What RL ethnicity are Krytans based on?
Names are mostly Mediterranean. They’re not perfect copies of cultures, so I wouldn’t discount things because the poor class’s clothing looks tribal (yes, all those Krytans you meet in GW1 are part of the poor class because the White Mantle took all the wealth of the kingdom).
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
It’s hard to pin-point a real life culture for them. I think Kryta’s original concept was a tropical kingdom kinda like that disney movie The Road to El Dorado. The NPC’s kinda looked Incan or Mayan but then the White Mantle wore shining armor and lived in castles so it is a bit confusing. Of course Kryta in GW2 is basically a copy of presearing Ascalon so all those influences are gone except in the rural areas.
Their colouring and clothing in GW1 reminded me of Polynesia, but there’s a good mix of Mediterranean, European, and others in there. As a human melting pot kingdom Kryta has become less specific in its identity by GW2 anyway.
Most places don’t match up perfectly – yes Cantha is East Asian, but with a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Thai and others, plus the Germanic Kurzicks and the nomadic Luxons with Greco-Roman names. Elona had influences from all around Africa including Egypt, plus plenty of Arabic influence; the different Elonan nations emphasised different parts of the mix.
I always felt they were Indian. Either Native American Indian or Indian culture.
In the game’s lore Kryta was an Elonian colony (many of the old populace lived in thatched houses, and a lot of the areas of old Kryta had more African sounding names). Now as far as real life races, well with all the Hebrew names that they had also mixed with Italian I would say a combination of Italian and due to their Elonian origin I would say that they were somewhat an analog of Ethiopian Jews. Nowadays they seem to look more Ascalonian than anything in DR but outside of the city (in many of the criminal areas frown) they still carry that mixed or GW1 look that is closer to Queen Jennah. Without the cool tattoos.