Guild Wars 2

Heart of Thorns presented a little armor piece for every profession, which seems to fit a profession’s/specialization’s theme.
Revenant – crystal dragon’s head, of course!
Warrior – skull helm. Kind of obvious, harder to explain, but barbaric, wildish theme seems to be fitting.
Guardian – gloves with dragon’s head for a dragonhunter, of course!
Ranger – nature theme for druid, fits.
Engineer – face mask to keep face safe while engineering, why not?
Thief – some sort of ninja mask, keeps face hidden, seems fitting.
Necromancer – reaper’s hood for reaper, of course!
Elementalist – shoulder circle with lightning for tempest, seems fitting.
Mesmer – some sort of stylized birds for chronomancer? Cuckoo clock? Those shoulders seems to be more fitting the Ebonhawke theme, but not chronomancer. Am I missing something, does anyone have any ideas?

I believe it’s something like this:
The stylised bird(falcon) on the shoulders have very clear Influence of Egyptian mythology/design. Now the actual meaning of the bird in this case is a bit harder to figure out, but i personally think it is a reference to the Egyptian God Horus.

While I don’t know a specific relation between time and Horus, it might be because the winter soltice(reference of time) is/was celebrated in his honour. It may also be due to the sky(Horus=god of sky) including the sun and moon, and Horus controlling shift between day and night.

I’m sure someone has better ideas, but this is my best shot

I belive the shoulder skin predates guild wars 2, and comes from GW1 concept art for the Chronomancer class from the Utopia campaign that was eventually abandoned in favour of making a new game. Other concept art suggested the campaign would have an Aztec theme, so that might be a place to look for a lore connection. Alternatively, any significance to the shoulder design may have been lost in the cancellation, and they might be nothing more than a nod to the original chronomancer.

I think it represents a god? Have you seen the Well of Eternity icon by the way? It represents the serpent which was “Ouroboros” which means eternity , it shows a serpent that is eating it’s tail.

Chris McSwag.4683:

I believe it’s something like this:
The stylised bird(falcon) on the shoulders have very clear Influence of Egyptian mythology/design. Now the actual meaning of the bird in this case is a bit harder to figure out, but i personally think it is a reference to the Egyptian God Horus.

While I don’t know a specific relation between time and Horus, it might be because the winter soltice(reference of time) is/was celebrated in his honour. It may also be due to the sky(Horus=god of sky) including the sun and moon, and Horus controlling shift between day and night.

I’m sure someone has better ideas, but this is my best shot

Horus is also a god of kingship , which doesn’t fit for mesmer , but the god of sky does.

GW1 concept art, seem familiar?

Yep, they are… but why do they have to be so gigantic on my mesmer?
Leaning to either side he pokes his head on the spiky parts.