Nosrorav.4703

An ally to the forces, not to Abaddon. The Fury is an ally to the forces, but a servant of Abaddon and Dhuum.

You don't need to be Eparch levels to be capable of serving Abaddon. And that's what The Unseen was - a servant, not an equal. Not even on par to the Dreadspawn Maw, at best on par to The Fury. And every kryptis I named were commander of many demons. Yes, Mang and Mragga were dead by nightfall. My point wasn't to list "potential demons who could be The Unseen". My point was to list known powerful demons on par to those recruited by Abaddon. The Eater of Souls might have moved into the Domain of the Lost after Balthazar left pre-PoF, but it had to be somewhere before then. It didn't just pop into existence. We don't even know what Eparch's threat level is, but we can tell it's not something super duper special. Eparch is a threat not for his power level, but his position as leader of the kryptis and his goals (and rivalry with Isgarren). And the latter is also a large reason why Eparch wouldn't associate with Abaddon. Many demons of exceptional power are named "The <Word>". The Fury. The Darkness. The Greater Darkness. The Blasphemy. The Hunger. The Voice. The Lost. The Unseen. These are their names, not merely titles or nicknames. At least, not a single one of them is ever referred to as something else.

Kanaxai. Deimos. Cerus. Peitha. Labris. Eater of Souls. Mragga. Mang. Ai's demon (never named... never seen). The Voice. Lord Ignius the Eternal. Lord Glacius the Eternal. Shadow Behemoth. Nulfastu Earthbound. The Unseen. There are a LOT of "big demons" that we know about. Many are powerful enough to ally with Abaddon. But none of them are named The Unseen except one demon - The Unseen.

How would Zojja know the truth when the ward literally studying the fractal wouldn't? Zojja is just a new recruit to the order. It would make zero logical sense for Zojja to know some secret like that. Your logic doesn't make sense, unless Callista is in on the lie - but why lie about this to the Commander? Why not just say the truth? Plus, there is another issue: Waiting Sorrow left quite some time ago, even if it wasn't 719 AE, it was "over a hundred years" ago, and Primal Maguuma has mordrem and airships in it. How would she know to make a fractal containing things that didn't exist? Nah, she very clearly states that "Joko is the leader" - singular. As in very much not referring to Joko's forces. Disagreed. and for only a few moments the world around me was changed. The forge was there, my people were there. The forge showed up when it wasn't there before. If they were at Droknar's Forge then... the place would have been there. This is post-ascension, so Lyhr was of that "strange wizard business" as far as he's concerned though. The two were using illusions during their travels (as did Mabon and even Isgarren). Dagda was just shifted as a norn that time - I don't think Lyhr would confuse a blue skinned jotun with a pale skin shorter norn. He might have still been recovering from the ritual, but he isn't stupid, and we see with Zojja that the ritual doesn't take so much out of them that they begin mistaking entire species for one another. Especially when Lyhr would have been around a bunch of other norn in the Astral Ward. Lyhr doubts Isgarren's explanation for why it exists. And that's the key. Isgarren's explanation. Ever since the kryptis invasion and the fractals being forced into Tyria, Isgarren has been possessed by the kryptis and not "in his right mind" as Lyhr puts it in the very same dialogue he questions why they made the fractal. The fact that Lyhr got an explanation out of Isgarren about the fractal - rather than Mabon who is right there and working with him the whole time - proves that Lyhr found out about the fractal before it got ripped into Tyria - before Zojja's journal's claims. Lyhr has reason to doubt it since it indeed doesn't quite match a state of "the Stone Summit won the war" - but we do know that Wizard's Court and Astral Ward make what if fractals, as shown by the lore book of the Kryta Fractal featuring the what if of Jennah dying (presumably during Edge of Destiny since that's the only real time her life was in true danger and has been a spark of player debate for the past decade) leading to Logan taking over and becoming a massive tyrant. The narrative team is always capable of making mistakes. Like when they called a bunch of religious norn priests when norn do not have priests, they have shamans. Usually when these errors are pointed out to people like @Bobby Stein.3612, they get fixed if it's simple enough. Though even with being pointed out, sometimes they still miss something. Heck, End of Dragons is full of inconsistencies like this - for starters, New Kaineng City is said to have been built over naga territory, but the GW1 map clearly shows the region urbanized already. Or the role of ritualists - in GW2, they're said to be the cause of spirits being kept around in Cantha in high quantities, when in GW1, their role was specifically to help spirits move on to the afterlife, and they (along with the Envoys) were the reason why GW1 Cantha had zero ghosts outside of those in Tahnnakai Temple, Ang, and a very few select others. Or how the Ravenous Oni was harmed by positive emotions, but Rata Novus Fractal proves that kryptis (which according to Mabon, the oni are) enjoy all emotions, even positive ones.

