Guild Wars 2

So here is Canach on the original Lost Shores story:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/f/f4/Canach.jpg

Now with May 28 patch preview here is the new Canach (using the Fused Gauntlets btw both in concept art and ingame):

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/wallpapers/LastStandAtSouthsun-1920x1200.jpg

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/d0e6801-Hunt-Down-Canach.jpg

He is… completly different. His leafs/hair, his face, his skin color, his eyes color.

What happened to him for such a radical change? He’s literally a different sylvari.

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

Makeover kit. He shops at Black Lion too.

That explains why he’s sabotagin the Consortium…

Yah, definately looks quite a bit different.

Maybe they thought his original look just wasn’t very threatening (which its not, really). They might not have been thinking ahead as far as making him become some big scary villain, so they wanted him to look more menacing now. Kind of wierd that they changed his color and everything, though.

Or maybe it actually has story implications and wasn’t just a character design change. I guess we’ll find out.

I’ve made a topic on this exact same thing too a few hours ago, good to see that more people noticed this too https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Canach-new-design

I wonder what’s up with the change :T

I heard Canach started listening to emo and hanging out with venom spiderman.

Baktwerel.9108:

I’ve made a topic on this exact same thing too a few hours ago, good to see that more people noticed this too https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/lwd/Canach-new-design

I wonder what’s up with the change :T

Yeah I saw it later after posting, I searched for Canach threads on Southsun sub-forum and didn’t see anything, I didn’t search on the Living Story general discussion because I usually search for southsun related info here sorry about that.

He’s a Sylvari.. maybe the Fervid Censer toxins got to him while he was handling the stuff.

Electro.4173:

Maybe they thought his original look just wasn’t very threatening (which its not, really). They might not have been thinking ahead as far as making him become some big scary villain, so they wanted him to look more menacing now. Kind of wierd that they changed his color and everything, though.

I still want to believe that he is not totally evil. (My interpretation because of his old story-texts and the lines “In a fatally misguided attempt to free the new settlers from exploitation by The Consortium, Canach has turned the creatures of the island into tools of destruction.” and “Join Kiel for a mission to capture the deadly, desperate Canach!”of the announcement.)

As I said in the other thread: I liked his look much better when he had that harmless face. Suits better to his arrogant behaviour.
I don’t like changes of design when they’re only because of style and not lore-/story-related. Canach is a secondborn! Not only just an unimportant NPC. Hope he will have his old look or a very good story-explanation for the change.

I guess they wanted to make use of the least used Sylvari face.

I agree with you, Niyo. I really want his old look back, unless it is explained somehow by the lore. I don’t know, like how Smeagol became Gollum xD
Also, I don’t think he is the “personal nemesis” behind the Molten Alliance. If so, why would he try to free the settlers if he was the one that destroyed their homes and forced them to migrate to begin with? I mean, if he was the one that started all the mess, why would he care about the settlers? Wouldn’t it be easier to just throw Karka on everybody if he just wanted to smash The Consortium to pieces and didn’t care about the Settlers?

I just want to know how he got a pair of Molten Gauntlets.

I’d say it’s quite possible he turned to nightmare, not that he necessarily became the embodiment of pure evil. That still leaves us wondering however who our personal nemesis would be…

(I still have my cards on Kasmeer for some reason)

Someone in another thread said that we know that the personal nemesis is a woman. Don’t know where he got the information from.

I don’t believe that Canach turned to nightmare. He had no reason for that. He is against the consortium not the dream. (Or he was – don’t know if he is now against the dream, but I don’t think so.)

Canach could have just fallen more into Nightmare, thus altering his appearance more. A lot of the Nightmare Sylvari look very dark and whatnot.

He probably had a harsh winter. His leaves didn’t grow back and he’s lost his vibrant green color.

The one thing I’m wondering is, why are beams of blue/white light breaking out from all over his body?

Erukk.1408:

The one thing I’m wondering is, why are beams of blue/white light breaking out from all over his body?

hmm.. well now we do see he uses the fused gauntlets so the white light could very well be http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractal_Capacitor_

Yeah, something looks off about him, he looks sick, i’m willing to bet that what ever he did to affect the animals had also harmed him.

