Guild Wars 2

In GW1, servers didn’t mean diddlysquat for lore.

In GW2, servers merely represent different worlds in WvW and otherwise means diddlysquat for lore.

Dat’s just about it. Servers is a mechanics thing.

No, things occur and succeed without you, there’s just more casualties.

Well, unless you were the only one that would go there (e.g., if you don’t protect Quinn, he dies cuz no one goes to help him; if you go protect Quinn, Logan stops the poisoning but some still fell in whereas if you joined Logan no poison got in).

Well that might be the case for Guild Wars too, considering the Pale Tree’s line during the personal story step A Light in the Darkness about how the future is always changing.

The whole multiple dimensions and time travel effects are still fairly up in the air, all we know is that the Mists connects all places and all times, so through them travel to any place at any time is possible.

Aurum.8793:

@Konig, Since that interview was in 2006, could it be possible that he was talking about the original Guild Wars only? Maybe there were no plans to bring him back in the original Guild Wars.

Er, sorry, I meant 2008 – silly typo there. Here’s part 1 of the PAX panel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdlkiYT7034

If I remember correctly, most asura live in their labs. Snaff and Zojja did in EoD I believe, at least.

Jormag’s minions are already in the Mists folks. Play norn Defend the Mists storyline – one of the Wayfarer Foothills events also deals with this, as well as a skill challenge in Lornar’s Pass and another in Frostgorge Sound (those blue portals lead into the Mists).

Regarding the nature of servers… well, we know that multiple dimensions exist, via the Infinity Ball storyline and WvW, though the Infinity Ball storyline was more of multiple futures, so its hard to say multiple Elder Dragons exist, though they probably do. But each such dimenasion isn’t a clone – there are differences. Guild Wars seems to follow the “infinite future theory” of quantum physics… which isn’t my forte but basically any the world splits off at any possible change and creating parallels whenever a new possibility unfolds. Meaning there will be millions of dimensions where the Elder Dragons exist, and millions more where they don’t – or did but died. And so long as the gods don’t originate from the Mists themselves (nothing says they do), then there’d be just as many of the Six Gods.

Supposedly, at least. I don’t think that’s really the case, personally.

We’re told by the Durmand Priory scholars (particularly Scholar Yissa, the expert on mursaat, and Randal Greyston, the expert on seers) that the mursaat were the betrayers. Of course, this would be in turn based off of jotun and dwarven historical records.

It was stated back in 2006 at Pax (and again later in an interview) that Abaddon is gone for good.

They may continue expanding his story, but it’ll all be about his past, or his servants (should any remain) or his servants’ past. Abaddon himself, unless they decide to go back on their word for this which I somehow doubt, will not return.

Maloy.1249:

Charr, they actually breed at incredible rates, but because they have so many enemies the population is kept balanced. A civilization can not exist in a state of eternal war and civil war and have a normal birth rate.

Also look at GuildWars 1 unbelievable amounts of Charr are killed in Prophecies alone, but still in the last game they were beyond counting in their numbers.

Actually, charr breed and mature at the same rates as humans – or so we were told a long while back by a dev, I believe it was Jeff Grubb.

As for GW1 numbers – that’s more mechanical than lore. I mean, if we were to take the number of foes literal, in either game, then the Flame Legion is as large as the Iron, Ash, and Blood legions combined in GW2, and not only that, but the White Mantle during the War in Kryta content (or even The Battle for Lion’s Arch quest alone) had the vast majority of Kryta’s population as members. However, both are clearly false. These large numbers are done for the fact that players can easily overpower one or two NPCs, and as such said enemy NPCs are put in high number groups – whereas allied NPCs are lower because they’re of less focus.

@OP: Most of the major races reproduce in similar or slower rates to humans, many having equal or longer natural lifespans. Hylek and skritt, however, are extremely large breeders among the sentient races. Though they have an equally high mortality rate.

