Guild Wars 2

Mint Rain.6798:

Liraz.8062:

There are definitely horses in Tyria, and the NPCs mention them both in GW1 and GW2.

They existed at the time of Orr, since there were undead horsemen in GW1. The imagery of knights on horseback persists even to the present day Tyria (check out the pictures of the festival in DR, for example), and two of the guild symbols it is available is that of unicorns.

Pictures depicting horses and horselike creatures from the wiki:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/5/59/Carnival_01_concept_art.jpg/800px-Carnival_01_concept_art.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/0/09/Guild_emblem_48.png
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/8/8b/Guild_emblem_49.png

There are also horses mentioned in Edge of Destiny, page 97:

In Edge of Destiny a herd of wild horses is seen through an asura gate when Logan, Rytlock, and Caithe flee from the Destroyer horde in the Dwarven ruins.

“Visions. Beautiful visions… a grassy plain where wild horses ran… a deep lagoon encircled by leaning palms…”

There’s horses in the concept art:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/4/48/Human_architecture_05_concept_art.jpg/800px-Human_architecture_05_concept_art.jpg

This lore bit here also mentions skilled horsemen:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/An_Empire_Divided:_A_Selected_History_of_Mysterious_Cantha_for_the_Traveling_Scholar

And here’s a dude in original GW that mentions riding horses:

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zumo_the_Beggar

Hey, hey you! I was riding my horse to the other side of town and I ran out of hey to feed him to get there. Spare a few gold so I can feed him and be on my way?

So there are definitely horses in the lore, all over the place.

The better question is, why don’t we SEE any horses in Tyria?

Thank you for gathering all of this. It was a common belief that horses were extinct. However, with all these gathered facts, I like the ideas I’m seeing above:
Horses are extremely rare. Even if they were added in game, it would probably be a heard here or there. The fact that we’ve only really seen nobles talking about them likely means they’re VERY expensive – due to being hard to get.
This means (RPers) that it is very unlikely your character will have a horse (seeing by the sounds of it they’re only for the rich and extremely hard to find.)

i learned recently that many of the RPers in GW2 don’t care about lore, common sense and the society of Tyria. they just want them horses even if ANet has to retcon the entire lore to get them.

Well, there were never dogs in Guild Wars until GW2, what’s another animal.

I got it. The True Giants, which have been extinct for centuries, were horses!

The jotun rode these True Giants into battle against the Elder Dragons, it was Glorious!

I am now picturing an army of guys like this one being used as mounts by jotun who barely reach their knees.

Well, Zhaitan messed up the form of the creature, you see in ancient times they walked on all fours entirely, which made them perfect as mounts. They would normally be ridden upon by 2-3 jotun at a time into battle. It was glorious watching a calvary of thousands charging down Zhaitan’s undead. Sadly, Zhaitan trembled in fear, stronger than we ever made him feel in the game, and so he made it his duty to exterminate the Giganticus Lupicus. He kept one as a champion and disfigured it beyond recognition in retribution to that which he once feared.

One flaw in that: it was the gods who left the Giganticus Lupicus’ corpse in Arah (it’s the temple guard after all – might have even been the last living GL). Zhaitan just corrupted it.

Wow, I can’t believe there’s only one flaw in my completely BS joke of a theory, lol.

BrunoBRS.5178:

I learned recently that many of the RPers in GW2 don’t care about lore, common sense and the society of Tyria. they just want them horses even if ANet has to retcon the entire lore to get them.

The thing is if you’re role playing on a game that has a very structured and very detailed lore you should care. A.Net goes to pretty detailed length to make this game their own and give you a lot of reign in it. There’s no honest reason for breaking lore, other than the fact you want a character that simply isn’t possible (not using you as in you, but as a generalization).

Lore is important, people need to stop breaking it.

Narcemus.1348:

Wow, I can’t believe there’s only one flaw in my completely BS joke of a theory, lol.

This response made me giggle.

Lande.5782:

Lutinz.6915:

Charr ate them all. True story.

Okay, okay! I admit it! My people ate them all! We kept saying one more couldn’t hurt, and then they were gone! We’re sorry!

I know what you did the.

Lande.5782:

Lutinz.6915:

Charr ate them all. True story.

Okay, okay! I admit it! My people ate them all! We kept saying one more couldn’t hurt, and then they were gone! We’re sorry!

Bad Tribune Zoidberg, bad!

Narcemus.1348:

Well, there were never dogs in Guild Wars until GW2, what’s another animal.

hmmmm, guess again…..
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Celestial_Dog_
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bukdek_Byway#Trivia
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Shing_Jea_Arena_outpost_dog.jpg

As far as I know, they where only breaded in Cantha back then.

there is plenty of dogs in krytia

Lutinz.6915:

Charr ate them all. True story.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Meatoberfest

I don’t remember ever seeing a single dog in GW1, now obviously I was wrong on the 3 cantha links, but I am pretty sure there weren’t any in Kryta in GW1. But that’s not the point, the point was that just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean that it’s not there. I never considered Krytan Drakehounds to be lore-breaking in any way shape or form.

