The Flameseeker Prophecies (Full Transcript)

[Athrenn.9468]

Well, I don't want to write too much of a preamble but for anyone who is interested in reading the Flameseeker Prophecies in full, here it is! FInally after 12 years we can finally read it for ourselves, which is pretty amazing if you ask me. I've always wanted to know what the prophecies actually said beyond the few lines that we heard here and there. The formatting is pretty much exactly how you would read the verses from the three scrolls outside the Hall of Ascension.

 

Scroll 1, Verse 1

In the midst of turmoil, a voice will be raised

The voice of a king, his words a plea

He will be heard, and change will come swiftly

The beginning of peace, but the foundation of greed

That will not emerge until his life and death are legend

 

Scroll 1, Verse 2

Guilds outlawed; the world becomes smaller

Centuries pass unmarred by the blight of war

Empires thrive in the balance, but conquest is enticing

And what was stolen will be reclaimed in blood

 

Scroll 1, Verse 3

The battlefield gives purpose to a man with vision

The voice of desperation, his words a command

For every life saved, thousands will be lost

In the years that bear the mark of his rise to power

 

Scroll 1, Verse 4

For three nights, the sky will rain fire

The cause will appear both known and unknown

Heralding the beasts, if beasts they are

Destruction and devastation in their wake

 

Scroll 1, Verse 5

A harmony of hands and minds will rise

Hard times breed strength and loyalty

But they will be overwhelmed, and many will drown

Swallowed by a foolish obligation to the gods

And the greed of the very powerful

 

Scroll 1, Verse 6

As the three empires feebly resist impending defeat

Turning their heads from the curtain that threatens to fall

A cataclysmic act of magic will turn the tide of war

Sending waves to crash back upon the caster

 

Scroll 1, Verse 7

A terrible, soulless thing will be known

Made monstrous by its own words

A great hail of crystal and fire will bring destruction

Upon great cities across the land

 

Scroll 1, Verse 8

When the nations are overturned by burning wind

Faces will be shadowed and unrest kindled

Control will surrender to false saviors

But their enemy is relentless

And victory will seem an unreachable phantom

 

Scroll 1, Verse 9

The sky will open and rain fire upon weary soldiers

Good intentions open a doorway to malignance

A would-be hero will choose the wrong path

His last moments will bring him horrifying clarity

 

Scroll 1, Verse 10

Those who would follow him will not witness his truth

They stumble blindly without his sight to guide them

The battle is won, though the cost will be far reaching (sic.)

And from behind a great veil, a mastermind emerges

But clashing steel blocks his path to full dominion

 

Scroll 1, Verse 11

From the west will come the heart of Kryta

Two leaders of one blood accept their audience

But their words cannot halt events foretold

The temples are deserted, and faith is thin

And the danger is only growing

 

Scroll 1, Verse 12

A lost relic will bring hope where there is none

It will be celebrated as a gift from the gods

But the joy comes chained with sorrow

As a bloodline is severed by words

A son forsaken, a father blind

 

Scroll 1, Verse 13

A sound across the heavens brings healing rain

To drown fire and soothe smoldering scars

The mouth lies fallow until the final piece is recovered

The beasts fall under the sword, but it will not be enough

 

Scroll 1, Verse 14

Too late, the king will repent

That he did not see the danger of his adversary

His anger and pride will cause a rift

Soon, a line severed by words will be severed in truth

 

Scroll 2, Verse 1

Time will pass, and wounds will heal

But a sickness is festering beneath

Unseen powers seep into the faithful

Spreading their influence like poison

 

Scroll 2, Verse 2

The city of the son will again be besieged

Holding out hope against the barbaric and the vain

It has known hardship and will know hardship again

It cannot be saved by found relics and sharp steel

The exile holds the key; follow him

 

Scroll 2, Verse 3

A journey will be cut short for one

The sun will set

And a new son will rise

Conflict at the flame Door; he holds the key

 

