Guild Wars 2

(looks around, sees only Asura)

What a relief. I have something I’ve been dying to say, and I don’t want to say it in front of a crowd of bookahs:

On your way up to Dolyak Pass, where all the weirdness is going on right now, did you go up the west side of the pass? Past all of the skirmishes between the Norn and the Grawl? Did you listen to them? Really listen?

We’re all intellectuals and grown-ups here, yes, I know just as well as you do that that fight is really about territory and resources, not religion. But here’s what I want to know about the religious excuses for the fighting. Are the Norn putting us on, or what?

The Norn … are mocking the Grawl … for worshiping just any old thing they find in nature. Considering what the Norn worship, that’s either so stupid I can’t believe even a Norn would say it, or else it’s such subtle meta-humor, so sophisticated, that I can’t believe that any Norn would think of it. There, I got that off of my chest. I feel much better.

(looks around)

Oh, hello, my Norn colleague! How goes the fighting and the drinking and the bragging?

(pretends to listen to and care about the answer, interrupts)

Say, while you’re here, would you go carry that heavy object so I don’t have to send a golem to do it instead? Thanks!

Well, to be fair to my Norn travelling companion, there is a difference between venerating a Guardian Spirit that exemplifies the collective power of a race and worshipping a big rock that happens to be bright red due to iron oxide deposits.

Zaxares.5419:

Well, to be fair to my Norn travelling companion, there is a difference between venerating a Guardian Spirit that exemplifies the collective power of a race and worshipping a big rock that happens to be bright red due to iron oxide deposits.

… Such as what, exactly?

picks up the heavy object
grabs the asura with the free arm by the collar
drops the heavy object on…

“Ouch, he bit me! – Your ears might be bigger, but I can still hear pretty good!”

shakes fist

nakoda.4213:

Zaxares.5419:

Well, to be fair to my Norn travelling companion, there is a difference between venerating a Guardian Spirit that exemplifies the collective power of a race and worshipping a big rock that happens to be bright red due to iron oxide deposits.

… Such as what, exactly?

The Guardian Spirit is actually a sentient being, for one thing, so you can actually converse with it. Also, one should always treat a being who can summon hordes of its representative animals with respect. You do NOT want to wake up one morning to find your lab covered with minotaur excrement.

Although on the bright side, that unsanitary incident did allow me to confirm a few theories I had about minotaur diet for my book, “Ploop’s Grande Bestiary on the Flora and Fauna of Greater Tyria”, so I suppose it all worked out for the best.

Zaxares.5419:

The Guardian Spirit is actually a sentient being, for one thing, so you can actually converse with it.

This is correct. Although sometimes you have to drink a few kegs or have a few puffs to really converse with them.

Zaxares.5419:

nakoda.4213:

Zaxares.5419:

Well, to be fair to my Norn travelling companion, there is a difference between venerating a Guardian Spirit that exemplifies the collective power of a race and worshipping a big rock that happens to be bright red due to iron oxide deposits.

… Such as what, exactly?

The Guardian Spirit is actually a sentient being, for one thing, so you can actually converse with it. Also, one should always treat a being who can summon hordes of its representative animals with respect. You do NOT want to wake up one morning to find your lab covered with minotaur excrement.

Although on the bright side, that unsanitary incident did allow me to confirm a few theories I had about minotaur diet for my book, “Ploop’s Grande Bestiary on the Flora and Fauna of Greater Tyria”, so I suppose it all worked out for the best.

Yes, I know what a Greater Spirit is, but the difference between offering it some sort of fealty or to the alchemical ability for ferrous metals to oxidize in their natural state remains to be explained. For lesser species, the mere silence of the iron oxides may be a sign of the colouration withholding its secrets. The Eternal Alchemy does not need to venerate either of these substandard methods for deriving meaning from existence.

I have not studied the Norn culture extensively, however, I believe sentience is exactly the point. You are looking at it as a religion, but it may make more sense if you look at it more as a social structure. The animal spirits were promoted to the top after aiding the Norn in their exodus. The grawl however will defer to an unusual rock.

Now, perhaps the degree that the Norn defer to their Spirits is… excessive at times, but I would agree that the grawl tend to grant much more weight to things than they are actually due.