Guild Wars 2

Narcemus.1348:

Because straight lines already make a crapload of possibilities, curved lines, you just made them infinite. You are probably correct though, I would be surprised as heck if the lines were straight and perfect.

Yeah, basically this. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find different paths, and it always easier to start with linear paths, and then curve them if it feels appropriate.

My own thought is that Anet teased the leylines in their recent facebook image (with the diagram and another ‘map’ next to that molten chest). And that map has a lot of curved and branching paths.

Edit — here’s the image: https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t31/1537869_10151991004344209_1711684535_o.jpg

I thought of it simply as a matter of inexperience with this type of public speaking. There was a lot of good information mired by moments of distractions.

In a way, they perfectly captured what they are — amateur streamers. The ability to develop a game doesn’t necessarily translate to being a high-quality streamer/caster. This happens all the time for people who start group podcasts. They are constantly going off topic and telling inside jokes.

Ultimately, no matter what the show is about, people are usually not as funny or charming as they think they are (at least, from the perspective of the audience). Just stick to the script and don’t improvise funny moments. The other recap streams with more senior folk were really solid; they may want to follow that formula a bit more.

And honestly, they could have done the same work with just two people.

Whoa… I think these might be the leylines….

If this paper had Tyria printed on it —

On the left, we see an intersection of two paths. That could be the location of Thaumanova. Then to the right (east) we see a number of paths emerging from the location of Kralk.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

The crystals would have had to have come from a specific dragon considering the color of the twisted watchworks…… but which one?

Not Kralkatorrik obviously nor Jormag or Primordus…. The only Dragons left are Zhaitan(who’s energy is green so his energies might be the power source for the Toxic Alliance and the Twisted Watchworks), the Deep Sea Dragon(we don’t even know it’s color) and the Jungle Dragon(we don’t know his color either).

Not necessarily. The crystals that powered the cores of the Thaumanova Reactor came from the chaos crystal caverns. The crystals there were predominantly purple, with a bit of variation. Yet, the chaotic residue was green.

The crystals gathered by the Molten Alliance were light blue (Azurite), and I imagine that the residue from this is still green.

Elesh.6192:

Could the power source for Scarlet’s twisted watchwork be chaos magic? One constant among them all, marionette included is a strong green glow coming out from eyes and joints.

One point of confusion at the moment is the nature of chaos magic. Mainly, what IS chaos magic, and is it distinct from dragon magic? In the Thaumanova fractal, Scarlet said that chaos magic is a misnomer, and suggested that it was chaos magic the whole time. But was she referring to the chaos magic in that location, or chaos magic in general? That’s where I’m personally conflicted at the moment.

However, that said, the Watchknights had slots for crystals, either for power, programming, or both. We saw this in Scarlet’s abandoned lab with the Aetherblade data crystal. So then where did she get the crystals to power all of these Twisted Watchwork? Well, in the Molten Facility, we saw the Molten Alliance mining a massive amount of crystals (that appear identical in shape to the Chaos Crystal Cavern). I personally believe that these were chaos crystals. If that’s the case, then perhaps she used these crystals to power her devices.

Just like in the open-world Thaumanova Reactor, refined/used chaos crystals leave behind a green ‘chaotic residue.’ That may be the source of the green glow.

As a bonus point, what if chaos magic is actually dragon magic as Scarlet suggested? Well then, all of her devices are running on dragon magic, and no one has really ever seen this kind of thing before.

So back to your question — I do think that they are powered by chaos magic, as well as all of her massive portals.

Fafnir.5124:

A lot of people been pointing out the UFO in the video but doesn’t it look like part of the reactor in FOTM.

At the very least, it’s probably the same model.

That is a very interesting idea, indeed….

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I would like to note something:

The three-headed ancient wurm is called a Great Jungle Wurm in the article. The only other great jungle wurm we know of is in Wychmire Swamp.

I wonder if there might be a connection? The wurm in Wychmire Swamp is said to be a source of greater evil, yet it looks like any other jungle wurm but larger. Fun fact to note is that there weren’t any jungle wurms in GW1.

I think that Scarlet accidentally awoke a champion of Mordremoth, personally, given to hints to the Wychmire Swamp wurm. And it’s possible that all these wurms are tied to Mordremoth and we just didn’t know it (which would in turn create a larger tie between Mordremoth and the Nightmare Court).

