Guild Wars 2

Sublimatio.6981:

I have an observation. If Balthazar would be allowed to absorb all of Jormags and Primordus’s magic, this magic wouldn’t leak out into the world so there would be no side effects, yet Taimi claims Tyria would still collapse. So that doesn’t make sense.

Maybe she thought he was going to use it to kill them, as per the original plan? I don’t remember the exact dialog up to that point. But I think he was only absorbing energy from Primordus, so that would still leave Jormag’s energy to threaten the world.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Plot Twist: Braham will replace Balthazar as the God of War, since he does think there’s honor in war and he’s even better at being insensitive to the needs of those around him while he serves his own interests.

He will also take credit for saving Tyria, in the tradition of other mortals who were promoted to Gods in the franchise. His rallying cry: “Eye of the North is the new Vabbi!”

We could just replace the entire Six with Dragon’s Watch. Kasjory for Lyssa, Taimi for Dwayna, Canach for Grenth, Rox for Melandru, and Rytlock for Kormir.

Amaimon.7823:

That would be a loose end from 250 years ago, it wouldn’t have much to do with the modern age.

It was aimed at Jennah’s predecessor, so not entirely irrelevant. But it might just be there to get chatter going about Joko, so people who didn’t play Nightfall are more clued in when we go to Elona, instead of just saying “who’s this guy?”.

Ogwom.7940:

I believe that we will get the FoW in a raid form, since we seem to be heading in that direction from the Bastion of the Penitent.

• Deimos teleports us to another realm which could be a shadowy version of FoW.
• Deimos and Saul are shadow versions (completely black) of themselves when in the realm.
• Early concept art of Deimos depicts him having 6 eyes (Abaddon was allied with Menzies, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature)
• Before fighting Deimos, Glenna will tell you that the area in that part of the prison feels like you are “touching the skin of Tyria” and “as if this place is the edge of our place”.
Maybe it is part of Menzies influence/corruption seeping into Tyria, similar to that of Abaddon (view of Istan from Abaddon’s Gate outpost).

As far as out-of-game logic is concerned, the name Menzies always sounded to me like it was invented by combining “Mars”, “Enyalio”," and “Ares” — i.e., cultural touchstones for gods of strife and bloody slaughter, moreso than just, defensive war.

Deimos is, in mythology, the son of Ares/Mars (and a moon of the planet Mars). So, there’s that.

The major plot threads in LS3 (ignoring the creation of DW, and the less important activities of DE and the biconics) are
1) The White Mantle resurgence
2) Aurene
3) Primordus and Jormag becoming more active
4) Braham’s crusade
5) The anomalies resulting from killing two dragons
6) “Lazarus”

Thus, far, the Lazarus/Balthazar thread has intersected with all of them directly other than Braham (it isn’t clear what happened to Jormag as a result of E5 — since B was siphoning off the energy drained from P that was intended to neutralize J’s energy, J probably didn’t get hit quite as hard as P). So, having both Bs in the next episode and learning about J’s status is a possibility, though having two big dudes with fire magic who are ready to launch a disastrous crusade because they’re kittened about losing something important to them might be a little much.

Alternatively, maybe the next map will be in Charr territory. It would be an opportunity to re-introduce K as a threat, which would make sense if the next expansion is going to go to Elona and the Crystal Desert. Since right now the hot topic is “what’s the deal with the Six?”, it would also be the most relevant time for zipperlips to open up about what happened in the Mists, if it involved the gods.

Edit: Since the Charr’s WM equivalent are users of fire magic, it might also be another chance for Balthazar to seek to get powered up.

Jaken.6801:

• The mercenary thing is kinda weird. A human god should have no problem using his name to get followers to do his bidding. Even more so with the help of Lyssa. Overall the whole disguise thing is kinda weird for Balthi.

Maybe he wanted to hide the fact that he was weakened or deposed to protect his godlike reputation? Or have any morally questionable acts he might undertake attributed to a known villain rather than a presumed hero, for the same reason?

