PseudoNewb.5468

I think Aurene will give up the mantle of elder dragon at the least. If that means she will die I don't know. A credible in game source, and now the name of the next expansion suggests that there will be no elder dragons in the end.

> @"Svennis.3852" said:

>The dialogue in the DRM indicates the perverseness we view Jormag’s perspective with in this manner, and we’ll be fighting their forces to prevent their “protective” measures from now on.

The way Jormag is thinking, this perverse logic. It make me assume that Jormag is severely afflicted with torment just like Kralkatorric was. It seems to have manifested itself differently, making it harder to identify, but it really seems like it is there.

> @"Svennis.3852" said:

> An accelerated story is to be expected, but I did not anticipate Jormag becoming hostile toward us this soon. I figured the ruse of a 'truce' would be drawn out till chapter 3 or 4, but I suppose we don't have that kind of time.

This chapter is titled "Power". Which is sorta Jormag's thing and means of persuasion so far. From that reasoning, I though it was kind of obvious that this chapter would focus on Jormag. Jormag is not friendly, and Jormag's power, has only one use, to crush and convert mortals. So getting assaulted by it seems most likely. The next chapter is "Balance" which is definitely something related to Aurene. I don't think we will fight Aurene, that would be a bit odd, but the Commander's patience with Aurenes aloofness is wearing thing, so some kind of reckoning might occur there. So we will have a chapter on Primordus, Jormag, and Aurene. The final chapter is "Judgement" and should be the finale... but with EOD, I suspect it will be more or less a plot bridge to Cantha (waves to season 2 final episode). Then there is the last known (unknown) dragon. Going into EOD I would expect all the dragons to have been introduced before being sent off into obsolescence, so I suspect the chapter might finally pull back the curtain on that thing... Raveling that thing might just make all these DRMs worth it.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> I'm not sure this is Jormag. The leader seems to be a non-corrupted Son of Svanir, so he's acting independently. The icebrood norn are established as pretty much mindless, so it following another of power makes sense. Jormag is largely in the "does not care" / apathetic area when it comes to killing individuals and cares more about preserving the world itself, so it probably doesn't care how the free willed followers do things so long as the end goal is met.

>

Can the Son's of Svanir summon a cold blast that completely freezes the area and create free standing ice structures. All without at least the blessing of Jormag? The trailer shows Mantle's Breach and large parts of Lake Doric completely frozen over. Also Divinity's Reach defenses are active in the map too. Jormag seems to have begun assaulting the rest of Tyria bringing worse than Shiverpeaks weather down the mountains and across the region. Freezing Divinity's Reach is hostile regardless of how much Jormag says it wants to be nice.

Honestly, I think they probably went through preliminary QA for their next build, determined that MAC client breaks, determined they could not fix it, and have no other contingencies for the next release. So the result is, the next release will not have a MAC build. Since you can't login with an old build, the last MAC build will cease working.

> @"Blude.6812" said:

> > @"Mike Ditka.2531" said:

> > Thanks for the replies. I wouldn't say I lost interest after 18 months at all. I would've loved to keep playing everyday but i enlisted so, life happens, oh well,. The thing is, for new or returning players, nowhere does it say that after paying $30-$80 for the expansions you're still unable to play many parts of the story. As a matter of fact it says Icebrood Saga is included, which as you just stated is clearly not the case, it just gives you access. Anyways, it's a real bummer for me especially since i'm one of those people who is really into the story and achievements. Lastly, i'm not sure if this is true, but a guildmate said that the least amount of money ArenaNet made in a year was a tad under $50 million usd, it would just be nice to let their customers know that even after buying the expansions you still arent able to access 2 dozen episodes. Merry Christmas :)

>

> Very few people are unaware of how the episode acquisition works. They (anet)have been very straight foward. Also , this has been discussed here more than once as the search feature will show. And the games wiki also helps. I can understand the frustration of a new player joining the game for the 1st time, but that is the way always has been for the episodes.

