Friday, November 6, 2015

Lost In Translation : GW2

There's an interesting thread on the GW2 official forums, in which "a high school Spanish teacher and a frequent visitor of Mayan ruins in the Yucatan Peninsula" observes that "there are several Mayan symbols used in the HoT mastery lines".

The OP goes on to say that he (or she) has "spent a few hours doing some research and I have compiled a few translations". Sadly the results of this research remain a mystery and the "thread" has so far failed to garner even a single reply.

This is a shame but sadly such lack of interest in the detail of the rich language lore used in GW2 seems to be par for the course these days. Back when The Consortium made their first appearance in Lion's Arch prior to their ill-fated and irresponsible junket to Southsun Cove there was a positive frenzy of interest in the writings on their walls.


Their posters and fliers were translated and pored over in the hope of discovering something about the upcoming major event. Then the Karka came and no-one seemed to care much after that.

When New Lion's Arch appeared to lift the veil on at least a few of the secrets The Consortium a Reddit poster did translate the various banners and post-it notes around the office from what is apparently New Krytan. Unfortunately it turned out to be no more than some Scott Adamsesque "humor".

 There's a lot of text in imaginary foreign languages scattered through GW2. I have difficulty even working out which are in the same script let alone deciphering even the dimmest glimmer of meaning. But I'd love to know what it all means.


Asuran architects seem to be extremely fond of incising hundreds of lines of verbiage into every flat surface. Every time I wait for the Fire Elemental to appear in the ruins of the Thaumonova Reactor I idly ponder the meaning of the words beneath by feet.

A few days ago my necromancer found herself in an ancient, secret Rata Novan laboratory, surrounded by mysterious consoles, still active after decades, perhaps centuries of neglect. The screens said something. Perhaps if she could have read them she'd have known what to buttons to press to make something happen.


You might think an Asuran, a Snaff Prize Winner no less, a certified genius that's to say, might be able to pick her way through her own language, ancient or otherwise, but no. As for the reams of writing apparently burned onto rough wood panels in the Maguuma Jungle with a magnifying glass, it would be something just to know what language it is that we're looking at.

If there's anyone still out there translating this stuff I'd love to hear about it. I could be missing out on vital information here. Then again it's probably just some more bad jokes. Maybe it's better not to know.






3 comments:

  1. The wooden boards are some kind of epitaph lists of Pact people who have died in the jungle. I got as far as translating the big bolded letters as Order of Whispers, and then my eyesight gave up, but there was a post somewhere on Reddit that translated the rest. Can't for the life of me find it again, it's been buried under tons of other threads.

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  2. Hurray for Google-fu.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3qos5v/spoilers_fallen_pact_people/

    Lots of death by falling, and bees. Also, charr win at no deaths in Verdant Brink.

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    Replies
    1. Ah thanks for that! Very interesting and yet not very interesting if you see what I mean.

      I did some googling of my own and found this useful little widget: New Krytan Translator

      Haven't tried it out yet.

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