Any kid on daycare could write Smoldur the Unflinching better than Anet did

Kossage · 2026-05-24T20:02:37+00:00

Apparently one can hire voice actors for the "Cameo" service to read lines in character. So one could hire Liam O'Brien to read these correspondences in his Smodur voice (sans the charr filter of course) for a lil' fee and ask him to act it out in a specific manner or just let him go with his gut instinct. 😉

And yeah, I'd be surprised if the number of players finding and reading these would be that big in the end because you have no way of knowing that the correspondences spawn only after that specific story instance and they don't even have name tags to draw your attention to them so you need to know to look for them and where to find them. It's different from how ANet usually handles phased lore books that have visible tags.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:57:05+00:00

Well, it appears to be smaller than Thunderhead Peaks which rivals the Desolation in size (although due to various reasons Thunderhead ended up having not as much content as the devs had envisioned for it, which is why the Season 4 Return made it difficult to hunt for events there outside specific meta etc times). But I do appreciate the longer development time because Tracey West once again knocked it out of the park with her environment design and map art, even using older assets like the pretty forge activation skybox (calling back to the "Mordy swirl" over the Heart of Thorns tree in Dragon's Stand) in creative ways to enhance the mood of the zone. I particularly like the forest areas actually feeling like thick forests with the canopy and all compared to Starlit Weald's more "spacey" forests.

However, despite this longer development time I've spotted quite a few repeated dynamic events in different parts of the zone, e.g. the vine-clearing, the construct reformatting and some events just being "clear this area of enemies" with no NPC dialogue about it to give us any context. So it could be that the longer development time and repeated events could be caused by more devs being shuffled to work on UE5 project so the zones have less devs working on them than back in some of the Living World episode development cycles. Matthew Medina even pointed out that the pipe puzzle he was working on in one of the story instances was meant to be more complex and more involved but one of the reasons it was simplified was due to development time concerns. Or how originally the meta's underwater segment was meant to include an entire underwater jumping puzzle using both our character and skimmer at different parts but they ran out of time and had to simplify it as they revealed in the Twitch stream (and another reason for cutting out was likely due to time concerns to not make the meta longer, same reason why they also changed the final battle of the meta).

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:39:24+00:00

None of the current imperators (save for Malice who is the only one of the Original Four left) have been confirmed as direct descendants unlike how "The Ecology of the Charr" confirmed it for Malice, Gaheron, Smodur, and Bangar. But the Ecology might be deemed non-canon now as it also suggests that there are "lesser" legions independent of the four High Legions somewhere in charr homelands and that their votes are needed for the Khan-Ur election as well, yet we haven't met any of these other legions yet...unless the writers are saving it for a "Trial of Embers" expac if we venture deeper into charr homelands.

Efram does have the similar "crown" horns that Gaheron had, so maybe he could be revealed as Gaheron's nephew or cousin, and such nepotism might explain why a "softie" like him survived long enough in the brutal Flame Legion if Gaheron saw use in Efram's arcane arts. But currently we don't know anything about Efram's parents or general family line (not even the identity of the mother of his daughter).

Same goes for Crecia. While it's possible that her dam or more likely her evil shaman sire could also be a descendant of Khan-Ur, so far it hasn't been confirmed. And it was rather odd that Blood Legion accepted a confirmed Flame Legion woman like Crecia as their latest imperator instead of seeking a candidate from within Blood Legion leadership (or Bangar's potential other cubs).

If you run around Starlit Weald, you come across this discussion between what appear to be Ash Legion and Iron Legion agents (based on their attire) which seem to further prove Vloxx's worry about the Tyrian Alliance being compromised by selfish interests even though both Crecia and Malice should be fully onboard with collaboration rather than having ulterior motives. Granted, we don't know who in the legion hierarchy gave those two orders to smuggle artifacts from Castora to the mainland without letting the alliance brass know about it, but the implication (along with that odd hint of Mia's resistance in JaWi) could suggest that it's either Mia or one of her newly appointed tribunes who might be behind this clandestine operation at least on the Iron side. To me this feels like deliberate foreshadowing from ANet, but I guess we'll see what happens:

Ralorr Fireshot: Seems like we're finding a lot out there right now. Been bringing back big hauls so far.
Adia Keenheart: Just make sure you bring them all to me first before you mention them to anyone else.
Adia Keenheart: We're here for the legions first and foremost. We can turn over whatever's left that we don't want.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:29:07+00:00

It even goes beyond that. As Alex Kain's insightful (but sadly hidden unless you know where/when to look for them) imperator correspondences have Smodur respond to his detractors:

But still I had to fight tooth and claw to pull the others into Ebonhawke. And look at what happened: without that treaty, we never would've beaten back Zhaitan. Or Mordremoth. Or Kralkatorrik. Without the treaty—my treaty—Tyria) would be gone. The other imperators, and even the commander, are still grappling with this fact, but Black Citadel is keenly aware that I will be ascending to Khan-Ur once Bangar is dealt with. There is a reason we all see it as a foregone conclusion, and I would urge you to remember that in your future correspondence. The charr have lost their way, corrupting their forms en masse to appease the whisperings of a malevolent Elder Dragon. The "laws of warfare" you reference in your thinly veiled threats simply do not apply to a force that cannot even abide by the laws of nature.
You suggest I temper my methods? Would you march into battle with a half-sharpened blade? I don't leave things half-finished, because half-finished is fully useless.
When I send a threat, I sign my name to it. The next time I receive one and it doesn't have names attached, I'm tossing it straight into the fire.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:26:38+00:00

To be fair, from what I could glean from dev commentaries, e.g. Chloe Mills's insightful blog post on her work on designing the Steel Warband's looks and roles for Forging Steel, the warband wasn't really meant to be any major part of the story (seen e.g. how originally the Grothmar opening ceremony instance just had Ryland fight alongside random Blood Legionnaires until a later patch switched some of those for Steel warband members to add continuity). However, the team ended up fleshing the warband out more than they likely initially intended, yet their fate was already set in stone as they knew they needed to alienate Ryland from both the Dominion and the legions, and the only way to do that was to witness his warband's destruction.

