Guild Wars 2

The Tyrian lore tells us about a forgotten ancient civilization, whose buildings and perhaps technology as well were taken over by the Asura driven from their homes after the rise of the Great Destroyer.
What is known so far about it and are we going to learn more in future?

As a writer and researcher, I find this matter quite fascinating even in fiction.

Remember this is the Rata Sum of GW1 and not the Rata Sum of GW2. These two cities are so completely different there is absolutely no comparison. That being said, it is theorized that the civilizations that created the ruins in the Tarnished Coast were either the Elonians (who possibly had colonies in the area) or the human race that were supposed to be in the Utopia expansion. Now whether or not this race of humans exists at all is unknown, because of the fact that the expansion was cancelled, but we do know that there is a lot more to the world of Tyria than we have any clue of.

Many theories on this, could have been early humans (even though it’s nothing like the Druidic structures, it could be an offshoot of their culture?), Mursaat (since we know next to nothing of their homelands and structures), Seer (which many players have speculated), I once thought it might have been Forgotten cities, even though it doesn’t at all fit with the structures you see in the crystal desert. One popular theory is it’s relics of the fabled Utopian civilization (of which there was supposed to be an expansion of in GW1 but was cancelled and was supposedly Aztec based themes which is very similar to the structures in pre-GW2 Rata Sum). One thing to bear in mind though, there was only broken fragments of those structures in the original Rata Sum when the Asura settled it. Through their magic and technology they shaped it how they saw fit so it’s current state may not be what the original structures looked like (granted it’s similar to the relics we saw in GW1 but most of it was covered in jungle, inaccessible, or just plain broken down).

The only thing we’ve been told about it is that it belonged to a highly magical culture. The examples of Orrian, mursaat, and seers were brought up as well.

My current personal belief, due to the appearance of the Central Transfer Chamber in GW1, is that they’re actually asuran in origin – specifically speaking, of an ancient now-forgotten settlement of asura that met some unknown end.

I really cannot agree with the notion of them being mursaat structures, given the structures found on the Ring of Fire (example ), and the fact that we’re told they’ve been gone since the last ED rise and only returned when known as the Unseen Ones – which would mean that the chance of these being mursaat structures even without the RoF structures is highly unlikely (also, it lacks the “towers that reach the heavens” which describe the mursaat city Saul stumbled upon).

Of course it may turn out that the RoF structures were originally seer in origin due to the similarities in appearance with the Bloodstones, and the fact the structures that block the Door of Komalie holds back titans which the seer shows it knew about, but until such notion gets real credence I’m more inclined to believe the "city of ice and stone’ that was Moladune as well as some of the now-underground structures within the Far Shiverpeaks are seer structures due to the seer-like statues near said Far Shiverpeak structures (though both could be, given the similarities).

To add to Konig’s theory above, I actually share the thought that Rata Sum is an ancient Asuran city. Consider one piece of crucial evidence: Rata Pten, in the Mount Maelstrom area.

The Durmand Priory is investigating these ‘ruins’, which are entirely indistinguishable from Rata Sum’s architecture (and, indeed, ‘modern’ Asuran architecture), and describes them specifically as an ancient Asuran city from the time when Orr was still a functioning society.

To give credence to this theory, there are even Asuran-style golems wandering about the ruins (during a rare event). In fact, if I’m remembering rightly, they might even have been the high-tech holographic golems that you find in Metrica Province… but I can’t remember, it’s been a while.

In addition, in the Straits of Devastation, if you enter the giant cave complex to the east of the southern islands, you can find Asuran structures as well that have clearly been long abandoned.

I think it can only be concluded that, most likely, Rata Sum are ancient Asuran ruins from some long-lost Asuran civilization. My personal theory? It was a group of Asurans that rejected subterranian living and, hence, cut themselves off from the group of Asurans that eventually came to the surface with the rise of the Great Destroyer. Thus, the latter group would have little knowledge (if any) of the goings on of the former in however long of an interim there was between the surface-Asura building their civilization and the rise of the Great Destroyer.

That’s my personal poke at it, however.

The asura in general seem leery of history, preferring to look forwards instead of backwards. It would not surprise me if any history that they’re not constantly reminded of is quickly lost.

There’s also the fact that due to how asuran society functions, knowledge is often lost. Asura are by nature very egotistical and fairly paranoid, so they often keep their research hidden in ciphers, behind various traps, and possibly even destroyed upon their death. That’s why modern golems lack heads (well, those not made from Snaff’s designs like Mr. Sparkles), because Oola’s designs which had such were lost after her death.

Given this, a lot of history would be lost even without the concept of asura looking forwards all the time. This fact is also one of the things that led to the Inquest, and probably the project index that’s in Rata Sum which records krewe projects releases.

Rata Sum is obviously Mursaat build

what anagram does Rata Sum give you? exactly!

