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    Guild Wars 2 Thinking about her…

    January 12, 2022

    Guild Wars 2 Thinking about her…

    Thinking about her…

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 05:21 PM PST

    Not sure if the Teatime Chair is fixed... After i used mine someone dismounted me and applied Photon Forge effect to me (I was Firebrand). I was unable too use my weapon skills. You can see the Photon Forge effect on my character and my buffbar. Luckily using a mount fixed it so it was kinda funny.

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 06:23 PM PST

    My precious and awesome Charr who i've had for 7 years now

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 09:19 PM PST

    PvP hard mode

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 06:48 PM PST

    New No Floor Fractal Instability - Courtesy Of DX11 ��

    Posted: 12 Jan 2022 12:21 AM PST

    Lost Lore: Nightmare

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 04:43 PM PST

    Hello once again. So, my previous research into this concept of an overarching conflict between the Primeval Light and the Primordial Darkness has led to an epiphany concerning the Sylvari lore. I'm going to talk about things assuming a general comprehension of my last post on that topic, but the gist of it is: there is a force of light and a force of darkness in the universe that are at odds and most of the Guild Wars franchise is centered around this conflict.

    I'd previously thought that this force I've been calling the Primordial Darkness wasn't as well established in the lore, but it's become clear to me that it just goes by another name: Nightmare.

    Sylvari understand the Nightmare to be a force of darkness that seeks to poison their minds and infect the Dream of Dreams. This is established as early as the tutorial in the Sylvari personal story, where the player character meets Caithe within the Dream and is recruited to repel a great evil she says is a manifestation of the Nightmare itself: the Shadow of the Dragon.

    The waters are immediately muddied though when we learn that our Wyld Hunt (our purpose given to us by the Dream) is to defeat an elder dragon and that this draconic entity we saw in the Dream was related to that quest. Later, it is revealed Caithe shares this Wyld Hunt with us, and we join her in trying to find a way to defeat the dragons (specifically Zhaitan).

    The Shadow of the Dragon is VERY important, but let's first go into some background concerning the nature of Nightmare.

    The chief agents of this dark force within the Sylvari are the Nightmare Court. As described by the wiki, their mission is to corrupt the Pale Tree and the Dream with visions of Nightmare, in their minds "freeing" the Sylvari from the shackles of the ideals placed upon them by Ronan and Ventari's legacy. They are the central antagonists in much of the Sylvari personal story and also feature prominently in the Twilight Arbor dungeon.

    What's most curious about the Nightmare, however, is that it doesn't seem to stem from the Dream itself; at least not exclusively.

    Just North of Morgan's Spiral in Caledon Forest lies a Nightmare Court hub called Briarthorn Den, and you can actually disguise yourself as a member of the court in order to infiltrate and better understand their motivations. Talk to one Executioner Eorana, and she'll tell you more about the Nightmare itself.

    When asked "where does Nightmare come from", she says this: "Nowhere. Everywhere. It has always been and always will be. It's as much a part of existence as the land, the water, air or fire. As much as the Dream."

    So here we have a depiction of a lot of the elements that makeup the nature of this concept of Primordial Darkness. It is eternal. It's as important a force as the elements themselves. It is in opposition to a related, yet opposite force of light (in this case the Dream).

    To add to this, we also learn through the events of the Twilight Arbor story dungeon that the Nightmare was a force that was encountered out in the world. Allegedly, both Caithe and Faolain discovered Nightmare exploring through Tyria, and while Caithe rejected its influence in favor of the Pale Tree's and the Dream's, Faolain was lost to its darkness. I will also note that the wiki suggests they found it in Orr, but I'm not quite sure where that information comes from. It could be something touched upon in some obscure corner of the game or in the Edge of Destiny novel, but if true, it ties into the overall story here really well, so hold on to that thought.

    At this point you might be wondering, "but what about Mordremoth? Couldn't all this darkness just be a symptom of his influence over the Sylvari, seeing as they're all his minions?"

    Well, no...mostly no...it's complicated.

    The best explanation in-game concerning this comes from Ogden Stonehealer in the Echoes of the Past patch from living world season 2. If you ask him about the Sylvari and why their immunity to dragon corruption didn't include Mordremoth, he'll tell you this:

    "You refer to Scarlet and Aerin. Similar symptoms. Yes. I am no expert, but they're immature as a race. Their concept of Nightmare and Dream is simplistic at best. Too black and white, too unsophisticated to explain the changes affecting some of them. The Pale Tree is said to protect them from the corruption of the other dragons. They both rejected her, no? It makes sense that sylvari would be vulnerable to Mordremoth, a plant-based being like themselves."

