Guild Wars 2

Come over to the lore forum and check it out

The premise is correct. These are the fundamentals of most Thaumanova theories. But it doesn’t answer the elusive questions of just what the reactors were for. I detail more possibilities here and here.

Take your ideas further. You two points that you’re making are:
1. The reactor was built under a city (This point is probably irrelevant to the purpose of the reactor)
2. It was powered by chaos crystals.

So then, to what end? What were the inquest trying to do with this power? Some of the stronger theories (IMO) cite the infusion of this chaos/dragon energy into other creatures. Some creatures can take the energy better than others. The ‘weaker’ ones combust, causing huge explosions like the one in the Sparkfly Fen map (south east exit). This accounts for why they have the various environments represented in each reactor. To house different creatures for this experimentation.

There is more to the thaumanova energy source than the chaos crystals. Check out the Thaumacore Inquiry Center in Brisbane Wildlands. You’ll see that the Inquest are sapping power from husks in the Toxol Bog, this is being transferred back to a thaumacore (the refined source of thaumanova power). The husks (and oakheart-style treants) seem to have a special property to them. Is it a coincidence that the Clockheart was a treant? Maybe, maybe not.

So, it goes MUCH deeper than what you propose here, but you’re certainly on the right track.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

There are a whole heap of NPCs, from within the reactor itself to as far away as Mount Maelstrom, who lay the blame on the Inquest. Some of them cite evidence: for instance, the discovery of the Inquest labs beneath the reactor. It would be exceedingly strange if ANet now decided to lay the blame on some other entity.

EDIT: Missed this earlier, but on the article about the Fractal changes: “You voted, and Kiel delivered! Experience the moments leading up to the catastrophic destruction of the Thaumanova Reactor, caused by the Inquest’s reckless experiments with Chaos Energy.”

Agree completely. The main snag here is that Scarlet was technically part of the Inquest for a short time. So, even if the Inquest were at fault, it could have been a now-defected person’s actions that caused it. Kind of a quirky technicality, but still relevant.

Just want to add some details —

-The portal that Scarlet walks through in the Nightmare Incarnate instance, as well as the portal we see during her periodic minion attacks, as well as the skill point tied to the steam creatures in Lornar’s Pass are all identical.

-Steam creatures are at least partly biological, so any theory has to account for that.

-The method by which steam creatures create portals (three beams firing into each other) is the same technique seen in some Inquest labs.

That’s the colossus from the Cliffside fractal. It’s been around for a year!

Those aiming for the leaderboards will have dedicated groups, so worrying about your class in fractals (any more than you do in their current form), seems unnecessary.

Blatant negativity and whining (without any constructive feedback) can often clutter the boards, obscuring the more useful and constructive discussions. Many times, I have seen the same people repeatedly posting the same negative comments in multiple threads and on multiple boards.

I would love to simply block these users and all of their threads/posts. For example, if I enter a subforum, any thread that they started should be invisible to me.

I understand that this probably isn’t a very easy task, and perhaps the tech isn’t quite available at the moment, but I think that many players would appreciate this as a quality of life enhancement to their forum experience. And if you consider this a useless or whiny post, just imagine how satisfying it would be to block me right now

I was scouring the Thaumanova fractal screen shots in hopes of finding something interesting, and I think I did!

http://i.imgur.com/JzVmwtb.jpg

They look almost like Skritt with aetherblade armor on, but it’s honestly really hard to tell. I wonder what this could mean for the lore/mechanics of the fractal.

Original, larger image: https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/93decScreenshot-04.jpg

Blackmoon.6837:

It can’t happen. It would defeat the purpose of having us vote in the first place. Sorry but if they’re to stay true to these kinds of permanent changes with living world etc. Then no Abaddon fractal, ever.

