EdwinLi.1284

We also have to consider the types of enemies they fight which plenty of them cannot be put down with a single bullet due to their biology. Dragon Minions are the most stubbern to kill since most of the time the only way to guarantee they stay down is to chop or blow them up into pieces once they reach a level of corruption where they body is physically changed by the Dragon's magic.

not to mention specific species have much stronger hides than others that makes them tougher for bullets to penetrate their skin thus forcing people into using melee brute strength to slice through that tough hide where bullets fail to do so due to the strength of the bullet is based on material and the gun's ability and method of firing that bullet.

We do have Energy based Guns now thanks to events of the Zhaitan Arc increasing the supply and demand for them thanks to the Pact but certain creatures have certain resistance to the Energy based bullets that these guns fire.

> @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> > @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> > i try imagine that explosive power of most 'advanced' stuff on tyria are still not enough.

> > Also theres lot of magical implicit stuff too, to this could explain tecnologically less advanced enemies still be resistant to weapons.

> >

> > something I find consistent in the lore is a matter of energy, the bigger weapons seem to require a lot of energy, and the Tyrians apparently have not developed very efficient energy techniques yet. So basically whenever there are "big cannons" there is an event where players need to get them to work.

>

> That's pretty much my thinking. If you look at some of the technology floating around Tyria, armoured warriors charging into melee should have been obsolete decades ago, and probably would be if steel armour was what they had... but based on the requisitions, it's typical for frontline Pact troops (for example) to have mithril armour and weapons. That's probably a high enough grade of armour to remain relevant in the face of even postindustrial technology. It also helps that even relatively mundane warriors can cross distances pretty quickly in the _Guild Wars_ universe.

>

> Magic is also a significant equaliser. Guns become less of an advantage if your enemy is able to toss fireballs, after all. It's actually a concept I've come across in the _Heroes of Battle_ supplement for D&D: once you get into sufficiently high fantasy, modern combat tactics start making more sense than medieval approaches to battle because fighting in large formations is just asking to be blown up by a fireball or some other AoE effect. It's just that magic and fantastical warbeasts take the place of technological weapons and vehicles. Charr use actual technology to compensate for being relatively weak in the magic field (even after reabsorbing the Flame Legion, the Flame Legion's magic has become a little overly specialised...), but consider that human armies in Tyria are likely to have a wide range of spellcasters and may also have some sort of construct or war beast such as Watchknights or Jade Constructs.

>

> WvW battles, interestingly, tend to revert back into formation fighting (or at least clumping), but that's to take advantage of boons, healing, and protective effects that can offset the increased damage from clumping, which is a factor that doesn't really exist in real-world modern warfare.

don't forget how they utilize their technology and magic in forms of protection.

In case of projectile protection, Magic and certain technology can create protection to make them immune to projectile attacks thus forcing them into melee to bypass those protections. It will be pointless to unload a entire magazine of a gun if a person is immune to it due to the protection created by magic or technology.

Not to mention implimentation of cybernetics or exo-enhancement gears that can be created such as how Engineers can modify themselves with their tech to better perform on the battlefield. Magic itself can also provide the same effects which makes gap closing more easily done than someone who can only run in normal human speed. This adds on to the difficulty of attacking from range since if a person with enhanced speed rush a person before they can even point their gun at them, then they may not make it in time and get sliced.

Teleportation magic is also a huge game changer since it allows people to appear anywhere for even proper ambush.

Illusion magic can make people waste ammunition or overheat any tech weapons on decoys thus leaving them vulnerable if they don't have a form of melee combat method. Illusion magic is advanced enough that it can even trick technology sometimes if the caster is very skilled.

If anything out of how technology and strategies advance in GW world, it is a combination of Magic and Technology due to how both sides have means to counter each other to a point both magic and technology remain equally relevant. This leads to dependency on melee weapons still due to the counters towards range weapons that force people into depending on melee weapons.

Not to mention the resources they have to create metals that are far stronger than the stuff we can create in our world.

We will have to wait until after the End of Dragons for them to start exploring beyond into regions we have never been to.

As of now End of Dragons and maybe the Living World season after is meant to put a end to the Elder Dragon saga so they can begin moving the GW series storyline into the unknown regions were a lot of unknown civilizations, gods from beyond the ones we know, and etc exists. The developers have a lot of room as well due to ever since GW1 we had only explored 20% of the entire planet and there is still 80% of the planet yet to explored.

