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Originally Posted by Guild Wars Prophecies Manuscripts
It was almost three thousand years ago that a race of serpents stepped out of the Rift onto the soil of Tyria. Unlike ordinary serpents, these moved upright, used language, and adhered to an elaborate culture. They had been summoned by the old gods, brought to this world to be the custodians. Their task: shepherd the other creatures of the land through this time of transition, while the gods continued to create the world around them.
From the Tarnished Coast in the west to the Bay of Sirens (now called the Sea of Sorrows) in the south, from the far eastern reaches of the Crystal Desert to the Giant’s Basin on the northern coast of Kryta, Tyria flourished under the protection of these mystical creatures. The serpents were the protectors of the land, the keepers of knowledge, the teachers of all things, and during their time the world was in balance. |
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Originally Posted by Guild Wars Prophecies Manuscripts
In less than a century, the serpents who had protected and nurtured Tyria were no longer needed. The balance they had achieved had been undone, and there was no way to bring it back. Seeing that the world had changed, and preferring not to fight a war over control of the continent, the serpents retreated from the world of men. They left the coasts and the jungles. They abandoned their settlements in the highlands and in the mountains. Leaving the newcomers be, the serpents when to line in the only place where we humans did not – or could not: the Crystal Desert.
The serpents never returned to the world of men, and slowly, their influence faded. To humans, they were just a part of the past, spoken about only in legends and myths. Eventually their memory all but passed from human consciousness. But they were not gone, only forgotten. |
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Originally Posted by Loremaster Ermenred
Surprisingly, although surviving records and artifacts from this period prove that the serpentine Forgotten dwelt in Cantha as well, they appear not to have come into conflict with humans there. My own interpretation of the data indicates that geographic reasons are most likely: the two races did not compete for food or territory before the Forgotten departed the world en masse.
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Guardians of Tyria
According to the timeline, and The History of Tyria, Volume 1, the Forgotten came from the Rift at 1769 BE. From this, it can be deduced that the Forgotten are not native to Tyria, and that when they came from the Rift, the more than likely already had a formed civilization and culture.
Of course, the term Tyria means the world of Tyria in this case, not the continent. A common confusion when regarding where the Forgotten once lived.
When they came to Tyria, as should be well known, they were the guardians of the races. A good question would be “guardians from what?” An obvious answer would be “from each other,” but is that the only thing they were protecting the races from? They kept balance among the races, but did they ever fight to protect the races from other things? This is a question I have no answer to, but we can only surmise that, no, there were no other things to protect against… yet.
Forgo-Charr War
As mentioned in the Ecology of the Charr, the Forgotten fought with the Charr along the Blazeridge mountains. There is no mention of when the two races first started fighting, however, it does say that the Forgotten pulled back due to being “called to duty by some other power,” where it says that the humans came. This means that the Forgo-Charr War (as I dubbed it) happened between 1769 BE and 105 BE (as it took less then a century between humans’ arrival and the Forgotten leaving, and we don’t know how long before that century best guess would be 105 BE for it’s final end).
Retreat into the Crystal Sea
With the coming of the human, the coming of Chaos first showed. And this caused the not only the Forgotten to leave *most* of the world, but caused the end of the Forgo-Charr War. The impact the humans had seems to have been world-wide, as even those from Cantha, who are hardly talked about due to the lack of interaction, moved to the Crystal Sea.
Margo-Forgo War
During the time of the Exodus, as Abaddon fought against the other True Gods, the Forgotten had to fight the Margonites. The first Margonite, Jadoth, was “converted” in 1 BE. With Jadoth following Abaddon from this point, the Forgotten (who were pursuing Jadoth for some currently unknown reason) become an enemy of Abaddon – as it seems with him killing an entire armada and then the beginning of the Margo-Forgo War.
However, the reason for the full-scale war would be that, at around the time of helping Jadoth, he distributed the magic, and by doing that, shortly thereafter becomes an enemy of the True Gods, where the Forgotten and Margonites become the pawns in the war.
After Abaddon’s fall, the Margonites seemingly still fought with the Forgotten. This being implied in that, after Abaddon’s fall was the Temple to the Six Gods pulled into the Realm of Torment, there would be Margonites still around (whether as how we see them *the ones from the Exodus’ time would be those in the Domain of Anguish, the Anur* or still as humans), and more then likely, as they follow Abaddon, would be fighting the Forgotten.
