Hall of Monuments Progress:

I need 3 more titles for God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals and at the moment, the front runners are sweets, party, and prolly survivor. I have a drawn out plan for survivor of doing Factions missions for books since that, while time consuming and head-bangingly boring, will at least pay dividends in Kurzick faction and gold, as well as drops along the way.

I also need a PvP title for HoM. Now, I don’t have time to PvP and it’s not something I’m terribly excited about anyway, so I’ll prolly opt out and buy the Zaishen title for ~200 Z-Keys (or 178 at the moment). I’m really wishing I hadn’t sold all those keys back in the day.

That takes care of titles. The rest is going to be expensive (right, because sweets and party are both cheap!).

I need 2 sets of armor, including my obsidian set. That’s 60k per set. I already have all of the basic materials and I need 64 more ecto before I can go ahead and purchase it. Once I get those ecto, I plan on buying both sets and crossing them off my list. I think I’m going to go with Elite Canthan for the other one.

Finally, there’s the monument of valor. This is what is going to take the longest and be the most expensive. Of the 15 weapons required to max this out, I have 4. I’m torn on this one though. On the one hand, I want to continue to get the weapons I use (i.e., staves, scepters, and foci) and get one of each variety like I have with staves (i.e., destroyer, oppressor, and tormented). On the other hand, destroyer and tormented weapons are expensive. Also, I’m not sure if I have to get 1 of each weapon (i.e., sword, axe, staff, bow, focus, etc) to meet the full criteria or if I can get 3x staff, scepter, focus, and fill the other 6 with whatever. That’d be nice to clarify.

That’s it for now. I’m not sure when I’ll be in game again next but I’ll keep updating on my HoM progress. I’ll take any advice anyone is willing to provide and any in-game help (and gifts!) as well.

Guild Leader Lila (Image courtesy of GW2.com)

Greetings. My name is Lila. I’m sure you’ve heard of me. I’m kind of a big deal among the newly awakened sylvari. People know me all the way over in Lion’s Arch. It’s not surprising that everyone wants to join my guild. I am very important after all.

I have a large guild of allies, followers, and paparazzi. I don’t need to tell you the name. It is famous after all. Yeah, we’ve earned lots of achievements–too many to list really–and you’d be surprised what we can do with our influence. All I have to do is plant my guild’s flag and all of my followers instantly do better at whatever it is we’re doing. Well, I don’t have to plant the flag. I have one of my subjects do that for me.

We’ve done lots of stuff as a guild. My guild has taken keeps in the great war of worlds and we’ve fortified those keeps with our influence and the deep coffers of my guild storage account. My guild is really popular and pretty much unbeatable. I’m sure there will be many leather-bound books written about us.

And that’s why I’m furious. Just when I finished the blueprints for the most amazing guild hall, I have to put the project on hold. I mean, this guild hall was going to be A.W.E.S.O.M.E. It was going to have lots of keeps, a waterfall, huge trees, and the main keep was going to smell of rich mahogany! OOH! I’m so mad!

I had to scrap the project because people started leaving the guild! My totally loyal followers who told me they would only join my guild started joining others! I was like “Excuse me! It’s written in the guild by-laws that we are an exclusive guild!” But they were like “But we want to join other guilds with our human and asura friends.”

Whatever.

This is my guild. If they want to go join another guild then fine, see ya! My guild is cooler than their stupid guild anyway. I have all the cool guild perks. It’s either my guild or nothing. You want to go join several other guilds? FINE! I’m not sharing! And don’t think you can empty out the guild storage account before you leave. That’s guild property now!

/sigh

Stupid leavers. They think that joining a bunch of guilds is cooler than being in one super cool guild–my guild. That’s just stupid. My guild is the coolest. We have all of the achievements. We have all of the influence. I mean, what’s more important: hanging out with people who want to do what you’re interested in or being part of the coolest guild out there? I mean COME ON, their’s no choice!

Being loyal to my cool guild is so much better than hanging out with a bunch of nobodies who share your interests. So what if you want to hang out with your roleplaying buddies or all of your Seraph friends from work. So what if you want to pool all your crafting resources in your crafting guild and wear your other guild’s cape* into world vs world battle later.

LOYALTY TRUMPS CONVENIENCE EVERY TIME!!!**

Fine then. You all can leave. I’ll be a guild of one. I’ll be the coolest guild out there and only people who are loyal to me can join. And when you come crawling back to join my guild after your failed attempt at joining all of your club guilds, I’ll shut my mahogany guild hall doors in your face.

