Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds content

Titan

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Disambig icon.png This article is about creatures created from tormented souls. For a dolyak, see Titan (Dolyak).
Spoiler alert: The following text contains spoilers relating to Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds.
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“

The mysterious magical entities of Janthir channel the energy from the very land itself, a mystic and ineffable enigma in this unexplored region of Tyria...

— Official description

Titans are demonic beings which are created by twisting tormented souls. Many titans have originated from the Foundry of Failed Creations in the Realm of Torment;[1] however, the Forgotten and Seers have implied that titans have existed even before the creation of the Foundry.[2][3]

Physiology[edit]

Many titans had three-legged forms although some were bipedal, and at least some of them were capable of speech.[4] Some greater titans could spawn lesser titans upon being defeated, making them dangerous adversaries to the unwary opponent. Titans could adapt to the terrain they were in, becoming molten rock in volcanic areas, icy in snowy landscapes, and fleshy or demonic in appearance in the Realm of Torment. They were said to grow more powerful by stealing energy from the land to give themselves even more stamina and strength.[2]

Modern-day titans are capable of producing lesser individuals known as titanspawn which act in a subservient fashion in favor of their progenitor. Researchers hypothesize that titanspawn are no different than white blood cells inside the body, mindlessly reacting to the progenitor titan's needs: they attack threats to the body and attempt to seal the body's wounds. When a titanspawn is killed, the primary specimen releases another titanspawn to replace the fallen one.[5]

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

Titans are creatures created by twisting tormented souls into monstrous forms. Some Forgotten claimed that at least the older titans were almost as old as their race.[2] Seers have suggested that titans have remained unchanged for eons,[3] seemingly predating the creation of the Foundry of Failed Creations.

When the fallen god Abaddon and his Margonite followers were imprisoned in the Realm of Torment for their attempted coup against the other gods in 0 AE, a location that would become known as the Foundry of Failed Creations detained particularly troublesome Margonite prisoners. The foulest of those incarcerated was an ancient demonic spirit known as "The Fury," having been the former god Dhuum's follower before becoming a servant of Abaddon as well. When the Fury managed to break free of its shackles at some point, it sundered its surroundings, only to reassemble them to mimic the twisted visions trapped inside its cruel mind.[6] An ethereal fire billowed at the core of the Foundry with the flames being so hot that they could meld souls together. The Fury would use the Foundry's flames to create titans to serve its imprisoned masters' sinister goals.[7] Some titans eventually managed to enter Tyria where they would bide their time.

At some point, the dragon prophet Glint became aware of the eventual threat of the titans and wrote cryptic lines about them and various other threats to Tyria in her Flameseeker Prophecies. She deliberately let the content of the prophecies spread to attract the attention of those who would be destined to enact them. However, she kept some key verses to herself to not tip future sinister forces to her true plans which would involve eradicating many threats to Tyria in one swoop. The Tyrian mursaat, a race of cruel and ambitious spellcasters, would eventually learn about these prophecies that predicted their doom at the hands of the titans, which terrified them and made them work hard to avoid this fate.

False gods of the charr[edit]

Two hundred years before the Searing of Ascalon, the Burnt warband, a group of charr dedicated to the Flame Legion, ventured to the lands surrounding the Hrangmer volcano. Upon its return, the warband claimed to have found gods for the charr at long last to even the odds against the humans who had managed to drive the charr out of Ascalon with help of their own gods. Eager for a new purpose and filled with pride, members of the Flame Legion swore allegiance to the titans, converting or destroying anyone who stood in their path. One by one, the legions of the charr would fall beneath the control of these "gods" and their shamans, and the charr at last learned new magic; a new means of destroying their human enemies south of the Great Northern Wall.

