Guild Wars 2

Hello. I’m a noob when it comes to gw1 stuff. As the expansion number 2 comes closer day after day, everytime i look at the map the only place where i can think there is enough space for a expansion like HoT is the right low corner of the map that after some research i discovered it is this crystal desert.
Now.
Forgot my thoughts about where the next expansion will be. I found myself intrigued with this place. So what is the lore of this place? What flora and fauna can we observe there? What kind of resources (is that place full of gold? Because every image i found there are golden things everywhere) do you think it contains? There are special characters around there that can be connected to gw1? (I found something about a lich king ruling the desert with an undead army! Cool!) Lazarus is somewhat releated to this place? Ty

It used to be a sea; the Crysta Sea, but turned to a desert after a fight between Gods (iirc the fight between Abaddon and the 5 others). As such, there are boat remains hanging around in the middle of nowhere. There are giant skulls that are heavily believed to have belonged to the Giganticus Lupicus.
It was also the final destination of the pilgrimage of some Elonians led by Turai Ossa, who wanted to achieve Ascension in the Crystal Desert where it was believed the gods used to walk amongst men.
Back in GW1 the area was filled with devourers, hydras, gryphons, centaurs, Forgotten, and Ghosts (of those who died during their pilgrimage).
I don’t specifically remember any place being filled with gold.
However, if we do go there, I expect to encounter the ghost of Turai Ossa, since he found eternal living death while looking for eternal life. He helped GW1 PC achieve what he couldn’t, so it’s more than likely he would make a reappearance.

Acnologia.6934:

Hello. I’m a noob when it comes to gw1 stuff. As the expansion number 2 comes closer day after day, everytime i look at the map the only place where i can think there is enough space for a expansion like HoT is the right low corner of the map that after some research i discovered it is this crystal desert.
Now.
Forgot my thoughts about where the next expansion will be. I found myself intrigued with this place. So what is the lore of this place? What flora and fauna can we observe there? What kind of resources (is that place full of gold? Because every image i found there are golden things everywhere) do you think it contains? There are special characters around there that can be connected to gw1? (I found something about a lich king ruling the desert with an undead army! Cool!) Lazarus is somewhat releated to this place? Ty

The desert was desolate in GW1, nobody lived there. There were a few explorers that set up trade outposts and such for player convenience, but no civilizations were there. There were a lot of cool ruins and giant bones. Overall, it felt like this remote dangerous place. The cool lich ruling things is a bit farther south in Elona, which is separated from Tyria by the Crystal Desert. Lazarus had nothing to do with this place at all in GW1. We shall see about GW2.

The atmosphere of the crystal desert was incredible in GW1, and I would love to see it again.

It would be great to run into the trial grounds of the Path to Ascension.

Acnologia.6934:

So what is the lore of this place?

Slightly abridged version of the lore:

Originally the place was a sea, called the Crystal Sea. There is some lore indicating that there was also a Crystal Desert in that region as well (some lore talks about Crystal Desert, calling it such, before even 100 BE). In 175 BE, one ethnicity of humans, called Margonites, formed a sea-faring nation in and around the Crystal Sea, inhabiting the coastline of Elona and the waters themselves.

In 1 BE, a war broke out between the Margonites (fervent followers of Abaddon) and Forgotten (loyal servants of all Six Gods) due to the gods rescending their gift of magic. Eventually Abaddon joined in, saving the Margonites and waging war on the other five gods (reasons are long and somewhat unclear so won’t delve into such atm). Abaddon turned the Margonites into demonic beings and laid siege to the Gates of Heaven. The other five gods defeated Abaddon during the battle, smiting him down along the southern, lush and verdant coastline of the Crystal Sea – in a spot now called The Mouth of Torment. This event was so cataclysmic, that the sea dried up becoming a desert, and the aforementioned verdant coastline became The Desolation, deprived of most wildlife.

Over the next thousand years, several groups of humans went to the Crystal Desert in order to obtain Ascension – an act that would unlock one’s true potential and bring them closer to the gods. Each group – what human Margonites remained, the mysterious “Seekers”, Elonians, and even Ascalonians – all failed. Each civilization falling to starvation, infighting, or besieged by the few civilized groups that managed to thrive in the desert (mainly the Losaru centaurs, Forgotten, and sand giants). There were also a handful of powerful spellcasters – such as Sorcerer Lord Kree and Sybetha – which made their residence here, though they also met unfortunate fates.