Well, Desmina is called The First Necromancer and "THE necromancer" even by Glenna, an asura, so their origin likely remains the Scripture of Grenth. Though this would seemingly clash, at least a bit, with the whole "Tyrian magic comes from the Elder Dragons" from Season 3, but it all being the same domain as Zhaitan's domain(s) is a fairly good chance (despite Season 3 suggesting Zhaitan's and Mordremoth's domains being conflicting like Jormag's and Primordus', despite sylvari being necromancers and despite Mordy eating Zhaitan's domains).

That's like believing there could only ever be one powerful demon. I'd disagree that Eparch had reason to ally with Abaddon - while we don't know a lot of his goals, it doesn't seem like he'd want to serve under a god who'd transform the place into nightmares. He seemed interested in the things Tyria had to offer without being horror and under the thumb of another. As to the Unseen "not making any moves later" - did it really? It wasn't summoned, assuming there even was a The Unseen in the first place, but the plot then ended and we stopped dealing with demons in GW1. And 250 years have passed with almost no knowledge of the afterlife realms.

Not much of their civilization is really known tbh. They're one of the elite races from the previous dragonrise and the "age of magic", when the Giganticus Lupicus were still around, and the jotun, mursaat, seer, and dwarves lived as elite races among the others. During the previous dragonrise, the Seers created magic rituals to create the Shadowstone and Bloodstone to manage, hide, and protect magic from the Elder Dragons. The mursaat warred with the Seers to prevent losing their magic during which they mostly wiped out the Seer civilization and fleed into the Mists until the Elder Dragons went to sleep. Isgarren and Mabon are both established as being old as kitten and from the previous dragonrise, meaning they're both well over 2,000 years old by GW2, and both having been participants in that war. Isgarren is older, and spared Mabon's life during the conflict before recruiting him into the Wizard's Court. This led to Mabon having a change of heart and becoming the one and only known "good guy" Mursaat and the true last Mursaat, though he has long since disconnected himself from his brethren. Despite the apparent retcons surrounding just about every member of the Wizard's Court would make, they do well to explain the contradictions this creates - for example, the Eye of Janthir tried to find Mabon, but couldn't (either because of Amnytas' protection spells or because he's become so un-Mursaat-like over the years) which is why it ended up disintegrating when there were "no more Mursaat left".

Fractals are fine, imo, because they're just very limited "what if" scenarios. Basically Star Trek's holodeck for all intents and purposes, but fantasy style; usually fake but sometimes becomes real. There is no multidimension (though such does exist in canon lore to explain WvW) and there is no time travel (which is canonically impossible atm). As you say "the result is the same" if you swap the communicator for telepathy. And SotO has both, and it's clear that there is a very in-universe distinction between the two on both a narrative and character level. Telepathy is literally "in your head" and no one else can hear it, so responding to telepathy in company makes you seem... a bit looney. It's also something done only by very morally questionable characters, such as demons, Elder Dragons, and fallen gods. Good guys would not only be hesitant to use it, but to trust anyone who does use it. Basically it wouldn't make any sense for anyone but very trusted companions to be in telepathy with each other. And ultimately, it has the exact same negative effects on any storytelling narrative. Not to mention that at this point we've canonically upgraded from walky talkies over a two-way radio call, to literally cellphones with answering machines. It'll be bizarre for them to just toss that aside all of a sudden. Not to mention that with everyone having the chance of using a communicator, it means higher tension when someone is suddenly out of contact. So there's really no reason to make this swap at this point - it's there, and bar the entire magitech system becoming destroyed and asuran and Canthan civilizations being annihilated in some armageddon, communicators are going to remain.

The "adjustments" was just making it a solo instance instead of a story dungeon (recommended 5, but you needed at least 1 other person for one mechanic), which included nerfing the enemies from Elites to Normal ranked foes. Additionally, originally there were more risen who spawned and when they did, their spawning animation would launch adjacent players about. So the original dungeon had a lot of CC that was just grating to play through. So there were adjustments, but it wasn't to the Zhaitan fight moments themselves, except to make it all easier.

