I adore Janthir Syntri, its everything I wanted the isles of Janthir to be: dour, creepy, the grass underfoot watered with endless rain as well as the blood shed from the Mursaat's many crimes. The lore we get in Syntri is some of the most compelling stuff I've seen from this game in a while and really brings back an excitement for the story I haven't had since icebrood saga went south.
There is a great bit of dialogue or journal entry inside Janthir Syntri about how horrible the experience being there has been for the Kodan, having to repeat the same mundane tasks day after day just to survive. JS’s heart/quest experience that so many people are complaining about is intentionally designed. (Not the bugs of course)
I highly suggest completing the achievement "Strength of the Unseen" from Soto. It's short, but it's about Mabon and only takes 5 minutes to complete. Contains the quote of being exiled, bit on Waiting Sorrow and the Court.
The Bog Queen's name is Alessia, it's mentioned in the description of one of the Lowland Shore achievements. Very happy to see you finding Darda's note! There's some more little neat stuff ahead. :)
I am loving this storyline they have got going on! And can I just say I am so glad you decided to do this blind WP. It’s delightful to listen to you gush about lore I find just as fascinating 😂
it's really fascinating to listen all these tangents about the lore i know very little about and even nicer to see he's giving it a chance and enjoying it partly because the latter is very much my experience with JW. the dialogue heavy start is very rough when you've given up on them telling a good story but they managed to win me over by the end of the expansion - helped immensely by the quality of Lowland shores. It is the best map they've ever made.
It's interesting to think of SOTO as a prologue of new larger arc, and now we're getting into the main story. Overall been loving the story and the implementation of the side story collections seems like the best yet. Feels like a real quest system!
Realistically I think it's more a matter of how to salvage the story from SotO than thinking it was intentional. From what I can gather from the post-mortem ANet had great intentions with SotO that pretty much all fell flat.
"Isgarren is not melodramatic is he?" - I mean I love Isgarren, but he did crash the Tyrian Alliance meeting in the most dramatic moment but teleporting right into the middle. He does have this air about him of making everything he says sound important and serious, which makes sense for ancient wizard. It's honestly pretty refreshing after all the "quippy" dialogue we had in a lot of the GW2 story content.
Maybe it's a bit hyperbolic but this mini expac has saved the IP for me lol! I was rocky on EOD and the post patches and missed SOTO entirely (picked it up the day before JW). I hope the patch content really delivers on all the cool stuff they've set up because to me everything is lining up perfectly.
Rhea was introduced in the a census of humans when you first got to the Lowlands. All the information we had on her was that she died, cause unknown. It's right next to Frode.
just wanted to note WP, I believe its chapter 8 where you will learn more about gavril in the story, I would suggest trying to fully complete "A History Most Violent" beforehand, so you can have full context, and the story should fill in any gaps you have, great episode!!
@@WoodenPotatoes if needed, the wiki does already have locations for them (doesn't spoil the dialogue/text) edit: only for part 1, part 2 on wiki has the dialogue at the bottom beneath the locations
So I'd thought I'd swallowed this comment instead of posting it, but here I find myself regurgitating it. It seems such a trivial thing, but I wish to share it, as were it some testimony to the 'breadth' of my knowledge, perhaps: The Titans have always spoken. Shortly after coming into view, the first (random) Titan boss of the Hell's Precipice mission will exclaim: "Shith Mal Hacto!", as were it some rallying cry. And indeed, the other Titans nearby adhere to this command apparent, as they converge upon the boss' position, sometimes repeating the cry as if relaying an order. To me as a GW1 player, it was taught early on to use this scripted event to avoid a significant amount of encounters in this mission. (Only to reset anyway because the Seer somehow managed to burn to death lmao) Though as such might be inferred from the usual Titan's Latin naming convention, the exclamation itself means nothing in English, nor in Latin, as far as I can tell. The thought of this 'Titan language' being intended as an anagram did cross my mind, though I sincerely doubt the developers meant for it to be rearranged as "Calm. Hah? Oh, Tits!". Perhaps someone more familiar with both Latin and English could shine a light on this~ Regardless of whether it means anything, it signifies to me that the Titans adhere to some sort of command structure, and are capable of independent thought as well as issueing and adhering to commands without need for a relic such as the Staff of the Mists, irregardless of which forge they might originate from. I've grown incredibly out of touch with contemporary GW lore aside from these Let's Plays (Thanks for your work!), but perhaps it could be said that there was always a certain level of theatrics involved regarding the actual effectiveness of the staff on Titans. After all, the Lich and the Titans were made to be but puppets dancing along to the tune of Abaddon's schemes, at the time.