Walking Amongst Mere Mortals [GODS] now accepting applications for new members. Have guild storage, calendar, lots of achievements and influence, and stylish capes!* Guild Hall being built. 1K entry fee. Looking for officers. LOYAL MEMBERS ONLY!!! (no other guilds). Contact Lila for details.

*Guild capes not confirmed for GW2
**Lila’s views regarding guilds in GW2 are not shared by this author

Belzan is a GW & GW2 character and the online persona of this author. You can read about Belzan’s story and other GW topics here as well as at Talk Tyria.

Fæcce

Written in the voice of Fæcce.

Belzan, that is, the first Belzan, was born in Istan in the year 636 DR (436 AE). I was assigned to watch over him and was present during his birth in the village of Kamadan. His life would be a troubled one and he was destined to do great things. It was my job to provide him with guidance, but in the end, he is human and humans are fallible.

Belzan was born to a stoneworker and his wife. He was gifted as a medium, which meant he could see spirits and speak with the dead. He could see me. I hadn’t prepared for that. Like I said: trouble from day one.

At age 6 he began to manifest magical talents and accidentally animated Shelly, his pet turtle who died. His parents took this surprisingly well and found a shaman to tutor him: Shaman Mehahn, who had been employed by the kings and queens of Fahranaur until queens Nahlah and Dahlah came to power and relieved him of this office. Mehahn was admittedly angry about this, but that wouldn’t come to a head for several years.

Mehahn taught Belzan about the four schools of magic, to which Belzan was best suited to Aggression. The training was rigorous, but not malicious. In fact, Mehahn was a surprisingly empathetic master to Belzan. This is where rumor and fact diverge. There are several stories about Belzan’s original master being malicious and harmful to him, but that’s just not true. Some of his masters were, but not Mehahn, a fact that made Mehahn’s eventual betrayal all the more heartbreaking.

About one week after Belzan’s 15th birthday Mehahn abruptly cut their lesson short. He looked distressed and distracted. He warned Belzan that there would be a great plague within the year and that he should convince his parents to charter a ship to the Krytan colony and get away from Istan. Belzan did as he was told and pleaded with his parents to leave Kamadan, but they refused. His father had been working with several other stoneworkers constructing monuments to the queens and refused to leave until they were finished.

Monuments to Nahlah & Dahlah (image courtesy of GW Wiki)

Belzan did not see Mehahn again after the warning. On his 16th birthday he brokered passage to Kryta and pleaded one last time with his parents to come with him. When they once again refused, he set sail himself on the great ship to Kryta. The year was 652 DR (452 AE). The plague hit months later and the mass exodus of Istan began.

Belzan settled in the farming community of Beetletun and took a job on a farm working in the fields. News of the Scarab Plague spread to Kryta, including rumors that it was magical in origin and that the queens were to blame. Weeks, months, and years passed and he did not receive word from his parents or his master. Belzan became increasingly worried and angry. He was angry at his parents for refusing to leave and angry at his master for deserting him.

After a couple years Belzan earned enough money to strike out on his own and began to work as a local shaman contacting spirits and facilitating communication between the living and the dead. He joined up with a group of necromancers and continued to train in aggression magic and became a Master Necromancer in his late twenties. In 464 AE (664 DE) Belzan was visited by the spirit of his former master who told him of the heroic fate of his parents who helped as many people as they could to board ships off the island before eventually succumbing to the plague themselves. Their conversation turned foul when Mehahn admitted partial responsibility for the plague itself. He told Belzan how he was blinded by greed, hate, and revenge against the two queens who dismissed him from power. He had formed an alliance with a man who would serve as the new leader in Elona and end the dynasty. The plague would purge the lands of those loyal to the queens.

To his credit, Mehahn later killed his ally before the coup was complete and before he could take the throne, but the plague was already spreading and killing thousands. Belzan never forgave Mehahn and blamed him for the deaths of everyone he’d ever known. With his newfound power, Belzan destroyed his old master’s spirit and consumed his soul, gaining the power of the shaman as he did. Enraged by his master’s betrayal, Belzan set out into the countryside to find something to destroy and someone to hurt to lessen the burden of his guilt and shame and loneliness.

Like I said, humans are fallible creatures. 

Thus began Belzan’s withdrawal from society. I followed him of course, but watched from a distance as his anger continued to swell. I’d talk with him occasionally, but he generally dismissed me and chose to be alone in his study of necromancy and worship of Grenth. 