Only people who have obtained an expansions and most of the seasons are aware of how episode acquisition works. But, it is not those people who need to be informed about how to buy the expansions now.

Nearly all of the people now buying the expansions will be new players who are unaware of how the seasons have been given out. For new players the messaging is quite poor on what they get and what content they need to obtain with gems.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> > @"Psientist.6437" said:

> > I like the way Echovald forest looks. The bubbles are...well, they exist. Could the bubbles in or coming from the Jade Sea? They look like bubbles underwater or in a thick medium, they aren't round. There could be some kind of substance filling the atmosphere. The prismatic effect may just be a way to make the bubbles stand out though. The new person has a royal bearing and is densely surrounded by whatever medium the bubbles are in. Perhaps there is some connection between Canthan royalty and the DSD.

>

> As to the origin of the bubbles being the Jade Sea - I am doubtful, because these show up in Shing Jea concept art as well as "high in the air" stuff. Makes more sense that this is more of a vision's effects - like how the visions granted by Aurene have a crystallizing effect on the borders of the screen:

I guess, then, if these are concepts for a vision, then this wouldn't be Aurene's vision, as her effect would be crystals. So, I guess one can ask, what kind of entity would have a vision distorted by bubbles?

Come to think of it, the EoD teaser video has a lot of vision like distortion too. But it has neither bubbles or crystalline effects. It has blue/white flame effects instead.

If these represent different dragons/minions sharing visions, then it seems that they are getting quite chatty.

Also the description indicates you need to spend the currency to provide progress... I am at the moment hoarding like 30 of them, so maybe it isn't progressing because people aren't spending it.

He was originally voiced to be awkward and unsure. Being a firstborn sylvari, he also never learned to socialize like other mortals do and does not express his emotions with his voice. He is a bookworm and not actually very comfortable with going out into the field, however, he is guided by the sylvari's wild hunt to do these things.

Basically his voice matches his backstory just fine. People just don't like that he is an awkward character.

And stealing glory. He never does that. He becomes the pact marshal and that is pretty much it. And he didn't even become pact marshal out of popularity. He is appointed that position exactly because he seems so aloof. He is neutral, so he brought the least complaints from the three orders.

Some players are just paranoid.

You need to ensure you have gone through all of the '[Confer with Bangar](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bangar_Ruinbringer#During_the_Confer_with_Bangar_achievement)' dialog.

The "Jormag's Enemy" section heavily hint's that whatever was done to waken Jormag, had the same effect on Primordus.

Basically Jormag and Primordus are inextricably linked in some way.

The chat with Caithe and Ryland in the Brisband wildlands makes me seriously doubt assumptions on if the commander is a 'true' champion of Aurene.

I don't get it. Ryland, trying to compare himself and the commander... Ryland is being dumb. And, for that matter Jormag is being a bit dumb too (in talking about having a mortal champion like Aurene's). Aurene's and the commander's relationship is nothing like Jormag's and Ryland's. Aurene hasn't transformed or greatly empowered the commander with her domains of magic. Besides some small mount boons, Aurene's only influence, now, is a boon granting the commander the latest mastery track. The boon itself less about directly giving the commander more power, and more about allowing the commander to recycle collected magics into other boons. Caithe being there emphasizes this difference even more. Caithe isn't the 'champion' but she has been imbued with enough of Aurene's healing and crystal magic to be transformed. She is more like Ryland than the commander right now. So the regular old commander being compared with the other two, kind of emphasizes that the commander isn't really a normal champion.

> @"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.

