Guild Wars 2

We were talking about this last night as we ran the Howler King and Colossus Rumbulus paths last night. We had two topics, whether any of the Ascalonian Catacombs here were from GW1 and what references of the gods were found. I took a bit more interest into this and decided to explore the catacombs this morning just to see what I found.

After discussing last night he came to the simple conclusion that none of GW2’s catacombs were re-imaginings of GW1’s areas. All of GW2’s catacombs take place north-east of Ashford (the old town) mainly underneath Ascalon City and the Great Northern Wall. In comparison, on the over-world map it is easy to tell that the GW1 catacombs were located between Barradin Estate and Ashford Abbey, going about as far north as Ascalon City and as far south as the top of Wizard’s Folly. That was a sad realization, that they would name an area of GW2 after an area in GW1 and include absolutely none of the original zone within it, yet I think I had come to this conclusion previously.

The second subject was which gods were referenced within the Catacombs. I went through the GW1 zones and found only statues of Grenth, which makes sense due to the deathly nature of the region. As I continued to look I found murals referencing Balthazar within a central chamber which also included a stained glass image of grenth Sadly these murals to balthazar only include from the shoulders down, with the head disappearing under the ceiling. I would not have known it to be Balthazar without having previously seen the full artwork elsewhere. I also found references to both Lyssa and Dwayna within the poisonous hallway which we have to safely take Paulus through. Once going down the stairs you can see the mural to Lyssa (I believe) and at the very end you can see a mural to Dwayna (which also includes a small room off to the side with yet another statue to Grenth. I believe the only goddess that I did not find reference to in the area would have been Melandru. I was pleased to find the southern most regions were ones that I had somehow never explored (finding unexplored zones in GW1 is a rarity for me) but minus the natural feel including many vines and roots, there was no reference to the goddess of nature. I find it interesting that she is alone in not receiving any mention within the area, but it may be due to perhaps followers of her not having their bodies buried within crypts, but instead within the soil where it can be one with nature, or something similar.

On GW2 catacombs references, there was at least 1 statue to Grenth within the zone where you pull the chains to kill gravelings in the Detha path (which we did not run, but was open to us) and there were Dwayna-eque angelic statues located within the zone where Nente was fought within the story mode. Any other references, feel free to include them in this summary. There was also a mural, cannot remember which room, and I cannot tell which goddess it would be (if it is a goddess and not another concept art of a profession).

I will post the screen shots of what I found, including the just recently mentioned mural (the last image). Except for the first picture(which was directly north of Necromancer Munne) you can see on the mini-map exactly where I was when the shot was taken. I don’t know if this will spark any interesting conversation, but it was just a study prompted by conversation that I took some interest in.

1. In gw1 it was said the catacombs extend across the kingdom. So it’s the same place but different sections, lore wise.
2. That is Melandru, not Lyssa.
3. In gw2, there is a statue of Kormir at Vassar and Ralena. And a statue of Grenth at Kasha. Where they are in story ofc. There are statues of Balthazar in the Hall of Champions iirc, but not entirely sure there. Northern side.
4. I am not sure on that gw2 mural but… That reminds me of the Kekai art piece “Wings” which I thought was not GW related…

Oh I understood the mention of the catacombs spreading all over. And I did like the fact that the original entrance is still available (albiet cut off from the rest of the catacombs) and you can go back into the little ruined building where Necromancer Muune used to be, I do not believe that you can go any further though.

As to the Melandru not Lyssa, I just looked it up, and you are right. It’s strange what cutting off the wings and matching the coloration to the room can do for how the mural is perceived. When I saw it it didn’t have the same “breathing life” type feel as it does in the concept art and I took it to be someone else. My mistake there.

As to the GW2, thx for the statues. I wasn’t paying as much attention to the statues last night, which lead me to miss a lot, although I do remember the mention of Kormir and Balthazar statues.

This means that thus far Lyssa is the one left out of the Catacombs. Not sure what to take of that, we know that Orrian followers of Lyssa had rituals surrounding death which seemingly included the use of a catacombs like structure… I guess Ascalonian followers of Lyssa might have done it differently, or the easier solution, we just haven’t found the catacombs that followers of Lyssa used.

In fact I think the catacombs extended even further than the borders of Ascalon in GW1, since we discover (in a series of pre-searing quests) that the charr have been using them to sneak spies past the wall.

I don’t know if it’s ever been fully explained but my guess is the catacombs started off as a variety of things – burial chambers, under ground parts of castles and large estates, natural caves and tunnels, ruins of older buildings that were built over etc. and over time they were gradually joined up into a network.

Just by reading through this thread i remember there was a bottomless pit in hte GW1 ascalon catacombs somewhere, surrounded by…gargoyles if i remember right. Too bad we dont see that anymore, wonder if its still there.

The pit is actually surrounded by restless corpses, very close to Oberan the Reviled. There is also the intricate iron bridge that goes over a pit of what appears to be dragon bones, just to name a few of the interesting zones there.

Danikat.8537:

In fact I think the catacombs extended even further than the borders of Ascalon in GW1, since we discover (in a series of pre-searing quests) that the charr have been using them to sneak spies past the wall.

Technically speaking, the kingdom of Ascalon stretched all the way to where Gwen’s Story takes place during the BMP. Which matches the northern seared lands. The charr just pushed that far south before starting the Searing.

So the catacombs could have easily stretched north of the wall (as they do in the dungeon), while remaining in Ascalon.