The White Mantle was
one of the core story elements of Guild Wars 1 Profecies.The player managed to
foil and defeat the White Mantle but not definitely. After their defeat the
White mantle is supposedly scattered across certain parts of Tyria waiting for
their chance to regain power. If you play one of the human storylines you can
come across the White Mantle but it’s not quite an extensive storyline with a
large impact. Maybe GW2 is saving a comeback for the White Mantle for the
future of Living Story? It would definitely be a popular course of action as
far as the community is concerned.
What follows tries to adress all these questions. FULL
CREDITS go to Xenophanes.8360, who’s the author of the article below.
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WE THINK THE WHITE MANTLE ARE COMING BACK.
Summary:
"Due to the events of the Living World and the
geographical direction the story might be headed, it could be within the realm
of possibility that on the way to an apparent greater goal, Mordremoth, we
might have the opportunity to face the White Mantle in Maguuma, augmented by
the vested interest of Delaqua Investigations into strange occurrences within
the Krytan Ministry, which has been alluded to have connections to the White
Mantle."
The Theory
We think that the direction the Living World is going in,
might result in the revisiting of old enemies. Namely, the WHITE MANTLE. Why do
we think that? Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s start by going
through what has happened so far. Here’s our attempt to analyse the Living
Story Season 1.
Destiny’s Edge 2.0
(B-Iconics)
Let us examine the cast of characters that have been in the
spotlight for most of this Living World Season. Popularly dubbed by the
community as Destiny’s Edge 2.0, this diverse group of NPCs have been the ones
participating in the events as the heroes that will be remembered, an analogue
for the players that can never be truly remembered in the history of Tyria.
To make things simple, let’s first follow Rox. Rox is a
Gladium that’s looking for a place to belong, a warband. She has been
undergoing trials in order to join Rytlock Brimstone’s warband. She’s fought
the Molten Alliance, meeting Frostbite her devourer and Braham Eirsson along
the way. Later she’s at the Queen’s Jubilee with Braham. After that Rytlock
tells her to track and kill Tequatl to be part of the warband. She also travels
to the Tower of Nightmares in Kessex Hills and meets Kasmeer and Marjory who
are investigating the tower. All of them participate in the battle against the
Marionette, meeting an Asuran progeny prodigy named Taimi along the way. Most
recently, she’s been told by Rytlock that if she kills Scarlet, she would be
let into the warband.
The most interesting part about this group is that almost
all of them somehow have something to do with the members of Destiny’s Edge.
Rox is becoming an avenue for Rytlock to participate tangentially in the story
once more. Braham has issues regarding his mother Eir that are somehow coming
to light because of the focus on him. It is mentioned that Taimi is Zojja’s
apprentice. Even Logan weirdly takes part by telling Taimi she’s too young to
be on the battlefield. That only leaves Caithe who actually has some history
with Scarlet herself.
Now, with that said, isn’t it interesting that these new
characters are trying to involve the older ones into the story? It’s as if
their relationships have been tailor-made to involve the old cast even just
incidentally. Now that we’re experiencing the story from the point of view of
these characters, it has become apparent that they’ve become a possible avenue
for the members of Destiny’s Edge to become involved once more in the bigger
picture. They have after all been relegated to the side lines. So what if this
is setting up a chance for them to be involved again? Only time will tell.
For now, comes the more interesting question: All the new
characters including Scarlet have had a role in being the avenue to relate to
older characters in order to give them fresh stories. But what about Marjory
and Kasmeer? They don’t have anything to do with Destiny’s Edge. They have no
old characters that relate to them to bring up like the others. From a story
telling perspective, so far Marjory and Kasmeer have functioned as the sort of
detective agency that pushes forward the story based on what they deduce, but
is that all they have to offer?
UPDATE:
FearTheOyster has supplied us with information that connects
Marjory and Kasmeer directly to Logan Thackeray. Much thanks for pointing it
out! Glad to see a more substantial connection between the A-iconics and the
B-iconics. This hopefully makes their supposed function, as an avenue for the
A-iconics, more prevalent.
FearTheOyster.5138:
Marjory was directly hired by Logan Thackeray to investigate
Theo Ashford’s assassination, and Kasmeer her assistant. That is how they get
involved in the storyline, and (for a while, anyways) who they report to in regards
to the storyline. Kasmeer even seems to be familiar with Logan as well,
probably due to him meeting and knowing a lot of nobility.
