Castigator.3470

As far as we can tell, the charr commander is still a centurion in good standing with his legion. It's just that you are on a mission to basically solve the dragon crisis/save the world and you are making good progress. Smodur, Bangar and Malice are likely well informed about recent events including the formation of Dragon's Watch and the defeat of Balthazar. And really, what charr imperator wouldn't be impressed to hear that their centurion managed to not only have a leading role in the defeat of two three elder dragons, but also managed to put down a human god on a rampage? (Joko is basically a dessert at this point.)

At that point your agent clearly seems to know what he's doing (if only they knew the truth...) so you let him do his thing, while bragging to the other imperators that it's your officer who's saving the world.

Meanwhile at home, the troops are busy stomping on Flame Legion, which is contained, but you have to get into their thick skulls that they're defeated. Then there's the ghosts of Ascalon, which need to be pacified and ghostbore ammunition is doing a really great job here. To the east there are ogres trying to conquer charr land, but the unlikely alliance of Ebonhawke and the legions is keeping them under control. Finally, the Dragonbrand will continue to be a problem for the future. Siren's Landing shows, that the damage done by the elder dragons will last for quite some time, but the threat of the branded has likely peaked. From now on the Brand is getting smaller, so there's no need to recall that centurion.

In fact, I imagine even the imperators are secretly a little nervous about recalling the commander. A charr of his achievements, who has done the seemingly impossible multiple times over might just claim the title and Claw of the Khan-Ur and unify the four legions under a legendary ruler. Each of the current imperators might at least think about this possibility and may not like it as much as imagining themselves as Khan-Ur.

For now the commander is on his mission to save the world and the rulers of the charr are perfectly okay with that. Except Kralkatorrik is now dead. We have Aurene, who manages magic, Primordus and Jormag are sleeping, Zhaitan and Mordremoth are gone and there is no trace of Steve Bubbles. So unless the deep sea dragon shows up the commander might actually come home to report mission success!

> @"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:

> Good points on the objectives and strategical value of the Shiverpeaks.

Yes, but after Ebonhawke is taken, what is there to gain for the Legions? After that Iron Blood and Ash have conquered all of Ascalon and crossing the Shiverpeaks with an offensive force is likely to make you as famous as Luigi Cadorna. This goes for both humans and charr. After Ebonhawke falls, the war is effectively over.

Unless you get a commander on either side who can either circumvent the Shiverpeaks, or get through against all expectation and with enough remaining strength to do something on the other side, while a supply route has to be established. That supply route will be harassed by norn screaming:"Fritjof, where are you hiding!?" or "Olaf, come out to play!!", while things tend to go missing, mountain passes experiences sudden avalanches, dredge will throw their sound cannons into the mix, skritt will steal shinies, grawls will do something annoying when you least expect it and when you finally cross the mountains, you are greeted by angry charr or angry humans.

And when you get past that you can try to take two of the most fortified places on Tyria: A massively walled and tiered city with a bubble shield, which can spawn mesmer portals, or an iron fortress, which has walls that can bounce projectiles, so trebuchets and old cannons do nothing, and which has so much artillery that it can rain shells on any attacker.

If it was one side against the other with no outside interference, the charr might win this, but this is not the time where no interference can be expected. Now, humans probably couldn't win either without using some searing tier atrocity, and Jennah isn't stupid, the moment humanity loses its allies is the moment everything goes down the drain for them.

And even a charr victory wouldn't be all it's cracked up to be. What if the charr west of the Shiverpeaks decide to become independent and create a new state? Rise of the Wood Legion? They'd effectively create a more dangerous Kryta.

NC-Soft likely doesn't care, sadly. Their most influential owner is the RoK National Pension Service, which only cares about returns to pay for its retirees. Although recently the founder and CEO Taek Jin Kim became the biggest single owner at 12%. Since NC-Soft had a bad quarter, they were pressured by their shareholders and just passed that pressure on to their subsidiaries.

