Jimbru.6014

After a certain point, for which you'll have to talk to a biologist about the exact distinctions, invasive species become naturalized in their new environment and part of the local ecology. They may not be native in terms of where their species originally evolved, but they go native, just like real humans do when they move to a new state or country and abandon their old culture for the culture of their new home. To use my own example, I was born in state X, but my family moved to state Y when I was only three, so I have no memory of X. To me, X is just a place on my birth certificate. I grew up in Y, so the culture of Y is my original "native" culture. I joined the Navy after school, left Y and was stationed in state Z, and stayed here after I retired from the Navy. I have now lived nearly two thirds of my life in Z, far longer than in Y, and I have largely adopted the culture of Z and only visit Y when I must. X is where I was born, Y is where I grew up, but Z is home. Back to Tyria. The first humans who were originally brought to Tyria by their gods weren't Tyrian. They were the invaders from state X, to parallel my own example. But Lyssa made humans forget where they came from, so they lost their cultural connection to X. They started spreading out and having kids and building new cultures in Tyria; they had moved to stateY. Now in the Guild Wars present, however many centuries anda generations after all that, the human cultures in Tyria are in state Z. They are wholly native to Tyria, and have been since centuries before GW1. Every human alive in Tyria was born in Tyria, and the fact that "Humans aren't from Tyria!" is an almost forgotten footnote in the decaying scriptures of the departed gods. In terms of their birthplace, their cultures, and where they call home, Tyrian humans are native to Tyria. Even if their distant ancestors originally weren't. From a real historic standpoint, European people colonized North America starting in the later 16th century. The Spanish founded St. Augustine in 1565, the English founded Jamestown in 1604, and Plymouth Rock was in 1620. I don't know as much about the Spanish colonization as I should. But I can definitely say that in the English colonies, a separate "American" or "Colonial" identity began developing almost immediately as new generations were born, lived and died in North America without ever seeing England, and that new identity was firmly established well before the end of the 17th century. Now in the USA today, if you tried telling an Average American that they're not really American because of their ancestors hundreds of years ago, they'd rightly laugh in your face, and since Tyrian cultures evolved in largely the same manner, I'd wager that Tyrian humans would do the same. Bottom line: we really need to stop with the whole "Humans aren't native to Tyria" thing. It's irrelevant in the Guild Wars present and arguably hasn't been relevant ever since Lyssa made humans forget their origins. Tyria is all that humans know. Therefore, even if they're not native, they might as well be. /rant

1. Well, that's kinda the point. Balthazar was corrupted somehow and/or went mad and ended up betraying the honor, protection et al that he used to stand for. In that respect, he ended up falling to the same misunderstood perspective as the Charr, the Klingons, and countless other "warrior" societies and war gods, both real and fictional: it is not the fight in itself, but what you are fighting for, that really matters. 2. Your technical distinction is correct. Grenth and Kormir were born in Tyria and their cults originated in Tyria, so they are definitely "Tyrian gods", but the others are "human gods" that came from Somewhere Else. Whether or not that distinction really matters could be its own debate, and would involve way too much speculation for this time of morning since I'm already late for work...

Another thing I don't understand: Quickening Zephyr having different cooldowns in PVP/WVW and PVE, both of which are over 30 seconds, that are literally within three seconds of each other. That to me looks like just complication for the sake of complication. Give all the modes the same timer and be done with it.

I never understood the point of ANY ability that has a prep time or pre-cast before you can actually use it. Things happen too quickly in GW2 combat to rely on an ability that won't be there the first time you press the key when you need it. I already didn't use mantras much before, and I definitely won't be using them now.

The problem with Tempest alacrity is one of accessibility and over-specialization. Tempest: Has to select a specific trait to give alacrity, and constantly switch elements and spam overloads to maintain alacrity, while giving up other important traits affecting overloads, resulting in lower DPS, reduced support abilities, and more stressful gameplay. Mechanist: Also has to select a specific trait to give alacrity, BUT can maintain perm alacrity simply by auto-attacking with mace and Barrier Burst, with only slightly less DPS and no negative effect on support abilities. Until this disparity is fixed, Tempests will remain the least desirable and least fun class for providing alac.

