Guild Wars 2

They vary in how obvious or secret they are. I don’t have a whole list, but for example, there’s a point of interest called ‘Hidden Shelter’ in the Grove, in the same area as the Vigil and Priory areas, which is full of Whispers agents. On the other hand the only site I know of in Divinity’s Reach in the tavern ‘The Maiden’s Whisper’, which seems to have a Whisper agents operating out of its basement, but that’s just heavily implied – it’s nothing official.

I’m not sure for Hoelbrak, the Citadel or Rata Sum.

There are Lionguard ‘havens’ across Tyria, so called I imagine because they are neutral ground to some extent. There are a bunkittenryta, but also in sylvari, norn, and other lands. Essentially, the Lionguard owe allegiance to Lion’s Arch, which is a neutral city-state, so their guard posts are also neutral and should help anyone in need in the area. It’s also in the interests of the city of Lion’s Arch that trade be relatively protected to and from there!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The Arcane Council is pro-asura domination of the world, and Flax is working actively for long-range plans for such to occur. The Inquest give high results at cheap prices due to their methods, so unless safer methods of similar results are found (such as during the Dynamics storyline for asura), the Arcane Council will take the Inquests’ products to further asura domination.

This pretty much sums it up. The Inquest are a krewe, albeit a very large krewe who organise themselves in an unorthodox way (as a persistent corporation who can accumulate knowledge, rather than a loose and temporary group, for one thing). Other asura may not like them, but that doesn’t make them illegal. It’s pretty clear that Inquest agents operate freely in Metrica (they openly hang around school-progeny!), and beating them up is usually at the private request of someone who doesn’t like them.

There’s a member of the Wolfborn in Hoelbrak who’ll tell you that the Sons of Svanir are tolerated there because they haven’t actually broken any of the rules inside Hoelbrak yet. The Wolfborn will be more than happy to toss them out if they do, but in the meantime, they have as much right to be in Hoelbrak as anyone else. The norn don’t have a state, or laws, or a police force – there are just the rules of the stead/town. As long as the Svanir don’t cause trouble there, what they do outside is none of the Wolfborn’s business.

Basically, whereas the Nightmare Court tend to start things by coming after Dreamer sylvari, and the other charr are officially at war with the Flame Legion, the norn and asura don’t have so much of a state to declare war on behalf of all of their race (as stated, the Arcane Council hardly counts). Private individuals can do what they like, and other individuals who have a problem with it can do something about it, but no one’s making them illegal.

Doing it now, but I do think some of the questions are a little odd. It’s not very clear whether you want information about online friends specifically, real life friends as well, real life friends I play GW2 with…? My answers would be different. And while I can understand if you don’t want to tell us what you’re looking for right at the beginning because it might influence results, your topic is not very clear – you say you’re looking at learnings disabilities, but suddenly start asking about online friends, for reasons not made clear. I don’t think I have an online friend of the kind you’re asking about, but I didn’t know I needed to have one when I started the survey.

It would also benefit from a note saying about how long you expect it to take to fill out the survey at the beginnings, so respondents don’t get stuck halfway through it without realising. Hope this feedback is helpful.

I’d say that the light armour, magic-user professions are definitely recognised in lore. Queen Jennah is specifically referred to as a mesmer in one of the novels, and that, necromancy and elemental magic are identifiable schools of magic. Warrior is an extremely broad category and I’ve never felt comfortable using it as if it were a thing in lore. Guardian…might be recognised, again as a specific school of magic. A fighter who knows certain protective/purifying magic.

Engineer makes sense as a label, especially since the profession sort of originates with charr technology so they probably got to name it haha. Ranger is another broad category but might be recognised as a name for hunters/animal-tamers/wanderers/scouts/etc. People who go out into the wilderness on their own. Finally thief… the most problematic in my opinion. I doubt every ‘thief’ type would call themselves a thief. They might know thieves’ skills, but thief is a way of making a living and they don’t all necessarily do that (noble-born human thieves?).

Can’t give you a definite lore answer but TL;DR: magical classes are probably recognised in lore but for the others I don’t think so necessarily.

My boyfriend and I take on veterans pretty frequently, but champions are designed for 5+ people. Best to stay out of their way if it’s just the two of you!