That's exactly what an expansion is. Good job on defining the fact expansions and living world have been the same thing the entire time.

The purists, Speakers, and Chul-Moo moving were all parts of the main plot, particularly Act 4. I would disagree on both points. For the first one, if you look at the recent blog post about the story for SotO, it brings up one of the major HoT plot threads as blatantly unresolved (sylvari recovery from Mordremoth's influence), and IBS even once again brings up that the Pale Tree is having issues recovering despite so many years passing (and despite Knight of the Thorn's plot of helping to heal her again). While some side plots are just suddenly solved in the background, like the charr-human peace treaty signing, most are just in stasis until the devs get around to it. There... actually aren't many opened plot threads that have progressed or closed without the player's involvement, truth be told. The only one I can think of would be the White Mantle following "Lazarus" being defeated in the entirely off-screen civil conflict between Caudecus' WM and "Lazarus"'s WM, and the charr-human peace treaty. There might be others, but that shows how minor those plots are. Typically peaking, any loose thread solved in the background is only done to facilitate the current plot that ArenaNet prefers to tell - hence the charr-human peace treaty, solving that off-screen facilitated making Smodur more smug and certain of obtaining the Khan-Ur position during Bound by Blood, fueling his descent before killing Cinder as he grew paranoid of losing that to Ryland. On the second one, while they don't need to be about the Commander being directly there from a Watsonian perspective, the fact that we play the Commander means that for the game to have and explore plots means the Commander will be there. Thus the Commander does need to be there from a Doylist perspective. In effect, if the game were to include them starting then there's an expectation among players that the game will include them closing, and that the players (as the Commander) will get to directly experience these plot points. I think this is one of the running issues players who enjoyed GW1's lore had when going into GW2, because a lot of the dangling plot threads from GW1 (even from EotN or Beyond) are just left... unattended. Forgotten, and never explored. It leaves a place of disappointment in those looking forward to exploring those threads.

Except... it wasn't. The flowers and boxes was literally just one brief moment in the story. You're only picking up flowers as an option of Mai Trin's memorial, and only picking up boxes when looking for that Kurzick relic. Very, very brief moments in the story. Or are you trying (and failing) to claim that the story is about interacting with stuff and not specifically flowers or boxes? Because then I can see what you mean. However... That's literally 90% of this game in general. You interact with something, or you kill something, all in between dialogue. That's... Actually 100% of the game. And every game in existence. Since video games are about interaction, after all, being an interactive art medium.

I think you missed the point of the narrative. It isn't about "gathering flowers and boxes". It's about handling PTSD brought on by ten years of constant warfare against Elder Dragons, former gods, and centuries old lich tyrants, that resulted in constant death around you by your own active choices, or your own inability to act. And that is productive character development - especially for a character who, for half of the past 10 years, has been treated as a blank slate with no personality so players can slap whatever they desire onto it. Nobody can survive near death experiences and constant death around them while being "a freaking bad*ss" and not end up a total shitfaced mess once the adrenaline dies down. That one minute segment you highlight is literally just some light comedy spruced in the middle of it. I'll freely admit they dropped the ball hard on What Lies Within and that... ending... of the demon. But not the whole thing. "all left over side plots" So... it concluded the Purists? And the Raisu Palace risen stuff? Empress Ihn's visit to Tyria? Cho-Mo taking his jadetech business outside of Cantha? Or even the Speakers and their willingness to return to ecoterrorism if jadetech isn't cleaned up properly? It only concluded two side stories: Rama's love life, and Cantha's energy crisis. Four if you count the continuation of Gorrik becoming an official detective and Aurene going to sleep (though the Aurene one wasn't really necessary). That was barely a quarter of the number of side plots remaining. And that's just about Cantha, not to talk about the side plots left open by HoT, S3, PoF, S4, and IBS that remain untouched.

Do people even know what "maintenance mode" actually means? It means no new content. We have an expansion dropping in one week for crying out loud. With two quarterly updates already on the way. That ain't maintenance mode, My Doomsayer Fellow.

It's almost like we're playing a role-playing game when we go through stories and narratives.