I don’t see it that way at all. They had to have crafted some sense of both fractals before putting them up for voting. This means meetings about the lore of the fractals, the layouts, basic possible mechanics, and the tech needed for such a project. All of those resources, primarily because they know that they’ll be on a specific timeline and they need to know what they’re committing themselves to. To almost blindly offer it up without a fair amount of resources already put into it would be foolish.

I saw the vote as deciding which fractal we will get now. The other fractal would find its way in much farther down the road. I think they’ll probably release it late next year.

Narcemus.1348:

I’d value anyone’s input on this theory. I understand that it rests on very few pieces of actual lore, but it’s fun nonetheless, and because the magic of the bloodstones was already taken away from the gods, I do not feel that it changes any more of the way in which the gods are perceived.

As you said, it rests on very little known lore. Perhaps if you would pass your idea through the lens of the living story so far, that would point us in the right direction. Why all of these alliances? Most importantly right now — how does the toxic hybrid (and its emphasis on evolution/fusing of races) fit into all of this? Always fun to explore possible directions in lore

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I’ve been thinking about this too. About the time when other people started circulating the “toxic transformations as Mordremoth corruption” theory, I started playing with the idea that Scarlet may have imbued the shards she got her hands on with Mordremoth’s power, and by presenting it to them as the power of their obelisks the krait agreed to undergo the transformations. Since it technically hasn’t been disproved (the spores and their toxins are attributed in part to krait magic, but nothing on the actual transformations) I’d still like to believe that this is the case, since that would stop the obelisks from A.) becoming something that’s been done before; and B.) undermining the importance of the Bloodstones even further.

It’s possible that the stones are infused with dragon magic, but there’s no reason why it’s necessarily Mordremoth’s magic. Given that other dragon-corrupted sources are so readily available (i.e. the chaos crystals used to power the Thaumanova Reactor, and likely the Infinite Coil as well), I don’t see why/how she would have the power of Mordremoth infused in these stones instead. I don’t see it as Mordremoth magic corruption, but rather, chaos magic infusion.

I’ve been trying to get to that spot for a while! I wanted to know what was up there, so thanks for sharing.

The reason why I wanted to know is because that is the location of one of the bloodstones from GW1. I wonder if that door was a sort of seal to close off the cave.

F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5

fellyn.5083:

A wardrobe system would be awesome but I think it would be (sadly) counter productive to anets business model of selling one time use items in rng boxes to acquire new skins.

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it.

But that model has been in transition for a while. I think the last RNG skin was the dragon bash weapon set, right? Since then, we’ve gotten quite a few straight up purchasable sets. If they’re really making that much money from people buying multiple sets of the same armor, then I would understand. But I imagine that very few people do that. And even fewer people go for the exact same skin from Black Lion Chests.

So then it comes down to… what, Transmutation Stones? And the multiple sales of the same armor sets? I question whether those are serious streams of revenue.

Further, a wardrobe doesn’t necessarily negate Transmutation Stones, as they could put a cost on wardrobe use. Each skin you take out could cost 1 or more stones. Most players have like 100+ stones in the bank and nothing to spend them on. And the stones themselves are useful for changing builds, as well.

I, like many of you, have a lot of neat unused skins in my bank. But since many of them are a one-time use, I’m hesitant to use them in case I change my mind! Has there been any word about a wardrobe system and whether or not the available skins will be retroactive?

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

The theory is very good and valid , but due to the state of how things things are now, the Inquest/Scarlet can’t even dare to get even near the deep Charr/Ascalon ghost territory without causing more trouble than they did in molten alliance living story arc. It may have been her/their goal to go that far north and make more facilities to seek this dormant power out. Yet with the efforts we done in CoF dungeon, (killing Gaelheron their “supposed new god” which was using something Similar to both Primordius’ magic and Abbadon’s “Molten Titans” [lot of evidence points to both] to make him invincible less so a god.) and Molten Alliance prevented this.

You weren’t wrong as_ so much it was a matter of timing for all parties involved.

