Guild Wars 2

Just about every time I have ever played pen and paper D&D, read a book with dragons, watched a movie with dragons, or played other games that had dragons, I have encountered a Dragon in Humanoid form. If it was not in Humanoid form then even in the grand scale Dragons are very intelligent and can communicate verbally, as seen most recently in the Hobbit Movie and still one of my all time favorite books.

What I am saying is, can the Elder Dragons of Tyria appear in Humanoid Form? If so why would you not make them appear to us that way and have dialog with us. So they can tell us exactly how they are going to kill you and dip you in ketchup while doing so.

I know (voice acting) ain’t cheap but come on I would rather that Mordremoth told my hero about what it was gonna do, than for me to find out little tid bits about it communicating with Scarlet and how crazy she went from what she herd.

Glint was able to speak in GW1

I’m sure they keep elder dragons from speeking to us, to give the distant and enemy feel.

I don’t think the Elder Dragons can appear in humanoid form. There’s no mention of it at all in the lore. They are definitely intelligent (for instance Glint (not elder), Zhaitan sending forces to attack Claw Island, or any of them controlling their champions/minions), but they probably see no point in having a dialogue with any of the other races. They’re awake, they’re going to do what they want (cause they’re Elder Dragons), they’ll consume cause they can and want to. They have no interest in taunting others, they just act.

The communication would have to be similar to that of Grigori in Dragon’s Dogma, which worked so, so well. Also in which case, I would much rather any spoken communication come from the Deep Sea Dragon.

Something about a guttural voice coming from the depths of the ocean from a black whirlpool, at least it’s the image I have in my head.

Very Lovecraftian.

In d&d, dragons are powerful spellcasters capable of shapeshifting. This doesn’t apply universally.

Sera.6539:

I don’t think the Elder Dragons can appear in humanoid form. There’s no mention of it at all in the lore. They are definitely intelligent (for instance Glint (not elder), Zhaitan sending forces to attack Claw Island, or any of them controlling their champions/minions), but they probably see no point in having a dialogue with any of the other races. They’re awake, they’re going to do what they want (cause they’re Elder Dragons), they’ll consume cause they can and want to. They have no interest in taunting others, they just act.

The return of the Elder Dragons are on a 10,000 year cycle so yeah might be hard to come by some lore on that standpoint and was anyone other than the Forgotten and Mussat left after last time the Elder Dragons came to town, maybe the Dwarves remember….nobody has any details about the past to share with us.

emikochan.8504:

In d&d, dragons are powerful spellcasters capable of shapeshifting. This doesn’t apply universally.

the Elder Dragon are not powerful spell casters? Not all the books and other media make their version of a dragon a shape shifter, just wondering out loud do these Elders?

It might not make sense for an answer to come from anet since it might reveal a very important piece of info and spoil the whole thing if they can shape shift into humanoid forms.

I’ve actually had enough of this action.

I used to play Aion, there is a dragon known as Tiamat who is able to transform into a woman. They released another one too, Beritra, who is…. Ugly (in my opinion)

Before that, as someone stated, we had D&D shape shifters.

I know this sounds really “old fashioned” but I’d rather have the dragons stay as dragons. They are described as forces of nature.

I doubt any elder dragon would take a humonoid form. The lore is such that a dragon’s view the races of tyria is like they’re insects, so it’s unlikely they would want to take the form on an insect.

Yeah, I have actually been thinking about this lately, and if I was on the writing team I would likely implement this for the following reasons:

1. The dragons are trying to take over the world in a cartoon villain fashion while not revealing themselves

2. The dragons cannot communicate and that only compliments how they cannot be related with and seen as haphazardly creating chaos like a silly trickster god.

3. It would create quite a lot of tension to know that the dragons could walk among any army and any ranks at any time undercover essentially. They don’t need these always somehow stealthed minions to do their dirty work. They can also effectively strike down dangerous opposition to them in a surprise attack. Preferably in human form because sword fights are pretty bad-kitten . Let’s be honest here.