There’s also the fact that, without godlike power to back up his claim of divinity, people might not have believed him anyway.

flog.3485:

Some wild theory about the loss of power from Balthazar: what if he lost his power because he helped Rytock getting his revenant power in order to get out of the mist ?

Rytlock’s sword was a gift from the gods (to humans), and if it was inclined to pop into the Mists, it was most likely aiming for “home”, e.g. the divine realm of its creator or true owner. If Rylock followed it…

I’ve always suspected that the reason the gods left Tyria is due to Big Multiverse Issues, not the dragons, and if that were true, Balthazar’s sorry state suggests that the gods are losing that fight and those issues are about to spill over into the backwater colony world called Tyria and make us wish all we had to deal with was the Godzilla 6.

The Six may have taken the opportunity to conscript Rytlock as their agent on Tyria (with Mist powers to match). If so, the fact that a Charr was willing to go along with it means they convinced him either by proving the severity of the threat, or by promising to fix the ghost situation, or both (but the former seems more plausible given the distrust Charr have for gods). Of course, it’s possible that they were hostile, and he only barely escaped with his life and his sword, and by learning new abilities. Or that he didn’t, and Rytlock is Kormir in disguise. Or that he never met the gods and just played WvW and fractals for a while.

The Greyhawk.9107:

Am I the only one that doesn’t like this “The Elder Dragons are there for a reason and we actually shouldn’t stop them from trying to kill us” deal we’ve been getting the lately. I get that having consequences both good and bad to any actions we take is a good thing for story telling but I can’t help but think that this was a bad direction for Anet to go with. I miss when the dragons were Lovecraftian level eldritch abominations that were going to eat the world rather than being the pillars that support the world that also happen to wipe out all life every few millennia.

I thought it was a ham-handed analogy for global warming or something. Don’t destroy ancient reptiles and release the energy they contain, or the environment will go all pear-shaped.

Still, it raises the question — if Tyria is so overloaded with magic that it will asplode without the dragons there to contain it, how exactly did it survive long enough for there to be dragons in the first place? Unless they were there from the creation of the world…

OriOri.8724:

Natto.5819:

Queen Jenna’s power can’t be explained legitimately in lore. No human has that much magical powers. The only explanation is that she’s not human, leading me to believe she is a human god in disguise. Mesmers have the power of illusion, so it’s easy for them to trick people. A god mesmer would be more powerful.

I beg to differ. There’s some theories going around that the keystone is in fact in DR. Queen Jennah, being (supposedly) of Royal Descent could be channeling energy from said keystone (possibly without even knowing about it), which would amplify her powers way beyond what any regular human could hope to achieve. We can see in game what a mesmer souped up on Bloodstone power is capable of with Xera, so I wouldn’t put what Jennah did in episode 4 out of the reach of a regular human

Of course, a god could also absorb energy from the keystone, and it would be deliberate.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

And there’s nothing to suggest that Jennah is anyone but who she is. Besides, it’d be very, very hard to replace royalty who’s being watched on a near 24/7 basis.

Unless you have the support of the watchers. Not to suggest that the Shining Blade isn’t loyal to the crown, but if the last heir of the royal line was lost or incapacitated somehow, and a beloved deity stepped in to ensure that a White Mantle traitor couldn’t take advantage of political upheaval to seize power, the few in the know would probably be okay with the deception. And Chekov’s locket would be the final proof.

Also makes you wonder what her relationship is to the Mesmer Collective. Secret priesthood and elite forces?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

This event clearly demoralized Balthazar and made him loose faith in his old beliefs – not just about honor in combat, but also the worth of his followers’ lives (he was a very pro-human god in the past, and cared greatly about human life as shown with the story of Kaolai, the Scriptures of Balthazar in GW1, and the Orrian History Scrolls). He’s become clearly apathetic and hellbent on revenge, regardless of the cost to those around him.

Now he can be Braham’s patron deity.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

You have the Six Gods, and their last fallen god (Dhuum). You have Zintl and Ameyalli of the hylek, the Great Dwarf, Mellaggan, and finally Koda. At least 12 gods.

