Guild Wars 2 - Parables of the Gods and Risen Research | The Hidden Lore of Siren's Landing 

It's 5pm but I just woke up... sleep getting really wonky trying to play a lot and MAKE a lot of videos, but we're marching on upwards! Next should be a recap of the developer AMA for this patch, which has mostly settled down now. There was a message so big on that it got it's own post on the official website, so lots to sink our teeth into!

>Rose was my everything "Maybe they're just friends."

I think the parable of Lyssa is pretty direct in it's meaning. She came to teach them what was illusion and what was truth. They chose to believe the illusion of their dreams and it blinded them to the truth of the war they were fighting and they died for that ignorance. I like that this shows the gods as incredibly lofty and impartial to the events around them even as they lived amongst their people in Orr.

I liked what the risen that killed Rose had to say. It's very illuminating. The risen *are* free but they only ever knew how to do one thing; follow the will of Zhaitan. From their point of view it's probably better to have a purpose, even if it is pointless, than to try and struggle with the true scope of the free will they now have. This also makes me wonder if the mordrem are struggling with this too given that they all seemed to have more intelligence than the equivalent risen.

My personal theory is that the Shining Blade are somehow linked to Abbadon. Think about how many times they talked about secrets in the mission where you joined them. How familiar Livia seemed with the interior of his reliquary. How they have magic that KILLS YOU FOR NOT KEEPING A SECRET. It seems WAY too coincidental for an episode that had so much more to do with Abbadon than anything since Nightfall has.

Risen confirmed as new playable race~

In abbadons parable I just want to point out the line about the thief and the magic that confused you basically means that a thief won't attempt stealing unless the area is dim lit or dark. it explains that the magic keeps the light to ward them off.

What I liked most about this video is how you read out the Parable pages. It's really inspiring and uplifting to hear someone so genuinely interested in the lore and enjoying the parables at the same time. Indeed these pages were very well written!!! I love tales like this so much - glad I am not the only one :). And thanks for the "guide", now we have something cool to listen to while we are hunting for pages ;)!

Awesome work WP! I think Lyssa's Parable is a beautiful tragedy. I believe she knew right from the start that the soldiers were fated to die (subtly "I am Lyssa, I have come to teach you what is illusion and what is truth"). Due to the soldiers kindness, she literally showed them a "beauty the likes of which they would never see again". And, because of this, the last memory before each of them died was a joyful one, albeit an illusion.

Honestly I think the Risen Research was refering to Balthazar and his mercenaries. His men could've constructed the bridges to get around, and the warmth from beneath could've been the presence of balthazar, he's the god of war and fire after all. (The last one is a big stretch to be fair)

It's so cool that u do these! Let's me keep up with the lore of GW even tho I don't play it anymore

Hi WP I loved this video. After last one I got afraid you would leave the awesome dialogs and sylvari presence almost unmentioned, but here you are with so much amazing stuff that I didn't have the time to collect yet!! Keep this coverage up :) Concerning your last notes on the parable of Abbadon, I was thinking: what if the Gods sealed the area after the exodus and that it just opened up because of Balthazar? Taimi mentions during our visit to his vault that he has probably been there recently,. Maybe he picked up some important artifacts he wants to use in the Crystal Desert? Maybe he even picked many more belonging to the other gods, explaining why we barely encounter their artifacts too.

Regarding the alter of Glaust; at the grenth reliquary you can reclaim the hostile wraiths to become allies by channeling ley line magic while they are (un)alive!

For Lyssa's, she said, "which you'll never see again." So it feels like she clearly knew they'd die, but perhaps for their kindness was giving them peace of mind and hope, so they would not die with heavy hearts, cause before, they had no hope or will at all. It could be more on the sinister side, but that wasn't what came to my mind first xD she seems to repay kindness with kindnessm

about the soldier/Lyssa parable: She states at the beginning she was there to teach them about truth and illusion. In the end each soldier learned that war and death are truth, and dreams are just illusions. A hard lession indeed.

