Guild Wars 2

So the other day guild members and I were talking about some stone heads asked about. We noted that there’s quite a few identical heads in a somewhat large space, perhaps more we didn’t notice yet. Figured to bring them up here and see what you guys think.

The heads found which are identical are found in Hoelbrak (near Sigfast’s Steading), Diessa Plateau (near the hidden strawberry patch), and Fireheart Rise (God’s Skull).

There are other large stone heads – in both GW1 and GW2 – including the well-known giant heads of Wychmire Swamp in Caledon Forest, The Great Oouo of Timberline Falls (though burrowed out by Inquest, the outside looks mursaat-ish so I’m doubtful the outside is asuran-made), and in GW1 the Riven Earth waterfalls as well as a statue off the coast of Sparkfly Swamp (also in GW1).

Personally, the heads (Sans Oouo) remind me of the Colossus – they all seem to be male and bald, and obviously humanoid. The Wychmire Swamp ones look rather eroded so they may have once looked much more similar to the three identical ones. The Colossus itself, appearing male and bald, looks like it could be made of stone or something similar – I wonder if these giant heads are remnants of the Colossus’ civilization in the ancient past.

Others’ thoughts?

Attachments in order: Sigfast’s Steading; Town of Nolan; God’s Skull; Wychmire Swamp

It’s a real shot in the dark and I have nothing to back it up, but I’d say making stone heads could have been a trend in the time of the five ancient races who fought the dragons (including mursaat and seer.) The mursaat could have made the great Oouo as well as the other heads. I’m thinking of the connection between riven earth and the mursaat (the anagram ’riven eart+rata sum = strive near mursaat.)
And to take it to the next level of asumption: what if the colossus was one of the five races?
Who knows, who will say, we might just be living in some virtual reality world made by an asian looking asura!

Rata Sum is an asuran name (like Quora Sum and Rata Pten). People put too much stock on that anagram for lore. It’s only a nod to mursaat in a game design meaning.

The five races were jotun, mursaat, seer, dwarf, and Forgotten. So the colossus couldn’t have been one of those five. Too great a difference. Though it is possible the colossus was part of a race that went extinct at the time – keep in mind that those five are just the sentient surviving races known to the jotun. We already know of two other races that survived the last rise – karka and djinn – with minor hints of three others – krait, kodan, and tengu.

The heads found in Wyckmire Swamp remind me a lot of the heads found throughout the Ring of Fire island chain. Mainly because the Wyckmire Swamp heads have their mouths open. In the case of the Ring of Fire heads, lava was flowing out. I am also very interested in the possibility of Colossi having been around on Tyria, especially since we can find skeletons of Giganticus Lupicus throughout Tyria, but no skeletons of these Colossi (based on the skulls attached to the skeletons we can find).

@ Bellyboomer: It is Mursaat Thrive Near, not Strive Near.

It’s late, I didn’t do my research, I’m just ranting, don’t judge me

But come to think of it, the Jotun are bald. They used to be less ugly and more powerful, so they could have built the heads.

And these look a bit alike.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:The_Great_Oouo.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Ancient_Seer.jpg

Curiously, I took notice of this GW2 concept art from Kekai Kotaki, which seems to depict the Riven Earth Falls. Comparing maps places the falls at Jetz falls or just south of there. Of course, I went and checked, peering from as many angles as I could find, but saw no stone heads. So, either the artwork was never used and the stone heads were scrapped from the location, or those are not the same falls, and the stone heads can be found if Anet opens the zone below.

I’d personally come to the conclusion that the riven earth falls is located in the unused space between Rata Sum and The Grove, based on the fact that Rata Sum now is located on the river closer to where Oola’s lab and Arachni’s Haunt was located, rather than where Rata Sum ruins was in GW1.

Those are, geographically speaking, the same falls. Soreen Draa is what was Rata Sum proper in GW1. The river is in the same location, and the falls are placed in the same location (though GW1’s falls were taller so I’m guessing the lore explanation is “the asura removed some land, including the stone heads”). There’s also the floating stone bridge that goes over the river is also still existent in the area (screen from GW1 ).

Looking at the shots side-by-side, I do not believe the Wychmire heads were made in the same style… the faces aren’t long enough, the nostrils are too close to the eyes, and the mouths are gaping open. The Riven Earth heads, however, bear a striking similarity. The faces are still too short, but the eyes and mouths are distinctive. What’s interesting is that the GW2 heads are all in the same rough area- northwestern Ascalon/northern Shiverpeaks- while Riven Earth is clear on the far side of the continent.

As for the Great Oouo, there is no evidence of it being carved. The flow of the lines suggest erosion to me- very atypical erosion, to be sure, but the only place where the lines of the cliff face don’t flow downwards is around the eyes, which could easily have been excavated by an opportunistic asura with golems at his disposal.

Good call with the Ring of Fire, Narcemus! I’d forgotten about those. I would theorize that those were formed by through proximity to the Realm of Torment- we see similar faces in there (and the Fissure of Woe), and there’s a precedent for proximity to such portals producing odd effects in the terrain.