The human gods (including the fallen ones) all seem to be the same type of being, just like the Elder Dragons, despite their differences, inhabit a shared category. It isn’t clear if that’s true of the others you mention, or if they even exist as actual beings, rather than just sacralized concepts. Same for spirits of the wild, etc.

Also Mellaggan is a Quaggan nature goddess. I.e., Mel andru + Qu aggan . Even if the Quaggan insist otherwise, it’s most likely a (probably somewhat tongue-in-cheek) adoption by the Quaggan of a human deity, sort of like Badazar.

There are at least 8 gods, even if some of them are exiled and not worshiped by humans. They still exist and are plenty powerful.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

He definitely says he’s been weakened by someone.

Lucky for us, since it means the PC isn’t permanently blind. I think he says he was “dimmed”. Maybe by someone with a Shadow Army?

As to Balthazar being usurped… we’re not really sure that the only way to denounce a god is to usurp him. “They” could refer to a number of groups. But the curious part was the end of the line “they will see me again”.

It could just be a sort of poetic counter to the “dimming” of his power. Of course, unless the “they” are gods, they probably won’t see him for long.

This reveal does lend more credibility to the theory that Jenna or Anise (or both) is Lyssa — a massive citywide glamour does sort of seem to be divine-level magic from her sphere. But if Lyssa is helping Balthazar (by giving him powerful illusion magic, and most likely arranging for him to get a bloodstone infusion), and Lyssa is also tossing out Big Magic to protect the human capital city, then it seems much less likely that the gods have become entirely apathetic, or hostile, to humanity, or that Balthazar is on the outs with the rest of the six.

As residents of the Mists, it’s possible that they’re just less concerned with the fate of a single world, especially if they are concerned with a danger that threatens many human-occupied worlds or the divine realms themselves. It was always sort of assumed that the waking of the dragons was the proximate cause of the absence of the gods, but maybe they just had bigger stuff to deal with at HQ.

I wonder if the Shadow Behemoth was a hint from the beginning that Menzies was becoming more powerful and would be part of the future human storyline…

Ider.1276:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Balthazar, in the end, isn’t a villain. He’s just apathetic, and that apathy risks our very lives. We fight against him not in a showdown of good versus evil (for once in this game), but in a plight for survival.

Thats semantics. With that kind of thinking elder dragons are not evil – they are just hungry and apathetic to us. Mursaat were not evil – they just wanted to survive and were apathetic to sacrificed humans. And Dhuum is not evil – he just wants his realm back and is apathetic to all mortals. And no evil really exists at all, because one’s sufferings benefit the other, who is just apathetic to them.

While he is an arrogant prick (what does he think he is, a god or something?), we don’t really know enough about the situation to judge him as evil. The six gods have generally been characterized as broadly good, albeit not perfect if judged by human standards. The fact that he doesn’t feel the need to explain himself to or put up with interference from an inferior being doesn’t necessarily mean that he doesn’t have a legitimate need for power other than callous, destructive vanity. Who knows what other dangers are in the Mists, and how many worlds they threaten?

Spiritz Wamphryi.8316:

Lets throw some more names into the box – Dhuum ( just coz the 6 gods left centuries ago it doesnt mean that dhuum left , infact i wonder if hes still in underworld . Mhenzies , Abbadon ( now that would be quite funny if it were the case ) , the fortune teller who mis informed shiro , shiro himself err the lich from prophecies and nightfall . Im just praying its no way going to be Kormir – having to put up with her in nightfall was bad enough , then finding out she replaced abbadon as a god was almost like a massive nightmare .. will we ever be rid of her ??? Apart from those i have no idea an shall patiently wait the release to see

The lich has the whole “pretend to be your buddy, then stab you in the back” thing down. And as the Flameseeker, the suggestions of fire in the trailer and name of the episode (and the burning of the white mantle) would make more sense. Plus, he needs resurrection as much as Lazarus. Maybe the plot to revive him is a callback to Jory’s sidelined “ghost” mystery.

