Guild Wars 2

So from the lore we read that the giants went extinct ~10,000 years ago. Why are there still 2-3 walking around in modern Tyria then? (Not the risen version.)

Giants and Giganticus Lupicus is not the same.

The Giganticus Lupicus were a group of very large races. The smallest known one being the risen Giganticus Lupicus found in Arah – the rest have their bones spread across continental Tyria and Elona, with the most common bones being found in the Crystal Desert and Desolation. (See these ).

These creatures were by no known means really humanoid. Though at least one of three identifiable distinct races that make up the Giganticus Lupicus are bipedal, nothing says the others are. And the other two seen specimen of the Giganticus Lupicus are even possibly on par to Elder Dragon size. Of the two skulls seen, one looks rather serpentine while the other looks more mammoth/elephant-like.

There’s dialogue in one of the Straits of Devastation mini-dungeons that imply the Leviathans share origins (in age) with the Giganticus Lupicus (though it’s specifically said to be related to the Elder Dragons’ history, the ED are highly suspected of wiping the G-Lupe out, implying that the Leviathans could be considered among the Giganticus Lupicus though a few still remain).

Giants on the other hand are different. In GW1, while they were horned or tusked, they appeared more like ogres in GW2. The giants in GW2 are effectively very tall cyclopian humans. Whether there’s any ties between giants and the G-Lupe is unknown, though I suspect they hold ties to ogres and jotun (those two being heavily hinted to being cousin races, and both are ancient races to boot).

You were likely confused by the “non-scholarly” title for the Giganticus Lupicus – the Great Giants, or True Giants. The nickname is meant to tell us “they made what we know today as ‘giants’ to be fairly small” – which is entirely true.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The Giganticus Lupicus were a group of very large races. The smallest known one being the risen Giganticus Lupicus found in Arah – the rest have their bones spread across continental Tyria and Elona, with the most common bones being found in the Crystal Desert and Desolation. (See these ).

These creatures were by no known means really humanoid. Though at least one of three identifiable distinct races that make up the Giganticus Lupicus are bipedal, nothing says the others are. And the other two seen specimen of the Giganticus Lupicus are even possibly on par to Elder Dragon size. Of the two skulls seen, one looks rather serpentine while the other looks more mammoth/elephant-like.

There’s dialogue in one of the Straits of Devastation mini-dungeons that imply the Leviathans share origins (in age) with the Giganticus Lupicus (though it’s specifically said to be related to the Elder Dragons’ history, the ED are highly suspected of wiping the G-Lupe out, implying that the Leviathans could be considered among the Giganticus Lupicus though a few still remain).

Giants on the other hand are different. In GW1, while they were horned or tusked, they appeared more like ogres in GW2. The giants in GW2 are effectively very tall cyclopian humans. Whether there’s any ties between giants and the G-Lupe is unknown, though I suspect they hold ties to ogres and jotun (those two being heavily hinted to being cousin races, and both are ancient races to boot).

You were likely confused by the “non-scholarly” title for the Giganticus Lupicus – the Great Giants, or True Giants. The nickname is meant to tell us “they made what we know today as ‘giants’ to be fairly small” – which is entirely true.

Ahh Thank you for the clarification

The Giganticus Lupicus are mega giants of Elder Dragon size. It is unclear if the giants we see alive today are related to them.

Giganticus Lupicus could be as old as the Elder Dragons, or even older. Just as old theory means the GL were fighting against ED for generations, until ED comes out victorious. The older theory means the GL were on Tyria first, and the ED arrives later (from outer space???) and wiped out GL.

Some of the giant bones we see might belong to ED instead of GL. It would make sense that a titanic battle between GL and ED would lead to causality from both sides.

The ED today doesn’t like each other, so it is not certain if the ED 10,000 years old fought as an united force.

CHIPS.6018:

The Giganticus Lupicus are mega giants of Elder Dragon size. It is unclear if the giants we see alive today are related to them.

Giganticus Lupicus could be as old as the Elder Dragons, or even older. Just as old theory means the GL were fighting against ED for generations, until ED comes out victorious. The older theory means the GL were on Tyria first, and the ED arrives later (from outer space???) and wiped out GL.

Some of the giant bones we see might belong to ED instead of GL. It would make sense that a titanic battle between GL and ED would lead to causality from both sides.

The ED today doesn’t like each other, so it is not certain if the ED 10,000 years old fought as an united force.

GL are certainly not as big as EDs. We can actually see an undead version in Arah. He is big, I’d say probably bigger than a giant, but not ED-sized. And I also don’t think they are older than the EDs, since as we now know, the EDs are part of Tyria’s life and death cycle. They awake as soon as there is enough magic, feast on it and all living creatures that happen to cross their path and then go back into hybernation. I don’t know how old Tyria is, but I’m pretty sure they did this cycle for way longer that 11,000 years.

The Giganticus lupicus bones found in the Crystal Desert are on par to Elder Dragon size, possibly.

The one fought in Arah is just one of many species considered to be part of the Giganticus Lupicus – use that term in similar relation to “Dinosaur” I suppose; a catch-all for a group of extinct/ancient species. The one in Arah had to be small because of a design decision, so that it would be managable to fight – and it is most definitely larger than a giant.

giganticus lupicus seems to fit the undead one found in arah, its a giant (giganticus) wolf (lupicus) like thing, so it makes sense, maybe scholars found the bones in the desert but thought they were just random bones of some sort of giant demon things, like when shark teeth washed up on shores in ancient times and people thought they were dragons teeth

http://www.guildmag.com/magazine/issue9/interview.htm

GuildMag (Thalador): I was personally wondering that in the Crystal Desert back in Guild Wars 1 we saw lots of skeletons lying around and we considered them to be the skeletons of the Giganticus Lupicus.

ArenaNet (Jeff Grubb) : Some of them are, yes.