I still hope for a Greatsword Wrist Launcher Elite Spec for Engineer that focus on modifying the Main Weapons by taking apart kits to use their parts into adjusting and creating new ways to fight with the Main Weapon.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"EdwinLi.1284" said:

> > There are vast amount of land and probably civilizations we have yet to meet and some may have new Gods and Goddesses we have never seen before.

>

> Would be neat if we finally got to see some decent evidence to the existence of gods outside of the Six. Spirits of the Wild don't really count, but Koda and Zintl (among others) could make an appearance once the Elder Dragons aren't threatening to gobble them up.

>

> For good or ill.

>

It will also open up a lot of potential lore for new Elite Specs as well due to how different the new civilizations may have developed their knowledge with each Profession.

Part of Elite Spec's developement now is their lore being tied into lore we already know about in a certain way which is why there are expectation within the community for what can and cannot happen for X or Y Elite Spec.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Hard disagree. I know you're really strong feeling towards your theory of Lyssa's involvement because of purpose mist in the trailer, but there's really nothing solid to put Lyssa in EoD - let alone Season 6 (assuming this wraps up some EoD major plot thread). ANet did promise that "the gods' story is not finished" - whether this involves them returning (because the Elder Dragon threat that caused them to leave has been solved, or because they found something worse and need the Dragon Slayer's help), or because Lyssa alone is up to debate and not something we can solidly argue one way or another. I feel doubtful they'll just wrap that back into an Elder Dragon lead-in _again_ since they don't really replicate plotlines (in GW2) that closely.

>

In honesty, I still get this feeling the new Storyline they maybe planning after the Elder Dragon Saga ends is the God Saga Storyline that leads us into the lands beyond the currently known lands we have only seen since GW1.

There are vast amount of land and probably civilizations we have yet to meet and some may have new Gods and Goddesses we have never seen before. Some of these new Arcs may even provide deeping understanding of who and what the Gods really are. They may even go deeper into the nature of Tyria itself and why the Gods developed such interests in the world.

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > @"Fenella.2634" said:

> > Correct, but DE didn't help assemble the Pact. We did that just fine, those plotlines were completely separate.

> > Was there even any dialog from Pact members reacting to DE? I feel aside from us and the Pale Tree, nobody really cared one way or another.

>

> No they didn't but they were there for the big final push against Zhaitan which as others said was a big morale boost as they were all famed Heroes.

>

> Traherne and the Pale Tree were the only ones really pushing us to reunite them by playing the story missions, as were our individual DE racial mentors who would send us mail occasionally with a bit of inner thought about their old allies.

>

> I think this element was pretty badly done in the Personal story tbh.

> Destiny's Edge should have been reunited around the later story content involving Fort Trinity and they should have been present and active during the push into Orr.

> Just showing up right at the end for the final battle was a bit silly.. did they just walk right down to Arah and say to the pact "hey we're relevant again let us help" or something? XD

> They needed a bigger role like they had in LW2, HoT and content after that even if they were offscreen.

> The Dungeon story modes should have been better tied into the main story as well and they should have been balanced for single player too.

I believe the issue was how they wanted to present the two stories as separate contents but at the sametime both canon events that made Destiny Edge's side of the story feel so lacking. They were basically trying to create the image of two separate storylines for two separate groups of people, one side is the Commander and the other side is Destiny Edge, crossing at a certain point in their own separate journey.

DE is important to the Zhaitan Arc because they contributed to the effort towards the war against Zhaitan by aiding the Pact during the Battle of Orr. However, this was happening off-screen separate from what the Commander was doing thus it left a lot of things feeling out of place when the moment of the Final battle against Zhaitan happend when the Commander reunited with Destiny Edge.

I feel the story for Destiny Edge side would have been more better represented if they had atleast made members of Destiny Edge more active with the Commander's side of the story rather than keeping it as a Offscreen second story event that the Commander eventually crosspaths with once in a while.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > @"EdwinLi.1284" said:

> > well it is slightly expect since Anet does want to end the Elder Dragon Story Arc and begin a new Story Arc that no longer involves Elder Dragons being the center of attention in some shape or form.

> >

> > Where the story may go once the End of Dragons has happened and the Elder Dragons are no longer a threat to the world we can only speculate because once it is over the Commander and the people he or she has known will finally be free to enter the unknown 80% of the world we have never seen.