In the early years of his self-exile, he would frequently pick fights and destroy anyone who fought him. He earned the nickname “The Vagabond” and parents told stories to their children of a wandering evil spirit who would gobble them up if they were out of their beds at night.

It got worse.

He mastered necromancy far beyond any other person in Kryta at the time and began to experiment with the minds, bodies, and souls of “volunteers” who were usually vagabonds themselves or murderers and rapists offered up to him by the community. He also began taking apprentices-promising power to spellcasters who were brave enough to seek him out and capable enough to survive.

In 499 AE, now in his 60s, Belzan completed his research. His masterpiece was a spell that would forever change his life. By this time he had trained nearly a dozen apprentices, all of whom had gone on to do remarkable things in Kryta and beyond. On the eve of the quincentennial of the exodus of the gods, two young men, twins, aged 17, appeared at the mouth of his cave and demanded he teach them necromancy. Belzan smiled, obliged, and said to the boys,

“Understand that what you demand is both extremely dangerous and rewarding. My apprenticeship begins and ends with sacrifice. You must turn your back on your old life and give yourself over to death. In 5 years time, one of you will be dead and the other will live forever. I will teach both of you or neither of you. Return tomorrow morning and we will begin.”

The Black Curtain, a bog even then, was the location of Belzan's cave (image courtesy of GW Wiki)

The boys had no idea what they’d gotten themselves into. Looking back, I wish I had intervened here, but I truly couldn’t predict where this was headed. Belzan had learned how to shield his mind from me. I was nothing more than an observer to the horrors that awaited those boys. 

Belzan pushed the twins—Fisk and Sisk—harder than any of his other apprentices. He gave them impossible missions, deprived them of food and sleep, attacked them at random, and invaded their minds. He pit them against each other to breed competition, anger, and deceit, but the twins worked together to survive all of the challenges. Through the adversity and punishing lessons of their master, the twins grew more reliant and trusting of each other.

Which made the betrayal all the more heartbreaking.

At the end of their training, nearly 5 years later to the day, Belzan brought them to a spell circle he had created in the woods and told them to both step inside. Once both of them were inside, he enchanted the circle.

“Today one of you will die and the other will live forever. The circle is enchanted to trap the air around you inside. The more you breathe, the more air you use. There is approximately twenty minutes of air within the circle, if you breathe normally. After that, you will suffocate. The circle can only be broken with a life sacrifice. If you do not make a choice, you both will die, or one of you can live by killing the other. One of you will die and the other will live forever.”

Belzan turned his back on his apprentices and walked into the woods leaving them alone in the circle slowly suffocating. Five minutes passed; then ten; then there was a rustling in the woods as two figures approached Belzan from the direction of the circle. Before him stood Fisk who was badly injured, limping, and had a gash across his face that would surely scar. Behind Fisk was Sisk, or rather, Sisk’s corpse animated as a zombie minion. Belzan led Fisk to the cave and tended to his wounds. “When you are healed, we will continue.”

A week passed and Fisk was awakened one morning by Belzan. “It’s time.” Fisk followed Belzan without question to a ritual circle deep within the cave that was surrounded by all matter of magical and alchemical agents—clearly preparation for a spell.

“I am a legend in Kryta,” Belzan began. “There are many who want me dead. People fear my name and tell stories of my actions. You, however, are nobody. You may gain notoriety claiming to be my apprentice like all the rest have, but you will ultimately live in my shadow. You will never be as feared or respected as I am.” Fisk listened intently, with no sign of emotion on his face.

“Today begins your legend and my legacy. You may leave here and call yourself my apprentice. You may make a life for yourself in my shadow, or you can make one final sacrifice to live on forever. You will be respected. You will be feared.”

Belzan handed Fisk an impossibly sharp, ornate ritual knife. “You, Fisk, are going to kill me. In doing so my power will flow into you through this ritual. Take my name and my power and start your own legend. As my apprentice you will carry on my legacy.”

Fisk stared at Belzan, still emotionless, and appeared to think for a moment, after which he agreed to the proposal. They began the ritual. Candles flickered and ancient words echoed off the smooth walls of the cave. As the spell came to a crescendo, Fisk plunged the knife into Belzan’s chest and he immediately felt power surging into his body through the knife. A presence appeared in his mind—it was Belzan. The presence grew and Fisk began to grow weak. He felt his mind slipping out of his own body and into the dying body of his master. A searing, fiery pain erupted from his chest as Fisk realized suddenly he was bleeding to death. He choked on blood trying to breathe, stunned by what he saw: He now lay on the ground staring up at his body holding a bloody knife, it’s scarred face smiling cruelly.

