Guild Wars 2

I am sure many of you have seen the map of the world of Tyra. It is freaking huge. The parts we have been to (Tyria, Elona, Cantha) are small in comparison.

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/World-of-Tyria.jpg

I was wondering if any lore at all has been given on areas we have not seen yet. I don’t mean areas we have not been able to get to yet in either Guild Wars game, but areas outside what we can see on the in-game map. Surely areas beyond the three places we have been to have populations and creatures. Is there any lore on these places, however vague that may be?

There’s one place I know: Utopia.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Utopia

Intriguing! I did not know of this…let’s hope the world will expand even more then, this really seems interesting and exciting! Who knows what secrets we’ll uncover in Guild Wars 2!

Ludovicus.7980:

There’s one place I know: Utopia.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Utopia

Keep in mind Utopia was the location of a scrapped expansion, it may or may not exist in the GW universe now. Much of Utopia was recycled for Eye Of The North.

@OP: In short: no. There are some throw away lines here and there about unnamed distance places, no bigger than a paragraph, but that’s about it.

Ludovicus.7980:

There’s one place I know: Utopia.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Utopia

There’s absolutely nothing to say Utopia is canon to lore. Moreso since elements of Utopia was re-used in the Tarnished Coast elements of Eye of the North.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

@OP: In short: no. There are some throw away lines here and there about unnamed distance places, no bigger than a paragraph, but that’s about it.

Ludovicus.7980:

There’s one place I know: Utopia.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Utopia

There’s absolutely nothing to say Utopia is canon to lore. Moreso since elements of Utopia was re-used in the Tarnished Coast elements of Eye of the North.

I know, I put the wiki link.
The OP said that he didn’t care how vague the reference is.
So even if it’s not cannon (yet), it’s the only thing we have.

There are a lot of places that we’ve heard about, but have never ventured to in either game. They’re not exactly new continents, but there are a lot of things about them that are really exciting. The few that I can think of include the Flame Legion homeland, east of the Blazeridge Mountains, the Deldrimor Front, Scavenger’s Causeway, and my personal favorite, the Isles of Janthir, the home of the Mursaat.

Not to mention all of the areas that may have been changed over the last 250 years completely, filled with completely new and unique life. Remember, the Sylvari are a race that was developed over the gap between the two games. I didn’t include any unknown areas in Cantha or Elona, but there are plenty there too.

As far as lore goes on other continents, we know a few things. There are conflicting reports of how humans first appeared on Tyria; the popular theory suggests that the gods carried them through the Mists and they arrived on Orr, but there is a lot of lore and evidence that proves this false, instead suggesting that the first humans came from a continent south of Cantha, and that a civilization was built there long before Cantha, Elona, or Tyria had ever seen humans.

In addition, we know that the Kodan have come from somewhere to the north of the Far Shiverpeaks, but I believe information on them is limited as well. We have no idea where the Largos are from, but it’s likely that it’s somewhere in the Unending Ocean. That’s all I know, if I missed anything, I’d love to hear more!

A few notes, Delay. East of the Blazeridge is Blood Legion territory – the Flame Legion don’t have a “homeland” anymore, as they’ve been coutcasted.

Also, we’ve been to the Deldrimor Front in GW1, so it’s not exactly “unexplored” to us players. It’s where the places like Iron Mines of Moladune, Thunderhead Keep, and Tasca’s Demise/Mineral Springs are.

Thirdly, nothing says that Janthir is the home of the mursaat. All we’re told is that Janthir is home of beings with the gift of True Sight – and quite frankly, nothing says the mursaat hold this gift.

Also, you’re kind of off with the “reports of how humans first appeared on Tyria” – we only have one line that suggests humans arrived on a continent south of Cantha. We know for a fact they’re not native to the world. And the notion that they arrived on Orr, provided by The Seventh Reaper, an avatar of Grenth, himself along with Orrian records, does not negate the notion that the “human homeland” is south of Cantha – it simply means that, before humanity could settle in Orr, the Six Gods wisked them away to that land (not continent, mind you!) south of Orr. Homelands don’t mean “place of origin for the species” after all.

For the Kodan, what we’re told is that they’re from arctic seas north of the Far Shivepreaks – it’s not all that limited, because it’s only ocean up there. After all, they’ve been living on icebergs for centuries.

My apologies. The geography of the Deldrimor front has changed completely since the rise of Zhaitan, and it looks like a completely different place. I don’t doubt that it is, save some Dwarven ruins.

I am well aware that humans are not native to Tyria, but if they truly did first step onto Tyria at Orr, why did they then flee south? Did the gods think the humans couldn’t handle the races up there yet? And did a civilization end up being developed in the south, or did they flee from there because of some greater threat?

I may have misspoken about the homeland of the Mursaat, but based on everything that we know about them, they definitely have a large amount of dealing with Janthir, and it’s more than possible that the remaining Mursaat fled to there, as it seems to be isolated from all of the major races.