You know... Jormag Compares it's ice with Aurene's crystals. It seems that Jormag and Aurene are similarly forces of order. Aurene is called the prismatic dragon, but, her most upfront domains seems to focused on healing and crystals while Jormag focuses on persuasion (or control) and ice. Both are forces that can bring and maintain order. While Primordu's, fire and 'conflagration' (destruction?) are notably chaotic. And the commander, is also a chaotic force. Everything done so far has been about dismantling ancient mechanisms of the world. Also, remember, the _infallible_ Joko's speech to the commander (Praise Joko!)... He may be egotistical to irrational ends, but that speech has a lot of truth to it. The commander saved a lot of mortals, and could be using any manner of magic (depending on class). But the consequences of the commander's actions destroying a lot of powerful ancient forces are quite chaotic. Joko's accusations are actually backed up. Maybe I just love that cutscene too much, but I want to believe (in Joko).

I think the key to Aurene and the commander's relationship is that they represent opposite forces. Aurene is a force of order to the world. However, in being the prismatic dragon (something that can hold all forms of magic), Aurene also recognizes the need for chaos. Kralkatorric's death was was what allowed her to Ascend in the first place. The commander led Kralk's destruction freeing up his magic so Aurene could evolve it into a new form. Giving the commander her form of magic is beside the point. The commander isn't an extension of Aurene's power, but a counterpoint to it. Even the new boon Aurene gave the commander doesn't power itself. It isn't remotely tied to healing, and may instead be tied to the new 'prismatic' aspects of magic. This boon transforms magic, released by other minions, into something useful for the commander. It feeds of the commander destroying those minions.

But the commander is no elder dragon. Aurenes powers could vastly overwhelm anything the commander can do. Perhaps Aurene is standing back, because she needs the commander's chaotic tendencies to do more work. And, theoretically, Aurene's true opposite is the deep sea dragon. Which no one seems to know anything about. So, I wonder, if the commander is just a test run for Aurene to cooperate with the deep sea dragon. Maybe the commander is like the DSD lite. Aurene practicing her own magic in amounts measured against commander's effects. When the DSD dragon arrives Aurene's real work can begin.

> @"RyuDragnier.9476" said:

>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.

But... if we are going to go really far into the deep end of theories. I agree that the commander isn't a true (or normal) champion of Aurene. They are more opposites. If anything, the commander is an unwitting champion to the deep sea dragon. Powered by whatever the opposite of Aurene is, the commander destroyed a lot of things. Elder dragons, gods, the commander even defeated death. Something powerful is watching over the commander.

> @"KryTiKaL.3125" said:

> I apologize for the sarcasm, but companies like NCSoft tend to follow patterns, especially when it comes to the optics around these things. I'm not trying to be a doomsayer, even if it very much sounds like it, but I mean...c'mon...you don't layoff 143 employees by saying "part of a larger organizational restructuring within NCSoft in the West" when ANet is quite literally the only NCSoft subsidiary in the West, yet things are apparently "going well" internally over there with handling this game.

'NCSoft West' is a subsidiary on its own, and it is the parent of Arena Net and... well it seems to be somewhat of a relic as it is true that most of it's other studio's have closed. Who knows what it's current role is in the organization, but there is info about another mobile game studio (before the restructuring anyways), and lately they have worked on distribution for a Harmonix game. In the past it was said that Anet in-housed its marketing and publishing work (for whatever that was worth), which is kind of silly, since that meant their parent (NCSoft West) had nothing to do... and considering that they where once a multi studio organization, but now, really only have one product to manage, perhaps the restructuring was simply a long overdue adjustment.

Of course nobody really knows what the financials are. GW2 does make revenue, and NCSoft publishes statistics on it, but they don't publish cost breakdowns across the organization so we don't know how much cash NC Soft West vs Arena Net where burning and what they where spending it on.

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> Phlunt also mentions that Primordus could have "changed" to accomodate Zhaitans and Mordys magic whilst it slept. I wonder if that is a hint to another model change

DIdn't he say either Primodus was able to purge Zhaitan and Mordy's magic or accommodate it? I personally thing the purging theory is more sound. That is because we had also swapped magic between Jormag and Priomorus previously. Although swapping those two did seem especially detrimental. So it could be that Primordus is awake now because the foreign magics have been purged, including swapping Jormag's and Promordu's magic back.