Thanks for the support

Great points in your earlier post. I appreciate that clarification. Also, I mention the fourth titan attack, but I save it for the end of the video. However, I didn’t know about the fifth attack.

I’m pretty relieved that the connection is quite weak between the titans and the reactors. It really was a struggle to connect anything between those ideas.

I have to step in really quick — it was shown to me that even though the targeted sites are relevant to the facilities/reactors; at least one of the actual battles took place too far out to be relevant. That’s really unfortunate! Because it seemed so cool when I first saw it. My lack of GW1 knowledge really got me here.

Can’t really push the theory too much at this point. But at the very least, the map cross-referencing has a ton of merit, and I think I’ll be using a GW1 map a lot more when I theorycraft the lore from now on.

Hi all, I’ve posted my videos here a few times before. I strive to always bring new information to light and to present unique perspectives on Guild Wars lore and the living story. This time is no different. You will be blown away by this convergence of evidence regarding Scarlet’s own version of the Thaumanova reactor and the link to the titan invasions of Guild Wars: Prophecies. Stick with me through this, it’s quite a bit of information. But if you’ve seen my videos, then you know it’s worth it.

Summary: In comparing the world maps of GW1 and GW2, along with important events in the lore, I found that the three primary locations of titan attacks (in GW1) happened in the exact locations of two known Inquest reactors. But there is no third reactor to account for the third titan attack. Or is there? It turns out that the third location where a reactor would go happens to be the EXACT location of one of Scarlet’s facilities. Can you guess which one? I elaborate on the implications to the living story, and GW lore in general.

[The video turned out to be quite long, so I added an annotation that lets you skip ahead to the reveal]
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJu1vhoMMM

Subtle is right, I have no idea who that is. Would be great to see more info in the OP

As a recent (<3 months) enthusiast of GW lore, I suggest starting with the living story. It really puts some boundaries on the material that you’ll be looking at. For example, for the most recent patch, you could check the wiki for krait, Kasmeer, Marjory, Scarlet, Kessex Hills, etc. That way, you’re not just randomly reading some about the Flame Legion, for example.

Also, and more importantly IMO, learning the lore surrounding the living story just makes the game more fun. The game is essentially revolving around the living story now, so coming up with theories and hypotheses about what will happen next is honestly what drives me to play. I pay so much more attention now to what Scarlet says; what sounds I hear in the tower; the mechanics of each mob; the holo rope things attached to the tree. They ALL mean something. So I look in the wiki about things relating to those aspects and hopefully I find something neat. Then you branch out from there.

Edit: The wiki is the best go-to resource. Anything that isn’t answered there can be brought to the forums and hopefully someone clears it up.

Neat! I’m going to take a look. Thanks for sharing.

Finnway.2183:

Finnway quote

I’m loving that you went through the trouble of searching for all that info. It can be so fun when you’re hot on a trail of some lore. I went down that same line of thought (it goes DEEP). But see my answer to a similar question:

Before I made this video, I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile Scarlet’s stories/plans/LS content with the idea of Abaddon (and Grenth). Ultimately I think it’s just opening up a can of worms; really more trouble than it’s worth. We would need so many more updates just to link it up to Abaddon. And others have pointed out to me that Abaddon was extinguished in a way that prevents any sort of resurrection. However, I think I also read somewhere that before Abaddon died, he dispersed his magical ‘essence’ into chaos magic. I really don’t know anything about that — I didn’t play GW1 and the wiki didn’t help. I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea that some ‘essence’ of Abaddon is held within chaos magic, but I don’t think that he’s a central player to the story at all. Just as you are saying now, I said on Reddit that having both fractal options during voting would lead to different perspectives of the same story. You’re not alone there! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe we’ll get the Abaddon story next year? Thanks for the input

GoldenTruth.2853:

Just a random guess.

I know only the shades are really there currently, but they are the only thing that seems to spawn from the chaos material instead of just being teleported in. So they may play a large role in what the inquest were experimenting with/on in the past.