I liked his old look better… :C
And I do not think he is entirely evil. He is doing what he thinks is right; freeing the settlers from the consortium.
He is just doing it in a not-so-good manner… I wish we could choose to help him, or maybe help him find another way to do it…

Canach’s contribution to the great dream:

If made from wood, don’t wear burning wristbands.

I posted this in the thread Baktwerel linked above. Thought it was interesting:

My bet? Mordremoth’s (the suspected jungle/plant Elder Dragon) corruption is finally kicking in. I speculate that during his exile, he met the Personal Nemesis from whom he received the Molten Gauntlets and a large dosage of the wildlife-aggravating toxins – which was likely to have been created by plants corrupted by Mordremoth. During the spreading of the toxins, he inhaled lots of the stuff, and the corruption started to manifest in his body. (Current hypotheses state that Mordremoth can only corrupt flora in the “natural” Elder Dragon way, while fauna exposed to Mordy’s toxins/pollens become incresingly mad, or are actually killed off if encountering a too large of a concentration.)

But yeah, Canach definitely looks “sick” compared to his former shining knight self, and I doubt sylvari can undergo such violent changes unless they come across something unnatural.

Curae.1837:

I liked his old look better… :C
And I do not think he is entirely evil. He is doing what he thinks is right; freeing the settlers from the consortium.
He is just doing it in a not-so-good manner… I wish we could choose to help him, or maybe help him find another way to do it…

Exactly what I think. I really wish we could choose to help him! Especially my sylvari characters. They would never think of him as all evil and they would help him.

I’m a role player and my major RP-character is a male sylvari who was some month ago at an execution of a sylvari in divinitys reach. The sylvari had to die cause he was a member of an organisation which killed a lot of humans in the city because they thought they could free the sylvari like this. (Don’t know their exact reasons.) But even if this sylvari belonged to an evil organisation… my sylvari was so shocked to see him die and had so much pity on him that he cried a whole week.
So what do you think he would do if he hears about a secondborn who made some mistakes and is now hunted by the lionguard? He would want to help him so that what he witnessed would never happen again! And it’s a pity that we don’t have this option. Until now we only had dialogue-options in which we can tell Kiel how we want to help her against this bad sylvari. And I think that’s not right.

I also read somewhere (MA prisoner in Black Citadel at the end of F&F, I think) that the mastermind behind this is female. Then again, if this is a personal nemesis, mightn’t it be someone different for each player, perhaps someone from the personal story? Still, I’m very intrigued by the thought that Kasmeer might be behind it all.

As for what happened to Canach, it could easily be the Nightmare Court or elder dragon corruption. Just because we have no lore yet to support his change doesn’t mean the months he’s been absent, things haven’t happened to change him.

Last, I wonder if the blue puffs of smoke we get after raiding a chest from an instigator are tied to the blue light seen in that screenshot. (Actually, it looks more like a boon aura to me, but whatever.)

I think it’s rather peculiar that he got fused gauntlets, he may not be the mastermind behind the alliance, but he was likely involved to some degree. As for the female behind the alliance, both dredge and flame legion see females as lower than males, so I’m not sure how well a female could have pushed them together. It’s also notable that secondborn sylvari tend to be shady/ evil characters.

Falkor.7932:

It’s also notable that secondborn sylvari tend to be shady/ evil characters.

And you know that because of one secondborn-sylvari (out of 4 that we currently know) who is the founder of the Nightmare Court? Very weak argument.

Secondborn we know are Amaranda (a seer with a strong connection to the Dream – the opposite of a nightmare-character), Laranthir (who is second-in-command of the vigil), Cadeyrn (the founder of the Court) and Canach (and we can’t currently tell what’s with him).

Unless there is a very good story explanation for his change (and “sylvari can just do that” isn’t one), that’s just disappointing. Changing an important story NPC just because he doesn’t look mean enough or whatever, just shows that storytelling isn’t taken seriously by his creators. And ArenaNet even said explicitely that they wanted to create recognisable characters with the Living World. Way to go to make characters recognisable by changing their appearance.

