Guild Wars 2

Was randomly thinking about this as I wandered the wikis, but I noticed that post GW1, we see no references to the “snow beasts” (Large bear like creatures enslaved by the stone summit). http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/b/b2/Snow_Beast.jpg

And in GW2, we have Arctodus (wolf bear things). http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/7/75/Arctodus.jpg

I noticed they had similar fur coloration, and some of the older ones can get pretty big. So, crazy theory or something that might hold merit?

I… huh. Y’know, now that you mention it, maybe they are related. Same habitat, comparatively same appearance (to you hypothetical naysayers, I cite the jungle troll), and the shift in coloration might be a result of hybridization with the polar bears which seem to have come south with the norn, a possibility which would also account for their recovery from what may have been near-extinction.

I’m not entirely sure why, but I find this possibility honestly exciting. Good catch.

And being allowed to be their natural selves as opposed to constantly strapped into that armor and reigns may account for the more natural bear posture instead of the upright one (which is still kinda bear like, but not one they hold constantly).

Hrrrmn…

I’d probably be more inclined to consider it a relative. There are similarities, although the snow beast has a much shorter and blunter snout (which ironically makes it closer to the real prehistorical arctodus).

If there is a connection, I’d be inclined to turn it around. It’s not that the arctodus are descendants of snow beasts, but it might be that the Summit dwarves partially domesticated arctodus or a related species and bred them into a form more to their liking.

At first glance, the armour seems to be top-heavy in that stance so it might actually encourage a quadruped stance if anything. However, there may be a subtlety to it – such as the head and neck armour forcing the beast to bend its head down, which in turn means it needs to stand in order to see. If they’re made to wear that armour constantly, that might be a means of training them to stand upright, with a selective breeding program accounting for other differences.

It’s also interesting to note that the dredge have arctodus in cages in one of their burrows, IIRC (I think it’s the one in northern Wayfarer, the one that norn miners like to go into to mine ‘dredge ore’) – that might be an indication the dredge are themselves looking to try something similar.

Snow beasts were basically as much bigger to jotun as bears are to humans. So it would be as close as “relatives” and not the same.