Guild Wars 2

Going through the Norn personal story, I’ve encountered several Icebrood minions, one of which is an “Icebrood Norn” (pictured below). As you may have known, the elder dragons are capable of corrupting living and non-living things with their magic, and when it corrupts living things, most of the time, the corrupted usually retain their general physical form and shape, whether it be undead, branded, or icebrood, heck even the destroyers take on the form of their former selves. But the Icebrood Norn took on an interesting form, that of a trent, a creature associated with spirits. So it made me wonder, is the current form of Norns their original form? What about Svanir, he changed to bear form, and permanently stayed that way? Does that mean they could change their appearance to anything they want to? What could the Norn’s true form be? And if so, why do they take on the form similar to humans in appearance?

Their ‘true’ form is that of the ones we make ingame at character creation.

That model uses the model skeleton of the treants, but you can noticeably spot wrappings/armor (especially on the legs).

Probably. If you piece together the story of the Kodan and the Age of Giants, it seems like their primary form’s permanently malleable in large groups, and temporarily for individuals. They would have been exposed to the Jotunn and the Gods during the Age of Giants. At that time, everyone seemed to be throwing around a lot of power (in the case of the Jotunn, supposedly almost rivaling the Gods).

So that’s my narriative. Kodan tribe goes south, sheds the bear form, looks human/giantlike, sticks with that. I’m pretty sure their Havroun can just go into the Mists at will too, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Norn started out as something like Razah in Guild Wars 1, way back when.

_"The protomatter that makes up the Mists strains toward creation, often spawning demonic creations in nightmarish forms. Not all creatures from the Mists are demonic, however. When the Mists come into contact with a suitable human template, for example, it can copy that form, creating a sentient entity with humanoid appearance and an almost human mind. " _ – from the Guild Wars wiki.

Then, you take into account that the Havroun are connected to the Spirits and travel to the Mists due to that, wouldn’t surprise me if the Spirits themselves were just big protomist beings of a more primal nature. Not refined, but powerful. Then it makes sense why the Norn followed them and communed with them in their time of need, and why the Spirits look after the Norn accordingly, like a tribe of orphans.

I think it takes extreme events or revelations to change their primary physical form though. And all of this is just speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.