[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

2 hours ago, Kossage.9072 said:

The one oddity I wish the writers would explain is why the Ravenous Wanderer of Gyala Delve (an oni presumably formed from Captain Thess based on how his human version's looks in the first phase of the Gyala boss battle resemble Thess from Silent Surf fractal) who is suggested to be a wanderer not tied to Eparch, aka the unaligned Kryptis we meet in various events in Inner Nayos, could be hurt by positive emotions but Kryptis seen in SotO feast on both negative and positive emotions alike. Does it have something to do with the Wanderer potentially being a transformed human and thus not a pureblood Kryptis, so that mixed heritage background creates a weakness for this impure demon, or could there be another reason?

Could be something like an allergy. Oni apparently come from Kanaxai, who feasted on the horrors of the Jade Wind. It could be that because Kanaxai stayed on Tyria, that feasting let him form people into Oni, and the sheer fountain of that negative emotions/horror that they were based from made anything positive as a harmful thing. Or it could just be that the way we utilized the emotions in the fight was harmful. Like Bob can eat shrimp but shoving large chunks of shrimp down his throat isn't comfortable.  I lean more toward the former though. They became specialized on feasting on negative emotions and flesh, and eventually lost the ability to really handle positive emotions.

 

2 hours ago, Kossage.9072 said:

The curious thing here is that if Mabon, Glint or anyone else's information is so crucial, why don't we just use powerful necromancers in the Astral Ward (Livia, for example) to summon their ghosts from the Underworld or whatever afterlife they've been sent to? If Priestess Rhie could summon Alastia Crow, a pirate she hadn't known before, or how the norn spiritcaller Lefsi Spiritchaser could summon Gwen's mom for a favor to give Gwen emotional closure, and the only potential danger in these rituals is that it may attract some nightmares to disrupt the summoning, surely it should be child's play to summon Mabon back even if we had to anchor him to one of his darling items (even if as a ghost he wouldn't be able to linger for long) and ask for pointers while we have a few Astral Ward on guard to handle any hostile stragglers that may emerge to cause trouble. Perhaps Glint, due to her prophetic abilities, might also know something useful that we could use in this conflict.

I think perhaps it relates to how such rituals became harder to perform as time went on, and thus became rarer. It could also be a facet of respect for the dead. They don't want to yank back a spirit to Tyria if they don't absolutely have to. Given how the Astral Ward has been handling things on Tyria side, and we already have natives on our side on Nayos, there isn't an immediate reason to disturb Mabon. It could also be because (given they eat emotions/magic) they don't want to risk anything happening to the spirit. 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Strictly speaking, it is. Avatars are god magic (ArenaNet was mostly careful to only give avatars to enemies that were human and/or connected to the gods in some fashion, and in MOX's case, it was explained as not actually being avatars but MOX having some form of multifunctional core and the 'avatars' were actually different modes of operation), and human racial skills are tapping into the power of the gods that lingers in humans. There's also divine fire, although it wouldn't surprise me if that gets retconned to be something more directly related to the Forgotten than the gods. However, human racial skills also demonstrate the broad maximum power level that humans can tap into... and conventional magic has more potential overall.

And we also see clear indications that Risen are able to tap into these powers as well as living humans are, so the claim that the living Orrians were stronger than the Risen due to having access to god magic is patently false. What we see is at or above what those individuals were likely capable of achieving in life, and Zhaitan was likely able to cherrypick the most powerful spellcasters in Orr's history - apart from Reza and a couple of others that were called out as having been there at that time, there is no guarantee that any of the Risen spellcasters we fight were alive at the time of the Cataclysm. Heck, even if they were, they probably weren't part of the army - the reason the army left the city to fight outside seems to be that the Orrians wanted to stop the charr before they were close enough to use the Cauldrons, so those that fought the charr would have died somewhere on the route and might not have been in a place where Zhaitan was able to collect them. 

Okay, being fair, yes the god magic in form of avatars and the divine fire. I will concede that as being true. That is not at all what the other guy was trying to argue however, with vague and completely unclear implications that the priests were super-forms of classes or whatever lol.

