An Interesting Idea I Had For A 6th Gw2 Expansion (Possible Spoiler Alerts)

[zolcor.2601]

Provided I had any say, and creative ability in the process of making a potential 6th expansion after our current expansion which is "Janthir Wilds," I would like it to be like this...

During a teaser/reveal video for this potential 6th expansion, a mysterious, deep, and sinister voice accompanied by footsteps off camera with visuals of natural disasters that have happened throughout Tyria that have been caused by mortal-kind are shown on the screen. The voice whilst walking down a dark hallway, speaks as if all mortals are responsible for the destruction, and chaos that has nearly destroyed and marred Tyria, and not the Elder Dragons, tyranical orders, and the Kryptis. 

Suddenly the voice speaks as if it knows the player character (The Commander) personally, and speaks as if he/she alone is the primary catalyst for not just Tyria, but every living beings destruction. Then a shadowy armored gauntlet pushes a button activated switch to a door mechanism. When it opens the figure who can't be seen on the screen, checks the status of a supposed artifact hidden under an obelisk attached to steel chains then says "but there is one thing one thing I must thank you for Commander." "You...removed...him." After that the shadowy figure leaves the room revealing that the artifact under the obelisk is actually Balthazar's greatsword which managed to somehow survive the encounter with Blish, the Commander, and Kralkatorrik. The shadowy figure is actually Menzies who is actually thanking the Commander for ridding the universe of Balthazar, yet wanting to destroy mortal-kind. 

However Menzies The Mad, or Mingus managed to do the seemingly impossible. By observing the Commander's actions and their aftermaths, and then charting every single aftermath down, he was able to convince the human gods that they were never the reason Tyria suffered so much magical devastation. It was, and always has been the careless, and selfish actions of mortals. After showing the gods images of the destruction the Commander caused through uniting multiple mortal races to kill the 6 Elder Dragons the gods under Dwayna began to have a change of heart for the worse, and Dwayna asked Menzies what he wanted in return. Menzies response was simple; the total destruction of mortals believing they have been judged guilty of death, and for leadership of a new Six. However one of the gods secretly opposed Menzies in silence. That god was Grenth. The god of death, winter, judgement, and the underworld.

Eventually Menzies learns of Grenth's betrayal and the other 5 gods attack Grenth, and banish him from whatever realm the gods are residing in. Grenth though manages to keep a deadly secret out of Menzies hands. This secret is apparently so powerful that even Grenth himself kept it hidden from the other former gods, including the former Abaddon. This artifact is called the "Scales of Judgement," and is said to have the power to grant life, blessings, curses, or even total death and destruction depending on what direction the ornate Scales tip. Apparently the Scales tip according to the good and evil of mortals as a whole. Sadly the Scales seem to affect immortal races as well.

During a moment of calm and peace, multiple areas of Tyria are suddenly attacked by creatures or soldiers aligned with the supposed "New Six," and the Commander gets frantic messages over his communicator from allies across the Tyrian globe telling him these new enemies are practically everywhere. The Commander's chase eventually ends in the center of Lion's Arch (Yes. Lion's Arch's new look should get a workout) where he/she ends up fighting a machine powered by strange magics called the "Clenched Fist of Hate." Gorrik eventually tells the Commander that the machine is powered by the magics of the Six causing the Commander to freak in knowing that the "Exodus of the Gods" is over, and that it's anything but good. When the machine is destroyed Menzies reveals themselves to the Commander, and shows off the greatsword of Balthazar to them to prove who he is, and thank him/her for "taking care of him." Menzies despite being called "The Mad" is actually incredibly wise, and reveals he came to Lion's Arch simply to distract the Commander while "another" went to Divinity's Reach to search for someone he refers to as Lyss. The Commander doesn't understand, but then suddenly out of nowhere Logan Thackerey runs to the Commander panicking and asking him/her where Queen Jennah is. The Commander says they don't know when suddenly Queen Jennah's voice is heard behind them in a cinematic yet she is accompanied by a tall slender goddess who calls herself Lyss. Queen Jennah reveals tearfully that she is the daughter of Lyss, and that her real name is Ilya. Logan and the Commander are shocked, but Menzies tells them they shouldn't be since no mortal could've summoned a mesmer barrier powerful enough to cover Divinity's Reach during the White Mantle attack. Jennah offers to go with Lyss and Menzies if they agree to spare Lion's Arch, Logan, and the Commander, which they do. However everything else is left to be destroyed.

