Guild Wars 2

I’m kind of embarrassed for not realizing this before, but where the hell are all the lions in Tyria??

Did they all just evolve into Charr? Or did lions just not exist? Im trying to think and i feel like i recall something in Elona but im not exactly sure..

Thikitten me when the lion cub minipet came available in the trading post. And the fact that the statue in the middle of lions arch is an actual lion.. Where are they and do they exist?

Kryta was founded twice, once by Elona (I believe the second founding was by Elona). This would be why Lion’s Arch was was named as such, it was bringing elonian ideas and such over to Tyria. But to answer your question, there was never a single lion in Tyria, only in Elona.

In ancient times, there were populations of lions in europe and asia, not only africa, but they went extinct (some scientist think they lived in europe till about 100 A.D.). The same thing could have happened in Tyria.

Besides that, as Narcemus mentioned, the Kryta we know today was founded as elonian colony, therefore they could have used elonian symbolism in the capital.

Lions live (in GW1 modern times) in Elona. They may have lived elsewhere, like BuddhaKeks mentioned, same with horses in fact.

Regarding the whole colonization by Elona – irrelevant. Yes, the Kryta we know today was founded as an Elonian colony, however, Lion’s Arch did house King Doric’s palace – which would be during its first establishment by Orr.

The seat of power in Kryta, Lion’s Arch housed the royal palace okitteng Doric and his line until after the last Guild War. Now, the White Mantle run the city. The old buildings have all been razed, making space for barracks and more practical structures.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lion%27s_Arch

And I think it was called Doric’s summer estate once, too, though I may be misremembering something else as this.

Orr and Elona are fairly close geographically and there was more than likely likely some form of communication between Elona, then led by the now-called Primeval Kings, and King Doric and King Mazdak.

Fine, fine. I’ll go sit in my corner.

there are ions in the wvwvw there called stalkers but some are not black there that an color and look just like lions

ow and i have another thing to say about narcemus yes i didnt play gw1 wer there lions in elona

Stalkers aren’t lions. They’re lynxes.

And yes, there’s lions in Elona. Kourna, specifically.

Well…. Denmark doesn’t have lions… still our national shield thingie (dunno proper name) is 3 lions. A lot of countries… regardless of having lions or not use them as a symbol. So doesn’t seem odd to me at all that they use the lion even if there are non.

Kitten… some countries in real life got mythological animals as their national animal shield thingie.

Anyways… people already explained everything else.

Zeefa.3915:

Well…. Denmark doesn’t have lions… still our national shield thingie (dunno proper name) is 3 lions.

I think coat of arms is the correct term. But yes that’s is also a valid explanation. Lions symbolize power, wealth and kingship, that’s why they are so popular. Though it is kind of odd that nordic countries use them especially. Sweden, Norway and Finland use them too, I think Iceland is the only one that doesn’t.

Lions could have gone extinct in Kryta as they did around the Mediterranean IRL. Furthermore, just because something is named after a lion doesn’t mean lions were around. Lions were used symbolically in Medieval Europe as mentioned about. Richard the Lion Heart was nowhere near any place with wild lions in his life. Birmingham, Alabama had no Germanic tribes involved in its settlement even though its name means “home of the Beormings.”

I actually recall reading somewhere that they had initially planned on having Lion’s Arch be something to do with Rurik’s bloodline and that there were some Lion themed things to do with that – hence the name Lion’s Arch.
But I have no idea where I read it :/

Btw, just checked EB lions. They are look like lions (well, lionesses), not lynxes.

Yep definitely looks lion and not lynx. Especially since we do have lynx pets that look way different, so not a case of ANet being weird with what some animals look like.

^— The Eternal Battlegrounds is in the Mists not Tyria…. They can look like whatever they want because nothing has to make a whole lot of sense in the Mists, but they aren’t in Tyria.

@ FlamingFoxx that indeed is true.

Just my opinion, but Lions are probably also alive beyond the blazeridge mountains, since Charr are basically talking lions who can walk on 2 legs.

Beetle.2476:

Just my opinion, but Lions are probably also alive beyond the blazeridge mountains, since Charr are basically talking lions who can walk on 2 legs.

i dont know about you but i havent seen any lions with horns, plus most cats have retractable claws, so if anything, theyre related to doggies… either that or cheetah side but they look too stocky to be cheetahs

Richard I of England was named Richard Coeur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart and as far as I know there are no wild lion’s who ever lived in England (nor France wich is the origin of his house). Lion’s are considered a symbol of courage and often associated with kings.

In the case of Lion’s arch I believe that lions are used as a symbolism for the (acclaimed) courage of the kings of Kryta. So their residence and capital city was called Lion’s Arch or so I believe.

stalker wasn’t a lynx – if you look at the gw1 page, it looks like the wvw one – still ain’t a lion though http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Melandru%27s_Stalker

Getefix.9150:

Beetle.2476:

Just my opinion, but Lions are probably also alive beyond the blazeridge mountains, since Charr are basically talking lions who can walk on 2 legs.

i dont know about you but i havent seen any lions with horns, plus most cats have retractable claws, so if anything, theyre related to doggies… either that or cheetah side but they look too stocky to be cheetahs

Charr are most definitely big cats (with unique/demonic features) and in no way related to canines.

Sorry for off topic, but had to.

Getefix.9150:

Beetle.2476:

Just my opinion, but Lions are probably also alive beyond the blazeridge mountains, since Charr are basically talking lions who can walk on 2 legs.

i dont know about you but i havent seen any lions with horns, plus most cats have retractable claws, so if anything, theyre related to doggies… either that or cheetah side but they look too stocky to be cheetahs

@Beetle: There are some “lion-like” charr, but there are more cheetah, leopard, and tiger-like charr. I wouldn’t say that, because of this, there are leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, tigers, and so forth east of the Blazeridge. The charr are basically take traits from various wild felines. Lions, however, are of the lesser quantity.

It’s possible there are lions east of the Blazeridge, but using the charr is no foundation for such.

@Getefix: Charr are feline, this is outright stated in both lore and by developers and are in no way canines. There were more obvious lion-like charr in GW1, but some remain in GW2, with a smaller mane though.

Also, while not shown with the in-game models due to technical difficulties, in lore, charr do have retractable claws.