Guild Wars 2

Well, the fact that the magical anomalies and surges are sporadic means to me that it is likely that the whole world hasn’t reached these levels of concentration, merely certain areas, likely in proximity to major leyline. Though without more information on how magic works we obviously can’t prove it one way or another. I am curious, though, have we been given any information as to why Mordremoth’s death had a much different reaction than Zhaitan’s?

I personally take it not as being the sheer amount of magic in the world as much as the speed at which it was released. I think of it like if you were to watch a dam burst flood occur. The world can honestly handle the amount of water within the reservoir behind the dam, but because it occurs so fast the rivers overflow their banks and widespread devastation occurs. I think, like a dam burst flood, after some time the magic levels would eventually equalize, but the danger comes from the rest of the dragons. Eventually the magic from all of the dragons would be too much for the world.

I don’t know that Xera counts as a good example, especially since, if I recall right, her skills were due to a strong boost of Bloodstone magic. We do know that a Mesmer can create the illusion of a large army, as per the history of Ebonhawke, but I don’t recall there being mention of the army being any more than a distraction. I have a feeling that the bigger and more grand the illusion a Mesmer creates, the harder it is to make them tangible, though I have no proof of that.

Well yes, that was my assumption. Brand new maps that show up on the overworld map as being beneath known world locations. I mean, if we go to war with primordus we 2ill likely need to go deep.

Or, if they eventually start opening underground maps, like I have a feeling they will around the time of Primordus’ fight, it may just be located underneath any of the maps in the area.

I have to hope that knowing what Lazarus has done with one stone, we might start the process of tracking the remaining Bloodstones (including the ones we don’t know their locations). In order to defend them from further incursions.

Leo G.4501:

Narcemus.1348:

The problem is that Titles are the best way Arenanet currently has to speak towards the main character without having the capability to actually say names. If we remove titles like Commander and Pooh Bah what are they are going to call us? “Hey you?”

You can’t be that uncreative, can you?

You call me uncreative get include no “creative” input of your own as to how you get around the scenario of naming the character with voice actors without giving them a title of some sort. The only thing I could think of when removing the title Pact Commander would be using some of the personal titles, but even that includes a ton of extra voice acting…

The problem is that Titles are the best way Arenanet currently has to speak towards the main character without having the capability to actually say names. If we remove titles like Commander and Pooh Bah what are they are going to call us? “Hey you?”

The Ghosts are really bound to the area by the Foefire magic that created them. So I don’t thing you could “lure” them too far away from any given area without first breaking the curse.

Also, the Consortium doesn’t hold exclusive rights to tge Fractals, although I’m sure if something like this did happen they might find a way to make a profit off of it.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

That seems more to be relating not to “the gift of magic” which even more recent sources cite Abaddon as the sole giver but more in line with the events of the scriptures – particularly that of Grenth, and possibly Balthazar, Lyssa, and Dwayna.

…huh. I’ve always read that one too fast, I guess, and ended up seeing what I expected to see, but that more recent source? It’s not talking about Abaddon apportioning out magic at all.

Based on some of the other things Nickolas says, his mention of giving the stone away, rather than magic away may have been a misunderstanding of his. It does seem like this is a summary of his, and as such might not be truly accurate.

Much of GW1 Lore changed when we learned about the existence of the Elder Dragons. That was when a multitude of what had been truths in the original game became false beliefs and the Elder Dragons forced people to search more into the ancient history of the world. The Human Gods did not create Tyria, but they likely cleansed it of Dragon corruption (one theory of what Balthazar was burning off of the Peninsula) and rejuvenated it (likely largely the work of Melandru). They also did not create Tyrian magic or the Bloodstone. There is cold hard evidence to prove that the Seers did that earlier.

The statement that he is making is simply that the humans themselves know about the regular average creature that is termed a Dragon by running into them in multiple locations. Sadly, while the Charr have myths about the Elder Dragons, there is no evidence that the Charr have had any contact with the dragons that humanity knew about, because they are so far separated.

