Guild Wars 2

(I posted this on a RP forums, but I’ll repeat it here in hopes that it’ll help some people!)

The following lore and guide shall be fixed towards those wanting to roleplay a human and wish to know about the vast amount of lore that surrounds them. Many Guild Wars 2 players may not have played the previous game or perhaps played it and didn’t take proper notice to the story at the game or check into the background and lore and thus might feel a little ‘behind’ on lore and with the GW2 wiki offering a scarce amount of overall lore and the GW:Wiki being a nightmare to traverse to properly understand the lore, I have developed this guide to help all those who wish to know more about the incredible lore behind humans! I shall section it differently for each kingdom, but I will be focusing it on the Tyrian (Continent) kingdoms first before moving onto Canthan and Elonian lore.

Section 1 shall be devoted to general lore of Tyrian Humans, with Section 2 devoted to Krytans and so on and forth. Either way, I shall keep updating this and I hope it’s of help to a few people! I will only very briefly go over lore in Guild Wars 2 and I won’t touch any of the lore mentioned in the books released by the ArenaNet as I don’t want to spoil them for anyone. (I highly recommend them, however, they’re a great read!) If you’re looking for any specific bits of lore, have any queries or feedback on the guide, please leave a reply and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

Sources: Mostly GW:Wikia and the Guild Wars games.

(1) Tyrian Human Lore.

(i) Origination, the Gods and their Exodus

Humans, to start with, are a race that is not native to Tyria. Contrary to popular belief, they were not ‘born’ or ‘created’ on this world, but were instead brought to the world by the –original- Six Gods; Dwayna, Balthazar, Lyssa, Melandru, Abaddon and Dhuum. Dhuum’s inclusion in the list is one that could be debated considering there’s no timeline for his rule as God of Death, all that is known is that he was overthrown by Grenth at some point and imprisoned in the Underworld.

Also contrary to popular belief, humans are thought to have ‘originated’ in Cantha, or rather, south of Cantha; not Orr. Through Balthazar, the humans were encouraged to wage war upon the other races and claim land for their own. In 205 BE (Before the Exodus of the Gods), the humans and Gods arrived on Tyria (the continent) and established the nations of Orr, Ascalon and Kryta, with Orr being the first to be colonised with Arah being nicknamed the ‘home of the Gods’ as Dwayna, Melandru and Balthazar were said to have lived there. The Gods and humans pushed the Charr north as well, establishing the nation of Ascalon on top of their old hunting grounds. King Doric became the first ruler of ‘all human realms’ with the aid of the Gods and resided within Arah.

At this time, Abaddon controlled the magic in the world and gave it freely to the races of Tyria; too freely. King Doric pleaded for the Gods to restrict the magic due to how destructive the power was in such overwhelming quantities and so the Gods created the five bloodstones (one for each school of magic and one keystone) to restrict that power. It is implied that Doric died to seal the bloodstones with the words “For it is through his sacrifice that we now live on. May his blood have been spilled for the good of all” upon an Ascalonian monument at King’s Watch.

Abaddon, in furore and disagreement at the creation of the bloodstones, waged war upon the Gods with his margonite army and was eventually defeated by the Gods and imprisoned within the ‘Realm of Torment’. It was because of this great war and the devastation that it caused, that the Gods left Tyria. This time is known as the ‘Exodus of the Gods’ and thus starts ‘AE’ on the Tyrian Calendar and timeline. Although Abaddon was imprisoned, servants of Abaddon, such as the Titans, the ‘Fortune Teller’ and ‘Razakel’ escaped into the world of Tyria to do his bidding.

(ii) The Guild Wars (Ooh, name drop!)

After the Exodus of the Gods, the colonies of Kryta and Ascalon drew further apart from Orr and eventually split into their own separate kingdoms and went into open conflict with each other, resulting in the Guild Wars that saw the three kingdoms of Orr, Kryta and Ascalon locked in a stalemate for decades, if not centuries. The Guild Wars consisted of three separate wars between the three nations, with little known of the first war, Ascalon assumed to be the victors of the second war and the third war lasted for around 57 years. (1013AD – 1070AD) which caused much hatred between the three kingdoms. The following is a brief list of the most famous ‘guilds’ that took part in the war and their role;

Ascalon’s Chosen – Ascalon’s Chosen is a guild that war around for over 200 years, founded sometime before 860AE and took part in the Guild Wars. King Adelbern led the guild during the third war and his heroism saw him crowned King of Ascalon instead of Duke Barradin.

Zealots of Shiverpeak – The Zealots were an Orrian guild that attacked Kyhlo; the guild fought Ascalon’s Chosen many times and slew a member named Mordokai, who was Devona’s father.

