Grenth Be Just

Fan of all games id software, ArenaNet, BioWare, and MiHoYo. He/His AKA Varorson, Konig Des Todes

[konig-varorson]

Lost "Lore": Kaerg, God of Smiting Prayers...?

To continue my old series of blog posts about lost Guild Wars lore which by chance focused on the Six Gods coughlinkcough, I thought I'd bring up a piece of lore I had found, dug, and found no more of since then.

Perhaps ArenaNet can shine some answers on it, or re-incorporate it into the lore, with Guild Wars 3.

Introducing Kaerg, the original Sixth god!

Who is Kaerg?

Well... we don't really know. His name comes up in TWO instances in early 2004.

The first is a version of guildwars.com that listed some skills. Among the Monk skills, you'll find Retribution is given the attribute Prayer of Kaerg. This was gone by June 2004. The second is a web magazine called GuildMaster Photics from May 2004 in which we get the skill Kaerg's Spriit (this skill is later renamed Balthazar's Spirit). Balthazar isn't missing, by the way, as Balthazar is associated with what becomes Protection Prayers in both of these sources (as he still is at launch in GW1) - Kaerg is associating with what becomes Smiting Prayers.

Small aside: It's very interesting to see other early names for various attributes. Galrath Sword School? So the original idea was to have all swordsmanship the PC learns be from Galrath!? Neat!

Anyways, during this time period, Dwayna, Balthazar, and Kaerg all existed side by side, and were all the focus of prayers for Monks. Now, the sources I pulled don't have mentions of Melandru, Lyssa, and Grenth, so it is entirely plausible that Kaerg was an old name for one of those three. Though none of them really feel like Smiting do they?

This leads me to wonder: was the original plan to have 6 gods, one per profession, they removed Kaerg and then added Abaddon?

Or was Kaerg an old name for Dhuum? If not one of the other three. Kärg is old germanic meaning "cunning" and "sly", I guess that could be associated with mesmers (thus Lyssa) too, but Kaerg feels... masculine.

Kaerg and Arachnia, our Uncannon Gods

Until we get canon otherwise, in my headcanon, Kaerg will remain the name of Balthazar's father just as Arachnia is in my headcanon the name of Abaddon's unnamed predecessor. Balthazar's father was no god, but other than Balthazar's implied predecessor, he's the only thing Tyrians may pray to for Smiting others.

Our bald head in hand.

[konig-varorson]

Why no, I am not already planning out my GW3 characters. Why do you ask?

Because that's a lie, I definitely am.

[konig-varorson]

Lost Chinese Lore: The Six Gods

In 2021, I began a project to dig through the Guild Wars 1 websites of all the languages, mostly hoping to recover trailers that were lost to time (mostly successfully too). I also found some lore articles that weren't available to western audiences. Such articles were known to exist - mainly lore on Abaddon for Nightfall - and those were later (mostly) canonized by ArenaNet in Guild Wars 2.

So I decided to gather and begin slowly translate them. They are now completed. And I am making this post as a link to the other posts:

Lyssa

Abaddon

Dwayna

Balthazar

Grenth

Melandru

Disclaimer: While there is overlap with canon lore, there is no guarantee this is all canon as well. China is known to have alterations to the story to account for regulations in that nation, so it is unclear how much of this is expanded canon or simply reworked for China and thus non-canon.

[konig-varorson]

With the revelation of Guild Wars 3, I feel this is all the more important. As these events can easily occur during Guild Wars 3 if ArenaNet were aware of them.

[konig-varorson]

The Dragonvoid, "Greatest" Threat Tyria faces... Allegedly.

I was finishing a replay of EoD (second character through, finally) and noticed a singular line in the ultimate mission that summarizes my largest issue with the End of Dragons plot and, more than that, the issue of the Dragonvoid from a narrative standpoint.

There's a lot of issues to it, like the laziness of how they depicted it as just a shader effect on pre-existing models, or how it feels shoved in and solved just to give End of Dragons a final dragon battle after retconning Soo-Won into a good guy dragon (and yes, it was a retcon - devs back in 2010/2011/2012 outright said the deep sea dragon was evil, NPCs outright say that they fled the ocean depths because of dragons, etc.).

