#i. love. kryptis. SO MUCH

[eparch]

Making some connections and assumptions about the noble houses of Nayos

(and some history headcanons)

This is a big post compiling a good chunk of the ideas I've had from collecting Nayos lore and trying to put it all together. This is kind of all over the place but I tried to break it up a little into sections too. There is a lot of speculation in this post based on text from Secrets of the Obscure, and a section of headcanon at the end.

Spoilers abound for everything related to Nayos and the story there. All links go to the GW2 Wiki.

Deimos's timeline

So Deimos gives us a kind of baseline for how far back things mentioned as "ancient history" happens. Also, we know Deimos was the "young glaive" of House Nephus based on his plaque in the Amnytas museum, and at some point this same title was given to Cerus.

Saul founded the White Mantle roughly 300 years before the events of Bastion of the Penitent, and since Deimos had to be possessing him by the time he was imprisoned by Mursaat, then it's been over 300 years since Deimos left Nayos. Presumably Peitha and Cerus are of similar age to him, though I think of Deimos as the oldest of the three, or at least older than Cerus.

Cerus also has some kind of issue about Eparch seeing him as capable as Deimos.

(from Treachery)

Which means it had to be over 300 years ago that Deimos killed Febe in the Temple of Febe.

Kanaxai's assassination of Lady Mosyn and Febe's mentorship

And thus it has to be much, much earlier than 300 years ago that Kanaxai executed Lady Mosyn during a public gathering of Kryptis, because Peitha was recognizably a "young one" at the time of this execution.

Mosyn's execution appears to have been the end of a sort of golden age for Kryptis society when they would create their own art rather than copy from other world. Based on how "debate" and "protest" were also part of what Mosyn led her house and the Kryptis in, I assume this era could be a kind of Kryptis equivalent to the Age of Enlightenment as it occurred IRL.

Febe appears to have continued Mosyn's work after her death, and this stretch of time was long enough for Peitha to grow into an adult. She sought out Febe at some point during this and he mentored her, likely leading to her radical thinking against Eparch that leads to the rebellion in the present time.

Up until Eparch had Deimos execute Febe too. In front of Cerus, who speaks very highly of Febe. To crush his spirits? "That's what happens when you fight back"? If not for Febe's execution, could Cerus have gone the same path as Peitha?

Incidentally, Kanaxai, and House Aurkus by extension, appear to have been Eparch's inquisitors or secret police. Aurkus himself was also the one who ordered Mosyn's execution.

Also, perhaps Deimos was the Glaive at the time, that Kanaxai mentions?

And I guess Kanaxai assassinating Mosyn and being an inquisitor is a reference to his class in GW1.

General Nephus's insurrection...

(Well-Versed field reports)

So, first, Grand General Nephus. A "folk hero" that the average villager looks up to. Said to be a "brilliant strategist" and a "peerless warrior" whose very name commands loyalty, and, if executed, would immediately become a martyr. He's essentially...the Commander but for Kryptis.

(from The War Council)

We also know he was going to rebel, but Eparch stopped him before he could even start by publicly killing everyone who would have supported him. This, of course, is why he's so reluctant at first in the Forced Hand chapter, and only joins Peitha when Labris's arrival gives him no other choice.

Given the only public execution we know of was that of Mosyn, it's possible she was one of those killed because of Nephus, but I feel that takes away from her and the work she was doing. She was a public figure, a hero to the Kryptis, in her own right, and executed for her own "blasphemies" rather than for supporting Nephus.

Maybe Nephus's would-be insurrection was actually a much longer time ago? It would explain the way he is spoken of like a legendary figure, hidden and lost to all but a select few. Hundreds of years before Mosyn, Nephus saw and realized the beginnings of Eparch's tyranny, and meant to put a stop to it by reaching out to other nobles and generals who shared his sentiments, only to be faced with "mercy" as the only survivor of his rebellion. By the time of Mosyn's protests, Nephus was a beloved figure of Kryptis history, but locked away by both the King and his own despair.

Or perhaps closer instead? If it was closer in time to the current story, it could have been after Mosyn's death, as "the king's claws tightened on our throats" after the end of their golden age, as dreams started to dry up in Nayos, and the average Kryptis started looking for a new hero to believe in and they turned to Nephus, who sought out others of the same mind as him and looked to finish what began with Mosyn?

Either could work.

...and what it meant for House Nephus

So what, then, is "House Nephus"? And how does it connect Peitha to Nephus?

