Guild Wars 2

A fan from the China release event got several lore questions about the Mists answered by the Devs.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/25iqrv/i_attended_the_gw2_china_beta_festival_heres_some/

The answers were actually really enlightening, especially the part that each server is an alternate dimension, an alternate version of the world of Tyria within the Mists.

What’s everyone’s thoughts? Also, the few questions about the Sylvari, let’s discuss them in another thread please, so we can stay focused on one topic.

Wish we could see the text in its original state. Ah well.

The WvW stuff isn’t very mind-blowing. I don’t believe it’s ever been directly stated like that before, but the idea that the servers are alternate realities was more or less the logical conclusion. I did chuckle to see that there’s some unexplained lore difference between player characters and NPCs.

The bit about the Infinity Ball, though, is interesting. There was a thread about that not too long ago, so I’m pleased to see an answer, even if I was wrong. Can’t win ’em all.

Interesting given that ArenaNet was very tightlipped when asked about the nature of the servers and WvW in lore before, even recently.

Do keep in mind, however, that at various points the Chinese lore differs from other countries’ lore. ArenaNet customizes it due to all the regulation the Chinese government has. For example, in China’s lore, Caithe and Faolain aren’t (former) lovers.

It’s highly likely that this doesn’t pertain to these questions and answers, though it is interesting that they loosened their lips on the topic.

Glad to finally see the Infinity Ball situation cleared up. Though it was already said in-game to be a potential future.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Do keep in mind, however, that at various points the Chinese lore differs from other countries’ lore. ArenaNet customizes it due to all the regulation the Chinese government has. For example, in China’s lore, Caithe and Faolain aren’t (former) lovers.

What Marjory and Kasmeer, are they still lovers in Chinese lore? Because if they don’t then living story would have to abbandon that part of their story, which would really remove any significant meaning it had.

Hmmm, so those enemies in WvW are actual alternate versions of me?

Figures. Those guys are kittens.

Wanderer.3248:

Hmmm, so those enemies in WvW are actual alternate versions of me?

Figures. Those guys are kittens.

You is one thing they are not: :P

•Player characters are unique to every world. There are no “alternate versions” of player characters that exist parallel in other worlds.

•Important NPC’s however, (Destiny’s Edge, Kiel, Magnus, Scarlet, etc.) are constants across all versions of Tyria for a reason not yet clear.

This actually raises two very interesting questions:

1. If the Mists can hold the potential future, then with the Fractals being set in the Mists, it SHOULD be possible that the Uncategorized Fractal is a potential future of Rata Sum, or another Asuran city.

2. If there are multiple instances of Tyria, does that also mean there are multiple copies of the Elder Dragons? Do the Six Gods likewise have multiple copies? Or does only one Dwayna/Balthazar etc. exist in the Mists, but they are empowered by the worship of followers from multiple worlds? (Which would probably put them on par with the power of multiple Elder Dragons, in that case.)

The person who asked the questions gave more detailed explanations of what he was told on gw2rp, so I’ll quote him over here for you:

DeviantBias”

Apologies, Forest Guard! I have no direct quotes for you All you have is my word that I got this information from Ree Soesbee. I’ll try my best to say the finer points she told me. Keep in mind this is a mixture of both memory and extrapolation, I’m not a reporter by any means so I didn’t take notes while I was talking to the Devs, so please bear with me!

Sylvari Have No Hearts: From memory, Ms. Soesbee explained to me that Sylvari don’t have the pump mechanism to move sap through their bodies. Instead, Sylvari use the same method used by other plants for sap transportation. Some quick wikipedia’ing tells me that sap can be moved via phloem, which could potentially be moved by the pressure flow hypothesis. I really wouldn’t look too deep scientifically in this though, because Sylvari are basically magical plant people. For all we know, it could be magic moving the sap through their veins (if they have veins).

Sylvari Can Poop Mulch: It was explained to me that the main reason Sylvari can eat and poop is to make certain game mechanics make sense, eg. Sylvari learning cooking as a crafting profession, or Sylvari eating food buffs. If Sylvari are in-taking nutrition, there will have to be some form of waste disposal mechanism…so poop. I would try to offer some explanation regarding how the poop would be like mulch, like an absence of bacteria in the Sylvari gut or something, but really I have no idea. Ms. Soesbee kind of just mentioned “it would be like mulch” to me.

Sorry I don’t have much

DeviantBias”

@2228942

What I have issue with is that these other worlds are other Tyrias – where the past is the same, where history unfolds the same, where some people are the same and some people are different and yet it doesn’t effect the history. It just doesn’t make sense (to me).

Honestly, if they are other Tyrias, then why aren’t people communicating? Why aren’t they cooperating? Just what ARE people fighting for in the Mists? Again, it just doesn’t make sense (to me).

I’ll try to explain this to the best of my ability.

I asked Jeff Grubb if ordinary citizens of Tyria would be aware about the existence of multiple worlds, and his answer was no. His reasoning was that there’s already so much chaos and destruction going on in the daily lives of the vast majority of Tyrians, that they would not have time to be bothered with the existence of other worlds. Every world is in their own crisis with the rise of the Elder Dragons and each world needs all the resources they can get for their own battles. If every world is equally in crisis, how could they cooperate? It would be awesome if one world could spare soldiers for another world’s battle, but then the donating world would be at a disadvantage in their own struggle.