And it wasn't just Gaile, Arenanet lost around 36% of their employees. This is a pretty big hit, even when you have 250 employees remaining. They will recover, but this hurts. We need someone, who can step in and fill the Gaile shaped hole in this forum. Someone needs to become a worthy successor for people like Matthew Medina, Josh Foreman and around 140 other employees. And I'm sure Arenanet has the talented people to do so, but for the moment everyone is in shock.

> @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> 1. Resurrection was ended since the days in GW1, and before this, GW2 was infamous for having mass death, to the point that many players found it excessive (example: Blish). Every character who has died up until now has stayed dead, even the Mary Sue.

> So yes, it does make sense to bring her back..although I would prefer it to be in a unique way (undead, branded ,etc.).

Yes, and Scarlet better stay dead, but resurrection has not become impossible, merely lost, as if Lyssa wiped the collective memory of how to use the shrines. Gaheron experimented with returning from the dead, as did other Flame Legion shamans with admittedly mixed results. Maybe Rhendak is truly coming back, after players kick his tail every ten minutes. Gaheron himself attempted a comeback and would have succeeded if not for Scholar Magg's explosive entry and a bunch of adventurers.

Shtiv it's a short one syllable name to contrast with the longer names of the other elder dragons. Plus, it fits with the theme of Dhuum and the others.

> @"Weindrasi.3805" said:

> I hope we get to encounter Bangar and Malice in-game soon, and see an expansion of the charr territories available for us to explore. Even if Bangar did decide to wage war on humanity, I don't think Blood Legion as a whole would follow him. Rytlock, the Blood soldiers in Lake Doric, and other Blood tribunes and centurions throughout the world are very pro-human, pro-treaty--and they would speak out against Bangar. If Bangar and his loyalists did wage war on humanity, it would cause a civil war within the Blood Legion, which Bangar would be doomed to lose--since the pro-human Bloods (probably led by Rytlock) would have Iron, Ash, and PC assistance. If Arenanet decided to take the story that direction, we'd probably see the Legions moving to kill Bangar and put Rytlock in his place.

Yes, Rytlock would probably take one for the team. After Requiem: Rytlock edition, he certainly has come to some conclusions. And it also gave us some information about Imperator Bangar. Despite being generally aloof, the Blood Imperator is pretty smart, so taking him down might be more difficult than taking Joko was.

Here's what I mean with taking one for the team: Rytlock, owing to his position as Blood Legion Imperator would no longer be able to go on adventures with his friends. He'd have to lead a nation of millions of charr with their characteristic red armours. The paperwork he hates would become an inevitable part of his life, as would meetings with Tribunes, who likely have their own agenda and may or may not try to replace him. However, he might be able to repair his relationship with the stone warband and the Commander could count on Blood Legion support.

The thin frames and small figures might also hint towards malnourishment. This is the downside to living in perfect harmony with nature: Mother nature also taketh away. Having crops and minor animal pens but no large scale ranching operations and being dependent on good hunting and fishing, which will vary by season, not all Olmakhan may be able to get the required intake of calories and nutrition.

The legions, having industrial production of meat and likely also cooling facilities for storage, are less dependent upon hunting. In fact, to legion charr hunting may be seen as a recreational activity. Should the Iron Legion face a temporary food shortage, they can just trade with Blood, Ash, Ebonhawke, Lion's Arch, some norn homesteads and even Kryta, the Grove, or Rata Sum. Being connected to a wider trade network has its advantages. Now the Olmakhan trade too, but in the time we meet them, their trading dried up due to Rata Primus blocking the way.

And finally, the Olmakhan are likely more encouraging when it comes to adorned horns and decoration in general. Also, I'll gladly admit, whoever designed the new horns has done amazing work. People have been asking for charr customization options and the team really delivered.

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> Asura: would probably give weapons and other supplies to the humans in exchange for economic benefits / dependence

> Centaurs: would continue their war against the humans, whether or not they'd join forces with the charr however is questionable

> the other races: would stay neutral unless provoked

>

Asura are likely to curry favour with both parties. Having no loyalty to either human nor charr, they'd prop up the losing side to sell goods, services and war bonds.