I suspect they were moved south due to Elder Dragon corruption. The Orrian History Scrolls make it sound like the order of arrival was Dwayna->humans->Balthazar->Melandru->other gods. With such a mindset, knowing what Balthazar did (burn Orr in cleansing flame), what Melandru did (cover the land in fertile ground with forestation), and what was there before said actions (Forgotten structures and a slumbering Elder Dragon – the latter unknown about by the Six Gods), it seems to me that the humans were taken south to avoid Elder Dragon corruption that the Six Gods removed from the world – part of their terraforming that got twisted into “creating the world” by human and charr legends.

(side tangent: I wouldn’t doubt in the least that the actual order was Dwayna→Forgotten→(Elder Dragons slumber)→humans→Balthazar→Melandru→other gods; as this would explain why the dwarves view Dwayna and Grenth as gods alongside their Great Dwarf, but never make mention of the others (though I suppose Balthazar could have been mistaken as a great Dwarf – beard and supposed love of ale and all that :P). If Dwayna brought the Forgotten first, then she would, indirectly, be their saviors because the Forgotten freed Glint with magic immune to the Elder Dragons, and Glint’s the one who hid the races from the Elder Dragons – though this would mean that the Six Gods (began to) arrive when the Elder Dragons were still active – and Grenth would be revered for being Dwayna’s son.

As to the mursaat – keep in mind that they fled the world, living in the Mists, when the last Elder Dragon rose. They’re also stated to have returned “only to be known as the Unseen Ones” (or something like that). Implying that they don’t have a homeland on Tyria – or didn’t since the last ED rise, at least. That settlement Saul found them in might not even be of mursaat origin, let alone the mursaat having settled in Janthir.

The White Mantle – not the mursaat – do have ties to Janthir, though, via the Eye of Janthir. But that could be little more than the mursaat telling Saul to “steal a powerful artifact from the evil people” or some such.

I doubt that any mursaat fled there – I presume you mean from the titan massacre – as it sounds like almost every mursaat on the world was killed (only 8 known survivals of the titan massacre, 7 of which killed 7 years later).

What happened between the mursaat and titans that caused such a vast near exstinction of mursaat?

The events of Prophecies. In 272 AE, Glint compiled the Flameseeker Prophecies; these prophecies foretold, in non-descriptive wording, the Charr Invasion (and in turn the Searing and the Cataclysm), the rise of the White Mantle backed by their “gods” (the mursaat, under the persona of the Unseen Ones), the civil war between the Deldrimor and the Stone Summit, the fall of the White Mantle and extinction of their gods, and the release of the titans by the hands of the Flameseeker (and unknown, seemingly, to most, the death of said Flameseeker).

During Prophecies (exactly 800 years later), the players confront the White Mantle and their gods, fighting through their forces to free Thunderhead Keep from occupation and liberate Kryta, and to do so they were told to unlock the Door of Komalie by Vizier Khilbron. The Door of Komalie, being behind the strongest mursaat fortresses, was what kept the titans trapped within the Realm of Torment; most of the mursaat were killed by the PCs on the way to the Door of Komalie, and after Khilbron took control of the titan armies, sent them to eliminate the remainder mursaat as well as assault the capitals of Tyria.

Lazarus was the first mursaat we learned to survive the titan’s assault, which he did by separating himself into various aspects and putting said aspects into certain members of the White Mantle. He eventually reformed during Eye of the North (six years after Prophecies), but the last aspect was twisted which harmed Lazarus, forcing him to flee and he hasn’t been heard of since. During War in Kryta (one year after Eye of the North), seven more mursaat were found to be backing the White Mantle’s renewed and increased oppression before they were each individually killed.

Blood Legion homelands is actually north of Ascalon according to the in-game map.

But their territory is also to the east of the Blazeridge.

" East, across the Blazeridge Mountains, Imperator Bangar Ruinbringer controls the lands of the Blood Legion."

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Legions_of_the_Charr

The Blood Legion is said to be the largest of the three legions (Flame being ignored in the statement), so it’s only natural that their lands is also the largest.

There are also the lands the Heket and Harpies come from, which is a land beyond Vabi.

There is also mention of lands beyond the Maguuma Wastes, and early in one of the Sylvari story lines, we learn there is another pale tree out there.

First is Dzalana. Second is just to a western coast, mentioned in Fort Koga’s description in GW1 – the second sylvari tree seems to be in Magus Falls, based on the info of it.

Ya never know Konig. The western coast doesn’t look to be that much further out than the revealed map when you look at that texture. You are probably right, but ya never know.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I suspect they were moved south due to Elder Dragon corruption. The Orrian History Scrolls make it sound like the order of arrival was Dwayna->humans->Balthazar->Melandru->other gods. With such a mindset, knowing what Balthazar did (burn Orr in cleansing flame), what Melandru did (cover the land in fertile ground with forestation), and what was there before said actions (Forgotten structures and a slumbering Elder Dragon – the latter unknown about by the Six Gods), it seems to me that the humans were taken south to avoid Elder Dragon corruption that the Six Gods removed from the world – part of their terraforming that got twisted into “creating the world” by human and charr legends.

