Guild Wars 2

As the title asks? To me the Asurans are the most violent race in the game.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

The Evidence:
In the opening quest one highly respected faction, who is described as murderous and amoral, steals an invention from your character. Your character, who is presumably a scientist, his first reaction is to go on a gangland style killing spree pitting your gang (Krewe) against an enemy gang (krewe). This is presumably before making any kind of formal complaint to the authorities because they are either A) too slow and ineffective and in the pocket of the rival krewe (gang).

The second quest based on your choice may have you again chaising down one of your designs and enforcing a kind of Asuran patent protection with extreme prejudice. And by that I mean beating the pulp out of the thief and several completely innocent people. All without trial, police intervention or pretty much anything associated with civilized justice.
Based on this we can conclude that Asuran politics is pretty much gang warfare and their only justice or law is that which is carried out on the street. That is kinda messed up for a race of cutsey wubbly wittle guys. The other race’s stories have you working your violence as part of an established government organization. The Asuran story has you dishing out vigilante justice for personal gain.

Lets compare to the other race’s stories:
Human – You are working directly for the established military/police of the realm to bring down a city wide plot of murder and mayhem.
Charr – You are an officer in the military rebuilding your squad while fighting off a ghost army.
Sylvari – It varies but basically you are trying to stop an obviously evil organization from overthrowing your religious government by use of ‘insert ambiguous magguffin’. And technically you can use a bare minimum of violence to accomplish this goal
Norn – Sorry didn’t play norn, someone can help me out here.

Based on what we see in Metrica Provence you could be a young innocent research assistant walking down the street and get strait up gangbanged because your Krewe is having a beef with the Jet Propulsion Lab.

You questions seems to have answered itself

Didn’t the Asura also try to commit genocide on the Skritt?

Rojaha.4082:

Didn’t the Asura also try to commit genocide on the Skritt?

They retconned that, admitting it went to far.

Here we are:

Wartower: Where I personally had a problem with the blog post was that the Asura wanted to eradicate the whole race and that is pretty extreme, I think.

Jeff Grubb (GW2 loremaster): That is extreme. That is extreme. I think we may have gone too far at that point. I think the idea that they are a danger to the Asura and the Asura are very concerned about them is definitely there. Eradicate? Maybe too tough.

http://www.wartower.de/news/news.php?id=4646

Well, some more evidence that they’re evil…

You know it’s funny. I agree with you. But I didn’t even realize until you pointed it out.
But then I was a Mesmer that donned the fear mask from the start so my intentions were not exactly noble.

My favorite quote from asuran progeny:
“I had a pet turtle, but it died in an experiment”

Since when were the Inquest a “Highly Respected” faction? They’re the equivalent of organized crime, a group of OBVIOUSLY bad guys who work from within and without the system to avoid criminal punishment. Councillor Yahk being among their ranks is very helpful to them of course.
Much like with real life organized crime, lawful and civil complaints will range in effectiveness from “immeasurably slow” to “completely pointless”.

They don’t even have a true wing in Rata Sum like the real Colleges, relegated instead to the Auxiliary Laboratories. And lets not even go into their open cooperation with Outlaw and Bandit forces elsewhere across the world.

Basically, everyone who isn’t Inquest hates the Inquest, but the group is too powerful to excommunicate outright, lest the Asura start a civil war.

So sure, all of your points are valid when concerning the Inquest, but they’re the Asuran’s obvious villains. The three REAL colleges work together peacefully, with the occasional non-violent rivalry.

So forgive me if I kill some Inquest on my mission to stop them from using my altered weather machine to flood Rata Sum. I’m sorry some bad guys died while I was saving an entire city and the Arcane council from their machinations.

LEGION.5834:

As the title asks? To me the Asurans are the most violent race in the game.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

The Evidence:

The second quest based on your choice may have you again chaising down one of your designs and enforcing a kind of Asuran patent protection with extreme prejudice. And by that I mean beating the pulp out of the thief and several completely innocent people. All without trial, police intervention or pretty much anything associated with civilized justice.
Based on this we can conclude that Asuran politics is pretty much gang warfare and their only justice or law is that which is carried out on the street. That is kinda messed up for a race of cutsey wubbly wittle guys. The other race’s stories have you working your violence as part of an established government organization. The Asuran story has you dishing out vigilante justice for personal gain.