Thank you so much for doing this. I know there’s has been ups and downs for GW2, but you doing these is so awesome and I hope you know how much we appreciate it! I love playing, then watching your play through and seeing everything I missed and learning a ton!
Remember that Gavril wasn't a huge city (there are some other documents that show this, it was essentially a haven for exiles / criminals before the white mantle took over), I think that the notes counting things were the sacrifices, they started really low and then it ramped up a lot which caused the population to catch on.
Watching the part with the Bog queen and the discussion about having her as a raid/strike encounter made me realise how much I miss not having dungeons in this game. This expac playthrough and all the lore about the titans made me want to jump into gw1 and see if I could finally come close to beating prophecies and right now I'm running through the catacombs in pre-searing ascalon. There's something so great about just getting an instance connected to the actual world that takes you on a little adventure on a scale much smaller than a raid. I had almost forgotten how much I miss having that experience in the new maps in gw2. We all know the devs have shifted their focus to other forms of instanced content but fractals can't really replicate the feeling of "connectedness" between the dungeon/fractal and the overworld. There's an extra layer to the feeling of exploration when you don't access the instance through a lobby. Of course I don't see them ever doing it though. On a sidenote, I feel like playing gw1 might sate the hankering an older rpg I got watching the final fantasy 6 let's play
When you were talking about whether they were making their own Titans in Gavril, it got me thinking that gorseval is kind of a naturally occuring titan of sorts. Tortured soulds amalgamating into a bigger entity.
Regarding the graveyard in Janthir Syntri (@ 2:12:33 ), at first glance not much seems to be going on there in terms of lore, however there is ambient dialogue that happens between two spirits there that I found quite special and unique! I'd say more about it but I really don't want to spoil it. Unfortunately though, getting the dialogue to proc seems to be quite random/difficult. It took myself about an hour of exploring Syntri and checking in on the graveyard every few minutes before I got the dialogue to spawn, but it was quite worth the wait! I'd highly recommend anyone interested in the story of Syntri try to check in at the graveyard every so often to try and get the spirits to spawn. They spawn right in front of the crypt embedded at the base of the giant rock pillar.
I don't think the raid is going to be the Foundry. We know that the raid is going to double up as a convergence, and we've had a teaser that the convergence is going to be us replaying a kodan tale about adventurers ascending a mountain. (This is all from the July 24th blog post.) So unless there's a secret second convergence they haven't told us about, that should also be the raid's setting.
I can't believe I never remembered that was another "Scepter of Orr". Give how easily they did their thing with those 2 weapons and their own armors, whos to say they didn't make more things like these. Sneaky Seers... Also, the reference in GW1 to Mulmund was in the sidequest "The Cold Touch of the Past", given by Vissh.
4:25 - WP's Story Recap 9:15 - Journal's Story Recap 13:32 - Archival Records: Legavo, the Binding of Wills 24:53 - Janthir Syntri: Warclaw Run (Adventure) 31:18 - Open World (Main Story Continues) 34:39 - Priory Invitation / Research Invitation 36:40 - Open World (Story) 41:42 - Expedition Log: Western Woods 44:52 - Forager's Hunt Food Stores 46:57 - The Charr Disassociation 53:29 - Adventure Log from Master Scout Kiera 54:49 - Letter from Lyhr 58:42 - Hellie (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 1:03:14 - Stalwart Guardian's Journey 1:09:14 - Graced by Fire's Field Notes (Wildlife Research Achievement) 1:23:46 - Bog Event 1:42:58 - Old Journal Entry 1:48:45 - Toy Manual / Mr. Quiggles Care Instructions 1:53:21 - Unsent Letter to Saul (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 2:02:14 - Map Uncharted Pockets of Wilderness to the West (Story) 2:04:41 - Confused Ghost (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 2:13:55 - Map Uncharted Pockets of Wilderness to the West (Story) 2:19:14 - Unsent Letter 2:37:22 - Imposing Ghost / Fanatical Ghost (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 2:39:27 - Map Uncharted Pockets of Wilderness to the West (Story) 2:43:38 - Mournful Ghost (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 2:44:44 - Researcher's Record / Record of High Researcher Darda 2:52:20 - Notes on the Titan Spawn (+WP explains what happened with Titans in GW1) 2:59:14 - Bloodstained Logbook Page (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 3:02:50 - Bloodstained Logbook Page [#2] (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement) 2:28:13 Dialogue: "The Mursaat may have found a way to defeat the titans... We should scour the area for relics left behind. The jade constructs won't like it, but this shield will keep us safe." 2:35:54 - WP asks: "What is an Athenaeum?" Answer: A library or institutions for literature, science, or art. Being next to a bloodstone, one can infer that the 'Athenaeum of Miracles' is related to studying the bloodstone, perhaps for more than just soul battery research.