Another interesting fact (with speculation): The nature of the leylines is unknown — we don’t know if their paths are static or if they change according to the magical ‘climate’ based on world events and monuments. That said, if you draw a path from the location of this wurm in Bloodtide Coast to Wychmire Swamp and continue the path, it leads directly to Bloodstone Fen in Maguuma. To make it even more interesting, the path (in the other direction) leads directly to the landing place of Kralkatorik.

It feels like a silly coincidence, but I wanted to point it out.

Blurk, you articulate the same feeling that I am having. I was expecting the video to showcase content that would, in some way, release the pressure that has been accumulating with all of the questions that have built up over the year. And instead I’m left with more questions and more disparate content that has to fit into existing or new theories. Every mini-arc so far has had people asking “What’s the point of these alliances?” This patch was supposed to mark the end of those questions, but again we have to ask with respect to the giant robot.

Instead of the final four patches wrapping things up, it now feels like a new patch that adds new story twists, and then the last three will be the ones to wrap up (and perhaps this pattern continues again). I’m sad to say that this video severely dampened my hype for this patch. I’m sure that some things will be cleared up, but I’m ready to see that thread that they keep talking about that ties everything together.

Ultimately, I trust Anet to deliver in the end, but this marks another ‘opportunity for learning’ that I was hoping we wouldn’t experience in the delivery of these final patches.

And I simply have to say that I hate the idea of a giant Watchknight. I never liked their model, and IMO it makes the game look bad when the upcoming giant boss is a giant fembot with robot high heels.

Side note about the wurm: The wurm is not necessarily the point of the thumpers. The devs in the Massively article made it seem (IMO) more like the wurm is an incidental side-effect of the thumpers rather than purpose of their creation.

Atlas.9704:

Listening to the upload and read the posts here.
It looks like my “Season one” theory holds true.
I hope it grows the beard in the future.
I’m glad that Angel and the team are working on more stories, getting more experience, and hopefully we’ll get non Sylvari villains down the road.

Care to share this theory so that we may congratulate you after the fact?

The relationship between Logan and Jennah is kind of a unique one, since they are in the public eye a LOT. So they subdue their interactions, as far as we’ve seen.

I haven’t gotten any feeling that the two lesbian relationships that you mention are done for the sake of being ‘hot.’ I think it’s actually refreshing and nice that Kas/Jory are a little more open about their flirting; it makes them feel a little more real.

We’ve also seen other hetero relationships in the books. And I remember at least a few occasions of playful flirting there.

Hi Angel,

Thanks so much for answering a few questions, it means a lot to us. I have one of my own! And of course, I understand if you’re not in a position to answer it at the moment.

Regarding Sylvari and their defense mechanism to elder dragon corruption, we don’t really know much about the biological or magical basis for this. I find it hard to imagine that when this basis for this ‘immunity’ is finally revealed that some villain won’t find a way around it.

Will we get some details as to how this property of Sylvari works in the future? And, does the lore team consider this immunity a hard fact of the Sylvari, or is there room to budge (even one unique case of corruptibility)?

Thank you

Those might be the outcomes, but what’s the actual motivation? That she is secretly a good guy looking to help us out by training us?

Given the evidence in Scarlet’s abandoned lab in the Tower, the Hybrid likely wasn’t the first or last of its kind, regardless of what he thought.

Even so, in that moment we have to imagine the tension in the room. We are in Scarlet’s element and in a second we have to decide if this newborn monster (we really do think of it as a monster, I imagine) is a potential ally. I think it would have been really neat to have offered us a choice, even if the outcome was predetermined. That is, regardless of what we chose, it would have been killed — by our hand or Scarlet (or someone). But at least it would have been a choice that we had to make as characters in the world and maybe it determines some future dialogue.

minor thing — please put a little warning at the beginning about Personal Story spoilers

Anet just posted this on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9vBS7vgebw

It’s a lore-centric recap of the living story from 2013 from the perspective of creating the content.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Make sure to ask your questions in CC Danicia’s Dolyak express thread in the discussion area! It’s focused on Lore of Tyria.

I don’t mind searching around, but a link would be great

I don’t have anything to add, but I think it’s neat that you put this together

I’m not sure if this is the new designated slot for the Lore forum in the grand list, but I’m feeling like this is a questionable decision.

