Faction's story? *SPOILERS*

Why did Shiro have to do what he did in the beginning? I was hoping they'd at least explain Shiro's actions and his motivations before and after. By the way they kept showing the past sequences with the gypsy and Shiro, I thought they'd explain why he assassinated the emperor. I thought those cutscene were to show that Shiro wasn't all evil, but the ending left off at a note that implies Shiro is just a generic evil guy. What was the fortune teller trying to do?

Total mistery, the fortune telling simply told Shiro that if he doesn't kill the emperor, the emperor will kill him, afterwards he got killed for assassinating the emperor, and somehow revived...and got killed again in Factions, not really sure why he bothered to revive himself, cause mass chaos and screw up Cantha.

The fortune teller saw the Emperor causing Shiro's death. The Emperor doesn't have the power to do it himself, but one of his agents would. As the person behind Shiro's death, the teller saw the Emperor as the killer.

Shiro kills the Emperor in paranoia, imperial agent (Vizu) leads directly to his death, due to the Emperor, thus prophecy completed.

Simple, right?

Welcome to Guild Wars... where you kick a$$ by using your brain .... and oh yea.. theres some story thrown in there to keep you alive in PvE... don't expect much.... but its there... just be happy that it ain't worst..

Basically it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I think the storyline from the first also is in some ways.

That's exactly what it is, a self-fullfilling prophecy.
Shiro killed the Emperor because he believed that if he didn't, the Emperor would kill him.

The 'change of plans' was regarded as a threat by Shiro due to the warning, which caused him to act in a way that put him in the path of destruction - his destruction.

So what happned to the fortune teller?

well she got killed by shiro ofcourse

Just like in Prophecies, not much was explained. Even less was explained in Factions though...

Some Fortune Teller convinces Shiro that if he doesn't kill the Emperor, that the Emperor will kill him. The Emperor, in a last-minute change, has all of his gaurds come with him and Shiro into the place the FT told him the Emperor would try to kill him in. This makes Shiro freak-out and have some kind of nervous break-down, and he kills the Emperor. The other gaurds kill Shiro after he kills the Emperor (and for some reason Shiro is able to steal the Emperor's soul, and for yet another unexplained reason this allows him to cause those catastrophes). For some reason Shiro becomes an Envoy after he dies. For some reason, 200 years later Shiro goes a little crazy and starts using his powers as an Envoy to mutate people and place souls inside of constructs for some kind of army. For ANOTHER unexplained reason, Shiro needs to become mortal again so he can accomplish some kind of goal. You kill Shiro after he makes himself mortal again. Since he had become mortal and died again, he's a soul with a clean slate, and no longer an Envoy. The other Envoys banish him into some kind of hell or prison for his betrayel.

And that's all...

She was?

Prophecie's story would've been a lot better if it was a little more consistent (what happened to the Charr invasion?). Faction's story is a little more consistent but is so filled with mysteries. I hope Nightfall can wrap some things up.

Why do you want it wrapped up?

After my day at work, I don't have a spokesman saying, "and he went home to his loving family, and slept the sleep of the just"...or anything like that.

Life doesn't have happy endings, just feel good knowing I killed Shiro, the townspeople sure did.

consistancy is a BIG problem with Guild Wars story... its more evident in prophesies.... ok so the char is everything in the start then you run to the mountains then you go to the white mantle?.... what happened to the char?... Then you go and find yourself in the Jungle with your now enemies the white mantle?... weren't we just buddies in the last mission?... just when you thought u had the story figured out and you had to defeat the white mantle you are sent to the desert to ascend???! .... where are the char i had to kill?? then southern shiverpeaks to defend the dwarves? since when were the dwarves our buddies?... o yea then come these new guys the mursaat.. they seem to be related to the white mantle... and they own u fast... u kill the white mantles top officers finish off the head mantle and you thought yea its time for the credits right?... then ur sent to ring of fire island?!! kill the mantle and stop the lich which was actually ur buddy and watch the kings brother die... and stop the lich run away and what do you have to show for it???

thats right one confused brain.... o yea WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CHAR WE HAD TO KILL??!

||sektor|| All that stuff was pretty much explained as you went through the game, watching the cutscenes, reading the primary quests and understanding them.

The only thing that was never really well explained is the Charr and their link to the titans, altough there is some reasonable speculation.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Storyline_%28Factions%29

hope that helps

ok here are some of the answers,

he became an envoy by absorbing the emperor's powers.
since he's an envoy he can use bind souls and use them as soldiers.
it is still unknown if the emperor was actually going to kill shiro or the FT tricked him.

Can't wait for Nightfalls epic storyline.

So in a nut shell...

Shiro was shafted and flipped out.

Got burned in the end by Vizu, Luxon champ and Kurzick champ.

Unleashes awesomeness upon death.

Ticked off dead Shiro reflects on the shaft and wants revenge.

Plague turned out to be Shiro taking control of people to form an army.

Kurzicks and Luxons fighting like babies.

Mhenlo summoned by Togo to help, due to Togo suspecting somethign suspicous/spiritual. Or maybe Togo just wanted him to help heal the disease.

Mhenlo and his band of cookies came and Cynn was upset and jealous of Mhenlos pimp-like status. (Ya gotta admit, that monk had it going on there for a while. Didn't see him and Cynn coming... not for a long shot.)

Mhenlo, Togo and the gang discovered Shiro, Envoys help us out.

We trail through the lands cleaning up after Shiro and fix a broken alliance.

Shiro begins his assult on the palace looking for some royal stuff to ruin.

We come to the resuce only to get Togo's head bashed. (He dies.)

We come in and kick some butt.

Shiro gets his crap ruined again. (Hopefully for a longer time so he can THINK about what he has done)

Then we egg the Kurzicks and Luxons back into fighting so we can have fun killing each other.

Does that sound about right?

Reading the Manuscripts lore and paying attention during quests, ftw.

Also, if you bother to pay attention to the cutscenes and the primary quests, you'll understand the 'inconsistancies' and 'mysteries' in both the Prophecies and Factions campaingnes.

For example, why did your character leave Ascalon to die at the hands of the Charr in Prophecies? He or she decided to follow Rurik, who was the smartest person at the time, instead of killing themselves fighting for a lost cause.

If you really don't get it, I suggest you go back through the entire game and actually watch the cutscenes in the missions.

I am so sorry I didn't catch every single tiny detail. So I missed one, big deal? I got the rest close to right, right?

The fact that I agree with that statement scares me. Rurik was indeed intelligent, and honorable... But there are some days where I wish he was still alive so I could smack him upside the back of his head.

Many things that people don't understand about the storyline can indeed be explained by the Manuscript lore and the Primary Quests/cutscenes. However, like the Charr's link to the Titans, some things are just left up to our imaginations to discover...