So… going out on a limb, I think most of the faces were produced by a single civilization, with at least two major cultural centers, one in the Tarnished Coast and one in the northern Shiverpeaks/Ascalonian region. Oouo is a slightly modified natural formation, unrelated to the other heads, the Ring of Fire is a product of Abaddon’s influence, and the Wychmire heads are something else entirely (I once saw it theorized that they were massive petrified treants… I suppose that’s as good a theory as any).

The reason they look identical is because the devs were lazy and used the same model.

Probably nothing more to it tbh.

Lemme see if I understand you.

The devs were lazy, so they made a model that is only used in the same general vicinity, for nothing essential to the game? They didn’t feel like putting forth effort, and therefore went the extra mile and created and distributed something into the game when hardly anyone would have noticed if they had not? Is that correct?

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Lemme see if I understand you.

The devs were lazy, so they made a model that is only used in the same general vicinity, for nothing essential to the game? They didn’t feel like putting forth effort, and therefore went the extra mile and created and distributed something into the game when hardly anyone would have noticed if they had not? Is that correct?

Maybe they had an extra giant head model lying around?

The three stone heads are definitely the same style. The eyes seems more than narrow, they seem closed. This is unusual since sculpted statues usually look boldly outwards. Perhaps this indicates that the faces were more than simple sculptures, or perhaps the faces represent dead people?

It’s possible that the Hoelbrek and Nolan heads are not in their original locations. The Norn could have removed an old statue from an overlook before carving their own statue, and taken the head to a lodge as a trophy. The Nolan head appears to be in the middle of an old ascalonian machine room full of clockwork parts. It makes little sense for the humans to have kept a pagan statue in their town or built complex engineering around it. It seems more likely that the head was moved when Nolan was built by the humans or destroyed by the charr.

Tom Gore.4035:

The reason they look identical is because the devs were lazy and used the same model.

Probably nothing more to it tbh.

The texture on the Dieses Plateau one is different, actually. The other two are smooth and pure stone, the Diessa one is rougher and has moss growing on it.

Stooperdale.3560:

The Nolan head appears to be in the middle of an old ascalonian machine room full of clockwork parts. It makes little sense for the humans to have kept a pagan statue in their town or built complex engineering around it. It seems more likely that the head was moved when Nolan was built by the humans or destroyed by the charr.

On the sleeping dead – I noticed that too yesterday and wondered if they were statues in the first place. As I said in the OP, the colossus seems stone-like in nature… Maybe they’re colossus corpses? The neck is always buried, afterall.

As to the nature of Nolan’s machinery… There is a charr who states it’s just a junkyard of their own broken scraps if I remember correctly. So they’re not human machinery but charr.

-taking above post as if it were serious-

Grawl in modern times are either incapable or unwilling to sculpt statues of their gods. They simply find something that was either naturally made, or something that someone else made, and worship it. And while they didn’t advance much in the past 250 years, they have advanced.

Plus, it was the charr who dispersed the grawl, so they were dispersed while they lived – enslaved – in the “Charrland” as you dubbed it. The grawl actually remained in Ascalon after humanity took over the high plains.

I don’t think they are properly colossi… The Riven Earth heads are clearly just heads, and the angle of the Hoelbrak head would require a shoulder to be thrusting out into the middle of Sigfast’s Steading, which is clearly not the case. And if God’s Skull is attached to a body, that colossus is going to have one kitten of a crick in their neck.

Hoelbrak’s head would just need to be tilted – it can go without a shoulder akittens current placement (though dig a bit and you’d get one. That, or my neck is odd in how flat I can have it.

God’s Skull head would just be like looking straight upwards, wouldn’t call that a crick… especially if dead. Or killed via broken neck.

Was just a thought either way. More likely to be statues. Question is: of what? Perhaps jotun, for those three at least. They are said to have once looked different in the past (now being uglier) and they did have grand monuments… giant statues would be befitting.

Though it’d work better if we saw more. And honestly I’d place the holographic faces in the Far Shiverpeak dungeons of GW1 as more likely to be what jotun used to look like.

The placement would be strange as well- two of those heads lie outside the area where we’ve seen jotun ruins. Not immensely so, but combine the fact that of the strange offset with not seeing more of these heads near jotun ruins… and there’s still the Riven Earth ones to account for.

With regards to the demonic faces in the hardened lava in the Ring of Fire chain, I’m fairly certain I remember reading an article somewhere that said the faces there formed due to energies from the Realm of Torment leaking through the Door of Komalie and influencing the landscape. The heads themselves aren’t sentient, merely a reflection of the spiritual energies from the Realm of Torment.

Tin foil hat: Those are the faces of the Dreamers from whom the mists provide the fabric of Tyria. Nobody put them there. They are manifestations of the mist as “reality” is created.

Great observations! It’s intriguing to me that all we are seeing are faces or heads. You’d think something that big would also leave an arm or a leg here and there. It’s almost as though they settled or sunk in to the ground with only their heads facing up, if they are indeed related to the Colossus.

