Guild Wars 2

A couple of months after release i completed the world exploration.
I looked at the map and started wondering what could be under the convenient painting that covered the unexplored territories.
A few elements cought my attention; but one in particular made me zoom all the way in, and watch it more carefully.
This ring-shaped “zone”.

The first thing that came to mind was that it was a city.
Looking at Divininty’s Reach unexplored map" it’s not such a wild guess. Looking at first glance it could be a very big mountain too; but the circle is far too perfect to not be artificial. If you zoom all the way in, you can also see several inner “circles” and with a bit of immagination you can see them going higher as your eyes move closer to the smallest one.

As a GW lore noob i thought that it could be a city for a possible new race; but i soon realized that we don’t know of any other race that could live so close to the asuras apart from the sylvari and tengus.

One more proof, that made me drop the theory of a main city for a possible new race, was the ending of the first Living Story season.
During the final cutscene we clearly saw that Mordremoth awakened, and reading the updated page of the Wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jungle_dragon) it says that it's current location is in Magus Falls (right where that ring-shaped "zone" is).

Going a bit back in the living story, we witnessed Lion’s Arch destruction. This time it wasn’t so light as it was with the Ancient Karka (RIP lighthouse); this time it was pretty much obliterated.
The devs made it very clear that LA is not going to magically go back to how it was, and it’s not unthinkable that the city is gone for good.

Before LA’s destruction we had no reason to get a new city out of nowhere, even if a new dragon awakened.
With LA gone (for now/forever) there isn’t a clear hub where the 5 races can gather and “do their things”. Vigil keep is just a temporary replacement.
Now there is a real need for a new city, a new zone is possibly going to get open and in this new area of the map there is a weird ring-shaped “zone” that is 2/3 of DR’s size (more or less).

If you are wondering about the location being too much on the west, compared to LA being at the center of the world, it could symbolise the shift of the world’s attention toward the location of the new dragon.
If the dragon is raising in the west, why build a new city/base were LA currenty is?

What do you guys think about it? Is it possible that a whole new city gets open/built in the next LS season?

Another theory could be that it’s the dragon’s version of the Pale Tree; but that seems to be even more forced.

Edit:
I think it’s safe to assume that the ring-shaped “Zone” is gw1 Dry Top

From the gw1 wiki:
“Dry Top is a rather small circular map area, which connects the rest of the Maguuma Jungle to Tangle Root. There are no allies, no bosses, nor much of interest in Dry Top; with the exception of what appears to be hillside settlements, as well as a large tree stump in the central clearing. Though most of the land is dry and barren, the sides and bottom of the ravine just west of the center of the map is covered in vegetation as seen in most of the Maguuma Jungle.”
I suppose that tree has grown a bit after almost 300 years; also those hillside settlements could have grown in size too.

There are also other theories that a few redditors posted:
-It’s malyck’s pale tree (a neutral city?)
-A bigger section of the ruins of Thaumanova reactor (Thaumanova city?)
-A military base (like fort trinity)
-Just a crater

I actually like your theory a lot. This would make sense. I am really enjoying reading all the interesting theories floating around after the big reveal.

I wouldn’t the discount the “dragon’s version of the Pale Tree” theory too quickly. We know there is another sylvari tree somewhere out west – the tree that Malyck came from. Given the size of the Pale Tree, I’d expect that to be a zone about the size of a city, possibly analogous to Cursed Shore in terms of difficulty. However, I would expect that to be the dark green shape southwest of there, in Magus Falls, rather than the reddish circle you pointed out – I’m pretty sure that’s just Dry Top. No idea how much lore there is on that place, although clearly ANet have plans for it in GW2.

It is probably Dry Top as Tamias said. The old Henge of Denravi is next to it in Brisbane.

I would hope that any new city not be built from scratch. It takes a -long- time to build something like that, even with magic of the Tyrian sort. Let us discover and reinforce ruins, if it’s to be our city. Let it be a place that hasn’t bothered to trade with us before, it it’s to be a place we don’t make over a century or so.

I don’t mind some time-lapse for playing convenience, but a whole Divinity’s Reach from a land recovering from devastating invasions just isn’t getting built in a month.