That said, Logan’s association with Taimi is far more
tenuous at best. If anything, they are just distant acquaintances.
They eventually started delivering their discoveries to
Ellen Kiel when things began to implicate corruption and mayhem in LA politics,
of course.
The White Mantle
Kerfuffle
In order to understand this theory more, one needs to
remember the past. The Guild Wars 1 past to be exact. The White Mantle were a
major faction of humans during the first game and were integral to the story.
In Guild Wars 2, the White Mantle are mentioned every once in a while but are
given no major importance for the main story.
There are lots of resources out there and forum posts that
explain the White Mantle and the Mursaat so let’s just cover the relevant
points briefly.
The White Mantle:
The White Mantle were one of the main antagonists of Guild
Wars 1. They were the human cult that were the tools of the bigger antagonists,
the Mursaat. They ruled over Kryta and fooled the people into being sacrificed
onto the bloodstones for the goals of their masters.
The Mursaat:
One of the old races, also called the Unseen Ones. This race
of invisible floating spellcasters were the big bad in Guild Wars 1. They were
tasked with keeping the Door of Komalie closed and used the White Mantle to
sacrifice those who were destined to wipe them out to power up the soul
batteries that kept the Door closed.
The Shining Blade:
An organization that still holds present day relevance in
Guild Wars 2 as an elite guard to the Throne, the Shining Blade were royalists
that were against the ways of the White Mantle. They sought to restore the
monarchy to Kryta. While taking on this endeavour, they uncover the secrets of
the Mursaat and the unjust sacrifices. They were based in the Maguuma Jungle,
using guerrilla tactics to strike at the White Mantle from a distance.
The White Mantle were eventually defeated along with the
Mursaat. The Shining Blade, during a mission called “The Battle for Lion’s
Arch” (I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR ANET), defeated waves upon waves of White Mantle
and Mursaat.
http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Battle_for_Lion%27s_Arch
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_battle_for_lion%27s_arch
Thus they managed to displace the White Mantle and restore
the monarchy to General Salma of the Shining Blade, who was now Queen. The
White Mantle were now in shambles and the last surviving Mursaat, Lazarus the Dire
also disappeared.
Maguuma: The Next
Frontier
With the events of this current living world story, “The
Battle for Lion’s Arch”, the result of Scarlet Briar’s madness resulted in the
awakening of Mordremoth, the Jungle Dragon. The Breachmaker succeeded in
drilling down to the magical leylines in order to somehow disrupt them.
In the Cinematic, we see the stream of energy lead past the
Thaumanova Reactor, across some barren plains, then into an area of lush
vegetation. Mushrooms and heavy jungle set the stage for what we see next, a
set of teeth that begin to open and feed off the magic. The Teeth of
Mordremoth. (Kudos to those that pointed out the Crucible of Eternity’s Subject
Alpha’s skill called “The Teeth of Mordremoth” way back in the day.)
So it looks like the next area of interest we might possibly
be venturing to would be the Maguuma Jungle. Magus Falls to be specific
according to some sources, which they say would be the probable resting place
of Mordremoth.
How does this relate in any way to the White Mantle?
Wouldn’t the main story be about the Dragon? How would the White Mantle even be
relevant to the story in this day and age? For that we have to look into the
members of interest of “Destiny’s Edge 2.0”, Marjory Delaqua and Kasmeer Meade.
Marjory Delaqua: The
Last Straw
On the main site of Guild Wars 2, they publish official
stories that offer a bit more flavour for the characters of their world. One of
these stories, is about Marjory Delaqua and is entitled “The Last Straw”.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/marjorys-story-the-last-straw-part-1/
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/marjorys-story-the-last-straw-part-2/
Marjory was originally a member of the Ministry Guard but
was slowly becoming fed up with their brand of justice. She left and formed
Delaqua Investigations with
Kasmeer Meade with the help of the mysterious benefactor
“E”.
In the two
part short story, Marjory is at ends with another member of the Ministry guard
about the murder of a boy that she deemed unjust. The boy’s ghost appears
before her and tries to explain witnessing the torture of a woman before being
blasted to the Mists by a man named Kraig the Bleak. It was “E” that offered
the name of the man, and eventually the funding for Delaqua Investigations.
