Kalavier.1097
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Posts posted by Kalavier.1097
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7 hours ago, Sajuuk Khar.1509 said:
PoF had one book, from a guy who claimed to have had a vision from Kormir, but provides no real proof that he did, saying this was the case. However, Kormir herself never mentions the Gods doing such a thing, and when the actual, literal, apocalypse began to happen with the Void crisis, the Gods were nowhere to be found.
T the Order of Shadows was murdering Order of Whispers agents which is never brought up or hinted at anywhere else.
Just wanted to reply to these things. First off, the gods have rarely stepped in directly to actually be involved in things since abaddon was imprisoned, even when he was at risk of breaking out they basically shrugged and went "You got this guys, we'll be over here". The gods going "Hey we are trying to find a new world for you guys" would, at worst, encourage apathy and lack of action. Why really bother trying to solve the elder dragon issue when the gods are going to save us humans right? It also assumes that they have already found a world when the void crisis came, or had directly contact/way of knowing it was happening. IIRC, the whole Void crisis was a relatively short period of time.
Given how there aren't any Order of Whispers agents throughout the Elona core maps, and also "Spy organizations fighting in the background" wouldn't be very obvious anyway. It wasn't a major plot detail but a side one.
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6 hours ago, Sajuuk Khar.1509 said:
That's just as bad, and in many ways even worse. Mindless monsters, while boring, at least make sense since ruthless animals are a thing.
But giving them intelligence, and then making them unapologetically evil doesn't work in the slightest. True, pure, evil for the sake of evil would just destroy itself long before it got anywhere, there would be too much backstabbing, and self sabotage, for that to work. It would never be able to last, much less as far as Eparch did, and as long as Eparch did. That's only interesting if you don't care about looking at how anything works, and just want a saturday morning cartoon villian screaming "'ILL GET YOU NEXT TIME GADGET!" which isn't particularly good writing.
Even Tolkien didn't believe that Melkor or Sauron were being of pure evil since that wouldn't work.
Anet also has explicitly had only one "pure evil" race, that being the Krait.
And they also explicitly stated that was purely because their government and culture purges all other thoughts and their children are never allowed to see any outside views. -
1 hour ago, CaptainAngelStar.1479 said:
That's a bit of a bummer. Thanks for answering, everyone.
You can have people who do certain "vampiric" things, but it'd be well, just that. You wouldn't be a proper "typical" vampire who can't go into the sun or requires blood to survive. Just more of using blood to boost your magical power and such.
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Vampires are giant non-sapient bat like creatures, and otherwise just a style of blood magic(that seems partially inspired by said beasts)
You won't find anybody melting in the sun or requiring blood to survive though.
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On 9/15/2024 at 5:10 AM, Danikat.8537 said:
They do this occasionally. Two examples I remember are Astral Ward members talking about how their skyscales changed based on what kind of magic they were eating (one is the Incarnate Flame skin, and one's the Dark Monarch skin). There's also the Olmakhan charr in Sandswept Isles who ride the River Moth Wing and Dajkah Lantern skimmers. (I think I've seen an Oceanic Ray skimmer there too.)
I don't know why they don't do it more often. I agree it would help the gem store skins seem less out of place and more like part of Tyria. Same with outfits, like updating the various servants in Divity's Reach and some of the human storylines to wear the maid and butler outfits, at least during formal events like the story step where you have to infiltrate a party.They did make a number of Sentinels use the related outfit after it was released, so there is precident.
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I noticed the other day in wardrobe there are a few unique variants of weapons from various sets for the Spear that were only available as PVP unlocks. With Spear now being a major weapon it'd be nice to see those variants added to the PVE cultural vendors or some other way of obtaining them.
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14 hours ago, Dotveg.5108 said:
That is actually a really fun idea. Could even tie in to her history with the Legions: gets her first military sign classes in the Fahrar, Primus realizes she can't communicate in any other way, she gets treated horribly from then on. That could also explain why she doesn't sign precisely all the time as she could be making stuff up as she goes along, since she didn't get the entire, proper training. R'tchikk being both a skritt and exceptionally smart would definitely help her develop her own sign-slang.
Plus, the Astral Ward could definitely use someone with exceptional smell and sight and an ability to provide quick communications on the field as well as teach others in squads to communicate during operations quietly and effectively, with no one else but them able to understand what they're saying. Man, this just makes me want answers even more. Love it.