The lore forum is here to provide discussion about lore topics, but also to answer questions that people have about the lore. Given the emphasis of story/lore elements in the Living World, placing this forum so far down the list prompts a feeling of disconnect.

Further, our placement among the Race discussions feels inappropriate. A quick glance at the race forums shows that most of the discussions there are about racial armor set combinations, game models, and mechanics of racial abilities.

It felt much more appropriate to include this forum within the ‘game discussion’ category.

Sorry, I wish I could articulate this better than ‘it just feels wrong.’ I think there is a meaningful difference between the previous location and where the forum is located now.

In addition to the other things said, my main playstyle is simply exploring. Sometimes for map completion or jumping puzzles. The fall damage traits help me stay alive so that I don’t have to back track, or at least so that I can try riskier things to find neat places.

Really neat! It’s great to see these ideas fleshed out. I see now how the different points you have talked about end up fitting together.

zamalek.2154:

-snip-

Unfortunately, the Coriolis Plaza is completely surrounded by the rocky structures there, so it seems highly unlikely. I, too, would like to see those portals used soon!

I mentioned elsewhere that those portals might actually be in the Edge of the Mists map since it would likely have gates to the borderlands, etc. Part of the upcoming content could be happening there, as the ‘islands’ that she has been scouting may be the types of islands seen in the mists. It may be the case that they are introducing EotM as Scarlet’s base, and after we kill her it will become contested and that’s how it becomes a WvW zone.

Blurk.6231:

I am very sceptical about Scarlets ties to Primordus. I think ArenaNet has really got a good plot the next four releases and I dont think it will end in Primordus. I admit there are ties to Primordus but there are more things that dont fit at all. If there are suddenly Destroyers showing up that would be really bad of the writers and I dont see them do something bad. I actually think Scarlet is trying to grow the thorn she saw in her dreams, that can spread over the whole world. The thorn might grow in the directions of the signals the probes send out. Also the “next part will sting” line is a bit out of context but this might explain it. I also thought right back to the part where Kasmeer was STUNG by a thorn in the Tower of Nightmares. The part where Scarlet says the world will burn is also ripped out of context. During the Queens Jubilee she said kind of the same and there she was just meaning big bombs. Burn is just a metaphore for lots of trouble or something like that I think.

Edit: I forgot to say. That part about the Dream is not just meant there as a word that rhymes. Her ties to hating the Dream are far more obvious than her ties to Primordus.

I’m a fan of this idea. Most theories going around right now (my own included) are not really accounting for the toxin that Scarlet has a hold of. Now, that toxin hasn’t really been the focus of the story, since it seemed like we destroyed all toxic-related facilities, but she still has access to it. If she’s going to use it, it seems extremely plausible to think that some root/thorn system underground is growing and spreading, and will finally ‘rise up’ in the upcoming content.

This area may be the upcoming Edge of the Mists map. Scarlet may have a base set up there (as hinted by Agent Frovik), and when we arrive the gates are destroyed, amplifying our sense of danger. It would make sense to have multiple gates there that lead to the various borderlands. The map could start out as a living story area, and once the arc is over and Scarlet’s base is destroyed, the map becomes contested and multiple worlds fight for control, shifting it into its eventual WvW role.

Blurk.6231:

Didnt have the time to listen to the whole video yet as I am quite busy studying, but I can see you are really convinced about this and that you have put in a lot of work into forming this theory. I will probably comment again when I watch it whole but there are a few things I need to get off my chest.

- Although I havent watched the video yet, I’ll say now that I still think Scarlet is trying to exploit the dragons power. She is IMO not a leuitenant. She might be trying to get into the picture of Primordus. It seems to me too though that Primordus would probably be the most likely dragon. If she was a champion she should be able to infuse the hybrids she made with destroyer energy herself. Maybe she saw in her vision that Primordus would be the way of solving something, something that bothers her. No idea what at this point.

- Completely off topic but I am desperate for a response on this for some reason. The Lion Statue in LA is facing another way I noticed today. I dont know for how long now. It was facing towards the Mount Maelstrom area and now it is more facing towards the Grove. Please tell me I havent gone insane and tell me your thoughts on it :P I thought it was weird because you dont simply turn a statue, unless it is some special type, but then it is weird that I only notice it now.

