Alright, so the title is intentional, just so everyone knows. With that out of the way, lets dive into what I have a theory about the origin of the mursaat.
Based ONLY on the evidence of their appearance, I have a theory that the mursaat are some sort of precursor to humans. The theory is that the mursaat were a first test run for the human gods ability to create life, forming them mostly in their image, but granting them vast magical powers and perhaps a connection to the mists themselves.
At some point the human gods abandon their creation (let’s say that the human gods, after creating the mursaat, were able to see how they would eventually be inclined towards evil deeds) and the mursaat are left to fend for themselves. Later, they either use their inborn connection to the mists to escape from the elder dragons, keeping their magic for themselves or, if they weren’t created with a natural connection to the mists, imitated the human gods ability to step into the mists with their enhanced aptitude for magic, failing to completely step into the mists and conveniently finding a safe zone away from both he horrors of the mists and the horrors of the elder dragons.
Eventually, the human gods return with their newest creation, the humans, and give priority to them while ignoring their previous creation. These new humans are now not as long lived as their older brethren, since for some reason the method that the human gods used to create life tends to lean towards evil if they are long lived enough (possible evidence for this could be Palawa Joko, i’d mention Vizier Khilbron but he had a minion of Abbadon whispering in his ear before he ever became a lich, so he doesn’t really count for the theory), which can also give a reason for why Dhuum was so against reincarnation and the undead, as they gave means for an individual to live beyond what would be considered normal and make them beyond the reach of the judgement of the gods. However the rest of the gods may view the humans as ‘perfected’ versions of their original creations, and as such could be lenient (which would be why they allowed Grenth to overthrow dhuum). Also, the human gods may have been wary of Abbadon giving magic to the humans, and when it backfired, fought against him to prevent the humans from turning down the path of evil like their previous creations, the mursaat.
Now none of this has any evidence whatsoever and I could even shoot a few holes in my own theory (such as, if one of the five ancient races were to be connected to the human gods, it would most likely be the forgotten, what with their connection to divine magic and, as seen in Guild Wars i think, their worship of the human gods), but it was really just a fun thought experiment that i decided to share and see if there’s stuff in lore that further provides evidence against (or, oddly, for) the theory at hand.
(Also, I know, just because something LOOKS human doesn’t make it human or mean it’s related to humans, for example, the norn, dwarves, elves, gnomes and probably a list long enough to rival human history)
(Also, as far as I know, nobody knows what the mursaat look like under their armour, so their unarmoured appearance could either make them look like humans or like predators from the movies of the same name)