The worse of the Margo-Forgo War would happen between 1 BE and 0 AE, but the war would continue for a while.
Service to Glint and Proctors of Ascension
In the Crystal Desert, the Forgotten acted as protectors of Glint and as a test of Ascension. Some argue that the Forgotten were bad because they slaughtered the Elonians and tried to prevent us from Ascending. I will prove how those thoughts are wrong. And all I need to do, is quote one singular quest: The Forgotten Ones.
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Originally Posted by Annelle Fipps
Long ago, my people came to this desert seeking Ascension. We were met by strange snake-like creatures known as the Forgotten. My people immediately waged war on these creatures thinking them mindless beasts. While out exploring one day, I came upon a lone Forgotten in Skyward Reach and was amazed to find out that I could converse with the creature. I learned that his name was Sariss Yassith and he told me many of the secrets of this place, secrets that could have helped my people, but alas I was too late. You should seek out Sariss Yassith in Skyward Reach if you would find out more about these Forgotten.
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As for why the Forgotten fight us without us provoking them, the answer would be one of two things. First, it could simply be that Glint ordered them to (try to) prevent the heroes from Ascending – unknown if she told the Forgotten they would fail if we are the ones to Ascend. Or, secondly, the Forgotten could have thought something along the lines of “these new humans are like all the others, they will try to kill us, we best deal with them first,” which would be a thought caused by the countless battles they had with humans (forced to retreat from Tyria, fighting the Margonites, fighting the Elonians, and countless others that attempt to Ascend).
Further support for Forgotten – now – disliking humans would be seen by Commander Thurnis in the following dialogue:
Either way, after Prophecies, it seems that the Forgotten are a near extinct race in Tyria.
Service in the Realm of Torment
It is well known that the Forgotten are in the Realm of Torment as prison wardens of Abaddon and his followers. What is unknown is if these Forgotten are mortals, or spirits. I believe that these forgotten are in fact spirits, following and serving the True Gods even after their death. Many of the Forgotten may even be some from the Crystal Desert that we ended up killing.
Freedom from Service…?
With Abaddon dead, the Forgotten rejoice, saying that they are free of their charges. The way they make this sound is as if they are being punished to be wardens, much like the Envoys are punished to guide spirits.
However, they are not freed from service, after Abaddon’s death, they then fight Mallyx, and after that, help Kormir with reforming the Realm of Torment as the Redeemed Realm. Along with that, they are still serving the other gods as well, but it seems that they will mainly be serving Kormir, but why they would, when they dislike humans, is beyond me.
The Forgotten’s Architecture
In the Crystal Desert, there are several different structures, so from that alone, it is hard to tell what belongs to which of the four past groups that lived there (i.e., Forgotten, Elonian, Losaru, or Margonite).
This is an apparent Forgotten dwelling. There are many of these around, with at least one near one of the two allied Forgotten in the Crystal Desert (not including those in Dragon’s Lair or guarding the portal to Crystal Overlook). All of these lead to underground, and with so many of these structures near each other, it is improbable to be an underground system, but instead would be individual underground structures. These are most likely to be Forgotten houses over anything else.
In Vulture’s Drifts, there is an area, with multiple Forgotten structures. Originally, I thought this to be a village. But through consideration and observation, I consider these to be a Forgotten Graveyard. I say this because there are numerous mounds with four entrances to each mound, leaving too little room for a house, even a single room, with improbable closeness of the entrances. But they would serve well for single, or mass, graves.
Also, above each possible entrance, there are small Giganticus Lupicus skulls, and in the middle, a larger group of Giganticus Lupicus bones. Having so many bones around is far from something that would normally be around a place where Forgotten young use to be. Because of this, I believe that the bones are markings indicating that these are graves, not homes. This was done to prevent any confusion among other Forgotten.
The resurrection shrines in the Crystal Desert are covered with hieroglyphs, meaning that they are Forgotten structures. This one in the picture is broken in both its structural shape, and its purpose – it no longer resurrects dead parties.
