Let's talk about the mysterious figure seen in The First City [SPOILERS]

https://i.imgur.com/U5nLC2l.jpg

If you use a mount to dash to Taimi's platform as soon as you enter the room, you'll get a glimpse of this mysterious figure. It's not Scarlet Briar, and according to the vision, the figure is likely female and is possibly holding Palawa Joko's Scepter (used to control his undead minions) as evidenced by a weapon in one hand and a pointing gesture in the other.

The Inquest's last known activity before Daybreak was in Draconis Mons, digging up and researching artifacts surrounding Zinn. The base at Fahranur may have also been a Zinn base, overtaken and 'upgraded' by the Inquest. This is likely unrelated to the mysterious figure's presence. The communicator conversation clearly shows the yellow voice saying "you're next" to Taimi, meaning that the mysterious figure is not working with the Inquest. If they were, then we would probably see living Inquest alongside the Awakened versions.

Balthazar fails to curse Lyssa during the final fight in Path of Fire, and he used a Mirror of Lyssa to disguise himself as Lazarus. Lyssa is a possible suspect, although a weak suspect. Lyssa's presence as a rogue would be important enough for Kormir to mention it, unless she was able to fool Kormir, Grenth, Dwayna, and Melandru into believing she left the realms with them. Balthazar was the one to imprison Joko. Perhaps he gave the scepter to Lyssa as a gift for helping him with his plans.

Another possibility is the Rebellious General, or one like him. In GW1, this Awakened general stole Joko's scepter and we're tasked with retrieving it for Joko, in return for information on a hidden passage to Vabbi.

OMG! Reading what you wrote I just had an idea that it could POSSIBLY be Lyssa! It’s like you said, Balthazar likely gave Lyssa the staff to control Jokos army so she can reclaim her domain back. In GW1 Nightfall she was already well known and highly worshipped in Vabbi.

But then again, it likely couldn’t be her because why would she cause the awakened to spawn all over Tyria? It just doesn’t add up, so this likely has no relation to Lyssa but likely someone we as the commander know...and it’s likely a Mesmer.

I don't think there's any information on Lyssa's ability to fool other gods, but something to keep in mind is that she has two halves; Illya and Lyss. I wonder if one half might have left with the other gods and one might have stayed and is potentially our Mysterious Figure?

This is just a crazy theory that came to me while washing the dishes, but what if Palawa Joko had a daughter? Perhaps not a biological daughter, but some girl that was born to one of his many wives who he's been keeping on the backburner as a succession plan, hidden away for her own safety until the time is right to reveal her lineage. With her father gone, Palawa's daughter decides to take matters into her own hands. She sees the country falling into disorder and knows that she must do whatever it takes to pacify the rebels and make her father proud. She knows the sound of his voice, how to imitate it, how to cast a glamour over herself to look like him and fool even his top advisors into thinking that she is her father.

At the end of Path of Fire, the Commander told one of Palawa's chief of staff that he/she was the one who killed Archon Iberu and led his army against Balthazar. Let's say that the daughter learned of this deceit and put a price on the Commander's head. Then perhaps she took her father's invasion plans (supposing there were any) and decided to lead his armies in his stead to take revenge against the northern continents for their "act of war" against her father and his officials.

This plausible story would keep the plot centered around Joko while accounting for the existence of a female imposter with Awakened featured and red hair holding Joko's scepter.

That staff is NOT Joko's.

It's just an Awakened Staff. OP likely thought it to be Joko's staff because the actor for Joko uses it, but Joko's staff looks notably different.

What we can tell about the Mysterious Figure:

• She looks awakened.
• She's high ranked among Awakened.
• She likely works with Joko (we hear Joko talking to Taimi).
• She wears red and seems to have red hair. Her hair also looks Elonian styled (not surprising).

ArenaNet had brought up a few other GW1 heroes - Koss, Tahlkora, Dunkoro - maybe they're bringing out another GW1 major NPC? Is there any red-haired ladies we know from Nightfall?

Off the top of my head: Lonai

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:That staff is NOT Joko's.

It's just an Awakened Staff. OP likely thought it to be Joko's staff because the actor for Joko uses it, but Joko's staff looks notably different.

Actually, have you played through the new fractal yet? Joko has a Mordant Crosier in that instance so it's not so farfetched in my opinion that it's meant to represent his special scepter. Then everyone in the Mordant Crescent copied him and started using duplicate staves just like how the Ascalon Army had a few reproduction fiery dragon swords made in the image of Magdaer and Sohothin—the swords of the king and prince, respectively.

