[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

3 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

It is actual lore, Risen's magic, or even Zhaitan itself's magic is quite different than Grenth.

And Necromancy is not some thing that can only come from Grenth. Orrian necromancers aren't using "God magic" They are using necromancy. You really need to learn the lore.

[Why the namechange of Commander?]

36 minutes ago, VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig. said:

and still civilians who run into retired high level officers in social or professional settings refer to them by their title. And since Tyria is not USA 2023, it would be fitting to adhere to such social norms.

Literally when Almorra offers the PC the spot of Pact Marshall and is declined.

Quote

Taimi: What did I hear? You're not in the Pact anymore? Wait. What do I call you? Pooh-bah?

<Character name>: Uh, no. How about we just stick with commander for now?

General Almorra Soulkeeper: Technically, it's a title for life, so you're welcome to it.

The PC adopted the title as an easy thing to call themselves for friends/contacts. 

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

26 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Human Mesmer and necromancers' magic also came from the 6 gods.  Other than Grenth' priests, Risen's death magic is quite different than Grenth as well.

And once again, there you go with headcanon that is not actual lore in any way, shape, or form.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

22 minutes ago, Slowpokeking.8720 said:

Do you see Risen use god magic unless they are priests/spellcasters in their life?

Novels don't show them use god magic at all, unlike humans. I think it's fair to call it fact.

Novels don't use the term "god magic" for anything the characters do. God magic is more of avatar stuff, not anything a mesmer or necromancer can do. The term "God magic" isn't even used ingame that much either.

Also, legendaries aren't automatically more powerful then any other weapon. Claw of Khan Ur is just a very historically important dagger, not a super-weapon.

[Why did Orr lose to the Charr]

Headcanon =/= Canon.

 

[Why the namechange of Commander?]

1 hour ago, Lord Korag.8439 said:

If you think that SotO is poorly written, then obviously you have never encountered the IBS. In the comparsion with (especially the scrapped second half) the IBS, the SotO is a masterpiece.

Why are you purposefully misquoting my post to make it as if I said that, when I did not?

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

1 hour ago, Lord Korag.8439 said:

Yeah. Since the scrap of the IBS several retcons of Jormag or Primordus could be seen. I am only waiting when those two will be literally deleted.

What?

[[Spoilers]Astral Ward and Magic]

9 hours ago, CETheLucid.3964 said:

R'tchikk is also a special case of asuran mad scientists make a skritt super smart. She's not able to relate to her own people anymore, follow their chitters or commune with the skritt hive mind. She's exceptional in her own right and why she's ended up in the Astral Ward. The wizards, the ward, and her good charr friend are her family now.

That she's with them and even appointed as a curator suggests she's more than a bit proficient.

A few things here. She is a case of an Intelligence boost by questionable science, however nothing at all says she cannot communicate with Skritt in their native tongue. Just that she wasn't fitting in and went her own way.

Also Skritt don't have a hive mind at all. That isn't how they work. They are also able to function well as lone individuals, it's just they can be distracted very easily. We do see singular skritt used as couriers.

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

1 hour ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

But the very fact that Frode traveled to and fro on multiple occasions shown that they weren't really that far apart and distant, and "in the far north with winter storms so fierce they cannot effectively travel north" is stated to be the situation in Bitterfrost Frontier and even Frostgorge Sound - the former being called "the far north" by NPCs. So "the far north" != "only the Far Shiverpeaks".

I'll point out that nothing says Frode has traveled to and from that location many times. Infact, it almost sounds like a rare trip with the explicit mention how the place has grown apart from them, and is in Isolation.

The place is described as being "A few weeks away" after a week a travel. 

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

7 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Jora's Keep was a Vigil outpost maintained by access from Grothmar Valley, though. It wasn't an old homestead that was largely independent and an actual place of living.

And while the Still Waters Speaking group is a weird situation given that's the heart of Jormag's territory which shouldn't be possible given icebrood mindless hostility, they got stranded there while fleeing Jormag's flight south and got stuck from the water freezing up. They hadn't even been there a full generation, seeing how the (former) Honor and Claw weren't elected there by all indication; and above that, they're in isolation, cut off from the outside, only very recently making contact with Jora's Keep. Arguably, Still Waters Speaking only survived because Jormag passed them by and settled near Bitterfrost Frontier before Braham's group forced it to go to northern Drizzlewood for narrative demand.

This is a far cry from a homestead of generations that has constant contact and trade with Hoelbrak by land route. That'd be like saying there's a village in SE Orr that's fully inhabited by Orrians with constant trade with Mount Maelstrom until it got wiped out by something not Zhaitan or Risen.

Hoelbrek didn't have constant contact though, It's mentioned they had grown apart and distant. They are also "In the far north" with the winter storms being so fierce they cannot effectively travel north.

We know the lodge is to the west of a lake, as that is where Sejm lead them before his death. So it could easily be on the other side of the water that spawned out of Drakkar Lake.

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

59 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

So "far north" != "Far Shiverpeaks". It's just... decently north, really. So Saldistead could be west of Frostgorge, or a bit east of Bitterfrost, before Jormag moved in, since this was about 20-25 years ago.

 

And Braham left his guild around Jora's Keep, which was the Vigils northernmost outpost. So it's not like we haven't had confirmation of people being that far north before Jormag was put to sleep in season 3.

Also we had the Kodan group in Bjora, who were native/stranded in that area north of Bitterfrost.

