Guild Wars 2

Some rough thoughts/speculation I came up with, maybe there are some holes and contradictions. The titans were one of my favorite enemy types in GW1 and it would be great to see more titan lore.
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The titans were originally created as constructs designed to kill mursaat by the seers, before humans and their gods arrived. They were in built various forms to blend in with different geographical settings, and they were intended to sweep Tyria and exterminate the mursaat.

The seers had a presence in the Ring of Fire, but the titan production facility was located in the Mists (for secrecy purposes), in a region that would later be known as the Realm of Torment. It was accessed through a portal in the Ring of Fire (Door of Komalie)

For whatever reason, the titans are deemed a failure (rebelled against their creators? perhaps this contributed to the decline of seer civilization) and their production stops, remaining units are sealed away in the Foundry. The Door of Komalie is deactivated.

After Abaddon is thrown into the Realm of Torment, the Forgotten repurpose the Foundry as a prison for Margonites.

Some titans were not sealed away, and persisted hidden in Tyria. Abaddon gains their allegiance by offering to free their kin from the Foundry. He used the titans to influence the charr, who may not have been willing to follow Abaddon directly, since he is a human god.

At some point, Abaddon’s forces overrun the Foundry and seize control, freeing the titans and bringing them to his side.

The Scepter of Orr/Staff of the Mists are control/production/enhancement-related devices for titans, created by the seers.

Part of Khilbron’s role in Abaddon’s plan was to retrieve the Scepter of Orr, for some titan-related purpose. The Sceptor of Orr may not actually control the titans, the titans may have been following Abaddon instead in Prophecies. The Scepter may instead be used for producing titans.

The Scepter of Orr may have fallen into Abaddon’s possession after Khilbron’s death. Perhaps there are two sets of titans, the original set created by the seers, and a second, more demonic-styled set created after Abaddon acquires the Scepter of Orr.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Cold_Touch_of_the_Past
Abaddon’s minions search for the Staff of the Mists for some titan-related purpose

Abaddon intended to use the Foundry of Failed Creations/Door of Komalie as an entry point for an invasion of Tyria. This plan fails twice:

• Some time before the founding of the White Mantle, Abaddon reactivates the Door of Komalie from the Realm of Torment side, sending some titans across.
• The mursaat constantly monitor the Door, knowing what lies behind it, and they quickly react, pushing back the initial wave of titans.
• The mursaat block the Door of Komalie, unable to shut the portal down completely, but realize that maintaining the seal requires a large supply of souls. This leads them to establish the White Mantle as a front for their soul reaping activities.
• Another invasion is started and quickly stopped at the end of Prophecies.

Pretty much all of this is complete speculation though, with nothing supporting it in GW1/2 lore.

Titans are formed by tormented souls. The seers don’t really seem to be tied to this concept – however, the mursaat are, as is Dhuum. I’d imagine the titans, if not naturally formed from horrid afterlives, originates with the mursaat or Dhuum rather than the seers. In modern times of GW1, they were made by the Fury, a powerful minion of Dhuum.

The Foundry of Failed Creations, despite common belief, is not directly related to titans being made. There is no “production facility” – they’re just made by tormenting souls, and the Foundry of Failed Creations was the Fury’s staging place to invade Tyria (via the Door of Komalie). Fun fact: The Foundry of Failed Creations is not named such because of the titans, but because of the Fury – it is literally “what the world would be like if demons stitched together a number of failed realities to create a home for themselves.”

Two links on the Foundry of Failed Creation’s lore:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Relkyss_the_Broken
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Aurus_Trevess

There is no indication of a titan living in Tyria prior to when the charr encountered them.

The Scepter of Orr controls ether and in turn spirits, this is how it controls titans. The Staff of the Mists wouldn’t affect titans in the same means considering it affects the physical world.

Khilbron’s role was to sink Orr and later open the Door of Komalie so that the titans could invade Tyria.

The Margonite’s search for the Staff of the Mists holds no known relation to the titans. It’s a powerful artifact that could have turned the tide of the war, of course they’d search for it.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

There is no indication of a titan living in Tyria prior to when the charr encountered them.

Dialogue from seer and forgotten NPCs in GW1 seem to suggest otherwise:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ancient_Seer
After obtaining the bonus in Hell’s Precipice
“I wish to see this to its end. Over the eons, much has changed in Tyria. But not these Titans.”

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Forgotten_Warden
“Titans, ancient creatures dating back nearly as far as my own kind, have broken free of their imprisonment. While they plague this realm, many Margonites escape us. The forces of light must stop these Titans. Do you have the will? Will you take up the mark of the light and fight?

To me, this suggests that the Titans were not initially created by the Fury, existed in ancient times, and were imprisoned at some point (which fits their name…).

Let me restate: There is no evidence or indications of a Titan living in the world of Tyria without being eons old or coming from the Realm of Torment.

That is to say, there’s no indications of “Some titans were not sealed away, and persisted hidden in Tyria.”

I was not disputing the possibility that some time in the ancient past they were never ever in Tyria, but rather that they did not remain there after some supposed past living on Tyria.

And I’d argue that given the Fury is a minion of Dhuum, that their origin comes from Dhuum – Dhuum was known to being a cruel and unjust god, so I think him twisting and tormenting souls in order to create titans is very befitting. That is assuming that they’re not able to be naturally formed, which I wouldn’t be surprised if they could.

Well, for all we know the realm of torment existed before the gods became involved in it, and the river of souls flows right through it. If the gods had created it themselves I would think they would divert the river of souls away from an area like this, it seems like a major design flaw if they had created it themselves. So it seems possible that perhaps souls got stuck in the realm of torment before anything about the gods happened in Tyria and in a realm like this they could easily have eventually become titans.

According to the gw.dat, the river of souls leads into an abyss – its purpose is, quite literally, to send souls into nothingness. I doubt it leading through the Realm of Torment is a design flaw of that if this held into release but simply didn’t get mentioned.

(Yup, the popular belief that came from no where about the River of Souls transporting souls is wrong according to the gw.dat).

Hmm, so by “saving” the souls by destroying the Soul Weir, we were actually giving them a chance to disappear into oblivion? As interesting as it may be, last I knew all information in the gw.dat file isn’t necessarily considered law.

Your very true it’s not necessarily canon, though its the only explanation we have about the River of Souls. The gw.dat provided many interesting explanations about locations we hadn’t heard about in the game itself, despite the locations very clearly still being there (e.g., Marga Coast is called such because it was where Margonites first settled on the shore in Elona; Heart of Abaddon is called such not just cuz Abaddon’s there but because its the deepest part of the Realm of Torment (think Dante’s inferno – lowest level basically, just no ice) and those waterfalls in the area? According to the gw.dat they’re liquid torment that’s been pouring on Abaddon for 1,000 years).