This also makes me wonder what Ryland actually did with the spirits of the wild to wake Jormag. Did Jormag consume parts of their magic. Or are the spirits of the wild a conduit to a certain kind of ley line that helps the dragons swap magic back. Omadds machine swapped the dragons magic in the 'wrong' way putting Jormag and Primodus to sleep, so can the spirits do the opposite, and is that why Jormag's and Primodu's awakening are coincidental? If the spirits are actually stewards of dragon magic in some way, maybe that is why Braham, who has been blsed by them, is able to sense the dragon minions.

Although if this is the case, where did Zhaitan's and Mordremoth's magic go? Maybe the Pale tree is somehow pulling Mordremoth's magic back. If the Pale tree is doing something, I wonder if Laranthir is helping (I just see no other reason for him to be abdicating his duties to the Vigil). Zhaitan's magic, who knows where it is going. The ley lines crisscross the world.

Well at least Aurene still believes in the balance. And although her way of maintaining it by staying out of the way is a bit dissapointing. But... this seems to be a pretty common thing in Guild Wars lore. The commander asked Kormir for some kind of blessings to help against Balthazar, and got nothing. Kormir asked the other gods for blessing to take on Abaddon, but was only told she already had everything she needed... Perhaps it is just a recurring issue with writing needing to buss away the all powerful entities, but perhaps the excuse of 'balance' can be made a compelling reason for powerful beings to step back.

Another interesting note. The second in the new mastery line lets you get a boon based on the last dragon champion killed and use that boon in the next response mission. Currently every response mission is a Primordus response mission, and you always get a Primordus based boon. It makes me wonder though, does the last champion killed matter if it is always going to be a Primordus champion? The language is neutral on the description... oh and uhh.. the wiki has all of the mastery descriptions already... and uhm... it seems quite spoilerish.

That is why the way I see it. They won't do a new race unless that re-build a lot of the character customizability ("fashion wars") content. It is a big chunk of "content" with a lot of controversies, with armor weight mixing, outfits providing streamline customizations, hair removal, and clipping here and there and everywhere. This is arguably a more important issue in the game. But if such a re-work makes rigging a new race vastly easier, I could see it as icing on the cake.

I don't think so, the current character creation system and armor attachment system still seems too fragile to not outright break with Tengu. Even with the charr skeleton, it will just be clipping this and clipping that and. and.. and... ugh.

Perhaps each of the chapters will be about (re)introducing each of the remaining living elder dragons, setting them up for the "End of Dragons".

Primordus: Truce (not alliance). Primordu's destructive forces means the armies of Tyria can't muster forces against Jormag. But Jormag doesn't turn it's army against them. So there is no chance of fighting between Jormag and mortals. Aa de-facto truce even if mortals don't intend to hold it.

Jormag: Power. Jormag promises power to it's followers. The commander will have to ask Jormag to directly intervene against Primordus in some way. But Jormag's power doesn't come free, and asking for it is a serious act of desperation.

Aurene: Balance. The prismatic dragon. The dragon with the potential to hold magic in balance. The commander seeks advice from their dragon. They wonder how they can use Jormags power to keep Primodus in check, but worry of Jormag's wish to eliminate Primodus and wrecking the balance they have worked for. Aurene attempts to intervene, but is simply too inexperienced an incapable of resolving the situation.

S.............: Judgement. No choice can restore balance. Nonetheless a choice must be made and judgement follows. The fight wears on the mortals of Tyria, with ice down their backs, and flames at their feet. They once saw hope and light in Aurene but the light dims, and each must face the consequences of ice or fire. But another force watches closely spying on all, and seeking to keep track of who has control. It patiently waits weighing the possibilities, reveling in the squabbles of it's peers. Regardless of the tides of battle, it will ensure it will be the Judge of it all and have the final say...