 

Also a fun thing is that the Awakened could tap into those powers. Warden Amala uses the Avatar forms from her dervish skills despite being killed and Awakened. On that same angle, any risen Dervish/priests would be able to tap into those powers as well, if channeled enough Risen energy to be champions/powerful. 

 

Also another aspect is that even if the spellcasters/priests of the gods were preparing to fight, the Army being routed and destroyed in 12 hours would give them zero warning the lines have broken and the Charr were rampaging across Orr. It'd kill any prep time they had.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

9 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

It is mentioned briefly when we are first checked out upon arrival in Skywatch. When it is just a whisper. Well before you put a name to Peitha, well before she starts giving you information about the threat, well before she starts telling you not to trust with wizards enough to tell them about her.

We had many opportunities to tell them and we covered it up each time.

If all that is covered by one offhand remark by an unnamed medic about "So long as it's not telling you to murder anybody"...well, ok then. Maybe I was setting the bar too high. 🤔

We literally go to a medical checkup per Astral Ward's wants. we tell them "We've been hearing voices." They go "That's happened a bit with mist travel, here, let me scan you and check if you are showing any signs of possession." And you come across as clean, with a tiny bit of lingering essence of Nayos. They tell you to be concerned/mention it again if the voice starts trying to make you violent. Peitha NEVER encourages violence against your allies, and does nothing harmful.

I'd point out Mabon outright revealed he was being influenced in the same way and the Wizards didn't smack him. Also the Kodan library head in Bastion of knowledge literally and openly starts interrogating a Kryptis in her head during the meta-event, calling it "louse". Nobody reacts to that besides Peitha.

Honestly this feels like a case of people trying to make a plot hole when there isn't one, as Peitha never does anything harmful toward the commander (The only line I can think of is her snarling at the Kryptis ambush trying to use Gorrik as a lure "Nobody will possesses the Commander besides ME"). And when we "Bring her into the tower" It's because she's helping us escape Nayos by opening a rift home AND helping us take Isgarren back. We aren't just "hehehe, Kryptis lord into our house" She provides the escape vector. And WE don't defend her, ISGARREN DOES.  

Quote

Isgarren: I...do not want to see this place in ruins over something petty.

And we offer to go help her after she talks to Isgarren and they work out things. 

4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Oh, I think Mabon still had much, much more impact than Irja (which says more about Irja than Mabon). We didn't spend much time with Mabon, but we had a lot of opportunity beforehand to understand that he was important to the Astral Ward, to Zojja, and was also significant by the fact of being the last survivor of the Tyrian mursaat and having millennia of knowledge that is now... not entirely gone, as he left records behind, but those records may be incomplete and will certainly lack the completeness and authenticity of being able to talk to someone who was actually there. I don't think losing Mabon was supposed to be a shock because the PC had known them for a couple of weeks (supposedly, SotO results in the PC being "off the grid" for weeks, even if it feels like a few days at most) but because it was apparent how important he was to our friends and allies.

Irja, though? One random terrified Kryptis with whom we have a few minutes of forced dialogue, wanders off in the next instance, and dies in the instance after that. If you don't get distracted by events, it's a matter of minutes. There's no indication that Irja has any importance beyond being food for Heitor, and if the intent was to shock us with how callous Eparch's higher-ranking followers have become, it would have been more effective for Heitor to pull an Iberu and eat her own forces for a mid-battle powerup.

Honestly I feel people are treating Irja as if she's supposed to be far more important to the PC (and more importantly, the players) then she is. She's meant to show us that there are Kryptis terrified of both Eparch, but also us to a large degree. It's to show us (that we hadn't seen before) that Eparch and his forces ARE using the non-combatant Kryptis as a food source, which Peitha told us about but we hadn't seen before.

All she is there to do is show us that there are "civilian/neutral" Kryptis not on either side, and that they are prey to Eparch and his highest generals. That there are people to save, or convince to join us.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

6 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

We hide information about a possible kryptis infection of our mind, then bring said kryptis into the heart of the Astral Ward where she proceeds to tell us we need to help her in Nayos where we then go with little preparation because the kryptis can open rifts to the Tower.

We quite literally mention hearing voices, get checked out and cleared that we are not possessed in any way.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

15 minutes ago, stormemperor.3745 said:

I can answer this. According to Oneiros-Spun Armor no, she is not naked. 