“Congratulations Fisk” he heard his body say, speaking in his own voice. “You’ve killed Belzan the Vagabond. The student has become the master and people will cheer you for what you’ve done today. People will know it was Fisk who killed Belzan and took his place. Your name will live on forever and my legacy will continue.” Belzan, now in Fisk’s body, picked up the dying Fisk and carried him to the nearest town—Beetletun. He announced himself upon arriving, holding his now dead body:

“My name is Belzan Fisk. I have killed my master, Belzan the Vagabond, and bring his body as proof. Now I am the master. Remember the name Belzan, for my legend has just begun.”

And that’s it. That’s how he’s lived all these years. He seeks out those who are magically talented and consumes their power, adding it to his own. If you’ve ever met him through the years, you may have noticed that he’s not nearly as cruel now as he was then. Time heals all wounds as they say. 

I will continue to tell the truth of his story and discredit the rumors and lies. All the stories I tell are as they happened, with a bit of embellishment of course. Look forward to more stories of Belzan’s life over the next few months. I plan on jumping around a bit, but the next story I’ll tell will be that of Belzan Arrakk–the current Belzan.

-Fæcce

Gamescom and PAX

Arenanet has presented a lot of new information over the past couple of weeks at the yearly conventions, including a new video and a new demo. Most blogs have commented in the moment and picked apart some of the changes already, but I want to offer my opinion on some things that I found interesting. GW2Guru has threads dedicated to all of the new information. You can find a great collection of videos, articles, and tweets for Gamescom and Pax here and here, respectively (if you haven’t already found them yourself). Big thanks also to Karasu, MeWulf, and Elixabeth at Talk Tyria for posting about their experiences at the conventions. You can read what they posted about Gamescom and PAX starting here and here, respectively.

On with the blogging!

I think the Gamescom Trailer (here) was very well done. Great music, great “cinematic” video of the dragon boss in the demo, lots of great scenes showing off Destiny’s Edge. The latter half of the video is a lot of clips of skills, including those we’ve already seen, but there are several new ones including the necromancer elite skill Lich Form. Check it out if you haven’t seen it.

ANet is iterating several game mechanics including energy, dodge, skill acquisition, and traits. Energy has been removed and dodge has it’s own button now with the biggest limiting factor for both being recharge times. Skills 1-5 (weapon skills) are now acquired by using the weapon several times, rather than purchasing them from a trainer. I think this is a nice change and it looks like the grind factor will be minimal, which was the biggest complaint from fans. Also, they are currently revamping the traits system (this was discussed in one of the panels), but there is little info on what that means. I think it is tied into the skill acquisition stuff. Nothing major though.

All 5 races were playable in the demo, so there are a lot of videos of each race on youtube. In addition, character customization was implemented in the demo (it was limited, but still quite nice). I’m very excited about this and had I been at one of the conventions I’m sure I would have spent the majority of my demo time customizing my characters. There are several videos on the GW2Guru Gamescom thread that show this, but give Tigerfeet’s blog a read. She’s posting several pics of the customization options for each race as part of her extended “pelt watch” series.

PvP was a major showcase of both conventions. While this is not my forte or interest area, it looked pretty nice. It’s very FPS oriented and is similar to GW PvP. I’m more excited about the casual PvP of WvWvW where there are lots of people involved. If PvP is your thing, check out the Guru threads and see the videos there. ANet takes on a couple guilds head to head and Izzy shows off his mad skills.

What’s in a Name?

Changing topics, there has been an interesting discussion going on over on Hunter’s blog about “Guild Wars.” There has been very little information about guilds released so far and what we know can be found on the wiki. What I would like to highlight are the apparent lack of guild vs guild (GvG) and the discussion of how many guilds a player can join.

In my opinion, ANet needs to spend a bit more time addressing the name of the game. Yes, the guild wars are in the lore and are part of Tyria’s history, but they were history in GW1 with the Searing supposedly ending the wars. The only thing close to representing the name of the game in GW1 was GvG. By comparison, the MMO “Rifts” is about, you guessed it, rifts.