Norn are likely to fight on all sides for their own reasons: Olaf Hammerhand joins Kryta, his rival Fritjof Anvilfinger joins the charr to try and battle Olaf. The rest of the fighting is just part of the epic adventure.

Lion's Arch tries to mediate between the warring parties and so do the Orders. The priory will send letters and do diplomatic reasoning, the Vigil will set up neutral grounds and protect civilians from becoming collateral, Whispers might try to sabotage the assaulting armies and take out warmongers on both sides, if necessary.

Sylvari, like the norn will likely be present on all sides. Charr have them, humans have them, orders have them. They'll be excited, but also worried about peace.

With all the entanglement between Kryta and the Legions, this would be an embarrassment of a war. Crossing the Shiverpeaks would be full of accidents for all sides involved, the orders insist on being neutral grounds, Lion's Arch is neutral, secret maneuvers are impossible, because Whispers has operatives everywhere, and since many commanders likely know each other from the Zhaitan campaign, this will not be a slaughter, like 250 years ago, but there are likely rules in place. Prisoners will be exchanged, morale will not be what it used to be on either human and charr side and unpopular leaders risk getting Rytlock Brimstone'd by their ambitious underlings. What a slog. And for what little gain? The Legions can only reasonably grab Ebonhawke. Having Shiverpeak enclaves would be a logistical nightmare. The humans could demand more of Ascalon, which is currently plagued by many issues and charr retaliation would likely drive them back into the gates of Ebonhawke.

This would be the Battles of Isonzo all over again. But up to eleven! After the umpteenth failed offensive the leaders might already be thinking about making a truce. The charr might discover acetylsalicylic acid, just to have something to help against the headache. They would later export that to the humans, so their leaders would add citrus to that mix. Then they'd call a peace, having defeated not their intended enemy, but pains and inflammations. The asura might end up buying tons of the stuff to treat their own headaches, too, while Kryta trains a new cadre of capable officers, while the legions introduce mandatory leadership courses for anyone, who rises above the rank of legionnaire.

> @"Neeman Oria.7504" said:

> https://www.wattpad.com/story/179943615-guild-wars-2-war-stories-the-terrible

Thank you! And what a beginning to a story. Hearing the cries of that garrison made it very realistic.

So E could stand for Explorator? Maybe. Oddly enough Mr E has been foreshadowed as a person the commander already met, so we already ran wild with speculation in which the community mostly concluded that E is most likely human and male. Within these parameters it could be anyone, really.

I'm looking forward to reading your stories. If you feel comfortable with it, just drop a link into this forum.

If the name list on reddit is even remotely accurate, then I wonder if NC-Soft isn't just purposefully trying to kill the studio (not the first time). In moments like these I wonder if we should create a foundation with the purpose of protecting studios from greedy publishers. Could the fans raise the money to acquire Arenanet from NC-Soft?

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> Should we pretend your random sand shark or mordrem doesn't carry coins or workable gear on them in lore and that loot sharing is purely mechanical and not lore related in any way, then any gold accumulated for the Commander would either be from their early times, pre-personal story (some do start as noble humans after all), or during their career as members of an Order or the Pact. On top of rewards for taking on local threat bounties like Molten Alliance and Aetherblades, or later on the Order of Shadows' bounties, the Commander has probably been fairly rich since killing Zhaitan if not since joining an Order.

>

> This, of course, would also be relevant to the biconics, who've done a lot of the same things. Kasmeer in particular, since she regained her nobility in Season 2, she likely regained any possessions lost from that particular event and now has a steady income thanks to the Krytan economy regardless of her deeds.

Do you think it likely that Kasmeer will engage in charitable beviour, donate to the poor, or even open an almshouse? Kasmeer always struck me as the person to look out for others.

> @"ThatOddOne.4387" said:

> Everything even vaguely technological that doesn't have glowing lights on it is charr technology, donchaknow?

