Kossage.9072

It could be hinting at the enigmatic Nephus who is mentioned in a few lore books and dialogues in Inner Nayos. Ambient dialogue and texts suggest that Eparch and Queen Labris potentially are the Nephus trio of siblings' uncle and aunt, while Nephus is some kind of folk hero who the Kryptis are very divided on (some revere Nephus, some react with anger when the name is mentioned). If Nephus is in fact Eparch's sibling, and Peitha, Cerus, and Deimos are Nephus's children, we could be looking at Eparch possibly being an usurper and the "true" king was supposed to be Nephus (even if Eparch was really the person who, as far as we know so far, established the rigid caste society among Kryptis). In that sense Peitha, as an heir to Nephus (if there's a relation due to the house bearing Nephus's name), could thus be the "true king" for real. 🙂 The one oddity I wish the writers would explain is why the Ravenous Wanderer of Gyala Delve (an oni presumably formed from Captain Thess based on how his human version's looks in the first phase of the Gyala boss battle resemble Thess from Silent Surf fractal) who is suggested to be a wanderer not tied to Eparch, aka the unaligned Kryptis we meet in various events in Inner Nayos, could be hurt by positive emotions but Kryptis seen in SotO feast on both negative and positive emotions alike. Does it have something to do with the Wanderer potentially being a transformed human and thus not a pureblood Kryptis, so that mixed heritage background creates a weakness for this impure demon, or could there be another reason? The curious thing here is that if Mabon, Glint or anyone else's information is so crucial, why don't we just use powerful necromancers in the Astral Ward (Livia, for example) to summon their ghosts from the Underworld or whatever afterlife they've been sent to? If Priestess Rhie could summon Alastia Crow, a pirate she hadn't known before, or how the norn spiritcaller Lefsi Spiritchaser could summon Gwen's mom for a favor to give Gwen emotional closure, and the only potential danger in these rituals is that it may attract some nightmares to disrupt the summoning, surely it should be child's play to summon Mabon back even if we had to anchor him to one of his darling items (even if as a ghost he wouldn't be able to linger for long) and ask for pointers while we have a few Astral Ward on guard to handle any hostile stragglers that may emerge to cause trouble. Perhaps Glint, due to her prophetic abilities, might also know something useful that we could use in this conflict.

I did find the mursaat's ties to Janthir curious here. Sure, in GW1 lore the mursaat sent Saul D'Alessio to retrieve the Eye of Janthir from that place, but the whole eye motif and revealing true potential vs. the Unseen (aka mursaat) felt a bit off to me. Compare it to the Seers whose very name evokes eyesight and such and how the Eye could've been one of their constructs to study beings' magic potential and later granting the gift of True Sight to unveil their rivals, the Unseen, to Seer allies. It would've been a delicious bit of irony if the mursaat, who had already repurposed the wizards' Bastion of the Penitent for their own use, would've also repurposed a potentially Seer-made Eye of Janthir not for a benevolent but malicious purpose (identifying suitable sacrifices for the bloodstones to keep the Door of Komalie shut). Not to mention that Saul's story suggests that the mursaat had a city in the forest rather than on an island, implying as if that forest might be Woodland Cascades. Would this suggest that the mursaat, despite their low numbers, had more than one city on Tyria, or that they didn't resettle Janthir after returning to Tyria (or the site was abandoned due to the later Seer-mursaat war)? Curiously the whole mursaat use of alabaster and golden filigree kinda fits the aesthetics of Amnytas and Wizard's Tower architecture. Interestingly Bastion of the Penitent seemed to suggest as if one of the political prisoners there may have been a Forgotten as there's a mention of scales in the prisoner fabric and that it was fit for a multi-armed being. Yet we didn't see any Forgotten body among Samarog's piles of victims, so I wonder if a lone Forgotten (possibly driven mad by centuries of Eye of Janthir torture) could've somehow escaped from the prison intact while cairn and Samarog focused on slaughtering the rioters, and this sole remaining Forgotten on Tyria could now be wandering in the Woodland Cascades, maybe looking for the hidden mursaat city to unlock the secrets within...

Here you go. It was Scott McGough answering players' questions on the old-old GW2 forums in a lovely Lore Q&A thread. I wish we had either that kind of direct rapport between players and devs again where devs kept answering people's questions as the thread expanded, or at least the old "Dolyak Express" type of "answers" threads where a community manager would compile player questions for devs and would then share the devs' answers to those questions in a dedicated thread.🙂 As for Scarlet's actual goals, I've always been in the camp where the short story "What Scarlet Saw" suggested Scarlet to be against both Mordremoth and the Pale Tree, pitting the two against one another to destroy both and thus free sylvari from their respective yokes so sylvari can be truly liberated as opposed to Soundless who can still fall prey to both Pale Tree (as devs confirmed that the Pale Mother can reach out to Soundless if she puts in enough effort) and Mordremoth's influence. In that sense you could view Scarlet as a villain (killing the Pale Tree and thus preventing new sylvari from being awakened) but on the other hand she could also be seen as a kind of antihero (wanting to end Dream and Ventari's Tablet influence via the death of their conduit Pale Tree and thus also silence the Nightmare which lurks within the Dream as well as Mordremoth so he could not corrupt sylvari either) who just wants to let sylvari truly follow their own path instead of Nightmare Court subjecting themselves to Nightmare's influence. 🙂 So yeah, based on this Scarlet was never good even when she set out to carry out her plan. She just wanted to give sylvari a true "tabula rasa" where the four influencers (Dream, Nightmare, Mordremoth and Pale Tree+Ventari's Tablet) couldn't dictate the paths sylvari should take anymore. Freedom in chaos and all that. 🙂

Well, the recent press preview of SotO did reveal this baddie's name:

If by dragon magic you also mean the unstable (and later volatile) magic unleashed by Zhaitan, Mordremoth and Balthazar's deaths, it appears that it may not have been dealt with fully even if Aurene now regulates the flow and, according to Kuunavang's dialogue in Arborstone, has been sharing magic with at least some mortals to lessen the burden (without outright bonding with more people). Kuunavang: It's a new era, to be sure. I've seen many of them pass. Of course, the one thing that has been a constant...was her. But the space she left behind is filling. Player: With Aurene, you mean? Kuunavang: Not just Aurene, but...you all. All that she carried seems to no longer be so concentrated... (Source) The existence of the ley-infused skelk and other "bounty" creatures with volatile abilities etc. in Gyala Delve's the Deep either means that these creatures have been infected since Mordremoth's or Balthazar's magic dispersed around the world and some of that magic hit Cantha before Soo-Won ate most of it, or they have recently been infected somehow while the ley line nexus didn't seem to affect the Commander's party at all during the fights against the ravenous wanderer. Based on HoT ending cinematic, Mordremoth's magic dispersed in four cardinal directions and split off into multiple branches from there due to ley line shenanigans. The northern flow led to Tarir (boosting the egg containing Aurene) and eventually entered the Maguuma Bloodstone and apparently reached even as far as Drakkar/Jormag based on Bitterfrost Frontier Bjora Marches lore. The eastern flow seemed to have gone to Kralkatorrik in the Crystal Desert (as PoF's "Road to the Desert" article mentioned that Kralk stirred from his roosting place in Desert Highlands and flew south to Vabbi for unstated reasons after getting a good taste of that Mordy juice) and potentially beyond that. The southern flow led to Ring of Fire where Primordus hurried off to in Season 3 and eventually to Soo-Won. The western flow is still unaccounted for but seems to have traveled to the "Sunrise Crest" region across the ocean and probably hit potential undersea civilizations along the way (assuming that the unknown horrors/shadows of the depths haven't already wiped out undersea civilizations from those areas if such civilizations exist there). Then there are also the four surviving bloodstones out there (one on Ring of Fire unless the Flame Legion excavated it and took it elsewhere somehow, another near Straits of Devastation in the cave leading to Bloodstone Caves unless it has been moved, and the fourth bloodstone and the fifth aka keystone's locations are still unaccounted for) that must've also taken their share of the dispersed dragon magic within them like the now destroyed Maguuma Bloodstone did. Once Balthazar's magic transformed the unstable unleashed dragon magic/ley magic into volatile magic, we've seen that it has affected regions from southern Elona to Blood Legion Homelands and Far Shiverpeaks in the north and even Central Tyria etc. to the west based on the skyscale flight collections featuring orbs of volatile magic in central regions as well as the volatile "bounty" creatures. We haven't seen any of it in Cantha likely due to Soo-Won nomming it all up with the reactor's assistance (so much so that even the dispersed magic from Dragonstorm somehow flowed south to Yong Reactor in Cantha instead of spreading all over Tyria). There are no doubt still many ley-crazed creatures and people out there as well as dragon champions who have consumed some of the dispersed magic to grow more powerful, not to mention whatever nefarious nature spirits that could've also gotten a power boost from this magic if they chose to consume it (or it was forced into them). So the problem still persists even if Aurene is now the stopgap to prevent further leakage shenanigans aside from whatever people or beings might do with other ley nexuses and the other bloodstones if they get to them.