As Lyss, Ilya, and Menzies walk away into a portal to wherever they're going the camera pans to the sky which is now made orange from Lion's Arch being set on fire from the attack. The name of the supposed 6th expansion I wanted to call "Judgement of the Six" is shown, and then Logan, and the Commander pass out. They then awaken to a calm voice speaking to them to wake up, and telling them that they are now safe. That voice is actually Grenth, and they are alive yet in the Netherworld which Grenth is using as a command center. The Netherworld could become a social hub like Arborstone, and maybe even a playable map with events.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

The Six Gods are not villains no matter what Isgarren might say, and they aren't so idiotic as to believe the Lord of Destruction who created a cursed army to forever attack Balthazar and his forces just because he wanted godhood.

And while it's become a meme, the Commander has not brought about a bunch of destruction - Joko is a pathological liar (and his lies during his monologue falls apart the moment you analyze a single sentence of it), and the destruction was all the Elder Dragons' doing, and while things got dicey as ANet ramped up the stakes every time it was eventually solved and settled with Aurene becoming the Mary Sue The Only Elder Dragon. And it would be weird for the Six Gods to go after the person who succeeded what they thought impossible at that, given the Six Gods believed that killing the Elder Dragons would mean Tyria's destruction - the fact Tyria survived despite the Commander killing the Elder Dragons would more realistically be something they'd praise the Commander for accomplishing.

Additionally, Dwayna, Melandru, and Lyssa would never agree to "the total destruction of mortals" as they are peace loving individuals who greatly love humanity. It would go against everything their lore built up - even far more so than Balthazar going from god of honorable combat to uncaring about Tyria's survival because he's so bored guys come on what's a little dragon slaying even if it means global annihilation. Not to say Grenth would go along with it - he wouldn't either, as despite being the god of death he is the god of perfect neutrality and fair judgment, as opposed to Dhuum.

And... why pointlessly retcon that Lyss and Ilya are mother/daughter rather than twin sisters which is their entire dynamic of parallelism? I'll ignore the fact that the theory of Jennah being either Lyss or Ilya is ridiculous because of how utterly OP the Six are compared to mortals and yes, Jennah is not that OP. Well ignore beyond that sentence. But honestly if a full blown god were to attack, they would nuke half a nation on their own - keep in mind that the only time an actual god was fought, was Abaddon in GW1. Who was literally merging the Realm of Torment and world of Tyria into one, creating nightmarish landscapes out of people's actual dreams, and all this while chained up with over half his power still sealed away. When the Six Gods fought, they turned an entire sea larger than the size of Ascalon and its verdant coastline into a desert that took 1200 years and damming the equivalent of the Nile River to make habitable again. When Balthazar, as a former god, was killed his magic engulfed the entirety of Vabbi in a maelstrom until Kralkatorrik consumed it. If Lyssa, Dwyana, Melandru, or Grenth were to attack as a full fledged god, a simple flick of a finger would no doubt be more than sufficient to turn the Commander into paste.

TL;DR

Villainizing the Six Gods, let alone making them gullible idiots who'd believe all humanity let alone all mortals on Thyria deserve death, makes no sense in the lore.

[Narcemus.1348]

I liked your visuals and I would love to see Menzies come into the game as a villain, but I don't see the Six accepting the death of all mortals as a desirable outcome in the slightest.

[Randulf.7614]

Not sure I have ever understood the MEnzies obsession. I'd have thought he was dead by now given Balthazar never mentioned or referred to him

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

17 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Not sure I have ever understood the MEnzies obsession. I'd have thought he was dead by now given Balthazar never mentioned or referred to him

PoF does imply he died, but SotO basically foreshadows his return.

Honestly, PoF would have been 10 times superior story if it was Menzies instead of former god Balthazar who's taken a 180 on all pre-LWS3 depictions.

[Randulf.7614]

6 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

PoF does imply he died, but SotO basically foreshadows his return.

Honestly, PoF would have been 10 times superior story if it was Menzies instead of former god Balthazar who's taken a 180 on all pre-LWS3 depictions.

