Guild Wars 2

I’m utterly confused about the location of the 6 gods at this time due to the fact that there is a direct contradiction in what Jeff Grubs says in his Dolyak Express interview and what an NPC, Priestess Rhie, states in the game about the 6 human gods and the mists. In the interview Jeff Grub states that the gods have pulled back to the mists to leave the humans to figure out things for themselves for a while:

Q: Are the Six [gods] really gone or not? Their power is still very much present. Players can call upon the gods’ power with prayers, NPC priests can summon Reapers of Grenth etc., and their statues are still stuffed with energy. So if they left, why are their power still here?
Jeff Grubb: The human gods still exist, and their power is still felt within Tyria. However, they have pulled back into the mists, leaving the humans to stand (or fall) on their own merits. There has been a tendency for the human gods to, um, meddle with their worshippers a bit much, and in the wake of the final battle of Abaddon, they have been trying to cut back. Also, the destruction of the big A and his replacement with Kormir in the Pantheon resolved one of their ties with physical contact with Tyria. So there are ties, but you just can’t ring them up to take on the Elder Dragons.

This can be found here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Dolyak-Express-Jan-10-2014/page/3#post3545340

But Priestess Rhie states when you to speak to her during the PS quest “Speaker of the Dead” that the gods are for sure NOT in the mists.

Player Character: Can you tell me more about the Six Gods?
Priestess Rhie: Once, the Six Gods of the humans were very influential. As time passed, they pulled away—but they have not abandoned us.
Player Character: Where have they gone?
Priestess Rhie: No one knows. Not into the Mists, that’s for certain. Perhaps they simply want to allow us to decide our own fates.

The dialogue can be found here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Speaker_of_the_Dead

So uh…what? I’m guessing this is just a contradiction oversight?

There are, unfortunately, quite a few cases where little lines in-game will contradict each other, and even more where the devs will contradict those lines. In this particular case, I’d take the direct statement from the Lore and Continuity guy over a line that for all we know might’ve been written by a random member of the writing team before the big-wigs had fully settled on what happened to the gods.

I noticed this myself. And while nowadays I’m prone to believe their lore decisions are ripe with contradictions, I believe this one can be explained easily and might hold more truth to it than at first glance:

After Exodus they pulled into the Mists and their godly realms. After Abaddon’s death and Kormir’s ascension they convened now that their team was all together once more, and decided on their course of action: that is, pull out of the Tyrian sphere of influence for some reason: could be the dragons or their fear of whatever forced them to switch homes millennia ago might chase them to Tyria as well – and it might be worse than the dragons themselves. I’m inclined to believe the latter: that is, they were Good Gal & Guy Gods and chose not to bring down upon real, hardcore Apocalypse on Tyria but lure it away. At the end of this session, they left for another world/plane of existence, effectively “disappearing” from the Mists.

Just my 2 fillérs… (the “equivalent” of cent in Hungarian)

Also keep in mind that the in-game quotes are very much made from an in-game character, and unless said in-game character is all-knowing it is very possible that the is wrong.
Especially considering how little we actually know about the Mists.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

There are, unfortunately, quite a few cases where little lines in-game will contradict each other, and even more where the devs will contradict those lines. In this particular case, I’d take the direct statement from the Lore and Continuity guy over a line that for all we know might’ve been written by a random member of the writing team before the big-wigs had fully settled on what happened to the gods.

Yeah for the most part that’s what I will probably do, but there’s always that little part of me that just gets ocd about things like this.

Syryn.7591:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

There are, unfortunately, quite a few cases where little lines in-game will contradict each other, and even more where the devs will contradict those lines. In this particular case, I’d take the direct statement from the Lore and Continuity guy over a line that for all we know might’ve been written by a random member of the writing team before the big-wigs had fully settled on what happened to the gods.

Yeah for the most part that’s what I will probably do, but there’s always that little part of me that just gets ocd about things like this.

I hear ya. And it really does suck that the personal story, which was the main story-telling device at launch, is so clearly in a more outdated and unfinished state than the overworld and dungeons (barring the dungeon that is personal story).

I think the line may be more of meaning that the typical portals (to underworld, fissue of Woe, etc) don’t work anymore. So from a certain perspective, the gods “Aren’t” in the mists as the mists portals can’t access their realms. The gods are very much still around as you find out way later on in the personal story.

Maybe the dear priestess just can’t accept or won’t believe that the gods have left. Jeff won’t lie to us. The in-game characters can do whatever they want. There are a lot of NPCs contradicting each other and only one of them can be right.

Miroe.2054:

Maybe the dear priestess just can’t accept or won’t believe that the gods have left. Jeff won’t lie to us. The in-game characters can do whatever they want. There are a lot of NPCs contradicting each other and only one of them can be right.

The gods are around. A personal story mission in Orr explicitly, and very clearly shows this.

So yeah, the gods didn’t leave, they are still around. They aren’t doing much with humanity directly true, but they are there.

That doesn’t mean they are around.
The Reapers should theoretically always be summonable because they reside and watch over(?) the Underworld – Grenth himself does not.
Also just because they are watching doesn’t mean they are still around either. You have no clue where they are watching from, how much they are seeing, what specifically they are watching etc.

You completely misunderstand “around”.