Based on what we see in Metrica Provence you could be a young innocent research assistant walking down the street and get strait up gangbanged because your Krewe is having a beef with the Jet Propulsion Lab.

In a way you are right. On the other hand I would say, it’s rather the good guys-bad guys thing, like for the other races. I can’t remember having beef with any other Krewes than with those from Inquest-College, which are supposed to be the bad ones.

CommodoreSkippy.2657:

Since when were the Inquest a “Highly Respected” faction? They’re the equivalent of organized crime, a group of OBVIOUSLY bad guys who work from within and without the system to avoid criminal punishment. Councillor Yahk being among their ranks is very helpful to them of course.

But they take part in that competition at the beginning as a normal member.

Any krewe could participate in the contest for the Snaff prize, your own krewe was a temporary mix of Asura. A krewe isn’t necessarily made up from a single college, though they can be.
It just so happens that the krewe who sabotaged your Golem was all Inquest, probably because only Inquest will work with Inquest.

Before that quest the asura group u are talking about is the inquest. The inquest uses cruel and bad ways to get what they want which would make them look bad. It is said the inquest yes does use bad methods to get things done but ther inventions are of genius nature and thats why the asuras on the council let them continue ther work even knowing alot of asurans do not like the inquest.

The Asura government is fairly lax, if you notice – the Council that ‘controls’ everything is really just a collection of smart Asura who couldn’t figure out a way to get out of being on the Council. In one personal story line, one of them attempts to off the rest in order to have all the power, and the response when you save them is “Yeah, we’ll return the favor.”

It’s also pretty much implied in a couple miscellaneous conversations that, while Rata Sum is a more civilized place, away from the Arcane Eye and the Council, the Asuran law of the jungle prevails.

In just about every instance of the Inquest meddling with the opening stuff, there is some reason you can’t go to the authorities. In one, the Inquest didn’t visibly do anything – you catch them trying to steal your stuff, but then you beat the stuffing out of them and they run away. In another, they’re in cahoots with the authorities, and in the last, they flagrantly try to steal your stuff in the middle of the contest. The authorities respond by doing not an authoritative thing. Authoritatively.

I’d agree. The Asura value gaining knowledge and personal achievement far above things like conventional morality, safety, or fairness. They are lawless and nearly psychopathic by human standards. There are many examples of this in both GW1 and 2 – their dangerous experiments on living things, their willingness to kill people who intrude in their labs.

I definitely wouldn’t say this is a problem though. I like it a lot personally. They are an entirely different species with a culture that developed largely in isolation from the other races. It’s appropriate that they should be very different from us. The Sylvari are also very alien. The Norn were too in GWEN, remember how they didn’t understand the concept of forming an army and didn’t want to help you fight the destroyers because that would be robbing you of the glory of beating them by yourself? In GW2 though they’ve been dialed back closer to the human norm.

Well they are not more violent then the other races. They often use other races as test objects. But compare it to the other races. Humans are in a constant war with the centauers and Skritt. Charr are enrage about pretty much everything you can find near them. Norn kill stuff for fun … all kind of stuff. And the Sylvari hate all kind of bugs and abuse them.

Of course they are violent. Look at their teeth. They scream “Eat your face off” violent.

We’re not violent! I hug people all the time! With violence!

Well, we do have to keep in mind that the Asura are a VERY individualistic society (surpassed in this only by the Norn, I believe), who has a somewhat screwed risk-gain metric…
(As in: If it didn’t blow up, you didn’t innovate. And if you didn’t innovate, well, why bother at all?)
So of course we have to take matters into our own hands – do you seriously expect the council to get you your stuff back in time? Before the Inquest can claim your genious invention as theirs and create all kind of mischief by tinkering with it?

Also, we see are WAY superior to all other species (at least concerning our intellect), making them somewhat…expendable.

…do I need to add that this is exactly what makes the Asura my favourite species?

My own Asura’s imput into this is: WESTSIDE KREWE, REPRESENT, G-DAWG!

They are violent. When I had the option to get revenge or rescue a krewe, I picked rescue. I was then told not let this weakness be known.

DoctorWhy.3847:

Of course they are violent. Look at their teeth. They scream “Eat your face off” violent.

