Guild Wars 2

I have a bit of a more simpel question.

Under the assumption that I understood the thigns we know about those little guys correctly.. they come from the deep. Along with the largos and the krait. And were most likely driven to the surface by bubbles and his pals screwing stuff up down there.

Now I wonder.. the deeps of (our) ocean are a place where unspeakably horrible creatures lurk. ( Angler Fish says hi.) .. Then it is a place that makes cultures strife like the Krait, who are sadistic, ruthless, cunning and make copious use of slaves..

And the Largos who are bassicly Drow with Stringray wings and sexy accents, always on the prowl and planning for their next murder, more or less for sport.

And then there are the quaggens. Tiny, helpless, weak, timid…

Since they came to the surface, they have done effecively NOTHING then leech support and assistance from everyone around them, effectively being dead weight while the world hangs by a thread and stumbles towards destruction by the elder dragons.

HOW in the name of every god ever seen on tyria did those little creeps managed to survive in the deep?

This is answered in the wiki. The look kind, until angered. Kind of like the Hulk.
In Gendarran (sic) fields you can fight a quaggan for a skill point, just take a look at how he looks.

“A quaggan who has been angered or is in pain will become a destructive, instinctive creature and transform to expose teeth and claws normally hidden by their rounded, benign exterior. "

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Quaggan

And yet their first reaction towards trouble is either to run for help or, when their village is attacked by icebrood for example, poke them with their tiny spears until they get simply overrun and massacred down to the last calf.

Yup. Sounds reasonable to me. * scratches head *

They are ashamed of their ugly hulk-form. It’s apparently socially unacceptable to change in an ugly quaggan. I mean,most animals first flee and fight as a last resort.

Also, Anet doesn’t like quaggans changing in their ugly shape, they actively discourage it, as ugly quaggans are bad for the backpack sales ;-)

The endless ocean has indeed many dangers and dangerous palces. But it is also like the name implies endless. So it is very possible that there are places quaggan’s can live in relativly peace. or atleast lived till threathened by bubbles and Jormag (they also lived or live in the artic seas). They indeed dislike their agressive form. Most likely cause it means they loose control. So they try to avoid that. Last off all, the quaggans we know are all refugee’s. It is very possible we got the wushies, and the tougher ones are still in the deep waters.

Quaggan are actually both stronger and more capable in fighting than their outward appearance suggests. As said above, when angered, they beserk. This causes a physical change as their body is flooded with adrenaline and endorphens. They also have very mean maw and six inch claws that only come out when they beserk.

If youve ever seen a pack of beserking quaggan in the water, its like seeing a swarm of parahnas the size of a large dog. They are pretty scary.

The think is that quaggan find this loss of control deeply shameful. A beserking quaggen can be quite distructive and wont hold back. They can cause alot of damage to there surroundings and potentally harm others more than the quaggan would intend to do if they had control.

As a result quaggan will often go so far to be victims rather than risk beserking. Its a cultural taboo deeply ingrained in their nature. It isnt that they cant fight back. Its that they are afraid to. Thus they keep trying to run or hide behind others.

This has lead them to develop other options. Quaggan have very powerful magical wards for defensive purposes. We see in the PS a quaggan Lorekeeper using Jotan runestones to power such a ward.

Quaggan are also meticulous record keepers. Their knowledge is extremely valuable which is why the Priory in particular will go out of its way to help quaggan.

One interesting thing you find though as you go through the story is that some quaggan are starting to question the taboo on fighting. Sure in society beserking is bad and destructive but sometimes you need to fight back. The pact has several quaggan fighting along side it and even involved in aquatic missions around Orr.

Beserking quaggan do seem to be able to tell the differance between friend and foe so its not impossible you will start to see more quaggan willing to fight. Personally, I kind of hope we do cause for all their cuteness, a swarm of beserking quaggan tearing apart dragon minions looks pretty kitten.