It is odd that he's not using his traditional scepter, but all the statues across Elona show him with his statue looking very similar to how it did in GW1, which is nothing like how the Mordant Crosier looks.

Here's our mysterious figure. Definitely female. Likely not Joko's Scepter. Definitely not a Mordant weapon.

So the overdue Library book collection items have a new UI interface (you can see it here) - seems others do it too, not sure how widespread it is. But mentioning here because Koss on Koss (Extended Edition) has an interesting tidbit. It's a journal of the last days of Koss, and makes mention of when he goes to face Joko and dies. He mentions another iconic GW1 character of the Sunspears joining him.

Lonai.

As I mentioned above, she roughly matches the appearance of the Mysterious Figure in terms of hair color/style and clothing color. And now we know that she fought Joko directly in an assault that failed.

Well, that just about settles it for me. The mysterious figure is probably Lonai the ex-Sunspear. Only question now is what her role in the story is going to be and why it's so shrouded in mystery. Great find though, Konig.

Yea that definitely looks like Lonai as was stated by Koss on Koss him and Loani lead an assault on the bone palace that failed and she seems to have the same colors as the ones in Guild Wars 1. But why working for Joko? Could it be a possibility she is working for Dhuum or some other outside force that is not Joko? What other evils does the desert have to offer?

@Greymarch.3291 said:Yea that definitely looks like Lonai as was stated by Koss on Koss him and Loani lead an assault on the bone palace that failed and she seems to have the same colors as the ones in Guild Wars 1. But why working for Joko? Could it be a possibility she is working for Dhuum or some other outside force that is not Joko? What other evils does the desert have to offer?

No If Lonai died during the assault, then Joko just simply awekened her and she became her minion, she just simply lost her free will. Koss was one of a kind he somehow didn't lost his free will just like Tahlkora. I wonder if everyone is immune to Jokos magic who were present at Abaddons defeat for some reason or Kormir blessed everyone who where present that day?

According to the old man of the Issnur Isles, some people just have more personality retained than others. They don't give up who they are and struggle against the bonds holding them. Koss still hadn't broken free and he would still have to obey every command issued to him, but his last order was to defend the cave. He's been there ever since.

Do we have any idea of what became of Melonni? Not saying the Mysterious Figure is her, just had me thinking trying to come up with plausible candidates.While I'm inclined to agree with reasoning here it is possibly Lonai, I personally feel - whether formerly in charge at Sunspear Sanctuary or not - she doesn't quite fit the bill to be such a prominent antagonist now.

Just my two cents. We are linking the mysterious figure to whoever is currently leading the Awakened right?This person has put a bounty on our head. So it should mean it is not just someone we know as a player, but who is known to our character, or atleast knows about us. Off course, it could be just our reputation, but that still doesn't make a lot of sense.That's why I don't see Lonai as fitting for the mysterious figure.

As for Lyss (both or either twin). They are never seen with a staff.

@mercury ranique.2170 said:Just my two cents. We are linking the mysterious figure to whoever is currently leading the Awakened right?This person has put a bounty on our head. So it should mean it is not just someone we know as a player, but who is known to our character, or atleast knows about us. Off course, it could be just our reputation, but that still doesn't make a lot of sense.That's why I don't see Lonai as fitting for the mysterious figure.

As for Lyss (both or either twin). They are never seen with a staff.

If Joko is in communication with this figure, then it could be. Plus our reputation has spread rather quickly - the Order of Shadows chap is mentioned of having spoken many times to the Spearmarshal before he was captured of great deeds alongside us in the fight against Balthazar. Given not much time passed here, that's big reputation spread and very quickly. Any major lieutenant of Joko would plausibly be putting out a bounty on us after discovering our ruse with his army

@Animi.4617 said:

@Greymarch.3291 said:Yea that definitely looks like Lonai as was stated by Koss on Koss him and Loani lead an assault on the bone palace that failed and she seems to have the same colors as the ones in Guild Wars 1. But why working for Joko? Could it be a possibility she is working for Dhuum or some other outside force that is not Joko? What other evils does the desert have to offer?

Well Koss managed to hide away far enough making Joko's influence weak enough to avoid. That's why he stuck it out in the cave and of course it's on Istan which happens to be the furthest place South of Elona. His reluctance to join you proves that he recognizes the threat of loss, that if he did join you - eventually he would be overcome with Joko's influence and lose control of his free will in the current state we see him. Which suggests anybody could do it so long as they maintained sufficient willpower to fight it. Cliche yes but I liked it. As for Lonai, interesting finds; I do wonder what this entails moving forward and how she'll play into it.