The problem with Tempest alacrity is one of accessibility and over-specialization. Tempest: Has to select a specific trait to give alacrity, and constantly switch elements and spam overloads to maintain alacrity, while giving up other important traits affecting overloads, resulting in lower DPS, reduced support abilities, and more stressful gameplay. Mechanist: Also has to select a specific trait to give alacrity, BUT can maintain perm alacrity simply by auto-attacking with mace and Barrier Burst, with only slightly less DPS and no negative effect on support abilities. Until this disparity is fixed, Tempests will remain the least desirable and least fun class for providing alac.

It seems like the Elder Dragon's size is variable, either deliberately (which isn't certain) or relative to their present level of power (which seems to be demonstrated in the game but isn't clearly stated).

Based on the size of his head alone, which is all we ever get to see of him because he's simply too big to model, Primordus is the largest of the Elder Dragons. He couldn't physically tunnel anywhere without leaving a trail of earthquakes and damage in his wake. So how does he move around without that happening? The answer is that like H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic monsters, the Elder Dragons are only partly (at most) made of matter as we know it. We get to see that with frightening clarity when we go "inside" Kralk in Dragonfall. They're literally magic. So it's likely that Primordus moves by simply passing through the ground, as Drakkar does through ice. It still takes time for him to cover the physical distance, but it does enable him to move without destroying everything as he goes.

Quoting dev anecdotes from 2010, two years BEFORE GW2 came out, about GW2 dragon lore. OK. I'll eave that where it lies. But seriously, are those guys even still working for ANet? The impression I have had for the last several years is that almost everyone who originally worked on GW2, much less GW1, is gone. Which probably is a big part of why the story has gone the way it has, with so many Big Things being given short service, and so much written in ways that seem deliberately designed to anger players.

Military intelligence works both ways. The Order of Whispers had contact with Cantha; no doubt Cantha also had agents out in the larger world. It therefore seems reasonable to think that Cantha's leadership knew at least a little about the Elder Dragons and other major events outside Cantha. It also seems reasonable to think that incomplete knowledge influenced their decisions toward keeping Cantha isolated in the interest of national safety, for longer than they otherwise might have.

The Charr are one of the most technically advanced societies in Tyria, so they have toilets and showers in communal barracks style in town, and military latrines out in the field. In fact, there is such a shower in the Black Citadel "home instance" area. Humans vary by location. Urban areas in advanced nations like Divinity's Reach, Lion's Arch and New Kaineng have sewer systems and plumbing. Rural areas and less advanced nations like Elona have more primitive options like outhouses and chamber pots. One may reasonably assume their bathing facilities follow suit. The Asura have toilets and sewer systems, as attested and seen in the game. The Norn are definitely at the outhouse, latrine, chamber pot level. As far as bathing goes, a "shower" to a Norn is standing under a waterfall; baths in washtubs and streams are probably the norm. Sylvari biology isn't very clear on such matters. But assuming they do anything at all, they probably just use the nearest bush as a toilet and are fine with bathing in streams.

After 150 years of isolation, it's entirely possible. When Cantha became isolated, Canthan expats trapped abroad likely felt cultural pressure to keep the old festivals as a connection to their lost homeland; Canthans inside Cantha had no such pressure and plenty of other concerns to deal with. So over time, celebration of the old festivals declined within Cantha itself, while the Canthan expats became more assimilated into broader Tyrian culture. Eventually, the festivals became unimportant inside Cantha, while outside they evolved (or devolved) into excuses to party. Two real world examples are St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo; they're party days in the USA, while being less important in their original countries. In fact, a good addition to the Lunar Festival that wouldn't be hard to add, and would provide a good in game explanation, would be a few bemused Canthans -- ambassadors or traders or whatever -- who have made it to Kryta since EoD. Have them standing around in the festival area as "color" NPCs having a conversation. "Wow. Can you believe they still celebrate this old holiday this far from Cantha? We barely even have a meal for it back home!"

As I understand it, the EoD maps have a lower max population than most other maps, so they naturally have a lower population to begin with, because ANet reasons. Another reason could be that at least IMHO, EoD is the worst expansion this game has yet had. NKC and Echovald are terrible to explore, hordes of tough trash mobs, story is completely wrong, Research Notes are awful, EoD gear prefixes locked behind EoD content so you can't get them on stat selectable gear, the list goes on. I honestly wish it had never been made and I refuse to play it any more than I absolutely have to.