Yep, the developers have left it unclear if dragons (at least of Elder Dragon lineage since "lesser" dragons seem to mate given the existence of wyvern matriarch and patriarch) only ever lay eggs without a partner or if they can actually mate to provide stronger genes to their offspring. Dragonlings are curious in that they need a lot of magic before they can hatch from eggs even though they're already aware of their surroundings within the egg as shown with Aurene. Interestingly End of Dragons story and the Aurene legendaries do seem to suggest that Aurene is suffering from loneliness due to losing her blood family, so the writers could try exploring this angle later if she wants to create scions of her own to ease her anxiety. Then again, she already supposedly has access to the Mists so she could just chat with the ghosts of Glint and Vlast whenever she wants (I would like a family reunion of the three of them in the Mists if Aurene projects herself there as an avatar, but alas), she has her foster parents Caithe and the Commander as well as her two saltspray dragon friends (I would expect her and Kuunavang to grow close over time because Kuunavang is suffering from loss as much as she is), and Dragon's Watch etc. to keep her company, so we shall see what happens. 🙂 If Aurene is to ever lay eggs to create scions of her own (considering that Glint and the Forgotten believed that one scion wouldn't be enough to handle the world's magic and how the goal was always to have multiple entities balancing the burden that would be too great for one being to bear), I wouldn't expect her to repeat the two mistakes Soo-Won made: 1) she likely won't create her scions as mindless tools (unlike what Soo did with her kids according to Mother's Lament dialogues) even if they were created to help her balance the burden of magic, so her scions would already have personalities from the get go, 2) she would ensure that each scion would receive its own mortal champion to bond and share the burden with so these scions learn to love and respect mortals instead of viewing them as distant ants (as was the case with the indifferent Vlast and the eventually misguided Elder Dragons).

I also remember the mention of grubs but I haven't been able to locate the interview mentioning that specific food yet. I did, however, find these answers from old Jeff Grubb interviews which mention wild game and fungi as part of the original asuran diet:

The Void has existed before Soo-Won became Mother to regulate it and before the creation of most life on Tyria as Soo-Won herself explains, and Kuunavang elaborates on it in Arborstone. It's just that Soo-Won and her five scions kept it in relative check (it was still affecting them "under the hood" but very subtly because all six Elder Dragons, even Soo-Won, lacked the unique nature that Aurene has regarding proper filtering of the magic and the bond with mortals to lessen the burden) until Zhaitan fell. Then things escalated from there as each dragon was slain over the course of the decade, worsening the effects of the increasing Void on the remaining ones. Soo-Won only managed to stay relatively sane via the Yong Reactor taking most of her magic and filtering it into dragonjade as per her arrangement with Joon. The Void creatures didn't start manifesting until Ankka had shot the Extractor and forced Aurene's magic into Soo-Won to accelerate the torment process, and the Void essentially manifested as Soo-Won's "minions" as she began spreading it all over upon breaking free from the reactor. Only Caithe and Aurene's actions at Jade Sea, along with later Canthan reinforcements, kept Soo-Won locked within that region so she couldn't spread the Void to the rest of Tyria...at least until the "birth" of the Dragonvoid. The Kaineng events show how things got worse since Dragonstorm and how Void was coalescing in dragonjade due to the "corrupted" magic being filtered from Soo-Won after she had consumed the majority of the released magic from Dragonstorm via the global ley lines (why Aurene couldn't absorb the lion's share of two dragons' magic despite being at ground zero at Anvil Rock wasn't explained in EoD, sadly). Basically, timeline-wise, Kaineng meta occurs before the Commander and Ankka's encounter with Soo-Won in Yong Reactor, so what we're witnessing in Kaineng is the Void first trying to manifest itself in the world via dragonjade tech. Yao recognizes that there's corruption in dragonjade and that it's sentient with the way it's moving and targeting stuff although at that point in story everyone but Kuunavang and Soo-Won were unaware of the Void being the cause. Dialogue during Kaineng meta:

I like the PoF character selection theme. I admit I was initially confused when I first listened to it as I was expecting something bombastic like the core and HoT themes considering that Elona was descending into a four-way war between Commander's Pact, Balthazar's Forged, Joko's Awakened, and Kralkatorrik's Branded, and instead we got a rather serene theme instead. However, upon reflecting on it more, I'm starting to see what might've motivated Maclaine to write it the way he did beyond the obvious Lawrence of Arabia influences. While it's more calm than the other main themes, it does kinda fit lorewise if we look at what it may actually represent thematically. In GW1 we rid the desert of Abaddon's influence, and in PoF and Season 4 we rid the desert of the threats of Balthazar, Joko, and Kralkatorrik...and the desert endured through all of that. In the PoF timeline article Scott McGough wrote it beautifully: So, to me, the calm PoF theme represents the desert and Elona as a whole through both the turmoil and the peaceful times. While we get our epic heroic moments felling the three villains with appropriate battle tracks, the desert has been there a long time, and even before that it was the bottom of the Crystal Sea, so it has seen a lot of things and will see things long after we have passed away. As Joko poetically exclaims in Season 4, "War. Plague. Gods. Dragons. I've seen them all. They come and they go. Like the tides." Except this is basically the POV of the desert where even Joko himself is but a footnote in the vast history that the region has witnessed over several dozen millennia. 🙂 I feel Maclaine struck a delicate balance with EoD theme: on the one hand it has its peaceful moments at first to depict the ancient wisdom of this spirit-filled land that has been the birthplace of various dragons and more (as we later learn) but that it also doesn't forget its heroic, adventurous side in the second half as it's seen its share of heroes emerge and rise to the challenge over the course of millennia.