Skritt are also used to "Non-verbal" communication, in a way, so it may be something they figured out together and benefits them both.
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3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:
I think there is a reasonable middle ground.
Consider the Tyranids, for instance. Cool models and mechanics, but from a narrative perspective they're pretty boring because they're... basically just the wolf in the dark forest scaled up to be a threat to galactic civilisations. They have no agency, just hunger. Which is good for expressing grimdark, but in practice pretty much everyone who follows 40K knows they're just there as something the actual protagonists and antagonists have to respond to.
The Zerg, on the other hand, while somewhat humanised under Kerrigan, still had more character even under the Overmind than the Great Devourer. The Overmind and the Cerebrates had personality, and the Overmind had goals that drove its actions. It was an alien goal and alien personality, but it was a goal and personality regardless.
The problem with factions that are just some unknowable threat with no discernible identity is that while it may seem to be horrific and cool, all too often shooting for that results in succeeding too well in creating a faction that has no identity.
Regarding the Kryptis - there is a degree to which once we got into Nayos, apart from the thing about being able to eat one another for power, it did end up feeling a bit too much like it was just another civil war. Which might be fine if they'd played up how alien the Kryptis were in other ways, but they really didn't. We're told, for instance, that a large part of their sustenance comes from emotions and dreams filtering into Nayos, but that's not really something we deal with apart from picking up double-edged sword stacks.
Also Tyranids are sometimes a side threat with something else appearing.
As for Kryptis, they do mention that Eparch had actually blocked dreams and such from Tyria and maybe other realms from coming into Nayos. Sadly, it's only brought up once early on when you arrive.
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3 hours ago, Dotveg.5108 said:
I'm not the one who wrote the games' lore, man. I'm just asking a question about sign language for fun, trying to ask the people who added it in how they think it fits into their established universe. If you find it so ridiculous, I mean, you're welcome to, y'know, not care in your own corner of the world.
He's kinda done this stuff before.
Anyway, Guild wars two runs off the typical "Common" language. For example, there is references to Norn or Asura language specifics, or "old Canthan" languages. IIRC kurzick and Luxon as well. But they teach and share a basic common language across the board. I'd assume sign language is a universal one, or that Charr have one for battle use when they must be silent and Gladium simply adapted that for general use?
Skritt we know the "Common" tongue is actually their second language and they have trouble with it due to their natural form of communication. Charr also at times are described as having trouble understanding humans because the tone frequencies can fall into a spot of their hearing that makes it hard to hear.
I figure it's an official/known sign language, but one we haven't had to deal with as we haven't run into mute or deaf characters before.
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7 hours ago, Perihen the Thawk.9527 said:
I know this is unpopular but I generally disagree with this take. I think the whole "unknowable alien motives" thing is kind of just lazy writing and honestly a boring story to boot. Any society, unless it's a hive mind, is going to have quarreling factions. And most motives, even really weird ones, are actually understandable, it's just that writers refusing to communicate them looks cool because it's a shortcut to not disappointing anybody.
Anet could certainly work on their writing, for sure, but this really isn't the problem.
Another thing is, like for example Flame Legion.
What happened? We kept killing the aggressive, nasty people in charge, and bled their forces down over the years. This meant that eventually, The next person in line/capable of taking over went "Well, I don't agree with what those guys do and want peace." We killed or weakened the "evil" side of it to the point the "good" side seized control and started changing things.
Nightmare Court is another example. The aggressive factions got recruited into the Toxic alliance after the top leadership was killed off or weakened. Then Mordremoth weakened the Sylvari race as a whole briefly. Faolian died, and the basically only remaining Duchess left? Her stance was "Let's not constantly make ourselves known. Let's not go the path that risks pissing off the major nations around us who can easily wipe us out." And the main portion of the court left is subdued and more reclusive now.
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On 9/7/2024 at 3:45 AM, Scar.1793 said:
Currently playing GW1 to get a HoM title, while the graphics are worse, the story and more importantly settings and characters are so much more believable. You don't have a "joke" every step of the way.
But there aren't jokes at "Every step of the way" Nor was GW1 ultra serious all the time. The characters in both games are believable and people, but they are, by their literal nature, different games. One is an RPG first, the other is an MMO first.
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There is dialogue by one of the Kodan settlements (the warclaw training area) between an Asura and the Kodan, where he's trying to explain the benefits of using them.
