GW2: Shaping History With Your Vote

So, all the latest excitement both in-game in Lion’s Arch and in the Guild Wars 2 Reddit is the discussion about whether one is in #TeamGnashblade or #TeamKiel for the upcoming update of Cutthroat Politics.

Before we get partisan here, I’d just want to point out that this is an exciting development in player involvement with the Living Story. It harkens back to when one was given the choice to vote for Dwayna or Grenth in Guild Wars 1 in order to get a shiny hat, but a lot deeper.

Players get to both control the story and the direction of the game with their vote.

Players are making lasting history.

Whatever way we choose, we are giving up something in order to get something else. Choices and consequences. Meaningful decisions in gameplay.

Now for the analysis:

The hardcore in the Guild Wars 2 Reddit and the GW1 old guard appear to be all over Evon Gnashblade. The Fall of Abaddon as a fractal is a very tempting lure because it’s a link to both old GW1 lore (one of the major strengths of GW2 is being able to tie back into a long established history) and all bets are likely that it’s going to be gorgeous to have a look at Old Orr and the City of Arah before the Fall. There’s Gods and shit. How epic would that be?

As for Black Lion Keys, well, they’re a side benefit, but no one really gives a toss.

The fear of #TeamGnashblade is that Ellen Kiel may promise the ‘casuals’ and the not-interested-in-lore (the unspoken feeling is that it may in fact be a majority over those who prowl Reddit) decreased waypoint costs for a month.

How freaking tempting is that? Gold is always hard to come by and waypoint costs are a sneaky goldsink that affects everyone playing the game.

Finding out more about the Thaumanova Reactor explosion seems less appealing a fractals choice than the former as familiarity breeds contempt and a lot of people see the fire elemental in the reactor remains every day. Though again, some of the fear is that the new GW2 crowd who doesn’t appreciate the past may vote for it out of familiarity with the name. Others argue that we know a lot less about the reactor explosion, and that it may be an important crux point of recent GW2 lore, what with all the dealing with the fallout and chaotic portals and magic going awry that has been established in various zones in the game.

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I just want to point out something that may be overlooked in all this fractals-focused excitement.

Let us not forget that this is part of the active and ongoing Living Story storyline.

We’re familiar with Ellen Kiel. She’s been established as a key ‘good guy’ type of character – a Lionguard who has worked with us since Southsun. She seems to have fairly good relations with Magnus and she now owns a frigging’ Aetherblade airship.

On the other hand, she is just a grunt out of nowhere and may not have the political acumen to last a day on the Captain’s Council. Then again, she managed to balance the pressing demands of the Consortium and still cater to refugee needs and be a good person on Southsun. She appears to be keen to work for fairness and balance, a reasonable deal between Lion’s Arch and the Zephyr Sanctum.

Evon Gnashblade seemingly comes out of nowhere, cast in the light of the greedy profiteering merchant owner of the Black Lion Trading Company and looks a little typecast as the ‘bad guy.’ Then again, most Charr look like bad guys, and you can’t really hold genetics against them, eh?

He’s an established citizen of Lion’s Arch and claims to be looking after the interests of Lion’s Arch first and foremost. He may end up doing a cutthroat deal with the Zephyr Sanctum to put LA (and/or himself and BLTC) first. He has no doubt plenty of backstabbing political experience to survive well on the Captain’s Council. And if he’s in charge of the Black Lion Trading Company and the Consortium are its competitors, that’s probably okay, right?

What are the things being left unsaid?

The most pressing question is why the hell Evon Gnashblade? Why him, just popping out of nowhere? Is he just a new unheralded NPC?

Except…

In the Molten Alliance denouement, the only thing known of the figure behind the alliance of dredge and Flame Legion charr, is that he or she came from a city and was a persuasive talker.  The dredge prisoner curses out a ““Lying, silver-tongued, snake-nosed trickster.”

At the end of the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon, Mai Trin says that someone else was also behind this, and that “Scarlet is going to have my noggin for screwing up.”

LOOK AT THE COLOR OF THE CLOTHING EVON WEARS.

You don’t fool me.

Thank you, I rest my case.

I’ll be voting for Ellen Kiel.

And if the worst happens, well, there’s a cool fractal as a consolation prize.