We know from the other noble houses mentioned so far - House Aurkus and House Mosyn - that they take their names from their founders, so of course, it stands to reason that Nephus is the founder of this one. Each house also seems to have a role or predilection for one within Kryptis society - House Mosyn were artists and intellectuals, House Aurkus were inquisitors willing to do dirty work. House Nephus, perhaps, is a house of warriors and tacticians?

(from Forced Hand)

Forced Hand gives us the only real interactions between Peitha and others of House Nephus. Peitha isn't welcome, because by this point she's known to be leading a rebellion and the last thing anyone of House Nephus wants is to let their General get involved in another one of those, on top of perhaps believing Peitha is here to kill him.

The next part of the above conversation implies Nephus and Peitha have some very slight familiarity with each other.

(from Eventide's March)

But it does seem like Nephus hasn't actually seen Peitha in a very, very long time.

(from Treachery)

So maybe...Peitha and her brothers were actually placed into House Nephus by Eparch, not by Nephus's choosing or theirs, perhaps back when they were very young? Why House Nephus, though? Maybe because with Nephus hidden away, command of the house and the three siblings then falls entirely to Eparch and Labris?

So perhaps Peitha and the siblings are in House Nephus as a means to control them?

Bonus headcanons on the establishing of Eparch's Nayos

(and House Mosyn's place in it)

(from Hell Breaks Loose)

Ok, pure headcanon time. As we go deeper into Nayos, we meet more and more friendly Kryptis, or Kryptis so scared of both Eparch and the Astral Ward they just run away and hide no matter what. The villages though, seem to have this strong sense of community, and there are elderly Kryptis taking care of younger ones and being protective of their homes.

Something notable to me is that though the Astral Ward are there to assist Peitha's rebellion and do participate in fighting, a good amount of events in Nyedra and their interactions with the Kryptis are more about helping them bring aid to refugees the average Kryptis. And as these events happen, the Kryptis come to welcome them despite initial misgivings.

And take note: in Forced Hand, when the fighting starts, several Kryptis flee into the safety of their homes. There are also villagers who will run and hide when events like the meta start.

(Dialogue with Researcher Lanni)

So maybe before Eparch's militant unification of Nayos under his banner, Kryptis society was composed of disparate villages. "Solitary" in the sense of competing for the "scarce resources" of Nayos. Each village did what it could to survive.

(from The War Council)

Until Eparch decided he was to be king, and marched on each village and made them bow to him.

(dialogue with Agathine)

And those who didn't fall in line under Eparch's banner? Killed as traitors.

(from Eventide's March)

Interestingly, Nephus tells us there were at least four "disquiets." With the Vision of the Disquiet above implying these were major military conflicts, maybe this means there were actually attempts by other groups of Kryptis to fight back against the establishment of the kingdom? Particularly since Nephus implies it was an attack on them instead.

Also a character headcanon - I like to think Nephus earned his title of Grand General during Eparch's takeover of Nayos and perhaps some of his guilt comes from helping to put Eparch on the very throne that would oppress the Kryptis he sought to protect.

All this is to say: I think Eparch's version of Nayos is entirely at odds with the Kryptis's actual nature - which is more community oriented than their world and their king affords them.

Enter House Mosyn.

Once the kingdom was established, Eparch doled out titles and noble houses to significant Kryptis. Despite what would happen later, one of these was Lady Mosyn, who cultivated a house built on creativity and culture and creating things rather than copying what they saw in dreams.

With the kingdom established into peace, this presumably meant villages now shared resources and soldiers now protected them, rather than needing to compete with each other to survive. In such an environment, Mosyn and the Kryptis who followed her had the chance to flourish and create culture now that survival was not a primary concern.

And of course, that is why Mosyn's assassination marked the beginning of Eparch's current tyranny.

[deercharm]

was running xjj cm with some friends and got insanely lucky and got the imperial everbloom as a drop <33333 ive wanted it for so so long aaaaa

[shroomlet]

[smokinsid]

Alright, alright, let's talk about SotO. Keep your chin up. This'll be long, but as fair as I can make it. It's not all negative, but it's not all positive either. My hope is to just be real about it. Feedback welcome. Blast me in reblogs if you don't agree, I'm genuinely eager for the conversation.

The kryptis are emotion. It stands to reason that this would be a story focused on emotion. How the commander feels about this or that. How the world reacts when you put your emotions into it. That's pretty cool, and after a decade of more and more personal-feeling dragonslaying, separating us from our friends in order to deep-dive into our Commander's own heart is a really cool move. I have to give credit to what was intended.

There's a sense the entire time of throttled execution that I want to talk about. The story is, at all times, not bold enough to deliver the emotional payload it wants. It's not big enough, bad enough- and it's not a question of stakes, either. I advocated for a lower-stakes jaunt into exciting but less apocalyptic territories at the end of EoD.

