Guild Wars 2

So I was wandering Caledon Forest the other day and it was the first time I really noticed size of all those things. I marked the dead trunks with pink circles on the map. Some are smaller, some are enormous. Some became home to sylvari. I wonder where did they come from, since I don’t know about any trees that would be that big in that area and/or in the lore.
Then there are those strange rock faces. I found five of them and marked with green. Four are visible from outside and one is in the hidden cave where you can get the explorer achievment.
I wonder if it’s all connected. It probably is, since there is Wychmire Swamp and strange dark energies, and we have Twilight Arbor here.
Any information on any of these?

The short answer: no and no. I know there’ve been a couple theories on the faces floating around, ranging from ancient carvings to petrified giant oakhearts, but it’s never addressed. The stumps I’ve always just written off as being a quirk of the local flora. Presumably they either grew up and were wiped out in the space between games, or were just conveniently offscreen in GW1. In any case, all the NPCs seem to take both the stumps and the faces for granted, as there’s not a one out there that makes mention of them.

I get it, but still…The stumps may have been just for enviromental design, but the faces…I really think there’s something behind it. And hylek may worship them a little bit.

I’m not sure that the hylek worship them- the face is at the start of the only part of that place that doesn’t have hylek, and besides, worshiping random faces in rocks is more a grawl thing- but they do seem to have named it. I’ve been told hylek names are derived from real world Nahuatl, so if anyone could dig and see what Itlaocol comes out as perhaps it could give us a hint.

so I don’t know if this is right but here is what I found: itla means something and then I assumed that -col usually means my, their, and so on. So I guess Itlaocol means Someone’s or rather Something’s, which sounds a bit odd. It may give out some information.
EDIT: Basically I think that hylek named it Itlaocol as something similar to “Something” or “Something that belongs to someone unknown”.

I’ve been extremely interested in that area for a while, as well. I recently did some searching in the Nahuatl language (the basis for Hylek naming) and found a few things:

Tlaocol = sadness (and variants thereof)
I- as a prefix refers to the a third person (his/hers/theirs)

So, Tears of Itlaocol means “Tears of her sadness”

I say ‘her’ because there is only one being that I can think of that would fit here: Melandru. Sandwiched in among all of the giant carved faces is a statue of Melandru. It’s technically placed above Twilight Arbor, and it’s not visible anymore. But it was there in GW1.

So then it makes sense to think of Tears of Itlaocol as “Tears of Melandru” or “Tears of Melandru’s sadness.” This also makes sense given that these tears share the exact model as Dwayna’s Tears in the Arah explorable dungeon.

Even though Melandru is a human god, the same ‘spirit’ of the god may be worshiped by other races. The Quaggan also worship a Melandru-like god, as we’ve seen at the Gendarran Fields sunken Melandru statue.

I think the giant faces are likely carvings by Hylek out of worship for their Melandru-like god.

Awesome info, Psynch! *feels emberassed*
You have some valid points. But I don’t think that hylek could carve those faces. It just doesn’t seem to fit them. The look, style, size and placement of those faces IMO are not a hylek thing.

Arleii.5304:

Awesome info, Psynch! feels emberassed
You have some valid points. But I don’t think that hylek could carve those faces. It just doesn’t seem to fit them. The look, style, size and placement of those faces IMO are not a hylek thing.

Yeah, the faces are just so odd. I agree that they don’t really fit with Hylek norms. I just can’t even imagine how they would go about it.

But in their little mini-dungeon in Dengatl Grounds, they have a carved face facing inward. So it seems odd to think that the faces were carved by someone else when they are at the heart of this Hylek cave/village.

Psynch.4087:

But in their little mini-dungeon in Dengatl Grounds, they have a carved face facing inward. So it seems odd to think that the faces were carved by someone else when they are at the heart of this Hylek cave/village.

Then they just built the village around that face. It is only one of the five that is/was reachable for them.

Arleii.5304:

Psynch.4087:

But in their little mini-dungeon in Dengatl Grounds, they have a carved face facing inward. So it seems odd to think that the faces were carved by someone else when they are at the heart of this Hylek cave/village.

Then they just built the village around that face. It is only one of the five that is/was reachable for them.

Yeah. I’m trying to think about when these were made. In the last 300 years, I think. I didn’t play GW1, but I don’t think these were visible in that era. After the giant tidal wave 100 years ago, there likely haven’t been any settlers other than the Hylek. The area is just too inhospitable. So if these aren’t Hylek creations from the last 100 years, then they were likely created 100-300 years ago. Again, that is granted they weren’t already there in GW1.

Unfortunately, I just don’t think there’s much known about that time interval.

Psynch.4087:

Yeah. I’m trying to think about when these were made. In the last 300 years, I think. I didn’t play GW1, but I don’t think these were visible in that era. After the giant tidal wave 100 years ago, there likely haven’t been any settlers other than the Hylek. The area is just too inhospitable. So if these aren’t Hylek creations from the last 100 years, then they were likely created 100-300 years ago. Again, that is granted they weren’t already there in GW1.

Unfortunately, I just don’t think there’s much known about that time interval.

If it wasn’t in GW1, then I suppose it’s the same thing as with the giant stumps. It happened before and after we could have seen it.

