Guild Wars 2

I got into a discussion a long time ago over whether Branded can still bleed. I had assumed the bloodstreams crystallized along with everything else, so I was asked to prove it. Upon doing some digging, I’ve found no specific reference to that. Bones, muscles, skin, but no mention of blood. Is there a definitive answer as to what happens to your blood when you become Branded?

I´d say you become crystal, just like Icebrood becomes made of ice (or rather coats dead body in ice. All in all it seems that Dragons basically first kill, then corrupt? (as in Risen are dead and “reanimated” by Zhaitan magic). No proof or source here, just opinion

some of the lesser icebrood (like some svanir shamans) show signs of corruption but appear to be alive still

more powerful ones though… yeah, just bones encased in ice

In the case of Icebrood, they slowly turn into ice from the outside in – earliest forms of Icebrood are just coated in ice, but older Icebrood have their blood frozen. It’s not a case of “lesser vs more powerful” but “younger vs older.” Any living being corrupted by Primordus and his destroyers – as extremely rare as it is – would be a similar case, early stages being just encased in rock to eventually having the body “melted down” into lava.

Branded however are made differently – their entire bodies turn to crystal. On the models themselves, you see they have gray skin (much like Risen) but beneath that skin instead of muscle and the like you have crystal – with their concept art (easiest to notice is with this one ) the only thing not crystalized beneath the ruptured skin is the bone (which goes in line with Victurus the Shattered’s dialogue about breaking his bones).

The novels actually go into detail about the destruction of dragon minions (Edge of Destiny covering the most but Ghosts of Ascalon has a more interesting account for Branded).

While blood is not specifically mentioned, the destruction of Branded is all about shattering – no splatter or the like, never mention of blood upon their death, and Ghosts of Ascalon was quite graphic what with heads flying about.

And @ Illi: Only Zhaitan is known to solely first-kill-then-corrupt. Icebrood and Branded can be corrupted as living beings, and the former can also be corpses (I presume the same for Branded and Destroyers but that’s unclear). Even Zhaitan’s corruption can corrupt living being – see Kellach and Necromancer Rissa from the human and charr personal storylines – though Zhaitan doesn’t seem to do that directly, just as Primordus doesn’t corrupt living beings directly or Jormag only corrupts after getting the to-be-corrupted to want it. All Elder Dragons can corrupt the same subjects – and in regards beings, they can be living or dead – but they hold a “preference” for what they twist; why the preference, we don’t know other than just to keep them separate kinds of forces to us players from a design standpoint.

OK, maybe not first kill, then corrupt, but doesn´t an object kinda die in the process of the corruption? You know, if one turns Branded, or is coated in ice as Icebrood, don´t we coun´t him as dead as opposed to “corrupted living”? As I see it, corruption is killing the subject and then using its body to “live” in the different form (if we can call it living) as a corrupted one. Or am I completely wrong?

I wouldn’t count them as dead given that they’re still sentient – both Branded and Icebrood show – in the former during Edge of Destiny only – sentience even when not champions, unlike Risen and Destroyers.

Corruption doesn’t kill, not traditionally at least – it changes the composition of the flesh into elements, and effectively brainwashes the victims.

But I suppose it depends on how you define “living” – Branded and Icebrood no longer have pumping hearts and working organs (at least after a time in the latter’s case), but they’re not simple mobile corpses and there’s no state of obvious death – it’s just “living normal being” directly to “dragon minion” (whereas Risen have a couple seconds of being dead before rising again, just long enough to hit the floor before moving to get up again – if in the presence of the dragon’s influence, otherwise it’d be longer). The concept behind dragon minions is basically “living elements” (Destroyers are, though bodies of stone and lava, considered living beings mechanically at least) – this is one of the main things other than ties to the Elder Dragon that separates, for example, an Icebrood Elemental from a simple Ice Elemental.

IMO Zaithan cant be compared to others – he is the dragon of death… hence death is his thing.

Others however are exploiting something else – i did not find anyone “corrupted” by Primordus… does it happen? GW1 shows just his minions – i think he creates them by magic out of the stone and nothing else…
And i disagree that branded are dead… have we forgoten one of the luitenant of Kralkatorrik being cured of corruption? Glint leads us in original GW1 prophecies she makes the prophecy. And she is quite alive when we meet her there…

I guess it trully depends on the definition of the “living” as it is. I still count the former persons dead, but granted, they are sort of living as something else still…
And as of Glint (or the chicken in Arah) – I think those were not freed (or healed?) of corruption, rather granted free will and made independent and not subjects to Dragons influence. But there may be these “depends on how you define…” things here too

@Mereon: Though Zhaitan is called the “Elder Death Dragon” or the “Elder Undeath Dragon” that’s just because of what his focus of corruption is – corpses. However, like all other Elder Dragons he can corrupt living beings, the landscape, and plantlife. This is shown mainly via Kellach and Necromancer Rissa (human and charr storylines), in Orr itself, and Sparkfly Fen respectively.

All Elder Dragons can corrupt all things – it’s just that they directly only corrupt specific things. Though there’s no living beings corrupted by Primordus, there was an interview with GuildMag in which Jeff Grubb, Scott McGough, and Ree Soesbee confirmed that Primordus can indeed corrupt living beings.

Zhaitan prefers corpses. Primordus prefers stone and lava. Kralkatorrik corrupts via direct physical contact (be it crystal or his breath). The DSD, to our knowledge, prefers water. And Jormag prefers convincing others to desire his corruption (though it should be noted that his Sons of Svanir minions do forcefully spread his corruption – something unshared by his non-SoS Icebrood, except via mentally forcing one to want his corruption like the Dragonspawn).