First, allow me to introduce myself. My
name is Matthew Medina, and I’m one of the content designers at
ArenaNet – which is just a fancy way of saying that I’m one of the
people that create “cool stuff for players to do.” I’d like to take this
opportunity to let players in on one of the things that I, and a number
of our other team members, have been working on in order to give
players the aforementioned cool stuff.
“You may
even be the first to discover an ancient language that until now had
been lost to history – will you be the one to translate it?”Hopefully by now everyone has noticed that ArenaNet
has been very, very busy crafting an incredible game in
Guild Wars 2,
and hopefully everyone has also noticed the more recent trend of team
members communicating directly with our fans about the game’s
development right here on this very blog. As a part of our ongoing
effort to lift the veil on some of the aspects of the development of
Guild
Wars 2, I wanted to give everyone some details on one of the ways
that we’ll be injecting a subtle, but hopefully rewarding element of
lore into the game. Specifically, I wanted to talk more about the
written languages of Tyria and how they will be used in
Guild Wars 2.
Sure, it may not be as dramatic as our dynamic event system, or as
sexy as the customizable personal storylines, but as a deep admirer of
lore and storytelling in games (and since I’m a huge nerd and proud of
it), it’s a subject that is near and dear to my heart.
The writing systems in
Guild Wars 2 have deep roots in the
original
Guild Wars and its subsequent campaigns. I have a
passion for creating languages and symbols, so as a member of the art
team for the original
Guild Wars: Prophecies, I took the
initiative and crafted a simple runic cipher script for a map that I
created for post-searing Ascalon. I didn’t really expect anything to
come out of it, but to my surprise, some dedicated players found the
map, and working together, they translated the runes and “discovered”
the alphabet I had used (a twist on ancient Phoenician). I was
incredibly flattered that a number of players had taken such an interest
in something that I was also passionate about. Inspired by this, I
created other alphabets and writing systems for subsequent campaigns.
Sure enough, groups of eager individuals fervently turned their
attention to deciphering the new written languages.
When we started development on
Guild Wars 2 (thanks in part
to the incredible enthusiasm of our lore aficionados) I knew from the
beginning that I wanted to have a fully integrated set of writing
systems that would include all the written languages we already have,
plus a couple of new ones. After speaking with our writers and
designers, who were really excited by the prospects of this level of
immersion, I set to work collecting our existing alphabets, crafting new
ones, and setting guidelines for the written languages that players
will discover in
Guild Wars 2.
A recent batch of screenshots gave people their first glimpse of
these efforts, by featuring examples of writing on a sandwich board and a
carnival sign. However, what we’ve revealed in those screenshots is
just the tip of the iceberg. Translatable writing systems, both old and
new, will be prevalent throughout Tyria!
When you browse through the market stalls in Divinity’s Reach, all
manner of signs and posters will be calling for your attention, and
vendors such as the cloud candy stand and the potion maker will
advertise their specials. As you delve deep into the ruins of Old
Ascalon, you may find distressed runes that tell of heroic exploits of
ages long past. In a grand laboratory within Rata Sum, you could come
across notes about fiendishly difficult mathemagical formulae written by
a crazed asura elementalist. You may even be the first to discover an
ancient language that until now had been lost to history – will you be
the one to translate it?
In addition to the Ascalonian runes from
Guild Wars: Prophecies,
select Canthan logograms from
Guild Wars: Factions, and asuran
script from
Guild Wars: Eye of the North, players will have
the opportunity to read and translate examples of two new writing
systems in
Guild Wars 2. New Krytan is the alphabet most
prevalent in the time of
Guild Wars 2; it’s the alphabet we
used to create the signs seen in recent screenshots (see below for the
history of this new alphabet). The other language will remain our secret
for now, but rest assured that if you see writing in
Guild Wars 2,
you’ll almost certainly be capable of reading it.
This brings me to an important point you need to know about the
various writing systems that will be featured in
Guild Wars 2:
Deciphering these alphabets will be 100%, completely optional. That’s
right: optional.
