Guild Wars 2

So we’re currently fighting an elder dragon as one of the supposedly most powerful races, but how powerful are the races though? I was just reading is Humanity too weak? thread and something on Reddit about the Charr contribution to this current war effort, which is on top of all the other wars the Charr are currently engaged in.

So I was thinking, like could the Asura field a sizeable army of golems, or massive magitech warmachines, or use their intellect to I guess genetically modify themselves or something to greatly boost their physical stature?

And are norn really as pitiful as a race as they seem to be when it comes to large scale warfare? Are they really as powerful as they claim to be in small scale engagements?

So on, so forth.

One scenario could be that the races had a 5 way war, which would end in extinction if they lost : O who would realistically be last race standing? I don’t know >_<

Just interested in what the races could really manage to do if they was pushed to the limit.

We don’t really know though. There’s little outright comparisons. We do know from the movement of the world (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Movement_of_the_World) that the Charr as a whole is more powerful than the Norn, as a whole:

Although it is certain the Charr could have destroyed the Norn resistance if they but turned their entire army—or even one full legion—to the cause, warbands and smaller raiding parties could not overcome the individual strength of the Norn.

The Norn’s biggest problem thus is that they don’t have a standing army, or any sort of formal structure for large scale combat. Stereo-typically a Norn lives in a homestead somewhere far removed, and hunts and forages with the occasional trading. Which has always made me wonder how exactly Hoelbrak can even exist. Logically Hoelbrak wouldn’t be more than a large market or meeting place, no where near as large as the one in game. But that’s another discussion.

Everything else, is just speculation.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/lore/lore/Charr-vs-Human-vs-Asura-vs-Norn Here’s a recent discussion on that war scenario, and in the process it hits most of the points you make, although it does largely exclude the sylvari.

As CureForLiving says, there are few outright comparisons.

One problem with trying to order them is that their powers are often of different natures. For instance, the charr have the most powerful army and near-modern war machines, and at first glance it would appear that humans would pose no problem for them… except that they have been for centuries. If you start looking through the histories, though, you start to get an idea as to why – for all the bluster of the asura of being the best at magic, all of the new magical adventuring professions that have come up since the splitting of the Bloodstones have been invented by humans (guardians being the most recent), and human history and legend is filled with human magic-users pulling some deus ex machina that saves a hopeless situation. The ability to pull off stunts like that is something the asura seem to lack – they have a scientific approach to magic that allows them to build powerful magical technology, but don’t have the same level of intuitive understanding of magic that allows them to wield powerful magic directly.

My gut feelings are the following:

Asura: Their magical inventions give them a technological dominance and, through selling of magical goods and services, an economic dominance. They’re also proficient at manipulating others to their advantage, although not, I think, as smart in this area as they think they are. Their weaknesses are a complete lack of unified purpose, and their abrasiveness and disregard to other races can make them offputting to others.

Charr: Simply put, they have the most powerful industry and military. Their weaknesses are a relative lack of magic and a general tendency to think of military solutions first and alternatives only when they fail.

Humans: Humans have a military second only to the charr out of the five, and strong enough to fight the charr on near-equal grounds (one thing that’s also worth mentioning, too, is that there is some dialogue in the Silverwastes camp that implies that the Seraph now have their own airship fleet independent of the Pact. My comment at the time went ‘the centaurs are so very, very kittened’. I did not actually use the word ‘kitten’). As intimated above, they may also have the most potential for unaided individual magical strength of the races, and are also probably the race with the most capability for diplomacy and intrigue. Their weaknesses are a tendency to turn that intrigue upon themselves, and an apparent willingness in their upper classes to allow class divides that ultimately weaken their society to continue to exist (for instance, more universal education would likely allow more leverage of their magical potential).

Norn are probably the most individually powerful of the races, on average – unlike other races, adventuring is an expected part of nearly every norn’s life, making them strong fighters and magic-users and likely giving them a significant advantage in asymmetric warfare. Like the asura, however, they have a problem working collectively, and like the charr, they have a tendency to resort to conflict over other measures. My gut feeling is that they also have less numbers than most of the other races (except possibly asura, who can supplement with golems).

Sylvari: In some respects, the sylvari can be viewed as a kind of younger sibling to humans, and have many of the same strengths* – a respectable military, good magical potential, and diplomatic ability. They also have their ability to manipulate plants, and the Dream means that as a race they have a limited ability to respond to events they otherwise would not be aware of and to address the bigger picture rather than being distracted by lesser concerns. Their primary weaknesses are naivety and a lack of experience, and as a race I feel they still have less numbers than charr and humans.

If I had to rank them in order of power from top to bottom, I’d probably put charr first, and then humans and asura closely afterwards (it’s hard to rank humans and asura because their strengths and weaknesses are very different and thus hard to directly compare). Sylvari come fourth – because their strengths are similar to those of humans but they make a distinctly smaller political and military force, it’s easy to rank them below. Norn I think probably come last, because of their relatively small, scattered, and disunited population, even though one-on-one the typical norn probably bests the typical member of any other race.

However, I think the only placement I can really feel confident in is that charr are above norn, sylvari are below humans, and humans are at least close enough to the charr to represent a credible threat.