Guild Wars 2

Toxcidian.6497:

SPOILER WARNING

I was not sure exactly were to post this so I decided to try here.

So I’m trying to finish the story mode with another character but for some reason it feels like some of the missions have been rearranged and do not make any sense from previous runs. I just finished forming the pact but the finial mission in that section for me was cleansing Orr of its corruption and devoting all its resources to killing Zhaitan, wtf? There was no build up missions on Orr like previous runs just alright we got the Pact, run straight into Orr and cleanse it. During that mission I’m talking to characters I haven’t met yet or characters are getting mentioned that I haven’t met.

Next I go to Victory or Death which cleansing of Orr was supposed to be in from my previous runs. From here I start off with Temple Of the Forgotten Gods which is normal. However why am I missing a large chunk of missions on Forging the Pact and why is cleansing of Orr in that Section?

Unless I’m going nuts it feels like some of my missions got rearranged and some just are not there. I have never had this issue with any of my other characters and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this? I also noticed that for many of my characters Temple of the Forgotten God is shown twice in the story journal. At the beginning of Victory or Death and its being shown as the last mission even on characters I have finished the campaign with.

They decided to cut out the last chapters in the book and paste them in again with a different order, and dropping some (Greatest Fear series) entirely. Because new players can’t understand narrative coherence, or something.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I’ve ran through the labyrinth enough to notice that the rewards do not weigh up against the armor repair grind. Constant instant kills, and every death damages your armor? No thanks! Not to mention that when you do have the key, the central room is crawling with enemies, so it’s pretty much a trial and error affair to get to that nightmare pod alive, plus it also has terrible loot!

You simply get better rewards from digging up buried treasure. So it there any reason to do the labyrinth, after getting the achievement? I don’t see any reason.

If armor doesn’t protect you there, why not take it off? Or at least wait until you’re done to repair it on the way out.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zhaitan is “Death and Shadow” – if there’s any “darkness”, it’s Zhaitan via Shadows, if there’s any lies, it’s Zhaitan, who repeatedly lies via his risen.

Mordrem is Plant and Mind, not life which is far far more broad than “plant” or “mind”.

Yes, I was speculating that the Priory was mistaken. Not on any evidence, really, aside from the fact that the spheres the Dragons are assumed to represent seem a bit limited for something that could rip apart the fabric of reality when unbalanced (Crystal? really?), and that some of the potential dragon replacements seem to have attitudes/strengths at odds with their corresponding dragon.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

It’s common knowledge among the Nightmare Court, certainly, and I seem to recall a random Grove NPC saying something to the effect of ‘Caithe hasn’t been the same since Faolain left’. I’d say it’s either an open secret or common knowledge. It certainly can’t be what Scarlet was referring to- Caithe refuses to discuss that with us, and we got front row seats to her relationship during TA story.

Hmmm… Sylvari believe that falling into Nightmare is a one-way street, and no one comes back. Maybe Caithe’s nasty secret is that at some point Faolain actually did convince her to fall and embrace Nightmare, and somehow she managed to find her way back to the Dream.

I imagine we will see what happens, but it seems like each dragon could be taken to represent an extreme of some metaphysical axis even more fundamental than the elements they embody, along with some attendant spiritual malady. Speculative breakdown follows, Chaos on the left, Order on the right:

S : Darkness [Lies/Secrets] – K : Light [Hubris]
Z : Death [Despair] – M : Life [Madness/Nightmare]
P : Destruction/Change [Rage?] – J : Stasis [Desire/Hunger]

So, it’s possible (in the interest of good triumphing over evil and whatnot) that whatever ends up absorbing and managing those primal forces tends to embody a virtue that counteracts the natural tendency of the metaphysical principle. For example, the potential represented by an egg represents Hope, to counteract despair; the Pale Tree embodies Serenity, to balance the manic Madness vibrant life can present; the Great Dwarf could embody a sort of stoic calm to balance out the rage of Destruction. Given that Glint’s other baby has been content to avoid the spotlight for now, it might be humble enough to replace Kralkatorrik.

eekzie.5640:

Then what will happen?
Sit and wait for it to hatch?

I imagine all it really needs to do right now is sponge up Zhaitan’s energy to preserve the balance between Life and Death.

Jaken.6801:

What is her secret. Scarlet mentioned some dark secret in the Aetherblade dungeon.

