923 replies to this topic

[Gmr Leon]

Considering the Thread of No Topic has been failing to serve its purpose in this regard, and that we have recently been getting a few queries regarding summaries and the like, I thought it appropriate to simply start a general Q&A thread where Konig, myself, or other adept members of the community may answer any questions posited here.

However, I request that all questions remain in relation to the lore of the game, as per expectation, and all answers to be as accurate as possible. Meaning no blatant direction to your theories or hypotheses or beliefs on the matter (this is especially pertinent to Konig and myself, if you catch either of us doing it, call us out on it, please, same goes for any other active theorists present).

With that out of the way, feel free to inquire, and we will try to answer your questions as clearly as possible! :D

Mod Edit: This is now a replacement for the Thread of No Topic, which has just been closed and unstickied

Former Threads of No Topic:
Thread of No Topic 1

Edited by Konig Des Todes, 21 November 2010 - 12:43 AM.
Turning into a Thread of No Topic 2

[Narwhal]

How exactly do we know the names of the dragons? did we go up to them and ask nicely? The Dwarves knew Primordus, but what about the others, like Kralkatorrik, who's only recently awakened. I mean, how do the people of Tyria know nothing of the dragons except their name?

[Free Runner]

The dwarves had records of the Great Destroyer and so probably had records of Primordus. The first trailer also indicates they knew of Zhatian. As to the others its unclear how they came to learn of the names. Perhaps the Order of Whispers did some digging around, or they actually named them (seems unlikely given Primordus and Zhatian probably already had their names). Maybe the minions give some sort of clue.

Its possible the dwarves had legends of all the elder dragons hidden away and Durmand Priory or other scholars dug them out and found the names within them, but only the underwater races seem to know of the Deep Sea Dragon so far and you would think if they found all the names they would question why they havent seen the fifth dragon yet.

Edited by Free Runner, 11 September 2010 - 01:03 PM.

[Meister]

the durmand priory know of the DSD, and probably know his name to, but they wont tell people, 4 dragons is enough to deal with anyways

[Free Runner]

Meister said:

the durmand priory know of the DSD, and probably know his name to, but they wont tell people, 4 dragons is enough to deal with anyways

Theres nothing that says they know the name or its existance. Dougal and the others also knew nothing about it a year prior to GW2's present day, meaning its ether done something to get noticed in the past year or its still only known by the likes of the Krait and Quaggen. And its unlikely Durmand Priory they would keep the info from everyone, its not a smart thing to hide that there is a dragon under the sea. If any order knew of it, it would probably be the Order of Whispers since they were amongst the first to learn of the dragons waking up.

Edited by Free Runner, 11 September 2010 - 01:58 PM.

[Amannelle]

Well, they may have given them names, seeing as how some different races have different names for certain dragons.

[silavor]

In regards to the current established lore about Abaddon, is there any evidence that Abaddon was actually evil? Like for example does it ever mention what his motives were, or if he did anything unnecessarily cruel or unjust?

[Maldeus]

A significant portion of his army was made up of demons, who are explicitly said to enjoy torturing their victims.

Nundu Bay said:

Harbinger of Twilight: The fact that you've lasted this long is impressive. Torturing you to death will be a delight!

All of the Nightfallen versions of land that we see (Marga Coast, Garden of Seborhin, Jahai Bluffs) are twisted enough to drive their inhabitants mad.

Quote

"They're all dead or fled. DEAD OR FLED!"
Player response: "He has gone mad. Koss, why don't you try to talk some sense to him?"
"You will see. It's terrible! TERRIBLE!"

At the very best, Abaddon is willing to incur some significant collateral damage to the otherwise innocent people of Elona (and presumably the other two continents, since he made more short-lived attacks on them as well).

[Richard Magnus]

silavor said:

In regards to the current established lore about Abaddon, is there any evidence that Abaddon was actually evil? Like for example does it ever mention what his motives were, or if he did anything unnecessarily cruel or unjust?

Wasn't he behind tricking the Viszer of reading the Forbidden Scrolls, which ultimately sank Orr?

[Maldeus]

He's also sent the Fortune Teller to Cantha, and is thus indirectly (or perhaps more directly?) responsible for the Jade Wind.  Not to mention the Affliction.

