Gender of Elder Dragons?
I would assume genderless, seeing as they are described as more of a force of nature than a being.
what’s the gender of a rock?
elder dragons don’t reproduce, and are one-of-a-kind individuals, so they wouldn’t even have someone/something to mate with. thus, they are genderless.
but they’re generally referred to with a male pronoun.
LegendaryMythril/Zihark Darshell
Well in some languages so are scissors or rocks, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are male, just masculine, lol.
If they are all genderless they why are NPC-s in Tyria referring them with male pronoun?
Shouldn’t they be called “it” like skritt call us?
(edited by CharrGirl.7896)
what’s the gender of a rock?
elder dragons don’t reproduce, and are one-of-a-kind individuals, so they wouldn’t even have someone/something to mate with. thus, they are genderless.
but they’re generally referred to with a male pronoun.
“what’s the gender of a rock?”
Most languages have genders, unlike English.
The more you know…
I was just playing a storyline today where I chose the way in which I would advance into Orr (land, sea, or missing party/magical artifact) and Trahearn specifically refers to Zhaitan as ‘it’. I’m pretty sure it’s just how the people like explaining it. I mean I call my car a girl every once and a while, does that make it female?
what’s the gender of a rock?
elder dragons don’t reproduce, and are one-of-a-kind individuals, so they wouldn’t even have someone/something to mate with. thus, they are genderless.
but they’re generally referred to with a male pronoun.
“what’s the gender of a rock?”
Most languages have genders, unlike English.
The more you know…
i speak portuguese, which is one of these “languages with gender”.
but you only apply a feminine and masculine pronoun. a rock is genderless in portuguese, in english, or in cantonese. just because you refer to a rock as “she” in portuguese, doesn’t mean the rock’s a lady.
The more you know…
LegendaryMythril/Zihark Darshell
I believe that the Elder Dragons are genderless, but many NPCs refer to Zhaitan as “he”. This could be a morale trick, because you find it easier to kill a man than a rock. It makes you think that it is more of a reality to kill the dragons. Just my thoughts.
Bruno – I’m not certain, but I think that some languages do have nouns with innate genders too. Languages have all kinds of different ways of viewing the world once you start looking into it!
And yes, I think it only makes sense for the Elder Dragons to be genderless, but I’m not surprised that the average NPC – or player! – in the street refers to them as ‘he’. We all tend to imagine the dragons and more purposeful and person-like than they really are, I think, because we’re imagining our enemy. Trahearne’s significantly more educated about the nature of Zhaitan though, so he probably uses ‘it’ more often.
Referring to something which seems to have a mind/intentions as ‘it’ feels really awkward in English. I think they just use ‘he’ so it sounds more natural, even if it’s inaccurate!
The word for “Moustache” in French is considered a feminine noun! That… that’s not relevant at all, it’s just a thing I know that I don’t get to share often…
…so…
… back to the thread in progress!
Former Guild Wars 2 fan. RIP, ArenaNet’s integrity.
But it is somewhat relevant, because it shows that something that is very masculine can be referred to as feminine within the language. Similarly the Elder dragons referred to as masculine as opposed to gender neutral.
The norn reference Jormag as a he, which is relatively concrete in my opinion. Each of the norn spirits has a specific gender (such as Bear and Owl being female, and Wolf and Fox being male), and as the Sons of Svanir worship Jormag as the most powerful spirit, I’m going with Jormag being — for certain — male. The other ones I’m considering unknown at this point in time. Zhaitan was constantly referred to as “it” (possibly because it was undead), so I use it for Zhaitan.
Fosthe — Sylvari Elementalist
Men of Science [MoS] – Tarnished Coast
Men of Science [MoS] – Tarnished Coast
Hi,
I was thinking about something…I know this isn’t really important but whenever I read about elder dragons some sources say they are actually genderless. And others that they are all male. So what is actually official? Are all dragons male? I think it would be realistic to have at least 1 female elder dragon to fight, but hey it’s their lore:P
We were told by developers, back in 2010 I believe, that the Elder Dragons do not have genders as the races of Tyria know – that is to say, they do have genders (or rather can), but no one but they know what said genders are. This came up when an interview called Kralkatorrik “she” and “her” which caused a bit of a craze in the lore community with the whole “omg there’s a female Elder Dragon.”
Elder Dragons are frequently referred to as he, simply because – I presume – denoting things with unknown or lack of gender as masculine is common practice in the English language (since, unlike most other languages, nouns do not have a connection to masculine, feminine, or neutral nomination).
Glint calls Kralkatorrik a he though, so one can argue Kralkatorrik is the only Elder Dragon with a known gender, being male.
I would assume genderless, seeing as they are described as more of a force of nature than a being.
The key thing to note is that they’re described as forces of nature by beings who do not know their nature, or when talking to said beings in the case of Glint.
But given the fact they can be killed, and they must eat, and that they think independently, they are, in fact, not forces of nature. So it’s reasonable to believe they could hold genders.
elder dragons don’t reproduce, and are one-of-a-kind individuals, so they wouldn’t even have someone/something to mate with. thus, they are genderless.
Source please.
Nothing I have seen says Elder Dragons cannot reproduce, let alone that they are “one of a kind” (given there’s six of them, it’d be more accurate to say they’re “six of a kind”). For all we know, the six Elder Dragons – that is, assuming there aren’t more outside the knowledge of the jotun and dwarves – could be the last of an entire species of magically powerful dragons from ancient pre-history.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
(edited by Konig Des Todes.2086)
I can’t imagine a race such as that surviving at all in such a confined space, especially since their base objective is to consume.
Whoever said Elder Dragons were confined to Tyria?
Given what we know, continental Tyria sounds like a magical hotspot to have had three Elder Dragons on it when falling asleep (note: Jormag awoke north of Tyria, and the DSD awoke south of it – the sixth’s location is unknown so it could be four). Furthermore, Orr was home to some forgotten structures as well as being where Glint was “cleansed” of Kralkatorrik’s corruption (thus, Zhaitan was not always at Orr – therefore, he moved there from somewhere else).
Given the size and actions of the Elder Dragons, if there were ever a multitude of them, I’d imagine they were a world-wide race.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
I was talking the world of Tyria, not the continent. You see a race of creatures that large would almost have to spread throughout the world without stepping on each others toes, and even then the world seems much too small for a whole race of that kind of being.
Refering to a genderless being as “he” is common due to a male dominanted culture. When people speak, they aren’t usually trying to be scientifically and socialogicaly acurate as they are trying to get a point across. e.g.: In Christian lore, God is refered to as a “Father” and “He” even though “He” is spirit and therefore genderless. Because “He” takes the common role that would generaly be ascribed to a “father figure”.
@Narcemus: How many are needed to constitute the required number of individuals in order to make a race? Typically, a species isn’t defined by the number, but the genetics.
And given Zhaitan’s size, ten Elder Dragons can easily fit on Orr – though who knows how they’d act to each other. Then again, could easily be that the dragon champions are the “standard” size for the ED’s group, and the ED are so large due to how old they are and how much magic they devoured (imps kind of act similar to Elder Dragons in that they feed on magic, and interestingly, imps increase in size as they absorb/feed on more magic).
Though this is getting well into the “what if” domain.
Dear ANet writers,
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.
Instead of him or her, we can start referring to ED’s as Shkle or Shkler until such time as we have a proper gender term for them.
“I have begun my journey in a paper boat without a bottom.”
Giant dragon wang would be a sight to behold. Maybe one day we’ll have a mod to make this happen.
Dear God I hope not!