Then we have the events of Prophecies.

In the span between GW1 and GW2, not much happened. The most notable event was that Palawa Joko, when assaulting Elona for the second time, dammed the Elon River, diverting it north into the Desolation and Crystal Desert. The Desolation was flooded, and the long oases-filled canyon (partially) known as Thirsty River was filled. Around the Elon’s new placement, the desert became verdant again.

Joko himself does not reside in the Crystal Desert – the southern edge of the desert marks his empire’s new border. Though for the hundred years that Zhaitan lived, said border was assaulted continuously by the risen.

In 1320 AE, Kralkatorrik flew to the Crystal Desert to kill Glint, though he then departed into an unknown direction – could have been south, but easily could have been northeast as well. Most likely, however, was south or southeast.

And that’s about 60% of the lore of the land.

What flora and fauna can we observe there? What kind of resources (is that place full of gold? Because every image i found there are golden things everywhere) do you think it contains? There are special characters around there that can be connected to gw1? (I found something about a lich king ruling the desert with an undead army! Cool!) Lazarus is somewhat releated to this place?

In order:

• Mostly insectoid (devourers, scarabs, wurms, etc.) and reptilian (wurm-like burrowers, hydras, etc. – even the griffons there were more reptilian than avian in gw1, like winged colocals) creatures in terms of animals, plants tend to be sparse, most being at the oases, such as in this image.
• The sand is actually crystals, not gold. There’s no gold there as far as indicated. This isn’t Desert Tarir. Sand can take on a gold-like appearance in the right lighting, and that’s all it is. The only gold there is in the desert, would be the Hall of Ascension which has a very Tarir and Hall of Heroes appearance (somewhat similar origins).
• Not really. The most prominent figure in GW1 was the ghost of Turai Ossa, which has moved on to the Hall of Heroes with the events of Prophecies. Joko isn’t really in the Crystal Desert, but rather the Desolation (which is sometimes considered part of the Crystal Desert so…).
• Lazarus – and mursaat in general – have no (known) ties to the Crystal Desert.

Moonyeti.3296:

The desert was desolate in GW1, nobody lived there.

False. You had the Forgotten, Losaru centaurs, sand giants, riders, devourers, scarabs, griffons, hydras, etc. etc.

Other than the first three, no civilized races lived there due to the harsh habitat, but it wasn’t desolate – there were still living there (unlike the Desolation, which only had wurms, undead, elementals, and the few endangered species of grey giants). There’s also many patches of oases in the Crystal Desert, which have only grown due to the redirection of the Elon.

The Desolation beyond the main Crystal Desert also contained Junundu, which were pseudo-mounts inspired heavily from the sandowrms in Dune. They were kinda fun to play though. People have speculated about their return in any future content related to Elona/Crystal Desert, however if The Desolation has become verdant again, who knows what their fate was.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Junundu

There was also a really quite colossal statue which dominated the skyline of one of the maps, but I think (sadly) we blow it up to make a bridge

Well, wurms in general were heavily inspired by the sandworms of Dune based on their GW1 appearance. Which has changed quite greatly with GW2.

Junundu were the least wurm-looking wurms of GW1, but ironically perhaps look the most like GW2 wurms do (aside from chaos wurms looking like plains wurms).

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Moonyeti.3296:

The desert was desolate in GW1, nobody lived there.

False. You had the Forgotten, Losaru centaurs, sand giants, riders, devourers, scarabs, griffons, hydras, etc. etc.

Other than the first three, no civilized races lived there due to the harsh habitat, but it wasn’t desolate – there were still living there (unlike the Desolation, which only had wurms, undead, elementals, and the few endangered species of grey giants). There’s also many patches of oases in the Crystal Desert, which have only grown due to the redirection of the Elon.

True, I should have said no civilizations or something as I was more going for the fact that while there were a few outposts, they were usually 2-3 explorers standing around an oasis pool, or they were ghosts or the like. Not even a village size were these places. What it feels like to go there the first time is to be about as far removed from civilization as you can get.