There is no taunt (‘push this button to make the monster hit you’) so aggro control is less of a clear thing. I play elementalist and my bf plays guardian, and most of the time it works because he gets there first and I move around the edges. Everyone has to be ready to deal with the mob if it turns its attention to them, though, whether it be through careful dodging, stealth, armour, teleport, whatever. The only advice I can offer you is to try and make sure your tank hits first (attempt to tie it up) and make sure your partner has a trick or two to keep herself alive until you can get its attention again.

Valneer.3854:

I can’t help but feel like our community is just going down the hill as more immature kiddies start playing this game.

That’s a somewhat unfair assumption. It’s not always “immature kiddies” who behave badly, in fact a lot of the time it’s older, generally sensible people who behave like kittens online. But I digress (I just feel bad for the young players who would res you!).

Anyway, I also will res someone in need, even if it requires going out of my way. In some event fights it’s difficult and I might judge it too risky, but most of the time I’ll give it a go. I’ve seen plenty of other people risk themselves to res as well. If someone dies out in the open, I’ll always help them up. Maybe you’ve just run into a bad streak of people lately?

Hmm, ‘asura’ was chosen because of its use in Stargate eh? That does make more sense than the Hindu alternative (or the Buddhist or Zoroastrian connections).

Firstly: awwwww!

Secondly: I suppose it might be some kind of hormonal thing, although you would think they would be more likely to be different coloured when mature enough to breed, so that they stood out. Maybe the pink colour fades as they mature. If we had models for it, perhaps older pre-adult female quaggan are kind of purple, or splotchy, as it grows out?
I’m not sure why it would benefit them to be different colours, but let’s just go with infant sexual dimorphism…dichromism?

Ooh, I’d like to hear that Mystic Starfish!
Reyals, I’m pretty sure that part of the reason for the traditional asura hatred of skritt is that when they both lived underground (presumably competing for territory) large enough groups of skritt were comparable to asura intelligence, if not superior. That suggests that it doesn’t take too many skritt to reach that level.

It’s kind of funny, really, that the skritt get more intelligent when there are large groups of them working together, whereas the more asura you try to get to work together, the more inefficient it probably becomes – what with the arguing, ego-boosting, and sabotage of rivals :P

The skritt collective intelligence (according to this) is based around a super-fast form of speech, which I imagine ends up working kind of like information transfers in a computer. More skritt = more processing power = quicker and more intelligent decision making. What I don’t know is whether all skritt would need to be in earshot of each other (limiting the size of the group) or whether they could pass information from one end of an army, say, to the other. Perhaps if the sub-divided into work groups and really worked like a computer, with each group dealing with a part of the task then handing over the solution to another?

First question: what server/world are you on? It’s unfortunate that your starter areas were empty, but you’ve come to the right place and some people may be able to come help you out.

Chinchilla.3401:

I don’t know where to go to fix my items. It keeps taking what i have left when i die to go to a starting place and I don’t think i have much copper left to buy any new armor.

You will need to repair your armour, which will cost a little. Repair NPCs have a red shield icon with a crack through it over their heads – they will show up on your map with that icon too.

I’ve only been going near mobs that are 1 level above me or the same level or lower… the quests (or whatever you call them objectives) ask me to go near things that keep killing me.

The safe plan is to stick to things that are your level or lower. Are you aware of down-levelling? Your effective level will be adjusted to the area, so check in the bottom left of your screen for what level you’re currently adjusted to.

I try to move away but then i can’t attack, and when i move the mobs keep coming & hitting me anyhow.

I’m not sure what issue you’re having here, in most cases you should be able to move and keep attacking. Even just a continuous auto-attack should take things down at low levels, although it’s not so much fun. Some skills will take a while to activate and won’t go off if interrupted (you can tell because a yellow bar will start charging in the middle of the screen when you use the skill).

I converted some items with salvage kits & now I don’t know where they went, the items are no longer in my bag & just vanished somewhere? I asked to deposit them but I don’t know how to view wherever on earth they went…

They’ve gone to your bank. There’ll be a bank in your home city (Rata Sum or the Grove), with a bag icon on the map, and there’s a section for collectible materials.

I don’t understand the terminology which doesn’t help either.

The wiki is your friend.

Also am i just supposed to be wandering around? I dont understand what I am to do. Is there a quest list or something that shows my list of things that I am supposed to be doing?