Is her relationship with Faolain common knowledge? I know that the PC, Trahearne, and the Pale Tree know. Who else?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It’s not “Mysterious Skritt” but “Aggressive Skritt” when I saw it.

At least during Echoes of the Past, there was a Mysterious skritt near the skritt tunnel with the zephyrite symbol (the first one we enter as part of the story). He ran off when the player approached, but I forget his dialogue.

Mapwide fight against the dragon itself, with different groups focused on different body parts. On success, he sheds a good chunk of body, and retreats underground; that opens access to a new dungeon that covers the journey with Marjory to deliver the killing blow with the ghostblade.

I think the fact that Zhaitan and Mordremoth are opposing forces suggests that, much as Sylvari were immune to Zhaitan’s corruption and Caladbolg played a large role in weaking Zhaitan, artifacts and beings of Death will be critical for fighting Mawdrymouth.

Ritualist abilities were concerned with ancestral spirits and such. I think Ritualist magic is going to return (at least as NPC abilities) and play a large role in defeating M. Marjory has always had a connection with ghosts (and is of Canthan descent), and now wields a ghostly blade.

I think while Rytlock is in the Mists, he is going to be impressed into service as an Envoy (as Shiro was before him). Once we rescue him, he can use that ability, along with his sword, to pull an Aragorn with the ghosts of the Foefire, in exchange for helping to free them from the curse and send them to their proper place in the afterlife. Might be very late in the season, given how much of a game-changer it would be.

ThaSlayer.8573:

The Caithe with us was actually Canach in disguise to retrieve the egg for Anise/Livia, relating to the White Mantle and Mursaat since theyre suppose to play a part as well. That would be quite alot of kitten lore people would be excited for.

Perhaps? dun dun duuuun?

Canach isn’t a mesmer, and he was close by when Caithe was following us in the camp. I’m guessing it’s Anise herself.

Alma.1769:

At the end, it’s Caithe that actually kills the Master of Peace, before he can tell us what was so important and where he was taking the egg.

I don’t think so. I can, however implausibly, see my character being trusting enough to give her the benefit of the doubt regarding taking the egg. I can’t see that happening if she murders its keeper in full view of everyone.

At any rate, it didn’t look that way to me in the cutscene.

It could be Mr. E (hence, “Mysterious” this and that), under various illusory guises, or outright polymorphs.

I remember that someone had a theory that E was Glint’s baby, which was cool except for the fact that he grabbed Marjory and spoke to her. But if E can take the form of a skritt or a centaur, then there’s no reason to think that human is its native form. It would also make it feasible that E/Glint Jr. was the one who gave the egg to the Master of Peace.

There’s some meta logic to it. Destiny’s Edge had a dragon ally, so why shouldn’t Destiny’s Edge 2?

OMNIBUS.2913:

lolz. caithe must be craving dragon omelette really bad.

Her terrible secret is that she’s pregnant with Faolain’s baby.

DUN DUN DUN

My tinfoil hat theory:
1. Master of Peace works for White Mantle. Possibly replaced by imposter during Fot4W. MoP sabotaged Zephyrites in Maguuma in order to take Egg to WM.
2. Egg cried out telepathically. Aerin heard and heeded the cry, but it drove him insane (Egg is a baby and doesn’t really know exactly what it is doing). Aerin went to singlemindedly protect Egg from MoP.
3. Anise sent Canach to Maguuma to investigate White Mantle activity. May have suspected Mantle involvement in the crash.
4. Somehow, the Shining Blade learned that the Master of Peace had a Dragon Egg (Canach knows this when you speak to him), and realize he may intend to deliver it to the White Mantle.
5. This is A Big Deal, so Anise decides to intervene personally; Canach is close enough to Caithe to remove her. Anise steps in as “Caithe”, exploits the Pact Commander’s relationship to be able to tag along and steal the egg. Logan may be in the know, or may have just been nudged by Jennah into calling a meeting, as a pretext for the Pact Commander to cross paths with Caithe.