The original Druids of Tyria (as opposed to the elite spec we have today) have no connection to the Norn and their shamanry, nor to the Jotun. It's entirely possible that the Norn race didn't even exist yet when the original Druids were still active in Maguuma. The Druids had very different outlooks on nature and magic from the Norn, and simple geography makes it obvious there was no cultural contact. So no, there is no connection.

This is kind of taking an aside from your "extra-terrestrials" comment, but... To give the GW franchise its due credit, the lore explanation for "How are there humans in Tyria?" is something that most other game worlds I've seen don't even bother with. The explanation falls a bit short when stood on its own, but at least it's an explanation. But even so, I think people make way too big a deal about the whole "Humans aren't native to Tyria" thing. Yes, Tyria's FIRST humans weren't native to Tyria. But in the Guild Wars present however many centuries or millennia later, that fact is no longer common knowledge even among humans; it's just another footnote in the slowly fading scriptures of the departed human gods. The human cultures in Tyria are wholly native to Tyria. Every human in Tyria today and for however many generations back, was born in Tyria. If you could ask present Tyrian humans where they came from, they would say they're from Tyria and probably be angry at being told they're not. Humans in Tyria today are native to Tyria, period. The other races probably neither know nor care about human origins, considering most of them don't even know their own origins. Charr male voice: "Oh yeah, I heard a story about that once." In fact, so far as I know, the only Tyrian race with clear non-mythical knowledge of its origins are the Sylvari, which are a topic all their own. End of aside...

Another point of thought: what about very young Sylvari, the "Third Born" as it were, those born since the end of HoT? One would think the Nightmare would be less influential on them, making them less likely to become Courtiers. Of course, there will always be some fraction of the Sylvari who reject the Pale Tree for their own reasons; that's just the nature of individuals. But it feels reasonable to think that fewer Sylvari would choose to join the Nightmare Court after HoT.

It's important to note that what you're talking about is all PRE Heart of Thorns in the game's timeline. Mordremoth hadn't yet risen. At the start of HoT, Mordremoth's call decimated the Sylvari race as a whole, even taking many who were theoretically protected by the Pale Tree. The Nightmare Court and Soundless, having rejected the protection of the Pale Tree, were among the first to fall and suffered especially heavily. Supporting their great losses is the fact that we've heard NOTHING from the Nightmare Court in the game story since the end of HoT (though to be fair, we've also not heard much about the Pale Tree or Sylvari in general either). The relatively few members of the Nightmare Court who survived Mordremoth are hiding out, and probably undertaking serious self-examination without the living Nightmare to drive them. What's left in the Dream is but a shadow of what the Nightmare once was, and the Court has to reckon with that in terms of its motives and actions, which I wager many of them now find reprehensible. I imagine it kind of like Michael Douglas having his moment of realization in "Falling Down" -- "You mean I'M the bad guy?" On that note, maybe it's not impossible for the Court to re-assimilate back into Sylvari society after all. I can imagine a Courtier having an existential crisis like I just described, and suddenly feeling a gentle spiritual touch... "...Mother?" "Yes. You haven't called me that in a long time. Welcome home, if you wish." "But..." "No buts. You lot always complained about me dominating you, which I deliberately didn't. It was a lie you told yourself to justify walking away, and I let you do it. But even so, you are still my child, and so I left the door open for you. The rest is up to you, like it always has been. You just didn't know it until now." Of course, like veterans with PTSD and others who have seen things they can't unsee, those who have experienced the Nightmare will never be the same again. But it's not too hard to imagine a former Courtier as a rebellious goth type of character, one who still gets a smile from their own shadow as they stand in the light. In fact, I may make a character now on that model. We'll see.

My take is that there was no singular designated "THE Norn of Prophecy" because as I stated earlier, the whole "prophecy" thing was a lie from the start. As Braham himself says during the Snowden DRM, "I didn't ask to be the Norn of kitten Prophecy!" And then Kasmeer and the Kodan point out to him that it was his actions and choices that put him in the position. Which to me says clearly that Braham wasn't the destined THE because there never was one; his actions and choices just happened to fit the role. Which once that happened, the Spirits had no choice but to oblige and support him, because revealing the lie was never an option.

Norn shamans in general are often Elementalists. Raven also has Mesmers and Necromancers in his fold. A more unusual choice to try would be Revenant. Talking to spirits from the Mists fits Raven's profile, and of course the Norn love legends.

