Guild Wars 2

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/theories on the role of the Zodiac in Guild Wars lore? I assumed it had been forgotten about in Guild Wars 2, but the Zodiac weapons were added with the Clockwork Chaos release (no obvious connection to the lore) and the Zodiac armour was added with the Escape from Lion’s Arch release. Again, no connection to the lore of that release but then we don’t have many precedents – some of the individual armour sets released so far have belonged to B-iconics, others have never been seen before and have no connection to lore, but the only real set of gem store armours released so far are the Aetherblades, who were of course season 1 baddies. Makes me wonder whether the “Zodiacs” will have a similar role as a new faction in season 2, although this is of course all baseless speculation. Point being, those armours look a little too distinctive to not have some backstory (personally, they remind me of the armour worn by the juvenile GL in Arah).

We’ve never seen anything quite like the Zodiac armour before (to my knowledge), but the Zodiac weapons are familiar – they’re from Cantha, and they dropped in Urgoz’s Warren and the Deep. Again, we don’t know if there’s a lore connection here, it’s just that these were rare skins and these were the toughest areas in the game, so maybe they dropped there just so as not to be easily accessible. If there is a lore connection, the thing we should bear in mind is what connects these two areas, namely that they are the hearts of their respective regions, the Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea, and the areas hit hardest by the Jade Wind.

The other place that the Canthan zodiac appears, of course, is the Lunar Festival. It seems to match up quite closely with the Chinese zodiac. I didn’t have a huge amount of time to look, but the most lore I could find on the Lunar Festival was

I’m glad you asked! The festival has taken place for years, but not many know of its true heritage. Long ago, the emperor came to understand that each passing year exhibited characteristics normally associated with particular animals. In order to honor those animals and their influence over our lives, the emperor decreed that each year must be named for its patron animal. The emperor also noticed that the progression of years eventually repeated, so that is why you will hear people of different ages claim to be born in the same year. I will not bore you with the specifics of each individual year’s animals. There are most likely others here who can shed some light on that subject should you be interested.

So, I ask again, what is the deal with the Zodiac in Guild Wars 2?

Zodiac weapons are likely no different than Tormented weapons. Weapons from GW1 imported and changed for GW2. Much like the Destroyer weapons, and HoM weapons. Imported for the sake of nostalgia.

Zodiac armor, if you look closely, has stars shown within the body (beneath the blue skin), where the name comes from.

I don’t think there’s any real lore behind them other than the cry for Cantha has led to more items themed to the same themes as some themes seen in Factions. In this case, Zodiac weapons and Celestials.

I still want the blue-ish skin to be dyeable …

That is the question i have as well. Why do we get so much unexplained stuff ingame suddenly?
Normaly these things were tied to the story or to lore in some kind, but the recent armor sets just pop up without any explanation.
Be it fiery, strider or anything. They are just there…

Perhaps the Zodiac weapons are tied to the Celestials. But that is just speculation, of course.

Not trying to necro but I was looking this up because my earlier post about the Gilded Hollow loading screen and the fact that the two persons in front of the fall appear to be wearing gear very similar to the zodiac armor. It just seems strange that in this entire piece of artwork the focal point seems to be dead center on those two people. So why aren’t they exalted or enchanted armor? Instead it’s two humanoids with zodiac-esque armor?