Guild Wars 2

now… we live on earth.. thus we call the ground ‘earth’ right? why is it that in Tyria it is called earth spells.. and the season of tyria are earth, water, wind and fire?

wouldn’t it be better if it were Tyria, wind, water, and fire? ..
(._. ) yeah… its kinda pointless. but i wanna know..

See definitions four and five:

earth
[urth] Show IPA
noun
1.
( often initial capital letter ) the planet third in order from the sun, having an equatorial diameter of 7926 miles (12,755 km) and a polar diameter of 7900 miles (12,714 km), a mean distance from the sun of 92.9 million miles (149.6 million km), and a period of revolution of 365.26 days, and having one satellite. See table under planet.
2.
the inhabitants of this planet, especially the human inhabitants: The whole earth rejoiced.
3.
this planet as the habitation of humans, often in contrast to heaven and hell: to create a hell on earth.
4.
the surface of this planet: to fall to earth.
5.
the solid matter of this planet; dry land; ground.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Earth?s=t

Other than the planet’s name, “earth” is basically just another term for soil and rocks. I would argue that the planet is named after this term, rather than the term named after the planet.

good enough for me. thanks..
get any further into it and they might as well make a new language and rename everything for no reason other than to be translated to English/(other languages) again.

Knowing absolutely no facts about it, I’d guess that the term ‘earth’ (or it’s root word in whatever language originated it) as a term for ‘soil’ and ‘dirt’ came first, and then it was eventually used to refer to the planet itself. After all, primitive humanity would have needed a term for ‘dirt’ long before it would need a term for ‘this planet’.

The question would be why the name for the GW2 planet is ‘Tyria’, and who named it that. Perhaps the first humans or intelligent race on the planet originated in Tyria and thought that continent was the whole world, and so there was no conflict to them, but then discovered other continents and it was too late to change the name.

Still, it is a minor point of irritation for me. You see it so often, in both fantasy and science fiction. The city of Tarsonis on the planet Tarsonis. The continent of Azeroth on the planet Azeroth. The continent of Tyria on the planet Tyria. It would be like if we named our planet ‘Europe’. The very idea is absurd.

Son of Elias.5420:

Still, it is a minor point of irritation for me. You see it so often, in both fantasy and science fiction. The city of Tarsonis on the planet Tarsonis. The continent of Azeroth on the planet Azeroth. The continent of Tyria on the planet Tyria. It would be like if we named our planet ‘Europe’. The very idea is absurd.

Europe is a cooler name for a planet than Earth imo.

exelion.2369:

Europe is a cooler name for a planet than Earth imo.

But imagine the confusion.

“We must achieve peace for all the people of Europe! Uh, the planet, not the continent.”

“Alright, we’ve landed on the moon. Hey, I can see Europe!”
“Duh, it’s huge.”
“No, the continent.”

“I will conquer Europe!”

“The plague killed 9 out of 10 people in all of Europe.”

See?

This has always bugged me in fantasy games when they refer to the ground as"earth" rather then the name of the planet.If alien civilizations exist they would probably have also named the ground first and named the planet after the ground.So shouldnt Tyria refer to ground as well as the planet? In pretty much all languages the translated name for Earth as a planet is the same word used for ground or dirt in that language. For example Terra in french is both land and the planet. In whatever Tyrian language the word Tyria comes from probably means dirt too.

I suspect it’s ultimately because it would confuse and annoy a lot more people if they called it ‘fire magic, water magic, air magic and tyria magic’.

Son of Elias.5420:

Knowing absolutely no facts about it, I’d guess that the term ‘earth’ (or it’s root word in whatever language originated it) as a term for ‘soil’ and ‘dirt’ came first, and then it was eventually used to refer to the planet itself. After all, primitive humanity would have needed a term for ‘dirt’ long before it would need a term for ‘this planet’.

The question would be why the name for the GW2 planet is ‘Tyria’, and who named it that. Perhaps the first humans or intelligent race on the planet originated in Tyria and thought that continent was the whole world, and so there was no conflict to them, but then discovered other continents and it was too late to change the name.