GW2 is about Dragons. It is about races coming together to slay dragons. It is about suspending racial hatreds and forming alliances. Perhaps there will be an emphasis on these alliances being called guilds, but they surely won’t be at war. The name “Guild Wars” has less meaning, in my opinion, without the guild emphasis, which is sad, since there are millions of people playing the game and waiting to play the sequel. Hunter wrote something that I agree with completely on the subject on a different post. He said: “I guess in the end its just a name that serves no other purpose, which is fine, I didn’t buy it for the name.” I personally would like the name to mean something, but if it doesn’t, oh well. I’ll still have fun playing it.

As for the number of guilds available to players, this is a feature I’m excited about. In GW1 you could have 1 guild per account and be a part of an alliance of up to 10 guilds. In GW2, you can be in as many guilds as you want. That’s my favorite part. No limit. You want to be in 8 guilds? Go right ahead. Have a guild for every gaming interest. Have a different guild for every character. Or, join one guild only, if that’s what you want. I plan on being in several guilds and maybe starting one of my own. It looks like there will be lots of goodies for guilds too, but we’ll know more on that later.

Belzan 2.0

Finally, I want to briefly talk Belzan. I am making several changes to Belzan and his story. He will be a very different character in GW2 and I’ll be writing a bit more of his lore in the coming months. This is in part an extension of what I’d planned to do with him all along and in part a response to some of the cool stuff I saw in the Gamescom/PAX videos. I will be posting a story that tells Belzan’s origin in the near future, as well as at least one post talking about my plans for him in GW2. He’s very old and there are many stories about him. Fæcce will separate truth from fiction (pun intended). Stay tuned.

I knew the great centaur Ventari once. I shared a campfire with him in the Maguuma Jungle after outrunning and outwitting a group of White Mantle. He spoke of his race as a proud one and he and I debated the human-centaur war. I was a fool back then. Arrogant too. I saw the centaurs as a nuisance to be ignored or tolerated as we Krytans fought our civil war with the White Mantle. “Throw in with us or get out of our way!”

Ventari and Belzan under the Pale Tree

He helped me to see things differently. He helped me to see how foolish the human-centaur fighting was. We had common enemies and we once lived in peace.

I visited him twice more in Maguuma and once at the Pale Tree. We oft debated human and centaur relations and only now do I realize how wise he truly was. Now, as the Elder Dragons are bearing down upon the races–races who have long been rivals. Races who do not see eye to eye. Proud and narcissistic and arrogant alike. How will we survive against these forces of nature if we do not resolve our own interracial quarrels?

I was not there the day Ventari died. Indeed, I didn’t visit the Pale Tree again until it began to sprout its children–the sylvari. Curious creatures. Naive, inexperienced children in a lot of ways, yet they share the wisdom of the aged centaur who preached peace between the races. Very little is known about the sylvari and I have only befriended a couple of them. I have a feeling their insight into Ventari’s teachings and their understanding of the ancient lessons he scribed upon his tablet will be of paramount importance in uniting the races against the Elder Dragons.

As I said, very little is known about this young race of plant-beings. They are intriguing, mysterious, and, well, dangerous–the Nightmare Court especially. This week we will get a glimpse at their world, a peek into their culture, and perhaps gain a bit of an understanding of their motivations.

I for one am eager to see how Ventari’s teachings have grown and blossomed since our last debate. I will be posting an article later this week on Talk Tyria to discuss Belzan’s thoughts about the sylvari. I hope you give it a read.

The people who do meet us are the troublemakers.

I took the initiative to introduce myself to Belzan on day one.

Belzan is my charge and I have been recording the events of his life for many, many years. I’ve chosen the form of a bird because Belzan is a bit of a free spirit, though lately I appear as a phoenix because, well, it’s a bit more appropriate. There are numerous legends, stories, rumors, etc about who he is and what he’s done. Some good, some bad, some…well, we’ll get to that. It is my intention this far into the game to share some of these stories with you. Afterall, he doesn’t keep good track of this sort of thing and he leaves out all kinds of details that are important.

So look forward to future posts where I tell his story in parts. I’ll be sure to post a timeline of sorts so you can keep track of it all. And who knows, maybe I’ll spice it up a bit and write from his perspective. What has been written, and I refer here to the Chronicles, is only part of the truth–one version, and really not all that accurate. It is a great story, and well written by him, but like any autobiography, it is biased, embellished, and leaves out those little details.

The man is nearly 300 years old. I’m sure you’ll find at least one story interesting. And who knows, maybe I’ll share the secret of his longevity with you. Won’t that alter your perspective of him.

Until then.

-Sadun, the Fæcce