How Did Tyria and Elona Resume Contact?

So I recently came back from a GW2 hiatus to play PoF (just finished HoT) and the current relations between Tyria and Elona has left me a bit confused. I've read a summary of Living World Season 3 but it didn't seem to address my questions. How did the Elonians, after decades (centuries?) of being cut off from the Tyrian continent, re-establish contact? I realise Balthazar escaped to Elona but I don't understand how we were suddenly able to locate the whereabouts of the Elonians again, and resume a sort of diplomatic relationship so quickly without any trouble or discussion. I just started the PoF story and the Elonians seemed surprisingly unfazed by the influx of outlanders coming into their territory--that is, they familiarised themselves with Tyrian culture rather quickly, and vice-versa.

Also how aware of the other races like Asura, Sylvari, etc. are they at this point? I play a human character and I'm wondering if playing another race affects the story or dialogue in any way.

Sorry if this was already mentioned elsewhere--I couldn't find it.

I'd imagine it's slightly less treacherous to get to Elona now that in addition to Zhaitan having been dealt with, the Pact has essentially perfected their airships. Palawa Joko controls all of Vabbi and the exit to the Crystal Desert and the Sulfurous Wastes but it seems his control is a bit lax to the south.

The threat of Zhaitan on the sea kept Elona fairly locked in and us locked out and even after Zhaitan's demise (which in-game wasn't very long ago), he still leaves behind an entire nation of now unbound minions that likely still make the surrounding sea quite dangerous.

(We also still have a water dragon deep down there somewhere!)

Unlike Cantha which has gone full on xenophobic, Elona has never been a nation that outright despises outsiders. Especially when we show up saving the day and offering aid.

It was a relatively simple thing to establish diplomatic relations with Elona, especially with regards to the humans in particular and the Order of Whispers which was interracial even before the human and charr truce. They've probably had a steady line going with Elona since before they departed to mainland Tyria.

The Ash Legion homelands probably borders the eastern fringes of the Crystal Desert and Ascalon. The elonians are probably well aware of most of the sentient races of Tyria save for the sylvari. The sylvari are probably new to them. They just haven't had real contact with anyone for quite some time.

To build on what CETheLucid said, Elona was forced to be cut off, between the Mordant Crescent and Zhaitan's horde. The area was relatively confined, but I guess the Forged moving in was the final push for more Elonians (mostly Vabbians) to make that desperate run northwards towards safety and freedom. That seems to be what prompted Ellen Kiel to send the airship to the Desert. Well, that and the threat of Balthazar.

As for the exposure of Elonians to the other races, they are probably familiar with the charr, especially as there are Branded charr on some of the maps. There's a mini scene in the Elon Riverlands where a child starts bombarding an asura merchant a bunch of questions about her, which means they likely haven't seen many if any of her kind since the portals from Eye of the North. I heard there are similar reactions to sylvari around the city of Amnoon. No idea if the norn stick out or not. As for racially-specific dialogue, I haven't seen anything for non-humans yet, although apparently talking to the one NPC just outside the mine during Sparking the Flames gives a slightly different conversation to humans. When people start compiling the dialogue in the wiki, we'll have a better idea of what all is the same and what is different.

It's also worth noting that to begin with, we're going to Amnoon, not to Elona proper (Amnoon is independent of Palawa Joko and appears to have been outside Elona's borders before Joko took over, so it seems to be a free city located close to the border rather than being Elonian per se). So it seems reasonably likely that Tyrians might have had diplomatic contact with Amnoon for a while, without directly interacting with Elona.

That's one of the things I don't really enjoy about GW2 anymore.

Too much is just handwaved away, even though it could have been very interesting.

I don't even want to go to Cantha anymore. Last thing we knew it was a human centric racist place that isolated themselves from all or most lesser races. That's why we have Tengu and the great wall.

So they have to adress that and the fact that our PC might not be human. I would be really sad to see this just handwaved, even though there are so much great opportunities here.

On the other hand, seeing how PoF also feels like jumping quickly through the story, I don't really expect that much right now.

Found this one by mistake hehe, one additional point... Airships. We didn't have airships or a reliable method to cross the desolation, I think.

We were never fully cut off.The Order of Whispers had contact throughout Elona.Besides, its not like we didn’t know Elona was there. If we didn’t run into the opening event of PoF we might have flown to Vabbi directly instead of landing in the Amnoon oasis. Which would probably have had less good results

A total blockade is nonsense anyway. You can close your traffic roads, patrol submarine or marine and even send your undead dragons and harpies in the sky all you want, enterprising people will find a way that is less densely blocked, so hard to navigate that you can´t guard it all the time or a way that only opens when certain weather factors allow it.

The DDR pumped millions over millions in the wall and over 5000 registered people fled the state in a time of 40 years. Of course the NVA was only human, but the heavily armed and mined perimeter fence, dogs, barbed wire and helipatrols made up for that.Of course you could chip in that you need a good reason to flee or enter. Profit and Freedom. Profit is selfexplanatory, the call of freedom was so strong to said registered people that they risked interrogation by the dreaded STASI and 3 to 10+ years of prison with your family being made responsible for your actions too and from therefore being publically shamed and shunned as enemies of the state.