To be fair a lot of modern Tyrian industrial equipment is charr made, so anything techy that isn't asuran will indeed be stereotyped as charr made. This should indicate that the Iron Legion really has the edge when it comes to industry, similar to how a PC is associated with the Windows OS, despite there being numerous alternatives, because the former holds around 90% marketshare. If the legions hold a comparable share in the production of industry goods, the stereotype is firmly grounded in reality and non-charr technological products are the exception. Going by Pareto Principle, it's likely that 80% of machine parts are supplied by 20% or Tyrian manufacturers and I would not be surprised if most of those are charr manufacturers.

As for the steam creatures, were they not fallout from a certain Asura's meddling with potential timelines? I recall visiting Scarletts hideout finding crude copies of steam creature, so Scarlett might have just borrowed an existing design. That would at least make much more sense than Scarlett being the inventor of everything. It is even hinted that she studied the steamportals, but not made them. Plus, as a generalist, she'd be much better suited to combining existing technologies than to being a groundbreaking inventor in every field.

As for the question of human and charr going to war: What if human and charr ally and wage war on ogres and centaurs? Both have something to gain here, namely territory and resources, can try improve their doctrines with relatively small risk and since the two theatres would be to the east of the Blazeridge Mountains and to the north of Harathi Hinterland, no one, except centaurs and ogres, would be particularly bothered by such expansion. Additionally, not many third parties would even care.

> @"Narcemus.1348" said:

> 2 small things.

>

> 1) Salma never conquered Lion's Arch. She came to Lion's Arch and the lionguard let her in without bloodshed.

>

> 2) The charr attacks on Kryta and Orr took place simultaneously after they wrongly assumed that Ascalon was broken. So their failure to take Kryta had nothing to do with the failure of their invasion of Orr.

Ah, thank you.

> @"ThatOddOne.4387" said:

> A lot of good points. Read his post, it's worth it.

> (Gonna shill the Templin Institute here, their video is great)

Before the fall of Lion's arch in 1219 AE, Divinty's Reach was a mere outpost with a tomb north of Shaemoor. Divinity's Reach replaced Lion's Arch as a capital and the Krytan Ministry was founded because the king's centralized seat of power broke down. As a city, Divinity's Reach is younger than the Black Citadel (1112 AE). Old Lion's arch was not quite as strong as modern Divinity's Reach and was conquered by Queen Salma and her band of supporters, the Shining Blade, in 1079 AE.

But that was after 1070 AE, where the humans and charr both were weakened. Remember, the charr took massive losses in Orr* and Ascalon, so when they went for Kryta, their morale and war support was waning as well. The other legions were already growing discontent with Flame's rulership, as each defeat was seen as Flame wasting the other legion's soldiers and resources.

*Orr would have fallen to Flame Legion had Khilbron not nuked the Kingdom.

As for Kryta, I suspect the population boost from Ascalonian settlers made current Kryta possible. They built many new settlements, growing the Kingdom's economy early on, which likely compounded over the following 253 years. So current Kryta is far more powerful from a magical, cultural, military, economic and diplomatic perspective.

Same with the Iron Legion. They have not been slacking off either, while Iron is not well versed in magic, their military and economy are top tier and their diplomacy, while not human level amazing, is fairly solid. Sadly we don't know all that much about Blood and Ash legion territories.

But most people here assume the charr attack. That's likely because the best chance for a human attack was Caudecus, but the Krytan line has somehow spawned Oswald Thorn, so if another such king were to inherit Kryta, he might attempt to wage war against centaurs (for tradition's sake), Lion's Arch (Kryta's old capital), the charr (He might claim Ascalon) and even the hylek (because their croaking annoys him).

Though the most likely scenario involves a cold war situation, where Kryta implicitly supports all things that annoy the charr, while the legions, Ash in particular, might prop up all threats to Kryta. Lion's Arch would be the centre of all the required money laundering, weapon smuggling and espionage, so it would become immensely wealthy, while Krytan nobles and Charr officers pretend that they have no connection to all these activities while trying to one up each other at every turn. Ebonhawke might even try to play both sides, hoping to gain independence from Kryta, and seeking to gain the best of deals from the Iron Legion.