Welp, if we’re just guessing, I’m going to say that a follower of Abaddon swapped out part of Lazarus with some remnant of Abaddon, and now the entity is a hybrid of both mentally, though physically still Mursaat. No illusion magic required, not that Abaddon would be above it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Here’s a problem with that – and indeed every “Lazarus is actually our old time ally xyz” theory:

Why would Lazarus lie to us during Dragon Vigil? What would that person gain from pretending – even before absorbing the bloodstone’s magic – to be a mursaat, the most hated of hated species in the world, in front of the Pact Commander who has slain Elder Dragons when we’re actually friends with that person already?

Maybe because they see how often the PC has been tricked or done idiotic things before, and didn’t want their cover blown?

The only legitimate reasons to pretend to be Mursaat are
1) Gain the WM as henchmen — and possibly use them as a puppet government after conquering Kryta (in which case “Lazarus” could be anyone, including a dragon champion, fallen god, Palawa Joko, or just a power-hungry human).
2) Provoke a schism in the WM before they go on the offensive against Kryta (which would suggest a pro-regime character like Jenna, Anise, Livia, etc.)
In either case, it suggests the key motivation is the crown of Kryta.

The other question/clue is who exactly could survive exposure to so much magic without being destroyed, much less going insane?

A dragon or dragon champion certainly could. A god or divine champion most likely could, and possibly a powerful supernatural being like Joko could. The seers constructed bloodstones, so they or Mursaat might have enough insight to develop a means to survive the effect. The only human I can imagine having a chance would be Jenna, if her bloodline and connection to the bloodstone somehow protected her. If the energy was absorbed by a device, not a person, then it could be a construct like a golem, or a wielder of a powerful artifact.

Scrapper. Scruffy Mk 2 will fly like a gyro. Or a Jade Construct.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

You must have missed the pages & pages of discussion about the merits of “Fate’s Razor” versus “Dragon’s Watch”.

Oh, yeah, there was an anet poll about the guild name at one point, right? I wasn’t really on the forums much at the time, but I vaguely remember something like that.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

This seems more likely. If you have ever met an imaginative child of Nyla Dagdottir’s age, they have even a healthier fantasy life than that of those of us playing fantasy RPGs. Remember: this is the same nornling who wants to call the new guild, “Fate’s Razor” (okay, maybe that isn’t such a bad idea).

Uh, Fate’s Razor is roughly a synonym for Destiny’s Edge. So…

Djinn.9245:

Cobalt Raven.3986:

He’s quite an asset when he’s thinking properly.

Is he? I can’t remember a time when he didn’t argue and complain about everything.

He seemed to pretty much go along with whatever the PC wanted, up until HoT. But there, the PC was concerned with the entire operation to defeat the dragon (which including recovering their friends), whereas Braham was only concerned with finding his mother. But… that’s kind of understandable?

DE was a bunch of whiny soap opera BS too, until you worked through the dungeon storylines.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

How does it create motivation for people who would otherwise not want to raid? There are lots of other sources for spirit shards.

I’m not suggesting it’s rational, but game design should take into account predictably irrational behavior.

Khisanth.2948:

Phyxius Animus.7356:

Perhaps I’m crazy, but the need to sacrifice one skill for another and balance out your build is part of game balance. Not having enough of that is part of what caused the zerker meta. If a boss could one-shot a warrior in full zerk and did that attack more often than one could possibly dodge or endure pain, you’d see toughness used as a stat more often. I’m not saying they should do this, I’m simply saying that I disagree. Giving us reason to leave an all-damage spec is absolutely crucial for good game balance.

Toughness might get more use if they stop being idiots with the mob design. Getting hit for 27k (non-critical) damage with ~2900 armor doesn’t make toughness very convincing. If it crits then the only one that might survive that is a warrior in sentinel armor assuming they were at full health to begin with. Then there is still condition damage which renders that completely useless.

Your suggestion would affect people relying on passive defenses than people using berserker gear. Dead mobs deal no damage but characters with lower DPS will have to fight for longer periods which means they will have to take a lot more of those frequent and harder hits.