I know I do sound quite convinced of the theory, but I’m actually quite cynical of it myself. I propose the most reasonable thread that I can think of to tie everything together while including Primordus. However, I really had to ‘stretch’ the lore in many ways, which has me feeling pretty ambivalent about it. But for all of the people who are arguing that the corruption of a Sylvari is such a fragile idea (it is), they themselves don’t see how similarly fragile the ‘rule’ is that Sylvari can’t be corrupted. There’s no basis for it that we know of yet. And do people really think that when we finally understand the Sylvari resilience to dragon corruption that there won’t be some loophole or weakness that can be exploited? Anyway, I think the theory a neat explanation, but I would be content with any other outcome.

Oh man, I don’t know anything about the lion. Very interesting indeed! How fast does it move? In a day can you see the difference?

Living story and personal story suppositions ahead

Hi folks,
Given the recent hints of dragons being involved in the living story, as well as the DO NOT TOUCH thumpers, among other things, I wanted to put together a theory that would at least entertain the notion that Primordus is involved. (I made this video before all of these neat hints today).

More than that, I argue there that Primordus is planning a campaign against Tyria and has actually recruited Scarlet as his champion/lieutenant/general. Through this framework, Scarlet’s actions make a lot more sense and seem to have an overarching motive: produce a new, powerful minion army for Primordus.

Why?

In the personal story (The Hatchery), we see that Primordus is actually experimenting with alternative forms of corruption; that is, corruption from birth and through incubation (hatching eggs). This is a revelation that we may not have paid much attention to (with our focus on Zhaitan) but all of the Orders agents agree that this is a uniquely new form of corruption. However, this technique proves to be insufficient as the minions that are hatched are too weak to do anything of value and we vanquish them fairly easily. So, Primordus has the corruption-from-birth angle right, but he needs a way to birth minions that are actually powerful.

Enter Scarlet (or Ceara) – in her experiment with Omadd, Ceara attempted to plunge into the eternal alchemy. However, if we think about the Thaumanova Reactor – mixing chaos magic (portals, gateways, synergetics in general) with dragon magic, we produce volatile and dangerous results. Given Rata Sum’s history (and present day problems) with Primordus and Destroyers, it’s very possible that the area in general sits atop a draconic leyline (as the Thaumanova Reactor did). And in this case, Primordus’ leyline. So when Omadd fires up the machine, mixing the chaos magic powering the machine with the dragon magic in the area, Ceara doesn’t completely plunge into the eternal alchemy; instead she becomes saturated in Primordus’ magic. But why didn’t she access the eternal alchemy? Honestly, I think it was a power supply issue.

We actually experience something like this ourselves in the Asura Infinity Ball personal story. When we supercharge our infinity ball, it produces steam creatures – creatures from an alternative world. THIS is the power that Omadd and Ceara were trying to harness; the power to traverse space and time. But what happens when the infinity ball is NOT supercharged? Well, when we activate it, a bunch of Destroyers come out! Dragon minions, and Primordus’ minions, no less. It may be the case that, when mixing chaos and dragon magic, there is a spectrum of energy input that either taps you into the draconic magic in the area, but if you are able to provide enough energy to the device, that can take you into the eternal alchemy (I know, that sounds awkward). This graph kind of captures how I conceptualize this : (http://i.imgur.com/uHyLz6d.png)

In this volatile mixture of chaos and dragon magic, Scarlet is disconnected from the dream and becomes uniquely vulnerable to Primordus’ influence and possible corruption (I provide more details in the video for those that are wary of this explanation).

After being recruited by Primordus, Scarlet must build the infrastructure for such a monumental task of engineering a powerful dragon minion army. This is the purpose for the alliances (among other things). Each alliance contributes their own… contributions. We see a lot of the reasoning for each alliance in the Nightmare Tower abandoned lab puzzle.

Ultimately these alliances are a means to an end: the Toxic Hybrid, the first (or one of the first) iteration of this new Primordus minion. One that is produced through incubation and is born extremely powerful. The only thing missing is Primordus’ corruption. I think this will be part of the next update, and we’ll probably see some form of Destroyer Hybrid or something like that. And Scarlet will now be mass producing these creatures in her factory somewhere (the ‘islands’?) and finally unleashing them on Tyria.

She is amassing a new, super army – a combination of the alliances, the new corrupted minions she’s created, and also by drumming up all of the destroyers still underground (via the Mysterious Probes).

And that’s just the summary!

