User:Ab.er.rant/Miscellaneous

A bunch of miscellaneous stuff that I didn't bother getting organised.

Favourites

 * Saidra, Devona, Eve, Kehanni, Jamei, and Cynn; in that order. Maybe Evennia, Nika, and Herta too. And with GW:EN, I think Livia just kicked Saidra down a notch :P
 * Mhenlo and his amazing attraction in Factions.
 * Devona, Aidan, Mhenlo, Eve, and Cynn. Very nicely fleshed out in Prophecies and Factions. Too bad glaring inconsistencies in Nightfall ruined it (see next section).
 * Ring of Fire Islands and the Shiverpeak Mountains are breathtaking. The Echovald Forest is enigmatic and mysterious. The Desolation and the Realm of Torment is both hauntingly and beautifully despairing. Throw in GW:EN locations and I'm thoroughly impressed with the art.
 * Mesmer ascended enchanter's armor is the best-looking armor. *silly grin* *snicker* *ahem* Necromancer armor are the best on the whole, minus the Nightfall ones.
 * Male necromancer dance and female ranger dance.
 * Love the art for the Afflicted and the Margonites.

Least favourites

 * I hate Moddok Crevice. No, it's not a badly designed mission. In fact, it's quite a refreshing change and innovative idea. Then why do I hate it? It killed two, not one, but two, of my Survivor characters... sob! My stupid ISP and lag. Sigh.

Devona and gang
As mentioned above, I think the Nightfall lore writers had alot continuity issues with Devona and her friends. I found it disappointing that there were so many inconsistencies. I was hoping for further character development for them, not these issues:


 * If you take all of Devona's quotes in Nightfall, and compare them to what she had in Prophecies and Factions, you'd see some charaterisation issues. The first two campaigns pictured her as a righteous leader, placing duty and loyalty above all else, emulating her father. But in Nightfall, I feel that she has lost it, taking on a more "battle-lust warrior" feel.
 * Aidan's dialogue in Nightfall had him explaining that his parents were murdered by Charr. Yet the official lore (so obviously stated on the website) that Aidan's mother died giving birth to him while his parents were crossing the Shiverpeaks from Kryta to Ascalon. (Apparently, they fixed this by changing "parents" to "father" sometime during mid-August 2007, which is nice)
 * And from both Aidan's dialogue and his quotes, he took on a "reformed dark avenger" type of personality, rather than his previous role of being the wise and level-headed member of the group.
 * There was not a single hint of the relationship that was developed between Mhenlo and Cynn in Factions.
 * Mhenlo has two quotes which seem to contradict each other. The mention of Master Togo places the Nightfall event after the Factions storyline. Yet there was another quote which has Mhenlo wondering about what's across the sea from Tyria and Elona. Some might argue that it could be referring to another continent, but I think this is an oversight, given that the known world not joined to Tyria and Elona at that time is only Cantha and the Battle Isles.
 * And then there's this little minor oversight on Mhenlo's parents. The henchman dialogue (in both Prophecies and Nightfall) claims that his mother is a priestess of Dwayna and his father is a priest of Balthazar. Yet the official lore got it the other way round... and after almost 3 years, no one bothered to fix it.
 * Cynn feels... different. It could be just me, but the impression I got from her lore and her in-game dialogue and quotes was that she's an impulsive, impatient, and hot-tempered person, yet has a heart of gold. In Nightfall, she just feels wild and reckless. Or maybe I'm biased by all the above.
 * Eve was the least affected (probably because she wasn't as well fleshed out previously), although her quotes used to have a more abstract feel to them that I'd much prefer over the boring ones in Nightfall.

In Eye of the North, things have gotten better:
 * They managed to reconcile the two sides of Aidan between Factions and Nightfall, so it's kinda like a Factions Aidan but mixed in a little of the Nightfall Aidan.
 * Devona is still not very "Devona-like" compared to Prophecies, but slightly better than Nightfall.
 * Mhenlo and Cynn is a good continuation from Factions, just ignore them in Nightfall.

The Gods of Tyria
Warning: The following contains spoilers on the Gods of the world of Guild Wars.

A look at the Gods of Tyria as deities of D&D.

The Five True Gods
The five major gods of the world of Tyria.

