Guild Wars 2

Something that has been bugging me since I started playing Guild Wars 2 is the fact that so little of history is recorded or seemingly remembered. It is most egregious now with Tarir being ‘over one hundred years old!’ as if that is somehow…old. I mean, the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Mary in Cologne, Germany is almost 1000 years old, and we have detailed records of its construction and information about it. Tarir is young enough that most people’s parents or grandparents should have been alive during its construction. Now I get that it was done in secret by a particularly over-the-top secretive race, but still it seems odd to me when all the Priory researchers are oohing and aahing about something ‘over 100 years old!’

Tarir is over 200 years old, not 100. And to Tyrians, who don’t have a lot in the way of preserved history thanks to the rising of the Elder Dragons, the actions of an insane god, and several cataclysmic events both related and unrelated to the two, 200 years is a lot of time.

I mean think of it. How much around in Tyria was around in GW1’s time and is still there in decent condition? Not Lion’s Arch. Not Ascalon City. Not Droknar’s Forge. Not Temple of the Ages. Not Serenity Temple. Not any of Orr. Not even the Krytan villages of Shaemoor, Ascalon Settlement, Nebo Terrace, or Beetletun are anything like they were in GW1.

Unlike Europe, Tyria has no historical preservation.

Think of it not like us modern earthlings talking about something from the 1800s or 1700s, but about someone from the 900s talking about something from the 700s or 600s.

But anyways, a year was originally only 360 days – so it was shorter than for us. However, an interview back in 2013 blatantly retconned (first ever – most retcons are subtle or not-so-subtle “the old was subjective knowledge and this is new subjective knowledge which is more likely to be accurate”) added 5 days without any proper explanation for the sole purpose of syncing the two calendars up – and if the devs had put two seconds of thought into the matter they would have realized that if they wanted to sync the calendars up they would either need to put Wintersday in the middle of March, or Halloween in the middle of our summer, as Wintersday is not only the Tyrian new year but also the spring equinox while Halloween aka Mad King’s Day is an autumn holiday (and hinted to be at the end of autumn in Tyria) and since seasons previously were 90 days in length perfectly with both holidays being at the end of their respective seasons there would need to be approximately 90-95 days apart from the actual holiday (not necessarily the celebrations).

And seeing how the change for syncing calendars was done for the story journal which never mentions a specified date, and given that Heart of Thorns begins 24 hours after the end of Season 2 though was released 9 months later, I’ve decided to conclude that the change was stupid and this is the only part where I’d use fanon continuity and just argue that the only syncing they have is year to year, not day to day, and that the calendar is still 360 days with each season being 90 days.