Edit: The Video is okay. Did the Templin guys ever plan to analyse the Legions and the Asura society?

For Iron Legion!

I doubt such a war would really get anywhere. Even if the charr capture Ebonhawke, there is a large obstacle between Ascalon and Kryta. Without any safe passage over the Shiverpeaks the war would just stalemate. For now the Legions are better off building their empire eastward. There's no formidable foes to our knowledge and they can grab all the resources on the way. The far shiverpeaks are still blocked by Jormag, so until that thaws, charr and humans could just send angry diplomatic notes.

(So the next war between the charr and the humans would have to be a cold war, maybe fought over proxies.)

Plus Smodur is trying to turn Ebonhawke into an ally of the Iron Legion, which may just work, as they'll be economically far closer to their neighbour than Kryta. Plus they're already killing ogres together. What better bonding exercise is there over ogre campaigns?

That being said, the only way the high legions will act in that manner is if they finally unite under a new Khan-Ur. It might happen, but until then the charr are just as likely to fall to infighting as declaring war on outsiders. And they're already fighting ghosts, branded, renegades, separatists, ogres, harpies, dredge and Flame Legion.

There are some theories about this. That there are multiple versions of Tyria, each of which form a faction of the Mist War, but maybe there is only one Tyria, but several factions in the Mists are fighting over the borderlands and Castle Stonemist, which seems to be an important location around which all these skirmishes revolve. The fighting is intense, even acknowledged by NPCs in game and apparently you're able to take things out of the mists, even some rather nice items, all in all the keeps and lords and their purpose seem rather mysterious.

This makes me wonder why humans weren't hit harder by possible diseases when they arrived on Tyria. Maybe the isolation of Cantha will lead to a disease outbreak from central tyrian smallpox or something. Such an event wouldn't really get us on the good graces of the Ministry of Purity. But all in due time.

As for the scarabs, is it possible that Kralkatorrik could brand the scarab plague?

> @"Yannir.4132" said:

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

> > The fact that the plague only affected humans in of itself was the retcon and twist. One that destroyed the entire buildup of the previous two episodes by making it a non-threat.

>

> Wasn't the idea that Joko hadn't had time to mature his 3rd generation of Scarabs which would've made the Scarab Plague a world-ending pandemic encompassing all races? That most of his scarabs were 2nd generation and all samples of the 3rd generation were destroyed by the PC?

The way I see it, the original Scarab Plague got lost over time, some descendant scarabs survived, but the Inquest had to reverse engineer the plague, which is where the concept of generations comes in. Joko's servants had to breed the scarabs to be hungrier, more aggressive and less picky when it comes to hosts, but I have no data on the original Scarab Plague infecting non humans. The stages however can be traced back to GW1, where we could find an account of Scholar Yomindhe, who wrote a journal on the events during the first plague.

From that information we can gather, that the original plague infected the grain, which would be eaten and the scarabs then consumed their hosts. In fact, the Inquest sample may originate from Scholar Chago's research, which may have led him to Fahranur eventually. The Inquest had modern equipment, so it is likely they arrived at the same time, or soon after they established Rata Primus.

> @"Gern.2978" said:

> That definitely sounds like a specific cultural thing. I'm not sure what culture you're from but I've never heard of "Boss" being a family name nor "Chef" being used outside a restaurant's kitchen. But I can see how that would sound odd to you if that's the case in your culture.

>

> In the US, "Boss" is just an informal name for a leader. Sometimes it has derogatory connotations, but not always. And a "Chef" is the head of a kitchen, or another name for a cook.

Well, I know where the chef-kitchen connotation comes from, namely the french kitchen brigade, which is a form of highly organised cooking. The chef de cuisine (maitre de cuisine for master craftsmen) is the head of the kitchen, the sous chef his second in command. The word chef, however, comes from chief and refers to a superior. A "Chef de Bataillon" is a military commander, for instance.

