Forum Interlude – Death Wish Information?

Arcadia Community Forums → Current Events → Death Wish Information?

SlothHiveMind

[Arcadian] [Verified Journalist] [High Standing] [Fact Checker]

Hey everyone, Sloth here. So it’s been a few days now since the huge, worldwide Anathema attack was fought back. There’s been a lot of discussion and theorycrafting about what that was all about, but there’s been an almost conspicuous lack of talk about the events that led to the end of the siege in Arcadia. So, I figured I would compile all the information I’ve been able to gather so far and put out a call to anyone who might have more to add. Bear with me while I get through some background information, I promise it will come into play later.

What we know: During the unprecedented, city-wide attack (that also targeted the other six Sanctuary Cities), one of the shielding stations failed. There’s a few theories floating around, but the general consensus is that it might have had something to do with the Grand Arcadian Mall, the location where the shielding station is located. The mall is a fairly new construction, not originating from when the Zenith teleported the island in, and the shielding station was relocated there from a different spot because it made for a better location. The only real theory we have right now is that the installation must have been done incorrectly. This combined with the massive amount of Usurpation Zones put too much of a load on the station, resulting in the shield going offline.

With the shield down, the Anathema were able to bring in a TON of creatures. Although the zone wasn’t the strongest (highest level of other zones reported in Arcadia were house sized zones in the high 200s) the massive amount of Anathema were able to claim a large amount of territory and begin hunkering down. Guardian Command stated that because of the sheer number of Anathema, their tactic was to wipe out the other, smaller zones first while formulating a proper attack plan. This way, they wouldn’t risk the smaller zones becoming stronger and lashing out during what would be a long and arduous process of clearing out the bigger zone.

Here’s where things get hazy. A lot of people have been claiming various things, but let’s start with the facts. Although there were many Usurpation Zones, the city was far from completely covered, and about seven hours, thirty minutes into the “invasion,” a notification went out through the city’s emergency broadcast system. This broadcast can be heard in the various videos from people outside the zones, and was recorded many times. Listen to a cleaned up version here:

DeathWishNotification.mp3

(Point of clarification for those of you who may not be well-informed about the intricacies of Guardians: A Death Wish is a classification of “quest” or task they can be offered. Doing these quests help Guardians get stronger, and each quest is given a difficulty level. Death Wish is the highest level and is defined as a task that the Guardian is not expected to survive. These quests are offered when there is a critical situation that desperately needs to be resolved even though it almost guarantees the death of the Guardian who takes it.)

As you can hear, Magical Guardian Error Machina seems to have used his powers to broadcast the alert. Shortly after, Guardians from all around Arcadia used signal flare spells in a sort of tribute and acknowledgement. There are plenty of videos of the event circulating, so I won’t bother linking any here. What I will note is that shortly after the notification went out, Guardians from across the city began breaking from their previous positions, rushing to the Usurpation Zone where the shielding station failed.

Thanks to drone footage observing from safe areas, we have tons of footage of Anathema beginning to pour out of buildings and start running to the center of the zone where the shield failed. The incoming Guardians took advantage of the Anathema mindlessly turning their backs on the perimeter, and with the hundreds of Guardians working together, a vast majority of the Anathema were slaughtered with relative ease. Around five minutes after this event began, the shielding station reactivated, further weakening the Anathema.

This raises a few questions: Why did the Anathema all start moving to the center of their zone, and how does the Death Wish fit in?

From the events I’ve just described, I think it is safe to assume the Death Wish in question had to do with reactivating the shielding station. These stations require a LOT of mana (magical energy) and have a long start-up process. From my research, it appears that this starting process also produces a lot of mana. As Anathema are naturally attracted to mana, it makes sense that every Anathema in the zone suddenly abandoned their positions and beelined it to the station. This would also explain why the quest to restart the shielding station was classified as a Death Wish, because with that many Anathema heading toward you, not many Guardians could survive let alone a completely NEW Guardian on their first day.