Scroll 2, Verse 4

From a misguided populace, songs, chants, and demands sound

These will be held as gospel by those who did not hear

The last revelations of the robed one

His followers carry on, unaware of his warnings

 

Scroll 2, Verse 5

The threat of war is spurred by Unseen forces

Blood will spill with nefarious purpose

A clergy will be exalted and reviled

By those who wish to speak with the gods

 

Scroll 2, Verse 6

A treasure will be discovered under sand and sea

A relic guarded by Orr for uncounted centuries

Its finding will bring the death of its seeker

At the hands of a thing that is not alive

 

Scroll 2, Verse 7

The tyrant whose hand drowned his lungs in salt water

Will rise again from the depths of the abyss

And those he enslaved will not find liberty or rest

The dead will walk again, leaving their sunken graves behind them

 

Scroll 2, Verse 8

A stone that time cannot erode bleeds its essence

Into the soil of the tangled wilds

Dangerous people will use it to manufacture evil

Unaware that the foundation of their power is kept there

 

Scroll 2, Verse 9

When the vessel is coated in blood

The souls of the worthy are released

Their sacrifice will hold shut the Door

But it is destined to be opened

 

Scroll 2, Verse 10

To what wretched torment will innocent lives be delivered?

Six will be taken in the defining moment

Their souls used up, poorly guarded, betrayed

Offered to such horror by the blind scythe

 

Scroll 2, Verse 11

Those who dare oppose the slaughter

Will be put to death as martyrs, and then forgotten

Those in robes will no longer be monks, zealots, or abbots

Resistance will come in the form of clashing blades

 

Scroll 2, Verse 12

When the altar bears the scythe

Arced and ready to spill blood

Until every soul is reclaimed

Those from distant places will remain Unseen

 

Scroll 2, Verse 13

At the moon's highest ascendancy

As the season approaches its renewal

Plague, famine, and death are wrought from militant hands

And for each life stolen, another is needed

 

Scroll 2, Verse 14

From another land comes a new danger

Gateways are opened; the dead pass through

Secretly, enemies are placed like game pieces

And adherents of the Unseen will find sedition against them

 

Scroll 2, Verse 15

At the point of delivery, desperation brings alliances

The bird of prey steps into the forefront

Spreading wings of friendship, but to ensnare

His council (sic.) is taken as wisdom and kindness

 

Scroll 3, Verse 1

A man once revered but without soul and mercy

Will stretch his talons across all of Tyria

Those who seek audience with the gods

Must succeed, or all will be changed

 

Scroll 3, Verse 2

A forgotten race, molded with four arms

And the visage of a snake

Ally themselves with the soothsayer

When they leave the world of men, gods will weep

 

Scroll 3, Verse 3

At the steps of the tombs, danger rises

Horrors guard the entrance with vengeance

But as day leads and night falls unfalteringly

So are the worthy led by their hero

 

Scroll 3, Verse 4

Deep within the Mists, blood will be spilled

The Hall will seem unjust to those who are conquered

Poison, illusion, and fire will meet plague and steel

Glory will not be easily claimed

 

Scroll 3, Verse 5

The fires of a revolution will blaze to life

Making a change of reign and centuries

The Unseen will move into view

Bloodthirsty and no longer bound by machinations

 

Scroll 3, Verse 6

The last dwarf city is besieged by daylight

Few can escape the war near the top of the world

A fearless woman trades her life for those of the worthy

The betrayer will come to justice at the hands of the betrayed

 

Scroll 3, Verse 7

The Unseen war will not cease

The robed ones falter, blinded by the strength of their faith

A tale begun centuries ago ends at the lip of a mountain

But first, the worthy have their own trials to face

 

Scroll 3, Verse 8

Fate will be sealed behind the iron door

In the heart of the flame, where this world meets another

Those who came to pass before stand vigil

Their sacrifice will be undone, their enslavement lifted

The truth will be revealed

 