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization. No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

first thing first i ty all of you for finding the time to reply here.
reading your posts my curiosity towards this desert raised again. one thing in particular catched my eyes: Hall of Ascension? what is it? the wiki said it’s a place where adventurers can ascend (what those it means?) but what is it? is it possible that is still around now in gw2? and if it is, can our gw2 characters ascend (whatever it means) or the gw1 story was kinda “only your character is the chosen one. after you ascend nobody after you will never do it again”?
wow this desert is so fascinating every thing i learn about it
again ty all for the answers!

edit: reading more about this ascension it sounds like those who ascended are become like our gw2 revenants?

The desert is great…until you meet your first hydra

Randulf.7614:

The desert is great…until you meet your first hydra

There is no first hydra. There’s the first five, with another three sprinting up behind you ;P

Acnologia.6934:

first thing first i ty all of you for finding the time to reply here.
reading your posts my curiosity towards this desert raised again. one thing in particular catched my eyes: Hall of Ascension? what is it? the wiki said it’s a place where adventurers can ascend (what those it means?) but what is it? is it possible that is still around now in gw2? and if it is, can our gw2 characters ascend (whatever it means) or the gw1 story was kinda “only your character is the chosen one. after you ascend nobody after you will never do it again”?
wow this desert is so fascinating every thing i learn about it
again ty all for the answers!

edit: reading more about this ascension it sounds like those who ascended are become like our gw2 revenants?

Revenants and Ascension are very different.

Ascension – or Weh no Su as known in Cantha (translation being “Closer to the Stars”) – effectively means what I said before: it unlocks the “true potential” of an individual, and brings them closer to divine beings. In mechanics, this was represented by allowing additional attributes to be unlocked (in Prophecies only), changing the secondary profession, and being able to access the Underworld and Fissure of Woe. This also granted the “Gift of True Sight” which allowed people to see “for how things truly are” – for example, being able to see the mursaat even when they’re trying to be invisible, or being able to see ghosts when they are hiding from the eyes of the living (both dealing with going partway into the Mists, as we’ve found out).

The Hall of Ascension is where one went to Ascend in the Crystal Desert (but as shown by the trials of Weh no Su, not the only place), built by the Forgotten and/or Human Gods. It likely is still around now. In theory, anyone can Ascend – they just have to fulfill the proper trials and the like. Every method of Ascension, however, differs. So we cannot just retrace the footsteps of our GW1 characters (especially since a lot of that dealt with fighting the Forgotten who are no longer of the world).

Revenants are closer to ritualists, except where ritualists summon souls of the dead from The Mists, revenants are just channeling The Mists’ memories of legendary figures. Revenants have not Ascended. No one in modern times has, as far as we’re aware.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization. No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

They’re nomads, no? moving around from oasis to oasis. That makes them a civilization, even though mobile

Amaimon.7823:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization. No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

They’re nomads, no? moving around from oasis to oasis. That makes them a civilization, even though mobile

That is entirely Konig’s point. I’m not sure how you missed that.

castlemanic.3198:

Amaimon.7823:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization. No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

They’re nomads, no? moving around from oasis to oasis. That makes them a civilization, even though mobile

That is entirely Konig’s point. I’m not sure how you missed that.

he just said “no cities” so that could’ve still meant anything

Amaimon.7823:

he just said “no cities” so that could’ve still meant anything

No, what Konig said was:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization. No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

He literally calls them a civilization. Literally.

Here’s the quote again, shortened:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization.

Direct mention of calling the Forgotten and Losaru tribes civilisations.

Here’s the second part of the quote:

No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

That doesn’t counter the first sentence he made, which was that they were civilisations. They just had no cities, but they were still civilisations.

castlemanic.3198:

Amaimon.7823:

he just said “no cities” so that could’ve still meant anything

No, what Konig said was:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization. No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

He literally calls them a civilization. Literally.

Here’s the quote again, shortened:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I’d call the Forgotten and the Losaru tribe a civilization.

Direct mention of calling the Forgotten and Losaru tribes civilisations.

Here’s the second part of the quote:

No cities, mind you (well, no cities that weren’t decaying from a failed human colonization attempt).

That doesn’t counter the first sentence he made, which was that they were civilisations. They just had no cities, but they were still civilisations.

fine, here’s your cookie, happy now
(no, i’m not gonna sing you a song)

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Acnologia.6934:

first thing first i ty all of you for finding the time to reply here.
reading your posts my curiosity towards this desert raised again. one thing in particular catched my eyes: Hall of Ascension? what is it? the wiki said it’s a place where adventurers can ascend (what those it means?) but what is it? is it possible that is still around now in gw2? and if it is, can our gw2 characters ascend (whatever it means) or the gw1 story was kinda “only your character is the chosen one. after you ascend nobody after you will never do it again”?
wow this desert is so fascinating every thing i learn about it
again ty all for the answers!

edit: reading more about this ascension it sounds like those who ascended are become like our gw2 revenants?

