Shing Jea Island
“It’s as historically significant as it is tranquil—many of Tyria’s greatest heroes began their journeys here after training at Shing Jea Monastery.
— Web page
Shing Jea Island (Shining Jewel Island in Old Canthan)[1] is the largest island west of the northern tip of the continent of Cantha. The island is idyllic and rural with farming and fishing settlements scattered across the landscape, and is inhabited by humans and tengu. Naga and yeti once inhabited the island also, but after the purge of Emperor Usoku, the naga have few remaining settlements, while the status of the yeti remains unknown.
Major population centers include Shing Jea Monastery (formerly a renowned profession training center), Seitung Harbor (a major trade center), and Daigo Ward (a high-class residential area). Due to the destruction of Raisu Palace as a result of the Zhaitan Disaster, as well as current unrest in New Kaineng City, Shing Jea Monastery now serves as the residence of Empress Ihn and her Royal Court.
Locations[edit]
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
Long before the arrival of humans, the Angchu and Sensali tribes of tengu lived in areas such as the Kinya Province on Shing Jea, sharing the sizable island with the territorial and brutal yeti which lived high on the mountains of Jaya Bluffs.
The human tribes that would become modern Canthans settled the northwestern coast of the Canthan continent and Shing Jea circa 786 BE, long before the arrival of the Luxons and the Kurzicks, and would eventually spead to the rest of the main continent. The Six Human Gods are said to have accompanied these first settlers and helped transplant them to this lush new land.[2][3] Tales tell how gods such as Balthazar and Dwayna walked among mortals in Cantha and other human nations during their travels throughout Tyria but eventually retreated behind the walls of the holy city of Arah in the Kingdom of Orr.[4][5][6]
As Canthans continued claiming land and formed the Empire of the Dragon, the valley of Zen Daijun became a holy place to humans and a destination for pilgrims seeking enlightenment on Shing Jea. The valley was known as the home of Zunraa, an ancient protector that took the form of a kirin. Many weary travelers were buoyed by the restorative properties of Zunraa's ancient shrines. Ringing the bell at any of the shrines in this area summoned Zunraa although the guardian would only keep the bodies of pure-hearted people free of all impurities.[7]
In 1 AE (511 CC), the departure of the Six Gods and the almost simultaneous gift of magic had a profound effect on all human cultures, especially those in Cantha. The heroic professions—their formal practices and requirements still in infancy—became widespread. The eldest prince of the imperial line, Chanang, defied the wishes of his father and chose to follow the hero's path. He studied the ways of the warrior and spent four years at a remote temple on Shing Jea learning the holy practices of the monk. He eventually left the temple to perform deeds as a traveling hero, becoming one of the first Canthans to become Weh no Su, Closer to the Stars—a Canthan equivalent to Tyrian Ascension. He was the first ruler to adopt the title "ascendant emperor" upon succeeding his father as Chang Hai.[3]
Hostilities between the local tengu and Canthans beginning to inhabit the region began to grow stronger in 879 AE (1390 CC). Due to this, the Sensali initiated the Tengu Wars, a series of battles taking place over a period of close to two centuries.[8] Though this war eventually ended due to the intervention of Master Togo, it had lasting effects on the local tengu.
Circa the mid-14th century CC, a cult of pirates known as the Crimson Skull began intermittently raiding the rural areas of Shing Jea and in the 200 years following, they began terrorizing more civilized areas.[9][10]
A monstrous plant appeared from within a cave beneath Haiju Lagoon to menace the local villagers, and was seemingly slain many times but reappeared frequently. Tales of it began to be told to children, describing how the Bog Beast of Bokku, as it was dubbed by the residents of the lagoon, would hunt down naughty children and consume them, in order to scare the children into being good.[11]
Within Miller Quang, a local villager's lifetime, the naga population inhabiting the island increased greatly,[12] and as a result, some inhabitants of the island went to battle the naga and made good headway until they encountered a particularly hostile and powerful naga known as Xsshsss Zsss which decimated the party attempting to drive off the creatures. Very few managed to flee Xsshsss and those that survived immediately headed to Kaineng City.[13]
Guild Wars Factions[edit]
In 1582 CC (1072 AE) the Crimson Skull were lead by Captain Quimang, a former student of Master Togo of Shing Jea Monastery. Their guild hall, Port Kaimu, located in western Shing Jea, was a fortified port formerly belonging to the people of Cantha.[14] Quimang, obsessed with money, initiated a raid on Tsumei Village following an unsuccessful attempt at persuading him to stop his attack on Shing Jea's inhabitants. Following the prevention of the raid, the Emperor's Blade instructed the Hero of Cantha to slay Quimang, and they successfully slew him at Port Kaimu.