Scroll 3, Verse 9

Because of the dwarves' discord and negligence

An opening will be given to the disciples of the Unseen

The peaks and valleys of the Shiverpeaks will be painted in blood

At this time, the Ascendants will rise, and the way to the Door will be clear

 

Scroll 3, Verse 10

In the dark of night, the beasts will think their gods have sent an omen

A light as brilliant as the sun...the fires of the mountain

Screams and cries ring out, battles fought with demons of fire and stone

The beasts will be touched by their gods, and it will be terrible

 

Scroll 3, Verse 11

Crossing first a great ocean, and then a burning desert

The worthy face a journey fraught with peril

Stumbling wearily, leaving destruction in their wake

Fear opens a Door that should not be opened

 

Scroll 3, Verse 12

When the darkness that travels between words

Taking a form that is unknown, smoldering, and frightful

Is cast up from behind the opened Door

The hands of the worthy will burn the Unseen from Tyria

 

Scroll 3, Verse 13

The worthy, transformed by knowledge and clarity

Fleeing down the mountain, but facing pursuit

A danger looms, greater than the shambling dead:

Living monsters of stone and fire, enraged from imprisonment

 

Scroll 3, Verse 14

At sunrise, events come to a close

The keeper and the kept meet on the battlefield

The horrors unleashed seem unending

The destruction could reach every corner of the world

 

Scroll 3, Verse 15

The bird of prey stands triumphant over his prize

At his back, demons from beyond the Door

In ages to come, some will remember him with pity

Others will curse his name, and they are wise

 

The Lost Verse

On the last day of the Season of the Phoenix

Tyria is revived again

The fire is put out, and the diabolic gathering

Is closed off once again, over the bones of the bird of prey

[Jaken.6801]

A little bit offtopic, but I was quite amused doing this and running around there, while wielding my flamessekers prophecy ;)

[draxynnic.3719]

Interesting... and it seems pretty specific as prophecies go. I would have expected it to be a bit more vague - if that (apart from the final verse) was common knowledge, it's surprising that the heroes followed Khilbron so blindly.

[Athrenn.9468]

> @draxynnic.3719 said:

> Interesting... and it seems pretty specific as prophecies go. I would have expected it to be a bit more vague - if that (apart from the final verse) was common knowledge, it's surprising that the heroes followed Khilbron so blindly.

 

That's the odd bit, isn't it? I'm convinced that the full prophecy was never 100% known by anyone aside from Glint or her most trusted attendants because it seems like she was actively manipulating the course of events by selectively revealing different parts of it to different people. She knew that we were traveling with Khilbron and could have warned us of who he was, but obviously didn't want to avert the course of history so that everything could happen "as intended" (I.e. As she envisioned it).

 

For that reason, I think that Glint is a much shadier character than history paints her. She watched from afar as Khilbron opened the gates of Hell and even helped us get there. She foresaw what would happen and used her influence to make it so. In the end, I believe that all she cared about was her legacy and despite it being a noble goal, she wasn't above morally questionable actions to achieve it.

 

This makes Glint a more interesting character in my opinion. Good characters aren't painted in pure black or pure white; someone who has done great things is equally capable of doing some really questionable deeds in pursuit of a noble goal. I'm happy with that outcome.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @draxynnic.3719 said:

> Interesting... and it seems pretty specific as prophecies go. I would have expected it to be a bit more vague - if that (apart from the final verse) was common knowledge, it's surprising that the heroes followed Khilbron so blindly.

 

More importantly, what part of the Flameseeker Prophecies did Turai read to believe he was a Chosen destined for Ascension after having felled an undead lich?

[draxynnic.3719]

Good point. They probably forgot about that when they back-wrote the prophecy (because I'm willing to bet that the original team never wrote out the prophecy in that detail).

 

> @Athrenn.9468 said:

> For that reason, I think that Glint is a much shadier character than history paints her. She watched from afar as Khilbron opened the gates of Hell and even helped us get there. She foresaw what would happen and used her influence to make it so. In the end, I believe that all she cared about was her legacy and despite it being a noble goal, she wasn't above morally questionable actions to achieve it.