I wouldn't be surprised if the writers forgot about the alter of Glaust. They seem to have forgotten about Evennia's diplomatic mission to Ascalon during the War in Kryta and her subsequent disappearance. That wasn't mentioned at all in the Shining Blade Handbook.

Lys is such an obvious nod to WP. Similar character name to his main, Asuran (Even though the name is unconventional for a male Asura), speculates on obscure lore and comes up with outlandish theories.

THIS WAS SO AWESOME TO HEAR WHILE PLAYING >

I think it's pretty clear that the person who transcribed the Parable of Abaddon and wrote notes in it was the Priest of Abaddon at his reliquary.

It's unfortunate that the mystery of who built the newer wooden bridges and structures in Siren's Landing was never resolved. I pretty much forgot about it and now they will probably never answer it, but it would have been quite interesting.

Would be cool if we found a dead Mordent Crescent squad in the tunnels somewhere with scraps of orders from Joko.

So Hyped!

Thanks for telling us about this hidden lore that I missed :)

Hi WP! I have a tiny request for you. A Guild Wars lore recap video... With the end of LS3 and the expansion annoncement it would be great to get a (maybe two) 30 min video which recaps the most important things of the lore so far in the Guild Wars univers (maybe stuff from Guild Wars 1 is important here?). Or maybe such recap video already exists and i just could not find it? PS. good luck tomorrow looking forward to what ever content you have for us.

i love how my bank just fills up with books over books over books... especially as a priory member :3

I think Lyssa's parable is about promise's and lies, or more aptly illusions. Anybody can fill somebody's head with idea's of what they can be or will get but that's not to say it'll happen or that it's even true, they believed they'd have the lives they dreamed of and thus assumed they'd survive the battle and charged foolishly into the fray.

Awesome video WP. Quick question: With the story heading towards the Crystal Desert and leading into Kralkatorrik themes, what do you think is the possibility we will see the crystallized dragon blood that Caithe was collecting at the end of Edge of Destiny come into play? She had to presumably be collecting if for a reason, perhaps maybe it'll play into Balthazar?

At the point when Orr sank, the structures were still well maintained by those who lived within them, many of these structures survived the sinking, as we can see. However, after a century and a half at the bottom of the ocean corroding in the saline water, the buildings would have been in a far worse state. Raising shipwrecks faces this kind of problem with the state of them after so long. They survived sinking to the bottom fine in many cases, but bringing them up again causes all sorts of parts to fall off if they are not properly handled.

🤔 What if the Parables are actually apocryphal texts kept by followers of Abbadon? They don't exactly paint the other gods in a flattering light, and, as such, might have been cut or deleted from the canon of scriptures accepted by the orthodox priesthood; even if they were based on "true" events? Such secrets would fall into Abbadon's sphere quite naturally, and could be stored in his reliquaries...

What is the undead could be a new playable race? I know that sounds absurd, but the more I think about it, the more I think that it would not only be possible but also badass. Full disclosure, I don't actually think that's going to happen for many reasons, like I think they'd sooner make the Tengu playable (since they were designed to be), and stuff like personal story and starting areas and armor would all be pains to develop. But just think about the potential here. They're similar to the Sylvari by being former dragon minions, and now they have their own free will to think about who they are and what their new role could be. Part of your personal story could be figuring out your past life or something. And I think it would be a very cool option for player creation.

How cool would it be if the risen/unchained become a playable race in Gw3. Like what if the cleansing of orr done through calagbolg, planted a sort of pale tree for the risen which will free their minds. That would be great.

I've never read about this anywhere, but from Rose's story I can make up that every minute we spend in game is like several hours in game story time? Am I right on this one? Because if that's true, this could be a very handy tool for devs considering future development.

Abbadon is my favorite character in this franchise. I always loved the idea that he was a fallen hero. Nice to see the devs reciprocate a little. :)

maybe typing /dance at the last fight in nightfal was a hint at abaddon not being such a bad guy xD

Omg ! I love you !!!!

