High Councillor Flax

This article is about the leader of the Arcane Council. For the resource node, see Flax.

High Councillor Flax

Race

Asura

Profession

Elementalist

Location

Council Level
(Rata Sum)

Organization

Arcane Council
Morphologists Krewe

Image(s)

Interactive map (Upper level)

“

The world's best and only hope is for us to start running it. When Rata Sum defeats the dragons, Tyria will fall to its knees and beg us to rule it.

— High Councillor Flax

High Councillor Flax is the leader of the Arcane Council and the krewe chief of the Morphologists Krewe. To the public, he appears as a good-natured individual who promotes innovation, and supports groups, even the Inquest, so long as the krewes' inventions are effective. However, he openly prefers non-Inquest inventions over Inquest, so long as they are more effective at the job, and shows interest in the Inquest's inventions only due to their cost-efficiency.

Beneath his public facade, however, Flax shows his intent to utilize whatever means necessary to promote the asura race as superior to all other races in Tyria, and actively controls information spread and even uses the presence of the Elder Dragons for this goal.

Biography

Early years

Aside from his tenure as the High Councillor of the Arcane Council, Flax was also the krewe chief of the Morphologists Krewe. Due to his duties in the council, he left his foul-tempered second-in-command Filka in charge of the krewe whenever he was required elsewhere. According to Shodd, the krewe mainly consisted of toadies and suck-ups who fed Flax's ego—and he still treated them like dirt. Despite this treatment, the krewe worked hard on projects, and Flax encouraged them to interact with the "less gifted" in the asuran community. Whenever the High Councillor was not using his crozier, he left it with the Morphologists Krewe for safekeeping. Whenever he required his crozier, he sent word to have someone from the krewe deliver it to him.

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.

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. Flax took some time during the competition to answer the Savant's questions about the history behind the Snaff Prize and Zojja's ties to it.

VOED

If the Savant's krewe had invented the VOED, Flax was initially skeptical of the invention's uses. He became angry when it drew out an Earth Elemental which nearly squashed all the councillors until the Savant and their allies defeated it. However, Zojja countered the High Councillor 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. While investigating the plagiarization claims and trying to prove that Teyo was lying, the Savant suspected that Teyo had somehow bribed, blackmailed or frightened Flax into letting the Inquest confiscate the device.

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. The High Councillor 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. 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.

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 Flax's second-in-command Filka to hand over the High Councillor's crozier to them so the pair could use it as a potential power source for the upgraded Infinity Ball in a field test.

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. After defeating the Arcane Eye leader Rakt in battle, the party informed 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.

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. Flax and 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. Some of the councillors attended a guided tour of the city; Flax, however, was not present for the tour. 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.

The Icebrood Saga

Champions

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. Intrigued by the idea, Flax and the rest of the council invited Ryland to Rata Sum. In the following talks, they 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.

Councillors Vark, Ludo, and Zudo attended the asuran researcher Taimi's briefing at the Advanced Metamystics Lab. 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. Ryland summoned his Frost Legion underlings via a portal and ordered them to protect the Arcane Council, including Flax, from the destroyers. Flax fought alongside the rest of the council, the Frost Legion, Taimi, Braham Eirsson, Rytlock Brimstone, and the Pact Commander and forced the destroyers into retreat once they had felled the destroyer lieutenant leading the invasion force until the invaders had been defeated.

Chapter 2: Power

Flax would eventually learn what Taimi and her research partner 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 between the two rival Elder Dragons, 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, who had allied with the Pact Commander and the Tyrian defenders, 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 in Rata Sum, and Gorrik surmised that the council's help with the magic research could be from guilt, or just spreading the wealth.

Janthir Wilds

Act 1

After the Kryptis had invaded various locations across the world, including Rata Sum in an event deemed the asura's worst since Primordus, Queen Jennah reached out to the leaders of the various nations across the three continents for talks of a Tyrian Alliance so the nations would work together to thwart any future threats. Councillor Ludo was sent to the Tyrian Alliance's inaugural meeting in Lion's Arch as the Arcane Council's representative in 1337 AE. Flax and the rest of the asura were reeling not only from the Kryptis and Void attacks but also the fact that Cantha had finally opened its borders to the rest of the world and had proven itself to have gone beyond the asura in technological advancement, which worried the council who had always viewed asuran magitech as superior to anything else on Tyria. Ludo used the opportunity to advocate for the asura's more productive integration into the global sector and sharing of knowledge to and fro between members of the alliance, even motioning the Arcane Council to eliminate any restrictions on admittance into the asuran colleges.

Some weeks later, Ludo wrote a "bad report" to the Arcane Council that titans had returned to Tyria despite their apparent extinction centuries ago and had been sighted roaming in the wilds of Janthir. The council also learned that the majority of the Tyrian Alliance's representatives had voted against using the Scepter of Orr on the titans for the time being during the second alliance meeting.

Absolution

Flax and the rest of the council would eventually see Ludo return to Rata Sum to resume her duties once the Tyrian Alliance had dealt with the titan threat in Janthir in 1338 AE. Although the alliance's members seemed to collaborate more tightly as the months passed, conflicting personalities and goals continued dominating Arcane Council discussions while there had been a notable urgency in the air in Rata Sum ever since the alliance had sprung forth.

