Guild Wars 2

I’ve been having a few thoughts in EotM that I wanted to put here first before putting elsewhere. Most of my perspective is from Overgrowth.

(1) The Mists are mostly unformed potential, as far as I understand. What is the EotM creation story? I think this is the biggest puzzle, and hopefully it has an answer other than “make a cool WvW map”.

(2) Overgrowth has lots of ruined human architecture. Reminds me of the Aquatic Ruins fractals more than any known human kingdom. But the grawl have it.

(3) The three race choices are also interesting: kodan, grawl, and ogre. None of these are of the five ancient races (mursaat, jotun, seer, forgotten, dwarves) or the five currently dominant races (PC choices).

(3 tangent) as an aside these three races herald from the northeastern and eastern portions of Tyria.

(4) What is up with the airships? Are they purely Aetherblade airships, or Mist-ized fragments of them.

My quack-job hypothesis: The Aetherblades fled and somehow stabilized or helped form the EotM. I’m not sure what relation ogres, grawl, and kodan have, but these races are not located near the only other Aetherblade place we know of: Twilight Arbor (which canonically may have been destroyed?).

Hopefully this starts a good discussion and other perspectives (Frostreach, Badlands) from possible lore tidbits from EotM.

I think just like fractals its only some “cool looking stuff” thrown together without any real or meaningful lore.

WvW as a whole doesn’t really have much lore to it. they use the mists because it’s a blank slate to do whatever they want.

so try not to look too much into it.

One of the Overgrown area’s places (might be the Observatory) has statues that are identical to the standing statues under the water in the Underwater fractal.

Just thought I would throw that out there!

I agree with what Bruno says, but I do think they might slip occasional loreish bits in there. EoTM is a little too interesting to be of absolutely no value.
I think one interesting thing to point out is that the Kodan area is definitely Kodan architecture, but neither Badlands nor the Overgrowth represent the architecture of Ogres or Grawl respectively.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

One of the Overgrown area’s places (might be the Observatory) has statues that are identical to the standing statues under the water in the Underwater fractal.

Just thought I would throw that out there!

I agree with what Bruno says, but I do think they might slip occasional loreish bits in there. EoTM is a little too interesting to be of absolutely no value.
I think one interesting thing to point out is that the Kodan area is definitely Kodan architecture, but neither Badlands nor the Overgrowth represent the architecture of Ogres or Grawl respectively.

well the overgrowth is more like ruins of an ancient city overtaken by wildlife (which includes grawl and trolls), whereas the badlands is distinctively charr.

I got more of an Aetherblade vibe from Badlands, but I haven’t spent too long there just yet.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I got more of an Aetherblade vibe from Badlands, but I haven’t spent too long there just yet.

only aetherblade thing in there is the airport, and technically aetherblade ships are stolen (partially) charr technology anyway :P

There’s no real lore behind it. EotM is various unused map assets stitched together by bridges.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I got more of an Aetherblade vibe from Badlands, but I haven’t spent too long there just yet.

only aetherblade thing in there is the airport, and technically aetherblade ships are stolen (partially) charr technology anyway :P

Nah. The pipes are Aetherblade too, and I’ve heard some of the doodads in the main keep also look the part.

Jamais vu.5284:

There’s no real lore behind it. EotM is various unused map assets stitched together by bridges.

But the fact that a lot of the assets aren’t used anywhere else is of note. If they were meaningless or didn’t relate to other things then Anet would simply have used existing assets.

1) I haven’t been in the Edge, but I take it as three fractal-like “islands of existences” that were bridged together (perhaps by Scarlet). Kind of like the PvP maps or the Fractals of the Mists – islands of realities that were bridged together for xyz purpose.

2) That area is interesting to me the most from the previews I recall. The Aquatic Fractal is hinted to be a mixture of Ascalonian and Elonian history, Overgrown could easily be ancient Istani (which was rather forested) ruins – issue with that argument is grawl are there, which would place it in Ascalon or Shiverpeaks. What would be interesting would be if Overgrown is akin to the Aquatic Fractal – a mixture of historic Ascalonian and historic Elonian.

3) Actually, ogres are stated to be both ancient and relatives of jotun – it may be that they are an offshoot race, or a cousin race just as old and they survived without the jotun’s knowledge (they have sense fallen anyways – the jotun that is) as the jotun did not (known to us) expand past the Shiverpeaks. Kodan are also hinted to be from the previous rise, given the story of the Great Storm which was a decades-long blizzard (sounds like Jormag’s five year long one as he invaded norn lands before they fled south). Grawl haven’t advanced much in recent years, who’s to say they’re just a really old never-advancing race? Doubtful though.