In the top right you will see a few things as you move through the world. Your personal story will always be there, but that’s not always the easiest or best option – if it causes you trouble, leave it for a while. There are ‘hearts’ in the zones which will pop up with instructions on the right when you walk into the area for them, and they’re more like your basic questing. Plus there are dynamic events, which come up in orange if you go near one. These are best done with other people, though sometimes you can do it alone.

As for what you should be doing, if you want a goal, take a look at your map (hotkey ‘m’). Each zone has a list of things: hearts to complete, points of interests to visit, vistas to view, skill challenges to complete. If you do all of those things in a zone, you get a reward. That’s usually a good first goal for a new character.

There are also a few other, non-combat things you can do to get a couple of levels under your belt. Crafting requires stuff and money so might not be good for you right now, but try exploring your home city. Finding points of interest and that kind of thing earns you experience.

Elementalist and engineer are both tough professions, but if you stick with it and can get the hang of the basics I’m sure you’ll settle into them eventually. Play around with the controls in town if you have to, just try out your attacks to see what they do. Once you know what to expect, you can use them better. Good luck!

+1 would also like to see guesting as soon as possible, please! Guild Wars 2 has encouraged me to embrace flexibility with guilds and friends, but it will work a lot better once we have this last element in place.

Sadly I have not heard anything further about it. Fingers crossed for after Wintersday.

I don’t know about necro healing/support, but I am sure you’d be able to build something cool. Between wells and marks necros have plenty of opportunities for you to make combos with your allies, too.

Their colouring and clothing in GW1 reminded me of Polynesia, but there’s a good mix of Mediterranean, European, and others in there. As a human melting pot kingdom Kryta has become less specific in its identity by GW2 anyway.

Most places don’t match up perfectly – yes Cantha is East Asian, but with a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Thai and others, plus the Germanic Kurzicks and the nomadic Luxons with Greco-Roman names. Elona had influences from all around Africa including Egypt, plus plenty of Arabic influence; the different Elonan nations emphasised different parts of the mix.

Next time try the ‘Players Helping Players’ forum, it’s pretty reliably helpful and polite!

And yeah, Tarnished Coast is what I hear. There are no official RP worlds (certainly nothing with enforced rules!), but there are external places you can find other role-players, like this site.

The longer this conversation goes on, the more of a stretch it becomes. Yes, the dredge are rather caricatured in places, and someone had fun making terrible puns. They are one of the more light-hearted inclusions in GW2. But taking inspiration from the real world for fantasy races is not the same as pop culture references. If you look hard enough humans somewhere will have used almost any idea you come up with, and humans are the only example of a sentient, intelligent race with culture that we have to go on, so of course there are influences.

The fact is that most Guild Wars 2 races have a mixture of influences, meaning they are not direct ports of anything in history, but created out of lots of different historical examples that work well together. That’s why the charr aren’t exactly like the Romans, the Spartans, the Mongols or anyone else – but they do have bits of those cultures.

Also, speaking as someone from the South Pacific, though not of Pacific Island ancestry: “native” is not an ethnicity. I was very confused as to what you meant, and now I am vaguely insulted. Also also, saying that ‘Asians’ (as if it’s one thing) “value intelligence over everything, including social interaction” is an insulting, stereotyped generalisation.

Hi everyone, I’m Curuniel on Henge of Denravi and I’ve been considering options for creating an ‘LFG guild’ – a guild intended to have a very large membership, but only a sub-set of these representing at a time. The idea is that you would join in addition to any other guilds you might be part of, and represent only when you needed our services.

What services? Well, the guild chat would basically be an LFG channel. You represent when you want a group (or when you want something to do and don’t mind where you go) and make (or answer) requests of the others who are currently representing. This is intended for PvE, but unless it gets too large and out of hand it can be used for anything to start with. Need people for a dungeon? Looking for an event that’s on for you to join in? Need help with a champion? Switch to your LFG guild.

The idea is that you’re advertising to players in many zones (not just LA!), but only those who are also interested in grouping right now. I hope it would be a good way to find events, or help for events. This guild is intended as a Henge of Denravi local group, server community and all that.

Is there any interest in such a guild? Comments appreciated.

