#rata novus

[ratasum]

I think I'm going to be melancholy about Rata Novus for a while.

98% of the population, dead, seemingly out of nowhere. How scared and desperate the survivors must have been. Families and krewes torn apart. All that work, countless irreplaceable minds and people, lost in what must have felt like an instant.

Their research saved lives long after they were dead. Did anyone mourn their sacrifice at the feet of Primordus's cold corpse?

I hope someone did.

[bluebudgie]

we're brainstorming other pick-up items to /bless.

confirmed to work (and looking hilarious): the passed out skritt in ember bay

[system-architect]

ngl im kinda excited to see how gunner would potentially react to the stabilized rata novus fractal!

u sent this ask to me 6 months ago and ive been kind of letting it marinate in my head while i also figure out how i really feel about soto and im proud to say that after half a year i finally have an answer for u:

he'd be fucking pissed

(long below)

i think that like, at first, gunner would be bonkers levels intrigued by the wizards and the fractal islands and everything about them conceptually. that's his jam. he would feel a bit salty and cheated he hadn't been 'let in on' all the wizard stuff before, because he feels that he works harder than anyone else and essentially deserves to have access to the same pool of knowledge that the wizards have and that it was basically kind of held back from him arbitrarily, but he digresses. it's at least cool to see Now

learning about and then entering the rata novus fractal island is where his opinion would shift heavily. i think he might be kind of initially excited.. it IS his home, without all the chak damage. it's intensely nostalgic to see. but after spending a few moments into it and learning more of its' premise (a rata novus that survived because they made 'different choices'), he'd feel... mocked and exploited, sort of.

for one, he'd feel weird and like it was dirty in a way that he, a living rata novan, was never simply asked any questions and then never had any sort of input on the creation of this thing. but more pressingly, seeing this sort of distorted 'happy bubble where nothing is wrong' version of the world would feel like it was mocking him specifically-- i mean, only 2% of the population of rata novus survived. he WATCHED these people die. he'd feel like the whole premise of the fractal was kind of shitty in a way-- that maybe if the rata novans made 'better choices' they wouldn't have all died or something, as it if was the entire city that brought on the destruction via mismanagement of chak+ley energy, not a small group consisting of zinn and his high council. furthermore, zinn gets to be here-- completely uncontested and flourshing in his happy-go-lucky leadership role, despite 1. gunner feeling that zinn is a colossal idiot 2. zinn having been one of the few who had survived and escaped in the first place.

on top of that all, it's an experiment, a simulacrum-- the entire city and all of the very real (if artificially created/reproduced) people inside can just be frozen or destroyed at will if the wizards have no use for them anymore. everything that rata novus actually was matters 0% here.

[bombietta]

You know all I wanted was more asura lore stuff and anet. Finally delivered. I will be insufferable for weeks about this.

[aquariusxiv]

After the beginning of Heart of Thorns and the destruction of the Pact fleet, the heroic determination that carried her through the fights with Zhaitan and Scarlet becomes a deep rage. A spark of magic within her ignites, giving her fire to burn a path through the jungle. She feels it more and more necessary to throw herself into combat, to rescue Trahearne or die trying. She's able to keep the flame contained most of the time: keeping perspective, delegating tasks, and pursuing lateral objectives like searching for Rata Novus. But she relishes each and every chance to unleash all her rage at Mordremoth, at the loss of her friends, at being the one to survive on whatever aspect of this Balthazar-blasted jungle stands in her way.

The Berserker's flame is mighty, but it is all-consuming without being all-powerful. What happens if it burns her out? Or if she faces an opponent who can withstand it?

Elizabeth Sandford, Liz, my gorl.

Human Warrior blessed by Kormir, grew up in the Salma district with her older sister Deborah and adopted sister Petra. She didn't join the military like Deborah did but was talented enough with a blade to get work as a sellsword. She also did lots of other odd jobs in Divinity's Reach and around Shaemoor - giving her expertise with woodcutting, mining, foraging and farming, as well as the crafting disciplines though she has a strong preference for cooking, the job she did at Andrew's inn. Despite them not factoring into her personal story she does know the other story npcs in the Salma district - she had a crush on Faren when she was younger, and suspects Petra still does. Her nickname 'Liz' is based on how the dialogue with your sister calls her 'Debs' and I wanted her to have a similarly dorky nickname.