Still, it is a minor point of irritation for me. You see it so often, in both fantasy and science fiction. The city of Tarsonis on the planet Tarsonis. The continent of Azeroth on the planet Azeroth. The continent of Tyria on the planet Tyria. It would be like if we named our planet ‘Europe’. The very idea is absurd.

On a smaller scale that’s quite common in real life too. For example most UK counties are named after their main city (ie. Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire etc.), same with some US states. Even Canada was originally the name given to a small area around what is now Quebec city.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there was at one time a name for Europe which did also mean ‘the world’. The name Mediterranean basically means ‘middle of the world’ so it’s not far off.

(I have to admit though it does annoy me with Azeroth, just because I play Warcraft 2 more than any other game in the series so I’m used to Azeroth meaning what most people now call the kingdom of Stormwind and it throws me every time someone uses it to mean the whole world.)

Son of Elias.5420:

exelion.2369:

Europe is a cooler name for a planet than Earth imo.

But imagine the confusion.

“We must achieve peace for all the people of Europe! Uh, the planet, not the continent.”

“Alright, we’ve landed on the moon. Hey, I can see Europe!”
“Duh, it’s huge.”
“No, the continent.”

“I will conquer Europe!”

“The plague killed 9 out of 10 people in all of Europe.”

See?

Sucks for Tyrians, doesn’t it? :P

Europe is a cooler name for a planet than Earth imo.

Stupid Jupiter stole it for one of it’s moons. We had to settle for “dirt”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_

Mediterranean.Omg I just realized something! Mediterrra sounds awfully close to Middle Earth!

That’s rather intentional, I believe. Mediterranean comes from latin which means “middle of the land.” A combination of Medius (middle) and Terra (land – also serving as the latin name for the world) – wikipedia is a godsend for doublechecking my memory. As I’m sure you know, Terra and variations (Terrans) is often used to refer to Earth/Earthlings in Science Fiction settings.

in italian the planet earth is called Terra (very similar to Tyria) and the same noun terra also apply to soil and rock.
when we talk about elements we have fuoco/fire, water/acqua, aria/air, terra/earth.
i guess the root of earth/terra is the same for both our languages.
the meaning of mediterranean (mediterraneo in italian) is literally “between earths” not middle earth, but sounds very similar though

edit: sorry didn’t see the post before mine

I always like to follow Roger MacBride Allen’s explaination in his Star Wars novels (the corellian trilogy). He might have taken it from others, but it was when reading him that I first saw the concept.

For any sentient being they use a name for their sun that always translates to the human word for sun. So the inhabitants of the Corellian system doesn’t call their sun Corel, but just sun. The same goes for planets. An inhabitant of say the planet Europe will call his planet earth in their tongue.

So…. Back to Tyria, and make this a lore speculated explaination.
The ground (soil and rocks) in Tyrian tongue (new Krytan) is called Tyria I suspect, just like the continent they are living on and the whole planet. The game however is translated to use, prolly through a mystical connection through the myst, that connects all worlds, and therefor is also the way we connect to the world of Tyria. In this translation when the term Tyria is used as a name it is not translated cause you dont translate names, but where it is used as a term it is translated to in this case earth.

That’s actually pretty interesting. Is Tyria called Tyria in every language? Does the name come from any of the languages? Maybe Tyria is dwarven/forgotten/mursaatian (?) for ground/earth and other races adopted it for the name of the planet, just like the latin word terra (actually it should be orbis terrarum) is often taken as a name for earth.

Does anyone else think a Tyrian Elemental sounds cooler then Earth Elemental?

Behind the scenes the word Tyria probably comes from the City of Tyre in Lebanon.An ancient port city. There is even a shade of purple called Tyrian Purple which the royals in Tyre would wear.Fun note Tyrian Purple is also a dye in game.

Guild Warrior.9540:

Behind the scenes the word Tyria probably comes from the City of Tyre in Lebanon.An ancient port city. There is even a shade of purple called Tyrian Purple which the royals in Tyre would wear.Fun note Tyrian Purple is also a dye in game.