Eparch is not a threatening villain. The reveal that he lied about his army and manipulated the stakes was... contrary to what we saw in the map, in one hand- and in the other hand, a deception that undermined him as a threat right before approaching his throne.

I recall when he was first revealed wishing that he was just, physically bigger. Not like Cerus. Like Primordus. I wanted him to be speaking to us from that precipice at the arena and then suddenly loom into view, towering over the columns, taking up the horizon. If he's so full of the strength of others, let him grow huge from it, so I can feel the scope of what he's taken and feel small in his presence. I play Asura- at no point did I feel like I could not beat his skinny ass to a pulp with my own class abilities and absolutely no help.

His timer in the fight still running while he's in his Dipshit Cowardice Bubble did not impress me, and I still beat the clock with like 60% of the limit to spare.

He's weak, he's anonymous- he's revealed only to immediately clam back up in his tower while everyone else continues to just talk about him- and if I'm being perfectly honest, the best parallel for him is our old pal, Zhaitan.

Zhaitan loved to send bits of itself as far as it could reach, while the dragon itself remained in Arah. In some ways I liked that- it was the traditional dragon that hunted goats in the countryside and hoarded treasure, but with a necromancer's minion-mastery twist.

Now imagine falling short of Zhaitan, that much-reviled old lizard, in terms of story delivery. Sure, we fight Eparch toe to toe, but he's weak. If Lonely Tower had released at the beginning of SotO instead of now as a flashback, it might've helped us better understand and respect him as a threat, much like how we had the entire personal story past Claw Island to understand Zhaitan.

But we didn't. So to continue looking at this parallel, we see a relatively short, strained jaunt to Zhaitan, with a couple of hairpin turn deaths to sting us emotionally (they fall flat, alas), and suddenly a Big, Easy Fight against a Guy Who Sucks.

Do you remember the Asura woman in the personal story- if you let her spouse die, she never speaks to you again, even in later expansions? Remember Tybalt, Cieran, and Forgal? That stuff hurts good. This NPC won't talk to you because you let her down and broke her heart. These characters grew to love you in ways that, especially for the time, were uncommon for characters in MMOs. That's the kind of thing that this truncated expac didn't have time for.

And let's reflect on IBS while we're at it. I'm never going to stop laughing at it sharing an acronym with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but it genuinely felt like the best they could do working in Bellevue, WA, in the midst of serious covid restrictions. They even went back and re-voiced a chapter that it wasn't safe to voice at the time, remember that? It spoke to an interest in doing their damnedest to deliver the best product they could. And it was good! The final fight couldn't be what they wanted it to be, and I'll always laugh at "so, this is Pact justice?" but it was compelling, at least.

We spend a lot of time in SotO standing still. Selecting a dialogue option and listening to NPCs read their lines. Now, I love Peitha and could listen to her talk all day, but so much of what you should know as the player in position of Wayfinder is stowed away in text-only books and collections. Maybe that's a budgetary constraint. Voice acting is expensive. I don't mind reading, personally- but I didn't, because I was already spending so much time standing around!

I'm not one of those people that thinks of my player character as a killing machine or some kind of mercenary being deployed by the higher echelons to do the practical job of killing a way to the boss. Sid is a radio DJ. Enid is a physicist. Rucks is a troubadour. These are conversational, curious characters who are absolutely invested in what's happening in the world around them.

But my tools as a player for engaging with that world are the ten buttons at the bottom of my screen. You have to challenge me to play the game using those buttons, in order to hook me in and invest me. Kick my ass! Make me fight back! That's part of a great story, and I play all three cruise control classes- Necro, Engi, and Warrior. I want you to make me break bars and use my control effects and feel like I'm under threat so that when I win, it feels like winning!

SotO taught my foul little chain-smoking radio gremlin how to dab. It let me unlock a skyscale the easy way. It made me feel gay things for a twelve foot tall woman made of meat and nightmares. For these things I'll always be grateful.

With strictly tertiary stakes- a secret war on the fringes of reality- expressed through random invasions not much different from the random invasions from Joko's boys, a pinched story with lots of standing around, and a truly pitiful, downright un-respectable asswipe of a villain that makes Zhaitan look like a properly-told story, I have to say that SotO only delivered on its emotional payload in the small places.