The gods are quiet, they aren’t interacting, but if the Reaper is summonable and specifically gives a task GRENTH WANTS DONE, they are around. They simply aren’t as close as they were before.

Also, Grenth’s realm is the underworld. How can he not be ‘watching over’ or ‘residing’ there?

Kalavier.1097:

You completely misunderstand “around”.

The gods are quiet, they aren’t interacting, but if the Reaper is summonable and specifically gives a task GRENTH WANTS DONE, they are around. They simply aren’t as close as they were before.

Also, Grenth’s realm is the underworld. How can he not be ‘watching over’ or ‘residing’ there?

Because there has been no indication that the gods are in their own realms.
We’ve been to the Underworld and we’ve worked alongside the reapers – Grenth was not there.

The Reapers should theoretically ALWAYS been summonable because if they aren’t in the Underworld then something must be seriously screwed up and I think we would notice if people weren’t dying correctly…

It’s been quite clearly stated that the gods have backed off from Tyria and even in GW1 that’s how it was. Once upon a time we could still talk with the avatars of the gods – now we can’t. So they have even less of a presence.

And as noted in the dialogue, you do a task grenth specifically wants done so they are very much still there and keeping an eye on Tyria even if they aren’t in direct contact.

Also, it’s his realm, we don’t go to him personally because remember thing thing that mortals seeing gods pretty much blinds them forever? We don’t see Balth in the Fissue of Woe (his realm) but that doesn’t mean he’s not there.

Also you know, nightfall where we were in the domain of anguish/realm of torment after Kormir ascends and we don’t see her anywhere despite it being her realm technically. I think it’s just the adventurers didn’t meet the gods, though they went through part of their realm.

I think using GW1 as example of them “Not in their realms” is just silly. Where else would they be in GW1? Chilling and having tea with Primordus?

Somewhere else in the mists. Where they originally came from. etc. If the gods specifically were in their own realms I imagine they would have been taking better care of them. As it was it seems more that only their minions/followers were taking care of their realms – hence their realms being invaded/infested by things that should not be there.

Who says they weren’t dealing with the heads of the enemy forces? You know, Balthazar’s brother for Fissure of Woe, Grenth trying to contain Dhuum, etc.

I find it incredibly funny the idea of “Oh, these gods have their own realms. But even in GW1, when they were rather active with humanity, they didn’t actually live in or ever stay in their realms.”

What’s the point of Underworld being Grenth’s realm if he isn’t there at all? What’s the point of the Fissure of Woe if Balthazar is never there? Being gods, maybe they were dealing with kitten on another level while their avatars/helpers took care of the ‘minor’ things.

They weren’t active in GW1 though, we already knew that they had begun to distance themselves from Humanity – beginning with the Exodus of the Gods.

And I’m not saying they never lived in their realms, only that they quite possibly had left them by that point.

We know that the gods came from somewhere else before coming to Tyria, so their realms are quite possibly not even that old…

From the GW1 wiki : “Since the Exodus, the Gods have not directly intervened with any affairs in Tyria, although they still watch the world and grant it Favor of the Gods.”

They no longer grant the favour of the gods, so it’s obvious that they have even less of a presence now than the little presence they had 250 years ago. Not to mention the dev statements that they’ve pretty much ceased any kind of intervention at all.

My point was more toward the “Poor priestess can’t accept she’s been ditched by her god.” When Grenth is very clearly wanting the keeper of the temple ‘returned to him’, aka, they are silent, they are distant, but they are still watching/looking in at times.

If Grenth wants the soul of the keeper returned to him (his realm being underworld, where the dead humans at least go), I’d say he’s still in that region. Again, not contesting the “They aren’t interacting much with the world at all”, but maybe they aren’t as distant as some ingame NPCs would suggest.

Go play the Gate of Madness mission in GW1 then get back to me
Yes they may still be watching, but that is absolutely all they’re doing and all they’ve done for quite some time.

NPC’s are falliable. But I think what she is saying is that they aren’t ‘gone’ into the mists because their power is still very present and real in Tyria. Which is what Jeff also said.

She doesn’t have our out of game knowledge. She has an in world knowledge. So context of the actual words is important here.

Dustfinger.9510:

NPC’s are falliable. But I think what she is saying is that they aren’t ‘gone’ into the mists because their power is still very present and real in Tyria. Which is what Jeff also said.

She doesn’t have our out of game knowledge. She has an in world knowledge. So context of the actual words is important here.

Which is basically what I’m saying. Yes, they are doing basically jack kitten to help the humans really, but their power is still there. “Prayer” to the various gods work after all, which could be said to be the most they are doing. In the Priory mission to defend LA you use a relic of Balthazar which works fine (IIRC, it was that mission. you did it at some point anyway). Grenth asks for a soul to be returned to him that Zhaitan had taken.

And as dustfinger said, in world knowledge compared to out of world knowledge. Some say Jormag rose from Drakkar lake, but we know that to be false. (Unless Jormag was beneath the lake entirely and further down then Drakkar…. huh). In Sorrow’s Embrace they call the Iron Forgeman and Inquest creation (IIRC), when he was merely rebuilt and was a Dwarven construction. Some knowledge is lost/twisted, which is to be expected. Another good example is Ogden Stonehealer being called the “LAST OPPRESSOR”, which is false and he even states it to be so lol.

The location of the Six?

Someplace well far away from any dragons that might see them as a full-course dinner.