Talk:Tyria (world)

Lol, always comforting to know that we're still in Tyria. :P -- Armond Warblade 10:11, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, so now it's a world? Does this mean the map will wrap around like a globe, afterall just looking at the logo makes it look like you're looking at a globe, not a flat land mass of map. =) Kai Nui 23:15, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

It's always been a world. Lord Belar 23:18, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, yes, but you couldn't keep going through the maguuma area and wind up back in Ascalon if you kept walking west. **sigh** Kai Nui 23:29, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

It's just over the river and through the woods. Calor 01:17, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

No, that's grandma's house. I do wonder why she's living in the maguma, though. Lord Belar 01:58, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

i think it will just end up being a flat map but it will be a world....like when you look at a map of earth in geography

But the Earth isn't flat either. We really don't know if Tyria is a globe, but we might find out :) Cress Arvein 03:39, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

They didn't change the continent to a world. They named the planet that the continent is on tyria.--70.71.240.170 23:39, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Tyria is the name of the continent and the world. How is that hard to understand? :P -- Konig Des Todes 03:08, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Should i just add the Utopia was Ment to be on the Left of the Tyria map,just next to both Ascalon and the Maguuma to make it a globe? but when it was cancled that idea ran away and hid in a tree--Neil2250 , The Zoologist 13:08, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Where did you hear of this idea? -- pling 13:13, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Swear i read it somewhere on GW1W, not sure where, check the Gw1:utopia article, if im wrong- it would make sence anyway, wouldent it?--Neil2250 , The Zoologist 13:28, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I have never heard this, and that would either make Utopia either VERY wide or make a very small globe. I mean, you'd have the width of Elona AND some to make up space between the Maguuma and where Elona ends. I think that was just player vandalism or something. Not to mention that the gw1:utopia page is nearly 100% speculation. -- Konig/talk 01:35, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Does any1 know from where is it known that there were other planets created before Tyria?I like GW lore. :P 86.106.87.209 18:21, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

gw1:Bahltek is the source, while he talks about Odran (not by name), he says: "He was able to traverse through multiple planes of existence, some of which predate the one you currently call your native soil." Tyria being the native soil. "Currently call" is used because the gods brought humans from somewhere else. -- Konig/talk 19:06, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Sounds very MtG-ish. --Kyoshi (Talk) 19:28, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

I never read a book in the MtG universe, so if that's what you're referring to, you'll have to elaborate (and are those books any good?). But either way, not surprising since I believe Jeff wrote some MtG books and the entire game is more or less based off of MtG. -- Konig/talk 19:46, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

I never read the books either, really. I was just referring to the concept, which I discovered mostly via some MtG wiki online; essentially that of parallel universes, and vastly powerful magicians (planeswalkers) able to shift themselves and others between them (this being the method by which a person playing the card game summons creatures into battle). --Kyoshi (Talk) 20:52, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Would explain one old series' name (can't recall, but it started with plane :P). But one could relate the two, if the method is turned into portals and other planes/parallel universes being different realms (Tyria, the Rift, the various realms of the gods, the other worlds, etc.). But that's a rather common thing once you start noticing the differences. Much the opposite of people trying to compare GW to WoW or D&D (if you look at the broad aspect, they are similar, if you look at the specifics, they are eons apart). -- Konig/talk 21:10, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Picture

What the crap is that suppose to be?--♥Icyyy♥ 05:04, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Its an Orrery, a sort of model of a solar system. --hnzdvn 05:15, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh, lol my bad--♥Icyyy♥ 05:17, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Whattttttttttt???????????

what the heck is an Orrery???(srry for my language but ?????)

See the section above. --hnzdvn 16:20, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Also, there are plenty of online dictionaries that you could use, rather than ask us.--Corsair@Yarrr 17:44, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Image of world

Dunno if it's concept art or actual in-game texture for something (the file is 1024x1024, fitting for a texture?). The whole globe thing is starting to make much more sense now. The unknown western continent streches from the eastern edge of the map, Elona is by the equator and there's regions similiar to our polar ice caps. Mediggo 06:48, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

It's the texture for a globe in the game (we just don't know where this globe is located, but it doesn't look like structures I've seen). Konig/talk 15:14, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

It might be worth noticing the picture actually tiles horizontally AND vertically : our planet Tyria may be a torus ! that would mean there are 2 equators(on Elona and mid-way back) and 2 "polar" lines, (northern shiverpeaks,and a bit south of Cantha)... --Violette Lalouve 15:52, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Longitude. Equator refers to latitude of 0 degrees and division of the world into northern and southern hemispheres, not eastern and western. I just pointed out that Astralarium is in the "center point" or the 0, 0 coordinates. The article should probably reflect that somehow, but I don't know how relevant it is – Astralarium has been an important place of study in the past, but not sure how significant influence it might have had on that map. Mediggo 16:30, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Has ArenaNet ever released more detailed maps/atlases showing the planet's latitudes and longitudes? For example (from D&D Forgotten Realms), this official map from WotC shows the longest line of latitude (equator) for the planet Toril. Does Guild Wars have anything similar in its official lore?