This was the one big give-away for me as well, I looked at the teeth and I loved it. Not a cuddly little thing, but a piranha!
Totally adore the dialogues as well, a certain dry humour.

Are Asura evil? They’re small, cute, and “harmless looking.” Of course they’re evil, and they know it too.

I am Asura. What´s more, I am an Asura engineer.

First goes me. Then goes my obviously superior intellect. The goes my personal satisfaction. And of course, explosions everywhere. Progress is everything, and if it doesn’t explode, it´s not yet finished.

I am Asura. I am above violence. Progress, explosions, and superior intellect, that´s all that matters

(Wow, I´m so bored at work)

The Inquest is no more or less evil than the Human bandits, the Sons of Svarnir, the Nightmare Court, or the Flame Legion. They all do horrible things and are reviled by the rest of their race, but they are all about on even footing.

I’ve never wanted to join an evil group so badly since the storm troopers. Inquest for the win! I even made an rp outfit.

They’re not bad, they’re just drawn that way. ^_~

They are extremely ambitious xenophobes whose only allegiance appears to be theirs krewes and their race. The mainstream Asura and the Inquest are both towards the dangerous end of the scale. The inquest just do away with the few remaining ethics.

Sahfur.5612:

We’re not violent! I hug people all the time! With violence!

I stopped hugging people when it became evident that I suck at sheathing my daggers at the proper times.

Honestly, I really think the Asura are pretty vicious when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge. See how vehemently Zojja hunts down Kudu and how bad she wants him dead? He’s merely using Snaff’s work in his own diabolical, yet logical ways. Doing the unethical allows for greater advances at the expense of others, typically lives lost and all that. Is it so wrong that he’s using what he learned from Snaff in his own way? Yes his methodology is cruel and unethical, but he is acting upon the wishes of the Asuran people: To conquer the lesser races. He’s merely seizing the moment (Everytime I want to buy baking powder…) instead of waiting for the moment.

And you have Zojja who wants to rip his brain from the stem. She perceives Kudu’s use of Snaff’s knowledge as pervasive and demands for his death. It would seem that it’s very Hammurabi-esque IE “an eye for an eye”. Kudu and the Inquest perform unethical and questionable operations in furthering knowledge, which you can see causes environmental damage and loss of life. Zojja deems this unacceptable and demands his head, showing that she is the other side of the coin; your typical scientist that stays within the ethical boundaries of reality but doesn’t want a study being used in X direction and therefor will do whatever they can to stop it.

I can see both ends of this argument really. I really admire Kudu in his “I dont give a flying cat” attitude, but at the same time uncomfortable in his attitude in regards for the lives of others. Asura can be really violent, but they really don’t care as long as it plays into the grand scheme of things or their experimentation.

I can think of one Asuran lab that had you capturing Skritt to do unethically sound experiments to them. That was the moment I realized that Asura are evil little so and sos.

Long post, spoiler heavy. OP should read IMO.
Also from the hidden text, maybe OP should go back, make a new Asura and see what happens in the tutorial. You know when the Inquest sends killer golems to slaughter the city as a test.

I always looked at being an Asura as being a member of a hyper intelligent race of children. They have no qualms about doing whatever is needed to complete an experiment, and often, when you find an Asura, you also find yourself bailing them out of some mess they have made. (Seriously, have you ever met an Asura in the world who didn’t need help with an experiment, or one that has gone wrong?)

This is all fine by me though. I’m an Asura. I like to think about actions first, consequences later. That suits me just fine :p

LEGION.5834:

That is kinda messed up for a race of cutsey wubbly wittle guys.

You have fallen into the trap of believing Asura are “cutesy wubbly wittle guys”. To rectify this, whenever you start doubting that Asura are anything other than vicious, conniving, scheming little psychopaths, look at their teeth.

Ahem,
In defense of my race, I’d like—- No, no, no. That’s pointless, we are a flock of intellectual pigeons crapping out ideas upon the rest of the world with no reason or defense. So…
In defense of my krew, perhaps I—- Again, a vain endeavor. The rest of the krew are those who follow my lead. Teamwork is, after all, the execution of my plan through the slightly incompetent efforts of others. Ears! How can I write this apologetic thesis and explain how wrong the bookahs’ have gotten it?

