Councillor Ludo

Councillor Ludo

Race

Asura

Profession

Mesmer

Rank

Normal
Legendary

Locations

• Council Level
  (Rata Sum)
  
• Rata Novus
  (Rata Novus)

Organization

Arcane Council
College of Statics
Tyrian Alliance

Image(s)

Interactive map (Upper level)

Councillor Ludo, sister of Councillor Zudo, is a member of the Arcane Council. She is the dean of the College of Statics, specializing in the mesmeric arts.

Biography

Early years

Ludo and her sister Zudo graduated from the College of Statics and College of Dynamics, respectively, with Ludo specializing in the mesmeric arts. They eventually rose in the bureaucracy and became the deans of their respective colleges as well as members of the Arcane Council in Rata Sum.

The council tolerated the Inquest despite the latter's troublemaking behavior because the council, too, was aiming for long-term asuran supremacy. As long as the Inquest delivered spectacular and effective new inventions, Flax and his council turned a blind eye to them more often than not. Despite falling in line with the council's views, Ludo nevertheless privately disliked the idea that the Inquest had managed to place its liaison Yahk in the council as their representative.

Edge of Destiny

In the years since the fallout of Destiny's Edge, the Arcane Council was lenient with Zojja and tolerated her outbursts since Snaff's demise in the battle against the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik. However, some asura, including Arcane Council guards, did not agree with this decision as they believed that the council was too lenient with Zojja.

Personal story

Experiments Gone Wrong

High Councillor Flax, other Arcane Council members, and Zojja attended the Snaff Prize competition in Soren Draa in 1325 AE, judging the inventions of the to-be Snaff Savant's krewe—Very Old Energy Detector, Massively Impressive Golem, or Interspatial Translocator—as well as the aforementioned krewe's rival Teyo.

VOED

If the Savant's krewe had invented the VOED, the councillors were shocked when the device drew out an Earth Elemental which nearly squashed all the councillors until the Savant and their allies defeated it. Ludo remarked that it had been yet another rogue elemental outburst three years in a row. However, Zojja countered the council's complaints by pointing out that most asuran inventions tended to be dangerous and should not be disqualified because of such risks. Flax ultimately relented and declared the Savant's krewe as winners of the Snaff Prize while telling them to find an artifact which the VOED was reacting to and render the artifact harmless before bringing it to the council.

M.I.G.

If the Savant's krewe had invented the M.I.G., Zojja and Flax declared the krewe as the winners of the Snaff Prize. However, the golem suddenly went haywire during the demonstration and tried to kill the councillors. When the Savant suspected Inquest sabotage, Flax viewed the accusation as the krewe trying to deflect blame from a malfunctioning invention on others. The High Councillor ordered the krewe to track down and dismantle the homicidal golem so it would not pose a threat to the asura.

Interspacial Translocator

If the Savant's krewe had invented the Interspacial Translocator, Teyo accused them of plagiarizing the Inquest's invention and sent her comrades to attack the krewe when the krewe refused to hand the invention over. After a brief clash between the offended parties, Flax told them to stop and initially declared the Savant's krewe as winners of the Snaff Prize. However, Teyo claimed she had evidence of plagiarism, making Flax order the Savant's krewe to hand over the invention to the Inquest until investigations had concluded.

Interested Parties

Val-A Golem

If the Savant had invented the VAL-A Golem, the Savant, Zojja, and her golem Mr. Sparkles learned that Councillor Haia had secretly tampered with the golem's design and intended to use the modified golems to assassinate the other members of the Arcane Council in a power grab while framing the Savant and Zojja for the entire incident. Upon arriving at the council chambers, the pair heard the council discuss that the golems were a gift from an anonymous donor just as the golems went berserk. Rallying the councillors to fight beside them, Zojja and the Savant defeated the golems after a fierce battle without any casualties in the council.