I missed the foreshadowing in SoTo. What was it?

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

15 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

I missed the foreshadowing in SoTo. What was it?

During the Skywatch Archipelago meta, with Lyhr's memories. Shadow Army show up among Lyhr's recent memories as attempting to invade Tyria, and Lyhr references Menzies / their master.

Lyhr: What are you kitten things doing here? No invitation means you're not welcome in Tyria, understand?

Lyhr: Did your master send you, or was it someone else? No answer, of course. Not sure why I even bothered.

Lyhr: Weapons ready, ward!

It's a small thing but Lyhr wouldn't be asking such questions if it was about the Dragonfall incident. So there was another time recently when Shadow Army attempted to invade Tyria that left a similar impression as the Aetherblades messing about and the Void outbreak.

[Randulf.7614]

2 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

During the Skywatch Archipelago meta, with Lyhr's memories. Shadow Army show up among Lyhr's recent memories as attempting to invade Tyria, and Lyhr references Menzies / their master.

Lyhr: What are you kitten things doing here? No invitation means you're not welcome in Tyria, understand?

Lyhr: Did your master send you, or was it someone else? No answer, of course. Not sure why I even bothered.

Lyhr: Weapons ready, ward!

It's a small thing but Lyhr wouldn't be asking such questions if it was about the Dragonfall incident. So there was another time recently when Shadow Army attempted to invade Tyria that left a similar impression as the Aetherblades messing about and the Void outbreak.

Ah thanks. I've done that meta a ton of times, somehow never connected the dots

[Narcemus.1348]

5 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

Not sure I have ever understood the MEnzies obsession. I'd have thought he was dead by now given Balthazar never mentioned or referred to him

I wouldn't consider myself obsessed, maybe the OP is, who knows. He is just a hidden enemy that we never saw so it is always interesting to get more context at least.

[Poormany.4507]

Was with OP on the Menzies part and then went into lolwut...? territory afterwards.

While I do expect the in-your-face foreshadowing about a battle against Lyssa up through EoD (Especially the line "They killed him. Balthazar. If Lyssa ever learns of this...I don't know what she'd do" from Vision) to eventually lead to some plotline (Possibly a second Six (Five?) Gods fight), I highly, highly doubt any of the others would just turn against humanity on a whim when there's been no indication of animosity towards humanity from any of the others (except Menzies if he replaced Balthazar and is still alive).

Anyways, I really doubt we're getting a "God War" storyline until after we're done making the Tyrian Alliance (including the Largos/Deep Sea Quaggan + Heket/Harpies/Other race of Dzalana + Sylvari recovery + Khan-Ur Charr content + Norn/Asura expeditions to reclaim the Far Shiverpeaks/Depths of Tyria - At minimum 5+ expacs), so definitely not happening in Expac 6, maybe Expac 10 or 11 or so.

Edited October 10 by Poormany.4507

[zolcor.2601]

On 10/9/2024 at 2:21 AM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

The Six Gods are not villains no matter what Isgarren might say, and they aren't so idiotic as to believe the Lord of Destruction who created a cursed army to forever attack Balthazar and his forces just because he wanted godhood.

And while it's become a meme, the Commander has not brought about a bunch of destruction - Joko is a pathological liar (and his lies during his monologue falls apart the moment you analyze a single sentence of it), and the destruction was all the Elder Dragons' doing, and while things got dicey as ANet ramped up the stakes every time it was eventually solved and settled with Aurene becoming the Mary Sue The Only Elder Dragon. And it would be weird for the Six Gods to go after the person who succeeded what they thought impossible at that, given the Six Gods believed that killing the Elder Dragons would mean Tyria's destruction - the fact Tyria survived despite the Commander killing the Elder Dragons would more realistically be something they'd praise the Commander for accomplishing.

Additionally, Dwayna, Melandru, and Lyssa would never agree to "the total destruction of mortals" as they are peace loving individuals who greatly love humanity. It would go against everything their lore built up - even far more so than Balthazar going from god of honorable combat to uncaring about Tyria's survival because he's so bored guys come on what's a little dragon slaying even if it means global annihilation. Not to say Grenth would go along with it - he wouldn't either, as despite being the god of death he is the god of perfect neutrality and fair judgment, as opposed to Dhuum.