In my own defense, I do not see the asura as an evil species, because this race of short, intellectual sociopaths has also produced the panacea for all Tyrian moralistic ailments. Me.

Unlike my soul-deprived brethren, I do possess a remarkable – and indeed heretofore unseen – ethical compass. My massive morality may mortify many. But that is not my concern. My concerns are far broader, as the strength of the asura as a whole would be vastly improved if they all looked to my highly-sophisticated conscience to achieve the moral “North” on their ethical maps. As a moralist, I’d be pleased if you’d consider me similar to the human god Grenth, yet surpassing in matters of ethical proportions.

Thus, should we asura need a visionary vat of virtue I would be willing to offer my services. As such, I am willing to justify or condemn all that deserves justification or condemnation on behalf of my race. Simply elicit my aid in these forums and, when I deem appropriate, I will provide (or have a krewmember provide) a dispostive moral conclusion on whatever topic on which my advice is sought.

In example I will offer my righteous opinion on the first issue presented. Whether one should slaughter discovered saboteurs in a prestigious inventors’ competition.

Opinion of Meccal
Profound Fount of Moralethicism
Conclusively, yes. The inquest saboteurs at the competition deserved to be removed from the asuran gene pool for three important reasons:

1. Sabotage of a golem – especial an advanced and dangrous golem – is an inherently dangerous activity more likely than not to cause harm or death to many, persons relevant and irrelevant. As such, this type of recklessness deserves maximum punishment.
2. The perpetrators attacked you when confronted, did they not? Assaulting an asura guilty only of possessing clearly superior intellect is a crime deserving of maximum punishment. Besides, had they slain you, their actions would have vindicated themselves somewhat. At least they can fight… Yet, they did not and deserve their just deserts; as they, in fact, have proven most worthless.
3. Most conclusively, those asura committed the foulest of offenses. The offense of Felony Stupid. The only thing more reprehensible than a criminal is a criminal stupid enough to get caught. These inquest meat-heads were caught red-handed. As such, they certainly deserve maximum punishment.

As for a sentence? Maximum punishment is exactly that. Discipline in the extreme. Those who deserve maximum punishment must be eliminated immediately to purge the gene pool from their abundant idiocy. Is this decision moral? What could be more moral than protecting the asuran genes? We are all victims of our gene pools. We cannot allow the inquest to piddle in it. By eloquently offing them, you were attempting to perform a service to your world. Feel no moral qualms. Erase your ethical aversions.

If other opinions on moral issues are needed, simply private message me and I will deliver a perfectly, profound, proclamation as to the moral determination. Also, I am happy to offer my services to all of Tyria’s semi-intelligent races (bookahs, carpets, vegetables, and pre-stretched bookahs). But, I find that I opine at a level beyond that which their diminutive intellect has been adjusted to absorb.

- Meccal -
Titles granted and assumed too long to post.

To the impeccably erudite and neurologically distinguished Meccal,

I am a recent graduate of the College of Dynamics, working with PR&T Esoterics in the research and application of various ooze-related technologies for the benefit of all. However, one of the original krewe members (an ostentatious flamhead you may have heard of who insists on calling him “Dr Bleent”) has recently gone rogue and is attempting to commercialise our research in the form of imbibable ooze-derived fluids. Our krewe chief, Hrouda, is attempting to shut down his operations, but I must admit… Dr Bleent’s products DO seem to be selling well. And I COULD use some additional funding for some pet projects of mine… What should I do? Should I switch krewes?

Sincerely,
-name withheld-

To the incontestably perspicacious asuran whose distinguished name has been judiciously cloaked to douse the inferno of gossip mongering,

Indeed this is a question worthy of my unique moral aptitude that will put my ethical learning to the test. First I shall recap and add to the facts – the additions were provided by a loyal krewe member, Zalgga the Thinner, (whose name is not Zalgga and whose physique is more than robust).

• “Dr Bleent” is ostentatious, bombastic, and pompous. He has even taken on the name “Dr Bleent” to most gracelessly honor himself.
• “Dr Bleent” has taken your krewe’s research and has converted said research to his own ends. Namely profit.
• Dr Bleent has accomplished his adverse commercialization by using indigenous non-intelligent, coagulous life-forms as a consumable medium in which to house your experimental technology for ingestion among populations of intelligent and semi-intelligent persons.
• Meanwhile, Hrouda, your krewe chief is expending his time trying to shutdown Bleent, rather than acquire new and larger grant funding, compete with Bleent, or commercialize the technology into some tangible – and profitable – form.
• Bleent’s apparent success has caused you to wonder about Hrouda’s leadership and capacity to fiscally manage the krewe.

