#omadd's machine

[sylvaridreams]

biblically accurate laplace's angel

#alba #gw2 #THERE IS SOMETHING I COULD SAY ABOUT ALBA AND NEMEOS AND OMADD'S MACHINE!!!! shuts up and rolls over #my screens

[i-mybrunettelady]

I was today years old when I realised this nerolore + gamelore logical conclusion. See, she’s a full Dragon champion, just not Aurene-branded, which means her essence is partially Aurene’s, hence the full and partial champion forms she has. So that means she’s either gonna have a harder time getting branded, for example, or she can’t get full on branded at all?

Now I’m just imagining her pulling a brand crystal out of her leg or something, people being scared she’s gonna get branded and her just going, “i’m dragon-corrupted enough, kralkatorrik doesn’t like playing with used goods” with an rbf and a joking tone.

No wonder people think she’s something else ngl

#gw2 #nero's random thoughts #alysannyra #nyra's like. next level blorbo #people think she's out of her mind #she probably is sometimes #i mean she did go through omadd's machine and saw the fabric of the universe #and only rational way she can explain it to people who haven't had their mind expanded like this (for lack of a better word) #is through religion #so nyra's religious lmao #i love nyra's feral vibes so much it's surreal

[where-is-caithe]

thinking about Rhowan collecting all of Scarlet's recordings and holding onto them and listening to them over and over.

#rhowan #the bottle of whiskey she opened at the beginning of the night def empty by the next morning #rhowan just thinking about the tragedy of scarlet. the horrors she went through. until her death. #i think it would hit her hard. #and then finding out so much more about her in the beginning of s2 when you find her hideout in dry top #god. #rhowans not having a good time rn #the way shed have to hold herself back every time she spoke to vorpp #the way shed have to hold herself back from tearing omadds machine apart in s2 #immediately getting subjected to the same thing scarlet went through and feeling terrified that shed end up the same way #idk. theres a lot to unpack here

[purplehaired-revenant]

If you read A Taste of Magic, you’ll find references to Kristi getting a tattoo while she was studying in the Raven Lodge.  This is the tattoo.

#gw2 #Kristi McCullough #A Taste of Magic #Kristi's tattoo #a least this is what #it used to look like #before the incident with Omadd's machine

[inkske]

Watched Dolmen's player run through LW2, and liked the look of him in the vision from Omadd's Machine

#guild wars 2 #charr

[system-architect]

for the ask game, for Gunner; 3, 6, 9, 11?

putting under a cut since this one is long!

How and why did they join in the first place?

gunner is originally a rata novan who experienced a Massive Ordeal when he got flung into the mists via a damaged portal, and then lost his father in the mists in the process, and all of his research is sort of underpinned by the need to 1. make sense of it 2. find his dad. the inquest is the only force that really lets him get his hands on the tools to perform radical mists related experiments and then allow them to do it, so into the inquest he went

What would they be doing if they had never joined?

similar to plex, it's hard to imagine this character lacking the desperate motive & drive that spurred him on to join the inquest in the first place. i think he would've attempted to go at things from a purely synergetics angle potentially with a krewe of his own for a long while, but even then eventually become frustrated and potentially join the consortium. which isn't better tbh. in an AU where he's an absolute goodboy he might end up enlisting in the priory.

Former agents: Parts they miss.

📣 HE WANTS HIS EQUIPMENT BACK

What are/were their long-term goals in regards to being a part of the Inquest? Becoming an Overseer? Performing an otherwise banned experiment? Or just surviving?

the interior of the mists was the most incredible and horrifying thing he ever has and ever will witness, like being strapped into omadd's machine for 130 years and physically getting lost in the sort of eldritch chaos magic maze in there, and it spat him out as what i can only describe as a Mad Physicist.

he wants not just to Study the mists but to actively rip it apart, name, describe, measure, and quantify all of its' entrails. it drives him bonkers. he joined the inquest because churning through theory debates with other synergetics majors wasn't enough. he had to build that big super-collider they've got in spiderverse.

#my stuff #gunner #ty!!!

[smokinsid]

Meet Gravewatcher Siobhan. Shiv, to her friends.

Shiv is a paranormal investigator and archaeologist, fascinated with the ancient origins of life on Tyria and the intricacies and interplay of the material world and the Mists. A fast friend to the Deldrimor and a committed Priory scholar, she got her "Dark Souls"-esque name from her habits- rather literally, she watches graves.

During the Risen incursions following Zhaitan's rise to power, she served the Pact in her own grim but highly necessary way- walking between fresh graves with lamp and censer, driving off corruption in the soil, diverting Zhaitan's influence away from fallen soldiers in times where the magic was too rampant to purify.

She remained with the Pact for some time following the showdown in Orr- when news of Zhaitan's fall reached Fort Trinity, she was already on a ship heading toward Siren's Landing for continued investigations.