And when it is ready to act, It knows to whom to reveal itself to. Champion of one dragon, envy of another, bane of the third, and slayer of the rest. Hero of the mortals. It speaks to this transcendent mortal, the Commander, it's final Judgement. It is time for the "End of Dragons". So buy the expansion now.

Hmmm.. well that is enough making up kittens for me, for now.

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Yeah, looks like ANet's full out retconned those two paragraphs of The Ecology of the Charr about imperatorship and the primus warbands of the High Legions. Another victim to the "post-HoT writing team ignoring small pieces of pre-S3 lore". It really does feel like, ever since Season 3, ANet stopped caring about the fine details and are constantly redefining things.

>

> For those unknowing of what we're talking about:

>

> > The primus warband of any legion carries the name of that legion—Ash, Blood, Iron and in the case of the Gold Legion, Flame. This singular legion is hereditary, but the leader must claim the name through blood challenge—a fight between descendants of the Khan-Ur for supremacy within the legion.

> >

> > Occasionally, non-descendants of the Khan-Ur join the primus warband, taking the name of their leader as their own, as is Charr tradition. But the leader of the primus is always a descendant of the Khan-Ur, the foremost heir of the legion and their rightful inheritor of the crown of leadership among the Charr.

> https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ecology_of_the_Charr

>

> Crecia becoming Imperator is a very odd choice even ignoring this. Crecia was born *Flame*, and has an established history of this being a point of strife for her in the Blood Legion, despite rising to the ranks of Tribune.

Bah, that is such a Kralkatorric mindset, the charr never allowed it before, so they couldn't have changed it now... But we killed Kralk, so there, hah!

Well, I do admit, stuff like this happening in the background is a bit disappointing. Then again, doing such a side story properly is probably a big undertaking. The focus is on dragons after all. But I can't call it a retcon if the future is different from the historic description of something. This is just a change, not a retroactive change.

I think the next expansion won't be anything dramatically altering the trajectory of the game. Going from the timeline and rumors that came out of NC Soft West's restructuring, this expansion doesn't seem like it has the time to bring something more revolutionary than the previous releases. So no, I don't think this is make or break. They are not trying to make any dramatically different features and reinvent the game nor are they going to break anything too much in it's formula.

The thing is, the status quo is always a downward trend with age eventually taking hold and brining things down. This game is fortunate to have been enough of a success to give it a long runway to maintain the status quo. Hell I thought this runway was reaching it's end around the second expansion. But here they are, still able to put out two seasons of living world. In my opinion the next expansion doesn't have to prove anything. It just has to make this runway somewhat longer, reinvigorating the population that continue to play the game and holding onto them a bit longer. The Steam release initiative should also give the game a bit more longevity, but that could be a bit of a rough launch depending on how well things work at the time.

That is not to say ANet can be content with simply patching in more content to extend it's life. The thing is, this make or break point you ask about, is really normally something that happens behind the scenes. This expansion has been created to satisfy needs that the company reasonably expects to be meet. It has been greenlit, and no company should greenlight a gamble. Sure there have been major examples of other big publishers having games wildly miss expectations. But those always come from the same big ol AAA publishers who have shown to have insatiable expectations that have, at this point, become comedic. In any case, the breaking point won't be this expansion, it will be the plans for the next updates. What goals is NC Soft setting for the game, how is ANet planning to meet those goals?

This game will not make it or bust with an expansion, that will happen in the background. Perhaps an unexpectedly good selling expansion will give the planners 2nd, 3rd or even more chances at finding a successful plan for the future. Under previous directors, this game seems to have run through a dozen or so plans. Dragon story content associated rewards, and some other pve stuff seem to be the only things still sticking. Even so there are some glaring issues with that content. Some people think the the only viable plans are a new game. And in some aspects they are right. The previous expansions are successful in that they help produce more revenue, but they haven't grown the player base. And the expansions are having diminishing returns. This next one is probably not expected to do any better than PoF (although if the Steam release grows the audience significantly, it could fare better).