Exosferatu.2961:

Grawl can speak and use tools and weapons. They can sculpt, build effigies, paint walls, and much more. Of all the races of Tyria, they are the most under-appreciated and underestimated. They are all not bad, some resulted to banditry. There grawl and among the Pact surprisingly such as Marksman Kamekeck.

‘Charrland’ is what Rytlock Brimstone said in Ascalon Catacombs Story cinematic, presumably that was the name of Ascalon before humans settled in.

Grawl were never enslaved. Grawl had a treaty with the charr, although, they just were scouts because they are unmanageable beyond that rank. The modern grawl that are in Ascalon are believed to be descendants of those who helped the charr take their land back from humans centuries ago.

Charr conquered and enslaved all other species in their territory before humanity got there, according to the ecology. Though, “enslaved” is probably a loose term since the charr tend to do much of their own work. It probably means more “fealty” than anything.

I agree however, grawl are very unappreciated. often only being looked at as animals because of their cultural superstitions. Even though we take jobs from them and see them operating on the same levels as the playable races in areas like the pact NPC you mentioned.

Has anyone checked that these faces are not just representations of the design team?

Exosferatu.2961:

Grawl can speak and use tools and weapons. They can sculpt, build effigies, paint walls, and much more. Of all the races of Tyria, they are the most under-appreciated and underestimated. They are all not bad, some resulted to banditry. There grawl and among the Pact surprisingly such as Marksman Kamekeck.

‘Charrland’ is what Rytlock Brimstone said in Ascalon Catacombs Story cinematic, presumably that was the name of Ascalon before humans settled in.

Grawl were never enslaved. Grawl had a treaty with the charr, although, they just were scouts because they are unmanageable beyond that rank. The modern grawl that are in Ascalon are believed to be descendants of those who helped the charr take their land back from humans centuries ago.

An asura known as Frainn is manipulating the grawl around The Great Oouo which is cruel. The Great Oouo is only one of those stone heads across Tyria.

These are the faces carved on top of Riven Earth falls. Kotaki made them Colossus alike.

The Grawl can indeed speak… in Guild Wars 2. But all they had in Guild Wars 1’s time was mere grunting sounds. It’s outright part of their lore that they are primitive and haven’t advanced much since GW1’s time. That was a design purpose to make them stand out among the other lesser races, which either have evolved a bit but not as much as the player races, or are new to continental Tyria.

What Rytlock says is “This was originally charr land” – that is, land belonging to the charr. It’s not Charrland.

Grawl were enslaved. This may be of interest to you! Since you clearly don’t know of it – given not only this point, but the primitiveness of the grawl’s point.

“The earliest mention of them is found in early charr military tributes that predate the arrival of humans in the area. In these annals, the charr are always portrayed as victors with the defeated grawl pulling the charr commanders in great chariots. The charr dominated the grawl, forcing them into the Shiverpeak and Blazeridge Mountains and beyond, where they lived at a subsistence level.”

By Guild Wars 1’s time, they were indeed used as scouts and other footsoldiers, but rarely. Only successful use of them in this way is by Vatlaaw Doomtooth. Torch Harrowkeeper tried later, but we saw there was a communication error.

I don’t see what Frainn’s actions hold in relation to what I said. We already know that the grawl find things to worship (see link above – “grawl tend to worship a wide variety of items, ranging from natural features to unusual phenomena to powerful creatures.”). We know that Frainn is just taking advantage of this. The question is whether Frainn made the head to take advantage, or if he just hallowed it out.

The heads existed in different form in GW1 – less vegetation – in the picture I linked in the OP. They were akin to the other stone heads even then.

Nice link. I can say that I didn’t know about it.

Exosferatu.2961:

Rytlock Brimstone is accurate. Charrland was a nomenclature like: England, Ireland, Poland, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Thailand, New Zealand, Scotland, Netherlands, and Swaziland.

Oh really?

What if those aren’t statues, but the frozen/preserved/hibernating corpses/bodies of the colossi?

Perhaps worshippers of Giganticus Lupicus (flesh and blood) or Colossus (stone) builts those a long time ago.

Bellyboomer.3048:

Who knows, who will say, we might just be living in some virtual reality world made by an asian looking asura!

Do you think Moto was inspired by the stone heads and thats the reason he put them in world 2 zone 3?

Without reading past the first paragraph of the OP (past which Konig mentions the Mursaat), my mind shot to the Mursaat and Seers upon viewing the screenshots, particularly the third one. I’m not sure why, but that’s where it went.

Maybe the blue shading of colossus was their magic which was drained by the dragons in a previous rising. And maybe with magic returning to the land with each dragon defeat we might just see their reawakening. whither they are dead or hibernating due to low magic within them we won’t know unless they rise. also if they perposly did it to avoid the dragons is also something that might have happened. Maybe the cultist in the fractal where containing the colossus for a dragon to absorb its energy.

Except humans weren’t in Tyria at the time of a previous awakening.