[Tempus Reborn]

And he also Sinks the Forgotten Ships..but this helps out his (First) Margonite.

[~PolarisNova~]

Something that bothered me for some reason lol....

Question: It took 900 years to build the Great Northern Wall....why did it take so loooong? It wasn't made of gold last time I had a look at it in Ascalon o.O

Then, it took less than 200 years for the Charr to break it down....bad planning if you ask me on the Ascalonions part :p

Edit: Maldeus....I know you know your lore. Want to tackle my question about the Great Northern Wall...that is before you get into full-lore mode :p

Edited by ~PolarisNova~, 11 September 2010 - 08:52 PM.
combined posts

[Tempus Reborn]

Can I have a punt at the Wall Question? Are there not 900 years of peace for the Humans before the need of the Wall. There's not seemingly a huge amount of humans at the start of Guild Wars 1. 900 Years on a wall -even a "nation" long one is poor, but it's not bad if they started the wall with humanity compromising  of sub 100 breeding pairs of humans. (Who also have a lot on their mind, like spreading over the continent)

[~PolarisNova~]

Tempus Reborn said:

Can I have a punt at the Wall Question? Are there not 900 years of peace for the Humans before the need of the Wall. There's not seemingly a huge amount of humans at the start of Guild Wars 1. 900 Years on a wall -even a "nation" long one is poor, but it's not bad if they started the wall with humanity compromising  of sub 100 breeding pairs of humans. (Who also have a lot on their mind, like spreading over the continent)

Yeah that's not a bad explanation actually, so in other words, because they'd pretty much just gotten settled, and where likely small in number, it would have taken longer to build anyway, what with gathering and crafting the necessary bricks and other materials for it...and even then, there would have been other priorities, such as day-to-day living and makin' babies hehe

Thanks ^.^ It eases my questioning mind somewhat.

[Maldeus]

It's probably like the Great Wall of China, where it was, in fact, finished within a few decades of its being started, but was later expanded further and further.

[~PolarisNova~]

Maldeus said:

It's probably like the Great Wall of China, where it was, in fact, finished within a few decades of its being started, but was later expanded further and further.

Yeah that's a good way of looking at it, and would fit nicely with Tempus Reborn's explanation.

[Ragefatha]

OK well the clue is in the title...I'd like to know a little more about Orr's history and lore. As I understand it Orr was a region and it had its main city of Arah, and much like Ascalon it was under attack from the Charr and met it's end via a powerful spell which caused its shattering resulting in the sinking of Orr. Around 150 years later Orr rises from the sea bringing with it the elder dragon Zhaitan...thats what I know about Orr. It may be wrong or off the mark, but this is how I understand it.

I'm not a Guild Wars player and have only jumped in recently with the hype surrounding GW2 and I have read Ghosts of Ascalon which I thoroughly enjoyed. The region of Orr interests me and I wonder if anyone with a bit more knowledge than I can tell me of its past, its role in the world and where it will fit in with the current climate.

[Konig Des Todes]

I would suggest reading the following:
http://wiki.guildwar...istory_of_Tyria
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Orr
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Orr

There's more, but that contains most of the knowledge we have on Orr.

[Leyana]

Well lets see....

Orr was originally a city built by the 6 gods: Balthazar, Dwaynna, Lyssa, Grenth, Melandru and Abbadon(before he became a jerk). This city was their home when they still walked Tyria. It all came crashing down when Abbadon gave magic to the races of Tyria and it was where Kind Doric came to plead to the gods to end the fighting over magic. So the gods made the Bloodstones in Orr to semi-seal magic and left Tyria for a higher plane.

Then comes the next major event that you mentioned, the sinking of Orr by the Vizier*sp? who read from a forbidden scroll and basically nuked the city to the bottom of the sea in an event known as The Cataclysm (whats with humans and scorched earth tactics). Afterwards it came to be known that Abbadon was behind the incident as one of his servants tricked the Vizier into believing that reading from the scroll would save his city.

150 years later Orr is raised from the sea by the dragon Zhaitan. The dragon kills all of the corsairs/pirates/ner-do-wells that have been lurking around the place and raises them as an undead army that terrorises the place.

So in the current GW2 timeline, Orr is an undead stronghold full of zombie pirates. The undead have basically blockaded Tyria and cut off all contact with Cantha. The bravest of adventurers still dare to go ruin raiding in Orr but so far, everyone that goes in gets killed and raised as Zhaitan's minions.