The relationships between members of the Ward. The way Peitha grows close to you and comes to rely on you so personally. The banter, more than the beats- and that's as much a problem as it is something to be proud of. Some games don't deliver on character personality. In World of Warcraft: Legion, you got Khadgar being smarmy and Illidan being awful and hilarious- but these are integrated into the most important story moments. When Illidan opens the way to Argus right in the middle of the fucking sky, he has the biggest shit-eating grin you've ever seen on his face, because he knows that it's funny. He knows that he just did the craziest shit that Khadgar's ever seen, and Khadgar's been dealing with demons since the Second War!

So why not have that in our cutscenes? Something as simple as coming to the throne room to threaten Eparch, and seeing Peitha curl her hand around your Wayfinder's shoulder. Isgarren is basically our Khadgar, and he's also a big piece of shit, and he gets some good lines reminiscent of "A Wizard appears exactly when he means to," but we can lean more into that- rather than ask everyone around us if Isgarren is coming, why not... have him fail us? Have him tell us that we can call on him, and then we do, and then have him tell us no.

It's not about how these characters harm and help each other, is what I'm driving at. It's how they harm us, on the other side of the computer screen. You, the player, should be provoked into an emotional response because it's motivating! And if you think being motivated isn't a big deal, I want you to consider that the thing that provokes Kryptis portals to higher intensities are items called motivations.

Arenanet has demonstrated a fluency in the language of emotion, and made a valiant attempt at getting inside our player character's heart. But my take is that in doing so, they left the actual player out of the equation.

I can read to my heart's content, and there's good stuff to read. But I can do that without the game, as everything's transcribed on the wiki. If you want me to be part of your world and tug at my heartstrings, you've gotta provoke me.

And if you can't do that with your main villain, you need a new main villain.

[just-eyris-things]

this is a gw2 dailies hating post.

like, seriously, gw2 dailies my detested

i hate kill x enemies in horn of maguuma

i hate complete one kryptis rift event

i hate do x attacks, x dodges

i hate break enemys defiance bar

i probably hate them because i only get those dailies in a fucking loop. it's boring. i hate this. where is the variety that this game COULD give me because it's SO FUCKING BIG.

And i mean it. where are the fun dailies. where are do a jumping puzzle. where are vistas in hot/core tyria. hey anet, maybe a new kind of daily for eod havers - pet 5 animals? now, THAT would be fun. do X events in a specified area, even (just not soto. no matter how hard i try, i just cant warm up to it). oooooh, what about gather x ore/plants/wood. goddamn, i miss daily dungeon and mini dungeon so much.

I miss dailies getting me to re-explore and fall in love again with tyria...

DONT COME AT ME IN THE NOTES "BUT EYRIS THESE ARENT FUN"

they are fun for me. my dailies, my fun (or lack of thereof...) >:[

[skiesartsanddoom]

Late pride art.

I really resonated with the Kryptis people from Guild Wars 2. Their stories, plight, and struggles and how they overcame them really helped inspire me this past year. So, to celebrate, I drew everyone's favorite King of Nayos, Peitha.

She's slaying it with the cape! Favorite demon mom in the world. (Also, I love her character so much)

[miragecounseling]

ok wait i love this helmet so much

im imagining an engi that has perfected some sort of disguising gyro or some shit that is basically a persisting, tech invention version of a mesmer disguising themselves ???

they disguise themselves as a norn and have lived their entire adult life hiding who they really are.

but underneath the disguise is a skyscale/kryptis/mist demon creature??? idk

hashtag bad dragon though am i right anet??????

i see what yall are into over there

[rosewoodroad]

Scattered thoughts on SoTO

Tl;dr: Lukewarm climax, lukewarm ending. Isgarren is still rude.

Finished the final chapter in an hour and a half. A lot of drama was condensed into those 3 instances, but it felt like there was zero point to the first two where we were just at the camp. It got a bit juicier in the third instance in Eparch's palace. Like, three drops of juice juicier.

The most interesting bits of the story I can recall are:

Eparch ate his entire army! At the time, I was like "oh shit" but in hindsight, I was really hoping for Eparch to be planning a massive attack or something. There was so much build up as to why he wasn't retaliating against Peitha. But no, his great plan was just to eat his own soldiers. I guess it makes sense with his character, but I think if the execution and consequences of the reveal was better, it would have been a real slap to the face.

Eparch's first contact with Tyria was the Maguuma Jungle and Mordremoth, the latter of which he was scared of. This is a real neat detail imho, and helps paint a better picture of the power hierarchy between our antagonists. Eparch truly isn't that big of a threat in the end.

Eparch's final battle was a letdown for all his intrigue. Heitor was harder than him. I literally stood there and tanked all his hits, there was zero mechanic to the encounter. It sure made the speedkilling achievement easy, though.

Meh battle aside, Snargle is always a pleasant surprise.