Possible, there is also Ascalon, the latin name for Aschkelon, an equally ancient city in Israel. And I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere that Orr is an arabic word for “light”, but maybe there is also a place that atleast has “Orr” in it’s name.

Orr more then likely comes from Mordor. Like Mordor one does not simply walk into Orr(and not get swarmed by undead).

The name was invented for GW1 and it was a place where the player could not go, so we couldn’t simply walk into there! :O

No seriously, I never thought if Mordor when I heard Orr. And I looked it up again, apparently Orr is hebrew for light. Which would fit even more with the theme naming. Now let’s see if it turns out that Kryta also has some origins in a levantine language or place.

So you’re saying it should be Air, Water, Fire, and Tyria?

So Tyria is the continent, the planet, and the GROUND of the planet?

I think Tyria has enough definitions now, thanks.

but but but……. what bout Middle Tyria??? I heard some great stuff is going on there.

It’s a shame that Anet couldn’t just say the continent was something other than Tyria, but folks in Prophecies just don’t refer to the land by its continental name.

Hell, they can still do this. Why?

Elona isn’t a continent – it’s a human kingdom that was divided into three provinces (Istan, Kourna, and Vabbi). It’s stated in Nightfall that the Desolation and Dzalana isn’t part of Elona, but they’re part of the continent very clearly.

Cantha isn’t a continent – it’s a human empire (aka Empire of the Dragon). The Battle Isles is stated to be part of Cantha (it is literally said “this is Cantha” in regards to being on the Battle Isles), just as Shing Jea, Echovald Forest, and the Jade Sea are.

In other words, Elona and Cantha are merely human boundaries. They come from different continents, thus they’re used to refer to the continent as well.

But technically speaking, Elona and Tyria share the same continent – and always had (even if they were split by the Crystal Sea in the past, they connected further inland of their supercontinent).

So, really, all continents of the game are nameless as it stands. We just have a makeshift name for two of them (Elona and Cantha).

@Konig Des Todes Well Europe and Asia are different continents but are connected.Same is likely true for Tyria and Elona.

Theres probably also continents that we havnt seen yet. Earth has 7.Unless Tyria is a super continent like you said and covers most of the planet.

@Konig

Cantha is the continent but also the common name for the Empire. It’s like how the United States of America is the official name of the US but America (which techincally would include north and south america) is also commonly used. Unless it has been stated somewhere that Cantha is not the continent.

You might be right about Elona, since it is also called Land of the Golden Sun.

@Guild Warrior: Only politically. Geographically, they’re the same continent (Eurasia, folks refer to it as).

As to unknown continents and the supercontinent – I’m referring to this map which shows a total of 4 continents, more or less.

@exelion: Er… The United States of America is called such because it’s the united 50 states of the continent (Northern) America. It’s simply called US, USA, or America for short. Just as the United Kingdom is referred to as UK.

I can tell you that it’s not – to my memory at least – stated to be a continent except by fan-made wordings.

And it’s not a common name for the empire, it IS the name of the empire. Empire of the Dragon is just a descriptive title to it.

the problem with continent’s is the size. When is a landmass a continent and when is it an island?

It leads to a lot of debates among scientists.

Just a few examples.
Eurasia is clearly a continent, but what bout africa. It is connected to the same Eurasia continent by a landmass bout 100 miles wide. So shouldn’t it be the afro-eurasian continent??

the same goes for northern and southern america. the landmass connecting them is only 40 miles wide. Should this be considered two continents or one??

Asia and America are only separated from eachother by 50 miles of shallow sea. So why is it called separated continents??

Reality is that continents are mostly political and cultural borders and not geographical borders. So back to Tyria. I think Konig is right that technicly Elona is on the same continent as Tyria. But if you look at this map http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Tyria.jpg you see a big inland sea, it is very possible the crystal sea was much further inland then just the desert almost splitting the continent in two like Africa and Eurasia are separated.

Furthermore, If you look at Cantha one could argue if it is a continent or an island.

Generally, isn’t the debate about placement of teutonic plates?