She's vaguely aware her family came from Ascalon after the Searing but considers herself fully Krytan. Deborah has an heirloom shield from around that time (Kryta's Embrace) but it went missing when Deborah did and they don't end up recovering it until the assault on Orr. She has fine chain armour she'll wear if she knows she's going into a big battle but otherwise dresses light in a layered vest. Despite not joining the military she's excited by the prospect of being a hero which is why she got involved with the centaur attack on Shaemoor and later on joins the Vigil.

Absolutely smitten with Trahearne after meeting him.

[clemmykins]

rata novus is nice, it just has a bug problem

[vinetooth-prime]

Arvil Wardbreaker

— Harpy Angel || Astral Ward Rift Hunter || Devoted of Dwayna

"There's an old wive's tale in Elona. They say that harpies are the fallen servants of Dwayna." "Angels? Those filthy things?"

When the Fractals tethered to the Wizard Tower crashed into Tyria in 1337AE, they brought with them alien concepts and unheard of realities. Balthazar won. Maguuma overrun. Rata Novus thrived. Angels never fell.

A Tyria where the progression and evolution of magic was headed by the Gods and their extensions... What could that possibly look like? An Angel of Dwayna: a Devoted. Divine magic channeled and honed with Light and Fire, refined and redefined further when harpies have all but abandoned the art.

Before the Tower fell, though, Arvil found herself walking into our Tyria on her own accord.

In her old life, born and raised within her reality—the Fractal—Arvil was estranged and ostracized. Through her actions or inaction (though always designed in secret plots against her), Arvil was villainized time and time again, nearly facing excommunication more than once.

It's in her extensive time alone that she discovered the Astral Ward woven into her church in secret. As they studied the Fractal, she began to study them. In short time, she'd learn of the Kryptis and saw it within her duties to help against the demon threat.

She confronted the Astral Ward and became an ever-present thorn in their side, eventually even forcing her way into our Tyria in secret alongside a pair of researchers.

Considering the Kryptis threat and her skill & willingness to assist, Arvil was inducted into the Rift Hunters a full year before the fractal crash.

[commander-gloryforge]

what’s your favourite guild wars 2 soundtrack?

i kiss the whole hot soundtrack on the lips. like uhm. what more can i say. look at these bangers.

aside from that i also really love all the scarlet related tracks WAUAGHHHGHH i love u scarlet. theres also one specific piece that plays in some lws3 maps that i just cant figure out which one it is. it plays rarely and i cant recall how it even sounds right now aside from: when it does play i go insane. its very piano heavy as far as i remember. i remember it specifically playing in lake doric but i just. its just gone. where is it. i also think ibs has some bangers wehehehe!!!!

OH ALSO

[silvesi]

He is an ASSET to the scientific community of rata novus I SWEAR but also what if I just let him enter people's houses thru their cat flaps. What then

[icebrooding]

One of my friends recently came back to the game and we just went through the Rata Novus section last night and during that one cutscene she was like 'I kind of thought Braham might die; this game has me scared for them actually killing people off' like, girl, just you wait 😭

[ratasum]

Asuran Architecture, 4/?

Rata Novus, Interior

[bluebudgie]

like new kaineng feels more like a ghost town than rata novus, a literal ghost town

[commanders-company]

Audio Log Archive: Calculator Zoxxe

Entry 34 - 1326 AE. Transcription start:

Ten years with the Inquest, and I’m still equally amazed and appalled at what my fellows get themselves caught up in. I’m sure sciences like herpetology and ichthyology have their uses, but it gets aggravating seeing promising researchers become obsessed with some rare fauna or another when they should be applying themselves to the stated goals of our organization.