Totally random theory on the events here:
1. Master of Peace was a White Mantle agent, who sabotaged the Zephyrites to steal the egg and bring it to the Mursaat. Possibly was always bad, possibly a Mesmer replaced the true Master of Peace during the Festival of the Four Winds.
2. The Egg, in its limited awareness of the danger it faced, cried out for help. The only receptive mind was Aerin, as a soundless Sylvari, but he was driven insane by the dragon; still, he singlemindedly sought to rescue it from the Master of Peace after the crash.
3. The Shining Blade discovered or suspected Mantle involvement in the crash, Canach was operating in the Silverwastes to gather information on the Master of Peace’s movements.
4. Shining Blade spies learned what the player discovered in Glint’s lair (Canach already knows about it when you speak to him)
4. Having gained Caithe’s trust, Canach eliminated her (presumably not fatally) so that Anise could step into her role, and exploit the Pact Commander’s trust of his old war buddy to accompany the player to find the Master of Peace and recover the Egg.

zallis.2138:

What is this supposed to be? I thought it was a charr at first, but it has 4 arms. It isn’t a krait because it has legs
https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/guildwars2-29.jpg

A charr wearing another critter. Those other 2 arms don’t belong to it.

Edit: On second thought, maybe it’s just corrupted.

Conditions could be reworked so that each target only ever has a single stack, and each hit throws a certain number of “points” onto that stack.

Every tick, a formula would inflict damage or rescale the effect (weakness, damage per skill use, etc) based on the number of points, subtract some points, and update the condition icon based on the scale and the remaining duration.

The formulas would be set up so as to simulate the stacking characteristics of conditions, as implemented by a condition-focused character; with bleeding, for example, the DPS would scale up from a base rate to up to 25 times that rate; with burning, the initial DPS would be much higher, but the rate would be stable and only the duration would increase.

The formulas should be balanced so that conditions on players or vet NPCs and below remain about the same, but conditions on tougher mobs run through their points at a scaled up rate, with a higher maximum DPS in exchange for much shorter durations. The simplest implementation would be leaving the “stack” caps the same, but scaling up the number of points per stack.

It would be nice to make it easier to avoid reviving defeated (as opposed to downed) players during combat, as this is usually undesired. Maybe an option in the player settings so that reviving downed characters or defeated characters ooc still uses the normal button, but reviving defeated characters in combat uses a separate button.

Regardless, excluding defeated characters from scaling would be very helpful. Right now, it’s too costly in time to be worth reviving them, so it unnecessarily introduces strife to open world events.

It would be nice to have a gem store purchase that unlocks a new material group of these “currency” items, subject to whatever cap the other material slots have.

With a single section (expanded as new quasi-currencies are introduced), there wouldn’t be endless nickle and diming for space, and more than 250 slots would be available. It would help keep the wallet screen from getting cluttered, but currency items would not be available on demand — you would still need to plan ahead and pull what you need from the bank. On the plus side, they could be automatically deposited like other materials.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zhaitan waking in a place of death was purely coincidental.

I completely agree, but the fact that he stayed there was probably due to the abundance of deathyness. Whatever Orr used to be, it was a land filled with inexplicably well-preserved corpses when Zhaitan awoke.

Also, while Kralkatorrik did not wake in the Crystal Desert but flew there – he did so to kill Glint.

That doesn’t prove anything, since as the Crystal Dragon’s champion, Glint would have probably felt the same affinity for the Crystal Desert as Kralkatorrik himself. At any rate, he could have easily returned to Ascalon if he was just there to deal with Glint.

I really don’t see this connection, truth be told. Half of it feels coincidental on the dragons’ part, and the other half is more that the dragons made it their preferred territory – like how Mordremoth is making the Maguuma Wastes into ‘his jungle’.

I’m not seeing that, unless by “jungle” you mean “desert filled with Mordrem and giant vines which may be part of the body of Mordremoth himself”.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Collective consciousnesses (which is NOT what the sylvari/Pale Tree/Dream is) is irrelevant in this matter.

The role of the Elder Dragons is to balance magic. They do this by consuming and exuding. What’s needed is a being that can retain magic in its body – either permanently (like it seems it is for the Six Gods), or temporarily (in which case they need a means to add magic back into their body).

Well, whatever you want to call the Sylvari’s ongoing link to the Dream as mediated by the Pale Tree. Collective unconsicious? At any rate, it isn’t the mechanism of cognition that is precisely relevant to dragonhood, so much as it is the magical link between a large population of creatures.