Isgarren is such an asshat. It makes him an interesting character, but I'm upset they didn't do more with him. Like, what was all that talk about the Commander being similar to Isgarren before? Everyone is like, "you remind me of him" but they never show how?? I thought they were gonna do some real in depth introspection into his personality by the time the story ends but I guess that's it. We're supposed to see the two of them as twins for some reason, but maybe the Fractal will shed some light?

Sounds like Zojja is leaving us for good this time. The exchange between Zojja and the Commander is the only element of the chapter that made me feel things :( Also, I love how the Commander's lines here mirrored their monologue in the prologue: "See? Everyone's doing just fine, Aurene" to "Everyone will be fine, Zojja."

I think my biggest disappointment with the ending is the lack of implications in the epilogue. We could talk with a bunch of people but they're all about the future with the Kryptis and whether peace is possible and whatever. Nothing about, or from, mainland Tyria. No hints for the next expac. No mention of our guild members. No Ivan, who sent us on the mission to begin with and heard nothing from us since. No Taimi, who really ought to be spamming calls on the comms device now that she knows Zojja is back. What is the point of the communicator device in our bags when it's literally used for the prologue and nowhere else???

Peitha's king now. I love how they kept the 'king' title instead of making her queen. But... that's it for her, I guess. I knew she wouldn't betray us, but I admit it's also sort of boring how the story just ended there. I think it could have benefited from more post-story achievements where we help out with turbulent politics or diplomacy instead of going on another treasure (or kryptis) hunt binge. Right now, it feels like the equivalent of brushing dirt off our pants and going, "welp that's done."

Nobody's gonna mention what Eparch said about Kryptis' predatorial nature, huh? They drop his (very, very tiny violin) sympathetic backstory and motivations, and then proceed not to bring its implications up at the peace treaty scene. Absolutely nobody is bothered by Kryptis possibly needing to feed off mortals.

All in all, honestly a forgettable ending. Looking back, the expac started off really strong thanks to the intrigue behind the Wizards and Isgarren. But once that intrigue is solved and we go delving into Nayos, it just feels like a rehash of all our previous adventures where we fight to overcome some Great Force of Evil- just that the Commander isn't in the spotlight anymore. I would've preferred it if the past three chapters were spent with the wizards instead, solving dumb magical problems (or even fighting to keep the Astral Ward a secret!) instead of partaking in a generic military storyline for the 9th time. Like, instead of Eparch, we could have been hunting down a whistleblower, or a traitor maybe, something that keeps the intrigue there.

At least it's acknowledged that the Commander is tired of this stuff too. They need a nap.

[astralarias]

Ough I hate to be negative about a game I love so much but I feel like SotO has kind of, retroactively decreased my enjoyment of the previous story. Something about knowing Isgarren and the Wizards™ were up there just watching is like...oh. The stakes used to feel so high but looking back and thinking, well, the wizards would have stepped in if it got too bad feels...disappointing. "The Kryptis were a more important threat" makes sense I guess but at the same time, it still really lowers the sense of stakes in previous chapters imo.

[ratasum]

I want SO so badly to enjoy SotO. I really do I swear to god I did not come into it wanting to dislike it. I hesitated posting this at all. I'm still extremely hedgy about it.

I was incredibly excited, hype as hell, posting thoughts and analyses of the different things that dropped, and I genuinely enjoyed the first release. There was a high there, and outside of Mabon's death and what felt like a tendency towards more tentatively telling than showing anything, I was hooked in.

But the following two drops have just... killed any hope or enjoyment I had. With them being so short, plot threads that were genuinely fascinating feel like they won't have time to get tied up and will be left to dangle forever. Zojja, whose "exciting character arc" was bare bones and all told in journals you had to scavenger hunt for, was promptly ascended off screen and then shuffled out of the narrative (I have other issues with her writing too as someone who plays a LOT of asura but I don't want to get into it). We haven't seen her since the very opening moments of the second chapter, and anet leaned hard on bringing her back as a big thing in this expac.

But the most glaring thing to me is something that hits more personally. That for me, as someone who grew up adjacent to cults and now has family members actively IN a cult, the behavior of the Wizards has come off as incredibly suspicious since the JUMP, and I was genuinely hoping some of the ambient dialogue and some of the odd journals were going to mean something.

The isolating of new members away from anything they knew, the lovebombing of "you're here because you're special we can see what's so good and special about you," and the use of tragedy and personal loss IN THE MOMENT OF IT HAPPENING to pull the final string of "You can stay here and you'll never have to experience like that again; the world can't hurt you if you stay here forever."

