Guild Wars 2

The wiki says he is god of fire, with his 2 fiery hounds and himself quite fiery.
But what determines or shows Balthazar to be god of fire, except from some random NPC lines and scrolls?

There is 1 historical event i found on the wiki which is the following line

“Balthazar came in fire and wrath, carrying the head of his father and leading his fierce hounds, Temar and Tegon. He swept Orr with a cleansing flame.”

Is there anything else associating Balthazar with fiery, or should i just accept it.

There is also this: When the world has the Favor of the Gods, statues of Balthazar light up with flames burning along the base, and the eyes burn brightly.

While he is both, I personally see Balthazar more as a god of war than a god of fire.

GscGunner.2419:

The wiki says he is god of fire, with his 2 fiery hounds and himself quite fiery.
But what determines or shows Balthazar to be god of fire, except from some random NPC lines and scrolls?

There is 1 historical event i found on the wiki which is the following line

“Balthazar came in fire and wrath, carrying the head of his father and leading his fierce hounds, Temar and Tegon. He swept Orr with a cleansing flame.”

Is there anything else associating Balthazar with fiery, or should i just accept it.

All the information we have on the gods is from random NPCs and scrolls. Thats pretty much how in-game lore works. If the NPCs in-game are saying, you find some books/scrolls in-game saying in, than you can pretty much rest assured that what they are saying is accurate.

Although there has been a case (can’t remember off the top of my head) where an NPC was wrong, and what he said contridicted some other things discovered through other NPCs/books/scrolls, but that seemed to be a special case. (I know it involved an old Jotun, but can’t remember who are what exactly.)

pdavis.8031:

GscGunner.2419:

The wiki says he is god of fire, with his 2 fiery hounds and himself quite fiery.
But what determines or shows Balthazar to be god of fire, except from some random NPC lines and scrolls?

There is 1 historical event i found on the wiki which is the following line

“Balthazar came in fire and wrath, carrying the head of his father and leading his fierce hounds, Temar and Tegon. He swept Orr with a cleansing flame.”

Is there anything else associating Balthazar with fiery, or should i just accept it.

All the information we have on the gods is from random NPCs and scrolls. Thats pretty much how in-game lore works. If the NPCs in-game are saying, you find some books/scrolls in-game saying in, than you can pretty much rest assured that what they are saying is accurate.

Although there has been a case (can’t remember off the top of my head) where an NPC was wrong, and what he said contridicted some other things discovered through other NPCs/books/scrolls, but that seemed to be a special case. (I know it involved an old Jotun, but can’t remember who are what exactly.)

The Jotun storyteller in Hoelbrak?

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

There is also this: When the world has the Favor of the Gods, statues of Balthazar light up with flames burning along the base, and the eyes burn brightly.

While he is both, I personally see Balthazar more as a god of war than a god of fire.

Agreed.
It seems while being a god of war and battle, that he is represented by fire/flames. As such imagery conveys destruction and consuming. Which is pretty much what war is.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

pdavis.8031:

GscGunner.2419:

The wiki says he is god of fire, with his 2 fiery hounds and himself quite fiery.
But what determines or shows Balthazar to be god of fire, except from some random NPC lines and scrolls?

There is 1 historical event i found on the wiki which is the following line

“Balthazar came in fire and wrath, carrying the head of his father and leading his fierce hounds, Temar and Tegon. He swept Orr with a cleansing flame.”

Is there anything else associating Balthazar with fiery, or should i just accept it.

All the information we have on the gods is from random NPCs and scrolls. Thats pretty much how in-game lore works. If the NPCs in-game are saying, you find some books/scrolls in-game saying in, than you can pretty much rest assured that what they are saying is accurate.

Although there has been a case (can’t remember off the top of my head) where an NPC was wrong, and what he said contridicted some other things discovered through other NPCs/books/scrolls, but that seemed to be a special case. (I know it involved an old Jotun, but can’t remember who are what exactly.)

The Jotun storyteller in Hoelbrak?

I think thats the one…
There was some doubt as to the validity of his stories, as other information from other sources in-game revealed different information.

As far as I can read here is that nothing is really shown that ties him to fire. Just tiny bits here and there, nothing really major like Abbadon and crystal sea that dried up after being cast down etc.

That info comes from the original Guild Wars manuscripts. Doesn’t get much more official than this (the manuscripts are still to be considered true, if nothing else has specifically mentioned by devs):

GW1 Manuscripts

The god of war and fire, Balthazar is often worshipped by Warriors and Elementalists, though there are Monks who have been known to follow his scriptures as well. Army commanders and guild lords will often say a few words to the Bastion of Martial Glory before leading their followers into battle. Balthazar is frequently shown holding a greatsword, its tip lodged in the ground, with a pair of battle hounds sitting at attention at his feet.

