GW2 Starting Locations and Places of Interest

[Arghore]

Originally Posted by Konig Des Todes

...Rata Sum...hardly looks flooded

Its cause its located in the north now

Though without diminnishing on the magic of the Asuras, while i was exploring the coast i found a place to the South West, where there were naturally floating rocks
Could this mean the Asura's are sorta 'fooling' us with having magic to float their cities, while they actually use naturally floating rocks in their construction ... on checking my screen folder it seems i actually took a screenshot ...

[Free Runner]

Arghore theres no point to arguing it futher. ArenaNets story guy himself said the Asura were in the South.

Back to the topic at hand, a change to one of the locations - Kodan Iceberg doesnt belong to the Norn, it belongs to a race of Polar Bears known as the Kodan who appear to be allied to the Norn.

[draxynnic]

Originally Posted by Free Runner

Another location to add. The Dredge apparantly have Sorrows Furnace.

Not surprising - I think I predicted that Sorrow's Furnace would be the main stronghold of the Dredge waaaay back.

Originally Posted by Konig Des Todes

Wasn't that due to Joko diverting the river?

I think both are mentioned, probably with respect to different parts of the desert. Actually, rechecking the Movement, it apparently greened northern Elona - maybe it did actually get through the Crystal Desert despite the fairly low coasts that we see in the Shiverpeaks, or maybe this was the result of weather rather than waves.

Originally Posted by Free Runner

Back to the topic at hand, a change to one of the locations - Kodan Iceberg doesnt belong to the Norn, it belongs to a race of Polar Bears known as the Kodan who appear to be allied to the Norn.

That would explain why they're white instead of brown, but my sarcasm detector is pinging a "possible" and thus I have to ask... Source?

[Glint]

Do you really think that ice dragon made only norn to leave their home. Only theory thou...

P.S. "Kodan iceberg" "Kodan" - kinda makes sense, no...

[Thalador Doomspeaker]

The source is PAX 2009.

www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/guild-wars-2-pax-2009-t992.html

www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35550&postcount=24

[draxynnic]

Danke. Should really have remembered and checked that thread before asking silly questions.

[Free Runner]

Originally Posted by draxynnic

That would explain why they're white instead of brown, but my sarcasm detector is pinging a "possible" and thus I have to ask... Source?

Originally Posted by patrickvp

1. Those big armored polar bears seem to be called the "kodan," and look like a new race in the Norn areas as far as I can tell. There's a few killer concepts of them in the book. Nevermind the Norn, I wanna play one of these guys!

Originally Posted by patrickvp

Just re-read it and yes, they seem to be their own culture. I'm guessing they are allies of the Norn, as there is that one picture of the Norn ranger with a big Kodan guy backing her up. Unless he's a rebel like Pyre was. As for the sailing iceberg, the book says that the artists came up with the idea, even though there wasn't a place for it in the game. They all loved it so much that they MADE a space for it.

From this thread.

I'm guessing the Kodan came from further up North beyond the known areas of the Far Shiverpeaks. As we saw in the trailer they seem to be well fortified in at Kodan Iceberg. The same poster also mentions a possible capital or home for the Sylvari. The book apparantly says "The Grove" is their home though he doesnt seem sure.

[draxynnic]

I must say, this bit worries me a bit:

Originally Posted by patrickvp

At the first Q&A with Matt Forbeck and the others, it was tough to hear most of the questions, and some of the answers. Time-wise, he said the story takes place about one year before our starting time in GW2, although much of the prior history is explained in flashbacks. Interestingly, he said each of the five races will be "flashing-back," each with their own perspective on the events. The story itself will have something to do with the humans and the Charr working out a "truce" in the face of the dragons, and it seems to follow some characters as they try to do what is needed to facilitate that truce (it sounded like some Charr relic needs to be rescued from somewhere, possibly in Ghost-Adelbern's territory). Take some of that with a grain of salt, though, as I was having trouble hearing all of it and probably got a few facts wrong.

That's something I would have liked to have seen ingame rather than as background that happened RIGHT before.

