Calling upon Loremasters of GW and GW2

Metalfyre · October 24, 2018 at 8:17 PM

Hi,

I was wondering if there are any loremasters out there that can help me with a few questions I've been struggling with. I have to warn you, I can be very elaborate sometimes, resulting in a "tl;dr" kinda text, but please bear with me, as I try to keep it as short as possible.

Question 1: When the Charr initiated the Searing, from where did they do this? The Northern Lands? Becuz pretty much everything in Ascalon was obliterated in such a way that it changed parts of the scenery and felt like a dystopian Mad Max like wasteland. The question is: How did the Charr themselves survive this Searing? It must have been initiated from within Ascalon I imagine. So wasn't there any danger to the Charr then as well??

Question 2: In GW2 it seems that in the last 250 years between the end of GW and the start of GW2, the landmass has risen. By that I mean for instance: there's the Kessex Hills (with emphasis on hills!). In GW there's a place called Kessex Peak, which, if I'm not mistaken, is a mountain. The Diessa Plateau (high ground) was once called the Diessa Lowlands. So, that gives us clues that the landmass must have risen. Also the remnants of the wall are not really that high, while te original wall in pre-searing (and also in parts in post-searing) was pretty darn high, so I don't believe that the landmass south of the wall stayed pretty much the same, while north of the wall everything seems to be higher up than it was the case in GW (post-searing). I mean, look at old Lion's Arch from GW, you can still see it's remnants under the waters surrounding the current GW2 Lion's Arch (and even that was changed in the Living Word tales as I understand and there had risen a new and even bigger Lion's Arch, right?) So, all these clues give that away. So the question is, at the Plains of Ashford (Where once Ascalon Ciry was) there's a statue of Balthazaar, but.. it's there in all it's glory (if I remember well, been a while since I played GW2). Shouldn't then at the very least, it's head only be showing? Instead of pretty much the whole statue in it's original full length??

Question 3 (last one): Is it, scientifically speaking, possible that the landscape changed as it did in Ascalon (barren wastelands) over just a short period of time like 250 years? Or how could this be explained? I mean,. I see the Searing as pretty much the same way as a nuclear holocaust, apart maybe from radio activity. But the sun got blotted out for the most part and only a hellish red sky remained over Ascalon. Would that landmass (old Ascalon) really have changed as much as it is now in GW2 based on the excrutiating power of the Searing?

I'm just curious about this as it at times just occured to me and I was like, yea, why is that? So I thought I'd give it a chance on a GW forum. Thanks in advance.

cosyfiep · October 24, 2018 at 10:16 PM Official Post

I will answer the last question for you: yes it is possible. Just look at the amount of damage we have done on our own planet in the last 250 years (that is about the age of the USA), wars, poor farming practices, droughts, volcanoes, deforestation, typhoons/hurricanes... oh, yeah, it is more than possible!

Jayson · October 24, 2018 at 11:39 PM

I had imagined that the Charr who initiated the searing knew full well that there was an extremely high probability of death during the event, but were being prodded and manipulated by the Titans to go through with it anyway. That and the Flame Legion uses their people as tools more so than any of the other factions. That and after so many years of humiliation and losses to the Ascalonians, I'm pretty sure that the ones who triggered the searing felt it was worth it. The bulk of the Charr population were up in the northlands and to the east of Ascalon at the time.

The second question regarding the landscape falls in line with so many other issues with GW2 that it's only the tip of the iceberg. The simplest answer is that with a z axis, Anet created a more suitable environment to jumping while still attempting to preserve features of the original game. Unfortunately there's going to be tons of discrepancies throughout. It's not a lore answer but the most accurate answer I feel you'd get.

The final answer is no, landscapes normally don't change that much in most environments. Yes weather and water erodes rock, changes rivers course and can wear down hills and mountains but not at the rate that GW2 would have you believe.

Man made intervention could alter most landscapes in the way you see,

Constant geological instability is a possibility but on a level that would make building large structures extremely unlikely.

Or you can say magic altered the landscape or just say the dragons did it...

Metalfyre · October 25, 2018 at 6:51 AM

Thank you both for your answers which I feel are satisfying.

BJWyler · October 25, 2018 at 5:08 PM

Ah, let me jump in here too.

1) It appears to have been initiated via the cauldren in the Northlands. That's pretty much what you see in the cinematic before entering Post-searing. It was either a suicide mission on the part of the Chair, or it was possible that they didn't anticipate the strength of the magic they were using and we're caught by surprise.

2) I think the concept is that the ancient magic if the Dragons transformed much of the land. From a practical standpoint, this allows ArenaNet to re-create Tyria in the new game engine, but also explain away the differences. In terms if the man-made objects, like the statue, they can just simply have been rebuilt or what have you during that span of time.

3) You can throw science out if the window. When dealing with a fantasy realm where magic is not only possible, but normal, then magic can explain why anything happens or looks the way it does.

Peter Crypt · October 26, 2018 at 4:57 PM

Quote from BJWyler

3) You can throw science out if the window. When dealing with a fantasy realm where magic is not only possible, but normal, then magic can explain why anything happens or looks the way it does.

Exactly this. I never get caught up trying to rationalize what I see in a fantasy world brimming with magic. Magic can explain it all as easily as it can leave it all unexplainable. Magic is why Rangers never run out of arrows. Magic is why half-naked Ele gals don't freeze to death in the Shiverpeaks. Magic is why you never really die, etc. So yeah, stuff can just rearrange itself or vanish at the drop of your party hat. Not to mention it's a video game which already makes it immune to real-world limitations. So yeah, I just roll with it and keep killing stuff for stingy drops.

Chthon · November 9, 2018 at 6:04 AM

It's official lore that Bonfaaz Burntfur called down the Searing using the Cauldron of Cataclysm in the Northlands, and also that he survived the Searing and was later killed by the player character in the Nolani Academy mission. So...
- We could just call this a plot hole. It looks like it probably is. But, if we want to try to salvage things...
- Maybe initiating the Searing was a suicide mission and Bonfaaz just got really lucky. The remainder of the Charr forces were waiting a safe distance further north.
- Maybe Bonfaaz was capable of aiming the searing crystals to a sufficient degree that Charr forces were safe from direct impacts, and then the geological and ecological aspects of the Searing took course over a span of months after the crystal rain. In particular, perhaps the impacts destabilized the subterranean strata so that numerous small quakes occurred over an extended time as they collapsed and settled. That, combined with increased erosion as the plant life died off, might explain how the terrain/elevation could change so much in a given spot from pre to post, and yet that spot could have been safe to stand in during the crystal rain.
I consider GW2 non-canon.
I consider GW2 non-canon.

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