Yeah, I'd like novels to explore backstories of some key or side characters and expand the world of Tyria. The three current novels helped flesh out so much, so it's a shame we haven't seen any since. Sadly I doubt ANet will invest in new novels as those would require significant research on the world and building extensive lore while making sure the events wouldn't contradict with what's already established in game. Some of my picks for future topics with proposed titles: 1) Prince of Winter This book would detail the final tumultous days of Dwayna and an Orrian sculptor's (Malchor? ;D) doomed romance that led to the birth of Grenth. We'd see how he'd fare living in Orr as a demigod and how the other gods and mortals treated him, his relationship with mortals and eventual friendship with the mortals who'd become the Seven Reapers, and their fateful decision to overthrow the unjust god of death Dhuum in a clear suicidal mission with seemingly little chance of success. It would show how Grenth prevailed against Dhuum, why he was unable to slay Dhuum (is it because Grenth was a demigod as opposed to a full mortal like Kormir, so he couldn't make the choice "only a mortal can make" and thus Dhuum retained some divine power?), his redecoration of the Underworld, and recruiting Desmina as his first follower once the Reapers have been elevated and the Church of Grenth grows in power. We'd see early hints of Abaddon's fall and how Grenth would respond to the insurrection, the climactic battle at the Gates of Heaven and then at what would become the Desolation where Abaddon was finally cast down. We'd witness where Grenth's anger at false authorities stems from, why he is quite cruel as a god in his strict pursuit of justice, what messed him up to create the bodyhorror grentches that steal presents from innocent children (did Grenth not receive enough presents as a kid so he wants to punish other kids so they appreciate what they have?) etc. It could lead all the way to GW1 time of witnessing Abaddon's ultimate defeat, and we could see glimpses of Balthazar's growing madness and if Grenth sees a pattern forming based on his experiences with Dhuum and Abaddon before. We could witness how Grenth feels about Mad King Thorn becoming his unpredictable ally and why he tolerates Thorn's presence in one section of the Underworld, the Mad Realm. We could get teases of why the gods didn't reach out to Glint regarding the Legacy project, Lyssa's potential shenanigans with Balthazar, and why they kept Glint in the dark about their plans, elaborate on Grenth getting pissed off at Zhaitan stealing his followers' souls to embody Risen manifestations, and why the gods left Tyria and what they hope to achieve in the worlds beyond as a potential setup for gods' return in GW2. 2) Firstborn This book would chronicle Trahearne's life as the first sylvari to ever awaken until he'd gradually meet his other awakening siblings over the following year. We'd see him being the special child who has direct connection with Pale Mother and how that makes others feel, we'd get some fun interactions with the doomed Riannoc as well as the two still unknown and unnamed Firstborn out of the twelve (perhaps teasing their eventual return in a GW2 living world season or even a future sylvari expansion), the schism between Trahearne and Faolain, Trahearne's growing racism towards asura after what they did to Malomedies until he learns to forgive the asura for their transgressions, all that good stuff. His views on Cadeyrn and Faolain's fall and the forming of the Nightmare Court would likewise be interesting and if his views on the court are more complex than other sylvari's. What would also be fascinating would be Trahearne's gloomy trip to Orr and him and Caithe being the only two living souls to witness Zhaitan in the modern day and live to tell the tale, perhaps even some teases of Caithe and Faolain's travels and if they first encountered Nightmare in Orr or somewhere else while giving us hints of what the Dream and Nightmare actually are (since they're unrelated to Mordremoth) and how we might start to get teases of Mordremoth via Wynne's cryptic talks. We'd also get more screentime for the less used Firstborn like my fave Aife, or the valiant Niamh, or the clever Kahedins among others. Other fascinating tidbits would be the few tidbits of Trahearne backstory that GW2 has teased us with. He somehow managed to befriend and earn the trust of the reclusive largos Sayeh al'Rajihd in an apparently epic teamup, the tengu smith Izu Steelshrike, as well as Riel Darkwater after he helped her slay the previous Master of Whispers who had fallen under a dragon's corruption (maybe Zhaitan so the novel could tie Trahearne's Orr quest together). The whole Sayeh teamup need not necessarily be a fight against Risen but against the horrors of the depths, thus teasing and exploring that angle and what awaits us in the Unending Ocean and why Sayeh swore Trahearne to not tell anyone the specifics of their mission without her approval. We'd see how he also earned the trust of not just Whispers but Priory and Vigil too, setting the stage of him becoming the only viable candidate for Pact Marshal in the future. We'd also see the less explored side of Trahearne as the shy scholar with a seemingly impossible quest (cleanse the fallen Orr) which many sylvari actually ridiculed and bullied him about. We'd see his heartwarming friendship with the sylvari seer Amaranda the Lonesome (who has such lovely dialogue to the sylvari player if we defend Trahearne in front of her) and the curious rapport with Caithe who, save for Amaranda, is the only one to truly understand Trahearne's burden at first. We could see glimpses of Trahearne's actions and thoughts during Season 1 Scarlet's War when he wasn't around in game, how the threat of Mordremoth affected him, his growing friendship with the Pact Commander etc. And we'd see firsthand how the Pact fleet fell down, how Trahearne tried to defend the Pact soldiers alongside Destiny's Edge only to be captured and eventually ending up in Mordremoth's embrace. His "bonding" with Mordy could also reveal some key insights about the dragon cycle and the Void, and Trahearne could come to see Mordremoth as a tragic monster with a sympathetic past who nevertheless has to be put down so he can't tell the Commander too much. And if we're lucky, we might even see what happens to him after death. Will his and Mordy's souls merge so he becomes a literal spectral Voice of Mordremoth who has two souls inside him? Will he enter the dragon or sylvari afterlife, or are they one and the same (depending on if sylvari are literal grandchildren of Mordy as the anniversary art book may have teased)? It could even foreshadow Trahearne's eventual return to narrative as a ghostly Twilight Messiah who'll play a part in a future expansion or living world where he helps us one last time before we get to say true farewells to him. 3) Soulkeeper This book would detail the early life of Almorra Soulkeeper in the Blood fahrar as she bonds with her Soul warband, her eventual friendship and fiery romance of true passion with Bangar Ruinbringer and how their paths lead them to different destinations and relationship drama as Bangar rises in power while Almorra remains a legionnaire. We'd see how the births of Ajax and the unnamed daughter affect Almorra as a mother as well as the daughter deciding to join Ash Legion instead of Blood Legion while Bangar gets his claws on Ajax to twist him to his liking. We'd get hints at why this daughter (Ember Doomforge's mom) apparently has as juicy story behind her as Ajax did as Almorra never elaborated on it in game. We might explore Almorra wading through complex charr politics, how her and Smodur's views match on the future of the charr, and what she feels about the youngest imperator Malice and what Malice's goals may be in regards to Khan-Ur (to possibly foreshadow the teased plot element in EoD about some imperators apparently gunning for Khan-Ur seat again despite all of them saying that none of them want it during Champions time). After all, Malice is a pretty nasty name, so maybe there's more behind her than meets the eye in true "Ash trash" fashion? 😉 We would witness Almorra's Massacre firsthand and the horror of Kralkatorrik's Branding. How Almorra becomes suicidal after losing and being forced to kill her corrupted warband until a few kindly souls such as Laranthir of the Wild, Efut, Jhavi Jorasdottir and Lord Rodrigo of Cormoch among others snap her out of her depression and turn her quest for vengeance into a quest for justice. We'd see how this friendship becomes very deep and unbreakable as they all swear loyalty to her in a time when charr and human truce still hasn't come to pass. We'd see the nigh impossible funding of the Vigil in a mere five years from a group of rag-tag friends into a massive well-funded army and how they accomplished this feat when unity between races was still a dream of Trahearne's and Pale Tree's. We'd get to experience Almorra's feelings about Aurene, the granddaughter of Kralkatorrik, and she eventually lets go of her hate and comes to see Aurene as not the same as her grandpa but a savior, something I wish Season 4 had gone into before the budget cuts. We would witness Almorra's elation at Kralkatorrik's fall and how she has finally avenged her warband while she tries to figure out what to do with the remaining Elder Dragons. We'd experience Almorra's horror first-hand at Jora's Keep as Jormag's influence creeps in, how Bangar has gone off the rails and she realizes he has to be stopped no matter the cost while there may still be some love left for him after all despite her brave act of defiance. Perhaps we'd even see an epilogue of sorts where she gets to meet with Glint's ghost in the Mists and what their new adventures will be in the worlds beyond. Perhaps she gets to meet Trahearne too, tying into some events teased in the Trahearne novel and possibly the Grenth novel if there are some hints of gods returning etc. and why Glint wants Almorra and Trahearne to be her vanguard for what's to come. These are just some of the many examples the authors could explore. The stories would practically write themselves as Tyrian lore is rich from GW1, GW2, all the manuals, interviews, blog posts, wikis, internal lore bible etc. While I think it's unlikely we'll see any future GW2 novels, I would happily welcome more novels if they were as lengthy as the previous ones and went as much in depth as those novels did with key characters' stories. It would certainly deepen my and many others' appreciation on Tyria's lore and world. 🙂

