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Originally Posted by Bethany
I didn't think Faction's storyline was confusing. At least we knew where we were going almost from the start. We identify Shiro early as being the game's bad guy. We knew from there on that we would face him in a showdown. Simple yes, but straightforward. The Luxons and Kurzicks merely provided a distraction because whatever side we chose, we all got to the same place.
Prophecies gave me headaches (stay with me on this); We start in Ascalon which is a kingdom at war with the Charr that Adelbern wants to fight but Rurik wants to flee so we trail behind him to the Shiverpeaks where we get caught in a civil war between the Stone Summit and Deldrimor dwarves who help us get passage in Kryta where we wind up fighting undeads alongside the White Mantle who are also fighting a group named the Shining Blade who we manage to help in order to aid a Vizier who sends us running around a giant desert to pass a serie of tests with ghosts as referees so we can fight a Doppleganger and ascend in order to face an ancient dragon who tells us that we must fight a strange race called the Mursaat who are worshiped by the White Mantle who were still fighting undeads led by a Lich that we must defeat on an island of fire after which we are thanked for our efforts by being dropped like a sack of dirty laundry in a place we've previously been.
Quite honestly, I never played (or read) anything that threw me in so many directions. The whole story felt like a big balloon that you fill up and release in a room where it goes "flbflblflblflblflb" all around in every directions while deflating and landing flat somewhere.
When I finished Prophecies I didn't realized I actually had finished. I thought that somehow I had to go back to Ascalon and finally help Adelbern repel the Charr (because in all honesty, I never wanted to follow Rurik. I wanted to stand by Adelbern. But nooooooo!). Talk about confusion. At least when you defeat Shiro in Factions, you immediatly know that you've finished.
Here's hoping that Nightfall will make more sense than Prophecies.
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I beg to differ with you on your interpretation of the plot present in Prophecies, yes the player starts in Ascalon, kingdom resisting against the Charr invasion, then comes the searing and the player finds himself in a kingdom that strives to survive with increasing assaults made on him by a growing Charr force.
At Rin, Rurik finaly realizes the war is a losing one and asks his father to please think about the people first, it is Abeldern stuborness that forces him to chose the way of Exile to the only nation that still has some sort of organised structure, Kryta. During the crossings of the Shiverpeaks the Ascalonians negociate a right of passage with Deldrimor who warns them about the summit dwarves whom both oppose him and are adverse to human as such they have no choice but to side with the legitimate king in the civil war that has been ongoing for a while.
Arriving in Kryta they can see that the old monarchy has virtualy disappeared and has been replaced by a new organisation, the white mantle who seems to care about the people, but even then some quests give an indication the white mantle is not as benevolent as they would like you to believe (a crime in the hot springs has been commited by individuals seemingly belonging to them and strangely enough the investigation is trusted to one of them with the initial investigator having little to no choice in the matter).
This concludes the first phase as the people of Ascalon are now safe and sound in Kryta, the player could now afford to relax but the threatening presence of undead in Kryta has it so that the mantle asks for help on their side to deal with it, the request is legitimate and the player agrees. The white mantle then honours the player by welcoming them to their organisation and ask for them to go and escort some very special people using the eye of Janthir (this is the first time the player is manipulated into acting on behalf of someone with unclear intentions), it so happens that the shining blade kidnaps those people and the mantle decides to use the player further to deal with them which the player accepts as they seem to be the bad guys here, the situation then evolves with the player realising the white mantle are not the benevolent organisation they would like to make you believe but rather a sort of dictatorship that won't hesitate to sacrifice innocents to their dark purposes from there on the player decides to side with the shining blade as they at least have the people in mind.
This concludes the second phase, the player is now commited to help the shining blade overturn the white mantle, the situation evolves to the blade seeing some of their encampments attacked and deciding to find a more secure one, unfortunately the mantle is also aware of it (the player gets his first indication there might be a traitor among the shining blade) and the first confrontations come from there. Seeing as they are overwhelmed both in numbers and in fire power the shining blade decides to accept the proposal of the survivor of Orr, the vizier for an alliance all the man wants in exchange for his support is a scepter and since the mantle has proven to be power hungry well it is just a small item after all. Unfortunately once the player has gotten to the scepter and given it to the Vizier it is revealed there is a traitor in the shining blade and it has led the mantle to the place of the exchange, the player then has to escape but the leader of the blade is captured the Vizier then informs the player that his only chance for saving his companions and winning for his cause is to ascend (and there comes the second manipulation the player is submitted to, this time by the Vizier that he might get ascended to complete the prophecies of the flame for if the Mursaaats are trying to kill chosen that the prophecies might not be complete as they predict their destruction, the Vizier wants the prophecies to complete themselves as he would like power over the door of Komalie).
Here ends phase 3, the player has now be manipulated into ascending and goes into the desert for this, during this time he will meet with many spirits and ancient creatures who will tell him of the difficulties of his task, at the end of it he meets with Glint who knows he is the child of prophecies and tells him of the current situation so that he might rush to his companion's help, the player learns at that moment of the Mursaats the real power behind the dictatorship of the mantle (this is manipulation number 3, Glint knows of the prophecies and what they predict and want them to be completed, she thus launch them on their way by telling the player about the Mursaats but not more so that ultimately both the Mursaats and the Lych might be destroyed). From there on the player races first to release his companions of the shining blade then to defeat the Mursaat and kill the traitor Markis, this will lead him to the Mursaat's main stronghold in Tyria (or so it seems) in the isle of fire to destroy the source of their power, the seal to the door of Komalie (this is yet another manipulation by the Vizier whom the player is at that time trusting, by indicating to them the seal is the source of the Mursaats power and advocating the fact that spirits of humans have been used to create them he creates a situation in which the player feels it is his duty to destroy the seals) at which point the Vizier finaly reveals himself to take control of the titans using the scepter of Orr.
Here ends phase 4. The Mursaats have been broken and the Vizier has achieved the goal he had by manipulating the player, unfortunately for him in doing so he also has fulfilled the part of the prophecies that prepares the final sealing of the doors of Komalie using the spirit of a Lich

which is what the player will do and this ends the storyline.
There after follow some quest to clean up the titans that have been released on the world and get a world of Tyria cleaned up of most dangers (The Mursaats have been broken, the power of the Summit has been curved giving Deldrimor command of the dwarven nation again and the Lych has been used to finaly seal the titans for once and for all which was what the prophecies of the flame aimed at for all this time.
Compared to this we have the factions plot where yes Shiro is defined quite early as the bad guy but to speak truly it is far less rich with the player taken into hostage by some messenger spirits so that they are forced to complete the task set to them and little light given to why Shiro became mad (possessed?) enough to attack the emperor during the harvest ceremony. What little indication we have seems to point to a self fulfilling prophecy by the seer indicating to Shiro the emperor would killing due to his fear of his great power, Shiro acting on it and killing the emperor thus creating the conditions for him to become an envoy which as well as his hatred for the empire and his will to come back which in turns creates the fear by the emperor which ultimately leads to him being killed. In that setting the "beware of the harvest ceremony" pronounced by the dying seer just indicates it to be the turning point at which Shiro's actions will condition the prophecie's fulfillment.