Revenants and Ascension are very different.

Ascension – or Weh no Su as known in Cantha (translation being “Closer to the Stars”) – effectively means what I said before: it unlocks the “true potential” of an individual, and brings them closer to divine beings. In mechanics, this was represented by allowing additional attributes to be unlocked (in Prophecies only), changing the secondary profession, and being able to access the Underworld and Fissure of Woe. This also granted the “Gift of True Sight” which allowed people to see “for how things truly are” – for example, being able to see the mursaat even when they’re trying to be invisible, or being able to see ghosts when they are hiding from the eyes of the living (both dealing with going partway into the Mists, as we’ve found out).

The Hall of Ascension is where one went to Ascend in the Crystal Desert (but as shown by the trials of Weh no Su, not the only place), built by the Forgotten and/or Human Gods. It likely is still around now. In theory, anyone can Ascend – they just have to fulfill the proper trials and the like. Every method of Ascension, however, differs. So we cannot just retrace the footsteps of our GW1 characters (especially since a lot of that dealt with fighting the Forgotten who are no longer of the world).

Revenants are closer to ritualists, except where ritualists summon souls of the dead from The Mists, revenants are just channeling The Mists’ memories of legendary figures. Revenants have not Ascended. No one in modern times has, as far as we’re aware.

A few comments here:

Konig has always maintained that Ascension and Weh No Su are the same. I’m not convinced. They are certainly very similar - mechanically, one can substitute for another to gain access to the god realms in GW1, for instance – and there are indications of them being confused in the lore (Canthan emperors being called “Ascended” when it was the trials of Weh No Su that they actually performed, for instance) – however, there are distinctions that I think do point at them being different. A big one is the Divine Fire concept, which plays an important part at the end of Season 2, but which only appears in the Crystal Desert trials. There are distinct similarities, but I suspect that the Ascension process of the Crystal Desert trials may go a little deeper than being Weh No Su.

Secondly, it doesn’t seem like anyone can Ascend. Prophecies had the concept of a group of people called the Chosen, who had greater magical potential than most humans – when a particular character suggests that the PCs seek Ascension, that character follows it up by saying “That’s right. You are all Chosen” in a manner that indicates that it’s well known that only Chosen can Ascend. My suspicion is that only individuals with specific qualities can Ascend… and it may be that only humans can Ascend (and not all humans). It’s possible that full Ascension in the Prophecies sense is in fact no longer possible – it supposedly involved gaining the attention of the gods, and the gods don’t pay much attention to Tyria any more. Or it’s possible that the process is more about igniting the divinity within, and in truth the gods never played a direct part – in which case, it might be possible for any Chosen to complete the rituals and achieve Ascension.

Certainly, though, revenants are not Ascended. They have some form of communion with the Mists, but it doesn’t appear to match either form. If anything, necromancers might be closer: the Marjory short story has her using a sort of necromancer spirit-sight to see a spirit that others wouldn’t have seen.

draxynnic.3719:

Konig has always maintained that Ascension and Weh No Su are the same. I’m not convinced. They are certainly very similar - mechanically, one can substitute for another to gain access to the god realms in GW1, for instance – and there are indications of them being confused in the lore (Canthan emperors being called “Ascended” when it was the trials of Weh No Su that they actually performed, for instance) – however, there are distinctions that I think do point at them being different. A big one is the Divine Fire concept, which plays an important part at the end of Season 2, but which only appears in the Crystal Desert trials. There are distinct similarities, but I suspect that the Ascension process of the Crystal Desert trials may go a little deeper than being Weh No Su.

Aside from the fact that they result in the exact same situations (being able to see what cannot be seen normally; unlocking one’s true potential), it’s just a method of how it’s done.

