Macha

Stupid bookah, obviously the asura will be dominant in the end. We are superior in every respect.

We control the safest and fastest transportation network in Tyria. It not only gives us an edge against any military threath, but it's also economically beneficial. The currency income gained from waypoint fees alone would melt your brain. Believe me, it has even happened to our calculation golems. That bring me to my next point: superior technology. Need I say more?

However, even if none of that existed we would still triumph. None of the advantages listed above existed just a couple of hundred years ago. It is because our superior intellect that we've risen and it's because of our superior intellect that we will keep doing so. No other race can rival even our lesser geniuses, not to mention me.

But fear not, join my army today and get an experimental cookie for free! The radiation is perfectly harmless and once you've eaten it  you'll even get to join my undea- I mean, undefeatable hor- err.. special forces!

So while completing the wiki's article on the Orrian History Scrolls, something struck me interestingly when I re-read them in detail, particularly about Abaddon (and less so, the other gods too). The specific dialogue I am going to refer to is here. Please read through it before reading my post, so that you may develop your own idea on it.

A short recap on the story of Abaddon:
Abaddon was the God of Secrets and Water, his most devout followers being the Margonites. In 1 BE, he tampered the original bloodstone and gave magic in large quantities to the races of Tyria which was subsequently taken away from them when the other five gods, after being pleaded by King Doric, divided the bloodstone into five parts and dumped it into the largest volcano on the RIng of FIre (aptly named Abaddon's Mouth). Abaddon hated this and fought against the other five gods on the southern edge of the Crystal Sea, having sent the Horde of Darkness - an elite group of demonic Margonites - to attack the Gate of Heaven (whatever this may be). He was defeated, of course - his defeat raising the sea and turning its coastline into the Desolation, the sea itself becoming the Crystal Desert (which may or may not have existed prior to as well). Abaddon was then sealed into the Realm of Torment along with his fanatic followers. What follows after that, irrelevant to this discussion.


Now, it was never explained why Abaddon gave magic to the world or why Abaddon disagreed with limiting it. This has been left up in the air for who knows how long. I believe I might have found a hint to what that reasoning was - well, outside the obvious following of his apparent motto of "Act with magic, act within reason, act without mercy."

From the Orrian History Scrolls on the Six Gods, there are a few lines of special note. Firstly, from Abaddon's entry which at first glance gives nothing to us:

Among them was Abaddon—once secret-keeper, now betrayer. How you have fallen from the glorious days of old. What passed beyond in the Mists, only you remember. Abaddon, Abaddon. Your name has been erased from the towers, your cathedral condemned to the sea. Turn your faces away, oh sons and daughters, and let not his gifts tempt you.

The bolded line is the sole piece of importance. This could obviously refer to Abaddon being imprisoned in the Realm of Torment, but I find this unlikely - this is not something only Abaddon would remember. Of course, these are written in prose and thus might not be literal, so there's a chance this is indeed in reference to that and how knowledge of him was removed.

And alone, it'd be natural to assume so. However, take in lines from the other gods' entries. For starters, let's begin with Dwayna:

The first of the gods to step forth from the mists was Dwayna, goddess of air and life. She placed her pale foot on the stones of Arah, opened the gates, and brought humanity to the world. She chose Tyria and brought with her those who would make this world a paradise. As she had promised, Dwayna led her people to peace.

There's a few things to dissect here. First, the underlined bit: this implies that Arah had been in existence as Dwayna landed. Of course, the same sentence implies humanity also first stepped foot on the world at Arah, but we know that they existed on Cantha before Orr. However, we do know that the location of Arah had structures - built by the forgotten - as we learn in the Arah explorable dungeon. This means Dwayna was likely guided there, I presume by the forgotten given the structure's origins and the fact that the forgotten are servants of the Six Gods.

From the bold, we learn that Dwayna made the decision to go to Tyria and that she was seeking to create a better world, a paradise. If one seeks to make a paradise, that usually means they are leaving something which is not, and cannot be made a paradise - otherwise, they'd be spreading paradise, not making it. In other words, the place where the Six Gods comes from had problems that Dwayna could not fix.

Now, from the section on Lyssa, which is far more important:

The two who are one, Issa and Lys,[sic] brought with her the hope and beauty of humanity. While the other gods focused on building Arah and beginning a new future, Lyssa gave them joy and helped them forget the past. For a while she lived, veiled and hidden, in the village of Wren. When the building of Arah was completed Lyssa was commanded to join the other gods, though her tears fell like rain among the western road.

Originally when I read this, I thought the bolded line was what Lyssa did for humanity. However, on a second readthrough, the sentence is talking about Lyssa giving the other gods joy and helped the gods forget the past.

This, combined with the underlined - that the gods worked to begin a new future, e.g., a new start - means that there was something that at least Lyssa wanted the others to forget. Something that brought the other gods sadness.

Now combine this with the line from Dwayna's - that she sought to make a paradise - and the fact they came from somewhere else bringing humanity with them. This sounds like they were fleeing something. What that something is remains a mystery to us. But now add on the line from Abaddon's section - that he remembers.

In other words, there was a past calamity, the Six Gods fled this calamity and brought humanity with them. As the gods worked to begin anew, Lyssa effectively did a mind wipe on them, but failed with Abaddon. He remembered, being the "secret-keeper," and he acted, thus "betraying" the other gods.

I believe, from this, that Abaddon's actions was in order to prevent a return of this unknown calamity that the other gods had forgotten about. Thus, he was imprisoned not for being evil, but for being misunderstood (of course, after a thousand years of torment and solitude, even Abaddon would go evil by the time of Nightfall).

(And for the real conspiracy nut: add in the fact Lyssa was the one who ordered us to kill Abaddon in Nightfall, and the various Devoted fought during Temple of the Forgotten God personal story mission and how they're all mesmers, and one being the Devoted of Illusions)

It's the Bearsignal. No doubt Bearman is racing to the Great Hall in the Bearmobile, ready to fight crime.

I guess Snaff falls under the "genius" proffession