It wasn't until long after the events that shook Maguuma- she thought it best to sit Mordremoth out, given her already-malleable state of mind- that she left her little patch of Orr to serve the world's best interests again.

The Thunderhead Peaks were calling.

Between Ogden Stonehealer's observations recorded at the Priory, the various ruins she'd explored, and the numerous conspiracy theories she'd entertained herself with while digging up Orr's beaches, she was ready to involve herself in history and get some answers.

Some distinguish themselves with acts of great valor or daring. Shiv rose through the ranks as if steadily walking, one at a time, at a pace she set- an explorer until it served better to be a magister, a magister until her studies called for the access afforded to Priory archons.

It was from this position of magical affluence that she investigated the Great Dwarf- and began to seek linkages between the Eternal Alchemy and rituals of collective consciousness. Her theory held that all things were conscious- and that by mapping that consciousness with techniques similar to those used by Omadd's machine, an individual could- in essence- get a message out to all creation.

More practical means won out- before long the soldiers were beating Kralkatorrik's crystallized blood into spears and swords, and that was a good deal more straightforward than trying to map his brain and then solve it like a Rubik's cube.

But somehow she knew she wasn't done playing with the Eternal Alchemy. Some might've taken Scarlet Briar's dangerous foibles as an object lesson in not playing with cosmology, but when Cantha opened up to the world, she was quick to hop a ship and race to Echovald Forest.

She had heard a thing or two about Wardens, and needed very much to prove a point.

Their unity with Urgoz was a little too similar to the Rite of the Great Dwarf. Were they another inroad to map the way minds could connect?

If there was any hope of finding out, it was swallowed by the crisis in the Jade Sea. She, like everyone else, had to rush east and put her magic to good use to keep the continent- and so much beyond it- from being consumed by dragonvoid.

But now?

Now there's wizards. Wizards explicitly keeping secrets in their flying castle high above Tyria, watching the world churn below.

Shiv wants in. It's time to connect all the red twine on her corkboard and crack the case on whether consciousness in Tyria is all linked, and whether the will of one is the same as the will of the world.

If she can prove this, it has the potential to change everything. Change how Tyrians at large understand each other.

If it takes looking a little crazy to get to that point, she can live with that!

#sylvari #gw2 #guild wars 2 #took a longer post than i thought to cover the whole span of her career from zhaitan to now #but it was fun to write and i hope yall like her! #cause i do

[ratasum]

About the scarring in the shape of the eternal alchemy on Rhenn's back, did anything interesting happen when he was exposed to the all in Omadd's machine?

It screwed with his ability to interface with arcane power crystal tech for a while, and he had a LOT of trouble pulling himself out of it. Like, actively felt like he couldn't drag his mind back. It took Iuno and Kippa actively dragging him out to get him back to himself, and even then he had a wicked migraine for the rest of the day and they had to stop and rest so he could recover.

For the next several days, he tended to unintentionally overclock any machinery he touched, and it was starting to get a little distressing. The effect faded over time, but it likely is the reason he was able to later overload Scruffy to get Taimi out before diving back under the bubble with Braham.

It's still a little touchy compared to how he used to use his abilities, and he has recurring dreams about what he saw inside the machine. They've also faded over time, but he still gets them every now and then.

#oc asks #technomancer rhenn

[1ore]

not related to anything, but i just got to the part in GW2 season 2, where yuri gets dunked into omadd's machine and sees the eternal alchemy etc. and personally i think he and i were just too dense to understand what All That was, and that's why his mind didn't break or whatever

#yuris will be like. (gazes uncomprehending at the horrors and blinks slowly) #yuri six-cants tag #guild wars 2 tag

[meeeeeeese]

So has anyone ever stopped to think about how insanely terrifying high technology is in the Guild Wars universe?

To start with an obvious example, Taimi/Omadd's machine. It was kind of glossed over but THAT WAS A MACHINE CAPABLE OF DELETING TYRIA. Like if Taimi hadn't had the foresight to put a tracker on her work, Tyria would have been swallowed by the void. Now it's stated that this was only possible because of the once-a-millenia genius of Omadd and was explicitly stated to be non-replicable with Tyria's current knowledge... But it's not inconceivable that someone's gonna figure out the same things Omadd did and build an equivalent device eventually. Who needs nukes when you can just reach out and fuck with the metaphysical underpinnings of reality?

And moving on to more accessible technologies, Ankka's extractor is both powerful enough to take down an elder dragon (you know, one of the beings holding up the world) and replicable enough that Joon and Xunlai Jade could bang out 6 of the things from just studying its core. Like if anyone gets bitter towards Aurene they could just take some of these devices, point them at her and, oh dear the void's a problem again.

The point I'm making is that The All seems rediculously fragile and, any civilisation with the requisite knowledge and technology could obliterate their world in a second through devices like the ones shown before.

