Continuum Split concept from writing team

Does anyone recall, or can link to, how writer Scott McGough explained Chronos Continuum split?

Did you mean this?https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-chronomancer-mesmers-elite-specialization/

No, it was a lore discussion thread he answered a lot of questions on, and he offered up it wasn’t real time travel, but an illusion. May be the old forums now.

I... am not entirely certain how to post images anymore, so I can't give you my screencap for proof, but I can copy it verbatim:

"Shiren: Chronomancers and time manipulation

"For both story and gameplay, actual time travel is a quagmire that has to be handled carefully.

"I see the chronomancer as much more a case of manipulating the local perception of time rather than manipulating time itself. The Continuum Split skill text specifically mentions a rift in time and space continuum, but I'm like you in that I take that to mean 'continuum' as a perceived possibility that the chronomancer is working with rather than an actual time jump. It visually appears to let the chronomancer rewind time, but functionally it's a highly advanced, specialized mesmer clone that players directly control for a short duration while their real body is phased out- thus any damage, etc. happens to the Continuum Split clone (who disappears when the skill expires), and the PC resumes control of their real body unchanged from the moment they activated the skill (although they do retain any XP, etc. they garnered while in Continuum Split)."

That’s the one! Thank you. Gawd, it’s no less complicated than time travel. I’m thinking of adding it to the wiki. If you have more of the forum post, please share.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Lore-Q-A/page/1#post6173721

Link to the forum post in question, or the archive of it rather.

@Matt H.6142 said:That’s the one! Thank you. Gawd, it’s no less complicated than time travel.

Yeah, I also can’t really get behind the explanation. I don’t really get why they are so fixated on getting all the Mesmer skills being qualified as mind-tricks. While some of them make sense, it is clearly provable that not all of them are. Let’s take the five most interesting examples: Time Warp, Continuum Split, Feedback, Blink and Illusions. If something is just a trick of mind, it must:

1) Only be able to affect something with a mind.2) Not be observable from the perspective of someone unaffected by it.

Now let’s check the five skills:

I) Time Warp: This is an interesting example because it gets around rule 2): Time Warp does affect enemies and allies alike. It slows down the thought process of the enemies and sharpens the mind of the allies, so they can react faster. That makes sense even from an outsider’s perspective. People outside the magic field can see exactly that happening. So while observable by an outsider, Time Warp could be a simple mind trick.

II) Continuum Split: Continuum Split however is supposed to work as a clone. This proves to be a problem in 2 ways: First, you need to get the real body to disappear. Next, the mind of the Mesmer must either control the clone or program it before it goes off. Lastly, the Mesmer must reappear when the clone disappears. Nice theory, which means the real Mesmer never gets affected by anything during the clone’s duration. But here is the problem: We can see that this isn’t the case. We still have all conditions on us when CS ends. We do in fact get affected by boons and conditions we didn’t had before CS happened. This means we somehow must still interact with the clone. Most importantly: We get downed when the clone takes too much damage. The most logically explanation would be that the Mesmer just can’t rewind time back once they get to that level of injury. But if the Mesmer is safe during the duration, this behavior makes no sense. Even if we were shocked and collapsed due to the clone death (if we control it with our mid), we should get downed where CS started. This isn’t the case, being further evidence that the devs explanation is not compatible with the skills behavior.

III) Feedback: This skill is a great example of a Mesmer skill not being a mind trick. As projectiles are affected by this skill, it must influence mindless objects. It also has an observable effect from an outsider’s perspective, meaning the Mesmer does not simply imagines themselves that the arrows are reflected and as such couldn’t have hurt them.

IV) Blink: Blink is in theory explainable by simply forgetting you walked the distance. But as it can be perceived by others, this is not the case. It is a short distance teleport. Let’s not even get started with portal. Teleporting or shadow stepping skills are the real deal in Tyria and confirmed in lore (Vizu being the most famous user). This clearly shows that Mesmers can manipulate space. While that does not mean that they can also manipulate time, it is a common Mesmer theme. Let’s also not forget that the focus of Mesmer magic in GW1 was only partly the illusion aspect. There always were skills that hinted at time manipulation and even the primary attribute fast casting could be explained that way.

V) Illusions: Illusions themselves are kind of odd. They have to exist in the real world because they do not only affect the caster and the foe, but other people can also interact with them. It would actually make more sense to classify them as a sort of hologram.

To sum it up, the devs tried to make the Mesmer a profession centered around mind games, which simply does not work with most of the Mesmers abilities. While I can understand why they would want to not have time manipulation in the game (as it tends to make the lore more complicated), a little time twisting ability would imo have been the better explanation for Continuum Split and also went well with the theme of the chronomancer. But yeah, thats just my take on this matter.

Yep, Scott McGough's reply is from the old forums' Lore Q&A thread:

For both story and gameplay, actual time travel is a quagmire that has to be handled carefully.
I see the chronomancer as much more a case of manipulating the local perception of time rather than manipulating time itself. The Continuum Split skill text specifically mentions a rift in time and space continuum, but I’m like you in that I take that to mean “continuum” as a perceived possibility that the chronomancer is working with rather than an actual time jump. It visually appears to let the chronomancer rewind time, but functionally it’s a highly advanced, specialized mesmer clone that players directly control for a short duration while their real body is phased out—thus any damage, etc. happens to the Continuum Split clone (who disappears when the skill expires), and the PC resumes control of their real body unchanged from the moment they activated the skill (although they do retain any XP, etc. they garnered while in Continuum Split).

Overall it's a pretty interesting concept and a nice explanation to the mechanics of the skill and how great mesmers are at manipulating their enemies' perception. :)

@Matt H.6142 said:That’s the one! Thank you. Gawd, it’s no less complicated than time travel. I’m thinking of adding it to the wiki. If you have more of the forum post, please share.

If you do, just bear in mind that McGough was offering his interpretation, which may not be the same thing as setting something into stone as canon. He gets into it more earlier in the thread, regarding warriors and magic, but he presents alternative interpretations as well and doesn't make it clear whether his perspective supersedes the other options.

I decided against posting to wiki, or maybe I’ll link this thread at most. It’s a bit lore breaking to say “you become the clone” imo. I’ve always suspended disbelief to believe instead clones are only in the mind.