 

My interpretation is that she foresaw the alternatives as well, and the alternatives were worse. If most of your options result in the destruction of the world and there's one path that can result in saving the world but requires sacrificing millions to get there, and you know _for sure_ that there's no third option that allows you to prevent those millions of deaths... then you go for the route in which _somebody_ survives.

 

[Athrenn.9468]

> @draxynnic.3719 said:

> Good point. They probably forgot about that when they back-wrote the prophecy (because I'm willing to bet that the original team never wrote out the prophecy in that detail).

>

> > @Athrenn.9468 said:

> > For that reason, I think that Glint is a much shadier character than history paints her. She watched from afar as Khilbron opened the gates of Hell and even helped us get there. She foresaw what would happen and used her influence to make it so. In the end, I believe that all she cared about was her legacy and despite it being a noble goal, she wasn't above morally questionable actions to achieve it.

>

> My interpretation is that she foresaw the alternatives as well, and the alternatives were worse. If most of your options result in the destruction of the world and there's one path that can result in saving the world but requires sacrificing millions to get there, and you know _for sure_ that there's no third option that allows you to prevent those millions of deaths... then you go for the route in which _somebody_ survives.

>

 

That's an interesting interpretation of the prophecies. You think it's possible that she saw all of the branching possible futures and chose to record only the 'good' ending? I suppose that could work if you wanted a heroic narrative where Glint was good all along. For me, I personally like the idea that the world is full of more nuanced shades of grey where people (even immortal dragons) can do morally questionable things like manipulating civilizations and shaping the world in their image. Conflicts over morality are inherently interesting in my opinion so I think it's fun to think about the possibility of a beloved "good" character having done really shady things for reasons that she believed were just, even if some people would disagree.

[draxynnic.3719]

There's a lot of potential for disaster in the events of Guild Wars 1. Even if we don't consider the events of Nightfall and that Prophecies set it up for it to be possible for Abaddon to lose, the story of Prophecies itself gives two outcomes that could be considered likely without Glint's manipulation:

 

Outcome 1: Khilbron (or some other champion of Abaddon) opens the Door of Komalie, with nobody to stop him before he brings the full strength of the titans into Tyria, and Khilbron conquers the world in Abaddon's name. This could be either because the mursaat wouldn't have bothered to defend the Door without the Prophecies allowing Khilbron to just waltz in, or because Khilbron found some other way to defeat the mursaat.

Outcome 2: The mursaat are able to hold the Door closed, maintaining a stranglehold on Kryta (or whichever nation they choose to target first), and steadily taking over the world as there is nothing that can stop the mursaat armies.

 

Between these two options, the Flameseeker Prophecies outcome is a 'third option' that still leaves a lot of people dead, but which is better than the most likely alternatives.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Of course, *with* her manipulation there would be better options, such as killing Saul so that he never brings the mursaat in (at least in that manner), and killing the Burnt Warband so they never come across the titans thus never spark the Searing, Cataclysm, or launch an assault on Kryta. If she had foreseen the "whole situation" like they just made it to be, she should have foreseen those and thus stop Abaddon's attempts in Tyria dead in its tracks, and stop the mursaat's best chance to get a stranglehold.

 

But this would leave the mursaat still sitting out there, waiting to conquer, and Abaddon would still make other moves later on - and without Devona and co. (and the Ascalonian PC - I still hold to the idea that there were three canon heroes of GW1, one from each origin) becoming heroes, would they have joined in the fight against Shiro and Varesh?

[Athrenn.9468]

I appreciate the optimism, but I still don't buy the idea that Glint's motives were altruistic. When I read The Legacy (good lord, I have no formatting options on mobile so I'm just going to throw the link in here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Legacy) I get the impression that her driving motivation is to see her legacy come into fruition and for the cycle of extremes to end once and for all.

 

If that is her prime directive, then where does destroying the Mursaat fit in? I believe that they were one of the obstacles that she saw needed to be dealt with before her plans could progress.