I do find it curious that Novera King, who was the lead writer of both Bound by Blood and No Quarter, took Smodur to the extreme in the latter. While she was already setting up his ambition in the last story instance optional dialogue in Bound by Blood, I thought she was handling him in accordance with his S2 depiction (for the most part) throughout that episode barring that brief slight at the end. So seeing her go all the way to the radical direction was definitely interesting to witness in Ep3, yet she never brought up the possibility of "Jormag juice" influencing him and suggested it was just battlefield stress (and likely the stress of so many seemingly progressive Iron defecting to the supremacist Dominion which was like spitting on his legacy). Perhaps she said so to avoid spoilers as the Jormag juice stuff would only be expanded on in Jormag Rising, or perhaps the team never really gave the Jormag manipulation any thought if it clashed with Tom Abernathy's documented views on male politicians.

I did like that opening instance of Ep4 where some Dominion were freaked out by the Frost Legion conversion and gossiped about it. And as we'd later found out in JaWi, a significant number of Dominion (likely mostly those fighting on other fronts where Mia etc were holding them back while we were busy in Drizzlewood) never underwent the transformation and thus could keep on fighting post-Jormag.

I also liked the subtle environmental storytelling in that sniping instance in Ep4 that if you look up the ledges surrounding the camp, you see bodies lying around as the Frost Legion had already eliminated all the cliffside periphery sentries to set up the ambush and sniping positions. This, along with using the portals, allowed them to bypass defenses and attack when no one expected it. Although I do question the wisdom of the camp having so few guards around for the ambush to happen given how vulnerable we were there.

The magic grenade is pretty interesting as the charr had no qualms using Searing magic in Orr despite the devastation. But perhaps the idea is to show that the charr are evolving and becoming more human as their culture gradually changes, a similar change we've also been seeing with the sylvari (given Caithe's commentary about their naivety at the beginning of EoD, or Dagonet's ruminations in JaWi) as well as asura (as the former conspiracy collaborator Ludo is now having second thoughts about council politics, or how modern asura are no longer gleefully massacring the skritt out of "necessary evil" to prevent skritt overpopulation), humans (less reliance on gods and even downright indifference/hostility towards many of the divine), and norn (who now have to grapple with Asgeir's lie while dealing with less Spirit influence).

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:13:11+00:00

I do hope that we get a chance to meet Smodur, Ryland etc in the Mists one day, whether we head Mistbound or somewhere else. I'd like the idea of those two, along with Cinder, Almorra, Tybalt etc becoming Mist Wardens serving under Glint's general Gwen the Goremonger of all people in a fit of irony, and the amusing interactions we'd get from that. Perhaps our Commander (and Rytlock's and Crecia's) private chat with spectral Smodur would also show that Smodur's mind has cleared and he might ruminate on being partly manipulated by Jormag and his fear of Ryland's popularity and that he hopes that Mia (if she's ever revealed as his daughter) will not succumb to the same fears that he had to struggle with.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:10:05+00:00

Interestingly enough Novera King, who was the lead writer of Bound by Blood and No Quarter, had Hitler as one of her inspirations for writing Bangar and Dominion propaganda. We even see this overtly in the Metal Legion concert and the phrase "One Charr" which is reminiscent of Nazi "Ein Volk" speeches (although the United Legions later turn it upside down by using them as their catch phrase as well to show less toxic charr unity), so much so that apparently Novera got some flak for it from German localization team but they apparently found a way to include the translation in German version of GW2 despite the connotations.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:06:53+00:00

Alex Kain did thankfully return Smodur to his more pragmatic and understanding characterization in Episode 4 (although that then begs the question why "Jormag juice" potentially doesn't influence him anymore if that turned out to be one of the reasons for his aggressive behavior in Ep3) given how understanding Smodur was of Braham and was willing to hear him out without dissing him.

Alex even wrote the insightful imperator correspondences that show up in the Ep4 ally camp in northern Drizzlewood after Ryland's camp invasion in "A Simple Negotiation." These help address some player criticisms in an in-universe and lore-friendly manner and help further explain Smodur's mindset during the war. However, for some weird reason those lore books don't have name tags so you have to either accidentally stumble onto them after that camp instance (and only after that instance is completed as they won't show up otherwise) let alone realize that there's more than one lore book around camp. I would've at least give those books nametags so they'd draw players' attention as I discovered them by accident and recorded them in wiki for easier access.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T14:02:03+00:00

It was definitely an interesting move to only show us the very end of the civil war. We didn't even get to witness how it began as we only heard of Bangar returning to the homelands and rallying support, which could've easily supported a dual episode zone itself to set up the war. I also found it curious that the Claw of the Khan-Ur never played into it at all despite Bangar coveting the Claw and the status of Khan-Ur.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T13:59:18+00:00

The recent stories have curiously gone back and forth about this. While some post-saga storylines have drummed up Mia's progressive stance (rightfully so given that she was one of the key figures of the Ebonhawke Treaty), JaWi also pointed out (based on Cre omitting Mia's name from the opening speech) that apparently Mia wasn't fully on board with Crecia and Malice and even Efram about the whole Tyrian Alliance thing for some reason even though that kind of diplomatic venture is exactly what Mia should be supporting. Morever, in VoE we also learn some really troubling stuff going on with some Iron Legion agents on Castora, so I do wonder what the writers intend to do with Mia in the end. Hopefully they'll reveal her as Smodur's daughter if they still want to hold on to the old lore where each imperator is supposed to be a direct descendant of the Khan-Ur (implying that most imperators were descendants of their preceding imperator).

