Guild Wars 2

There were Sylvari necromancers, elementalists and mesmers, so after they turned into Mordrem Guards, did they simply abandon these skills and use the Mordrem ones? That’s different than the Risen.

I think it’s mostly game mechanics, but Sylvari do seem to gain new skills (I’m thinking about the corrupted/poisoned ground AoE), or “powered-up” racial skills.

That’s an interesting question. ArenaNet does have a tendency towards frugality when it comes to profession variation among forces that are usually allies, but obviously that doesn’t apply with the Mordrem Guard.

One possible answer is that it lies with how the Mordrem Guard are controlled. They’re not corrupted in the usual sense, where a minion’s loyalty is switched to the dragon and then the minion is otherwise left to their own devices unless needed for a specific task. Instead, it’s a more conventional form of mind control – the sylvari is bombarded with Mordremoth’s thoughts and commands until they can no longer distinguish between them and begin obeying the dragon. We see this in the Mordrem Guard in Rata Novus whose original personality resurfaces when in the ‘quiet zone’ of Rata Novus – until Canach inadvertently has the individual deliberately tune back in to Mordremoth’s thoughts and Mordremoth resumes control. Without the constant flood of Mordremoth’s thoughts, a Mordrem Guard’s mind reverts to being their own.

It’s possible that this method of control interferes with the ability to cast spells. While we haven’t really been told how spellcasting actually works in Tyria, it seems quite likely that having your mind flooded with thoughts that aren’t your own disrupts the concentration required to work conventional magic. Since scholar-type sylvari are unlikely to have the skills to be physical-type Mordrem Guard, it’s possible that they’re granted powers from Mordremoth and that’s where the Mordrem Guard Tormentors come from.

Another possible answer is that it’s the Risen who are the exception to the rule.

Most corrupted minions have powers that are derived from their dragon, although some have superficial resemblance to regular professions. Consider the Branded – the bolts, beams, and crystals used by Branded humans and charr may have similarities to mesmer and elementalist magic, but that seems to be more because Kralkatorrik’s powers in general have that resemblance. Particularly since all Branded humans and charr have those abilities – magic use of that calibre isn’t that common among either race, so it’s likely that those abilities are coming from Kralkatorrik rather than being corrupted forms of magical training that the Branded individuals had in their former lives. Icebrood, on the other hand, have similar skills to their Sons of Svanir equivalents – but this is because the Sons of Svanir are already drawing from Jormag’s power.

Even in the case of the Orrian Risen, there are clear signs that Zhaitan has influenced their magic. Even accounting for different mechanics, there’s a clear mismatch between the profession balance we saw among the Orrian undead in Guild Wars 1 and the Orrian Risen in Guild Wars 2 – the GW1 undead had a lot of archers, which are rare and typically named characters among the Risen, while there are also a significant number of monks among the GW1 undead and the closest thing to them among the Risen are the guardian-like Putrifiers. The first could simply be a matter of most bows and arrows not surviving decades of immersion, but the lack of monks among the pious Orrians seems significant, and possibly indicative that former monks have had their magic in life replaced with something else (the Exalted mention that the Mordrem don’t like the Preservation magic they use – maybe this extends to other Elder Dragons as well). Meanwhile, there are skills that appear to come from the dragon – I’m pretty sure that field-of-eyes trick used by Risen Wizards wasn’t among their repertoire in life.

So it could be that the real question is not why Mordrem Guard that were formerly spellcasters lost their old skills in exchange for dragon-themed ones, but why Orrian Risen are different in that by and large they do seem to have retained the magic they had in life rather than exclusively using Zhaitan-themed magic.

i kinda took the lack of risen archers as maybe Vizier Khilbron took most of Orr’s military for himself (although risen wizard could have had a dual profession in life)

IMO if sylvari are not being corrupted but instead being mind controlled. its possible they are simply taping into abilities they already have with mordy giving them a magic boost

this is hard to tell in the end it kinda sits in game mechanics almost(i remember in GW1 the afflicted was not always consistent when it came to profession of the person they was in life)

Yeah, Khilbron cherrypicking the military is an explanation I’ve considered myself. That doesn’t explain the lack of monks, though, including Risen you’d expect to be monks like former priestesses of Dwayna.

(’Course, modern NPC priestesses of Dwayna seem to be elementalists now, but ArenaNet could easily have given Risen monks the same treatment as Ascalonian Foefire monks.)

Way I saw it, the GW1 orrian undead were basically the entire Military of Orr, risen as skeletons and zombies.

In GW2, we almost entirely see Orrian civilians in the form of Risen, with very few military styled Risen (Some squires, but that’s about it).

Some squires, and the knights probably were knights at one point- and there’s also the coral encrusted risen, the preservers and despoilers and the like, who are partially armored. Still, it feels more like the leavings of the army you’d expect the Orrians to have while fighting a war on their own soil.

As for the monks- I’ve always seen the acolytes as sufficient proof of what drax is talking about. They’re clearly the remains of the religious faction of Orr, exactly the ones you’d expect to be monks, yet even the ones who served Dwayna are necromancers now.

Kalavier.1097:

Way I saw it, the GW1 orrian undead were basically the entire Military of Orr, risen as skeletons and zombies.

In GW2, we almost entirely see Orrian civilians in the form of Risen, with very few military styled Risen (Some squires, but that’s about it).

Actually, since the Cataclysm was powerful enough to blow out the entire Orr to the sea, shouldn’t most of the humans become ashes?