Case in point, this “Scarlet” character. Everyone and their golem is buzzing about this mysterious sylvari who studied at all three colleges - personally, I doubted the authenticity of her certifications even before the Council revoked them. As though a non-asura could ever hope to achieve our heights of genius. Ha!

Still, I can’t deny the spark behind her eyes. She has big plans, whatever they might end up being, and I have no doubt she will do anything to see them through. I have no interest in partnering with pirates or bandits or whatnot, so I will continue to watch from a distance as I continue my own aetherology research here. Who knows, maybe Scarlet will impress me after all. Or maybe dolyaks will sprout wings and fly.

Entry 39 - 1327 AE

Of course Scarlet ended up being a bust. Anyone who believed differently was a fool of the highest order.

She certainly went out with a bang - my aetherology instruments were going haywire from the sheer amount of magical energy that rushed towards the deep jungle. Now that we know the truth about the sylvari, we can near-conclusively see that her true goal all along was to reawaken Mordremoth. It was certainly a bold idea to flood the ley line stretching from Lion’s Arch to Maguuma with magic; not unlike jump-starting a stalled golem with an external power source.

Whatever her exact motivations for this could have been, her success does open up a potentially fascinating avenue for my research - what sort of link is there between the elder dragons and the magic of the world? Clearly Mordremoth was attuned to it, but what about Zhaitan, and for what purpose? And most importantly, how can we exploit it for ourselves?

I’ll prepare my thesis and send it to high command along with a request for additional funding and personnel. I have no doubt they will give me all I ask for, so I will begin my personal work at once. I wonder if the Pact would miss one of their submersibles…

Entry 53 - 1335 AE

The Pact and that blasted commander of theirs continues to be both a boon and a curse! While our agents in the Rata Novus lab have passed on immeasurably useful data from their efforts, that blasted sylvari keeps killing more dragons - good for the survival of the common folk, I suppose, but absolutely detrimental to my research.

Only one dragon remains, the ever-theorized but heretofore unproven “deep sea dragon.” There’s so much more we’re on the cusp of discovering, and the commander is on track to ruin my career without even knowing!

But, as always, I have a plan. I was able to find records of Scarlet’s notes left over in an old workstation. She mentions time she spent with the late Omadd, and most importantly, a fascinating device he constructed near the Silverwastes. Supposedly, the device allows the user to peer into the fabric of reality - the very Eternal Alchemy itself!

Finally, a chance to mathematically prove what I’ve always believed - to show those boorish idiots I call my fellow researchers that absolute structure is the only way to success. Everything down to the smallest particle of the least important atom can be determined, charted, predicted and directed. The Inquest has always strived to control the Eternal Alchemy, but no one ever thinks about what we’ll do with it. Absolute order to all things is the only conclusion that makes any sense, and I will be the one to put it in place.

I will be traveling alone to the machine - no reason to give anyone else the chance to muck everything up, or worse, steal my work. Very soon, all asura - the entire world - will know my name!

Entry 55 - 1335 AE

[unintelligable] -it’s wrong. It’s all wrong, everything is wrong, I was - [crashing, papers scattering, yelling]

I fixed it. The machine worked and I saw everything. All magic flowing in and out the dragons like water through a filtration matrix. For a moment it was so beautiful. But the dragons died one by one, and in their place, there is…

Nothing. Less than nothing. Void from end to end. No greater purpose, no rules or equations or anything comprehensible. An emptiness that will take and take and take until there is nothing left.

She’s doomed us all. She can’t save us this time. Now everything we’ve done, everything I’ve done is worthless. No one can stop what’s happening.

The Void comes for us all. The Void comes. It comes. It comes. It comes… 

[unintelligible]

Entry 56 - 1335 AE

Ahem.

I’m not going to delete my last entry - embarrassing as it may be to admit, it is important to acknowledge when one’s conclusions end up being incorrect, if only for the purpose of proper documentation.

