I don’t know what the actual day is so I’m going with the movie (to be fair, I never watched it the whole way through, but given the premise I think I know the gist of it :P).
I was jokingly saying that it’s common a recurring defence/justification/explanation for lore threads created by the Living Story. We never heard or saw Scarlet’s diplomacy when forging her alliances, we never see the alliance factions reconciling their differences and weighing their motives to act, we never see that they are splinter groups not full members, we never see Rox experience prejudice as a gladium, we never see Aerin change from Pale Tree loving trader to “Soundless” psychopath, we never see a single Soundless away from the Weeping Isle or learn the mantra we supposedly recognise on the paper and for the almost four years we knew about Eir, we never had any indication that she had a son.
Individual scenarios aside, it’s just a critical observation of the Living Story’s trend to rely heavily on explaining stories and situations based on stuff that is never seen and sometimes even conflicts with how the world was perceived based on what was seen.
Varesh being one example. Konig’s point is true, it’s possible that the Kournans at one point in time prior to us exploring Elona had a co-operative relationship that later turns into the slavery we see. Unfortunately, as players we never see that co-operative relationship. We see the slavery relationship, that defines the Kournan/centaur relationship in our minds and to read later on that it was a co-operative one, that’s rewriting history at worst or at best it’s introducing “new old” lore that alters the way it should be viewed without giving the proper context to do so . It also defeats the purpose of referencing a legacy character like Varesh – why use her if you’re going to alter our perception of her story and character – why not reference a GW1 character that isn’t depicted at the time of the game as specifically enslaving the centaurs? It’s left to the player to make up an explanation for why it doesn’t match their experience in Nightfall.
I’m really glad that Anet is looking into what can be done about this. But throughout the past year+ of the Living Story there have been a large number of issues for which the question has been “why didn’t they consider this before implementing the Living Story and create a solution for it then”? And most of these questions seem very obvious.
But the issue isn’t that it wasn’t considered, the issue is that they considered it and there is currently nothing they can do about it. Even if they considered it before destroying Lion’s Arch, what choice do they have? Either freeze Tyria in time and never change any map ever if it’s part of the Personal Story, or the path they went down? Personally I support the path they went down. I really hate that Lion’s Arch is rubble when I do Personal Story instances there – it makes no sense and I think it would be awesome if Lion’s Arch as it was stayed preserved by instances. I am really disappointed to hear they currently can’t change it (I suspected it was the case because they hadn’t done so by now) but if there is a reasonable solution to the problem, I’m sure they will implement it. Until then we just have to deal with it.
It’s not just the movements, it’s their ambient dialogue. All of the biconics have some ambient dialogue that triggers in certain circumstances (I think it’s when they sheath their weapons or when you click on them) and some of them are very immersion breaking for the moment. I know one of my run-throughs where Morning died Marjory said one of her flirty lines (I think it was sugar or something like that) another time Kasmeer says her post-combat line which didn’t fit the scenario.
I remember reading a bit of lore, concerning the mother pale tree and the first born that created nightmare. Once he started asking questions and she had no answers, he got angry and she became disassociated. It was like, once he became unimportant to her, in her mind he became irrelevant enough to ignore or forget. I thought this concept was odd behavior for the sainted mother.
It may well be, the once the big ‘Z’ was eliminated, my character may have become irrelevant to her, no longer needed in the grand scheme of things, in her small world. And being irrelevant, no longer having the access to her “wisdom”.umm… you got that wrong. Cadeyrn (who founded the nightmare court) wasn’t a firstborn. but he tried to make a big deal that he was “first of the secondborn” (a term he coined and he alone used).
To be fair, Trahearne is the first of the Firstborn and I think he does get some respect for that. Honestly, I “forgot” that when I first read it, but discovering it again, Trahearne is the first of his species (afaik). That’s pretty cool. First of the Secondborn? Less cool.
But yeah, Kasmeer was ridiculous suggesting she write a letter to the Pale Tree. My sylvari PC has had numerous PS audiences with her, all players have been there as part of the Pact story (canonically this all assumes you’ve completed PS) and anyone can just walk into the Omphallos Chamber and talk to her. Her dialogue even recognises changing events in the Living Story (you could ask her about Scarlet before she died, you can inform her you killed Scarlet after she died). The first thing I did after reading about an audience with the Pale Tree in the most recent chapter was to WP to the grove and float on up.
At best Kasmeer is in no way the most logical candidate to make contact with the Pale Tree, at worst it’s completely unnecessary. It was the wrong cliffhanger to go with (still not as silly as Mordremoth’s anticlimactic reveal). BTW guys the Edge of the Mists update ended with a big cliffhanger (Lion’s Arch is about to be attacked).
(edited by Shiren.9532)
Personally I think co-ordination of the dynamic events and the need to time and plan for the whole phase detracts from the open world experience. Dynamic events which occur on a timer and encourage players to “learn the map” and trigger things en mass is such a huge departure from one of the great things about dynamic events – they are dynamic!
It loses the feel of exploring the world and performing random acts of heroism and replaces it with timetables and planning.
Imho, Queen Jennah will die and we’ll have to recover the locket to find the true heir while a civil war ensues.
In the end, we’ll discover that the rightful heir is Kasmeer.
Special snowflake coming through!
Although, given the way Mesmer Sue has been written, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. Sickened, but not surprised.
I suspect the locket is a red herring to get players to discuss Jennah as a possible assassination candidate in the “Mordremoth is targeting Tyrian leaders” plot. Jennah is a very precious character for the writers. Like the biconics, the writers favour her too much and wouldn’t truly be able to kill her. After her speech last year, the writers need to work extra hard to convince us that Jennah’s death is on the cards. Honestly I doubt many players can even name the racial leaders of the asura, charr or norn (does Knut count?). Even if Jennah is the target, I hope the writers use this opportunity to explore the other racial leaders.
The theory being that they introduce the locket now, Jennah is killed by Mordremoth and players use the locket to track down the heir to the throne (I have to admit, her death has interesting consequences both politically and on Logan’s characterisation). I’m not sure how the Krytan throne works, but Wade Samuelsson, Commander of Ebonhawke, is a descendant from the Ascalon royal line. The Krytan royal line and the Ascalon royal line go all the way back to the same person – Doric (family tree can be seen here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tyrian_Royalty_family_tree). Obviously one of Mazdak’s descendants is more likely than anyone from the Ascalon line. It’s actually poorly explored in the game at the moment. In real life royal historians make incredibly detailed documentation of the royal family, there should be somewhere in Tyria (Divinity’s Reach, the Priory Library) where the Krytan royal family tree would be documented.
The maps are incomplete, most players will never get there via the crystals (no reason to, some challenge in doing so). It’s just a consequence of working on a dead line and not having time to create invisible walls in every location you can get to.