Toughness needs some other use for active defense. Govern endurance regen or something.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

We do know that it can’t possibly have made the “raiding community toxic” — it certainly doesn’t prevent anyone from raiding and it’s not likely to be used as a benchmark for inviting people.

It does create a motivation for people who would otherwise have no interest in raids, and may lack the skill and gear for raids, to feel pressured to try to raid to be able to resume progression. They get frustrated for being excluded, raiders get frustrated at dealing with scrubs, everyone’s unhappy.

Obviously K and S are opposed. Deserts and oceans are totes opposite. Science!

Daniel Handler.4816:

I take canceling to mean purifying rather than annihilation.

Like Caladbolg? Which was a subverted version of Mordremoth’s magic, used to attack Zhaitan’s energy. There is precedent.

Play through the story parts of the new episode, do DEs and hearts you run across in the new map as the story takes you there. You aren’t really missing out if you don’t have it and it’s fast to fill up.

I didn’t really feel like they did a good job connecting the Braham that we saw at the end of HoT with the Braham that we saw in LS3. He was set on revenge before, maybe a little rash, but not bitter or angry at anyone other than Mordremoth and Faolain.

I’m not saying it’s implausible — before he had revenge against Mordremoth to focus on, but now he’s still grieving and the anger is still there, and it just gets redirected at everyone around him (and Jormag). But it’s still a little bit jarring, since all of those personality changes happened off-screen.

Just speaking for myself (as a male IRL), I have 9 characters, one of each race/gender combo other than Asuran female (though my beta character was Asuran female). I like having the variety in backstory and looks. If Anet introduces a tenth profession, then you can guess what that character will be. Unless they introduce a new race at the same time…

Runiir.6425:

Amaimon.7823:

Full Verdant Brink + Auric Basin should net you about 80-90% of the progress. usually when I fully mapped those two I need 2 or so more points for the finishing touches.

But you don’t need to be a full fledges elite spec at the get go. Just build it up as you get along. There’s no hurry, there’s no rush. Just play at your pace and the points will come.

The problem is people have the normal specs already and had them all through the old world Tyria…most wanted to jump straight into HoT with the elite spec. It is rather annoying you have to earn it after the fact IMO.

Isn’t that like, in an MMO which raises the level cap with each expansion, expecting to jump in with 10 extra levels overnight? I mean, the initial HP requirements for elite specs were so onerous that you’d have long completed the content before fully unlocking your elite. But the current approach seems about right.

They’re waiting until after the election, to know whether the Blue dragon or the Red dragon is the next one chosen to wreak havoc and destruction on Earth Tyria.

Doctor.1905:

Anet I didn’t forget about E. Don’t turn this into a Saul D’Alessio situation again.
Who is E? I think it’s QuEEn JEnnAhE. Why?
When Queen Jennah was accused of being associated with Scarlet Briar, E contacted Anise to deal with this situation. It’s obvious that Queen Jennah has a lot of dirty political affairs and that she constantly requires third party support to deal with her mismanagement. There has never been so many lies and so much deception. She’s guilty as hell and she needs to go to jail. I mean people have had their lives destroyed for doing one fifth of what she has done.

Uh, no, it’s clear that E is leaking information specifically to influence Krytan politics. Clearly E is a catspaw of the Charr.

Zatoh.5627:

Naxian.9823:

What if new elite specializations could unlock a type of armor instead of a new weapon?

For example a Revenant spec called Legendary Lich (Vizier Khilbron) that wears light armor or a Elementalist spec called Shaman that wears medium armor.

(People will kill me for this but) It will give more longevity to the game because you will need to get another armor for your char.

I think it could expand a lot the variety of elite specs that they could add to the game and make them feel more distinct.

We already have that I believe. You unlock an Achievement for completing Elite Spec training, which unlocks a special armor piece based on the Elite Spec. For the “Master Reaper” Achievement (as an example), you get the Reaper Hood.

