"Some say that the stones themselves will rise up one day and rebuild the temple, and on that day, the gods will once again turn their gaze upon Kryta." - In game description
The Temple of the Ages has always been a popular place in Guild Wars. It was a place to meet up with friends or create a new party to visit the realm of the gods. While they were actually explorable areas, everyone treated them more like dungeons. This was because of the difficulty. You didn't have resurrection shrines and if certain NPCs important to the story of the area died, you'd be teleported out of the area. It wasn't free to get into them, either. A fee must be paid to the appropriate guardian of that god to enter his realm.
The temple itself was filled with statues of the all of the gods from that time period. That is to say, Kormir hadn't become a god yet in the in game time of the Prophecies maps. There is no statue of her in the first game's temple. It's not a temple in the sense that it's a building either, rather it's open air on top of a hill.
This makes its Guild Wars 2 location very strange. Despite being on a hill in the first game, the second game has it in a pit underwater. The Black Curtain's swamp has now flooded the temple and all of its statues aside from Melandru's. The land around it is also vastly different. More importantly, though, is that the statues are not really in their original places anymore. Grenth now sits between Melandru and Dwayna instead of Melandru and Balthazar. Balthazar's statue is now missing along with Lyssa's. Where did they disappear to? Now we can see Kormir's statue is in the line-up despite the missing gods. They may have moved the statues around to make room for hers, but then where did the other statues go?
Probably the strangest thing to me, however, is that Dwayna's statue has energy running through it. As a bit of background, when the world had the favor of the gods, the statues would 'come to life'. Balthazar's statue would light up in flames, Grenth's would freeze, Lyssa's would become golden, Dwayna's would be held upright in a pillar of light, and Melandru's would bloom and circulate water. When the world did not have the favor of the gods, though, Balthazar's and Grenth's statues would just appear to be stone, thorny vines would now cover the darkened Lyssa statue, Melandru's appeared to be just wood, and Dwayna's would no longer hold itself up in the light and would fall in pieces to the ground.
We know that the gods no longer have a presence on Tyria as they had before. Judging by the god statues in the rest of Tyria, the world no longer has the favor of the gods. Dwayna's statues, however, remain standing. In the Ruins of Demetra in the Harathi Hinterlands the Dwayna statue still has a pillar of light running through it. The unfinished statues in Malchor's Anguish are all standing as well but lack the pillar of light that is usually required for them to do so (perhaps because they are unfinished).
So if you're looking to find one of the only statues in Tyria that possibly denotes the presence of a god, the Temple of the Ages is a good place to look in the second game since it's easy to find and get to.
With all of this being said, Most of the pictures I have to compare are of the statues because of their new locations but there are also some that show the progression of the land around them as well.
The temple itself was filled with statues of the all of the gods from that time period. That is to say, Kormir hadn't become a god yet in the in game time of the Prophecies maps. There is no statue of her in the first game's temple. It's not a temple in the sense that it's a building either, rather it's open air on top of a hill.
This makes its Guild Wars 2 location very strange. Despite being on a hill in the first game, the second game has it in a pit underwater. The Black Curtain's swamp has now flooded the temple and all of its statues aside from Melandru's. The land around it is also vastly different. More importantly, though, is that the statues are not really in their original places anymore. Grenth now sits between Melandru and Dwayna instead of Melandru and Balthazar. Balthazar's statue is now missing along with Lyssa's. Where did they disappear to? Now we can see Kormir's statue is in the line-up despite the missing gods. They may have moved the statues around to make room for hers, but then where did the other statues go?
Probably the strangest thing to me, however, is that Dwayna's statue has energy running through it. As a bit of background, when the world had the favor of the gods, the statues would 'come to life'. Balthazar's statue would light up in flames, Grenth's would freeze, Lyssa's would become golden, Dwayna's would be held upright in a pillar of light, and Melandru's would bloom and circulate water. When the world did not have the favor of the gods, though, Balthazar's and Grenth's statues would just appear to be stone, thorny vines would now cover the darkened Lyssa statue, Melandru's appeared to be just wood, and Dwayna's would no longer hold itself up in the light and would fall in pieces to the ground.
We know that the gods no longer have a presence on Tyria as they had before. Judging by the god statues in the rest of Tyria, the world no longer has the favor of the gods. Dwayna's statues, however, remain standing. In the Ruins of Demetra in the Harathi Hinterlands the Dwayna statue still has a pillar of light running through it. The unfinished statues in Malchor's Anguish are all standing as well but lack the pillar of light that is usually required for them to do so (perhaps because they are unfinished).
So if you're looking to find one of the only statues in Tyria that possibly denotes the presence of a god, the Temple of the Ages is a good place to look in the second game since it's easy to find and get to.
With all of this being said, Most of the pictures I have to compare are of the statues because of their new locations but there are also some that show the progression of the land around them as well.