Just want to point out that Horses went extinct in North America as well for a long time until they were reintroduced much later on from places they migrated to before the Bering land bridge from Alaska submerged. I’m sure it is the same scenario for Tyria as well. With the Dragons shifting entire continents, and warping land masses, we could easily be cut off from other land masses where Tyrian horses migrated to.

They could even be located to the north-west above DR, in or beyond the woodland cascades, which is also where the centaur seem to originate from. Separating the humans from horses and disabling the use of cavalry would mean a tactical advantage for centaur in open terrain.

no, you’re all wrong. all of you.

don’t you see? Horses evolve like pokemon – INTO CENTAURS! DUN DUN DUN~! (lightning flash and thunder clap)

Excelliate.7914:

They’re not in game because Anet doesn’t want people whining about mounts.

People still do it. New thread every day or other day.

Always. The. Same. Arguments. “EEUH UR NO-MOUNTS ARGUMENT IS BAHD AND U R MINDLESS DRON GO AWAY”.

One day, they might just make a ‘forum block’ feature so we don’t have to look at that nonsense.

dont forget about the Dreamer, shoots unicorns.

and what about Risen Knights?

sidenote:
and Scarlet and the gauntlet anouncer have the same voice as Twilight Sparkle of the new my little pony show.

The horses got really hungry and tried to eat humans, unfortunately they couldn’t get them down their throats and they all turned into centaurs

You can lead a horse to GW2 but you can’t make him play…

Personally, I like to think that they were in heavy use during the guild wars, but that they were never native to the tyrian landmass.

It’s obvious that they’re a fixture in human culture, but lets be frank, tyrian humans have been having a tough time ever since the Guild Wars and breeding and feeding horses is pretty land and time consuming and in most of the lands we’ve visited with our characters there isn’t MUCH of a need for them.

I wouldn’t be suprised if one day ANet decided to add a large seamless continent (They’ve invented several we’ve never seen if you check out the Order’s globe) that that continent also included native horses… and was suspiciously absent of Moas.

Of course, there are definitely horses in Tyria! The only reason that we haven’t seen them so far is their natural camouflage.

Frosty and Frosty Law Firm.4981:

Excelliate.7914:

They’re not in game because Anet doesn’t want people whining about mounts.

People still do it. New thread every day or other day.

Always. The. Same. Arguments. “EEUH UR NO-MOUNTS ARGUMENT IS BAHD AND U R MINDLESS DRON GO AWAY”.

One day, they might just make a ‘forum block’ feature so we don’t have to look at that nonsense.

Do I really sound like that? I only would want mounts just so I could get around a bit faster. Also because I’ve been working out a concept for an GW2 based RTS and it would be nice to know the armored/mounted/vehicular warfare capabilities of the five major races. (I can just imagine Sylvari tanks would be HUGE oakhearts with natural catapults mounted on their backs and mortar pods for anti-personal)

Anyway though, I’ll bump this thread since I asked this question myself:

I mean even from an art standpoint it seems odd. We have centaur movement animations, we have horse heads from Dreamer (just cut off the horns), we should be good to go on having horses just standing around or sitting in stables.

Heck, might be cool to see a few mounted enemies like back in GW1 (anyone else remember the Stone Summit Beastmasters or Dolyak rider monks? PitA, but still memorable.)

Don’t forget the Necrid Horsemen from Kryta…

Perhaps horses just aren’t that useful because Tyria never made certain technological advances like stirrups or the padded horsecollar.

tesco happened, every little helps wink

Considering the majority of horses we see are undead and ridden by Orrian zombies (the ones in GW1 also came from Orr) I think it’s a fair bet that part of the explanation is they were either native to that peninsula or at least most commonly found there and so the majority of them were wiped out during the Cataclysm.

The ones mentioned (but never seen) in Cantha could have been imported by wealthy collectors, a practice we know was common during the GW1 era at least:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Jarrel_the_Tamer

They’re invisible

All jokes aside, from a lore perspective, I’m sure they’re everywhere, but because of anet’s current “no mounts” (thank the gods) stance, putting them in would only make things a little more difficult.

Oh look… a horse. What? I can’t ride it?! “OMG ANET THERE IS HOARZ IN DA GAEM. Y CANT I RID IT.!??!..”

You get the picture. I imagine there’s technically a lot in Kryta.

Liraz.8062:

There are definitely horses in Tyria, and the NPCs mention them both in GW1 and GW2.

They existed at the time of Orr, since there were undead horsemen in GW1. The imagery of knights on horseback persists even to the present day Tyria (check out the pictures of the festival in DR, for example), and two of the guild symbols it is available is that of unicorns.

