Guild Wars 2

So, I recently stumbled into the Aquatic fractal and was suddenly taken aback by the similarity of the grey cliffs and green foliage with both the Cliffside fractal and Labyrinthine Cliffs.

Acting on the assumption that these three things took place roughly in the same region, but were separated by a great deal of time, I ended up scouring through both the GW1 and GW2 wiki’s for lore that took me from krait and The Unending Ocean to a seafaring people that became the Margonites who worshipped Abaddon.

The Cliffside fractal is supposedly inspired by the myth of Prometheus, a god who gave fire to humankind and was chained to a cliff as punishment.

In Tyrian legend, it is said that Abaddon gave magic to humans, which prompted many wars and eventually caused the Five Gods to seal him away in the Realm of Torment.

Too coincidental a parallel?

http://whyigame.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/gw2-the-cliffs-and-the-colossus/

interesting question, although last time i saw abbadon it was very different from the colossus, it was not even antropomorphe

I don’t really see it as the case. It’s possible, but the Cliffside fractal is representing the earliest history of humanity on Tyria. They wouldn’t have been chaining Abaddon up – or any other god. This would also mean that the fractal takes place in Cantha or south of, so Labyrinthine Cliffs wouldn’t be where the fractal takes place nearby – the ruins also have designs similar to the upclose patterns seen on the Dominion of Winds’ wall.

The colossus is most likely an ancient native inhabitant of the world, IMO.

And on the Aquatic Fractal, we’ve learned room he was in was well furbrished, lit up by a single fire behind that it is possibly prehistoric as well as possibly a mixture of two different times/places – Elona and Ascalon. Exact wording:

So that isn’t likely to take place near either location before either.

Plus in the past, Labyrinthing Cliffs would be covered in snow.

Jeromai.8203:

The Cliffside fractal is supposedly inspired by the myth of Prometheus, a god who gave fire to humankind and was chained to a cliff as punishment.

It kind of reminded me of the titans from Greek mythology actually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_%28mythology%29

-and of the Colossus of Rhodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes

Fun fact: Prometheus was one of the titans from Greek mythology. 8D

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Fun fact: Prometheus was one of the titans from Greek mythology. 8D

Yep, that’s right. The weird thing is, I instantly thought of Atlas instead when I saw the colossus. The way he’s chained to the stone structure.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Fun fact: Prometheus was one of the titans from Greek mythology. 8D

Yep, that’s right. The weird thing is, I instantly thought of Atlas instead when I saw the colossus. The way he’s chained to the stone structure.

but atlas is the one holding the world on his back. prometheus is the one chained to a wall.

BrunoBRS.5178:

but atlas is the one holding the world on his back. prometheus is the one chained to a wall.

That is correct. How ever, for some reason I thought of Atlas, being forced to carry the world.

This brings up an interesting question, what is the deal with the colossus anyway? We have various cultists keeping him imprisoned by enchanting seals, and he’s clearly very thankful for being freed. But on the other hand there is scaffolding everywhere, clearly built around him. Almost like the place was under construction, or as if the colossus was constructed there (although this seems unlikely to me).

Perhaps the chains themselves were only temporary, and the real plan was to entomb him. The scaffolding was in order to start construction…

And should the PC’s not have intervened the colossus would have been entombed up until, perhaps, the present time! I think we need to go to the Canthan continent and search for a colossus tomb!

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

That is correct. How ever, for some reason I thought of Atlas, being forced to carry the world.

(Just a minor correction: Atlas did not carry the world, but rather the sky. The popular image, with a globe, is a misconception).

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

(Just a minor correction: Atlas did not carry the world, but rather the sky. The popular image, with a globe, is a misconception).

Yes, you are correct. It’s confusing how he’s always pictured as carrying a globe in paintings and on statues. But indeed he carries the sky, not the world.

Well, Malafide… how you would depict a giant of a man holding up air, exactly? Best thing I can think of, would be an object of blue and white to represent sky and clouds.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Well, Malafide… how you would depict a giant of a man holding up air, exactly? Best thing I can think of, would be an object of blue and white to represent sky and clouds.

Oh no disrespect to the artists, it is almost impossible to illustrate such an absurd concept. Especially since a lot of the depictions were made during a time when knowledge of the sky was extremely limited. How do you illustrate something you don’t understand?

I guess they could have portrayed him standing on top of a planet, and carrying nothing.

Or portrayed the sky as a weight coming downwards. Seeing how holding up the sky is really an unnecessary job from our understanding but maybe not from theirs.

the colossus is dr. manhattan
no discussion about that

Well seeing the Colossus, and knowing there is a whole season of the year, winter, called season of the Colossus … and then seeing all those huge (one might say colossal) stone heads scattered all around Tyria (there are several for example in Caledon at the location where the meta boss spawns, watching at the area from above) – I conclude the fate of the Colossi is drum roll set in stone?

EDIT: added a picture

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

That is correct. How ever, for some reason I thought of Atlas, being forced to carry the world.

(Just a minor correction: Atlas did not carry the world, but rather the sky. The popular image, with a globe, is a misconception).

For the ancient Greeks, they have the concept of the blue firmament in place of our understanding and description of what we called the blue sky. The blue firmament is a hard solid blue crystal dome that encompassed the whole world. The Greek world is of cause quite flat according to them. Also according to the ancient Greek tradition, the god, Atlas, is holding up that solid blue crystal dome, the sky (firmament), on his shoulders. Therefore in the ancient Greek tradition, Atlas should actually be holding the glob up from the inside and not from the outside. I suspect the latter arose because of error/misunderstanding on the part of renaissance scholars.

Edit: correction – ancient Greek mathematicians at a later stage have disproved their own ancient Greek religious world view that the world is flat but in fact the world is round. From this we inherited the understanding that the world is a glob.