It is always possible that there is yet to come a military funeral within the Pact. My guess would be that the organization would want to stabilize a little bit after their losses and have someone set up to be the next Marshall of the Pact. Based off of what we hear, there seems to still be rescue missions ongoing so it might take a little while, but I’m hopeful that we’ll see some sort of memorial, perhaps they’ll force all the Trehearn haters say a bunch of nice about him before we finish the instance!

Good thoughts. I had always assumed that it was the fountain of truth that caused us to not be noticed, but I’m fairly certain that it’s never explained.

I could see this magical concentration in Bloodstone Fen becoming dangerous to health, like nuclear radiation, perhaps as the region settles (assuming that it may), and perhaps the ability to survive in such environments. Otherwise I’m not sure, perhaps the ability to use Mursaat, Forgotten or other ancient magics? There’s a lot of possibilities.

In many situations necromancer are seen presiding over the dead and dealing with spiritual matters. That said, though, Necromancers have been a kind of black sheep in society for a while. I clearly remember a town crier in GW1 that asked me to keep my distance because I grossed him out. THERE was also, in the time of GW1 a society of spell casters that did their best to make sure that different spell casters didn’t cross moral lines, or that they are hunted down should such occur, which happened twice. Once with Oberan the Reviled, and once with Verata. In GW1, minions were patched together from the bodies of the deal, and thanks to the book Ghosts of Ascalon, we know that is still possible in GW2’s time frame. But whether the minions we make in GW2 are from bodies or just summoned from the Mists is an unknown.

Gotta wonder what Virdant Brink would look like if/when those vines start to either dry out or decay… I could see this decay eventually causing sinkholes to appear all over the place…

virus.4370:

In GW1, the game makes it very clear that the White Mantle were working to launch the Mursaat apocalypse. They literally sacrificed thousands of innocents to release the Titans (remember: the titans?)

the white mantle was protecting the Mursaat from proph..because the Mursaat was helping the Mantle protect kryta from outside threats…aka Quid pro quo..and they didn’t kill thousands..they was only in control for few years. Confessor Isaiah is the leader of the White Mantle during the War in Kryta; he is responsible for the deployment of the Peacekeepers and the Inquisitors. He rose from his position as a Justiciar after the death of Confessor Dorian…if the “hero of gws 1” never killed dorian and sided with the Shining blade..after the Shining blade was murdering While mantle guards like the bandits in gws 2 that was protecting the people from other threats..there would have been no peacekeepers or war in kryta. salma wanted to take power from the white mantle after the white mantle saved Kryta did all the work of stopping the invading forces and peace was returning..and far as mass murder, the queen in gws 2, seraph, shining blade, and lionguard doesn’t murder people in general..they let the centaurs and krait do their dirty work.. hence a cave so filled with bones of people you walk on it like a floor..and can break the veil of the underworld there.. in the sylvari area there is a lionguard fort next to a krait slave storage..and dead bodies in the water..great protection.. so they don’t kill people they just don’t stop it..which is no better then just killing the people, themselves..since they are the people who are “guarding” and "protecting " the people.

Except we have in game sources that state explicitly that in the few years that they were in control they killed thousands. That means if they stayed in power we’d be looking at hundreds of thousands of not millions, assuming that the rate of murder slowed down at some point. Kryta would be filled with either White Mantle members, or soon to be dead men.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

virus.4370:

to me the White Mantle was good in general. they was trying to keep a nation safe.

You realize, “trying to keep a nation safe” is a same line used by both repressive and progressive regimes. It’s propaganda, even if it’s believed by some of the citizenry.

In GW1, the game makes it very clear that the White Mantle were working to launch the Mursaat apocalypse. They literally sacrificed thousands of innocents to release the Titans (remember: the titans?)