Fortunately, I, Meccal, the Archangel of Acumen and Paragon of Priestly Perception, have a solution.

Opinion of Meccal
Profound Fount of Moralethicism
The only moral decision is to gather the remainders of Hrouda’s krewe, solicit members from Bleent’s krewe, and create a third, superior krewe which both makes tangible and profitable technology, yet lacks the risky folly of Bleent’s operation.

You are beset by two poor leaders. You have exhibited your own intellect and wisdom in identifying their failures, but also have discovered the reasons for their successes. “Asura do not live on bread alone.” But neither do asura live without bread! Absent steady profit from realized technological advances, bread, meat, and advanced gadgetry all are lost. You cannot allow Hrouda to financially ruin an acute and proficient krewe. Such poor budgetary management would have you all selling advanced rattraps to bookah merchants in Divinty’s Reach.

BUT, similarly you cannot go to Bleent’s krewe. Bleent is known to have the attitude of a moa’s backside and his self-proclaimed intellect is challenged by his inability to acknowledge portentous risk. Not that you should suffer any moral issues with experimenting on non-intelligent life-forms. If you do not experiment on non-intelligent life-forms, than you must use pseudo-intelligent life (Hylek (simbifrogo-hopidus), Skritt (rattus-talkatus), or Quaggans (Delphinfollyus-leucas)), whereupon you enter a murky gray area, or semi-intelligent life. (Ever try to give medicine to a rock? It typically shows no improvement or detriment, outside of acid-based elixirs. ) Clearly non-intelligent life is meant to be eaten or used to advance science. Any other use is simply a waste of good beasts.
Nevertheless, it is a known folly to ingest oozes in any form. Anything ingested by an asuran body gets processed and assimilated. Assimilation of an ooze into one’s self gives no positive prognosis. Any benefits your technology would instill would be lost, along with many of the imbiber’s higher faculties.

It has fallen to you to become the leader. You truly understand to genius and follies of both Bleent and Hrouda. To be truly ethical, you must attempt to solidify the talented krewe members of both teams into one cohesive whole under your own sophisticated and perceptive leadership.
Note: Very soon I intend to open up a court of morality to field questions such as the above on a regular basis. It will be for the betterment of all asura and lesser races as well.

- Meccal -
Computations insufficient to relate all titles granted and assumed.

Dear Meccal,

I write to you today in the hopes of resolving a long-standing argument between myself and my husband (It’s MATE, woman!) husband, who is a Charr. He insists that the Charr were perfectly within their rights to use the Searing against Ascalon, seeing as how it was their land to begin with and the Ascalonians were “illegal squatters” who had stolen their land through deceit and murder. I contend that no war, no matter the underlying causes, could have justified using something as horrendous like the Searing on thousands of innocent people. (And the Foefire is a “different story”. Right, love?) This is my letter, Fluffykins. (YOU KNOW I HATE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT!)

Ahem. Please help us resolve this one thorny issue in an otherwise blissful relationship, Master Meccal! Was the Searing a justified military act or not?

Sincerely,
Angry in Ascalon.

When I play Asura, yes. They are a hyper violent race.

To answer your question yes asurans are Nazi from the core of earth.

I wouldnt say that they are violent, they are progressive, I dont see direct abuse from their side, few researches might be percieved unethical but definately not violent.

and I would refrain from looking for real life similarities. definately they are not Nazi, if you would really want to associate them with someone then prolly a Jewish community; free economy, capitalistic and they try to keep themselves together ( loyal to krewe etc ) – they do not meddle in socialism of any sort.

Asura are better intellectualy than other races, and that is fact so they may state that they are superior to other races

Pirlipat.2479:

But they take part in that competition at the beginning as a normal member.

What part of having the government under their control is hard to understand? If I remember correctly, the competition’s main judge is the very same person who is under their thumb.

The co-founder of the competition, Zojja, hates the Inquest more than anyone. If there was a choice in keeping them out, she would have made sure it was done. Clearly there’s nothing they could do.