Finishing the personal story isn’t such an achievement that I want to see every person who’s done it displaying a bright little icon everywhere they go. I am a casual player and I fully intend to finish personal story multiple times over with different characters. If I can do it easily enough, it’s not so rare or difficult that it needs to be highlighted like that.

Every profession forum will tell you that their profession has issues, or at least that has been my experience! Still, they’re a good place to go to see what the community opinions are.

Thief and engineer are the two I immediately thought of for you. I’d definitely say check out thief; engineer only gets one weapon set at a time, no weapon switching, but that’s because you can eventually use kits to give you a whole new weapon set temporarily, so it balances out. Thieves are common, I think, but they have some fun stuff and definitely can keep you on your toes!

Picking up gaming at, what, 51 years old? That’s awesome Glad you’re finding GW2 a welcoming place! For my part I enjoy a diverse player base.

Narcemus.1348:

In my mind I read it as Balthazar has at least 2 big mistakes and this was 1 of them, not that he was actively rage blinded or ignorant causing him to be wrong constantly. Though I guess either interpretation could be a possibility.

Indeed, such scriptures are usually intentionally ambiguous :P If your interpretation is the intended one, though, I would guess that the first mistake had to do with either the killing of his father, or the reason the gods moved into Tyria from wherever they were.

If killing his father were part of his first great error, he might have killed him in a fit of rage or under false assumptions, and then been grief-stricken when he realised his error afterwards (and carried the head thereafter). In fact, now that I think about it killing his father because of some crime which Balthazar found out afterwards he was not actually guilty of is pure Greek mythology stuff and would fit really well.

To be honest, the problem is that the gods are not eternal or stable, only their domains of power are – and those domains tend to manifest differently under different minds, hence Kormir’s manifestation of the power she took up is rather different to Abbadon’s. I always consider her a goddess of light (the light of truth, etc), whereas even before he went bad Abbadon was a god of shadows, of the hidden (ocean depths, etc). Since both of these come from the same power, it’s hard to see it as consistent enough to match up to any of the (much more straightforward and consistent) dragons.

Hmm, very interesting, thanks for the extra info. Maybe more prideful, something he sees as honour but others see as much more of a flaw.

I would interpret his championing of humans as a matter of “these are my people” – having decided to further their cause, he does so whatever the circumstances. He is proud, and extends that pride and over-confidence to his chosen race. Loyalty and all that (obviously something he expects humans to return, and he doesn’t put up with anything less from them!). It’s also possible that it comes from who he was before he took up his divine power. Perhaps Balthazar is a little more like Adelbern than I would like… willing to slay his father for holding back, being cautious, and not rushing forward with what Balthazar thinks they should do right now?

To add even more confusion to it all, I get this feeling that the observatory’s a fractal as well. Dessa responds pretty odd when you ask about the portal connection to Lion’s Arch, hinting that either her observatory or your onw world’s a fractal too.

That could just be a sign that she’s been in there too long – and she doubts whether anything she encounters comes from anything other than the Mists, which I can understand! However, if she’s come from a fractal or a slightly alternate universe to ours, then

Dessa’s sudden hesitance suggests that either this is an event that she feels guilty about, or that it’s an event that doesn’t seem to fit in with the overall theme of the fractals being in the past.

- this becomes a rather interesting possibility, if Dessa fled a disastrous alternate world of some kind, maybe even one she or someone she knew had a hand in creating. Of course, she could just be disturbed by seeing her racial home (the only remaining asura centre now the old underground cities are lost) in ruins. That would be fair enough!

East of the Blazeridge Mountains could be something of a rain shadow, creating a dry desert-like area. I think that’s probably the cause of a lot of the desert in the United States, right, rain shadow from mountain ranges?

I can definitely see the Blood Legion occupying the Tyrian badlands, haha. Since charr are essentially carnivorous, they wouldn’t need much arable land for crops, just enough to feed herds – which can, potentially, be herded around so that they eat a little in each area rather than killing everything in one place. Blood Legion pastoralists?

Assuming a consistent character (which may not be the case in the transition to godhood, and a good long time to think about it, so who knows) I think Balthazar being a “greedy kitten” doesn’t quite fit with his associations with honour. I’m much more inclined to see him as the honourable warrior, Menzies as the less honourable, more conniving and ambitious one – you know, Thor and Loki! Although Menzies may be less cunning than Loki, and more contrasted with Balthazar for sheer brutality and lack of mercy.

