Ritualist speculation

Okay, in prophecies it was established that all the forms of magic were split up and no one mage could use all types. With that in mind, how do ritualists fit in to things? Are they an exception to the rule? Is there a new deity?

If you look at their skill list, they've got spells that could be a part of everything except maybe mesmer spells.

However I'm going to assume that what was oringally stated is still in effect so I'll guess they are in the nature branch. Still I'm curious to see what some of the other guesses are.

Rangers are one with nature.

Ritualists will control nature.

They will steal your SOOOUUUUUULLLLLLL!!!

Commanding spirits from the beyond doesn't count as an elemental or whatever spell. Just because their EFFECT is similar doesn't mean it's the same element. Aura of Restoration heals you, does that mean its monk magic?

The 4 schools of Magic are Preservation, Destruction, Aggression, and Denial.

I'd give my input if I knew what it meant by 'aggression'.

That would depend on whether necros are destruction or elementalists are.

Maybe Necros fall under Denial? To cheat death is fight the inevitable and to fight the inevitable is to deny fate?

Then again one could turn it around to say there is Preservation of life in death magic...

I donno, I'm just talking out of my rear as usual...

Most of the posts in this thread have been deleted;
As nice as it might be to talk about what kind of ritualist you want to make, if you'll look over the first post again, this thread has nothing to do with that.

Also, I'm moving this to the lore forum, since it relates to the GW lore. Hopefully, that'll make it more clear.

I believe it was shwon inthe FPE that Ritualists obey both Lyssa and Grenth.
Maybe that will help figure something out about their magic? Or maybe it will make you more confused, like it did me >_>

The FPE showed us only that Ritualists recieved favor from Grenth, as did Necros, and Assassins recieved favor from Lyssa, as did Mesmers. In a way they are alot like their god's other class just that some what inverted O-o

Preservation - Monks
Destruction - Elementialists
Agression - Necromancers
Denial - Mesmers

Like the person above me said, the gods the Ritualist and Assassin worship seem to still be in line with the skills they have; Now try and put Ritualists into the above schools. It seems like they have taken a little from each school, maybe it will become clearer with more Ritualist lore in GW: F.

It's a question I've asked myself. I think I agree with Align - they don't really fit into any of them.

My suspicion would be that the 'keystone' Bloodstone still contains a residual amount of the original mixed magic that existed before the seperation of the Bloodstones, and that it's this power that backs up the supernatural abilities of not only the Ritualist, but other classes such as the Ranger and Assassin (and, arguably, even the Warrior). Such a setup would still mean that no one individual could wield the full power of all four types, but effects that do require mixing of types are still available.

Another possibility tying the Ritualist (and, to a lesser extent, the Ranger) to the keystone is to point out that none of the four known Bloodstones seem to deal with the spirit world. In this outlook, instead of governing 'mixed' magic forms, the keystone specifically deals with spirits - hence providing a way to bypass the limitation (instead of drawing upon bloodstone X yourself, you get a spirit to produce the effect you want for you, whether the spirit is physically present or, in the case of those Ritualist effects that don't summon a spirit, simply casts a spell through a temporary rift opened for it to do so by the Ritualist - in this interpretation, for instance, Spirit Light is essentially the opening of a rift to a ghost monk and asking/compelling said ghost monk to heal the recipient).

A third interpretation is that dealing with spirits is an entirely different form of magic that bypasses the Bloodstones entirely.

The ritualists summon spirits which act as seperate mages to do seperate things. In other words they are like an army commander. They control the grunts, spirits in this case, and the spirits have different skills, that when combined and summoned by a ritualist, make up all types.

I can see Assassins as Lyssia (though they'd make better followers of Grenith), however I don't see Ritualists following Gernith for two reasons. First of all they have a few lightning skills (and dead-boy is ice), secondly they have a few ressurect skills.

Both those things would point to Dwayna.

they focus on dark magic

hence grenth

I went over what a Ritualist is in one of the Factions Preview posts, so her i go again...

Ritualists are the last remnents of Cantha's old tradition of Ancestor worshop. The Shrine in Kurzic terretory (which you can see if you go to the GWF map in the map gallery) Is a shrine to a now deciced Kurzic preist and is one of the cheif stops on the ancestor worshop pilgramiage.

The Ritualist channel the powers of the dead, and this, in theory, could circumvent the ristriction on magic set down by the gods. i would place them as more or less godless as the remanents of the old religion of Cantha. But if i would give them a god, it would be Greneth, as the primary function of the profession is to commune with the dead. That is Greneth terretory.

Assasins worshop both Lyssa and Greneth, i belive i saw somewhere on the same GWF thread I posted the above orrigionaly in had this info.

I don't think that Greneth is the Ritualists god becaus of the great dislike the Ritualists traners had for the necromancers in the monastarty if you go and look at the thinks theay say when theay talk abought necromancers theay do it with great distane that how ever dosent mena that Greneth isent thear god it just makes it hard to beleave for me and somthing eleas you should noatce is that the Ritualists armor and npc Ritualists seam to give the hint that theay dont need to use thear eyes and that it is as if theay are seeing beond the mortal reamle as if that is a sacrafice for thear power?? and the blode stone threary is verry doughtfull think abought it theas are god's all powerfulkl beanings that can do what theay pleaz if theay decrey that no one is going ot use the blode sotone well you get my point

MY GOODNESS, sorry man, but i think you need a spell checker. Just reading that made my eyes hurt

That's what I was going to point out.

My impression of Ritualist is that they are twisting the rules and restrictions of normal magic, because they are not bound to any one god. I personally imagine them using an older form of magic, and rather than being limited to a particular school, they have ascended them all, and are able to use magic for whatever purpose they choose....though arguably with more negative effects than those that use contemporary magic. Rather than mastering magic...they're bending or subverting it. I would not tie them in with grenth at all...seems to me that what they do (ie... forcing souls to do their bidding) is circumventing Grenth's own power. I can't imagine he'd be happy about that.

there have been hints of a spare diety (I don't remember who, but an npc said the 5 dieties at some point, was a canthan)

Grenth is the patron of Necromancers, Ritualists and Hydromancers.

If you know anything about classical mythology, you may know the deities Hades and Persephone - the two rulers of the underworld. Hades is the God of the Dead, and he governs the taking of newly dead souls into the underworld. His wife Persephone is the Goddess of Rebirth and governs the cleansed souls leaving the underworld to be reborn into the world of the living. Together they are half of the cycle of life and death and represent the seasons Winter and Spring.

To me Ritualists represent that aspect of 'rebirth', marking the end of a soul's journey though the underworld. Note that rebirth isn't a function of nature (Melandru) or divinity (Dwayna)

For the sake of completeness, Melandru governs the 'life' half of the cycle of life and death and embodies 'nurturing' (Summer) and 'dying' (Autumn). Likewise, Rangers nurture and kill.

Melandru and Grenth are the only two deities that represent the cycle of Life and Death.

Dwayna (who represents Divinity) is on a whole new level! I was writing something for Dwayna but it's really... beyond the scope of this thread I don't want to go there

Likewise Lyssa (Chaos) and Balthazar (Order) are on a different axis to Life and Death, so I won't touch them either

Note that there is no Good / Evil axis among the gods - Good and Evil are the subjective concepts of mortals!

Woo! Hope you liked that post Deeeeeeeeep!