 

With the Mursaat in a position of power to the west, her serpentine allies could never move in and build Tarir unopposed. They would probably insist on using her legacy to further their goals, and that would be a difficult threat to deal with. Instead, When Glint saw an opportunity for Khilbron, someone who hated the Mursaat, to unleash the Titans and destroy them, she took it.

 

In the end, she weighed the sacrifice of an entire race (I.e. the Mursaat) worth it for the preservation of all. Fitting, because the Mursaat deemed the sacrifice of a few humans worth it for the preservation of themselves.

 

The irony is that Glint wasn't above the same methods of involuntary sacrifice. She was just more subtle about it, and that's why history remembers her as a hero and the Mursaat as villains. They both played the same game, and Glint won.

[draxynnic.3719]

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" Yeah, that's a big part of my thinking. She could have prevented a lot of disasters, but without heroes cutting their teeth on the little disasters, would there have been anyone to deal with the big ones? She could have stopped Saul (or showed him what the mursaat were like), but we see in S3E2 that the mursaat were planning on conquering the world, and having them at least start off by doing so behind the scenes may have been a better result than having them remain hidden until they had an unstoppable army of jade constructs. She could have stopped the Vizier, but it might be that someone was destined to open the Door of Komalie sooner or later. Ultimately, Abaddon was building power in the background, and while Glint could have stopped all of his plots to use Tyria to break out, it's possible that all of his plots in Tyria could have been foiled and he still would have eventually built up enough power in the Realm of Torment to smash his way out at full strength. Allowing some of his schemes to work while he was still bound enough to be defeatable might have been better than waiting another thousand years until he had full control of the Realm of Torment.

 

@"Athrenn.9468" I think one distinction is that from the mursaat tablets left behind, the mursaat were planning on conquering the world - and with invisibility and the potential to build an army of devastating constructs, if given the opportunity to fully build up they would have been unstoppable. She's not sacrificing the poor innocent mursaat in order to drive her plans: the mursaat were themselves one of the enemies she was seeking to defend the people of Tyria from.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

Sorry for possible offtopic but I'm having trouble finding Lost Verse in Augury Rock. Where should I look for it?

 

EDIT: I found it. Just do last scroll second time.

[Athrenn.9468]

> @draxynnic.3719 said:

> I think one distinction is that from the mursaat tablets left behind, the mursaat were planning on conquering the world - and with invisibility and the potential to build an army of devastating constructs, if given the opportunity to fully build up they would have been unstoppable. She's not sacrificing the poor innocent mursaat in order to drive her plans: the mursaat were themselves one of the enemies she was seeking to defend the people of Tyria from.

 

Conquering the world isn't exactly a new concept. Humans have been doing it for centuries and they aren't so innocent either. If Glint had a staunch anti-conquest policy then she should have been all up in everyone's grill and plotting the downfall of humanity. Does anyone honestly believe that they consolidated power over Kryta, Orr, Ascalon, Elona, and Cantha without massive amounts of bloodshed? Of course they killed a bunch of other races and enslaved a few (those centaurs certainly had a beef with the Kournans...) and the charr weren't too pleased when their Khan-ur was assassinated and their families driven from the plains of Ascalon.

 

In the course of history, there are conquerors. That's just what people do to each other and we wouldn't have modern day nation's like Kryta or Vabbi without them. If Glint is selectively siding with the human conquerors over the Mursaat ones then that makes her an ally of our race, not an altruist.

[draxynnic.3719]

Humans aren't exactly unique from that perspective. The original inhabitants of Ascalon were the grawl, for instance, who the charr conquered, and the charr were also fighting the Forgotten before humans invaded Ascalon, so it's entirely possible that the human invasion of Ascalon was, in part, engineered by Glint or the Forgotten to put the charr back in their place... albeit without driving them extinct. Broadly speaking, a bit of fighting between the races is probably something Glint accepts as inevitable. She may prefer that it didn't happen, but the price of allowing free will is that sometimes those whom you allow free will use it for purposes you'd prefer they didn't - although we don't know what she may have been doing behind the scenes to encourage cooperation instead of conflict (Edge of Destiny certainly indicates that she was in favour of the former).

