Gold Statues of the Gods

There are a number of gold statues of the gods around namely:

Lyssa - Grand Court (NF)
Balthazar - Vasburg Armoury (Factions)
Melandru - Underground city (prelude to EotN)

If we discount Kormir (because she is brand new and their aren't really statues of her anyway but the chanty (and maybe near the centaur tribes?), where are the others, are there others, and what is the significance?

I think there's a dwayna in the augury rock mission.

There are a few Dwayna statues in the Augury Rock mission, in the room where you fight the doppleganger.

I don't think there is any specific significance. I think that is just symbolizing that the god of the statue is the habitant's patron god, thats all.

don't forget dwayna
http://images.wikia.com/gw/images/b/...n_Terraces.jpg

there's a gigantic statue of Dwayna in Wehhan Terraces, can't believe you missed that 1 :P

dam..N1ghtstalker beat me to it....

Actually now that I think of it, yes, Dwayna is at Wehhan (sp?).

But that still leaves Grenth. Surely there is one around...

As for significance... The reason I ask the question has more to do with the Melandru statue. If they were placed there by creatures/people who worshipped that god primarily, who built the underground cities, and presumably the catacombes? Seems unlikely to have been the asura or dwarves.

Ancient, unknown civilizations, that simple.

Well Grenth is a somewhat new god aswell, not nearly as new as Kormir, but w/e. Grenth defeated Dhumm and for awhile I doubt that devoted Dhumm followers liked that and protested to a gold statue of Grenth since there is none of Dhumm.

As to the fact that Grenth is a newer god, with the idea that it was ancient civilizations that made the statues out of gold, makes lots of sense. And no one said there are no statues of Dhuum, maybe there were but they got removed when Dhuum fell? That would make sense to me.

So if thats the case, then the gold statues are just very very old statues. So, no gold statues of Grenth or Kormir as they are too new of gods, and no statues of Dhuum or Abaddon because they were removed. Works out well imo.

Id say the Serpents. The gods sent them, right? I could see tnem building statues.

Hmmm thats possible, as the Forgotten *which are the serpents your talking about right? not the Naga* were supposedly all over Tyria, so if they were the ones who created the gold statues, it would make sense.

Well they werent the Forgotten back then. Not until everyone forgot about them. But yeah thats who im talking about.

The "ancient forgotten race", assuming we are not refering to the Forgotten, is a line which does not satisfy me. Anet has done a fairly good job about creating a history for the world of Tyria that explaining things away in such a manner is a waving hands explaination.

What we know is that there was the Forgotten, and then there was the humans, and that the gods walked among them until the breaking of the "bloodstone". There were the margonites as well but that's a different kettle of fish.

The two races that seem not to fit the lore that Anet has created are the Dwarves, who seem to have their own, completely different lore, and the Asura. The Asura may or may not share lore with the Dwarves, but that is getting OT a little.

The thought that there might not be one of Grenth because he is a "new" god is an intriguing thought. The serpents on the columns in the underground hall seem perhaps to support the idea that the Forgotten built the city. The Forgotten, as I understand it, were the "true" servants of the gods and therefore such devotion (in the building of the stantues) would make sense. What does NOT make sense is the winged men busts that are seen above the door way going into the chamber with the first cutscene. I call them the "Hermes" statues because that is what it reminds me of - also the skill "Divine Spirit" have a picture that reminds me of these statues.

I cannot clearly recall at this point in time as to whether or not there are statues of this kind in Norn areas, but I believe there are statues of this kind in Slavers' Exile. Clearly the Norn may not have built the dungeon area but it still begs the question of who did.

I'm going to take a jump here and say, are the Forgotten merely a relic of a race that had a different appearance, half-man, half-serpent? Yeah this is a stretch I know, but everytime I head to Slavers' and through the EoTN quest I can't help but wonder - here is a beautiful, ancient hall, who built it and why are they gone? And is the key to the mystery in the golden statue?

First, your wording nearly fried my brain Lady Lozza, no offense intended.

The Margonites were once humans, that were influenced by Abaddon's power. The Asura, who believe in the Eternal Alchemy *Atheist in a way*, don't share the same lore as the Dwarves, and technically, the Dwarves share the same lore as humans, but with a twist. They believe in an addition deity called the Great Dwarf, who is their patron god.

Serpents on the columns? I don't recall such a thing, Screen Shot please?

The "winged men" are also in the Kurzick area, they, to me, resemble demons, with horns and "bat-like wings." However, to me it slightly does make sense, as three gods have a depiction of them with wings, that being Dwayna, Melandru, and Grenth. I do recall the same, or similar, architecture in ALL dungeons in EN. And If I recall, ANet stated that the dungeons in EN will have architecture that resembles both the Catacombs in Pre and the buildings in the Kurzick Area.

In a way, the Forgotten are half-man, half-serpant, the upright part would be "humanoid," which makes them half/half.

What I would like to know, is about the most mysterious race in GW. The Seer. All we know, is that they are old, they are nearly extinct, and they fought the Mursaat for years. Whenever I look at them, they look more of underground dwellers, at least to me, so it is possible they are these ancient race. Which also makes sense for the winged men part, as it kind of looks like the Seers have wings, of a sort.

I'm not sure how you can miss them. There on pretty much every column in the depths and in Sorrows Furnace. Spiraling serpents around the column.

And its very possible they were put there by humans hundreds of years in the past.