In the end, the shamans of the rival legions met in secret, unified their differences, and swore to force each legion to follow these new gods. As one, they returned to their individual city-states and eventually convinced their people to worship the titans via both persuasion and force—all save for one charr named Bathea Havocbringer who fought against this sacrilege and was killed for it by the shamans, her execution a sacrifice to the charr's new gods. Because of Bathea's disobedience to the new order, all females of her legion—and, in short order, all females among the charr—were removed from warbands and armies, reduced to performing utility tasks at home in the cities of the legionnaires.[8][9] Gold was used in shaman rituals to the titans.[10] The shamans who led titan worship also used braziers of fire as icons of their newfound gods.[9]

When the charr struck against Ascalon again in 1070 AE, it was with all the fury of destiny denied. With a magical artifact known as the Cauldron of Cataclysm gifted to them by their new gods, the shamans called forth the magic of the titans and performed the Ritual of the Searing. It is said the Cauldron's magic was older than the charr, older even than recorded history, and forged by ancient entities fallen into sleep and quiescence. With the Cauldron, the shamans summoned titanic crystal meteors to rain down upon their enemies, ravaging farmland and shattering the Wall before entering the Ascalonian heartlands and beginning another chapter in the devastating human-charr conflict.[4][10] During this time the shamans believed that the titans would build the charr a bridge to the next world within ten years while Tyria itself would be done.[11]

Conflict between mursaat and titans[edit]

Emboldened by their victory and manipulated by the titans, the shamans decided to divide their forces to not only continue the war in Ascalon but to strike at the other human kingdoms of Kryta and Orr, bringing multiple Searing Cauldrons to assist them in the invasion of the latter. Both invasion attempts ended in failure, however. Using forbidden scrolls, Vizier Khilbron, advisor to King Reza of Orr, cast a powerful spell which sank Orr, his people, and the charr horde invading the kingdom into the depths of the Sea of Sorrows.[12] In Kryta, the mursaat helped their puppet Saul D'Alessio and his White Mantle cult repel the charr assault on Kryta.

Khilbron had been converted to the faith of Abaddon, however, and returned as an undead lich while commanding his fallen Orrian brethren whom he had raised as undead. Having learned about Glint's Flameseeker Prophecies, he began scheming to ensure that the prophecy would be fulfilled. He viewed himself as the eponymous Flameseeker who was destined to rule Tyria by unleashing the titans from the Realm of Torment through the Ring of Fire's Door of Komalie—which the mursaat had been keeping shut via sacrifices of magically potent beings, mainly humans, in order to prevent the titans from breaking through en masse—and destroy the mursaat as had been written. Khilbron wielded the the magical Scepter of Orr in his grim task, believing it to have the power to control the titans, and successfully opened the Door of Komalie after manipulating a group of Chosen heroes to fight the mursaat for him before revealing his true ambitions to his unwitting pawns. Although the gateway only remained open for a brief time before the heroes defeated Khilbron and sealed the door in 1072 AE, some of the ancient demons emerged from it as did countless souls who were sent through to become titans themselves.[13] Among these titans were their champions, the dreaded Armageddon Lords, which would lead the horde as they spread havoc across Tyria.[3]

The titans successfully slaughtered most of the Tyrian mursaat and forced a handful of the latter into hiding. However, the titans were ultimately defeated by the heroes and other Tyrian defenders in turn, thus all but erasing two grave threats to Tyria as Glint had foreseen in her prophecies. Although Glint had sent the heroes across Central Tyria to stop the rampaging titans, some titans nevertheless managed to slip past them as the titans' ferocity had even managed to catch the dragon prophet by surprise.[14]

Facing the remnants[edit]

Following Abaddon's attempted return and ultimate defeat at the hands of heroes and Kormir's ascension to godhood in 1075 AE, the Fury decided to serve a new master: a great Margonite champion called Mallyx the Unyielding who was trying to raise himself as the new lord of Margonites and to defy Kormir's rule. With the help of demonic troops, the Fury tormented the souls of the prisoners within the walls of the Foundry to create more titans.[13] The heroes who had slain Abaddon, aided by the Forgotten as well as the Order of Whispers, fought back against Mallyx and his forces, ultimately defeating him and the Fury and shutting down the Foundry to prevent the creation of more titans in the Realm of Torment.[15]

In 1078 AE, a joint force of charr rebels led by Pyre Fierceshot and a group of Ebon Vanguard led by Gwen Thackeray located and defeated a lone titan near Grothmar Valley.