The White Mantle – Although not officially a guild; the White Mantle were formed during the third war by Saul D’Alessio. The White Mantle are not thought to have taken any part in the Guild Wars and will be expanded upon in the ‘Kryta’ section, but their formation date and a lack of other Krytan guilds to mention leads to their inclusion in this list.

The Guild Wars came to an end because of a new threat that emerged; the Charr.

Aside: The foundation of Kryta is actually in question over new recent lore which suggests a ‘retcon’, check it out here.

(iii) The Charr Invasion (Brief)

The Charr Invasion of the north started with a few skirmishes against the Great Northern Wall of Ascalon, but the Charr, worshipping the ‘Titans’ (The escaped servants of Abaddon), were given the ‘Cauldron of Cataclysm’ to use against them, and so the Searing of Ascalon began. The Searing featured devastating magic which ‘seared’ the land of Ascalon and north of the Great Northern Wall upwards towards the Blazeridge Mountains; raining fiery crystals that brought down parts of the Great Northern Wall and once the embers settled, the Charr marched through it to wage war upon Orr as well as Ascalon. The Charr passed through the Far Shiverpeaks to wage war on Kryta, having split into separate legions, and warred with the humans upon the continent of Tyria. The extent of the Charr Invasion will be explained in each nation’s separate section.

( 2)(i) Kryta and Krytans

Since Kryta is the ‘primary’ human kingdom of Tyria in Guild Wars 2 and thus the nation most roleplayers will probably choose for their character, I’ll do it first.

Kryta was the last human kingdom to be established in Tyria; it was established in 300AE and it gained its independence in 358AE. Its royal family are said to be descendants of King Doric, however, the only notably kings known before the White Mantle were formed are King Jadon and the Mad King Thorn.

King Jadon was the last king of Kryta before the White Mantle came to power; he fell in love with the Priestess Berea, whom he met at the Temple of the Ages, and is the father of the later known ‘Queen Salma’. However, during the Krytan invasion, King Jadon turned his back on both Berea and Kryta, fleeing from the land as the Charr forces marched upon his kingdom and besieged it; were it not for the exiled Saul D’Alessio, the kingdom would have fallen to Charr hands.

(ii) Saul D’Alessio and the White Mantle

Saul D’Alessio was said to be a ‘drunkard’ and a ‘thief’. However, during his exile, he was said to have ‘encountered a city where he found towers that reached up into the heavens and was inhabited by godlike creatures’ in his dying state. It was there that he was saved by the ‘Unseen Ones’, who he then proclaimed to be his gods. The Unseen Ones returned Saul to a Kryta besieged by the Charr; using his famed inspirational skills and sincerity, he managed to rally men to his cause and formed the ‘White Mantle’ and fought back against the Charr.

‘To end the war, Saul devised a desperate plan. He and a small group of his most elite fighters would sneak into the main Charr encampment in the dead of night and assassinate the Charr leaders. It would confuse the Charr enough for the Krytans to fight back and force them out of Kryta. However, the plan was dangerous, and Saul knew that the chance of survival was slim.
His plan went perfectly and as anticipated, the Charr turned on them. Saul did all that he could do: pray, and hope that his unseen gods would spare him. Surprisingly, they obliged. The Unseen Ones appeared and decimated the Charr with their devastating magic. The Charr were defeated. Kryta was saved; but at a price.

After defeating the Charr, the Unseen Ones turned on those who had moments earlier worshiped them as their gods and murdered them then disappeared. They took Saul, in whom they had imbued their most powerful magic, with them. Only a handful survived. Those who remained, who had been deemed most devoted, told the Krytans that Saul was killed by Charr during their retreat back over the Shiverpeak Mountains.’(GW:Wiki)

Despite Saul’s death, the White Mantle continued on through Confessor Dorian, Justicar Habilion and Justicar Thommis, who controlled Kryta and rejected the human gods in favour of the Unseen Ones, which caused a stir within Kryta; rebels broke away and used guerrilla tactics to fight the White Mantle, forming the ‘Shining Blade’. The White Mantle, however, were finding ‘chosen’ amongst their citizens, using the Eye of Janthir to pick them out; the ‘chosen’ would then be taken out to the bloodstone within the Maguuma Jungle to be sacrificed for the will of the Unseen Ones. The White Mantle are estimated to have killed thousands with their ritual sacrifice; the blood of the chosen being used to power the bloodstone which strengthened the Door of Komalie to stop the Titans (servants of Abaddon as mentioned before) from properly entering the world. The Shining Blade slew Justicar Habilion upon the bloodstone and Kryta was plunged deeper into civil war.