"You can travel to the fishing hut instantly!"
"What about the far lodge/hunting town?""I believe we set up a waypoint at that location too."
Something like that. So in terms of "In universe" It'd be something they actively setup and install, which would probably only happen in verdant brink after the events of HoT really with the dangers of the jungle and all.
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3 hours ago, RagiNagi.1802 said:
To OP's point, nearly every race is humanized. Putting nearly in brackets, because there are definetly proper unique races like Choyas or Skritt that still feel authentic.
Kodan apparently live the same exact lives as humans. They have farms, they fish, and prepare dried fish for winter. And they talk soo much.
I mean, any race with consistent settlements will literally have all of these things. Farms, food storage, food gathering. Even the Skritt do that. This isn't a "Human" thing, it's a civilization thing. A civilization must be able to feed it's population and protect them.
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58 minutes ago, maxwelgm.4315 said:
Thanks, you put in nicer words exactly how I was put off immediately after Decima popped up on screen. Titans are FORGED space alien creatures at that, 100% artificial. This is orcs-are-actually-people tier writing and Anet should know better to do some actual eldritch horrors after people consistently complained about Soo Won being a baby mama and Kryptis being humans but in the dreaaaam.
Unless JW changed the Titan Lore, Titans are both creations of the foundry of failed creations, and a mist species in conflict with the Mursaat as I recall.
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1 hour ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:
The existence and usage of waypoints between mechanics and lore has always been a bit weird. Like for example, the nobles at Noble Ledges in Verdant Brink - or the entire plot of Verdant Brink and recovering Pact soldiers and sending them back to Camp Resolve for recovery makes no sense the moment you take into account the waypoints' presence. Same with Bloodstone Fen, Ember Bay as mentioned, and many others. Similarly, the existence of waypoints in many maps like all of PoF and LWS4 (and even half of LWS3) doesn't make much sense without assuming that some allies had set them up beforehand.
Waypoints are a thing in lore, and like asura gates they don't function the same way in lore as they do in mechanics, but given the story in many maps, there's no way many waypoints we see in-game would exist and still make sense narratively. So generally speaking, I assume the waypoints don't exist unless pointed out in some dialogue or by event mechanics (like Dragonfall literally bringing them to set up camp).
I think a good way to see it is, do we see npcs using it, and is it in a stable area (as we know, the Asura were keen to keep the waypoint system stable and functional). Meaning it's likely we have waypoints at Ascalon settlement, but we wouldn't have a waypoint in a Centaur camp or in HoT jungle.
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1 hour ago, DarkK.7368 said:
Advancing the story, today in LW3, Amber Bay, I got a nice dialogue. Spoilers ahead.
There's a whole circus in the abandoned island. Some ship that crashed here a year ago. She asks you for a ship to return. You say there's an Asura gate nearby, but she says the big pet won't fit there so will wait for some ship...
So they've been there 1 year... and were not able to use some teleport. Even having an Asura waypoint a meter close. Nobody had some coin? The commander doesn't care? More questions arises.
I won't question why they don't go to the new Asuran gate and there ask for help, that's questioning someone's dumbness and not the lore itself.
I would point out that technically, the Asura waypoint was likely not there the entire year and only was setup when the Asura made a base camp there with the gate.
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2 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:
Reading the journals in that link, I agree. Caudecus wasn't acting out of belief - though some of his followers were - but out of interest in the relics and influence Saul's legacy would give him.
There is a slight oddity with the first journal though, indicating Xera is still alive after Caudecus left for Janthir - but Caudecus left after S3E1, and Xera died before that. It seems to be worded as if he has just become Confessor (so after the events of Chapter 2 of the personal story), before being recognized by most. During most of this time, from Caudecus's Manor dungeon to shortly before S3E1, Caudecus was under house arrest in the palace. And he had not yet turned Valette to his side during that brief moment between Chapter 2 and CM dungeon (which would have been around the time of chapters 5-7 of the personal story based on letters from Destiny's Edge). Meanwhile, the last journal from Caudecus also feels worded as if Xera died after S3E1 and before S3E4...
Could be that when he came out, he went straight for the bloodstone, and hadn't heard of Xera's death? They weren't getting along perfectly and Xera sounds like she got the fake relic and immediately went to her castle.