I’m not a fan of the changes even if they are to represent mutation from exposure to the Fervid Censer similair to what happened to the Sclerite Karka Shell. It’s very cliche for some mad scientist to become mutated by his work. What bothers me most, however, is that one of the most interesting things about Canach was that he was a villain without being an over the top villain. He had more depth than that and a big part of that was his appearance. Apparently to be a bad guy in Tyria you have to be ugly dark and twisted.

We get it, ugly people are evil. I guess the people who worked on the human commoner personal story plot are still at ArenaNet.

Niyo.5920:

And you know that because of one secondborn-sylvari (out of 4 that we currently know) who is the founder of the Nightmare Court? Very weak argument.

I couldn’t remember Amaranda to tell the truth (at least didn’t remember her being noted as a secondborn), and Laranthir has about as much character as any other vigil crusader. But the two secondborn with a good deal of history (even if it’s in the making) are turning out to be less than reputable. I’m counting Canach as shady because the Fervid Censer does say that he used the device to spread wildlife aggravating toxins on southsun cove, it doesn’t sound unintentional if he’s using some sort of device.

Falkor.7932:

I couldn’t remember Amaranda to tell the truth (at least didn’t remember her being noted as a secondborn), and Laranthir has about as much character as any other vigil crusader. But the two secondborn with a good deal of history (even if it’s in the making) are turning out to be less than reputable. I’m counting Canach as shady because the Fervid Censer does say that he used the device to spread wildlife aggravating toxins on southsun cove, it doesn’t sound unintentional if he’s using some sort of device.

Amaranda is in the personal story where you met Malyck – the sylvari of the other tree. You meet her when you go to her to investigate where Malyck comes from.
And I don’t think that Laranthir has no character. Ever talked to him? I think he is a nice guy. But he seems to be sad cause he searched his whole life for love and never found it. I feel pity of him.
And for Canach… In the announcement is written that he wanted to “free the new settlers from exploitation by The Consortium”. That’s not really bad, isn’t it? But his ways are wrong and he obviously made mistakes. But maybe in the end we can convince him to help with better plans? I hope so…

And we only know four secondborn. We don’t even know how much of them are there. But I believe there are some others and I don’t think they are all bad.

There’s also an element of selection bias here, too – in that it’s naturally going to be the ones that become big villains that we’re most likely to butt heads with.

There is now a text on the homepage about Canach:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/canachs-story-an-after-hours-meeting/

This line: "The intruder struck a match, revealing his cold, expressionless face. It was indeed Canach, and the sylvari mercenary was every bit as grim as Blingg remembered."
Doesn’t sound like he looks different than before. Seems to be that Canachs old face was not “cold” enough and that’s the reason for the change, not a story-reason. In my opinion every face can look cold, so this is no argument.
(I have a sylvari-RP-character who is a cold and dangerous member of a pirate-crew. He has Canachs old face, too. And he looks very harmless. But believe me: He ist not. I like it that he is underestimated.)

Canach cleared out a Molten Alliance Weapons Facility by himself?! Suddenly, this upcoming solo dungeon against him is a lot scarier to me…

Oh good, thank you Scott McGough. I am glad that you guys didn’t just think that we would forget about Canach’s old look xD
That back story made me want to help him even more. I seriously hope that we don’t end up having to kill him.

Gabby.3205:

That back story made me want to help him even more. I seriously hope that we don’t end up having to kill him.

I agree with you. He really seems to be not that “evil” as some people want to see him.

Thank you for the answer.
But I’m not completely satisfied with that explanation. Ok, that he changed is clear, but THAT radical? Even his eyes are completely different. And his nose and… You see what I mean. Maybe the paler skincolour and the “hair” and the thorns in his face… that would be logical. But in my opinion these changes are too extreme.

Thanks for answering Scott. That would explain some of the changes, and I guess as there isn’t a “rude and scarred” face option for Sylvari that was the closest thing.