The fermi paradox is real in GW2 and it comes in the form of world destroying superweapons, because these devices are essentially nukes on steroids. Its probably a good thing that the elder dragons reset civilisation every 10,000 years actually because once a civilisation gets advanced enough the destruction of their world seems inevitable.

Of course this is making the assumption that a sufficiently advanced civilisation can't develop defences to protect the magical underpinnings of their world, but I haven't seen any evidence of that yet so I'll believe it when I see it. And besides, in my opinion it's kind of more interesting if realities are fragile and its hard to stop technologically advanced civilisations with superweapons from tearing the universe apart every time they have a disagreement or war.

#gw2 #guild wars 2 #I dunno I think it'd be a fun thing to explore in the future now that the dragons are done #Imagine an alien invasion from a civilisation that destroyed their own world and are looking for a new home #humanity's arrival all over again basically #moose lore posting

[hawkepockets]

27, 40 and G for Prem AND Peppa:3

for prem:

27.  What causes them to feel dread?

prem doesn't experience dread a whole lot. but definitely when he heard that the zephyr fleet had crashed in dry top, not knowing if his mothers or their family airship were in the wreck and having no way to contact them, even if he was ready to face them and apologize for the way they left each other, which he wasn't.

when kas was talking to kormir in path of fire and said "you already know this, don't you?" and they both felt the dawning certainty that the gods were about to disappoint them totally.

and in gyala delve. bc. well.

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

he used to not be self-aware at all, but since having all of his memories restored and put into context in the domain of the lost, much more so. it's been a long, slow process of finding and loosening the roots of his problems instead of just being like "i used to be a piece of shit," though.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

it might sound silly & conceited, but the fact that i know he'd be a fan favorite if he appeared in an original work and would get mischaracterized and privileged over women in the same story... like sorry but i can see it.

for pepa:

27. What causes them to feel dread?

by contrast, pepa is often FULL of dread. her enemies tend to be forces of nature, and she feels absolutely certain that tyria will crumble apart if she loosens her clawed grip on it for a second or allows anyone, friends included, to deviate too much from her plans for them.

highlights: realizing she'd fired on pact troops in "shell shock" and would have to explain it to trahearne. watching the All destabilize in omadd's machine. the pact fleet crash. aurene's death. the first appearance of void in arborstone. fighting ankka.

40. how sensitive are they to their own flaws?

not very. pepa doesn't think of himself as a control freak, and prefers to project a more laidback, funny, paternal image of the commander. if anything, he thinks he should let less slip through the cracks.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

before the maguuma campaign, pepa used to be VERY patronizing to sylvari, thanks to the guilt about malomedies she inherited from her father. she didn't trust sylvari allies to make their own risk assessments, and would oscillate between hyper-apologetic and over-protective, and shying away from interacting with sylvari at all for fear of offending, exploiting, or endangering them by accident. pepa's asura guilt complex is an important element of her early character, but the secondhand embarrassment... 🫢

#oc: prem #oc: pepa #gw2 #ty nero !!

[thepinkywarband]

1, 6, 9, 13 and 15 for the ask meme!

My first login date was December 13, 2012! Living story was just around the corner, but I was still leveling up while everyone else was busy pummeling Zhaitan.

6. My irl friend @elismistscorner got me into the game, and it's definitely one of the foundations of our friendship. The GW2 instagram community ended my drawing dry spell which I'd been struggling against on and off since about 2014. I met CoffeeKitten and Tim who I still talk to regularly, and have been mega supportive of my art career, along with a slew of other artsy and friendly folk. I'm also hoping to meet @myknaki at the GW2 10 year celebration in two weeks!

9. When you get pulled into the vision in Omadd's machine, I had my first sense of "oh, this story is going to be BIG". GW2 is my only mmo so I'd been impressed by the scale of coordination during the Fight for Lion's Arch, but that and the revelation of Glint's egg are really what got me invested.

13. Hand in hand with the above, 'Entanglement'! LS2 is definitely my most-replayed part of the story. It's very nostalgic and I really love seeing the building blocks of the story getting put on the board. The Cavern of Shining Lights is hands-down my favorite spot in the game.

15. Joko has been the most fleshed [heh] out antagonist we've had. I'm a sucker for baddies that hold a mirror up to the hero, and his monologue had me riveted. Also shout out to Bangar for literally being a charrified version of my favorite Disney character and plunging my commander into a family drama soap opera, and Jormag for giving us a different twist on rargh angery dragon

#sj art #sayna says #ask meme #gw2 anniversary questions #wilderwuff

[commander-gloryforge]

Astrid just got put into Omadds machine! I’m sure she came out normal and this will never have any consequences for her and her brain in any way.