You can hear all of the details in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLD5F1mAhIA

I’ve also included my detailed notes (basically the script for the video) in case some of you want to read through those: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Urj9xEO1lOVDlCc1JoTVZkWm8/edit?usp=sharing

I welcome any comments, concerns, or critiques. I’d love to discuss it further.

Living story and personal story spoilers ahead

Hi folks,
Given the recent hints of dragons being involved in the living story, as well as the DO NOT TOUCH thumpers, among other things, I wanted to put together a theory that would at least entertain the notion that Primordus is involved. (I made this video before all of these neat hints today).

More than that, I argue there that Primordus is planning a campaign against Tyria and has actually recruited Scarlet as his champion/lieutenant/general. Through this framework, Scarlet’s actions make a lot more sense and seem to have an overarching motive: produce a new, powerful minion army for Primordus.

Why?

In the personal story (The Hatchery), we see that Primordus is actually experimenting with alternative forms of corruption; that is, corruption from birth and through incubation (hatching eggs). This is a revelation that we may not have paid much attention to (with our focus on Zhaitan) but all of the Orders agents agree that this is a uniquely new form of corruption. However, this technique proves to be insufficient as the minions that are hatched are too weak to do anything of value and we vanquish them fairly easily. So, Primordus has the corruption-from-birth angle right, but he needs a way to birth minions that are actually powerful.

Enter Scarlet (or Ceara) – in her experiment with Omadd, Ceara attempted to plunge into the eternal alchemy. However, if we think about the Thaumanova Reactor – mixing chaos magic (portals, gateways, synergetics in general) with dragon magic, we produce volatile and dangerous results. Given Rata Sum’s history (and present day problems) with Primordus and Destroyers, it’s very possible that the area in general sits atop a draconic leyline (as the Thaumanova Reactor did). And in this case, Primordus’ leyline. So when Omadd fires up the machine, mixing the chaos magic powering the machine with the dragon magic in the area, Ceara doesn’t completely plunge into the eternal alchemy; instead she becomes saturated in Primordus’ magic. But why didn’t she access the eternal alchemy? Honestly, I think it was a power supply issue.

We actually experience something like this ourselves in the Asura Infinity Ball personal story. When we supercharge our infinity ball, it produces steam creatures – creatures from an alternative world. THIS is the power that Omadd and Ceara were trying to harness; the power to traverse space and time. But what happens when the infinity ball is NOT supercharged? Well, when we activate it, a bunch of Destroyers come out! Dragon minions, and Primordus’ minions, no less. It may be the case that, when mixing chaos and dragon magic, there is a spectrum of energy input that either taps you into the draconic magic in the area, but if you are able to provide enough energy to the device, that can take you into the eternal alchemy (I know, that sounds awkward). This graph kind of captures how I conceptualize this : (http://i.imgur.com/uHyLz6d.png)

In this volatile mixture of chaos and dragon magic, Scarlet is disconnected from the dream and becomes uniquely vulnerable to Primordus’ influence and possible corruption (I provide more details in the video for those that are wary of this explanation).

After being recruited by Primordus, Scarlet must build the infrastructure for such a monumental task of engineering a powerful dragon minion army. This is the purpose for the alliances (among other things). Each alliance contributes their own… contributions. We see a lot of the reasoning for each alliance in the Nightmare Tower abandoned lab puzzle.

Ultimately these alliances are a means to an end: the Toxic Hybrid, the first (or one of the first) iteration of this new Primordus minion. One that is produced through incubation and is born extremely powerful. The only thing missing is Primordus’ corruption. I think this will be part of the next update, and we’ll probably see some form of Destroyer Hybrid or something like that. And Scarlet will now be mass producing these creatures in her factory somewhere (the ‘islands’?) and finally unleashing them on Tyria.

She is amassing a new, super army – a combination of the alliances, the new corrupted minions she’s created, and also by drumming up all of the destroyers still underground (via the Mysterious Probes).

And that’s just the summary!

You can hear all of the details in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLD5F1mAhIA

I’ve also included my detailed notes (basically the script for the video) in case some of you want to read through those: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Urj9xEO1lOVDlCc1JoTVZkWm8/edit?usp=sharing

I welcome any comments, concerns, or critiques. I’d love to discuss it further.

This is not meant to be a complaint post; I’m simply reporting my experience and how I felt during PvP:

When I step into the HotM, I immediately feel overwhelmed.

