Guild Wars 2 second beta event ends with dragon, turns players on each other

The second Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event wrapped up last night (or this morning) with yet another finale, one that was considerably more interesting than massacring elite critters and mutant moa birds.

If you stuck around until 11:30 PM PST, then no doubt you were able to experience the "festivities" for yourself. Suddenly, players were being "branded," transformed into crystalline monsters by Kralkatorrik, the fearsome Crystal Dragon, one of the Elder Dragons of Guild Wars lore. Players-turned-monsters were unleashed across the charr territory, and anyone who died to them was resurrected as one of these mindless servants of Kralkatorrik.

The newly born corrupted were met with a clear message: "Forget your allies. You serve Kralkatorrik now. Go crush the races of Tyria!"

Player enemies across the map were now marked as our enemies, and the branded swept across the fields, overtaking Waypoints -- which would then be corrupted and transformed into crystal form as well -- and towns. The fallen would simply rise again and return to battle. Not unlike zombies, really.

Kralkatorrik's right-hand dragon "The Shatterer" made an appearance as well, circling the fields and watching his destruction from afar.

The uncorrupted were joined by Rytlock, the legendary charr hero, who stood against the crystal army as an "elite" level 80 boss. It's unlikely we would've been able to defeat him, especially since the servers went down just a few minutes after we stumbled upon the guy.

As of now, ArenaNet has yet to reveal the next beta weekend date, but this latest finale has us salivating for more lore.