I do agree that Balthazar probably killed his father, it fits myth symbolism best. But that’s really just my feeling. I do hope we get some more of this stuff in future, but it depends on whether they continue to illuminate (and de-mythologise) the Six, or whether Orr was our chance, haha.

Dustfinger.9510:

Really, any culture with a pantheon of multiple gods probably won’t have a concept of them being all powerful.

I agree! And this is why it’s important to distinguish between God (single, all-powerful, capital G) and god (one of many, selective powers, lower case g) when you’re talking about fantasy, or in fact real world religion too. They’re quite different concepts.

You’re ascribing qualities to the dragons that I don’t think they actually have.

the dragons operate on a cycle to wipe tyria clean of civilizations…. why? and who ordered them to do it?

Why does somebody have to have ordered them to? The point of the dragons is that they’re forces of raw destruction – people have said multiple times that they’re more like forces of nature than creatures. It’s just what they do. I would suggest there is no end goal in mind, just a drive to destroy.

the dragons seem to co operate with one anothers minions not attacking one another (unless of course the krait are servants of the deep sea dragon, theyre collecting slaves for a reason and i doubt its to build an army against the dragons)

When have you seen dragon minions avoid each other? Just because they haven’t launched full armies against each other, doesn’t mean they’re co-operating. I certainly haven’t seen any go out of their way to avoid others; if they’re minions of forces of destruction, they’ll all destroy what’s in their way, meaning they do the same work but that’s not the same as working together. And the krait collect slaves to sacrifice; you can read a little about their religion here from the source at ArenaNet.

if nothing commanded them to ravage the earth then how are they going to top six dragons for a nemisis?

Why would they need to top the dragons? Five or six major expansion bosses isn’t enough? I’d say that’s plenty for any long-term planning! Besides, if they did find themselves in a position where they needed new enemies, if I were them I would make a problem which was an after-effect of the dragons or how we stopped them, not just a bigger beastie.

and how exactly do you kill something that reigns over death?

Zhaitan in no sense ‘rules over death’. He creates undead. That’s rather different. He’s more like a plague given the danger of corruption that multiplies his minions; more pestilence than death.

maybe shiro is a pawn of the crystal dragon?

I really, really doubt it. And I think just re-using old game enemies would be an incredibly lame storytelling device.

Yep, PUG = pick-up group, usually distinguished from a group that’s put together through a guild or with friends. A PUG is just a group of people you randomly party with for something.

I think it depends on the situation. Almost every random party invite I’ve received has been from someone I’ve ended up doing an event with, and I haven’t taken offence (I interpret the party invite as a general “hey, want to party?”). I’ve also generally refused these random invites, but I figure that’s the right I have as the one being asked. Still, everyone has their own expectations.

A lot of things in this game give experience, and doing hearts is definitely not the most lucrative activity (although it does help, and give you access to karma merchants!). Definitely do events if they turn up, although I know that can be variable. Gathering materials also gives you a little exp, and you can keep them or sell them on. As GraynX says there are other exploration things to do in a zone, and finding POIs, vistas etc. does actually earn you exp too! Plus as Ayrilana has already said, there’s always other starter zones.

Oh, and crafting – that can give really good exp, although I know it’s not everyone’s thing. ‘Discovery’ especially gives good exp in crafting. Lastly, a handy trick: bonus exp. Creatures give more bonus exp the longer they’re been alive in the world, so things which no one has bothered to kill for ages can give huge bonuses. That means it’s good to go off the obvious paths, but it also means that sometimes a sheep, dolyak or moa can give you more exp than the hostile enemies!

Also, you know how if you click on someone it brings up a little info thing about them at the top of your screen? You can right click on that and select an option to ask to join their party.

Hmm… wood? You’ll need ores and gems for jewellery, cloth for tailor, and as many general materials as you can get for insignias for tailoring too (the venom sacs, scales, blood, that kind of thing). You can probably sell some leather, but I think you’ll need a little of that for tailoring too.

I understand that teaming up with players is an obvious suggestion but I never see anyone around, even with all the events just sitting there with no one to help partake in.

