THE ASURA A ND CHARR Magic and tech nology embraced EVOLUT IO N AND REVOLU TI ON The secrets of Tyrian power, unravele d

An Introduction to the Elder Dragons of Tyria

Tyria in Brambles: Season 2 of the Living Story

Secrets of the Fire & A Different K ind of Nightmare

GuildMag has been like a child to me. Wh ile I am no p arent myself, I have been at its birth; I have witnessed it gro w up and expand; I was there durin g its struggles, an d I am proud while looking back at all th at it has ach ieved. This child metaphor is striking at another point: at some point, you need to decide to let your children go and d eve lo p further all by themselves. It then comes with great pain in my heart that I have decided that it is time for GuildMag to stand on its own two feet (though counting all of the w onderful peo ple that have helped it grow, that might be a few dozen more feet) an d fin d its own path into the future. I have decided to re tire from the GuildMag project, and hand over the paren tin g to the team that GuildMag has built up during its years. With th e publication of this issue, Valiant and all the other current team members will embark upon a new chapter in the Gu ild Mag story - one that will bring new ch allenges an d experiences, bu t most of all new people th at will take GuildMag even further than what it has achieved so far. To be fair though, in the end, GuildM ag never tru ly was my child alone: it was a project by the community , for the community. It was a child of us all; of me, of you , of all of the Guild Wars 2 community. I wan t to thank each one of you that has helped GuildMag grow into wh at is it today, and I invite you to continue supporting it into the futu re . Specifically, I want to thank all of its cu rrent, bu t als o previous, team members that have helped shape the site. On its jou rn ey, many people have helped it gro w and I wou ld love to call you all out by your name but I simply do not have the space to do so (you know who you are!). Instead I ’ll limit myself to those that have dedicated more than what I ever ex pecte d them to do: Jonny10, Valiant, Draxynnic, Konig des Todes, Thalado r, and Littleboat. I will still lurk in the shadows of the Guild Wars 2 commu nity, and I will continue playing the game, so dro p me a line in - game or via Twitter if you ever want to catch up and talk. Gu ild Wars 2 has been th e best gaming community I have ever been involved in and I have learned man y valuable lessons during my time at GuildMag that I will take with me during my fu ture career. Thank you all for your continued su pport. Thank yo u. I hope you will enjoy this last issue u nder my comman d, and I thank you all for your con tin ued su pport. All the best, Ollannach / Marc

The Elder Dragons are vast, ancient beings of histories unknown to modern races. The jotun an d no rn have tales of the beasts placing them to be older than 20,000 years, and records hint to a cycle of wak ing h alf that tim e, making the modern rise the third known rise. The Elder Dragons are known to consume magic, co rruptin g th e l ivi ng and t he lifeless as they see fit, and only ceasing their rampage once too little magic remains in the world for them to survive, going back into hibernation to let the magic of the world renew i tself. Many consider the Elder Dragons to be akin to natural disasters – mindless and uncaring – while others view the m as sapient, malicious forces bent on domination, and still others view them as protectors of magical bal ance. The truth h as yet to be revealed.

Dragon Risings Whenever an Elder Dragon awakes, they cause catas troph ic events in the area. When Jormag awoke, he shatte red the Far  Shiverpeaks wide and deep enough to create an inland sea, and within four years scattered the kodan an d push ed the norn south all the while devouring Ow l an d changing the auroras in the sky. When Zhaitan rose, he lifted th e Orrian peninsula and caused a tidal wave that reshap ed much of Tyria, and within a decade was read y to wage w ar on the mortal races due to the surplus of corpses that lay at h is feet. When Kralkatorrik stirred, he flew south across Ascalon, corrupting all beneath its path to the Crystal Desert, h is rampage stopped only by the actions of his freed ch amp io n, Glint, and Destin y’s Edge. Primordus and the unnamed Deep Sea Dragon’s aw aken in gs are unknown for cataclysmic events, as th ey awoke in ways and locations that has not been noticeable to the mo dern individual. However, 50 years prior to Primordus’ awakening – when he was originally meant to awake – his champ io n, The Great Destroyer, acted as a herald for his coming and spread hundreds of Destroyers across the su bterranean networks of Tyria, having them surface in the Tarnished Coast, Far

Shiverpeaks, and the now-called Blood Legion Ho melands; and when Primordus himself awoke, he drove the skritt an d any remaining asura to the surface, and the dw arves fully underwent the rite to fight the Elder D ragon an d keep h im beneath the surface. The Deep Sea Dragon , on the other hand, has only been hinted an d implied at having pushed the krait, quaggan, and karka out of their homelands, wh ile threatening the largos homelan ds at the same time. Mordremoth has been the most recent to rise, an d currently in the world we are facing his cataclysmic awakening. Like Jormag, he was not a once-and-done rise that occurred rig ht when he awoke, but instead is havin g a multi-month lo ng spread of his actions. Mordremoth is setting his domain now, as his corruption grows beneath the soil an d acro ss the continent of Tyria, sprouting ou t in isolated locations of magical power, which he no doubt inten ds to feed an d become ever stronger. And as we have seen with Zhaitan : a faster gain of power and minions results in a faster large- scale assault to the w orld.

Observations on Activity One notable thing that is commo n amongst the Elder Dragons beyond their drive to consume, corrupt, an d hibernate is how they react. Over the centuries, many adventurers had probed the Elder Dragons’ minions, resu ltin g in a noticeable – even if u nintentional by the adventurers – consistent reaction. The Elder Dragons are territor ial creatures. If an outsider assaults their territor ies, the ir champions retaliate in kind. A nd the bigger the threat to the Elder Dragons’ territory, the harsher the retaliation. It’s not uncommon for a drago n champion to assault a large city in retaliation, as we have seen the Dragonspawn – a ch ampion of Jormag – do just that after a failed attempt on its life by Eir Stegalkin, Snaff, and Zojja shortly before the creation of Destiny’s Edge . Atop of this, though they are contin uously exp an ding their territory slowly over the decades an d centuries, the Elder Dragons are known for ‘short’ bursts of activity, w hich take the form of a massive assault force that is an Elder D ragon short of being as strong as their actual awakening. Th e periods of these ‘invasions’ are still questionable, as each Elder Dragon has seen a differing amo unt of activity. Primordus, for example, has only two noticed burs ts of activity since awakening: firstly, the creation of M ount Maelstrom. And even then, th e connection b etw een the volcano and Primordus is speculative, on ly supp osed by th e heavy existence of destroyers present. An d secondly was in 1319 AE, when the Destroyer of Life bre ached the surface in the wetlands of the Tarnished Coast in apparent p rep aration to assault Rata Sum. However, this is also speculative as while  there was a large number of destroyers, any invasion or  assault was stopped before it could occur – similar to the

Destroyer Queen of 13 25 AE, wh ich was surfacing near a skritt Scratch with a new form of minion- creation and was subsequently defeated before most of its minion s could be fully formed. Jormag, on the other hand, has on ly had a single burst of activity noticed since awakening: in 1325 AE, the nu mb ers and fanaticism of the Sons of Svanir had increased, an d shortly thereafter Steag Frostbeard attempted an assau lt on Lion ’s http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/d/db/Teeth_ of_Mordremoth.jpg Arch, thou gh was stop ped before he could put his plans into point. Also du rin g this time, the Claws  of Jormag laid siege to the northern Shiverpeaks in the Dragonspawn’s place, destroying Lionguard trad e routes and harassing the kodan. Still during this time were attemp ts to consume the Spirit of the Wild, Mino taur, just as Jormag had don e to Owl long ago, and Jormag’s influ ence had spread even further south than Hoelbrak itself. This rise in activity has remained for two years, with a continued pressure on Hoelbrak and th e norn in full. These two indicate that, normally, an Elder Dragon needs roughly 200 years before they can begin th eir full assau lts – and Primordus is slowed only by th e dwarven armies beneath the surface. Zhaitan shows a different pattern: he aw oke with a natio n of corpses at his feet and in a land full of magical artifacts (an d as such, awoke with all he needed at the tips of h is talon s). A decade after he rose, in 1229 AE, he began a fu ll out invasion of Port Stalwart and destroyed it utterly, and 37 years after that in 1256 AE he assaulted Lion’s Arch with th e same, grown, force. Later on, he sent another massive invasion to Port Noble, wiping it out, and lastly in 132 5 AE (106 years after waking) he sent Blightghast, one of his most p owerful