If their minds are connected (as dragon minions’ seem to be to a limited extent), then it’s possible that, upon ascending to dragonhood, they would also gain the dragons’ ability to absorb magic through each member, which would have major bearing on their ability to regulate magic.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I think you’re overall looking at the spheres wrong from all given indication. One sphere is how the corruption takes shape (Fire, Ice, Crystal, Death, Plant). The other is more questionable, but it seems that the second sphere is the magic that the Elder Dragons use – Kralkatorrik, for example, used storms, wind, and golden fiery breath (very akin to sunlight) to attack and corrupt, just like the aspects that use air; Jormag’s corruption of the Sons of Svanir have been called ‘losing their souls’ to him, and he establishes himself often as a spiritual figurehead, with a heavy focus on the Mists and souls (via Svanir, his consumption of Owl and attempt of Minotaur, his focus via Sons of Svanir on Havrouns).

“I think you’re overall looking at the spheres wrong from all given indication. One sphere is how the corruption takes shape (Fire, Ice, Crystal, Death, Plant). The other is more questionable, but it seems that the second sphere is the magic that the Elder Dragons use – Kralkatorrik, for example, used storms, wind, and golden fiery breath (very akin to sunlight) to attack and corrupt, just like the aspects that use air; Jormag’s corruption of the Sons of Svanir have been called ‘losing their souls’ to him, and he establishes himself often as a spiritual figurehead, with a heavy focus on the Mists and souls (via Svanir, his consumption of Owl and attempt of Minotaur, his focus via Sons of Svanir on Havrouns).”"

The first element seems to essentially define the Dragon’s favored terrain: Depths of Tyria, Maguuma Jungle, Crystal Desert, Far Shiverpeaks, Orr, the depths of the ocean. It is more material in nature.

The second seems to be more esoteric or energetic in nature, and seems more tied to the Dragon’s personality and modus operandi. Primordus burns without bothering to corrupt, Mordremoth maddens through the Dream, Jormag seduces with promises of power, Kral uses storms and lightning. Zhaitan’s “darkness” is sort of iffy, but eh. We have seen him corrupt without killing/reanimating, through certain artifacts. I could have his spheres backwards, as he normally corrupts through death.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

For non-dragon, it all depends on if they can regulate magic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get:

• Malyck (the wording for him in the book in Hidden Arcana is very reminiscent of Lyssa’s Muse talking about Kormir before she becomes a god)
• Malyck’s tree
• Pale Tree
• Bloodstone and Krait Obelisks (object, would require others to feed magic into it; either letting it sit or seep back out slowly akin to dragons)
• Return of the Six Gods
• “Great Dwarf” (aka dwarven race – they’ve become anti-Destroyer weapons, perhaps they now live on magic instead of food?)

Both the Pale Tree/Sylvari and the Great Dwarf exhibit the sort of collective consciousness that Dragons and their minions do, so they seem like good candidates.

If Dragons and gods are a similar class of being, then Kormir’s ascension suggests that any mortal, properly prepared, could do so. Perhaps it would be safer, however, to spread that power out broadly — say, distributing Mordremoth’s power among the entire Sylvari race, or Kralkatorrik’s among the Zephyrites or Asura.

I’m not sure about the Bloodstones, since they’re merely artifacts with no consciousness. It would be ideal, though, as their regulation of magic seems to be preservative and orderly in nature, whereas the dragons “regulate” magic in the same fashion as wolves regulate the deer population, and with about as much deliberate regard for balance.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

(Mordremoth’s mental influence has thus far only gone to “smart” sylvari – engineers, rather).

That’s assuming Aerin was under the influence of Mordremoth, otherwise you have a sample size of one. ANet hinted in their interview that this might not be correct.

GuildMag: How was Aerin corrupted by Mordremoth, having been so high up in the sky?

ArenaNet: It’s only conjecture that he was corrupted by Mordremoth, but it’s worth mentioning that he wasn’t always on the ships

Glint had other enemies (and not necessarily just Dragons, given her role in the Flameseeker prophecies), so it’s possible that Aerin was under the influence of one of them, and the attacks on her followers and her egg was the only act of revenge available after her death.

There have been hints about the White Mantle and reminders of Abaddon and the Margonites. Any remaining Mursaat might have adopted the notion that if they are going to become extinct, they might as well take the world out with them, starting with Glint’s descendants; alternately, a follower of the god of torment, nightmare, and madness has the proper skillset for driving someone with an affinity for Dream insane. Either is a decent alternative to Mordremoth as being behind the Zephyrites’ woes.