Based on the personal stories and on my experiences in GW1, yes, the Asura are a very violent race.

Almost all of the personal story missions for every race involve violently beating the kitten out of something. The OP seems to be confusing violence with indiscriminate violence, or lack of moral guidance in how violence is applied.

The right question is: are Asurans an amoral race?

I think asura are like eugenicists. I see them as being willing to lobotomize, euthanize and assassinate as long as they feel it advances the goals of their research, their crew or their cause. Part of them is amoral, part of them is violent and part of them is immoral by human standards. And it seems to me that all of that is totally acceptable in their society. They’re kind of like little mad scientists.

They do indeed appear to be a race of violent, lawless little sociopaths. Assassination, theft and murder seems to be par for the course, gauging from what I have seen in the early stages of my personal story. (and to think she looked so cute… fooling bookahs before coming in for the kill.)

That said, I always lol whenever their “genius” backfires on them. I am often tempted to just stand by idly and let them get suffer the consequences. Eg. the dude who injects a raptor with growth hormone, the one who gets attacked by an enormous breeze rider.. and my personal favourite… the one who gets kidnapped by an infatuated harpy matriach. ba ha ha ha. enjoy your new life together.

Ok stormcrow, I haven’t seeen all those… but I saw one who did an experiment with ettin and ended up with a gigantic supergenius that rivaled her own.

Asurans are in a way their own worst enemies.

I do want to say, though, that Asurans, while I would say aren’t the most violent (Charr going around calling other races MEAT for instance), they do have some serious ethical problems.

Take the story of Cadeyrn, the founder of the Nightmare Court, and his story:

“He was there to witness the aftermath of Malomedies’ first bitter contact with the asura…”

and

“Malomedies is a firstborn sylvari, the first one to awaken during the Cycle of Night and is its Luminary. He is an astronomer and mathematician, credited with charting the skies and bringing mathematics to the sylvari. He also works to predict the future through current events – as he calls, a “watcher of the world.” He was the first sylvari to meet with another race, the asura, who promptly experimented on him. "

and:

“As an example of what the Inquest has done, they have in the past taken members of intelligent races and trapped their spirits inside of golems. These experiments, normally done with elementals of lesser sentience, involved physical death for the subject and enslaved them in the process. The other asura think this is going too far.

Their master, Kudu, who was formerly Snaff’s apprentice, was also one of the first asura met by the sylvari, and the one responsible for what happened to Malomedies.”

Yeah. Love them Asura. “It’s a new race! Quick, vivisect him!”

Snort…. LOL… now, I read elsewhere in the wiki that that particular Asura was himself an Inquest, but if so, then why aren’t the Inquest and Nightmare Court at war?

Honestly, though, those Asura are just begging to have something really bad that they are directly responsible for happen to them, hehe

(PS, I play and love my Asuran.. hehe)

Yeah; Kudu is one of the top-ranking members of the Inquest.

I find the ‘hostile faction’ for the Asura to be one of the more interesting ones. Most of the other races whose opposing faction stands in, well, opposition to major beliefs: Sylvari-Nightmare Court, Norn-Svanir, Human-Separatists. The Inquest takes the [evidently] innate Asuran desire for knowledge, pushes it to the extreme and gives it a nice coating of ‘the ends justify the means’.

Having said that, considering just how much flak the Inquest gets from the rest of Asura society and there cases where there are self-imposed restrictions on behavior, using the Inquest as an example of typical Asura behavior is flawed.

All races are hyper violent, because all players kill small, defenseless, animals for no other reason than making themselves feel better with big numbers.

They seem very cut throat and practical in an individualistic society but I wouldn’t describe them as hyper-violent. Hyper violent seems to indicate that they would be at each other throats in most disagreements but they work pretty well together and with their allies. Even while disagreeing with them.

then you add how pleasent they are to each other as they discuss their violent inclinations towards their enemies and they seem less “Hyper-violent” and more practical.

I think the Asurans basically just squeak over the line to being a “good” race; but they are dangerous and have to be watched.

The Inquest is what the Asura in general would be like with the brakes off. Fortunately the bulk of Asurans aren’t like that, and most of them can understand compassion; but their xenophobia and nerdy hunger for knowledge are always potentially dangerous to everyone else, if not tempered by compassion.