While he's not a genius on par with Taimi, Spearmarshal Zaeim is still a capable, charismatic, wise and strategic man whom Tahlkora chose as her successor. Not flawless, of course, but he learns from his mistakes and grows stronger because of it. While the Commander is the Hero of Tyria, Zaeim is known as the Hero of Istan and arguably became the Hero of Elona in the process of Season 4. I'll keep my fingers crossed that we get to adventure with him again in and perhaps even outside Elona if Sianna's Seitung statement of Elonian politics finally stabilizing into a republic holds any weight. At least I was happy to see Zaeim's brief cameo in EoD. 🙂 There's still one mystery ANet hasn't answered about Bound by Blood: who sabotaged the Brand stompers throughout Grothmar Valley? Curiously a seemingly random asura noticed that something was amiss and offered some tips to the charr engineers on how to fix the stompers, so it made me wonder if that was just a convenient coincidence or if, say, the Inquest had deliberately sabotaged the stompers to draw the Branded out and thus force Aurene to intervene in the ceremony, which then led to riling up the charr and Bangar speeding up his plans. After all, the valley had one asura clad in what looked like Inquest clothes arguing with a charr about how best to weaponize Aurene. Perhaps the devs could even tie this sabotage to the ongoing experiments by Overseer Kuda who is very interested in dragon research. While I think one of the anniversary livestreams suggested that Ryland's profession might be engineer (which could in turn imply that he was the saboteur), that would require Ryland to have enough knowledge of Aurene's personality to hope for that preferred Branded intervention outcome, which would be odd given how oblivious Ryland seemed to be of dragon personalities and hierarchies during Darkrime Delves mission. As for the bias in GW2 writing favoring women over men, I've definitely noticed some patterns since early worldbuilding, core story and novels, intentional or not. Some examples: The females Jennah and Pale Tree are the truly competent leaders out of the five nations. From core, Knut Whitebear is suggested to be capable but just stays home except for that brief Grove trip in Season 2 and does nothing (maybe this could've changed if the saga had been allowed to last longer, but I hold out hope he'll get his chance to shine and fight alongside his wife Gaerta one day as a true power couple) as he basically was a stay at home dad who raised his two sons while Gaerta was out there building her impressive legend. The Arcane Council's male members such as Flax, Yahk, and Phlunt are either corrupt or bumbling antagonistic comic reliefs (in early S4Ep2 drafts it appears that Phlunt was intended to be revealed as some Inquest higher-up all along, turning the lovable jerk into a hidden villain to remove him from the board) while the female Ludo and Zudo are apparently subservient to Flax in his villainous schemes, and Haia is an actually clever mastermind to rival even Flax. From the charr leaders, Bangar and Gaheron turned out to be rotten eggs, and they were replaced by the commanding and diverse female Crecia and the soft male Efram. Even the progressive old dog Smodur needed the younger female Mia Kindleshot to convince him to sign the Ebonhawke Treaty lorewise, and he ultimately went bonkers during the Icebrood War due to many reasons (one of which I hope the devs will reveal to be Jormag's subtle mental manipulations of Smodur to ensure Ryland's defection to Jormag since I can't see Jormag leaving something important as that to chance) and was put down to be replaced by Mia who's essentially described as female Smodur except less prone to war antics. Malice, the sole remaining original imperator (for now) was revealed to be the true mastermind behind the Ebonhawke Treaty as she, Almorra, and Jennah essentially conspired to make it happen as revealed in Ghosts of Ascalon although Malice never brought it up during the Drizzlewood conflict and let Smodur take all the glory for it. Malice even complained how annoyed she was at dealing with Bangar and Smodur's "crap" all the time, painting them both as backwards coots who should've been replaced ages ago. In Lion's Arch the male Captain Magnus was written as a rather shortsighted and gullible buffoon in the latter half of Season 1, ultimately being unable to convince the council to fortify LA for the attack to come that cost them dearly. The female Ellen Kiel was the only one figuring out Scarlet's master plan out of the council, but her sage advice was not heeded. Meanwhile her political rival, the male Evon, was written as a caricature "villain" (even if, amusingly enough, Evon's campaign video paints Evon as far more competent than Ellen's Evon-slandering video does). Out of the order leaders, the male Gixx is often paired off comedy-wise with the goofy Sieran and has to play straight man to her antics. Meanwhile, both the female order leaders Almorra and Riel are written seriously; even Almorra's few moments of levity don't come off as forced comedy but mainly show her very sarcastic side. As far as the major core villains go, we notice that Sons of Svanir and Flame Legion are misogynists who either ridicule women and/or abuse them (e.g. Flame Legion breeding farms that traumatized Salina Scorchstep who lost her name, identity and sense of time because of constant abuse). Meanwhile there's no counter faction of women embracing misandry and enslaving men yet. Caudecus tries to be a mastermind in his backstory but comes off as a buffoon in his on screen appearances with suggested repressed closet gay/bisexual feelings for Logan. He even has this odd fetish with having mostly female White Mantle lieutenants, all of whose names start with A. Gaheron is a one-note leader of a cult of personality who enslaves women and desires godhood. Kudu is revealed to be a successful womanizer who has abused and seduced his female lieutenants with sweet words of poison. Fraenir, who only becomes a thing later in the saga, is likewise shown to be a one-note religious fanatic. Meanwhile, the female Firstborn Faolain overthrew the Nightmare Court's original Secondborn male leader Cadeyrn, thus negating that whole jealousy angle of the court where Cadeyrn wanted to be seen as being above the Firstborn and make his mother listen to him; Cadeyrn is reduced to a one-note side boss in a dungeon who is subservient to Faolain and cast aside, while Edge of Destiny initially suggested that Faolain might be the only villain with a potential for redemption. Even when Faolain became irredeemable by HoT time, she was ultimately enslaved by the male dragon Mordremoth in a fit of irony, turning her into a tragic victim of circumstance after her previous rebellion against authority. Among the gods, Balthazar had to go as the toxic warmongering man, while the progressive deities are all women. Based on ANet artist notes I found on ArtStation, it appears that the writers had potentially considered Grenth as another villain candidate in early PoF drafts, so yet another male deity could've bitten the dust. And then there are, of course, Abaddon and Dhuum, both toxic men. In Elona the Primeval Kings really started with the female Queen Nadijeh who first founded the Sunspears. It was during the male King Wasi's rule that more wars broke out in the desert. Meanwhile, the last female rulers Dahlah and Nahlah were led astray by some councillor/vizier and I wouldn't be surprised if that advisor turned out to be an evil man. In Elona's defense, Spearmarshal Zaeim and Redeemer Kossan are competent men who balance out women such as Boticca and Zafirah; sadly we get little info on the Master of Shadows to find out what kind of a person he might be. Out of Joko's three marshals, the male Olori Ogun is ridiculed by both the Commander and his fellow female marshals, while the female marshals Oluwa Eranko and Osa Ekolo are shown as scarily competent commanders worth their title. Grand Vizier Utumishi is shown to be a servile and cowardly weasel whom the Free Awakened leader Sianna keeps ridiculing all the time, and Archon Iberu is downright psychotic with only a sliver of redeeming qualities during his brief aside in the Jahai summit until Aurene's intervention makes him embrace villainy again. Joko is the only major bisexual character in GW2 so far and unfortunately he embraces the "depraved bisexual" trope; it's unclear if Caudecus should also be considered bisexual or if he's just closet gay based on his implied lust for Logan despite getting into a political marriage with Lady Wi's cousin. I hope we'll see a more positive representation of a bisexual character in the future without painting them with tired villain tropes. Recently in Cantha we've seen several powerful women vs. comic relief or downright villainous men. Empress Ihn is just as progressive as her great grandma Haebaragi (who dissolved the corrupt Celestial Ministry and defeated the evil Ministry of Purity while forging peace with tengu) as she understands that change is inevitable and necessary for Cantha's survival, while Ihn's dad Taejeong is described as xenophobic, retaliating and dismissive (if statements from Li, Joon, and Ihn are to be believed). We know very little about Taejeong and even less about Ihn's unnamed grandfather (Haebaragi's son whom Navan first revealed her true identity to) whose name may potentially be the enigmatic Seung-Gi (who has a landmark named after him in New Kaineng unless that's meant to refer to some minister given the location). Only Ihn and Haebaragi have confirmed monuments out of the modern Canthan rulers in New Kaineng while the unnamed grandfather and more curiously Taejeong have none as far as I can see. Why the preference over the rare female monarchs (Haebaragi and Ihn are the only confirmed empresses regnant ever in Canthan history) over male emperors in modern Canthan reverence? Did Ihn remove her traditionalist dad's monuments after his passing, or was Taejeong somehow so humble that no major landmark was ever named after him? Unlike Emperor Kintah who had been fond of his concubine Yuki and their son Togo and had let them enjoy the privileges of palace life alongside his wife and "legitimate" son Prince Kisu in GW1, Taejeong did not extend the same generosity to his extramarital affair Dal-Rae and Joon for unknown reasons, which made Joon incredibly bitter and caused friction between Joon and Ihn and why Joon felt she needed to rise above her half-sister whenever she could. As mentioned earlier in the thread by others, the male Li and the female Joon's handling is rather different; the bad older guy gets ridiculed at every turn while the female Joon is sympathized with even when she, too, commits questionable if downright horrible acts during the story and as revealed in some of her backstory in ambient map dialogue and in the journals found throughout the maps. Rama is written as a comic relief even at times when he shouldn't be (the Void battle and him commenting on the Commander's new look was unneeded given how destruction of reality was imminent; at least he was briefly serious when he learned the truth about Li, which I appreciated). Rama chooses not to pursue the career as a minister despite Li grooming him for it, so the more competent woman Cho Min becomes the acting minister instead. Even Captain Fa Yang, who is shown to be competent, is written off as the "straight man" archetype of comic relief when set against the competent female DE lane commanders Caithe and Navan who override his decision much to his confusion in the early meta dialogue. Navan and Caithe don't joke around during their lanes while Fa has to handle banter with his rival Chul-Moo. On the dragon side the male Albax is written as being grieving and almost cowardly (albeit for understandable reasons) while it's the female Kuunavang who was the brave and wise one and whose kindness ultimately helps Albax come out of his shell in a truly heartwarming moment. As far as other antagonistic Canthan factions go, we also see curious writing preferences. The male Chul-Moo is charismatic but he's also revealed to be a momma's boy under his influential mom Matron Park's thumb (as revealed by the amusing dialogue between him and his lieutenant who delivers him the mom's "ultimatum" that embarrasses Chul-Moo in the Jade Brotherhood base). Even when he becomes our ally, he becomes a jokesmith who frustrates Fa to no end in Dragon's End. Meanwhile the female Tetra is written as being scary and competent all the time, and her rapport with Navan (an unlikely but welcome pairing as I enjoy their back and forth!) leads to her comforting Navan when they have to keep killing corrupt saltspray dragons for the good of all. Even Ankka and Scarlet, the most influential and mostly independent villainesses, ended up being shackled to males: Scarlet was abused and enslaved by the male Mordremoth, and Ankka's journals revealed that her start of darkness was partly influenced by Gorrik remaining oblivious to her affections, which made her bitter. As for the Elder Dragons, it turns out that the female dragons of the bloodline (Soo-Won, Glint, and Aurene) are pure benevolent motherly figures who only want what's best for Tyria even if tragedy follows them. Meanwhile the male dragons Primordus, Zhaitan, Kralkatorrik, and Mordremoth are basically pure evil with Kralk's sole redeeming trait as a dragon supremacist being his love for his family. Curiously the only non-binary dragon Jormag is shown to arguably be the most evil of all Elder Dragons from the get go with the way they tattle on Zhaitan's fascinations to mommy and how they ultimately ree their toxic male brother Primordus to death (as confirmed by the order we fight the Void dragon manifestations in that are in reverse order of their deaths, so Primordus died before Jormag in Dragonstorm). I find it curious how the only major nonbinary Jormag is presented as arguably the most villainous of the bunch based on Mother's Lament dialogues, while Zhou Yao, the other major-ish non-binary character with potential, was merely bait and switch in EoD story and was reduced to a side character who accomplished even less than Captains Fa and Min despite heavy promotion in advertisements; Yao didn't even participate in the final battle where almost everyone else with combat capability was present but at least they contributed to it a bit off screen. Regarding Kasmeer and Marjory's relationship, devs have revealed that initially Marjory was meant to be a guy but VA availability forced them to rewrite her and Ellen Kiel as men. Given how Season 1 original ending was meant to show "Marjory" dying, it seems that the writers intended to use a subversive trope where Kasmeer (the apparent bimbo damsel in distress) is not endangered as one would expect and actually grows more confident and heroic after witnessing her more experienced male mentor/love interest's death at the hands of the villain Scarlet as she avenges her love's demise. This list is simply scratching the surface, and I could find even more examples from the storylines. Thankfully it's not completely one sided as there are occasional competent men here and there from obscure characters to more notable ones, but the bias, whether intentional or not on the many writers' part, is clear. I like that GW2 has many strong heroines and villainesses and that we have many women in power in the world of Tyria (I for one can't wait for Jennah and Ihn's long-awaited meeting as I imagine they'll have lots of chemistry based on what we've seen of them individually, and hopefully we'll get to see Navan and Anise interact one day too!). However, it seems that the writers, in their effort to adjust the balance to include more influential and competent women in the narrative over the years, have gone a bit too far in one direction and painting many males of various races in a confusing, comical or downright antagonistic light as a result when compared to the women. I hope they'll adjust the balance as they move onward and offer us independent villainesses not shackled to male entities or feelings related to them (perhaps even a faction of man-hating or man-enslaving villainesses as a counter to Svanir and Flame Legion or just powerful female rulers leading an invasion of Tyria, Elona, and Cantha from Sunrise Crest or wherever?) as well as more balanced writing for men so we'll get more nuanced male antagonists like the relatable villain Gavin was in the sylvari White Stag storyline. 🙂