Which is to say that the world didn’t end, obviously. The Commander found a way, as she always seems to do. Our agents report that Aurene now fulfills the role the previous elder dragons used to, sans the whole death/rebirth cycle. Magic flows through her to be cleansed, and the world is balanced once again. The Void is - it’s gone. It has to be -

[coughs] I’m putting together another thesis and personnel request. The events of the last few days opens up yet another previously unknown facet of aetherology. We’re not under immediate threat anymore, but it demands to be studied. All sorts of possible applications could be found, if we can properly contain it.

I cannot - I will not be taken by surprise again. I will master its flow and dictate its course.

I will be the one in control. It will have no power over me ever again.

Should my proposal be approved, and I have no doubt it won’t, I will be forming the V.E.R.G.E. krewe - Voidic Energy Research and General Exploitation. We will decipher every secret of the Void and turn it to our own ends - and prepare ourselves should it ever return like this again.

I will be ready. And someday soon, all of creation - even the Void itself - will bend before me.

[dorenarox]

My Asurasona, writing a critique on the Super Adventure Box : "As you can see the concerns of many that the Super Adveture Box (SAB for short) might encourage bad behavior is not entirely unfounded, as progeny will not only be encouraged, but rewarded for doing things such as breaking furniture or bee nests. However these environments are clearly fictional, and only a true bookah would get the idea to replicate such behaviors in the real world. The Super Adventure Box (SAB for short) might not be everyone's cup of tea for these very reasons, but one can not deny the mental and physical exercise brought by it. It is not so different from any other study after all. Theorems are just as important as field experiments, and the Box manages to combine both in a safe and theoretical environment. Even if the edges of some of these holograms can be quite sharp."

It's nice that my Asurasona gets to be a gamer too.

[bigsnaff]

who would win in an argument phyroh or phlunk.Who casts the first punch

I was going to say that I'm not sure if phyroh could win this one BUT then I remembered we're talking about a creature with a brain that's shriveled to the size of a pea and probably cannot tell whether he's losing an argument. so.

phlunk would INSIST he's above such petty little arguments until phyroh "bigg diggs" himself has the gall to drop the equivalent of a your mom insult at phlunk and phlunk comes in with a nuke of a comeback,

"I'm sure the deceased of Rata Novus are abundantly pleased that you are the sole carrier of their legacy, and that you have made such stupendious strides in your life since breaking free of joko's reign. I applaud you, sir, you are truly nothing but the pinnacle of the asuran race."

I don't know why I'm assuming that phlunk knows phyroh's history but I think it's funny if he does without any explanation as to how. and you will have to tell me whether phyroh has the cognitive ability to recognize sarcasm. because if not I'm imagining him walking away from that with a giant grin on his face before he trips and falls into a ditch

[mordremrose]

I’m just gonna write a little thing! A little thought for Bloom, nothing too intense, just so I don’t forget it!

1000 words later? Whoops

Writing below the cut, major spoilers for the end of Heart of Thorns and implied End of Dragons spoilers but nothing explicit from EoD :]

Bloom

“Kill me, Commander.” Trahearne could hear his own voice tremble, as horror overtook his dear friend’s face. Around them all, their friends— Rytlock, Caithe, Canach, Marjory, Braham— were exhausted. Worn thin by the fight against the jungle dragon, both physical and within the Dream.

“What? No! Mordremoth is dead. We destroyed its mind from the inside.” The commander protested, their fingers curled around the hilt of Caladbolg.

“But I still hear its voice.” Trahearne looked down at his hands, twisted and blighted as they were. His body was not his— he was corrupted. It was only cruel fate that he had kept his mind this long. Or perhaps something more sinister.

“Mordremoth is alive. One last hateful vestige… a terrible seed, planted deep in my mind.”

Trahearne’s hands curled into fist, as he took a deep steadying breath.

“You must kill me, Commander, before that seed grows. Before… before Mordremoth reclaims what it has lost.”

He reached out now, hands on his friend’s shoulders. The tears streaming down their face broke his heart. He did not want this. He didn’t want to hurt them, to see them suffer so.

Trahearne wished there was another way.

“What is left of me can’t survive on its own, my friend.” He croaked, and felt the Commander tremble beneath his hands. Were they always so small?