I still would’ve liked him looking a bit closer to his original self as this change was too big (specially the face and sking color, I could understand him cutting his hair), but I guess that’s ok as probably he wasn’t going to be used so much when he was originally designed (maybe I’m wrong with that part?) so he was designed without his new role in mind. Salma got a great change in GW1 when she became relevant for example, so as long as Canach doesn’t change again and this is taken carefully with future NPCs it’s ok I think.

And I guess the change in skin tone can be atributed to how much he likes playing with fire judging by how he always points to things with fire for drama hehe.

Gabby.3205:

Oh good, thank you Scott McGough. I am glad that you guys didn’t just think that we would forget about Canach’s old look xD
That back story made me want to help him even more. I seriously hope that we don’t end up having to kill him.

It made me consider him a higher priority threat to be honest. I’m not a big fan of severing heads and sending them in bags so better finish him before. Of course Noll is villanious too as he’s sending grunts to kill him, but Canach isn’t good either, they’re both bad guys trying to get the upperhand from a situation. Canach is playing hero of the weak but I think this is out of spite and revenge and he probably has his own agenda here. The way he acts during the conversation with Blingg (moving in shadows during a conversation, whispering on his ear, setting fires to show things, sending bags with severed heads, showing a weapon to threat with taking his head too…) is closer to crazy psychotic than Robin Hood like hero of the weak.

That mustache.

Honestly how can he not be evil with that on his face? <.<

Lokheit.7943:

It made me consider him a higher priority threat to be honest. I’m not a big fan of severing heads and sending them in bags so better finish him before. Of course Noll is villanious too as he’s sending grunts to kill him, but Canach isn’t good either, they’re both bad guys trying to get the upperhand from a situation. Canach is playing hero of the weak but I think this is out of spite and revenge and he probably has his own agenda here. The way he acts during the conversation with Blingg (moving in shadows during a conversation, whispering on his ear, setting fires to show things, sending bags with severed heads, showing a weapon to threat with taking his head too…) is closer to crazy psychotic than Robin Hood like hero of the weak.

But the heads he sent in bags were from the people that Noll sent to kill him, so I think he should plead self-defense
Poor Canach should be taken back to the Grove so that Mommy can lecture him.
In all seriousness, I think that he is just plain nuts, but I can’t blame him for that. He is trying to do the right thing, but I think he doesn’t know how to do the right thing anymore. I still want to help him (and to shove Noll in a blender).

So far I feel ANET has handled every Sylvari villain (Nightmare Court, etc…) pretty darn well!

Canach actually sounds like an interesting villain, and his flaming gauntlets as a Sylvari makes his design quite ironic and sinister.

Lokheit.7943:

That would explain some of the changes, and I guess as there isn’t a "rude and scarred" face option for Sylvari that was the closest thing.

WE have to use the editor to design our sylvari-characters, but not the designers of the game. Would have been more work to change his old face so that THIS face would have looked more "rude and scarred", but it would have been better, I think.

Lokheit.7943:

Gabby.3205:

Oh good, thank you Scott McGough. I am glad that you guys didn’t just think that we would forget about Canach’s old look xD
That back story made me want to help him even more. I seriously hope that we don’t end up having to kill him.

It made me consider him a higher priority threat to be honest. I’m not a big fan of severing heads and sending them in bags so better finish him before. Of course Noll is villanious too as he’s sending grunts to kill him, but Canach isn’t good either, they’re both bad guys trying to get the upperhand from a situation. Canach is playing hero of the weak but I think this is out of spite and revenge and he probably has his own agenda here. The way he acts during the conversation with Blingg (moving in shadows during a conversation, whispering on his ear, setting fires to show things, sending bags with severed heads, showing a weapon to threat with taking his head too...) is closer to crazy psychotic than Robin Hood like hero of the weak.

But he is not completely evil! You guys have no clue... *pout*
We will see... ^^

Oh.. and what’s with our miniature? Do we get it? *lovely smile*

Thank you Scott that you took time to answer these questions. Thats appreciated, even though I can’t really take that seriously. So we are meant to accept that “hardship” can change a sylvari’s appearance totally, including skin and eye color – I’m expecting that the new Canach will even be taller -, but Blingg recognises him instantly? And how did those freelance decommission teams even find him, considered that he fled southsun cove to cross the shiverpeaks, infiltrated a Molten Alliance Facility and sabotaged the Consortium headquarters? Obviously he was all over Tyria. Either he goes through the Asura gates in Lion’s Arch unrecognised or he was on his way through the wilderness for months.