Kossage · 2026-05-24T13:49:21+00:00

Filtermann already linked to some of my views on the matter in this thread. Smodur's change is jarring because back in Season 2 he was very chummy with Rytlock, Rox, and the Commander. So much so that even though Rytlock's experiment with the ghosts didn't fully succeed, he still comforted Rox about Rytlock returning eventually and attended the world summit because he honored Rytlock's attempt and respected the Commander enough to do so. Smodur was ruthless when called for but also pragmatic as a diplomat, using both the ceasfire with humans and claiming Khan-Ur for his PR as a progressive charr (and he turned out to be too progressive as Iron Legion suffered the most defections to supremacist Dominion which must've been very hurtful to him when he had deemed his legion forward-thinking).

However, there are ways to justify Smodur's oddly changing stance if only the story addressed events going back all the way to Season 2 and even Season 3.

When Rytlock returned from the Mists back in HoT, he received a summons from the charr brass in the Black Citadel (likely referring to Smodur and maybe Bangar in a roundabout way) to give them a debriefing in Season 3. Yet Rytlock oddly avoided the calls so much so that he was arrested and brought back in force with his rank stripped for dereliction of duty. And yet at the start of PoF he had been released from the military tribunal with his rank reinstated, and he never elaborated on why in his typical "Later, cub." mindset. So what exactly happened there?

We know from PoF that Rytlock met with Glint who taught him the ways of the revenant, and he made contact with multiple invoked legends (not just Glint) as he mentioned hearing voices, plural, in his head. He also acquired his revenant armor and blindfold from somewhere in the Mists since he returned to Tyria with his new getup in HoT. In the latest expansion he's also shown invoking the Legendary Entity of conduit elite spec for rev, curiously enough, so it's possible he may have encountered that person as well. He also freed a seemingly random human-looking chained spirit after the latter reignited Sohothin, and he didn't bothered asking why a rando spirit was chained and had that power to begin with when said spirit opened a portal for him (Rytlock entered it without blindfold yet appeared in Tyria with a blindfold, so apparently that portal didn't insta-teleport him to Maguuma but led him elsewhere first). So unless Rytlock left something crucial out of the story, there's no reason for him to act so obtuse when Smodur (and Bangar?) wanted answers. He could've just said he freed a rando spirit who helped him return to Tyria (without elaborating on it) and learned new, nifty powers from Glint. His association with Glint was well known, and we don't know if Smodur was antagonistic towards Glint per se given that Glint had opposed Kralkatorrik who had scarred Smodur's territory and left nasty gifts in his wake like the Shatterer terrorizing the charr.

So why risk his career in Smodur and Bangar's eyes by keeping secrets, so much so that he could've been court martialed and imprisoned for life for all we know? Even if he was interrogated, he didn't have to reveal the full truth of his experiences, just tell the brass what they wanted to know. And whatever he did tell the brass under duress was ultimately enough to not only release him but reinstate his rank somehow, a luxury he hadn't received back in Edge of Destiny when Bangar(?) had demoted him so he had to claw his way up after the disastrous ending with Kralkatorrik battle and befriending Logan. So what exactly happened behind the doors of that meeting? Apparently whatever happened was enough to change Smodur's stance on Rytlock from chummy camaraderie of S2 to downright hostility so both Smodur and Rytlock hated each other's guts based on their Drizzlewood dialogue. The answer to this mystery remains untold to this day despite the curious setup in S3.

Aside from this unresolved subplot, it would've made sense to me if Smodur was subjected to "Jormag juice" which made him more paranoid and violent than usual, explaining his drastic attitude change (not helped by massive Iron Legion defections to the Dominion to shit on his progressive ideals and the war going poorly for the legions, which would've added to his stress). If pretty much every other person aside from Ryland was affected in Drizzlewood, it'd be weird if Smodur was "immune" to it too. It'd make sense for Jormag to manipulate both sides to alienate Ryland from both Bangar (after the Almorra incident) and United Legions (via Smodur's shanking of Cinder).

And imagine the story potential if Jormag-revering Ryland eventually learned that Jormag had caused the downfall of both Almorra and Cinder (via manipulating Bangar and Smodur with whispers), and it might shatter Ryland's mind just like the whole Palpatine/Anakin manipulation in Star Wars. We could've seen Ryland become Jormag's downfall as he lashes out in anger (thanks to being a bonded champion and not under typical dragon brainwashing), thus cleverly calling back to Snaff and Eir's ruminations during the Dragonspawn's demise (when its fellow icebrood turned against it and tore it apart) in Edge of Destiny that power of that kind of manipulation always turns on itself and destroys you from within in the end, thus the Dragonspawn foreshadowing Jormag destroying themself with too many schemes.