Zaxares.5419:

As such, I expect that Asura probably have lifespans that are half (or less) the length of humans and larger races, although perhaps magic and medical technology can prolong their life to a comparative level.

Your average asura will live 5-10% longer than your average human. This was told to us by a dev some time ago (same with charr having the same maturity and natural lifespan as humans).

Zaxares.5419:

I don’t remember it being stated anywhere that Charr have litters

Blog post from charr week proves they don’t – the female charr that was pregnant had one child.

As Embolism said, the kodan in Frostgorge Sound often make reference to how their children are most vulnerable to the outside world (I take this more as being easily influenced to “imbalance” rather than being physically in danger, personally) and as such are hidden away.

So they exist, but like female charr in GW1, or jotun women and children, they are kept off screen.

The OP sounds eerily familiar

@mercury: the architecture isn’t that unique actually. It holds a very Krytan appearance to it, though certainly not of GW1 or GW2’s style. It definitely seems to be Krytan in origin, imo.

In Edge of Destiny, and in a lot of personal story steps, its an instantaneous corruption (and rotting), but all of these are nearby large forces of risen and/or powerful risen.

Minions are made by being saturated in Zhaitan’s magic – if they die in the vicinity of powerful minions, e.g., a champion or in Orr, they’d turn immediately. If not, then their bodies would be commandeered and taken to one of the minion factories. That’s how it seems to be at least.

arcqe.6734:

Though it was to my understanding and agreement that destroyers only mimic life, it is notable to point out that in the crucible of eternity story, trapped test subjects are somehow able to be turned into destroyers. Granted, this may simply be due to the inquest forcing exposure to dragon energies on the subjects, so whether or not it’s an isolated case is unknown. I’d assume it is though (or simply a dev oversight) .

And in that dungeon, a charr got turned into an icebrood kodan, and a human into a branded charr.

That’s not evidence for anything. It’s an oversight of randomization – any subject can turn into any set number of dragon minions, and apparently destroyer trolls got added to the mix.

Alex the Precise.3654:

Were the Seers wiped out before the elder dragons went to sleep? I thought that the Mursaat/Seer war happened after the Mursaat returned. If the Mursaat could keep their magic when they hid, they could easily win an old grudge match against the Seers who had sealed away their magic in the bloodstone. It would also explain their powerful magic like spectral agony if they still had access to pre-bloodstone magic.

It’s never stated when that war happened, but it’s highly implied that the seers were wiped out by the mursaat before they left.

Firstly, they betrayed the other races then fled.

Secondly, the mursaat supposedly returned shortly before GW1.

Thirdly, we were told by Ree Soesbee the war happened during the time of the Tome of Rubicon, written before the Six Gods’ arrival.

So the war had to be either when the ED were awake still, or the implications that the mursaat returned shortly before GW1 (the scholar says they only returned “recently” as the Unseen Ones) is wrong.

Ushgarak.1392:

I think it’s six. Scholar Trueclaw’s information was a very heavy implication of there having been a sixth race at the time that no-one now knows of (in part because it got completely wiped out).

Scholar Caterin states there were six Elder Dragons. Scholar Trueclaw states there were five races and the whole “five against six.”

Ushgarak.1392:

The whole tone of his ‘five against six is unfair’- ‘and yet…’ conversation, combined with ‘count the uncounted’ and ‘name the unnamed’, is a very heavy hint at an unknown sixth. It should be six against six. That the player can specifically ask ‘only 5’? and get a response that effectively says ‘well, maybe not’ is telling.

Count the Uncounted and Name the Unnamed are just code phrases for the Order of Whispers to identify themselves to each other. It’s always “something the <opposite of something>” and is linked to what the NPC is says, but it’s not actually relevant to the lines.

Also, you’re not entirely right.

She states that there were five sentient races that fought the Elder Dragons and survived. There’s no implication anywhere that there’s a sixth or unknown race that fought the Elder Dragons.

Of course, these are of jotun stelae, and thus only from the jotun’s perspective and thus might be false. However, as it stands, there is no indication of a sixth surviving sentient race that fought the Elder Dragons.