Also, has ANet officially confirmed that the equator indeed passes through The Astralarium?

Has the planet's distance from "the sun" (or whatever it's called in the GW universe), its size (radius or volume), and its "axial tilt" (how many degrees) been revealed too? Regarding what's revealed by the ingame textures (see this map and the models linked here), isn't Cantha "far south" enough to having "tundra climate" (like the more northern parts of Canada and Russia for example)?

But when we play through GW1 Factions, I don't think we ever get the feeling that this is the case. Cantha just seems like it has the "usual" temperate climate. So the axial tilt for the planet of Tyria may be less than the Earth's one. Although without an officially provided map of the planet, it's difficult to tell just how near the south pole Cantha is.

--09:27, 14 October 2015 (UTC)115.134.68.183

This is the most accurate map of the whole world we have thus far. Those lines could be latitudes and longitudes, but it's unclear. Axis/tilt - if such things even exist for Tyria (keeping in mind the whole thing with The Mists) - is fully unknown. Same with any north/south pole's existence. Konig 22:20, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Hmm the equator looks like it's north of Istan on that map. I was also thinking and realised that the sun is indeed called that, because Elona is known as the Land of the Golden Sun. But you're right that the GW cosmology doesn't have to be similar to our real life one (for example, the sun could be from/in The Mists). --115.134.68.183 03:22, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Could the account medal for map completion be a polar projection? Maybe it's just confirmation bias on my part, but it kinda does to me.

I'm sure this has already been pointed out somewhere, but that texture shares a striking resemblance to the big globe in the antechamber in the Chantry of Secrets. Except that globe has more continents and islands. AsuraWut 23:03, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

I believe that's where the texture comes from, however it's warped somehow on the actual model - Cantha's directly connected to a non-existent western continent in-game (connected via Shing Jea no less), for just one example. Konig/talk 23:31, 10 November 2012 (UTC)

Geography

The Geography section mentions inconsistencies with maps from 250 years ago, when the landmasses have likely shifted somewhat since then - especially since the world is filled with magical events, such as the Cataclysm, the Searing, and the Rising of Orr. I suppose there's much speculation in saying that, so the inconsistencies could be worth noting just for the sake of wondering what happened/changed and how, but it's still worth noting that 250 years have passed since we visited the Isles of Janthir. That page also says we will not be able to explore those isles - small wonder, they don't exist anymore. -- DrakeWurrum 18:00, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

In addition, the Kodan are not specifically said to come from an arctic sea, but more generally northern lands and seas (emphasis: plural). they do not necessarily have to be true north, but could simply have resided in the northern seas. -- DrakeWurrum 18:04, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Another addition, it's worth noting that the sea you mentioned is not actually located in the far shiverpeaks, as can be seen here. That sea is actually far to the east, beyond the Blazeridge Mountains. Or were you referring to the sea seen here? -- DrakeWurrum 18:09, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

This may be a bit too meta, but maybe the information on the globe is pieced together from several explorers and cartographers, over a period of time, some of which wasn't accurate in the first place, and some of which was not accurately reproduced in subsequent maps over time. The lack of lore surrounding these areas, and current shipmaking technology could (conveniently) further point towards the citizens of Tyria, Elona, and Cantha not knowing much about the world outside their borders, relying on outdated and incorrect information. Manifold 19:38, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

The consistencies are with modern maps, actually. Specifically the the in-game map from pressing M.

Also, if you compare the globe map to the in-game map, you can see that the body of water denoted "Janthir Bay" is land on the globe, and the land ends where the Isles of Janthir begins (see [1]). The Janthir Bay is covered by land, thus is missing.