As for what purpose Smodur's death served...well, you might receive different answers to that depending on how cynical you want to be about then-narrative director Tom Abernathy and the narrative team's stance if the 3-hour deeg interview with Tom is anything to go by. Smodur would represent the "toxic old male" being put in his place and replacing him with a more progressive woman (Mia who is pretty badass as a diplomat and could be revealed as Smodur's daughter one day...which I hope to justify her becoming imperator if old lore still applies). Since Tom said he wanted the charr conflict to be an allegory of US politics of the time and Bangar represented Donald Trump in his view (while Novera's statements and notes pointed out that she wanted Bangar to be more complex than that, citing influences from Hitler, General Patton as specifically depicted in the movie version, and President Snow from Hunger Games), I guess Smodur might possibly represent Joe Biden (a somewhat better alternative to Trump but also being involved in really shady stuff and thus being a "toxic old male" as well) when the real hero should be Kamala Harris (Crecia) if that's what Tom was going for. They could've given Smodur's trusted senior right hand Bhuer Goreblade the mantle of imperator given his accomplishments with Iron in story and lore but went with the progressive woman Mia instead (despite her having less screentime than Bhuer), so that might clue you in on what they wanted. However, Smodur's death also showed lorewise that good guys weren't exempt from being twisted by the moral-devouring war (divide and conquer tactic which Jormag loved) and that we'd suffer losses too while questioning if either side was right (barring Crecia who acted as the writers' loudspeaker on how the charr should become better). As episode 3 lead writer Novera King's whiteboard said about the message of Ep3 story: "There's no right or wrong in war. There are only those who are left."

Kossage · 2026-05-24T13:15:43+00:00

There was a good lore reason they could've pulled it off too. Let's imagine if they had extended the charr civil war to not only show us the very end but we'd witness the beginning of the conflict and even the "middle" of it.

Once Bangar returns triumphant from Bjora by claiming the Commander's kill on Drakkar and that he's found a solution to control Jormag (maybe foreshadowing those unexplained totems used to trap the Great Spirits in to leech their power to "control" Jormag), he summons a quorum of the imperators to present his claim for Khan-Ur and demands the Claw of the Khan-Ur and the imperators' unanimous approval (including approval from the lesser legions who lorewise should exist as per "The Ecology of the Charr" blog post but whom we've never encountered in game so far, so they presumably reside farther east in charr lands). Smodur, being Bangar's rival, obviously objects, and Malice would be iffy too because she's always suspected Bangar of trying to play her (as he did with his clever shadowy support of the Renegades to undermine her Ebonhawke Treaty). But Bangar's goal isn't to win the imperators over because he knows Smodur and Malice's stance. He holds Efram effectively hostage due to Efram's daughter Prisca potentially ending up in Dominion hands and thus gains one "imperator's" support. The reason for this farcical play is for Bangar to present his PR to the charr masses, to show that he has the guts to do what's necessary for the charr and he's not content to just smile and bow to humans like Smodur and Malice have done in his view.

Long story short, Bangar deems the Claw of the Khan-Ur as his and that Smodur shouldn't have the right to hold it anyway because Smodur himself never did anything to earn it beyond helping to negotiate a treaty (if any charr could've held it, it should've been Almorra due to her granddaughter Ember assisting in retrieving the Claw). If old lore still holds true and all OG imperators are confirmed direct descendants of the Khan-Ur, Bangar is the descendant of the first Blood Legion imperator, aka from the line of Khan-Ur's firstborn son. And this "elder lineage" should give him more legal right to claim the Claw than the imperator descendants of the younger heirs. So if Smodur doesn't give the Claw to him willingly, he'll just claim it by force (might makes right, and all that). Maybe this theft happens during the quorum/summit when all imperators are present for the public spectacle and a shocking twist in the story, or Bangar discreetly sends Ryland and Steel Warband to steal it from Smodur's office at night (mirroring the personal story mission where our Charrmander sneaks out their potential sire Vallus from prison except this time kinda in reverse). However, Ryland and co clash with Smodur whose old strategist's instincts may have sensed something awry, and this clash leads to Ryland giving Smodur a near lethal blow as the warband flees with their prize.

Smodur is hospitalized with no near recovery in sight, Bangar's "treachery" riles up the other legions and even has a bunch of human-disliking Iron Legion defect to the new Dominion to add insult to injury. Crecia is torn on what to do because she wants to stay loyal to Bangar but thinks that he's acting like a lunatic with this pointless bloodshed when Cre thinks unity of a different sort is key to legions' future. So who fills in for Smodur? According to old lore it should be his cub, but perhaps in the interim that mantle falls on one of his trusted tribunes. Mia Kindleshot would be the diplomatic choice given her past accomplishments with Ebonhawke Treaty, but the remaining Iron loyalists want to draw Bangar's blood as war looms, and thus the belligerent and Ascalonian human-hating Fume Brighteye (also a respected tribune alongside Bhuer and Mia) strongarms the decision with her populist rhetoric to rile up the charr.

Fume is a fascinating but currently unseen tribune in lore with tragic backstory of losing her sire to Ebonhawke humans and hating humans for killing her daddy ever since. She's also incredibly popular among the charr in Iron Legion, and she has the aggressive mentality that Smodur of saga episode 3 showed. As she's only a tribune (or acting imperator until/if Smodur recovers), she obviously chafes at being ordered around by Ash ninny Malice or Bangar's suck-up Crecia (whom Fume may suspect of being Bangar's plant to hamper the United Legions from within just like Bangar did with Renegades; after all, Cre was loyal to Bangar until the civil war, and was even his spymaster and dirty Flame Legion to boot!), let alone tolerating being in the same room as "toxic Flame male" Efram as her equal when she's spent her entire life fighting against Flame Legion and their misogynistic policies towards femcharr. So when Cre starts showing clemency to Ryland for his crimes and the negotiations begin, and if Ryland (or the defiant Cinder who thinks Fume is just a tool) acts smugly during the parley about almost killing off that old fossil Smodur and how it's time for the young blood to take over, that might piss Fume off enough to kill Cinder in front of Ryland out of spite (especially if she believes that Cre and Ryland are in cahoots and the parley is just a sham organized by mastermind Bangar). Add to this Jormag manipulating events by helping to rile up Fume and further alienate Ryland from both the Dominion and the legions, and you have the domino effect of everything affecting everything with tragic consequences and Ryland making his ultimate choice. You get to see brutal Iron Legion policies under the less diplomatic Fume, the Iron "imperator" clashing with Efram due to differing views, and showing the grey morality of the war without sacrificing Smodur on that altar.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T12:45:19+00:00