Unfortunately finding people to travel with really is the answer, I think. Orr is a warzone, it’s not safe to go alone! But it’s tough if you’re relying on people just happening to be there. I think your best options are to find a guild who focus on PvE so that you can ask there (“I need to explore Malchor’s Leap, anyone want to come help me?”) – or to ask around in Lion’s Arch for people who also need to explore there or who want to do events there.

What server are you on? You may be able to find some players here who’d be willing to help out, or who have the right kind of guild (have you seen Operation Union?). As for the elementalist, it can be a delicate profession – I’m lucky, my boyfriend plays guardian and together we do very well. Take a look at where you’ve put your trait points, because you might find that you’d prefer to be a bit tougher. Also check your gear, and if it seems out of date (recommended for significantly below your current level) check out the Trading Post for cheap replacements. Finally, I spend a lot of my time in Orr trying to run places with the least amount of aggro possible, dodging around enemies without them seeing me if possible. There are a lot of Risen.

I also have little interest in an ‘examine’ feature, although what the OP might be after to some extent is titles – is there a title for finishing personal story? OP, you can select from titles you have earned on the achievements panel, top left, and the one you pick will display under your character name.

When you click on someone (or when they click on you) I think it shows your down-levelled current level, if you’re in a lower zone. I got picked out as a high level character in Kessex Hills because of my armour though, haha. Clicking also shows character name, profession, and the name of your guild if you’re in one; if you’re not, your character won’t have a guild tag (like [this]) after their name, so people can tell you’re not in a guild, or not representing one.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

The thing about Sohothin or Magdaer being in the hands of the rightful heir of Ascalon is a legend and may not be true. But Jennah and Wade Sammuelsson hold a much stronger chance at being candidates than Logan, given their geneology’s proven to tie to King Doric – and of the two, Wade moreso, given he’s both the commander of the Ebon Vanguard and the Duke of Ebonhawke.

I’m holding out for Samuelsson, personally – I’m not sure that Jennah saving Ascalon would help the Ebonhawke situation that much, since I can’t help but feel that Ebonhawkers would continue to resent her sweeping in and taking over their affairs (their ancestors’ business for hundred of years!). Samuelsson is of Ebonhawke, thus a real Ascalonian human in some sense; he has the best chance of leading a change that might heal grievances.

Santa kodan! That would be excellent. I feel like he would need a title, the Something of Koda, but I can’t think of one yet. My mental picture of a kodan in a Santa Claus hat is awesome, though. Next year!

What would pull his flying sleigh..?

runeblade.7514:

There was a human priest in Hoelbrak. He was there to convert anyone including Norn to the Six Gods.

Yes, I’ve encountered him and he’s quite an anomaly – certainly not normal human priest behaviour I would say, he’s the only missionary of the Six that I’ve ever heard of. I’d love to know more about him and why he’s there doing that, but I don’t think there’s much further context in the game right now. Because he’s so unusual, I feel he must have his own reasons!

Thalador.4218:

One last thought regarding the Vizier. The new lore in the Orrian History Scrolls changed my mind about him, and now I consider him a bit of a tragic hero. The fact that everyone knew that he had a plan to save Orr implies he wasn’t acting on his own, probably even told Reza that he had the means to destroy the charr, but didn’t go into the details.

I’m by no means an expert in this area, but I always kind of felt that Khilbron’s original plan really was well-meaning, if desperate, and that he didn’t appreciate the magnitude of what it would do at the time. I agree with your summation – if he was a respected and powerful spellcaster, he may well have acted independently but no one would have reason to stop him if he was the person most likely to save Orr. It’s possible, to my mind, that corruption and less honourable intentions came post-death (undeath), when saving Orr was no longer a thing. In fact, the magic he unleashed may well have been what corrupted him.

Dessan.9420:

You seem to forget that people who say “Less violence, more violets.” need no such petty thing as a government, for they are good incarnate, and politics surely are beneath them (sylvari are SOOO lame).

Defending a favourite race here! But really, there probably aren’t so many sylvari in the Grove that they couldn’t make decisions by consensus if necessary, since they’re a new and relatively small race. On top of that, the Pale Tree has the kind of authority among sylvari that would usually be reserved for a God Emperor – if she commanded something, the large majority of sylvari would do it, I think, just on principle. She brought them into the world, she is a sort of leader of the Dream, the sylvari go to her for guidance in everything. Why wouldn’t they trust her judgement?