We can glean one interesting point from this story. All is
not right in the human kingdom of Kryta. The story has always mentioned that
the Ministry has been at odds with the Throne. This furthers the point that
there is still conflict and injustice going on in the streets of Divinity’s
Reach.
There is another character that can be seen giving more
hints. The ever lovable Heal-o-Tron.
Heal-o-Tron & the
Seraph
Now, in the “Escape from Lion’s Arch” Heal-o-Tron is shown
to have been taking up medical duties to help relieve the victims. Anyone who
has stuck around the Gendarran Fields Refugee Camp have probably noticed that a
couple of Seraph visit and try to apprehend Heal-o-Tron.
In the exchange, the Seraph attempt to arrest Heal-o-Tron
for allegedly cooperating with Scarlet Briar. Heal-o-tron is adamant in its
refusal to cooperate and mentions that the Seraph only want him for a certain
reason. A reason that is abruptly cut off as Heal-o-Tron is trying to say it.
This brings about more suspicion upon the politics of Kryta.
The Seraph are a separate body from the Ministry Guard. However, it is the
Krytan Ministry that is in charge of the deployment of the Seraph. So we can
still see a connection between them.
Was this little part of the story just added for flavour? Or
is there something bigger brewing hiding under the attempted arrest of a
certain little golem?
Included here is a youtube video of the said conversation:
Politics and Banditry
Now that we have established that in the current story,
there have been hints of unrest within the ruling body of Kryta, specifically
Divinity’s Reach. Let’s go back to the old content, what was in there about
this? How do we even know this is a real thing? Here are a few pieces of key
evidence from official descriptions that point to this being a consistent
problem since the beginning of Guild Wars 2.
Crime and Punishment
When you create a human character, the first chapter of your
personal story is called Crime and Punishment. The story focuses on the shifty
politics surrounding the human capital of Divinity’s Reach. Whether you pick
Commoner, Noble, or Street Rat you would have to deal with the problems of the
city regarding thieves, bandits, and corruption.
This sets up the stage for the very human problem of
politics and organizations fighting for power.
The Ministry
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ministry
The legal body of Krytan Government, usually at odds with
the Queen for several reasons. They make a lot of the decisions when it comes
to Divinity’s Reach, one particular power being the ability to decide where
Seraph are deployed.
When the King died the Ministry ruled over Divinity’s Reach
as Jennah was still too young to rule. When she came into proper power, the
Ministry, having become accustomed to being in power was reluctant in
relinquishing their power. Another act that has them at odds is Jennah’s
support for the Human and Charr Peach Treaty.
Legate Minister
Caudecus Beetlestone the Wise
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Minister_Caudecus
One central figure in this whole kerfuffle is one Caudecus
Beetlestone. It’s described that as Legate Minister, he holds the highest
office in the Krytan Ministry and has great power over the Ministry Guard. He
is basically the head of the Krytan Ministry.
In the dungeon Caudecus Manor, you end up having to deal
with bandits that allegedly have dealings with Caudecus. Logan tries to arrest
Caudecus at the end, but Queen Jennah in an act of shrewd politicking deemed
Caudecus innocent and invited him to stay at the Castle, where his movements
would be more restricted and where they can probably keep a closer eye on him.
Caudecus is visibly reluctant to accept, but does so anyways.
The White Bandits
Now where is the White Mantle in all of this? Whatever
happened to them anyways? In a very specific part of the human personal story,
this becomes apparent.
Family Reunion: Unknown Parents:
In the next chapter of the human personal story, if you had
picked Unknown Parents as one of your defining characteristics. You would get
to experience bandits trying to assassinate you. These bandits are what the
Shining Blade reveal to be the remnants of the White Mantle who are trying to
wrest power in Divinity’s Reach. They try to assassinate you because your
parents were apparently spies for the throne.
We can conclude from this then that the bandits, though
probably with personal motives, are within the same realm as the White Mantle.
Both parties share the same desire to wrest power from the throne. This
establishes a connection between the bandit gangs and the remnants of the White
Mantle. With that said, would it be far off from the truth to say that White
Mantle remnants, working for the same goals as the said bandits, could have
ties with the Ministry? Caudecus being the central figure of suspicion here, it
could be a possibility that the two are connected.
