Guild Wars 2

I have a few questions about the Asura. As the title might have hinted. Their physical form is interesting to say the least. Their heads are quite large for their bodies as this actually would cause allot of concern in multiple areas in our world. So I want to ask a few questions about their biology.

1.How much nutritional intake would the asura need to consume in order to keep a brain that size active and health?

2. How long is their childhood? I would imagine it would be much longer then a humans, because we need time for our heads to develop. And the asura has a much larger head and seem to have smaller waists as well.

3. How successful are the asura births? Humans have a high risk factor in birthing children. Although much of that has been reduced thanks to modern medicine. But with their large heads, I would imagine it to be that much more dangerous.

4.Can the asura see red? Being a subterranean I can’t imagine the asura running into many things that fall under that end of the color spectrum. There would have to be a reason why they could see the color. And if they can’t, Why did the inquest design their golems with red light and wear red themselves?

5. The asura have 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand yet only 3 toes. Do they have a 4th toe we can’t see?

I might think of new questions as time passes. But if you could answer a few of these, I would appreciate it. its been bugging me for a while now.

Er…. um…. ask Jeff Grubb or Ree Soesbee.

We do know something of the asura diet, in that lore says their sharp teeth were made that way so as to eat “rock fungus”.

Considering the hyperactive nature of asura, I would suggest that rock fungus and whatever they eat now is highly rich in energy. Those teeth may well constantly fall out and be replaced, like that of a shark, so tooth decay may not be an issue for them. Alternatively, they may simply be super strong, or may have a regenerative surface, which makes sense if you spend your life chewing stuff off rocks.

As to their childhood, from the progeny we see, they seem to be in proportion, roughly, to adults. It is not unusual for certain animals to be mobile in their herd within a matter of hours and asura are likely very quick to gain independence. Their high intelligence would make them naturally curious and thus they would likely be mobile quite quickly.

As to their birth, its possible that asura have some form of pouch or that their hips and birthing process allows for a much higher degree of flexibility than a human. Asura seem to be quite a bouncy race, so their skeleton is likely somewhat flexible, which would help their mobility in enclosed underground spaces.

chronometria.3708:

We do know something of the asura diet, in that lore says their sharp teeth were made that way so as to eat “rock fungus”.

Considering the hyperactive nature of asura, I would suggest that rock fungus and whatever they eat now is highly rich in energy. Those teeth may well constantly fall out and be replaced, like that of a shark, so tooth decay may not be an issue for them. Alternatively, they may simply be super strong, or may have a regenerative surface, which makes sense if you spend your life chewing stuff off rocks.

As to their childhood, from the progeny we see, they seem to be in proportion, roughly, to adults. It is not unusual for certain animals to be mobile in their herd within a matter of hours and asura are likely very quick to gain independence. Their high intelligence would make them naturally curious and thus they would likely be mobile quite quickly.

As to their birth, its possible that asura have some form of pouch or that their hips and birthing process allows for a much higher degree of flexibility than a human. Asura seem to be quite a bouncy race, so their skeleton is likely somewhat flexible, which would help their mobility in enclosed underground spaces.

The Asura are not like other animals. Humans have a very long development period because of how large our heads our in proportion to our bodies. the logical conclusion that I’ve come to is that the asura would have similar complications to birthing and growth that a human would. Most likely it would be much more difficult.

1. Human brain uses about 20% of the energy a human uses. Since asura have larger heads I’d say the energy consumption is also larger, so probably something between 20-35% of the whole energy consumption of a human body.

4. We have no official lore on this, but since they are subterranean they would’ve adapted to seeing when there is little to no light present. One explanation is that if their eyes work similarly to ours they could use red light sources to see in the dark as it doesn’t destroy the visual purple used for dark vision. Alternatively they might be able to see infrared light to some degree and seeing red came with that ability.

Lily.1935:

The Asura are not like other animals. Humans have a very long development period because of how large our heads our in proportion to our bodies. the logical conclusion that I’ve come to is that the asura would have similar complications to birthing and growth that a human would. Most likely it would be much more difficult.

Your assumptions are based on human facts. However, Asura are not human and potentially not even mammals. As well, for a culture with so much invested in magic and its applications and integration with other aspects of life, it is feasible that magic plays a part in the development of the Asura young.

When humans are born, their head:body ratio is drastically different than as an adult. However, Asura seem to maintain a much more normalized head:body size ratio from progeny to adulthood. As such, it’s probable that Asura & human brain physilogy is vastly different. It’s also liklely Asura begin speaking and understanding complex concepts at a younger age than humans, relatively speaking.

Thoughts:

1. Their stomachs have to fit in that torso, so I can’t imagine they eat big meals. I see Krewe Bars are sold in Lion’s Arch. I swear there was some kinda Pellet food on an NPC somewhere too. Maybe they have something like lembas bread that doesn’t choke Gollum.

4. I bet they figured out how to make lights underground very early, by magic or tech.

Seras.5702:

Lily.1935:

The Asura are not like other animals. Humans have a very long development period because of how large our heads our in proportion to our bodies. the logical conclusion that I’ve come to is that the asura would have similar complications to birthing and growth that a human would. Most likely it would be much more difficult.

Your assumptions are based on human facts. However, Asura are not human and potentially not even mammals. As well, for a culture with so much invested in magic and its applications and integration with other aspects of life, it is feasible that magic plays a part in the development of the Asura young.

When humans are born, their head:body ratio is drastically different than as an adult. However, Asura seem to maintain a much more normalized head:body size ratio from progeny to adulthood. As such, it’s probable that Asura & human brain physilogy is vastly different. It’s also liklely Asura begin speaking and understanding complex concepts at a younger age than humans, relatively speaking.

the Asura are most likely mammals. They give live birth, which would lead to similar complications that humans have.

Lily.1935:

the Asura are most likely mammals. They give live birth, which would lead to similar complications that humans have.

mammal (mml)
Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, whose young feed on milk that is produced by the mother’s mammary glands. Unlike other vertebrates, mammals have a diaphragm that separates the heart and lungs from the other internal organs, red blood cells that lack a nucleus, and usually hair or fur. All mammals but the monotremes bear live young.

The definition of mammal is much more involved than simply bearing live young. And even then, you can see there’s an exception. Do Asura even have mammary glands?

Thus, the properties of Asura physiology remain a mystery.