I think they are cautious enough to ensure big details don’t leak out (the centaur camp was empty, so no events, hostile mobs or NPC dialogue to be seen). All in all it’s relatively minor stuff and no big reveals seem to be happening. I wouldn’t call it sloppy or intended, just a trivial consequence to releasing a map in small chunks (which is a great idea) but managed by mostly limiting which parts of the map can be loaded in each release. So far it’s just the environment, which does give hints but nothing too spoilerish.
I really hope they deal with this issue some way other than allowing you to sell fossils on the TP. Maybe if the chests dropped ambrite and a certain amount of ambrite could be traded to the NPC for your choice of fossil?
When a game doesn’t allow you to buy something from other players, making it’s acquisition incredibly rare RNG is the wrong way to do it. Something needs to offset the ease of acquisition provided by trading with players. A token system (ambrite) allows long term progression towards item acquisition, by still retaining the (questionable) decision to make fossils an RNG roll in the first place.
Retain their account-bound status to ensure players with these weapons have to play the content, but adjust their acquisition so that there is a progression back up in addition to the RNG nonsense (similar to how fractals use Pristine Relics for ascended rings in addition to daily RNG rolls).
ANet has done a wonderful job of integrating a disabled character into the current story. She is imperfect, sometimes bitter, but fighting back against her disability. She is refreshingly realistic without being preachy. Her presence adds an interesting aspect to “heroes.”
She’s not realistic because she has a magic battle golem. There is actually an interesting point about this on tvtropes I saw linked in another thread (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReedRichardsIsUseless). Specifically the third point made, I will dulicate it here.
To avoid trivializing real-life problems. If Mr. Fantastic actually does cure HIV in the Marvel Universe, there will be plenty of real people still HIV-positive, and plenty of researchers still investing untold millions of dollars and man-hours to fight HIV when they finish the comic. This can make creators wary of tackling such issues, as it can be considered insensitive to have such a heavy burden in real life be casually miracle-cured in fiction. Also, in the interest of representation, physically challenged people exist in universes where science should theoretically be able to cure their handicap. However, either the disability is so ingrained as a facet of the character’s portrayal or curing them could be seen to detract from their mass-market appeal as someone that other physically challenged readers can relate to. This is probably why Professor X always ends up back in the wheelchair after regaining use of his legs.
Obviously they aren’t curing Taimi’s disability – she still needs her golem, but I can see how someone like the OP would say something like “the fact she has a Golem to fix it actually makes it worse because by that definition your giving false hope to the physically impaired by making the character into a paragon”.
It’s true Taimi is a visible disabled person in Tyria, but she is a very unfair one. We don’t have magical battle golems in the real world. Disabled people don’t have magitech solutions to their problems, any way they excell will usually have to deal with any disability, not magically cure it. The biggest limit Taimi has faced so far is she didn’t have access to her “wheelchair” because it broke and she couldn’t board a ship because her “wheelchair” wouldn’t fit. The rest of the time she is running around in a magical battle golem doing things that surpass the physical capabilities of able bodied asura (and in some cases we’ve seen, even the other biconics). Taimi is an unfair fantasy, I can understand why some people (this might depend on your perspective) would feel bitter about that.
I think there is a good argument to be made that Taimi’s golem (which cleverly combines asuran ingenuity, intelligence and problem solving) diminishes her as a disabled character. In many ways the golem wipes away the challenges of Taimi’s disability. She may not walk like an able bodied asura, but for the most part she can do as much and more than most asura via her golem. That’s not something a real world disabled person can do (not in a way which equals or surpasses being able bodied). That’s false hope.
A lot of focus is being put on all the things that Taimi can do, but destroying the vines blocking our way isn’t something Taimi did, it’s something her golem did. I don’t think the OP took issue with Taimi’s intelligence – she’s a self-proclaimed prodigy among the asura (arguably, who isn’t?).
What’s wrong with letting Taimi’s strengths be put at the forefront, not her magical battle golem’s strengths? Someone made a comparison to their father in a wheelchair wanting to be remembered for the things he was good at. If you take away Taimi’s magical battle golem, she’s still an incredibly brilliant asura. Arguably one of the smartest people in the current story. That’s a real depiction that can be mirrored in the real world. Real World disabled people can’t ride inside magical battle golems, but they can excel in a field of study and become “one of the undisputed geniuses of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries” like Steven Hawking.
Since when are we given the idea that Taimi needs pity?
During the last Zephyrite visit. Marjory, Kasmeer and Taimi talk about how Taimi is unable to board a ship she really wants to board because her golem wouldn’t fit. During Edge of the Mists she is pitied because she is stranded and helpless when her golem breaks and she needs to rely on Braham there. Even if the player doesn’t pity her, Braham is scripted to do so. Taimi is pitied when her disability is part of the story. When she’s talking about Scarlet or research etc it doesn’t come up, but whenever her disability is a focus of the story (usually so the biconics can each comment on it), what else are they going to do?
I really like that these weapons essential reward players who play the new content instead of people who simply buy everything off of the trading post. Anyone interested in the weapons has to go out into the world and earn them themselves. The fastest way to acquire one isn’t to flip gem store weapon skins or chain farm dungeons every day, you actually have to do events in Dry Top and explore the world for chests.
I’m not a fan of the heavy use of RNG involved in this, but I see this step as a very important one when it comes to how content is awarded to players. Gold shouldn’t be the be-all end-all method of acquisition and selling them on the TP would reduce these items to just that.
I agree that the group needs more conflict amongst themselves. They don’t have to be full-on dysfunctional but isn’t it about time Brahm got into an argument with Rox over being over-protective?
I would argue that wouldn’t be enough. The overall tone, right down to the core values of the group, is too similar. Even the very easy to believe, difficult to dismiss racial prejudice between charr and humans was thrown out the window with Kasmeer, Marjory and Rox. The Camdens from 7th Heaven (a soppy family drama that took on contemporary moral issues in the 90s and 00s from a Christian and famliy values perspective, usually ending with feel good fuzzies, love and justice * Sailor Moon pose *) had more conflict than the biconics.
Maybe Destiny’s Edge relied too much on monotone internal drama, but the biconics have gone the other direction with the “we are a loving supporting family, each one of us is beautiful no matter what the world says, boo prejudice lets all drink milk at a bar” * Sailor Moon pose.. in a wheel chair because yay representation *. All jokes aside, having softer characters that can be feminine and strong, that don’t approach everything filled with testosterone and explosions, that can love each other etc, all of that is good, but I feel like the biconics are all in that same basket. Sure you won’t see Rox care about her “dress” as much as Kasmeer and Braham can be aggressive when protecting someone, but the entire group is motivated by love… except Taimi (kinda, she differs from most asura in that she willingly and actively chases out the company of non-asura). When you have charr rejecting warbands, norn not prioritising their legends and asura not condescending everyone, calling them bookahs and talking about cuteness, you’ve lost a lot of the edge those races had.