After the battle, Zojja and the Savant confronted High Councillor Flax and told him about Haia tampering with the Savant's design and what her plan had been. Flax needed no more convincing as he was well aware of Haia's bold moves although he also knew that Haia was clever enough to never leave evidence behind that could be traced back to her. Flax thanked the pair for their assistance but insisted that they drop the subject and let the council handle Haia. According to Flax, the council would keep an eye on Haia for any future acts of treachery and might even send a "lethal gift" to her should she step out of line again. Ludo herself swore to pay Haia back by baking her cookies with bombs in them. Zojja was more skeptical of the council's effectiveness, however, expecting Haia's power and wealth to allow her to get off with a mere slap on the wrist although the Savant pointed out that another councillor might very well do the treacherous Haia in one day.

Transatmospheric Converter

If the Savant had invented the Variable Atmospheric Conditioner, Zojja's rival Kudu decided to plagiarize and improve it to turn it into what he called the "Weather-matic 5000" before inviting Zojja, his successor as Snaff's apprentice, to a demonstration of his weather machine for the Arcane Council. Kudu intended to permanently flood Rata Sum with the weather machine, seeding chaos and creating opportunities for Inquest power grabs. Zojja and the Savant stopped Kudu's plan before it could come to fruition, but that did not stop a skeptical Flax, aware of the animosity between Zojja and Kudu, from ordering a full subcommittee investigation into whether Zojja had sabotaged Kudu's device during the demonstration. Ludo complained that Zojja and the Savant should have stopped Kudu sooner because the flooding of the council chambers had ruined her outfit.

Infinity Ball

If the Savant had invented the Infinity Ball, the Savant and their partner Shodd had the option to choose to carry out a con operation to trick High Councillor Flax's second-in-command Filka to hand over Flax's crozier to them so the pair could use it as a potential power source for the upgraded Infinity Ball in a field test. Ludo became suspicious when Flax complained about his new crozier and used her connections in Rata Sum to figure out what the Savant and Shodd had done but chose not to inform Flax about it because the pair had been innovative and progressive in pursuing their goals and had thus followed Flax's creed to the letter. Ludo also learned about the Savant and Shodd sneaking into Flax's office if the pair had sided with Agent Batanga of the Order of Whispers as Ludo had become practiced enough to recognized a forged document like the one the trio had made, but she once again chose not to inform Flax about it.

Rescue Researcher

Later that year, the Snaff Savant and Zojja, along with their chosen allies from the Durmand Priory, Order of Whispers, or the Vigil liberated Professor Gorr whom the Arcane Eye had kidnapped and threatened to silence because of the professor's controversial theory about the Elder Dragons and magic consumption. If the Savant had sided with Agent Batanga of the Order of Whispers to sneak into Flax's office to create a forged document in order to access Gorr's lab past security, Ludo eventually became aware of it during her investigation of the aftermath as she had become practiced enough to recognize a forged document like the one the pair had made.

After defeating the Arcane Eye leader Rakt in battle, the Savant's party informed High Councillor Flax and his fellow councillors Ludo and Zudo about Rakt's troublesome attempt to stifle the truth. However, Flax casually revealed that the Arcane Council had not only been aware of the link between dragons and magic consumption long before Gorr had presented his theory in public, but they had sanctioned Rakt's actions all along as they had wanted to control the spread of information and exploit Gorr's "discovery" for Rata Sum's benefit. The shocked Zojja and Savant threatened to have Gorr expose the truth to the whole world, but the High Councillor remained dismissive of them. Flax could simply turn this supposed defeat into a victory and still control the narrative in preparation for the asura to become the dominant race on Tyria once they had defeated the Elder Dragons.

Shadow of the Mad King 2012

Magister Tassi of the Durmand Priory visited the College of Statics some time around the Halloween celebrations of 1325 AE and "borrowed" Statics blueprints which she planned to use to create the Candy-Powered Matter Meter, a device which would help her uncover the mysteries of Mad King Thorn's past. Councillor Ludo caught Tassi in the act of "borrowing" the blueprints and tried to dissuade the magister from taking Statics property with her. However, Tassi evaded capture and successfully built the device away from the Arcane Council's influence by the time she began her study on the Mad King with the Pact Commander in Lion's Arch.