As for the kodan, yes, they were said to come from an arctic sea. Arctic means near the north pole, and there's not really such a sea due to how the texture would fold into being spherical (the landmass goes to the north pole). I suppose the arctic sea could come from the other side of the pole, as that's the only place where an arctic sea could be, but that means Jormag woke up pretty damn far north in order to scatter the kodan and it seems impossible for him to do that and shatter the Shiverpeak Mountains when he woke up when he's been progressively pushing south. Placements just don't match up.

"the sea you mentioned is not actually located in the far shiverpeaks" I was saying the sea is not on the globe's map... so that sea to the east (which is likely where the gw1:Crystal Sea once went to) is not what I was referring to.

@Manifold: Elona and Cantha's changes are actually the most reasonable, except for the lack of a Jade Sea (unless it's still petrified in which case it makes sense). Konig/talk 20:39, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Considering that the in-game globe is probably a craft of a Tyrian, it's probably based on knowledge of that Jade Sea has been a petrified sea for hundreds of years. Since the contact to Cantha has been cut for a century or so, there's no telling how far the recovery of Echovald Forest and Jade Sea has progressed – if they are recovering.

While the kodan have been stated to come from artic sea, I doubt they lived in the sea itself. It would make sense if the arctic zone was more or less covered in not only ice and land but also sea. The landmass to north from Tyria and Far Shiverpeaks can be just as likely a huge glacier connected to the land. As the map/texture belongs to a game object which is most likely based on Tyria knowledge, it is probably inaccurate regarding remote areas like the arctic. There's also the problem of wrapping map on a globe. We can't tell if ArenaNet has paid attention to possible inconsistencies like "widening" of landmasses caused by that. I think it's also quite notable that while Tyria is a world of inland seas and coastal mountain ranges, only the coastlines of continents and islands are accurately mapped. This might indicate that the globe is based on maps created by a seafaring race. And as we know, there's been more than one people or race to have braved the seas, so you're free to pick your favorite. The map might also be a collaboration of their explorations.

Of course, all of that is in assumption that ArenaNet does not simply slap random map textures in their game and think nobody will ever pay attention to them. Mediggo 09:28, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

It would also appear that gw1:the Astralarium of Istan is in the center of the (supposed) coordinate system, possibly indicating origins or at least influences of research on world of Tyria. Mediggo 10:17, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

"We can't tell if ArenaNet has paid attention to possible inconsistencies like "widening" of landmasses caused by that." Did you see the short video on the Reddit thread where someone had mapped this texture onto a sphere? [2] It looks obvious that they did pay attention to that, and the majority of the arctic area is indeed ocean (although likely covered by an ice cap, as you noted already). —Dr Ishmael 12:31, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, but it seems to me that some portions of the land like Istan and peninsula of Orr look wider than they appear in-game. Not really sure what to make of that. Mediggo 12:53, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Whatever inconsistencies may be there, I must agree with Mediggo on this - it's likely that this globe's texture was created in such a way so as to appear crafted by Tyrian hands, rather than being a perfectly accurate world map. -- DrakeWurrum 14:25, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

Edit request

As seen at Tyria (world)/draft. Mainly updating the geography section in light of this map, and also updating the navbox image to be a labelled, fan-made version (as it was before) now that a complete version is available. --–Santax (talk · contribs) 17:09, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

IMO, the navbox should have ArenaNet's map, not a fan made map. The fan-map is still on the article, lower down, so I don't see an issue. Given that the map's been translated since I edited the article, I'm putting up a (slightly altered) version of your suggested Geography section now that we actually have something worthwhile that isn't "look, land shapes!"

Reason for the minor alterations: Elona's most commonly referred to as a kingdom/nation now (it was, in GW1, used to refer to both a nation and a continent - much like Cantha - the borders of either differed), and Tyria could arguably be "retconned" into having always meant the supercontinent (speculative if this is so, but it feels simpler than having a continent, supercontinent, and world all named the same thing). If someone else disagrees with these changes, feel free to just put Santax's version up. Konig 21:21, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

Size

how big is Tyria compared to Earth?--173.55.119.156 06:40, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Unclear. Unfortunately the scale of the game is smaller than that of the lore, so there's no real way we can take a measurement, especially given that we have no lore-based explanation. I think someone was able to measure Zhaitan's model wingspan based on the average human height and equate it to ~1,000 feet, so if you take that and duplicate enough Zhaitan's to span the map of Tyria, you can figure out how many feet it is. But still, thanks to scaling variations it's not going to be very accurate, I'm sure. Konig 06:56, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