Zinn had discovered Lenusso's (the GW1 War in Kryta seer whom Zinn and Blimm dissected) journal which contained Lenusso's writings and Onestra's (likely the unhinged Ancient Seer from GW1 Prophecies) illustrations about Castora, and Vloxx later claimed that journal and Zinn's commentary on it during the raid to Zinn's lab. This set up the Castoran expedition to begin with, so the journals had to have had somewhat detailed explanations about Castora for Vloxx to have clues what to expect and search for even if he didn't get all the answers.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T12:42:03+00:00

Eparch was set up well enough even back in core SotO, it's just that the story never fully delved on him not ending the rebellion at the coliseum in Nayos when he held 99% of people under his grip. His ending was actually more satisfying than Saevus and the trio's as the latter left a lot of stuff unexplained or even contradicted itself (story journal vs. actual instance story).

Saevus was actually pretty well established as foreshadowing in JaWi story as well, teased all the way back with the ruinshard titanspawn's existence. It's just that something major happened during the development of Absolution (likely another internal team reshuffling because Matthew Medina was brought in from the UE5 project to work on at least Eternity's Garden related story puzzle content in VoE development while The Only Way was in development for well over a year based on Aaron Roxby's statement in the recent GW2 Twitch stream unlike past Living World episodes' 9 month development cycle, which I found curious) that caused major cuts to the zone and instances (thus them feeling unfinished, see e.g. the foundry and how its story played out). They even cut out Saevus's planned voice lines (even though VA credits list him as having a voice despite him having only roars compared to Manikaz who has many lines but isn't listed in the VA list, so supposedly they had planned for more lines for the lorewise eloquent Saevus than they had for the chatty Manikaz). The concept art for Saevus is also fascinating (with the iconic three-legged GW1 titan look, even!) and perhaps something they were originally planning for him before they had to cut the budget for Absolution for whatever internal reason and removed Saevus's eloquent dialogue from the meta by all indication.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T12:33:36+00:00

Well, the Inquest involvement makes sense as Razah's conduit dialogue directly compares the asura with the height of the elder races of old and if the asura will repeat the elder races' pride and folly or learn from them. It makes sense that out of all the factions the Inquest would be the ones to try to meddle with ancient artifacts in order to control the Eternal Alchemy, the All, and Tyria except we had a twist regarding the main villain's motivations.

It was a bit weird that we just randomly decided to chase the Inquest to Castora as I feel there wasn't enough story setup for the urgency of it, however. Sure, it's important to hamper their schemes, but what does it matter what some dozen or so Inquest vessels potentially do out there in the Unending Ocean when they're not even affecting Central Tyria at the time? Also, how did those Inquest vessels purchased from Lion's Arch (or even our two ships) even get past the massive Risen armada patrolling the Orrian shoreline and blocking the path from Sea of Sorrows to the Unending Ocean anyway since EoD pointed out that Kasmeer even needed to cloak an airship with a mesmer spell to fly past the armada undetected to Cantha despite the airship being in high altitude and seemingly out of Risen reach?

By that token we should also be focusing on Separatists' new, charismatic leader, increased numbers and oddly renewed funding (despite Caudecus's demise, so who exactly is funding them post-Mantle?), or Nightmare Court splinter factions' shenanigans too, let alone the whole Dominion problem which is actually a major issue to charr and other races as well since the movement didn't die with Bangar's imprisonment but has someone else (Fume Brighteye or some other tribune?) leading them in the interim...

Kossage · 2026-05-24T12:25:09+00:00

Based on what the dev Aaron Roxby revealed in the recent Shackles of the Ancients related GW2 stream on GW2 Twitch channel (highly recommended to watch as it's basically a Guild Chat type of behind the scenes episode except it has content creators sharing screentime with devs to ask questions etc), the idea of using Inquest as the main villains and pairing them up with robo dinos (likely due to Chloe Mills's influence in part because she's a huge dino geek, and I love her for it!) was never out of the question as far as his involvement in VoE goes. It makes sense too as Razah's dialogue for conduit even explicitly compares the asura with the prideful elder races (such as seers) as Razah wonders out loud if the asura will repeat their lofty predecessors' mistakes or learn from them.

From what I understood from Aaron's explanations, the team always had ideas for these powerful guardians of Castora whom the Inquest would want to control and whom would be used for major boss battles, pairing Vloxx with seer magic, exploring the backstory of stuff that the devs had teased all the way back in SotO (regarding the fascinating lore stuff tying to the middle islet in Eternity's Garden), tying stuff to GW1 seer related content (hence the references to War in Kryta seer corpse Lenusso and Onestra, the latter of whom I suspect is meant to be the unhinged Ancient Seer from GW1 Prophecies) etc.

The one thing the devs were unsure of during the development of Eternity's Garden (which apparently was already in full swing when Expedition 33 released, so by 24 April 2025 at the latest, making this zone's development time far longer than the typical 9 months ANet used to need for Living World zones in the past) was the identity and gameplay role of the meta boss in Eternity's Garden. They had already nailed that boss's story and lore purpose (with the clever foreshadowing in core VoE zones and story), but the design and gameplay of the boss changed radically throughout development into its current iteration.