Though it is an interesting detail between her and Heitor vs Cerus or Deimos, who both wear distinctly obvious pants, while Heitor and Peitha's outfits are almost like Sylvari plant-clothing/armor, which can easily appear to be part of their own bodies.

[Kryptis lame]

5 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

To be fair I think they meant adding new joints to the skeleton, which can (and has) been done before.

Baby aurene uses the adolescent wyvern rigging, but it's modified to add extra limbs.

It's also what they did for Cerus, who uses Deimos' rigging - they added the two back limbs.

Maybe, "Random unconnected limbs" Sounds more like just slapping on an arm without a care to me.

 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

8 hours ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

How is it not powerful when it's legendary weapon? And it's only one of the Orrian's magic items.

You do understand that legendary weapons are often just... unique or have great story? Having a shield with a quaggan baby in it doesn't make you the most powerful warrior around. Sharur's description is just that it's a spectral hammer that was at the source of Orr, and it's corruption is benign and couldn't be fully cleansed. Pharus, another Orrian legendary weapon simply unsummons itself when not used by a hero and returns to the reliquary. Neither weapon are implied to be incredibly powerful or capable of changing wars, they are just highly unique.

8 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

If you really think that we see every single NPC in existence in game, you're horribly mistaken.

Because if so, where are Researcher Nethry's ancestors who survived the Cataclysm?

Also Suriel the Blazing Light, whose family line is Orrian. Pretty sure GW1 had Orrian living npcs besides the Vizier as well.

7 hours ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Also the priests even said it so

Risen Priestess of Dwayna: The power of the goddess flows through me. You shall die!

 

Ah yes, the Risen Priestess being controlled by Zhaitan. You know, the Priestess and Priests who all make outright lying statements including "Zhaitan devoured the gods"

Aka, complete nonsense meant purely to demoralize the attacking forces of the pact.

[Kryptis lame]

2 hours ago, Lighter.5631 said:

there should be new enemy skeleton for expansion tho, especially when it's a completely NEW enemy genre in AN EXPANSION

dragon minions made sense because they came from possessions of existing genres..

at least make it less obvious, like i wouldn't even notice if tengu used charr skeleton..

but kryptis..it's just like it's so obvious, they didn't even try...just add random unconnected limbs to fil the void

 

Every added limb is part of the skeleton unless you want it flopping around and clipping into everything.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

8 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Also Magdaer showed how powerful the gods' magic can be.

Kryta won it in a bad condition purely due to magic. The charr could break through also because of magic. They were driven off due to magic as well.

Ah yes, because eternally cursing a nation to be ghosts is a thing that is good.

Also Orr didn't have Magdaer or it's twin blade, which  was just a regular sword until it's presence directly near Balthazar empowered it beyond normal levels.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

7 minutes ago, Lord Trejgon.2809 said:

And Saul's buddies were not the force that stopped the considerable smaller charr force, Mursaat did it.

his view of the lore is incredibly twisted. I don't really know the angle he's going at, maybe powerscaling? But war has so many more contexts.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

1 minute ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Most of the Orrians were dead in Cataclysm, if they were split out and couldn't go back, we would see a lot of Orrian ppl around GW1 since they would have escaped the fate, but no.  Most of them are dead, which means they were at Orr.

Handful of guilds and other survivors were around. The guilds of each nation were not the majority of the population at all.

Also, seriously, "God magic" isn't a thing. A priestess of Lyssa is merely a more experienced and powerful mesmer then any other mesmer. They do not have special powers from Lyssa. They may know more obscure rituals or specific things to unlock Lyssa related vaults, but it's not "Lyssa has given this mesmer special powers" at all. I think you need to go back and re-examine the lore and get a better understanding of it.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

1 minute ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Because they(especially the humans) worship it, if you play GW1, you knows all classes worship the gods, some skills are even named after them

The priests got a larger power from them.

You do know Charr mesmers were a thing? Norn mesmers? Asura mesmers? Lyssa did not personally grant people the ability to use illusion magic.

Illusion magic is not some trick that was only available to humans in GW1. 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

5 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

The 6 gods' power, like Lyssa's power of illusion, Melandru's power of nature. Only their worshipers could use.