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

8 hours ago, mandala.8507 said:

Arina is younger than Braham, according to the first of Frode's journal entries.

I wonder what exactly happened to the mom. It's unclear.

Also, I think I have a location. the ruins in the Aberrant forest. It'd be before Jora's Keep is established (Vigil isn't a thing yet at all), at the borders of icebrood territory, and a hefty distance away from Hoelbrek region. If it's a location we can see ingame, that'd fit the bill. Miasma being how weird the forest is, and the voices (and how some theorize Wurm forcibly stopped the other Norn from becoming a boneskinner).

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

6 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Yeah, given Arina's apparent age in SotO, the journals seem to be ~20-25 years prior. Can't imagine it being more than 35 years, Arina doesn't seem that old (nor Frode). So I imagine the journals take place in 1305-ish AE tops, making Arina roughly Canach's age.

Would be weird as heck for Frode to be going into the Far Shiverpeaks when Jormag's at full might. Though he does talk about using the path refugees took south so... It's just weird, everything points to the homestead being literally within the heart of Jormag's territory, but having "weird things happening" at night.

It's the most seemingly contradictory piece of lore since EoD by far.

Could be something that was on the furthest edge of known territory, a group that tried resettling to the north but it didn't work out?

 

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

4 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

This in the journal still implies we were *told* she left. Which, as far as I can tell, never happened. If so, I still maintain that something was cut or forgotten to the detriment of story comprehension.

"Ramses relayed the news that despite our earlier efforts, Irja had disappeared from camp."

hm. fair. I've noticed the Journal does include a lot of extra detail that isn't present ingame, like how the Gyala ones explained more of the Commander's mental state.

[Any idea where Saldistead may be?]

55 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Frode's journals aren't pre-Jormag, and they aren't post-Jormag either. It's from when Arina was born, and she certainly isn't a mere 2 years old in SotO, nor 150+ years old.

It wouldn't make much sense for Frode to have lived, or tried to bring a baby to, a homestead in the heart of Jormag's territory.

It's also explicitly during a time when Knut is established as leader of Hoelbrek, and Gaeta gives a gift.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

4 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

I both love and hate these little details.
Love them because it really makes GW2 feel more alive, that you don't get directed to every little detail.
But I hate it when they take these very easily missed little details and put it into the main story as if you should know it happened 100%.

LWS3 suffered a lot from expecting players to know all the relevant details like this.

I kinda like it in the sense of "After that conversation they went all in focusing on the task of breaching the barrier/getting to Heitor, and didn't have time to check in on her again." So we see her captured and it is a "wait what?" because our crew hadn't talked to her again.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:17 AM, Tanek.5983 said:

True for many of them. I still like a little more meat on there to mask the bare bones. I think maybe SotO rushes things more than I am used to in previous GW2 releases. We don't get to know anyone, information and wizard technobabble has to be rapid-fired at us with little or no context, and the story pretty much is the meta in each zone. 

As an example, when I started the Nayos release, I barely remembered who Ariana was after "meeting" he briefly in the intro. This is, in large part, my issue. I mean, we *did* meet her. And we were later told she is Frode's daughter. It is just that none of it makes much of an impact for me.

Soto does do a lot of the character building in a unique way that doesn't work for some.

In that it's side quests/stories and interactions that happen AFTER the immediate threat of the arc is done, so it's not like we are being distracted from "We gotta get in there and rescue bob! But also, here's Sue's story and how she got here".

[Kryptis lame]

21 minutes ago, Poormany.4507 said:

I would be willing to guess 90+% of players don't even recognize half or more of these though, especially on a first playthrough (I certainly did not and I've been playing since launch), which is what makes them so much more creative than what we've been getting since EoD. Since the Dragonvoid, almost all of the main mini-expac enemies have been blatant reskins that anyone can tell from just glancing at them. Makes the game feel cheaper/lower quality when, as you've pointed out, Anet's shown they can do much, much better at creatively reusing skeletons/models.

I feel this statement hits less when you include the facet of "The singular expansion release since EoD"

It's not like it's a big reaccuring trend.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

6 hours ago, Serephen.3420 said:

I mean you could the same about any mmo😂

It's surprising how similar all these stories are when you strip them of every single aspect, right? 

[Are Shrine Guardian kits an invasive species?]

On 11/16/2023 at 3:12 PM, Tom.8029 said:

As someone who works in environmental science, I just wanted to point out that, unless a species is negatively effecting their new environment, they’re referred to as non-native species.  And the answer to that might be yes, but they’re also very elusive creatures and maybe we’ve never noticed them before?  Who knows. 

Fair!

5 hours ago, Serephen.3420 said:

I'd love that honestly 😂

We got astral foxes in the Bastion of Knowledge, so it could be. I mean the mini is supposed to be one who decided to join you (from the achievement description) and the npcs in Cantha (well one specific one) will talk about your shrine guardian jackal if you have the skin!

["E"]

3 hours ago, Narcemus.1348 said:

If E is truly a smart spy, their name does not start with "E" either so that there is no way to figure out their identity.

And Is, or knows a Mesmer to disguise their physical appearance. 

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

I gotta re-read those notes from Selly. Wish the Wiki had them under the achievement for easier finding lol.

[Plot hole in SotO part 2 (Spoilers)]

51 minutes ago, Tanek.5983 said:

Do we even know it would work trying to bring back a mursaat?

Or even more important, a Wizard whose already linked themselves to Tyria and experienced that change? 

[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.