The Native name for Singapore is Singapura, which means Singa = Lion, Pura = City/Port in malay.
Singapore aka The Lion City is situated in South East Asia.
Whilst it may not look much like it today, 250years ago, Kryta was pretty much South East Asian Inspired.
Lions Arch – A fishing town which is a main harbour port for Tyria
Singapore – Was a fishing town which had a main harbour for ships passing through Asia
Lions Arch – No Native Lions to the region
Singapore – No native Lions to the region either.
now that you mention it. I do see the similarities and wouldn’t be too surprised if it was. Many fantasy world settings are inspired by real life locations (the more exotic the better) and Singapore is just as ‘exotic’ a location as any. Especially pre-Lee Kuan yew Singapore.
Singapore aka The Lion City is situated in South East Asia.
Whilst it may not look much like it today, 250years ago, Kryta was pretty much South East Asian Inspired.
Singapore aka The Lion City is situated in South East Asia.
Whilst it may not look much like it today, 250years ago, Kryta was pretty much South East Asian Inspired.
Cantha was Asian-inspired, not Kryta.
YES OF COURSE! Because Chinese are the only types of Asians!
My apologies.
Of course Elona is just African themed right?
Because Arabian and Egyptian… just another part of African culture.
Singapore aka The Lion City is situated in South East Asia.
Whilst it may not look much like it today, 250years ago, Kryta was pretty much South East Asian Inspired.
Cantha was Asian-inspired, not Kryta.
YES OF COURSE! Because Chinese are the only types of Asians!
My apologies.
Of course Elona is just African themed right?
Because Arabian and Egyptian… just another part of African culture.
Sarcasm.
Uh, Cantha is a kludge of many Oriental cultures, not just the chinese.
And if you pay attention to Elona you’ll see more than just “African” culture represented as well.
Singapore aka The Lion City is situated in South East Asia.
Whilst it may not look much like it today, 250years ago, Kryta was pretty much South East Asian Inspired.
Cantha was Asian-inspired, not Kryta.
YES OF COURSE! Because Chinese are the only types of Asians!
My apologies.
Of course Elona is just African themed right?
Because Arabian and Egyptian… just another part of African culture.
Sarcasm.
Uh, Cantha is a kludge of many Oriental cultures, not just the chinese.
And if you pay attention to Elona you’ll see more than just “African” culture represented as well.
I see that you missed his ‘sarcasm’ tag.
The Long Road Goal: To have one character of every race, gender, and armor class combination at level 80. Current progress: Human 4/6 | Charr 1/6 | Norn 1/6 | Sylvari 1/6 | Asura 1/6 | Total: 8/30
Wow, Singaporean here but I never made the connection.. Yet it makes so much sense! Our emphasis on multiculturalism and multiracial harmony (there are four different national languages, including English) meshes pretty well with the whole concept of Lion’s Arch too. Totally sold.
Wow, Singaporean here but I never made the connection.. Yet it makes so much sense! Our emphasis on multiculturalism and multiracial harmony (there are four different national languages, including English) meshes pretty well with the whole concept of Lion’s Arch too. Totally sold.
Sorry but that is not a Merlion but a lion statue that existed in the original Lions Arch before Orr rose up and flooded it and then they built the new lions arch on the ruins of the old using ships and basically anything they could salvage. I do see influences from other cultures in the artwork and game though. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lion%27s_Arch
If you are one who has played the original Guild Wars it would be most familiar to you as the main city of the Kingdom of Kryta before guild wars 2 which it is now a pirate run haven for all races not just humans.
Sorry but that is not a Merlion but a lion statue that existed in the original Lions Arch before Orr rose up and flooded it and then they built the new lions arch on the ruins of the old using ships and basically anything they could salvage. I do see influences from other cultures in the artwork and game though. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lion%27s_Arch
If you are one who has played the original Guild Wars it would be most familiar to you as the main city of the Kingdom of Kryta before guild wars 2 which it is now a pirate run haven for all races not just humans.
If you look at that statue in GW2 from behind there is a very clear fish body and tail. It took me a while to notice it because with some of them it’s hard to see the whole statue clearly but they are definately one thing.