champions, to take Claw Island and furth er send forces to both Lion’s Arch and the three Ord ers’ headquarters. If not for the would-be Commander of the Pact and Lionguard at Claw Island reducing the risen numbers, they co uld have overran Lion’s Arch there, but still managed to nearly wip e out each Orders’ HQs before being beaten back. And even those armies sen t by all dragons are mere token forces that they command. Sig nifying that even being victorious against such invasion forces is merely doing insignificant damages to the Elder Dragon s and their minion s. Methods of Corruption an d Per sonali ties Each Elder Dragon corrupts in different manners, each assaulting differently, and each consumin g differently. Fundamentally, they’re the same, but when you get beyond the basics “corrupt, consume, destroy, sleep” th ey become infinitismally different. In corrupting, there are only two similarities to be held. Firstly, corrupt ing is an active choice for dragon and minion – for example, when K ralkatorrik awoke, though many tho ught him to have been passively creating the Dragonbrand, it was in fact an active action th at he ceased and resumed many times in the battle again st Glint and Destiny’s Edge. Secondly, all dragons can corrup t equally, but they apparently choose not to – for examp le, th e Sons of Svanir are often seen spreading Jormag’s corruption in w ays that pure icebrood do not, as does the S an guinary Blad e; with Zhaitan, the presence of risen spreads the corrup tio n into the soil, and artifacts are known to corrupt livin g beings w hile Zhaitan himself does not. Furthermore, through the methods of direct corruption as well as the sayings and actions of the dragon minion s and champions, one can determine a shared personality trait (or traits) amongst a particular Elder Dragon and its minion s. Zhaitan – Zhaitan’s minions have a co ntinuou s theme speaking about what I would su mmarize as “immortality through undeath” in variou s man ners, as well as telling lies to  demoralize the enemy, and the latter is often used in conjunction with the former. S ome choice examples include: Risen Keeper of the S hrin e: “The Mists are filled with lies. Zhaitan is our only chance at immortality. Serve him!” Veteran Risen Kitah Conjurer: ”Z haitan ’s chosen… Never truly die…” Sovereign Eye of Zhaitan: ”All the death aro und y ou. All those  who have gone before you. Come to Zhaitan, and find everything you have lost. You can be with them again .” Risen Bronn Svaard: “Don’t worry, Grym. You’ll join me in the service of the dragon, and we will again fight as one. We will server Zhaitan forever !” Captain Whiting: “The rule of th e living has en ded. This is th e time of the Elder Dragons. Thus begins the time of Z haitan and of Orr. The days of their ultimate victory is close.”

This mentality in the minions also sh ows in how Zhaitan corrupts: though we’ve seen cases (Necro mancer Rissa and Corporal Kellach as well as some hearts in Sparkfly) in which Zhaitan’s energy corrupts livin g beings, and we’ve seen cases where he corrupts plants, this is indirect corru ption – directly, he only corrupts the corpses of an imals. The living can be corrupted by consuming risen or by being too close to corrupted artifa cts. Though necrotic in nature, Zhaitan h as been seen using mesmers that specialize in illusions in high amou nts, an d some of his most powerful non-dragon champ io ns, the Eyes of Zhaitan, are mesmers as well, furthering his field of lies and deceit. Zhaitan is a liar and deceiver, making a kin gdom of undeath to rule forever. Jormag – There are two things that are constantly used to describe Jormag and his minions: “hate” and “power.” Th e Sons of Svanir aren’t the only source of Jo rmag’s minions describing gifts of power, so Jormag seducing n orn with such is not simply a case of giving individ uals what they want – he offers power, strength, and nothing more . In Frostgorge Sound, Khrigar Ripjaw (a Order of W hispers member integrated into the Vigil and stationed in Safewatch Vale) w ill tell Whisper members: “Other dragons corrupt creatures in order to enslave them, but Jormag entices victims with promises of power before they’re corrupted.” Oth er mentions of power include the Frost Portal in Drakkar Spurs: “Stren gth alone governs this world. Embrace Jormag, and you will gain power beyond belief.”

The mentions of hate come primarily from Eir’s retelling of the story of Jora and Svanir, and the Sons of Svan ir’s origin s. Particularly: ”[…] They were crossing the frozen waters when a strange presence grasped Svanir’s mind. It whisp ered seductions to him, promised power and prey. It was a voice of infinite hunger and hate, and Svanir listen ed to it. Jora heard the voice, too, but it terrified her. Sh e refused its d ark gifts and tried to drag her brother away, but he struck her and told her she was weak, told her he had discovered th e well of power. She fled. Svanir remain ed to commun e with his newfound lord. In time, the voice began to ch an ge him. It taught him to hate all livin g things.” As well as: ”And despite the destruction, there are still foolish norn who h ear the call of Svanir and seek the power of Jormag. In th e end, they are reduced to icebrood themselves, flesh wrapp ed in ice, fed by malevolence and hatred.” Something to note is that only the Sons of Svanir (or forme r Sons who’ve kept their minds upon b eco min g Icebrood) forcefully corrupted beings into icebrood. There are rare cases of corpses being corrupted, but all directly-by-icebrood corruption is through mental enticements. Jormag is, in short, a mesmer and a seducer, bent on on ly the strong being left in the world, and un der his control. Kralkatorrik – Most of Kralkatorrik’s minions do n ot speak, with only three kn own cases of such: Glint, Chief Kronon, and Victurus the Shattered, however as Glint has lo ng been freed from Kralkatorrik’s yoke she is an invalid source except where she describes Kralkatorrik (and she rarely did beyon d to emphasize how powerful and fearful he is), an d Victurus appears to be little more than a masochist/sadist – vastly different from Kronon. Victurus speaks only abo ut harmin g the minions beneath him, and desiring pain hims elf; Kronon on the other hand speaks only of following Kralkatorrik an d giving his master things (such as Ebon hawke shortly b ef ore storming the fortress). There is, however, a moment were we see Kralkatorrik’s own  mind during the battle with Destiny’s Edge: ”It was like standing in the eye of a cyclone. All aroun d, a great storm raged, tearing down the heavens and churning up the san ds and whirling all in primordial chaos. Tortured coils of cloud mixed with dissolving seas of silt. Th e winds sco ured away rock and rill, tree and blade, flesh and bo ne – and tossed them all to a crystalline tempest. All things were fuel to that storm. Everything was a feast to Kralkatorrik. […] Th e center of every vortex is a great emptiness – a hollow lo nging. The storm tries to fill the emptiness, but the mo re it hungers, the deeper the emptiness becomes. An d Kralkatorrik’s hu nger was insatiable.” This points to Kralkatorrik seeking to obtain thin gs . One can  view this as seekin g perfectio n – or rather, to become everything – or the more direct view that is: he has absolute greed, wanting everything – even th e negatives such as pain ,

if one factors in Victurus’ dialo gues. Primordus – Primordus is by far a tougher nu t to figu re out, as none of his minions speak – or at least, have been seen speaking, and this may be due to th em all being made out of fire and rock (thus no vocal cords or lu ngs in which to speak with). However, in his method of corruption an d the actions of his minions, we can deduce o ne thing ab out Primordus and his plans: genocide. He ignores the livin g beings, and his minions kill remorselessly. Destroyers are said to be fully mindless killing machines, until a champion comes about. The means of corruption is that th ey are born out of pools of lava, formed slowly over time. Th e exception to this is the Destroyer Quee n wh o is speculated in- game to either have been a living being corrup ted by Primordus, something unheard of, or a n ew type of drag on minion – however, if you go to save the skritt you see that some eggs spawn Destroyer Trolls, thus proving the first th eory false. The Destroyer Queen is not a living being co rrupted , despite most people’s thoughts, and the eggs se em to simply be w hat eggs are: portable incubations for spawning d estroyers – the difference is that the destroyer eggs are forming what will be birthed out of rock and lava, rather than flesh an d bon e. It should be n oted that Primord us is still capable of corrupting living beings, however ( Source), b ut he d oes not u tilize this capability it seems. The only solid evidence we have of Primordus’ intentions via words rather than actions is that the Great Destroyer’s purpose was to wipe out all life in ord er to pave the w ay for Primordus – one can view this as meanin g that the Great Destroyer’s purpose, aside from waking Primordus, was to hinder the other Elder Dragons of corruptible materials while

building an army and territory at the same time. Most Elder Dragons act by corrupting life, but Primordus is unique in th at he destroys it. Mordremoth – Due to the lack of examples of M ord remoth’s corruptions, it is hard to be clear on the exactness of this Elder Dragon’s methods of corruption and pers onality. Similar to destroyers, we’ve seen no Mordrem talk (excluding the corrupted sylvari of Aerin and Ceara), but based off of their actions Mordremoth and his minions attack in a ve ry unique manner: through strangu latin g vines and poisons. Ceara and Aerin do not give much as their level of corruption is questionable, and their manner of sp eech does not give insights beyond having “seen the bigger picture”. The Mordrem seen appear like tan gled vines, formed and compressed into shap es and sometimes with flowers as heads. They appear only where large vines, specu lated by Taimi to be part of Mordremoth itself, and spring fo rth from the ground after an expanse of corru pted vegetatio n appearing, even in lands desolate of most plantlife su ch as Dry Top. There were subtle hints to Mordremoth before h is rise in the Inquest facility of Crucible of Eternity, wh ere an abundance of poisonous vegetation took root, furthering th e ties of p oison that is now seen commonplace amongst th e Mordrem. Recently, the Pale Tree has revealed an interesting piece of information about Mordremoth and his corruption . He is, for reasons still unknown, actively seeking to corrupt sylvari and does so through the cracks of the sylvari’ s will. This is akin to Jormag’s pre-corruption actions, speaking into th e mind of victims and converting them to follow him b efore he attempts corrupting, and may hint to the oddity of A erin an d Ceara compared to standard dragon minions – that Mo rdremoth does not corrupt to enslave, but breaks th e will of his victims first. This coincides with the conversion of the Nightmare Courtiers; those who do not give in willingly are tortured and  tormented until they give in and Nightmare engulfs them, leaving them forever changed to varying degrees. This  connection has been speculative for a long time, fueled  primarily by the existence of Nightmare Hounds and Summoned Husks that the Cou rt u tilizes within th e Crucible of Eternity, but with the World Summit there w as an attack by  a foe long tied to Nightmare: the Shadow of the Dragon. Originally said to be a manifestation of the PC sylvari’s Wyld Hunt given malevolent form d ue to the Nightmare, it has entered Tyria as the first dragon-shaped ch ampion of Mordremoth. This reveal brings further question as to the tie  of Nightmare and Mordremoth, and further implies the connection to be true.