But more importantly, there is this line:

Chanang became one of the first Canthan heroes to become Closer to the Stars (what in Tyria is referred to as “ascension”)

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/An_Empire_Divided

And until proven otherwise, I think a scholar who has studied the topic would be right. Furthermore, said same source tells us that ever since the first Canthan Emperor became Weh no Su, the title changed from “Lord Emperor” to “Ascendant Emperor”. That’s a pretty big title for someone not Ascending but Closer to the Starsing. One would think that if they were indeed separate, it’d be “Celestial Emperor” or the like.

draxynnic.3719:

Secondly, it doesn’t seem like anyone can Ascend. Prophecies had the concept of a group of people called the Chosen, who had greater magical potential than most humans – when a particular character suggests that the PCs seek Ascension, that character follows it up by saying “That’s right. You are all Chosen” in a manner that indicates that it’s well known that only Chosen can Ascend. My suspicion is that only individuals with specific qualities can Ascend… and it may be that only humans can Ascend (and not all humans). It’s possible that full Ascension in the Prophecies sense is in fact no longer possible – it supposedly involved gaining the attention of the gods, and the gods don’t pay much attention to Tyria any more. Or it’s possible that the process is more about igniting the divinity within, and in truth the gods never played a direct part – in which case, it might be possible for any Chosen to complete the rituals and achieve Ascension.

However, the term “Chosen” has only ever been used in the context of Prophecies. Even with the Eye of Janthir’s return, beyond “the Eye has chosen” the term “Chosen” is not used.

This implies that the term “Chosen” had no meaning other than referring to the heroes of the Flameseeker Prophecies. The White Mantle’s use of it would be stemmed from that, whether they knew it or not.

And regarding the line you refer to: that, combined with Turai Ossa’s lore (he attempted Ascension because he believed he was the Chosen of the prophecies) seems more to indicate that the only ones who would Ascend by the means presented in the Crystal Desert would be the heroes of the Flameseeker Prophecies, dubbed “the Chosen”.

In addition, Weh no Su can be done by anyone it seems (supposing they pass the tests).

Thus, “In theory, anyone can Ascend”. In theory.

O.o cool. Really ty all for your time.

Unreliable narrator. At the time, nobody (at least, nobody who was recorded in history) had gone through the process of ascension through Augury Rock, so any distinction between Weh No Su and the Augury Rock ascension would not be known to historians. It would be very easy to say “Weh No Su grants the ability to see things that are hidden. Ascension grants the ability to see things that are hidden. Therefore they’re the same!” when this might be missing distinctions that are present, but are not known because nobody has undergone Augury Rock ascension.

Divine Fire might be one of those. It’s not even hinted at in Weh No Su. Granted, in Prophecies there isn’t exactly much attention drawn to it, so it could mean that Weh No Su does grant divine fire and it’s just never mentioned. Or it could be that the two are different – both grant the ability to see hidden things, but only the Augury Rock ascension granted the use of divine fire.

It’s also worth raising the question of why the Augury Rock ascension was made so hard, including Forgotten willing to lay down their lives to make it harder (whether they were actually dying permanently is an open question) while the Canthans were given something downright convenient in comparison, if the two were in fact exactly the same. Granted, the meta reason is probably that ArenaNet didn’t want to spend three missions and a solo instance on it again (cf Nightfall, where you get the in-game mechanical effect of Ascension just for exterminating a few bugs with nobody making any comment at all), but lorewise, I think the disparity in difficulty possibly reflects that one is actually a greater prize than the other.

I think we’ve had this discussion before – I largely wanted to let people know that there was some doubt that the question of whether the two were the same remains an open one.

Divine Fire was just used to open Augury Rock, and wasn’t actually part of the Ascension trial, but even then was just the physical representation of the “gods looking down upon us”, which is very much in line with the Weh no Su’s “The stars in the night sky cast their light down upon the world, making physical replicas of themselves.”

And it’s not like the Divine Fire stuck with us. It went away once we killed the doppleganger. Just like the Celestials’ “physical replicas” go away with the trial ended. Divine Fire was used just for the trial – and its primary purpose was to open the way, not to actually be part of the Ascending (unless you count the entire three missions as the Ascending bit and not just preluding trials which they seem to be given the Elonians who created two of them, not the Forgotten).