Yeah, Rata Sum obviously looks a heck of a lot like many asura ruins you find throughout the Depths of Tyria. I was never certain if this was because the game designers wanted to associate only one style of architecture to the asura in order to prevent confusion for players who do not read too thoroughly into the game, or if it was done on purpose to show that they were asuran structures to begin with. More than likely though, whatever the original intention was, these stuctures will be made into asuran, lorewise, in order to provide a consistency to the history and design.

Narcemus.1348:

Remember this is the Rata Sum of GW1 and not the Rata Sum of GW2. These two cities are so completely different there is absolutely no comparison. That being said, it is theorized that the civilizations that created the ruins in the Tarnished Coast were either the Elonians (who possibly had colonies in the area) or the human race that were supposed to be in the Utopia expansion. Now whether or not this race of humans exists at all is unknown, because of the fact that the expansion was cancelled, but we do know that there is a lot more to the world of Tyria than we have any clue of.

This is wrong. We know that those technologies did not exist in those other civilizations, and the most logical answer to who that technology is either is SEER or the MURSAAT.

Both are ancient very very advanced civilizations, and the seer were wiped out by the mursaat. So most likely the ruins were of the defeated Seer.

What technologies are you referring to? The ruins had no technology. They were just stone structures of unique design.

There’s absolutely nothing that points to the presence of seers in the Tarnished Coast. And based on possible dates for the last ED rise, the seer race fell by the mursaat in either roughly 10,000 BE or 2,000 BE – the ruins in EN look newer than either date (though 2,000 BE is certainly likely).

Orrian territory is known to have extended into the Tarnished Coast during
he time of the Second Great Corsair War and King Zoran’s reign so if the ruins were human-built, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were of Orrian origins.

Katostrophe.3274:

Narcemus.1348:

Remember this is the Rata Sum of GW1 and not the Rata Sum of GW2. These two cities are so completely different there is absolutely no comparison. That being said, it is theorized that the civilizations that created the ruins in the Tarnished Coast were either the Elonians (who possibly had colonies in the area) or the human race that were supposed to be in the Utopia expansion. Now whether or not this race of humans exists at all is unknown, because of the fact that the expansion was cancelled, but we do know that there is a lot more to the world of Tyria than we have any clue of.

This is wrong. We know that those technologies did not exist in those other civilizations, and the most logical answer to who that technology is either is SEER or the MURSAAT.

Both are ancient very very advanced civilizations, and the seer were wiped out by the mursaat. So most likely the ruins were of the defeated Seer.

I do not quite understand what you are talking about……

If you are mentioning the floating orbs or stuff like that in Rata Sum it’s obviously newer things that were added to the ruins of an older civilization. And this older civilization is what we are talking about.

WarriorOfAsgard.3705:

Orrian territory is known to have extended into the Tarnished Coast during
he time of the Second Great Corsair War and King Zoran’s reign so if the ruins were human-built, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were of Orrian origins.

That was my original thought, since some Orrian concept art have more aztec designs (ziggurates and the like), however the in-game Orrian architecture is vastly different to the point that even differing architecture changes seems highly unlikely to such a degree.

Well, to my knowledge of the Lore, there is no record that Asura, prior to 1078 AE, used to have the same technology they have in the GW2 era. Also even in the GW1 era, Rata Sum appeared to contain some sort of magic already before it was expanded.
So it might be true, after all, that they found something there they then studied and adapted as their own, given their already prominent intellect.
The gates, even golemancy could be the result of adaption of ancient technology, yet they probably wouldn’t even admit it. As proud as they are of their intellectual superiority, I wouldn’t be surprised if they changed a bit the course of their history from how it truly was.

Oh, the technology they had in GW1 and GW2 are vastly different, much like the technology of the charr between those two times. But it was obvious that they had some concept of levitating cubes and other magical and mystifying things. Heck perhaps they didn’t even understand the levitating rocks until they got to the Tarnished coast and saw the ones in Magus Stones. But all you have to do is look at some of the watch towers that they created through areas, and the most obvious example is the G.O.L.E.M. factory.

The levitating cubes in GW1 are more or less outright stated to be quickly erected power generators that the asura made once they settled in those ruins.

The hub of Asuran activity on the surface world, Rata Sum was quickly and magically erected when the race arrived from their native underground homes. Geomystic generators dot the area, providing free power to the town. Some find the atmosphere within the town uncomfortable, saying you can literally feel the Energy being sucked from the air, but the Asura vow this enchanted technology is “perfectly safe”.

From GW1, Rata Sum’s description.

Said generators are also found in the Central Transfer Chamber – as is the giant pyramid seen in Arbor Bay, featured during O Brave New World.

And support for those ruins being asuran:

It has been centuries since Asura were seen aboveground. In fact, until recently, many humans thought they were a myth. However, recent reports have confirmed their existence.