All of this points to Mordremoth seeking to strangle life, with force or poisons, and corrupting th rou gh torment and breaking down his victims’ will – with a preference of plan tlife, indicating a possible desire to rule a wo rld where plants are the apex, not animals. Deep Sea Dragon – Too little is kn own abou t the deep sea dragon to draw any conclusions that aren ’t purely baseless for ties to the Elder Dragon itself. All we know of its mean s of corruption is what Decimus the Historian wrote in The Movement of the World: ”I n the deepest waters of th e sea, another dragon breathed, twisting the waters themselves in to tentacled horrors that rose from every lake and river of the land.” This indicates that, like Primordus, the deep sea dragon has little need of the living in making minions, and uses the water that it thrives in to make its minions ou t of directly . The Dragon Nu mbers From jotun stalea, the Durmand Priory has deduced th e existence of six Elder Dragons: Primordus, Jormag, Zhaitan, Kralkatorrik, Mordremoth, and the deep sea dragon whose name has not been revealed. However, su btle hints ex ist throughout the world that may mean that there may be more, by at least one. The primary case of this is in h ow Rotscale, Glint, and Kuunavang had been co ntinuously compared to each other – even after Glint’s reveal as a champion of Kralkatorrik having been freed . There is no known dragon tied to Rotscale, thou gh to h is connection of undeath one my think of Zhaitan (alternatively, given Rotscale marched continuously westward tow ards th e Maguuma, he may be tied to Mordremoth – akin to how the Branded march south towards the Crystal Desert and Kralkatorrik; it is not impossible that Rotscale was meant to awaken h is planty master, and his being raised by the Stone S ummit removed the living plant matter from his body exp lainin g his skeletal look, as Mordrem Wolves are known to con tain at least a partial skeleton). Kuunavang, on the other han d, holds nothing in similarity with any of the six Elder Dragons, h in tin g to a seventh Elder Dragon’s existence. The common th eory being an Elder Dragon related to sky and/or stars. There is counter evidence to this, h owever, in the form of the vision of the Eternal Alchemy w itn essed from Omadd’s Machine. However, the Pale Tree suppositions to non -sylvari who witnessed this vision that w hat they saw was not their ties to the Eternal Alchemy, but Scarlet Briar’s, indicatin g that the view was subjective and partial. It is also possible that the comparisons made are no t a hint to  the other two (Rotscale and Kuunavang) being dragon champions, but of a race of actual dragons. Tru e enough , there is reason to believe such th ings.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention . If so, then it could probably also be said th at upheaval is the father of n ece ssity...

In the last three centuries, we have possibly seen the greatest period of upheaval since the Exodus. Hu manity has gone from being the undisputed masters of Tyria, to a degree where the greatest threats to the human natio ns seemed to be one another, to bein g reduced to effectively a single kingdom that is perhaps half of its former exten t an d un der constant risk of losing further ground. Races th at w ere once spread widely across the continent have been p ushed together by the pressure of elder dragon s risin g in th e north, south, an d beneath our feet. As a result, it should not be surprising that th e mag ical arts  have also changed substantially in this time. Refu gees mixing with older inhabitants of Tyria have b rou ght their own techniques, and when combined with mo re traditional methods have lead to more capabilities still. But mu ch has also been lost as books of knowledge, th e experts that wrote them, and the academies they tau ght at have been lost to cataclysms unleashed by war and by the activities of th e Elder Dragons. In this study, I will seek to ch art th e changes that have occurred in the body of magical know ledge, identifying th e new practices that have arisen during this time and seekin g to shed some light on those th at have been lost. D ue to the size of this study, I have split it into multiple parts, w ith this first part concentrating on those forms of magic available to adventurers and defenders of Tyria with the direct as sistance of magical devices (which will be the subject of a later part). One of the most significant changes has b ee n a steady decrease in the apparent influence of the Blood sto nes, as the  supply of magic that does not directly come from the Bloodstones has increased. This has lead some theoris ts to postulate that the schools of magic associated with th e Bloodstones is no longer relevant to modern magic users, as  they rely more and more on ambient sources of magical energy that do not seem to hold the same co nstraints. Certainly, recent relevations coming from Orr as to the true nature of th e Bloodstones (to which I refer the reader to other documents) indicate that the Bloodsto nes were n eve r the ultimate source of magic, and that the magic that has been released from the Bloodstones for mortal use co uld easily have been soaking into the world of Ty ria in general over the centuries sin ce. However, the restrictions imposed by the Blo odstones established the foundations of many of th e mag ical disciplines we see today – and those discip lin es have not merged together as legend says was the case before the splitting of the Bloodstones. Thus, they still remain relevant, as the Bloodstones caused the division s amon g the magical professions that persist, albeit blurred, to this day. Accordingly, I have structured this study according to which of the bloodstones I consider each of the professions to be closest to.

Aggression Necromancer When the uninitiated think of necroman cers, they typically think of the undead that necromancers raise in their service. This may be one of the few thin gs that has actually remain ed constant over the ce nturies. However, several developments have been made in th is area. In centuries past, necromancers could raise l arge numbers of minions with an ample sup ply of fresh corpses… but they were all fragile things that decayed rapidly after animation, and which would fall apart with in minutes of animation unless maintained with increasing amounts of additional energy. While some necromancers co ntinue to use minions of these ty pe (often w ith out even going to any effort to maintain them), most rely more on minio ns that are protected from decay and persist until released or destroyed. Furthermore, they no longer require a corpse to be fresh to raise a new minion. This transitio n might h ave b een initiated by an Ascalonian necromancer named Ve rata – records speak of such a necromancer being chased into exile and fi nally hunted down and killed for murderin g Ascalonian refugees in the trek across the Shiverpeaks to use th eir bodies in experiments for creating longer-lived minions. At least some of his discoveries survived his death, and may ultimately h ave lead to the long-lived minions we see to day . As well as long-lasting minions, modern necroman cers also make use of some shorter-term animations. Swa rms of undead insects have long been part of the und ead arsen al, lasting only for a few seconds an d thu s being view ed more as ammunition than as min ions. More recently, necromancers have mastered an art of animating skeletal limbs to grasp at their foes. The biggest change, however, is that necromancers have moved into the spirit realm – often literally. In ancient times, necromancers were able to curse their foes with deb ilitating afflictions, conjure wells from the corpses of their foes to aid their allies or hinder their enemies, drain their life force to replenish their own, and draw stren gth from deaths around them (much as they still do now) b ut apart from th e odd hex that was believed by some to draw the attention of malign spirits, necromancers mostly remained with the aspects of death that remained on the Tyrian side of the veil. Now, however, necromancers are more inclined to unleash the powers of the spirit world upon their foes – su mmon in g shadowy wraiths alongside their corporeal minions, manifesting spectral claws to tear at their enemies, an d even transforming into a spirit form – known as ‘d eath shroud’ – themselves for short periods of time. Previously, magic affecting the spirit world was the province of ritu alists (to be discussed later) – perhaps these new abilities were developed due to an assimilation of some of that tradition in to the w ays

of necromancers, granting them a more complete degree of control over death?

in use, more extravagant illusions have become the no rm. Mesmer illusions nowadays range from clones of the caster conjured to confuse foes to semi-solid ph an tasms, able to inflict real harm with their attacks. Research notes dating to before the Searing indicate that around th at time, mesmers had begun experimenting with compressing ‘eth er’ – or magical energy – into a semi-solid form to protect against attacks or to hinder the movement of foes: perhap s this research was the initial breakthrough that lead to phantasms and holographic constructs today? One tactic that is also mentioned in accounts of mesmers in battles of the past is one of draining magic from their foes, denying it to their en emies while replenishin g themselves. This, however, is a technique that has fallen out of favou r. When I asked my niece wh y, th is was her respon se: “Yes, every mesmer learns the technique of siphon ing ether from one place to another in their first steps alo ng the path , but it’s too slow to be use fu l in combat. Wh y slowly d rain magical energy from the target while they co ntinue casting spells unhindered when you can instead strike th em with a concentrated blast of ether that they’ll actually notice?” It is my hypothesis that this shift in focus is a result of the increased availability of magic in modern times. In the past, magic was sparse enough that stealing it from your en emy could be decisive. Today, however, it is too plentiful for this tactic to be effective – instead, mesmers have reversed it , learning to overload a target with enough magic energy fo r it to cause harmful effects, manifesting as burns, flares of magical lightning, even as freezing cold or deadly poison . Those particularly competent in the art of chaos magic can exercise a degree of control over these unp redictable effects, harming their enemies w hile also aiding their allies. This increased sup ply of magic may also explain the abilities  mesmers have gained to twist time and space, forming portals from one location to another, speeding up and slowing down time… an d the ofte n-cited refere nce to mesmers raising a barrier that reflects projectiles to the attacked may itself be a form of limited time rever sal. In times past, the magical power required to manipulate th e fundamental fabric of reality in this man ner simply was no t available. Now, however, time and space have become the playthings of the ded icated mesmer. I only wonder how many mesmer app ren tices and researchers turned themselves inside out or otherwise suffered gruesome fates as they experimented with what increasing quantities of magical energy. Note: The following section is not to be included in copies of this document that are made available to the general public. Copies with this section are to be viewed by trusted M agisters and others with gen uine need to know only.