I think you would enjoy my videos. I offer details on the nature of chaos material and its ties to Scarlet and the Thaumanova Reactor

Can’t wait for it! Although the chaos beasts that we see in the reactor have only taken the shape of shades so far, no? I honestly wouldn’t expect to see Aatxes there, but should I?

Hi all, I didn’t quite know where to ask this question so I’m posting here. I was fighting Aatxes (in Queensdale swamp) and when they charged, they left pink/purple flames on the ground. I don’t remember this being the animation at launch. Any gameplay videos that I’ve seen are unclear.

Kind of a silly question, but does anyone know if/when this animation was changed?

Finnway.2183:

Another thing, someone on your video commented about how Abbadon’s minion has 6 eyes or something like that. I wonder what the lore connection between the Thaumanova reactor fractal, the Abbadon’s Fall fractal, and Scarlett’s story is. It makes sense, since the Fractal patch is next week, that they both would give us some lore to help set up the climax of Scarlett’s arc. The Thaumanova Reactor makes sense, but what could Abbadon’s Fall have to do with Scarlett?

Before I made this video, I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile Scarlet’s stories/plans/LS content with the idea of Abaddon (and Grenth). Ultimately I think it’s just opening up a can of worms; really more trouble than it’s worth. We would need so many more updates just to link it up to Abaddon. And others have pointed out to me that Abaddon was extinguished in a way that prevents any sort of resurrection. However, I think I also read somewhere that before Abaddon died, he dispersed his magical ‘essence’ into chaos magic. I really don’t know anything about that — I didn’t play GW1 and the wiki didn’t help. I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea that some ‘essence’ of Abaddon is held within chaos magic, but I don’t think that he’s a central player to the story at all. Just as you are saying now, I said on Reddit that having both fractal options during voting would lead to different perspectives of the same story. You’re not alone there! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Maybe we’ll get the Abaddon story next year? Thanks for the input

I’ve seen a number of theories that suggest that Scarlett is actually acting to prevent the elder dragons from gaining power. So in a strange, roundabout way, she would be redeemed at the end of the arc. I don’t personally subscribe to that…

I think we’re going to kill her. First, because I don’t think she can be stopped in any other way. Second, because most players (basically 99%) would consider it insulting if we went through a year’s worth of stories of destruction, murder, and poisoning only to let the villain go. To many, it would be completely unsatisfying.

Finnway.2183:

Great video! I just watched it and made a thread about it! Then I found this thread…

…good bye old thread.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it

Stephen.6312:

Stephen’s stuff

Thank you for the thoughtful feedback. So many great ideas here. I have heard some of them before, but not others. Thanks for clarifying and tightening up some of the details about the races/factions that I glossed over in the video.

[minor Nightmare Within spoilers ahead]

As for the chaos magic/evolution — I think the idea garnered a bit more credibility after seeing the final battle atop the nightmare tree. The toxic hybrid specifically had a mechanic(?) or property of “evolves rapidly” which I found extremely interesting. It’s still unknown what it means. I’ve seen others talk about the merging of the two races and Scarlet’s casual response to our arrival. Things couldn’t have gone better if we tried, she said. Even in killing the monster (and possibly the tree itself), we were aiding in her grand plan. That part is a little confusing to me. If that’s the case, then why have a tree that is spreading spores? What’s the point of that, if its ultimate demise means nothing at all?

Anyways, with a tiny new insight, the patch brings so many more questions.

Oh! And make sure to watch the dev live stream for this patch. The devs give tiny little hints about what is going on. For example, they said that the toxic krait became toxic from lingering around the fumes for so long that it’s starting to affect them. Little stuff like that makes me feel more confident in the evolution perspective of my theory.

sierras.6297:

stuff!

