Guild Wars 2

It has been the subject of many discussions and it is bound to dominate many more: The Chaos Beast. Found in Metrica Province, this creature continues to puzzle some of Tyria’s most persipient minds. What exactly is it? To some, it is of the Underworld – a Nightmare creature; to others, it is unique to the Thaumanova Reactor facility and it’s immediate vicinity – an anomaly utilizing the same model as a Shade, but nothing more…

Shades form one of two obvious creatures currently associated with the Underworld in Guild Wars 2, the other being Aatxes. Both beings are seen in parts of Tyria where the barrier between it and the Underworld are weakened. In particular, Godslost Swamp, Blackroot Cut, Reaper’s Gate, the Cathedral of Silence (Shades only) and Bria’s Manor (Shades only (technically, these are called “Shadow Fiends” but I will categorize them as Shades due to the identity of Bria (see below))). They are associated with the human deity Grenth. It’s no surprise, then, that Godslost Swamp is the site of a sunken temple to the Six; so too, Reaper’s Gate is devoted to Grenth. Blackroot Cut is arguably part of Godslost Swamp and although Bria’s Manor may not be the site of a temple featuring Grenth, it is nonetheless important to note that Bria herself is a powerful human necromancer.

The Chaos Beast, on the other hand, is at worst an anomaly and at best a misnomer. Unlike the Shade, with which it shares the same model, the Chaos Beast does not patrol the footsteps of a temple to the Six, Grenth, or anything else remotely human. It shares a home with asura and skritt. Contemplating this, you might be tempted to ask the question: Why reuse a model for two distinct beings?

Arenanet have reused models in the past. Narcemus, a poster on our lore forum, has pointed out a classic example to me: The duplication of a model for both the White Mantle and the Shadow Army. The two factions were unrelated, despite this duplication, and Arenanet ensured that players knew this was the case. From this, you could argue that the same is true in this case: Development has simply duplicated a model for two different creatures. But does that argument stand up to scrutiny in this case? And why would you associate the Chaos Beast with a being from the Underworld anyway?

The recent revelation of ley lines converging at or near the Thaumanova Reactor facility is probably the strongest source behind this association – not that others hadn’t previously theorized that the Chaos Beast and the Shade were somehow related. A contemporary theory formed by Psynch – another poster on the lore forum – is that at least one of these ley lines runs between the Thaumanova Reactor facility and the Chaos Crystal Cavern. This is important, not only because a ley line is likely to run through and also form a part of Tyria in which the barrier between it and other realms has weakened, but also because it just so happens that (according to this theory) this line runs through Lornar’s Pass, the refuge of the Steam Creatures – the same seen porting in and out of the Thaumanova Reactor facility. Just as importantly, located due south-east of the Steam Portal skill point, is Grenth’s Door at the Reaper’s Gate. Its easily missed, but if the Steam Portal is located along the trajectory of a ley line converging at Thaumanova, it stands to reason that Grenth’s Door just might too. Intuitively, this makes sense. The foremost example of a weakening of the barrier between realms along a ley line is a portal and both the Steam Portal and Grenth’s Door are just that: Portals between “realms”.

So when we see what looks like a Steam Creature porting into and out of the Thaumanova Reactor facility, labelled “Steam Creature”, we should have no problem concluding that the Steam Portal does in fact fall along one of the Thaumanova ley lines. However, when we see what looks like a Shade porting into and out of the same facility, labelled “Chaos Beast” we hesitate to draw the same conclusion. Perhaps this is due to the nature of the facility itself: The term Shade is probably a human religious title; but the Shades are not being ported at a human religious institution – this is Thaumanova, a part of the world of the asura. Nor do the asura necessarily believe in the Six (what I mean by this is trust in them, as opposed to acknowledging their existence) or utilize the same terminology to denote various “spritiual” creatures they encounter. What is known as a Shade in human religious terminology, is referred to as a “Chaos Beast” in asuran terminology. (Scarlet Briar states that the asura have misidentified the nature of the magic that they were testing at Thaumanova, lending strong credence to this explanation.)