Now, this still leaves a few crucial questions that must be answered:

First of all, why was it necessary to restart the shielding station? From what my sources say, Guardian Command had a competent, safe plan for pushing back the Usurpations. Granted, restarting the shielding station DID get all the Anathema to rush out into the open, making them easy targets for the massed Guardians to defeat. In fact, many have credited this turn of events for how Arcadia was cleared much more quickly than the other Sanctuary Cities. The Anathema seemed to have portaled most of the forces into what they thought was a weak point only to make the mistake of being lured out by the shielding station’s startup sequence.

But still, why did the shielding station have to be restarted? What made it so critical that a Guardian on their first day was given the task? And also, maybe most importantly, what is their status? Error Machina said in his message that a strike team was on the way to save them, but it sounded like prospects of rescue were dubious. The lack of announcement on if the rescue was a success is more than a little concerning.

I’ve made inquiries to my contacts, but it seems like the government is keeping things quiet for now. Even the Guardians I’ve contacted have told me they don’t have any information on the matter or won’t make a comment. That’s why I’m turning to all of you. If anyone has any information, please feel free to share it. I’ll update this post with anything we figure out only after I’ve confirmed it myself.

Let’s see if we can figure this out together!

TenderLion

[Arcadian]

God I hope the Guardian is okay. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like.

Saklin

[Arcadian]

@Tender Lion. LOL of course they are okay. U really believe this whole death wish thing? Pretty obvious the guardians just wanted to farm points instead of actually doing their jobs. Typical. Leaving the rest of us sitting in shelters while they only help themselves.

SocklessKhajiit

[Mainlander]

@Saklin. Obvious troll is obvious. Go cry somewhere else that you were inconvenienced while people were literally putting their lives on the line. Try harder next time.

@TenderLion. I think the Guardian in question is probably okay. Governments are usually pretty quick to have announcements/memorials when one falls. My guess is they are keeping quiet because the Guardian in question is so new they don’t even have a name. They’re probably working on figuring out how to manage this properly. It doesn’t help that they’re at the center of such a big event and now have millions of eyes on them.

Saklin

[Arcadian]

[Message deleted by Moderator]

SyntheticBliss

[Moderator]

@Saklin. None of that now. Your first comment was somewhat off topic, but I allowed it. If you’re going to get angry about somebody calling you out and respond like that, then I’ll go further than just deleting your comment. Consider this a warning.

@SocklessKhajiit. Try to remain cordial towards others. If someone needs to be bonked, leave it to the mods.

OopsItsOrion

[Mainlander]

Damn. Don’t know about anyone else, but the videos of that tribute the Guardians did make me tear up every time. I’m hoping for a good ending to all this, but every time I remember that scene I can’t help but get depressed. Somebody message me if we find out the Guardian made it?

XenoAlertTV

[Arcadian]

It’s fairly obvious that we’re all missing what really matters. Some poor kid was drafted by the Zenith to die in THEIR war because they “deemed it necessary.” Anyone who’s read the Zenith Accords knows this goes DIRECTLY against what they promised. “No person shall be given the gifts of magic for the sole purpose of resolving a dire situation happening in their immediate area.” Yoinking some random kid, forcing them to fight as a child soldier, and then giving them a task that is certain to get them killed? Does NOBODY else really see the problem with this???

And before any of you say “oh they had a choice, nobody forced them,” need I remind you about the socially manipulative parasites that call themselves Familiars? I wouldn’t call it much of a choice when those things will do everything in their power to make somebody feel like they are doing the “right thing.” Can a kid really be expected to see through the lies of an alien whose only goal is their own survival? And, of course, it just so happens most Guardians that are chosen are easily manipulatable teens because “matured adults aren’t usually compatible with soul gems.” I mean, come on!

This is just another disgusting showcase of how little the Zenith really care about us. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’ve been saying it all along that it was only a matter of time before the Zenith became more blatant in their ways. We’re just cannon fodder in their war, and this is all the proof you need.

ChairMimic

[Arcadian] [System Fanatic]

SocklessKahjiit has the right of it. Another thing to consider is the new Guardian might have been injured and is currently incapable of making decisions. Magical healing can still take quite a bit of time depending on the circumstances, and with how resigned Error Machina sounded in his message, it seems fairly likely the Guardian was looking at severe injuries if they survived at all. It’s entirely possible they are keeping news quiet until they Guardian is in a position to make their own decisions. Until then, all we can really do is hope and pray they make a full recovery.