> >

> > A new story Arc with new civilizations, maybe new races, new cultures for vanity, and etc that is no longer restricted to past certain lores of GW1 and Elder Dragons.

>

> You forget one much bigger possibility:

> The story could just end once Elder Dragons no longer are a problem and the game enters maintenance mode.

i considered that long ago but I expect that will only happen if GW3 is in production or if Anet wants to end the GW series.

Since we know GW3 is not in production from a announcement a while ago and Anet wants to continue development of GW2 after Elder Dragon storyline is finished during EoD Era contents, I can only assume they have already made plans to continue GW2 in a new story direction but just need to finish up Elder Dragon Arc.

well it is slightly expect since Anet does want to end the Elder Dragon Story Arc and begin a new Story Arc that no longer involves Elder Dragons being the center of attention in some shape or form.

Where the story may go once the End of Dragons has happened and the Elder Dragons are no longer a threat to the world we can only speculate because once it is over the Commander and the people he or she has known will finally be free to enter the unknown 80% of the world we have never seen.

A new story Arc with new civilizations, maybe new races, new cultures for vanity, and etc that is no longer restricted to past certain lores of GW1 and Elder Dragons.

> @"Tyson.5160" said:

> > @"ChampionMasquerade.5283" said:

> > > @"Tyson.5160" said:

> > > > @"ChampionMasquerade.5283" said:

> > > > > @"EdwinLi.1284" said:

> > > > > Yes, sadly they all either joined the Dominion or got killed off before this event.

> > > > >

> > > > > The only warband recruits that remain loyal to the Commander is his/her partner from Charr Origins (players will meet them in No Quarter and they will reveal the fate of the Player's Warband after they left to become the Commander) and both Galina Edgecrusher and Snarl Backdraft since these two are members of the Pact.

> > > > >

> > > > > The Charr Player partner will not appear for other race origin player characters since it is assumed the Charr Origin partner only live if the Commander is of Charr Origin to prevent their death in Charr Origin prologue.

> > > >

> > > > Got it, but do the journals still show up for non Charr?

> > >

> > > Yeah, they do show up to non charr, kinda like how in the personal storylines all seem to happen with several different “Commanders”. It’s expected that it’s the Charr Commander.

> >

> > I’m now imagining several different people in The Departing Path of Fire story truthfully claiming to be the Commander

>

> Yeah it’s one of those strange paradox that GW2, like all the personal storylines all being completed at the same time roughly...

I believe it is one of the everything happened but only one became the Commander things like certain RPG stories.

For example, for Charr origins there was Iron, Blood, and Ash Charr going through the origin storyline but the player Charr is the one with the Warband that has the "partner" in it. The Player's charr is also the one with the most success in their missions where the other two Charrs of the other origins not chosen either died during or right before their final mission in the Origin story or became adventures after due to not becoming noticed by the Orders.

It is the same for the Order path story. The Commander's Order story and Order mentor are the one who reach the Claw Island while the other two Order Mentors still went through their own Order story but never made it to Claw Island due to being killed by the Orrian Scout. Also our Order mentor only made it to Claw Island because they had the Commander with them.

It is like with Dragon Age Origins "warden" where all Origin story did happen but only the Player's chosen Warden live past their origins.

> @"Bast.7253" said:

> It obviously doesn't grant immortality but has a branded minion ever died from old age? Does Aurene absorb that magic, filter it, then release it to its minions in a healthier form?

>

>

It is more of a certain limited Immortality rather than true Immortality. The infusing and changing of a being from Dragon Magic seems to allow them to keep their physical appearance based on how the change affects them to a point they may stop aging but they can still die if suffered from serious injuries.

Yes, sadly they all either joined the Dominion or got killed off before this event.

The only warband recruits that remain loyal to the Commander is his/her partner from Charr Origins (players will meet them in No Quarter and they will reveal the fate of the Player's Warband after they left to become the Commander) and both Galina Edgecrusher and Snarl Backdraft since these two are members of the Pact.

The Charr Player partner will not appear for other race origin player characters since it is assumed the Charr Origin partner only live if the Commander is of Charr Origin to prevent their death in Charr Origin prologue.