A few pictures of angry quaggan:

http://imgur.com/r/guildwars2funny/39VGm

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/20076/badquaggan.jpg

Quaggans are peaceful by nature and rarely become aggressive unless provoked. When quaggans are threatened or in pain, their adrenaline levels surge and parts of their skin turn a dark-scarlet hue. Fangs erupt from their mouths and their flippers grow long, formidable talons. While in this state, instinct overcomes rational thought and the quaggan is little more than an aquatic engine of destruction. They are deeply embarrassed when they display such aggression, and it is considered a social faux pas among their people.

This transformation is the primary reason quaggans actively avoid fighting—they are a danger to themselves and others while in this state. They are unreasoning brutes driven only to destroy, and they think nothing of tactics or collateral damage. Heroic quaggans are capable of being a little more aggressive without succumbing to their rage, but they are looked upon by their society as being a bit odd.

http://www.arena.net/blog/the-mostly-harmless-quaggan

They didn’t live in the deepest parts of the ocean – unlike the krait, karka, and largos. While they were fairly close to all three races, their life in the Unending Ocean was mostly void of krait interaction (who lived in the deepest parts and directly above to the surface) according to the one quaggan that mentions there being an Elder Dragon’s force in the Unending Ocean, and they had limited interaction with the karka and largos on top of that. Furthermore, the “horrors” mentioned existing in the Unending Ocean (most likely) refers to the DSD and its minions (called horrors by largos, and “scary things” by quaggan).

But still, given all indications, to me it seems like they filled the role animals like rabbits fulfill – they’re nature’s prey for nature’s predators.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

But still, given all indications, to me it seems like they filled the role animals like rabbits fulfill – they’re nature’s prey for nature’s predators.

I disagree. They are prey due to social conditioning rather than lacking the ability to defend themselves.

Evolutionarily they have a powerful defense mechanism. They lack the other tool prey use to survive. They dont have huge birthrates, their reproduction process is actually quite fragile (eggs cant be moved once laid), they dont hide effectively, they have pretty poor cameoflague and no other natural deterants or escape mechanisms.

If quaggan were wild and less smart they would probably be seen as more of a threat. Instead they are civilized and, ironically, it has made them more vunerable.

Dead weight is a good term for them in my opinion. Many franchises create a comedic, cute race as a sort of mascot. It borderline breaks immersion since these races are more often than not very different than other native races.

Moogles in Final Fantasy
Murlocs in Warcraft
Quaggan in Guild Wars

I would have preferred to have a much more fleshed out Krait. Possibly a neutral faction of them that we could have learned from. Dwelve into their history and learn if there is a Krait / Forgotten relationship.

I’d say Skritt are more of a stupid comedic race than the Quaggans. If you read the article I posted you’d see that there is a lot more going on with the Quaggans.

Oglaf.1074:

I’d say Skritt are more of a stupid comedic race than the Quaggans. If you read the article I posted you’d see that there is a lot more going on with the Quaggans.

Quaggan Backpack seem to support the issue I have with them.

Because that is totally lore related.

Right-o.

Oglaf.1074:

Because that is totally lore related.

Right-o.

The Backpack supports that they are a cute race invented as a mascot. They share many similarities with Warcraft’s Murloc in this respect. Warcraft related merch and ingame pets / mounts often play off Murlocs. The Quaggan Backpack fills the same role. Quaggans even have a cute vocal trait similar to Murlocs: ooOOooooO vs Murgurgugurlgl.

Omg moogles were the one of the absolute best races ever created!!!

The secondary races, including the Skritt and the Quaggan are all well developed and make sense. What Ive tried to explain in my posts is there is more, lore wise, to the Quaggan than simply a cute joke race. The Skritt are the same. Arenanet has put effort into making them a race with solid, logical lore.

You rarely find that with joke races from other fantasy settings.

Most people who really hate on quaggan do so for one of two reasons Ive found. Firsttly, the voices irritate them. Thats fine. Quaggan voices can be a bit annoying. The other is that they dont like anything cutsy in their fantasy about kittenes.

Lore reasons rarely seem to be the source. Lore wise the Quaggan and the Skritt both are useful and potentially helpful races in the pact. Infact the Grawl are probably less useful than either of the cute races.