They have moments of aggression, brutishness, ruthlessness, but not one of them frequently displays or represents that, not even the norn, charr or asura. Any moments where it does pop up (Marjory’s ruthless demeaner in the Breachmaker) is washed away by an Tequatl Wave of ‘feels’ (every other moment in the history of these characters ever). Small moments or changes won’t be enough, it’d be like trying to make a member of the Tea Party appealing to someone on the far left.
I agree that the group needs more conflict amongst themselves. They don’t have to be full-on dysfunctional but isn’t it about time Brahm got into an argument with Rox over being over-protective?
We had that with the original Destiny’s Edge, and it was annoying.
It was annoying in excess. It solely defined the groups presence in the game (they were iconic of their races and typical traits of those races, but their group dynamic was all about the angst). Had Desinty’s Edge been explored in-game at a different point in time (say, when the group formed during the novel) we would have seen them as a functional team. Arguably we can still have that if they return (after their reunion in Arah). I personally find the general tone of the biconics to be annoying. It’d be nice to see some lasting conflict in the group and a general evolution away from bright eyed, naive love warriors. Racial conflict, philosophically different characters (not a monotone theme of “family is important”), moral complexity – these things are healthy. Snaff’s death resulting in a break up was good, almost 80 levels of dealing with that fall out (and very little else) was bad.
Braham started out with his home at Cragstead threatened by molten troops. He asked for help from Holbroek, didn’t get any, and took away an “Whatever happens, I’m going to look after my friends” attitude. He was a young punk, not impressed by famous people like his mother who had responsibilities elsewhere. He then teamed up with Rox to strike back at the molten facilities, turned up at Queen’s Jubilee for no real reason, and continued on the Scarlet trail after that.
I don’t buy that he isn’t impressed by famous people (or at least an implication that fame or legend doesn’t matter to him).
From the short story about him – “he wished more than anything that he could blend more smoothly with his father, be more like him, the great warrior, the legendary hero”. Braham’s father – Borje the Sun Chaser (who is never mentioned at all despite being Braham’s hero) was a considerable norn himself, he just chose to raise Braham over furthering his legend and Eir’s legend overshadow’s Braham’s father’s, in part because Braham’s father chose to raise him.
He’s only 17 isn’t he? That might explain his awkwardness.
I guess that would explain it, since the Norn children are different from the adults in their manner. Of course, that would start another problem as I wouldn’t have guessed he was supposed to be 17 either…
There is a little girl in Hoelbrak who comes off as the most boastful norn I’ve ever seen. She runs all over the place going on about her legend and how she will be mighty like Eir. Norn children are very much capable of being like the adults.
Most of the biconics are a departure from how we were brought to perceive each of the races. While DE are iconic of the five major races, the biconics seem to be written with a core theme of “family”. Marjory and Kasmeer (and Kasmeer’s interaction with Belinda emphasises this), their interaction with Taimi as big sisters, Taimi’s lack of family (she’s in the care of a likely-occupired-and-never-around Zojja), Braham’s brotherly relationship with family and Rox’s symbolic decision to discard her race’s value of a warband as “family” and choose the biconics instead. It’s all very soppy stuff.
Braham’s value of family can be seen twofold. He is wolf, norn that value the pack – working with others. It partially explains why he’s less solitary than other norn and more of a team player (although Caithe is of the Cycle of Night who “are inclined to be secretive and self-contained, preferring to travel alone” yet she works with Destiny’s Edge).
The other reason why Braham would value biconics over ‘typical’ norn values is that’s what his father did. Braham hates his mother (Eir) for abandoning him and loved his father for raising him. His father was a legendary norn himself, but considered raising Braham a worthy cause (or possibly, considered relieving Eir of the burden to do so a worthy cause). Braham’s father’s dying words instil this value in him.
“You will stay here in Cragstead,” continued Borje when his body had calmed. “You will shelter at Rugnar’s Steading with Yngvi and Brynhildr. Your strong back and sharp teeth will protect them. They are your pack now.”
…
“Your mother’s name is Eir Stegalkin. Remember that, but I will tell you what I told Yngvi and Brynhildr. No one must send word to your mother that I am gone. I forbid it. She is capable of great things, as are you. She must not be tempted to stray from her path. Wolf walks beside her. But you mustn’t worry. He walks beside you as well, my son. Never forget that.”
tl;dr Braham’s father chose to raise Braham over chasing building his own legend. His dying words emphasise the importance of his adoptive family and Braham’s role to protect them. Extending that experience to the biconics, Braham views them as his new family and values protecting first and chasing his legend second. The biconics are primarily about family even if that conflicts with their individual races.
If you want to read Braham’s background yourself, read the full short story on the wiki: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Braham%27s_Story
We have no information about Caithe being on the ship.
That doesn’t bother me. If Caithe was on the ship and wanted that to remain secret you wouldn’t know she was there. She’s a thief, stealth is her thing. My issue with her being on the ship is primarily that I have no reason to believe she was there aside from thinking up secrets she might have related to the story currently going on.
Trader Aerin talked about that the place (zephyrite ships) is not known to the dream before they started. It reduces the possibility that Caithe is there.
To be clear, the Zephyrites and their sanctum was unknown to the sylvari when the Zephyrites first visited last year. Obviously sylvari knew about the ship and had boarded the sanctum since then (by the time the Zephyrites returned) because, if nothing else, the players did last year. There was also a sylvari NPC called a Zephyrite on the ship when it returned this time. I don’t remember if it was there last time or if he joined the same visit Aerin joined but he was there.
Your first proposal fits the criteria but lacks a motive. Why would Caithe want Kralkatorric to live or Snaff and Glint to die? I find it easier to believe that Logan (the guardian and a big part of a small elite team) was too important to the success of that mission. His absence alone is easily believable to result in failure for the rest of the group.
The second proposal (the source of Dream and Nightmare) does not fit the criteria.
Scarlet Briar Hologram: “But I know better. I know you. How nasty you fight, how you think…what you did. And what you did is soooo nasty.”
Scarlet Briar: “What do you think the Pale tree will say when she finds out what you did? Or does she already know?”
Scarlet Briar: “I’ll give the Nightmare Court your regards, Caithe. And won’t they love to hear about your little indiscretion?”
It’s very explicit that Caithe’s secret is specifically about her. Something she did. It’s not just something she knows, it’s something she has done, something that reflects on her.
It seems obtuse/abstract to me, but I did consider the possibility that Caithe was the one on the Zephyrite ship that killed the Zephyrites (one of the deceased was inferred to be an elite guard, Aerin is dangerous but is a crazy former trader skilled enough to kill an elite guard?). To be clear I don’t think what happened to Aerin or Scarlet happened to Caithe, but I could believe Caithe was on the Zephyrite ship and may have killed people in order to protect a secret. I’m also a believer in Occam’s Razor when it comes to lore discussions (among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected) so while I consider it a very weak possibility, I don’t favour it. The most likely explanation for why an elite guard was on the ship is simply that the Master of Peace’s backpack/secret needed protection, not so the writers could imply someone more skilled than Aerin killed someone on the ship.