It's terrifying to see this presented as a positive to me. I'm incredibly uncomfortable with it, since I see that kind of behavior play out in real time with my own family.

And it sucks because there's an EXCELLENT skeleton there. I'm fascinated by the Kryptis and their plight, I like that the wizards come off as incredibly shady and not actually as benevolent as they appear, the conflict has so much potential. I like (most) of the new characters. I ADORE the voice acting. And the Horn of Maguuma and Nayos are genuinely beautiful locations. There was so much potential for emotional turmoil in Zojja's arc if they'd followed through with it. Mabon was an interesting connection to the wizards I hadn't expected. We know some part of Lyhr regrets that he ascended at all, feeling like he was manipulated. There's the mystery of that Kodan who left without unascending!

But there's one drop left and with how short the last two drops were I just don't feel like there's enough time.

I hope they prove me wrong. I'm being as optimistic as I can.

I want to be wrong about my misgivings because I love this game, and when I complain, it's not out of malice. It's because I remember how it felt to be excited for every drop, waiting on the edge of my seat during Living Worlds and lamenting having to stop playing to sleep during expacs.

I want that feeling back and it sucks that I can't seem to find it.

[avaeeart]

Back from JW gaming marathon

unsorted thoughts under the cut

after the epic letdown and disappointment in Soto's 2nd half, I did not give into the story hype prelease (though I did look forward the homestead expansion) - Janthir wilds, suprised me so much, by how well they handled the pacing and introduction of new NPCs and the expansive lore of the kodans! of course it is just the first patch to JW but gw2 team managed to write loveable new characters (ILY POKY, AND STOIC ALDER) and bring back villains in a new horrifying light and give those of the Astral Ward more development (i love that morally grey mr isgarren).

plus the maps, god the maps are gorgeous. I love the contrast between the cozy home region of bearland vs the hostile rotted enviroment of the 2nd map - keeping it engaging with adventures, a lot of events which too actually give insight about the kodan's way of living that makes sense (lookin at u, reskinned but out of place kryptis events). there are unique collections and sidequest without feeling too repetitive and even the smallest of things, like collecting wisps or finding a bee cave just returns back the want to explore a lovingly crafted vast map that has more than 2 colors (looking at you Nayos)

each dialogue is actually impactful without the slow, overthe top dramatic kryptis slow speech, the battles in the instances engaging and leaving enough fodder for speculations. recurring NPCs like Malice and Caithe were a delight to see in action

i genuinely enjoy janthir and i hope anet keeps on this positive track (and please don't kill any npcs off for the shock value, i love my bears)

10/10 warclaw kittens

[eparch]

Akeem and Lonely Tower

I went down a lore rabbit hole again. This is why I love Secrets of the Obscure so much: it's all rabbit holes. Shoutout as usual to @/icebrooding, my partner in crime when it comes to unearthing SotO lore and piecing it all together.

Let's go, another long post.

So. Akeem's tarot card says they will die "bringing together our two worlds".

And we know Akeem died during Eparch's invasion in Lonely Tower, alongside Vass or even trying to protect her.

(This just a guess based on the name of that POI though, since we know Cerus and Deimos killed Vass but Dagda specifies only Vass and not Akeem in the dialogue that names them her killers. It's possible Eparch is the one who killed Akeem.)

You can probably see where I'm going with this: Akeem was experimenting with portals into the Mists and that's what led to Lonely Tower.

One more thing to possibly back this up:

The event chain that unlocks their tarot card has some interesting dialogue about the nature of the rifts between Nayos, but specifically I want to point to the second event in the chain which gives us this little bit:

Eparch notices after some time that we are "peering into his domain". While events in Amnytas take place during the invasion that forms the backbone of base SotO's plot, so he would probably be paying attention to rifts opening from the Tyrian side--what if this is what happened with Akeem too?

Akeem was experimenting with portals into the Mists and then "peered" into Nayos a little too long and a little too often, so Eparch takes the opportunity to invade the Wizard's Tower with Cerus and Deimos and a section of their army.

(ArenaNet Lore-Interview for the German Roleplay Community)

But what if Akeem opening portals into Nayos was one of Eparch's "nefarious tricks"? What if they were being influenced from beyond the Veil? Or was it their natural curiosity and interests into "the obscure" that led to this?

The worst part?

If Lezzi has managed to essentially recreate Akeem's experiments, it's possible there was no way to close the portals or rifts in Lonely Tower either other than using the other wizards' powers.

There is however one difference in this event and what happened in Lonely Tower: we have the Heart of the Obscure to close rifts.

And Waiting Sorrow created the Heart of the Obscure.

Perhaps she did so after Lonely Tower?