Living World Season 2

In 1327 AE, the Elder Dragon Mordremoth was spreading his influence over Tyria. At the Pact Commander and the asuran progeny Taimi's behest, Zojja reached out to the Arcane Council so she could help convince the councillors to attend a summit of racial leaders in the Grove and discuss the growing Elder Dragon threat.

Upon learning of Taimi working on a waypoint recalibration device to hide the waypoints' frequencies from Mordremoth's invasive vines, the council refused to attend the world summit without proof that the device would work and protect their valuable waypoints. After Taimi had demonstrated the device's usefulness and reluctantly handed it over, Councillor Phlunt promised to attend the talks at the summit as the council's representative.

While in the Grove, Phlunt voiced the Arcane Council's skepticism about the Pact requiring more funding and troops as the soldiers had already shown their prowess by defeating the Elder Dragon Zhaitan. However, he was convinced to consider joining the other races in supplying the Pact once the Commander pointed out how Mordremoth's first attempts at the asuran waypoints would only be the beginning of sabotaging asuran technology. The rest of the council would eventually learn from Phlunt that the summit had come under attack by the Mordrem which had targeted the leaders and damaged the Pale Tree. Realizing that Mordremoth was turning into too great a threat to ignore, the council ultimately decided to send supplies and troops to join the Pact for their upcoming invasion of the Heart of Maguuma where Mordremoth was suspected to dwell in.

Living World Season 3

Following Mordremoth's demise and the Pact's discovery of the lost asuran city of Rata Novus in 1328 AE, the Arcane Council sent researchers to study the ruined city to uncover its secrets, including its history and research data on the Elder Dragons, particularly Primordus. Ludo accompanied her fellow councillors Haia and Yahk to Rata Novus and attended a guided tour of the city. Many asura were still jumpy about seeing sylvari after some sylvari had turned against the Pact under Mordremoth's influence during the Maguuma campaign when the race as a whole had been revealed to be the Jungle Dragon's creations.

Shadow of the Mad King 2017

Magister Tassi revisited the College of Statics before the Halloween celebrations of 1330 AE and once again "borrowed" Statics blueprints which she planned to use to create the Candy-Powered Matter Meter Mk2, an improved version of her previous device, and continue her studies on the Mad King's sordid past. Councillor Ludo caught the magister in the act once more and tried to dissuade her from absconding with the blueprints but to no avail as Tassi successfully fled with her prize to build her device.

The Icebrood Saga

Chapter 1: Truce

Following the Elder Dragon Jormag's awakening in 1333 AE, the Ice Dragon's champion Ryland Steelcatcher approached the Arcane Council with an offer to exchange knowledge and collaborate with the asura to defeat Primordus, Jormag's enemy, for good as the Fire Dragon's rise was inevitable. Ludo and the rest of the Council agreed to Jormag's terms and saw the truce as logical in order to finally destroy the Fire Dragon which had driven asuran ancestors from the Depths of Tyria centuries ago.

By the time the Pact Commander, Braham Eirsson and Rytlock Brimstone arrived at Rata Sum, they witnessed Ryland having a discussion with Ludo's sister Zudo and Councilor Vark. Zudo was the first to welcome the Commander to the city and introduced them to Ryland. When the Commander questioned why Ryland, who had helped Jormag awaken, was allowed in the asuran capital, Vark pointed out that Ryland's actions in the charr civil war at the Drizzlewood Coast did not concern the asura and that it was more important to focus on Primordus who was sure to rise again in Jormag's wake. Zudo backed up her fellow councillor's statement by mentioning that the Council was focused on the present and the future and that Jormag could be reasoned with. The Council believed that an alliance against a common enemy was logical and that the Commander should recognize the value of such an arrangement against the destructive Fire Dragon.