GW2: The City in the Sea – Verse 4 (and Final)

But lo,

a stir is in the air!

The wave — there is a movement there!

As if the towers

had thrust aside,

In slightly sinking, the dull tide —

As if their tops had feebly given

A void within

the filmy Heaven.

The waves have now

a redder glow —

The hours are breathing faint and low —

And when, amid no earthly moans,

Down, down that town shall settle hence,

Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,

Shall do it reverence.

— The City in the Sea, Fourth and Last Stanza

Edgar Allan Poe

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Because Orr is Orr-some.

And Poe is da Poe-t.

P.S. If you’re reading this in a reader which doesn’t show the Featured Image of each post, do check them out if you liked what you saw. Those were my last four chances to put in what looked great to me but didn’t quite fit the poem.

GW2: The City in the Sea – Verse 3

There open fanes and gaping graves

Yawn level with the luminous waves;

But not the riches there that lie

In each idol’s diamond eye —

Not the gaily-jeweled dead

Tempt the waters from their bed;

For no ripples curl, alas!

Along that wilderness of glass —

No swellings tell that winds may be

Upon some far-off happier sea —

No heavings hint that winds have been

On seas less hideously serene.

— The City in the Sea, Third Stanza

Edgar Allan Poe

GW2: The City in the Sea – Verse 2

No rays from the holy heaven come down

On the long night-time of that town;

But light from out the lurid sea

Streams up the turrets silently —

Gleams up the pinnacles far and free —

Up domes —

up spires —

up kingly halls —

Up fanes —

up Babylon-like walls —

Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers

Of sculptured ivy

and stone flowers —

Up many and many a marvelous shrine

Whose wreathéd friezes intertwine

The viol, the violet, and the vine.

So blend the turrets and shadows there

That all seem pendulous in the air,

While from a proud tower in the town

Death looks gigantically down.

— The City in the Sea, Second Stanza

Edgar Allan Poe

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This one’s for Syl, cos she loves this stuff. Sorry it took this long to do another.

I was waiting to make sure I didn’t spoil Orr for slower levelers. Really! Honest!

*hem*

Verse 3 and 4 tomorrow. Y’all must be pictured out by now.

GW2: The City in the Sea – Verse 1

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne

In a strange city lying alone

Far down within the dim West,

Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best

Have gone to their eternal rest.

There shrines and palaces and towers

(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)

Resemble nothing that is ours.

Around, by lifting winds forgot,

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie.

— The City in the Sea, First Stanza

Edgar Allan Poe

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I am liking the laurels and the new varied dailies. It has given me a reason to log in every day, and also guilt-free logging off after an hour or two once the daily is done.

I am liking the Living Story (so far). It gives me a reason to go back to my race hometown to check in with the herald and makes things more immersive thereby. (I know Lion’s Arch has ’em too, but nah…) It moves at a less hectic pace than one day events, so I don’t feel like I’m going to miss anything if I forget to log in for a day or two.

I am liking the changes to Orr. The Risen look nicer now that they’re bigger. It’s way easier to take screenshots when you’re not fighting off a zombie every step or two.

I am liking the current server I hopped to (Tarnished Coast.) 75-80% of the names I see around me are lore-appropriate, which really makes things more immersive, though I haven’t tried RPing yet. (With the amount of screenshots I take, I can only be a narcoleptic Charr, collapsing in sleep every five seconds or so… so better I don’t RP just yet.)

I see a lot more people around, which suggests it’s both a crowded server and zone funneling is working (I’ve only been in Wayfarer Foothills, Diessa Plateau and Orr so far.) The Temples are uncontested most of the time, which means people are doing the events, and suggests the difficulty tweaks have worked.

All the above got me refreshed and I’ve spent the last couple days on a very casual an hour or two a day Grand Project to screenshot Orr like you’ve never seen it before.

I’m out to prove that Orr is NOT FUGLY. Not one bit.

I took 980 screenshots, out of which I whittled down to 231 nice contenders, then skimmed the cream of the crop to sorta kinda fit the poem. Very sorta kinda.

I have to say, I feel like I’ve barely covered Orr’s land area and still have SO MUCH good looking stuff. I can’t imagine how many screens I’d have if I went around more places. ArenaNet is crazy good at what they do.

Enjoy.