Is the world of Tyria flat or spherical?

Seriously, I don't know. Which is it? What do you think?

Why limit it to that? It could be disc shaped or oblong. It could be convex! =)

I would argue that it was flat because nobody has gone from one end to the other yet, and because there doesn't seem to be a consistant ring of zones (temperate, tropical, etc)

Theres no real evidence, because the people living on it don't know.

But it's obviously going to be a round-ish shape .

Im sure its flat! thats the way the world should be (jk)

Clearly it's flat.


it's like...obvious.


Unless your monitor has a slight curve of course...

Obviously it'll be a globe, like all other planets...

Flat. That's why it's always daylight.

It's a dodecahedron, sheesh, isn't it obvious?

Seriously, the GW2 Logo seems to imply that it's a sphere.

its a rhombus nuff said

There's gravity, the planet must be round, or at the least a slightly bulgy globe (like Earth).

Gravity is a myth. Tyria sucks.

Tyria has ultra strong gravity.

I know what you're thinking - what about those cinematics when something explodes or collapses? Well, EVERY building/structure on Tyria is magically and invisibly chained to...umm...ever OTHER building/structure on Tyria to stop them from being pulled down until the cinematic triggers the destruction of a chain.

What stops them from all caving inward from being chained? Well, the chaining process is very organized. IE, objects are chained together until they can't be chained much more without a massive cavein. This cluster is chained to a giant monolith.

In GW:EN, the Great Destroyer seeks to destroy the ULTIMATE monolith chained to the lesser monoliths. If destroyed, everything will be pulled down by Tyria's powerful gravity and it will be utter chaos.

How do we /jump? Special effects and all that.

unless the world is actually part of a plain system, where everything is divided into different layers of existance and being. for example, the gods could live on the plain above the one we are in.

And gravity is a poor excuse for it being a sphere... a universal magic would work just as easily.

Seems to make sense to me, also explains why the weather never changes too, obviously there is no wind in Tryia either else projectiles etc. would stray a lot more.

The horizon line is flat too, which supports the Flat Tyria theory. =)

It's the first game...could be flat.

there are areas in the game where it is "night time"

eg, Vehtendi Valley

And it rains in Nolani. But i'm hoping for a flat world, they ownz.

This is what I found in the game:

The celestial monuments in Nahpui Quarter suggest that Canthans have, at least, considered the idea of spherical celestial bodies and orbits.

Since I could find no recognisable patterns engraved on the spheres (Tyrian continents) they might not actually represent the world of Tyria but, for example, other planets or stars. Notice that the “lights” in the mechanism (which seem to represent stars) are much smaller than the planets they orbit. If all the stars in the GW universe are gigantic balls of burning gasses it means that the Canthan idea of astrology is fundamentally flawed.

In Astralarium (btw, it's interesting that the sky above that area is black and the stars are clearly visible even though the sun is above the horizon) I found statues of a person holding what appears to be the moon. This means that the moon round (not necessarily Tyria itself).

On the pillars there are instruments that resemble the astrolabe. Astrolabes in the *ahem* real world were used for monitoring the movements of the sun, the stars and other celestial bodies. It's safe to assume, I think, that there is a night and day cycle in Tyria. The stars are either moving around Tyria or Tyria is constantly rotating.


Last but not least: there is a compass rose on the map. This indicates the existence of magnetic poles or, at least, a constant magnetic field (if Tyria is a flat disc the source of this field could be in the centre of the world).

My conclusions so far: There is a night and day cycle and there is some rotation involved in the tyrian planetary/solar/celestial system. I found hints that Tyria is round but no definite yet.

I hope it's flat, I wanna see some nice location on the rim, hanging over the cosmic void, with a huge waterfall in the background.

Very nice research, Aggravaar. The flat world idea is still possible, and in some ways I'd prefer it due to it being unique. Kind of like in that animated Sinbad movie. At the end of the world, the ocean endlessly flows off the edge like a massive waterfall (and other realms and parallel dimensions are seem floating across the gap between themselves and the Earth). The concept of realms and other worlds can still be done with a globe, but we'd have to go with magic or LOLZORZSPACETRAVL! Magic works better. In a flat world scenario, it's used to bridge gaps in space and time, which is cooler than just "TELEPRT OUTTA DIS UNIVERSE".

About it being flat due to a lack of weather/time, that is simply due to engine limitations. If Guild Wars was real, there would be a day/night cycle and wind. You cannot expect a MMORPG to double as a planet simulator.

The global appearance of Tyria for the GW2 logo is probably an effect. If you look at that image, you can see the full curves of the globe and you can't even see all of Tyria. If Tyria was a globe and followed the size rules in the GW2 logo, then Tyria takes up more than half the globe, leaving little room for Cantha, Elona, and possible other continents.

Then again, Elona could be scaled a bit, and Cantha could be on the other side of the globe. The maps in Guild Wars think 2 dimensionally, with "south south south" equalling Cantha. In real life "south south south" equals through Antarctica and then to the other face of the planet. Though if that was the case, we'd see considerable climate change, especially around the Battle Isles since it is sort of the halfway mark (with it leaning a bit closer to Cantha) between Tyria and Cantha.