Pictures depicting horses and horselike creatures from the wiki:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/5/59/Carnival_01_concept_art.jpg/800px-Carnival_01_concept_art.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/0/09/Guild_emblem_48.png
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/8/8b/Guild_emblem_49.png

There are also horses mentioned in Edge of Destiny, page 97:

In Edge of Destiny a herd of wild horses is seen through an asura gate when Logan, Rytlock, and Caithe flee from the Destroyer horde in the Dwarven ruins.

“Visions. Beautiful visions… a grassy plain where wild horses ran… a deep lagoon encircled by leaning palms…”

There’s horses in the concept art:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/4/48/Human_architecture_05_concept_art.jpg/800px-Human_architecture_05_concept_art.jpg

This lore bit here also mentions skilled horsemen:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/An_Empire_Divided:_A_Selected_History_of_Mysterious_Cantha_for_the_Traveling_Scholar

And here’s a dude in original GW that mentions riding horses:

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Zumo_the_Beggar

Hey, hey you! I was riding my horse to the other side of town and I ran out of hey to feed him to get there. Spare a few gold so I can feed him and be on my way?

So there are definitely horses in the lore, all over the place.

The better question is, why don’t we SEE any horses in Tyria?

I want to point out ran is past tense so probly not anymore

That’s because the book is written in past tense. It doesn’t mean anything.

Carlin Sanders.3587:

no, you’re all wrong. all of you.

don’t you see? Horses evolve like pokemon – INTO CENTAURS! DUN DUN DUN~! (lightning flash and thunder clap)

That may be all good and dandy; but so did perhaps then bulls evolve into minotaurs? But explain then why we still have normal bulls around but not a single horse.

And couldn’t they have tamed some centaurs to use as mounts, to ride into battle? That I’d liked to have seen, it’d be like a superhorse, it wouldn’t just trample foes but it’d be wielding its own weapons and fighting like an extra soldier.

But mounts shouldn’t necessarily be horses, maybe it could be moas (like an ostrich)?

makes me wish Tyrian Moas got as kittenome real world breeds of moa got.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dinornithidae_SIZE_01.png

You’d think at least asura or just an inquest member might try to breed giant moa for absolutely no reason than to make them big.

mexay.3902:

They’re invisible

All jokes aside, from a lore perspective, I’m sure they’re everywhere, but because of anet’s current “no mounts” (thank the gods) stance, putting them in would only make things a little more difficult.

Oh look… a horse. What? I can’t ride it?! “OMG ANET THERE IS HOARZ IN DA GAEM. Y CANT I RID IT.!??!..”

You get the picture. I imagine there’s technically a lot in Kryta.

Yea but I want Seraph Heavy Calvary that clashes with Centaur shock troops…

So an interesting revelation I had during this weekend was that the charr trying to kill off horses isn’t that unreasonable.
Think about it: charr are much bigger and heavier than humans, their equipment is proportionally bigger and heavier, and this would likely restrict them to Clydesdale or other enormous breeds of horses which, really are not very fast. Or really, any animal they ride are not likely to be very quick for more than a few seconds. (See also, the Siege Devourer in Eye of the North)

Meanwhile, even the human cataphracts (heavy armor cavalry) would basically run circles around the charr.

Seeing their disadvantage, charr began to level the playing field by killing off any and all horses they came across while working quickly to developed vehicular technology now known as “Chuggers”.

Calvary for wvw would be interesting would finally end zerging

Fafnir.5124:

Calvary for wvw would be interesting would finally end zerging

Mounted “combat stance”: You are on a cavalry mount, your skills have been replaced with the Mounted Combat Stance list along with gaining Swiftness, Protection, and Regeneration while mounted.
1. Saber Slash: You cut an enemy with a saber an inflict bleeding
2. Forward Assault: You fire a rifle shot that pierces your enemies in a line, inflicts cripple, range 1500.
3. Rallying cry: Fallen allies rally, allies gain protection, regeneration, might, and fury
4. CHARGE!: You charge forward in a straight line, you are invulnerable for the duration of this charge and knock down all opponents around you, and can deal massive damage to walls and siege weapons in WvW Range 1500
5. Dismount: You get off your high horse.

Fafnir.5124:

Calvary for wvw would be interesting would finally end zerging

Nah, it’d just make cavalry quick-dismount zergs.

why would you want pretty ponies when we have bike-tanks? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Steel_Tide

Point. I wonder if any technology will ever make it into the Mist War… I mean I can imagine that airships and tanks would have a majorly different feel from what we have now. Plus if the LS is getting technology overhaul WvW might as well too!

there is already a giant laser cannon in a sPvP map

Gotta wonder what use a wall is when you can Laser Cannon it or Airship Jump it…

The gods are missing and you’re all worried about horses?