Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone, I’m currently in the process of making a map of tyria, but I have stumbled upon a few odd things that I would like to ask you about.

1: Have the Southern Shiverpeaks changed much since GW1 Eotn? Other than a volcano erupting, have the natural borders the mountains created changed much? Its mainly the Zone dividers that are throwing me off, which brings me to question two.

2: Are zone dividers there in lore? I wouldn’t think they are, but… Who knows. If they are, that would be quite odd due to them being straight lines and rectangles. Shrugs

3: Are the Steamspur mountains just a tropical part of the shiverpeaks that have been heated up due to Mt. Maelstrom? This also would probably depend on the answer to question one: If the borders are the same (Or mostly the same) since gw1, I would think the answer would be “Yes” because in Gw1, the steamspur mountains were just a part of the Shiverpeaks.

Well, I think that is all! Discuss!

Pretty much Mount Maelstrom seems to have changed the climate in the Southern Shiverpeaks, which is why they have changed names to the Steamspur Mountains.

For all intents and purposes, unless there is something within the zone dividers (like grottos, hidden passageways, etc) they are somewhat assumed not to exist. I mean the area between Nebo Terrace and Ascalon Settlement was mountains in GW1 but it’s a river in GW2, so take those zone dividers in stride.

So, the mountains are all still in the same places, then? Just making sure.

Except for Jormag shattering the far Shiverpeaks and Mount Maelstrom’s eruption defrosting the southern Shiverpeaks to have them renamed into the Steamspur Mountains, those mountains remain the same.

The mountains between zones are likely just mechanical usages to act as zone boundaries. Only when they have PoI and caverns within them could you really presume them to be there in lore, and even then only what construes around said caverns and PoI – the large hills between Queensdale and Gendarran, for example, would be such a situation, being a mine.

Yeah, areas like Godslost swamp make this visible. I mean what is the likelyhood that mountains would separate that swamp from a similar swamp just south of it in Kessex Hills. In all reality they are most likely part of the same swamp and we just have mountains to separate them in zones. I mean Kryta has always been a relatively rocky zone, so we can assume some of these large hills are real, but the forms of the zones themselves are mechanics more often than not.

There were hills in that area in GW1 too (the transition from Black Curtain to Kessex Peak), though it was not separating the swamps but rather a channel to the swamp’s outlet.

Well yes, but just because they were in both games doesn’t mean they necessarily exist. I mean so many of the old zone boundaries have been completely inverted or dissolved that I would say, like you did, that they most likely don’t exist unless they hold some importance.

You should check this out: http://thatshaman.blogspot.nl/2013/03/a-historical-guide-to-tyria-update-3.html