I’ve done the first-time-through tasks of learning some of the basic PvP mechanics, but I still feel so under-prepared for a game of PvP. Understanding how to use a treb does literally nothing for my knowledge of how a PvP game plays out. There’s no go-to ‘practice game’ against AI to even get my bearings.

I tried the ‘learning by doing’ route, but I still felt like a chicken with my head cut off. I went into games and tried to hold a capture point with my guardian (because I read somewhere that it’s something that I should probably do), but I got killed very fast, and I don’t even know how/why.

What I’m really looking for is a practice game, even if the AI is heavily scripted. That way I can at least build a mental template for the basic flow and timing of a match before I hop into the real thing. Then I can adjust as necessary.

Hopping into a real queue from the get go comes with so much baggage that actually gets in the way of learning the basics.

I’m not a big LoL player, but they really know what they are doing with their tutorial game. I’m not ashamed to say that I need someone/something to hold my hand while I learn PvP. Anet doesn’t provide this, so I get very frustrated very quickly and go back to PvE.

I feel about PvP what many people feel about PvE: I shouldn’t need to look extensively outside of the game to understand what is going on inside of the game.

Xukavi.4320:

I think she’s trying to find something, but what I’m don’t know. I doubt she’s trying to awaken an elder dragon. Maybe she’s trying to locate the elder dragons, maybe mordremoth or priomordius, hell maybe even the bloodstones. We do know that:

-Bubbles is somewhere in the unending ocean.
-Primordius is still underground and his forces are being held at bay by the dwarves since GW1
-There is a 6th Elder Dragon (Mordremoth) that is still somewhere to be seen
-Kralkatorric is near the Crystal Desert so we know his location
-Jormag is in the Far Shiverpeaks.

Nice summary, but one correction —
Primordus is awake and mobile, and the dwarves are fuctionally extinct.

yeah, it feels very random.

I tried to see which creatures might fall on possible magic leylines, but things like the Risen Preserver really make things odd.

However, there is something. The Thaumanova reactor generally has animals and elementals warping in. The caverns have mostly humanoid creatures warping in. The bog has mostly ambient creatures warping in.

I don’t actually think this reflects anything special. This is probably because Anet didn’t want to confuse new players by warping in a bunch of branded and Icebrood minions, etc. It’s much easier for a new player to digest Inquest + angry animals as the bad guys.

Once you reach the Cavern, you know who the bad guys are, so you can understand that the mishmash warping into the Cavern is fairly random.

Arleii.5304:

Psynch.4087:

But in their little mini-dungeon in Dengatl Grounds, they have a carved face facing inward. So it seems odd to think that the faces were carved by someone else when they are at the heart of this Hylek cave/village.

Then they just built the village around that face. It is only one of the five that is/was reachable for them.

Yeah. I’m trying to think about when these were made. In the last 300 years, I think. I didn’t play GW1, but I don’t think these were visible in that era. After the giant tidal wave 100 years ago, there likely haven’t been any settlers other than the Hylek. The area is just too inhospitable. So if these aren’t Hylek creations from the last 100 years, then they were likely created 100-300 years ago. Again, that is granted they weren’t already there in GW1.

Unfortunately, I just don’t think there’s much known about that time interval.

I’ve been looking at the various creatures that warp in/out of the Thaumanova reactor and other regions. The Toxal Bog and Chaos Crystal Caverns also have these type of rifts that warp creatures in and out. Lastly, the Ulta Metamagicals Lab in Brisban Wildlands runs experiments with various portals that unintentionally warp in various creatures. However, the wiki doesn’t have much information on areas other than the reactor, so I wanted to document them here for anyone to use as reference.