The Risen could not use it unless they were able to grasp it before their death.

 

I'm sorry to break it to you...

But that's just regular magic. All Mesmers have illusionary magic. All rangers/druids have nature magic. Every Necromancer has death magic. Every Monk/guardian has healing magic. Every elementalist has fire magic.

 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

4 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Zhaitan could not use god magic, otherwise other risen would have gods' magic as well, imagine every Risen has god magic with them. Orr had all the gods' altar and temples, but only the priests could use god magic.

Yeah she knew these spells, which means she is a good fighter herself.

And Orrian got powerful magic, army plus the charr didn't use Searing , had to go cross such long distance.

Doesn't matter, they are not idiots, they could just retreat when it's not going well. Especially with such powerful magic.

I'd love to know what "God magic" is.

You know, since it's never been a thing before outside of literally describing the gods personal abilities, and not something anybody else could use.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

I'd just note that explicitly, and literally stated, Zhaitan has all the knowledge of every Risen. 

That is quite literally why Trahearne raises a horde of random undead to defend the one tome as it's being recovered, as they cannot share any knowledge if killed/corrupted. It's why the Pale Reavers became such a major force, they could not become Risen, so they had no fear of transmitting any war information.

Risen priestess of Lyssa brings to Zhaitan 100% of her knowledge and abilities. It doesn't matter if (and it's not even stated to be true) that her powers came directly from the gods, she knew those spells. And thus Zhaitan can make use of those spells through the Priestess.

 

Also, quite literally Ascalon held only, and explicitly only, because of the Great Northern Wall, and their ability even after the searing to keep the Charr north of it for the most part. Ascalon held because they are a stubborn people who are EXCELLENT at siege defense and they held the line only because they held their walls. The armies of Orr fought the Charr on the open field, not from a fortified line of defensive structures. That gives the Charr a physical advantage that cannot be ignored.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

7 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

So it's very possible that Abbadon let ppl steal their important stuff, that was my point from the beginning, Abaddon messed it up.

We only got 3 Mursaat in the war as well. There are more than 2 groups of priests. When the Charr is at the gate of Arah, why didn't the king's assemble them to fight then?

Wut? Many of their skills are much stronger than ordinary classes. We only got like 3 Murssat fighting the Charr as well. Why didn't Reza call up them? Also he is a very powerful figure himself, since he didn't get corrupted by the Scepter when it's in his hold.

They know it. Reza clearly knew what was the Source, and the Source's magic had expanded through Orr. Which is why it's important in the personal story: Zhaitan corrupted it so its corruption had spread to the entire Orr, when it's cleansed, the whole land started to revert.

A: what?

B : What? The three Mursaat were part of the stealth operation to kill the Charr leaders and disorganize the army Mursaat are also individually typically more powerful then regular humans. "The gates of Arah" is now more implied to be closer to the east side of Orr, then the literal gates. Vizier cast his cursed spell from his tower as I recall, which is also again, on the east side of the landmass. In Jahai's flashback we have Orrian soldiers fighting to protect the tower from the Charr. We also find cauldrens around the tower in the water, indicating Charr forces were established in that area sieging. Again, the priests would be in their temples. We literally know the Keepers of Grenth's shrine were at the temple when the Charr invaded, and died there. We literally have more evidence the priesthoods were busy at their temples and not on the frontlines.

C : Reza is a peaceful man, and it's not even known how much he had the scepter around him. As I recall, it's more implied to be stored in a vault then actively in use. 3 Mursaat in an assassination mission does not compare to trying to shove priests onto the frontline of a massive battle.  Why didn't he call them? Because he's a man of peace, not war. Why would he start shoving priests out of their temples into a warzone? And again, just because they knew certain magics doesn't mean they could effectively use them against an attacking army. Risen are controlled by Zhaitan, and directed by the dragon's will and desires. The way they fight in undeath under the dragon does not match how they acted in life. We literally have that shown to us by Reza himself. His magics and powers shackled and used by the Eye of Zhaitan against his will.

 

Could Orr have won? Maybe. But it didn't. 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

23 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

No, you are ignoring all other facts. We saw that the Scepter could teleport itself, or maybe Abaddon let his men stole it.

