Guild Wars 2

What was the language used in Arah ?

I suppose it wasn’t Old Krytan… so, Orrian ?
Any clue about this ?

Thank you for your advices.

That we know of, I haven’t heard anything about an Orrian Alphabet. I believe there would have been, since there was Ascalonian and Krytan, but we just don’t have anything to reference on this.

Language? The same that everyone uses/used. Old/New Krytan are alphabets, maybe they had an Orrian one.

Well considering there are ancient Orrian texts we can read, it should be safe to assume the language is some dialect related to Old Krytan, and one that’s close enough that all of our characters are able to piece it together and read it on the fly. That or we all have our own Personal ‘universal translator’ that was likely injected into us by an Asuran when we weren’t looking.

Well, New Krytan is a mixture of human alphabets, so reading those makes sense, since New Krytan is now used by all the races.

It’s quite possible that the Orrian History Scrolls were a translated version left for players by the Priory.

Narcemus.1348:

That we know of, I haven’t heard anything about an Orrian Alphabet. I believe there would have been, since there was Ascalonian and Krytan, but we just don’t have anything to reference on this.

There is an Orrian Alphabet. It’s seen in only three places in the entire game.

Or at least, they’re Orrian runes.

Temple of the Forgotten Shrine, The Ruined City of Arah (story mode), and in Sparkfly Fen (in Stone of Hazaan – at the PoI) are the locations. The runes are on small human-height black obelisks that have a blue glow to them.

There’s also a norn in Raven Lodge, Hoelbrak, which talks about the Orrian script.

Fun fact: Matthew Medina said there’d be five translatable languages with the release of GW2 – Ascalonian, Canthan, New Krytan, Asuran, and an unknown one. I bet Orrian is the unknown one, since through all my experience it and a one-spot writing in a dwarven tomb is all I could find of unique writing.

Ratphink.4751:

Well considering there are ancient Orrian texts we can read, it should be safe to assume the language is some dialect related to Old Krytan, and one that’s close enough that all of our characters are able to piece it together and read it on the fly. That or we all have our own Personal ‘universal translator’ that was likely injected into us by an Asuran when we weren’t looking.

Hardly.

Firstly, we’re not reading any Orrian texts. You mean the Orrian History Scrolls? Those were made by the Durmand Priory, of actual Orrian texts. The only direct Orrian reading done in the game is by Sayeh in the Temple of the Forgotten God – when interacting with the obelisks mentioned above.

Secondly, Old Krytan is said to be so complex that even the most learned individuals have issues reading it.

Though we do manage to read Old Krytan with the Unfinished Dwayna Statues. (the wiki is missing 3 or 4 statue dialogues, one stating that Malchor wrote in Old Krytan). But it was a miniscule amount of reading.

I’m pretty sure that one verse on the unknown king’s Inscribed Casket at the Reliquary Vault of Azabe Quabar is written in Orrian.

And did I read that right: Canthan is in the game and translatable? o.O

No, you didn’t read that right. Remember that old blog post from ~2009 by Matthew Medina talking about the languages? He mentioned that in GW history there’s 4 translatable languages (the four I mentioned), and there’ll be a fifth introduced in GW2.

I don’t think Canthan is in GW2.

There is really no reason for there to be any Canthan writing in GW2 at present. Most Canthans in the game have been around long enough to pick up New Krytan, and I can’t imagine finding it anywhere outside of maybe an obscure location within the Canthan District.

Interesting and good to know! Thanks for the response, Matthew!.

Just to nitpick – language and alphabet are not the same thing. There a a lot more written languages than there are alphabets.

Thank you Matthew -and everybody else- for your feedback

We had a roleplay event recently in Orr, in a Cathedral.
Although the place was very dangerous, people there found some ancient inscriptions, and as the DM, I needed to know if they could be written in Orrian, so it’s definitely helpful !

Not to nitpick but since these are so far unedited…

Fun fact: Matthew Medina said there’d be five translatable languages with the release of GW2 – Ascalonian, Canthan, New Krytan, Asuran, and an unknown one. I bet Orrian is the unknown one, since through all my experience it and a one-spot writing in a dwarven tomb is all I could find of unique writing.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

No, you didn’t read that right. Remember that old blog post from ~2009 by Matthew Medina talking about the languages? He mentioned that in GW history there’s 4 translatable languages (the four I mentioned), and there’ll be a fifth introduced in GW2.
I don’t think Canthan is in GW2.

Lets just hope that first quote ends up becoming true neh?

Well, Medina already commented on that. Turns out Orrian Syllabary would be the fifth, but it got shelved mid-development (the original announcement would be during development, probably before it got shelved).

Unless there was originally (as of GW2 development) to be six translatable alphabets in the Guild Wars franchise.