> @"RyuDragnier.9476" said:

> > @"Jack Swiftclaw.9076" said:

> > Roland and Caithe: this interaction brought up the idea of Champions. What it means means for us and them to be a Champion of a dragon. I think they these interactions we are seeing that the dragon that has a mortal champion is more powerful. I don't think we are done yet understanding who we are to Aurene.

> This brings up something that I've wondered for a while...why did Aurene give Caithe her power and not us? It doesn't make sense considering the deep bond we have. Unless she couldn't or wouldn't for a reason. Considering she can see into the future, it's possible that she foresaw something that could only be done if we were not given her powers directly like Caithe.

>

> Well, that, or...the Commander is already the champion of the EDs "mother", which leads to a theory that Tyria itself is an ED. Though that theory could hold water as to why "the balance" doesn't exist. It may just be that too much energy going off would wake "mother" and just lead to destruction from her moving around, leading to the EDs mere existence being to regulate the magical energy so she doesn't wake up. Which would also explain why the Human Gods left, it would be something that would make their mere presence there a serious threat to everything that exists on Tyria.

We are getting Aurene's Champion powers in the Mastery abilities being from Crystal Champion Mastery and the newly added Dragon Slayer Mastery

Though a different form of Champion abilites since these powers do not alter our appearance.

I suspect that Jormag is using the chaos caused by her twin brother Primordius to persuade people to her side.

It is a opportunity that has put many people in a vulnerable position since this is the first time two Elder dragons are on a rampage.

With Primordius being the more pure chaos destruction type, this has made people scared because he is more muhahaha destroy everything while Jormag is giving people the feeling of comfort due to her offers and words of "reason".

In the end, I don't trust Jormag because it has been made it quite clear from past history with Jormag's actions that she is all about offering things to make people feel they should become corrupted by her willingly to feel comfort, wanted, and protected. This situation with Primordius is just the perfect opportunity for her to get more people into trusting and accepting her corruption.

However, this situation is also a bad sign that we may see former allies become corrupted by Jormag and maybe worse they become our enemies if the moment when we have to fight Jormag happens. Especially Taimi since she is far more obsessed with defeating Primordius and currently has a strong belief Jormag can be a reasonable Elder Dragon due to all the promises she has been giving the Asura.

I am very curious about the family tree of the Elder Dragons now due to what we learn in the new dialogues for this story update

Jormag categorize Aurene as her little sister.

Jormag confirms that Primordius is her twin brother.

These details are small but it does give us a bit of the picture for the elder dragon's origins.

----------------------------------------

We also got some talk about Laranthir still not returning yet for unknown reasons and it seems Jhavi has become worried for his unknown long absence. I worry this maybe a sign that they may kill Laranthir off either off screen or have him return for a brief moment just to be killed off.

> @"Poormany.4507" said:

>

>

>

> > @"EdwinLi.1284" said:

> > > @"hugo.4705" said:

> > I expect Anet to keep Allied Factions to be resonable factions we know are siding with our character lore wise so I don't expect any antagonist factions to join unless the Main Story has already established them as allies or atleast potential allies.

> >

> Based on the teasers and having "unlikely allies", I would not be surprised if the Aetherblades were one of the Allied Factions, despite being antagonists back in Season 1 and not receiving much attention since. As some people have already said, they may also provide passage to Cantha for the expac.

>

There is also possibility that some of these unlikely allies may be small groups of defectors from certain factions.

Though I suspect there maybe a special side quests involved to unlock these unlikely allies due to being obtained outside of Main Storyline events.

I honestly still hope for a Engineer Elite Spec that focus on modifying the Main Weapon's weapon skills.

We have Holosmith for a Modified Kit Elite Spec already so the Modified kit side is covered for now.

Though it will certainly require a lot of work due to how it may need to provide a lot of new weapon skills or atleast a new set of weapons based on how the Main Weapon is modified for each Main Weapon.

Not to mention the Utility theme for that Elite Spec and lore behind why these Engineers began specializing in modifying their Main Weapons instead of creating new Kits and tools to replace their Main Weapon.

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> Regarding OP, and I dunno it has been said in comments above; but I noticed something on https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-icebrood-saga-champions/ page.

>

> "During global faction mobilization events, players can pitch in to train, rally, and build trust with factions both familiar and unlikely. You’ll be rewarded for your efforts, and your allies will begin randomly appearing in Dragon Response Missions to lend their special strengths to the fight."