As for why the Death Wish might have been issued, these quests are generally only offered under three conditions. First condition is that if the task is not accomplished, there will be a significant loss of life. Second is that whatever the task is, it needs to be finished urgently, meaning there is some sort of time factor involved. The final condition is that the task is significantly beyond the Guardian’s relative power level. As for how many people might be in danger if the task is not accomplished, the lowest amount of people recorded being saved in a Death Wish quest was 237 people by Magical Girl Broken Blade.

With that in mind, I’d agree with the assumption that restarting the shielding station was necessary to save lives, so the situation must have been one that couldn’t wait for Guardian Command’s strategy of clearing the zone at a later time. As for situations that might cause that…

I’m not entirely sure. While I pride myself as a System nerd, my understanding of magitech isn’t nearly at the same level. It doesn’t help that the shielding stations are VERY complicated with a variety of functions. Let me do some research to refresh myself on their intricacies, and I’ll post back with what I’ve found.

@XenoAlertTV. You make some bold claims when we don’t even know what exactly happened. I know you’re one of those people who don’t trust the Zenith, and I’m not even going to try to convince you differently. Hell, I think remaining cautious and open-minded is a good thing, but don’t go trying to exploit this event without even knowing how any of it played out. There’s any number of reasons explaining how this could have happened. Let’s wait a little before sounding the alarm bells.

Barookia

[Arcadian]

Don’t know if this is relevant, but my friend works as a secretary for one of the mall’s owners (the mall the shielding station is in) and said the police came around to bring him down to the station for some questioning.

GirlInYellow

[Arcadian]

A new Guardian doing a Death Wish on their first day… One thing’s for sure, whatever caused this tragedy goes beyond just bad luck or an accident.

Though, that’s just par for the course with most Death Wishes…

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author’s consent. Report any sightings.

SlothHiveMind

[Arcadian] [Verified Journalist] [High Standing] [Fact Checker]

@XenoAlertTV. Lots of speculation. I know I’ve said this to you before, but I’ll say it again: if you have any concrete proof of your many claims about Zenith overreach or abuse, I would love to see it. I’m aware of the “theory” you like to spread to your viewers, but I have yet to find any significant shred of evidence on it. Regardless, I agree with ChairMimic. It is much too soon to claim they violated the Zenith Accords.

@Barookia. Interesting. Following your lead, I asked around, and it does look like there is some sort of investigation going on. Of course, I didn’t get much further than that because it was an “active situation,” but it’s better than nothing. I’ll keep an eye on how that is playing out.

@ChairMimic. Great insights, and I’d appreciate any more info you come up with.

@GirlInYellow. Although there’s no proof yet, I’m inclined to agree. After your comment, I was inspired to look into the circumstances of past Death Wishes. Interestingly enough, over 80% of them involved human negligence or misconduct in some manner that led to the situation being as bad as it was. Good catch, though it doesn’t necessarily mean it was the case here.

BeepBeepImAJeep

[Arcadian]

Calling it now, the newbie Guardian totally survived and is going to be famous from all this. Probably a Pink too.

QuitFix

[Arcadian]

Honestly makes no sense why they won’t just tell us if they survived. Feels like their just trying to build up a bunch of hype or something, maybe make some big reveal to distract us from all the uneasiness the attack left.

MermA

[Mainlander] [System Fanatic]

For those of us who know the different colors/origins and what they mean, anyone want to take bets on what color this new Guardian was/is? Something like this is a classic Pink move, right? I mean, they single-handedly turned around the entire attack on Arcadia by themselves in a heroic last stand. Also, couldn’t that be the cause of the Death Wish? Maybe the Zenith predicted more lives were going to be lost in the long run if the attack wasn’t stopped immediately. It doesn’t really fit with the urgency other Death Wishes have had, but this wasn’t any ordinary event, either.

TieRANT

[Arcadian]

@MermA. Definitely sounds like something a Pink would do. Though it seems like they survived, so maybe a Green? Lines up with peace and protecting people and all that. Plus they’d have the defensive bonuses, so it makes sense.