58:40 In my own playthrough, when this NPC drops the name Farrah, my mind immediately went to Farrah Cappo from Prophecies. I had a very long-winded moment of speculation thinking that they turned her into astral ward and then later finding out that the Farrah in question is just the NPC's Charr colleague. All of that just because Farrah's character always stood out to me because it was a Princess Bride reference by Anet. WP is starting to rub off on me, I thought.
One thing I appreciate is that arena net seems to acknowledge racial dialogue. For instance I was playing an asura and my character literally said “by alchemy” at 32:18. Also the phrase “wilted my senses” seems exclusive to Slyvari characters
Toward the end when you were reading a lorebook about the Mursaat, you asked "If they're from Nayos, why aren't they still there?", and people have brought this up with them and the Oni multiple times. I don't get why the assumption is that we saw all of Nayos in SotO though? I assume Nayos is like another whole realm/world. It seems really unlikely to me that that one small zone/patch of floating land is the whole of Nayos. I can't recall any information in game saying one way or the other though. To me, it would be like if the Kryptis popped into Queensdale and saw that and DR, and thought "They say that the Charr and Asura are from Tyria as well, but I don't see them anywhere.". Or even more so if they did that with Amnytas, where it's just a few floating land masses. That's just my 2 cents and speculation though. I'm loving this playthrough! ❤
I ALSO completely forgot about the line that 'lowland Kodan dislike magic'. Didn't notice that detail, so didn't notice the decent writing that Poky always brought Aurora's (Sorrow's) seeds, not knowing what they're for, realizing they're magic when they have to be used against Greer, but choosing to trust his mentor anyway, all BEFORE she reveals herself to be Waiting Sorrow, completely betraying his trust (from his perspective). I think most people will simply not absorb all the information during the first playthrough, especially when you lack the context attach that information to other parts. Totally natural.
I've been so excited for you to get to Janthir Syntri and read some of this lore! The White Mantle and the Human Gods are my favorite subjects in Guild Wars and so with all of the references to The Twins, my immediate thought was Ilya and Lyss, though I'm not so sure anymore. Still, I find it suspicious that I've not come across more mentions of the gods yet other than Abaddon. Especially considering Balthazar ate Bloodstone Fen and now we have another mysteriously-contained Bloodstone explosion... I really just want it to be Lyssa in some shared plot in either aiding or competing with Balthazar. I'm still so curious about how he obtained her mirror.
You know what would be really really cool. If they would keep hinting at mursaad, give us one more small expac and then habe a normal expac again with the mursaad in them. That would be amazing.
The bloodstone fen explosion wasnt really controled that was uncontroled explosion about to nuke everything but balthazar stoped it midway by absorbing the magic. If mursaat did blow up bloodstone it was probably really controled all the way. Plus the the season 3 bloodstone was already unstable (as noted in one of the diaries writen by prominet mantle officers there) because mantle experimented on in when they no longer have mursaat knowledge to guide them. Recomend reading the diaries from conspiracy of Dunces on wiky for more bloodstone info.
There's plenty more lore and/or implication by doing the Janthir Side Stories. And be sure to look in the nooks and crannies, I am quite enjoying what I find and I hope you will too.
Hotbar cycling for single target / AoE contexts is great. I've got my combat hotbar switching limited to only two bars so a quick R1 toggles between them. Any abilities that I use for both, I just duplicate on those hotbars.
I always thought of the Mursaat on Tyria as just a faction of Mursaat, or a legion of theirs trying to stop Glint's prophecy. Perhaps there are still more Mursaat in the Mists. And the whole "last Mursaat" thing was just the last Mursaat on Tyria. I'd prefer the Mursaat as mysterious Mists beings and some of them every so often messing around in Tyria, rather than them being extinct
Hmm, I don't remember anything in Soto specifically mentioning Sidony as the last Seer alongside Isgarren. On checking Wiki, there is indeed nothing referring to that. I suspect that you may have got that impression from an achievement in Soto where you meet Sidony's ghost. We don't actually know whether Sidony is really the last Seer aloneside Isgarren (or at least I can't find any source for that), but we can speculate that he died of an assassination since there's a book in Amnytas named Thr Assassination of Sidony.