Shiren.9532:

One of the things that bothers me about the “Tyria is imbalanced without the EDs” theory is simply that I don’t see an imabalance after Zhaitan’s death. Zhaitan was defeated two years ago and aside from Tequatl getting a mechanics update (which is suggested to be lore, but it’s a single thing) and another functional update (increasing the size of some risen models to better communicate their animations) I have seen almost no change in the parts of Tyria which would represent Shadow or Death.

The entire Living Story to date has been about the rise of Mordremoth, the Dragon of Plants, who sits across from Zhaitan in the Alchemy and could be seen as having an opposing sphere.

Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the fall of Death was in large part due to Trahearne and Caladbolg (Sylvari champions and magic), or that it was shortly followed by the rise of the Plant dragon? Perhaps dealing with Mordremoth will require champions and artifacts of death (the ghosts of the Foefire, necromancer Marjory and her ghost blade, etc.)

Dondagora.9645:

Any thoughts on more candidates, or possibly theory for what it takes to become a candidate?

To absorb a dragon’s power? Be part of the Septim lineage or be blessed by Akatosh. Wait, wrong setting.

My guess at the spheres: Light (Truth/Crystal), Darkness, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Life, Death, Plant, Ice, Mind/Illusion, Strength

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The God/Dragon line up does not work even when considering twelve spheres. Who would have Life, War, Illusion?

War is so closely tied to strength and power that I think they are part of the same sphere, and it is Jormag’s. Illusion is related to dream, nightmare, hallucination, and madness. I think they all fall under Mind (Mordremoth). Life isn’t tied to a known ED, so it would go to DSD by process of elimination.

And no real way to think about the DSD. He corrupts water, sure, but nothign says that’s part of his corruption – just like how Kralkatorrik corrupts the ground and flesh but that’s not likely tied to him. Any Elder Dragon could, really, corrupt anything – we know Primordus can corrupt living beings via an interview, though we’ve yet to see such happen.

Maybe, but each (after awakening) seems to have chosen a home tied to at least one of their spheres. Primordus lives under the earth (in magma?), while Jormag lives in the frozen north. Mordremoth lives, so far as we know, in a vibrant jungle while Zhaitan lived in a land once-dead, then risen (literally). Kralkatorrik lives in the Crystal Desert. DSD is presumably awake, and chooses to live at the bottom of the ocean, so if there is a Water sphere, DSD surely has it.

I don’t see the DSD as being opposed to the other Elder Dragons either. The thing pushed the krait, quaggan, karka, and largos out of their homes (well, largos seem to be holding onto their home, but still).

You’re probably right. The EDs seem to represent the worst of whatever sphere they control, so even if DSD has Life, it’s probably a negative version of it, like having minions that have insane regenerative properties, at the expense of becoming so tumorous as to be almost entirely made of cancer.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Yes, after that post, perilisk, I’ve come to see Kralk as Air and Crystal, and Jormag as Spirit and Ice.

The God/Dragon line up does not work even when considering twelve spheres. Who would have Life, War, Illusion? What god has Crystal? Lyssa isn’t “mind” but “illusion” – though you can tie the two, I would tie Kormir’s Knowledge to Mind more (Mordremoth’s mental influence has thus far only gone to “smart” sylvari – engineers, rather). And I really wouldn’t tie Kralkatorrik to “Truth” – Glint was one hell of a liar, after all, and her being a prophet wasn’t about truths but foretelling.

It’s a good point about Crystal. However, the Zephyrites have shown us that there is a great deal encompassed in any given sphere (e.g. “Air” has Sun, Wind, and Lightning).

There isn’t really a Light sphere in either the god or dragon category (as the presence of Darkness might suggest), and such a sphere could feasibly encompass both Truth and Crystal (in the sense that crystals often have interesting optical properties) as Aspects. While there is some overlap between Truth and Mind, truth is truth whether a mind perceives it or not.

Scarlet forged many alliances and learned many secrets, but when we actually faced her, her last major defenses were based in holomagic (ie, light). Note that the red/blue/green mechanics of the facet of light are very similar to the red/blue/green holomagic that was based on the Asuran colleges, suggesting that the Asuran take on mind (intellect and truth) is somehow related to the sphere of Light, unlike the Sylvari take (dream, nightmare), which is probably more related to Mordremoth given his champion’s presence in the Dream.

Of course, there’s another angle there — crystal is also a major motif in Zephyrite magic. If Zephyrite magic is purely Air sphere, then that suggests Crystal is a subset thereof (and therefore, there is another sphere unaccounted for). On the other hand, if Zephyrite magic is based on both of K’s and Glint’s spheres, and not just Air, the presence of “Sun” as part of their triad lends a bit of credence to the idea that the second Sphere is Light, of which Crystal and Sun are Aspects.