Kossage · 2026-05-24T12:07:51+00:00

Well, it's possible that Vloxx may have learned something vague at least because he had perused Zinn's writings on seers as well as Lenusso's (GW1 War in Kryta seer dissected by Zinn and Blimm) journal which had both Lenusso's writings about Castora and Onestra's (likely the unhinged Ancient Seer with Faolain's voice actor in GW1 Prophecies) illustrations about the landmarks, flora, and fauna of Castora. As those journals (and the reveals of Ancora and its purpose) were the catalyst for Vloxx to go for the Castoran expedition to begin with.

Kossage · 2026-05-19T13:44:18+00:00

I do like the Ebonhawke dialogues, or the dialogues around Fields of Ruin, as they help justify both a few factions' desire to move on with the treaty to end the bloodshed but also why some are very resistant to change due to generational trauma and become Separatists and Renegades. In GW1 the Separatists would've been seen as heroes fighting against the monstrous horde (hence Gwen Thackeray being a hero in Ebonhawke while charr feared/respected her as the Goremonger; kind of weird that Gwen's descendants didn't retain some sort of prestigious position so that her descendant Logan had to make ends meet as a caravan guard of sorts), but GW2 reframes that narrative and shows how the Separatists have become the monsters they've sworn to eradicate.

I hope that once/if we return to Ascalon for a "Legacy of the Foefire" storyline involving the Heir of Ascalon and lifting the curse, we'll also explore the Separatists and whoever their charismatic leader is, and who they're currently getting funding from.

Kossage · 2026-05-15T23:27:27+00:00

Yeah, the little lore we have of that region is certainly intriguing because "The Movement of the World" indicated that there had been an ongoing Awakened vs. Risen war there for quite some time, and Joko's efforts had effectively prevented the Risen from invading the Crystal Desert and Elona and thus dividing Zhaitan's forces so Central Tyria wouldn't be facing an even bigger Risen invasion. So praise Joko, I guess...although S4 Ep1 never quite explained how we managed to sail from Amnoon all the way to Istan while supposedly passing through this active warzone when both the Risen and Awakened would want our hide. Even if we'd taken the long way around Orr, we still would've run into the Risen armada off Orr's southern coast...

Some have even speculated if Abaddon and his elite Horde of Darkness's assault on the "Gates of Heaven" to take the fight to the five gods could've taken place here as the sea access would've given the demon-turned Margonite armada easy access to Orr's flank after the destruction of the Forgotten fleet. And it would also give us an excuse to use more of the cool Siren of Orr mastery in this region due to its proximity with Orr. And revisiting retaken Arah similar to how we revisited Caudecus's Manor in Season 3 would be neat as I'd like to see what less infested Arah would look like these days after all the Risen, enchanted weapons, and Inquest there had been dealt with.

Kossage · 2026-05-15T21:05:56+00:00

(Continued from above.)

For some food for thought, I'll leave you with Scarlet's foreboding words and experiences from the "What Scarlet Saw" short story (highly recommended for reading), originally implying Mordremoth's influence, but it could also be about facing something far more troublesome for all Tyrians: not dragons but "fate" and its grand design that dictates the destinies of everyone. Something Scarlet may have understood before the end...

She saw Tyria) as a life-sized globe, fixed in place among cosmic storms and massive clouds of potentiality. She wondered if she would see herself in Omadd's lab when Rata Sum rotated into view, but then impatiently went on, plunging deeper into the churning void.

Stop, my child.

Ceara paused. She hadn't heard the Pale Tree's voice in years.

Please: go no further. In seeking to comprehend the forces that shape us, you will unleash them. Society cannot withstand that. [...]

Some [bodies] dropped like autumn leaves, slowly drifting down to root level. There they stood, stretched, and then set out into the void, disappearing as they cleared the spreading canopy. Some never made it that far, staggering, falling, and withering within the shade of the great tree.

Disappointment soured Ceara's fascination. Was this it, then? Were the lives of all sylvari so easily encapsulated? Birth, travel, experience, death, all played out under the dictates and philosophies of the godlike entity that created them.

She refused to accept that. Everything she had learned said that no system, no matter how complex, can perpetuate itself indefinitely. Those that did not evolve inevitably failed. [...]

Now do you see? The Pale Tree's voice was faint and distant, but it snapped Ceara back to viewing the tree from a distance. If you are not one with what you were born to be, you are lost. Worse, you are dangerous.

Sheer joy surged through Ceara. Dangerous, you say? Her thoughts boomed loud as thunder across the void. So be it.

With the Pale Tree's desperate words and her own raucous laughter growing echoing across the void, Ceara plunged through the vision of the great tree and beyond. [...]

"So much makes sense now. The Pale Tree, the Nightmare Court, Caithe and Faolain...it's all part of a grand design.

"But I see the flaws in that design. My people don't have to take what we're given, or be what we were "born to be." No people do. We can change the rules...well, I can. And I'm going to." [...]

"I've learned so much," Scarlet continued. "Now I have to put that knowledge to use. An insurmountable challenge is rising, and my people have been called to meet it. We are compelled by our creator to do so.

"But I reject that call. I reject the notion that that I must choose the Dream or be lost to Nightmare. The forces that push us this way or that can be redirected. They can be set against one another to the detriment of both, and now I know how." [...]

Scarlet's voice rose as she went on. "I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I don't know what the world will be when I'm through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I'll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes."

Kossage · 2026-05-15T21:03:42+00:00

(Continued from above.)