Vark, Zudo and her sister Ludo attended Taimi's briefing at the Advanced Metamystics Lab alongside the Commander, Rytlock and Ryland. Taimi explained that she had been using her network to track the recent earthquakes happening throughout Tyria although she was unsure if all of it was related to Primordus or movements of ley energy. Vark found Taimi's findings odd, though, as the Council had never seen any activity that far below the crust.

Suddenly, Taimi's readings indicated activity beneath Rata Sum. As if on cue, the city was invaded by Primordus's destroyers which proved to be stronger than previous destroyer generations. Ludo fought alongside the rest of the Arcane Council, Ryland's Frost Legion, Braham, Rytlock, Taimi and the Commander and forced the destroyers into retreat once they had felled the destroyer lieutenant leading the invasion force. As soon as the battle had concluded, her sister Zudo ordered the destroyer corpses to be studied so the asura could catalogue their evolutionary discrepancies and identify any weaknesses.

Ludo would eventually learn what Taimi and Gorrik had told Councillors Vark and Haia about their latest findings on Primordus in the wake of the destroyer attacks throughout Tyria: Kralkatorrik's death had amplified a feedback loop between Primordus and destroyers so that each of them strengthened the other in preparation for Primordus's rise.

Chapter 4: Judgment

The Arcane Council's commitment to helping the Frost Legion with Primordus research ended up giving Jormag the upper hand in the conflict, and it was costing lives. To deprive Primordus of magic in the ever escalating arms race, Jormag began trapping innocents throughout Tyria in ice as the Frozen to both leech on their magic and preserving them for a future fight against the Fire Dragon, while destroyer attacks became more furious as a result. Realizing the suffering caused by the Ice Dragon's actions, the Council began bickering, trying to deflect the blame for their part in helping Jormag and framed it as all in service of protecting themselves from Primordus's threat. In a meeting with the Elder Dragon Aurene in 1334 AE, Councilor Vark acted as the Arcane Council's representative and voiced the Council's disagreement with the creation of the Frozen as they had never intended events to escalate as much as they had done. With the Council's data, the Pact's tacticians pinpointed a ley line nexus at Anvil Rock and decided to use Aurene's help to lure both rival Elder Dragons there to finish them off at the same time before their conflict would destroy Tyria.

Following the deaths of Jormag and Primordus in a clash at Anvil Rock, the Arcane Council took credit of contributing to the victory with their research. In subsequent weeks, the Council began fulfilling all of Taimi and Gorrik's resource requests for their study on the magic that the two Elder Dragons' demise had unleashed. Primordus's death had skyrocketed the council's approval metrics, and Gorrik surmised that their help with the magic research could be from guilt, or just spreading the wealth.

Janthir Wilds

Act 1

In 1337 AE, Ludo acted as the Arcane Council's emissary and attended a meeting with various faction leaders from across the known world with the intent to form a Tyrian Alliance.

Locations

Heart of Maguuma

• Rata Novus (instance)

Maguuma Jungle

• Rata Sum
  • Council Level
    • Arcane Council

Story involvement

Personal story

• Chapter 1: Experiments Gone Wrong
  • Dynamics path
    • In Snaff's Footsteps
  • Statics path
    • Snaff Would Be Proud
  • Synergetics path
    • The Snaff Prize
    • Political Homicide
• Chapter 2: Interested Parties
  • VAL-A Golem path
    • Magnum Opus
  • Transatmospheric Converter path
    • Flash Flood
• Chapter 3: Rescue Researcher
  • Lines of Communication

Living World Season 3

• Episode 1: Out of the Shadows
  • Research in Rata Novus
• Episode 2: Rising Flames
  • Taimi's Game

