Guild Wars 2

Ever since I saw the Sclerite Karka Shell back item (which, by the way, seems to not share anything at all with how karka appear) I somehow tried to connect it to the mursaat… Try to follow me through these thoughts:

Eidolon

• A creature similar in appearance to krakens.
• Even though their creature type is, like phantoms, ghost, eidolons are fleshy.
• Drops spectral essence, which resembles tentacles (it is then supposedly part of its body).
• Spectral essence is used as a defence against spectral agony by infusing armours with it.

Mursaat

• Use spectral agony, which is a powerful offensive skill/magic.
• Are still susceptible to spectral agony.

Jade maw

• Is a kraken.
• First example of an entity in Guild Wars 2 which uses a skill/magic similar to spectral agony.

Karka

• The Sclerite Karka Shell backpiece kind of resemble in appearance mursaat’s ‘wings’.
• The above-mentioned back item’s description quotes “The karka have mysterious biological properties”.

There seems to be some kind of link between this so called spectral agony and these “tentacles”…
My theory is that spectral agony seems to have more ancient origins: the deep sea dragon. Both the jade maw and the eidolon could be influenced by this elder dragon’s corruption, making them “spectral” in a sense, and the Sclerite Karka Shell back item could be a remnant of a corrupted karka (which would also explain why it still seems to be alive, much like the sclerite weapon set).
Also, being powerful spellcasters, the mursaat could have learned to harness the DSD’s magic by studying artifacts and remains of this mysterious elder dragon (much like the Inquest tries to do), therefore the connection to the weird Karka back item.

P.S. Not knowing the meaning of the word eidolon, I searched for its etymology: among others, it used to mean reflection in water and image of a god.
But then again, we see what we want to see.

Ehmmm… You should take a visit to the karka hive, regarding that “karka backpiece doesn’t resemble karka” bit.

Furthermore:

• Titans also have a heavy resistance to Spectral Agony.
• Jade Maw does not use spectral agony, nor does it use agony (unlike any other boss, its applications of agony is ambient).
  Fractals’ “agony” is NOT the same as Spectral Agony. The name similarity is just a nod to GW1 (as was stated way back when, when the stuff was introduced – agony, infusion, ascended gear – just nod backs).
• I don’t really see how the backpiece resembles mursaat wings.

Going off of the fact that Eidolons are stated to be creatures of malice, and are spectral; and titans are created from tormented souls, then their immunity is likely tied to the nomenclature of the Spectral Agony skill – that is, that Spectral Agony likely causes pain to the very soul. Eidolons and titans are both creatures born of spectral pain, so it’d be like using a flamethrower on a man who’s been doused in gasoline and lit on fire already – it’ll hurt and make things worse, but it won’t really have that much difference in its effect.

I don’t think that any of that creates a link between the karka and mursaat. Really, it seems like you just made a link between karka and the DSD (one that folks thought existed since the Sclerite stuff came about) and just arbitrarily said “mursaat!”

The title of this topic is kind of misleading from what I was trying to “prove”, but it’s such because I originally started to think about these ideas from the similarities I see between the karka backpiece’s tentacles and the mursaat’s “wings”, for instance: both appendages seem to come out from under a shell (a golden one in the case of the mursaat).
So again the theory is that the mursaat successfully tapped from the DSD’s draconic energy, harnessing the usage of spectral agony in doing so, and mimicking in a way
the aspect of this corruption.

Regarding the eidolon, are you implying that it spawned from the Realm of Torment (making it a demon)?

Eidolon is an old word meaning ghost or phantom. The “reflections in water” and “image of a god” are not literal meanings of the word, more re-interpretations.

An entertaining theory, but I see no connections between the 2 species whatsoever

Sock.2785:

So again the theory is that the mursaat successfully tapped from the DSD’s draconic energy, harnessing the usage of spectral agony in doing so, and mimicking in a way the aspect of this corruption.

I don’t see why this would be the case. Nothing links Spectral Agony to the DSD’s minions.

You try to make this connection by going “backpiece is similar to mursaat wings; backpiece is tentacles like eidolon, eidolon looks like a kraken and is resistant to spectral agony, kraken uses spectral agony, mursaat use spectral agony, DSD minions are tentacles, therefore mursaat took power from DSD for spectral agony”

It really feels like you’re bouncing all over the place in an attempt to prove a random thought – which you yourself have just stated to be more or less true (the random thought is “backpiece looks similar to mursaat wings”).

First off, the kraken isn’t related to the DSD at all.

Second off, the kraken doesn’t use spectral agony.

And third off, there’s no tie from the DSD to spectral agony – or agony.

There’s nothing to link your two theories together. Nothing that directly links the mursaat to the DSD – or to the karka.

Sock.2785:

Regarding the eidolon, are you implying that it spawned from the Realm of Torment (making it a demon)?

No, I’m merely stating that its resistance likely comes from its very nature – being a spectral being of malice and shade. Much like the titans, whom are also resistant to spectral agony.