It would be really interesting if the Scepter didnt work at the titans and never did but it only looked like that since Undead Lich was working for Abaddon and titans were also working for Abaddon so they were not controled by the Scepter but only naturaly folowed orders from their lord general
weren't the chosen all able to see the mursaat? Or did you need to ascend for that? Also, the twins thing is explained later (and so is the thing about mabon's mesmers in the final chapter), idk how far you've gotten at this point I'm a bit behind :D
I've been wondering about the distinction between 'the Mists' and Tyria as a world aswell - especially looking at it from your point around 15:00 into the VOD. I'd like to share my head-canon on how I view the in-game universe: I think the term proto reality pops up somewhere describing the mists, I cant recall.. So what if it's true, technically you could say everything in the game universe if of the Mists (much like you could argue that Earth and everything on it is technically from space) but what is called worlds (such as Tyria) are 'stabilized' areas of the Mists (now dont ask me what that means...). I could even get around Soo Won in that scenario. She wouldn't have to be a genesis lvl god. It's enough for her to 'stabilize' the swirling, magical mess that was 'Proto-Tyria' and here we go. How does that tie in with the abilites of Legavo and the Staff? Maybe they, too, have an innate ability to 'stabilize' volatile forms of magic.. Forgive me if in the VOD you end up talking about a similar idea or dismiss it completely.. I havent finished watching yet!
Just your comment about its a shame that Mabbon is gone. I agree, he was such a better character, Isgaaren lacks the presence and is aloof and boring. Plus Mabbon would have caused heaps of fear for the new alliance being Mursaat.
I would love to know what keybinds you're using! I'm playing XIV on a controller, and my fancy mouse died so I'm trying to make do with a normal mouse and the keyboard... and I'm at a loss. Any tips on buttons that work nicely between both games I could steal in case I ever go back to kbm in XIV?
Pretty much all the targeting and movement keys can be the same! Duty action and special action can be the same! A bunch of skill keybinds, too. I'm still muddling through it but really there are a LOT of similarities.
I hope we get betrayed. I want Tyrian problems to be caused by Tyrians. Joko. White mantle. Charr invasions. Kilbraun. Fuck yeah man gimme more of that. Even if they involve Mists it’s better Tyrians are tied to it some how. Don’t get me wrong I’m enjoying this story so far but the convenient ambiguity of “we’re a beacon of magic in unending mists” gets old.
possible indirect spoilers? I really really hope there are no living Mursaat in this expansion at all. We've killed "the last Mursaat" _twice_ now, having more of them popping up again would start making them feel like a comic book or cartoon villain that is killed off every season only for them to come back again without fail because they're too popular to throw in the bin. I would much rather prefer combing through the ruins of Bava Nisos, learning of the lost grandeur of their brilliant golden empire, listening to the stories of their ghosts still trapped in that final day of their lives, and then slaying the beasts that slew them. That to me is far more compelling.
@@WoodenPotatoes just a worry of a possible future, not a description of how things are right now. The Lazarus/Balthazar thing followed by the rushed One Path Ends Lazarus kill inflicted spectral agony on me irl. Mabon’s sudden introduction and sudden death did it again. That being said they’re doing really well with the Titans so far; it gives me some hope that whatever future Mursaat story they’re cooking won't be so random and rushed.
I adore Janthir Syntri, its everything I wanted the isles of Janthir to be: dour, creepy, the grass underfoot watered with endless rain as well as the blood shed from the Mursaat's many crimes. The lore we get in Syntri is some of the most compelling stuff I've seen from this game in a while and really brings back an excitement for the story I haven't had since icebrood saga went south.
There is a great bit of dialogue or journal entry inside Janthir Syntri about how horrible the experience being there has been for the Kodan, having to repeat the same mundane tasks day after day just to survive. JS’s heart/quest experience that so many people are complaining about is intentionally designed. (Not the bugs of course)
I highly suggest completing the achievement "Strength of the Unseen" from Soto. It's short, but it's about Mabon and only takes 5 minutes to complete. Contains the quote of being exiled, bit on Waiting Sorrow and the Court.
Damn, I did this achievement, but somehow I don't remember this bit of info at all. Darda's note was a shocker for me lol
The Bog Queen's name is Alessia, it's mentioned in the description of one of the Lowland Shore achievements.
Very happy to see you finding Darda's note! There's some more little neat stuff ahead. :)
I have always oved your Gw2 coverage it has gotten me though many dark days. This was a treat to see another out so soon thank you
I am loving this storyline they have got going on! And can I just say I am so glad you decided to do this blind WP. It’s delightful to listen to you gush about lore I find just as fascinating 😂
Shame about the waiting sorrow bit but blind has otherwise been a great pick!
it's really fascinating to listen all these tangents about the lore i know very little about and even nicer to see he's giving it a chance and enjoying it
partly because the latter is very much my experience with JW. the dialogue heavy start is very rough when you've given up on them telling a good story but they managed to win me over by the end of the expansion - helped immensely by the quality of Lowland shores. It is the best map they've ever made.