Yeah, and there's even lore suggesting that the proto-druids may have appeared in Kryta and Maguuma and were eventually driven to the jungle by proto-Krytans (coming from Orr etc.) in the Prophecies manual if I recall. Whether the Aztec-y ruins that the asura found on the Tarnished Coast are remnants of druid civilization or even preceding the druids' arrival is unknown, but it could make sense if those ruins that the asura repurposed for their own use could've actually been been built by first settlers from Sunrise Crest before they vanished for whatever reason if the devs wanted to tie the Mesoamerican-inspired Utopia/Xotecha culture to deeper Tyrian lore and justify why asura are using the scrapped Utopia/Xotecha assets in their culture. As for why Crestian culture would resemble Xotecha in any way (while containing elements from the other human cultural influences like Elonian, Canthan, Orrian, Ascalonian etc. styles), a plausible explanation could be that the first human refugees from their homeworld (or the gods if they instructed them what to build on their new homeland in Sunrise Crest) simply built in the style of the old homeland or the legendary home of the gods, hence replicating the Mesoamerican style of Xotecha on Tyrian shores. The devs could even retroactively reveal that the cultists trying to bind and possibly harvest the magic of the Cliffside Colossus in the Cliffside Fractal were the first human invaders from Sunrise Crest trying to subjugate the other races for the glory of Balthazar etc. Depending on how thorough the gods were of erasing knowledge of preceding traitor gods, perhaps Sunrise Crest could indeed contain statues of not just Abaddon but Dhuum as well in some secluded corners if nothing else, assuming that Dhuum was well regarded enough and if he did enter Tyria with the other gods back in the day. Lyssa's origins are likely said to be unknown, curiously enough, so it's always possible that she first appeared on Sunrise Crest despite current lore suggesting Grenth to be the first demigod born in Tyria...but that could just be propaganda to hide the existence of other demigods. Sunrise Crest could even have references to Balthazar's potentially divine mother; we know that the head of Balthy's father didn't disintegrate as he carried it with him for a time (whereas Balthy himself disintegrated immediately upon death as did Abaddon), which suggests to me that the father was in fact mortal or a demigod depending on what happens when a demigod dies vs. a real god and opens the possibility of the mother being the previous deity of conflict, a demigod, or another mortal. If so, it'd be fun if there was some grove of "lost gods" that some of the faithful barely remembered from their past in the homeworld before Lyssa helped "them" (whether the Six Gods, humans, or both) forget the past, and this alcove could have statues of some of these lost gods like Balthazar's potentially divine mother, Dwayna's father who was teased in Linsey Murdock's comments, and Abaddon's predecessor teased by the Apostate. It would certainly be a big "wham" moment of lore, especially if we found some hidden tales relating to these predecessors and what may have led to their replacement or if there could've been more than six gods active at any given time before the exodus to Thyria. 🙂

