Guild Wars 2

My question is:

Can all dragons’ champions act even if dragons themselves are sleeping?

Drakkar, Jormag’s champion, corrupted Svanir, The Great Destroyer was a threat before Primordus awakened, Scarlet was basically a Mord’s champion.

And if so, could Scarab Plague be caused by Deep Sea Dragon’s or it’s champion’s powers? It started in Istan and could be a result of drinking corrupted water from the Unending Ocean.

They can act while their master is sleeping but they only seem to get active when the dragon is about to wake up. It seems unlikely that the plague has anything to do with the dragons, there are plenty of other malicious entities in Tyria.

I won’t rule it out entirely, but I see no actual link between the two, and four major hurdles you’d have to get past to make the theory work.

First, the Scarab Plague occurred in the 450’s A.E.- all known dragon rises have been no more than a century apart, and no champion has been known to be active more than a century before its dragon’s awakening. (Glint being an exception, but a free willed one- the Great Destroyer and Drakkar were both apparently in hibernation until Eye of the North, nor have there been any mentions of risen activity in Orr before its sinking.) That pattern suggests that the deep sea dragon wouldn’t have had active minions before the 900’s at the very earliest, yet this event was several centuries before.

Second, there’s nothing to suggest that Bubbles makes insectoids. The only description we’ve had so far includes tentacles, with the possible suggestion that they’re made of water similar to how destroyers are made of fire. That doesn’t leave any parallels to terrestrial insects.

Third, the event chain in Nightfall suggests a non-magical explanation. It posits that it’s the grain supply that was infested, not the water, and that the scarabs were simply opportunistic parasites, not a supernatural plague. To be sure, it wasn’t entirely proven, but it has more in-game support than corrupted water.

Fourth, if Bubbles or its servants were active before Zhaitan’s awakening, we should have heard about it. Dragon minions are nothing if not territorial, and if some sort of monster had been wrecking ships off Istan for 600 years or more, you’d think that it’d be mentioned somewhere in Nightfall or its manual. You’d think the corsairs wouldn’t hang around in such large numbers. You’d think the main port for Elona would have ended up somewhat more safely on the mainland. For that matter, you’d think that there would have been a Scarab Plague outbreak since- we know the cause of the Plague was never conclusively tracked down, so why wouldn’t this champion act again? Now that Bubbles is awake and its corruption is displacing multiple civilizations, why wouldn’t this problem be cropping up elsewhere, in Rata Sum or the Grove, or even Lion’s Arch, poor punching bag that it has become?

The Scarab Plague is more likely to deal with Abaddon than the Elder Dragons. As Aaron said, an event chain suggests that grain was infested with scarab eggs that were ingested – an issue that comes from that and being non-magical is that… well, the eggs would be cooked and digested, thus should pose no problem let alone any “insects burrowing out of the body from within” that was the Scarab Plague.

Furthermore, the Scarab Plague left an infestation of undead, suggesting necromancy was afoot. And there’s the presence of the Apocrypha which did spread some of Abaddon’s influence into the room it was sealed within (the Nightfall tendrils sprouting throughout it).

The DSD’s minions are stated to be tentacled monstrosities and this is a far cry from the insects and undead corpses that we saw even in Nightfall.

Well it does appear that Dragon Champions have a higher level of autonomy than the run of the mill minions, so it does appear that if they are about they can be active without the Elder Dragon being awake. In some cases the Dragon Champions are needed to help (or at least speed up) the process of awakening.

Hmm. Thanks for replies.

I know that DSD’s powers are based on water and his minions are tentacles and definitely not sand scarabs which are insects BUT
there’s no evidence that these things that devoured human bodies from inside were actually scarabs (or any other insects). Journal doesn’t mention them and in-game Elona’s insects are termits and beetles. And if they were the source, wouldn’t it happen again? Of course, Scarabs could hide beneath the sands and are waiting to strike again but wouldn’t they come out of infected, dead corpses then?