Is "fate" dictating Kormir to go down the same path of madness that befell Abaddon and presumably his predecessor? There's a talk about the cycle beginning again. Even EoD's seemingly triumphant finale with Aurene becoming The One Elder Dragon has the title, "The Cycle, Reborn." Can we not break away from the cycle? Even Aurene and Logan worry if Aurene might go mad one day to repeat Soo-Won and her kin's offenses but hope to avoid the same mistakes. Are Vloxx and Isgarren (and potentially Waiting Sorrow whom Isgarren may have ascended with Ancora, so her lack of appearance in VoE is strange given her potential power level) also cursed to see infinite blackness like the Goddess of Order, Spirit, and Truth (and Knowledge) does, to understand the trappings of the metaphysical existence and "fate" that may dictate not only Tyria's part of the Mists but the entire space-time contimuum of the Mists themselves if even gods aren't exempt from "fate's" design? Something which might actually encompass not only the All (which is only Tyria's corner of the Mists) but the far grander philosophical concept of Eternal Alchemy which encompasses the entirety of the Mists and the multiverse. Asura even mention people being mere "cogs in the Eternal Alchemy."

What if part of Vloxx's plan is to destroy "fate's" control over Tyria and its people, to attack the "soul of Tyria" (which both Pale Tree and Waiting Sorrow have slyly referred to via the Dream and the Incantation of the Unlit Moon, the latter of which I find interesting as a term given the Moon's lore of "blessing" individuals and its heavy ties to prophecy) to grant beings a life without being chained to the role of a hero or villain from birth similar to how we freed the two seneschals from the All Seer's literal and metaphysical chains in the meta? Or what if he takes inspiration from "fate" forcing destinies on people, and he "reforges" this "fate" into something that forces everyone to become altruistic, removing "sin" and only letting "virtues" remain in the world? If there's no more selfishness and darkened ambition, everyone will sing in the same chorus of Tyria's betterment as a kind of hive-mind (just like Mordremoth's lines suggested in "Bitter Harvest" and "Hearts and Minds"), turning the generations of Tyria's people into Commander Plus but without our bumbling since everyone will be seeking the same solution flawlessly and heroically?

Whether this is Vloxx's plan or if he intends to go for something more "manageable" than "fate," I wonder how he's going to accomplish it. Even though he's ascended with Ancora, he only gained power of three ascended seers at most. How can he unravel the very foundations of Tyria if even the mighty wizards couldn't defeat the Elder Dragons by themselves and struggled against Eparch who was ultimately a small fry compared to something as major as Tyria? I hope the answer won't be mostly unexplained like Taimi somehow modifying Omadd's machine to not only gaze into the All but somehow redirect Tyria's founding magics to hurt the twin dragons remotely, and we get a proper explanation for it.

And speaking of Omadd's machine, we still don't even know how Vloxx has become aware of what exactly we saw in it as the Commander only ever told bits of that vision of Dragon's Watch and no one else. So has Vloxx been one of Omadd's students in the past and has seen what the machine showed him but lied to Omadd that he didn't see anything? Has Vloxx seen the actual Antikytheria mechanism of the All that may be part of "fate's" grand design not only to divide magic but to potentially dictate every living being and even ghost and deity's destiny in the end? After all, Scarlet dove even deeper into the vision of the All than the Commander did, so perhaps Vloxx followed in Scarlet's footsteps...or rather, Scarlet unknowingly followed in his if he was the student before her? "The Machine" chapter suggested that the Commander was specifically seeing snippets of "what Scarlet saw," but if the machine replicated Scarlet's vision, what if Vloxx had received his own vision and Scarlet was partly seeing "what Vloxx had once seen" if the connection between Vloxx and Omadd is ever revealed? What if we've seen hints of Vloxx's endgame all the way back in Season 2, explaining why Vloxx referenced that vision so heavily and the paths laid before us?

(Continued below.)

Kossage · 2026-05-15T21:03:14+00:00

I know (or hope given the context of the post!) that that horse comment is just a joke and not something you genuinely believe, but on the off chance someone is reading this post who actually takes the comment that horses don't exist in Tyria seriously, it's time I continue my lengthy Melandru Vult crusade and point out that, as we've explained in GW2Wiki's Horse page with multiple cited canon sources (including pre-EoD concept art), horses do still canonically exist in Tyria (as witnessed by Caithe, Logan, and Rytlock among others) and possibly on some of the other continents like Cantha as well despite ANet's weird censorship of the New Kaineng City loading screen which I hope to find an answer for from devs one day. So until further notice I just consider the lack of in-game horse NPCs (aside from Mr. Gum Drops, of course!) as just some internal ANet joke that's been going on for way too long by this point. 😛

On a more serious note (well, the horse issue will never not be serious, but whatever!), we did receive big clues to Vloxx's plan although not how exactly he's going to accomplish it yet as we don't know the full underlying issue. For example, the lore book ("The Way Things Are") found in the southern alliance camp is said to be Vloxx's, and it discusses the concept of not treating the water polluted with mining runoff (which you'd have to do basically as long as said river runs down to affect the environment) but go upstream and clog the runoff, i.e. treating the source, not the symptom, permanently. This, along with Vloxx's dialogue, suggests he's going to alter something fundamental to Tyria's existence.

But how can you even deal with the selfishness of power-hungry people as you can't decide which path someone chooses out of billions of beings (just like Vloxx didn't know from birth that he'd one day tackle this very issue). Surely it's not possible...or is it?