Another technique recorded as being in use by mesmers that appears to have fallen out of favour is the ability to directly interfere with their target’s mind. Soldiers that survived encounters with mesmers speak of seeing visio ns of th eir worst fears that none of their companions could see, sh arp pains with no clear cause, or being sw ept by in tense waves of uncharacteristic emotions such as shame, guilt and panic that hindered their ability to fight. When I asked my n ie ce if she knew anything about this apparently discarded bran ch of the mesmeric arts, she denied all kn owledge and suggested that any such accounts were most likely those of sold ie rs attempting to blame mesmers for their own failings . While I did not think to question her explanation at the time, I have wondered, since that discu ssion, if perhaps sh e was protesting too much . Thief The thief has the d ubious h onour of being a profession that was named by its detractors. Unable to agree on a common term among those, the people who emphatically do not call themselves thieves have found themselves stu ck with th e label that others have applied to them. While most scholars agree that there is a distinctio n to be made between thieves and the Canthan tradition of assassins (as I have made here), it is also cle ar that many of the techniques of assassins have worked their w ay into thief methods – the art of rapid telep ortation kn own as shadow stepping was first developed by the assassins, and many fighting styles employed by thieves, particularly when wielding daggers, appear to be Canthan in origin . However, much of the mysticism of the Canthan tradition has disappeared. Historical records indicate that while some assassin guilds aspired to higher ideals, some of the less scrup ulous h ave long been a fixtu re of Cantha’s u nderworld. In the period of increased communication with Cantha after the Searing, it is likely that, one way or another, their secrets filtere d through to spy organisations and criminal grou ps on our continent as well, that did not share the focus of assassin s on brin ging death. As this happened, the magics of shadow and deception that were most useful in their lifestyle were developed further, while th ose that were more concerned with killing or the mystic aspects of the assassin were forgotten – or never learned in the first place. This makes the thief one of th e few professions which, instead of expanding from the more rigid constraints of a Bloodsto ne school, has actually become more closely aligned with one – having lost the trappin gs of death associated with Aggression in exchange for greater depth in the trickery and illusion of Den ial. Possibly the greatest breakthrough for members of this

profession has been the discovery of true in visibility. It is unclear whether this was first discovered by a mesmer, an assassin, or a true thief in the modern p arlance, but certainly thieves have become the greatest experts in its u se, such that armies and law enforcement officials alike are now seekin g for ways to break such invisibility or at least prevent it from being applied in th e first place . Their most infamous ability, however, is their ability to swipe objects off a target and them emplo y them against their former possessor – including objects such as magical foci that thieves never normally use. This may, again, be a resu lt of their greater concentration in the school of Denial – ste aling the knowledge and magic of their foes and using it against them has long been a part of the mesmer’s arsenal. While thieves are even more reticent to reveal their secrets than mesmers, they may be combining the ph ysical act of th eft with a cantrip to acqu ire the know ledge of h ow to u se the item. Destr uction Elemental ist Soldiers who have fou ght again st the Flame Legion and the centaurs in Kryta will have observed that they employ a very different style of elemental magic to that preferred by more civilised nations. Instead of shifting b etw een different elements as is standard practise, Flame Legion elementa lists employ fire magic effectively exclusively, while most centaur shamans focus on earth magic, with some use of air magic by more powerful practitioners. At the time of the Searing, this was standard practise among all elementalists in the known w orld . Most elementalists would specialise in a single element, or in two elements with synergetic effects – however, the more a practitioner focused in one element, the less th ey could attun e to others. W hile a practitioner in those days co uld switch to differe nt elements, this was a lengthy process that had to be perfo rmed in a safe location, as opposed to the almost instantaneous switches that are possible n ow. The development of this new techn iq ue allowed elementalists to gain the best of both wo rlds – giving them th e benefit of specialising entirely in a single element, but retaining the versatility of wielding multiple elements. However, since this technique still allows focusing only on one element at on ce , even if they can quickly switch between them, a number of spells that relied on synergies betw ee n elements have fallen out of favo ur. However, the source of this n ew method of wielding elemental magic is unknown. Record s from the time of Nightfall indicate that Kournan elementalists developed a technique that allowed them to attu ne with all fo ur elements

simultaneously, a techniq ue that spread beyo nd Elona’s borders in that conflict – however, this tech nique was not popular at the time, as it proved incompatible with many of the more powerful spells that were available to elementalists at the time. Whether this techniq ue later developed into the fluid switching b etw een elemental attunements employed by modern elementalists, or whether it was simply a dead en d and the modern technique was a paralle l development, has been lost to history.

present day. R angers At the time of the Searing, use of magic by rangers was much less overt than it is today. Apart from the co njuration of  spirits, in fact, contemporary writers often disagree on whether those ancient rangers actually used magic at all, or whether it was a mix of canny woodcraft, an imal empathy and bit of simple alchemy. From the writings of contemporary authors, it ap pears that ranger summoning of spirits has advanced greatly in sophistication since the Searing. At that time, the spirits th at rangers could summon applied their effects, beneficial or otherwise, to friends and foe equally. While a p repared team could still take advantage of this by bein g better prepared for the effect of the spirit than their foe, th is limited their utility. Today, rangers have learned how to conjure spirits w ith more directed effects, boosting their allies and/or harming their enemies. This may have been the resu lt of a sharing of techniques with ritualists (which I will discu ss later), wh ich had established the ability to control sp irits to only harm their enemies or aid their allies – while the spirits bound by rangers are of a very different nature to those reportedly summoned by ritualists, the techniques of controlling th em may have still been compatible. S ome modern rangers have also developed the ability to conjure spirits that can move on their own power to follow the ranger after being summoned, instead of being limited to remain in the location they started. Again , this may be a development of ritualist techniqu es developed to resummon a spirit from its o riginal bin ding location to a more useful one. Otherwise, rangers appear to have develop ed a more overt use of magic. While rangers have been able to generate fire for some time, in recent centuries th ey have also developed the ability to conjure frost to place trap s or to freeze a weapon as they throw it. In th e mean time, rangers seem to have made a deliberate move to abandon the simple alchemy that their ancestors may have employed to ignite their arro ws – instead this technique appears to have spread to w arrior archers that care less for natur al magic. Of course, most rangers would say their powers are not related to those wielded by elementalists, but instead come from nature itself. It’s possible that this is in deed exactly what has been happening throu ghout th e centuries – callin g on nature spirits without relying on Blood sto ne magic in a similar manner to how ritualists reportedly invoked their spirits since long before the unlocking of th e origin al proto- Bloodstone. Such a theory as to the n atu re of the magic wielded by rangers wou ld provide a simple explanation as to  why rangers have more overt forms of magic than in past generations – because there is now more magic to be

received from the world around them. If this is the case, then it is possible that the only reason that it manif es ts in elemental forms is because, as the elements are a part of nature to begin with, this feels more natural to rangers th an magic that is more closely related to the other sch ools. Preservatio n

Monk Readers unfamiliar with history may be perplexed at the mention of monks as a spellcasting profession, as in modern times they have been effectively replaced in most circles by guardians. In fact, today it is most common for monks to be found among undead and other groups th at con tin ue to practise magic from before the Great Tsunami. Interestingly, Pact forces from Orr have reported little if an y presence of monks among the forces of the Risen – a nu mb er of theories have been put forth to explain this, b ut as monks w ere reported among the Orrian undead u nleas hed up on Kryta by Vizier Khilbron after the Searing, the simplest is probably th at Khilbron had already recruited most of them before Zhaitan awoke. The disciplines of monks were divided among th ree main strains, which human practitioners at the time associated with the gods (even more strongly than other bran ch es of magic). Two of these have been fu rth er developed by modern guardians – the discipline of Protection largely consisted in conjuring barriers of magical force in order to defen d a subject against attack, a discipline guardians still employ today both in its original form and in converting them in to weapons to defeat their enemies. A more directly aggressive tradition at the time was of Smiting, directing energies against the monk’s foes that human texts label as “holy”. D es criptions of this energy of use speak of b lu e-white fl ames and bolts and beams of light – very similar to that used by guardians today, including early records of symbols. Interestingly, these energies are commonly described as being particularly effective against undead. No such additional effectiveness from such energies are observed against undead in modern times, although it is worth noting that at the time of the Searing, the offensive capabilities of monks were usually seen as being all but in effective against any enemies apart from undead, an observatio n that cannot be made of guardians today. A likely explanation is that the conjurations that produce this energy have been refin ed so they are as effective against living and constructs as they are against undead, rather than that their old efficacy against undead has been lost. The third discipline of healing, however, seems to be on e that has atrophied in recent decades. While guard ians are still quite proficient magical healers, they pale against accounts of monks of old, which accounts speak of bein g able to bring an

ally back from the brink of death w ith a word and a gesture… and to continue doing so for a len gthy period of time until their powers were exhausted (or drained by a mesmer). Tales even speak of monks as even being able to resu rrect those who have crossed death’s door, as long as they can reach th e fallen in time.