The overturned temples and the mysterious statue of the man with the helmet and sword are proof of some civilization. Since there is no record of a god that looks like the man the statues depict you could assume it is a statue of a leader like the statue in Kamadan has a past sunspear leader. If it is a monument to a leader then the people he led/who built the monument were obviously humans (since the forgotton on tyria are not exactly on friendly terms with the humans)

Also are we sure there is no golden statue of Grenth? i'm sure i've seen one somewere and wiki appears to have images of 5 golden statues suggesting that there is indeed one.

Isn't it the one in Lornar's Pass?

There are definately plenty of grenth statues, they are just always in the darkest coldest parts of the region. There is one identical to the LA UW access one, that actually grants access to UW as well (when we have the favor of the gods of course) it is hidden way up in the Shiver peak mountains, deep down a side trail that leads to a frozen palace just like the one in the UW at the end of the smite run at the top of the hill.

You need go no further than Lornar's Pass if u seek the god of icy doom

sry i didn't say anything about a god statue...just noticed that was the topic O.o

I misunderstood. I took as a statue of a forgotten-like figure on the top of a column, like the Stone Guardians in the Enchloved Forest.

First, your thoughts on the human statue could be correct. Usually statues like that are made depicting leaders or heroes, but, if I recall, I saw that statue in Nightfall somewhere, so it could have been ANet being lazy and re-using skins *again* for EN.

Also, I believe I read something that the forgotten were on friendly terms with the humans, but are not anymore due to humans "taking over." Lastly, there may be a gold Grenth statue, but I defiantly do not recall.

Both of you are speaking of the one in Grenth's Temple*not a "palace"*. It is in Lornar's Pass, but it is not gold, which is the topic.

The statue i mention is nowere in Nightfall. Its pretty much exclusive to the Depths of Tyria, fueling its mystery even more. However when its brought it up people tend to instantly shout "Menzies" at it like they did with the Great Destroyer.

The statue in Kamadan that is recurring through Istan DOES share its shape a little but the statue in the depths is different.

The Forgotton were drove away by the humans. Its not that they hated the sight of them its just humans dont seem to get along with anything other than themselves in Tyria. However heres a thought - the mysterious temples and tunnels could of been made by the forgotton originally however when the humans came they quickly went to the Crystal Desert leaving the tunnels to be used by humans.

Oddly enough I did the "journey to the north" quest just the other day, I know I have a picture of the columns with the spiralling serpents, I'll try to remember to post a screenie when I get home from work.

The "winged men" I refer to aren't so much "winged" as "wearing winged helms", and even when I looked at them last night I wondered if they were more horns or branches. I'll see if I can't take a wander to Slavers' to get a screenie of that one as well.

The Dwarves seem to follow a lore of their own. They seem to worship the Great Dwarf almost exclusively. I can't recall the dwarves ever refering to the other gods. I could be wrong, like I said I simply can't recall this ever happening.

The Asura know about the Destoryers - for all that they are basically and atheist race. I have wondered whether perhaps the Destroyers are a new thing for them or not, and whether their alliance with the Dwarves is new or not. However this is OT. I think it is crystal clear the Asura did NOT build the underground cities. I think it is also clear the Dwarves did not build them.

The Forgotten are more serpents than men. I hope if I can grab a picture of the statues I refer to my odd thought from my previous post might be more clear.

The margonites are a different kettle of fish because they took on the apperance of their god, rather than being created this way - this is what I meant earlier.

Of course the other question to keep in mind is, were the creators of the underground cities responsible for the HoM as well?

Lozza, King Jalishammer refers to grenth in ThunderHead Keep, he says "The left hand of Grenth comes for us." during the 3rd wave. They do believe in the same belief system as the humans, they just worship the Great Dwarf as their Patron God *and another god to the original 5/6*. Even Vizier Khilbron mentions that the Great Forge *the dwarves' afterlife* is real and in the Rift.

As for the serpent thing, it was a misunderstanding and I know what you were talking about. I don't get where you were going with the Destroyers though, the Destroyers are their enemies, so yes they know about them, but they aren't deities *except to the crazy Charr Shamans*. There was at least a peace between the Asura and Dwarves, I believe I read somewhere that after the fall of Sorrow's Furnace, the Deldrimor Dwarves went back to mining and, between the time of Prophecies and Eye of the North, met some asuras.

As for your Tunnels and HoM creator question, I think they are different because the Eye of the North *and HoM* has a different architecture look to it then the underground areas.

Azazel, I am inclined to believe you about the tunnels and HoM, the architecture does look very different, my question stands though, both would have taken an ancient, and powerful race to build them. Is it possible, despite the difference in style, that the same society created them? Remember Europe went through several architectural styles in the matter of a few hundred years. How many powerful and ancient races could there be?

My point about the Dwarves and the Asura is this:
Were the Asura aware of the destroyers BEFORE meeting the Dwarves? Lore is not just religion, it isn't just myth, it's real history too. The Dwarves had their legends and prophecies about the Destroyers, do the Asura have a history with them too?

In the HoH (at least the TopK map) there are gold statues of Lyssa and Melendru after you cross the bridge in the first area.

Lozza, personally, I think that it was the Seer's race that created the Eye of the North, its completely impossible to know who did though, same with the tunnels. I think the most logical idea would be that it was the Seers that made the Eye of the North, and the tunnels were created by races that live near the area, just a very long time ago, but its still up to guesses.

The Dwarves didn't know about the Destroyers, per se, they knew about the Great Destroyer, a rival to the Great Dwarf, but never knew of an army, at least as far as we know. I think the Asura only knew about the Destroyers from when they awoke, as they have been in the room where the Great Destroyer woke up in for a very long time to power the gate system.