 

Thing is, in none of that fighting did any of the races get to the point where they were so dominant that they could enslave all of the other races with no hope of freedom. The mursaat, on the other hand, were so ahead of everyone else, to the point where special requirements had to be fulfilled in order to fight them at all, that they could have. Worse, the mursaat could have conquered the world, and then left again when the dragons next arose, leaving a mass of cowed ex-slaves with no ability to defend themselves.

 

If you look at Glint's dialogue in Prophecies, there's a point (if you fail the bonus objective) where she indicates that the human race will end if the Prophecies are not fulfilled. Now, whether it was just humans or other races would also have gone extinct in the end is not clear.

[Athrenn.9468]

> @draxynnic.3719 said:

> If you look at Glint's dialogue in Prophecies, there's a point (if you fail the bonus objective) where she indicates that the human race will end if the Prophecies are not fulfilled. Now, whether it was just humans or other races would also have gone extinct in the end is not clear.

 

Glint: "It would be a shame if the end of the human race came about simply because you do not know when you are overmatched."

 

What if this was a reference to the possibility of Glint's legacy failing to reach fruition if the Flameseeker Prophecies didn't play out as she predicted? If the Mursaat were allowed to maintain their dominion over the lands to the west it could be impossible for Tarir to be built and therefore the end of all races would certainly come when the dragons inevitably return, people kill them, and the imbalance of power tears the whole world apart? That would be one plausible explanation for why the prophecies were so important to Glint.

[draxynnic.3719]

Sure, it's possible, but we did also have Abaddon looming in the background at the time... and there's still the element of the mursaat being a powerful force that, from their own tablets, were planning on world domination.

 

You're trying to paint a picture of moral equivalence, when the worst case scenario you can come up with is that "if Glint didn't do this than everybody dies", and there is good reason to think that, directly or indirectly, the mursaat themselves were part of the threat. Likely, if there was any realistic possibility that the mursaat could have been part of the solution rather than part of the problem, Glint would have taken it - given the threat of the Elder Dragons, the mursaat are a pretty powerful asset to destroy out of spite.

[Astralporing.1957]

> @draxynnic.3719 said:

> Sure, it's possible, but we did also have Abaddon looming in the background at the time... and there's still the element of the mursaat being a powerful force that, from their own tablets, were planning on world domination.

>

> You're trying to paint a picture of moral equivalence, when the worst case scenario you can come up with is that "if Glint didn't do this than everybody dies", and there is good reason to think that, directly or indirectly, the mursaat themselves were part of the threat. Likely, if there was any realistic possibility that the mursaat could have been part of the solution rather than part of the problem, Glint would have taken it - given the threat of the Elder Dragons, the mursaat are a pretty powerful asset to destroy out of spite.

 

Of course, there's that little small detail that we've managed to learn in the last storyline - that all that Glint did was at least partially (if not fully) influenced by what her Forgotten helpers were telling her. And Mursaat were apparently on bad terms with the Forgotten even before Glint ever entered the picture.

 

One starts to think who exactly have been manipulating whom here, and to what end.

[Athrenn.9468]

Another interesting thing to note from the [most recent dev AMA](

"most recent dev AMA"):

 

[–]Anet-shwang

I was lead and mission designer for GW1, laying out the world. So returning to the Crystal Desert was really nostalgic. I enjoyed revisiting Augury Rock and the Trials of Ascension, missions remember designing. I put in the kids playing Ascension to help tell that GW1 story.

And finding a place to put the Flame Seeker Prophecies. The original text was written over a dozen years ago during Prophecies development. It's changed but to finally get it in game was cool.

 

It's no wonder then that this turned out to be my favourite lore drop from the expansion. It certainly feels old and polished, a very rich-sounding piece of text written by the same people who made Prophecies.