Guild Wars 2

I’m just wondering. Is the world of Tyria flat or geoidal?
Does it circle a sun?
Does it have poles?
And does it have seasons?
(aw, wouldn’t it be cool if there were seasons in the game, like time-of-day? Would make Shiverpeak Mountains a nightmare in winter =D )

Yes it is a globe.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tyria_

Yes it has seasons.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mouvelian_calendar

I’m too busy to find examples for all your questions, but here’s your answer to the seasons question: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mouvelian_calendar

EDIT:
curses, ninja’d while looking for the link.

Rolin.7694:

I’m too busy to find examples for all your questions, but here’s your answer to the seasons question: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mouvelian_calendar

EDIT:
curses, ninja’d while looking for the link.

Too slow, bookah!

We don’t know the situation for the solar system, it does have a sun though (whether it’s Tyria circling the sun or the sun circling Tyria is the question), and at least 1 moon (various depictions imply Tyria has 2 moons, but there’s never been a second moon seen in the sky at the same time as far as I know, so they may be on opposing sides of the planet if there are two).

We don’t know if it has poles, but it does have North, South, East and West directions as well as an arctic sea to the north (thus an arctic area, implying a northern pole).

If there are seasons, that suggests heliocentric. Tilt of the planet during yearly revolution and so forth, which you wouldn’t have if the sun revolved on a daily basis.

Well, it is most likely to be heliocentric, but that doesn’t mean that Tyria realizes this. After looking around I honestly don’t know what they seem to think.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

We don’t know if it has poles, but it does have North, South, East and West directions as well as an arctic sea to the north (thus an arctic area, implying a northern pole).

Actually the term Arctic comes from the Greek Arktos meaning “bear” or “near the bear”. So its really implying that there are bears up there =P

But they do seem to have stuck to the general Northern Hemisphere stereotype that most games/books use; with it being colder/darker in the North.

I always assumed that mechanical thing in the center of Divinity’s Reach was based off the Tyrian solar system.

Lutinz.6915:

I always assumed that mechanical thing in the center of Divinity’s Reach was based off the Tyrian solar system.

Oh snap! Okay, next stop: Divinity’s Reach. I should really look up more often. =P

Nah it’s flat like the Minecraft world. Yes they have seasons and they circle around the sun but really they are flat :P

Anonymous The Spy.2491:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

We don’t know if it has poles, but it does have North, South, East and West directions as well as an arctic sea to the north (thus an arctic area, implying a northern pole).

Actually the term Arctic comes from the Greek Arktos meaning “bear” or “near the bear”. So its really implying that there are bears up there =P

But they do seem to have stuck to the general Northern Hemisphere stereotype that most games/books use; with it being colder/darker in the North.

They must mean the kodan. Because tyria polar bears live on mountains.

That means they aren’t ‘polar’ bears, doesn’t it?

Just about any planet is going to be colder at the poles and warmer at the equator by virtue of it’s rotation relative to its sun.

Unless one pole is pointed directly toward the sun. Assuming that’s possible.

Well since Tyria has seasons and day-night cycles similar to earth, it has probably the same rotation. Though I do wonder now, how long is a day on Tyria?

While we don’t know how many hours are in a day in Tyria, or how many hours the nights/days are, we know that Tyria’s year is actually shorter than ours.

Furthermore, their new year is actually the same as the middle of March for us. They have 360 days in their year, each season is 90 days long. Their new years begins at the beginning of spring – that is, the Spring Equinox.

So assuming the Tyrian solar system functions the same as an actual solar system, Tyria’s probably closer to their sun than Earth, to account for the fewer days. The tilt might be a little different too, depending on how long on average the seasons last here (I’m not really sure if it’s all equal, never paid enough attention to tell off the top of my head).

Not sure if you’ve seen it but in Divinities Reach there is an orrery in the dome garden.Which is a model of the solar system and looks to be helio centric like a real one.Some of the planets resemble gas giants complete with rings and moons.Not to mention there are globes in different places. So yes Tyria is indeed a planet as others have said.

Though the orrery does make me wonder if any other planets in the Tyrian Solar System are habitable and have sentient beings on them.Mabey one day the Asura will send astronauts to explore them via a gate that they end up magically teleporting there?

They also have a big crescent moon which isn’t orbiting a planet that has a face – Soul Eater style.

Overall, I say that orrery isn’t absolute truth. It’s likely that they stylized it (a lot of Divinity’s Reach is stylized) and there’s likely some gaps where they aren’t sure about it all.

Or one of the moons is a literal crescent and has a face. I think Soul Eater currently has a battle taking place on it right now – they knocked out one of his teeth.

Well, Soul Eater is a bit more stylized for comedic purposes than Guild Wars, which has a more “this can actually exist” theme behind it all.

Its also probably inspired by renaissance orrerys which were sometimes stylized with things like a crescent moon.So I would say the crescent moon in Divinites reach is just an artistic choice rather then truth.Unless there really is a planet in the Tyrian System that was blown in half during a planetary collision billions of years ago and the remaining left overs just happen to resemble a crescent moon.And the face could just be craters which resemble a face like the so called man in the moon.

Why has no one brought up the fact that in the game the sun always rises and sets in the west and the moon always rises and sets in the east. Now this could just be an engine mechanic we’re all supposed to ignore. It could also mean the world doesn’t revolve around an axis. If it’s the latter, it certainly adds an interesting consideration when discussing the physical nature of Tyria.

TBH, I never paid attention to the movement of the sun and moon in-game. That’s an interesting observation, and could be mechanics – in fact I’d argue such because we have static shadow directions and, atop of this, it’s probably easier to code this way than a rotating moon/sun. But if it is lore, and there’s a possibility that its intentional, this is a very interesting point of evidence.

Son of Elias.5420:

Unless one pole is pointed directly toward the sun. Assuming that’s possible.

Yes – Uranus has an axial tilt of nearly 98 degrees, so a little less than that would presumably be possible. Tends to make the seasons very extreme, of course.

The Order of Whispers have a giant floating globe thing in their headquarters that shows all of Tyria, if this helps.

That globe confuses me – it appears to show Cantha north of Tyria. Or maybe I was just looking at it wrong…

The texture for the globe is on the wiki – however, it should be noted that what’s viewed in-game is not even close to that texture. The in-game model uses Shing Jea Island as a land-bridge some other continent west of Cantha…

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Furthermore, their new year is actually the same as the middle of March for us. They have 360 days in their year, each season is 90 days long. Their new years begins at the beginning of spring – that is, the Spring Equinox.

The Spring Equinox is often the starting point for the year in historical calendars. If they did not properly correct for the extra 5 hours and 49 minutes each year (a la the Gregorian calendar leap year system), eventually the calendar gets pretty far off. At one point I read a quote from a Roman saying how absurd it was that they celebrated the beginning of spring in late August.

Spoiler Alert

Captain Romke explains that he was trying to circumnavigate Tyria when his ship was wrecked by the rising of Orr. That would suggest to me that Tyria is spherical and that the people know it.