Is the world of Tyria flat or spherical?

Have you seen those "edge of the world" bugs?

Like the one in Talus Chute or that Ascalon mission.

I've seen a few while exploring.

Yeah. In Talus Chute you can uncover a bit for the exploration title by going up some steep hills and to the edge.

Here's a first person view of me looking out from Talus Chute and into...The Twilight Zone.



I'm sorry, does this remind anyone else of The Twilight Zone? It really seems like it to me. Or at least, the border between The Twilight Zone and our world (as described in the opening sequence) seems like it'd be like this.

You're all partially wrong, but partially right.

The world of Tyria is indeed flat. It is suspended in space on the backs of 4 unimaginably large elephants, who are in turn standing on the back of an even unimaginably larger turtle. The turtle swims through the void of space for unkown reasons, but most theroists believe that he is heading towards a mating frenzy.

And if no one on this forum gets this reference, then I have lost all faith in mankind.

Erm, it might be nothing, but....

from one of the tablets of Janthir, seeming claiming the world to have an edge, so possibly flat.

I've never read Discworld but I get the reference Operative14. Crisis averted.

Each continent floats on a different plane of existence, with each plane above the other.

Those ships, ever wonder why they transport you instantly? They're not real ships, they're interdimensional portals that take you to a plane above or below.

On the other hand, notice the journal spoke about what the man "believed" to be the edge of the world, and how "the thought" of what lay beyond scared him.

So he didn't actually see any galactic vortex beyond, he just thought of what could be there.

-Speaking of World's End... Sol thought it was pretty awesome.

sphere...

anyone who has had highschool physics should know enough about gravity to know that the gravitational force surrounds one focal point (just like earths core). Now, it is possible for the world to be semi flat right now, but I would imagine that erosion over time has made the land of tyria into a spherical shape.

In terms of climates/weather/night/day, GW is a video game...seriously programing in actual days and climate changes and crap like that would make the programmers go crazy! its just alot of work.

If we assume that Tyria, Cantha and Elona are on a planet, it must be spherical, as a requirement to a planet is that the gravity is so strong it has formed the planet spherical.

Science has no place in this thread! Tyria is a land steeped in magic, so you cannot assume that the normal laws of physics will apply in the same way.

In other words - have some fun with it. Use your imagination. :P

Microsoft did night and day in Fable, though no calendar to speak of. As for climate changes, you can go from winter (Shiverpeaks) to tropical weather (kryta) to Desert (Elona) for zones... ANd if GW2 is thinking about making instances an optional thing, it could be implemented....

Tyria's Octagonal! problem solved

This thread should be closed already as the arguments Agravaar gave were incredibly good and at least he did some research. A flat world would make no sense if the canthans already knew about spherical forms.

Thank you Mournblade

Now, back on topic-

I would say spherical just simply becuase that's how planets are, and there's no reason to assume the Devs would think differently.

Also, the guildwars world could be flat and move upwards causing everyone and everything to be experiencing roughly 1g of gravitational pull to the ground. Okay so it's not exactly the same thing as gravity but there's lots of physics that don't work because it's a game set in a fantasy world after all.

Although the sky and the stars would also have to move up along with the world so it doesn't look completely freaky.

My guess would be spherical because elona is more southwards (and assuming tyria is sort of based on a european medieval world) it would be on the upper hemisphere, so elona is closer to the equator. Sure there are some inconsistencies such as pre-searing ascalon being rather warm yet somewhere up north, but as a general rule of thumb the more south you go (or the further away from the north), the warmer it seems to get (also looking at clothes people wear in elona as opposed to tyria). This seems to be consistent with a world that follows the same basic physical rules as ours.

anyone seen the guild wars 2 logo umm i see a planet.

problem solvedme thinks

Tyria is flat. I'm certain of it now, there can be no other possibility.

Canthans are wrong. Anyway they're either huggin trees, cleaning turtle poo or fighting in gang wars, what do they know?

Here is the decisive and ultimate proof, so trivial and simple, yet so beautiful and profound:

The Map.

Yes, the map.

Why? Take the Prophecies map for example. It doesn't really look like a map at all, it's not hand-drawn and you can see the clouds moving. It's more like some sort of satellite view (with a huge compass rose stuck to it) than a map. Now if it's not a map you should be able to spot the curvature of the planet.

If it IS a map the curvature should be expressed in a different map-like way: if you were to place two points on some latitude the distance would present the same distance ingame as the distance between two points graphically placed on any other latitude. Well, if it's a real map, they shouldn't. But they do. Some maps work differently but,. In order to be 100% faithful to reality the curvature should be take into consideration in some way.

Such a map (or some magical satelite-ish picture) can only make sense if the mapped object is flat. Thus and therefore Tyria is as flat as an (enormous) pancake.

How is gravity achieved? I don't know, there might be some ultra-dense material underneath that generates a stable field or some cosmic anomaly. Tyria might as well be a disc resting on the backs of four gigantic pygmy hippos which, in turn, stand on the shell of the cosmic space crab (Callinectes Galactica) Rodney for all I care. Anyway it's all probably done by magic.

The logo lies. BTW, Eldin did point out that you can only see the Tyrian continent on the so-called globe. That and the logo looks a bit like a let's-make-some-quick-logo-for-PCGamer type of logo.

I just tried looking out from Lion's Arch to the Shiverpeak mountains, the mountains are pretty big and the weather is clear, no fog or anything.
If Tyria is really flat then you should see something right? nope, only ocean, the curvature of the land is hiding the mountains.

you are not seeing a planet... if you would make a spherical map of all three continents you would have something the size of Pluto or smaller... GW:EN will add, i think, quite a bit to the shiverpeaks...

since we are talking about a game and i bet not even the developers thought that this issue would come up, i think its spherical simply because human intelligence can't create good enough arguments to say a planet is flat...

since its a magical world.... why do people still rely on crippling, on using swords, on using BOWS? the Australarium and it seems cantha has also, have the capacity to uncover what we understood a long while back...

besides... time would work the same way for a flat world as for a round world... at least the COMPREHENSION of time... sun would rise and drop and the moon would rise and drop making this what we have today called as days... since they DO HAVE a callendar with seasons... they HAVE to have a notion of time so sun rises and drops... so... i can't even remember why would someone doubt about this issue...


the world of GW is the same as the world of Lord of the Rings... we simply haven't any knowledge of what lays beyong the horizon... Arenanet will probably create another continents with GW2 to prove we are playing on a planet world and not a flat world...

P.S.:in comparison to another game... Final Fantasy 12 mentions several natural philosophers, i can't remember accuratly if i read something like that on GW, but these philosophers were in Ancient Greece what we nowadays call Physics Researchers... if FINAL FANTASY has this kind of notes... why can't GW?

Yet, 2500+ years ago people knew our Earth was flat. Who says the Canthans are right?