I believe the poster meant that, instead of allowing the use of a new weapon, it should allow the use of a new armor class (or change the armor class). I.e., a “Monk” specialization of the Guardian that uses Light Armor instead of (or in addition to) Heavy Armor.

AngreePanda.4635:

I have a lvl 80 character, I’ve completed the map and now I have the expansion. I noticed there are 2 mastery areas, 1 in the HoT the 2nd in Central Tyria. I need clarification on the best way to gain experience to level up my mastery in Central Tyria. Is there specific places I need to go or things I need to do? Any ideas?

Until 11/8, get XP boosters, join a zerg in the Mad King’s Labyrinth, and watch the XP pile up, especially on the door events with swarms of monsters. You’ll run out of Mastery Points well before you run out of XP. I finished my last CT masteries that way.

Gryphon.2875:

And yet, among player characters, shirtless males are prohibited and most female outfits and gear are skimpy…

And they say there’s no balance in the game.

Black Iris Flowers.3418:

I would love it, the effort into lore and story line make me love this game.

But I can only manage the forum whining of "how dare you quest lock content!?!??!?!’

They could lock it behind a collection, drop the items from said quest (along with the typical DEs and so on), and add a one-time PvP and/or WvW reward track that also drops all of the needed items.

One thing that bugs me is that the back items for the Order collections (the exotic level items) are soulbound on acquire. That was… unexpected, and I ended up getting two on a character since I had the currency for the last bit of it.

I’m not even sure what the point of soulbound, as opposed to accountbound, is.

draxynnic.3719:

I’d be very surprised if the dragons aren’t capable of “concentrating” their own energies. In fact, I’d wager that’s exactly what’s happening with things like Kralkatorrik’s breath, Svanir corruption rituals, the various crystals of Jormag and Kralkatorrik we have to destroy in certain events, and so on.

The new Destroyers are pretty solid evidence that if a dragon gets hold of another dragon’s energy, it can instil that energy into its own minions. Meanwhile, all evidence indicates sylvari are just as immune to being corrupted by the methods of the Inquest as they are to Zhaitan, Kralkatorrik, and so on.

I’m not sure that the Dragons are getting ahold of the other dragon’s energy, so much as they are getting part of the pool of raw energy that the other dragon used to get (could be a semantics issue). Meaning, the new Destroyers have “Death” and “Nature” energies, not “Zhaitan” and “Mordremoth” energies. The energy is just a basic part of nature, the corruption is more of an organism that is attuned to a particular spectrum. Primordus will might create planty Destroyers, but he won’t make fiery Mordrem.

Sharen Graves.1276:

Scuffy 2.0 will resemble MOX if not MOX himself from GW1. Zinn founded Rata Novus and that where Taimi is holding out. If not the story will tie into the research that Zinn did after being banished from Asuran lands (because he was a golemancer) she found it and improved on the design.

Aren’t the current Asuran designs substantially more advanced than Zinn’s designs? Seems like it would be a step backward. If anything, she should be studying the Exalted and even moreso, the Jade Constructs.

Rognik.2579:

Braham: He is as much to Balthazar as Athena is to Ares. For those not as attuned in Greek mythology, Athena and Ares are both gods of war, but Ares is bloodthirsty war while Athena is strategic war. Braham doesn’t fight just for the sheer fun of it, but as a guardian does it to protect others.

While Balthazar has been accused of being bloodthirsty, that’s normally a non-human characterization of human religion. To humans, he’s more of the Athena. Menzies is more the Mars/Ares god of slaughter and destruction. I wouldn’t exactly call the Zaishen order brainless slaughter-fiends.

Canach: Just because he’s angry and green, you tie him to Grenth? Way to typecast. RACIST!

Also, because Grenth is associated with justice and vengeance, as is Canach from his arc as idealistic terrorist to dispenser of justice against crown traitors. You couldn’t have clearly made the connection last season or even during HoT (since he had more pressing issues to deal with), but it’s getting stronger now.

And Taimi compared just for convenience? If nothing else, that shows how much this is a reach.

