What was Scarlet's deal?

I think I speak for 90% of the community if I say that I’m glad Scarlet died. But the fact she’s dead doesn’t mean her impact on the Living Story is done or that we won’t see her again in some sort of form. Is the origin of Scarlet’s actions really connected with Mordremoth? Was the Elder Dragon the voice in her head? Or was it something else entirely?

What follows tries to adress all these questions. FULL CREDITS go to Konig des todes.2086, who’s the author of the article below.

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At least, I now strongly believe this is the case. And I think her story is not yet finished either. There are a lot of still unanswered questions, and a lot of things continuously stated as fact though… it isn’t. Anyways, I’ll break this down into four topics: The Entity, The Dragon(s) Involvement, Scarlet’s Probes, and Caithe’s Secret. In said order.

The Entity’s Identity is Still Unknown

A lot – almost everyone – have been outright believing that the Entity has been Mordremoth. Or Mordremoth’s champions. People seem hellbent on making the sylvari-Mordremoth connection that they took the waking of Mordremoth to mean that he, or his champion, was what was talking to Scarlet’s mind.

But we have no evidence for this. Yes, Scarlet woke Mordy up, but nothing really indicates that Mordy or its champions was what talked to Scarlet. We know, quite literally, nothing about the entity except that:

-          It first entered Scarlet’s mind when she entered Omadd’s Isolation Module (see: A Study in Scarlet).

-          It only talked to her in her dreams at first, and grew stronger over time (see: Scarlet Briar’s Journal). But overtime talked to her when awake (see: A Study in Scarlet and battle on the Breachmaker).

-          Was continuously warring for Scarlet’s mind (see current Pale Tree dialogue).

-          And finally, it showed her images of death, destruction, and destiny.

None of this points to the sole case of “Elder Dragon” or “dragon champion”. In fact, I would argue that A Study in Scarlet reduces the chances of this. Here’s why:

Scarlet Briar: Ever since I came out of Omadd’s machine, you’ve been taking credit for my ideas. They are mine! Not yours.

Right, so, what are “her ideas” that the entity was taking credit for? Every single thing Scarlet did required modern technology. How could something that is still sleeping and has been sleeping for 10,000 years know about modern things? It would be like someone who’s been in a coma since 1980 knowing how to work a smartphone and knowing about 911 upon waking. It just doesn’t happen.

On the flip side, they really are her ideas and the entity is actually trying to take credit for it – as a mind game. But that doesn’t fit Elder Dragon corruption effects of any other Elder Dragon. And while each dragon may corrupt differently, it doesn’t match the shared persona of taking things and destroying what cannot be taken (as opposed to taking credit for things not theirs). The Elder Dragons are too large, too high above the wee little ants called “Tyrians” to bother taking credit for their “ideas”.

So either the entity is an individual who was awake to know modern events – such as dredge sonic technology, or the inquest which known to be fairly modern (within 200 years), and other such things. Or we got the first Elder Dragon who apparently breaks the mold of all other Elder Dragons.

Mordremoth was not the only Elder Dragon Scarlet intended to alter

This point comes solely from the Aftermath instance, you can find all dialogue here.

Main parts are:

Kasmeer: Is that what you think it was? A dragon? Oh, it would make so much sense to think that Scarlet was messing with the dragons.

Player: I believe that was her plan all along. Her drill caused one of them to stir.

Kasmeer: Yes, we heard it too. Which one do you think it was? Primordus? Kralkatorrik? Jormag? Do you think one is sleeping beneath Lion’s Arch?

Player: No. I think Scarlet disturbed the ley lines, knowing they feed the dragons.

Kasmeer: I don’t understand.

Player: The dragons consume magic. The ley lines are currents in an ocean of magic.

Kasmeer: And Scarlet threw a giant rock in that pool, sending ripples out to the dragon. It makes sense. You’re brilliant.

Taimi: I told you so. I told you all. I knew Scarlet had grand plans, but did you listen? No. And now, there’s at least one dragon, maybe more, who want to destroy all of Tyria.

Taimi: Well, you’ve got it right. Scarlet wanted to touch the dragons, and she succeeded. Quite impressive when you think about it.

In the instance, Taimi and the PC are the only ones who know what Scarlet’s actions did. The rest were clueless until they were informed. And both Taimi and the PC mention dragon*s* – plural.

Taking this in mind, take a step back to Battle for Lion’s Arch – the Scarlet’s End instance. If you go to the control panels instead of leaving, you can find 2 maps, one of which is over the Energy Probe Map which states said maps are for Scarlet’s Energy Probes – the ones looking for ley lines. The maps, seen here and here, have three interesting factors to them:

They’re very transparent. Hard to make out. Vastly different than the older one in Scarlet’s Lair.

They’re new. ArenaNet wouldn’t make new stuff without purpose – even if the purpose was a red herring.

Lastly, while one focuses with Lion’s Arch in the center, the other focuses on the Far Shiverpeaks in the center – in unexplorable areas, and indicate new probes. Interestingly, in roughly the same central location as LA… is the Eye of the North.