These plans will be the most important to if someone, somewhere decides if the game can continue or not. What are they, well those outside can't really know. Could they redefine what it means to release a new game, that still manages to build off of an old one. Maybe a re-master of sorts. Just some wild speculation, but there is something else to keep in mind. NC Soft West doesn't appear to have any other current revenue generating products. In my opinion NC Soft West and ANet are likely now organized as a single business entity anyways, because, well they only seem to be one studio now. Well besides that one other studio making a mobile game (no one has heard a peep from them, are they still ok? hello?). My point being, if GW2 goes bust, likely NC Soft will have no other reason to continue operating in the US. NC Soft West would go bust with it. It would be quite a terrible mark on the company (although admittedly an inconsequential one, considering all the revenue from it's primary Asian operations and games). The fact that last years drama hasn't completely hollowed out the companies into a skeleton crew gives me hope that they still have plans for the western market and this game. That they are laying the groundwork for a future. Just keep in mind, that the period between that reckoning and this next expansion is not all that long. That there is no way this next expansion is going to be the total revelation of the company's future plans.

The next expansion is called "End of Dragons". And I think the name could also be a poetic end point to the current state of the game/company. So far the game has been about the dragonrise events. Dragons, have been this game. And this next expansion is the conclusion of everything this game has been about. I, with wild hope and imagination, hear that meaning the end of what the game has been. Because in order to confidently say that this is the 'end', one has to have a sound plan for a new beginning (or going into a happy retirement). Because of that, this next expansion is not what make or breaks the future of the game/franchise. What comes after it, is.

I use compact, but I have a small issue with how it works.

It will split a full stack of an item, and move the items to fill a partial stack higher up in your inventory.

It will do this, even to full stacks in an invisible bag.

I think it shouldn't do this.

> @"Linken.6345" said:

> > @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > > @"Thenme.6491" said:

> > > and how would you prevent others from fighting it?

> > > the best Arena Net have managed thus far is to let everyone who already entered fight keeping others outside, but no entering limitation

> >

> > They could simply flag that enemy as invulnerable for other players,

> > Or they could make it invulnerable to everyone without a certain buff and only let the one party have that buff.

> >

> >

>

> So invent new tech when a 1-5 instance they already have nailed down work fine?

Anet previously dabbled in instanced followers (that don't really do anything) running on a shared map. In (what could be part of an MVP) the follower looks like something else to and is still targetable by other players. Perhaps they have developed a system of fully segregated instanced player/party specific entities running on the same map shard where the player specific entities (enemies) are only shown and interactable to the intended players. In the future this tech could allow normally instanced content to be started by 'phasing' the player into it without pulling the player into a different server. Depending on the existing backend, such new tech could cut down on server overhead into the future.

Maybe Truce is between Jormag and Primordus. They seemed to have fought in the past, so the formation of a truce is cessation of this past conflict. Jormag has mentioned Ryland's tactics, so they might be doing some fighting between the episodes and slowly turning Primordus forces back to the point of negotiation a truce. The dragons know they are each other's weakness, so it is possible that neither knows they can actually win in a final fight, so they agree to avoid asking that question in the first place. They will no longer fight each other and split control of land/magic/minions, as long as Primordus doesn't attack Jormag's army and instead focuses on terrorizing those that resist Jormag's influence.

Jormag normally uses carrots to lure followers, but a big stick in the form of another dragon melting your face off could boost recruitment even more. Primordus doesn't seem to have interest in fleshy followers, so it is ok with whoever it displaces being served to Jormag.