And... why pointlessly retcon that Lyss and Ilya are mother/daughter rather than twin sisters which is their entire dynamic of parallelism? I'll ignore the fact that the theory of Jennah being either Lyss or Ilya is ridiculous because of how utterly OP the Six are compared to mortals and yes, Jennah is not that OP. Well ignore beyond that sentence. But honestly if a full blown god were to attack, they would nuke half a nation on their own - keep in mind that the only time an actual god was fought, was Abaddon in GW1. Who was literally merging the Realm of Torment and world of Tyria into one, creating nightmarish landscapes out of people's actual dreams, and all this while chained up with over half his power still sealed away. When the Six Gods fought, they turned an entire sea larger than the size of Ascalon and its verdant coastline into a desert that took 1200 years and damming the equivalent of the Nile River to make habitable again. When Balthazar, as a former god, was killed his magic engulfed the entirety of Vabbi in a maelstrom until Kralkatorrik consumed it. If Lyssa, Dwyana, Melandru, or Grenth were to attack as a full fledged god, a simple flick of a finger would no doubt be more than sufficient to turn the Commander into paste.

TL;DR

Villainizing the Six Gods, let alone making them gullible idiots who'd believe all humanity let alone all mortals on Thyria deserve death, makes no sense in the lore.

You made some fair points. However I do feel you're being a bit rude with your responses in some areas. When I was writing down my ideas I forgot to mention that Grenth was in my imaginary expansion in a state of "mental conflict," and that he wants to give mortal-kind a chance to prove their worth by testing their mettle, and morality against Menzies's forces. Only after Menzies and his faction is defeated will Grenth submit his judgement...or so we would think. 
 

While I will listen to constructive criticism, I wont accept rude behavoir from others if that is your intent here.

[GeraldBC.4927]

Balthasar's portrayal in PoF was out-of-character enough as it is. The game needs less of that, not more. 

[starlinvf.1358]

The new 5 man raid where you help an NPC kill gods and take their power, become the new gods, and have to fight off the next batch of “heroes” coming after them to get hod powers to themselves.  Every 25 minutes. Then whoever is god at the end of the season gets a special god outfit based on which god spot the hold.   

Infinite god war achieved

 

 

[Randulf.7614]

On 10/11/2024 at 1:45 AM, zolcor.2601 said:

You made some fair points. However I do feel you're being a bit rude with your responses in some areas. When I was writing down my ideas I forgot to mention that Grenth was in my imaginary expansion in a state of "mental conflict," and that he wants to give mortal-kind a chance to prove their worth by testing their mettle, and morality against Menzies's forces. Only after Menzies and his faction is defeated will Grenth submit his judgement...or so we would think. 
 

While I will listen to constructive criticism, I wont accept rude behavoir from others if that is your intent here.

Whilst I often have issues with the way the lore subforum conducts itself, I've read Konig's post 3 times and can find nothing that can be insinuated as being rude towards you

 

[zolcor.2601]

On 10/9/2024 at 2:21 AM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

 

Anyways I forgot to mention some details I wanted to talk about in my imaginary 6th expansion that I thought may or may not be good ideas for such an expansion if the devs decided to implement them into the game. 

One besides making Grenth's Netherworld realm a Command Center where you can sell, craft, get new items, would be this...

1. Since the gods are now invading Tyria on a global scale, I thought it would be interesting if players throughout the storyline or whatnot were given an artifact possibly by Grenth that helps the Commander find invasion portal locations before they open across Tyria similar to the "Heart of the Obscure," and works in a very similar way. However a strange merchant in the main Netherworld hub can sell the Commander certain god-aligned "magic-cubes" to open specific invasion portals to get specific portals to open, and at tiers from 1 to 3, with 3 being the hardest obviously. As for the bosses themselves that appear at the end of these portal encounters, that would be tricky, but for a Balthazar-aligned portal an Avatar of Balthazar may be a good idea possibly.

2. New god-realm based mounts

3. Menzies's look could possibly be given inspiration from the look of his "Menzies's Agony" Greatsword.

4. A Black Lion Teleportation Device that can be purchased to allow easy teleportation to "invasion portal" locations, and possibly other events related to the gods.