“Strike now or—“

Against his will, a rage rose up. A sick bile that boiled in his stomach and burned through his chest as his mind lurched.

Through his mouth, Mordremoth spoke.

“I am the future! I am this world! You cannot destroy me!” The dragon roared, hands tightening around the commander.

“Run while you can!” It took everything he had left to force his fingers to uncurl, to release the commander even as the dragon wanted to tear them to shreds to be remade anew.

Caladbolg flashed in the corner of his eye.

“No!” The commander yelled. Strike true my friend! Trahearne wanted to yell. But he couldn’t, and his mind went dark.

There was no great explosion. There was no dying scream.

If you asked those present what happened, none of them gave any concrete answer.

Canach hesitated to answer, but would confirm that Mordremoth was no longer hounding his mind, or any of the sylvari.

All Rytlock would say was that the confrontation wasn’t pretty.

Caithe mourned Trahearne, in her quiet and melancholic manner, and asked not to push the matter further.

Braham would scowl, shake his head, and shove his way past, unwilling or perhaps unable to describe that final blow.

Marjory Delaqua, normally so elegant and clever with her words, who could see the twists of a plot before anyone else— when she was asked, she could only shake her head and reply ‘I don’t know’.

The Commander didn’t answer at all, because no one was able to find them to ask.

Eventually, researchers at the newly established lab of Rata Novus confirmed what the entire world held its breath to hear.

Mordremoth was dead. He had to be, to explain the slow steady trickle of magic escaping the jungle, supposedly as the dragon… decayed wasn’t the right word, but it conveyed the idea well enough. It was a slow death, they said, not quite the explosive reaction from Zhaitan, who had gorged itself on magic before its death, but a gradual decay. It changed things, about magic, about how the people of Tyria and the soon to be established Dragon’s Watch understood the flow of magic around and through the Elder Dragons. But it was dead.

It had to be.

He woke up. His body ached, as it always did, as he woke. A consequence of being too bigsmall. He stirred slowly, limbs stretching out and tail dragging behind. He had buried himself beneath massive vines this time, the weight of them both familiar and restricting. These conflicting sensations, the constant disagreement with himself… it was the only thing he could rely on. Even his name escaped his memory, although he could hear whispers of it on the edges of his mind.

Traherdremaneth.

It didn’t matter, really.

He moved slowly, not truly wanting to rise, but knowing he must.

He was something in between, and there was no stillness for him. No place of his own.

His one companion, if you could call it that, would be upon him soon. A dogged purserer, both a thorn in his side and a trusted ally, trailed behind him. For a time he thought they left him— and the feelings that had wrought left him stationary in a deep cave for nearly a week before they had reappeared.

He didn’t want them close, he knew that much, but they were one of the few things he had, a consistency. He couldn’t see them well, not with the distance between them, but he could always make out the broken blade at their hip. The one that made the scar across his chest ache.

He wondered what would happen if he let them get closer. Would they strike? Would they know him?

They were his enemyfriend. What would they make of him? Caution kept him at a distance from them.

The longer he was awake, the more memories he could half-remember.

The Orrian landscape stretches out before him and it reeks of his sibling, twisting beneath the dirt. The undead don’t notice him, not yet, and he can take a moment to look closer at the coral. It was neither alive nor dead. Not unlike himself and yet so different to him or anything he had ever encountered before.

He missed his siblings, their quiet talks among the then empty roots, among safe coils with their constant presence around him. They were too distant to feel or simply gone now and it unnerved him. This was wrong. Perhaps they could help him make it right.

There was one other thing, other than his sort-of companion and his unsteady roiling mind, that remained constant. And this was the true constant. A steady beacon, that he could not see or hear, but simply felt in a way that he could not describe. A magnetic sort of pull that had him orbiting closer and closer.

It drew him in, out of the depths and dark underbelly of the jungle and the cave systems, towards the strange golden stones, the elegant walls meant to keep out creatures that wished to destroy the beacon. He was not welcome there, not yet, even though he meant no harm. He just needed to be closer.

He didn’t know how he knew that. He just knew it.