I think you've been staring at the still image too long and forgot what's what from the trailer which shows it all animated. The "2 statues or buildings" you talk about are part of the dude in the trailer shot, long appendages coming from the dude's back. There's only two elements present: the eye, and the figure. Not quite convinced it's a charr, but the figure is definitely learning hunched forward similar to a charr. The shot is too hard to tell if the legs are normal human or with that extra joint like a charr's - most people see Deimos' silhouette in that figure, but I can see the charr silhouette too. It's worth noting that Dhuum was behind the Titan creation, as it was his minion, the Fury, who created them for Abaddon. Also worth noting that demons were expelled from Kormir's Sanctum and it was used as a sanctuary for refugee souls during Season 4, as explained by Nemah if you kneel at the statue of Kormir in the Chantry of Secrets, Jahai Bluffs.

Given that Soo-Won doesn't actually have unique minions, that kinda makes sense. Double so since Dragonvoid would be a pretty major spoiler to have in a festival accessible by level 2 players. Add that the hologram effect likely would cancel out the oil effect of dragonvoid minions, and everything would look like their natural state (e.g., risen, mordrem, etc.) but get called "dragonvoid". Only the saltspray champions have a unique model.

I would love to have the old activity itself back, for that matter. Giving us more things to do in Divinity's Rest itself. The Queen's Champions open world events would be nice too.

By that argument, so was Nightfall. An eldritch evil seeping into the world and creating various rifts. Except Nightfall came first. So the MMO Rift is just GW1 Nightfall with that level of comparison made. It's a trope, it's not the defining element of the game. If you try to actually compare anything behind the skin-deep statement you'll find they're vastly different. For one, GW2 is actually good gameplay.

Adding frost legion would be a huge spoiler to a major plot element fairly late into the game, imo. And I doubt adding the ogres back would make things easier. Aside from the change of additional achievements, they'd probably still have to rebuild the section from the ground up anyways (*maybe* they would be able to do some sort of cut, copy, rotate, paste depending on how the tools work), and still need to work the boss into the Boss Blitz functionality. Even in bast scenario, nearly as much work as an original group. That said, Efram has dialogue specifically about the use of Flame Legion and the Pavilion is meant to be about historical groups. Personally I just find it weird they didn't replace the bandits with White Mantle when they brought back FotFW since they're basically the same group.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the mechanics and lore, the rift is already open (or opening) and thus any watchers can see into Tyria as is. The act of "opening" (or perhaps more accurately, shoving the opened door wide open resulting in the beings leaning on that door to listen in on Tyria to fall through like your typical comedic anime moment) wouldn't thus be giving the origin of the eye anything since we then slam the door shut on their proverbial eyelids.

You don't need to replay EoD on every character to open the maps. After you reach Arborstone you're given a portal scroll - just use this on your alt characters and bam, they're in Cantha, can just walk through the zone portals. Same exact method as S3, S4, and IBS. Or use the guild hall if you have a guild with it, with zero story on any character, like you can do for HoT and PoF maps. Might be able to initiate What Lies Beneath, What Lies Within, or Forward: Intermission to pop a waypoint access on the map but not sure about that.

No exact date is given but the prophecies manual says: Over the past several years, the Summit have been growing their power, and a civil war is brewing. Wiki says Dagnar is the Stone Summit founder several times but I've not found the original source of such, just mentions of him being the leader (only named de facto leader though). No mention of Stone Summit exist prior to Prophecies besides the "past several years", and it's hard to see the Stone Summit a powerful force during the Third Guild War and not get mention when human armies march through seemingly unhindered. Very likely that the xenophobia of the Stone Summit occurred because of the Third Guild War, and dwarves getting tired of humans marching through their lands to go to war or even going to war in their lands. Meanwhile Ogden's dialogue to quote it: PC: What happened to make the dredge hate you so much? Ogden: We kept them as slaves, but we have long regretted this choice. After the ritual, we left the creatures behind to find their own way. I don't think the Stone Summit regretted their choice even as they decided to give in to the ritual that was forced upon them.

In the norn chapter 3 finale, Ogden does say "we" enslaved dredge, implying that the Deldrimor dwarves weren't innocent of the act, though we know from GW1 that they didn't in the kingdom's later years.

It is theoretically plausible it's referencing the events seen in Sorrow's Embrace, where the Inquest are using dredge workers. But it's also possible that it was an additional piece of lore that didn't get fully fleshed out, like how male harpies do exist.