He’s an old male asura from the Order of Whispers. He’s dealt with later in the personal storyline in Orr too. He deals with researchers a lot, but I don’t think we ever actually see him.

The Elder Dragons are shown to have emotions and thoughts too.

I highly doubt that the other four/five Elder Dragons will be given a whole expansion. That’d get boring fast for expansion plots. Even with some side elements tossed in.

It’s like going through Eye of the North five times in a row – just a different element and location for the final boss.

I don’t think its a person, that Grey Gretta’s Post is named after.

Dustfinger.9510:

Judging relative opinions from an objective viewpoint is flawed.

No more than judging relative opinions from the same subjective – or an alternative subjective – viewpoint.

But looking at your full post, it is very obvious that you never once understood what I meant. I never once mentioned taking things out of context – in fact, I explicitly stated that my methodology is taking the viewpoints (and thus the contexts) of multiple views and comparing them. By my logic, not everyone is false – rather, everyone has some falsehood, and similarly everyone has some truth; how much of each varies, but there is no one who is absolutely correct, and no one who is absolutely wrong (because they have the truth of perspective – the sole means of how you judge truthhood from how I understand your posts).

Perhaps I used poor wording to explain what I mean, as I wasn’t explaining my full viewpoint on the matter, but merely just trying to show how Thruln the Lost has some false information presented. Allow me to be more elaborative

Thruln may be correct in the viewpoint where the jotun race viewed the humans as being little better than grawl. This cannot be argued to be true or false given our lack of knowledge on the matter – Thruln the Lost is our sole source on this. However, we know that humans were at that time above where grawl are now.

So he may be true in showing us how jotun viewed humans at the time, however, we know for a fact that he is wrong in how humanity actually was. While I have focused on the latter to prove my point that Thruln the Lost has incorrect information, I have not ignored the former.

Zaxares.5419:

Yes, but just because the norn weren’t part of Prophecies/Factions/Nightfall didn’t mean they didn’t exist at the time. The devs may have made Turai a giant of a man for any number of reasons, but norn ancestry would have made a neat lore explanation.

Turai was tall because his ghost was.

Ghostly Heroes were tall for the same reason Guild Lords from Cantha are giants. So that they can be seen in PvP.

No lore to it. If any lore exists, its probably that he was just a very tall person.

I don’t think anyone argued it’s an insurgence against the Flame Legion.

Rather, we’re Flame Legion outselves, but we have hints of Ash Legion aiding us (the Flame Legion). So that implies it’s prior to Eye of the North.

At this point, I’m going to say that we agree to disagree. Because I’m looking at things objctively, and yes I would judge relative knowledge and viewpoints from an objective viewpoint to determine if they are true or false – otherwise we can say everyone is telling the truth and that leads us no where.

However, even if we were to exclude the grawl comment, his claims still has inconsistencies and incorrect information. Some of which I’ve pointed out. And the only aspect he is correct on has been that magic was chaotic when the Elder Dragons were last alive, while there are aspects which we’re given no other indication to measure against (the history of jotun and norn, how norn began to follow the Spirits of the Wild, and the Age of Giants).

Jormag’s stated by the Pact (a charr member of Whispers) to first give promises of power before corrupting – the only Elder Dragon that convinces people to join it, rather than corrupting to enslave. At least 2 different skill challenges with Frost Portals have icebrood whispering about power – both promises of power or challenges of power. One, found in Frostgorge Sound, specifically Drakkar Spurs, says to the player something along the lines of “continue getting stronger, and you shall become worthy of Jormag’s gift” – the icebrood which come from these are icebrood elementals (in Lornar’s Pass) and icebrood quaggan/colossi (Frostgorge).

It’s not just the Sons of Svanir who are about strength and power, but everything about Jormag.

Jormag has 3 core elements to him: Ice, Mind, and Power.

His corruption takes the form of ice. He corrupts through the mind. And he promises power, and all his icebrood seek power or view having power as having worth.