I have heard many people say otherwise, that FF14 has one of the strongest stories of any present MMO. Some even say it's better than GW2. I wouldn't know personally because when I tried FF14, I got up to like level 10 or 15, didn't like the game mechanics, cancelled my sub and went back to GW2. So I'm not able to say which game has the better story; I'm just saying that there are opposing views out there.

If Zojja was ever going to come back, the ideal moment would have been sometime in LWS4 to help us kill Kralk. She could have showed up with a new Mr. Sparkles rebuilt like Scruffy to help her get around, with the obvious motive of avenging Snaff, and any changes in voice or personality due to a new voice actor could have been explained as consequences of the blighting pod. If that easy story hook wasn't sufficient to bring Zojja back, I don't know what's left in GW2 that could be.

Big, soft PREDATORS. Even a tamed lion is still a lion. Never forget that. The Charr certainly won't. We all are. 🙂

To anyone with eyes to see, the days of the fahrar-warband system are numbered. - The civil war revealed a major weakness of Charr society regarding divided loyalties between family, friends, warband, legion et al. - The saga of Ryland was an awesomely bad example about the Legion Charr's general lack of real family. Conversely, the Olmakhan and other races (particularly humans) provide strong positive examples. Based on all that, I expect future generations of Charr will see parents becoming more involved with raising their cubs, and the rise of more traditional and/or communal families in the Olmakhan style. The fahrar and warband will become less of a full time "substitute family"; the fahrar will be more like a military school with emphasis on loyalty to the Legions, and the warband will be relegated to a sub-unit like a real world platoon. But we'll probably have to wait for GW3 to see all that.

Exactly. The lie started when Aesgir and Jormag made their devil's bargain. Who exactly created the prophecy story afterwards isn't clear in the game lore, but we know the lie was known to at least some Norn elders since one of them tells us about it in game. The logical assumption is that Aesgir shared his secret with at least one of the elders, perhaps sort of like making confession -- can you imagine trying to carry that secret alone for the rest of your life? Then the "prophecy" story grew from there as a cover, with the real truth being known only to a select few because it would be the Norn's darkest secret for sure. As for how the Spirits and Jormag knew of the prophecy: they're literally forces of nature. If they want to know something, they know. Even if you leave out the "they're gods" factor, the "prophecy" tale would have had 150-160ish years to spread among the Norn and their spiritual world before the start of GW2. Heck, maybe the "prophecy" tale was Jormag's idea in the first place. I can well imagine Aesgir and Jormag making their deal, Aesgir wondering out loud, "How am I going to explain this when I get back?" and Jormag offering the suggestion, "Your people love legends. Why not create one?" Which ended up backfiring on Jormag eventually...a bit of irony, karma, or poetic justice, depending on how you look at it. The last one especially if Aesgir deliberately wrote the story hoping that one day some blessed fool like Braham would try to fulfill it.

I have a different take on Braham and the prophecy. In the real world, every now and then, a con artist starts a religious scam. A new church or cult or whatever with himself at the head and the object of personal gain. It goes well for a while, gaining followers, gaining money, gaining whatever. Until one day, a critical moment comes that makes the scammer realize that the scam has grown beyond his control. The scammer has enemies ready to kill him and/or a horde of followers ready to kill for him. If he admits the lie to his followers, he'll be strung up within the hour. He has become just as much a subject to the scam as his followers. He's in too deep, and all he can do now is play out his role as "prophet" or whatever, along for the ride until however it ends. This is exactly what the Norn "prophecy" was, at least at first. It was a fairy tale that Norn elders and the Spirits of the Wild created to keep the Norn from endangering themselves against Jormag. Then Braham came along, believing in the prophecy like most Norn do, and had the stones to actually start fulfilling it. The instant that Braham cracked Jormag's tooth, everyone that had been keeping the secret of the fake prophecy was in too deep. Revealing the secret was not an option; imagine the crisis among the Norn if they found out the Spirits had been lying to them all this time. So the Spirits of the Wild had to support Braham and actually MAKE him the "Norn of Prophecy" when he was really just a big goober that stumbled into the role. As for how Braham could suddenly "feel" the Destroyers and other such things, that was just the Spirits of the Wild doing their thing. No need to take a deep dive when there's a simple explanation. Raven works in mysterious ways and loves every minute of it. Oh, and one last thing: it seems pretty clear to me that the "Spirit of Fire" is Koda. But eh...half the fun of lore diving is the speculation anyway.