while paragons were not regarded as true magic users at the time, tales also speak of their arias and ballads generating supernatural effects – causing the weapons of their allies to set those they strike aflame, preventing and h ealing injuries, hurling javelins that strike like bolts of lightning, an d even raising the dead. It would be easy to write such stories off as hero-worship of beloved lead ers, if not for one thing: Many of the same abilities are used by guardian s today. While  they dispense with the song-and-dance attributed to paragons (which raises the question of wh eth er this was really necessary or a show that was being p ut on for their subordinates…) modern guardians are able to do many of the  things attributed to paragons – except, of course raising the dead. While spears have fallen o ut of favour except as a weapon for underwater combat, a common guardian technique does involve projecting bolts of energy fro m th eir spears… and orbs of ligh tning are a common part of th e guardian’s arsenal above the waves, although there they dispense with spears for more traditional spellcasting foci. This is consistent with what we kn ow of th e guardian ’s origins in that chaotic time after the Great Tsunami, when several traditions came together to form what we now know as th e guardian. While monks had more scho larly kno wledge of the school of preservation, the paragons had an instin ctive knowledge of how to in corporate this magic into th eir fighting styles and leadership skills. As the guardian tradition became more established, techniques that had b ee n previously applied to spears only got expanded to a wider ran ge of weapons, and guardians became experts at using a range of martial weapons as magical foci as well as for their original purpose. Guardian Many efforts have been made to es tablish a fighting tradition  that seamlessly blends magical and martial fighting techniques – including the dervish (to be discussed later) and various orders of warriors dabbling in magic to augment their fighting techniques. The guardian , however, represents the most advanced iteration of this concept currently kn own, although other magic users also make use of martial fighting techniqu es in a limited fashion. As previously discussed, history records the guardian a s being a conglomeration between multiple traditions – the monk and paragon as previously discussed, the ritualist (to be discuss ed later) and some have argued th e dervish as well, although no firm evidence of this connection has been made. The story goes that over the years, monks increasingly began  to recognise that they were priority targets in most battles – due to the combin ation of their light armour and ability to keep the rest of a squ ad fighting – and sou ght ways to improve their own protection. These mon ks formed a

collaboration with paragons from the Order of Sun spears that had fled from Palawa Joko’s occupation – th e former learned how to employ magic while wearing heavier armour and to blend the magical and martial arts, while the latter benefited from the greater breadth of magical knowledge of the monks. Afterwards, additional techniques were ab sorb ed into the tradition . As a result, many guardian tech niques are developments of those used by their predecessors – as well as th ose already described, the sheet and ball lightn in g employed by most guardians for ranged combat most likely grew out of th e ethereal lightning once employed by ritualists. Significan t advancements appear to have been made, however – in the past, protective fields were only able to be applied on individuals (although some spells are capable of apply in g them on multiple individuals at once) while n ow they can be cast to protect an area. Where symbols used to be purely offensive in nature, the symbols employed by gu ardians usually provide some benefit to allies in their area as well as harming foes. The biggest advancement, however, probably comes in the ways guardians have learned to comb ine spells into physical attacks – including directing waves of fo rce at foes from a sword blade and prod ucing symbols th rou gh slamming a blunt weapon into the ground, amon g other examples. While other magical traditions have developed their own techniques of augmenting physical blows w ith magic, guardians are probably the mast ers. Possibly as an extension of using th e physical forms of weapons in their magic, guardians have developed one technique that is truly their ow n (albeit with some analo gues in mesmerism and elementalism) – that of generating weapons of magical force to fight beside th em for a short time. Opinions vary as to the true natu re of these w eap ons – some guardians regard these ‘spirit weapons’ as being spirits that they call to their aid that happen to man ifest in the form of weapons (similar to the animated weapons rep orted in Orr, although those have phy sical forms rather than bein g constructs of magical force). Others regard them simply as magical constructs that act as extensions of their ow n will, similar to the phantasms produced by mesmers. Und efined Ritualists According to Canthan history, the tradition of ritualism represents the oldest form of magic used by humans on Tyria, predating the unlocking of Bloodstone magic by several centuries. While ritualists expan ded into using Bloodston e magic once it became available (which I su spect to be Preservation, given that ritualists were also associated wi th healing and protection, and that ritualist tech niques would later be absorbed by the guardian) the ritualist’s practise of spirit-binding allowed them some measure of supernatural

power at a time when magic in th e world was mu ch weaker than it is now.

are the members of the legendary assassin guilds of Cantha. While the stories indicate that these sh ad ow killers relied primarily on their skills with daggerwork in order to do the deed, they also indicate that many assassin s relied on a number of minor supernatural abilities to ensure that th ey could reach their mark, dispatch them, and make their escape. Prime among these is the art of the shad owstep. App earing as if teleporting from one location to another, acco unts suggest that assassins may not actually have been able to use this technique to reach places they could not reach by conventional means, su ggesting that shadow stepping may not entail true teleportation, but a short bu rst of extraordinary speed. For a long time, teleportatio n was viewed as the province of necromancers, but in recen t times this has been overturned as follo wers of other sch ools have discovered their own, often more efficient, mean s of teleportation. With shadowstepping now common amon g modern thieves – who otherwise seem much closer to the Denial school – it seems that this ability was part of this school all along. However, this is not the only ability linking th e assas sin s of old to the powers of necromancy – assassins are cred ited with the ability to draw power from the afflictio ns they have inflicted on their foes to rejuvenate their own spirit an d vitality, along with sapping the health of their target throu gh magically conjured toxins – not necessarily delivered through a weapon as is common practise amon g thieves today, bu t manifesting directly within the target’s system with a tou ch of the hand or even at a distan ce. How this is possible is something th at, w ith out re-establishing contact with Cantha (and perhaps even then, given the changes that have taken place in the way magic seems to operate since then), we may never kno w. Perhaps the assassins were another early adopter of the rising current of ambient magic alongside an attunement to the Den ial Bloodstone, or perhaps they found a w ay to tap into tw o Bloodstones, accepting a reduced flow of power compared to more specialised spellcasters in exchange for bein g able to access the lesser magics that were important to their vocation. Another an swer could be in their relationship w ith Grenth – assassins from the more principled guilds were known to request the sanction of Gren th before taking an assignment, and it may be through his hand th at they were able to wield powers associated with other forms of magic. Or perhaps these more mystical talents of the assassin s never truly existed, and the tales of th eir powers have been exaggerated by fear and superstition. Certainly, the claims that the most skilled of assassins could stand up to all the horrors of the Underworld with out suffering the slig htest injury can hardly be regard ed as credible.

Dervishes It is difficult nowadays to find in fo rmation of the scythe- wielding holy warriors known as dervishes as those sch ools in  this tradition that had been established in this part of Tyria were destroyed in the flooding of Lion’s Arch. A ny masters of the profession that survived this catastro phe seem to have  been lost therafter, possibly fighting against the many enemies that Kryta had at the time or returning to Elon a to join the resistance against Palawa Joko. With the route to Elona blocked by dragon minions and Joko’s armies, we have also been unable to seek information at the locatio n wh ere the tradition was established . Rumour has it that the Order of W hispers – anoth er organisation that began in Elona – has a secret route th at allows them to access Elona and assist in the resistance against Palawa there. I have submitted a req uest to the Ord er of Whispers for any light th ey might be willing to sh ed on these holy warriors. No response has been forthcoming. What the records do show, however, is that dervishes were capable of wielding effects that were reminiscent of a variety of schools of magic. They had the power to call the earth and winds in their vicinity to their aid , a power typically associated with Destruction, but also to manifest the b lu e fire and burning light associated with the school of Preservation. Finally, some battlefield reports speak of dervishes healing with every sweep of their blade, reapin g their enemy’s life force to replenish their own – a capab ility usually show n by wielders of Aggression magic. In a time wh en the division s between the schools were reportedly stricter th an they are now, how could this be? The answer may well lie in the relative new ness of th e tradition compared to most that were aroun d at the time of the Searing, or even today. Dervishes first started appearin g in Elonian legends during the Shattered Dynas ties era, six centuries after the Exodus of the Go ds. If th e Bloodstones have been feeding magic back into the world in general sin ce the Exodus, it is possible that dervishes first appeare d aro und this time because it was then that th e ambient magic of the world first became strong enough to be u seful in combat, albeit lacking the power available to more specialised magic users that relied on the Blood sto nes. This lessened power would also explain why dervish traditions emph asised mixin g magic and martial techniques – their magic alone wou ld not have made them a match for a specialist, but w hen combined with and used in concert with their skill with scythes it made them a force to be reckoned with. Alternatively, of course, it is worth noting that dervishes were known as the most d evo ut of the traditions around the time of the Krytan civil w ar, including being able to assume the forms and so me fraction of the powers of the gods – it is possible th at th e pow ers of dervishes came purely through being granted by the gods, as members of some other traditions once believed of th eir

own magic, and it is this divine mandate th at kept them independent of the Bloodstones. If so, this would pro vid e an additional reason why this tradition has faded from history.

their strength and allowing them to withstand b lo ws that would fell other adventu rers. Even so, however, warriors in times past often dabbled in other forms of magic. One monk orison in particular, known then as Mending Touch, was particularly popular amo ng warriors around the time of the Searing to keep them on their feet and in fighting condition - this appears to h ave b eco me a staple in the training of many warriors. Furthermore, at the time, many warriors also dabbled with earth magic, particularly in conjuration with hammers – the seismic effects generated by some warriors when wieldin g blun t weapons may simply be due to hittin g the groun d that hard, but th e moment of focus needed to un leash such effects may also involve a now-instinctive harnessing of earth magic th at warriors past learned to incorporate into their fightin g. At the time of the Searing, no warrior co uld employ b oth of th ese magics at once due to the constraints of th e Bloodstones –  now, however, Tyria’s ambient magic is likely more than sufficient to power such relatively minor cantrips. Finally, the technique that has develop ed among warriors of igniting their arrows before firing should be con sid ered . While alchemical substances may be the source of th e flames, these warrior archers may also be unknowingly employin g rudimentary fire magic to ensure that these flaming arrow s behave as desired. Engi neer Possibly alone among the adventuring professions of Tyria, engineers do not appear to be using magic directly. However, they have become experts at making use of the magical properties of the materials they use, creating a variety of alchemical substances and technological devices that exploit the properties of magic to function in ways that wo uld be otherwise impossible. Such developments in magical technology will be covered in a later pa rt. Conclusi on This concludes my review over the ways that magic emp lo yed by the adventuring professions of Tyria has changed ove r th e centuries. In future parts, I will research developments in how technology has been used to harness magic, the disco very of  new properties and sources of magic, and th e properties of  magic when it has been absorbed by those beings that represent the greatest threat to Tyria presently know n – th e Elder Dragons.