Actually, one of the things that first got me thinking about the similarities between the gods and the B team (aside from the Kasjory/Lyssa similarities) was Taimi and the statues of Dwayna. I mean, crippled legs seems like an unusual trait for an adventurer; projectile-related injuries to leg joints have prematurely ended any number of adventuring careers, to hear tell.

Once you see Scruffy 2.0 and she’s equipped it with floaty abilities based on studying the Exalted and Jade Constructs (which she has made some comment about in LS3, suggesting she’s given the subject some thought), the Taimi-Dwayna connection will be clearer. Okay, it’s just speculation, but I’m hoping it turns out to be true.

Having tried to set it up for a Steam Controller, it’s probably a little too complicated for a normal controller, without a major overhaul to skills and a corresponding impact on balance.

It doesn’t help that some classes have 5 class skills to account for on top of 5 weapon skills, 5 utilities, weapon swap, dodge, jump, use, and that’s ignoring menus.

I certainly hope they give it consideration for GW3. Ideally, you would just use button combos to implement certain actions that tend to be common across different skill types (e.g. “chain attack”, “whirl attack”, “leap attack”, “block/counter”), and then interpret them differently based on weapon, profession, context, or whatever.

In light of the events of HoT, I thought I would update this. Take it as a purely narrative theory or something with possible in-world significance, but it seems as though you’re assembling a band of heroes who relate to the gods, sort of.

Rytlock: The latest addition, and the reason I wanted to bring the theory back out of storage. Come on, look at the blindfold! He’s obviously Kormir. Although he’s arguably sort of Abaddon as well. i) Because he’s totes secretive and has new magical gifts, and ii) because it gender maps better. All the other proposals below match their respective god’s gender, which is another point in the “deliberate intent” column.

Canach: Mean, green, Anise’s agent of justice, himself bound on account of his crimes (with “justice” occasionally meaning “immediate execution”, as we see with Caudecus). Like Grenth, the judge of the dead. Or soon to be dead, anyway.

Rox: A Ranger, and thus in touch with nature, and literally named “Rocks”. Melandru, goddess of nature and earth.

Braham: Balthazar. I don’t really think this requires a lot of explanation.

Kasjory: The retconned Lyssa is a goddess of Illusion and Water. Kasmeer is a Mesmer. Marjory’s last name is “del aqua”. And they’re, uh, closely connected.

Taimi: Dwayna. Partly by process of elimination, partly because she’s Asura and they like floating cities, and party because her crippled body sort of maps to the fact (in GW1 anyway) that Dwayna’s statues were broken and held aloft by magic. I’m hoping Scruffy 2.0 has some flight or hover capabilities.

Anyhow, it’s just an observation. Do you think there’s deliberate authorial intent, or is just a coincidence? Maybe our friends are destined to replace the Six as a multi-racial pantheon?

Behellagh.1468:

How do you break people from hording?

Cap their storage space and make them pay gems to expand it?

Necromancer – Warlock
Weapon: Torch Off-hand
Utility Skills: Possessions
Mechanic: Dhuum Shroud/Manifestations

The Warlock has studied the ancient rites of the lost god of death, Dhuum, to discover how to summon terrifying beings from beyond the Mists to afflict his enemies’ souls with burning anguish, and use that pain to tear at their flesh.

Weapon: Torch Off-hand
Sort of a hellfire and brimstone theme, provide burning, torment, and smoke fields.

Utility Skills: Possession
Possessions are minions, usually appearing somewhere in between flame titans and torment demons, that are cast onto/bound to individual enemies like Mesmer phantasms, and affect enemies (excluding their host) or occasionally allies in a broad radius, like a more offensive and mobile version of a Ranger spirit. In this form, they are translucent and evade 66% of attacks passively, and passively generate LF. The cooldown is not too long (to account for the fact that they aren’t expected to last longer than Phantasms), but recasting a Possession will replace the existing version of the Possession from that skill (without triggering death nova).

