Guild Wars 2

You’ve all seen them, chunks of rock floating in mid air, defying gravity like you wish you could in jump puzzles.

What makes them do this?

Magic. Or unobtanium.

they’re actually filled with hyenas

Sialor.7396:

unobtanium.

This.

Seriously though, it depends on the locations of the floating rocks. There are some near a sylvari tower, which to me means the residual energy of growing the tower would have had an effect on what might have been a landslide nearby, creating an odd path, but one that was linear enough to be tracked upon.

another jumping puzzle had rocks floating in mid air with really strong winds and asuran gates and such. It mostly had the presence of elementals, so i’d assume that the elementals cause the rocks to remain in the air using their magic to create a haven from the world below the clouds. And then the asura decided “hey, lets find out what is up there.”

you can almost always attribute it to some form of magic. either residual magic from a powerful cast, such as creating the sylvari tower or the statue of dwayna, or it’s currently being held up by several magical creatures, elementals being the ones in mind primarily.

Ten points to arcqe for a pretty obscure reference. It made me giggle.

But “Magic” is such a cop-out answer most of the time. I want some explanation, some hard science here! (Physics minor/Biochemistry major here)

Zen.2450:

But “Magic” is such a cop-out answer most of the time. I want some explanation, some hard science here! (Physics minor/Biochemistry major here)

magic is about the best answer you’ll get, because there is no physics answers for how those rocks float. The amount of magnetic energy required to hold up those rocks in those positions would instantly scramble the brain of anything walking into its path. So science doesnt work. magic is the only thing that would allow that to happen, cause you’ll never find floating rocks like that on earth.

invisible horses are piled to give the rocks the illusion of floating, of course. where did you think all the horses in tyria are?

It’s interesting that the floating rocks only come from the Tarnished Coast region; they’re found nowhere else, as far as I know, and the presence of several floating rocks in Beetletun outside Caduceus’s Manor indicates that they continue to maintain their levitation even when removed from the region, so it’s likely to be something in the rocks themselves that’s making them float.

I’m kinda surprised the Asura haven’t puzzled it out yet. They’ve had 250 years to research it!

^ they probably know the answer, and that answer is “magic”.

after all, a lot of asuran structures make use of floating objects.

True, although I’m unsure as to whether those floating objects were carved from the original rocks, are levitated through conventional Asura magic, or whether the Asura have already unlocked the secret of what makes the rocks levitate and just refuse to share the secret with the other races. :P

Relics of the Cataclysm form when Orr first sank

^ giant floating rocks? doubt it.

especially since there are plenty of them in elona too.

Really? I don’t remember any floating rocks from Elona. There were the floating gardens in Vabbi, but I always thought that was through djinn magic rather than any inherent property of the materials.

If memory serves me then, If your talking about the Huge floating city to the south-east of Kessex Hills.
Then that could be the Dominion of Winds, home city of the Tengu.

Back in the days of GW1 you had floating rocks in the Asura areas “Riven Earth” and “Magus Stones”. My theory was always that they’re a result of Asuras experimenting with their magi tech.
There was of course also the floating castle in Kessex. It was indeed called “Wizard’s Tower” so again magic seems to be the obvious answer.

Chocolate chip cookies and unicorn smiles.

I’m guessing the same way that Asura have a huge floating cube in the middle of a jungle.

Or…. the bodies gargoyles that we destroyed in GW1 are coming back to lifeee!

Where do you think the bodies that vanish when you kill a monster go? yup onto a pile under a new “floating” rock somewhere

tyria has a lot of naturally occurring magic in it’s environments. i’ve always viewed magic as ‘the other half of science,’ so to me it makes perfect sense to see phenomena that defies ‘our half of science’ (the half we get irl), within reason anyway.

i’m not saying “A wizard did it, therefore anything is possible” (hence, ‘within reason’), but i’d be surprised if ambient magics had no immediately apparent on the natural world.

My guess is a much lighter than air ore in the rocks.

The ore isn’t everywhere, and it’s not in all the rocks in the region it does appear in, just like real ore in reality. Just because a place is known to have gold doesn’t mean every rock you dig up will contain gold. But the ground that does contain this lighter than air ore has these floating rocks around.

Some of them contained too much and flew off into the sky to be pushed around by high winds and eventually were worn to nothing by wind erosion. (Airship hazard?) Some do not contain enough ore to float. These would appear like any normal stone, just be a bit lighter if someone tried to lift them. And some have just enough of the ore to effectively maintain their height. Possibly with the aid of the local intelligent races who may see some benefit to keeping it where it is or perhaps the ore reacts in some way to variances in air pressure, allowing stones that don’t have an overwhelming surplus or shortage of the materiel to keep their height.

