Guild Wars 2

In the story, there was something about using the Chak against the dragons. I think that this means that they’re just too tough for the dragons to easily fight. They are overall pretty dangerous, and we don’t know if they do anything to do their dead – some bugs would eat their own dead/wounded. And such would prevent corruption.

I wouldn’t see the whole “we don’t see corrupted <this>” as an argument for them being related to dragons.

• We don’t see risen centaur, skritt, or dredge despite all of them being around risen territories somewhere.
• We don’t see icebrood or branded wurms and grawl despite them being in the area of both.
• We don’t see icebrood griffons, bats, jotun, etc.

Even in the jungle I don’t think we saw any mordrem smokescales, tigers, wasps, or mushrooms (do correct me if I’m wrong).

The Chak come from the depths of tyria – like skritt, asura, skelk, oozes, and murrellows. So the only dragon they could be related to would be Primordus and they’re certainly not destroyers.

Zhaitan wasn’t inable to corrupt sylvari because they’re dragon minions but because the Dream – and in turn Pale Tree – protected them (or so we’ve been heavily implied in S2 and the lore building up to HoT – the final instance of the story imply that the Dream is related to Mordremoth, thus implying not protectection from him).

Some things would just look silly. Man-bear-pig kind of silly. That’s the real reason you don’t see undead Sylvari or undead Skrit.

Could be a hive mind thing. Possibly harder to corrupt a wider consciousness?

Wanderer.3248:

Some things would just look silly. Man-bear-pig kind of silly. That’s the real reason you don’t see undead Sylvari or undead Skrit.

For undead Sylvari there is an actual lore explanation, you know?

Konig Des Todes.2086:

In the story, there was something about using the Chak against the dragons. I think that this means that they’re just too tough for the dragons to easily fight. They are overall pretty dangerous, and we don’t know if they do anything to do their dead – some bugs would eat their own dead/wounded. And such would prevent corruption.

I think the big idea is that the Chak consume magic, so in essence they’re like the Elder Dragon. The idea was that they’d be able to consume the Elder Dragon’s magic… Mind you you’d just be transferring all that power from dragons to insects, so not a big improvement.

I don’t think they’re directly dragon minions either BUT:

“While other dragon minions are often corrupted versions of living creatures, destroyers are mindless beings created from rock and fire; they appear as mockeries of living creatures, such as trolls or harpies.¹ However, when a living being is encased by rock, its body could turn into lava, creating a corrupted creature.² In addition, the Destroyer Queen has created destroyers using egg-like pods, a feat previously thought impossible or at least not widely known.”

-quote from the destroyer wiki page (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Destroyer).

And I couldn’t help noticing similarities in some of their (both the chaks’ and the destroyers’) behavior and appearance. They clearly aren’t identical in any way, but then again so aren’t for example destroyer trolls compared to basic trolls. Nor the harpies.
Heres an example:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chak_Zapper
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Destroyer_Crab

The above mentioned type of destroyers has been called “Destroyer Crabs” since the launch of the game, but I personally gotta admit it resembles a Chak Zapper more than it resembles a basic crab (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Freshwater_Crab).

So basically some of the destroyers could very well be mockeries of the chak, created by Primordus. That wouldn’t however tell us anything else but the chak and Primordus having made contact in the depths of Tyria. There could just as well be Destroyer Asura or Destroyer Skritt.

But then again the latter lines of the quote are interesting too. I’ve always seen the destroyers’ behavior as a bit insectoid…ish, and the queen being able to lay eggs/pods sounds such as well. Taken the chak are insectoid creatures too, there would be another connection. Could Primordus be using the chak somehow, either by corrupting them (encasing them within rock/lava) or making these molten mockeries of them, to enlarge it’s minion army in the fast way insects reproduce? What are your thoughts? Or am I just totally insane to even think the destroyers behave a little insect-like?

I’m also aware of the risen spider thing and the corrupted eggs thing etc..
Basically Zhaitan having done the same thing, but not having realised the sheer effectivenes of the trick, and thus not focusing on it? :-D

Chak Zappers and Destroyer Crabs use the same frames so the similarity isn’t surprising. It’s just like how young karka, sparks/air elementals, and Cuttlers (or w/e they’re called) all use the same frame – that means same animations and same general shape.

I actually think that the chak could be more like parasites for the elder dragons. There are a lot of chak after all very near Mordremoth’s territory, but Mordremoth hasn’t bothered to fight them off. That is possibly because it would be too much of a bother to fight so many creatures that consume magical energy. They might consume magic from the vines if given the opportunity.

I think it’s plausible that the chak are an advanced land-assault force (marine corps?) for the DSD, actually. As Konig has pointed out, the DSD’s mode of corruption according to the Movement of the World seems to involve tentacles – it’s possible that this can be extended more broadly to ‘features of invertebrate life’. Furthermore, the dragons seem to largely lean towards a hive-esque structure for creating new minions – most minions are sterile soldiers, with prolific minion creators in the dragon’s home territory (the Great Destroyer, Blighting Trees, drake broodmothers in Orr, etc). Under this basis, an hive of arthropods like the chak may be hard to distinguish between DSD minions adapted for land and an independent insectoid species. (It’s worth noting that the chak weapon set do have a certain resemblance to the sclerite set, except more colourful.)

They do seem to have attacked Rata Novus from underground, but it’s worth remembering that a) the chak seemed unknown to the asura, and b) the Depths belong to Primordus nowadays. It’s possible, then, that the chak came in through an underground tunnel from the ocean following the ley lines, and were possibly stranded when Mordremoth awoke.

It’s also possible, of course, that they are indeed an independent species of thaumovores. GW2 could do with more story elements that don’t necessarily connect to the dragons.

Hmmm, speaking of underground tunnels from the ocean, beneath Tangled Depths there is a huge underwater cave network that has mechanics matching the dark path of Aquatic Ruins Fractal.

And one such cave goes right under Rata Novus.

So that’s entirely plausible.

My theory:

Chak are actually natural beings that thrive on ley-line energy. Good ol’ Primor likely clashed with their species and not necessary out of respect do some of the Destroyers look similar to them but just because they are so ‘practical’ in their potential for destruction does Prim make Destroyers off of them. Chak, being so attuned to Leyline energy not to mention their species is similar to a separate natural hive-mind, cannot have their drones corrupted, end up being what typical Destroyers are based on.

This might be a fairly distant assertion but I believe Primordus might actually like what his minions are capable of ‘destructive-wise’ moreso than any other Elder Dragon. Thusly his minions carry traits of Chak which although might be considered leeches of energy, as a suitable shape to bestow destructive power upon.

How’s that sound?

Sykper.6583:

Chak are actually natural beings that thrive on ley-line energy. Good ol’ Primor likely clashed with their species and not necessary out of respect do some of the Destroyers look similar to them but just because they are so ‘practical’ in their potential for destruction does Prim make Destroyers off of them. Chak, being so attuned to Leyline energy not to mention their species is similar to a separate natural hive-mind, cannot have their drones corrupted, end up being what typical Destroyers are based on.

A hive-mind wouldn’t render them immune to physical corruption though.