As for the backpack meaning they are useless story wise consider this:

My neice as a hypo backpack. Its very cute. Hypo’s are among the highest cause of fatalities from wild animals in some parts of africa. They kill crocodiles with their jaws.

Sickeningly high rate of reproduction and proliferation.

I personally believe that the Quaggans likely did not come from the deep parts of the ocean, which is where the Largos, Krait and Karka dwell (with the Karka living much deeper than the other two). If you look at their dwellings, they’re made out of woven seaweed. That suggests that Quaggans live primarily in shallow, warmer seas where there would be sufficient sea grass and reef fish for them to farm and eat. They wouldn’t really have to contend with large sea predators in such regions apart from sharks and barracudas, and Quaggans have the intellect and weaponry to be able to defend themselves from such predation. Only organised, focused attacks from beings like Krait would prove a serious threat.

Krait are said to live in the deepest parts of the Unending Ocean, so the karka couldn’t live in deeper waters than the krait. Incidentally, the deep sea dragon is also said to live in the deepest parts of the sea (which sea though…), so it seems to me that the krait were basically living right smack dab on top of the DSD. And it’s said that the quaggans were pushed north primarily by the krait.

So the largos and karka likely loved east or west of wherever the krait were, while the quaggan lived north of the krait. And the krait fled north from the DSD.

Heh, this also creates a logical plot hole where if the Krait really did live in the deepest parts of the ocean, they would probably all die if they came up to the surface. Animals which live at extreme depths of the ocean are adapted to live under the crushing pressure found there, and usually can’t survive if brought to shallower waters, let alone going onto land.

The krait have always (or as long as we know) lived on both the deepest depths and the surface directly above said deepest depths. In the Unending Ocean they built structures that stretched from the ocean’s floor to the water’s surface. So they’ve adapted to live at both shallow and deep waters, and their appearance on the water’s surface isn’t something new.

If there’s any creature which has this logical hole, it’d probably be karka – though they were once on the surface a long time ago.

Lore reasons rarely seem to be the source. Lore wise the Quaggan and the Skritt both are useful and potentially helpful races in the pact. Infact the Grawl are probably less useful than either of the cute races.

Why do you think that? In some of the storylines you can make the Grawl join the pact too.

As for the Quaggan, I think they are a bit overdone in their cuteness. A bit less baby-speak and a bit less “oh look I’m so cute and helpless” would be much less annoying. In fact I feel always tempted to make them angry so they turn into their nasty fishform. Unfortunately it works only on some rare occassions. (meanie me. :P)

Pirlipat.2479:

Lore reasons rarely seem to be the source. Lore wise the Quaggan and the Skritt both are useful and potentially helpful races in the pact. Infact the Grawl are probably less useful than either of the cute races.

Why do you think that? In some of the storylines you can make the Grawl join the pact too.

As for the Quaggan, I think they are a bit overdone in their cuteness. A bit less baby-speak and a bit less “oh look I’m so cute and helpless” would be much less annoying. In fact I feel always tempted to make them angry so they turn into their nasty fishform. Unfortunately it works only on some rare occassions. (meanie me. :P)

Actually since you can meet the reps of all 5 races during the final step of the PS I suspect all 5 joined the Pact in some capacity. We also see the Quaggan in the DE events to take the middle invasion path during underwater fights and we see some working with pact forces in the Cursed Shore.

Quaggan cutiness might be over done but alot of people like that about them. At least Arenanet has treated their lore seriously. I find the Quaggan interesting and I still find some of their voices grating.

I love the quaggens not just because they look cool but because of there lore.
Quaggens have many ways of defending them self’s

+High use of magic, Magical wards
+There pet sharks, http://gw2.mmorpg-life.com/talooboo/30385/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3euxkIRZzpI
+Able to use weapons
+And last there Hulk form

to say quaggens are not weak but they choose not to fight unless they are put in a corner and no other choices.

Gotta love the Quaggan!

http://youtu.be/2IhuPJA9A5A