4) Likely Aetherblades all out. But about the stabilizing comment…

Instability in the Fractals is really a misnomer as Dessa explains in the hub. The instability is, in fact, the existence of creatures – Dessa asks us to wipe them out so she can study them, but being in the Mists they are recreated and the “instability” returns.

What else interests me is the “desert corner” as it was called in development. Likely refers to the Crystal Desert, and it should be noted that the desert “giants” are very similar to the ogres in both shape and the fact they’re often seen with some kind of “pet”.

So I think the Badlands is a copy of the Crystal Desert, during a time when the ogres were higher (iirc, they are also a “fallen” race).

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Jamais vu.5284:

There’s no real lore behind it. EotM is various unused map assets stitched together by bridges.

But the fact that a lot of the assets aren’t used anywhere else is of note. If they were meaningless or didn’t relate to other things then Anet would simply have used existing assets.

it’s a WvW map with high production values. they wanted to make it look unique and cool, but there really is no lore to it. just like there’s no lore to the core maps, and their ruins and sanctums.

the whole thing was built from scratch with WvW in mind, i doubt the devs worried about lore accuracy beyond flavor.

who knows though, maybe those assets will be seen on PvE eventually (crystal desert?)

And yet they stuck creatures in areas that was befitting the creatures. They didn’t go slapping krait in the shiverpeak areas. That’s at least a little care for “lore accuracy beyond flavor.”

Konig Des Todes.2086:

And yet they stuck creatures in areas that was befitting the creatures. They didn’t go slapping krait in the shiverpeak areas. That’s at least a little care for “lore accuracy beyond flavor.”

I dunno… we never see grawl even remotely close to a jungle in-game.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

I dunno… we never see grawl even remotely close to a jungle in-game.

We also haven’t seen a jungle quite like this one yet. It looks pretty different from the current Maguuma areas.

It’s not a jungle..
It’s called the “overgrowth” for a reason.
It looks like ruins/areas where the grass and plantlife have started to grow over what was already there.

There are hardly any trees, so I don’t see why people keep saying jungle.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

It’s not a jungle..
It’s called the “overgrowth” for a reason.
It looks like ruins/areas where the grass and plantlife have started to grow over what was already there.

There are hardly any trees, so I don’t see why people keep saying jungle.

Because that’s what it was called during testing, but I cede the point. That doesn’t change that the trees are mostly Krytan or Maguuman, both regions that have never held a grawl presence.

Interesting observation today though… there are actually some Orrian minarets in the badlands region.

Ok well it may have been called Jungle during testing – but testing isn’t canon and it’s simply called the Overgrowth now – and there are just trees, no presence of anything that resembles a jungle.

Also saying “never held a grawl presence” is a stretch – you could only say that to our knowledge they haven’t had a grawl presence. We’ve only physically seen a couple of years of Tyria’s history.

The Ecology of the Charr state that, originally, Grawl were from Ascalon and what’s now the Blood Legion Homelands north of Ascalon. The initial charr conquering of the area resulted in either their enslavement or being pushed into the Shiverpeaks (hence why we have them in two different climates).

Technically speaking… Kryta in GW2 is more akin to Ascalon than it was in GW1, and, well, north of Ascalon was pretty forested/overgrown in GW1… And we also have dwarven ruins up there and in southeastern Ascalon (more specifically under) which hints at an ancient dwarven presence – that fought the charr invasion, even, given the lore of Kathandrax – while the grawl were there.

This being sometime before 100 BE, I should note. We don’t know when before then, but it’s heavily implied that there was but one Khan-Ur in all charr history (well, one proper long lasting one) so it’d be within his lifespan.

The Overgrowth has human statues (including a giant human statue) littered throughout it. (Just stating this since your computer can’t handle EoTM at the moment Konig? Unless it can in which case nevermind!)

My laptop can’t handle GW2 in general. I can log on for minimum graphics but it burns up and I can’t get 30 minutes in before even solitude becomes laggy like all hell.

Any pics of the statues? Those alone can point at the origin, as each culture’s statues have a distinctly different design to them.

