The majority of this topic will include spoilers to the first Guild Wars. I’m not going to put the whole thing in a spoilers box, but you have been warned. It’s a little long, but full of what I think to be really interesting facts and theories about them, which I would love for people to expand upon.
The human gods are a very interesting subject in the Guild Wars universe. Not truly gods, but powerful spiritual beings, they are extremely unique, and likely not native to Tyria. The current gods that are accepted by the humans are Dwayna, Balthazar, the twins Lyssa, Melandru, Grenth, and Kormir.
The last two are canonically of human descent; Kormir was a human who ascended to godhood in the first game by absorbing the power of Abaddon, and Grenth is the son of Dwayna and a human sculptor, most likely Malchor. Presumably, his godly powers were given to him from Dwayna when he was born. He then defeated Dhuum, the previous god of death, and absorbed most of his power, possibly returning a large chunk of this power to Dwayna as payment for his ascension to godhood.
Of the other gods that once were, we know a few. There is Abaddon and Dhuum, both previously mentioned, and there is Menzies. Menzies is the half-brother of Balthazar, and leader of the Shadow Army, who were foes in the Fissure of Woe.
This description begs a very interesting question. If Menzies is the half-brother of Balthazar, then who were their parents? Were they mortals who ascended to godhood like Kormir? Or were they born to a god of different mortal “contributors,” like Grenth?
Dwayna is somewhat of a fertility goddess, being the goddess of life, as well as the leader of the gods, and somewhat of a mother figure to all of them. It is feasible to suggest that she is the source of all of the gods, or at least the current ones, and that their birth is similar to Grenth’s. I personally like the idea that Balthazar, Menzies, Grenth, and maybe Melandru are all descended from Dwayna, but are unaware. Dhuum also seems a little like an estranged husband, but that’s definitely just postulation.
Both Abaddon and Lyssa possess(ed) powers that are far too dangerous to the gods for it to be conceivable that they would be given by Dwayna. Abaddon, god of secrets, knows many truths about Dwayna and the gods, which may have been what caused him to drift away from the will of the gods and give the humans magic. Perhaps what he knew made him scared of the other gods, and giving the mortals magic was his contingency plan. Lyssa possesses the power to make the gods and other beings forget; While the other gods focused on building Arah and beginning a new future, Lyssa gave them joy and helped them forget the past. Definitely scary stuff, and I imagine Abaddon alone would be immune.
One last point of interest is the not-entirely-canonical Arachnia. Said to be the god of spiders, her existence was found by mining through the gw.dat file from the original game. Essentially, a large portion of the Realm of Torment sits atop her carcass, and the descriptions made it seem as if she wasn’t entirely dead. Pretty freakin’ creepy.
More importantly, does that imply that the death of Abaddon and the eschewment of Dhuum and Menzies is less of a sundering of the gods and more of a cycle, which makes Dwayna seem even more terrifying. Was she killed and absorbed by another? Does a fragment of Abaddon persist? Are the corners of the Mists littered with dead gods whom the current guard were unsatisfied with? And how the hell was Lord Odran able to tap into the power of the mists, something only the gods have ever been able to do?
These are some of my questions. Please, share some of yours!
