Flame and Frost is over, but GW2's Living Story is just beginning.

As for future Living Story arcs, I wouldn't be the first to mention that the Consortium could be the masterminds behind everything. The Consortium was introduced with the Lost Shores content in November. They owned an island in the Sea of Sorrows known as Southsun Cove. Always about business, they tried to turn the island into a tropical getaway, but the island had a small pest problem: the karka.

We first met the Consortium when they arrived in Lion's Arch. It wasn't long after their arrival that the karka showed up. The ever heroic Lion's Guard and other adventurers beat back the karka from Lion's Arch, but didn't stop there and continued to the island, ultimately ending with the death of the largest karka threat on the island.

What if, however, none of this happened by accident? What if this was all a fiendish Consortium plan to get unpaid mercenaries to clean up their little pest problem? Tourism to the island sure did seem to pick up after that fateful weekend.

Then we know, from the captured Molten Alliance prisoner, that the Alliance was set up by a mysterious man from the city. What would the Consortium have to gain by creating a new threat on the other side of the world from their island getaway? Did they know that the Alliance would force refugees into Lion's Arch where they could gently guide them to take root on their land? Sure they might be nice and friendly to these new refugees, but how long before the topic of property taxes and real estate rent comes up?

If the Consortium is truly behind these nefarious orchestrations, it surely won't end here. Anyone who has visited the refugee camp on Southsun Cove will notice that the population has not swelled too greatly. If this was a plot by the Consortium to populate their island, then there is still a lot of room left for more refugees (and thus more money for the Consortium to collect).

If the Charr and Norn were the targets of the first wave of attacks, then it wouldn't be surprising to see attacks on the other three races. The last race I would expect an attack on, however, would be the Humans. In order for anyone to reach Southsun Cove they must first travel through Lion's Arch and catch a ride on a ship. Kryta and the Human population are right outside the gates of LA, what could be too close for it to be considered a safe haven before heading to the island.

This won't always be the case, however. The Consortium has slowly been building an Asura gate of its own on the island. After the completion of the gate LA will no longer be a required layover. In fact, if the Consortium built a mobile version of the gates, they could not only trigger the flood of refugees but also offer the quickest means of rescue by “luckily” positioning the gate near the disaster before it arrived.

With all of this motive for the Consortium, could it be possible that they are being set up to take the fall? After all they didn't seem too keen on outside help during the karka invasion and could merely be repaying LA by relieving it of some of its refugees.

If not the Consortium, then who could this mysterious stranger be? The Molten Alliance did seem pretty confident that they would survive the dragon attacks. Could the stranger be a servant of a dragon? Or maybe it is a mysterious man from a similarly mysterious tower?

Matt “Mattsta” Adams can be found on the Blackgate server, probably leveling one of his many alts.

I have done the Flame and Frost dungeon a lot. I have managed to collect all the cooking recipes (and multiple of a handful) and the tonic recipe. Not once in any run has anyone in my party gotten either the mini or backpack. A big part of why I am doing the dungeon is for those two things. I am not sure why they are such a rare thing when this dungeon is only going to be here for a couple of weeks. This dungeon is pretty much turning into a grind. With ArenaNet's position on anti-grinding one would think the end chest would have been daily (like the mining nodes in the dungeon are) with a much, much greater chance of receiving these rare items.

As always, if you have a question for me you would like to see answered here? Comment below or tweet it to @MattstaNinja.