While Kralkatorrik genuinely loved his family and was saddened that Torment forced him to attack and kill some of them, Tom Abernathy did confirm in guild chat that Kralkatorrik was always evil even before Torment accelerated his madness, and that his love for his family was his good trait. Even Glint's speech in Season 4 Episode 5 suggests this as she could initially argue against Kralkatorrik's order to end the mortals and how Kralk didn't desire peace between dragons and mortals. That kind of free will argument couldn't have taken place once Glint was Branded (we know she wasn't always so because Arah explorable explains that Glint regained her free will after the Forgotten purified her, which means that Kralk must've Branded Glint to make her blindly loyal to him some time after she had argued against Kralk's plan eons ago). As we learned in Episode 6, Kralk was not afraid to die unlike his mother, so it wasn't even the prophetic vision of a world without him that spurred him to action; he clearly just thought mortals were lower than him and not worth considering as allies. So you could view that Kralk was a dragon supremacist and thus evil (since he never wanted peace to begin with). As for former narrative director Tom Abernathy's "Jormag doesn't lie" argument, it is curious to me that no NPC ever brings this important detail up and everyone just keeps calling Jormag a deceiver. I think this was one of the sadly dropped plot points from the rushed Icebrood Saga and we would've been in for a revelation. Technically Jormag could be right in all its arguments (the only iffy thing that borders on an outright lie is its promise to spare Asgeir and the norn while we have the detail of Jormag slaughtering norn as it supposedly pursued them all the way to Snowden Drifts and "killing" Owl, unless Owl's sacrifice happened before Asgeir's confrontation...and that could work if Owl entering Jormag's maw damaged Jormag enough to make it land and allow Asgeir to attack Jormag directly). Devs did state that the "Root and Madness" discrepancy for Mordremoth in the S4 Kralk fight was deliberate and why Zhaitan didn't have similar changes to its spheres of influence. So Jormag now having "Frost and Deception" seems to suggest that there's more going with the spheres tied to the domains than we currently know similar to Aurene's spheres of influence transforming from Kralk's Crystal and Fury to her Crystal and Light. So I wouldn't say that Persuasion is always about Deception because you can also persuade someone with logical arguments based on truth (e.g. our confrontation with Captain Fa in "Fallout" if we play our cards right). What I theorise is that each sphere of influence has "subdomains" tied to it, just like the Priory's map of the All shows many smaller spheres tied to the bigger domains (e.g. both Mordy and Zhaitan have six smaller spheres tied to the big one related to them). These smaller spheres may be the "subdomains", so in that case Plant has the subdomain of Root, Mind has the subdomain of Madness, Ice has the subdomain of Frost, Persuasion has the subdomain of Deception etc. Why we didn't get variants for each Elder Dragon for that final fight is curious and could be a clue to something bigger going on with the spheres of influence and domains of magic since those many orbs shown in the Priory map haven't been elaborated on since Season 2. I would say that--and even Bobby Stein and Angel McCoy backed me up on this back in Season 1/2 days--developer blog posts are very much considered canon until they're retconned by later in-game information. Unlike forum, video, interview etc. comments that can be written or said in the fly without necessary background lore checking, blog posts like "The Movement of the World", "The Mostly Harmless Quaggan", or "The Ecology of the Charr" take considerably more work and are actually published as de facto documents online for people to peruse, so fact-checking would be more rampant on those official documents released to the public. However, back when Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee still held the reins of lore continuity, I don't recall them even making contradictory lore comments that needed to be retconned, so every dev comment regardless of medium (forum, video, interview, or blog) could always be trusted to be canonical. Well, aside from the narrative team's consensus to retcon GW1's human and god-centric lore to wider lore in GW2 which revealed that some of the GW1 reveals had been biased like gods creating Tyria, magic, and Glint and how Glint was actually the scion of Kralkatorrik and the bloodstone had originally been a Seer creation etc. The only arguable cases beyond those were the ideas from "The Movement of the World" that it was Balthazar and not the asura who opened gates to the Mists in Lion's Arch, or the claim from "The Ecology of the Charr" how most NPCs would now call the Flame Legion as Gold Legion as an insult in GW2 when ultimately the Gold Legion was only ever referenced in very few comments as the legion retained its former name. Once Jeff and Ree's focus was elsewhere (likely the many side projects being developed alongside GW2 as early as 2012 as revealed by LinkedIn infos, which might explain why GW2 didn't make expansions initially like Jeff Grubb had teased in an interview but moved to the Living Story model that later evolved to Living World seasons and the rush to get the first expansion out) and others took the reins from Season 1 onward, more lore discrepancies began showing up throughout the seasons and some expansions (whether because of QA not finding those like e.g. the lore discrepancy from the "Book of Vlast" that Vlast had been fighting against the Branded in Elona for generations when Kralk had only been awake lorewise for about a decade) and the team had to establish primary canon (game) being superior to secondary canon (anything said outside game like interviews, blog posts, forum comments etc.) if lore conflicts arose between the two. With that said, retcons aren't necessarily bad if handled well. I think the transition from GW1's human-centric stuff to GW2's multiracial stuff and expanding the history of the world to span to a time before the gods (e.g. the revelation of Glint and the bloodstone's true origins) didn't hurt lore that much although it was a bit funny that devs said that humans contributed old knowledge and history to the Pact when much of that knowledge ended up being outdated anyway to give other playable races an equal standing with humans, while they also had to figure out how to write the gods out to not give humans an advantage (even though in GW1 the gods were not solely called human gods but were gods of Tyria and accepted faithful from all races in general). And even then humans have still received the most development in GW2 culture, lore etc. compared to other races so far although this has to do with devs relying heavily on GW1's human-centric lore: each expansion so far has heavily featured human cultures and lore in some critical way (the Exalted, Druids and White Mantle teases of Maguuma in HoT, the Crystal Desert and Elonian cultures in PoF, and now the Canthan cultures in EoD) often with much involvement in the actual relevant seasons too, and it wouldn't surprise me if we eventually get another human-centric expansion for "expansion four" or beyond thanks to the teases of Doern Velazquez's potentially Hispanic homeland that could potentially be Sunrise Crest to the west across the ocean. Meanwhile I'm still waiting for that norn expansion because norn didn't even get a time to shine as a race (poor Knut Whitebear, I hope you get your limelight in the plot one day to address the prophecy surrouding your and your bloodline's fate!) in the Icebrood Saga when most of our focus was Braham specifically or charr politics. I agree. In AuroraPeachy's PoF YouTube lore interview with PoF leads Scott McGough and Matthew Medina, both of them pointed out that the idea of "god vs. dragon" didn't even materialize until they began developing PoF following HoT's rushed launch. Even when they settled for that plot in Elona rather than other ideas like "dragon vs. dragon" (which would later evolve into the Icebrood Saga), Balthazar apparently wasn't even their initial idea for the god antagonist. There are some ArtStation dev art pieces (e.g. one artist's notes about a planned encounter with Grenth) as well as in-game comments that suggest that Grenth or Lyssa (e.g. the idea of Lyssa mocking Kormir for lingering behind, and how Vabbi was one of Lyssa's most beloved regions in the world) might've been other candidates, but that's just speculation on my part until further evidence comes to light. So while writers may have vague ideas for where to take the story (I think the Aurene being the One Dragon or at least one of the major balancers was always in the cards ever since she was teased in the second Zephyrite festival appearance via that curious glow on one of the Zephyrite airships at the Zephyr Sanctum, and we may yet see Kralk's prophetic line "She's the first of her kind" play out based on Commander's story journal comment teases that she may not handle the burden alone forever), they leave a lot of leeway in case plans change due to demands from the suits, changing writers as devs join and leave the company etc. And yeah, retconning Soo-Won out of being the true deep sea antagonist and that she may have been holding back another sinister force (until she decided to not only leave for Cantha to save the continent but then also chill out there apparently doing nothing for two centuries until reactor completion for some reason) allowed devs to not tackle the many still open plot threads about the Unending Ocean that simply couldn't have fit into the already jampacked EoD story filled with so many Canthan factions, characters and plot points. Now that EoD has addressed the origins of the blue orb (Eyes of the Ocean) while still leaving some things about them mysterious, we can potentially explore other ocean story ideas. These would include: 1) The aforementioned horrors in the depths and what they're truly after. 2) What other races and civilizations Soo-Won may have shielded Glint-style in previous dragonrises as speculated by Kurt Bengtsson in the Ministry of Archives. 3) Why Soo-Won didn't contact her granddaughter Glint in the past two centuries after saving Cantha so the Forgotten wouldn't consider Soo-Won yet another enemy (as seen with their Tarir trials featuring damaging splashes of salt water). 4) If Soo-Won was ever in contact with Abaddon (The God of Knowledge and Water and Lord of the Everlasting Depths) thanks to Abby's domain/portfolio (and the gods' interest in the history of Tyria when they gathered artifacts to Arah) and thanks to her mind communication shenanigans and how dragons have been shown to communicate even while asleep. Perhaps the gods learned the Elder Dragons' names and spheres of influence from Soo-Won to record them in the Tome of the Five True Gods all along to tie it all back to Season 2 revelations? The Apostate's book "The Map of the All" found in the Priory even references how an imbalance in the Antikytheria system in the All would lead to Tyria falling into the void, so perhaps Soo-Won had warned Abaddon about the Void, and the Apostate (who knew some of Abby's deepest secrets such as Abaddon's predecessor) then wrote this information down in a cryptic manner in that book. 5) Whether the abyssal ascended krait prophets who have promised to flood the world are real (whether tied to the horrors in the depths or not), and the origin of the mysterious "krait" obelisks. While the krait blog post "Shadows in the Water – The Krait" suggests that the stories are false in order to not draw unfortunate parallels to certain faiths with prophets and concepts of religious jihad war against unbelievers like Islam, I hope the topic gets addressed in the future. 6) The fate of the quaggan goddess Mellaggan and if she's truly dead, corrupted, or in hiding like Owl. Despite some NPCs viewing her as merely an aspect of Melandru, to me there are enough differences between the two due to their different domains/portfolios (even pointed out in "The Mostly Harmless Quaggan" blog post) that Mellaggan may actually be a native Tyrian deity/spirit similar to Koda, potentially the Great Dwarf etc. Maybe there could even be some connection to Soo-Won as well? 7) The fate of the missing quaggan markissios royal family from the aforementioned quaggan blog post, and if we could one day see a Return of the King/Queen scenario of a lost heir emerging and finally uniting the southern and maybe even the northern tribes into one quaggan kingdom. 8.) Finally exploring the ruins of the krait and quaggan kingdoms, and possibly visiting the largos nation which interestingly has some Catholic religious terminology (Sayeh al'Rajihd is referred to in a spiritual sense which could make her a kind of assassin priestess, and the Concordat of the Tethyos Houses likely calls back to the Holy See terminology suggesting a religious society of underwater Order of Assassins). 🙂

