So Episode 5 map will be... [spoilers]

[Castigator.3470]

> @"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:

> There's a river between Iron Mines of Moladune and Thunderhead Keep. That river would be the most likely place for the Iron Legion to launch their steam ship prototypes (or more accurately, down south of that spot, as there would likely be frozen most of the year). I'd imagine they'd have taken some presence in Moladune area, more than Thunderhead Keep.

>

> Keep in mind that the dredge have, per The Movement of the World, taken most of the southern dwarven territory. So most of the Deldrimor Front should be dredge occupied (and we do indeed see some dredge in the trailer). [...]

>

> Ultimately, I think it depends just where the map is and how close to the river - and above that, how much ArenaNet remembers these bits of lore (and given their track record for remembering the small things...).

 

Let us hope so.

It would be a real bummer, if that part of Tyrian history was forgotten, or just conveniently ignored. Since Sea of Sorrows is written by Ree Soesbee, who was the continuity designer (Responsible for making sure the timeline doesn't contradict itself?) until 2017, that means someone else will have to remember.

 

As for the Moladune Iron Mines, I guess they are the filet mignon of the southern Shiverpeaks and close enough to the Black Citadel for the Legion to stake their claim, along with adventurous mining companies, dredge and the Priory, who are interested in dwarven relics, but not necessarily the iron itself. Former Ice Floe would be interesting for the coastline. Plus, old Ice Floe wasn't really populated by anything other than imps.

 

However, we don't know the extent of the new map. It could be small and almost entirely covered by the old Thunderhead Keep, or the new Thunderhead Peaks are similar in size to the Domain of Kourna, at which point we're bound to move into some other territory. Either going up to the Brand in the east, Ice Floe in the south, Moladune to the west, or southern Ascalon to the north. Most likely some other mountainous area.

[Castigator.3470]

Now that the map is accessible, and there was no shipyard, this raises the question: How does a steamship appear in the Sea of Sorrows in 1230 AE? The local dredge claim they occupied the land since the dwarves abandoned it, so Ice Floe hasn't seen charr activity. Does this mean there's no harbour in the southern Shiverpeaks? The only space left is Witman's Folly, which might be accessible, but that seems highly unlikely, given the close proximity to Labyrinthine Cliffs.

If we look at the world map, alternative routes could be from the region called Furious Stretch, Icy Tundra, or Foundry, which would mean the charr expanded over the entire continent manifest destiny style. I mean Blood Legion could have expanded that far, but that would make the charr land even larger than any other territory, which would mean that Blood will eventually become the most powerful High Legion.

 

There were members of the Legions with us, though, Along with a large number of NPCs that we didn't meet for a long time. Tribune Mia Kindleshot is there, along with her warband and some other charr to see if we'd finally kill Kralkatorrik. It seems unlikely they were there to establish a foothold, though.

Still, I'm positively surprised to see so many different people living at or near the Thunderhead Peaks.

Dredge settlements, Priory researchers among the dwarven ruins, Zephyirites were present on the map, the Pirates and the Pact transported our Elonian allies, there were Branded, which makes sense, considering Kralkatorrik is now thinking with portals.

 

On the topic of Portals: I haven't found the Portal to the Fire Island Chain yet. Does it still exist?

What interesting things, concerning the history of Tyria, have you found on the new map?

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

> @"Castigator.3470" said:

> Now that the map is accessible, and there was no shipyard, this raises the question: How does a steamship appear in the Sea of Sorrows in 1230 AE? The local dredge claim they occupied the land since the dwarves abandoned it, so Ice Floe hasn't seen charr activity. Does this mean there's no harbour in the southern Shiverpeaks? The only space left is Witman's Folly, which might be accessible, but that seems highly unlikely, given the close proximity to Labyrinthine Cliffs.

 

Ignoring that it didn't make much sense in the first place, keep in mind that the scale of things are shrunk down. So it's entirely possible that the charr have a dock on the southern/western end of Ice Flows, off the map, and barely interact with the dredge on the northeastern end who don't seem to care about ships.

 

> @"Castigator.3470" said:

> On the topic of Portals: I haven't found the Portal to the Fire Island Chain yet. Does it still exist?

> What interesting things, concerning the history of Tyria, have you found on the new map?

 

North of Thunderhead Keep was a small plateau with two small dwarven settlements, and north of that a small canyon with the mursaat teleporter. All of that got wiped out by Kralkatorrik, shattered and crystallized.

 

As for interesting things concerning the history of Tyria, I loved how THK layout was almost perfect to GW1's, but it's a little sad that Moladune and the Frozen Forest was seemingly completely ignored (granted we were underneath it all, but the overhead map is just blank mountains). Marhan's Grotto seems completely gone, I think?

 

And fun fact: The Scorchrazor is a cursed name for airships it seems. The Scorchrazor, brought down by Zhaitan. The Scorchrazor II, brought down by Mordremoth. The Scorchrazor III, brought down by Kralkatorrik.