@@WoodenPotatoes I much prefer this playthrough over the SoTO one you did, just because this one is blind.
It's interesting to think of SOTO as a prologue of new larger arc, and now we're getting into the main story. Overall been loving the story and the implementation of the side story collections seems like the best yet. Feels like a real quest system!
Yeah I do think it feels good how they've set up the side stories so far!
Realistically I think it's more a matter of how to salvage the story from SotO than thinking it was intentional. From what I can gather from the post-mortem ANet had great intentions with SotO that pretty much all fell flat.
"Isgarren is not melodramatic is he?" - I mean I love Isgarren, but he did crash the Tyrian Alliance meeting in the most dramatic moment but teleporting right into the middle. He does have this air about him of making everything he says sound important and serious, which makes sense for ancient wizard.
It's honestly pretty refreshing after all the "quippy" dialogue we had in a lot of the GW2 story content.
He's the Khadgar/Medivh of Tyria... so yeah, it makes sense.
We know what the raid will be. It'll be a mountain and outdoors.
Seeing you play through the story has really rejuvenated my interest for the lore and history again
Maybe it's a bit hyperbolic but this mini expac has saved the IP for me lol! I was rocky on EOD and the post patches and missed SOTO entirely (picked it up the day before JW). I hope the patch content really delivers on all the cool stuff they've set up because to me everything is lining up perfectly.
Rhea was introduced in the a census of humans when you first got to the Lowlands. All the information we had on her was that she died, cause unknown. It's right next to Frode.
what a great, lore packed episode! :)
just wanted to note WP, I believe its chapter 8 where you will learn more about gavril in the story, I would suggest trying to fully complete "A History Most Violent" beforehand, so you can have full context, and the story should fill in any gaps you have, great episode!!
I'll try to!
@@WoodenPotatoes if needed, the wiki does already have locations for them (doesn't spoil the dialogue/text)
edit: only for part 1, part 2 on wiki has the dialogue at the bottom beneath the locations
So I'd thought I'd swallowed this comment instead of posting it, but here I find myself regurgitating it. It seems such a trivial thing, but I wish to share it, as were it some testimony to the 'breadth' of my knowledge, perhaps:
The Titans have always spoken.
Shortly after coming into view, the first (random) Titan boss of the Hell's Precipice mission will exclaim: "Shith Mal Hacto!", as were it some rallying cry. And indeed, the other Titans nearby adhere to this command apparent, as they converge upon the boss' position, sometimes repeating the cry as if relaying an order. To me as a GW1 player, it was taught early on to use this scripted event to avoid a significant amount of encounters in this mission. (Only to reset anyway because the Seer somehow managed to burn to death lmao)
Though as such might be inferred from the usual Titan's Latin naming convention, the exclamation itself means nothing in English, nor in Latin, as far as I can tell. The thought of this 'Titan language' being intended as an anagram did cross my mind, though I sincerely doubt the developers meant for it to be rearranged as "Calm. Hah? Oh, Tits!". Perhaps someone more familiar with both Latin and English could shine a light on this~
Regardless of whether it means anything, it signifies to me that the Titans adhere to some sort of command structure, and are capable of independent thought as well as issueing and adhering to commands without need for a relic such as the Staff of the Mists, irregardless of which forge they might originate from.
I've grown incredibly out of touch with contemporary GW lore aside from these Let's Plays (Thanks for your work!), but perhaps it could be said that there was always a certain level of theatrics involved regarding the actual effectiveness of the staff on Titans. After all, the Lich and the Titans were made to be but puppets dancing along to the tune of Abaddon's schemes, at the time.
A very good point honestly! Even just the Armageddon "Lords" suggested at something deeper about the titans.
Mine was that when I saw the first narrative cutscene I legit screamed in joy.
Thank you so much for doing this. I know there’s has been ups and downs for GW2, but you doing these is so awesome and I hope you know how much we appreciate it! I love playing, then watching your play through and seeing everything I missed and learning a ton!
Loving every single stream!!
Remember that Gavril wasn't a huge city (there are some other documents that show this, it was essentially a haven for exiles / criminals before the white mantle took over), I think that the notes counting things were the sacrifices, they started really low and then it ramped up a lot which caused the population to catch on.