Blingg recognized Canach based on his voice, which has presumably gone unchanged. It’s also been about ~5 months, we don’t have a precise timeline for when Noll sent people to kill him, when which changes to his appearance were made, when (and where) he was last actually in public/seen in public, etc. It could be the assassinations were shortly after Lost Shores, and Canach did not make such heavy modifications to himself until after a few episodes of that. The Molten Alliance Facilities were pretty recent, it’s possible he’s been completely untracked for some time now.

Though I do think keeping the same face and using the sliders to heavily modify it would have been a better option, maybe they just really wanted the cactus prickles I dunno.

ASaturnus, Blingg recognized Canach because of his voice (he says “Canach?” before seeing the Sylvari). The characteristics that he mentions are Canach’s expression and grimness only. Also, Canach waited to see “recognition in Blingg’s face” before starting speaking again, therefore I assume that the Sylvari thought that Blingg could possibly fail to recognize him, probably due to his new physical appearance.

Sylvari Riddic lol forum thinks ridkitten is something else

Some of the questions made here about Canach’s change in appearance are assuming that Sylvari physiology changes in similar ways to a human’s when faced with extreme amounts of stress. Remember, the Sylvari aren’t human, for all we know a drastic and severe change in their emotional state makes their physical appearance change just as severely. Maybe stress makes them loose leaves and grow thorns, whereas human hair turns grey. Instead of increased blood preasure when angry, maybe they have reduced chorophyll flow that dulls their naturl pigment. Maybe longterm exposure to the tropical Southsun heat changed his pigment (it would certainly change mine…;). Do Sylvari scar? Perhaps they just grow new leaves that are slightly different than the orginals, or maybe it barks over where a leaf used to be. Any number of things could be different about Sylvari physiology that would explain Canach’s change in appearance.

And yeah, I’m liking the guy so far, I really hope I don’t have to kill him…lol.

inazuma.7021:

Canach cleared out a Molten Alliance Weapons Facility by himself?! Suddenly, this upcoming solo dungeon against him is a lot scarier to me…

Nah, didn’t you see him going all ‘LFG MF’ outside the entrance?

I like the way you are thinking, Dippy. I wonder if Canach can be “healed”, then.
It’s not that I don’t like his new look, it is just that my Sylvari is such a nice sapling that would love to help a Secondborn to get better.

Aveneo.2068:

inazuma.7021:

Canach cleared out a Molten Alliance Weapons Facility by himself?! Suddenly, this upcoming solo dungeon against him is a lot scarier to me…

Nah, didn’t you see him going all ‘LFG MF’ outside the entrance?

Oh dear, I laughed louder than I should have xD

Scott McGough.6897:

I regret that there isn’t more background available regarding how it happened

but isn’t there something you could do? There are those 2 small compendiums on Southsun Cove which tell a little story… couldn’t you do some little lore-bits the same way?

I mean, for example, we get those cool blog posts but how many people will read that stuff which is outside of the game? I don’t know any one from my guild kittenads blogposts which is a shame. If those posts would be in the game, in form of a small collectible book, some frozen books like in Ebonhawke or something like that, this would give the game so much more depth. More people should read this (your clarification here, the blog posts your team is releasing, lore for people who play mmoRPGs because of lore

Scott McGough.6897:

But like a good soldier, he wanted to understand the situation in which he was about to involve himself, so he made a point of seeking out one of the Molten Alliance weapons facilities and clearing it. He obtained the gauntlets from that escapade and wears them now as a symbol of his newly adopted (and so far poorly executed) role as a champion of the weak…

Oh really? He went and did the dungeon solo? Well I don’t believe that as I have searched youtube and he doesn’t have a video up doing so! He doesn’t even have his own channel!

But I guess he did it somehow seeing how he does have the gauntlets. I can imagine him having to have to guest on servers to get the Lost and found items:D

Edit: Guess he had to block Noll of the friendlist too.