The Icebrood Saga

• Episode 5: Champions
  • Chapter 1: Truce
    • Primordus Rising

Janthir Wilds story

• Act 1
  • Prologue: The Tyrian Alliance
  • Strangers among Lands
• Absolution
  • Forced Entry
  • Salvation's Cost

Visions of Eternity story

• Act 1
  • Prologue: On the Sly (voice only)
  • Unscheduled Departures
• The Only Way
  • So It Is Written (voice only)

Event involvement

[Group Event] Defeat Lextalion the Merciless (80)

[Group Event] Assault the South Lung (80)

[Group Event] Assault the titanic heart (80)

Combat abilities

Effects

Dialogue

Hello, there. I was just filling my sister Zudo here in on our latest interminable Council meeting.

Tell me, what did I miss?

It was the usual filibustering over project approvals, before Yahk proposed deferring responsibility to the Inquest, also as usual.

Councilor Yahk got away with proposing something like that?

Of course! It was a large weight off our shoulders. We've all long since wearied of our own endless gridlock.

Isn't project evaluation the main business of the Arcane Council? (Same as "What holds up these project approvals?" below)

Why can't the Council agree on any project approvals? (Same as "What's your role on the Council?" below)

What's your role on the Council? (Same as "What's your role on the Council?" below)

That's terrible.

What holds up these project approvals?

Inevitably, most prove too newfangled or unorthodox for our elder members, like old Phlunt here.

Isn't project evaluation your main business? (Same as "And do you enjoy your work on the Arcane Council?" below)

What's your role on the Council? (Same as "What's your role on the Council?" below)

That's terrible.

What's your role on the Council? (Same as "What's your role on the Council?" below)

That's... distressing.

What's your role on the Council?

Councillor Zudo: Are you asking me, or my sister?

I'm sorry, I was addressing you.

Councillor Ludo: I'm Ludo, Dean of the College of Statics and an adept of the mesmeric arts.

And what about your lovely sister, here? (Same as "I meant the other of you" below)

And do you enjoy your work on the Arcane Council?

None of us really wants to be on the Council. We're the ones left to obsess over minutia while everyone else explores the world.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way.

A pleasure to meet you.

I meant the other of you.

Councillor Zudo: I'm Zudo, Dean of the College of Dynamics, specializing in the necromantic arts.

And what about your delightful sister, here? (Same as "I'm sorry, I was addressing you." above)

And do you enjoy your work on the Arcane Council? (Same as above)

I'm honored to know you.

Never mind. Carry on.

Pardon my interruption, then.

Quotes

Greets

Do you work for me?

Salutations.

Fascinating.

We all have a place in the Eternal Alchemy. Even you.

Excelsior.

Gallery

• 

  Ludo attends the meeting of the Tyrian Alliance.

Related achievements

• Janthir Wilds: Act 1: Everyone Loves Democracy — Listen to every delegate's thoughts on the vote. (1)
• Janthir Wilds: Act 1: Global Goings On — Listen to all of the delegates' updates during the Tyrian Alliance meeting. (1)
• Janthir Wilds: Act 1: Meeting Notes — Read every document in the Tyrian Alliance meeting area. (1)
• Janthir Wilds: Act 1: Rubbing Shoulders — Mingle with all of the delegates before the meeting comes to session. (1)
• Absolution: Diplomatic Relations — Check in with all your allies after the heated confrontation in Bava Nisos. (3)
• Absolution: Master Mingler — Speak with all of the partygoers during the Tyrian Alliance's celebration. (1)
• Visions of Eternity: Act 1: This Can't Be Good — Hear Ludo's and Sayida's thoughts on the unfolding Inquest plot. (1)

Notes

• Councillor Ludo has the legendary rank during the Janthir Wilds storyline.

Trivia

• Councillor Ludo is voiced by Courtenay Taylor since Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds.
• Councillor Ludo wears Feathered headpiece, Acolyte mantle, Devout garb, Feathered gloves, Primitive legwraps, and Aurora shoes. She wields Delusion as a weapon.