Asuran genius is a concept well understood by any asu ra with the cerebral and cranial capacity to comprehend such logical and simple matters. Interactions with other sentien t races, however, demonstrate that these Tyrians are m ore primitive in their beliefs, preparation, and training, an d, more importantly, that their ability to understand asuran genius is limited. To that end, the goal of this dissertation is to explain to lesser races, in terms they can understand, who we are and why our knowledge and und erstandin g of the Eternal Alchemy makes us geniuses and the most advanced Tyrian race known to date. Given the variety and fluctuation of comprehension levels within the target audien ces, I’ve kept this treatise brief so as not to tax cerebral synap ses. Origi n Asura are an ancient race dating back more centuries than average Tyrians can fathom. We had no reason to interact with other races, save the dwarves upon occasion, u ntil 1078 A.E. when the Great Destroyer, general an d champion of the Elder Dragon Primordus, forced our people to the su rface in search of habitable environs where we co uld re-establish ou r cities, labs, and residences. Yes, asura lived below the Tyr ian surface, closer to the core of our plan et where we could

study the Eternal Alchemy and its magical ramifications more precisely and without distraction s. Unlike other tun neling races, such as dredge or skritt, whose coarse cultures and diminished intelligence leave them open to enslavement and stupefaction, asuran genius flourishes individually, in creasing through the exchange and competition of id eas in logical and analytical exercises. This adaptability made us perfec tly capable of adjusting to life on th e Tyrian surface, establishing cities and labs quickly. As Cepha’s recent physiogno mic research proves, asura are best equipped to understand and expound on the E ternal Alchemy (1); ad aptation to new terrain and environments, then, are akin to a progeny’s fi rst lab experiments. Benefits to Tyrians: Asuran Technological Advancements The first and still most well-know n asuran achievement is the asura gate, those portal s which allow r apid a nd instantaneous travel to distant parts of the world. These marvels are on e of our most basic transportation ingenuities requiring carefu l calibration and maintenance, something that appears complex and impossible to other races, naturally. Merchants and citizens fund the main tenance costs of these gates with a fee schedule depend ent ostensibly on local laws and th e type

Dissertation by Dagg of the Co llege of Sta tics, in partial fulfilment of graduating degree requirements.

and quantity of matter seeking transportation. While some merchants balk at these fees, the convenience of accelerated travel in proportion to their commercial gain s soon outweighs any resentment. The next well-known convenien ce is a different iteration of the aforementioned technology: the magi-matter transportive device, commonly known as waypoints. Th is innovation also facilitates individual travel over small or large dist anc es, for a nominal fee. Without asuran genius, Tyrians would be running everywhere they needed to go, makin g commerce and defense inefficient, not to mention sw eaty. Our understandin g of the Eternal Alchemy, and our experiments, led us to place these waypoints, we now know, alo ng strong magical ley-lines, which we did not realize at the time. We abandoned those set further aw ay due to the decrease in magical energy able to sustain them. This fact was co nfirmed just recently (2) by a progen y engineer from the College of Synergetics, proving once more that even our children are more advanced and capable to lead Tyrian societies than those of other races. Asura are also known for our golems, bein gs created by golemancers out of stone, vegetation, an d other semi-natural materials. With their imposing size, durability, and tenacity, lesser races might conclude that anyo ne can pilot a golem, or that they can replace asura when geniu s is required. Witho ut the correct user input, however, golems are not capable of complex rationalization and analysis, and this is by design . Golems are tools and most effective wh en usin g Snaff’s mind/golem interface technology. Having golems that can be operated remotely with the power of one’s th oughts is a double benefit to their programming, w hich is why most modern golems n ow use this technology.  Refinin g and improving effective technology is what asuran genius is best at. Co ntro lled experimentation and field research are crucial to the maturation of our creations and improvements.

Organization Leads to Innovation... The key to success of asuran genius is ou r pro pensity for collaboration in order to augment the potential of su ccessfu l creative endeavors that understand and master the Eternal Alchemy. Our cu lture has evolved from a system reliant on mentorships and krewes to one of apprenticeships within one of our three colleges. Graduation ultimately leads to working with the most innovative krewes, or b ecoming one of our pioneers. Unless an individual p refers scheming an d thieving with the Inquest, this advancement in o ur culture and society foments our creative genius, allowing us to gather kn owledge, develop theories and projects that test and refi ne this knowledge (in order to demonstrate our successes; inspire and remind less-gifted krewes that their wor k is substandard), and progress to the next in novation with kre we members worthy of our talents. Because our culture prizes reputation and sh rewdness, the most successful geniuses ensure their krewes are comp rised not only of cutting-edge thinkers, bu t of asura who can substantiate their theories throu gh demonstrable evidence. No one wants their lab’s reputation for inno vation an d safety questioned. To this en d, our experimentation n ecessitates precise measurements and verification, whether we tinker with levitation buttresses, magiphysical arm atures, or the prestimystic readouts generated by sentien t beings; asuran genius, th ough logical, is not to be taken lightly. Conclusi ons and Implicatio ns Thus, lesser races would do well to continue th eir associations with asura. We may be diminutive in stature, bu t that is only because genius flourishes b est when one’s cortical neural impulses have less distance to travel. It is a logical manifestation of the Eternal Alchemy. O ur technologies and incessant studies of the Eternal Alchemy will be Tyria’ s greatest weapons against the Elder Dragons.

Lydia collapsed back onto the pillows. “That was amazing.” She looked at the man beside her, who scowled. “Don’t look so surprised,” he muttered darkl y. She laughed and swa tted at him pl ayful ly. “You are amazing, Nolan. That never surprises me,” she said, stroking hi s face. Th at b rought a smile to his face, and he drew her closer to him so she was lying on his chest. She turned her head so she could stare una bashedl y at him.

Short, wavy black hair sat above his dark brown eyes , which melted like chocolate as they lo oked at her. He had a chiseled jaw and prominent cheekbones with full lips, which sh e traced with her fingers. Tanned skin from years sp ent in th e sun stretched tightly over lean bu t stro ng muscles. Lydia felt a fierce sense of pride as she stared at him. Nolan was hers; her brave soldier. He had come from the slums of Divinity’s Reach, enlisting in the military as soon as he w as of age. He worked his way up to become a member of th e Seraph, and now directly served under Logan. Th ey had met after she came back from Orr, when he was guarding the queen. “You ok?” he whispered, looking into her eyes. She w as abo ut to nod, but couldn’t. Instead, she shook h er head and lo oked down as she told him about th e conversation between her and Senela. “They’re insane!” he replied, shaking his head. “Your father voted for it, didn’t he?” Lydia nodded. “Damn h im. I don’ t think Logan knows yet; he’ s not always p rivy to what goes on in council meetings.” He got out of bed, shaking his head again. “You need to tell him tonight. I’ve go t to get ready for patrol anyway.” Lydia watched him get dressed. Watching him put on his gleaming armor was always a sight to behold, an d it also gave her a tho ught. “Why do we have to continu e to hid e? I’m not ashamed to be with you, and it’s not like anyon e can do mu ch about it.” “Ah, but they can, dear,” Nolan replied. “You know your fa ther , and what he would do. He already doesn’t app rove of you helping the poor, and he has th e power to keep you lock ed up in here like a delicate princess if you do an ything else he disapproves of. As for me…I’m disposable. They cou ld make me disappear any time they liked.” Lydia’s heart sank just thinking abou t it. “You’re right, as usual. I’m just tired of hiding. I’m tired of co nstan tly looking over my sho ulder for so many reasons.” Nolan finished getting dressed and sat in fro nt of h er on the bed, reaching out to touch her face . “I know, Lydia. Not to sound harsh, but some of th at is

the price you pay when you save the w orld. As far as our relationship goes though, I comple tely understand. We shouldn’t have to love in secret. No one should . But for no w, I would really like it if you weren’t locked up, alright?” She smiled an d held his hand to her face for a moment longer. “Alright.” Nolan nodded and stood u p. “Good. Now, go see Logan. He needs to know righ t away.” He kissed her one more time before walking out the door. Lydia sighed before standing up and gettin g dressed. She looked in her wardrobe and was mildly amused. M ost of the ample space was taken up by armor and various battle gear. Shoved against one of the sides w ere a few court dresses, reserved for when her father absolutely demand ed it of h er. Even though she was raised like a noble lady an d knew how to act like one when the situation called for it, she hate d it. She had always felt most at home on the battlefield . She slung her bow on her back an d walked ou t. Lydia stepped up to Logan ’s door and raised her hand to knock. What stopped her was muffled voices coming from th e other side. A corner of her mouth raised as she recognized them. She stepped back a fe w paces and w aited. A couple of minutes later the door opened and Qu ee n Jennah made a startled noise. “Lydia! I mean Lady Toran, I mean-“ “Hello, lady queen. I had no inte ntion of in tru ding, I simply have a matter to discuss with Logan.” The queen’s eyes narrowed in su spicio n. “At this time of night?” “I’m sure it will be brought to you r attention , if it hasn’t already. Besides, I’m sure you and Captain Th ackeray have been doing q uite a lot of…discussing. I wouldn ’t want to burden you an y more tonight.” Jennah relaxed a little and chuckled. “Thanks, Lydia. Just make sure you come to me if it really is important.” “Of course, my q ueen.” Lydia smiled after the q ueen as sh e walked away. She meandered through the d oor to find a

