Guild Wars 2

I can’t stop but wandering what the towering structure over the Caer Shadowfain Waypoint in Cursed Shore is. And how on Tyria is it still standing? What magic is this! Does anybody have any background info on it?

Screen Shot? Is it a krait construction?

Are you talking about the massive ruins of what looks like it might have been a circular arch going over the area?

He means the massive, half destroyed towers that appear has elongated orange rectangle things on your map. There’s one on Grenth Island too, they’re massive.

I think the one near the Cathedral of Silence (Grenth’s) is the other half of the same structure.

They’re huge circular structures, I guess it ends out of playable area.

Caer Shadowfain’s structure starts where my character is on the picture.

Those huge kitten arches? There’s six in total – they converge at the Grand Temple of the Pantheon in Arah – where the Giganticus Lupicus can be found. One can be found in the Straits of Devastation in the southwestern corner. The other three’s outer ends go into unexplorable lands.

My guess is that they were just structures the Six Gods decided to make – one for each of them, perhaps.

Possibly that should be the case given that iirc Orr and Arah were the residence of the gods in ancient times, which explains the magnitude of the the various structures fascinating how they haven’t collapsed yet.

especially since there is no physical reason that the one next to the Shadowfain Encampment (sp?) since it’s literally resting on a thin piece of structure. Magic has to be the answer, cause physics obviously isn’t.

Or the metal used to make it is extremely light but dexterous (typically how mithril and, iirc, orichalcum are often described), so that the weight it produces is light enough for the full end at the center of Orr and that thin end on the outskirts to support its whole weight.

Furthermore, if you observe the broken part, most of the arch should be hollow if the whole arch follows the same structure – the arch would literally be honeycombed (more or less – just a square honeycomb) shape if cut cleanly perpendicular to the arching of the structure.

Narcemus.1348:

especially since there is no physical reason that the one next to the Shadowfain Encampment (sp?) since it’s literally resting on a thin piece of structure. Magic has to be the answer, cause physics obviously isn’t.

Well you’re talking about a people who used magic to wipe their butts, I’m sure they can make their obligatory giant-monuments no problem.

Yes, but having a decent understanding of engineering, being a prerequisite to being a student of architecture, there is very little reason that this structure should stand. The center of gravity of the object is waaaay off from the point that it is fastened. The torque created by the top of the tower would place waay too much tension on the structure. In general metals do not stand to tension thaaaaaat well.

Well, it is a fantasy world, with at least two metals that are non-existent on earth, both of which are plentiful in Orr, so who’s to say that all metals function the same in Tyria?

I mean, you got exploding gemstones for instance. My knowledge of minerals is rather sub-par, but I can’t think of one such gem on earth that’d explode – a mixture, sure, but not a single one alone.

Narcemus.1348:

Yes, but having a decent understanding of engineering, being a prerequisite to being a student of architecture, there is very little reason that this structure should stand. The center of gravity of the object is waaaay off from the point that it is fastened. The torque created by the top of the tower would place waay too much tension on the structure. In general metals do not stand to tension thaaaaaat well.

Rata sum floats. I’m not sure gravity is as much of an obstacle in Tyria as it is on Earth.

Difference is that Rata Sum has an active magical group maintaining the structures. Orr no longer does.

And one kinda has to wonder how the hell those arches remained in place when the center – but not the sides – of Orr sunk.

Maybe the arches are broken somewhere up high in the sky? But then that makes no sense for how that one arch has remained standing (less than now).

Well, I think we almost have to assume that a lot of the structures that are standing on the surface of Arah was remade during the rise of Zhaitan. I mean there’s no way that the center of Arah was well formed underwater when a massive explosion tore the peninsula asunder. Thus, Zhaitan did it.

Except that it seems it wasn’t an explosion. That is, if the cinematic in Arah is to be taken for granted. It was a “pillar of light” indeed, and it just sunk, with some cracks, but no giant explosion. TBH, if it were an explosion, then to turn Orr into what it was during GW1, it would be a crater like if a nuke dropped on Arah, so it never really made sense for the Cataclysm to be an explosion since we knew it’d rise again (and tbh, even before hand given there were Orrian remains).

Well, explosion was an assumption I had always made in Guild Wars 1 because of the way in which the continent appeared during Guild Wars 1. I mean it looked like nothing more than the shattered remains of a Peninsula. And I am pretty sure I remember some dialogue in the game about no one knowing what happened to Orr until the dust settled, again making me assume explosion.

Indeed. All outside observances called it a pillar of light or an explosion, but most didn’t even know what happened/was happening until after they recovered from all the shipwrecking waves caused by Orr’s sinking.

I’d love ta get an answer about this from one ah the people what write the Lore, ‘cause right now my character’s standin’ at the top of that giant shell with the vista an’ just starin’ at the thing in awe. (ta tell the truth, she’s been doin’ allot ah that since enterin’ Orr … it’s enough ta knock ah street rat dizzy for days)