[Konig Des Todes]

We cannot say that it was Abaddon and Grenth who were around when Arah was built - both of them had predecessors, and we don't know when they usurped their predecessors.

[Leyana]

Whoops my bad. The Grenth bit is kind of hazy. But I thought Abbadon was one of the original 6. He doesn't have a predecessor? At least not one I can see in the wiki. All I know is that Abbadon did have a successor.

[Ramei Arashi]

Something is off. According to the time line, the gods gave magic to races of Tyria  in 1 BE. But Scriptures of Grenth  seem to have Grenth calling his first worshiper and giving necromancer magic in 48 BE, 47 years before the giving of magic.

[Thalador]

Sorry for the self and GuildMag promotion, but I wrote an article about Orr back in May that deals with everything we know about the fallen kingdom so far.

http://www.guildmag....issue2-july.pdf

Just scroll down to the the Orr article. ;)

[~PolarisNova~]

Thalador Doomspeaker said:

Sorry for the self and GuildMag promotion, but I wrote an article about Orr back in May that deals with everything we know about the fallen kingdom so far.

http://www.guildmag....issue2-july.pdf

Just scroll down to the the Orr article. ;)

Enjoyed reading that, thanks Thalador. And more interesting conisidering I've been chasing down that damnable sceptor hehe.

[Thalador]

~PolarisNova~ said:

Enjoyed reading that, thanks Thalador. And more interesting conisidering I've been chasing down that damnable sceptor hehe.

I know that it's a weak excuse, but the "sceptor" is not my fault - more or less. It was added to the article when they guys were formatting (no offense, I love the design), and they made a typo. And I was lame enough not to spot that typo. :(

But thank you! :)

Edited by Thalador, 15 September 2010 - 03:17 PM.

[Ragefatha]

Great responses...especially the pdf with the info on! Many thanks guys

[Insufferable Genius]

This is something that came to me back on the Human/Norn topic. I know that it's been said that the Asura don't worship any gods, as they see the world determined by the Eternal Alchemy. What I was wondering, is if there has ever been any confirmation on their thoughts on deities. Whether they think that the Alchemy is all that there is, or if they simply don't worship gods because they're all "cogs in the machine" and they're focused on the big picture.

edit: Ick, I missed the Q&A topic, it probably would have fit better there then as it's own.

Edited by Insufferable Genius, 16 September 2010 - 11:53 PM.

[Amannelle]

To my understanding, EVERYONE is a cog in the Eternal Alchemy. They acknowledge the gods, but think of them as merely larger cogs; nothing more. :)

Or, that's how it seems to me.

[Konig Des Todes]

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Kerrsh

He's your man to look into - primarily his quests. He is the primary case of what asura view the gods as (there's some in Ghosts of Ascalon, but it's the same as Kerrsh and his quests, more or less). Basically, they think the Six Gods (probably the Spirits of the Wild and Elder Dragons as well) are merely large cogs in the Eternal Alchemy - while normal creatures are small cogs.

[Garant]

If I were to play through Guild Wars just for the lore and story, how much would I learn?  I've become really interested in the Guild Wars universe since browsing through the Wiki but learning this way feels strange, kind of fragmented.  Not to mention that there is a lot to read through, and I can't really be sure I've hit all the articles.

So, if I bought Guild Wars and the expansions:

1. Will I be well-versed after one or two slow, deliberate playthroughs or will I need to do a ton more Wiki-reading or alternate quests after that?

2. Will I have to do any group content for lore? (dungeons, unsoloable quests)

3. Will I have to go off and find books on tables, stone tablets in ruins, etc, or will it be more obvious where to get the information if I want it?

4. And finally: do you think it would still be worth it if I'm not so fond of the GW1 combat after seeing GW2?

(Hopefully this thread belongs here and not in the Q&A, I figured people who spend their time here would be likely to give more complete answers.  =))

Edit: actually, after thinking about it some more, did they really pack all of what's in the Wiki into GW1 in some way, or is some of this information coming from other places? (Ghosts of Ascalon aside, of course, seems most of the articles concern pre-GW2 anyway).

Edited by Garant, 21 September 2010 - 04:17 AM.