We fully understand that there will likely only be a small minority
of players who will actively participate in a feature like this, but we
trust that all players will appreciate the feeling of authenticity that
such details lend the world, and hopefully recognize the passion that we
have in creating a rich fantasy world, complete with ancient scripts
and mysterious languages. We have established reasonable guidelines for
using these writing systems so that players who enjoy immersing
themselves in this kind of fantasy element can do so, without creating
an unnecessary burden on players who don’t enjoy that level of detail.
That’s all that I have to say about the written languages of
Guild
Wars 2 at this time, but I would like to leave you with a brief
history of the New Krytan alphabet – something to hopefully tide you
over until the next update. Feel free to send follow-up questions to our
great community team.
From 1070 AE, when the charr first invaded the land of
Ascalon, to 1075 AE, when Kormir ascended to godhood, writing systems
were not widespread throughout the world of Tyria. Among the human
kingdoms there was no concerted effort to pass on such specialized
knowledge, and without technology such as the printing press to
encourage every person to learn to read and write, literacy was only
relevant to a handful of scholars from each race. Consequently, most
Ascalonians and Krytans were not literate in their own writing systems,
though they still held to them as a part of their history and culture.
When the Ascalonians arrived in Kryta as refugees, they naturally
brought their culture with them. Although citizens of both nations could
communicate verbally by speaking the “common” tongue, attempts to
communicate through the written word were challenging to say the least.
Old Krytan uses a series of symbols, typically arranged in a vertical
format, and is more akin to a primitive syllabary than an alphabet. But
even those symbols were falling out of favor with modern Krytan
citizens because of their heavy use of contextualization, which was
confusing to all but the most learned scholars. They still show up on
some druid stones, ruins, and a few other places, but for the most part
Old Krytan is something of a relic, unused by the majority of the
general population.
Old Ascalonian uses a simpler runic alphabet, so it was very
versatile for writing and being clearly translated. And although many
Ascalonians could not read or write their own historical language, they
recognized it and saw examples of it all around them, both on
contemporary structures and ancient artifacts, as well as other sources.
The extended occupation of Ascalon by the charr obviously forced the
Ascalonians to adapt and change to better meld into their new
surroundings. The arrival and subsequent influence of the asura and the
norn in 1078 AE, who had their own cultures and languages, complicated
things even further. As these cultures learned to work and live
together, one of the areas they were forced to agree upon was the
creation of a common alphabet to facilitate treaties and agreements
between the varying factions of humans, asura, and norn.
The organization of the Durmand Priory became a primary catalyst for
deciding to move forward with a single writing system, which allowed
their scholars to compile and catalogue their vast storehouse of
knowledge without requiring them all to be fluent in multiple alphabets
(although many of their most senior members are multi-lingual in order
to read ancient manuscripts, ruins, and other examples of text from the
past). Through the Priory’s efforts, and with the skilled negotiations
of representatives from all the friendly cultures and races of Tyria, it
was decided that a compromise between the various languages would be
the best solution. In a landmark decision, with the asura casting the
sole dissenting vote, the symbols of Old Krytan were combined with the
ease of use of Old Ascalonian, and the New Krytan alphabet was born. The
year was 1105 AE.
Over the past 220 years, New Krytan has become the standard writing
system in Tyria and is used widely throughout the human kingdom, the
asura colleges, and by the norn. The Durmand Priory set out to promote
literacy and make the use of the new alphabet commonplace, so that all
intelligent beings could read and understand the words that were
appearing all around them.
Today, every citizen of Tyria, regardless of their origins, is given
the opportunity and the education to read and understand the alphabet of
New Krytan. Even old enemies such as the charr and new friends like the
sylvari have adopted this system of communication so that all can be
understood and make plans to combat the common threat they now face. In
particular, an unexpected boon for the New Krytan alphabet came from the
charr’s industrial technology in the form of the first printing press,
which has changed the written word in Tyria forever. Now books, signs,
and periodicals are found in every corner of the world, and more
applications of the written word appear every day.
If one looks around, you can still see examples of Ascalonian runes,
Old Krytan symbols, and asuran script throughout Tyria, but they are a
legacy of the past. The future, or at least the foreseeable future, will
be written in one alphabet, perhaps symbolizing the unity of differing
races coming together as one people—one people that struggles to survive
and carry a new legacy forward.
- excerpt from
“Cultural Diffusion in Contemporary Kryta”
written by Durmand Priory researcher Villem Caraga