    There's an alternate version of this dialogue if you're a Sylvari character, but I think the phrasing on this version is much better; they're both pretty much the same though. Also, all of Ogden's dialogue options here are voiced, which is incredible. I highly recommend people going back and listening to them.

    Okay, so what this dialogue is meant to foreshadow is the existence of other forces besides the Dream and Nightmare that could be acting on the Sylvari, mainly Mordremoth.

    Around this point in the game (living world season 2 into Heart of Thorns era) a lot of players were still conflating the Nightmare Court with Mordremoth, and due to scope concerns, Anet chose not to delve too deeply into the Nightmare Court for that expansion to patch up this misconception.

    But recall, we've experience so many moments in the game already that have told us Elder Dragons are not inherently good or evil, they are simply forces of nature. The point Ogden is getting at is that these forces are interacting independently (mostly), even though the Sylvari will likely equate any "negative" influences as being related to Nightmare.

    When we encounter Faolain for the briefest of moments in Heart of Thorns, she corroborates this idea. The Nightmare Court are, in many ways, independent of Mordremoth. While their desires sometimes align (I'll explain later), the forces that power the Nightmare and Mordremoth himself are separate entities.

    Now Ogden gives us the perfect segue into another facet of the Sylvari, the Soundless. While most Sylvari accept the Dream and the path it has laid before them, some view its influence as onerous and seek to be free of it. These Sylvari are known as Soundless, and they have chosen to cut themselves off from the Pale Tree's protection (and therefore the Dream's influence as well).

    Soundless Sylvari are considered to be vulnerable to outside influences, which is why the Nightmare Court are compelled to capture them.

    This vulnerability extends also to Mordremoth's influence, which is why Odgen brings up Aerin and Scarlet Briar (previously Ceara). The assumption is that both these Sylvari succumbed to Mordremoth because they no longer enjoyed the Pale Tree's protections. We can see both these character wrestle with Modremoth's influence on their minds, Aerin when we are chasing him as he comes in and out of crying fits, and Scarlet as she addresses Mordremoth directly in living world season 1, saying:

    "Ever since I came out of Omadd's machine, you've been taking credit for my ideas. They are mine! Not yours. Let me be clear. I'm not doing this for you; I'm doing it for me. Nobody tells me what to do. Not ever. It's not true. None of it. I don't have to listen to you. Get out of my head!"

    Aerin was trying to destroy the Zephyrites and stop Glint's Egg from reaching Tarir (and to destroy it most likely), and Scarlet was helping send a massive surge of ley-line magic to Modremoth in order to awaken him, so this logic tracks.

    I want to go further into Scarlet's motivations though, because there's a lot to unpack.

    For those of you who don't know, Scarlet Briar was the primary antagonist of living world season 1. We spent the majority of that period in the game thwarting the machinations of her various alliances and ultimately trying to prevent her schemes in Lion's Arch to penetrate and influence the ley-line nexus there (unsuccessfully). We ended up killing her, but not before the Breachmaker managed to affect the ley-line nexus and stir Mordremoth from his slumber.

    Scarlet's story is complex and was slowly metered out within Guild Wars 2, but the devs also released a wonderful short story that I think tells it quite beautifully and succinctly. It's titled "What Scarlet Saw" and I think the key to understanding the entirety of the Guild Wars 2 plot lies within it.

    We get a ton of insight into Ceara, the soundless Sylvari who just wanted to learn all there was to learn about the world. She casts off the mantle of the Sylvari's burden almost immediately, retorting to the mender that awakened her. " I'll find my own place, thank you very much. And it's hardly 'my' purpose if someone else gives it to me."

    It's made evident that her desires are not malevolent, rather that she pursues knowledge and truth at any cost.

    Unfortunately this motive led her to enter Omadd's machine.

    Omadd's machine allegedly allows one to view the Eternal Alchemy; "the All" as Ogden would call it.

    Omadd needed a brilliant mind like Scarlet's to enter his machine and recall their experiences, and so Scarlet, in her blind quest for the truth, obliged. Within, she perceived the vastness of reality, but was also met with a familiar influence: that of the Pale Tree.

    The Pale Tree warns her to go no further, stating that, "In seeking to comprehend the forces that shape us, you will unleash them. Society cannot withstand that."

