4 Years Later, and it's done
Oh this one finally got me.
I honestly thought this was unbreakable. No matter what I did I hit walls, blank ends, useless corners...
Right up until yesterday when I found my hole.
And even then, even after sweet victory was within reach I kept hitting invisible walls and death fields.
I died over
and over
and over.
I honestly thought this was unbreakable. No matter what I did I hit walls, blank ends, useless corners...
Right up until yesterday when I found my hole.
And even then, even after sweet victory was within reach I kept hitting invisible walls and death fields.
I died over
and over
and over.
But then I had the help of two incredible guildies who proved a theory for me, and finally this map was broken and the way was open for exploration.
Even if there wasn't a ton of things to see, there is some interesting buildings hidden away, and we can even get a close up of the Jacaranda!
Unfortunately with the differences between the maps in Guildwars and Guildwars 2, it's quite difficult to pinpoint exactly where this map would have featured, although I did try to explain this in the segment below.
What we do know however is that the Elon Riverlands was once a Desert area, consisting of Dunes of Despair, Thirsty River, Augury Rock and Elona Reach. Now though of course, it is a mix of desert and green wetlands thanks to Joko's diversion of the River Elon during his invasion.
It was once the site of a pilgrimage for humans seeking Ascension although the first was believed to have been undertaken by the Margonites many years before.
The first documented pilgrimage for Ascension was in 868AE by Warmarshal Turai Ossa. Six years after he defeated Palawa Joko during the Battle of Jahai, he abdicated and led a pilgrimage into the Desolation - believing himself to be the chosen one spoken of in the Flameseeker Prophecies by Glint.
They established a colony and outposts throughout the desert, and eventually built the Throne of Pellentia - hoping the Gods would notice such a vain display of authority and speak to them. They then set about attempting to assemble the Vision Crystal, which was necessary to catch the attention of the deities.
Unfortunately, as we know from the three ghosts scattered in the area, a mere glimpse was enough to split their pilgrimage into three groups - each holding a part of the shattered crystal.
Due to their own bickering and the relentless Forgotten attacks due to the Humans mistaking them for beasts and slaying them, the colony fell apart, as did Turai Ossas dream of Ascension.
Other than this group, only a group called the Seekers and a scattering of Ascalonians are known to have made the trip across the desert. It is unknown if anyone has actually managed Ascension.
What we do know however is that the Elon Riverlands was once a Desert area, consisting of Dunes of Despair, Thirsty River, Augury Rock and Elona Reach. Now though of course, it is a mix of desert and green wetlands thanks to Joko's diversion of the River Elon during his invasion.
It was once the site of a pilgrimage for humans seeking Ascension although the first was believed to have been undertaken by the Margonites many years before.
The first documented pilgrimage for Ascension was in 868AE by Warmarshal Turai Ossa. Six years after he defeated Palawa Joko during the Battle of Jahai, he abdicated and led a pilgrimage into the Desolation - believing himself to be the chosen one spoken of in the Flameseeker Prophecies by Glint.
They established a colony and outposts throughout the desert, and eventually built the Throne of Pellentia - hoping the Gods would notice such a vain display of authority and speak to them. They then set about attempting to assemble the Vision Crystal, which was necessary to catch the attention of the deities.
Unfortunately, as we know from the three ghosts scattered in the area, a mere glimpse was enough to split their pilgrimage into three groups - each holding a part of the shattered crystal.
Due to their own bickering and the relentless Forgotten attacks due to the Humans mistaking them for beasts and slaying them, the colony fell apart, as did Turai Ossas dream of Ascension.
Other than this group, only a group called the Seekers and a scattering of Ascalonians are known to have made the trip across the desert. It is unknown if anyone has actually managed Ascension.
Map alterations through the Generation[s]
This bits going to take some explaining - which isn't something I'm good at, so bear with me.
On the left is a comparison of the GW1 and GW2 maps. As you can see, Augury rock appears to have had 2 different entrances as opposed to the one we know about, but that's the smallest of changes. Skyward Reach is shown to the right in the original Guildwars, with the scar further to the east of that - however the Skyward reach we know is actually to the south of Augury Rock. The Scar is still to the east, but this actually means that somewhere along the line - something moved. On both maps I've tracked the path along the Thirsty River - a location from the original Guildwars that seems to be missing in Guildwars 2. The first leaves from the top as shown in the original, and ends up somewhere along Kralkatorriks Scar, but the second, which acts as if the entrance to Augury used at the time was the one we use today, goes north to the Desert Highlands, although it still ends in the Scar. I can't find any reason why they moved the location of the Skyward Reach, but should we eventually get the map to the East of Elon it would be interesting to see what they have done to the Thirsty River. |