For interpersonal conflicts, I imagine the sylvari prefer to settle things between individuals. They have no kin or clan to get involved in a personal conflict, and their ideals of chivalry lend themselves well to an honourable, one-on-one solution, whether by duel or just argument.

The game seems to me to suggest fairly intelligent, rational and motivated thought on the part of Zhaitan. Personally, that’s not how I ever imagined him/it working so it seems kind of odd or jarring to me. It could be just that servants/champions of Zhaitan plot for his/its benefit, though – I’m not sure.

The races have no particular reason to share their technologies, even if they don’t have strong reasons not to; not to mention that people seem to have not really asked. I doubt the humans want to go to the asura and be ‘enkindled’ (so to speak) to a higher level of civilization, they’d rather do things the human way and work their own way up. The Pact does not currently represent a widespread level of technology – everything they have is experimental, a new combination of things. It will probably spread from there, but this kind of combining hasn’t been done before. Plus, they races work on quite different trajectories (magitech, industrial, plant-based, etc.) so it’s not as easy to combine as it might be to combine, say, Russian and American physics work.

What each race develops depends on where they start, and what needs they are addressing. In neither case will any race in Tyria match up to any people on Earth.

Psientist, I no longer understand what you’re trying to say at all.

I’m reminded of Agent Smith’s comments in ‘The Matrix’. We humans apparently just can’t handle the idea of a world not filled with conflict and troubles – it doesn’t feel realistic to us -_-;

It’s important to note two things about Tyrian religions, I think: one, that they tend to be polytheistic (having more than one deity); two, that they tend to be racial gods specifically. Polytheistic religions tend to be more tolerant than monotheistic religions, because believing in one does not preclude the existence of another. This is related to my second point – we have our gods, they have theirs. It makes sense. The Six are patrons and protectors of humanity, and always have been. To a human, the Spirits of the Wild are the norn gods, filling the same niche for a different people. There’s not problem believing in both of them – one of them’s just not ours.

Religions don’t have to clash. That’s most likely to happen if believing in one necessarily makes the other either false, or dangerous. There’s nothing that says ‘the Six are the only true gods, they want us to smite followers of other idols!’ Similarly, the Eternal Alchemy is an all-encompassing belief which can incorporate other gods just fine. There’s no real basis for religious conflict other than existing racial conflicts that religion might get dragged into.

As for politics, there’s evidence of political tensions among many races – just because it doesn’t conveniently break out into a coup as soon as we get there, doesn’t mean there’s no tension. The three legions work together but there are lines along which conflict could break out if, for instance, Smodur declared himself Khan-Ur and elevated Iron above the others. Ministers in Kryta are working to undermine the monarchy, but there are also common people who’d prefer a council, or a democracy, or who are die-hard royalists. Those discussions go on plenty without plot-relevant battles breaking out for our convenience.

I don’t see any problem at all with playing a human atheist. The Six Gods haven’t shown any evidence of their presence for hundred of years. People have old stories and religious doctrine, but they don’t turn up on street corners anymore. It makes perfect sense to me that some modern, sophisticated city folk (for example) would start to suggest that the stories were all just made up to begin with, and the gods were never really here.

Of course, if your character goes to Orr they might be convinced differently, but there’s still room to deny the gods’ existence (and blame any references on human superstition being exploited or something).

Alternatively, you could take one of my rp characters’ view and decide that you don’t know if the gods were ever real or not, but if they were real they abandoned humanity and left them to deal with the mess they’re in now alone, so screw ’em!

Danikat.8537:

You can’t really compare Tyrian technology, or that of any fantasy world, to Earth because they have very different histories. Technological development doesn’t follow some kind of set linear progression and wouldn’t always happen the same way. It’s affected by a huge number of factors, including coincidence.

Absolutely this. Technology develops in accordance with chances and to meet needs – and Tyria doesn’t really have the same needs as anywhere on Earth. Not to mention the fact that they have magic – which, if you think about it, would definitely make less incentive for technological development. Why bother finding a non-magical way of doing things when you can just hire a mage to do it? This is why the charr as so technologically complex: they’d rather not use magic in everyday life.