    Ceara did not heed her warnings. She was met with the realization that the Pale Tree's doctrine was, in her mind, oppression. In giving the Sylvari purpose through the Dream, the Pale Tree was holding them back and stopping them from seeing the whole truth and realizing their full potential. This greatly upset Scarlet and pushed her to delve even deeper into the void beyond the Pale Tree's protection.

    We see no more of her journey through the Eternal Alchemy, but to me this is when the first seeds of some sinister influences were sown. She then kills Omadd in a gruesome fashion and gives us some important hints as to this nature of light and dark and what exactly she saw.

    She says: "So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain...it's all part of a grand design. But I see the flaws in that design. My people don't have to take what we're given, or be what we were 'born to be.' No people do. We can change the rules...well, I can. And I'm going to."

    She plays with this idea of light vs dark. The Dream vs. the Nightmare. Caithe vs. Faolain. She posits that it's all part of some "grand design." She also notes that it was what the Sylvari were born for.

    So the Sylvari were born for a purpose, which she continues to explain, stating: "An insurmountable challenge is rising, and my people have been called to meet it. We are compelled by our creator to do so."

    I view this as an explanation of what Wyld Hunts are; simply a call to action from the Dream in pursuit of some greater purpose, in an effort to tackle this rising challenge.

    And I should follow up here by explaining that the Dream is independent of the Pale Tree. She is only the Dream's steward. Mordremoth also is not the source of the Dream, or the Nightmare. This is established at some point in the game, but I can't recall where exactly.

    Scarlet then echoes Ogden's sentiment when describing the Sylvari and how their view of the world is "too black and white". She follows up her previous statement with, "But I reject that call. I reject the notion that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how."

    To me, she sees Modremoth and the dragons' influence in general as a powerful neutral force to relinquish the stranglehold of light and dark upon the world. It's quite a clever notion.

    Her conversation with the dragon in her mind now makes sense. She wanted to use Mordremoth to put an end to the influences of the Primeval Light and the Primordial Darkness (the Dream and the Nightmare), thus "freeing" the mortal races.

    Sadly, I think she lost a bit her own freedom in the pursuit of the knowledge that would allow her to free others. She was exposed both to the dragon's call and perhaps to the forces of Nightmare as well inside Omadd's machine. The way things played out, in my opinion the dragon's influence ended up overwhelming her.

    Quickly though, a brief sidebar revelation. In writing this post out, I saw a lot of similarities to the concept known as a "Wyld Hunt" and how Joko's compulsion over the Awakened works. We've already established the connection of Joko's magic to the Primeval Light, but it came into focus for me just how similar his Scourge powers are to that of the Dream/the Pale Tree. He's just a more oppressive user of the compulsion. Koss, then would be what the Sylvari would call a Soundless.

    From this, I'd posit that the same is true of the Forged and the Exalted. The Forgotten magic derived from the Primeval Light gives them this same sense of purpose. It's why the Exalted pretty much ignore anyone who doesn't have something to do with their jobs and why the Forged and the Awakened feel pressured to obey their masters' orders. Same with the Branded Forgotten to some extent; still drawn back to Augury Rock despite being branded.

    I'm getting sidetracked though, back to the Nightmare.

    So we've established the nature of Nightmare as some facet of darkness out in the world that parallels the facet of light. So with the Sylvari of the Pale Tree having Wyld Hunts, we also have to consider the Dark Hunts of the Nightmare Court.

    These, clearly, are just purpose placed upon them by the darkness via the facet of the darkness they're calling the Nightmare. Thus, the Nightmare Court are Sylvari agents of the Primordial Darkness, the "insurmountable challenge". The Wyld Hunt Sylvari, then, are the agents of the Primeval Light. Pretty simple.

    Now you might be thinking, "so what's the deal with all the dragon-focused Wyld Hunts? If we're fighting some great evil and the dragons are a neutral party, what's up with that?"

    Glad you asked.

    Because the Elder Dragons are already corrupted by the Primordial Darkness...

    Come BACK here!

    Remember the Thaumanova Reactor fractal, where Scarlet informs the Inquest that their designation of "chaos magic" is a misnomer, because it's actually dragon magic?

    Well, it turns out they were both right. It was dragon magic, but it was also corrupted magic derived from the Primordial Darkness (see chaos->entropy->hammer we already established is related to this magic).

    Now hold on tight.

    Recall me telling you the Shadow of the Dragon was very important? I'm going to explain that now.