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52 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:
Who says Kryta cannot produce its own airships? Did Lord Faren outsource his purchase? Someone has to be mass producing these and quite frankly, if a bunch of pirates can manufacture an entire fleet while in hiding, then the nation of Kryta can manufacture a fleet as well.
The Pact might have designed the airships through multiracial efforts, but that doesn't mean construction of them cannot be done by a single nation.
Divinity's Reach doesn't have large scale defenses? Sure, except for the GIANT kitten DOME created from guardian and mesmer magic. Do keep in mind that Jennah didn't produce that spell on her own - it was one of the defenses she stated was prepared for ahead of time, along with the barriers she activated.
What can Kryta produce, export, and sell to other nations? Food, wood, metals, weapons. Claypool itself is - in lore - a main supplier for the entire nation and neighbors of weaponry due to its nearby mines and major blacksmithing inhabitants - it wouldn't be surprising if they were also a major supplier of infrastructure-focused metallurgy. Blacksmiths make more than just swords, shields, and armor - they also make rivets, beams, clamps, gardening tools, kitchen utensils, and so on and so forth. The abundance of mines and forests to their north as well as in the areas throughout the southern half of Kryta means that Kryta would have a constant supply of both various kinds of timber and ore. They also have naval access, giving them a sizable fishing market, and as proven in Sea of Sorrows novel, they have a sizable navy (though the one at the time was hindered greatly, they would have rebuilt over the years since).
Basically, you're making claims that Kryta can't produce anything, but such a nation would have fallen centuries ago if that was true. No nations survives without self-sustenance or a LOT of finances.
Don't forget that technically, they can export stone and ore from the quarries at Ebonhawke. They give Ebonhawke food or other supplies, they get the stone, they turn and sell the stone to, for example, the Asura for building a new lab somewhere, etc.
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2 minutes ago, Imba.9451 said:
Not what I said. Stop being hyperbolic. And since you are just arguing to arguings sake, considering I adressed this point already, I'll take my leave from this conversation.
Yeah... equating the Ghosts issue to Centaurs is an interesting one, since Centaurs is his big focus for Kryta going forward? 😄
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15 hours ago, wolfof.1842 said:
But, they don't have airship production at home.
I think you can find countries in real life too: just because rich people buy yachts, it don't mean country has navy with huge, expensive battleships.Kryta also has a Navy, yet we never see it ingame. L:ion's Arch has ships for each Captain, yet we've only seen two (counting the MP map). They also have an extensive ocean fleet, yet we only see it once around Claw Island.
23 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:There are enough watchknights that dozens of them are used in gladiatorial games once a year. Even if we presume the arena has some sort of enchantment that prevents actual damage from being done, that's still at least a substantial reserve that can be deployed in a pinch.
IIRC, after the illusion breaks there is a portal effect under the watchknight? Might be wrong but since Mesmers are heavily involved in the Pavilion I just figure they get ported out, repaired of any damage dealt and then portaled back in. Even then, it holds a very scary implication for warfare if used to full potentional.
Ambush a wandering Centaur group (assuming Centaurs rally behind a new war leader and charge). Kill them all, duplicate their appearances onto watchknights. Watchknights return to the base, wander around, then start attacking. Chaos.
Or simply disguise themselves as humans and use them to make Seraph squads look bigger. Or just include several into each Seraph deployment as we have the range from the giant ones to human-sized ones.
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5 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:
I don't think those two skyscale skins are actual skyscales who ate a golem or plushies. The other plush mount skins are, IIRC, already confirmed to be the same as the Tixx toys - that is, golems made with wood and/or cotton frames instead of stone and metal, so the skyscale one is no doubt the exact same, and the synergetics is no doubt just a golem built shaped like a skyscale. The SAB mount skins are likely the same as non-mount stuff of the dame design - just hard light holograms.
Not all the skins are literal as they're shown either - the mordrem jackal skin is confirmed from the news blog post to be a mesmer illusion cast over a sand jackal, for example. The branded mounts are likely the same, given the nature of dragon minions. Some others could be mesmer illusions too, though which is hard to tell.
Basically there is no catch-all lore for all mount skins. "Skyscales vary by magic eaten" and "subspecies that live in a different region and got domesticated after PoF" is just for a specific group of skins. For example, while the Stormscale is no doubt due to eating air magic, the Shattered Nightscale skin is likely just a variation that came into existence alongside the default skin.