Really?  Melandru's priests can turn ppl into animals, summon trees and all the things.

Lyssa' priests can make copies of foes, teleport ppl around.

Others also got very unique power.

Yeah it's similar to some classes because these human classes' power also came from the gods, but to a much stronger level. They are all very tough fighters.

One of your major points have been "Reza has the scepter, therefore Orr wins" when the lore is literally: Nobody had the scepter when the Charr attacked Orr.

Also, actual priests of the gods are among the minority of Risen, and are much more likely to be at the temples then in the army (besides maybe Balthazar ones). Even then, their abilities are almost entirely the same as the rest of their related class. The one you mention turning people into animals is a high priest, aka the heads of the church. Aka not common. Same for the other Risen priests we fight. Every single one, mind you, who is within their temple. Where they died. Not on the front-lines.

Actual priests of the gods were at the temples, not in the guilds or within the national army of Orr.

23 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Also remember Orr got The Artesian Waters, so their magic would be further amplified.

The waters are a source of magic, to actually use it to amplify yourself would involve you know, being at the source. You can't use it and be on the other side of Orr fighting at the front lines.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

19 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

A Where? The Charr also got to march there.

B They were still weakened and got to split their forces, through a long march their supply line would become a problem.

Wrong, the Risen priests showed they know a lot of combat magic.

Reza is the most powerful of all Orrian Kings, which was why he was chosen by Zhaitan.

Those who knew of its whereabouts were all killed in the Cataclysm.

From what we saw in GW1, the scepter obviously teleported away during Cataclysm when danger came.  Why would it become lost when it's at the king's hand?

I see you are explicitly and willingly ignoring the fact that "The Scepter of Orr was missing, it's location completely unknown, before the Charr reached the borders of Orr." If you cannot accept that fact, you appear to be trying to twist the lore to your own needs rather then accepting what is written.

15 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

I dunno why ppl are still saying the priests cannot fight.

All Risen priests knew how to fight with their divine magic, not dragon magic.

Zhaitan doesn't have power over 6 gods' magic. Otherwise we would see other Risen using it.

Also it was after they no longer serve their gods and their gods have long left the world, which means their power would be weaker.

Risen priests? You mean the actual priests of the gods and not other spellcasters? Because they all, from a quick search, use absolutely basic class related skills. The Priest of Grenth uses necromancer, Lyssa using mesmer abilities.

They are not super-expert fighters, nor are they using any abilities that are unique to the gods. You also explicitly don't understand how spellcasting works it appears, as the gods don't snap their fingers and allow specific people to use, or not use, certain types of magic. A Mesmer, risen, alive, or Awakened, can use mesmer magics.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

5 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

And still, you chose to ignore stated fact:

 

 

That would imply the Spectral weapons are used to protect holy sites, not as active war-machines. 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

51 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

They didn't, they prepared for it.

And the Charr was weakened, since they had to spend a lot of forces to deal with Ascalon, remember Ascalon didn't fall.

How?  The priests all have super strong combat magic, King Reza got scepter of Orr in his control.

They also create powerful spectral weapons, which means they are not bad at combat magic.

 

A: The army was there, but any guilds were rushing home. Those guilds wouldn't be in a good combat spot.

B: The Charr explicitly weren't weakened as much as they expected, and that was where Orr's intel failed. The Charr broke into three forces basically. One large force rushed through Ascalon straight to Orr, fresh, ready to fight. Another group crossed the far Shiverpeaks and invaded Kryta from the North, causing some havoc, but facing some weakening effects of the mountain crossing. The third group basically stayed in Ascalon and continued fighting the defenders there. The assumption was the Charr had been using all their forces to fight Ascalon, when the ones that attacked Orr basically just bypassed the fighting and charged.

C : Priests aren't explicitly known to have expert combat magic or skills/practice in using it that way, in their life. Reza is explicitly stated to be more of a man of peace then war, and that's why Orr was weakened before the Charr invasion, because he was trying to stop the guild wars. Also, GW1 literally says that the Scepter of Orr DISAPPEARED between Charr's attack on Ascalon (the searing) and the Charr reaching the border of Orr. When the Charr attacked, the scepter was, very explicitly, missing. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mantle_Knight_Karriya 

Quote

The continent of Tyria was in turmoil The scepter was lost somewhere between when the Charr attacked Ascalon and when they reached the borders of Orr.