Ultimately, everything between the two revolves around heavenly beings looking down on us and us trying to earn their favor. Whether it’s gods and Ascension or celestials and weh no su. Divine Fire = the stars casting “light down upon the world”

As for the “unreliable narrator therefore wrong” bit… until there’s sufficient reason to believe he’s unreliable rather than “well, maybe…” then there’s no reason to argue such, otherwise you’re arguing that all lore is “therefore wrong”. Which isn’t a healthy mentality when addressing lore.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

As for the “unreliable narrator therefore wrong” bit… until there’s sufficient reason to believe he’s unreliable rather than “well, maybe…” then there’s no reason to argue such

I think drax’s argument is that all the bells and whistles attached to the Crystal Desert Ascension makes for a reason. I don’t have a horse in this race, but I can see what he’s getting at- intuitively, it feels like going to heaps of effort to get a gift from the gods that’s only been bestowed once in recorded history should put that gift on a whole different scale to a gift that requires much less (although still substantial) effort, is granted by mortals-turned-heavenly-cautionary-tales instead of gods, and is seemingly granted at least several times per generation, but that requires a few assumptions. It might be that gods and celestials both can provide the same gift, and that Cantha just lucked out by having access to the entities with much lower standards, but that also requires assuming a degree of parity between the gods and celestials, the Trials of Ascension and the test in Nahpui Quarter, and the gift that Turai Ossa failed to attain and the one that every Canthan emperor since 1 A.E. has been granted. At that point you have two equally valid interpretations of a major metaphysical topic, and it doesn’t seem like an character who doesn’t seem to have much information on the subject should be the sole determiner between them.

Or, to be more concise- reason to believe that the narrator doesn’t have sufficient information to be reliable, coupled with the narrator espousing an unintuitive conclusion, could conceivably constitute sufficient reason.

There’s also the fact that Ogden makes a much bigger deal about the Divine Fire in Arcana Obscura:

“Your race’s benefactors—the gods—enchanted their favorite followers with their magic. It allowed these humans to access hidden places. You will not be Ascended, however, so touching it could kill you.”

This suggests that the divine fire is actually more of a permanent thing than the temporary effect we see in-game and use to access Augury Rock (and, through it, Dragon’s Lair). In-game, we don’t see it come into play after that, so that might be all there is to it – but it’s also possible that the PCs and/or Devona & Co learned to use the divine fire to do other things sometime after Winds of Change. And that aspect is missing from the trial of Weh No Su unless you claim that the celestials are made of divine fire (which isn’t such a bad claim, but nevertheless…)

Either way, it does seem a bit curious that in one place you have a set of tests that entire civilisations have fallen trying to achieve, while in Cantha it’s so easy, relatively speaking, that it’s become assumed - a requirement, even – that every Emperor will pass the test. Either the gods were being really generous to the Canthans, or it seems that the Crystal Desert Ascension is likely to be a greater prize in exchange for the significantly greater difficulty of achieving it.

I do want to play a little bit of devils advocate, despite my knowledge being lackluster at best. I have two thoughts.

I remember a woodenpotatoes video (so take this with as much salt as required) that mentioned humans came to cantha from another region of tyria (and arrived to those lands from the mists or something along those lines). What If Ascension and Weh No Su are the same, but somehow proximity to where humans originally landed aids in the ease of access (and thus both a lower entry point to claim ascended status and how much more often it can be achieved). If proximity is a factor it might aid the empowerment of individuals and the closer one gets to the landing place of,humans, the more magic might be at that,landing place (at least magic associated with ascension).

The second thought is again related to proximity of the source of empowerment, but this time regarding the gods and the celestial. From my (extremely limited) understanding, the celestial are visibly present on Cantha, where as the human gods long ago left Tyria for the mists. Assuming the empowerment of the celestials by the human gods, would it not be unreasonable to assume that ascension by proximity to a source that can provide it may pave the way to both ease of access and a greater number of rituals that can be supported? (I do recognise the flaw in assuming celestial empowerment by the human gods but it was worth a shot)

EDIT: @Aaron yeah that would kill the first thought outright. Didn’t feel it was too worth it to dedicate an entire post to accepting that.

Your second thought is a fair point, although still based on an assumption. The problem with your first one is that in lands squarely in the tangle that’s been made of the early timeline.

Back in GW1, it was stated that humans arrived in Cantha before Tyria and Elona, and implied that they might have reached Cantha from lands further south and/or west. That’s what Wooden Potatoes was referencing. Come GW2, however, we have new lore stating that the ‘landing point’ was Arah. There are a couple decent theories out there reconciling those two bits of apparently contradictory text, but unless you hold that the newer lore is wrong, the original portal humans came through was much, much closer to the Crystal Desert than it was to Nahpui Quarter.