(iii) The Shining Blade

The Shining Blade were loyalists to the reinstating of a monarchy within Kryta and were opposed to the White Mantle and their rejection of the gods. After the death of Justicar Habilion, the White Mantle marched into the Maguuma Jungle and began to purge the Shining Blade leadership, after the betrayal of one of their leaders called ‘Markis’, causing many to be captured, including the other leaders of the Shining Blade; Evennia and Saidra, and the rest were killed or fled to the Southern Shiverpeak with the aid of the mysterious ‘Vizier Khilbron’. (Will be expanded upon under ‘Orr’)

Evennia and Saidra were saved from the clutches of the White Mantle that sought to sacrifice them upon another bloodstone within the Southern Shiverpeaks, with Saidra sacrificing herself to aid in their escape. After the defeat of the ‘Unseen Ones’ within the Southern Shiverpeaks, then found to be merely creatures known as the ‘Mursaat’, Evennia stepped down from her position as leader of the Shining Blade to serve Princess Salma and aid her reinstatement upon the throne, leaving Bartholos to lead the Shining Blade.

(iv) The Civil War Continues

Despite the end of the White Mantle’s ‘gods’, the war in Kryta was still not over, and after the Shining Blade aided with war on the Ring of Fire Island Chain and after being embroiled in the Asuran war against the Destroyers, they eventually returned to the civil war in Kryta to help restore the Krytan monarchy. The Shining Blade created a camp within the Talmark Wilderness in Kryta and with the aid of two Asura and the Ebon Vanguard, they managed to tactically take Lion’s Arch (then the seat of power in Kryta) from the White Mantle without a drop of blood spilled. After a series of assassinations upon White Mantle officials, the White Mantle forces attacked Lion’s Arch and after a bloody battle; with the aid of the Ebon Vanguard, Lionguard, Shining Blade and the two Asura; the White Mantle forces were defeated and the monarchy was properly restored.

(v) Change in Kryta – Recent Lore

Following the defeat of the White Mantle, Queen Salma proclaimed the Shining Blade to serve on as her royal guard under the leadership of a necromancer known as ‘Livia’, as well as creating the ‘Seraph’, a military force in Kryta led by Bartholos.

Two hundred and fifty years later, to the present day, Kryta is in a very different state to that following the end of the Civil War. The monarch remains the same, with Queen Salma being an ancestor of the Queen Jennah that rules Kryta today. Divinity’s Reach was built upon the Divinity Coast and following the surfacing of Orr and the flooding of Lion’s Arch and the southern coast of Kryta, Divinity’s Reach became the capital, with the Queen and Ministers ruling from there.

After the flood waters receded, Lion’s Arch was rebuilt upon its original state and became a cosmopolitan city that has rejected the Queen’s rule, allowing all races within and becoming the staging point against the forces of Zhaitan.

Kryta has become embroiled in another war against the centaurs, however, with the Modniir Tribe of the Shiverpeaks allying with the lesser tribes of the Tamini and Harathi and urging them into attacking the humans. The Seraph and Shining Blade still exist in their roles provided by Queen Salma, with the Seraph becoming the law and order within Kryta.

Kryta, being the last of the Tyrian kingdoms, has become a refugee haven; with districts devoted to Ascalonian, Elonian and Canthan (the Canthan District is collapsed, however) refugees. The Ascalonian Settlement in the centre of Kryta has existed since the Ascalonian refugees arrived following the Charr Invasion and as a result the two nations are heavily linked and Kryta is often seen as the ‘last bastion of humanity’.

(vi) Famous Krytan Characters of the Past

Saul D’Alessio – Kryta’s Unlikely Hero, Founder of the White Mantle.

King Jadon – The King that Fled.

King Thorn – The Mad King.

Queen Salma – The Lost Queen Found.

Evennia – Leader of the Shining Blade, she essentially put Queen Salma upon the throne.

Saidra – Leader of the Shining Blade, Evennia’s Saviour.

Bartholos – The First Seraph.

(vii) Krytan Names – Aid in Roleplaying

Krytan naming convention seems to differ from the anglo-saxon/celtic style that Ascalon seems to adopt; instead the names are far more similar to that of south-western Europe, e.g. France, Italy and so. However, with the mix of cultures within Kryta and the Ascalonian-Krytan connection, a Krytan character could have a name with a convention similar to that of Ascalon, Cantha or even Elona, with Logan Thackery as an example. However, for the more ‘pure’ Krytan bloodlines, the naming convention applies.

The Krytan people are more accepting than the prideful and stubborn Ascalonians; more willing to see peace through with the Charr, most likely due to their conflict with the race ending a long time ago.