There is currently a parallel conversation going on @Reddit.
I think it’s safe to assume that the ring-shaped “Zone” is Dry Top; however we don’t know what happened there in 251 years.

From the gw1 wiki:
“Dry Top is a rather small circular map area, which connects the rest of the Maguuma Jungle to Tangle Root. There are no allies, no bosses, nor much of interest in Dry Top; with the exception of what appears to be hillside settlements, as well as a large tree stump in the central clearing. Though most of the land is dry and barren, the sides and bottom of the ravine just west of the center of the map is covered in vegetation as seen in most of the Maguuma Jungle.”

I suppose that tree has grown a bit after almost 300 years; also those hillside settlements could have grown in size too.

There are also other theories that a few redditors posted:
-It’s malyck’s pale tree (a neutral city?)
-A bigger section of the ruins of Thaumanova reactor (Thaumanova city?)
-A military base (like fort trinity)
-Just a crater

http://zoom.it/Zf9p

Dry Top, 251 years ago..

Rinn.4381:

http://zoom.it/Zf9p

Dry Top, 251 years ago..

Why did you have to show that. Now I’m so nostalgic for all the places I used to be able to visit and can’t anymore. :-(

But interesting. The new Dry Top area is much larger than the old one.

Has anybody actually got into Dry Top in GW2? There are some possibilites to get there from Aurora’s Remains (south exit with 2 breezee riders) but I think I’m not skilled enough in jumping (and I’m R E A L L Y close to get there). Might be wrong but it clearly seems like some ‘path’. Or just ArenaNet trolls us and let us get really close but not at the top.

Tried multiple times- you can’t get there because it hasn’t been programmed in yet. You get an “edge of the world” type thing. Still fun to run around and try to not be seen by the bandits there.

During one of the cutscenes at The Dead End… Marjory's sister speaks about a bandit base in Brisban Wildlands; which is about to be stormed by Seraphs.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that base turns out to be the one with lvl 80 mobs, in the next living story. That base appear to be right north east of Dry Top; so who knows, it might lead to another map.

A new city would be amazing, but it’s a bit unrealistic to expect in a free-to-play game. I would not mind paying a monthly subscription/ buying expansion packs if it helped the quality. I’m looking forward to the new story with the elder dragon and I hope ArenaNet is able to make the story & characters more appealing this time around.

Astral Projections.7320:

Rinn.4381:

http://zoom.it/Zf9p

Dry Top, 251 years ago..

Why did you have to show that. Now I’m so nostalgic for all the places I used to be able to visit and can’t anymore. :-(

But interesting. The new Dry Top area is much larger than the old one.

Not really. We only went into the center of Dry Top before. The explorable area was surrounded by a circular cliff range (unlike GW2, GW1 shared its zone boundaries with both raised land, and lowered land as well as impassible rivers as opposed to just raised lands). Thus the circles we see in GW2’s world map is just the raised cliffs we saw around where we could walk in GW1.

Plus, however, the scaling has changed between the games.

I don’t think we’ll get a city there. Certainly not Malyck’s tree – why? 1) Malyck said it’s at the base of a river, there’s no river even close to Dry Top. 2) It’s too close, it couldn’t count as unknown. 3) Back to the river – the river talked about goes south of Dry Top, which leads to The Falls (of GW1). and 4) the giant tree seen in GW1 was a Stonewood tree, which is different to the Pale Tree’s species.

It’s likely nothing more than it was in GW1, and I don’t see anything to really argue it has changed.

I don’t see why there couldn’t be an existing city off in the wilds that has lost contact with the general Tyrian populations. RL history is full of cultures who existed independantly and with no knowledge of each other for millenia. Think about the first time the Europeans landed in China, or Central America, or etc. “Hey, wow, these guys have cities too!” My bet is there’s a good chunk of populated world out there that we simply just don’t know about yet.

If you guys are really considering a new city as a replacement for LA while it’s being rebuilt, consider this possibility:

The Dominion of Winds is literally next door to LA. Perhaps this is an opportunity for the Living World to generate a peaceful, trusting alliance with the Tengu. With the growing threat of Destroyers emerging inside the Dominion of Winds, perhaps the Tengu could reach out to the other races of Tyria for support in exchange for granted entrance into the Dominion. (The Destroyer threat being a substantial Living World plot arc leading up to the opening of the Dominion.) The Tengu have already commissioned an asura gate from The Hanto Trading Post, so there is lore supporting the concept already in play.

