Guild Wars 2

I’ve got deep into Golemancy, and how it’s known and used by Asurans; I want to know the comparison of Asuran use to the other cultures/races, if it’s being used by those cultures/races and the differences of the use, possibly even similar machinery to Golems.

The G.O.L.E.M stands for ‘Genius-Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation’, meaning that highly intellectual minds can operate these using equipment linked to them through enchantments. Seeing as Scarlet is originally a Sylvari Engineer and controls Golems/similar machines to Golems, is it doable for Humans, Norn and Charr to use Golems in the same way or on similar lines?

I can see how Engineers are deemed to be the inventors of machinery and commonly seen in the Charr territory. Since Golems are used for helpful heavy-lifting and even defensive combat, this makes me think that the Charr engineers were just as smart as Asurans who, supposedly, created the Golem, which I have gathered through their continuous preparation of war and machinery used for war; could this mean that the Charr had a chance to/scrapped the idea/developed Golems?

Also, Golemancy seems to be the Asura-adopted way to learn about the mechanisms of how Golems work and operate them through personal preference, leading to tweaking them (an example is Zojja’s Sparky Golem). Would this mean that Engineers will develop machinery, Golems or not, around their cultural backgrounds? Is this why Charr made war machines instead of Golems? Please discuss!

I’m not sure about everything, but I know that, as far as mechanics go, other races are able to use golems, at least specifically the seige golems, and hazmat suits. All of these are golems that are built to be controlled from a co*kpit with an individual inside of it.

It’s all included in our character’s curriculum vitae, alongside with knowing how to operate air balloons now.

So what about when it comes to creating them?

I would imagine so- the basis for modern golem control seems to be Snaff’s theories on mind-golem interface, and seeing as those theories are shown in Edge of Destiny to be pretty universal there’s really no reason why other races couldn’t use it. Before Snaff, golem control was “all joysticks and directional pads” which would almost certainly be operable by other races.

As for why other races haven’t adopted golems on a large scale, it seems to mostly be due to a general unease about asuran technology. Other races don’t understand how it works, and as much as they like to talk big, it seems asura don’t have an entirely firm grasp either. Mishaps happen, even when the so-called “experts” are running the show, and when they aren’t… well, see the Queen’s Jubilee. I think the charr are much more comfortable sticking with their own sorts of technology.

What Aaron said. Technomagic is a cultural technology developed by asura. But that doesn’t put asura above everybody else because we see in the black citadel that an asura NPC can’t grasp the concept of charr machinery functioning without the use of magic. But we also know that asura who devote themselves to the study of charr tech can become engineers.

That doesn’t mean the asura aren’t generally smarter than the average population of other races. It just means that their level isn’t out of reach. We see that with the new magitech skill of the engineer.

really, it’s no different with charr tech. we can just accept charr tech easier because we are familiar with the principles in RL. But the main division separating magitech and charr tech from the general world at large is simply the cultural push to pursue the studies. Charr and asura culture are especially at odds. Charr shun the high dependence on magic do to the FL while asura taking up charr tech would basically need to forget everything they knew and start over with new schooling because the principles behing each tech is so different.

I do think that there are golems used by humans.

Keep in mind that the “Genius-Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation” name comes from asuran history before they even met humans and the like. In the 250 years, golems have become somewhat self-aware, even if still programmed under certain protocals. This would allow humans to use such.

This said: Uzolan made a golem from Snaff’s designs.

So yes.

Dustfinger.9510:

That doesn’t mean the asura aren’t generally smarter than the average population of other races. It just means that their level isn’t out of reach. We see that with the new magitech skill of the engineer.

People tend to place intelligence on a very linear spectrum. What’s far more common is a jungle of winding paths. A simple example would be a savant, who is particularly intelligent in one or a few related areas, but not necessarily what you’d call generally intelligent. It’s highly possible that the Asuran brain is simply more specialised to grasp magic and technomagic, but no more inclined than any other race to grasp conventional non-magical technology or simple problem solving. This is somewhat supported by the fact that the average Asuran is smart enough to create a big bomb, but not smart enough to know that bombs go boom. How many Asuran can’t see the obvious flaws in their inventions, usually leading to a group of adventurers needing to fix their problem for them.

