Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!

Some of you might remember me, I’ve been away and it’s been months since I’ve posted. I’ve been thinking however and here is an extraction of one of my thoughs regarding the Eye of the North. It’s in very raw form but I can’t seem to perfect my theories so I’m leaving it here for you, open for debate. Of course, this theory is full of thoughts and without facts, I just wanted to share it.

Extraction on my thoughts on the Eye of the North:

Arriving at the Eye of the North, all six races are lost at who built it. This huge structure, rising up in the skies.
Norn, Charr, Asura, Dwarves and Humans are impressed by the building. Some are intimated by it, everyone is impressed by it.
To me, the Eye of the North is one of the most interesting things in Tyria. Not only an entire expansion is named after it, but it was put there when the developers of the game already had plans for Guild Wars 2. Of course, it is used as the hall of monuments, to collect trophies earned in the first game, but I can’t let go of the idea that there’s something more to it. There just must be.

In the original game, the Eye of the North rises up in the sky, the sky that surrounds it is different from the sky in the rest of the area. It’s dark, like it’s a rift to another realm. To me, this is provoking thoughts. After going through Nightfall content a bit, I came with a raw theory. After the final mission in Nightfall you will end up in the Throne of Secrets. Here, the sky is dark, dark like the sky around the Eye of the North. In the Throne of Secrets you will find a statue of Kormir, ancient and withered looking. To me, this hints that someone in ancient times foretold the coming of a new Goddess. A Goddess of Truth who usurped the God of Secrets. The Five/Six Gods might have known about this as well. After the first exodus, the Five Gods might have known that in time, someone would usurp their sibling and join their ranks. You might have guessed it by now, I’m thinking there is a connection to the Eye of the North and the Gods.

Assuming the Gods left their avatars on the world after the first exodus so they could keep an eye out until Abaddon was usurped and that they were planning to leave as soon as that happened, they could have prepared things to come back one day. Or for us to call them back one day. The Eye of the North has survived for centuries although right now it’s a bit in a broken shape. 200 years back, however, it had a Scrying Pool, it had the dark sky surrounding the top. What if the Eye of the North is a way for us to call upon either the Gods or their knowledge of the future in our most dire moments? What if the dark sky surround the top of the Eye of the North is a way for us to enter the realm they are currently residing in?

Why did they leave in the first place? Perhaps they knew of the Elder Dragons. They might fear them, or they just didn’t want to be there when they woke up to escape a similar fate that the Spirits of the Wild suffered. Maybe they even went away in search of ways of their own to fight them. A journey to gather knowledge and more power. The Eye of the North could be their beacon home to Tyria if their journey would take them far and would get them lost.

That’s it for now. Granted, this is not well written (partly because it’s currently late for me so I’m tired and partly because I’m a bit uncertain on how to explain it well) but it’s something I will rewrite one day, I’d just like to get your thoughts on this for now. Once I get your thoughts I’ll go more fact diving.

I hope to get your input on this,
With kind regards,

Jelle

Hey, good to see ya in these parts again!

It’s hard to disprove (or prove) theories on the Eye, simply due to how few hard facts we have to work with, but I gotta say I like this one for trying to pin down the role of the gods in the current story, instead of cynically dismissing them as being written out of the plot and forgotten. It checks out about as well as any theory I’ve heard regarding the Eye- the thing was clearly built by a great power, seemingly for a particular purpose, and it’s actually easier to believe that kind of accomplishment was the work of gods. (All the more so now that we’ve seen the scale of some of the surviving structures in Arah.)

As much as I like it, objectively, I don’t find the evidence to be compelling- though I stress again that I feel that way about all of the theories I’ve heard (or indeed developed myself). The main bit of evidence here is the skybox, and while it is noticeably distinct, none of the places confirmed to connect between Tyria and the Mists, including the two that connect to the Realm of Torment, feature anything remotely like it. The statue of Kormir also raises questions- if it is indeed old, why would the servants of Abaddon allow it to remain intact at the heart of his realm?

All in all, I like the idea, but cannot say it’s any more or less likely than the alternatives.

I seem to recall that many of the skies had a darker part around the top.
Also, why would Abbadon want a statue of some random blind woman in his throne room instead of a statue of himself?