5. An outfit based on armor possibly worn by Menzies. 

6. Menzies-themed Black Lion Ticket Weapons

7. A new Fractal, and Raid for this imaginary expansion

8. Menzies may get a meta-boss map fight unlike Balthazar who didn't 😛

[Dean Calaway.9718]

On 10/11/2024 at 1:45 AM, zolcor.2601 said:

I do feel you're being a bit rude with your responses

You should see what I'm thinking...

1 hour ago, zolcor.2601 said:

the gods are now invading Tyria on a global scale

Wasn't Anet suppose to tone down the world ending events like they promised in the twilight years of GW2?

I don't know why SotO was all about these games of thrones and world invasions if things were suppose to cool down... but since we're doing fan fiction, here's mine!

 

At the beginning of SotO Zojja asks you to come to Garenhoff, there she gets you on the Wizard Tower, these towers are Isgarren teleport arrays, his private network independent from Asura Gates and Waypoints.

The Astral Ward doesn't exist as it was presented, instead it's just Isgarren, Frode, Gladium, R'tchikk, Mabon, Lyhr, Dagda and Galrath, not the almost 100 ones plus unnamed ones... With Zojja and you makes ten, in the business, we call this foreshadowing...

With only those 9 characters inhabiting "the Wizard Tower" and the relative low capabilities of such a small group you can easily justify why you never saw them in the fray for the last 12 years that you spent killing 6 Elder Dragons. And a human God. And an undead lynch. And a crazy Sylvari.

Zojja brought you in because it has come to Isgarren attention that Cerus is trying to come to Tyria like Deimos before him, not a world ending threat, but a threat none the less. They've been training to take him on, the Skywatch Archipelago was built not for "what if" experimental scenarios, but to train for a face off against Cerus in Tyria.

The 9 characters are at odds on how to approach the fight, and the hope of Zojja is that with your experience you can help the group with a good strategy, the story would also start hinting at the decline of the commander as after 12 years of warfighting, your back and knees are all shot, you ears are getting dodgy and your eyes have seen better days, this would line up with the fact Anet wants to move away from world ending enemies but still present these lesser enemies as a threat to us, powering down the commander would do just that.

Redesign Amnytas, to be a Skywatch-in-Nayos style map. These two training maps, with characters at odds, would give ample opportunity to flesh the out all nine characters during events instead of the dozens and dozens Astral Ward members that are way too many for such a short story. You can also flesh out Nayos more, like the fact that it has to sun so the plant life lives off absorbing energy.

Eventually you finally make it to actual Nayos as it's ultimately decided is best to get Cerus there rather than fight him in Tyria. Forget Eparch, Queen Ladris, Peta, Ramses, Nephus... nobody has time for that, our 9 allies are more than enough for such a small story and Cerus would make a perfectly good main villain.

You'd ultimately track him down, fight him, and kill him in a personal story instance design to feel like a raid with 9 NPC allies as you carry out the strategy and do the mechanics. This could be like Dragon Stand, where the open world event would present you with a large enemy for a squad fight while the personal story would give you that face to face with Cerus and your nine fleshed out allies which the story would have focused on. The end.

Coming up on Janthir Wilds, forget the Tyrian Alliance... and forget Isgarren and the Wizard Tower, that was a one time thing, he's not showing up again, to that end JW starts with Logan or Rytlock coming up to you at a pier in Lion's Arch, he heard you sold your house and have been packing your things, you let him know after that faithful day [insert commander recounting personal story start] that led you to everything you did for more than a decade now, everyone expects you to deal with their problems or pay their debts and you've never had time for yourself, hint at how you're aging and won't be around for ever.

You set sail to a place no one knows you by "the commander" you also leave your communicator behind. You eventually arrive at the Lowland Shore, you have your encounter with the Jorneykin, everything plays out the same (no secret mission to find the one that made the thing) they ask about you, you say you're just a nomad, there's your name for the voice acted dialog, the story would focus on Stoic Alder and Poised Arrow, forget Waiting Sorrow, you also focus on the overall culture of the Lowland Kodan and that would be the meat of the story.

You get your house, you're informed about the concerning stuff up north, you go there, you can have the commander voice actor giving exposition dialog about the white mantle ruins to some young Kondan warrior since those actors can't be cheap and they're very under used, you find the Titans, you fight the Titans, you kill the Titans, no melodrama, the end.