Balthazar (Lord of Battles, God of War, Master of Fire), Greater God, Lawful Neutral
 * Portfolio: war, fire, battle, courage, strength, loyalty, glory
 * Domains: Courage, Fire, Glory, Law, Strength, War
 * Followers: warriors, monks, fire elementalists, paragons, the zaishen

Dwayna (The Merciful Lady, The Goddess of Life, Lady of the Air, The Protector), Greater God, Neutral Good
 * Portfolio: life, the living, air, sky, mercy, peace, harmony, protection
 * Domains: Air, Community, Creation, Good, Healing, Protection
 * Followers: monks, air elementalists, wind dervishes

Grenth (God of Death, Lord of the Underworld, The Lord of the Dead), Greater God, Neutral Evil
 * Portfolio: death, the dead, cold, frost, necromancy, undeath, spirits, truth, afterlife
 * Domains: Cold, Death, Evil, Knowledge, Repose, Undeath
 * Followers: necromancers, ritualists, water elementalists, the eternals

Lyssa (Goddess of Beauty, The Ladies of Illusion, The Twin Goddess, The Artist), Greater God, Chaotic Good
 * Portfolio: beauty, illusion, deception, art, invention, charm
 * Domains: Chaos, Charm, Craft, Creation, Good, Illusion, Mind, Trickery
 * Followers: mesmers, assasins

Melandru (Our Lady of the Earth, Goddess of Nature), Greater God, Neutral
 * Portfolio: nature, earth, forests, animals, plants
 * Domains: Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Moon, Plant, Sun, Travel
 * Followers: rangers, earth elementalists, earth dervishes, druids

The Once Mighty
Gods that were once powerful but has since been deposed or defeated.

Abaddon (Lord of the Everlasting Depths, Dark God of Secrets, Keeper of Secrets, God of Water), Greater God, Lawful Evil
 * Portfolio: secrets, knowledge, water, seas, oceans
 * Domains: Darkness, Evil, Knowledge, Law, Madness, Ocean
 * Followers: margonites, demons, nightfall cultists

Dhuum (God of Death and the Dead, Master of the Underworld, the Tyrant), Greater God, Lawful Evil
 * Portfolio: death, the dead, necromancy, undeath, spirits, afterlife, tyranny
 * Domains: Death, Evil, Law, Suffering, Tyranny, Undeath
 * Followers: necromancers, evil ritualists

Menzies (Lord of Destruction, the Dark God), Lesser God, Chaotic Evil
 * Portfolio: destruction, darkness, shadows, anger
 * Domains: Chaos, Darkness, Destruction, Evil, Wrath
 * Followers: warriors, evil mesmers, the shadow army

After Nightfall
Kormir has absorbed the divine essence of Abaddon at the end of the Nightfall Campaign. Only knowledge and truth was mentioned, but in light of the Forgotten Realms mechanics, the whole portfolio of Abaddon should have been absorbed and Abaddon reduced to a demipower. There is a conflict with Grenth's portfolio by saying she's the Goddess of Truth though, as Grenth was mentioned to have the portfolio that counters Lyssa's deception and illusion. Maybe the truth can be explained as the exposure of secrets.

Kormir (Goddess of Knowledge and Truth, the All-Knowing, Lady of the Light, Goddess of Water), Greater God, Neutral Good
 * Portfolio: secrets, knowledge, water, seas, oceans
 * Domains: Community, Darkness, Good, Knowledge, Liberation, Water
 * Followers: sunspears

Dwarven Divinity
Not much information with which to flesh out the Dwarven gods.

Great Dwarf (The Great Dwarf, God of Dwarves, the Divine Smith), Greater God, Lawful Good
 * Portfolio: dwarves, smithing, crafting, mining, monotheism
 * Domains: Craft, Creation, Dwarf, Earth, Good, Law, Metal
 * Followers: the Deldrimor dwarves

Great Destroyer (The Great Destroyer, Bane of the Living), Lesser God, Chaotic Evil
 * Portfolio: death, destruction, hatred, murder, xenophobia
 * Domains: Chaos, Death, Destruction, Dwarf, Evil, Hatred
 * Followers: the Stone Summit dwarves

GW:EN complaints
I dislike the fact that ArenaNet chose to entice people to buy GW:EN online with a bonus mission pack. It makes me feel like I'm forced to choose between an actual box for GW:EN (I like to have something physical) and extra content in the game. Given that it's cheaper to get GW:EN online from where I'm at, I guess I have no choice but to give up on the actual game box... which is disappointing. And then they'd go and make the bonus mission pack for sale in the in-game store... grrr....