(edited by Shiren.9532)
This topic has been raised before and other people (myself included) share similair concerns/complaints to yours. You can read the past discussions if you want.
Here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Waypoints-2/first#post3461921
and
Here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/If-waypoints-are-a-lore-thing
The earliest I remember waypoints being part of the world’s lore was when Rytlock was seen using them in Bloodtide Coast during the Marionette/Wurm update. There was a lore interview where Angel mentions it (it’s the same one where the calendar was changed – I wish that rule about non-game sources for lore had come out then) but it doesn’t matter, it’s in the game now. Appearently an asura somewhere mentioned it before then, but once Rytlock used one there was no going back.
It’s very messy lore but we have to accept it now.
You talk about jade sea thawing, but everywhere in the world mountains shrink, water level rises, areas become marshy and areas melt. You think dragons are the problem? I have some bad news for you.
Global warming: Tyria’s Inconvenient Truth?
I doubt they write the framework. In one of the livestreams I think Theo implied (said?) Angel wrote the biconics. For the biconics to be as important as they are, I would imagine they would be included in any framework. I don’t think framework justifies two of their loremasters working full time on a story which has been very lore spotty at times.
Having said that I suspect Ree/Jeff 100% support the Living World writers (and the whole team) and wouldn’t take issue with how Tyria is being handled (regardless of how some players feel about it). I also suspect they are frequently consulted when it comes to handling new lore (although the Secondborn thing may suggest otherwise).
Malyck isn’t Caithe’s secret, but he may be related to it. Several people know about Malyck (the first Firstborn Trahearne, any player sylvari that chose that plot, Secondborn Amaranda and the Pale Tree, possibly anyone who Dreamed of Malyck seeing as several sylvari were exposed to him and their experience may have gone into the Dream?), not just Caithe. It’s not her secret to keep.
I agree, no mention of Caithe’s secret has been made since, although it might be related to the Spinal Blades Blueprint.
Backside reads: “Caithe, someday you’ll see, Tyria needs me. -Scarlet”
The next release should start with a visit to the Pale Tree, although I doubt much of the discussion will be about Caithe. I wouldn’t be surprised if Caithe was there though.
From Scarlet’s dialogue we are led to believe Caithe’s secret:
- Is “nasty” in the words of Scarlet
- Would appeal to the Nightmare Court
- Is possibly a secret from even the Pale Tree and Faolain
- Is discoverable by Scarlet (assuming Scarlet wasn’t bluffing)
- Real and important enough that Caithe would risk invading an enemy base to find out what Scarlet knew and how she knew it. If she had no secret she wouldn’t have turned up.
So what secret would fit that criteria?
Considering she’s not fallen to Nightmare I suspect she has a reason for doing something nasty. Also considering how sylvari heavy the plost seems to be, maybe Caithe killed Malyck.
The existence of another sylvari mother tree is a wild card for the sylvari. Caithe might consider Malyck and his people to be dangerous – killing him keeps the Nightmare Court from discovering him or his people in the immediate future. No-one would know why because we all think he’s searching for his mother tree (it also explains why no word has returned from him or his people in almost two years). Maybe Caithe didn’t think she could trust him and took him out (possibly even the rest of his people) to eliminate the risk. I doubt she’d go as far as to exterminate an entire group of sylvari (for all we know Malyck may have been a Firstborn from a younger sylvari mother tree with only seven other sylvari children to kill) but I could believe it if she thought the threat of Nightmare was too real (Caithe is a little extreme when it comes to the Nightmare Court).
Niamh (the Luminary for the sylvari born in the Cycle of Noon) once stopped Cadeyrn from killing unhatched krait offpsring because she argued they deserved a chance to change their ways and ‘All things have a right to grow’. Perhaps Caithe no longer things this way when it comes to the Nightmare Court and the threat Malyck’s tree might pose if the Nightmare Court were to find out about them.
Caithe has grey morals (as far as GW2 goes). During the White Stag personal story she kills a Nightmare Court member at the objection of the PC. She’s also of the Cycle of Night, so it’s not unusual for them to have secrets (but “nasty” secrets might be another story).
I think this topic is worth looking at again as a refresher, with the Pale Tree popping up in a little under two week’s time, we might see more from this very soon. The other question to ask is how would Scarlet discover the secret?
I didn’t think Elder Dragons discriminate when it comes to magic. Food is food and they consume it all equally. It’s not like Zhaitan was searching for tasty necromancers to snack on.
The last time I remember a secret project it was when Murdock (I can never spell her first name correctly) moved on from the GW:Beyond team. I think the secret project she ended up working on was the GW2 crafting system.
From what I’ve heard, it sounds like many of ArenaNet’s employees do not work on Living World. They are working on other stuff. When Tequatl got revamped someone mentioned that the encounter wasn’t created by any of the Living World teams (back when the Living World was four separate teams not one big one like it is now) but it was created by a Feature Team. We also had the Feature Pack that came out this year and the story journal, so maybe Feature Team is just improvements to the game that don’t fit into a bi-weekly schedule or the skill set used for that. Maybe it’s more than that.
I always kind of hoped Ree and Jeff were busy writing the eventual campaigns into Cantha or Elona (or northern Tyria). As writers from GW1 they have the experience to best write in the voice that captures how that part of the world has changed without making it feel too foreign. Writing a story in Tyria as we know it (Living World) or introducing small extensions to the world (Maguuma) is fairly different from taking on all of the old lore from the original games and doing justice to that in GW2.
In my mind, Living World is filler (I don’t mean that pejoratively) while a bigger team at ArenaNet has almost completed an unannounced expansion. It gave the less senior members a chance to create their own stuff in established parts of the world while more senior members tackle the task of world building Cantha and Elona. Maguuma throws a spanner in the works though, but it’s small enough I can still believe an expansion might be on the way. #unrealisticexpectations
Or maybe Ree is writing another book.
Still, if Living World is the primary content delivery plan now, why would two of the most senior writers not be working on it? If ArenaNet was all in on the Living World, wouldn’t Ree and Jeff be part of that “all”? There are big things happening behind the scenes. #unrealisticexpectations
Personally? I think the center globe was Tyria. Remember, we were supposed to be seeing the Eternal Alchemy there, and while it makes enough sense for the dragons to be notable parts of it, it would be really weird if they comprised all of it.
I agree about the point of it being Tyria. If the Zhaitan orb joins the center, it represents Zhaitan’s magic flowing back into the world of Tyria in this interpretation.