This concept could drive The Living Story toward not only the permanent implementation of The Dominion of Winds but a release of Tengu as a playable race in the future. (They already used the same model as a Charr, so it wouldn’t be that unfathomable of a concept.)

Their response to Scarlett’s attack on LA could be explained away as a method of self-preservation, and restitution for those actions could come by means of Pact alliance and recruitment led by Izu Steelshrike (an already implemented high ranking Tengu member of the Pact).

I’d really like to see the Living World start going in this sort of direction.

That is just wishful thinking Mythoryk, as much as we all would love more Tengu content, the Living Story is unfortunately just not going in that direction. Where it is going is to the Magumma and that is worth speculating about.

I remember Dry Top very well, I may not like Sylvari but I would not be against another Sylvari settlement being discovered in that location along with a tree. Arena Net better not ruin the location though, I am a bit tired of them destroying places I knew and loved from GW1.

Aedelric.1287:

That is just wishful thinking Mythoryk, as much as we all would love more Tengu content, the Living Story is unfortunately just not going in that direction. Where it is going is to the Magumma and that is worth speculating about.

I remember Dry Top very well, I may not like Sylvari but I would not be against another Sylvari settlement being discovered in that location along with a tree. Arena Net better not ruin the location though, I am a bit tired of them destroying places I knew and loved from GW1.

What insight do you have in regard to where the Living Story is headed?

Regardless, I’m certainly interested in a new zone being opened – be it Dry Top or Dominion of Winds.

Also, my post was more-so suggestive than anything. Now would be a good opportunity to implement the concept as the destruction of LA provides a relatively good reasoning for the alliance.

Lets say it is a new city. Better be zones attached or its just a switchout for lions. Does that count as new content?

Mythoryk.7984:

What insight do you have in regard to where the Living Story is headed?

The insight that everything Arena Net have said and shown point in that direction.

Kratox.9150:

One more proof, that made me drop the theory of a main city for a possible new race, was the ending of the first Living Story season. During the final cutscene we clearly saw that Mordremoth awakened, and reading the updated page of the Wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jungle_dragon) it says that it’s current location is in Magus Falls (right where that ring-shaped “zone” is).

The location is definitely dry top, and I can confirm it.

http://zoom.it/cw31d#full

Dry Top always had a circular shape in GW1, it was nothing peculiar.
So unless they now added a city, it is NOT a city. That’s just the way Dry Top looks. See for yourself.

Rinn.4381:

http://zoom.it/Zf9p

Dry Top, 251 years ago..

one thing is for sure, i was right to say GW2 looks nothing like GW1, even places that normally takes thousands of years to change are now completely different. (lust look at the frost gate and regent valley, one is completely open and they other all of a sudden is impossible to get, as if a mage looked at the are and said “screw it” and filled it with mountains)

I’m sure that’s Dry Top, no question about that… But we have so many hints to theorize with:

• Mordremoth awakening
• Marjory’s sister’s deployment in Brisban Wildlands
• Malyk’s information about his Tree. (From the Wiki: Malyck determines to head west, into Magus Falls, to find his people and tell them of the Grove, and to return with an army with which to fight the Elder Dragons.)

On top of that, there is clearly some mistery in Brisban Wildlands; for example, take a look at the inaccessible portal in Lionshead Outcrops. You can even see some Bandit Engineers trying to fix it. I’m sure that portal will be used eventually for a new zone.

http://i.imgur.com/pmyANwc.png

The same goes for Fort Vandal; why would it be filled with a lot of level 80 champions when this fort is clearly inaccessible? I can only say it will take part in a story sometime in the future.
Furthermore, some time ago, there was a bug in Brisban Wildlands where you could go off the map and get to this fort from behind.
It is now fixed but some people on youtube found out that this fort has a portal and an asura gate.

If these portals are already in-game, I can only think of further Living Story content and new areas.