But this line is the perfect explanation for the biggest issue I have with Dragonvoid - the one that makes me say "The Dragonvoid is a terrible antagonist".

This line happens after the platform with Kuunavang and the Commander, the two strongest fighters of the group (besides Aurene), is swarmed with void creatures and both are near death. Aurene saves the Commander and, somehow, everyone who was moments prior unmoving on the ground are mobile again - even if we assume that they were unconscious (despite no breathing animations and swarmed by Void which unmakes reality), there are ZERO casualties on the platform... and everywhere else in the planet that the Void is breaking out.

There are literally zero deaths to the world breaking apart and reality being unmade.

Not even Soo-Won's death can be attributed to the Dragonvoid outbreak, since she was dying anyways and died from exhaustion after it was solved.

Zhaitan? Killed hundreds of Pact soldiers. Almost killed one close friend (Logan).

Mordremoth? Killed hundreds of Pact soldiers, assaulted the Grove, indirectly caused the destruction of Lion's Arch, and caused the deaths of two close friends (Eir and Trahearne), traumatized/heavily injured four other close friends (Logan, Zojja, Braham, and Marjory).

Kralkatorrik? Havoc across Elona, wiping out villages (of which we saw one) and tearing the fabric of reality in a real and tangible way, and caused the deaths of two close friends (Snaff and Blish).

Jormag? Assaults on villages (a few seen), killed numerous Pact soldiers, and caused the death of a close friend (Almorra).

Primordus? Assaults on villages (several seen), killed numerous Pact soldiers, and traumatized a friend (Braham).

Dragonvoid? Killed maybe a few unnamed characters (most off-screen) before it broke out in full force, killed no one when it did break out in full force; tore up some places. Slightly injured one close friend (Logan).

Yet we're told that the Dragonvoid was the biggest threat, so big it required the Commander getting a powerboost from Aurene which none of the previous dragons required.

Told. But never shown. Even Primordus, rushed as he was with Champions, was still shown to cause death to numerous villages and even cities across Central Tyria.

And no ramifications beyond Soo-Won's death, who's hard to feel sad for because we only got introduced to her 10 hours prior, though ArenaNet's writers sure as heck wanted us to feel sad for her with how the Commander acted.

Proof enough that EoD's plot should have ended with Ankka's death, and the two rushed acts afterward should have been spread across a Living World Season 6.

Side note: Just realized Logan was the writer's punching bag this entire game. Blamed for Snaff's death, fakeout death with Zhaitan, injured by Mordremoth, dumped by Jennah, injured again by Dragonvoid, the closest thing to its one casualty.

[hawt-me33]

Coming into a fandom late

[baxterdamus-deactivated20130513]

Coming into a fandom early and watching it become an angry clusterfuck

[valorious]

Being in a dormant fandom that suddenly comes alive again after a new book/movie

[leatherpatches-deactivated20150]

Don’t forget about those who come in the midst of a fandom war. 

[fauxmoux]

Accuracy at its best

[street-of-mercy]

Being in a fandom and not even knowing there’s a war going on…

[my-reylo]

all of this shit…lol

[nerdsagainstfandomracism]

When You’re Not In The Fandom But You’re Nosy AF

[not-so-secret-nerd]

When you get into a fandom only to discover it’s dead

[jupiter235]

This gets better every time I see it. 

[sageblackrose95]

@fuboos-mess

[inverted-mind-inc-sideblog-deac]

Being in a dead fandom…

[illogicalarchive]

Or being in such a tiny fandom that it feels like youre the only one

[erilias]

The accuracy hurts.

[fanfic-yes-please]

Being in a fandom that had a shit ending.

[it-is-bugs]

When you’ve been fangirling long enough, you’ve experienced all of the above.

[sweetferalbaby]

Being in a fandom meant for kids.

[teaganvamp]

This just gets better..

[hamboj2]

@mi-kleos

[thatcrazysonicchick]

When you realize that joining the fandom has ruined you

[knightofbloodcancer]

Fandom hell in general

[morathavictoria]

Yes.

[marvelanimelover]

This^^^ just… ALL OF THIS.