Toxal Bog (“Disoriented”)
Armadillo (Ambient)
Bull (ambient)
Cat (ambient)
Chicken (ambient)
Cow (ambient)
Crab (ambient)
Dog (ambient; Krytan hound appearance)
Earth Elemental
Fire Imp
Freshwater Crab
Giant
Hawkeye Griffon
Hound (ambient; fernhound appearance)
Hyena
Ice Drake
Ice Imp
Minotaur
Osprey (ambient)
Polar Bear
Rabbit (ambient)
Racoon (ambient)
Rock Dog
Rock Drake
Rooster (ambient)
Salamander Drake
Scaled Drake
Spider (Ambient)
Tar Elemental
Wolf

Chaos Crystal Cavern (“Disoriented”)
Bandit Scout
Basilisk
Cave Troll
Dredge Ratnik
Ettin
Fire Imp
Harpy Hunter
Hylek Nahualli
Icebrood Hunter
Krait Nymross
Modniir Hunter
Nightmare Courtier
Risen Preserver
Spark
Whiptail Devourer

Ulta Metamagicals (No disorientation noted)
Branded Devourer
Eagle Griffon
Icebrood Norn
Murellow
Ridgeback Skale
Risen Gorilla
Steam Mechataur
Warthog

Arleii.5304:

Awesome info, Psynch! feels emberassed
You have some valid points. But I don’t think that hylek could carve those faces. It just doesn’t seem to fit them. The look, style, size and placement of those faces IMO are not a hylek thing.

Yeah, the faces are just so odd. I agree that they don’t really fit with Hylek norms. I just can’t even imagine how they would go about it.

But in their little mini-dungeon in Dengatl Grounds, they have a carved face facing inward. So it seems odd to think that the faces were carved by someone else when they are at the heart of this Hylek cave/village.

I’ve been extremely interested in that area for a while, as well. I recently did some searching in the Nahuatl language (the basis for Hylek naming) and found a few things:

Tlaocol = sadness (and variants thereof)
I- as a prefix refers to the a third person (his/hers/theirs)

So, Tears of Itlaocol means “Tears of her sadness”

I say ‘her’ because there is only one being that I can think of that would fit here: Melandru. Sandwiched in among all of the giant carved faces is a statue of Melandru. It’s technically placed above Twilight Arbor, and it’s not visible anymore. But it was there in GW1.

So then it makes sense to think of Tears of Itlaocol as “Tears of Melandru” or “Tears of Melandru’s sadness.” This also makes sense given that these tears share the exact model as Dwayna’s Tears in the Arah explorable dungeon.

Even though Melandru is a human god, the same ‘spirit’ of the god may be worshiped by other races. The Quaggan also worship a Melandru-like god, as we’ve seen at the Gendarran Fields sunken Melandru statue.

I think the giant faces are likely carvings by Hylek out of worship for their Melandru-like god.

Hi folks,

I made a video editing some GW2 elements into a Final Fantasy 7 battle. Hope you enjoy!

eddie.8492:

I imagined the “ley-lines” as continuous lines that circled the entire planet —not as segmented lines that stop and changed direction. We know both the Thaumanova reactor and Orr are built on top of crisscrossing ley-lines.

If you want all the lines not just where they criss cross then go to the order of whispers base

Scarlet revealed the existence of crossing lines at the reactor, but where did the Orr info come from?

As for the ‘behavior’ of the lines, I agree that they’re probably not super-segmented in the ways that are described in this thread, but there’s nothing that states that they can’t branch out or get thinner/wider, etc. In fact, Cadiff (a synergetics researcher in Rata Sum) yells at you for disrupting his moment of studying a magical rivulet; suggesting that he was essentially studying a thread-like ley line in that spot. There’s just so much that we don’t know about the shape and form of the ley lines.

As for the Order of Whispers globe, I mapped it onto a map of Tyria, and they seem to account for tectonic plates or something. They don’t even trickle into Maguuma (the reactor). Image: http://i.imgur.com/S8p8DNI.jpg

I wanted to learn some more so I looked up play throughs of the area. Here’s a cued up video with a little more exploration of the area:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMlOpAkwgA0&t=10m3s

I’ll still like to see some more though!

lakdav.3694:

snip

I’ve been thinking about it in a very similar way.

Dustfinger.9510:

I don’t think that skritt was corrupted. Atleast it didn’t have the corrupted green aura. So it would be no more corrupted than the asura next to it. But that wasn’t an example of their intelligence, it was an indication of how they think. Which, I think is a relevant point.

I agree, that quote is quite important. I have a lot of thoughts brewing right now. I have to jot things down and refine the idea, then I’ll post details

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Dustfinger.9510:

There is a skritt NPC that sais asura thoughts are too “linear”. That backs up the multiple view theory.

To be fair, that skritt’s argument was that chaos refuse that turns skritt inside out is a good thing to have. That doesn’t strike me as one of the outstanding examples of the skritt race’s potential intelligence.