>

> -Familiar and unikey factions. Dunno anyone, but an appocalyptic cataclismic earthquake/erruptions are happening, would the bandits, the nightmare court, the sons of svanir, the inquest and the flame legion continue their machinations, laughing at us and using the situation to make even more mischiefs?

>

> -It says, train, rally and build trust. It either imply a kind of reputation/convincing like deldrimor HQ quest, picking NPCS like jahai bluffs north heart quest or being part of a story mission where our so great "commander" convinces everyone by playing kazoo.

>

> Would, the nightmare court who got assaulted by the pact in twilight arbor, the inquest from which we nuked two HQ for the story, and sons of svanir that we slaughtered in bjora and drizzlewood and core maps join us? Against, I have a big doubt, but those are the unlikely factions. Maybe even some aetherblade/toxic/molten remnants making a "link" with the aetherblades arts of EoD.

>

> So like OP said, surely those allies; but also maybe evil organization of tyria, or even the personnal stories factions? Grawl/Hylek/Skritt/Ogres ?

I expect Anet to keep Allied Factions to be resonable factions we know are siding with our character lore wise so I don't expect any antagonist factions to join unless the Main Story has already established them as allies or atleast potential allies.

As for the the Allied Factions mechanics, ya it does seem we are going the improve reputation with X and Y faction route to gain benefits and unlock them as options for specific moments in GW2 upcoming content and future contents such as having allied faction NPCs join into events based on the player's reputation with them. So improving the Faction's reputation will be important to gain more NPC allies into Dragon Response Missions and maybe even special options in Main Story missions.

> @"Sajuuk Khar.1509" said:

> > @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > The whole trailer's just for Chapter 1

> If so, they did an extremely poor job of suggesting that.

>

> The trailer says "upcoming chapters feature", which suggests its for a later chapter, and not a future update for this chapter. And that is how I've seen everyone take it as well. Especially since they do that mid trailer title card to suggest everything from the start to that point is chapter 1, and everything after that is later chapters. If it was all for just this one chapter wouldn't it say "upcoming chapter feature" to reference the singular chapter, or upcoming chapter's feature" to show a possessive instead of a plural?

I see the upcoming chapters features more like fragmented parts of the whole upcoming features. They are just showing a small bit of what to expect each upcoming chapter but a good amount is still not shown yet until those chapters are released or their trailer reveals those unseen contents.

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> Yes it is clearly the aetherblade flag. But hey, wouldn't be that surprising: Sure, mai trin and horrik are killed, but what are the chances all the other aetherblades heard about it? Whereas some of them returned to their instincts and even forgetting where they got their airships like the corsairs of Istan in the north, some other may have continued to take care of their high tech gear and roaming around with asura shooting lasers. If some successfully escaped to istan, why not cantha, or even the northern maguuma wastes, now that balthazar is gone and joko too, they can even fly to the crystal desert. I don't remember how many airships where there during the assault of LA during LS1 but they were a lot, several stationnary over LA and many in the map around launching invasions, I remember fighting them in kessex hills or gandarran. And we destroyed what, 2 in twilight arbor and Mai trin one? Not a lot compared to the fleet. Plus all that fled through the mists and can be technically everywhere.

>

> And you have Auris Weirdbringer, the charr of not really known origin apart that it was present in blood keep in charr homelands. And still no trace of Rift stabilizer class III, IV and V. Where he got its aetherblade armor, and why there is a thing with the number 97.

>

> About the bell, clearly MMXXI, 2021 in roman numbers. Year of release confirmed? Maybe spring...

>

> About the others things, you have "DUTY" written on the stone arch just before dragon body joining two walls section.

If they bring back Cantha's Gangs in End of Dragons as important figures of Cantha's storyline, I expect the Aetherblades of Cantha have basically become a gang themselves due to being maybe the only surviving members of the Aetherblades after the death of Mai and Horrik. They maybe a shadow of what they use to be but they are still a small gang now just trying to survive in Cantha.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> They are probably just going to be some kind of reputation system (which would use Achievement system as a tracker, like Commendations in Drizzlewood).

> As for the "Response Missions", they are likely just going to be different flavours of NPCs fighting along-side us.

I expect that the Allied Factions in those response missions maybe based on locations as well. We know the Crystal Bloom and Ebon vanguard are going to be be the two first factions to join and later Dwarf and Tengu.

Crystal Bloom is probably the the Universal faction to appear in these Response missions due to how they are already being trained to be Aurene and the Commander's starting forces.