[stop-talking-babe-deactivated20]

Being in so many fandoms that you don’t even know what’s going on

[raise-cain-archived]

THIS IS THE SKULDUGGERY FUCKING PLEASANT FANDOM IN ONE POST!!

[crochanblackbeak]

Trying to recruit people to your fandom

[kateriverameliawolfe]

Annnnnnndddd it’s back

[ishipwhatiship247]

Being in a fandom which has so many antis

[ravenhilarious]

I’ve probably reblogged this before, but that was before these great additions.

[swanqueen-author]

Being in a fandom that actually works together

[commanderunhingedmongoose]

Why is this so true? All of it.

[pillowprincesslexa]

being in a fanbase but all your mutuals suddenly turn into Kpop blogs

[hangingfire]

I always enjoy it when a good post comes around again and has been improved by the reblogs like the years for a fine wine.

[priory-of-stars]

Being in a fandom when shit goes down and everyone has different opinions

[marianagmt]

When you are in a fandom and don’t care for others people opinion…..even if they are right…(believe me, I have met several of those)

[batbyte-alghul]

Being in a fandom you never meant to join

[tirnel-sutcliff-spears]

I love this. and it’s gotten better

[cartoonjessie]

After abandoning a fandom you’re still a little bit emotionally invested in….

[brit-is-bookish]

All of these are me. Lol

[thehikingastronomer]

Being in a fandom on Tumblr

[julietsemophase]

And it reached its epic conclusion

[illicitwhimmss]

I love this

[rebelelegance]

This is perfection at its peak

[ancientbeing10]

I love tumblr

[thornendless2498]

I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a piece of history.

[konig-varorson]

Fun Lore Fact: On Mursaat genders

With Secrets of the Obscure opening the possibility of us meeting more mursaat, and female mursaat at that, I want to point out a little noticeable fun fact about mursaat in Guild Wars 1.

While there is only one model used for all mursaat, thus leading one to think we only see male mursaat, based on the names of the various bosses it can be concluded that we do see female mursaat as well.

For example:

Willa the Unpleasant

Willem the Demeaning

Male and female form of the same name. Willa and Willem. There are other feminine names seen too, of course. Such as Aily the Innocent and Mercia the Smug.

So what does this mean?

This means mursaat have no notable sexual dimorphism from their models, particularly of note being their chest. Their females' chests look just like their males' chests. This is a female mursaat:

And it is also a male mursaat.

This is NOT accurate female mursaat clothing:

But adapted for the sake of humans and norn to wear (and sylvari just use this because humans and norn get weird seeing nude sylvari).

Let's see if ArenaNet keeps to this idea. #FreeMursaatNonBoobies!

[allergy-sufferer-emo-wandererr]

[konig-varorson]

Old News to most, but I haven't yet played the Janthir Wilds updates and got once more reminded about Sybil.

Sybil is a female mursaat in the GW2 expansion Janthir Wilds.

This is her appearance:

ArenaNet, thank you for letting female mursaat titties be free and maintaining GW1's unintended lack of sexual dimorphism in the mursaat race. The mursaat disguise is just a disguise, and was refitted to cater humans, norn, and sylvari.

[fuckyeahecco]

Ecco the Dolphin is getting two remasters and one new title from its original creators

The original team is in charge, too

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO

[konig-varorson]

I know it's foolish to hope...

But I can't help it.

With Laranity's MASSIVE event bringing a new peak to Guild Wars on Steam alone, with devs during the last Extra Life stream regretting not continuing support for GW1, with StephenCW being put full-time on GW1 support, and with ArenaNet, for the first time perhaps ever promoting GW1 updates on their GW2 twitter account...

I desperately hope that ArenaNet creates true, new content for Guild Wars.

Please, ArenaNet, give us a Bonus Mission Pack 2, sell it for $15. Just to test the waters, see if people will buy it. Then the next year, give us that Elona Beyond arc and sell it for $15.... I am sure that Guild Wars would turn profit if we got small, $15 DLCs annually. The popularity and sales of this anniversary should be enough support to at least test it!