We know there is a lore reason for Tequatl becoming stronger after Zhaitan’s death (I truly believe the Tequatl update is a happy lore coincidence – Tequatl was due for a redesign and that plot thread fit into it) but that’s a side of the story we haven’t explored yet – what happens when an Elder Dragon dies. How does the magic they’ve absorbed leak out into the world? If we hear from Trahearne any time soon, someone is going to have to give us an update on Orr. How can we deal with a future Pact story without adressing Orr (or even if doesn’t change the Open World, it’s only mentioned "oh, Orr is becoming easier/harder to manage) and how can we address Orr without having some indication of what happened when Zhaitan’s magic started leaking out into the world? Admittedly the earliest signs of that should have been in Arah explorable but I suspect they didn’t start thinking about this specific plot when making Arah explorable so there might not be anything there.
only the bit of the story we never heard
That point is like Groundhog Day for the Living Story, not just in GW1 but in GW2 itself.
I don’t think you can be “against lore”. Not really. I mean I think some of your personal character background (as you see it) can be undermined by the Personal Story and Living Story writing (say you want to roleplay a charr ranger that rejects industrialisation and would rather live in the world forests than the Black Citadel – you can’t) but as far as any race being against lore to be any class, that’s imply not the case.
I think some races more naturally fit certain classes better than others. Charr engineers strongly support this, the industrial revolution is driven by them so engineering is a now-important part of their culture and a charr engineer epitomises that. Still, a sylvari which is a natural born plant creature that can magically interact with nature, often considered a contemporary victim of industrialisation, does fit the idea of a tinkering engineer, obsessed with how things work (sylvari are curious) and approaching the world with curious and innovative sensibilities others wouldn’t (because they are intelligent and capable of performing with an advanced level of knowledge without the social condition that comes with raising a person to adulthood). Sylvari engineers make sense (and I believed this long before Scarlet).
Another commonly cited conflict is a charr elementalist. Charr have a bad history with magic users and the Flame Legion so there is some prejudice there. But that doesn’t mean an elementalist charr can’t or wouldn’t exist. Society is full of groups of people that are part of that society but have fallen out of favour. Once dominant religious groups may become less popular but they don’t stop from existing. In that sense, while charr elementalist may not be the most common path for a charr to go down, it certainly fits with their world (they don’t exclusively shun elementalists). The practical abilities of an elementalist (not ideological) certainly do fit the lore for a charr. A soldier is a soldier, no matter their tools.
There are some profession combinations that do seem to make a little less sense for me and do require some suspension of disbelief to allow for game balance and mechanics. Asuran warriors or guardians require suspension of disbelief or simply the attitude that they are less physically formidable than say a norn or charr and make up for it in magic potency. That same argument though suggests that asuran warriors are stronger “physical” magic users (as in, an average asura can enhance their strength magically than the average norn or charr, otherwise norn and charr with greater physical strength and the same ability to magically enhance their attacks would once againt outclass asura). I don’t really have a problem with this because it’s the same level of suspension of disbelief that allows all humans of any size (whether if be the Arnie sized males or the petite females) and all swords of any size to do the same damage. Sometimes to have nice things you need to suspend disbelief. In a more realistic world I would expect asuran heavy classes to be incredibly uncommon (in the story I think they are) or eclectic in how they accomplish their tasks.
Another problem with syncing the Tyrian calendar with our own. It’s been almost two years since the treaty plot as we last saw it.
Maybe the coming plot dealing with a possible threat to Tyrian leaders will advance this one a little bit? Given how the biconics were written to have little to no racial prejudice at all, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Technically speaking the prophecy did come to pass, as the prophecy was not about his return to Tyria, but just simply “his return” – and by bringing Nightfall about (his attempt to break free via merging Realm of Torment and Tyria) he fulfilled this. He is no longer forgotten, he became known to all, and he threatened the world. That was the prophecy. The prophecy was fulfilled, but Abaddon’s plan wasn’t. And technically, he did break free… right before dying.
Konig do you have any idea where to find this:
In a now-old video interview with Jeff Grubb, he stated that Abaddon is dead and will not return (I think it was the PAX 3 years of GW panel, might be wrong – it’ll be hell to find it). — Konig/talk 04:00, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
I know you wrote that four years ago, but maybe since then you’ve found the source for that comment? Seeing all the Realm of Torment speculation simply because of similar pictures with circles on them and now out of the box thinking resulting in Abaddon theories simply because Varesh (a notable historical figure regardless of whether she’s related to the current plot) was mentioned a single time in a peice of paper – which I agree with FlamingFoxx – it’s more of the never-ending (but hopefully-ending-soon) attempt to fix Scarlet from beyond the grave.
It would be nice to have a source with one of the loremasters ruling out Abaddon as a major plot point moving forward, now that all these theories keep popping up. Admittedly that’s a four year old comment, so it would be an old source. Add to that the mess with Ree’s comments on Secondborn and Bobby’s recent comments on out-of-game sources, I guess it doesn’t really matter much anyway.
The more compelling argument would be that Abaddon would be a very heavy human plot going forward (human god, his powers are currently held by a now absent human god) and GW2 is supposed to move away from human-centric plots (that didn’t stop them from bringing Jennah back in as the only racial leader mentioned when leaders being targeted was a theme, or that the Zephyrites are increasingly human-centric in the last two patches).
BTW guys the Varesh “quote” that I think you are all talking about was listed to be a letter written by a Kournan soldier (iirc). It may be quoting Varesh, but it wasn’t written by her. The only motive of Varesh that matters there would be why she would supposedly say that, the soldier’s motive is why he would bother writing it. It doesn’t (imo) fit the personality of Varesh as I remember her (she never struck me as a great leader, she was the one who turned to dark promises of power and forever tarnished her family’s great name, it was loyalty to her once noble family that inspired soldiers like Morghan to follow her, not her political finesse – she actually treated her people as disposable not as unique people with their own strengths), nor the actions of the Kournan soldiers as we saw them, but there is a whole thread dedicated to that discussion.
(edited by Shiren.9532)
I don’t understand how the Pale Tree fits into any of the Eternal Alchemy interpretations when we have good reason to believe there is at least one other sylvari mother tree out there.
originally scarlet was going to mention the name ‘mordremoth’ just before she died.
a data-mined alternate version of scarlet’s death she dropped the name and after she died braham and i think rox were talking about “who is this ‘mordremoth’ and what danger do they pose?”
also marjory died in that version.
my guess is they forgot to bring back the mention of mordremoth’s name when they changed the scene, creating this plot-hole.
That’s a massive oversite.
They are actively writing the new NPCs in Maguuma to indicate they don’t know about Mordremoth. Not only does E’s letter to the PC not mention the name (E is well connected, if someone knew the name E probably would know), the Story Journal doesn’t mention the name and still didn’t list the vines as Mordremoth or even the work of an Elder Dragon.