It’s interesting to me that the same dual “sphere” concept that can be applied to the Dragons can also be applied to the major native races of Tyria. It could be a coincidence, but the Asura seem to have an affinity for Air (note the floating cities) and Light (per the aforementioned connection between the colleges, holomagic, and the facet of Light), while the Sylvari are tied to Plants and Mind (in the sense of Dream and Nightmare). The Charr have some affinity to both Fire and Earth, both in their historical service to the Titans, and in their steampunk technology. The Norn are accustomed to living near Ice, and are known for their Strength and prowess as hunters (Jormag’s followers are seduced by promises of power, obsessed with strength, and consider the dragon the ultimate hunter.).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

His generosity was only matched by his namesake, the ocean, which was both his dominion and said to be the physical manifestation of his blue wings.

So yes, Abaddon’s body was changed. But he wasn’t “merely human”.

Well, yeah. He sounds more like a largos deity than a human one.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Thus the result would be:

Jormag: Mind and Ice (or Desire and Ice)

Kralkatorrik: Physical and Crystal (he corrupts things that are physical for the most part)

Primordus: Fire and Rock (he’s called the “rock dragon” at one point just as he is called the fire dragon all the other times, his minions are twisted stone, corrupted by being bathed in lava)

Weather/Air is one of K’s spheres, as it is one of Glint’s spheres, and dragon champions share the spheres of their associated Elder Dragon.

At a guess, the spheres are a mix and match of the 12 spheres associated with the Gods. Those are: Earth+Plants/Growth, Fire+Strength, Ice+Death, Air+Life, Water+Mind (as retconned for GW2), and Shadow+Truth (sort of breaking “secrets” into two components).

Thus, speculatively, the Dragon spheres are Fire+Earth, Strength+Ice, Death+Shadow, Plants+Mind, Air+Truth (Glint was also a prophet, after all), and Water+Life.

Since Life is an odd choice for an antagonist, it suggests the possibility that once again, there is a sixth, hidden, ocean-related outsider force in opposition to the five known forces.

Hmmm… I would move the action to Cantha, human characters only, include only light armor classes that rely heavily on unarmed combat (Monk, Brawler, Assassin, Alchemist, Ritualist, Sorcerer). Melee weapons would all be disposable environmental weapons (though you could still equip skins for different types of weapon).

For combat, I’d base it around timing, use a controller-friendly setup inspired by fighting games, and would combine health, endurance, initiative, adrenaline, etc. into a single resource called “flux” that would be gained by successfully hitting, interrupting, comboing, blocking, dodging attacks, etc., and lost by being hit, blocked, or countered, using skills or dodges, and so on. Heals would no longer have a place, and attack spam would rapidly lead to defeat. Low-skill players would quit en masse, causing the entire game to fold.

The entire quest chain was nonsensical. I guess it wasted a little time and a few silver. Maybe it existed to handwave away why Rytlock was only trying to do this now? But they already did that via the research angle, and it’s not like he couldn’t have hunted down the pieces before.

It would have potentially made more sense if they tied the Iron Marches events to the last instance. If you recall the Priory team with the injured dolyak, they sent a runner on with some artifact. Say, completing the open world tasks leads to an instance where you arrive too late to save the runner, but you recover the artifact from mordrem. That artifact happens to be the crown, which you hold on to until you can figure out what to do with it. When you talk to Rytlock about the meeting, he is initially not optimistic. Then he recognizes the crown (thanks to his research) and only then concocts the plan to cleanse the Foefire.

It’s an interesting theory. It also means that the PC doesn’t have to be completely corrupted by the dragon, just subtly influenced.

Of course, the actual notion of what we’re trying to do is ridiculous. Here is a more plausible scenario:
1) Send mail to Trahearne. “Yo, so you heard there’s a new dragon active? I’m getting my commander on again. We’ll need to get each nation involved, because running the world’s largest and most powerful paramilitary operation is hard without a tax base. How exactly -are- you paying for things?”
2) The Pact requests a meeting with emissaries from each group.
3) Without any sort of errand-running BS, a meeting with emissaries from each race happens in a neutral location (say, Lion’s Arch, if you want to remind them of the threat the dragon poses, or Ft. Trinity if you want to remind them that the Pact managed to kill an Elder Dragon).
4) Diplomacy happens, bills get paid, Pact soldiers end their strike, the Pact purchases back the airships that the Aetherblades repossessed, and Trahearne is released from debtor’s prison so he can resume leading the Pact against Mordremoth.