Tyrian isn’t real
just wants to be be
questions i want to answer
what is magic
(250 years changes a magic)
how does a farmer use bash and smash
(i try and i
get bashed and smashed not mash)
is the bash and smash within me
(i was offered a choice of boots as Ceera wept)
is it in the stuff
(i have no way to use my hands)

What is magic? It’s magic. It changes? Yeah… it’s a natural force that is harnessed by mortals who, let’s be honest, have no idea of the full picture most of the time. What people do with it changes, who those people are changes – and not even by that much, if you think about it.
“How does a farmer use bash and smash?” He’s had a rough life. He does hard farm labour all day, and regularly has his hard-won stores raided by bandits. He’s tough and he has some experience in fighting. He’s no trained warrior, not used to armour or a sword, but he’s not weak – unlike us modern urban types :P

But I don’t know why I’m answering these because you’re being facetious. No one on the lore forums thinks Tyria is real – the whole forum is an exercise in ‘what if’. We’re engaging with a construction, and thinking its premises through.

draxynnic.3719:

The Palestine issue is as big of a problem as it is partly because the surrounding Arab states had been stirring the proverbial pot, partly because the Palestinians don’t have their own state (while neither humans nor charr in GW2 would be deprived of a homeland if the other side had Ascalon), and partly because both sides have their own Renegades and Separatists that keep stirring the pot.

Hear, hear!

I was trying to find a way to articulate why I think Europe settling down is different, and the best I can come up with is this – most of Europe are not (chiefly) agrarian societies any more. Borders, who has what rivers, mountains and plains, and how much land, are all really important if you farm for much of your country’s living, but in a modern service/manufacturing economy land is less of a vital asset. Does that make sense? Krytans/Ascalonians still need arable farm land, and charr need land for cattle herds, so they’re agrarian/pastoral. However you’re right in saying that even if no one were living in Fields of Ruin or Ashford, both races would probably have enough space to live in. It really is wounded pride and historical grudges that are really at stake.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Secondly, Khilbron may have had a personal vendetta against them – in The Vizier’s Tower poi/jumping puzzle in Straits of Devastation, one can find a Broken Mursaat Statue – the text of which indicates Khilbron struck it with a sword in anger.

This statue really interested me when I found it! You know the history better than I, Konig; can you think of any reason that Khlibron would have had a problem with the Mursaat during his lifetime in Orr? I know the Mursaat were hated for their betrayal when they ditched Tyria, but that was way before Khlibron’s time, surely. Yet that statue felt like a fairly personal grievance. All I can think of is that he found out about them, tried to contact them to gain power from them, was refused, and got bitter about it.

It’s also been suggested (by Konig, or am I remembering incorrectly?) that Dwayna’s winged form could be related to the largos – which would be fascinating. I’m expecting a larger part for the largos in the (distant) future, so perhaps they may shed some light on history involving the Six that we don’t have access to yet.

Re. Jormag’s Tooth, I feel that if it had a corruptive influence – one that we could legitimately miss – I would guess that it was manifesting in the pressure that many norn heroes feel to match its power and overcome Jormag. Its very invulnerability could drive norn to seek out greater powers to beat it, whatever the cost; sounds kind of like it fits Jormag’s influence, no? However I think that it’s more likely that the tooth isn’t corrupting.

The sword is an instrument of violence – swords are one of the few things made for killing and nothing else – so maybe Jormag’s violent tendencies are conveyed more easily/strongly through wielding it? Since unrestrained violence (or killing just for the sake of it) seems to fit Jormag’s M.O.

The previous ED rise was in about 1,700-780 BE (I cannot fathom it being after the establishment of the Empire of the Dragon, however if their rise was much closer to it than we thought, maybe there’s a reason why its named such).

I’d never considered that the name ‘Empire of the Dragon’ could be related to a Canthan Elder Dragon – it might imply that it was founded in the wake of a dragon being defeated, or that it was founded atop a dragon’s power as Arah was (pure speculation, of course). To be quite honest, the possibility of an Elder Dragon arising in Cantha and being linked to the origins of that empire (which had become a somewhat oppressive power when last we heard) is the only thing I’ve ever heard that seemed like a good enough reason for ArenaNet to open up Cantha in an expansion.

I’d like to say that Elder Dragon corruption (or very subtle influence) might have been responsible for the Canthan emperor’s crackdown on non-humans and the other harsh responses that led to Cantha closing its borders, but honestly I doubt it. That’s probably just plain old political/ideological tensions, and the result of some challenging times.