Possibly the human gods had a hand in Orr being sunk as well.

how do you change your cursor to what you have?

The Lysa story, She said "bealty you will never see again" and they never did.

"omnomnom" - Balthazar. Anyway I don't think any of these main 5 parables paint their god in a very good light (except maybe Grenth) so that's why they were hidden. Also Dwayna doesn't appear in her parable in physical form because she is too aloof for that and never wants to be seen.

I think Lyssa puts them in an illusion to give them courage for the battle. You'll fight better if you have something to fight for. So I think she was trying to help. It has not helped to win the war but they have died with hope and a positive spirit.

What about Menzies? Any definitive answer what happened to him? Sometimes i think its not Balthazar that we are dealing here but his brother in disguise.

Hype train! Hop in! Choo chooooo...!

This has nothing to do with this video, but this question was going through my head the last few days. What do you think happened to the kurzick and luxon factions? And now that zhaitan is dead, do you think we will see any more people from cantha?

it would have been cool if you mentioned to er that the risen spoke to you and she started research on the risen.

Reading the parables makes me think Anet hates farmers almost as much as the Soviet Union did.

The notes in the margin of the Abbadon notes was written in a wierd way. It is not the type of writing that i would assume comes from any of the following races: human, asura, charr, nord or sylvari. Is there some race that writes things in a similar manner? If it is from one of the before-mentioned races, i would at least assume the character is of great importance, at least to the degree where it is necessary to include a way to link the author here and a future character together. Maybe it is from some half mad person... a mad wizard doing research to support his projects? hmmmm... Maybe i escalated my speculations too much.

I'm scared of the new. Will it be evolution or a repeated bungle of last time...the momentum of positive from and since LS3 is enuff to keep me on by a thread and then some..

the undead are just like skritt in their intelligence!^^

I'm still hoping for playable Undead, this patch may have set groundwork for that.

Hey WP, can we expect a video about shattered observatory challenge mode mechanics? You made a video about nightmare fractal. That's why I am asking :)

Sunspears would be the logical scholars on Sirens landing. They have had the closest encounter with abbadon

does this mean undead next playable race :OOOOOOOOOOOOO! would be awesome if so :D

I have a feeling that maybe the modern writings were Livia's orrrrrr Scarlet ???

Press F to honor Rose.. ;3;

You didn't talk about the Blue risen that Pacify other Risen

So many of these stories are dark. I didn't expect the human religion to be this dark!

Less showed them surviving. A beautiful thing in the face of the death they faced.

Oh gob blobers! Blopa drompa!

Risen... Playable race in expansion after Path of Fire, haha.

Maybe it was Evon Gnashblade that wrote those papers. That's why we were going to get the Abaddon fractal if he got elected. He went to Orr (maybe looking for old Charr relics from the battle?) and found this area and began studying the Gods.

I did the collection, the dude still won't let me fight him.

its fine that the other gods.. kinda abandoned mankind and stuff.. but kormir?? i think its really stupid if you think that she was once a human herself....

How on earth did i not know melandru was female until this video 0_0

If only they would have proper quests in the new expansion -that would be a reason alone to buy it. PS Ofc Abaddon was a good guy. In this world magic is similar to technology in ours. Civilizations rise and fall depending on who has it. And who knows what other reasons he might have had.

DADDY DADDY!!! ME ME!!!

What if Palawa Joko is something of a "Pale Tree" for the Undead? Hrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, hrmmmmmmmmmmmm

anet be like "ppl re upset we put many books this season and they take up space? Welp, lets put 5-6 more" xD

As much as I'm enjoying all these lore, I'm not a huge fan of how they are presenting it There has been way too many "Collect journal notes that have bits of text" type of stuff in season 3 Wish they would have a better way to let us actually experience all the info through gameplay rather than just reading texts about what happened

Im sorry, but why all the lore we get in the lw story misssions is so watered down compaired to these collections?

Woah, I beat my notification on this FIRST?!