Curse

Darth Nathan · Dec 29, 2006, 12:48 PM // 12:48

Hi guys. I'm really not sure if this has been mentioned before, but I'm fairly sure I'm allowed to post this here, so here goes.

There is an author named Robin Hobb who has written a number of books, 9 actually, in a particular universe she invented. These books were written in the 90's, years before Guild Wars, and the two universes contain so many parallels it would be ridiculous if it was a mere coincedence.

I've read most of these books, and it recently hit me how similar they are to Guild Wars lore. To give examples, sitting here off the top of my head, these are the ones I can remember, both obvious and vague links.

*Note: This list assumes you know what the Guild Wars equivalent of the character/situation is.

Althea: One of the main characters in the book, however the character is completely different, only the names are the same.
Rurik: In the book, Rurisk is the prince of the mountain kingdom. He meets his death in the mountains. The name has an S in the book, but still fairly similar.
Paragon: In the book, Paragon is the name of a ship, whose figurehead is of a man with a crest engraved in his chest, much like most Paragon armour.
Unprecedented attackers: In the book, the kingdom is beset with powerful and numerous attackers with unknown motives, just like the Charr. Also in the book, to solve the problem, the prince of the kingdom, without the approval of his father, arranges a trek over the mountains to find a solution, just like Rurik leading the Ascalonians over the Shiverpeaks to Kryta
The Forgotten: Serpents are the original race of the earth in the book, but when humans came along were relegated to second place, so much so they were thought to be legend, just like the Forgotten
Dragons: In the book, Tintaglia is the last dragon: she is a female, like Glint, and shares a similar name. She also has similar powers to Glint: both physically strong and with some psychic ability
Cursed Shores: Both universes contain a place called the cursed shores, and both are at the edge of a great dense jungle inhabited by a mysterious race, druids in Guild Wars, and merchants in the books.
The Wilds: These aforementioned jungle areas are also named similarly, in the book they are called the Rain Wilds, but just the Wilds in Guild Wars.
Cantha: Jamaillia is a huge city far to the south of the rest of the settings in the books, that is rather more civilized and city-like, just like Cantha.

There are far more similarities than these, but it would take me forever to list them all. But the main point of all this is, if you want clues to Chapter 4, read these books

. I think the similarites are far too great to just be passed up, so anyone else who has read these, feel free to add some.

^_^ · Dec 29, 2006, 02:44 PM // 14:44

Possibly, but no matter how many list you have, you can't really prove it.

The fact that Anet's core members are from Blizzard and they ripped off War Hammer, they could have gone back to their old habit

Stemnin · Dec 29, 2006, 02:57 PM // 14:57

Cool stuff, also NF is similar to SG-1

-Portals look like worm hole event horizons (except transparent)

-A banished god (anubis) returns and threatens the system lords (the 5 gods)

-And uh, dunno, had another one, but i forgot it :\ .

thezed · Dec 29, 2006, 03:07 PM // 15:07

I doubt Anet is ripping off a published author, there are copyright laws. But your post intrests me in the author. I will have to check her out, might add one of her books to my "Want to Read" list.

Yanman.be · Dec 29, 2006, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stemnin

Cool stuff, also NF is similar to SG-1

-Portals look like worm hole event horizons (except transparent)

-A banished god (anubis) returns and threatens the system lords (the 5 gods)

-And uh, dunno, had another one, but i forgot it :\ .

Probably Teal'c?

Fire_Emblem_FTW · Dec 29, 2006, 06:38 PM // 18:38

Nice find. Quite interesting.

Tide to Go · Dec 29, 2006, 08:53 PM // 20:53

plz list stuff from the book that might seem semilar to gw4 that is pretty cool no proof though.

^_^ · Dec 30, 2006, 01:40 AM // 01:40

You make no sense at all. How could he make predictions off the book when there is so much possibilities? (I just got couple of her books reserved.)

mrmango · Dec 30, 2006, 02:55 AM // 02:55

Check the wiki entry for
Halls of Chokhin
They have tributes to the major players of the other Lore Forum..
They probably get it from there.

draxynnic · Dec 30, 2006, 12:47 PM // 12:47

There are a lot of common threads in fantasy. If you wanted to, you could probably find common threads between Guild Wars and pretty much any fantasy series.

I've read the books, and while there are some similarities, there are much greater differences in the two worlds. While no doubt at least some of the designers have read and been influenced by the books, I doubt they're deliberately lifting ideas from them.

Looking at the comparisons you've drawn: (Note: This contains some significant spoilers to the books, especially the Liveship Traders series. People intending to read the series may not want to continue reading.)

1), 2) Rurik and Althea are both names that have existed in the real world, but which are less common today. Such names are commonly used in fantasy. In fact, Rurisk was probably a modification of Rurik rather than the other way around.

3) Isn't that just a little bit of a stretch?

4), 9): Both common themes in fantasy.

5) Probably the closest comparison you've made, although I'm not certain whether you're referring to the sea serpents or the Elderlings. The former don't really have much resemblance to the Forgotten (unless, of course, it DOES turn out that the Forgotten are larval dragons). The latter are a closer match, but my understanding was that the Elderlings were former humans that had evolved with a symbiotic relationship with dragons, and it was the destruction of their homeland by geological activity that brought them down rather than being pushed out by humanity. It's been a while, though, so my memory may not be the best.

6) 'Physically strong and with some psychic ability' describes a lot of dragons back to the Tolkein and earlier.

7), 8): Both names that are fairly logical for their respective locations.

T. Drake · Dec 30, 2006, 01:14 PM // 13:14

I'm quite sure that Razahs name comes from this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa

At least it makes sense to me if i read the description