What exactly are the world leaders going to contribute anyway (aside from the aforementioned tax base)? The knowledge, skills, strengths, and technologies of the various races are already put to use in the Pact.

It’s not that they can’t do good open world design (dry top is fine), it’s just that they don’t really work as “story steps” as opposed to activities.

It would make more sense, if they want a “go to this area and do events” break, to implement it more like a heart tied to new events or new enemies. They could maybe extend the concept somewhat to have multiple tiers of completion (like a personalized version of Zephyrite favor) and a much larger effective area that can potentially overlap with other hearts. It might end up being a more localized version of GW1’s faction.

Didn’t Marjory’s story start off with some ghost-related shenanigans?

Maybe part 2 will deal with the White Mantle (we already dealt with Norn, Charr, and Asuran issues, but securing the queen’s attendance was not featured), or at least the ghost plot in her backstory?

I thought the curse had to be broken by the heir to the Ascalonian throne? If Rytlock could do it with Sohothin, then why the hell didn’t he do it before?

MithranArkanere.8957:

I think those are not the gods, or the dragons.

I think those are the 6 domains of magic in the Eternal Alchemy.

Asura divide magic mainly in 3 colleges, but it looks like there’s actually 6.

You know, each of Scarlet’s RBG teams was allegedly based on one of the colleges (AB:dynamics, MA:statics, TA:synergetics). Each was composed of two factions. 3*2 = 6. Could just be a coincidence.

Pandaman.4758:

I’m quitting forever if a holographic clone of a child we failed to rescue shows up in the end to tell us how dragons are actually trying to save us from uncontrolled magic usage by killing us before we get that far.

I wonder if Taimi has been studying Scarlet’s holomagic?

What if the orbs aren’t so much dragons as they are lands? At the next to last phase of the PS, Trahearne helps heal the land and break Zhaitan’s connection with it. It suggests that Orr had some actual nature-spirit associated with it that had been corrupted and suppressed by the dragon.

Maybe each orb corresponds to a different “land” like Orr, with Tyria the continent being the heart of the system, and the one land whose spirit is not yet corrupted by a dragon (and the Pale Tree has probably taken on a symbiotic, protective role in that regard).

So, e.g., Mordremoth is the corrupted spirit of Maguuma, etc.

Lethe.1640:

Facet of Chaos
Facet of Darkness
Facet of Elements
Facet of Light
Facet of Nature
Facet of Strength

That doesn’t really map to the dragons at all. It does map to the original six professions.

Facet of Creation
Facet of Death
Facet of Destruction
Facet of Existence
Facet of Illusions
Facet of Spirit

Those map well to the gods, but not to the dragons, which are all pretty much destruction.

Arghore.8340:

But also, the reason for the ‘construction’ of the bloodstones was to restrict the amount of magic in the world. It is said that the large amount of magic turned the world to chaos, so the bloodstones were constructed to restrain the magic available. And through that the 4 schools of magic came to be…

I was under the impression that current state-of-the-lore is that the Seers created an artifact to seal magic away to prevent it from being consumed by the dragons. When humans came to Tyria, both dragons and (for the most part) Seers were gone, so their gods released the magic from the artifact into the world. The power was too much for humans to use responsibly, so their gods passed sensible magic-control regulations, sealing the artifact with King Doric’s blood (hence, bloodstone), splitting the bloodstone into five pieces, with four of them used to define a particular school, and the fifth allowing for magic to be reunified.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that those schools map to the fundamental magics of Tyria; it could just be whatever the gods made up. Even if they did, they only include the magical energies that the Seers were able to save. If one class of magic had been fully consumed by a dragon or was just inaccessible to the Seers, it would not have been released back into Tyria when the gods gave Tyrians magic.

M Steel.2574:

So during the Concordia mission Rox makes an off-hand comment about how Taimi isn’t always right and when I read through my story journal the comment was apparently significant enough to warrant a mention. Have I missed something or is this foreshadowing of some future discord in the chapters to come?

What is the deal between Rox and Taimi?

Rox has taken a mother-hen view of Braham. Taimi has a big brother mild-hero-worship view of him (not in the same sense as she has for Scarlet, but still).