If you're curious and don't mind some map "spoilers", the full version of EoD's extended map (uploaded to the "Tyria (world)" page in GW2wiki) is even bigger than the bits of map currently shown in game, expanding farther north and west with some really curious map art. The same happened back when PoF and Season 4 extended the map and the datamined map back then contained a lot more areas to the east that we couldn't see then but can see now in the in-game EoD map. I don't know why the devs can't just reveal the whole map in game and instead choose to hide parts of it since it's not like we explored those far eastern areas during Season 4 or the Icebrood Saga anyway so releasing that map art in game wouldn't have been spoilery anyway. With that said, I do also subscribe to the theory that the aforementioned enigma that is Doern Velazquez (one of the few humans with a Hispanic name) could potentially be hailing from this western "Sunrise Crest" region and that this might be a "lost" human nation where all the human refugee tribes originated from once gods took humans somewhere upon arriving at Orr's Artesian Waters. While Cantha is the first known human nation with a date in recorded history (786 BE) on the three continents (Cantha, Elona, and Central Tyria), there are some clues that the gods didn't take all humans to Cantha and that they may have initially placed them in a currently unknown location from which they later expanded to the rest of the world. The Priory's world map linked earlier in this thread notably depicted what appear to be naval routes between notable port cities. We can see Lion's Arch, Palawadan/Kamadan and Kaineng City there all leading to the port at the Battle Isles, but we also see naval routes leading to unknown ports at Sunken Islands and Sunrise Crest regions, which to me suggests potential trade between the four continents via the central hub of the Battle Isles. We also have these curious tales and historical documentation: What we can figure out from these texts is that Tyrians didn't originate from the Canthan people as the news of these "primitive barbarians" of the north came as a surprise to Canthans just like Tyrians were initially unaware (for the most part, as the text curiously states) of Canthans. So Cantha can't be the birthplace of all human ethnicities such as proto-Orrians/Krytans, proto-Ascalonians, proto-Elonians etc. Likewise, the Luxon and Kurzick origins are unknown, while Luxons have tales of a homeland across the ocean, which further points to another point of origin for humans. Now for some fun speculation with no basis: It would be fun if Sunrise Crest was Thyria's version of the Americas and Spain combined, a kind of extension of some of the already developed Utopia lore that was semicanonized as Xotecha folktales/legends in the anniversary art book. If Sunrise Crest is the home of all human ethnicities after gods transported them to Thyria and if various ethnicities sailed to other continents for reasons (ethnic, religious conflicts, or need for more living space?), it means the Crestians/Xotechans could claim to be the gods' chosen people in case the gods first lived among them for a time just like gods took some humans to Cantha and wandered among them later before deciding to settle in Arah. The whole Luxon legend of the Three Queens being supposed demigoddesses Alua, Elora, and Ione could even point to other potentially Grenth-like demigods (before his ascension) living among the Crestians/Xotechans and ruling them to this day. Imagine if we encountered Balthazar's half-god daughter who was revealed to be one of these Three Queens as the Triumvirate rules that fourth human continent, for example. If the writers wanted to expand the idea and introduce a potential threat with this continent's reveal, it'd be quite easy too if Sunrise Crest (unlike the increasingly disillusioned and less religious Cantha, Elona, and Tyria) was still highly religious and even zealous with an army and navy of conquistadors who view themselves to be the Six's chosen ones who must carry out Balthazar's creed to subjugate the "savages" of the new world and bring enlightenment to them. Instead of being moustache-twirling villains, they could genuinely believe they're the good guys saving the other continents from themselves and that the poor ignorant savages can only thrive under the benevolent autocratic rule of the wise and "immortal" Three Queens. Having such a zealous nation would present opportunities for manipulators to step in and "steer" the faithful in the "right" direction. Perhaps Menzies could make his return, posing as an oracle in the imperial court to manipulate the rulers to wage the war he's after for his ulterior motives, and/or perhaps Lyssa (or her chaotic half) returns and seeks revenge for Balthazar's death and sees that Sunrise Crest has an army still loyal to the gods ready to serve one of the Six who return to grace them with her presence after such a lengthy absence. For all we know, Doern could've even been a spy sent to infiltrate Central Tyria and report their weaknesses to his masters so the conquistador armada can sail and "liberate" the new world from its ignorant and non-pious rulers. Perhaps Doern's wife also hailed from this continent, or she was born in Tyria, and Doern went native after falling in love and losing his wife on field duty, and he decided to abandon his masters' mission to no longer spy on the Order of Whispers but defect for real while keeping the existence of this potentially hostile nation a secret while he and the Order of Whispers brass decide what to do with that information. With End of Dragons ending the Dragon Cycle, that potentially opens up more naval passages in the Unending Ocean for the armada to finally sail east and make a dramatic entrance. There's the whole plot point of Jennah being a direct descendant of King Doric and how the gods ordered Doric's line to guard the bloodstones so they could never be abused. Perhaps Jennah's blood is key to activating the Keystone (whether it's Jennah's throne or somewhere out there) and thus uniting the remaining bloodstones into one so a villain can try to unleash four bloodstones' worth of power (especially if each of those bloodstones is now supercharged from Elder Dragons' and Balthazar's deaths despite the deep sea dragon's attempts to contain it as we did see a major chunk of Mordremoth's magic going west across the ocean when the magic split into four cardinal directions in the HoT finale cinematic) that can even pose a threat to Aurene in the long run. 🙂