Visions of Eternity

Act 1

During the Tyrian Alliance's exploration of Janthir, a storage facility containing the historical asuran genius Zinn's research was recovered from Rata Novus. High Councillor Flax discreetly coordinated with Inquest leadership to raid the storage facility for data. Director Vloxx, one of the Inquest's recently promoted leaders, reached out to Flax for a mutually beneficial deal involving sending an expedition to Castora, a fabled island rich with magic whose location the Inquest had been able to pinpoint with new information found in Zinn's recovered notes. A deal was struck: in exchange for the Arcane Council sanctioning the Inquest's mission, Vloxx would bring back whatever he found on Castora to Rata Sum for the asura's benefit. After winning Flax over and using Councillor Ludo's busy schedule in the alliance meetings to their advantage, the Inquest's representative Councillor Yahk volunteered to take over Ludo's role in her absence to oversee rations and supplies originally meant for the Tyrian Alliance and discreetly redirected them to Vloxx's expedition instead.

Flax, Yahk, and their allies made financial cuts to the colleges, and little snips to funding here and there across various projects, all in an effort to funnel further funds to the Inquest's expedition while covering their tracks. With the preparations made and their funding secure, the Inquest's fleet began the voyage to Castora in late 1338 AE. The High Councillor used his political influence to audit Rata Sum Port Authority database records and seal them from being accessed and redacting information about the unscheduled departures, which Director Ezuli of Rata Sum Port Authority protested as Flax was going against established protocol. Ludo, feeling remorseful for having aided Flax in covering up Professor Gorr's research on Elder Dragons over a decade ago and learning about Inquest's suspicious naval activity and Flax's curious audit of the port database, cast a glamour on the Pact Commander so the latter could infiltrate Flax's lab to uncover documents about what the High Councillor had gotten involved in this time around.

Flax, unaware of Ludo's change of heart and the disguised Commander entering the lab with her help, focused on his latest project of fortifying asuran data collection instead of exposing it to their competitors while whipping up his technicians to provide results and belittling Cantha's accomplishments as opposed to asuran legacy of excellence. When the Commander sabotaged the flux correlator's data organization by distracting Lab Technician Zeba, Flax personally came to accuse Zeba of incompetence and told her to fix it by herself while he and the other technicians would observe her. The High Councillor was unaware that the Commander had used the ensuing chaos to sneak into his office to rummage through his personal correspondence to find evidence of his involvement with the Inquest as well as accessed his concole to approve both Zeba's salary increase and her job transfer request which Flax had dismissed earlier. Flax had been smart enough not to write down what the Inquest were looking for on Castora, however, leaving Ludo and the Commander with little choice but to continue their investigations elsewhere. Ludo planned to let her sister Zudo know about Flax and Yahk's schemes so they could eventually expose the pair's dealings to the rest of the Arcane Council.

Act 2

Director Vloxx kept a confidential missive written by the Arcane Council in his study in the Command Complex deep in Starlit Weald as the Inquest established its hold over the Castoran wilderness during their expedition. Upon encountering the Pact Commander who had infiltrated the complex, the director tried to win the Commander over by inviting them to read the missive which indicated in clear terms that Flax and the council had not only sanctioned the Inquest's mission to Castora but had actually helped fund it as well as deliberately delayed and hindered the Tyrian Alliance's investigations so the Inquest could get a proper headstart. The Arcane Council's goal was to have Vloxx bring any findings on Castora to Rata Sum rather than hand anything over to the alliance, so the council could use these magical artifacts and ancient knowledge to usher in a golden age of asuran dominion.

Location

Maguuma Jungle

• Rata Sum
  • Council Level

Story involvement

Personal story

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

The Icebrood Saga

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

Visions of Eternity story

• Act 1
  • Unscheduled Departures

Combat abilities

Effects

•  Frost Aura - Chill foes that strike you (only once per second for each attacker); incoming damage is reduced by 10%.

Skills

•   Vapor Blade - Cast a vapor blade that inflicts vulnerability and returns to you.
•   Cleansing Wave - Heal yourself and nearby allies, curing conditions.
•   Frost Armor - Protect yourself with frost armor that reduces incoming damage by 10%. While active, it chills foes that hit you. Each attacker can be affected by this only once per second.
•   Frozen Ground - Coat the target area in ice, chilling foes that enter it. Grant frost aura to allies in the area.

Quotes

Greets

Well? Spit it out.

My time is limited.

What is it?

Greetings.

I'm a councillor, you know.

Trivia

• Flax is voiced by Mark Bramhall.
• Flax wears Sorcerer's Masque, Epaulets, Livery and Shoes, combined with Embroidered Coat, and Masquerade leggings. As four of those pieces are human light Tier 3 cultural armor, he is one of the few NPCs wearing cultural armor of another race.
• Someone named Flax was on the Arcane Council in 1237 AE. Whether this is High Councillor Flax or not is unclear, but if so then Flax is roughly a century old as of the beginning of Guild Wars 2 in 1325 AE, making him one of the oldest asura still alive.

See also

• Councillor Flax's Crozier