Mechanic: Dhuum Shround
Dhuum Shroud is oriented toward minion support and fire damage, but each skill is broadly similar to its equivalent in other shrouds and inherits the applicable Death Shroud trait bonuses. Its main difference is in its ability trigger Manifestations. In Dhuum Shroud form, while most utilities are removed, any active Possession will cause a corresponding “Manifestation” skill to be placed on the skill bar. Using this skill costs LF just like any shroud skill, and permanently transforms the Possession into a Manifestation. The Manifestationis not translucent, and lacks the passive evasion of the Possession, but is a strong attacker which focuses single-mindedly on destroying its host until one or the other is dead.

Amaimon.7823:

I don’t think Glint believed in intervention. She wrote the Flameseeker Prophecies, but it turnt out that the people responding to the prophecy actually caused it to fulfill. maybe if Glint didn’t write the Flameseeker and kept it to herself, the mursaat would’ve handled things way differently. meaning her telling, or interfering with a prophecy, is actually part of the prophecy

The Mursaat settled the Fire Islands of their own accord, apparently. The Lich and the Titans were Abaddon’s plot, and that would have unfolded regardless of the prophecy too. If there was no prophecy, the Mursaat would have gotten rekt by the Titans, and the Khilbron would have used them to destroy Tyria as harbingers of Abaddon’s return. The prophecy changed the behavior of all parties so as to create the Chosen, and then set the Chosen on the path of stopping the Flameseeker.

The prophecy was a little bit circular in its solution, but it didn’t invent a problem to solve.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

By that argument, neither were sylvari and the Pale Tree at any point in time, since what the NPCs (Taimi, Canach, Trahearne) are calling “Mordremoth” is just his corruption and not his actual body.

I’m speaking solely of the vines, which the game suggests are directly a part of or connected to the dragon’s “body” in a way that individual mordrem are not. The vines did not start spreading until after the dragon woke up, at which point the sylvari had already, in the absence of the dragon’s influence, developed Dream/Nightmare to shield their minds.

It’s true that, through the vines, the Call could have been transmitted farther than the Heart of Maguuma, but we don’t really canonically know much about what happened with Sylvari in Tyria after the Pact Invasion. We also don’t really know much about how strongly the Call was in effect before that point — Scarlet was not only close by, but exposed due to Omadd’s experiment. Aerin was also close by when he attacked, and Soundless, though it seemed like he had possibly been affected even earlier than that.

We do know that the player Sylvari don’t hear it during LS2, even though they’re nearly as close as the Pact was during it’s assault (and even though they were exposed by Omadd’s device, but nevermind), but after the disaster they can feel it very strongly, and the closer they get to Mordremoth, the harder it is to resist. It seems like the Dragon was aware of Sylvari and their role in the Pact, and that the Pact had killed Zhaitan, and it deliberately waited to turn the majority of Sylvari until it would do the most damage to its enemies. Presumably it also attacked the Pale Tree to weaken the protective effect of Dream/Nightmare in preparation for this mental assault.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

We know distance isn’t a factor- we fought Mordrem in the Iron Marches, remember?

The Mordrem in the Iron Marches and at Fort Salma and Fort Concordia weren’t actually distant from Mordremoth, though. Think about it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

By the literal foundation for how every mordrem (and, technically speaking, other dragon minion) functions, if the Pale Tree was not purified in some form of manner at some point before creating sylvari, then she would have been “praise Mordremoth!” from the very beginning and so would every Firstborn and Secondborn and all other sylvari.

Where is the evidence that such a purification took place? And if there is no such evidence, is it more reasonable to assume that such an important plot point occurred, but even after all the other revelations about Sylvari, no one has ever thought to explain it?

Or to assume as all the in-game evidence suggests, that each dragon’s corruption works somewhat differently, that mordremoth’s Call is affected by distance or heavy material barriers like a magical wifi signal, and that a sufficiently powerful Mordrem, if left to grow outside of the Dragon’s influence, could develop the awareness and willpower (bearing in mind that they likely inherently share the Dragon’s “mind” affinity) to resist the Dragon’s domination?

I wanted to click +1 over and over, but my wrist seized up from the RSI I got opening Trick-or-treat bags.