Watching the part with the Bog queen and the discussion about having her as a raid/strike encounter made me realise how much I miss not having dungeons in this game. This expac playthrough and all the lore about the titans made me want to jump into gw1 and see if I could finally come close to beating prophecies and right now I'm running through the catacombs in pre-searing ascalon.
There's something so great about just getting an instance connected to the actual world that takes you on a little adventure on a scale much smaller than a raid. I had almost forgotten how much I miss having that experience in the new maps in gw2. We all know the devs have shifted their focus to other forms of instanced content but fractals can't really replicate the feeling of "connectedness" between the dungeon/fractal and the overworld. There's an extra layer to the feeling of exploration when you don't access the instance through a lobby.
Of course I don't see them ever doing it though.
On a sidenote, I feel like playing gw1 might sate the hankering an older rpg I got watching the final fantasy 6 let's play
When you were talking about whether they were making their own Titans in Gavril, it got me thinking that gorseval is kind of a naturally occuring titan of sorts. Tortured soulds amalgamating into a bigger entity.
Yeah we mentioned gorseval a few parts back and I think that's a really cool idea!
Regarding the graveyard in Janthir Syntri (@ 2:12:33 ), at first glance not much seems to be going on there in terms of lore, however there is ambient dialogue that happens between two spirits there that I found quite special and unique! I'd say more about it but I really don't want to spoil it. Unfortunately though, getting the dialogue to proc seems to be quite random/difficult. It took myself about an hour of exploring Syntri and checking in on the graveyard every few minutes before I got the dialogue to spawn, but it was quite worth the wait! I'd highly recommend anyone interested in the story of Syntri try to check in at the graveyard every so often to try and get the spirits to spawn. They spawn right in front of the crypt embedded at the base of the giant rock pillar.
Oh that's cryptic! Very exciting!
I don't think the raid is going to be the Foundry. We know that the raid is going to double up as a convergence, and we've had a teaser that the convergence is going to be us replaying a kodan tale about adventurers ascending a mountain. (This is all from the July 24th blog post.) So unless there's a secret second convergence they haven't told us about, that should also be the raid's setting.
I'd completely forgotten about that Kodan tale thing. I think that was said before we knew that convergence = 50 person raid.
I can't believe I never remembered that was another "Scepter of Orr". Give how easily they did their thing with those 2 weapons and their own armors, whos to say they didn't make more things like these. Sneaky Seers...
Also, the reference in GW1 to Mulmund was in the sidequest "The Cold Touch of the Past", given by Vissh.
4:25 - WP's Story Recap
9:15 - Journal's Story Recap
13:32 - Archival Records: Legavo, the Binding of Wills
24:53 - Janthir Syntri: Warclaw Run (Adventure)
31:18 - Open World (Main Story Continues)
34:39 - Priory Invitation / Research Invitation
36:40 - Open World (Story)
41:42 - Expedition Log: Western Woods
44:52 - Forager's Hunt Food Stores
46:57 - The Charr Disassociation
53:29 - Adventure Log from Master Scout Kiera
54:49 - Letter from Lyhr
58:42 - Hellie (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
1:03:14 - Stalwart Guardian's Journey
1:09:14 - Graced by Fire's Field Notes (Wildlife Research Achievement)
1:23:46 - Bog Event
1:42:58 - Old Journal Entry
1:48:45 - Toy Manual / Mr. Quiggles Care Instructions
1:53:21 - Unsent Letter to Saul (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
2:02:14 - Map Uncharted Pockets of Wilderness to the West (Story)
2:04:41 - Confused Ghost (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
2:13:55 - Map Uncharted Pockets of Wilderness to the West (Story)
2:19:14 - Unsent Letter
2:37:22 - Imposing Ghost / Fanatical Ghost (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
2:39:27 - Map Uncharted Pockets of Wilderness to the West (Story)
2:43:38 - Mournful Ghost (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
2:44:44 - Researcher's Record / Record of High Researcher Darda
2:52:20 - Notes on the Titan Spawn (+WP explains what happened with Titans in GW1)
2:59:14 - Bloodstained Logbook Page (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
3:02:50 - Bloodstained Logbook Page [#2] (A History Most Violent: Part 1 Achievement)
2:28:13 Dialogue:
"The Mursaat may have found a way to defeat the titans... We should scour the area for relics left behind. The jade constructs won't like it, but this shield will keep us safe."
2:35:54 - WP asks: "What is an Athenaeum?"
Answer: A library or institutions for literature, science, or art. Being next to a bloodstone, one can infer that the 'Athenaeum of Miracles' is related to studying the bloodstone, perhaps for more than just soul battery research.