Moreover, I don’t think it’s a matter of choosing to fight each other. The Movement of the World does state that Balthazar opened the portal to the Mists to incite an eternal battle. That’s Balthy’s thing. He likes giant wars for his amusement. Perhaps he used the premise of fighting over resources (WvW world bonuses?) for the individual world’s battles with the Elder Dragons to start the Mist War?

Robin also brings up a really good point. The Mist Warriors that recruit for the Mist Wars are always talking about how they’re “fighting evil” in the Mists. We know that this is not the case, but I don’t think they do. The Mist Warriors might think that they’re fighting shape-shifting monstrosities or abominations in the Mist that steal valuable resources from their world, when in reality, they are warriors from another Tyria who are fighting for the exact same reasons they are. It’s almost poetic :P

So basically, Balthazar is one selfish son of a centaur who’s more concerned with his own amusement than helping his worshippers overcome the greatest challenge to their existence.

That post would seem to imply that there ARE multiple copies of Elder Dragons though.

I still call into question the Movement’s mention of Balthazar opening that portal, since aside from the Mist Warriors and now-removed dialogue, there was no mention of either Balthazar opening a portal, or the existence of a portal, since the Movement. And no portal in-game either – just asura gates that are younger than Destiny’s Edge.

Tale just about everything from reddit and what I quoted with a grain of salt, since this is all purely off of someone’s memory of an open discussion.

Well … those mists would explain the Melagga Melandru problem.

Also, if citizens of Tyria don’t know about the existence of other worlds, why can we guest/transfer between worlds?

Deli.1302:

Also, if citizens of Tyria don’t know about the existence of other worlds, why can we guest/transfer between worlds?

Because we’re not ordinary citizens! Well that’s the best explanation I can think of.

I’m going to take the guest/transfer to be 100% pure mechanics, and I hope ArenaNet doesn’t try to explain that away. I also hope they don’t mean “all versions of Tyria are just the servers” and instead mean “the servers are some versions of Tyria, but not all” – thus giving way to the potential of other Tyrias that we see hints about elsewhere. Even if most (all?) were April Fools jokes.

Horst Hortensie.5420:

Well … those mists would explain the Melagga Melandru problem.

That makes me wonder…

If each Tyria has its own Six Gods, then what if this Tyria’s original “Six Gods” include Melaggan and Koda (and perhaps others, those that Thruln the Lost talks about – maybe Zintl truly is a god, or perhaps more of a dead god now and has changed from a god to the sun, and the Great Dwarf may be included too), and that humanity was something that just “didn’t happen” on this Tyria – instead forming human-like races like norn, mursaat, or other. The Six Gods we know come from another world, so what if the theorized threat to their world was the Mists itself destroying the world, and they escaped with humanity and their Forgotten arriving in the world in 1769 BE.

This would explain the apparently godly duplicates, and it would explain how the Forgotten “arrived in this world”, sent by the Six Gods, yet were one of the oldest civilizations on Tyria and around for the previous rise. Would also explain their apparent schism – with some Forgotten being devoted to Glint, and others to the “Ancient Ones” (one of their many terms for the Six Gods).

With Non-Human God to Six God apparent parallelism, you have:

• Koda = Dwayna (“Keeper of the Skies” is a title of Koda, and he’s treated as the top deity by kodan, and is implied responsible for life)
• Melaggan = Melandru (thought to be the same by humans, very similar domains either way)
• Great Dwarf = Balthazar (both have a thing for forging and weapons and battle)
• Zintl = Lyssa (“Temple of Eternal Radiance” is where I’m going for here, though Lyssa is said to be of lost origins)

Which leaves Dhuum/Grenth and Abaddon’s predecessor/Abaddon/Kormir without a parallel.

Not likely, tbh, but an interesting thought that fits together very well.

I thought about old Arachne-Abaddon corelation, but well

Although I’d like to see some giant spider god ^^

Zaxares.5419:

So basically, Balthazar is one selfish son of a centaur who’s more concerned with his own amusement than helping his worshippers overcome the greatest challenge to their existence.

Not really. Think about it; people who fight in the Mists get valuable combat experience, and what happens when they die? They just respawn! Balthazar has given us a safe and reliable training ground to prepare for our fight against the dragons.

Our characters never die. They just get knocked out. Respawning is just a mechanic. Nothing says our characters are killed.

Well, about the gods having other “replicas” of themselves in other Tyrias, don’t forget that in the center of the Mists, where every time and space connects, there is the Rift. And in that Rift, we can find the statues of our 5 Gods (Abadon/Kormir excluded) so it would just make sense to me to say that the gods we know are the same for all other “tyrias”. Plus, the gods can travel the Mists as they please, and so it would be kinda paradoxal for themselves to exist twice in the same “place” since they are the masters of their domains, and their power would be like… Kinda like getting an error message because you are trying to rename a file that’s name is already existing in the same folder