u/DeadGameWalking

Is Abaddon considered a betrayer because he revealed a way into the Hall of Heroes to those who did not have True Sight?

u/Individual-Barr2011 has asked a question about ascension. What is it all about? Do those who refer to ascension all understand it as the same thing? Why has Vloxx turned to Ancora and an ancient seer ritual to ascend, when Turai Ossa's bid to ascend led him into the desert? And has Vloxx fallen into a trap?

I'm confident that the most important information about ascension is conferred to us in Guild Wars 1. Turai Ossa's pilgrimage into the Crystal Desert implies that, had he succeeded, he would have replaced Abaddon. So there is some kind of relationship between ascension and godhood. This is never explicitly stated, however.

I observe that Turai is never said to have used seer magic - whether artifacts, spells, or both - to help him ascend. Certainly, Isgarren visited Turai in the guise of a djinn and from this encounter one could reasonably conclude that Turai must have relied on something crafted by the seers. Still, Turai's story entered the annals of Elonian legend and his spirit lingered in the desert; neither the legends nor Turai's spirit explicitly directed would-be ascendants to use anything associated with the seers. I guess this means that seer magic isn't essential to ascension.

Turai does pay homage to Glint though. In Turai's mind, even after Isgarren appeared to him in a dream, Glint held more sway than the seer. Glint guarded the way to ascension. Now it's possible that Glint only safeguarded ascension from unworthy humans and paid no regard to the Elder races. The latter, for instance, may have had no need for ascension. A response to this is Ancora: If the Elder races don't need ascension, why does this artifact exist?

Glint suggests that ascension is a process in which many species of spellcaster take an interest - from Elder races, to lesser races; from gods to dragonkind. And it is dragonkind who, I think, hold the key to ascension. To be blunt: True Ascension is not achieved through Ancora, a rebel seer wizard, or gifted by a god - it is imparted by dragonkind.

This is where my understanding of ascension becomes more theoretical. I am convinced that many of the White Mantle's earliest practices - overseen by the mursaat - were related to ascension. The mursaat seer war reminds us that the mursaat had a lot of time to consider the various magics of the seers. Interestingly, if the mursaat were trying to ascend the krytan chosen, they never used Ancora to help them do so. They did use the bloodstone, and that indicates that they put more stock in the bloodstone than a simple staff. In regards to the krytan chosen, I maintain that the mursaat were trying to harness the Gift of True Sight present within the krytan human population.

The theory goes that Saul's discovery of the mursaat showed them that True Sight was present in the human population. They used the Eye of Janthir - a symbol of True Sight - to find sighted humans. This idea holds that ascension has something to do with True Sight.

When we ask what ascension is all about, we're probably actually asking what True Sight is all about. I believe that those with the Gift of True sight can see the Rift, the center of the Mists. If they can see the Rift, it stands to reason that they can get to the Rift. But not everyone has True Sight. The mursaat employment of the Eye of Janthir suggests that they don't have it and, I propose, many humans don't either. The most important idea to emerge out of this, though, is that the seers may not have True Sight either. Unlike the mursaat, who I think lost the gift, I don't feel that the seers have ever had access to it.

Ancora could represent the seers' attempts to awaken True Sight within themselves. Imagine for a moment that you are a Mist walking species capable of withstanding the chaotic affects of void magic; you can navigate almost anywhere...except for the Rift. You have eyes that see many things, but not the Rift. So you use other species to try to help you hone in on its location. Over time, you realize that the Rift is in a part of the Mists that, to your eyes, to your mind, appears to be empty and lifeless. Conjure up the thought that the exuberance of the many mortal species you meet is something that you crave more than anything else and that, through years of careful consideration, you have concluded that your destiny is to share in that exuberance: You are destined to get to the Rift.

The forgotten did not model Tarir after the architecture and form of the seers; they drew inspiration from the mursaat. If dragons are the key to ascension; if True Gods are empowered by dragons, we must ask the question: What are the consequences of Vloxx's use of Ancora? Presumably, the asura have the Gift of True Sight. Wielding Ancora, with True Sight, Vloxx could get to the most important place in the Mists: the Rift and the Hall of Heroes within it. Is this what all of the seers bound to Ancora secretly want? Once they get there, are the seer spirits capable of possessing Vloxx? Is the PC's inability to "ascend" using Ancora actually for their own benefit? A way of avoiding the fate to which Vloxx now goes?

My closing thoughts on ascension. I don't think that the seer ritual is the truest form of ascension. As I have outlined, I believe that True Ascension has something to do with dragonkind and, possibly, those they corrupt. Nor do I think that the seers are the only spellcasters to try to defy the will of dragonkind and create an alternative form of ascension. The Tale of Lord Odran relates what I believe is an attempt to emulate True Ascension. Lord Odran may have been a necromancer. It may be that necromancers lose True Sight over time, which is why we find that a powerful necromancer like Grenth is considered a half-god. Whatever the case, I maintain that to ascend you need to have True Sight and, just as importantly, you need to get to the Hall of Heroes to petition the spirits that dwell within it.

Ancora and the seer ritual aren't the real thing anymore than the mursaat use of the Eye of Janthir and the bloodstone. The real question now becomes: Has Vloxx fallen into a trap?

Here's the theory: Organic memory is faulty. In the Eye of the North manual, we read that many cannot recall their encounters with the krait because they are overcome by fear. I believe that this, emotion, fear, is what prevents mortals, especially terrestrial mortals, from correctly remembering details of the past.

This flaw affects how mortal magicians practice mafic and also how they try to "help" things and "fix" wrongs. Historical wrongs remain fundamentally unchanged because mortals are unable to remember enough to help them ask for forgiveness and in turn, forgive.

Lyssa may tie into this. It is said that she is so powerful that she can make even gods forget the past. Her magic may be affecting the entire world, cloistering aspects of conscious thought and memory that must be restored.

But the key could be Dwayna. I believe that Dwayna is Waiting Sorrow. If she can be brought to the point of confronting the fullness of her past trauma - perhaps stirred to remember - she may be released from bear form and all of Tyria released from the grip of its malaise.