Guild Wars 2

If it was a mostly Assassin-only thing, and Cantha split off and isolated itself from the rest of the world, how did the act of shadowstepping spread, even as far as to a new race like the Sylvari?

I suppose the Ebon Vanguard had Ebon Escape, but it doesn’t really answer my questions.

part of the lore states that Tyria lost contact with both Cantha and Elona. However, that’s not to say that right before we lost contact, natives to those lands just packed their bags and left. I’m sure that many assassins probably would have set up permanent residence in both Tyria and Elona, which would mean that they could have plausibly taught younger generations the ways of the assassin. Thieves could be a splinter faction that was less about the kill and more about the “ooo, shiney” factor.

Well, alright, but then what about Ritualists? So far I haven’t really seen any body binding spirits with chains to do their bidding or walking with the ashes of dead people, so I assume their art didn’t get passed down but the Assassin’s did.

One could argue that the Ritualist’s power is somehow tied to Cantha, although in what way we really wouldn’t have known. For all we know, someone saw an assassin shadow step, said “Hey, that looks cool, I want to do that to steal stuff”, and devoted their life to figuring out how to tap into that magic.

There really isn’t any way to explain the abundance of one and the absence of another, so it’s entirely possible that the concept of shadow stepping was never truely localized to Cantha, even though that seemed to be the source 200 years ago.

Keep in mind that despite Cantha being cut off from the rest of the world, Canthan traditions still survive. In fact, in the Human personal story, there’s a point (I think it’s with the Dead Seraph Sister arc) where Logan Thackeray asks you where you’re from. You can answer: Krytan, Elonan, Ascalonian or Canthan.

Canthan descendants exist, just as Elonan expatriates and their descendants exist.

And over the many decades, Canthan/Elonan/Krytan/Ascalonian cultures have experienced a kind of syncretism where traditions bleed over and establish themselves into new practices.

This is why Paragon traditions are visible in Guardian skills, even though Guardians are disassociated from any kind of necessary religious devotion. It’s where Thieves picked up Assassin skills.

Teleportation existed before the Assassin class, with some Necromancer skills allowing teleportation to a corpse. Shadowstepping was, if anything, a more limited version of teleportation, at least mechanically – you couldn’t carry bundles, or travel through obstacles as well.

Rangers use spirits, granted their are “nature” spirits but that doesn´t mean the art couldn’t have evolved into binding only nature spirits especially if you consider all those ascalonians tortured spirits.

Except that Rangers had spirits in GW1 well before Factions and the creation of the Ritualist. Ranger spirits are spirits of Melandru, whereas Ritualists are using the bound spirits of the dead, tearing them from the Mists and forcing them to do what the Ritualist wants.

Ritualists were probably the origin to guardian weapon spriits. Just as Elona had spread their teachings after Nightfall, it’s possible that Cantha did the same. And just as paragons spread more than dervishes, assassins likely spread more than ritualists.

Also keep in mind the purpose behind these professions. In Cantha, ritualists guide souls. This job is done by necromancers in Tyria and Elona (unlike in Cantha where they’re to maintain balance between life and death). In Elona, dervishes are wayward priests – in Tyria and Cantha, monks are wayward just as much as not (unlike in Elona).

Suniahk.7268:

part of the lore states that Tyria lost contact with both Cantha and Elona. However, that’s not to say that right before we lost contact, natives to those lands just packed their bags and left. I’m sure that many assassins probably would have set up permanent residence in both Tyria and Elona, which would mean that they could have plausibly taught younger generations the ways of the assassin. Thieves could be a splinter faction that was less about the kill and more about the “ooo, shiney” factor.

During the events of Winds of Change, non humans were exiled with Cantha, along with everyone who disagreed with any of the new decesions the empire was making. It’s never outright said, but I personally inferred that my canthan character was Not Welcome after the events of WoC. Many people would have moved to Elona or Kryta. After Orr rose, anyone in Kryta from Cantha was effectively stuck there whether they liked it or not, same as the Elonians.

Thief is effectively the Assassin with the extra ability to yank something off someone, gameplay wise. Lore wise? The assassin was designed to infiltrate and kill off a target. Those skills are extremely compatible; instead of using them to quickly and quietly off a target, you use them to quickly and quietly nick something instead.

Well, the Assassin was also a bringer of balance, a semi-holy servant of Grenth, at least as it was taught at the Shing Jea Academy. They’re like the Faceless Men of A Song of Ice and Fire, in that death is their holy calling (although the Assassins were more discriminating, as shown by the class training quests on Shing Jea and their explanation of the role of the Assassin).

Thief is Assassin with the mystical and religious elements stripped out. Which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense – why would asurans or charr or norn comply with the religious beliefs of the humans who invented the techniques?

To throw in another angle, I’ve been playing it that my norn Thief learned some of her “tricks” mostly from the skelk (specifically those in the maze beneath the Rookery). Given that norn can be spiritually attuned to the essence of an animal or creature type, I thought this worked rather well.

Nothing saying that humans can’t do the same, though. Just because a discipline was once exclusive to a particular culture or region, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way, especially if other cultures were exposed to it. Others can reinvent, reverse-engineer, or just stumble upon their own way of achieving the same effect.

Gulbrandr – they were there more to balance the fact that necromancy was limited in Cantha because of the pretty distorted connection to the mists and worlds in that the spirits rest (both ritualists and necros drain their powers from the same source, necros offer their blood and dark emotions/bind their souls as eternal servants to grenth, ritualists their mind – get blind, then crippled, etc, but their spirits remaining kinda free)
Assassins on the other hand had no permanent connection to the mists/spirit realms, but acted as physical servants to Grenth (Necro are in spirit world liches, ritualists and dervishes of grenth do half half, Assassins are humans blessed with powers over death in life), thus either way they had little mystical and religious elements, its just Cantha being really into gods that gave em religious meaning.
Necro bring stuff back out of the Underworld, assassins make sure that stuff goes into the Underworld.

Beside the argument that Canthan refugee lives in Kryta (a full district in Divinity’s reach is, or was Catnhan, but the great collapse destroyed most of that part of the city). I would like to state that the mastery of shadowstepping skills wasn’t excluded to Cantha nor to only asassins. Besides that, the fact that the only asassin school was in Cantha, doesn’t mean that ascalonians could be asassins. First there is Anton who is an Asassin in service of the Ebon Vanguard. Second there where several skills in the far shiverpeaks that utilize shadowstepping. Last off all, The Ebon Vanguard has developped a special skill for there own kin (or allies that have been a great help) called Ebon escape. This skill as well utilize shadowstepping.

So being cut off from the Canthan continent and from the master skill-masters, the cut off Asassins have realised that they had to develop the profession in a separate part. Beside that, where the art of asassination of people was a highly rated art in Cantha, in Tyria it was more seen as a crime and just murder. So they developped to master the art of thievery. Some of them using those skills for criminal purpose, but others for e.g. intelligence gathering and espionage.

Even though shadowstepping was developped originally in Cantha, it is known that way before the cut off it was also known to migrate to Elona and Tyria. After the cut off, it is known that it has been utilised in the development of what we now know as the school of thievery.