Janthir Wilds[edit]

An expedition sent by the Tyrian Alliance to establish diplomatic relations with the Lowland Kodan entered the Janthir region in 1337 AE. On a search-and-rescue mission for a missing kodan scouting party, the Pact Commander, Ash Legion Imperator Malice Swordshadow, and Caithe encountered the Rotting Titan known as Greer, the Blightbringer in the Lowland Shore region. Greer demonstrated increased intelligence compared to titans of the past by strategically retreating to Janthir Syntri, one of the isles of Janthir, leaving his titanspawn to fight in his stead. The party discovered that Greer had been turning some areas in Lowland Shore into a decaying, infested mire and was empowered via spreading this corruption as his titanspawn began spreading across the lowland to harass the local kodan and wildlife alike.

The Tyrian party, now aided by the local kodan Poised Arrow, continued their exploration of the region, eventually cornering and defeating Greer in Janthir Syntri with help of the ancient kodan wizard Waiting Sorrow who had likewise been investiganting the emerging titan threat. However, they eventually discovered that not only had Greer managed to revive himself by feeding on bloodstone shards from the Janthir Bloodstone's explosion, but he also had a titan partner, Decima, the Stormsinger, who had been spreading her own brand of corruption, storms, across the island and its shoreline. Upon interacting with various bloodstone shards and using the Heart of the Obscure artifact to destroy them and free the spirits of sacrificed people trapped within them, the party learned from a charr's spirit about the shamans' belief of titans supposedly creating a bridge to the next world and ending of Tyria.[11]

Members from both lowland kodan and the Tyrian Alliance began taking a foothold of the island to combat the titans' spreading corruption that was manifesting as both decay as well as the troubling Mistburn phenomenon infecting local flora and fauna. While their allies were busy preventing Decima and Greer's continued drainings of the island's remaining bloodstone shards to empower themselves, the Commander's party joined forces with the lowland chieftain Stoic Alder and decided to use the knowledge gained from their bloodstone shard experimentation to neutralize many of the shards with the Heart of the Obscure and defeat both titans at the same time in their lair. Before the party could deal the finishing blow against the weakened pair, however, they were forced to stand down when they discovered the existence of a third titan, Ura, the Steamshrieker, who claimed to be more powerful than the two titans and offered the party a chance to retreat as long they let the titan pair go.

Types[edit]

Progenitor titans
Titans and titanspawn
See also: Category:Titans

Gallery[edit]

Screenshot
  • JW screenshot 08.jpg
  • JW screenshot 10.jpg
  • JW screenshot 11.jpg
  • Greer absorbing the power of the Bloodstone Shard.

    Greer absorbing the power of the Bloodstone Shard.

  • "Decima" screenshot.jpg
  • Decima absorbing the power of the Bloodstone Shard.

    Decima absorbing the power of the Bloodstone Shard.

Concept art
  • "Decima Concept" concept art.jpg
  • Strangers among Lands- Festering Basin loading screen.png
  • Against the Wall- Sulfurous Springs loading screen.png
  • Twice Stricken loading screen.png
  • Godspawn concept art.jpg

Trivia[edit]

  • In Guild Wars, titans typically had Latin or pseudo-Latin based names.
  • In ancient Greek myth, Titans were the second generation of gods, born of Uranus and Gaia.
  • Titans feature in charr sayings that signify disgust or surprise such as "Titan's teeth."[16]

See also[edit]

Gwwlogo.png The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Titan.
Associated items
Associated books

References[edit]