Note: responding in order of posts, so if I’m responding to something later commented on apologies for such :P

Arleii.5304:

since I don’t know about any trees that would be that big in that area and/or in the lore.

The Maguuma Jungle has a unique tree known as stonewood trees. They can grow to be, oh, roughly the size of the Pale Tree. Though they tend to lack any kind of leaves – at least as what was seen in GW1, where we saw them in the more arid parts of the Maguuma Jungle (they survived in those areas because their roots burrowed deep enough to find water sources).

Arleii.5304:

I wonder if it’s all connected. It probably is, since there is Wychmire Swamp and strange dark energies, and we have Twilight Arbor here.
Any information on any of these?

Doubt it’s connected. The “dark energies” is heavily hinted to be either Mordremoth or just simply whatever is behind the Nightmare that twists sylvari mentality.

No information is known.

Psynch.4087:

I’ve been extremely interested in that area for a while, as well. I recently did some searching in the Nahuatl language (the basis for Hylek naming) and found a few things:

Tlaocol = sadness (and variants thereof)
I- as a prefix refers to the a third person (his/hers/theirs)

So, Tears of Itlaocol means “Tears of her sadness”

I say ‘her’ because there is only one being that I can think of that would fit here: Melandru. Sandwiched in among all of the giant carved faces is a statue of Melandru. It’s technically placed above Twilight Arbor, and it’s not visible anymore. But it was there in GW1.

So then it makes sense to think of Tears of Itlaocol as “Tears of Melandru” or “Tears of Melandru’s sadness.” This also makes sense given that these tears share the exact model as Dwayna’s Tears in the Arah explorable dungeon.

Even though Melandru is a human god, the same ‘spirit’ of the god may be worshiped by other races. The Quaggan also worship a Melandru-like god, as we’ve seen at the Gendarran Fields sunken Melandru statue.

I think the giant faces are likely carvings by Hylek out of worship for their Melandru-like god.

The Melandru connection’s an interesting line of thought. Issue is that the Melandru statue would be more likely to be in Nemeton Grove – Wychmire Swamp is too far south for the statue in Twin Serpent Lake in GW1, and is more on par to where the bottom lakes were (*with the upper lakes turning into Lychcroft Mere).

However, I wouldn’t take the model comparison to Tears of Dwayna with much merit. There’s actually a lot of duplicated model usage for such items. Reflection Crystals within Arah use Searing Crystal models from the Searing Effigy, for example.

I doubt that the hylek worship Melandru either – they all together worship the same sun deity, translated in their tongue as Zintl.

Psynch.4087:

Yeah. I’m trying to think about when these were made. In the last 300 years, I think. I didn’t play GW1, but I don’t think these were visible in that era. After the giant tidal wave 100 years ago, there likely haven’t been any settlers other than the Hylek. The area is just too inhospitable. So if these aren’t Hylek creations from the last 100 years, then they were likely created 100-300 years ago. Again, that is granted they weren’t already there in GW1.

Unfortunately, I just don’t think there’s much known about that time interval.

I wouldn’t put too much merit into the idea behind “not in GW1” – those hylek in Kessex Hills say they’ve been there for generations, and by the sound of it before GW1’s time, but we see no such hylek presence in GW1 in that area.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

I wouldn’t put too much merit into the idea behind “not in GW1” – those hylek in Kessex Hills say they’ve been there for generations, and by the sound of it before GW1’s time, but we see no such hylek presence in GW1 in that area.

I wouldn’t say that. “Many generations” doesn’t means as much when a generation is only 15-20 years.

Their lifespan is twice that length actually, but still he makes it sound like it’s been more than 250 years – that’s how I interpret the chief’s lines at least. His specific line being:

“The Togatl are as a part of this area as the lake or the sky. We have lived here for many generations. I never thought I would see the end of us in my lifetime. The krait have dealt us a blow.”

If the Togatl are not even around for 250 years, how can they be as much part of the area as the lake or sky? Unlike other watery areas of Kryta, Viathan Lake was there even before the Great Tsunami. Though in GW1, its borders was split between Tears of the Fallen (western shore), Talmark Wilderness (northern shore), and Kessex Peak and Viathan Arm was a mere swamp or simply non-watery and disconnected.

(Kind of interesting that 250 years ago, the area that’s now the Red Auld Warf ruins was a beach covered in Mergoyles and a single fisherman).

Indeed, but a generation is defined as the average span of years between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring. Among humans that’s about 30 years, less than half of a lifespan if it isn’t cut short, but that number is also too high, as we’ve outgrown most of the natural pressures that in times past have forced us to have children much sooner.

As for the “as much a part of this area as the lake or the sky”, that could be said within a couple generations. It’s drawing a parallel- like the lake and the sky, they cannot remember a time when they were not there. As hylek seemingly make no effort to keep history, that could at least theoretically have been said as soon as the last of the original settlers had died, though more likely it’d be when all those who had known the original settlers died.

I’m not saying you’re wrong- I’m not convinced myself- just that it’s a leap.

I’ll have to side with Aaron on this. a generation does not equal a lifespan, so saying that they’ve been there for generations easily fits within the timeframe of 250 years or slightly less.