At a time when Shiro Tagachi returned as an envoy he began to cause the plague that spread throughout the island creating Afflicted, as part of his army, who began attacking the inhabitants of the island. In that Master Togo along with a student of his took charge of fighting against these Afflicted and looking for the source from which they came.
Winds of Change[edit]
Some time later a group called the Ministry of Purity led by Minister Reiko took this matter into their hands, seeing that the Celestial Ministry did nothing to solve this problem and began to clean up and exterminate all the Afflicted that they had.
Interim years[edit]
Some time later, when Emperor Usoku rose to power, he took charge of unifying Cantha under the same Empire, exterminating all non-humans, for which the Island was threatened by the native tengu, Yetis and Nagas. Therefore, in the following years, Empress Haebaragi faced the Crimson Skull pirates together with a tengu named Daigo in the Crimson Battle on the Haiju Plains in the year 1741 C.C. (1231 AE), after which the island of Shing Jea was greeted with relative peace. In the following years, the inhabitants of the island built a District and decided to name it the Daigo Ward, which is named after the tengu Daigo who fought in the battle.
After the fall of the Ministry of Purity a group formed and called Purists began to roam the island, brainwashing its inhabitants into believing that the Empress is weak.
End of Dragons[edit]
Shing Jea Island was found to be in relative peace, not to mention the purists and nagas that roamed the island causing trouble. Suddenly, aircraft began to be seen that arrived and fell from the sky all over the island, this caused chaos among its inhabitants who, disconcerted, did not know what was happening, soon the name of this group called the Aetherblades that began attacking the island was discovered and taking control of certain parts, in order to create havens. In that, the Commander along with the Dragon's Watch had also arrived, and they went to an audience with Empress Ihn, and agreed that they would be in charge of dealing with the Aetherblades.
Geography and climate[edit]
Shing Jea Island is an archipelago located to the west of the Cantha mainland, connecting to New Kaineng City through the bay, and further south is the Isle of Reflection. The region is an idyllic place for the inhabitants as well as for the tourists, in which there is a lot of vegetation, full of wildlife and colorful for its cherry trees. It is usually a tropical climate, with forested areas, such as a bamboo forest found in Zen Daijun, and misty areas. It also has waterfalls, rivers, lakes, cliffs, plains and several mountainous areas where in certain parts it usually sees snow, such as the Jaya Bluffs and Sunqua Peak.
In which there are some agricultural and fishing settlements in particular, scattered throughout the rural landscape, you can usually see several ports where the inhabitants live from fishing such as the Seitung Harbor, the Fishing Village or at the Haiju Docks. In the extreme southeast inhabit the nagas, but most of the region is inhabited by the humans along with the tengus.
The beauty of the island is due to both its architecture and its flora, however with the Zhaitan Disaster, parts of the continent were affected in the case of the North Peninsula where some currently reside Risen Unchained that hang around the place.
Interactive map[edit]
Gallery[edit]
- Screenshots
View of the Imperial Overlook and the Bell Passage.
View of Seitung Harbor and Seitung Prison.
Seitung Harbor.
A small farm next to the Seitung Prison.
A village outside of the Daigo Ward.
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- Concept art
Guild Wars concept art.
- Maps
Appearance of Shing Jea Island in Guild Wars.
Shing Jea depicted as a peninsula in the Durmand Priory's map of Cantha.
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Notes[edit]
- A Shing Jea map was confirmed during the Extra Life 2020 charity stream by Matthew Medina and Tracey West to be explorable.[15]
- Tracey West confirmed during the same stream there are still bells in Shing Jea.