#dios wisdom

[i-mybrunettelady]

4, 17, 41? For whoever you’d like :3

@commanderfloppy

Nyra hours Nyra hours + an old screenshot of her <333

4. Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know?

Many things, actually! Perks of being Commander and all that. Omadd's machine, Maguuma, talking to the gods, killing Balthazar... Most of these things with witnesses. These things have each had a profound effect on her, in a myriad of ways. But usually only her closest friends know/have seen them (aka Dragon's Watch.) Dying's the only one she did absolutely solo.

17. What was your character’s favorite toy as a child?

One of her mother's hairpins, actually. Ascalonians usually wear their hair long, so her mother had a lot of these pretty hairpins that Nyra borrowed and played with, and one stuck out the most, which was why the sharp tip was covered. It's this little spinning butterfly at the top that was most fun to her.

41. Does your character feel that they deserve to have what they want, whether it be material or abstract, or do they feel they must earn it first?

A bit of both. Growing up as a noblewoman, she's used to being deferred to with some respect by default and she's never really wanted for anything so she intrinsically knew she deserved some things. But, she's always felt she had to earn them somehow, by being her best self, by being great, by not being cruel, etc. That was one of the tactics she used against herself when she was at her lowest, after Maguuma. She already has impossibly high standards for herself, she can't possibly reach 100% of them on a good day (because she's a person) let alone when she's near suicidal and deep in self loathing. She's getting better, but these days, she doesn't take things for granted anymore and feels like she needs to work for them. (And has! She genuinely likes being Commander and likes the attention and the position of power because she feels like she earned it, for example. That's why she's so protective of it.)

#gw2 #ask meme #nero's artsy corner #alysannyra #haven't been able to channel nyra lately #as in writing/brainrot #bc that's cass. he's the brainrot now #but i miss nyra so <33

[dasozelotvonnebenan]

2, 6, 9, 12 for Valoop!

2. What class would your character just absolutely blow at?

My first instinct was to say that she wouldn't be good with any magic, since she isn't the most creative mind and has no great aptitude to make up for that, but I think she has seen so much of the world and memorised so many stories that the volume and breadth of experience would help her out enough with that. So instead it is Thief. Valoop is the opposite of sneaky. She would never want to be sneaky. I think a quaggan could sneak if they tried, but Valoop could not. It is simply antithetical to her. Valoop screams at you and then bites your face of.

6. They're now a heart NPC/part of a string of quests. What does that involve?

"Help Commander Valoop to rebuild Moshpoipoi"

Light Lanterns, repair damaged houses, deliver rations and exterminate any remaining icebrood.

9. What's an au for them you think could be fun to explore?

Okay, I could say "what if Forgal and Trahearne don't die and she doesn't end up permanently sad and angry", but that would unfortunately be boring to explore. Valoop needs to have something wrong with her. The obvious opposite direction is Icebrood Valoop, which is honestly terrifying and I feel sorry for every tyrian in that timeline, though I guess it depends when she gets corrupted. Early on she would just end up being one more icebrood quaggan. It would need to be after she is already commander, so Crack in the Ice at the earliest, or obviously Icebrood Saga Era, which honestly I could see happen. "Canon" Valoop is too angry at dragons to let Jormag take advantage of her sadness, but it could easily happen otherwise.

The secret third thing is Valoop goes rogue after HoT and goes down the balthasar route of taking out the dragons herself. Beats up the Inquest into building her another Omadd's machine. Walks into the desert to retrieve the dragonblood spear. Hell maybe she cracks the bloodstone. Now there's some potential!

12. Have they "completed" the map? What does that look like in your canon?

Well, Valoop has been represented by characters in tonics which have 100%. The character named Commander Valoop has completed Wanderer Foothills, Metrica Province and the entire Tyriapride route :D

As for canon, well she is the commander, she has been everywhere her story branch takes her (so vigil lvl 40 story onwards, with the respective branches in later chapters). She doesn't travel much on her own outside of that, except for the one time she travelled on foot from Claw island to Hoelbrak on her Forgal commemoration trip. Then there's the diplomatic/representative stuff that is alluded in the game but shown. So to sum up, she has seen a lot of Tyria, but little of the countryside that is neither a) a warzone or b) on a road between the big cities.

#Oh no #Au question got me thinking #Valoop #Commander Valoop

[girlbob-boypants]

I still don’t like the way the party treats the commander after the Omadd’s Machine, but the way the commander talks about it makes some weaver lines feel a little more unhinged

#girlbob.txt #gw2 #lws2 #i don't like that they just. instantly go into jokes #i think it's supposed to be like 'well now that you're okay we need to lighten the mood for your and taimi's sakes' #but i don't think anyone would be okay that fast after seeing that #anyway now when i hit primordial stance and here 'i see the pattern revealed' i can think about #how the commander basically had their mind wrenched open to see the world on the scale of an elder dragon for a moment