Mursaat

From Guild Wars 2 Wiki

The Mursaat are a race of floating, humanoid, almost angelic spellcasters. They have the ability to hide themselves from those who have not ascended. While they can be said to have several godlike characteristics, they are anything but benevolent. It was said in the Flameseeker Prophecies that, should the Titans ever escape from the Foundry of Failed Creations, the Mursaat would become extinct. Consequently, in fear, the Mursaat devised a plan that would allow them to gain control over the Kingdom of Kryta, and then regularly sacrifice souls on top of the bloodstones in order to keep the door to the Foundry closed. Although initially successful, they eventually fell at the hands of their own followers. The specific details are documented below.

[edit] Rise of the White Mantle

They were discovered shortly after the end of the Guild Wars by a man named Saul D'Alessio, an exile from Kryta on the brink of death in the Maguuma Jungle. During his travels, he came across the Ullen River. There, he found towers that reached up into the heavens, inhabited by these godlike creatures. Upon receiving aid that would save his life from these creatures, these unseen ones, he returned to Kryta, proclaiming them as his gods.

Kryta, on the other hand, was in a much worse state. Fueled by their victory in Ascalon, the Charr had turned their sights on Kryta, defeating the Lionguard and causing the royal family to flee to the furthest reaches of Tyria. Confused and leaderless, those who remained able to fight turned to Saul as a leader in their hour of need. Many Charr were killed, but Saul and his followers knew that hit-and-run tactics were not enough to save Kryta.

Saul devised a desperate plan. He and a small group of his most elite fighters, the White Mantle, would sneak into the main Charr encampment in the dead of night and assassinate the Charr leaders. It would confuse the Charr enough for the Krytans to rise up against them and chase them out of their lands. However, it would not be long before the entire Charr army realized who was responsible, and Saul knew he would have to pay the price for his bravery.

His plan went perfectly. He and seven others took out the main Charr leaders. As anticipated, the Charr turned on them, and this time, there would be no way out. Saul did all that he could do: pray, and hope that his unseen gods would spare him. Surprisingly, they obliged. The Mursaat, among them Lazarus the Dire, appeared, decimating the Charr with their devastating magic. The Charr were defeated. Kryta was saved. But at a price.

The Mursaat massacred the heroes who had moments earlier worshiped them as their gods, and then disappeared, taking Saul, with whom they had imbued their most powerful magic, with them. Only a handful survived. Those who survived, who the Mursaat had deemed most devoted, told the Krytans that Saul was killed by Charr during their retreat back over the Shiverpeaks. Their power over the White Mantle, and by extension, Kryta, was assured.

[edit] The Veil Falls

Several years after the White Mantle became de facto leaders of Kryta, a group of Ascalonian refugees crossed from across the Shiverpeaks. As an act of goodwill, they offered to escort the 'Chosen' - those who were deemed to be sacrificed atop the bloodstone (although the Ascalonians did not know this) through the jungle. On the way, they were intercepted by a group of Krytan rebels named the Shining Blade and the Chosen were kidnapped. The Ascalonians retrieved the Chosen, only to learn that they were to be murdered in cold blood. After killing one of the White Mantle leaders who was present at the Rise of the White Mantle, the Ascalonians (who were also Chosen) fled into the desert to Ascend.

Once Ascended, they had the ability to see the Mursaat, but not the means to fight them. In the intervening time, the Mursaat had killed or captured many Shining Blade leaders, and were fighting their way down to the Dwarven capital. The Ascalonians met a Seer - a member of an ancient race who were at war with the Mursaat, and were infused with magic that gave them protection against the Mursaat's spells. They traveled to the Ring of Fire Islands, for it was said in the Flameseeker Prophecies that by opening the Door of Komalie, the Mursaat could be defeated. What they did not know is that they were doing the work of Abaddon, and a much more powerful evil was about to be unleashed.

The Titans were let loose across Tyria. Most of the Mursaat were exterminated. Knowing that their time had almost expired, those who remained split their souls into many different aspects, and sealed themselves away inside members of the broken White Mantle, ready to return one day. The Titans were defeated by the humans in Tyria, and all fell silent.

[edit] Return of the Unseen Ones

Six years had passed. Kryta had been plunged into civil war. The Mantle tried to hold what little grip of power they had left over the Krytans, while the Shining Blade were attempting to restore a proven descendant of the last Krytan monarch to power. With their gods presumed dead, and little credibility left, the Mantle were slowly becoming more secretive, ready to disappear from the public eye and operate undercover.

Somewhere, deep in the jungles of the Tarnished Coast, an ex-Mantle Justiciar was looking for answers. Six years hence he was one of the unlucky few cursed by the Mursaat during their retreat from the Titans. A Mursaat called Lazarus the Dire, the only Mursaat present at the Rise of the White Mantle who survived the Titans, had split himself into many different aspects, infusing them into a group of White Mantle under the pretense that it was a gift of power. After Abaddon was defeated, he began to free these aspects one by one, in a bid to reunite them and regain his former self. Unfortunately, this process killed the host of each aspect. The Justiciar, the host of the final aspect, had long since realised that this was no gift, but a curse, and sought to free himself from it before it consumed him. With the help of a talented Asura, they were able to damage the aspect, but not remove it.

Once Lazarus killed the Justiciar and reclaimed the aspect, he felt his power turn on him. His plans ruined, he fled to go into recovery, promising that countless future generations would suffer as a result of the Justiciar and the Asura's actions that day.

250 years have passed. The descendants of the Ascalonians who defeated the Mursaat and the Titans all those years ago now have lives of their own. And a plan is forming.