4. It would allow the dragons to communicate with themselves and even form a pact of their own. If the story continues as is the other dragons just stand by while they stupidly get picked off one by one in an almost tragically funny fantasy world. As wise as the dragons are hinted to be, they do not act like it, nor pull tactical military decisions of any kind. They’re always abrupt and foreseeable. Kind of disappointing IMO

I was wondering the same the other day when I was re-creating the whole GW2 story in my mind but as you said, is an over-used idea and to be honest, I don’t consider it a good idea at all.
Why an all-mighty dragon would turn himself into a far inferior form?

LumAnth.5124:

I know this sounds really “old fashioned” but I’d rather have the dragons stay as dragons. They are described as forces of nature.

See that is also something I have heard other say, that maybe the Elder Dragons are conduits to the Gods and that all that magic eating is actually the Gods getting that magic back so they stay more powerful magically than the races of Tyria.
Which some would also argue that had we voted for Gnashblade, we would have found out though his Fractal research project that the reason the Gods got mad at and turned on Abaddon, was that originally Tyrians did not have magic and his gift of magic to the races sealed his fate.
To keep a balance between the magic the races could use and to not let them get to powerful the Elder Dragons where created by the remaining Gods.

On another note, I have also heard that they can in fact turn into Humanoid form as we who have played Guild Wars 1 will remember seeing them as what we all thought was the herald or avatar forms of each God. Which might explain when Kormir said “Yes….and so much more!” as she took the over being the God when Abaddon was destroyed.

Gummy.4278:

See that is also something I have heard other say, that maybe the Elder Dragons are conduits to the Gods and that all that magic eating is actually the Gods getting that magic back so they stay more powerful magically than the races of Tyria.
Which some would also argue that had we voted for Gnashblade, we would have found out though his Fractal research project that the reason the Gods got mad at and turned on Abaddon, was that originally Tyrians did not have magic and his gift of magic to the races sealed his fate.
To keep a balance between the magic the races could use and to not let them get to powerful the Elder Dragons where created by the remaining Gods.

On another note, I have also heard that they can in fact turn into Humanoid form as we who have played Guild Wars 1 will remember seeing them as what we all thought was the herald or avatar forms of each God. Which might explain when Kormir said “Yes….and so much more!” as she took the over being the God when Abaddon was destroyed.

Abaddon didn’t gift magic to the races of Tyria. Magic was around since the beginning, but at the end of the last rising of the Elder Dragon, the Seers sealed away all the uncorrupted magic of Tyria in the Bloodstone.

The Six, not just Abaddon alone, gifted magic back to Tyria when they released it from the Bloodstone. After all the death, destruction, and chaos it caused, it was Abaddon that didn’t want to restrict magic to a manageable level. That’s why, amongst other reasons, there was a conflict between him and the other gods.

Also, there is NO ties between the Elder Dragons and the Six. For one, the Six, as well as the human race, isn’t native to Tyria, and they have only been around for about maybe 1,500 years or so. The Elder Dragon, on the other hand, have had multiple risings. That span nearly 11,000 years from the present day.

Secondly, this whole theory has been debunked in the Personal Story, during the Cathedral of Silence (story).

Priestess Rhie: Hail, ancient one! Rise from your frozen tomb. I, your priestess, call upon you in the name of Grenth himself!
The Seventh Reaper: Who dares summon me? A true priest! is there such a thing in this fallen land?
Priestess Rhie: I am Grenth’s servant, and we have survived many dangers to speak with you, Please, hear us?
The Seventh Reaper: I see in your heart that you are no stranger to Death. Very well. I will hear you out, but in return you will kill in Grenth’s name.
The Seventh Reaper: The keeper of this shrine has fallen to Zhaitan. Grenth wishes him returned, but I am too weak to perform the task. Destroy the keeper, and I will answer your questions.
Trahearne: Thank you, dark Reaper. We will do as you have asked.
The Seventh Reaper: Destroy the corruption. Return the soul of the keeper. Go.

Grenth and Zhaitan are enemies, and Grenth and his Reapers didn’t care for Zhaitan stealing one of Grenth’s servants souls from the Mists to server him.

Dragons in Tyria can talk and are intelligent, Glint and Kuunavang talked to us in GW1.
Elders Dragons on the other hand are more like a power of nature (like an earthquake, tornado, tsunami and so on) than a creature.

