Guild Wars 2

Was the Ancient Karka the champion of an Elder Dragon? Your thoughts. . .

no… i think karkas just were an ancient race that got disturbet by the consortium and we just slaughtered them

Let’s slaughter all the ancient and endangered species!!

They were pushed out of the ocean depths.

So they were likely fleeing from the DSD just like krait, quaggan, and largos.

They had did this before too, if Zommoros is to be believed.

I have a theory that they might be related to the leviathans from the Jade Sea. Mainly because when I first saw one it reminded me of a 4 legged Leviathan Eye. Maybe they were originally one species that lived in the deep sea, and over time they spread out in different directions.

Also the idea that they were pushed out of the deep sea like the krait, quaggan etc. is kind of worrying. That means there’s something WORSE out there somewhere…

I can think of no reason why the Ancient Karka should be a dragon champion. There are plenty of natural motivations to explain the karka attacks (driven, we can assume, under the Ancient’s leadership). They are another deep sea race who have been pushed closer to the surface and the land, as others have already said, by the stirrings of Something In The Deeps (aka Bubbles). Like the krait this means they’re fighting for new territories and pushing other things out in turn.

Add to that the Consortium disturbing the karka in the process of raiding their new lands in search of valuable resources, and it makes sense for them to become agitated and aggressive. The Consortium set up shop in Lion’s Arch… and the karka follow them there. They basically did what we did: chase the invaders back to strike at their homeland.

I’m quite fascinated by the karka as a whole. Are they intelligent? Do they have some form of complex social structure? What is their life cycle like? They obviously go through several metamorphosis phases judging by the great difference in appearance between Hatchlings, Young and Adult karkas.

Zommoros also hints that the karka are an incredibly ancient race, perhaps even pre-dating the races who fought the Elder Dragons during the previous cycle. At the same time, if they’ve been hidden away deep in the sea all this time, how is it that the hylek know about them? The hylek, as amphibians, live along coastal and wetland regions and thus aren’t likely to head deep into the oceans where the karka live. And what exactly did the Consortium do to rile up the karka so? Did they destroy something of great importance to them? Maybe the karka regard Passion Flowers as a sacred plant and react violently to anyone trying to harvest them? Or are they simply extremely territorial and xenophobic?

In regards to intelligence, drax noted on Guru2 that the places the karka attacked were all where the Consortium survivors of the exploration of Southsun Cove fled to (Morgan’s Spiral being en route to where Noll was).

As for the metamorphosis – that’s actually not true. It seems that from hatchling to young they grow a tail, but further changes are just additions of the shell on their body (and, of course, their own size increasing). They always have 4 legs and a rather lobster like body once they grow the tail (though from young to adult, the tail goes from swinging upwards, like a devourer’s, to swinging downwards – most likely due to the extra space beneath them).

The hylek don’t know about them. The hylek we talk to is told of the karka and helps make an acidic potion he thinks can help. It’s in other words a run-of-the-mill dissolvant (well, very powerful and not so run of the mill I guess).

As for what the Consortium did – it’s left fairly unknown to them, it could have just simply been their presence. Though Canach suspects its because they began experiments on the flowers there (their food source, most likely).

There’s one other notable difference between Young and Adult karkas. Adults have a pair of “arms” close to their head, which the Young lack completely. Idle animations show that the Adults use these arms for feeding, and possibly more complex work as well.

And oops about the hylek. I must have misread his dialogue when I did the quest then.

I doubt that the karka live solely on Passion Fruit; as aquatic creatures, this would majorly limit their food sources and restrict their population. I’m more inclined to think that it plays a role in their reproduction, which may explain why the karka reacted so violently to the Consortium’s incursion. Most animals will defend traditional nesting/nursery grounds with great vigor.

One question that I want to know is Karka a land or sea creature, we are killing them left and right on the island but if they are sea-based creatures, we could be only seeing like 0.01% of them and 99.99% of their species could still be lying under the sea ready to emerge after being disturb by us.

Well, if theories are correct about this being a breeding ground, it could be expected that a large portion of their population is on the island to protect their young. But as of now this is only speculation.

A boy, karka take breeding to a whole new level. Breeding is a martial art for them, for grenth’s sake.

You know what? We may have gotten answer to some of these questions had we studied them at all and not just wiped out every single one we come across. Ah well, they were creepy. They needed to die.

I remember the groups of hatchlings rushing towards dying ancient karka during the last fight. Seeing them being slaughtered one by one made me stop fighting. I just sat there and watched the final part thinking, if that annihilation was really necessary…

soon largos new race O_O dont like there wings thought :P hope they become playable.
same as tengu

Venirto.4208:

I remember the groups of hatchlings rushing towards dying ancient karka during the last fight. Seeing them being slaughtered one by one made me stop fighting. I just sat there and watched the final part thinking, if that annihilation was really necessary…

Yeah, it’s good that a game makes you think. It means it is complex enough.