Guild Wars 2

It’s such a can of worms I’ve been avoiding making the comparison for most of this thread. We should perhaps try not to get into that debate here – it can become heated, and if nothing else it’s off topic :P

No patch of land on the Earth has been uncontested at some point in it’s history. If people having owned something in the past gave them the right to it in the future the world as we know it would be unrecognisable; the entire united states for example was taken from various native tribes, the Moors (An islamic people) once controlled the majority of central europe, the British empire once spanned half the planet :p

The same applies to Tyria. The centaurs want back “their land” the humans took, the humans want back the land the charr took which in turn was taken from them by the humans in the first place. Ultimately, like on Earth it comes down to might makes right.

The faction with the power to hang onto that land and take the consequences of owning it, is the side that gets to keep it. Arguing about past ownership as if it gives any kind’ve right to it, is just opening a whole can of worms for everyone – involved or otherwise

Israel-Palestine is an analogy that’s been made before, and Ryuujin has basically said what I’ve been saying for a while.

It is a situation that’s been historically resolved as well. Europe was a patchwork of shifting borders for over a thousand years, but most of Europe has stopped fighting each other and has been moving forward as a continent since the end of the Cold War. From an outsider’s perspective, most of which seems to be from adopting the mature attitude of ‘baby feline where the borders USED to be, we’re all better off if we stop killing each other over them and look to how we can make life better for each other instead’. Largely because, when discussing the current generation, the greatest hardship would be caused by displacing the people who are living there now.

The Palestine issue is as big of a problem as it is partly because the surrounding Arab states had been stirring the proverbial pot, partly because the Palestinians don’t have their own state (while neither humans nor charr in GW2 would be deprived of a homeland if the other side had Ascalon), and partly because both sides have their own Renegades and Separatists that keep stirring the pot. In the case of the Ebonhawke settlement, the charr seem to have ceded pretty much everything Ebonhawke could want apart from salving historical pride – they appear to have given Ebonhawke the Fields of Ruin and possibly part of Blazeridge Steppes as well, and there probably just aren’t enough people still identifying as Ascalonian to need much more than that anyway. Possibly not even enough humans period, if they have ambitions to resettle Orr after it’s made inhabitable again as well.

draxynnic.3719:

The Palestine issue is as big of a problem as it is partly because the surrounding Arab states had been stirring the proverbial pot, partly because the Palestinians don’t have their own state (while neither humans nor charr in GW2 would be deprived of a homeland if the other side had Ascalon), and partly because both sides have their own Renegades and Separatists that keep stirring the pot.

Hear, hear!

I was trying to find a way to articulate why I think Europe settling down is different, and the best I can come up with is this – most of Europe are not (chiefly) agrarian societies any more. Borders, who has what rivers, mountains and plains, and how much land, are all really important if you farm for much of your country’s living, but in a modern service/manufacturing economy land is less of a vital asset. Does that make sense? Krytans/Ascalonians still need arable farm land, and charr need land for cattle herds, so they’re agrarian/pastoral. However you’re right in saying that even if no one were living in Fields of Ruin or Ashford, both races would probably have enough space to live in. It really is wounded pride and historical grudges that are really at stake.