And Jormag’s in the north… and there’s ley line probes in the north. And ley lines are believed by the PC based on recent findings and original Personal Story findings to feed dragons… Which brings us to topic three:

Scarlet’s Ultimate Goal Wasn’t Lion’s Arch

Rather, I think Scarlet was intending to repeat her action of disrupting the ley lines again later, but she was prepared for the possibility that the greatest city of Tyria would be capable of stopping her. After all, the heroes of Tyria have managed to foil her armies individually as well as her Marionette which seems to have been – according to Rox’s observations – intended to cull the herd of would-be heroes.

Taking a step back and adding to the above: In her lair, we also see this map which marks the three Orders. But we never see anything done to the Orders HQs. Why? Did she change her mind? Were the X’s just marking her guesses to where the ley line intersection would be? Or perhaps they were her next target. Or maybe a case of “biggest threats.”

We never found out Scarlet’s fascination with Caithe

Not just the secret, but the Spinal Blades blueprint had a quote from Scarlet to Caithe:

The line is: “Caithe, someday you’ll see, Tyria needs me. -Scarlet”

Why add this? If they were going to drop Scarlet’s story, then there’d be no need to further the mystery and this is all it does. There are enough plotholes and loose ends to keep people wondering, so it’s not ArenaNet’s love of seeing fans speculate alone that this is added as.

My personal theory on this unanswered question

I think Scarlet was strengthening the Elder Dragons for unknown reasons and began with Mordremoth because it was asleep still. And she would have the answer to solve the crises she made, thus Tyria will “need” her. And to be clear – I don’t think Scarlet’s trying to be a good guy here, but trying to force the world to accept her as being as great as she thinks she is. This is hinted to by Canach’s dialogue – in Edge of the Mists he says:

Canach: Yes, Scarlet and I share a certain…fixation on self-determination, but we are not natural allies.

Canach: I seek to define my role in this world. She seeks to tear this world down and use the rubble as her throne.

Furthermore, in Aftermath he now says:

Canach: Speaking from experience, no one goes to these lengths without thinking they are doing some good. It raises a troubling question.

Player: Which is?

Canach: What good did she think she was doing?

By allowing the Elder Dragons to run rampant, the world would be greatly damaged. From there, she can “ride in to save the day” and then rebuild the world to her liking – “improving it” as she would see it. This is what I think her ultimate goal was when putting all the pieces together rather than just the obvious ones. But there’s more:

I think the entity put her up to strengthening the Elder Dragons, but is not of the Elder Dragons or their champions itself, but instead intend to use the Elder Dragons for their own purpose.

Another piece of evidence for this comes from the Flame and Frost epilogue:

Veteran Flame Legion Prisoner: “You could never understand because you and your people are destined to die in our fires. Your time is coming. You should prepare yourselves.”

Player: What are you talking about?

Veteran Flame Legion Prisoner: “Nothing. Nevermind. Go fight your dragons. If you don’t, they’ll annihilate you.”

Player: They’ll annihilate you too.

Veteran Flame Legion Prisoner: “I doubt it. We’ll be here long after the dragons have swallowed you and yours.”

This is left unanswered. Why would the Flame Legion who’s allied with Scarlet think that they’d be saved from the Elder Dragons unless Scarlet had some means of convincing them that she could protect them from the Dragons?

Scarlet would likely have gained this from the “entity”. So, who would the entity be that it would know how to escape the Elder Dragons’ wrath?

I think it’s one of two possibilities. First possibility is Lazarus, the second is the Inquest.

Lazarus for two reasons:

 1) The mursaat had fled the world to let the Elder Dragons ravage it before, wiping out an entire race (almost) as they did so (the Seers), and when they returned they returned portraying themselves as the Unseen Ones – as gods. They returned intending to rule, it seems. It would not be unlikely for this to happen again.

2) The Aftermath instance in The Dead End formally introduces Belinda Delaqua, whom hints at the Season 2’s direction (IMO): west, dealing with black market dealers who base themselves in Brisban Wildlands. Sounds familiar? Fort Vandal is run by bandits, and bandits are run by the White Mantle. And who runs the White Mantle? Mursaat. Thus I suspect Season 2 will be returning to GW1 lore in the form of Lazarus, and may be tied into Season 1 via being the entity.

The alternative, the Inquest, has a bit more reasoning to it.

Firstly, Omadd got Scarlet (aka Ceara) into the colleges for the asura to study her, and even kept working with her after she was a member of the Inquest and a known criminal of Rata Sum (breaking into the archives and being exiled from Rata Sum and all that jazz). It may be possible that he was Inquest and that he lied about the purpose of the machine.

More strongly though, the Inquest have stated to intend to follow the mursaat’s old footsteps in the Arah explorable mursaat path:

Operative Brie: We’ve only just begun. With this knowledge, we can become like the mursaat themselves!

Operative Brie: We will leave this world to the Dragons, and then return and rule once they sleep again.

They were foiled then, but perhaps not fully? Furthermore, they’re known to be studying the Elder Dragons (Infinite Coil Reactor and Crucible of Eternity), and are known to have let the kitten hit the fan just to study the effects (Thaumanova Reactor – as explained in A Study in Scarlet instance). Directing a bunch of magic to the Elder Dragons just to learn what happens when such occurs would not be beyond the scope of their antics. And it would explain why they continued to assist Scarlet after they tossed her out.