As can be seen in the pictures above, the structure that allows access to Ascension is Forgotten. This could mean that the original race to ascend was the Forgotten. If the Forgotten are Ascended, it would explain why they have access to the Realm of Torment (as it seems, you must be dead or Ascended to get into the Rift).
The war with the Margonites could have been caused not just by the god’s rivalry, but by the Forgotten wishing not to have the act of Ascension be “defiled” by the worshippers of a god that is no longer a part of the Pantheon.
The Forgotten’s Writing
There seems to be two writing systems for the Forgotten in the Crystal Desert. One only has five letters, or more accurately, runes. These five are shown on all of the pillars around the Crystal Desert. The other is hieroglyphs that are on nearly every Forgotten structure in the Crystal Desert. There was an attempt on GWO a while back to translate these runes and hieroglyphs, but is incomplete and seems to be discontinued.
-Image made by Eratimus
As you can see, the three bottom runes, which are seen at Augury Rock, are mirror image of three from the Forgotten Pillar. Therefore, there are technically either five or eight runes. Whether or not they count these three mirror image runes as different or the same as their counterparts is unknown.
I have noted, as is quite obvious in the picture above if you look at the symbols well enough, that there is a singular set of repeats (i.e., unlike the stacks and plinths, the hieroglyphs only show once per set). However, there are very similar markings, such as a bird-like figure next to a circle, then a bird-like figure next to a trapezoid. There seems six rows, each with approximately 6-8 symbols (hard to tell where each separate in same cases). Below is my diagram of the repeats.
Due to the blurriness of the hieroglyphs, I cannot make out many of the symbols – despite having the highest quality, they are still very much blurry. Also, I seem to be having troubles finding a reliable hieroglyph translation source.
I have noted Eratimus’s attempt at translating the hieroglyphs, and looked at the translation set he used, which is different than the most reliable one that I can find. Not to mention, that he noted different hieroglyphs as the same, a major mistake – not to mention he drew out the hieroglyphs, which is a rather big no-no – and made that drawing unusable for a reference point for attempting to translate. Not meaning to “rip” on Eratimus, but just stating bad points in his research.
Although I can see how he got those mistakes, there are three symbols within the repeating part that look the same, however there are noticeable differences.
Even though when close up the hieroglyphs are blurry, at some distance they are not. But at that distance, it is hard to make out the symbols due to size. And due to such, I am unable to translate them other then “generic bird” “generic line” which then leads to a number of possibilities from that. It is also likely that many symbols are not of Egyptian hieroglyphs as well, and therefore cannot be translated right away (as, if translatable, one would have to have to look at other hieroglyph systems of writings) even with sharp detailed hieroglyphs.
For any who wish to try to translate, here is a translation chart. Not complete, but easy enough to follow and translate and the best I was able to find.
The Forgotten’s Diet
Due to their current locations, it is hard to pick out what the Forgotten eat, if anything. But, looking at their teeth, it can be deduced that they are carnivores. Also, seeing how those in the Realm of Torment are most likely dead (therefore spirits and not needing food), it can be figured out that the Forgotten feed on the Scarabs and other random wildlife (such as the Griffons, most likely not the Losaru).
Possible Inconsistencies!
In the Ecology of the Charr, and the History of Tyria, it says that the Forgotten retreated to the Crystal Desert, while the Desert was a Sea until 1 BE – 0 AE, as supported by the Scriptures of Abaddon, where it says Jadoth searched for refuge in the “cooling mists of the Crystal Sea.” Along with that, Jadoth was the first Margonite, but the Margonites existed since 175 BE according to the Timeline.
However, according to the Scriptures of Abaddon, there were islands (number and size unknown) in the Crystal Sea; perhaps this is where the Forgotten secluded themselves? Along with that, the Forgotten had warships (which are never seen in-game, as the ships in the Crystal Desert are from the Margonite).
Also, the Timeline says that the Forgotten leave the world of men in 174 AE, however, The History of Tyria says it was less then a century after human’s influence on society that they left, which would mean no later then 105 BE. Along with that, The History of Tyria says that the gods were still around when the Forgotten left, which would rule out the argument of “the Forgotten left a century after the humans took over, not when they arrived.”
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Until proven otherwise (like a couple things in The Empire Divided - where I got the Ermenred quote), canon lore is undeniable and undesputed.