Concerning LA...

[Ahn Yawng]

I remembered that large crystal...rocket...thing, but I forgot that area had all those ruins in it. Still, I think it's safe to say they're the ruins of small villages at best, else there would be some mention of other great Ascalon cities. Rin and Ascalon City are, judging by what we know ingame, the only two large Ascalonian cities, and they weren't even that big.

Well, in the manuscripts booklet Cynn looks at the ruins of Nolani and says: "This looks just like every other city."
I freely translated that because my booklet is in German. But in my book it's at the beginning of page 3 so you can check for the exact wording.

But there are most likely alot of small villages scattered all over the area. Otherwise the charr wouldn't have burned such a huge area. And the fact that the burned-land is an almost perfect circle indicates that it was a more controled action than we thought.

By the way: Do we know what those chrystals are made of? Or are they just magical thingies?

[Grima Wormtongue]

I have to go with fact that Game had most of things scaled down numerically.

Concerning Size of population: If we add up what we see, most nations get to hundreds citizes, thousand tops. That might be big enough to working society, but quite small for withstanding various threats that hostile surroundings has.

Then, there are huge inconsistencies between actuall amount of people:

You kill hundreds of Mantle soldiers during campain, so they must have pretty big manpower base, yet Temple of Tollerance is defended by what ... 4 knights? They have bigger presence in jungle far away than there!

Consulae docks mission is another fine example ... you attack with handfull of sunspears, but later in game you meet a lot bigger amount of them in kounan territories during various quests.

Also, Koss is assumed to take part in that assasult, but you dont see him anywhere if you didnt add him to party. So it could have been a lot bigger fight than what we have seen.

Also, there is huge logistics problem all around. take example of Kouman army. Fields that we have seen are nowhere near amount needed to suport Vareshes troops. Which suggest that world is made look a lot smaller.

For fun, you can do some counting of Ascalon refugees. In missions it is half dozen, yet you see a lot more than that in Ascalon settlement or Deldrimor Bowl.

Simply, amount of people/mosters/land is out of proportion and sometimes changes dynamically as story progresses.

[Nanashi]

I think the world was made to center around the group. Hence the explanation of Koss getting captured and us never seeing it had we not taken him.

Look at Lord Of The Rings, it's sort of the same concept, the story only revolves around those characters so you only see the landscapes they run through but never the less there could be events taking place off the scenes. Even in the book. It's a poor attempt on GW's behalf to make it seem like events are taking place during our trifles - a world continuously evolving with and without us.

[Ahn Yawng]

I think in the Consulate Docks mission we invaded Kourna to clear the way for other troops. That's why there are a whole lot more afterwards.

And the amount of soldiers we used doesn't matter. If we look at the fact that in WW2 two allied soldiers captured a village full of about 64 Soldiers of the Wehrmacht just with a better tactic than the Wehrmacht used. And I guess the Sunspears did the same.

[Ranger Nietzsche]

I remembered that large crystal...rocket...thing, but I forgot that area had all those ruins in it. Still, I think it's safe to say they're the ruins of small villages at best, else there would be some mention of other great Ascalon cities. Rin and Ascalon City are, judging by what we know ingame, the only two large Ascalonian cities, and they weren't even that big.

But have you seen the size of some of the ruins in pockmark flats, the southern end near fort Ranik? Those walls are the size of the larger buildings in Ascalon City.

Also the size of the walls left standing in Dragon's GUllet indicate a VERY large city indeed.

[Skyy High]

But have you seen the size of some of the ruins in pockmark flats, the southern end near fort Ranik? Those walls are the size of the larger buildings in Ascalon City.

Also the size of the walls left standing in Dragon's GUllet indicate a VERY large city indeed.

But Dragon's Gullet is North of the Wall, so for all intents and purposes they were not part of Ascalon during presearing.

[RenTFW]

Well one reason for me to believe that ascalon was far bigger that what we've seen is the area called Pockmark Flats. It was hit by the biggiest chrystal I could find and the place is scattered with remains of houses, half-houses and a few intact walls. Which woukld propably mean that Ascalon reached at least that far.

Here's a picture:

It might be the ruins of the little fishermans village in the pre-searing where Aidan is found for the ranger quests

[Gmr Leon]

It might be the ruins of the little fishermans village in the pre-searing where Aidan is found for the ranger quests

Can't be, there are too many ruins dotting the crater and it's east from the little village you're thinking of.

[Kalidri]

When playing in Guild Wars I think of Shakespeare's prologue in Henry the Fifth:

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/full.html

Especially I like...

"...Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth..."

So I can imagine a bustling city just beyond the walls of the quarter allowed for us foriegners confined to a port. After all, who wants rangers, assassins, mesmers and other unsavory sorts wandering their neighborhood? Certainly, there is evidence of bigger cities, even keeping in mind the smaller size of towns in less modern times.