    The Shadow of the Dragon is a champion of Mordremoth. However, it is also a servant of the Nightmare. During Living World Season 2, we get some more insight into the nature of the Shadow of the Dragon via text from "A Treatise on the Shadow of the Dragon", written by a Sylvari scholar named Caterin. Apparently, it has the power to move between the Dream and Tyria proper and it has been seen in the Dream by a plethora of Sylvari.

    Well this dragon makes several appearances in the story. The first is when Caithe helps us purge it from the Dream and it becomes our Wyld Hunt. The second time is when it attacks the Pale Tree during the World Summit. The third time, it finds us in the Forgotten Cave.

    The third time we encounter it, we slay it...which according to what Scholar Caterin reported, is odd. Allegedly, the dragon can't be killed. So how'd we do it?

    Divine Fire.

    Yeah, we only killed it because we had the power of the Primeval Light. In that instance, we're trapped by the Shadow of the Dragon and are forced to battle it with the Divine Fire. What seemed peculiar at the time was that it wielded shadow magic, summoning shadow tendrils and smothering shadows to put out our light. Then, when we finally drive it away, we snuff the light out of its eyes using the lingering energy of the divine fire.

    Go back and replay that instance. You'll see the light on us and how we use it to snuff him out.

    Some of you might be seeing a flaw in my argument here. You're saying, "ah, but he had shadow magic from the death of Zhaitan."

    You're right, he did. And so did Mordremoth. When we enter the Dream/Nightmare to battle with his mind, we also encounter this shadow/dark magic, presumably from Zhaitan. We see smothering shadows trying to close the rifts we're opening to wound him. But did you also notice how we killed the mind demon? We snuffed him out with the divine fire magic again. Go replay the instance, it's there.

    I'm just saying that some of the dark magic was already there.

    Go back to the opening fight with Shadow of the Dragon from the very beginning of the game. I want you to look at the dragon's eyes; yes, the eyes we snuffed out with the divine fire. They remind you of anything?

    They look like the Abaddon eyes to me. A slight variation on the design so as not to be obtuse about it, but still. The multiple eyes thing is established in the lore as being related to Abaddon and his demonic corruption, which I am alleging stems from the Primordial Darkness.

    Go look in the Revenant trait lines and you'll see the eyes as an icon for a trait called "Demomic Resistance".

    So what am I getting at? I'm getting at the fact that the Shadow of the Dragon was always corrupted by the Nightmare/shadow magic, even before Zhaitan's death. Caithe called it an aspect of Nightmare in the Dream because it was one. Just like how Nightmare Court Sylvari are dragon minions that were corrupted by the Primordial Darkness before the death of Zhaitan, so too was his Champion.

    The mistake Scarlet made when deciding to use the dragon's influence to pit the forces of Light and Darkness against one another was assuming that the dragons weren't already corrupted.

    So think about the Wyld Hunts now through the lens of dragons that are already corrupted by this Primordial Darkness, and that the true goal is to fight that darkness.

    Trahearne's goal of cleansing Orr of the corruption now makes a whole heck of a lot more sense. He was the FIRST Sylvari, and his Wyld Hunt was to cleanse Orr. He saw in the Dream a vibrant and lush Orr, free of the shadow magic. You know, the shadow magic we're calling the Nightmare that Caithe and Faolain found in Orr.

    Then there's Caithe and the player character's vision of the Shadow of the Dragon. It's not our Wyld Hunt to kill the dragons necessarily, but to defeat the darkness within them. Their shadows.

    Think about all the things we learned about the dragons through Aurene's ascension in living world season 4 now. How they're not inherently evil and how Kralkatorrik was simply tormented by all the warring and dark magics within him.

    Perhaps you're not convinced. Let's discuss another connection between this Primordial Darkness, the Nightmare, and the dragons: Ensolyss.

    Those familiar with fractals will know the name. Ensolyss, also known as a Champion Toxic Hybrid, was the result of the Toxic Alliance's experiments within the Tower of Nightmares. During living world season 1, the Krait and the Nightmare Court paired up to execute one of Scarlet's maniacal schemes. They constructed a giant living tower in Leviathan Lake, hidden by a spectacular illusion. Once unveiled, Marjory, Kasmeer and the player character ascended the tower to find and kill this magnificent specimen.

    The Krait, we discovered, had joined with Scarlet and the Nightmare Court to obtain shards of their mysterious Obelisks, which they believed connected them to their prophets and could be used to incarnate them in the material world.

    The Nightmare Court, on the other hand, thought they were tricking the Krait and actually imbuing these hybrid beasts with the essence of Nightmare.