And the use of Champions (plural) is somewhat concerning. The term champion in the recent story has mostly been to referencing a dragon's champion. I am skeptical that they will re-use it in a different way at this point. I forget where the idea of "one champion" comes from, or is it just one of Bangar's misguided propaganda points? Anyways, will the Icebrood have multiple champions? Perhaps Ryland is able to convince Jormag to create a 'warband' of peers for him, because his efforts have shown to Jormag, the effectiveness of having a team of powerful leaders over a single champion.

This severely impact the daily costume brawl winner achievements that is currently possible to occur during the Halloween event. Accidentally activating "Time Out" will remove all costume brawl points causing a loss of progress on this daily achievement. Combine that with the increased usage of costume brawl stuns from players, this makes it nearly impossible to avoid accidentally using the "Time Out" skill when you are trying to obtains costume brawl points.

> @"BunjiKugashira.9754" said:

> I believe there are some toys that are bugged: They can set a person's counter to 0 with a single hit.

Yes, there is a bug

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/58446/costume-brawl-time-out-skill-incorrectly-activated-after-being-stunned

They should just remove all hard (skill blocking) ccs from costume brawl skills if they can't fix this.

Aurene ate Kralkatorric. So she is now, based on the understanding of ascension in this game, whatever Kralkatorric was.

Can Zhaitan's corruption bind the soul to the minion. I believe so. At least the most powerful minions has souls/ghosts like King Reza bound to them (why was Reza's ghost still around after 100 years and not passing into the mists I don't really know). There is dialogue indicating Kralkatorric's brand does so, and Jormag can torment a soul even after separation from the body. Maybe Jormag can even corrupt a ghost/soul that died a while ago. For example Jormag seems to be trying to take/torment souls from kodan shrines for the dead.

Perhaps Zhaitan only creates minions for which it can also take/use the soul or take memories from and there where plenty of bodies with ghosts around to not really care about creating elemental like minions from plant matter. The sylvari pact soldiers in the Zhaitain campaign couldn't betray military tactics and secrets in death, and that is probably more important than a few more bodies in the horde of undead. (Against Mordremoth sylvari couldn't be trusted with such information when alive).

So the choice to not corrupt sylvari bodies or create elementals might have been quite simple, it didn't consider such things worth it. There are plenty more useful things to take.

> @"Funky.4861" said:

> I'm actually disgusted that the Charr "...don't have sons". Also the second line above it; where Bangar admires the mother (Crecia) and dismisses Rytlock, the father.

Bangar isn't dismissing Rytlock in that line. He is saying that Ryland has personalities from both his parents, but that he did not suspect that Rytlock's history of usurping superiors in often violent ways would show up in Ryland. He is saying that Ryland betraying him, is obviously a result of personalities acquired from Rytlock... because Rytlock had been just as brutal in the past.

Also Bangar isn't admiring Crecia. He is simply saying he though Ryland was enough like Crecia, that he could keep Ryland by his side, just like Crecia has been all this time. Crecia is Bangar's loyal second in command even through the end of the prologue, so he hoped Ryland would be just like so.

Bangar is just saying, that in hindsight, he should have balanced the idea that Ryland could be loyal like Crecia or power hungry like Rytlock, and that he misjudged Ryland to not be like Rytlock.

Of course the Rytlock the commander knows is vastly different that the Rytlock that Bangar saw in the past. And Bangar has been trying to tease the old Rytlock out for who knows why. Maybe just to prove a point? Or maybe Bangar is just too lost in how an ideal charr should act in legion culture.

And Bangar, saying charr have no children (he does mean "children" not just "sons", because that is the cultural "norm" in charr legions) is just trying to antagonize Rytlock, because at the end of the day, charr only pretend to not have/care about (grown) children. It is a lie. Sure children are raised in the [fahrar](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fahrar) at which point parents (should) give up interest in them. But it isn't what many charr want or actually do. It is debunked in the lore, in the charr personal story. The biological family is very suppressed in charr legion culture, but that culture is antagonistic to their actual behavior.

That is also why the Olmakhan are so different too. They seem to be more in tune with nature, including their own nature.