What bit of "zu Heitzer" is Oriental?

As a ethnic chinese I found the names of the Luxon and Kurzick NPCs somewhat intriguing.. considering they are all natives of Cantha which seems like a imperial japan/ancient china kind of society.

Is it just me? Or does the Kurzicks seem to be of german origin? I'm pretty sure there is no family name in any asian culture that sounds remotely like "Heitzer", although I can't say the same for "Zu". Likewise the Luxons, don't they seem greek? For instance Elder Rhea (Rhea is the name of a greek goddess apparently) and more tellingly the Spear of Archimodes, if that's not some greeky name I have no idea what it is.

So what the hell are the greeks and the germans doing in Cantha?!

first of all. its Heltzer, not Heitzer

and yes they seem german themed.
i have absolutely no proof of this, but this whole faction battle looks alot like WWII, Luxon sounds spanish/italian/french while kurzick sounds german/russian, looks at the names of NPC's around the towns, not only the important ones. the merchants too

The bit where you just called it 'to heater'

They're gothic-themed as can be seen by their cathetral style buildings. The german thing... while most names seemed to be german, there seems to be a bit of russian involved. I don't speak russian, so don't quote me on that.

As for the towns, 'Brauer' is certainly a nice one, pitty the beer seems to be missing

*edit: German nobility would have been called 'Von Heltzer' not 'Zu Heltzer' Von being from and Zu being to.

House of Heltzer is Gothic themed, no doubt of it. According to the manual the House of Heltzer traces its ancestry to the great houses of Cantha and beyond. With locations like The Academy and Conservatory, it's a shame it's not the House Zu Mozart! The Kurzicks, although still human, seem close to being wood elves with their music magic and human-tree juggernauts.

It was a bit jarring to me as well, when I first noticed. That said, it's fantasy and they avoid a lot of real world issues by mixing and matching cultures for effect.

While I'd have preferred something a bit more solidly Asian, I would bet it was done in part to ensure that people coming in blind could find at least some portion that was mildly familiar to them. The covergirls don't exactly look Asian and it's possible they didn't want people to open it up and go, "WTF?" when they thought they were getting something more generic from the game.

Anyway, just food for thought.

Well, Cantha is an Asian-based environment. Meaning that (what I got from that, at least) that many of the areas are based off of Asian environments. I don't believe that Cantha is completely Asian. I certainly, as a Chinese myself, like that it is not purely Asian environments. I personally think that area names like House zu Heltzer and Archipalego are awesome, as are the Kurzicks and Luxons themselves, who certainly don't look Asian. I agree that I definately feel the Kurzicks as German/Russian-ish and the Luxons as Greek/Roman-ish, though as I have said, they are completely different from anything in the real world. IMO, nothing in these culture-based Guild Wars games can be expected to be complete counterparts to comparable real life things. That being said, I can't wait for a full fledged Greco-Roman Guild Wars game.

EDIT: Wyrmdog beat me to it. o_O

Imperialism , Otto von Bismark FTW

The Kurzicks and Luxons are vassal states of Cantha. That means there's no reason that they have to share the same culture.

Symbol's got it.

Cantha, the continent, is not Cantha, the nation. The Dragon Empire, I believe it is called, nominally controls all of the continent. It, obviously, has quite the far-eastern theme to it.

The Kurzicks and Luxons are as different from the Canthans as the Orrians and Krytans were from Ascalons.

The Kurzicks definately strike me as German between the names and structures. I'm not sure what the Luxons are. Possibly South Pacific.

The luxons seem very greek to me.

That's correct. Most of the luxon npc have pretty greek sounding names.

what's funny is that a member of my guild's alliance summed up the Kurzicks quite nicely: facist theocraticians. if you look at the game that way, i guess you could call the Luxons somewhat communist...

but more on-topic, the manual said that the Luxons and Kurzicks are vassal states of the Canthan empire, and were allowed to develop separate sub-cultures. so, they were allowed to develop the way they wanted to without Canthan intervention, i guess.

Just because Cantha has a Chinese/Japanese theme doesn't mean that the rest of Cantha is required to have a homogeneous society.

Luxons have several names/places that are or try to sound greek.
Archipelagos is a greek word, for example.

However there are some references on the Kurzick side too.

I think it's a blended culture really.

Kurzicks are german mixed with asian influences. Well mainly from final fantasy games you get the sense of "gasp".. pertrified forest. Then a lot of them really look geisha looking to me =P. Espeically Danika. Maybe dark Geisha-style with germanic architecture.

The luxons are moreso as you guys have been saying greek. But if you go to their towns, they all have oriental lanterns and stuff. Plus in Cavalon if you look at how their traders are set up, they're like little "stands." The whole idea of the nomad-life style makes them more "mongol" to me. They're moreso mongol-esk with a bit of greek influence and history.

If you watch the trailer again where both leaders fight against Shiro, you can really see that they're both very asian looking. Well the Kurzick guy seems kinda undead lol but yeah.

On a useless note, the loading sceen for the areas on the Sing Jea Island (Prelude island if I got the name wrong) is actually concept art for Ascalon;they toyed with alot of styles for Ascalon in chapter 1 before they went for a western look.

The hairstyles, makeup, and such of the Kurzicks are surprisingly Japanese in attitude, even if they don't simply copy the exact same visual look (which would be extremely lame). Even the "goth" clothing reminds me of a particular type of (Feudal) Japanese chic called "ikki".

I'm not sure why things in fantasy worlds NEED to be duplicates of real-world things that can be easily categorized. Would that really be better? I sure don't think so.

What I'd REALLY like to know, though, is why Kurzicks are "Fascist", just because they have Germanic/Russian names. There isn't a single Fascist thing about their culture, in reality. I'm actually fascinated by how hard it seems to be for people to look past the names and black clothes. It's an interesting social experiment, I think.

fas·cism
n.
1. often Fascism
1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator (Kurzicks are led by house leaders in a system far closer to Feudalism.), stringent socioeconomic controls (Kurzicks, while very religious and traditionalist, are, again, closer to a Feudal society than a Fascist one, in this regard.), suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship (Kurzicks value creativity and artistic expression, which are the exact opposite of censorship.), and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. (While they certainly tend to hate Luxons, they are honestly not the aggressors. Even with this obvious emnity, Kurzicks still hope for peace, and are interested in the ways and culture of the Luxons. The attitude is hardly racist.)

I noticed that about the Kurzicks in the FPE and wondered about it. I've since gotten over it, and just wish that it wasn't so bloody dark in there. I can never see where I'm going!

If it's Asian themed continent, it doesn't mean everything has to be ripped from Chinese/Japanese/Indian etc. lores ^_^

Theme is more like inspiration for developers.