I am curious if the Pact may get involve in this as well since they are the main organization that started the united Campaign against the Elder Dragons.

Not to mention what they may do with Allied Factions as the story continues and even enter the moment when Elder Dragons are no longer part of the storyline since we know Anet wants to move on from the Elder Dragon storyline to a new story arc that may finally allow us players to explore the rest of the planet since so far we have only explored 20% of it since GW1 and due to how lore wise the Elder Dragons have locked us in the current 20% of the planet because of their constant attacks and threat to the entire world if they win the fight in our current location.

That aside, it will be a bit funny if in the next story Arc, once the Elder Dragons are no longer the focus, we find out the rest of the world were completely ignorant of the Elder Dragon threat to the point they even say "what is a Elder Dragon and what do you mean the world almost ended?"

I am curious how Allied Factions may affect the story missions since each faction is no doubt going to have their own plans and methods to handle X and Y situations. Thus the commander maybe stuck being the tie breaker again on which path to choose leading to the ending.

It will be nice if they brought back split mission choices based on which Faction the player choose to side with when it comes to the plans in specific missions to bring back a bit of replayability to see the two different outcomes in multiple playthroughs and consequences of those choices as well.

> @"Pax.3548" said:

> > @"ugrakarma.9416" said:

> > Too much allies, against a single ED? i hope theres explanations why primordus awake is too much "earth shaking" than jormag.

> >

> > I'm not the kind of picky guy with lore, but i think we have 2 EDs(Aurene+Jormag) and basically all tyria now, lots of "old friends".

>

> Primordious seems to be one of the most destructive dragon of all the elder dragons, and it was the first to awaken. It had about two centuries to build an incredibly massive army from rock and lava, and the only reason it didn't explode like a volcano towards the surface during those years was because the Dwarves's sacrifice, and even then, at the beggining of the personal story one can see the destroyers beggining to resurface in different places. So, Prime could be the biggest threat to Tyria right now as it has a massive army and its naturally inclined to destroy everything, and can also send minions anywhere in the continent, bypassing walls and defenses built above the ground and threatening cities directly.

Primy is also probably the most less caring for life in Tyria as well but the other Elder Dragons have some level of care for life even though they twist life into their own vision of what their ideal world is.

His minion are just pure mindless rock and lava while the other Elder Dragons use the life that exists now and twist it into their own vision or at least create a type of life that is still at least some what sentient but still enslaved to its will.

In a way Jormag does not lie when she said that she cares about life as her twisted ideas is about protecting life in Ice because when something is preserved in ice it is protected from harm and never has to change once preserved. However, as I said it is still a twisted view and method of what she believes the world should be. Think of it like a twisted view from a overly protective mother who never wants their children or people they care about to change.

Primordus on the other had probably wants to turn the entire planet to nothing but rocks and lava with no speck of life left on it with only his destroyers roaming the lands since they are mindless lava rock beings or worst case only he will be the only living thing on the planet if he wins since the destroyers served their purposes of wiping all life from the planet.

With recent events it seems we will finally get into obtaining new allies into the war effort against the Elder Dragons called Allied Factions.

So how do you think Allied Factions may play out through lore reasoning and how that lore may affect the Allied Faction's functions in gameplay?

So far we confirmed that specific factions will finally join the fight against the Elder Dragons and bring in unique NPCs specifically for their faction and some may have unique abilities or combat styles exclusive to their faction.

Crystal Bloom = Elona theme NPCs and have Paragon job NPCs with paragon skills

Ebon Vanguard = Ascalonian NPCs (I can only assume they may have some Ebon Vangard skills from GW1 EotN)

Deldrimor Dwarves = Stone Dwarf NPCs (I can only assume they may have some Deldrimor skills from GW1 EotN)

Tengu = Tengu NPCs using skills we seen for ourselves on the receiving end with Tengu enemies.

I actually won't be surprised if they brought back faction reputation for extra rewards and/or ability to upgrade specific factions

Well it has been speculated that it was going to end up being a Jormag vs Primordius storyline for a while anyways.

Certain people speculated already that the Commander and allies may side with Jormag or have this war turn into a three way war and the result is the side with Jormag theory. Now it is only a matter of why we have this truce which this episode may focus on with the truce maybe happening at the end of the episode due to the focus os Episode 1 about the reason behind the truce.