It’s true that the original Mantle, as conceived by Saul et al, did work to protect humans. However, those goals were eventually corrupted. Saul wouldn’t fit in with the current Mantle, any more than Marx would find sufficient common ground with modern Marxists or Communists.

tl;dr no, we aren’t going to join the White Mantle

I do want to note that they were using the souls of the killed to prevent the release of the titans, not to release them. Because the prophecy stated that the Titans would destroy the Mursaat. This does not make the wholesale murder of thousands of individuals over the course of just a few years acceptable, though. The white mantle are, and will always be, straight up evil.

We don’t know which direction Saul was exiled in or where he found the mursaat. We only know that it was a dense forest, so it’s likely that it could be woodland cascades, but that isn’t specified. Also, the Isle of Janthir is only claimed to be the location of a group of people who have the gift of true sight and that he got the eye from them, but at the time it was claimed to have been south, not North of continental Tyria. So he could have just gone to the ring of fire to get it from the mursaat, or, if he went to the Isle of Janthir, it is possible that he claimed the Eye from another people group that could have been friends, or possibly enemies of the Mursaat. There are too many unknowns about the Mursaat and their place of origins to say anything for sure.

Ninja’d by Konig…

You know, the Fate of Menzies could honestly just be an omen. Something Balthazar made to show what he would do if he caught Menzies. It doesn’t necessarily mean a date that has already happened, but could be a gate that’s yet to come.

I run a minions reaper, and I can tell you that in HoT or anywhere else I rarely struggle. At least not in PvE. I’m mediocre in PvP and I honestly haven’t done WvW in ages.

And one would guess that there may have been more Dragon rises between the extinction of lupicus and the previous Dragon rise, since waiting for 8,000 years to rise and then only waiting 3,000 seems weird, although one could explain that away due to the tampering of the Gods with the bloodstone.

Still though, isn’t there evidence pointing to the jotun having surviving multiple Dragon rises? If so, either there are more Dragon rises than we know of or the Jotun have an extremely looooooong history reaching back over 10,000 years.

OriOri.8724:

How does the power of the human gods compare to that of the elder dragons? Are they strong enough to stop the elder dragons, possibly even kill them, if they wanted to? If so why haven’t they helped? Are they weaker than the elder dragons? If so that implies that our character is stronger than a god since he killed Mordremoth pretty much single handedly.

The Gods and Elder Dragons are roughly the same in power, but the collateral damage from such a war would be huge. I mean the war against 1 god turned the Crystal sea into the Crystal Desert and the Desolation. Just imagine what little would remain against 4 remaining Elder Dragons

Erukk.1408:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Which implies that, for some reason, half of the Elder Dragons went to Central Tyria at the end of the last dragonrise, but prior were far more spread out than we see them in GW2.

If all the Elder Dragons have the ability to gain the knowledge of an individual that they corrupted, I can see them all invading Central Tyria in a mad dash to stop the creation of the Bloodstone after they gained that information. Because an ultimate weapon that would be them in a state of indefinite hibernation? That’s a threat that deserves the upmost attention from all of them.

I would agree that the likeliest reason for them coming close to central Tyria would have to do with the creation of the bloodstone and/or perhaps the Tyrian Civilizations hidden by Glint were the last life forms to survive, so the dragons came to try and find them in their last known location.

Or the fabric of reality is merely torn to shreds and Tyria as we know it is gone.

It is also equally possible that Mordremoth had just so coerced her that she thought her actions in waking Mordremoth were in the best interests of Tyria. Mordremoth is “the world” in his mind after all.

Yeah, that was me, Konig, and I continued to take it even a step farther in theorizing that magic may be the source of all sentient life. Though I would highly doubt that I was the first to theorize that Djinn may have been created that way. It is really just a short leap to go from areas of high magical concentration create Elementals to areas of higher magical concentration creating Djinn. Or Djinn being Elementals that have lived long enough to gain sentience, or perhaps have accumulated more magic after being “born” until such a point that they gained sentience.