Most of the gods don’t show too much relation to their element. I mean there is Grenth as a bit of an exception, having King Frozenwind in his service, being associated with winter and such, but besides him, I don’t see any of the gods being more connected to a certain element than Balthazar is to fire. Melandru has plants, which do grow in earth, but aside from that I can’t remember much of a connection to that element. Dwayna has winged servants, but she also has snowmen in her ranks. Lyssa is now the goddess of water since Abaddon’s demise, yet I see nothing that connects her aside from the water in the Mirror of Lyss.
For pretty much all of the gods their element is an “informed ability”, so we only know it through in-game texts, outside sources and NPC-talk. Well that and in GW1 we have the dervish, who uses skills connected to the gods, which in turn usually were coupled with an element. Skills with Balthazar’s name often caused burning, skills with Grenth’s name had cold damage and so on.

Yeah, gods used to have two domains, one of which used to be elemental:

Dwayna was Air and Life, Balthazar Fire and War, Grenth Ice and Death, and so on.

Dwayna’s snowmen soldiers might explain Grenth’s ties to Ice when Dhuum did not have such ties due to the fact that she was Grenth’s mother.

Dhuum is Shadow and Death(like Zhaitan) while Grenth is Ice and Death.

That saddens me

Thought there would be more to Balthazar as you can see the following:

Grenth – ice; Battle for wintersday
Dwayna- life & air battle for wintersday
Abbadon – water; with main event being crystal sea / desert
Melandru – Earth; “Terraformed Orr into a green and flowering expanse”
Lyssa – water; ??? (No event or history of this since the gods left Tyria and are now silent aswell)

Balthazar – Fire; ??? (some random cleansing wave over orr)

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Dwayna’s snowmen soldiers might explain Grenth’s ties to Ice when Dhuum did not have such ties due to the fact that she was Grenth’s mother.

Dhuum is Shadow and Death(like Zhaitan) while Grenth is Ice and Death.

Oh I didn’t really know nor think about this! Makes sense.

Don’t forget the scriptures of Balthazar from GW1:

For weeks did the battle rage on, and those who had taken up the mantle of war grew weary and their courage began to falter.

Then did Balthazar, god of war and fire, appear to the soldiers, carrying with him a grand sword that did glow with such brilliance it blinded any who looked upon it. When he spoke, His voice was like thunder, and it shook the ground with force.

Then saith He, “Lift up thy weapons. For you are my soldiers, and must you be steadfast, strong, and brave of heart. They who neither hesitate nor stumble shall be rewarded. Then shall you have glory. Then shall your deeds be remembered for eternity.”

And then did release from His sword a hundred thousand flames, which encircled the soldiers. For this was the fire of courage, and forthwith did they follow the god into battle without fear or hesitation. Thence was the enemy struck down.

pdavis.8031:

All the information we have on the gods is from random NPCs and scrolls. Thats pretty much how in-game lore works. If the NPCs in-game are saying, you find some books/scrolls in-game saying in, than you can pretty much rest assured that what they are saying is accurate.

That’s the case for just about every other MMO out there, but not so for Guild Wars. If it is said, then it is second-hand information – the person can be lying or simply not knowing the truth themselves.

However, there are nearly a dozen references to Balthazar being the god of war and fire. But like the other gods, the element seems to be a secondary thing – like all other titles (for Balthazar, this includes things from courage and honor to mass murder depending on perspective).

Thruln the Lost is intended to be an in-your-face example of how NPCs can be wrong. He is contradicted by dozens of other statements, including jotun ghosts, leading the things not contradicted to be called into question. In reality, this is true for anything we do not witness ourselves. This is a tool that Anet uses to retcon-without-retconning. Something that has been done a lot to religiously-historic lore presented in GW1.

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Dwayna’s snowmen soldiers might explain Grenth’s ties to Ice when Dhuum did not have such ties due to the fact that she was Grenth’s mother.

Dhuum is Shadow and Death(like Zhaitan) while Grenth is Ice and Death.

Dhuum is never tied to anything but death, actually.

Dwayna has ties to Snowmen, yes, but this tie is not out of what the snowmen are made out of (snow and ice) but instead how they’re made: through joy in a time of bleak weariness (winter).

Though it is uncommon, Grenth is also tied to darkness and destruction. All gods have a multitude of facades and connections, not just the two. Dhuum is the only one whom we’ve seen with just the one – but this is more likely due to a lack of knowledge than anything else, as even Abaddon we have seen a multitude of facets (secrets, wisdom, water, the abysmal depths, etc. etc.).

Mickey Frogeater.1470:

Dwayna’s snowmen soldiers might explain Grenth’s ties to Ice.

My* Snowmen.

It’s also worth mentioning that ancient gods, which the pretty much all fictional deities are based on, had a multitude of functions too. Some of them are rarely seen in texts but must have played a huge role in every day life. A professor for ancient history I know once told me that in the greek/roman pantheon basically every god could be associated with absolutely everything. Your wagon broke down on the road? Pray to Zeus. Your hamster died? Pray to Zeus. You want a good harvest? Pray to Zeus. Or you could pray to Hermes, Hades and Demeter respectively, whatever you feel like.

So seeing the GW deities being associated with a multitude of different spheres, even if some of them are only ever brought up once, is not unusual. It would be rather odd if that wasn’t the case.

There are also Human’s abilities – such as fiery hounds of Balthazar.

In Dhuum’s case, it’s worth noting that you can catch glimpses of what may be other parts of Dhuum’s domain in the various titles listed by the Reaper of the Labyrinth – including judgement, void, and darkness.