Guild Wars 2

So, I was nitpicking in my sleep deprivation this morning. This is what a Melandru Stalker looked like in Guild Wars:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/9/91/Melandru%27s_Stalker.jpg

And their text (taken from the wiki):

Melandru’s Stalkers are charmable animals that can be found in both pre-Searing and post-Searing Ascalon. Many of them can be found roaming around a shrine of Melandru in Regent Valley prior to the Searing, though after the Searing, they seem to be slowly dying out and they are much harder to find, but there is usually one past the Statue of Balthazar and Master Ranger Nente. Their locations:

Core
Battle Isles
Zaishen Menagerie Grounds (levels 5, 12, 15, and 20, depending on unlock progress)
Prophecies
Ascalon (pre-Searing)
Regent Valley (pre-Searing)
Ascalon
Old Ascalon

Alright so. . .
This is what they look like now:

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz23/MintsRealities/gw135_zpsac58ee84.jpg

Side by side:

http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz23/MintsRealities/c27xdkpi_zpsb075c306.png

~-~

So my first problem was their appearance. I’ll give that they’re slight similar with their markings, I guess. However, one is distinctly a dark brown and the other is a golden with white. That is a very clear adaptation to their fur coloring in what could be considered a fairly darn short period of time.

My second issue was their location. I found there in Caledon Forest. They somehow — while being a dieing breed — got all the way across the continent, and then survived in a drastic climate change (they survived the Shiverpeaks, somehow). It could be argued that one guy was like, “I’mma bring my cat here!”

Which I guess gets into my hypothesis. I have the assumption someone brought a cat or two with him and migrated into Kryta. Said person’s cat likely bred with a local species, and what we see today aren’t purebreds. Though, should they really be called Melandru Stalkers? Also! Is there any actual lore stating how they 1) survived 2) moved across? Any names mentioned?

A mini but curious rage. Opinions?

I don’t have anything to add, but I think it’s neat that you put this together

As far as the disparity in appearance, that’s actually true of a lot of things between the games. My fallback example has always been the jungle trolls. It bothers me too, but that’s just the way it is.

The location is weird, but it is not wholly unexplainable. I can think of two possibilities for them getting over there: in GW1, there were a disproportionate amount of rangers with Melandru’s Stalkers as pets, on account of them being the pet you tamed in the tutorial, and there being no reason to switch unless you particularly cared about a certain animal or were kitten about piercing vs slashing damage. If the devs decided to reflect that in the lore, you’d see rangers taking them across the continent, and maybe for some reason or another leaving them behind. In that scenario, there would just chance to be a lot of them left there, where they were particularly successful, and possibly, as you suggested, interbreed with the native krytan big cat (another creature that has drastically changed appearance and habitat between games.) That’s more or less the idea you seem to have settled on, but alternatively, we see in GW1 that there’s a weak association between the stalkers and a shrine of Melandru. There is another such shrine in a mostly uninhabited area, vaguely close to where the current stalkers are (it would’ve been in the southwesternmost corner of what is now Kessex Hills, near as I can figure). It may be that that shrine also had an attendant population of stalkers that wandered south, possibly due to the shrine being largely abandoned. Both possibilities are rather tenuous, but they serve as examples that it isn’t impossible for the stalkers to be there.

What I want to know is what sets these now visually identical creatures apart from every other jungle stalker that can be found across Caledon Forest.

EDIT: As far as in-game information goes, there’s absolutely nothing about them except the little red tags floating above them.

My thought on the subject, Ascalon was a wasteland. Easy prey had died out, and to stay in the territory meant fighting much harder prey for food. Perhaps there was a forced migration due to the poor living conditions. Now I know you could say, well then why didn’t they go east, and I can’t say why. It’s just a possibility.

Mint Rain.6798:

Is there any actual lore stating how they 1) survived

Do you have any idea of how many Rangers brought their pet Melandru’s Stalker to the Zaishen Menagerie where they were cared for and bred to profusion?

After which Zhaitan’s flood supposedly drowned the whole Battle Isles…

Mint Rain.6798:

My second issue was their location. I found there in Caledon Forest. They somehow — while being a dieing breed — got all the way across the continent, and then survived in a drastic climate change (they survived the Shiverpeaks, somehow). It could be argued that one guy was like, “I’mma bring my cat here!”

Yup ! That’s my GW1 ranger !
I don’t have any other serious explanation unfortunately. I just like the idea that the devs unvoluntarily aknowledged my RP ^^
The theory that ranger players would be responsible for this seems like the most logical explanation, and it wouldn’t be the first time Anet did something like that. Ecto farmers are supposedly the reason why you’ve got portals to the underworld in the south of Queensdale.

On a side note, you can find some melandru’s stalker in Ascalon, somewhere in the east of the Fields of Ruin map.

Narcemus.1348:

After which Zhaitan’s flood supposedly drowned the whole Battle Isles…

Not before other rangers arrived to the menagerie, obtained a stalker from the monks there, and took them along their own journey. Granted, that’s more of an assumption of what could have happened.

Tauril.8504:

On a side note, you can find some melandru’s stalker in Ascalon, somewhere in the east of the Fields of Ruin map.

O.o Really? Sounds like I’ll need to make an expedition out there… I really don’t spend enough time in that zone, if something like this has escaped me.

EDIT: And just south of a waypoint, too…