[konig-varorson]

Lost Taiwanese Lore: Abaddon, the original found Asian text this time

Preface

So a few years back I was digging through all the various languages of the guildwars.com websites for anything to salvage - videos, images, etc. - that wasn't on the official wiki so as to preserve it. Something I quite frankly should have done back in 2010, but I was a teen, I didn't care about preservation of video games and media back then. When I did this, I had to really dig for the Asian websites because they weren't directly linked to from the English website (only European languages were).

I made some posts of some what I had thought to be exclusively Chinese lore at the time, and later found in pieces on the other Asian languages, with the focus being around the Six Gods and the promotional lore posts preceding Nightfall.

There were other lore posts, from stories to videos. The videos I uploaded to youtube. My favorite will be the Korean Comic Videos (of which, one is sadly missing still - if anyone is aware of a Korean equivalent to Youtube website that was very popular in the late 2000s, please let me know, especially if ncsoft posted there!). I'd like to translate and remake videos one day, if I ever have enough free-time for all my backlogs...

Anyways, I forgot one major god post I wanted to share, which was the original text found back in 2006 about Abaddon which was so hotly debated about whether it was canon or not by the wiki community, so two years later I am posting it now. This is also the only source of Abaddon gifting magic until GW2 fully confirmed it. The other god lore can be found here.

For those who would like to see the original text and do their own translation: https://web.archive.org/web/20061108082536/http://guildwars.nctaiwan.com:80/gameInfo/intro_03.asp

Translated Text

Elona, the Land of the Golden Sun, is located on a continent surrounded by tropical savannas, deserts, and wilderness. At the height of its glory, it was composed of three distinct provinces. To the west was Istan, where ships sailed daily. To the east, Kourna was famous for its fierce and loyal soldiers, its sacrificial army, its expensive real estate, and its agriculture. To the north, Vabbi was controlled by rich and powerful aristocrats. Despite sporadic conflicts, the three provinces of Istan, Kourna, and Vabbi have together kept Elona prosperous and strong for more than a thousand years. Like the name “Land of the Golden Sun,” the gods favor the land of Elona… but the enemies of the gods lurk in the shadows to escape their watchful eyes. Outside the world as we know it, evil forces are at work in the darkness, plotting to manipulate the mortal world from behind its back, attacking it in every way possible: stirring up troubled minds, spreading plagues to corrupt the simplicity of the countryside, urging innocent people to become sinners, and even summoning demons. Sometimes humanity can rise to fight evil…but sometimes it's wasted effort. The antagonist of the trilogy is Abaddon, the forgotten sixth god of creation. He created the world and its creatures along with his five siblings: Balthazar, Melandru, Dwayna, Lyssa, and Grenth. Abaddon's original job was to control knowledge and water, but he soon became a nightmare for all and an abyss of pain. Abaddon was representative of the gods, giving precious magical gifts to the thinking races. But because of his unlimited gift, humans and other races abused this gift! Therefore, the other gods used the Bloodstone to split his power into four elements to keep Abaddon's magic from being abused. Of course, Abaddon was displeased, but the other five gods ignored his opposition, and Abaddon rallied his most powerful followers, the Margonites, to attack the vulnerable part of the Rift, in an attempt to overthrow the gods and start his own dynasty. Abaddon's power was so great that not even two gods could stop him, but in the end, surrounded by five gods, the outnumbered Abaddon was defeated and imprisoned for eternity, and the site of his battle with the gods became the “Mouth of Torment”. After the defeat of Abaddon, the five gods crushed the Margonites, and attempted to remove Abaddon's name from the monuments and sacred scrolls, so that he would be forgotten forever. 　　 Today, civilized nations revere only the Five True Gods, but a group of cultists secretly follow what they call the sixth god, a god who lost power long ago. The cultists are convinced of the legend that a thousand years ago, the Margonites, the spiritual precursors of the cultists, fought a tragic battle north of Elona that swept the plains into a wilderness-what is now known as the Crystal Desert. With the power of the sixth god, the Margonites ravaged temples, desecrated sanctuaries, and slaughtered the living. Despite the power of the gods, the Margonites were eventually wiped out, and legend has it that the sixth god was eventually imprisoned in the Realm of Torment. Nowadays, some wise men are noticing signs that this fallen god may return to the world to make waves again. Even though his name has been erased from every scroll and monument of history… all is not lost, and his faithful servants have sharpened their swords and practiced their incantations in preparation for this forgotten and rejected deity. Believing that He would return to the world just as the night follows the day, the Margonites waited patiently for the day when the darkness would return, with a will to submit to the mighty power of evil.