As to the Crystal Sea – I do believe, personally, that it once reached that inland sea. Though perhaps not widely (a large river would be sufficient). I’m also suspecting that’s the source of the Elon (it’s in the general direction of the Elon’s last direction). Though there are indications that the Crystal Desert also existed in some form at the time the Crystal Sea did.

Considering how much grief we have in modern times about continents, I’m not shocked that there would be some in the lower-tech world of Tyria. They don’t have satellites yet, as far as I know.

I mean, if you look here you can see that there might be seven continents (NA, SA, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica), six (NA, SA, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica), five (America, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica) or four (America, Afro-Eurasia, Australia, Antarctica).

So clearly there’s some debate there. Except for Australians, you’re fine.

And Antarcticans (or would it be Antarcticians? Antarcticas?). :P

Son of Elias.5420:

Except for Australians, you’re fine.

Hey, Australia is even smaller then Greenland so just a big island :P

mercury ranique.2170:

Hey, Australia is even smaller then Greenland so just a big island :P

Ahem! I beg to differ, good sir!

Greenland = 836,109 square miles.
Australia = 2,969,907 square miles.

For comparison, the state of Alaska is 663,268 square miles, only slightly smaller than Greenland.

A book series I am trying to work on, Semathia is my series’ planet’s name and the continent-nations are usually named after their Gods, where before they were asscended to become gods, were born at. The planet is named after the Head Goddess Sema, but not one nation is named after her. The closest thing to the goddess’s birth location is Galmia, who is named after her companion when she was mortal and who also is a Goddess now as they were both born in that icy continent.

I for one do not do the mass confusion on world-region naming.

Also I use earth as an element in the story, yet they would have no notion of that word in their reality, it probably would be some other word in their language or common tongue person to person.

Its like our elementalist females saying they use earth when attuning, but in their world, they are speaking New Krytan. Earth has no meaning to the people of Tyria. What the real word for earth (or any element for that matter) we will never know.

In my case, I use a ancient language (that I am trying to make up, tall order I know.) that is sort of dead like Latin, and called Hiensall (written tongue). Its has an alternate symbol set like New Krytan that can be used for Latin (English) letters. and has become commonly used to express a world business language, like what we do in real life for English (and sometimes French).

I can see where you are all coming from and it was far simpler for Anet to go, “We have a different language in our world and its not English, but for the sake of simplicity, It is treated as such for your eyes viewing in.” instead of making a whole new language a la Star Wars level of complexity and have subtitles everywhere.

I want to point out Konig, that if we want to go into the realm of Techtonics, India is (or used to be) it’s own continent. You see techtonically it is being pushed into Asia, just like Africa or any other. So really it is a mixture of techtonics and politics when it comes to the separation of the continents.

If you consider tectonics to define what a continent is then technically there are several under water continents in the pacific and atlantic oceans.

As Son of Elias said, earth as a name for soil is far older than Earth as the name for our planet. So it is the other way around, we call our planet Earth because we always called the ground we stand on earth.

In terms of elemental magic, earth stands for the “element” of soil, dirt and rock and pertain the quality of such. Soil is common to every continent, and has metaphysical properties, continents as such do not.

So we say “the element of Earth”, the same as we say “the element of Water”, where we do not mean a particular body of water, but water in a metaphysical sense.
“Element of Tyria” would make as much sense as “Element of Unending Ocean” or “Element of Camp Fire”.

It’s also possible, though this is pure theory, that ‘Tyria’ means ‘earth’ in some older language. Or it could easily mean something else, probably related to the Six gods, since the humans would be the ones who called it ‘Tyria’ in the first place.

Makes me wonder if the other races have their own names for the continent or planet. Much like my constant wondering about whether the charr are going to rename ‘Ascalon’ at some point.

Do we have any evidence to claim that Tyria doesn’t come from, say, the dwarves? Sure, we learn of it through human history, but we’ve never seen indications or implications that races older than humans called it something else. The name might have been devised by the Giganticus Lupicus, or the jotun who seem to have survived multiple ED risings, and it just spread to dwarves and then to humans.