The Shield of Tyria

There is one more thing about Akeem piercing the Veil I want to talk about.

(From Hell Breaks Loose)

(Aging Journal Entry)

(Strength of the Unseen)

Isgarren was already building the World Spire when he ascended Mabon, but the incident with Eparch and the centaur village solidified his resolve to keep the barrier between Nayos and Tyria firmly shut. That's what the World Spire is: Tyria's shield.

Now I want to call attention to two things here: that the barrier between realms was "compromised or otherwise weakened" and that "higher kryptis such as Cerus, Peitha, and Deimos had possessed many Tyrians".

So let's put this all together:

Prior to the World Spire's completion, Eparch and his brother are able to physically make the jump from Nayos to Tyria. There was probably some natural barrier that has always existed here which makes it either difficult or dangerous for kryptis to do this en masse, and possibly the elder dragons themselves were part of that defense.

Isgarren completes the World Spire at some point with Mabon's help. This feels likely to me to be after Eparch and the centaur village. The World Spire bolsters Tyria's barrier to the Mists, but specifically against Nayos and other parts of the demon realm.

This may not have been 100% airtight, as kryptis could dream of Tyria and Eparch was possibly able to reach Akeem.

Akeem, whether under Eparch's influence or not, opened portals between Tyria and Nayos, bypassing the World Spire's shield and severely weakening it. Very likely one of their own portals is what Eparch used to invade the Wizard's Tower in the events of Lonely Tower.

After Lonely Tower, Isgarren and the other Wizards tighten the barrier once more, but the damage has been done and kryptis are occasionally able to cross the Veil. This is what allowed Cerus and Peitha to possess Tyrians. This is how Deimos crossed into Tyria to look for other ways to breach the Veil entirely. This is how Kanaxai ended up trapped in the Deep.

And then you get...well, the entire game. Everything from the Personal Story to End of Dragons happens and a metric ton of shenanigans happens with the Mists, all of which likely contributed further to weakening the Veil into Nayos, and each elder dragon's death was another likely defense down, and one of them started eating their way through the Mists and possibly even branded some kryptis along the way.

And then Soo-Won's death breaks it entirely.

[eternalalchemagical]

Don’t get me wrong, I love Peitha, but as others have said, I’m Big Mad™️ Arenanet made her so dainty and markedly human-adjacent in comparison to the other Kryptis (especially Cerus, Deimos, Samarog etc etc).

Anyways, Peitha gives me Praying Mantis vibes, specifically the lower classification Idolomantis/ Devil’s Flower Mantis.

I forget the @, but I saw a post yesterday of someone (@dualumina) suggesting that her weird skirt was actually wings that were folded down/ in, and I’ve discussed with some friends/ guildies how much I hope she will get to undergo some kind of metamorphosis later in the release schedule when we inevitably confront/ banish/ kill Eparch and she gets to be the new Queen or whatever.

I will probably draw some tertiary designs tomorrow, but in the interim: my little art goblin brain is whirring

[saturnselkies]

Sweet-Scented Curiosity between You and Me

There were no stars in Nayos, Badri knew this. Yet her eyes still looked up idly, searching for points of light that usually adorned the blue cosmic waves of the night sky. It reminded her of wondrous things like the stars in her eyes, but it also reminded her of the crystal bedroom she'd sleep in the tower; floating starry orbs connecting periods that she tried so hard to make sense of. But it was so hazy at times.

"If you don't get any rest, tomorrow will be unpleasant."

Badri jolted in her seat, hands grabbing a fistful of her gown.

"Oh, Peitha! You scared me. You're so… light-footed," she said, face flushed.

"It makes things more exciting, doesn't it? When you can't hear me coming." The kryptis smirked.

Badri's face grew hotter and she giggled almost in reflex. As if remembering something particularly pleasant.

"Now, Wayfinder, you should rest," Peitha said again.

Badri wondered if she should tell Peitha the truth. She hated having to "tough it out". And Peitha was so nice and warm to her. She couldn't resist it.

"I don't like sleeping very much."

"People from your magic tower seem to love it." Peitha raised her brow.

"Yes… Probably." Badri shrugged with a thin smile.

Peitha didn't like the way sorrow smeared across Badri's face; how it cracked the sweet-scented curiosity she wore so irresistibly. It twisted something inside Peitha, made her almost angry to know something could gnaw at a pretty, little star like the Wayfinder.

Peitha also knew there was a war clawing at their doorstep. And she should turn around and let the Wayfinder figure it out.

"What don't you like about it?"