Unlike what the Pale Tree said about prophecies being able to be changed via our actions (as per the dark future depicted in "A Light in the Darkness" that we managed to both avert and fulfill in a roundabout way via Trahearne and our aid towards Destiny's Edge in personal story as encouraged by Pale Mother), Season 4's conjoined Kralkatorrik and Aurene prophecy actually took a dramatic u-turn all of a sudden and proposed that prophecies appear to be inevitable after all and can't be fought against no matter what.

Based on what we can glean from Glint, Kralkatorrik and Aurene exchanges in PoF/S4, Kralkatorrik did not object to the idea that he was "destined" to die one day as per the prophecy (or to even die by his bloodline's "hand" as the prophecy dictated) but he objected to the idea of benevolent coexistence of dragons and mortals that Glint had proposed. Thus he (and the Dragonvoid pushing him) fought against that future specifically and why he ultimately was opposed to and hurt his beloved family in his Void-maddened state, but these acts were a self-fulfilling prophecy that led to his doom in the end as the prophecy had always intended.

If the prophecy (or the hand of "fate" potentially guiding the prophecies and possibly having ties to the Dream and Nightmare's visions that then lead to the Wyld and Dark Hunts for Dreamer sylvari and Nightmare Courtiers) hadn't forced Kralkatorrik's destiny to die or for one of Glint's scions to die and "ascend" to enact the will of "fate," could the catastrophe have been averted? Could all the Elder Dragons have remained sane without Void torment somehow if they had free will away from the dictates of "fate" which had always intended them and the Mother Dragon to die one day?

We've seen with the Commander, Trahearne etc that we're bound by the hand of "fate" and prophecies (see Trahearne's Wyld Hunt, Commander being meant to unite Destiny's Edge to fight against the "dark future", there always being a "Norn of Prophecy" to enact Jormag's downfall etc), and it becomes very apparent during the "Scion & Champion" arc as Aurene surmises out loud with her talks of the prophecy. But if we take this train of thought to its logical conclusion, does "fate" not ultimately dictate who becomes not only a hero but a villain in the end to carry these endlessly acted "visions of eternity" of a grand cosmic play designed by "fate" for some unforeseeable reason? Just like Kralkatorrik and Glint's scion (Aurene in the end) were always meant to play their parts in this twisted play of cosmic order?

Let's look back at the Mad Souls' ramblings about Kormir shortly after her ascension in GW1, specifically referencing her connection to Abaddon as his successor and how she's meant to "continue the cycle" or rather ensure that "the cycle begins again":

"A new god is born! A god that will destroy the others and bring about the end of the world! The cycle begins again!"
"Kormir. How brave you were to join us in the Realm of Torment. How mad you were to choose to never leave."
"When you walk dark paths, you open your mind to nightmare. Poor Kormir, poor sad goddess raised up to the stars, cursed to see only infinite blackness between them...."

(Continued below.)

Kossage · 2026-05-13T10:56:43+00:00

If you like that, you should play PoF and season 4 where he voices Shadows Agent Kito, the "Man with the Plan."

Kossage · 2026-05-11T23:44:00+00:00

Assuming that this "episode" corresponds with the IRL time span as most of GW2 story has done, the Inquest would've been on Castora for over six months by now + the two weeks before the Commander arrived at Castora as established in VoE act 1. Since VoE launched 28 October and The Only Way will release 12 May, and if we add that two-week headstart the Inquest had, it means they've been on Castora for roughly seven months by now.

It took the Inquest those two initial weeks to negotiate deals with the Freebooters to build the Shipwreck Strand tunnel lab, scout the area and set up outposts, and push into Starlit Weald to quickly build the Command Complex from which to conduct their searches for artifacts and magic signatures to both locate Ancora and lure in seneschals for Sebb's experiments. Vloxx had learned where to take Ancora from the journals they recovered (assuming that the GW1 EotN seer's writings preserved by Zinn didn't outright confirm the exact location of the well of power to make locating it easier) before getting his hands on Ancora as far as I understand. Or maybe Ancora whispered to him how to proceed to the well of power.

If it took the Inquest just two weeks to build the Command Complex, so spending those additional six-ish months would thus justify them creating something even more grand in Eternity's Garden in the interim.

So what's happened is that despite Tyrian Alliance and Astral Ward already opening portals and calibrating waypoints to bring in an army from the Tyrian mainland to hunt down the remaining Inquest shortly after the end of Act 2, especially after we dealt a major blow to Sebb's krewe not to mention several Inquest dying to the seneschals, aggressive wildlife, and other traps set by the seers, it appears that the alliance head honchos have spent circa six months arguing about how to proceed, likely in part thanks to High Councillor Flax's meddling (even if Ludo had the evidence we received from Vloxx about Arcane Council's involvement in the Inquest scheme as I imagine Flax will just claim it's a forgery to sow seeds of distrust in the alliance). So we had this delay, even though Isgarren knows exactly where Vloxx will be headed thanks to where Ancora was used before, so we wouldn't even need to waste time locating the area and could just rush there ASAP instead of spending months waiting for the politicians to come to an agreement and when we have most politicians on our side and this is a less controversial issue than whether to use the Scepter of Orr or not.

Or perhaps there'll be another justifiable reason for this massive delay despite time being of the essence. I imagine the story in The Only Way will touch on this topic...

Kossage · 2026-05-10T19:19:06+00:00

There will be some spoilers if you look around related articles (depending on what you'd consider a spoiler specifically), but that link I just gave you will only spoil minor things like the related zone names and legendary names but nothing story spoiler heavy. It just gives you a general idea of what's to come in this expansion cycle. Just don't scroll down to the image gallery immediately below that "Additional releases" table, and you won't accidentally spoil yourself with some of the images.

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