- Several low-resolution textures depicting a world map of Tyria, such as the map in the Durmand Priory or the Order Threat Assessment Board, depict Shing Jea as being a peninsula rather than an island.
Trivia[edit]
See also[edit]
|
The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Shing Jea Island. |
- Associated items
External links[edit]
- Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons - Shing Jea Island, Youtube.com
References[edit]
- ^ Factions Prima Guide
- ^ Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire—Road to the Desert
- ^ a b An Empire Divided
- ^ Kaolai
- ^ Karei
- ^ Orrian History Scrolls
- ^ Zen Daijun
- Master Togo: Ring the bell at any of the shrines in this area to summon Zunraa, the guardian of this valley.
- Zunraa: For hundreds of years I have watched over this holy valley. If your heart is pure, I will keep your body free of all impurities.
- ^ For the Future of Cantha!
- ^ The Guild Wars Factions Manuscripts
- ^ The Guild Wars Factions Manuscripts states that the Crimson Skull have raided Shing Jea increasingly in the 200 years prior to 1582 CC (1072 AE).
- ^ Dialogue in The Bog Beast of Bokku
- Baasong: Fear not, little one, for the Bog Beast of Bokku only has an appetite for bad apples! Surely, all children here honor their parents and behave as they should, do they not? [...]
- Baasong: The great Bog Beast's lair is deep in the heart of a hidden cave at the bottom of Haiju Lagoon.
- Baasong: There in the murky depths it sits, never batting an eye, always listening for the voices of insolent children.
- Baasong: When it finds the home of a naughty child, it waits patiently outside the window, quietly listening for the child to drift off to slumber. [...]
- Baasong: With the last candle extinguished and the house enveloped in darkness, the Bog Beast quietly forces the shutters open, slips inside, and steals the child, careful to muffle the screams with its sickly appendages. [...]
- Baasong: What becomes of these children, no one knows for sure. Some say they are taken into the depths of the lagoon with the Bog Beast, where it eats them whole! [..]
- Baasong: Others say the Bog Beast keeps them alive and torments them every night, forcing them to cry out in terror so that all the children might know what will become of them if they misbehave.
- Baasong: The tale I tell is true, stranger, despite my wishes it were not. There is a Bog Beast of Bokku, indeed. Many have slain the creature, but time and again it rises from the grave to claim the bad children once more. I ask of you, find this creature near its home in Haiju Lagoon and slay it in hopes that this time, it will not return. One final word of warning: the Bog Beast is powerful beyond belief, and should only be hunted by the bravest and strongest of heroes.
- ^ Dialogue in Sentimental Treasures
- Miller Quang: I cannot tell you how nice it is to see some new faces around here. Ever since the Naga population exploded, more and more people have moving out of the area. They keep saying I should go, too. But this is my home and no snakes, however large they be, are going chase me away!
- Miller Quang: You know...if you are looking for some work, I could use a little help. You see, before the Naga came, I used to keep some sentimental items in a chest out on Yuroso Island. It's a small island to the northwest. It was great: nice view, nobody around, lots of privacy... I used to sit there for hours sifting through my old things and thinking of times and friends long gone. Now that the Naga have taken over the island, I have been thinking of bringing my things back here where I can keep a closer eye on them. If you retrieve that Old Chest full of memories for me, I shall give you a little something for your trouble.
- ^ Skin the Snake
- Miller Quang: I was hoping you would come around again, <Character name>! Ever since you retrieved my old chest for me, an idea has been forming in my mind. Before the rest of the villagers left, a number of them went to take out the Naga and reclaim our lands. According to the few survivors, they were making good headway until they came up against one particularly nasty Naga. He took out most of them before they even had a chance to react. There were only a handful who managed to flee, and those who did packed up their things that very day and headed to the city. But I have been thinking...if anyone can kill that Naga boss, you can, and maybe, if we can get rid of this Naga, we can convince the other villagers that it is safe to return.
- ^ Canthan Guard
- Canthan Guard: If you're thinking about making the trek to Port Kaimu think again, the Crimson Skull run things up there these days.
- ^ Confirmed by Matthew Medina and Tracey West, Twitch.tv