The three Priory NPCs that were near the quicksand river outside Prosperity have moved just near the centaur camp. The Priory are the researchers of Tyria, if any organisation knew Mordremoth’s name, they would be likely candidates. One of the Priory members was even specifically researching Maguuma and the three of them were sent on a mission from Gixx to make it to the jungle part of Maguuma (where we, the forum posters not the PC, think Mordremoth is). You can actually ask the Priory NPCs about the vines that attacked Prosperity and none of them mention Mordremoth or an Elder Dragon in their guess as to what happened. The hylek actually suggests it could be Nightmare Court (she’s from Caledon and mentions similarities) but also mentions no court members had been seen. Also note she calls you a commander so she is familiar in some way with your role in the Pact. So considering that, it would seem the Priory didn’t know anything about Mordremoth.
i can understand why they dropped the name so early (no point in trying to create a mystery that all the community already knows the answer to), the problem was in how they did it.
Yeah I was actually going to make a post about that. It was silly running around Maguuma in a story where our PCs were so ignorant of something so big that was so obvious to us. It was hard to engage in parts of the story when, as players, we knew what was going on. Still, it should have been done better.
That’s been my assumption – proofreading being done by people too close to the project and thus steeped in this enough to not think twice about it.
They really need to have someone on hand who doesn’t keep all the lore in their head to run this by.
I don’t know much about writing stories, but as a consumer of stories you can usually break down a story into big moments which change the momentum of things. In the timeline of this story, the discovery/reveal of a sixth dragon is not only a big moment for the season two story, it’s a big moment in GW2’s story. I am a little surprised the reveal of Mordremoth (to the PC, not the player) wasn’t the sole focus of an entire episode, it was a big enough deal that when looking at “what needs to happen in episode two of season two” there should have been a primary bullet point saying “PC confirms sixth Elder Dragon, name revealed to be Mordremoth”. As far as the flow of the story goes, that’s a moment that changes everything, if they can find time to talk about Marjory’s ribs, Kasmeer becoming the most special of snowflakes, Braham’s leg (again), then they have time to make sure the Mordremoth plot is pieced together properly.
I suspect what happened is either a conveniently placed exposition book was not placed in Scarlet’s lab, or one of the devs working on that first instance got caught up in the discussion about Mordremoth on forums and didn’t actually know where that information came from because they weren’t one of the senior writers. How the rest of the team didn’t catch the mistake though, maybe it’s a consequence of pushing out so much content in such a short cycle?
i’m pretty sure kasmeer brings it up during this episode
Kasmeer brought up my importance as she was telling my sylvari that she was doubtful of my ability to gain an audience with the Pale Tree. Apparently Kasmeer thinks she has better connections with the Pale Tree than the Pale Tree’s own children who have not only had several audiences with the Pale Tree during the Personal Story (there is at least two audiences during sylvari plots and every race gets one with Trahearne during the Pact plot) but can also walk into the Omphalos Chamber at any time. Maybe Kasmeer is the bimbo of Tyria, doubting the PC’s connection to the Pale Tree let alone thinking Kasmeer’s letter matters at all compared to one of the tree’s Valiants, a commander and founding member of the Pact, and someone who greatly aided two of her Firstborn to accomplish their Wyld Hunts (Trahearne and Caithe).
So yeah, Kasmeer brings it up but it doesn’t make a lick of sense. I get that the story would be strange if we only performed the duty of a Pact commander, limiting our ability to engage with other threats in Tyria (although it’s a bit silly that we are dealing with Elder Dragon plots right now – we should be working primarily with the Pact, to not do so is what doesn’t make sense). Plots that don’t deal with the Elder Dragons or the Pact can recognise the other part of our identity – Order members (they are literally everywhere) who have a role to play in most threats across Tyria.
They ley line / waypoint lore is really spotty. As players we know the only reason for the placement of ley lines is map travel convenience, not because of ley lines. Waypoints exist where developers think will be convenient for players, I suspect ley lines didn’t even exist when the game launched and the majority of waypoints were created, ley line lore seems fabricated to support the story (create the story?) being told with Scarlet and Mordremoth.
Moving past that you have the issue that waypoints are not actually placed on ley lines, they are placed at convenient to access locations. All waypoints function the same regardless of ley line proximity, the only factor (until now?) that determined waypoint functionality was a gameplay one – are you in combat (no waypoints work for you), is your party in combat (only in dungeons) or is there an event occurring at the waypoint location or do hostile NPCs “control” the location of the waypoint. This doesn’t fit with the newly created ley line lore because an event can contest a waypoint in any location regardless of whether it’s right on top of a ley line or a great distance from one. From a player experience, all waypoints are equal and that can’t change because waypoints need to exist as a gameplay mechanic.
To get back to the OP’s question, there was a map on reddit which shows (using the vine locations) what some people have suggested can determine the location of waypoints. I’ll link it, but be warned, it’s arguably a big spoiler because the method of determining the ley line locations uses a graphical bug in the game which allows a player to see the vines (which are said to travel along ley lines and “strangle” waypoints) when loading the waypoint from a long way away, even if it’s not supposed to be visible yet (at the time anyway, it may be finished now – I haven’t checked).
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2agwtg/we_discovered_where_the_vines_are_heading_heres/
So it seems like the vines run from near the Cavern of Lights in Dry Top, heads east to Kessex hills where they fork, the southern path travels through Lion’s Arch, through Concordia down towards the krait tower in Timberline Falls (just north of the Crucible of Eternity), the northern path travels north of Frostgorge Sound and finishes in Iron Marches.
One of the reasons why I don’t think this isn’t the exact location of the ley lines is because the path doesn’t pass directly under the Thaumanova Reactor. We know from the season one finale cinematic that the ley line underneath Lion’s Arch travels towards Maguuma (and presumably Mordremoth) and passes through the ley line under Thaumanova. The map linked doesn’t show the vines going through Thaumanova (although the flickering waypoints north of it could indicate the actual ley line location is south of them, which would be Thaumanova).
You could probably do some things overlaying the maps from Scarlet’s base beneath the Priory HQ, the maps found in the Breachmaker displays and player maps marking the probe locations, but it seems like a lot of work for what is ultimately just speculation.
She used to be a bandit and she had dialogue in Prosperity which indicated she wasn’t happy with all the attention brought to the town (she’s kinda on the run from the law due to her role in the attempted poisonings from the human Personal Story iirc).
It wasn’t discussed much (if at all) but she had ambient dialogue with the bartender about the bandits to the north of Prosperity. Several NPCs in the town make shady references to the source of some of the town’s supplies (you could ask the bartender about it but he shuts you down and tells you to mind your own business) but they never outright say it, Alice actually mentions that it’s bandits, so maybe she decided to leave the town to avoid being discovered and she’s now working with bandits again.
(edited by Shiren.9532)
Fire/Ice/Lightning on the Elementalist armor
No, no more fire armor. We have enough burning clothes to last a lifetime.
And to the OP, more variation would be great,but also, how’s the Zephyr Rucksack steampunk themed…?!!
I think he was just listing most of the rewards, not specifically the steam punk stuff (he did say in brackets not all of it was steampunk).