Very true. It would be incredibly hard to use your money to support someone who has reacted like Gnashblade. I mean, first he abandoned the city after getting as many of his goods out as possible, and then he used the quartermaster responsibility that Ellen Keil gave him to push out competition and solidify his standing.

And of course bacon! Tyria is a sad world where the only form of visible bacon is toxically cured…

MithranArkanere.8957:

As for GW2, in my eyes Makeover kits are part of the lore since the addition of the Anatomical Engineer in GW1. So I wish Sya should have used that instead illusions. Why bothering with mesmer illusions if you can make real permanent changes with asura science perfected over 250 years with experiments on unknowing humans who not only volunteered to test it, but even funded the research?

Perhaps a Total Makeover Kit is just too expensive for someone living on a budget? Perhaps the illusion is just a temporary fix? Who knows? We don’t really have a good idea of what the income of npc’s is in comparison to that of us adventurers.

And I also recall a study in gold mentions the seer’s in a way that makes them seem to have created bloodstones for multiple dragon rises.

Dimitris.3195:

While doing content in Auric Basin, specifically the message of the last Forgotten to the Exalted I tried to make in my mind a timeline of how things happened with Tarir, the creation of the Exalted etc. We know that Tarir was erected after the events of Guild Wars (since there was no trace of it in Maguuma during the events of the first game), but a long time before the events of Guild Wars 2 and also during that time the Exalted came to be.

My question is when exactly did the Forgotten leave his parting message to the Exalted? According to the text we find throughout the city that particular Forgotten lived through the events that led to the death of Glint, maybe even witnessed it, since he references it. This event took place, about 6 years before the start of Guild Wars 2, so the message was probably written during that time, when potentially the Exalted were still in hibernation. Yet, if I am not mistaken, they revere this particular text, in a way that it might fool someone it existed long before the events of Guild Wars 2, before even the Exalted slept.

I won’t ask whether or not this particular Forgotten could still be out there, since that delves into possible spoiler territory, but I would like to know if the reference to Glint was a mistake by the developers or actual fact, so I can trace more accurately when the message was left.

Thank you sir for answering our questions! Cheers!

I do not recall where, but I could swear I read a dev state that the forgotten knowing about Glint’s death was a mistake and that should be corrected, but sadly I do not have a link.

Oh I personally doubt that to be true, I just figure Tyrian life has to have some reason for existence other than evolution. I mean with Elder Dragons wiping out all life every 1,000-10,000 years normal evolution just isn’t an answer. Of course The Mists is the easy answer for everything related to that. But do we have any evidence of The Mists directly effecting Tyria in that way? I mean I can’t think of a situation where The Mists just generated life forms within Tyria. Or are you of the opinion that The Mists creates life and then the life forms find their way to Tyria.

If this is true, and not explained away by other means, this could give an explanation to the existence of Elementals, Djinn, and (if you try really hard) the existence of life itself. I mean, we already know that the soul is powerful magic, would it be really be that hard to believe that the body is merely flesh drawn together like rock, water or fire to encase and protect said souls, which are honestly no more than highly concentrated magic that gained sentience?

Well something would have to take their place. It’s been stated, and we’re starting to see the effects of it, that Tyria can only handle so much magic. Now the leylines are overflowing and what we’re seeing is basically rivers of magic overflowing their banks, and that’s only after magic was forcefully released from 1 elder dragon. I mean Zhaitan didn’t die in the same way and his magic should be slowly seeping into the world. If we kill too many more Elder Dragons without replacing the position that they fill (when it comes to maintaining magic levels) we could very well destroy Tyria.

Yeah, based on what we understand of dragon minions, Sylavri are no more or less alive than a freed risen, icebrood, or destroyer would be. They are woven together from plant material and given an identity which, in my mind, is no different from the risen being sewn together and implanted win whatever thought a Zhaitan found necessary.