As far as I’m aware dragons being able to shapeshift into human form is fairly unusual outside of DnD and Eastern mythology. (And if I remember correctly not all DnD dragons do it, at least not often, although I think they all can.) I can certainly think of more examples of sci-fi and fantasy dragons that don’t shapeshift than ones that can. (Within RPGs it’s a bit unbalanced because so many are DnD games or thinly veiled copies.)

But even if the elder dragons are capable of it I’m not sure they would. Likewise they seem to be able to communicate with other beings (usually their champions) but their only communication with the playable races and their allies has been to try and corrupt them.

The Elder Dragons are at least tens of thousands of years old and incredibly poweful compared to everything else on Tyria. It’s quite likely they see our races are irrelevant to them, so asking why they don’t turn themselves into a humanoid and come and speak to us is like asking why mesmers don’t turn themselves into rabbits and go and talk to all the rabbits they kill in the process of attacking other things. Even if they can it would never occur to them that it’s worth doing.

kylwilson.9137:

The communication would have to be similar to that of Grigori in Dragon’s Dogma, which worked so, so well. Also in which case, I would much rather any spoken communication come from the Deep Sea Dragon.

Something about a guttural voice coming from the depths of the ocean from a black whirlpool, at least it’s the image I have in my head.

Very Lovecraftian.

• A guttural voice from the deep… Maybe this is what you had in mind
  https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/Mermaid-Sleeps-with-the-Fishes-Completed/first#post3339111
• As for Lovecraftian… Wish Granted!
  https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen/The-Elder-Dragon-Verses-v-1-3-Complete/first#post3173171

A dragon demon in human angel form: http://youtu.be/txDjGeD6YuA?t=5m43s
… and it looks epic

Erukk.1408:

Gummy.4278:

See that is also something I have heard other say, that maybe the Elder Dragons are conduits to the Gods and that all that magic eating is actually the Gods getting that magic back so they stay more powerful magically than the races of Tyria.
Which some would also argue that had we voted for Gnashblade, we would have found out though his Fractal research project that the reason the Gods got mad at and turned on Abaddon, was that originally Tyrians did not have magic and his gift of magic to the races sealed his fate.
To keep a balance between the magic the races could use and to not let them get to powerful the Elder Dragons where created by the remaining Gods.

On another note, I have also heard that they can in fact turn into Humanoid form as we who have played Guild Wars 1 will remember seeing them as what we all thought was the herald or avatar forms of each God. Which might explain when Kormir said “Yes….and so much more!” as she took the over being the God when Abaddon was destroyed.

Abaddon didn’t gift magic to the races of Tyria. Magic was around since the beginning, but at the end of the last rising of the Elder Dragon, the Seers sealed away all the uncorrupted magic of Tyria in the Bloodstone.

The Six, not just Abaddon alone, gifted magic back to Tyria when they released it from the Bloodstone. After all the death, destruction, and chaos it caused, it was Abaddon that didn’t want to restrict magic to a manageable level. That’s why, amongst other reasons, there was a conflict between him and the other gods.

Also, there is NO ties between the Elder Dragons and the Six. For one, the Six, as well as the human race, isn’t native to Tyria, and they have only been around for about maybe 1,500 years or so. The Elder Dragon, on the other hand, have had multiple risings. That span nearly 11,000 years from the present day.

Secondly, this whole theory has been debunked in the Personal Story, during the Cathedral of Silence (story).

Priestess Rhie: Hail, ancient one! Rise from your frozen tomb. I, your priestess, call upon you in the name of Grenth himself!
The Seventh Reaper: Who dares summon me? A true priest! is there such a thing in this fallen land?
Priestess Rhie: I am Grenth’s servant, and we have survived many dangers to speak with you, Please, hear us?
The Seventh Reaper: I see in your heart that you are no stranger to Death. Very well. I will hear you out, but in return you will kill in Grenth’s name.
The Seventh Reaper: The keeper of this shrine has fallen to Zhaitan. Grenth wishes him returned, but I am too weak to perform the task. Destroy the keeper, and I will answer your questions.
Trahearne: Thank you, dark Reaper. We will do as you have asked.
The Seventh Reaper: Destroy the corruption. Return the soul of the keeper. Go.

Grenth and Zhaitan are enemies, and Grenth and his Reapers didn’t care for Zhaitan stealing one of Grenth’s servants souls from the Mists to server him.

good just as long as you understand i was repeating some discussion i had heard…..