[konig-varorson]

Happy 20th Anniversary Guild Wars - some stuff part 2

This time, I'm just gonna photo dump some old screenshots...

So this is of my very first character, and my very first Halloween, before I was a name in the community or met any names in the community. With perhaps the first friend I made in the game back in 2006 - wonder where they are now...

The character was deleted the next year, this is all that remains of her. Though I "remade" her with a new name a few times later, and she lives on now as Aralia Cartwright in GW2!

April Fools 2007, gender swap! My first April Fools in Guild Wars, with a bunch of friends. Still before I met big names in the community, I'm sure, but I was already visiting the lore forums by this point if I remember correctly.

And only at this very moment do I realize the hilarity in regards to modern social media and far right views of the idea of a game forcibly changing your character's gender, even if for a single day. Kind of funny to think about it - do you think ANet would dare to do this in today's culture clashing?

I'd hope so, because it was fun to see all my characters swapped around.

Some MantleCon pictures. If I didn't upload these (and all my other old screenshots I kept) onto imgur, they'd probably all be lost - I had them on an external hard drive and that hard drive crapped out on me. Still can read but doesn't seem to want to be read, it's weird.

A certain Horrorween and Wintersday festival hosted by Daniel Frozenwind and Mad Queen Malafide - these were from years I assisted. I have more, but didn't feel like downloading them.

Saved my favorite for last...

A truly 10/10 moment.

The full imgur album can be found here.

[konig-varorson]

Happy 20th Anniversary Guild Wars - some stuff

As it is Guild Wars 1's 20th Anniversary, I thought I'd post some old things I did, as well as some old screenshots (which I'll put in another post).

A few years back I had taken the high quality maps from that_shaman and "completed" them. This one is of pre-Searing Ascalon, where I overlayed post-Searing regions onto it, and then shaded those regions green to make them more verdant and matching pre-Searing, to give us a completed look of what Ascalon would somewhat look like in GW1.

This one is of Tyria, where I added the pre-Searing, polymock arenas, guild halls, and other non-subterranean areas not on the world map. For guild halls, as there was no specific place for them to exist, I found geography which was fitting for the shape of the hall. The biggest thing is adding pre-Searing and darkening it (I didn't darken the snowry area because quite frankly, it looked bad, so it's a small white area where white otherwise isn't). I also fixed an error in Regent Valley that exists in-game since the world map changed for Eye of the North, where some parts of it has the unfogged appearance for some reason.

Nomad Isle and Isle of the Dead were a bit randomly chosen, as the former has no full distinguishing marks and the latter is subterranean, so it's not in this image but the next...

Like above, this is a "completed" map of Tyria, this time with all the subterranearn areas shown - the main purpose of this map was to show the Eye of the North dungeons and how they would look with direct connections in the floors. It's quite interesting just how far north Frostmaw goes.

One cool thing that I'm pretty sure was unintentional by ArenaNet, is that the boss area of Heart of the Shiverpeaks, which shows the skies and is on fire, ends up in a slightly blackened area on the world map!

My original plan for these images was to set up a small website similar to this interactive map from E3 2004, which would show each dungeon, outpost, and landmark with descriptions of them. I ended up scrapping the project due to time and budget, but it's still something I'd like to see. Maybe if I get more free time in the future.

With Cantha, I didn't need to add very much because all the PvP arenas were already on the map even without that_shaman. I did make use of his map that included Minister Cho's Estate, and the main changes were again adding the guild halls, but also the Alliance Battle maps to it. Unlike the guild halls, I didn't randomly guess location based on geography, but rather as the maps rotated in over a few months I took not of where opening the world map centered on (I did the same for polymock) and placed them there, or as close as possible without overlapping other maps. As you can tell, the Kurzick side got very cramped. Additionally, I added Urgoz's Warren - though I had to shift it a bit because it overlapped with Ferndale normally.