There is one ascalonian ghost who is gaining her free will back, but she was described as a powerful Necromancer, giving her an advantage. Still, I think if anything were to happen to the Ascalonian ghosts it would be freeing them and allowing them to move on, not making them a “race”. The Risen as a minor race makes some sense just because of the fact that it’s proven that dragon minions can be freed and coexist with the other races through he Sylvari. Though likely they would be like the dwarves and possibly the exalted, they would be a dying race with no means of reproduction.

I’ve done that story a few times and I can tell you that I did not kill her. I’m pretty sure you are supposed to save her. I was surprised to see her because I had thought she was quitting the Pact, but apparently somehow she got sucked back in.

Yeah, making Risen as a playable race would be problematic to say the least, but I do have to say it would be interesting to have free will Risen as an almost minor race trying to make a living in the remains of Orr, after being cleansed by the Pact in multiple experiments on the Altar of Glaust. They likely wouldn’t be numerous, and their continued existence would be questionable with no way to “reproduce” but they could definitely provide interest to the region.

Djahlat.9610:

But legends don’t necessarily need to be associated with a weapon (pretty sure Glint didn’t use a shield, or Shiro swords)

If I remember right, Shiro used specially designed “daggers” in game because of game mechanics that were designed to look like dual weilded swords. So Shiro’s weapons make sense, and obviously they had to create some sort of weapons to go with monsters that didn’t weild anything.

Well we know that the human Gods must have some degree of control over the souls of other races. I mean the Mad King’s Realm is a subsection of the Underworld, which is assumed to still be under the control of one of the human Gods, Grenth or possibly Dhuum, but within the Mad Realm are spirits of at least 3 races, humans, Asura, and Charr (don’t remember if Norn are there or not). Also, if you want to go way back you have the example of the Charr (whose name I have forgotten) whom you help get revenge against the Titans for using his race. He is located in the Realm of torment, and he was placed there for likely the same reason as everyone else, in an attempt to control Abaddon’s Maddness.

That’s a good point. We don’t know what’s going on in the Underworld but it does seem like there could be a few options. For one there could be some major turmoil there based on the types of creatures that come from portals thus Grenth might not have control over the flow of spirits. And the other option is perhaps Grenth disallowed he return of spirits from the dead due to the weakness of the barriers between the Underworld and Tyria. Trying to keep the barrier from breaking anymore.

Well, we do have the opportunity to see what a naval or undersea dragon could be like with the DSD which would be vastly different from what we’ve done so far, and also a underground elder dragon with Primordus, which could be different or not depending on how they will go. There are possibilities to make each dragon interesting.

I’m fairly certain that the current lore isn’t that we die, but merely that we get knocked unconscious or lose consciousness from bleeding or whatever. I don’t know that there is a specific lore reason given that I’ve yet heard, but there are theories, such as an emergency teleport to take you away from danger before you die or what have you. I’m sure one of the more knowledgable lore keepers here can bring in a long lost article that gave the answer to this that I’ve never seen though.

Mostly because they take on aspects of whatever territory they move into, and they came into the ring of fire islands and became molten monsters. There are leafy Titans, icy Titans, and fleshy Titans found between the Shiverpeaks, maguuma, and the realm of torment.

I’m sorry you found the instances hard. Unless I was trying for specific achievements I found Season 2 and HoT to be fairly easy, minus a few definite hard spots. But I may just be biased because the only character I’ve played through with is a Necromancer and they are just relatively tanky. But I’ve never considered myself an elite character. I’ve never done the raid, and I’ve hardly run dungeons because of that. I definitely think it’s worth a shot, but I may be completely wrong. Everyone is different after all!

HoT was mostly designed to I’ve players a higher level of challenge not available in the core game, and it really only gave a small portion area to the game, so it makes sense they would focus it all on difficult.

Yeah, I would like to chime in and say that indeed the story is indeed vey solo able. I went through by myself and played through the entire story and even got through most of the mapping (minus most hero points). Now, of course there is a learning curve, so expect to have to learn new tactics and such, but learning isn’t terribly difficult.

Someone mentioned 4-6 win gliders, well how about Mursaat Wing Glider? With the way the raid is going…