Zhaitan is explicitly stated to be different from the six gods (each god is denounced by risen; one of Grenth’s Reapers outright states Zhaitan is stealing souls from Grenth). And no Elder Dragon is Kormir, who was a mortal, nor Abaddon, nor Dhuum.

They are not the same. This is proven in the personal storyline. Furthermore, this has been a common – and wrong – theory that has flooded this forum.

And this is ignoring the fact that Kralkatorrik doesn’t fit any of the Six Gods, nor does Jormag, once you get past the basic appearances. Jormag has mind powers, but is tied to ice – thus he’s a mix of Lyssa and Grenth; Kralkatorrik is purple so people link to Lyssa but that’s the only connection and Abaddon was also purple in color affiliation.

Once you get past the Balthazar/Primordus and Abaddon/Water connections, it all false apart very fast.

Subjective truth is rather irrelevant. It merely shows what the source believes to be the case. One cannot be subjectively wrong, only for others to be subjectively wrong. It’s the same concept as “I don’t have an accent, everyone else does.”

If the source is wrong objectively, then it’s wrong. Simple as that.

By arguing Thruln is not wrong because he believes he is correct, your not making any progress to finding the true situation. Although we’re told humans were in tribes when they arrived on Cantha, continental Tyria, and Elona, they were far higher than grawls are in modern times, given the fact that Orr and the Primeval Dynasty began almost immediately after settling on the continents. We know for a fact that Thruln the Lost is wrong on multiple scales. There may be some truth in his words, but not in all of it – let alone humanity’s societal level when they arrived on continental Tyria, as well as when the Six Gods recognized humanity (a hell of a long time before Thruln’s claim which would place it, subjectively, no later than 100 BE which was 15 years after the scriptures of Dwayna, but more likely around 200 BE, 5 years after they arrived on continental Tyria).

Also keep in mind that Thruln the Lost’s knowledge comes form oral tradition, which is – as known via empirical data – among the, if not the, most easily means to alter knowledge from generation to generation (intentionally or not) as it relies upon memory and direct 1 to 1 speaking and learning – no writings.

I’m not going to continue this conversation in two separate threads at the same level of discussion.

Don’t be too sure of that. There’s runes on the Risen Wraith’s cloaks and we were told that there’s a fifth translatable language that was introduced in GW2 (the other four being Ascalonian, Old Canthan, Asuran script, and New Krytan).

Just because no one has seen Orrian script – or rather, tried translating it – yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Also, at the beginning you start that fractal in an Ash Legion tent – there was already a rebellion against the Flame Legion at this point, so that seems out of place. However, the war with the charr has been going on for 1,200 years more or less, so there’s a huge span for when that could be taking place.

His perspective of magic being taken from them is likely wrong and his view of the events of the bloodstone being shattered after Abaddon tampered with it to give magic to all the races. However, magic had been taken long before by the seers, so it seems unlikely to me that the jotun race can fall to such a deformed race (according to the Priory, jotun relics indicate they have become a lot uglier since their fall, seemingly due to inbreeding based on the blog post about them) in 1,300 years. It would be more likely, imo, if this fall happened between the Elder Dragons’ fall and the Six Gods’ arrival.

But him being wrong is irregardless of the perspective he’s speaking from when it comes to the objective truths. There are effectively two kinds of truth: objective truth and subjective truth. Every NPC speaks in subjective truths, as well as any external sources written from an in-universe perspective (read: all of them). The objective truth is gleaned, just like in reality, when comparing all related subjective truths and finding the consistencies.

Leetfreek.2163:

Well, for example, how does every know
[Spoiler]About the dragons.There is a sixth dragon, potentially underwater?
I’ve read that it was mentioned in interviews or Q&A’s. But for example, is it possible to find that in game? or anything really relevant besides “We use watersheds.”