Yes. Siege Golems can be used by the other races. They are mostly used in WvW but also in PvE on a few occasions (personal story and marionette event).

You can argue this also counts for the golem that can be summoned by the asura racial skill Summon Power Suit But as the name implies, it’s more of a suit than a golem.

Though most golem models seem to be designed only for asura.

CureForLiving.5360:

Dustfinger.9510:

That doesn’t mean the asura aren’t generally smarter than the average population of other races. It just means that their level isn’t out of reach. We see that with the new magitech skill of the engineer.

People tend to place intelligence on a very linear spectrum. What’s far more common is a jungle of winding paths. A simple example would be a savant, who is particularly intelligent in one or a few related areas, but not necessarily what you’d call generally intelligent. It’s highly possible that the Asuran brain is simply more specialised to grasp magic and technomagic, but no more inclined than any other race to grasp conventional non-magical technology or simple problem solving. This is somewhat supported by the fact that the average Asuran is smart enough to create a big bomb, but not smart enough to know that bombs go boom. How many Asuran can’t see the obvious flaws in their inventions, usually leading to a group of adventurers needing to fix their problem for them.

Ah. that’s a great point. Which would explain why asura have so many mistakes in their experiments that it seems humorous to us RL humans. because we take our own problem solving abilities for granted and assume they carry over to everyone else.

I don’t see Charr using golem-like technology in a battle scenario unless they have no other choice, and that might be why they don’t seem to have anything like that. I might be wrong, but Charr seem more inclined to face a foe head on than relying on a machine to do their dirty work for them. And I mean this only so far as mechanical foot soldiers go, obviously they will use larger scale war machinery. But they really don’t seem like the kind of culture that would spare their living soldiers to send in an army of robots, or rely on robotics in any way unless it’s necessary. Their technology is generally much more practical than what is seen with the Asura, who seem fond of doing things just for the sake of doing things. Getting something useful out of it that lessens their workload is a nice bonus.

Humans are probably having too many economic problems to fund research into anything like golemancy on a large scale or produce them on a large scale, and researchers might be too busy studying something like defenses, as humans seem.. particularly fond of that. There were the Watchknights, which actually were very much like human-made golems, but I imagine humans might not be quick to pursue that again with how they were turned against the world by Scarlet. And given the aforementioned economic problems, those weren’t the most practical thing in the first place. Rather than the queen gifting a bunch of buttplate-bots to her people as some sort of hairbrained gift that would obviously go terribly wrong, because humanity isn’t allowed to Have Nice Things, why didn’t she donate the money used to charities for the homeless, the orphanage, things like that, who would put the money to good use?
Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent.

Sylvari? I wouldn’t be even remotely surprised if they made some sort of plant-golems to defend the Grove/the Pale Tree if things get any worse in their homeland. And Sylvari can clearly operate that kind of machinery, given Scarlet, so maybe they could persuade the nearby Asura to lend them some tech.

Norn, save perhaps a few individuals, probably don’t give one whit about golems. They could surely operate them, though, given that “norn engineer” is a player option. Maybe some day a norn’s chosen legend will be to build a better golem than the asura, who knows? Wouldn’t that be a surprise.

There is a living story mission where you control a pack experimental terminator golem. You take Temple of dawayna solo style. each attack kills waves of orians rushing at u. Was one of my favorite events in the game.

A little bit off topic but technically speaking a golem is any object or device that has been enchanted to be animate and follow orders/carry out specific functions, the G.O.L.E.M. acronym and asuran golems are merely the asuran technomagic take on such devices.

The charr Flame Legion utilizes effigies which are assault golems for all intents and purposes. In GW1 the Forgotten and Mursaat both utilized enchanted armor of varying types as warriors. I think necromancer minions and elementalist summons would even fall under the broader definition of a golem.

So while other races might not use asuran golems almost every race utilizes some form of golem.