58:40 In my own playthrough, when this NPC drops the name Farrah, my mind immediately went to Farrah Cappo from Prophecies. I had a very long-winded moment of speculation thinking that they turned her into astral ward and then later finding out that the Farrah in question is just the NPC's Charr colleague. All of that just because Farrah's character always stood out to me because it was a Princess Bride reference by Anet. WP is starting to rub off on me, I thought.
One thing I appreciate is that arena net seems to acknowledge racial dialogue. For instance I was playing an asura and my character literally said “by alchemy” at 32:18. Also the phrase “wilted my senses” seems exclusive to Slyvari characters
Toward the end when you were reading a lorebook about the Mursaat, you asked "If they're from Nayos, why aren't they still there?", and people have brought this up with them and the Oni multiple times. I don't get why the assumption is that we saw all of Nayos in SotO though? I assume Nayos is like another whole realm/world. It seems really unlikely to me that that one small zone/patch of floating land is the whole of Nayos. I can't recall any information in game saying one way or the other though. To me, it would be like if the Kryptis popped into Queensdale and saw that and DR, and thought "They say that the Charr and Asura are from Tyria as well, but I don't see them anywhere.". Or even more so if they did that with Amnytas, where it's just a few floating land masses. That's just my 2 cents and speculation though. I'm loving this playthrough! ❤
I ALSO completely forgot about the line that 'lowland Kodan dislike magic'. Didn't notice that detail, so didn't notice the decent writing that Poky always brought Aurora's (Sorrow's) seeds, not knowing what they're for, realizing they're magic when they have to be used against Greer, but choosing to trust his mentor anyway, all BEFORE she reveals herself to be Waiting Sorrow, completely betraying his trust (from his perspective). I think most people will simply not absorb all the information during the first playthrough, especially when you lack the context attach that information to other parts. Totally natural.
I've been so excited for you to get to Janthir Syntri and read some of this lore!
The White Mantle and the Human Gods are my favorite subjects in Guild Wars and so with all of the references to The Twins, my immediate thought was Ilya and Lyss, though I'm not so sure anymore. Still, I find it suspicious that I've not come across more mentions of the gods yet other than Abaddon. Especially considering Balthazar ate Bloodstone Fen and now we have another mysteriously-contained Bloodstone explosion... I really just want it to be Lyssa in some shared plot in either aiding or competing with Balthazar. I'm still so curious about how he obtained her mirror.
You know what would be really really cool. If they would keep hinting at mursaad, give us one more small expac and then habe a normal expac again with the mursaad in them. That would be amazing.
Fantastic episode, loved it😁
The bloodstone fen explosion wasnt really controled that was uncontroled explosion about to nuke everything but balthazar stoped it midway by absorbing the magic. If mursaat did blow up bloodstone it was probably really controled all the way. Plus the the season 3 bloodstone was already unstable (as noted in one of the diaries writen by prominet mantle officers there) because mantle experimented on in when they no longer have mursaat knowledge to guide them. Recomend reading the diaries from conspiracy of Dunces on wiky for more bloodstone info.
Rhea was the name of the Turtle Clan elder in GW1. 🤔🤔🤔
There's plenty more lore and/or implication by doing the Janthir Side Stories. And be sure to look in the nooks and crannies, I am quite enjoying what I find and I hope you will too.
"they fed us to the bloodstone. They fed us to the void." 2:56:20
Hotbar cycling for single target / AoE contexts is great. I've got my combat hotbar switching limited to only two bars so a quick R1 toggles between them. Any abilities that I use for both, I just duplicate on those hotbars.
These new Titans are unable to split, instead, they can make minions, the Titanspawn. They're two distinct and separate categories
I always thought of the Mursaat on Tyria as just a faction of Mursaat, or a legion of theirs trying to stop Glint's prophecy.
Perhaps there are still more Mursaat in the Mists. And the whole "last Mursaat" thing was just the last Mursaat on Tyria.
I'd prefer the Mursaat as mysterious Mists beings and some of them every so often messing around in Tyria, rather than them being extinct
Took me across 3-4days of playing few hours after work.... didnt use the full time progressing story bur yea
Hmm, I don't remember anything in Soto specifically mentioning Sidony as the last Seer alongside Isgarren. On checking Wiki, there is indeed nothing referring to that. I suspect that you may have got that impression from an achievement in Soto where you meet Sidony's ghost. We don't actually know whether Sidony is really the last Seer aloneside Isgarren (or at least I can't find any source for that), but we can speculate that he died of an assassination since there's a book in Amnytas named Thr Assassination of Sidony.