I presume this is referring to The Fall of Ascalon?

[Eliz Genevieve]

They also said they didn't have a place for the Kodans in GW, so they made up a place for them: The Kodan Iceberg, as it seems, it's a 'mobile' platform, like a ship, and the Kodans probably come from wherever that Iceberg broke out.

[ShadowedSin]

The Sylvari neromancer's name a note of it.

The name Tarhearne contains the Gaelic name Ahearn or Ahearne. Both spellings work quite well.

[Kthleen]

Originally Posted by ShadowedSin

The name Tarhearne contains the Gaelic name Ahearn or Ahearne.

Which I'm finding as a variant of MacEachthighearna, which means "son of the horse lord."

[Konig Des Todes]

Originally Posted by draxynnic

I must say, this bit worries me a bit:

That's something I would have liked to have seen ingame rather than as background that happened RIGHT before.

I presume this is referring to The Fall of Ascalon?

I agree, I don't want a flashback book or an Odyssey styled book (that is, the middle of the story is at the beginning of the book, the beginning of the story is at the middle of the book, and the end is at the end).

Originally Posted by Eliz Genevieve

They also said they didn't have a place for the Kodans in GW, so they made up a place for them: The Kodan Iceberg, as it seems, it's a 'mobile' platform, like a ship, and the Kodans probably come from wherever that Iceberg broke out.

Slightly off, they didn't have a place for the iceberg, so they made place for that.

[ShadowedSin]

Originally Posted by Kthleen

Which I'm finding as a variant of MacEachthighearna, which means "son of the horse lord."

Correct, Mac literally means Son or Son of.

[Nodakim]

Where is Kodan Iceberg located?
Southern Shiverpeaks are a bit too south,but the big lake north of Gates of Kryta could be it because its close to Norn/Kodan teritory and is possibly paritaly frozen.

[Konig Des Todes]

We don't know. It could be off of Ice Floe - the background in the trailer hints at Marhan's Grotto being there. But as said at PAX - Anet "made room" for the iceberg.

[Gmr Leon]

I think it's fairly safe to say that Kodan Iceberg, if it's the place depicted in-game with Kodan patrolling the outside paths, is in the Northern Shiverpeaks. That's merely based on the appearance of a Dwarven gate in the distance, though, so it could be elsewhere. Especially assuming that the shift into the outpost with what appeared to be Norn is a completely different location, which it would seem to be based on analysis by, Free Runner, I think it was.

[draxynnic]

Originally Posted by Konig Des Todes

I agree, I don't want a flashback book or an Odyssey styled book (that is, the middle of the story is at the beginning of the book, the beginning of the story is at the middle of the book, and the end is at the end).

Not quite my concern: I was rather hoping that the Fall of Ascalon would deal with, well, how Ascalon fell, and leave the process of forging peace between the Charr and humanity to be something that can be done ingame. Even if it's something that happens relatively early on ingame (have human characters start at Ebonhawke, Charr nearby, and resolve that as the equivalent of Presearing for each race...).

Flashback writing styles don't bother me - in fact, Katherine Kerr is one of my favourite authors, and she thrives on it.

[Thalador Doomspeaker]

A thought came to my mind. What if the Kodans were Norns, who went raiding into Dredge territory, and they stayed there. I would think their Iceberg could be found patrolling in that frozen sea/lake where the port of Droknar's Forge was. Also, that abandoned Dwarven outpost reminded me of that background area in Ice Caves of Sorrow (there was an area behind the inital outpost - henchmans, vendors - and there I found Dwarven houses and a similar gate.

Back on topic: they stayed there, built the "ship" from the sketches of the Dwarves old ice-floaters, and while doing that, they became an off-shoot race of the Norn.

[Free Runner]

I dont think its wise to be speculating where Kodan Iceberg is when we've yet to see the map of Tyria from GW2.

[Randy]

on the subject of Norn capital, who says it has to be built on lef overs from the dwarves, they may have it in mountain parts we cant reach in GW, as for Durmand priory, i think thats goign to be near Anvil rock, or on a taller mountain