Whether it was like that in GW1 or not we don’t know because those statues (if they existed) would have been in an inaccessible part of the city. The ones we could see are definately just lions and now underwater.
Personally I think it’s not totally out of the question that during the rebuilding of Lions Arch someone took the time to add a fish body to the existing statue to suit the style of the rebuilt city.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
I now can’t decide if I wish people in real life put as much thought into names or if it’d ruin the fun of living in a place with town names like Chipping Sodbury and Christmas Pie and of course the infamous Torpenhow Hill (which translates to Hillhillhill Hill).
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
Sorry, but I can’t say I buy this theory much. The comparison the OP uses is the concept art loading screen. A comparison of ingame buildings and the like don’t show the same similarities to me.
I think there are definitely comparisons that can be drawn, not least of which being the merlion. However, I suspect it’s more a case of converging to a similar point – GW1 Lion’s Arch doesn’t have the same degree of similarity and certainly doesn’t have the multiculturalism, and when your city’s symbol is a lion and gets rebuilt after being flooded, adding a fish tail to make a merlion is a logical development.
Why lions? Because Kryta was once a colony of Elona, and there are lions in Elona.
To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.
@draxynnic
Sure, Elona has lions. But when the devs created Lion’s Arch, were they planning on making it an ex-colony of Elona? It’s never stated during Prophecies, and the GW manuscripts say that Kyrta was a colony of Ascalon. Of course, that bit of lore got changed later, but the point is: the devs decide what places have what names. Not the in-game history.
So what was the inspiration for Lion’s Arch? I have to agree with the op, there really seems to be a lot Singapore references around. Ok, not a million, but enough to show where the name came from.
@The Greyhawk: the op’s not talking about concept art. The op’s talking about actual Lion’s Arch in gw 1 and 2.
That’s also not really clear, but GW2, the flooding of the original Lion’s Arch, and its being rebuilt as a multicultural city weren’t even blips on their radar when LA was named. In fact, when we first reach LA in Prophecies, it’s in the grip of an oppressive cult that tricks innocent people into getting sacrificed to their deities – a pretty unflattering comparison to make to any real-life city.
What’s most likely happened is that someone back when Lion’s Arch was founded had the lion as their symbol despite there being none in Kryta – which has a lot of historical parallels (the English royal house, for instance). Now, I’m not denying that there are comparisons to be drawn, but I don’t think it was intended or anticipated when LA was named.
(It may, however, be a parallel they noticed in the making of GW2 and decided to run with, resulting in things like, for instance, the merlion statues, which are in the game if you look for them.)
To those who think Scarlet hate means she’s succeeded as a villain:
People don’t hate Scarlet like Game of Thrones fans hate Joffrey.
They hate her the way Star Wars fans hate Jar Jar Binks.
the GW manuscripts say that Kyrta was a colony of Ascalon.
Actually, they don’t. This was the general assumption by players since Prophecies’ time since Orr was called a colony originally too but Ascalon wasn’t, so people figured without knowledge that Elona was a neighbor to continental Tyria that Kryta was thus a colony of Ascalon.
We now know, however, that Kryta was first settled by Orr before the Exodus. Then something happened and we heard naught about Kryta until 300 AE when Elona settled it.
Something we always knew since day 1 was that Lion’s Arch was the summer home of King Doric, thus the name originates from… Orr! Not Elona nor Ascalon.
Anyways, I don’t see any similarities to Singapore – at least in the original Lion’s Arch. The structures look nothing like modern day LA (in-game or concept art) so I doubt that LA originated as a Singapore reference. At best, it’d be as drax said – while making Lion’s Arch in GW2, Anet began decided to go with such similarities. This would mean – no, the name Lion’s Arch was not inspired by Singapore, but its modern design might have been.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I doubt it. Anet doesn’t want to use real-world references when naming things. Ascalon City in GW 1 was called Kyhlo at first, but it was renamed because some translations sounded like Cairo. Now Kyhlo is the fortress, though, but I guess it’s OK for them since it’s not a city like Cairo. :P