There are standing statues identical to the statues underwater in the Aquatic Ruins fractal – these are found in the lowest part of an observatory.

I can’t remember what the giant statue looks like, but next time I’m in game and manage to get to that point I will take a screenshot.

Ok here we go, took some screenshots of the Overgrown area for you: (Sorry I should have hidden my back piece >.>)

The first I took because it reminds me of the Bazaar a little.

The second is an Altar (it’s the thing in the top left), maybe someone else can take a screenshot? I can’t get close enough unless it’s captured.

The third are some smaller statues that surround the statuary.

The fourth is the large statue of the statuary – it’s a unique model that we don’t see anywhere else in game and is pretty interesting in that it depicts a man wearing just shorts and he sort of looks like he could be from Elona – was going to take a close up of his face (there are stairs up there) but I got attacked).

Unfortunately I couldnt get any shots of the statues in the observatory – it’s too well fortified to just stroll up to)

The 3rd pic shows the Ascalonian warrior armor/statues found throughout Ascalon and in the Catacombs.

The statue in the 4th pic can actually be found in the Underwater Fractal. Dozens of those creepy, Eloninan-looking guys in crumbling visage litter the seafloor there.

Thalador.4218:

The 3rd pic shows the Ascalonian warrior armor/statues found throughout Ascalon and in the Catacombs.

The statue in the 4th pic can actually be found in the Underwater Fractal. Dozens of those creepy, Elonina-looking guys in crumbling visage litter the seafloor there.

Ok you’re right, I had thought the Aquatic Ruins statues were less detailed – but I double checked and it is the same statue.

Oh well, I still think it’s interesting – that statue then is the same as the ones that are in the Observatory – there are a lot more in the Observatory though, and I think they’re smaller. (although apparently my memory is not very accurate)

Going to go with my original statement. I think it’s a mixture of Ascalonian and Elonian (Istani, specifically) history like the Aquatic Fractal seems to be.

A couple of other statues- In Overgrowth, particularly around the keep, there’s a few of those angel-with-vase pools, which I believe I’ve only seen in DR. Also, that Aquatic Ruins statue isn’t just in overgrowth- there are significant quantities in The Juncture and Badlands as well.

Where are they in the Badlands? I haven’t seen any?

The ones I’ve seen are just outside the north-western walls of the keep. I haven’t spent too much time there- last night I was primarily concerned with getting as much of Mai Trin’s dialogue as I could.

Kibazuka.1390:

I think just like fractals its […] without any real or meaningful lore.

Fractals do have real and meaningful lore. Some explanations are even in the name.

However, EotM not so much – although ANet did give enough information about it for people to come up with viable conjecture around it. My take on it.

WvW/Mists War: Part of what the mists is, is the fabric connecting all realities (basic lore canon). If you read into that (why would they mention “other realities”?) it could mean that the other realities are actually the other servers. There were some explanations as to why the portals shift on a weekly basis – but I can’t even begin to remember where I saw it and what it was; still it made sense and I remember liking it.

Ravious.4269:

What is the EotM creation story?

Sadly quite literally anything in the mists has the same creation story (well, mostly) – random chance. The mists does have “volumes” (called areas by most, but I see them as n-dimensional) that do behave differently (Underworld etc.) and I would assume that EotM would be in the same volume as Mists War.

EotM does seem to have some interesting behaviour of its own (specifically the overflows).

Ravious.4269:

Overgrowth has lots of ruined human architecture. Reminds me of the Aquatic Ruins fractals more than any known human kingdom. But the grawl have it.

Random mists congealing into random stuff – or – in some reality not our own (or any of our server’s own) that’s the case, the grawl conquered humans – possibly in a dance-off.

Ravious.4269:

The three race choices are also interesting: kodan, grawl, and ogre. None of these are of the five ancient races (mursaat, jotun, seer, forgotten, dwarves) or the five currently dominant races (PC choices).

Again, random. That’s how the mists work. Reality, non-reality, memories, echoes of memories: everything goes into a mixing bucket.

Ravious.4269:

What is up with the airships? Are they purely Aetherblade airships, or Mist-ized fragments of them.

It seems as though the Aetherblade stumbled into EotM, maybe (your theory about how they got there is actually pretty kitten ed good) – they might have made it their home.

Another thing for the “no lore” naysayers: the EotM portals are special – they are “unstable” which would account for why you get placed into a random overflow. Thought does go into this: ANet just like being scarce on some answers.