"It's hard to explain." Badri ears perked up. "I spent a lot of time in a deep slumber in the Wizard's Tower. Isgarren said it was the best way to keep me away from Kryptis possession."

Peitha was not expecting something like that. It was hard to stun a demon of her experience; the closest thing she could feel was incredulity. From the outside, she would have guessed the Astral Ward was better at dealing with precious things like Badri. "That seems a little too drastic. For how long did you sleep?"

"Sometimes years upon years. I've been with the Ward for two hundred and something years. I only remember ninety of them. In weird segments," she lamented with a sad pout.

"That's…" Peitha wanted to find the right word. The right bite. The right merciless remark to such careless treatment. She wondered if the Wizards saw Badri as a catastrophic disaster waiting to happen. Or perhaps an artifact to use. She clenched her jaw. "…unkind. You are doing perfectly fine awake."

"Really?" Her eyes shimmered in the way Peitha loved. There it is, she thought. "I think he just cares too much. He never let me do anything by myself."

"He's just old." And a pretentious, paranoid curmudgeon, she sneered. Peitha sat down on the makeshift bed; she gestured to Badri, beckoning her closer, and inviting the smaller woman to sit with her.

Badri followed the command almost as if this was her nature, climbing onto the kryptis' thighs. "But what if I don't wake up again? And you're not there anymore."

Peitha's claws grabbed at the supple flesh of her starry-eyed princess' perfect body. "You're mine now. And a sleeping beauty is no fun."

"Then why are you asking me to sleep?" She bit her lip, eyes twinkling with a mischievous gleam.

"I can't play with you if you're exhausted and cranky—"

"I'm not cranky!"

"Yes, you can be. Tapping your foot because food takes too long. Or huffing because your blanket is slightly crooked—"

"Okay! Fine! Don't say it like that." She whined sweetly, hands covering her eyes.

"I need you at your best." Peitha lowered her head, pressing her lips to Badri's pointed ear. "And I need you ready to feel every inch of me. I'll find you every time, you can't escape me." Her voice turned into a dangerous timbre, dripping like sickly sweet syrup.

Badri shivered with a gentle moan. "Peitha—"

"No. You will rest now." She fondled her soft breasts. Claws caressing her body just light enough to be comforting and not deeply arousing. "And then the fun begins. Sleep now."

"Okay…"

Peitha helped Badri under the hefty covers, blue wool and brown fur; Nayos could get cold and somber, the heavy air and dense fog made certain areas feel like freezing chambers. For a kryptis, it was a matter of regulating their body temperature, but non-demons always had a hard time adjusting. It was probably disconcerting that the ground could feel warm to the touch, but the air was icy enough to freeze.

"I'll miss you," Badri mumbled. She looked almost unreal; hair kissed by golden waves and skin made of lush blueberries, looking up at Peitha like she was her whole world.

So trusting.

The thought of the Wizards taking Badri away from Peitha crossed her mind for a quick moment. And it was enough for an emotion to grow so rapidly violent. So possessive and ardent.

I'll kill them all.

"Sleep tight, my pretty princess."

[icebrooding]

Thinking about our new favourite Mursaat and the Skywatch meta...

The absolute level of 'oof ow' that hit me when I realised Mabon's exhaustion and the Kryptis starting to really get a hold of him in the tower was likely due to overexerting himself during the Skywatch meta. (And then the additional efforts put forth in the tower itself.)

He was already pushing himself a bit before things spiralled out of control with Lyhr (which Mabon felt responsible for and hence why he tries so hard to fix it), leading to him having to put so much more physical and mental pressure on himself than he expected he'd need to.

(Him losing control of the snares midway through proves that his individual task was something he was struggling to keep up with, even if the meta context means he was receiving ample support.)

After how taxing that was, it would have left him simply too exhausted and weak to fully fight off the Kryptis as he likely had been doing up to that point. After this and until what happens later, I think he was simply fighting it long enough to be able to get to isolation to not be a threat.

In an apt display of his character, he pretty much signed his death sentence then and there to save one of his dearest friends. I think it's a very him thing to do, given how completely he loves the people important to him. Even his dying words were completely selfless; thinking how to lessen the emotional burden on someone else, to be supportive and positive.

I oughh.

[fellis-world]

With the arrival of SotO it was just a matter of time till I would draw my commander too. And I really fell in love with the Astral Ward armor. Personally I LOVE the skyscale mastery. It makes griffin riding so much more fun. But also the Amnytas Meta is one of my favorites so far. Tho Eos can't enjoy the new maps the same with the Kryptis knocking on the door. So while he have to deal with them he also have an eye on a potential cure for his brother...

What are your favorite moments of soto so far?