shirtless Logan glaring at her. “’Captain Thackeray’? A bit much, don’t you th ink?” Lydia laughed and folded herself into an armchair. “You can ’t blame me for having a little bit of fun. Besides, it’s ab out time  something happened with you two. I was getting tired of  seeing the longing glances across ballrooms and banquet halls.” Logan threw a cu shion at h er, w hich she deflected lazily. “What are you doing here, Lyd ia?” Lydia’s expression sobered. “I was going to w ait u ntil tomorrow to tell you, but I…thou ght better of it. M in ister Senela called me to her office tonight. They passed another tax law.” Logan cursed and started pacing around the ro om. “What were they thinking?! How could th ey have thou gh t this w ould be a go od idea?” “I said the same thing. But the minister als o warned me th at this could be the final straw to start a re bellio n among the lower classes. I’ve heard some rumors, but nothin g concrete yet. She was concerned for my safety , but I’m more w orried about everyone else’s.” Logan stopped and looke d at her. “Senela’s right. S ome intel just went missing. It was high level access, so whoever sto le it has to be high ranking. Maybe there is a reb ellion , an d the leader is one of our own. This is a nightmare. I’m assign in g you a bodyguard.” “No! That would make it worse. It’ll make it loo k like I’m suddenly afraid to go around them, like I’m afraid the so- called scum of Divinity’s Reach cou ld become monsters and attack at any moment. You know I can handle myself. An d I’ll have Bena with me at all times.” Logan sighed and sat back down on the bed across from h er. “I hate it when you’re right. Just be careful, Lydia.” She smiled and patted his knee. “I will. Now get so me sleep, you must be pretty w orn out.” S he giggled and ducked as another cushion was launched at her. Sh e scurried out the door before he could start throwin g bottles. The next morning, she awoke to find a letter had been slipped under her front door. She opened it, and read : You were right. The rebellion is starting. The council is meeting at midnight tonight in the queen’s private offices. I hop e you’ll be there. – Logan Lydia immediately burned the letter. Bena slunk in , sniffing at the smoky air. “Sorry girl, I can’t take you tonight. We’ll go huntin g again soon, I promise.” Lydia absentmindedly stroked th e big cat’s head, thinking. Her father wou ld definitely be there, which was all the more reason to go. He cou ld n’t exactly refuse the head of the Seraph’s wishes, as much as he wou ld like to. Sh e made up her mind, then decided to wan der aro und th e city to pass the time. As she stepped outside her dis trict, the familiar sen ses overtook her. She always relished her ability to get lost in a crowd, and even more so now. But still, there were a few people that recognized her. Her magical ability amplified her hearing, and she started wishing sh e could tu rn it off. “There’s  that bastard Toran’s daughter. I wonder if she helped him pass the new law .” “Who does she think she is? She’ll n eve r fit in h ere. S he just helps the poor to make herself lo ok good.” Lydia turned her gaze downward and picked up th e pace .

She kept walking u ntil a noise stop ped her. Sh e looked up and realized where she was. Uzolan’s Mechanical Orch estra loomed before her, playing its eternal song. The mu sic brought a smile to her face, like it always did. As a child, she used to spend hours listening, watch in g the cogs an d wheels turn to produce the beautiful melodies. Even n ow it brough t her tranquility. Some time later, Lydia shook herself out of a daze. Th e sun had already set; darkness had fallen on the city . Silence had replaced the music. She mad e herself stand up, and looked toward the clock tower in the mid dle of Rurikton. Sh e still had half an hour to get to the meeting. She started meand erin g out of the district, but stopped halfway do wn the ro ad. She  listened closely, hoping her ears had tricked her. They hadn’t. A moment later, she heard a soft swishing nois e, an d a footstep. Lydia ducked and swung aroun d to the righ t, bringing her dagger out of her boot as sh e went. S he made contact with tough leather armor, and heard a gru nt as she knocked her opponent into th e wall. She quickly reach ed out, grabbed hold of their neck and pressed h er dagger to it. Her would-be assassin was a slender woman, with raven b lack hair and piercing slanted eyes that glare d at Lydia. “I’m sure you know the d rill,” Lydia explained. “You tell me who sent you, an d I let you live.” The woman laughed. “If only it was that easy. I don ’t valu e my life that much, and neither do es my employer. It’s ou t of apathy, not loyalty, that I tell you I would rather d ie than give you information.” Lydia was puzzled, but tried not to let it sh ow. “You know who I am, you know what I’m capable of, and yet you would give up without a fight?” “Oh, I didn’t say I wou ldn’t figh t.” Th e woman sh oved Lydia away and swung a dagger, seemingly o ut of n owhere. Lydia barely dodged it, and returned with an attack of her ow n. She immediately regretted leaving Bena at home. The two women danced and wove, fiercely striking at each other. Neither gained the upper hand until Lydia tried a desperate fein t, which the other woman read too late. Lydia whirled aroun d and caught the woman in a chokehold , whipping her dagger up to her neck. “Still want to die?” Lydia asked her. The w oman just laughed . “We’re all dead, even you. Do what you will.” “Have it your way then,” Lydia replied, and opened her throat from ear to ear. The woman collapsed to the ground, an d Lydia stumbled back a few steps. S he took a moment to think, and glanced at her surroundin gs. She grabbed the woman’s limp body and dragged her around th e corner to a thin alleyway, then wiped her dagger on th e woman’s clothes. As she did, the cloth shifted and a small o bject rolled onto the ground. She picked it up, an d stared in sh ock. It was a sapphire, one of the most rare and precious gemston es. Whoever hired her must be beyond rich. That narrow s it down considerably. She pocketed the gem an d noticed her hands were shaking slightly. She didn ’t like killing in co ld blood, and what she had just done u nsettle d her. Sh e shook her head, pushing it to the back of her mind, and h urried along the winding streets to the center of th e city. She sp ent the ride to the top tryin g to disguise th e bloodstains on her clothes. She walked silently through the gardens, pay in g no attention to the beauty. W hen Lydia got to the do ors of the queen’s chambers, she took a d eep breath and pushed th em

When we last left our band of heroes, they were in The Dead End bar in Divinity’s Reach, celebrating Scarlet’s defeat and contemplating the rise of a dragon, the colossal creature our her oes now kn ow to be Mordremoth, the jungle dragon of poison and annoying summertime weed growth. T he dr ag- on’s thrall, Scarlet Briar, had laid waste to the city of L ion ’s Arch and stabbed at a massive leyline hub beneath the ruins of the submerged old city only weeks earlier. Since then, Braham Eirsson and Marjory Delaqua had been recovering from injuries acquired during the Battle of the Breachmaker.

This article contains spoilers for the first half of Season 2. Turn back or be forever s poiled - you have been w arned!

Prosperity. After collecting a few clues, the Comman der follows a trail of clues out into th e wastes usin g scattered fragments of the Zephyrite aspect crystals to traverse the terrain. Soon, the group reconvenes and continues th e hun t together. This finally leads them to Aerin, a male sylvari that had been present aboard the airship . However, the sylvari is distracted, but driven, driven with an inexp licable desire to find and kill the Master of Peace. After multiple encoun te rs, the heroes finally put the sylvari to rest, allowin g the M aster of Peace to continue his pilgrimage to an unknow n location. Afterwards, the group shares notes, mentioning that Aerin ’s mannerisms were similar to that of Scarlet Br iar’s. They also rummage through the sylvari’s belon gings and find a note scrawled with the sylvari’s thou ghts and p aranoia. One important point on the letter is that the citiz ens of Prosperity had b een wary of his presence in town. The heroes doub le back and learn that Aerin hadn’t b een the only sylvari to roll through town in the p ast. A number of villagers’ acco unts detail the arrival of a female sylvari several months back, with red pigtails.

Scarlet Briar had made Prosperity her home prior to her opening act at the Queen ’s Jubilee, even before the events of Flame and Frost. Scarlet’s early lab is quickly discovered in a ren te d home and Taimi excitedly volunteers to stay and research the lab from corner-to-corner while the Commander follows ano th er lead to one of the miners in town a norn n amed “To sk a”. Toska explains that she’d pointed Scarlet in the direction of a “magical river” that the miners had uncovered before her arr ival. They had found a leyline.