Yeah; if anything these Skritt at the Anthill are the ‘worst’ ones to quote because they’ve been corrupted by the chaotic residue. That’s like an Asura telling a Son of Svanir that they should stay away from that black ice because it’s dangerous. The intelligence of the NPC is completely compromised once they’ve been corrupted. That is, they can be extremely bright, but still do things that are hazardous to their health.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Psynch.4087:

I was away from the game during this patch — did these things pop up during every invasion, or only Gendarran?

Edit: Did steam creatures only show up for certain invasions? If so, which ones?

There was only one steam portal like that – the other portals are just the electrical portal, no foundation. The invasions happened every hour but now they happen about every 5th hour or so I think.

Steam creatures showing up can happen in any invasion, I believe, but depends on the event itself. Mechanically, each event location has its own id – so the steam creature events each have their own unique id. Which events play during the events I believe is randomized, determined by the phase of the meta. It’s possible there are steam creature events in each invasion zone, but that doesn’t mean there will be one in each invasion.

Psynch.4087:

This may sound like a silly question, but how did the Aetherblades and Molten Alliance reinforcements enter during the invasions? I mean mechanically, did they use portals/airships/dredge carts?

During the invasions, Molten Alliance used dredge tunnels while Aetherblades used airships.

Oddly, MA do not use portals during the invasions, despite having their own kind of portal (Flame Legion magic). Similarly, elsewhere the Aetherblades have used portals (same kind Scarlet uses elsewhere).

Thank you for the details, this was extremely helpful.

He could have simply defected from the Inquest to be an Aetherblade operative. If he defected, then the Inquest know it; and they know better than to cross Scarlet.

Looking at the images/wiki entries from that patch, it’s possible that Vorpp was a krewe member of Professor Portmatt. Portmatt has a lab in Bloodtide Coast (Sorrowful Sound) alongside an Inquest outpost (which leads me to think that he is also Inquest). Anyways, this lab is a JP, and the whole point is that there is this teleportation device that needs tuning. Otherwise if you use it, it spits you out somewhere around the zone.

That device is the exact same one that Vorpp is using in the Pavilion; the one that you help him construct. Given that Portmatt’s lab is completely vacant of NPCs, it’s possible that each of them got sucked into an untuned portal (getting forcefully sucked in is part of the puzzle), and got spit out somewhere in Tyria. Vorpp may have gone through this.

Then either by choice or by accident, Vorpp relinquished any ties to the Inquest and took on a different name, somewhat securing a new identity that the Inquest hadn’t figured out yet.

This may sound like a silly question, but how did the Aetherblades and Molten Alliance reinforcements enter during the invasions? I mean mechanically, did they use portals/airships/dredge carts?

I was away from the game during this patch — did these things pop up during every invasion, or only Gendarran?

Edit: Did steam creatures only show up for certain invasions? If so, which ones?

Just visited this location to see what you were talking about. very interesting! But I wonder how long it’s been like this.

The size of the pale tree may have something to do with the magic of the area, but I don’t think that a single (even large) grave site would be the cause. Given that the Tarnished Coast is known for its abnormally high levels of magic, the tree’s size may be more related to the general abundance of magic in that region of Tyria.

This then begs the question of why the Tarnished Coast is so abundant in magic; that may be explained by the supposed magical ley lines that run through Tyria. Ultimately, we don’t know anything about the ley lines other than speculative paths. Hopefully more will be revealed in the living story.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I think I must be missing something about the console bit…

The Molten Alliance console was referring to the extremes of the alliance (flame and icicle and iron – not sure how iron fits into that though, smithing?); the pod did give interesting bit about how it reacted to heat which could explain why Kessex got more humid (per Kasmeer and Marjory’s dialogue during Halloween when the veil was up); the asura console pointed to the Aetherblades and their focus on air magic to fuel their steampunk tech, but I saw nothing indicating holograms.

One of the outputs from the Asuran console was something along the lines of

“There is a correlation between aetheric energy output and mesmeric illusions.”

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Glad to help. I’ll be honest, that console has my mind scrambling for answers too.

EDIT: Do you think that might be talking about the holograms?

Yes, I think that portion refers to the holograms.

So much to dissect from that little puzzle. I’m putting together notes for a video; there’s so much to talk about!

I don’t think that people have really appreciated how much information was packed into that story instance.