Thanks for the input! A lot of really neat ideas there. I do, however, question the use of portals for spreading spores. The very nature of the nightmare tree is that it spreads the spores through the air. In doing so, the spores spawn more nightmare trees (the offshoots dynamic events). And if those offshoots succeed in growing, then the trees/spores spread farther and farther, like a virus/epidemic. It seems like such a roundabout plan to use portals to reach Ascalon when the spores would do it themselves in time.

Came here to post this bug (Crystal Desert)

That ‘Scarlet wants to be a god’ comment is quite loaded. I’d like to see this idea unpacked a bit more; can you elaborate?

As for the asura/inquest, they were part of the aetherblades.

Interesting ideas here. I presented a video/podcast before the Nightmare Within patch detailing how she might go about this evolutionary process. They may be in line with your general hypothesis.

yeah, that was the first thing I noticed as well. I had a feeling that would be the case.

Consider the new fire-touched (flame-touched?) husks in the Nightmare Tree. It could be a merging of different facilities. To me the bottom looked like the nightmare tower, but with molten roots or something.

very cool idea. best of luck in setting it up

Hi all,

I posted a video in the Lore subforum about Scarlet’s plans. It’s a unique take on the lore and the living story so far. You definitely have not heard these ideas before.

I’m linking that post here in case some of you don’t generally check that subforum.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Scarlet-s-Chaos-Reactor-Her-Endgame-Video/

Infamous Darkness.3284:

very interesting just a little confused on your theory with needing krait for mesmers as scarlet has already allied herself with part of the nightmare court and many of their leading members were powerful mesmers (ex faolain, and vevina)

Good question; I struggled a little bit with this myself. I’m not sure if it’s simply the case that krait mesmer magic is stronger, or perhaps more krait in general have access to mesmer magic. It could also be the case that Scarlet burned some of her bridges with the Nightmare Court. After learning about what Scarlet is planning to do, I don’t think the Nightmare Court would want to participate, since Scarlet’s plans not only mess with the Pale Tree’s dream, but the NC’s nightmare as well. It’s honestly not super clear at the moment. This will be something that I’ll be looking out for in upcoming patches.

Hi all, I just released a new video about the living story. Based on new patch information (edit: Nightmare Tower), I elaborate on my previous ideas (which started a fair bit of discussion on Reddit last week). I think I’m onto something pretty special here; I guarantee you haven’t heard these living story lore ideas before.

Summary: Here I describe how the Scarlet’s plans all lead to the spreading of toxic chaos magic throughout Tyria as a way to forcefully induce evolution (huh?). Just trust me! I detail how and why this all fits together. I emphasize the importance of chaos residue, a byproduct of thaumanova energy, as the primary agent in Scarlet’s toxins. This chaos magic is what releases The Nightmare Within us.

Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-zV7LrD86A

Thanks for compiling all of this info! Fantastic resource.

What I found fun about the guardian was that I was able to run into normally very dangerous situations and know that I had the tools (even at low levels) to survive and handle encounters. You have a lot of cool survival skills, as well as a lot of AOE burn which I found really fun to play around with until lvl ~40.

One of my favorite things to do was to go to high mob density areas and get a bunch of aggro. Then greatsword#5 to reel them all in and use my AOE burn in addition to GS#4 field + GS#2 whirlwind. Good times!

Once I hit level ~40, I found that process to be a bit tedious; moreover, it felt like the mobs were getting more skills that interrupted my chains (stun, knockback, etc), so I built a more traditional shout spec affording me cleansing skills (stability, stun breaks, etc) while still maintaining relatively high DPS (all Zerk). This worked well until I hit 80.

All throughout my leveling, I enjoyed the greatsword the most. I recommend that you figure out which weapons you like the most, and then try to set up a high DPS build around those (at least until the higher levels).

Good luck, and make sure you have fun with it. Anyone who tries to push you into an ‘optimal’ leveling spec isn’t necessarily looking for a fun experience.