They do, but typically it’s usually just a darker version of the same color. The Eye is the only place I know that has a yawning black abyss fringed with aurorae.

First off, and I have to say this… you Jelle?

OK, puns out of the system. Down to brass tacks. I don’t know what to think about the Eye of the North itself as a building. When you teleport to it through the HoM stone, the place looks badly damaged, as if it had been under attack or something. That would certainly explain all the ghosts that now inhabit it. I could certainly believe the gods built it, even going as far as to say the scrying pool is theirs, but I don’t think it ever gave an indication that it was a two-way device. The gods weren’t about to telephone in through the scrying pool, and I don’t think we could ever talk to the images and have them heard by the other side. It was like a magic mirror or crystal ball, merely a divining tool.

Again on the building, we see the ruins of Arah and at least part of that was caused by the Cataclysm, sinking the continent and then raising it up again. EotN, on the other hand, looked pristine when we come upon it, and probably not just because the Ebon Vanguard claimed it as their base. It makes me more inclined to think it was a recent construction, or else, as I said, it was under assault by an enemy far worse than the charr. I think it’s partial destruction intrigues me more than its original purpose.

I’m not so sure it really has a connection with the human gods. It seems a bit out of place. First of all, it was far from settled human territory. ANY human territory, much less Orr, where the gods seemed to like having things built. Also, considering the point on Orr being the place for all things human god related, the architecture is off. Granted, Orrian architecture probably isn’t as grand as it was before it spent centuries under the ocean, it is vastly different from the style of the eye.

On the subject of how clean and pristine the eye is, it really could have been the result of the Ebon Vanguard cleaning it up. Anyone who has spent any time in the military in real life can attest to their obsession with cleanliness, even if it’s just to keep soldiers busy :p But more realistically, a clean work place is an efficient work place. Cleaning and repairing the damage would be the most logical first step for any forward operating base. The ghosts themselves seem to indicate that they did not die in an attack. I got the impression that they lived a normal life somewhere else after the events of EOTN, probably died of old age, and simply returned as spirits. In fact, one of the ghosts explicitly states that his spirit returned to the tower after his death.
But if that’s not a compelling enough argument, one can also assume that it was just badly damaged when Jormag awoke and chased the Norn and everything else to the south. It is well within the evacuated area.

Now, on to MY personal thoughts, I think it was built by one of the previous races that fought the dragons. I base this on loose evidence at best, and am likely to change my mind on the issue, but for all we know about it, it just seems more likely for a number of vague reasons.
The seers likely occupied the area, as we first encountered one in the northern shiverpeaks. Maybe two (although really, all three seers we find could just be the same one over and over again) and were advanced enough to survive the dragons and ALMOST rival the mursaat afterwards. We have no idea what their buildings would have looked like, but it was hinted many years ago that seer architecture was in GW1, and in plain site, although no one would know it was seer architecture. Not sure if that was ret-conned or not though, as most interview knowledge seems to be these days.
And a skrying pool just seems to be a fitting device for a race called Seers

The Jotun also occupied the area. And in large numbers, even by GW1 times. We also know the Jotun had kind of an affinity for seeing things out of this world, what with advanced telescopes and whatnot. As for why they didn’t claim the thing, well they weren’t exactly on their a game by the time we met them. In all possibility, the whole mountain range could have been covered in high tech Jotun cities and they simply forgot. Thruln, as questionable as his information is, can at least allow us to infer that the Jotun were once very advanced and just became “stupid” in the centuries following the last dragon awakening.

Counter to my “old civilization” theory though, is that the dwarves were also around during the last rise, but seemed to know nothing of the place. But then they never mentioned knowing much of anything that was going on back then. From what we can tell, most of the advanced races, minus the mursaat who were just pricks and bailed, banded together to survive the last dragon attack. The dwarves fail to mention any part of this. You’d think if their perceived destiny was to help life survive beyond Primordus round two, they’d mention how the previous races helped each other out. But they don’t. I really don’t know what to make of that.

My theory, the Eye was built by the Elder Dragons, and every cycle the Elder Dragons use the Eye as a portal to allow all the Elder Dragons sleeping in the mist to travel into Tyria and eat all the magic before going back to the Mists. No wait that’s Mass Effect again…