Role Reversal
The Shining Blade is now the Krytan Royalty’s Personal
Guard. They are in power. The White Mantle however, are now striking from the
shadows, taking pot shots at the Kingdom. This is a direct reversal of their
roles from Guild Wars 1.
In Guild Wars 1, the White Mantle were the ruling body and
the Shining Blade could be equated to bandits striking from the shadows,
employing subterfuge to slowly dent the more powerful organization. The Shining
Blade made their camps in the jungle and took pot shots at the White Mantle.
Now where are the White Mantle? When they were defeated,
their remnants fled to the very same jungle where the Shining Blade once hid:
The Maguuma Jungle.
Mordremoth: The
Coincidental Dragon
The explosion in Lion’s Arch and that caused a magical chain
reaction woke it up, and the people took notice. This will probably take the
story in that direction, with the involvement of the characters of our story so
far.
Now the idea that we’ll be taking on another Elder Dragon
very soon is a very attractive one, but would we realistically be getting there
right away?
Quoting Okonomide from the Reddit Discussion:
“…But wait, what about Mordremoth? Doesn’t he seem to be the
more immediate danger? Well, from what we’ve witnessed in the final cinematic,
the disruption of the leylines caused Mordremoth to stir.
Does this mean he’s fully awake? Possibly. Yet there’s an
equal likelihood that he might not fully surface yet. As in the case with
Primordius, it might take a while for this dragon to fully rise into power. Or
he could be like the rest of the dragons, who’ve fully awakened yet are
relegated to the fringes of the continent: distant threats bidding their time,
raising their army.
This part is mostly just my own speculation based on the
behavior of the other dragons when they woke up. But it really feels like there
needs to be more events first before Mordremoth becomes an immediate danger
just like Zhaitan was. Again, I’m just posing this as a possibility."
Now that we know that he’s awake in Maguuma though, we would
have to make our way there, just like how we made our way to Zhaitan.
This brings us to several interesting locations and
possibilities.
The Thaumanova Reactor
The giant beam of light that shines outward from Lion’s Arch
shares the same attributes as the one coming from the exploded Thaumanova
Reactor. This might be an interesting point of interest, as they share bounds
of magical energy.
Ellen Kiel was also very interested in this place, even
funding research into a fractal about it. It even appears deliberately in the
cinematic with the same leylines passing through it on the way to Mordremoth.
Magus Falls
The alleged resting place of Mordremoth. This place also has
several points of interest. Including the much talked about Pale Tree of
Malyck. Could the story take a turn there?
Brisban Wildlands:
Aurora’s Remains
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The most interesting area to us though, is the Brisban
Wildlands. The map holds interesting locations that are present in Guild Wars 1
and a fort that seems to be an entrance into the Maguuma Wastes.
Two very noteworthy locations are The Shattered Henge and
Aurora’s Remains. In Guild Wars 1, these were known as the Henge of Denravi and
The Aurora Glade respectively.
Let’s focus on Aurora’s Remains here. No heart quests or
personal stories would naturally lead you to Aurora’s Remains. For most people,
this is one of the areas that would probably be missing from your Maguuma
Explorer achievement.
If you go there however, what you’ll see is very
interesting. Ghosts of the White Mantle and Shining Blade, still duking it out
after all these years. You can even finish an event chain that helps out Less
Longbow, a Shining Blade member from GW1, to defeat Demagogue, a White Mantle
Champion from GW1. All this also happens during the mission in Aurora Glade
from the first game. Very cool throwback.
What’s interesting about this area though is the foliage.
The foliage bears a striking resemblance to the heavily jungled area we see in
the ending cinematic. Not to say that this is the area, but being in the lower
hand left corner of brisban, it seems to be at least close to the Magus Falls
area.
So if we investigate Mordremoth’s awakening, could it be a
possibility that we would be passing areas like this? Areas with White Mantle
and Shining Blade history? Could more White Mantle remnants be hiding in the
deeper portions of the Jungle? The Wastes?
EDIT: It has been brought to our attention that the
italicized observations allude to a boss and it’s minions that you need to
dispatch in order to gain access to the Aurora Glade mission in GW1. Credit
goes to MaesterTed for pointing it out!