It would be really interesting if the Scepter didnt work at the titans and never did but it only looked like that since Undead Lich was working for Abaddon and titans were also working for Abaddon so they were not controled by the Scepter but only naturaly folowed orders from their lord general
WP I need to know. Is Guiding Star a Quaggan? (42:00 if you lost the reference)
weren't the chosen all able to see the mursaat? Or did you need to ascend for that?
Also, the twins thing is explained later (and so is the thing about mabon's mesmers in the final chapter), idk how far you've gotten at this point I'm a bit behind :D
Early in the storie they mention Kodan whent to Orr .
I see some of the ruins are fused together with Mursaat Jade, do they explain what that stuff is?
No that I remember really!
@@WoodenPotatoes Ty!
God I hope the raid is the foundry.
I do prefer der-met-ra, enjoy your morning coffee! :)
aha thanks I will!
I've been wondering about the distinction between 'the Mists' and Tyria as a world aswell - especially looking at it from your point around 15:00 into the VOD. I'd like to share my head-canon on how I view the in-game universe:
I think the term proto reality pops up somewhere describing the mists, I cant recall.. So what if it's true, technically you could say everything in the game universe if of the Mists (much like you could argue that Earth and everything on it is technically from space) but what is called worlds (such as Tyria) are 'stabilized' areas of the Mists (now dont ask me what that means...).
I could even get around Soo Won in that scenario. She wouldn't have to be a genesis lvl god. It's enough for her to 'stabilize' the swirling, magical mess that was 'Proto-Tyria' and here we go.
How does that tie in with the abilites of Legavo and the Staff? Maybe they, too, have an innate ability to 'stabilize' volatile forms of magic..
Forgive me if in the VOD you end up talking about a similar idea or dismiss it completely.. I havent finished watching yet!
Really coherant and nice thoughts on it IMO!
Makes me think the Gods and Dragons are basically like gravity in your analogy - their magical density causes the particles of the Mists to coalesce.
Wahoooo more jw vid from wp💪❤️👏
Just your comment about its a shame that Mabbon is gone. I agree, he was such a better character, Isgaaren lacks the presence and is aloof and boring. Plus Mabbon would have caused heaps of fear for the new alliance being Mursaat.
I did that whole thing in about a day, but I didn't remember her either
Yeah she just didn't have many scenes! No big deal though.
So wis s Jennah against using Legavo because that'd mean we can control her too, since she is in fact Lyssa after all 🤔
I like this theory!
I would love to know what keybinds you're using! I'm playing XIV on a controller, and my fancy mouse died so I'm trying to make do with a normal mouse and the keyboard... and I'm at a loss. Any tips on buttons that work nicely between both games I could steal in case I ever go back to kbm in XIV?
Pretty much all the targeting and movement keys can be the same! Duty action and special action can be the same! A bunch of skill keybinds, too. I'm still muddling through it but really there are a LOT of similarities.
I assume the raid will be that city they keep talking about.
I hope we get betrayed. I want Tyrian problems to be caused by Tyrians. Joko. White mantle. Charr invasions. Kilbraun. Fuck yeah man gimme more of that. Even if they involve Mists it’s better Tyrians are tied to it some how.
Don’t get me wrong I’m enjoying this story so far but the convenient ambiguity of “we’re a beacon of magic in unending mists” gets old.
we are going to build a wall and make the titans pay for it
@@LLPTV I think Isgarren would be a big fan of this with Kryptis.
possible indirect spoilers?
I really really hope there are no living Mursaat in this expansion at all. We've killed "the last Mursaat" _twice_ now, having more of them popping up again would start making them feel like a comic book or cartoon villain that is killed off every season only for them to come back again without fail because they're too popular to throw in the bin.
I would much rather prefer combing through the ruins of Bava Nisos, learning of the lost grandeur of their brilliant golden empire, listening to the stories of their ghosts still trapped in that final day of their lives, and then slaying the beasts that slew them. That to me is far more compelling.
Popping up every season? In 15 years of storytelling since EOTN there have been a grand total of two!
@@WoodenPotatoes just a worry of a possible future, not a description of how things are right now.
The Lazarus/Balthazar thing followed by the rushed One Path Ends Lazarus kill inflicted spectral agony on me irl. Mabon’s sudden introduction and sudden death did it again.
That being said they’re doing really well with the Titans so far; it gives me some hope that whatever future Mursaat story they’re cooking won't be so random and rushed.
Aha I love that phrase "spectral agony IRL", may have to steal it!