(side tangent: I wouldn’t doubt in the least that the actual order was Dwayna->Forgotten->(Elder Dragons slumber)->humans->Balthazar->Melandru->other gods; as this would explain why the dwarves view Dwayna and Grenth as gods alongside their Great Dwarf, but never make mention of the others (though I suppose Balthazar could have been mistaken as a great Dwarf – beard and supposed love of ale and all that :P). If Dwayna brought the Forgotten first, then she would, indirectly, be their saviors because the Forgotten freed Glint with magic immune to the Elder Dragons, and Glint’s the one who hid the races from the Elder Dragons – though this would mean that the Six Gods (began to) arrive when the Elder Dragons were still active – and Grenth would be revered for being Dwayna’s son.

Or humanity separately appeared south of Cantha, and the gods brought their select chosen to Orr after it was made a flowering, habitable expanse. I have a feeling some excerpts of the Orrian History scrolls like to exaggerate.

About the “side-tangent:” it is outright confirmed in the Arah Forgotten path that the cleansing of Glint had occurred before any of the human gods set foot on Tyria.

Warden Illyra: This is the altar. It was here, before the human gods came, that Glint was freed of the Elder Dragons.

I believe the Forgotten came Tyria on their own, presumably around 1769 BE, when the Elder Dragons were in the middle of roflstompin’ the betrayed jotun and dwarves, and the seers that were on the edge of extinction. They understood the gravity of the situation, made an ingenious plan to free the only dragon who could hide most of the sentient creatures from the ED with illusions, and so the dragons were starved to hibernation (bit more complex than that, but still). Then, when the danger was gone and they returned, the Forgotten invited the Pantheon who were either losing a war with the mysterious nasty that forced them to flee, or they won, but the planet they lived on was utterly wrecked (or something). They knew the gods could cleanse the land of the dragon’s filth and make it habitable again, and in exchange the gods would have a new home for humanity and themselves. Again, I do think the Forgotten came from somewhere in the Mists, and they were close allies to the Pantheon, but not to the extent the History of Tyria and the ones trapped in the Realm of Torment show them to be – apologist sycophants without personal agenda – but a more free-willed and individualistic species.

It is also possible that the gods sent the forgotten, perhaps as scouts to look for new places for them to live. Thus the gods opened portals to allow them in, but the gods themselves did not set foot until later. This would make you wonder what kind of war they were coming from to make a near fully dragon corrupted Tyria seem like a better option.

Oh wow that’s interesting thanks konig!

Thalador.4218:

About the “side-tangent:” it is outright confirmed in the Arah Forgotten path that the cleansing of Glint had occurred before any of the human gods set foot on Tyria.

Warden Illyra: This is the altar. It was here, before the human gods came, that Glint was freed of the Elder Dragons.

You shouldn’t take any NPC as word-of-god for second-hand information. Illyra could be wrong just as much as Thruln the Lost was.

Given how we have previous information saying the Forgotten were brought by the Six Gods, it’s a debatable thing to go either way. Illyra isn’t a developer, so you shouldn’t go “Illyra says so, so it is so.”

If there was no contradicting information – new or old – I’d say “Illyra says so, so it is so until otherwise implied or said where it then becomes questionable but not debunked.”

Thalador.4218:

Again, I do think the Forgotten came from somewhere in the Mists, and they were close allies to the Pantheon, but not to the extent the History of Tyria and the ones trapped in the Realm of Torment show them to be – apologist sycophants without personal agenda – but a more free-willed and individualistic species.

The bold is the main reason why Illyra is called into question. We have first-hand imformation that the Forgotten are servants of the Six Gods, and second-hand information that the Forgotten were brought by the Gods, as well as second-hand information that they weren’t (brought, at least – they could have been sent as a scouting party ahead of the Six).

And I wouldn’t call those in the Realm of Torment trapped, per say, or “apologist without a personal agenda.”

In fact, it’s quite simple to figure out an agenda for them – the Forgotten were quite likely the race that suffered the most in Abaddon’s betrayal, so they had a pretty strong motive for wanting to make sure Abaddon remained contained. And if their ability to make objects immune to dragon corruption also applied, however imperfectly, to the Realm of Torment (and they did seem to remain mostly sane a lot longer than human souls sent there), then they’d naturally be the choice as jailors.

On the apologist side… I’m guessing that’s referring to the practise of sending innocent souls to the RoT for being “corrupted” by knowledge of Abaddon for reasons that aren’t their fault. It is a bit of an immature feline move, although it might have been a necessary one.

Though such a move (moving all souls to the RoT) was highly unlikely to be done by the Forgotten – as they’ve never once said to manage souls, let alone guide them to the afterlife – but instead the actions of the avatars much like how we see the Avatar of Dwayna take Ural’s soul.