Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure if this has ever been cleared up, but, are the mists and equivalent to outer-space, where planets are to be found within, or do the mists function as the space in-between a multiverse, where time doesn’t exist?

Short answer is that we don’t really know. The Mists are certainly a metaphysical boundary – you can access them from anywhere on Tyria if you know how, although it is easier in some places than others. However, Tyria is said to have been born from the Mists – it’s possible (especially since there are signs that the stars are in fact influenced by events on Tyria in a way that balls of fusing plasma situated light years away would not be) that the patch of space as we know it is only large enough to contain Tyria’s solar system and that before you go much further out the physical world ends and you find yourself in the Mists, kind of like the phlogiston of the old theories about crystal spheres.

The short answer is no but you can draw similarities between the two.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Mists
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Mists

Alright, thanks for the answer!

So it could be considered the essence of a multiverse?

It’s not exactly clear if the Mists also act as “outer space” but I find it unlikely. It’s basically three things in one: the origin of all things (protomatter that creates both things and people, and supposedly souls), the afterlife (where souls go), and the boundary between worlds/realms/universes.

Whether the third is “also” outerspace or meant to be only a metaphysical boundary isn’t very clear (and probably won’t be until we get rocket ships), but it certainly is the latter nonetheless.

I’m not aware of any statement confirming that Tyria was born from the Mists – beyond the “all things can trace themselves to the Mists” lore.

Also, who’s to say Tyria has a solar system? Remember the sky of the Realm of Torment? Of the Mad Realm? They’re both night skies – while The Underworld, Fissure of Woe, and the Rift are daylight. Furthermore, there’s at least one mention of calling Tyria a “realm.”

draxynnic.3719:

Short answer is that we don’t really know. The Mists are certainly a metaphysical boundary – you can access them from anywhere on Tyria if you know how, although it is easier in some places than others. However, Tyria is said to have been born from the Mists – it’s possible (especially since there are signs that the stars are in fact influenced by events on Tyria in a way that balls of fusing plasma situated light years away would not be) that the patch of space as we know it is only large enough to contain Tyria’s solar system and that before you go much further out the physical world ends and you find yourself in the Mists, kind of like the phlogiston of the old theories about crystal spheres.

The question was simply if they are equivalent and even through things you are speaking of you can see that they in fact are not. If you are saying “Tyria’s solar system” is not in the mists how can it be equal to outerspace?

@Konig: I think I did see such a statement somewhere, but can’t put my finger on it trivially now.

When it comes to ‘solar system’ – I used the term because it’s an easily recognisable one. It’s entirely possible that the Tyria system is very different to anything from our universe.

@WonderfulCT: Actually, the point is that Tyria almost certainly is in the Mists. The question is whether Tyria is inside a bubble of, for want of a better term, realspace and that travelling too far away from Tyria will mean you’ll naturally transition into the Mists (making the Mists the equivalent of interstellar space) or whether Tyria is within a complete universe and the Mists is the quasispace between universes.

Thanks for the replies, everybody.

It would be nice if someone from Anet could come in and clarify the exact nature of the Mists, in this regard.

I would much rather we didn’t get clarification about what the Mists are in this regard.

Frankly, leave some mystery and wonder in your fantasy world and don’t explain everything . . . and people can fill in their own mental blanks about it.

I’ve always thought of the Mists as the space between dimensions. From it, you can access the afterlife, alternate worlds, the home of the gods and so forth. It’s an “inbetween.”

The Mists = Tom Bombadil

Enough said. Let’s keep it that way.