Imagine a world full of dragons, faeries, elves, dwarves and all; a world full of swords and sorcery; a world that looks Medieval.
Such a world is easy to imagine. Thousands of books are published year after year with a new hero, a new chronicle, a new world. Yes, in the end, writers of such novels create new worlds, or rather, what Tolkien referred to as 'Secondary' worlds.
Now are you so sure that you are reading a 'Fantasy' book? What if it was an 'Anticipation' book? That's right, not a 'secondary' world, but this world we are living in thousands and thousands of years later. And that without changing anything of the original GW game's setting. How is it possible?
Humankind has always had a fondness for war and violence, up to the point where it almost destructed itself entirely. A few survived, and rebuilt from the ashes of the civilizations we, as players, know today.
The world as it is presented in the world of Guild wars is our world, thousands and thousands or years after our era. Humankind does not recall its far past, it does not even have one historical document of our civilizations left. After all, we know that today, it's really hard for Historians just to have a clue of who we were 2000 years ago. Imagine now if we tried to reconstruct the History of Mankind from scratch thousand of thousands of years ago.
What the humans remember of its kind, you'll find it here, in the few remains of Tyrian Lore:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/LoreIf you are unfamiliar with the lore of Tyria, it might be best if you read it before you read any further of what i am about to say.
We have lost some much of our own History that we believe the Great Giants and the Forgotten were there before us, but no... And worse, humankind does not even realize that these races might represent different branches of human evolution, set in different areas for ages, entire eras, without any contact between each other. The cause of such an evolution is barely known. But Merlin, having been trapped in his elemental prison forever since the 4th Century - that is the 4th century after the birth of that old prophet of Humankind our ancestors called 'Christ,' the son of a supreme entity called 'The One and Only' or some such - could catch a few glances at some episodes of our own evolution.
Merlin saw men hate each other, philosophies that were meant to harm rather than to heal, a progression of values that were centered around the self rather than the community, a progression of hypocrisy were men would rather be blind than accepting to see...
He saw the 'Nuclear Wars' though his medieval mind did not really understand what happened, not what was the Nuclear. He saw the destruction of our towns, cities, monuments. He saw men and its legacy almost disappear in one last suicidal attempt. With now steel and iron ablaze, how could paper and flesh have survived the flames?
Then there was silence for what seemed for evermore. Hence came the Giants and Dragons and the Snake People, after the few remnants of humankind lay hidden, buried. Did humankind totally disappear and then reappeared, or were there survivors? We do not know... Were giants and dragons a new species? Evolution? Some brand new dinosaurs? Theories differ, as well as intepretations or religious beliefs... But many other races were to come, from remote areas, or even... the depth of the earth...
The gods had changed too. 5 gods arose instead of the classical dichotomy our ancestral brothers were used to, which could be summarized as Good Vs Evil. Merlin could feel these gods were real, influential, more present in daily human lives than our past divine heritage, and more willing to be seen and recognized. Things were now different, somehow more... balanced. Merlin could feel it. That was before one jealous god, Abaddon, swore the destruction of the equilibrium reigning supreme in this new world by granting men their strongest blessing and deadliest curse.
The gods did not have private control any more over one of the things that made them so to speak 'godly': magic. He later was defeated by the other gods for his impudence and was imprisoned in the Realm of Torment. The Gods, who could since then walk among men quite freely, now were cautious of that gift of magic and decided to speak to humankind only via the sending of avatar, signs, subliminal messages and for the most gifted, direct telepathy. But these latter were very rare, and whatever the age or period, few than the fingers of a single hand ever claimed being touched by such powers... to be a conduit, a herald of the gods...
This new world, which is ours, and which has completely eaten our past civilizations, whose continents have changed shapes and names, which has seen new Kingdoms, new alliances, new guilds arrise, is going to witness the rise of a new Order, old as the night, eternal as the day: The Keepers of the Equilibrium.
- MerlinPS: For additional information on the Lore of the world of Guild wars, please read the following:
Tyria:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/History_of_TyriaCantha:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Lore_Cantha_small.jpgElona:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Lore_Elona_small.jpgEye of the North:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Lore_EN_small.jpg
Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:25 pm