Cantha doesn't have much in the way of dungeons, but I did have this version that includes The Deep and Tunnels Beneath Cantha. This also shows the Undercity on the world map, overriding Xaquang Skyway.

Elona's guild halls were probably the least challenging, as two of them are Dajkah Inlet. Like Tyria and Cantha, the PvP maps were already on the world map. But the Hero Battles maps were not, so I found fitting places for those, and then added the Sunspear Sanctuary, Command Post, and the two zones that are underground and don't overlap. Unlike that_shaman, I also found a way to mix in the Turai's Story mission map, though I did notice that the geography changed quite a bit hmmmm, so I don't blame that_shaman from not including it in his own map.

Even less than Cantha, Elona only has the one dungeon that overlaps with above ground areas - Caverns Beneath Kamadan. So that was a fast one...

This one is left unfinished, however. It was a premise of making a Nightfallen Elona map - turn waterways into sulfur, turn the soil into gradiants of brown to blackish, etc. In the end, too much work, but I did enjoy overlapping Nightfallen Jahai, Nightfallen Garden, the version of Marga Coast from the mission, and the guild hall which I couldn't add to the normal version.

I had also considered making a map of Hall of Heroes similar to that_shaman's map of the Realm of Torment, but I never got around to it. Maybe one day.

[zeruse-deactivated20200325]

[the-noxxi]

LOL

[eparch]

Akeem and Lonely Tower

I went down a lore rabbit hole again. This is why I love Secrets of the Obscure so much: it's all rabbit holes. Shoutout as usual to @/icebrooding, my partner in crime when it comes to unearthing SotO lore and piecing it all together.

Let's go, another long post.

So. Akeem's tarot card says they will die "bringing together our two worlds".

And we know Akeem died during Eparch's invasion in Lonely Tower, alongside Vass or even trying to protect her.

(This just a guess based on the name of that POI though, since we know Cerus and Deimos killed Vass but Dagda specifies only Vass and not Akeem in the dialogue that names them her killers. It's possible Eparch is the one who killed Akeem.)

You can probably see where I'm going with this: Akeem was experimenting with portals into the Mists and that's what led to Lonely Tower.

One more thing to possibly back this up:

The event chain that unlocks their tarot card has some interesting dialogue about the nature of the rifts between Nayos, but specifically I want to point to the second event in the chain which gives us this little bit:

Eparch notices after some time that we are "peering into his domain". While events in Amnytas take place during the invasion that forms the backbone of base SotO's plot, so he would probably be paying attention to rifts opening from the Tyrian side--what if this is what happened with Akeem too?

Akeem was experimenting with portals into the Mists and then "peered" into Nayos a little too long and a little too often, so Eparch takes the opportunity to invade the Wizard's Tower with Cerus and Deimos and a section of their army.

(ArenaNet Lore-Interview for the German Roleplay Community)

But what if Akeem opening portals into Nayos was one of Eparch's "nefarious tricks"? What if they were being influenced from beyond the Veil? Or was it their natural curiosity and interests into "the obscure" that led to this?

The worst part?

If Lezzi has managed to essentially recreate Akeem's experiments, it's possible there was no way to close the portals or rifts in Lonely Tower either other than using the other wizards' powers.

There is however one difference in this event and what happened in Lonely Tower: we have the Heart of the Obscure to close rifts.

And Waiting Sorrow created the Heart of the Obscure.

Perhaps she did so after Lonely Tower?

The Shield of Tyria

There is one more thing about Akeem piercing the Veil I want to talk about.

(From Hell Breaks Loose)

(Aging Journal Entry)

(Strength of the Unseen)

Isgarren was already building the World Spire when he ascended Mabon, but the incident with Eparch and the centaur village solidified his resolve to keep the barrier between Nayos and Tyria firmly shut. That's what the World Spire is: Tyria's shield.

Now I want to call attention to two things here: that the barrier between realms was "compromised or otherwise weakened" and that "higher kryptis such as Cerus, Peitha, and Deimos had possessed many Tyrians".