The underwater one is the fifth Elder Dragon, known since the ED were known, which came from a GW2 promotion way back in 2007. Since then, there have been interviews, blog posts, and a few NPC dialogues hinting at something powerful pushing aquatic races out of the Unending Ocean.

The sixth was found out by NPCs in the Durmand Priory building. Though you have to be a member of the Priory in the storyline to get such comments.

Here’s an interesting unanswered question. The entire Lost Shores event. Why did nobody notice the island just off the coast til now? How do the karka fit into lore? Who, in the name of all the Gods, thought it would be a good idea to teach them how to barrel roll? Lots of unanswered questions to ponder, you just need to know where to look.

1) Based on appearances, the island seems to be new. Also, risen controlled the Sea of Sorrows until recently.
2) Karka are a deep water aquatic race forced to the surface like krait, largos, and quaggan.
3) ArenaNet.

Jelle.2807:

frans.8092:

Shipwrecks were all over the Crystal Desert, they don’t neccesarily mean something rose from the sea. The structures on the east look like sculptures the sea makes from cliffs. Maybe the shipwrecks are the remains of the flood that washed away Lion’s Arch.

Actually the shipwrecks in the Crystal Desert are there because of receding sea levels rather then rising sea levels due to an antire continent resurfacing.

Erm. They’re there because the flood of the Crystal Sea was pushed up when Abaddon was defeated. So yeah, it would be land surfacing (just not a continent nor the “re” part).

Based on the fact that he’s referring to when humanity arrived on the coasts of Tyria – comparing them, as they were then, to the modern grawl who are incapable of sea travel. Furthermore, about five years after they landed on said coasts, they built kingdoms. Thruln also claims that the Six Gods did not recognize humans until the latter had built kingdoms – yet the humans were brought to the world by the Six Gods, and Cantha existed, with knowledge of the gods and reverence to them, even claimed interaction with them, for hundreds of years already.

Thruln’s entire context sounds like he’s trying to save face for his race, and is contradicted by several other sources – both older and newer. The only thing that might have been true is the context of the Age of Giants, though we know that his single line of the time when Elder Dragons reigned is true.

We were told in an interview a while back by Jeff Grubb, interviewed by the leader of the RP guild Ashenfold Cartel (the leader being ShadowedSin on forums, semi-active in Guru lore forums) that none of the five major races can procreate.

So no, there are no half-norn half-humans. Not possible in lore.

Embolism.8106:

the Norn had been on Tyria since at least the time of Jotun dominance

According to a jotun who’s wrong in half of his information.

Dustfinger.9510:

The humans were little more than grull when they first came to tyria from beyond the mist.

Firstly, you remember Thruln’s line wrong. He’s talking about when they came to continental Tyria on ships.

Secondly, Thruln’s just outright wrong in that (unless you care to explain how grawl-like creatures, grawl being unable to have long-distant sea voyages even in modern GW2, could build a kingdom in five years after arriving from an unknown off-shore continent via ships, having had an empire for hundreds of years already). Just as he’s wrong about the Six Gods not recognizing humanity until they built kingdoms.

Curuniel.4830:

It seems to me that ultimately all the Elder Dragons desire destruction, but sort of in different flavours.

-snip rest-

There’s an old thread somewhere, forgot thread title though, where I made a post examining the (possible) personalities of the Elder Dragons – or specifically, the fact that they all seem to hold one ultimate desire.

Risen constantly talk about life and truth through Zhaitan, about how Zhaitan gives immortality.

From Edge of Destiny, we somewhat learn that Kralkatorrik seems to seek perfection – that is to say, he wants to obtain everything, become everything, and destroy whatever he cannot obtain in doing so. Perfection by definition is either “without flaws” or “containing everything” – an alternative form to view Kralkatorrik would be that he’s the ultimate personification of greed, though I do hope Anet stays away from making each Elder Dragon one of the deadly seven sins.

Primordus, based on the actions of his minions and the fact he doesn’t corrupt living beings, seems to want genocide of all organisms.