Asura being an underground race, likely know all about this materiel. Allowing them to use it directly in their floating constructions or they can smelt it down to a more pure form allowing them to use small amounts of it to levitate large structures like Rata Sum. It’s probably something the statics college works with a lot.

WIZARD POWA: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wizard's_Fief

Zen.2450:

But “Magic” is such a cop-out answer most of the time. I want some explanation, some hard science here! (Physics minor/Biochemistry major here)

The world of Guild Wars is driven by five fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and wizarddiditation.

Wizarddiditation is responsible for floating islands, food that makes you lucky, and the magical force fields surrounding my female Norn engineer’s fur bikini that enable it to protect her exposed midriff from bullets and fireballs.

Isnt it from the Asuran arcane power?

Ha found it, read this : ( http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Tarnished_Coast )

Sialor.7396:

Magic. Or unobtanium.

The Core reference?

It’s not what the asura use. From the researcher at Loch Jezt:

Researcher: Interesting . Inverse parabolic flux dampening.

Tommi Gnocker (That’s me): What are you doing?

Researcher: We’re studying this bridge. It’s been floating for ages with no apparent means of support. No outside influence. scientific curiosity demands we find the mysterious mechanism that makes it float.

Tommi Gnocker: Good luck.

Zen.2450:

But “Magic” is such a cop-out answer most of the time. I want some explanation, some hard science here! (Physics minor/Biochemistry major here)

I think you’re playing the wrong genre of game then, brosky.

Some of them probably have roots in castlemaniac’s answer, though Dustfinger’s answer is particularly helpful: reasons for some of them are just unknown. In a world of magic, you’re bound to see some strange things, I suppose.

“Magic’ is exactlly the answer. Witches float. they have magic and you know thme becasue they float. Ergo, floating islands are witches and full of magic.

Dustfinger.9510:

“Magic’ is exactlly the answer. Witches float. they have magic and you know thme becasue they float. Ergo, floating islands are witches and full of magic.

you know what else floats? A DUCK.

/montypythonreferenceoftheday

BrunoBRS.5178:

Dustfinger.9510:

“Magic’ is exactlly the answer. Witches float. they have magic and you know thme becasue they float. Ergo, floating islands are witches and full of magic.

you know what else floats? A DUCK.

/montypythonreferenceoftheday

ergo, a floating island and a duck both weigh the same. :P

The lack of gravity that has been affecting tyria since the demise of the great destroyer makes them float.

Ludovicus.7980:

The lack of gravity that has been affecting tyria since the demise of the great destroyer makes them float.

all the lore questions can be answered by the death of the great destroyer weakening the gravity of tyria.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Ludovicus.7980:

The lack of gravity that has been affecting tyria since the demise of the great destroyer makes them float.

all the lore questions can be answered by the death of the great destroyer weakening the gravity of tyria.

Sure they can.
Why did orr rise? lack of gravity
Why do we fight zhaitan in an airship? lack of gravity
Why are there ship buildings in LA? lack of gravity

Ludovicus.7980:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Ludovicus.7980:

The lack of gravity that has been affecting tyria since the demise of the great destroyer makes them float.

all the lore questions can be answered by the death of the great destroyer weakening the gravity of tyria.

Sure they can.
Why did orr rise? lack of gravity
Why do we fight zhaitan in an airship? lack of gravity
Why are there ship buildings in LA? lack of gravity

i was just stating it, not doubting its validity.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Ludovicus.7980:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Ludovicus.7980:

The lack of gravity that has been affecting tyria since the demise of the great destroyer makes them float.

all the lore questions can be answered by the death of the great destroyer weakening the gravity of tyria.

Sure they can.
Why did orr rise? lack of gravity
Why do we fight zhaitan in an airship? lack of gravity
Why are there ship buildings in LA? lack of gravity

i was just stating it, not doubting its validity.

Blessed be Melandru that we can still stay on the ground.

Ludovicus.7980:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Ludovicus.7980:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Ludovicus.7980:

The lack of gravity that has been affecting tyria since the demise of the great destroyer makes them float.

all the lore questions can be answered by the death of the great destroyer weakening the gravity of tyria.

Sure they can.
Why did orr rise? lack of gravity
Why do we fight zhaitan in an airship? lack of gravity
Why are there ship buildings in LA? lack of gravity

i was just stating it, not doubting its validity.

Blessed be Melandru that we can still stay on the ground.

i believe this is very fitting

Its probably based on pumice and laced with ferromagnetic material that is inversely polarized.

HERO.2057:

Sialor.7396:

Magic. Or unobtanium.

The Core reference?

Avatar, actually. I don’t think there were floating rocks in the Core.

Easy. It’s turtles all the way down.