So let's put this all together:

Prior to the World Spire's completion, Eparch and his brother are able to physically make the jump from Nayos to Tyria. There was probably some natural barrier that has always existed here which makes it either difficult or dangerous for kryptis to do this en masse, and possibly the elder dragons themselves were part of that defense.

Isgarren completes the World Spire at some point with Mabon's help. This feels likely to me to be after Eparch and the centaur village. The World Spire bolsters Tyria's barrier to the Mists, but specifically against Nayos and other parts of the demon realm.

This may not have been 100% airtight, as kryptis could dream of Tyria and Eparch was possibly able to reach Akeem.

Akeem, whether under Eparch's influence or not, opened portals between Tyria and Nayos, bypassing the World Spire's shield and severely weakening it. Very likely one of their own portals is what Eparch used to invade the Wizard's Tower in the events of Lonely Tower.

After Lonely Tower, Isgarren and the other Wizards tighten the barrier once more, but the damage has been done and kryptis are occasionally able to cross the Veil. This is what allowed Cerus and Peitha to possess Tyrians. This is how Deimos crossed into Tyria to look for other ways to breach the Veil entirely. This is how Kanaxai ended up trapped in the Deep.

And then you get...well, the entire game. Everything from the Personal Story to End of Dragons happens and a metric ton of shenanigans happens with the Mists, all of which likely contributed further to weakening the Veil into Nayos, and each elder dragon's death was another likely defense down, and one of them started eating their way through the Mists and possibly even branded some kryptis along the way.

And then Soo-Won's death breaks it entirely.

[konig-varorson]

This is a fascinating theory, I'd like to expand it with an alternate perspective of the events leading up to Lonely Tower; in comparison this is much shorter and simpler.

Per the release notes for the fractal, the event happens "Immediately following the foundation of the Astral Ward". This is important for two reasons.

First, it gives us a point in time for when this happens - 604 AE - as per this book. But more interesting is the event Collect evidence of Kryptis infiltration where we get this:

Notes on First Warden Taryn's possession. Are some pages missing...?

So the First Warden, Taryn, was possessed somehow after helping Isgarren build the Astral Ward. And the Kryptis invaded "immediately following" the creation of the Astral Ward. Not only that, but Taryn's possession was significant enough that notes were taken and documented and put into the Bastion of Knowledge's library, and later tampered with by kryptis for some reason. Given the timing, it's likely that Taryn's possession was used as the lead-in for the invasion. Perhaps the possession was only possible because of Akeem's experiments? Not necessarily with portals, but in some manner at least.

[konig-varorson]

Lost Chinese Lore: The Six Gods

In 2021, I began a project to dig through the Guild Wars 1 websites of all the languages, mostly hoping to recover trailers that were lost to time (mostly successfully too). I also found some lore articles that weren't available to western audiences. Such articles were known to exist - mainly lore on Abaddon for Nightfall - and those were later (mostly) canonized by ArenaNet in Guild Wars 2.

So I decided to gather and begin slowly translate them. They are now completed. And I am making this post as a link to the other posts:

Lyssa

Abaddon

Dwayna

Balthazar

Grenth

Melandru

Disclaimer: While there is overlap with canon lore, there is no guarantee this is all canon as well. China is known to have alterations to the story to account for regulations in that nation, so it is unclear how much of this is expanded canon or simply reworked for China and thus non-canon.

[icebrooding]

I adore Cerus, he's a fun villain and was such a powerful threat to even Isgarren. But I think there is an underlying layer of tragedy that comes with his character.

Cerus admired Febe ("Oh, he was the best of us.") long, long after the man's death, and in spite of the fact that anyone aligned with Eparch and his beliefs would view Febe as a traitor. He believed in their autonomy; was an idol to it. Why would Cerus idolise someone so divorced from what his beliefs should be?

Eparch raised Cerus and Deimos both, instilling this violent and cruel nature that is not an inherent trait of kryptis. And Eparch favoured Deimos enough that Cerus developed feelings of inferiority; desperation to match up to Deimos in Eparch's eyes. He is the one stuck between his prized brother and his spoiled sister. While Peitha describes him as having no reservation, it's entirely possible that he was trying to assert himself, being the seemingly overlooked one of his siblings.