  1. ^ Janthir Wilds Press Kit, zebrapartners.net
  2. ^ a b c Forgotten Warden
  3. ^ a b c Hell's Precipice
    Ancient Seer: Unchecked, the Titans will rend Tyria asunder. Stopping the Lich is the only real way to defeat them. But there is more to this problem than you know.
    Ancient Seer: Among the Titan horde are their champions, the Armageddon Lords. If they are not stopped, these demons will surely bring an end to both man and beast. Most likely, the Lords will be the last ones through the portals that have been opened.
    Ancient Seer: I wish to see this to its end. Over the eons, much has changed in Tyria. But not these Titans.
  4. ^ a b A Flickering Flame
    Scorch Emberspire: The Charr have always found strength in the flames. When the Titans appeared before our people in a towering inferno, we knew that surely these must be our gods.
    Scorch Emberspire: Through our gods our people found a purpose, one that bound us together and drove us onto a path of conquest.
    Scorch Emberspire: Following signs from the gods, we cut a swath of destruction into the lands of men. Victory was our birthright. Fire and steel became the hands with which we would grasp it.
    Scorch Emberspire: Always toward Arah, where the gods once lived. All that awaited us there was death. What sort of god would lead its people to destruction?
    Scorch Emberspire: To think that I would ever be graced by the presence of a god....
    Scorch Emberspire: I have come all this way to prove my faith. We have done all that you have asked, and yet I still find myself in this purgatory. How have we failed you?
    Ignis Cruor: Impudent creature... I have no further use for you. Your presence offends my sense. Begone!
  5. ^ Notes on the Titan's Spawn
  6. ^ Aurus Trevess
  7. ^ Scholar Glenna
  8. ^ Marghel Talekeeper
  9. ^ a b Chapter 10, pages 132-134, Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb:
    "Before humans came to Tyria, we had no gods. We knew about creatures with power we could barely comprehend, but we thought of them as foes to be defeated, not gods to be placated. When we suffered our first defeats at the hairless hands of humans, though many charr blamed this on the fact that they could plead to their gods for help while we fought alone, relying only on ourselves."
    "A warband from the Flame Legion came to the rest of the charr one day and announced that they had found gods for us to worship. These were creatures later called titans, but they were powerful enough that such labels mattered little. The shamans who led their worship used braziers of fire as icons of their newfound gods. The other legions hesitated to follow their lead, but the Flame Legion had so much success at converting others—often by force—that many assumed they must have gods on their side. It was the titans that gave us the cauldrons that allowed us to breach the Great Northern Wall."
    "One famous charr stood against them: Bathea Havocbringer of the Blood Legion. She sniffed out the foul plans of the Flame Legion and their new shamans, who direct the worship of their gods in ways that brought themselves power and profit. She said, 'I will bow before no one and nothing, be it mortal or god,' and she persuaded many other charr to follow her lead."
    "Because of this, the shamans gathered in the night to plot against her. They captured her and made a blood sacrifice of her to their new gods. They declared her a traitor and accused her of using her sexuality to tempt the males from the true path of the gods. To prevent any more such treachery, they marked all females with the same brand of deceit and banned them from serving in the legions, where they would mix with the males."
    "Many females objected to this, as did some males. Several shared Havocbringer's fate, and eventually the others saw no choice but to submit themselves to their new gods' will. We lived like this for centuries, long enough that most of us could not remember there ever having been another way."
  10. ^ a b Ecology of the Charr
  11. ^ a b Finding Balance
    <Character name>: I'm sure you can tell us all about the titans, then.
    Charr Prisoner: They will build us a bridge to the next world.
    Charr Prisoner: Ten more years and this one will be done.
  12. ^ Message from Vizier Khilbron
  13. ^ a b Relkyss the Broken
  14. ^ Vision of Glint
  15. ^ Whispers Informant
  16. ^ Down the Hatch
    Grana Guzzlemaw: Titan's teeth...what kind of filthy shenanigan-liver do you have?

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