From GW1 manual. If they were on the surface centuries ago, one would expect them to have once had settlements on the surface (I cannot see the asura living in the wilderness or living in other races’ buildings).

Simplest answer for you… the college of statics

Of interest on the subject of Rata Sum. I was curious the other day as to what supports Rata Sum (on the ground) and if any of the original Rata Sum Remained down there so I decided to jump off, slide down the side and have a look from the ground lvl. It took a while, but I finally got it to work. As you can see from the image the bottom of Rata Sum is literally just sitting dipped in a lake/river. And from what I can see there is no sign of the original city.

Rata Sum isn’t supported.

Its levitating.

Though its so big that the bottom falls into the water, but doesn’t touch the ground beneath.

The old rata sum sunk. The new was build by Auras and the old one was probably build by a human race lost to the history. Originally the 4th GW story should be about that civilisation, but was changed to GW EN, to make way for GW2. And the civilisation was lost forever, they were an Native american / Mayan civilisation and master of time. See : guild wars utopia

ancient rata sum…probably a magic race like the mursaat , modern rata sum…asura

Rata Pten points to Rata Sum being originating by asura. Rata Pten is in Mount Maelstrom, and is said to be ancient asuran ruins, which just so happen to look very similar to GW1’s Tarnished Coast ruins (and the Central Transfer Chamber’s structures).

Such structures are also seen in Straits of Devastation – near the vista southeast of Fort Trinity.

It’s a pity we don’t have any pictures of what the underground Asuran cities looked like. We might be able to extrapolate from that whether or not Asuran architecture evolved substantially from below-ground to above-ground, and draw possible connections to determine if Rata Sum was indeed an ancient Asuran city.

I won’t rule out the possibility, but I’m still more inclined to think that Rata Sum was built by another ancient race (possibly the Seers).

The best we got, off the top of my head, is the Central Transfer Chamber which uses the same models/textures as EN Tarnished Coast ruins.

There’s also this concept art titled “Asura Ruins,” and looks like said above TC ruins.

Other than that, we only have Rata Pten, which is outright said to be asuran in origin.

Mursaat obvious

Rata Sum is a anagram for Mursaat

Oh i never noticed that before wouw..nice spot!

Yeah, that’s been around for a while. It has been theorized that Rata Sum, along with the explorable area near it called Riven Earth were an anagram for Mursaat (Rata Sum) Thrive Near (Riven Earth). Obviously though anagrams for zone names aren’t lore. Furthermore, there is proven to be very little connection between the ruins of Rata Sum in GW1 and the mursaat. Firstly the mursaat cities were described as having “massive towers reaching into the heavens,” now obviously Rata Sum is not the city that Saul’s mentioning. The structures of Rata Sum do go high, but they hug the earth, and are highly unlikely to be confused for towers, not to mention, Kryta has many watch towers that stand much higher than the temples of Rata Sum. Secondly the mursaat and the asura do not have much of a connection that we can see. Sure they are both magically advanced, but there is no relation or physical connection. We see an asura in GW1 studying a mursaat because it is something new to him.

Furthermore, given the three asuran settlement names we know of (Rata Sum, Quora Sum, and Rata Pten), it is possible that “Sum” is asuran for city (Quora Sum is one of the six majestic underground asuran cities that’s compared to GW2-day Rata Sum) and “Rata” refers to above-ground in some means (both Rata Sum and Rata Pten are above-ground settlements).

Rata Sum is also latin for “I (have) verified/ratified.” Furthermore, the word rive(/rived/riven) means to split, tear apart, etc. and Riven Earth was divided by a river – and perhaps more importantly, a part of it was split open by destroyers and similarly there were floating rocks much like seen in Caledon Forest. Riven Earth was literally an area where the earth was rived.

Actually, if I remember right there weren’t many floating rocks in Riven Earth, they were located mostly in Magus Stones, but that’s just me being nit picky.

There was a full bridge of floating rocks that was surrounded by floating rocks in Riven Earth.

There were only a handful (that I remember) around some Wind Riders in Magus Stones.

I remembered the whole river valley south of Oola’s Lab and leading kind of up to Arachnia’s Haunt having loads of them, but I’ll admit it’s prolly been a year since I’ve been there, EotN was the first area I vanquished when going for HoM points and I haven’t had reason to go back since.

The rata sum in gw2 was built by the asura. The rata sum in gw1 is where the polymock arenas are.

^ I came in here to say the exact same thing, Arcalas.
The reason you can’t see the old Rata Sum when falling (aside from technical reasons, probably) is that it seems to have moved south-west a bit while it was being constructed further.

I don’t know how accurate this map is, but here you can see where the old Rata Sum approximately was.
http://i2.minus.com/iGN1Qa0MEiO7L.jpg

I think it might be interesting to see a part of the old rata sum in the Polymock Arenas.