What of the model reuse argument then? In the case of the duplication of models in GW1 for both the White Mantle and the Shadow Army, although the same model was used, subtle changes were made to aesthetic aspects of the model to help differentiate one faction from another – more than merely allocating each a different label. Thus, the dye effects differed. The White Mantle version was dyed white; the Shadow Army, black. The same can be said of another infamous example of model reuse in GW2: The “Shadow Of The Dragon” fought in the sylvari storyline. This appears to be the reuse of the model for Tequatl; evenso, it has minor aesthetic differences including different dyes – in other words, it is not exactly the same presentation of the same model twice. But in the case of the model for both the Shade and the Chaos Beast, it is presented in exactly the same way in both cases, no attempt to differentiate them has been made, save for relabelling. In my opinion, given everything else that we have already considered, this is strong evidence in favor of maintaining that the Shade and the Chaos Beast are both of the race Nightmare.

Other arguments can be formed, however, by those who wish to dispute this. For example: We don’t see Aatxes at Thaumanova. If Shades truly are being ported at the facility, why don’t we see Aatxes? Conversely, you could argue, if the beings that look like Steam Creatures (Steam Mechataurs and Steam Hulks) are being ported at the facility, why don’t we see Steamriders? In either case, this is probably due to resource constraints – development wanted to present enough information to help us identify what is being ported and from where, without wasting unnecessary resources reinforcing this. Alternatively, it may be that we only observe beings naturally residing in Tyria porting at the facility. For simplicity’s sake, let’s imagine that this means that only embodied beings are ported. Nightmares are not “embodied” in the same way as the other creatures at the facility, as they do not naturally reside in the mortal realm. This, rather than necessarily “relocating” them, you are redirecting them. Whatever the case, the lack of Aaxtes at Thaumanova does not, in my opinion, form a strong enough argument against associating the Chaos Beast with the Shade.

1 thing I noticed upon visiting the site. No Chaos Beasts are there through any type of displacement. They either spawn from the chaos shards, or the chaotic material during the event. Not sure how much that impacts your theory.

You bring up an important discussion here — any theory about the reactor and/or the ley lines will have to account for the chaos beasts and their anomalous existence. Identifying their true nature will really help in understanding how magic works at the site of the reactor, and across Tyria.

Funny timing — i was just fighting chaos beasts in the Anthill on an alt.

When you engage with the chaotic material, you are knocked back and sometimes are even transformed into an animal. If it turns you into a rabbit, you have a debuff placed on you called ‘Magical Transformation’. The tooltip reads “The reactor’s unstable magic has temporarily transformed you.”

Occasionally, you are transformed into a chicken and the tooltip changes to “You are temporarily transformed into a chicken.”

Not sure what it means for chaos magic to tranform/polymorph you.

Hey guys,
I’ve played through the Thaumanova Fractal twice now. In it you encounter Aatxes. As to the displacement theory, these Aatxes are displaced. The Chaos Beasts of Thaumanova are released when the chaos shards/chaos contaminent is destroyed, suggesting that they are trapped inside them. These shards are like the “hosts” of these Chaos Beasts. Remember Godlost Swamp? The Shades are invisible until their hosts reject them, at which they become visible and you can fight them. In the same way I think that breaking the chaotic material is releasing them.

As to the polymorph phenomenon, this is something that you also encounter in the Chaos Crystal Cavern jumping puzzle: Remember, you receive one of four abilities: Ettin-sized, Far-sighted, Near-Sighted, Snakelike. In and of itself, this may not seem like much, but what it suggests to me is that the blueprints for various beings have been “locked” into the overloaded Chaos Crystals. As I have previously noted, the Inquest may have been experimenting with this property in order to successfully transfer Elder Dragon augmentation between creatures without their subjects suffering from the ill-effects of psychological enslavement.

How does Scarlet fit in?
Scarlet has used possibly some of the very chaotic material we attempt to destroy to create a new kind of being, called the Champion Toxic Hybrid. Her achievement is “locking” the form, or incarnating it. She has only ever been after one form: the Chaos Beast, which is the hardest to tame.