D : Able to summon spectral weapons doesn't actually let us know how quickly it can be done, or how durable they are.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

Also, It says Orr expected the Charr to be weakened/tired from Ascalon. They were not. Many Orrians likely had never seen the Charr. It sounds like they could've fallen for the often noted blunder of "Telling everybody this would be easy, we have won already!" which can cause moral to shatter when they find out the enemy force is still 100% strength.

While it's Army was equal to Ascalon or Kryta in numbers, and perhaps even strength of gear/spellcasters, it wasn't one that was well practiced or experienced. Kryta's army was in shambles with the disappearance of the king and the Charr advances from the North, and Ascalon knew how to fight Charr and held the ground.

Another thing that is worth noting is that historically, Humans have always punched well above their weight when using fortifications/natural defenses. IIRC, Orr's army matched on the Charr in open field combat, giving the Charr an easy edge physically.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

13 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Not really, we can see even the Lich Lord could rise an army to cause trouble to the White Mantles, not to say the majority of Zhaitan's high rank Risen were from Orr.

 

The Orrian undead of GW1 are all the military. As undead, that doesn't say how good they were in life or not.

Also, the majority of risen are from Orr. But unlike GW1, you can explicitly see how most risen orrians are just civilians, as the military dead were already taken.

 

And yes, Arah defended itself from the opening fights at Arah, but then the guilds spread outward. The actual army of Orr did not march on the other nations. Unlike Ascalon, which had it's army constantly fighting the Charr so it had experience and practiced forces outside the guilds.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

28 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

From the Risen, we can see that:

Orr got a lot of fighters and powerful sorcerers, priests, that's even after the Lich animated a lot of undead. The charr couldn't even take down Ascalon after the Searing for so many years.

Why would the charr be able to seize it? I doubt that the Lich or that demon probably sold them from inside.

Also Orr was on a peninsula, I don't see the charr got powerful navy.

 

 

So Orr didn't fight much in the Guild Wars, and it was so far from the charr home, they also had time to regroup, and they failed in, 12 hours with that much forces and magic?

Orr was a highly magical nation with a powerful, but untested army.

They had, IIRC, never actually deployed in direct warfare recently, and were not used to fighting the Charr, just humans if anything.

They also were arrogant as hell, and marched out thinking they were going to win without any trouble. 

 

Combo these details with the Charr forces being vicious in open battlefields, we have the first engagement going badly, which leads into a total rout of their forces. In GW1, the Lich mostly animated the remains of the military forces, while most of the Risen Orrians are civilians. 

In addition, I wouldn't be surprised if they had foolish ideas of the Charr being tired/depleted after going through Ascalon, and thus weren't expecting a fresh, ready to go army.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

9 hours ago, Luthan.5236 said:

The "true king" thing - I somehow noticed this a bit late. Seems it appears at the last fight of the meta and someone mentiond this in the thread. This could be a hint. If she really wanted to save/help her people (the Kryptis) it would be more important to put the focus on removing Eparch. Does not matter who later becomes king. (Or if then maybe another system of rulership was introduced.)

It could just have been for the fight though - to intimidate the other guy. An option would be ... that she wants to become king cause she thinks of herself as being the only one to be able to to good/right things when ruling. Where she slowly turns into something the other Kryptis consider evil ... later but not with evil intentions at the beginning.

In the end it might be okay as long as we can have a deal and the Kryptis do not attack Tyria anymore. (The usual thing in games is though ... that the heroes start to care for anyone and anything ... Wayfinder/Commander might as well start to also help oppressed Kryptis even if this would start to drag Tyrians into it and if they had a deal before it ... but some Kryptis came to the commander to ask for their help lol.)

I read that as part of the Kryptis structure of society. She is the one "Noble/royal" who is fighting for the people, and not for Eparch who hurts the people. So she's calling herself the one true King because She considers herself the only royal who wants the Throne not to devour those beneath her.

Captain Farrus in the astral ward camp provides some extra details.

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

Frode's journal mentions weeks of travel from his home lodge (location unknown, but they got a gift from Gaeta) to Saldistead.