So, a guild mate and I had a discussion the other day regarding asura. One theory said that asura have hands due to not having pads and claws, while the other theory said that their digits were pointy enough, and that they only had four digits on each hand/paw.
So which is it that the asura have, hands, paws, or a combination of both?
Discus!
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
They have hands. Paws are feet. Hands are used to grasp and manipulate items. Paws can do that but they aren’t designed to do that as their main purpose.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
Asura rat fact, the need for tails was removed with the invention of the miniature biopowered stabilization gyro core, aka the “butt gyro”. Its how they can do perfect backflips every time without any kind of athletic training. Rumor has it the Inquest tried to sell it to the Charr once, but they thought it was supposed to be swallowed so instead of removing the need for a tail it made them stand upright by overcompensating. Funny story really.
Asura have a sped up evolution. The went through the same cycles as humans but much faster/more efficient. Hence they are mammals, but havinf retained amphibian traits. Traits that were more dominantly expressed due to a subterranean lifestyle.
I dont think its fair to call them either hands or paws as theyre neither quadrupedal nor primate in nature. I think claw is the right nature
Evolution goes from generation to generation.
Generally, the faster a species reproduces, the faster they evolve. That’s why bacteria always evolve so fast. I have not seen any indication that Asura reproduce significantly faster than the other races of Tyria.
Actually they probably reproduce less because they are so career focused.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Evolution goes from generation to generation.
Generally, the faster a species reproduces, the faster they evolve. That’s why bacteria always evolve so fast. I have not seen any indication that Asura reproduce significantly faster than the other races of Tyria.
Actually they probably reproduce less because they are so career focused.
Ye sorry, i wrote that wrong. I meZnt their chain of evolution is more efficient. Eg, they made the right changes faster than other species. Adapted better, however you call it. As a result their appearance still has traits of their amphibian ancestors
They have hands. With claws. And teeth. Many teeth.
Many shark-like teeth.
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
I was always referring to my hands as “claws”. I’ve read a lot trough the (archived) Asura forums and many interesting points came up; one speculation that we needed robust claws for the stony environment when we were dwelling below the surface and even climbing (e.g. deep chasms or whatever, even though I am not sure how this comes together with our great intellect; I am pretty sure lifts of whatever kind were also in place back then).
Checking the actual definition of a claw in German dictionaries would match what (at least my) Asura has. Together with our toes, we have nasty ways to slice people up – unintended or not.
Or to comb trough matted Charr fur without any need of additional tools. Sometimes I just can barely resist…….
They have hands. With claws. And teeth. Many teeth.
Many shark-like teeth.
[According to one of the developer interviews…]
We needed them for the awkward cave fungi to be torn apart. And I love our teeth. Grins
Actually, I love everything about Asura. They are not just small people with one or two things changed, they are great and unique in every aspect and I am very fascinated about it design-wise.
Zedexx, sly Asura Thief/Assassin
and politically highly incorrect. (#Asuracist)
“We [Asura] are the concentrated magnificence!”
Resident Disgruntled, Coffee-drinking Charr.
Zarin Mistcloak(THF) Valkyrie Mistblade(WAR) Kossori Mistwalker(REV) Durendal Mistward(GRD)
I used to think (build op, pls nerf) like you, but then I took a nerf to the knee.
They are rats, so they have claws.
They used to live under ground, it would be logical for them to have claws to dig out dirt and such.
This.
Maybe the term I used was incorrect, I am not a native speaker and in German we have a non-Latin term for the group of species I was referring to (yes, rat-like or rather like moles).
They are rats, so they have claws.
They used to live under ground, it would be logical for them to have claws to dig out dirt and such.
This.
Maybe the term I used was incorrect, I am not a native speaker and in German we have a non-Latin term for the group of species I was referring to (yes, rat-like or rather like moles).
I think once a beast or creature has opposable thumbs you get to speak of “hands”, so ya the asura have hands not paws
By that logic all apes must have four hands.
Maybe. ^^
Quadrumana “Quadrumana and Bimana form an obsolete division of the primates: the Quadrumana are primates with four hands (two attached to the arms and two attached to the legs), and the Bimana are those with two hands and two feet.
Quadrumana is Latin for “four-handed ones”, which is a term used for apes since they do not have feet attached to their legs as humans do, but instead have hands, as both pairs of hands look almost alike (with the exception of the orangutan, whose hands look exactly the same) and operate exactly like hands.
Bimana is Latin for “two-handed ones”, which is a term used for humans, as humans have only two hands, but have two feet which apes do not."
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Voting for hands, I have an Asuran engi, and he can operate pistols and rifles with his hands, hold and drop bombs, utilize grenades, fire a mortar…
That is enough proof for me, can’t so these things with claws.
But… Charr can do all these things, don’t they have claws/paws?
:)
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
They have haws which are delicious. Try taking a bite out of your nearest asura if you don’t believe!
Sure, go ahead. See what happens. ~bares asura teeth~
On a side note, I have to hand it to everyone in this thread for keeping it fun and light hearted.
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
Hands = Prehensile, multi-fingered.
Paws = Used to walk, with claws.
Technically, they aren’t mutually exclusive. So I’ll say Charr have four paws, of wich 2 are also hands. And Asura have hands that are paws too.
“Only problem with the Engineer is
that it makes every other class in the game boring to play.”
Hawks
Hands = Prehensile, multi-fingered.
Paws = Used to walk, with claws.
Technically, they aren’t mutually exclusive. So I’ll say Charr have four paws, of wich 2 are also hands. And Asura have hands that are paws too.
I simply cannot agree theyre paws. The merriam definition of a paw:
“1: the foot of a quadruped (as a lion or dog) that has claws; broadly : the foot of an animal.”
As of such theyre claws that function as hands (or vice versa) but definitely not paws
But the claws are just the pointy, hard portion, not the whole thing. How do you call the forelimbs of a mandrill or a gorilla?
Maybe my perception comes from english not being my first language.
“Only problem with the Engineer is
that it makes every other class in the game boring to play.”
Hawks
Hands = Prehensile, multi-fingered.
Paws = Used to walk, with claws.
Technically, they aren’t mutually exclusive. So I’ll say Charr have four paws, of wich 2 are also hands. And Asura have hands that are paws too.
I simply cannot agree theyre paws. The merriam definition of a paw:
“1: the foot of a quadruped (as a lion or dog) that has claws; broadly : the foot of an animal.”
As of such theyre claws that function as hands (or vice versa) but definitely not paws
Thats true. They are defining to separate out the different types of feet.
They are saying that claws on a foot make the foot a paw. Just as a foot that has “a curved covering of horn that protects the front of or encloses the ends of the digits of an ungulate mammal and that corresponds to a nail or claw” is a hoof.
Foot plus claws = paw
Foot plus the curved covering = hoof
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
The real question is do asuras have a real blood supply?
What kind of silly question is that? The sublevels of Rata Sum is filled with hu… I mean uuuuh… golems creating artificial blood for use in medical centers. Yes… golems…
They are rats, so they have claws.
They used to live under ground, it would be logical for them to have claws to dig out dirt and such.
Skritt are rats.
Asura are not. They are more like Gremlins than anything else.
Skritt physical appearance is actually more in common with bats then rats. Most people make that mistake because most people only recognize bats by wings…… but the face and ears have right tells.