I’m not an expert in all skills/traits, but playing in WvW recently has shown me that healing is only half the battle. Getting myself and allies out of CC is invaluable, and often accomplishes much more than a big heal would. I don’t know what Warrior can do as far as instant and versatile tools against CC, but I’m extremely impressed with the utility my guardian brings to team fights.

Hi all,

I just made a video about the progression of Scarlet’s story, and how her collaboration with the Nightmare Court fits into the lore. I present evidence that I haven’t seen people talk about before (including critical links to the Thaumanova Reactor), so I think it contributes some fresh ideas. I hope you enjoy!

Hi all, I made a lore video that describe Scarlet’s journey to Twilight Arbor. I talk about her motivations and why she is teaming up with the Nightmare Court, and the potential implications for future lore/content.

I would love some feedback and I really want to read your thoughts about your own theories of what is currently going on.

A month ago I would have agreed with you. But after diving into the lore, I’m finding a ton of nuance to her background and I like her much more as a character.

There’s much more to her than the living story can convey in its cut scenes. The ‘What Scarlet Saw’ story gives a ton of insight about her past and who she is as a character. This video is an interesting look at what her story means from the perspective of a Sylvari. (Not my video; unfortunately the audio gets really bad)

I’m putting out a video this week that talks about her motives and how she (probably) came to work with the Nightmare Court.

Minor issue — I wanted to jump to the leaderboards from the forums, but couldn’t. When I hovered over the Community drop-down menu, nothing happened.

1. Stand in corner.
2. Auto-attack.

This simple exploit will allow you to efficiently farm rares from world bosses!
——————————————————

Anet, the dragons are supposed to be ultra-powerful beings. They certainly don’t feel that way. They are boring. The animations are so impressive, but the fights are simply boring. I’m not asking for dragons to constantly wipe the zerg, but please add some elements to the fights that require some amount of coordination.

Imagine the original pitch for the fights in the design and development meetings. How would you have answered this question: “Is it possible for players to stand in one spot, auto-attack, and AFK for the rest of the fight?”

I just described the Shatterer and Shadow Behemoth fights. Tequatl isn’t far off from that (you simply have to run back to the spot when you’ve been feared). The claw fight consists of a bunch of people on the side ledge auto-attacking in phase 1, with more of the same in phase 2 while a small subset of players clear the frozen spikes.

The only event that feels fun and interactive (IMO) is the Megadestroyer fight, where its attacks can quickly down players , and players are required to move around the event area and kill the veterans. As annoying as the temples can be to start, the fights are actually really interesting and fun.

I would love to know if you are currently in the process of revamping some of these fights.

I would like to add a name to my bank sections for easier organization. I was prompted to suggest this when I saw a few soulbound items in my stash that had an unclear owner. If I could name a set of bank slots, then it would be clear who those items belong to. I’m sure that people could think of many uses for naming bank slots.

I don’t need to play any other MMO to know that GW2 storyline dialogue is quite bad. It’s just so trite and cliche. And the mood of the dialogue (and accompanying voice acting) often feels completely inappropriate for the moment at hand.

People dying all around
Me: “We will avenge them.”

No fear, no confusion. I would have liked minor intimate details to add depth to the NPC interactions. Of course, there are some great moments, but I’m pretty unimpressed, over all.

Zone 2, just before the first checkpoint. Go up that big tree trunk and jump across the flowers. You end up on a seemingly pointless ledge. Dig there.

Edit: 20 baubles (I think)

I understand the ‘too easy’ part to a degree, but if that’s the case, go to higher level zones for a challenge. I remember playing on my mesmer in the early levels, trying to get some of the tough skill points (especiialy with Ettins), and that required a lot of coordination on my part. A combination of high levels mobs, not enough traits/skills, and mediocre gear ups the challenge to a satisfying level.

Also, keep an eye out for people recruiting for guilds. Many guilds are ready and willing to take on new players and show you the ropes. That will also give you direct access, more or less to party members.