It appeared suddenly and vanished just like that. I don’t think it was a planned action (why would it stop?). I don’t think that it was non-magical parasite (again, why would it stop killing people?). I think it was a disease of magical origins but it wasn’t intentional. And doesn’t it remind you of all that talk how dragons aren’t really evil but they’re just natural magical disaster? Of course I don’t claim “it was dragon magic for sure!” but I think it could be. It could be DSD’s (OR other, unknown, dragon’s) champion passing by or awaking for a second (well, 4 years is like a second to dragons, right?) somewhere near Istan that infected water that spread to the grain (We can’t be sure if it was because of grain or water by the way. Journal says that author is sure about grain being the source but he could be wrong). When he was far away from Istan (or fell asleep again), the plague stopped because Elona was out of his range. Of course it’s just a theory and probably a non-true one but it seems logical.

Do we even know if dragons’ powers have range?

Well, it didn’t just “stop”. It originated in Istan, and the island was abandoned for 64 years afterwards. It’s also worth noting that by all appearances agriculture never returned to the province- the only fields we see in Nightfall are used to grow something called ironreed, which doesn’t sound edible. You and Konig both make good points against the non-magical theory, though, so I’ll let it rest. I was using it mainly to point out that the in-universe researchers were on a very different track than you.

Another hurdle, and one I’m kicking myself over missing earlier, is that your theory hinges on people drinking, or irrigating with, ocean water. Humans and most plants- certainly our edible crops- require fresh water. Some children or incautious swimmers might swallow some, I suppose, but not nearly enough to make for an epidemic that depopulated the inland regions and spread to the mainland.

I think the term “scarab” is just arbitrary for insect. But there is definitely points of insects being the cause of it:

“These bones have been damaged by the passage of time, but still bear signs of the disease that killed their previous owner. There are spherical indentations and cracks on the surface; something hard and round grew against them and bent them out of shape. The skeleton is curled in a fetal position, as if the person was in significant pain.”
“Strewn across the ground near these bones are the remains of some sort of small eggs or cocoons.”

“Hmmm. Most interesting… what you have found confirms my suspicions. The few written records I have are so crazed that most thought them to be wholly inaccurate, but it seems now that the stories of bugs bursting from within people’s skin may actually be true. If you are still willing, you may be able to assist me further in my research…”

Furthermore, you gather Scarab Spores from the various insects in Fahrahnur.

Everything points to it being bug related – though more than a simple ingestion of eggs (eggs wouldn’t be along the bones if merely ingested, indicating that bugs within the body then laid eggs – the position of the skeleton implying this being done while the person was alive).

Per the dialogue lines, it didn’t suddenly vanished – as Aaron said, the island was quarantined for several decades. Heck, with the re-opening of Fahranur, the Scarab Plague may easily have re-ignited after GW1.

But either way, nothing indicates anything in relation to the DSD. In all honesty, the zero-evidence claim of Kanaxai and/or Kuunavang being a dragon champion of the DSD has far stronger roots.

I’ve forgotten Scarab Spores. My bad.

But it’s still kind of strange. It’s said that plague spread to the main continent with refugees.
“Panicked, the people escaped to other parts of Elona, only spreading the plague further. It is still not known how or why the seemingly unstoppable illness vanished.”

Well, put it aside. (I just hope that AN will clarify it one day). Stick to topic’s name – dragons and their champions. Do their powers have range?

Well, I’d break it down into two parts. The actual corrupting does seem to require coming into proximity with an Elder Dragon, or much closer proximity to a champion or similar concentration of corruptive energy. Kralkatorrik can’t just, say, brand the Black Citadel from wherever he’s ended up. Mordremoth seems to require the sylvari to come near him to get into their heads. Once corrupted, though, they stay corrupted, no matter how far they travel from whatever turned them. We’ve seen icebrood taken as far west as the Brisban Wildlands and Metrica Province, risen as far north-east as Fireheart Rise, and they don’t seem to act any differently, or change at all for that matter.

Thank you for answers