I’m wondering where the unique rewards for Living Story went. We are doing all these story instances and achievements but no weapon or armour skins are being awarded. Just junk RNG chains.
They seem to have the added bonus of preventing you from LoSing mobs. Because they do aggro some mobs, stacking behind something won’t cause the enemies to all stack up on top of you making content take longer.
I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.
There is a post about this. It’s the closest thing to an answer you will get. Reader the spoiler part (it’s a Personal Story spoiler, not a Living Story one).
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Enough-of-your-GMPC-please/first#post4173255
Can anyone clearly make out the voice from the vision?
I think I hear (I’m guessing for the first two, I feel confident about the last quote)…
“…in us all” – Pale Tree
“I saw it…” – Scarlet
“Don’t question the Dream, we must all play our part…” – Pale Tree
The Pale Tree actually says that last sentence in the sylvari Personal Story.
Avatar of the Tree: Caithe, I wish for the Valiant to meet my eldest child.
Caithe: Trahearne has returned from Orr? Mother, is that wise?
Avatar of the Tree: Do not question the Dream. We must all play our parts.
Caithe: Yes, Mother Tree. I will see that it’s done.
There’s a book in game that details all the elder dragons by name, save the underwater one. i.e. everyone knows about them because they can read about them. Ever heard of history books?
Do your research before spouting off people.
Where is this book? Many people’s understand until now is that the only source for the word Modremoth in GW2 was the combat log from Crucible of Eternity. There are many, many, many references to Elder Dragons, Priory discussions, Whispers discussions, books, Arah dungeon quests etc which deal with Elder Dragons and some even suggest six Elder Dragons but never, until now, has the word Mordremoth been spoken in Tyria. The sixth dragon was a theory, even after the rumour of it’s roar when the ley line ruptured. It wasn’t confirmed that there was a sixth dragon let alone it’s name. The confirmation of a sixth dragon would be a big deal in Tyria.
Moving into Maguuma, the story is that E sent us chasing down rumours that “Scarlet disturbed one of the dragons” but it never specifies which dragon. Upon encountering Mordremoth’s minions, it’s not even clear they are dragon minions. They could be natural residents of Maguuma or even Nightmare creatures (Nightmare Courtier’s being absent makes that less believable) so even at that point calling them Mordremoth’s minions is premature. The evidence was definitely mounting to write this off as an Elder Dragon but it still wasn’t confirmed.
If anyone in Tyria discovered a sixth dragon and somehow confirmed it to be Mordremoth (or named it themselves/heard the name from someone else) it should have been shown before the PC says the word. It’s not a small plot detail that falls by the wayside or is left up to your imagination. It’s a huge plot detail that actually confirmed a lot of speculation from players for almost two years now. It should have been a big moment, but it wasn’t even a moment.
Neither of those things will happen. Marjory sent Kasmeer away because she had to deliver difficult personal news to her mother and family and her mother doesn’t warm up to strangers easily. She’s not practicing necromancy, she’s choosing how to inform her mother of her sister’s death and not making that more difficult by introducing her mother to her noble girlfriend (something we are led to believe might be an issue for Marjory’s family, particularly her mother). Unfortunately, that’s the plot I suspect we will get from Belinda’s death, a Delaqua family reunion and more romance stuff with Kasmeer.
The necromancy plot doesn’t fit the tone of the story for the biconics. Notice Marjory is one of the least necromancer-like necromancers we’ve come across? Eve from GW1 was written like you would expect from a necromancer, Livia was like a necromancer. Marjory rarely comes across as someone who messes around in tombs, thinking about the dead, working curses or hexes. The most necromancy thing she does is commune with the dead and works with poisons. The biconics don’t really get their hands dirty.
Why would Livia train Marjory? I haven’t finished SoS (one day… maybe) but Livia has no reason to be interested in Marjory. Just because Marjory is a biconic doesn’t mean the world is interested in her. Belinda isn’t special so I doubt Livia would invest her time in her. Livia is a member of the Shining Blade and there was a recent reference to Canach joining them (I suspect the noble woman was Anise) so I suspect a Shining Blade plot will surface in the story in the near future. If Livia were to return, it would make more sense to do so with that plot than with Marjory’s plot. The two could be combined, but why would the Shining Blade care about Marjory? She’s arguably less useful now that she’s grieving.
Having seen much worse writing in games (Diablo 3, anyone?), I am withholding judgement until we see further developments in Season 2. Retconning is a fact in this field, and I’ll need to see more of how the Anet team handles it before I can judge it fairly. It’s never going to be possible for them to please everybody, after all.
Diablo was never known for it’s incredibly story telling, the franchise’s greatest strangth (imo) is atmosphere and gameplay. Diablo 3 kinda lacked a bit of atmosphere in the vanilla release (compared to D1 and D2) but the expansion did a lot better.
Personally I kind of enjoyed the follower quest lines. Some of it was cliché, some of it wasn’t great but there was some good stuff in there (Shen was probably the highlight). The follower quests worked for me because they were kind of optional, you chose to engage or not, they never interfered or slowed your progress down like the stuff in Living Story (less is more).
Probably the best RPG character stories I’ve seen were in Baldur’s Gate 2. You chose your party which was a big boon. If you didn’t like Minsc and Boo (what kind of monster are you?) you could leave them behind and bring Jaheira. Your choices resulted in romances (not just your own), moral arguments and lots of personal side quests. You choose how much or how little you want to engage in and you don’t hear about Braham’s broken leg from March through to July (in a land full of healing magic, that’s five months). Too bad you can’t do Baldur’s Gate stories in GW2.
There are always silly complaints. Always.
Other people care about things I don’t. HAHA so silly!
it’s an excuse to keep us waiting two more weeks before the plot develops. as far as excuses for cliffhangers go, it isn’t too bad.
though i find it kinda hilarious, the idea of writing a letter to the pale tree.
I’m more interested to see Jennah’s role in all of this. She was alluded to a few times in the story. Kasmeer mentioned her as one of the leaders that’d prove most dangerous to Mordremoth, and then in Timberline Falls, the vines seem to be going after a locket that has a powerful enchantment showing the current ruler of Kryta, which would be Jennah.
Kasmeer mentions Jennah because she’s human and she is talking about a threat to leaders. Kasmeer like Jennah, Jennah is her racial leader. If Kasmeer was a sylvari, the line would likely have referenced the Pale Tree instead of Jennah.
The locket was rather specific (it feeds speculation about using it to find an heir if Jennah dies – while she lives it’s pointless). At the end of the day, Mordremoth goes after magical artifacts (all Elder Dragons do – the Priory deals with this a lot with other dragons, they don’t want their artifacts they are studying to become dragon food). That’s why the vines in Fort Salma went after the obelisk shards. It is probably intentional that the magical artifact’s specific purpose was given this time, I suspect it was elaborated on as a red herring when speculating about which leader might die.
