Guild Wars 2

some time ago, in gw1 i was doing the Iron Mines of Moladune mission to infuse my character’s armor.

then something made me wonder.
the essence you collect is enough to infuse 8 sets of armor. but if your alone, you still have the same amount of essence. what does that seer do with the rest of the essence.

and then it hit me: (s)he makes minipets out of it. explains why they are magical and can move around:P

Originally in GW1 you had to do 1 run for each piece of armor you wanted infused. Five runs for a full set. Well anyways, the seers are dead now. We do have their cousins though.

In GW1 mini pets are established as being magical toys. There is one quest where the player must fix a broken toy to assemble a Mini Gray Giant.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mini_Gray_Giant

Since mini pets don’t appear to be any different from their GW1 counter parts, I think it is safe to assume they are still magical toys.

Some miniatures are actually pets (the Black Moa Chick from GW1, and I presume, the Spring Minis in GW2). But yeah, the minis are mainly toys (not only the Gray Giant, but there’s also the Tixx/Toxx Wintersday stuff).

As to the whole essence amount… that’s mechanics.