    Funnily enough, they were both right. The Toxic Hybrid was in fact an incarnation of the Krait prophets and also a Krait imbued with Nightmare...because as we've established, the Nightmare is a facet of this Primordial Darkness.

    The Tower of Nightmares was actually an organic version of the Krait Obelisks they worship in the depths of the sea. Those large crystal-like structures were channeling the same thing: the magic of the abyss.

    So you wanted to know why the Krait are the big bad, this is why. They worship the Primordial Darkness. And what is a prophet but an entity that has communed with a god.

    I'll ask you now to take a look at Ensolyss. Notice anything? Yep, the eyes. He has the demon eyes we've established as being connected to the Primordial Darkness.

    The best image is the splash art for that release, which was called "The Nightmare Incarnate". You can see the Toxic Hybrid looming over Scarlet with his 6 demonic eyes.

    The Toxic Hybrid (as well as the Tower of Nightmares itself I guess) are literally the Nightmare embodied into flesh.

    Some people also noticed around this time that Tara Strong had started to go a little deeper and darker when voicing Scarlet. There's an interesting forum thread about it where Bobby Stein says that the shift has lore implications. Well, when you take the Soundless Sylvari with her unlocked mind, infected by the call of a corrupted elder dragon and put it right next to a giant beacon for dark energies, I'm guessing there could be some adverse side effects.

    Scarlet after this point loses her independence almost completely, and you see that present itself in some of her final dialogue, saying, "Tyria will bow before a new master." She was no longer fighting the influence of Mordremoth because, with the help of the Nightmare, it had overpowered her completely.

    Kinda sad when you think about it. Tara knocked it out of the park honestly.

    Returning to the topic of Nightmare though and how it relates to Krait, this connects sooo many dots concerning Abaddon. He was down there chilling with all this dark magic, perhaps unknowingly (or knowingly, for the sake of knowledge, similar to Ceara) interacting with this power until it drove him to madness.

    And we wouldn't see it because we've always associated Zhaitan with shadow magic, but he was corrupted by the Primordial Darkness/Nightmare too.

    If you read through my last post, you'll know I talked about the Altar of Glaust and how the Forgotten used it to free Glint from Kralkatorrik's influence. Well, one of the things we note about the Altar was that it doesn't actually cleanse the dragon magic...I think it uses divine magic to cleanse the dark chaos magic instead.

    Recall the explorable path in Arah concerning the Altar of Glaust. We bring a Risen chicken there to cleanse it of Zhaitan's corruption. The chicken is still imbued with undead magic, however the scholar we are working with, Warden Illyra, states that the chicken lost its murderous rage. It then becomes named the "free-willed risen chicken". We name it Twitchy.

    Yeah, one of the biggest lore bombs in the game, in my opinion, involves an undead chicken. Light and Darkness canceling out and leaving free will.

    Was Scarlet right???

    If you're wondering about the other dragons, I've got you.

    For Primordus, see the destroyer wyverns. They have the whole demon eye thing going on, and also just all of Primordus' minions look like bugs. He was probably really struggling down there.

    For Jormag, see the Whisper of Jormag. It's a Krait. We've established the Krait connection. It was for sure a choice to use a Krait for that thing, and I think this is why. Ice is also frozen water. Checkmate.

    For Kralk, I just have a question. Was he always purple??????? Crystal dragon + scary purple magic = scary purple crystal dragon, no? Maybe what he truly feared was the dark magic escaping into the world or corrupting Glint. Food for thought.

    And then there's Bubbles. The Deep Sea Dragon...I guess we'll find out soon enough.

    To close, I'll give you one last line from "What Scarlet Saw". She says, "Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I'll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes." I'll let you tell me what you think that means.

    End of Dragons is gonna be lit.

    Anyway, thanks for reading if you did. I'm sure I'll be fighting for my life in the comments over this one.

    submitted by /u/mandala30
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    Are the bots gone now?

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:16 PM PST

    Are there any news? For what I did read here the bot service was stopping working with GW2 to focus in FF14 instead but people kept saying that the bots will be gone with a new patch, we had a patch today, are the bots gone now?

    submitted by /u/megadv
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    Can we have Lunar New Year Festival Reward Tracks from now on?

    Posted: 11 Jan 2022 04:05 PM PST

    For some reason Lunar New Year Festival is the only festival without Reward Tracks, so can we fix it and have both PvP and WvW reward tracks for this festival this year?

    submitted by /u/BrasilON
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