So why is it just these two that annoy you and not dialogue from any of the other characters who also speak during the story?
I explained quite clearly what it was about their dialogue in this chapter that bugged me. The answer it right there, in my OP.
Seems to me like these two characters just annoy you, period. Not any of the others.
I got annoyed with Taimi’s Scarlet fangirling shenanigans, and setting us up to get caught in that machine (and possibly nearly corrupted as well), but I’m not constantly making topics about it.
Also, I’ve seen at least another thread or two specifically complaining about KasJory’s dialogue. I’m beginning to think this is less about what they’re saying and more the characters in particular.
Kas/Jory dialogue is about Kas/Jory. Taimi fangirling did bother me a little bit (as does the constant reminders that Braham broke his leg – as boring as they have become it’s far less prominent than Kas/Jory stuff), but most of the other dialogue the other NPCs have is specific to the situation. Taimi talking about Scarlet or Inquest informs me (the player, the audience) about the area I’m in. It advances the story of Scarlet and furthers my understanding of what everything going on. It’s very story relevant. The other characters might be as annoying as Marjory and Kasmeer if they got as much self serving dialogue as Marjory and Kasmeer. They don’t seem to though, Taimi is usually plot relevant (she’s the resident exposition asura) and Braham and Rox barely speak, the only story they seem to have going on is Braham’s leg (which has become as big a broken record as players complaining about Marjory and Kasmeer – you’d think no-one in Tyria broke a leg before, or that a broken leg is a big deal in the first place – he’s a freaking guardian in a land full of healing magic).
Kasmeer and Marjory talking about their relationship has nothing to do with anything but those two characters. It doesn’t advance my knowledge of Mordremoth, it doesn’t advance my knowledge of ley lines or Scarlet or what’s going on. It’s entirely about them, any player not interested in them and their relationship is going to find little value in this dialogue – it’s essential private/personal/intimate conversations the PC has no role in. That can feel intrusive when it slows down the pace of a story you are otherwise interested in.
This is thread #1 we always get after each living story update. Tomorrow we’ll get the one about there not enough burly male characters with stubbly masculine rugged good looks and eyepatches.
Don’t worry, the red post always goes in the thread praising Marjory and Kasmeer ensuring that thread gains the highest visibility, keeping it on the front page and colouring all the following feedback.
(edited by Shiren.9532)
Scarlet made improvements on the device. It’s possible that it’s safe now. There’s a theory on the lore sub forum exploring the idea that Scarlet encountered the Entity before she used Omadd’s device. Even if sylvari aren’t more vulnerable, Scarlet may have ties to the Entity and that’s the catalyst needed to go mad. Without it, the PC is safe.
(edited by Shiren.9532)
When I found out Fort Salma was being hit, I was honestly surprised she was alive when I first arrived. I expected to turn up to discover she had died.
People predicted this the moment Belinda was introduced – back in the epilogue for season one in the bar, the discussion about that expected her to die in Brisban somehow. I thought her appearance last release was really strange – it was like a reminder that she exists. She didn’t do anything important in Brisban, seemed to serve no purpose but give Marjory a chance to talk about her family, then instantly got reassigned to Fort Salma. I honestly wondered why they bothered having her turn up in Brisban in the first place. Thinking back now, it was to give new players a chance to meet her so when she died people were less confused.
I still think there’s nothing wrong with killing her. Not every death should be a huge emotional “nooooooooo” scene. Death will happen a lot when fighting Elder Dragons, if the writers only killed characters that we got to know well, the Elder Dragons wouldn’t seem very dangerous. It would also be kinda lame if named NPCs never died or only died after a long time.
I think one of the writers wrote a post not long ago basically saying we aren’t the second in command of the Pact. If Trahearne dies, we won’t fill his shoes. We are stuck with the biconics.
It just doesn’t make sense to me that the pale tree is the center of Tyria since it…
a.) exists only for a “short” time
b.) isn’t the only one
Maybe the vision isn’t of Tyria, maybe it’s a “replay” of the vision Scarlet had – and the Pale Tree is at the centre because that’s how the world is for a sylvari.
Maybe the Pale Tree isn’t what the centre is, maybe that’s how it has been incorrectly interpreted. Maybe it’s the “Dream” or the Mists.
Maybe the PC simply made the name up?
But I suppose that would require us to have a 10 minute story instance where people discuss back and forth with different names?
Zhaitan’s name was used by several of its minions. Maybe the minions were just using a name they knew we used for the dragon, but I thought that implied dragons aren’t named by us – they have names and we learn them. I don’t think Svanir ever mentioned Jormag but Jormag was asleep when Svanir was corrupted, maybe they never communicated.
The rules are different for all dragons, but at least Zhaitan’s minions called him by name, I don’t think an ED would let ants name it.
Except we are led to believe there is at least one other sylvari mother tree (Malyck’s). There was only one Mana Tree. I don’t think the Pale Tree is as important as the Mana Tree. If the big circle does indeed represent the Pale Tree, I suspect it’s because we are seeing “Scarlet’s vision” and it’s framed from the perspective of a sylvari? That’s actually something I wonder about the vision, is it our PC’s unique interaction with the device or is it our PC’s experiencing a replay of Scarlet’s interaction (with the added benefit of the adjustments Scarlet made to it). What I did find interesting is that it was unsafe when Scarlet used it but our PCs used it fine (including sylvari PCs). Either Scarlet’s adjustments made a difference, the Entity is not around atm or the device was incidental to the Entity.
The vision in Omadd’s device could mean any numbers of things. Did anyone clearly hear what the voices were saying? I thought it might be Scarlet’s conversation with the Pale Tree when she accessed the device.
Elder Dragons are dangerous. It would be ridiculous to fight one and everyone lives through it. Why do people seem to think it would make sense to have a story where Elder Dragons don’t kill people early and often?
we will never get to know why she kept her distance from Kasmeer.
I didn’t think it was subtle but some people seem to be missing it. Marjory’s mother seems to have issues with the nobility. There seems to be some kind of class prejudice story going on with Marjory’s family and Kasmeer’s former status as nobility. I’m confident the plot won’t be dropped though, Belinda’s… hesitations about Kasmeer will become clearer when we meet Marjory’s mother.
It’s because killing a biconic is going too far. They couldn’t kill Marjory so they tried to find some other way to hook some emotion into it. You don’t know Belinda well but you know her sister. You’re supposed to feel empathy for Marjory, I’m sure many people won’t care though.
As far as her being a woman, most of the NPCs introduced last season were female. If you kill off an NPC from last season, chances are it will be female. If Marjory had brothers instead of sisters, it would have been a man in a refrigerator. Belinda was a Seraph, many other Seraph died – Elder Dragons are dangerous. Part of having female characters that can be respected in combat roles in the story means having female characters that will die in combat roles. Belinda wasn’t a helpless victim, she was a soldier that died in battle.