This is pretty much it. We know Skyscales will see drastic changes depending on diet as they grow up, but patterns are likely just regional for them. Likewise probably for changes that are physical but not extreme or magical based. Like the broad-horn bull is probably just that... a fat skyscale. Where as the Canthan skyscales developed into the leaner bodytype.
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34 minutes ago, wolfof.1842 said:
Really come on, is that not just imagination... where do you get Seraph Cavlry from?
Some points about Seraphs:
- "patrols that struggle to keep roads free of bandit attacks and centaur raids."
- they are also the most beleaguered, struggling to maintain supplies and munitions for their soldiers.
- The highest rank in the Seraph is captain. At any given time, the queen has from five to ten captains in the Seraph
All of this does not sound like it is well equipped super army.
Much more like struggling, basic army of Kryta. They can have high numbers from population join, but probably most are just basic soldiers.
Man, it's almost like you are cherry picking examples from literally the start of personal story when the Seraph are at one of their lowest points, and absolutely ignoring that we know there are various seraph types of soldiers, including royal guards and an entire unit dedicated to being deployed at Ebonhawke. And you are not even bothering to move an inch to think about the Seraph as of now, who have watchknights deploying alongside squads, they have airships, and they now have full support and aren't being sabotaged constantly by having their routes constantly being sold to the enemy.
Literally the first two points are EXPLICITLY CAUSED BY THE WHITE MANTLE SABOTAGE THAT IS DEALT WITH MOSTLY AFTER CAUDECUS IS PLACED IN "House arrest" BY BEING A GUEST AT JENNAH'S HOME, post Caudecus manor story dungeon.
The Seraph don't only have basic sword and shield soldiers. The Seraph have access to horses as mounts and beasts of burden pulling carriages or wagons. The idea of Cavalry isn't foreign to them. Hell, an insult about Centaurs is that Horses are for riding, not talking.
So yes, it's entirely plausible the Seraph at full strength would have Cavalry mounted on horses, if not raptors and other mounts now as well. Confirmed? No, but it's incredibly within reason.
And even outside that speculation, you cannot use start of personal story Seraph at all to try to discuss what they may have available now, well beyond the personal story troubles.
edit; Also Seraph captain isn't like a RL army captain, A Seraph captain is in charge of a region's operations. It's almost more like a general in a basic sort of sense? Like Logan was the Captain in charge of DR, while another was in charge of all of Kessex Hills, etc.
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11 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:
Are there any around that actually use monk-like skills? Every time I've seen a Dwaynan priest or priestess in combat, they were throwing lightning orbs around.
Lorewise, we've been told that monks still exist (even if they're basically just guardians with less combat training) and therefore some of them should be, but seeing them in action is very different from deducing that they should exist.
Honestly, haven't seen many of the priests in combat if any personally. I just natively assuming monk for Dwayna priests that are explicitly acting as healers. But that's part of the whole "We see a limited view ingame of some forces" Such as Seraph Cavalry, which would be a thing as they do infact, have horses lol.
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6 hours ago, EdwinLi.1284 said:
Yep, the mount skins are skins but they do have lore to them.
Most cases, they are basically different species of these mounts located in different regions of Tyria. Anet only began developing these Mount skin lore around the time of SotO pre-release starting with the Skyscales.
Though they made Skyscales very short lore being that all Skyscales skins are canon because the appearance of a Skyscale is based on what they eat so they physical forms change as a result of their diet. So yes, something like the plush skyscale and Synergetics are canon because these skyscales ate very specific things that have high magical energy. Plush Skyscale being obviously magical enchanted plushies but this does raise a lot of questions involving where did a Skysclae find enough Plushies with magical energy to change its form into this.
The other mounts have been mostly the result of certain magic or corruption affecting them or a species found in specific regions.The plushie set isn't "A skyscale ate enough plushies" It's the same thing as a synergetic skyscale, it's a golem constructed to a skyscales shape and abilities, but it's got a fluffy soft doll wrapped around it. basically a giant toy made by Tixx. Same as the plush raptor, turtle, jackal, etc.
Status of Each Race and Future expansion hints [SPOILER Lore]
in Lore
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Indeed, it's kinda (crudely) like the Imperium from 40k lol. Extremely xenophobic culture and religion, but with little backstabbing or infighting. Break religion, you simply get killed. IIRC anet stated or implied the Toxic Krait are all considered enemies of the regular Krait, to be killed on sight?