The Pact base is in shambles, and the Comman der eventually leads the members of the Pact to the “safety” of the Goldenlight Hallow asura lab to the north, but n ot before whacking an army of Mordrem weeds alon g the way. Th e lab itself is nearly overrun as the Commander approached . With the Pact soldiers and scholars under Ro x and Braham’s supervision, the Commander quickly takes the way point network to Fort Salma. Sadly, much of the fo rt is already in ruins with Mo rdrem crawling above and beneath th e walls. Even with Marjory and Kasmeer’s help, the Seraph are struggling to hold their own. After clearing out the Fort, and culling the Mordrem numbers with arrow carts, the attacks subside, but not without cost. Marjory discovers the lifeless body of her sister, Belinda, in the grip of a Mordrem vine. The Commander an d Kasmeer try to comfort the detective, but amidst the tears, sh e urges them to return to Taimi, and leave her to prepare her sister for a funeral.

throughout the charr territory. After lending the fearless felines a hand, the Commander received a second letter from Taimi, mentioning that she’d managed to score a meeting with Councilor Phlunt through her mentor, Zojja, a nd that he’s joined her at the leyline hub. Upon the Command er’s retu rn , there was an immediate and vocal conflict between th e old councilor and the prodigy progeny. Taimi’s age, along with her relationship with Zojja had left Phlunt with noth in g short of contempt for the pupil an d her w ild speculations abou t leylines and dragons didn’t do much to curb his skepticism. Together, the Commander and Taimi present th e prototype for a leyline repairer after fetching some last-minute parts. The device would cycle the magical frequencies th rou ghout the waypoint system, making it more difficult for Mo rdremoth to abuse the devices. Phlunt, after much debate, ag rees to return in a few weeks to witness th e effects of the d evice. Kasmeer arrives as the councilor is leaving, reporting that she managed to convince the Queen to attend th e World Su mmit. The Commander then waypoin ts to the sn ow-covered city of Hoelbrak to check up on Brah am. Just before joining th e norn, the hero receives a letter from—wait for it—Trahearne. The Marshal of the Pact has caught win d of th e Comman der’s World Summit and writes that he’ll also be attending to give the world leaders an upd ate on the Pact’s status and liste n to what his favorite commander has to share ab out the new dragon threat. The Commander arrives at Eir’s h ome in time to join the nervous Braham as he reunites with his mother. Eir welcomes them into her home and they discuss the Su mmit. After hearing her son’s request, she airs (harrharr) her concerns over whether Knut Whitebear can be con vin ced as he already has his hands full with the Sons of Svanir an d Jormag. She proposes a plan to ease some of Knut’s co ncern s by tasking the Commander with the infiltration and eliminatio n of th ree powerful Sons shamans causin g cha os in Frostgorge Sou nd. The plan is carried out without much complication an d as the three convene at the base of a large shattered dragon to tem, Eir and Braham share a short but sw eet bond in g moment. Braham realizes the burden his mother has had to carry for her people for so long, and understands a little more abou t why she had to leave him and his father behind . Eir p romises to speak to Whitebear and share news of th eir victory over Jormag’s followers. Rest is for the weak, and the Command er flies off to the Black Citadel to join a frightened Ro x as she greets Rytlock Brimstone, whom sh e hadn’t seen since h e’d given h er orders to kill Scarlet Briar, orders she refused in order to help save Braham and Marjory’s lives on the Breachma ker. Rytlock, despite his outer brutish demeanor, simply gives Rox a little tough love before shooin g her away to talk to th e Commander. Much like Eir, Rytlock is skeptical of Imperator Smodur’s willingness to attend the Wo rld Summit with so many enemies encroaching on charr territory. Similar ly, Rytlock also has a solution; one he thinks can do away with the Ascalonian ghost problem. That’s when he mentions h is sword, Sohothin, and it’s supposed role in en ding the cu rse of the Foefire.

Rytlock explains that the swords were gifts from O rr and came with a crown that likely belonged to the true royal bloodline. According to the cu rse, o nly a member of that bloodline, wielding Sohothin (or Magdaer), could put the souls of Ascalon to rest. Sadly, Rytlock is just about th e opposite ideal candidate to undo the curse. For those wh o know their Guild Wars lore, even King Adelbern and h is son Prince Rurik were not of the royal blo odline, Doric’ s bloodline. Regardless, Rytlock seems to believe he could be an exception, and sends the Commander out into the field to retrieve the fragments of the royal crown. Once the crown is back in one piece (an d you r human characters have asked for its return to your hands after the ritual), Rytlock, Imperator Smodur, Rox, and the Comman der descend into Duke Barradin’s ( gu ess who WAS a desce ndant of King Doric?!) tomb an d begin the ritual. Like clockwork, the angry ghosts rise up to defend th eir Duke’s resting place and repossess his statue. The grou p defeats the gh osts with minor difficulty, and Rytlock finally puts his research to th e test. With a dramatic “Ascalon, I free you from this curse!” the Tribune plunges Sohothin into the flo or of the tomb. Th ere’s some rumbling, a hole in the floor opens to an un known dimension and swallows th e sword. Rytlock, of course, does what any main character would do in this situation: jump in after the thing. Out of raw instinct, Ro x tries to follow after,  but the hole shuts, leaving the three with an unbroken curse, a missing tribune, and many “dead” ghosts. Imp erator Smodur commends Rox and the Comman der’s efforts on th e latter, agreeing to attend the World Summit at th e Pale Tre e for the heroes’ service to the Black Citadel.

Commander and Kasmeer to boost Delaqua In vestigations’ cred and trap the culprit in a web of their ow n lies. The trail eventually leads to Minister Estelle, who is quickly re vealed to be known ally of Minister Caudecus. After a hard day’s mingling, the two interrogate the minister until sh e trip s over the details of her own sto ry. Countess A nise and h er disgruntled companion, Canach, the ill-mannered sylvari from the Southsun Cove incident, sw oop in to make the arre st. Anise, pleased with the heroes’ success, offers Kasmeer the chance to travel to the World Summit as th e Queen’ s guest and speak to her abo ut the even ts that led her family to  ruin with the intention of restoring some nobility to the Meade household. Kasmeer accepts, but not soon after is th e Commander summoned back to the leyline in Dry Top for the testing of Taimi’s waypoint repairing device. On arrival, the Commander is greeted by Braham, back from the Shiverpeaks, and (regrettably) by Councilor Ph lu nt, who’ s run thin on patience. Taimi demonstrates her w ayp oint- repairing device on a miniature waypoin t field and her results are positive. So positive that they attract the attention of the Mordrem, hoping to put an end to her device befo re it can do their master any harm. Braham and the Comman der make quick work of the minion s while Ph lunt and his Arcane Colleagues cower at a distance. W ith the immediate danger gone, Phlunt recognizes Taimi’s achievemen t and agrees to attend the summit per his on e stipulation: Taimi is to leave her invention in his custody. Naturally, Taimi is p rou d of h er work and the thou ght of h er genius en ding up in the wrinkled claws of someone like Phlunt upsets h er greatly. To no one’s surprise she hops insid e Scruffy and d ash es into the wastes of Dry Top with her invention in -hand (I was kind of hop in g we’d just toss Ph lunt off a cliff and be done with h im, bu t hey! We can’t always have what we want). To add to the danger, the Inquest are skulking around the entran ce to the cave and jump at th e chance of h arassing a yo ung progen y with a promising looking device. They chase Taimi to the ed ge of a cliff and disable Scruffy. The Commander and Braham, hot on the young asura’s heels, overcome the Inquest before they can reach her. Shortly after, Phlunt also catches up. Taimi apologizes and hands over the device, ch oosing to do wh at is best for Tyria—a noticeable moment of growth for the progeny. With all the leaders accounted for, the World Leader Summit begins. Every major player has made their way to Th e Grove to listen to the Commander and the threat of M ord remoth. Trahearne and Caithe are both present and con gratulate the hero on th e momentous occasion. Rox, Braham, Taimi, and Marjory, back from Divinity’s Reach, are also present and  waiting for the procession of leaders, and the arrival of Kasmeer. Even a disguised Countess Anise and Can ach have infiltrated the crowds with whisperings of their own agend a. Finally, the Commander joins the leaders in th e Omphalos Chamber and the discussion begins. Each race brin gs their own burdens to the table, but are ultimately coun te red by the  immediacy of Mordremoth’s threat, quite literally. The elevator pod that floats to-and-from the Omphalo s chamb er is destroyed and the Mordrem attack. Trahearne jump s to the defense of his Mother w hile the oth er races engage (o r

cower) with the corresponding member of the Co mmander’s team. Kasmeer quickly establishes a portal for escape, and the leaders exit as the Mordrem are culled. Before the A vatar of the Pale Tree can be evacuated, the Omphalos ch amber is assaulted by one of Mordremoth ’s lieutenants, “The Sh ad ow of the Dragon”. Alone, the Commander fends off th e powerful foe, eventually injuring it to the point of retreat. Weakened and terribly injured, the Avatar of the Pale Tree calls th e Commander to her side. She reaches out with h er min d and touches the hero’s, impartin g a vision of dying forests, a sea of thorns, vines, and brambles, ancient structures, an d a cavern of crystals appearing to be flo oded with magic. The sylvari flock to the Avatar’s aid and the Command er returns to rest of the gang belo w. The Su mmit Leaders vow to help in some form in the battle again st Mordremoth, and the Pact plans to assemble as soon as p ossib le. On th e side, Countess Anise asks Can ach to pay a visit to Fort Trinity to find out what the Pact’s plans are, to wh ich he (somew hat) respectfully obliges. In true Delaqua Investigations spirit, Marjory and Kasmeer volunteer to do some follow -up research at the Durmand Priory, while Rox and Brah am offer  to watch over Taimi as she works on newer and better inventions. The Commander, however, is po ised to discover the meaning of the Pale Tree’s vision, what it tells the h eroes about Mordremoth, an d how to destroy it.