Could she be Dhuum's spy? I haven't come across any spoilers for the end of Wing 5, I've seen hints that maybe Dhuum is the final boss so if that is the case then I worry we wont actually see him take part in the main story. Much like how Wing 4, we didn't really get any hints of demons as far as the Personal Story was concerned for Season 3.

@Ronin.7381 said:

Well Koss managed to hide away far enough making Joko's influence weak enough to avoid. That's why he stuck it out in the cave and of course it's on Istan which happens to be the furthest place South of Elona. His reluctance to join you proves that he recognizes the threat of loss, that if he did join you - eventually he would be overcome with Joko's influence and lose control of his free will in the current state we see him. Which suggests anybody could do it so long as they maintained sufficient willpower to fight it. Cliche yes but I liked it. As for Lonai, interesting finds; I do wonder what this entails moving forward and how she'll play into it.

Not exactly. The way he describes it, he was compelled to obey Joko's orders to the letter- he just retained enough of his personality to find clever ways to make a nuisance of himself while still fulfilling the wording. It's not really a willpower/resistance thing, so much as it is plain ol' obnoxiousness. Nor is his exile to the cave a distance thing; it's just that as long as he's out and forgotten in the middle of nowhere, no one has come along and given him an order that he'd be bound to obey. Tahlkora, on the other hand, was able to ignore orders entirely, but that was apparently a one-of-a-kind blessing.

On the topic of Lonai...

While not as significant in Nightfall as the heroes, she did still have a fairly significant role in the early stages of Nightfall. It's probably reasonable to say she's about as significant as Devona, or at least the Ascalonian NPCs that show up in the Catacombs, and thus suitable as a significant villain now. It makes sense that the heroes might be considered to be a step above the other NPCs in willpower such that they're still defying Joko (even as an Awakened in Koss's case) while important non-hero NPCs might be significant enough to become major lieutenants without having the strength of will to resist Joko's control.

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:

@Ronin.7381 said:

Well Koss managed to hide away far enough making Joko's influence weak enough to avoid. That's why he stuck it out in the cave and of course it's on Istan which happens to be the furthest place South of Elona. His reluctance to join you proves that he recognizes the threat of loss, that if he did join you - eventually he would be overcome with Joko's influence and lose control of his free will in the current state we see him. Which suggests anybody could do it so long as they maintained sufficient willpower to fight it. Cliche yes but I liked it. As for Lonai, interesting finds; I do wonder what this entails moving forward and how she'll play into it.

Pretty much, and it gives us a significant degree of insight into the nature of Joko's control: Awakened (at least some therof) retain free will of a sort, but they are unable to resist Joko's commands (or those of anyone Joko delegates command to).

However, it's still up to the recipient of those orders how they interpret them. Koss basically played the 'evil genie' to the point where he was considered to be more of a liability than an asset, and dumping him in the cave was a means of removing that liability.

What I'm curious about is that we're definitely seeing strong indications that all of this happened while the GW1 Sunspear PC was still around... or at least, likely hadn't died of old age. It might be stuff that was planned to be in Guild Wars Beyond, but it would be good to see some indication of what the PC might have been doing during all this.

According to the Koss on Koss Extended Edition book, Koss and Lonai died in 1093 AE. So unless the NF PC died within 13 years after Winds of Change, they're either among the Sunspears that didn't think Joko would pose a new threat, or they left the Sunspears.

The latter is more likely, IMHO, given that Tahlkora became Spearmarshal in that timeframe.

My first thought was Evennia. When I first saw her as it was a mystery they haven’t resolved yet, and also seem to be tying up loose ends st a fast rate. Her costume is also kind similar.

If the Mysterious Figure is Evennia, then I guess Adelbern really did have her killed. Perhaps Joko found her corpse reanimated her and used her as an adviser much like she was for Queen Salma.

I think Lonai is a good shout. Location, appearance, and even her outfit's colour scheme all fit well. She's also the only other NPC mentioned by name in Koss on Koss (Extended Edition), so it's possible ANet were trying to remind us of her existence there.

I guess, the pieces do fit, and she has some minor importance, just not sure they won’t reveal her character name. It’s not like the gw community been waiting a decade to find out what happened to Lonai.

As far as I love this theory, I think it's going to be a New character introduced to gw.