Well, based on "The Mostly Harmless Quaggan" blog post from before GW2 launch, southern quaggans would've only migrated to Central Tyrian waters 50 years before the beginning of the game (1325 AE), so circa 1275 AE. Meanwhile, Zhaitan's canonical awakening is depicted in the Sea of Sorrows novel and took place in 1219 AE. However, Bobby Stein and Angel McCoy did state back in the Season 1/2 lore discrepancy discussions on forums that lore is malleable and that what's written in the game is more relevant than what was said in "out of game" sources like blog posts, interviews, forum/reddit/twitter etc. comments, dev streams etc. What is likely here is that the quaggans were possibly able to migrate to Central Tyria so late due to Risen still building their forces or if the Risen were initially focusing their efforts on that implied war on the northern Elonian border (based on commentary in "The Movement of the World"), so a potential Risen vs. Awakened war on Scavenger's Causeway. We know that the dragons go through periods of inactivity and high activity while awake, and Zhaitan was repelled from invading Lion's Arch during the Great Krytan Blockade in 1256 AE as depicted in the Sea of Sorrows novel, and the next time was the later champion Morgus Lethe and the Maw causing trouble for Destiny's Edge to solve in 1319/20 AE as depicted in the Edge of Destiny novel. As it happens, the quaggan migration of circa 1275 AE would neatly fit into that timeframe of two periods of invasive activity from the Risen so they may have simply been lucky to flee to Central Tyria when they did and not encounter as much opposition as they otherwise might have. If Soo-Won was truly the second dragon to awaken some time after Primordus as implied by the order of the "orbs" lighting up in "The Machine" cinematic in Season 2 (the order of other dragons' awakening fits into the pattern in the cinematic based on the canonical dates, after all), it would've happened between Primordus (1120 AE) and Jormag (1165 AE). We know that Primordus's attempted awakening (1078 AE) was delayed by the death of his herald in GW1, but Jormag and Soo-Won likely awoke on schedule, so the gap between Primordus and Soo-Won was likely smaller than the gap between Soo-Won and Jormag (whose champion Drakkar had already been influencing the north for some time). Based on the times of awakening and how some Elder Dragons' awakenings were either delayed (Primordus due to the death of his herald the Great Destroyer, Kralkatorrik due to betrayal from his herald Glint who didn't gather magic for him anymore after being cleansed, and possibly Zhaitan too given how gods had siphoned magic off of him while he slumbered although his unknown herald likely was able to become active regardless if it hadn't been slain in the previous dragonrise...at least lupicus had survived since the previous dragonrise as confirmed in Arah) or accelerated (Mordremoth thanks to Scarlet Briar redirecting the ley lines to him, and possibly Jormag due to Drakkar's shenanigans), each Elder Dragon would've awoken once every 50 years or so in this cycle. If so and remembering Primordus's original awakening attempt, we can calculate Soo-Won's potential awakening date 40-50ish years after Primordus's original awakening date, so circa 1130 AE if the pattern holds. That would neatly put it 35 years before Jormag's awakening date (1165 AE) and 10 years after Primordus's delayed awakening (1120 AE). It would be similar to how Kralkatorrik's awakening was delayed until 1320 AE while Mordremoth's awakening was accelerated to already occur in 1326 AE (only 6 years gap between these two dragons!). As such, I don't see a discrepancy here. We know from Kuunavang's account that she reached out to Soo-Won around the time of the Great Tsunami of Zhaitan's awakening in 1219 AE, after which Soo-Won moved to Cantha from the depths, saved the continent, and then did...something until she made a deal with Joon at some point in her engineer career. All we know for sure is that the reactor that would contain Soo-Won was finished in 1836 CC (1326 AE, so after Zhaitan's death, which Soo-Won must've felt through the ley lines) based on the date in the New Kaineng Zoning Record 1342 found in New Kaineng City. Which means that Soo-Won was chilling out or doing something in Canthan waters for two centuries (while she had only protected the depths about a century from her awakening circa 1130 AE(?) to Kuunavang's plea for help circa 1219 AE), allowing whatever shadowy things that she had originally kept at bay to finally invade the now unprotected depths around the time of the krait and quaggan exodus of 1275 AE. What makes Soo-Won's actions curious is the fact that she had circa two centuries to do whatever she pleased until Joon's reactor was complete, and she could've used those centuries to reach out to Glint and give warning to the mortals; while she may have seen mortals as mere flickers in her infinite lifespan, she was still swayed to aid Cantha somehow, so why not Tyria? What arguments did Kuunavang use to convince her to interfere since even Kuunavang herself was surprised that her tactic had worked? However, even if Xunlai Jade had somehow been siphoning Soo-Won's magic even earlier in another proto-reactor base before the completion of the main base, it couldn't have been for more than two decades at most given Joon looking like someone 30-50 years old (her husband has some gray hair but it could just be a stylistic choice) and the fact that her daughter looks to be about 10-12 or so. I wonder why Soo-Won never bothered to contact her granddaughter Glint. Was she aware of her and the Forgotten's Legacy plan and the idea that all the Elder Dragons had to be slain? Glint apparently didn't know that Soo-Won was benevolent (why else include the sprouts of damaging salt water in the Forgotten's trial of facing each Elder Dragon's representation in Tarir?) even though Kurt Bengtsson's leading theory in the Ministry of Archives is that Soo-Won may have protected some races/civilizations Glint style in previous dragonrises due to the existence of the Eyes of the Ocean (blue orbs). Perhaps Soo-Won simply didn't care to elaborate on it and let Glint do what she wanted as Soo-Won was more concerned with broader topics. But it still seems weird to me; maybe the story will elaborate on this one day. We've had the cited source on the deep sea dragon's wiki page since 4 September 2020 although I think it has existed as a source on another wiki page somewhere earlier. That interview with Jeff Grubb is from before GW2 launched, around the time when Ghosts of Ascalon novel was released based on his comments (sometime after 27 July 2010). 🙂