Cultures in Guild Wars

I’ve been noticing that certain cultures in GW mirror cultures that really existed on earth at one time or another so far this is what I’ve figured out.

1. Asura = Mesoamerican. The pyramids are Meso all the way as well as the art.

2. Norn = Scandinavian. The builds are Viking longhouses and the art is Scandinavian for sure

3. Kryta = Greek. Lions Arch is totally Greek

4. Istan = Egyptian. has anyone noticed the Pyramids of Giza in the background during load, Nevermind the big Nefteti looking head.

5. Vabbi = Babylonian. All the gardens and river ways is purly anincent Babylonian.

6. Cantha = japanese. The art in and buildings in Cantha are pretty much based on Shinto temples.

7. Luxon = Caribbean. The buildings, art and clothes are totally what you would find on the islands.

The Luxon always seemed more Scottish to me. The Kurzicks, German.

Good God......so now we are mixing the real world and one of the many fakes together? 0.o

I was thought Kurz was more English Gothic.

This should probably be in the Lore forum.

As a rule, the Guild Wars cultures tend to take bits and pieces from a variety of cultures rather than entirely being based on a single one. Here are some of the observations I've made, in rough order of appearance in game:

Ascalon: Generic medieval European. Names that I recognise come from Slavic, Celtic, and Greek roots. The name itself is the Latinisation of the city of Ashkelon in modern Israel.
Kryta: Greek in architecture, but I'm not sure about the character names.
Cantha: I'd actually be inclined to think China rather than Japan, although it wouldn't surprise me if there are some Japanese influences in there as well.
Kurzick: Germanic in names and architecture. Other aspects of their culture I'm not sure about.
Luxon: While I can see the Carribean connection, Luxon names appear to be mostly Greek or Greek-inspired.
Istan: Egyptian.
Kourna: My understanding is that Kourna is loosely based on Ethiopia before Europeans arrived, but I don't know enough about that culture to make the connection.
Vabbi: Arabic
Norn: Strong Scandinavian influences, but totemic animal worship indicates an animist religion as opposed to Norse polytheism.
Asura: While architecture of Asura settlements is reminiscent of the Mesoamerican, it is unclear how much of this was actually constructed by the Asura (especially given the common eagle motifs, which seems an unlikely choice for the subterranean Asura). Plus, the Asura belief in the Eternal Alchemy does not match what I know of Mesoamerican religions.

I always thought of the Luxons as Greek. Many Luxon NPCs have Greek names. Elder Rhea, Argo, even Archemorus is Greek.

Whats strange is that to me, the Krytan civilians look like Native North Americans.

Norn: Scandinavian, yet mixed with Celtic. (strong bonds to nature, and just look at the tattoo's)
Charr: Definately Orc

Yes, the Luxon are definitely more Greek. And the Kurzick are very Germanic in just about every aspect...

Asura - Hindu god.

I think this kind of thing is great, to be honest. Would love to see more about the different races, the story of how and why they are there.It shows how creative the community is.bring it on

Look, nothing in GW is only derived from one source. Every single culture is a mix of concepts from several historic ones, with a good bit of original thinking added to make it unique.

They are there because Daniel Dociu is a genius in creating/designing "gamescape" interesting read here, tells you what inspire the style of buildings in GW

Well, considering the fact that all of the cultures in GW are very clearly based on ones from the real world...

Kurzicks also have samurai influences in armor looks, in my opinion at least. Ever seen a Kurzick Warrior concept art? Looks almost exactly like a Samurai to me.

Luxons also have Cthulhu Mythos influences.

For some reason, the Charr remind me a bit of Russians - specifically the Soviet Union era. The Red vs White coat rebellion. The Atheism bit.

Orrian, by the undead names, have Arabic influences.

Desolation has more Egyptian influences than Istani.

Istani seems to be to be more Madagascar like.

Vabbi has Indian influences. And Kourna seems to have influences of some middle-African area tribes.

Elonians Centaurs have tribal African influences.

Asurans are hard to tell aside from the race's name's origin - Hinduism. As the buildings were leftover designs from Utopia, can't tell if the buildings will change in GW2. We only have their language and names to go off of.

Luxons always seemed like they where based on the Spartans, with their whole "might is right" philosophy and the Greek names and all. Kurzicks as best I can tell are just all around "Gothic", not the tribe that sacked Rome, like the sad mascara wearing clowns you see hanging around the trendy clubs with the black lights. Their architecture is very clearly influenced by the European Gothic style. Both races though have the underlying "Oriental" theme that runs through Cantha as a whole.

Kryta's the only place I'm really not too clear on. Seems like a mish-mash of different influences.

Cantha is China which is why chinese new year and canthan new year are at same time, though oni are japanese.
Luxon is based on the pacific islanders
Asura are Hindu.
Vabbi is arabic.
Others are mostly correct.

Thread rebirth!

Looks like most people have caught the general references, but I'll add my observations:

Cantha is a blend of the Western idea of "Asia" - Japan + China, pick what pieces you like. A few names seem to be derived from Korean or, rarely, Vietnamese, but I haven't seen much else in that respect.

The Tarnished Coast is clearly based on Mesoamerica, as seen in Utopia concepts, and Asura have some distinct Incan and Mayan influences (step pyramids, mysteriously constructed architecture, relatively extensive knowledge of mathematics). However, as has been pointed out, the term comes from Hindu mythology and one could probably find a few Indian themes if one looked hard enough.

Istan is basically Nile Africa, from what I can tell - as has been said, strongly Egyptian, but with hints of Nubia, etc. Might have some Niger River culture as well, but I'm not familiar with that.

Vabbi is a blend of Mesopotamia (Hanging Gardens, anyone?) and medieval Middle Eastern culture, namely the Ottoman Empire, I would say, though I'm not too sure. Also reminiscent of Moghul India.

I'm surprised that we've only pointed out the Germanic elements of the Kurzicks. Clothing is, despite dark colors, very Renaissance (so yes, okay, German as well, but not the same time period). Don't ignore the faces, though; makeup is probably Kabuki.

I don't know enough about the Caribbean to assign that to the Luxons, but the names/seafaring ways are clearly Mediterranean, especially Greek but possibly referencing the Sea People (who were descended from, IIRC, the Mycenaeans). Also, there's the Halcyon and a few other things, clearly drawn from Joss Whedon's Firefly series, which features a blend of Western and Chinese culture.