Guild Wars 2

The six orbs of the Antikythera correspond to six magics in Tyria, and the six dragons. This got me thinking about the six Human gods and their spheres of influence, as well as player character professions, and the magic they wield.

Primordus – Fire – Balthazar – Warrior
Bubbles – Water – Lyssa – Mesmer
Jormag – Ice – Dwayna? (Ice as the flipside of “warmth/life”) – Guardian?
Zhaitain – Undeath/Shadow – Grenth – Necromancer/Thief
Kralkatorrik – Crystal – Kormir? (order and spirit associated with crystal?) – Guardian?
Mordremoth – Plant – Melandru – Ranger

Leaving Engineer as the non-magical profession, and Elementalist and Revenant as professions that dance between spheres of magic.

It, by no means, lines up neatly, and I’d love feedback on whether there’s a better placement for anything in the list.

I’ve also been thinking about a parallel between the gods and the dragons in that they can’t really be killed. The dragons can be defeated, but they are forces of (super?)nature that go dormant and then awaken later in history. The Human gods can be killed in the sense of an individual manifestation, but the essence then transfers to another who takes their place. That seems like an interesting parallel.

Which got me thinking about the ebb and flow of magic, as well. There’s a link between the increase of magic in the world and the rising of the Dragons. This also seems to be timed with the withdrawing of the Human gods. As powerful beings who manifest one of the six magics at the core of the Eternal Alchemy or cosmology of Tyria, is it possible that, while they were present, they were channeling enough of their aspect that it siphoned off the energy that would have roused the dragons. Is the withdrawal of the Human gods part of what caused the dragons to begin to rouse during this time?

Sorry, but Dwayna is Air and Life, among other things…

Rhaegar.1203:

Sorry, but Dwayna is Air and Life, among other things…

Yeah, that’s why she has a question mark behind her. It definitely doesn’t line up neatly.

We refer to Jormag as the “ice” dragon, but it could equally be the “cold” dragon, since ice is just water at low temperature, and Bubbles is already the water dragon. So if Jormag is cold air to Dwayna’s warm air…

Extreme cold also links into suspended animation, creating a kind of twisted eternal “life” to mirror Dwayna’s happy warm life.

Okay, it’s a reach. Like I said, it doesn’t line up neatly.

Hey Gibson. This is one of the most recurring hot topics on the lore forums. And has been ever since the release of GW2.

The debate has even been referenced to in-game, during Season 2:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragons_and_Gods

That book does quite well at summarizing the whole debate into two short sentences:
Yeah, there are a lot of similarites there, but no clear proof to support the theory. If the link is there, we need a lot more information before it makes any proper sense.

Awesome, Titus! Thanks for the info. I’m just getting into looking at lore a bit more, so I’m a newbie to all this. Combine that with the abysmal forum search function….

I read some of the books down there, but didn’t see that one.

I wonder if this is going to be one of those dangline mysteries that never gets fleshed out, or if the gods are going to become part of the narrative again at some point.

The gods have to eventually come back, with how large of a part they played in the first game. Though ANet has a lot of material from the first game they are either ignoring or (hopefully) have not gotten around to incorporating yet.

Part of the reason they may be ignoring the gods is that they’re the human gods. Though they did just release the balthazar outfit for all 5 races…

Though they’re titled the human gods, their existence is acknowledged by even the charr and they were worshiped by centaurs (some of them at least, specifically Balthazar though I wouldn’t doubt some revered Melandru), naga (supposedly), Forgotten, some dwarves (specifically Grenth and Dwayna), and likely more.

They’re called human gods because humanity is the primary modern race that worships them.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Though they’re titled the human gods, their existence is acknowledged by even the charr and they were worshiped by centaurs (some of them at least, specifically Balthazar though I wouldn’t doubt some revered Melandru), naga (supposedly), Forgotten, some dwarves (specifically Grenth and Dwayna), and likely more.

They’re called human gods because humanity is the primary modern race that worships them.

Yeah, I meant more in the line of player races.

I’m also pretty sure i read somewhere that the Charr believe Melandru is the one that shaped Tyria, or created it.
Melandru’s the coolest god of the whole Deities Pantheon if you ask me. She’s the oldest of the Six, she’s revered by many other cultures (Charr, Quaggans, Centaurs and others that I can’t think of atm) and she’s got these super cool wings

Djahlat.9610:

I’m also pretty sure i read somewhere that the Charr believe Melandru is the one that shaped Tyria, or created it.
Melandru’s the coolest god of the whole Deities Pantheon if you ask me. She’s the oldest of the Six, she’s revered by many other cultures (Charr, Quaggans, Centaurs and others that I can’t think of atm) and she’s got these super cool wings

Yes the Charr believe that about Melandru but they do not revere her. This quote comes from the Ecology of the Charr:

Before the time of the humans, it is said the Charr had no gods, no concept of divine beings with more power than themselves. They knew of Melandru, and even had legends that described how she created the world. But to the Charr, these beings were not to be worshiped or feared–they were to be fought, and if possible, destroyed.

Centaurs don’t revere Melandru. Only one of the Six Gods centaurs have been seen revering is Balthazar.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Eternal_Forgemaster
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Eternal_Paragon

Centaurs in general revere the earth. Similar, but also grossly different from, Melandru. Quaggans also don’t revere Melandru but Mellaggan – and it hasn’t really been confirmed that they’re the same (aside from in-universe arguments, the closest we got on the topic was Colin absentmindedly stating they’re the same, but he’s also been repeatedly talking about the Mordrem Court, despite other devs stating “there’s no such thing, the NPC called that was bugged and is meant to be Mordrem Guard”).

Only races known to revere Melandru were humans (and were the patron goddess of the druids, who yes were humans, per rumors) and Forgotten – both groups revered all six gods however.