I just measured the size of the planet, taking the range of a longbow (1200 inches) and checking how long is it on the map. Than scalling up over and over again and I got... 18,5km in diameter! That's not even a planet :) That's just a big meteor. Now I wonder what is it made of to have such a high gravity! Maybe that strange material is the source of magic, and boom - we got the lore broken! Kidding ofc, but still - it's very very tiny world.85.222.100.136 20:34, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

That 18,5km is of course not very accurate, because of all the rounding and measuring errors, but still it's all 'round 15-20km. Maybe someone with professional software could make more accurate measurements.85.222.100.136 20:38, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't think the range is in inches, but scaling of maps differing throughout would make that measurement inaccurate. And if you measured to the world map, then like you said, that's impossible. Though that is a spherical texture. Konig 00:27, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

According to this old AMA, 2500 units = 208.33 ft, so 1 unit = 1 inch. —Dr Ishmael 00:35, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Even so. In GW1, Scorpion Wire gave a measurement and I used that to measure the continent of Tyria, and got about 1.5 miles by 2 miles. Presented to devs and got "nope, it's way bigger in lore." The IP's measurement would be smaller. So the lengths given in skill descriptions don't match the lore size. Konig 01:17, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Well I never said anything about mechanical vs. lore measurements, now did I? Mechanical measurements are something that players can see in-game and extrapolate into estimates of continent/world sizes, like 85.222 did. Lore measurements have to be given to us by the Anet employees who wrote the lore (or indirectly through in-game dialogue, which I don't think we've ever seen). —Dr Ishmael 03:46, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Did some digging. The above mention of Zhaitan's model wingspan measurement can be found here. The wingspan alone is 500 meters; aka 0.5 km. Going off of this image which features Zhaitan on it (I have a larger one - 10k by 10x pixels, had to shrink it when uploading), then Orr itself has to be ~4 km and the continent of Tyria (the in-game world map when pressing M) would be ~15 km. But even that's not entirely a plausibly accurate measurement (and I'd argument my measurement was very crude indeed, but even if spot-on, I'd say it's an inaccurate measurement to lore), because of scaling the geography - if not Zhaitan himself (though such would mean that he's not 500 meter wingspan). Konig 02:15, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

The maps are only half the world of Tyria!?

I haven't read all the above posts so I'm sorry if I am repeating something already discussed. I think that I'm right in assuming the we think the maps on the page and seen throughout the game are of the whole world/globe of Tyria. The maps seem to begin on the exact same latitudes in the west as they end in the east suggesting that the map edges align and they represent a complete picture of the world. But... the maps are roughly square. For them to be approximately accurate, they would have to be pretty much twice as wide as tall (as a globe's equator is twice the length of its latitude). Maybe the maps are stretched or something but I thought I'd mention it. I'd like to think that there is another half of Tyria to explore. : ) Titan Crow 22:03, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

These come from what was originally a texture for a distorted globe (which didn't even show all of this detail). You're assuming that the map should work like an actual map of a world like our own, but it's not. It's a texture, and textures function differently when wrapping around a globe. There's a lot of inconsistencies with this as a flat accurate world map, but it's not necessarily half of the world. And nothing said this would be an accurate map when flattened. Konig 02:09, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Aye, I said it might be stretched. :) There are flat maps very similar (maybe even using the same texture) to the globes all over the game and they are nearly all just wider than square. Like I said, it was only an observation and opinion. : ) Titan Crow 17:05, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Astronomy

I notice we have links to a couple of constellations/stars in the Astronomy section of this article -- Vizier's Tower, Dwayna's Heart, Grenth's Eye -- that lead to articles with virtually no information in them other than "<Name> is a star/constellation." It's kind of ridiculous that when you visit, say, The Vizier's Tower, there's an otheruses asking "oh, did you mean the constellation?" and then points you to the aforementioned non-article, as though anyone would be looking for that. This isn't notable enough for a dedicated article, imo, and I think we should just keep such info contained within the Astronomy section of this article instead of wasting our readers' time. —Idris 01:46, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Most of those links are to Astralaria collection items. Only three links go elsewhere: Vizier's Tower (constellation), Dwayna's Heart, and Grenth's Eye. The former provides... nothing, should go look in the novel to see if there's more; the second is interesting and actually has some information to it, so it's worth keeping; the third, which does contain a tad bit of lore, should be merged with Star Chart: Eye of Grenth. Konig (talk) 07:27, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Dwayna's Heart does contain some interesting info, but not so much that it wouldn't be at home merged with this article, imo. I think all three need to go. —Idris 07:49, 1 February 2019 (UTC)