Maybe Febe was kind to him. Febe, who was gentle and careful and believed in autonomy. Freedom. He went against what Eparch wanted from the kryptis, and maybe, just maybe, that spoke to a young Cerus who was resentful that Eparch would look any which way but at him.

Cerus would look up to Febe and find he didn't have to compete with Deimos or Peitha to be noticed for once.

And why do I think this is what Febe's relationship was to Cerus? Because of the way Febe died.

Cerus was there with Eparch when Deimos killed Febe in the temple that would be named after him. But why? We know Eparch has a sadistic streak for watching people suffer, but why take Cerus there too?

Unless Eparch was afraid that Cerus had started to drift from his control and towards Febe, and he had to stamp out that possibility in a way he knew would stick. By having Cerus watch his idol be slain in front of him while he could do nothing to intervene, all at the hands of the brother he could, would, never be able to live up to.

"That's what happens when you fight back."

Maybe that's why he did the same to Isgarren all those years later; letting him go for the briefest moments to have to witness Mabon's death with full clarity, but with no way to prevent it. Breaking Isgarren the same way Eparch broke him.

And after that, there is nowhere to go. He pushed those thoughts away of what Febe inspired in him, and Eparch helped. Succumbing to Eparch's grip on him because there is no other choice now. And as hundreds of years pass, he grows to like it. He thrives in the brutality and does what he is ordered to.

But he never forgets his admiration, despite it all. And he still never matches up to Deimos, no matter how hard he tries.

It is even faintly implied that his own mate, Heitor, yearned for Deimos before him. Deimos was once the 'young glaive of House Nephus', implying that 'glaive' may have been a title that Cerus only gained upon his brother's disappearance or death. And through Kanaxai's own words, long before either of them left for Tyria: 'Earlier, the Glaive's hands clasp my shoulders. Prideful. Assuring. Heitor's envy, sumptuous.'

Even up until his dying breath, Cerus never compares to his brother.

And he could have. He could have had it all, presenting Isgarren to Eparch and finally receiving the validation that he was as good as his brother. If not for Peitha.

He would have achieved his dream, if only she hadn't stepped in.

But instead he lost his life, body broken with the aid of his sister like his mind had been broken with the aid of his brother all that time ago in the very same temple devoted to the man he'd idolised.

(This is not a Peitha hate post, I love she)

[konig-varorson]

GW2 Expansion 5 teaser

Okay, here me out...

This can't be a coincidence.

Not saying "we're going to pre-Searing Ascalon" or anything, after all the spot is already in-game technically, but the image choice had to be taking nostalgia into account.

EDIT: FOLLOW UP!

If this is true...

Istan in GW1 is internally referred to as "Delta". Now while some regions' internal names changed between the games (e.g., Ascalon became "Regrown" internally for GW2), I believe Kryta (Valley) held the same internal name for both games. Half of Istan is left unexplored still, and there is a bog there - Lahtenda Bog.

However, it's also possible that this time Delta is referring to the region north of Kryta - which has an actual delta connected to Janthir Bay.

[konig-varorson]

I FOUND THE TREE!

WE'RE BACK GOING TO ELONA! Maybe

Screenshot taken in Sandswept Isles. They changed the leaf color it seems, but the model is the same. Usually we don't see the same tree model in completely different climates.

This supports the Istan theory!

[konig-varorson]

GW2 Expansion 5 teaser

Okay, here me out...

This can't be a coincidence.

Not saying "we're going to pre-Searing Ascalon" or anything, after all the spot is already in-game technically, but the image choice had to be taking nostalgia into account.

EDIT: FOLLOW UP!

If this is true...

Istan in GW1 is internally referred to as "Delta". Now while some regions' internal names changed between the games (e.g., Ascalon became "Regrown" internally for GW2), I believe Kryta (Valley) held the same internal name for both games. Half of Istan is left unexplored still, and there is a bog there - Lahtenda Bog.

However, it's also possible that this time Delta is referring to the region north of Kryta - which has an actual delta connected to Janthir Bay.