Not only are the two viewpoints in conflict regarding his injury, but there is also jealousy over his attention, insofar as he is one of the only relationships either character has (Kasjory are friends with the other three, but they’re too into each other to bond closely with the other three right now, and the PC is necessarily sort of a bland nonentity).

Stooperdale.3560:

In terms of storytelling , the Pact was always likely to dissolve so that fighting the remaining dragons becomes an adventures challenge, rather than just Pact with megalasers vs Dragon II, Pact with megabombs vs Dragon III, and so on. Trahearne was always going to be the person most likely to go to make the Pact dissolve.

The Pact doesn’t really need Trahearne. They needed him in order to initially start working together without squabbling, sure, but now they have enough history of inter-order cooperation (leading to a dragon kill) that the Pact could easily survive without him.

CaptainVanguard.4925:

To react to the hypothesis Shiren, I like your point but then we have to consider this.

I give you a reference from Season 1, Tower of Nightmares.

It was no joke when Jory had a somewhat sadistic, and cruel delight in overflowing the toxic tower with her toxins she laughed manically and made a point of how she was going to keep putting toxin in it until it couldn’t take anymore.

Jory is “not” a good guy, you need to realize this.

I think you’re reading way too much into this. Her sister was a soldier. She died. It happens. Jory doesn’t seem to do anything other beefed up versions of standard necro stuff, and resurrection isn’t on the menu.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying she can’t go bad, but I think if she does, it will take the form of going to unethical extremes to kill Mordremoth. Still, the anti-hero role seems more up Canach’s alley.

I’m thinking the Pale Tree is the target. Firstly, it creates a reason for what appears to be an exposition encounter (the audience with the Pale Tree, that is) to feature combat. It was also fore… well, shadowed isn’t really the right word for something so direct. Scarlet dreamed about thorns attacking the Pale Tree, this is well established at least outside of the game.

But other than that, there’s the fact that the Sylvari are the only race without a Dragon Nemesis. The Asura were driven from the underground by Primordus, the Norn were driven from the Northern Shiverpeaks by Jormag, Kraalkatorik carved a path of destruction through Charr territory, and Zhaitan not only destroyed one of the most important human cities (the original Lion’s Arch), he desecrated an entire continent’s worth of human dead, defiling their most holy city in the process. The Sylvari need to have some very personal beef with an Elder Dragon.

Now, it seems like there are limits to how far they can go without wrecking the personal story, especially until they get the ability to have phasing in instances. Jennah and the Charr leaders only live in instances, but the Pale Tree is the entire kitten Sylavri hometown. I doubt the tree will die, but perhaps Mordy will make the map look pretty nasty, and strengthen the call of Nightmare to corrupt a lot of Sylvari.

Kibazuka.1390:

Im almost completely certain that the light green orb is zhaitan and the black/green one is mordremoth, the coloration also makes sense, the risen and especially Zhaitan himself used this toxic green very often while the mordrems we saw until now use a much darker green, if they are even green. The order in which they awaken also fits.
This also means that the orb crashing in the middle is Zhaitan not Mordremoth and there could be several explanations for that.
Dont forget that Tequatl surprisingly started to grow in power after Zhaitan got defeated

The crashing green orb seemed sort of planty, the other one seemed more gross and plague-y. So, I disagree.

Jordo.5913:

So if you read the story journal, it tells you each orb is represented by a dragon, with the pale tree or tyria represented in the middle.

Primordius – Red
Jormag – Ice Blue
Bubbles- Deep Blue
Morde – Green
Kralk – Purple
Zhaitain – Gray

at first i believe they lit up in order of rising, since red lit up first, but it’s completely out of sync with what the wiki shows

obviously it showed the Green orb flying at the pale tree/tyria meaning that Morde is the current dragon on attack

why is Zhaitan’s orb still out there floating around if he has already attacked and been defeated…..or is it signifying that he has yet to pursue a full on attack of the pale tree?

Maybe it’s not the dragon so much as its sphere of influence. Like, killing Abaddon didn’t eliminate his divine power, so Kormir absorbed it and became a new god. Could be a similar principle at play — maybe Zhaitan’s power is redistributed to various champions like Teq.

Randulf.7614:

khani.4786:

Karkaaaaas in spaaaaaace

Half Life 3 confirmed

Well, “Entanglement” was a chapter in HL2…