moment.

The quaggan in my PS specifically told me that their new home was just north of LA, if I remember correctly. Although that was a long time ago. Nonetheless, Shashoo was in my Home Instance.

I think there’s a good chance that the next LS update will also deal with the Tower of Nightmares and that there may be a spore node in your Home Instance, if not still in the world. I’ve got a feeling that even if we somehow destroy the tower (which I’m not even sure will happen) that the offshoot events might still effect the world for a time.

It’s been theorized before. There are some areas around certain sylvari’s remains that have strange effects, such as the Secluded Glade, but there are also areas around sylvari remains that have no distinguishable effect at all, such as Riannoc’s grave site. I would say it is possible, and that we’re just seeing failed and sprouting seeds, but we don’t really have anything to go off of.

Mr. E is actually a side of Lord Faren that we’ve never seen before. By day he’s a playboy lord always chasing after women. By night he’s Mr. E… No one would guess this because his name begins with F not E…. :P

What he’s saying is that it is repeatable. There are achievements like this, such as Agent of Entropy. Once you complete it you get a reward bag and it resets so you can get it again after another 8 games. I think the 50 achievement points is just the maximum you can receive from that achievement. So in other words, it is not an achievement that you can max out in order to get the meta-achievement. To finish the meta-achievement you HAVE to do some of the daily halloween achievements as well.

It’s because they haven’t done anything with the Home Instance, or haven’t decided what to do with it to give us motivation to spend more time there (resource nodes and skill challenges only go so far…)

I’m interested in seeing where they will go with this too. I don’t think that they could connect Evon to Abaddon for us without bringing in some sort of plot about it, and the same goes for Kiel and Thaumanova. I have to wonder what interest she would have in it.

Quite possibly a evolutionary ancestor of the Harpy based on Elonian lore.

I would say though, based on what we’ve seen of the Hypnoss that the chaos cloud creation and the hallucinations speak more to a mesmer than a necromancer. The poison cloud effect could just be a basic krait “racial” skill, seeing as poison has long been related to them.

Not certain. Just pointing out a possibility.

^agreed with Konig there. Killed a lot of them today.