This was adopted into german in the 17th century and retained its meaning. As for Boss being a last name, have you ever heard of a company called Hugo Boss? He named that company the Mechanische Berufskleiderfabrik Metzingen. After his death, the company was renamed to commemorate its founder.

As for Boss, this word has entered our language through american movies (The Godfather) and is generally associated with shady businessmen, if not outright criminals.

> @"Cristalyan.5728" said:

> Hm? Logan is already on the battlefield, pretty well recovered. As a joke, from the speed he recovered it seems Logan's mind has been attacked - but having no brain he is immune to this kind of aggression =). So, he is back on the battle. Now is time to see Zojja back with the others. Why? Because if we recall what Glint said, only fighting **all together** will be Destiny Edge (now Dragon Watch) able to defeat Kralky. In the first fight Logan was not there. In the second fight Zojja missed. I think that now is the right moment to bring Zojja back - for the story and respecting what Glint foresaw.

>

That reminds me of Spellforce, where a mind mage's bread and butter offensive spell's damage output was proportional to the target's intelligence. Animals would hardly notice your mental assault, but Necromancers (int based caster) took nasty damage.

There's a good chance Mordremoth's mental assaults worked in a similar manner, being proportionally worse for those that let their thoughts dwell on all the things in the world and are quick to embrace new concepts. They'd be shocked and unprepared to be confronted with the elder dragon that created their magical trees.

Similarly, a brilliant golemancer like Zojja might have tried to wrestle with the mind of Mordremoth outside of the dream, where you can beat someone to death with your mental imagery. But that really doesn't mean we've seen the last of her.

I'm strangely optimistic that she and Mr Sparkle will show up and give the Commander a pep talk.

> @"Heraldusluminare.2946" said:

> > @"Gern.2978" said:

> > I preferred what they did in seasons 1&2 where your guildmates all called you "Boss." Made more sense.

>

> Yeah. I personally think "Boss" sounds a lot more personal and intimate.

>

> "My friend" is also another simple phrase I feel should be used more often by the B-Iconics. Kasmeer has a line in the episode PoF: Beast of War where she calls you "my commander". I thought that was pretty weird.

Maybe it's because of my culture, but doesn't "boss" come off as massively inappropriate?

In a professional context, "Chef" is used as the informal address of your superior, and "Boss" is a family name. It can work for the undisciplined adventuring group that is Dragon's Watch, but even there adressing each other by name would make more sense.

Likewise, your warband calls you Boss, but these people bunk together, train together and are expected to die together, so they'd be the small subset of people that address each other via first name*. My friend would be a good alternative.

For all the orders, the Pact, the high legions, and to some extent Krytan society adressing the hero by their title is the best solution.

*Now the problem here is technical rather than a narrative issue. Getting the names right would either require massive amounts of pre recorded names, or a text to speech function, which would have the thankless job of pronouncing "xXx_M4g3Ass4ss1n_xXx".

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> I don't think ArenaNet intends to return to the Utopia plot. For two reasons. First is that in the Episode 4 AFC, Linsey Murdock stated that they're keeping open world maps to the world map itself, so we won't have open world zones in The Mists, etc. Incidentally, this also crosses Cantha off the list of possible locations unless a) they change their mind and create a new world map (ala GW1), or b) expand the map so large that we have to scroll past one or two monitor's worth of pure water to go from Cantha to Elona/Tyria.

I thought about this and came to the conclusuion that they can actually pull this off.

The simple tool of scrolling would allow us to zoom out, marvel at a full map of Tyria and zoom back into cantha.

The map is fine, the interface just needs to be updated to make it work. Then again, interfaces are not set in stone, if Anet want's to go all out the could project the map onto a globe, so that Tyria the planet can be observed from space. The 3D map might need a skybox, for which I suggest an expanded version of Twilight's space, giving the legendary greatsword a connection with the world itself.