“One very interesting thing that struck us on our expedition
there was very strange and very out of place. In a small area in Aurora’s
Remains, above the fighting of the White Mantle and Shining Blade ghosts. There
is a single monster there that doesn’t seem be seen anywhere else. A Veteran
Root Behemoth. (attached is a picture)
This Veteran Root Behemoth looked exactly like your usual
jungle wurm, but was transparent, spectral in nature you could say. Why does it
have a special name as well? This seems to be the only occurrence of a Jungle
Wurm with this name. Does it have anything to do with Mordremoth perhaps?
Others have insinuated that the Great Jungle Wurm and the Summoned Husks in
Caledon are also Mordremoth’s fault. Could the new Great Jungle Wurm
terrorizing Bloodtide Coast have something to do with Mordremoth as well?"
UPDATE2:
Upon further investigation by SkeletalHorses, all the troops
within the Brisban Wildlands area seem to have been dispatched there by Queen
Jennah with the purpose of uncovering White Mantle rumors surrounding the area.
After completing the Renown Hearts, the NPCs open up to you about their purpose
there.
This is very interesting due to the nature of Belinda
Delaqua’s mission to Brisban regarding black market trade. This could possibly
intersect with the White Mantle interest there. To further tie everything
together, Belinda’s involvement might just be the link we need for Marjory’s
investigations to find their way to Brisban, and hopefully, the White Mantle.
Included are screenshots of various conversations with NPCs
talking about White Mantle.
BloodStones, Druids,
and Mantle, Oh My.
Maguuma is a treasure trove of lore from GW1. Passing by
these areas might trigger a turn for the story to go back to previous enemies
and plot devices.
Maguuma is home to one of the Bloodstones. A key point in
the story between the White Mantle and the Shining Blade. The turning point in
GW1 where you find out the Mantle is not completely innocent actually happens
here.
The Jungles were also home to the Druids, a lost race of
humans that transcended their bodies in favour of being one with nature. It’s
actually said that some of the Druid Spirits remain in Brisban Wildlands.
The Mantle however, are our focus here. All the signs point
to the White Mantle being a possible returning force in Tyria.
Bringing It All
Together, Possibilities and Questions
Now having looked at all of that, the possibility that the
story might touch upon the White Mantle becomes a bit more possible.
With all of the attention forming at Maguuma, the refuge of
the White Mantle remnants, we might just bump into them. With the players
venturing forth there, we would be accompanied by our heroes of the hour
Destiny’s Edge 2.0, or the real Destiny’s Edge, or maybe even both!
The sprinkling of suspicion upon the Krytan Ministry, the
still unknown desire of the Seraph for Heal-o-Tron, and the continuing
investigations of Marjory Delaqua still beg explanations. Could this be the
answer? Could this be the next Living World Season?
Who is E? We still have no idea. All we know is that he
wishes to help Marjory in her investigations. (I know it’s a stretch but the
leader of the Shining Blade in GW1 is named Evennia if that can be anything)
Does it bother any one of you that the name of the murderer
of the boy’s ghost in the story of Marjory, Kraig the Bleak, shares the same
naming convention as Mursaat from Guild Wars 1?
Whatever
happened to Lazarus the Dire, the last surviving Mursaat?
What has the
White Mantle been doing in the Jungle?
Are they still trying to usurp power within Divinity’s
Reach?
Is the title “The Battle for Lion’s Arch” really a throwback
to the old mission where we fight the Mursaat and White Mantle? Is this ANET
subverting the story and using it to bring the White Mantle and Mursaat back to
the big stage? The parallelism is amazing.
UPDATE!
The recent patch “The Battle for Lion’s Arch – Aftermath”
has recently uncovered a connection between the Brisban Wildlands and Marjory
Delaqua.
Marjory’s sister has been dispatched to the Brisban Wildlands
to deal with black market activities that are currently affecting the economy
of Divinity’s Reach.
Could this be a possible plot point that will connect to
Marjory’s unresolved story “The Last Straw”? Could this be possible avenue for
White Mantle banditry to finally see the light of day clearly? Only time will
tell!
Summary:
So as far as theories go, to sum it all up, we might just be
headed to Maguuma to bring the smackdown upon the White Mantle once again by
way of Marjory Delaqua’s continuing investigations regarding the ministry and
the recent allusion to suspicious politics with the Seraph and Krytan Ministry
In Closing
Now I would like to thank ANYONE who actually sat down and
read through this inane rambling. If you guys have anything to contribute to
the discussion, that would be amazing. Share your own theories and play nice!
Speculation is great fun.
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