Jormag, as you put it, seems to want the ultimate form of Darwinism – or, perhaps, just simply is seeking to become the strongest being, and have the strongest follow him.

DSD and the sixth ED are unknown at this point, but if my hypothesis on the krait’s faith being tied to the DSD is true, then the DSD may want an alternative form of Darwinism – life that lives in multiple environments (capable of living both above and below water, for instance); an alternative would be going to what the depths is described as – unspeakable horrors, more or less, indicating the DSD may want to bring madness, nightmare, insanity.

And for the sixth, all we have is that Zone Green, which might be tied to the sixth, has two elements: nature, and poison. This can go two ways – wanting to strangle all life, to suffocate it, or to bring forth the natural state of things. If the hypothesis that the Summoned Husks – and in turn Nightmare Court (but not Pale Tree/sylvari/DoD) is tied to the sixth, then it would follow this mentality – the sixth wants sadism, to torture all life – a slow means of suffocating it.

The ancient races heavily relied upon magic.

Elder Dragons feast on magic.

Ergo, the ancient races’ weapons were food for the Elder Dragons. To starve the Elder Dragons, the seers removed the primary weapons of all five races (not six, btw). Leaving them defenseless while the Elder Dragons began to starve (though they still got food via corrupting living beings).

Zhaitan’s defeat came from the fact that charr have technology and asura have magitech, the closest to which the ancient races had were the jotun, who’s magic and technology is fairly unknown.

Also, 10 people? I think you’re ignoring the entire armies that is the Pact – not only is the Pact of the Order of Whispers, Vigil, and Durmand Priory, but the High Legions, Lionguard, sylvari as a whole, and the minor races aided previously, as well as some largos, are all helping out – it’s more accurate to say that it’s 5 major races and portions of 6 minor races (if not more). But as said, it was mechanical technology that gave the upper hand to the Pact.

ALso, keep in mind that the mursaat fled the world after nearly genociding the seer race. So it was really 3 races in the end – the dwarves, jotun, and forgotten. Even with the forgotten having found out a means to prevent or cleanse corruption, that wouldn’t be enough when the seers have taken away magic.

Dustfinger.9510:

The dragons may wake when the races become powerful enough to be a threat. The jotun say human were little more than grull when they first got to tyria.

And Thruln the Lost is wrong in that regard.

New Krytan was established in 1105 AE. Ventari died in 1180 AE. He carved the tablet on his deathbed.

Given Ventari wanted people to be able to read it, I think he would have gone with a universal alphabet that existed for 75 years already, rather than using whatever alphabet centaurs use.

Yata.8932:

seems kind of like an oversight, the Seperatist posters in Ebonhawk are written old Krytan.

You mean in Ascalonian.

Miragee.3604:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Your opninion is wrong.

We’re told that they were forced out of the water depths just as krait, quaggan, and largos were.

? Source?

Besides some of the lines in game which stated they have been present and are not a new threat?

There was an article by Matthew Medina which stated this, though I can’t recall where it was.

Looks to me like they’re already rebuilding the Lion’s Court.

You don’t have to make a new thread for each.

And there are already threads on some of these (such as the colossus one). I don’t really feel like repeating my thoughts which can be found on the front page of this forum still. And I don’t know enough about the swamp place, though I do have a hypothesis which requires me completing it to prove right or wrong.

Kevoros.2946:

First of all, it is known that the events you go through have eitehr happened in history or are going to happen.

Not necessarily. Some are, of course, mimicries of past events or future events, but not everything in the Mists is a copy of something else.

Kevoros.2946:

Next – Raving Asura. You seem to be teleported to the future of rata sum, and you do a jumping puzzle up to a raving asura (seems to have gone mad). During this time, Dessas seems worried and excuses herself elswhere. When you defeat what the raving asura throws at you, he says you cant be real, because everyone is gone then carries off. Could the asura be related to Dessa in any way?

I do not think there’s a tie between Dessa and the asura. She leaves because the wrecked place is Rata Sum. It’s a post apocalyptic view of her species.

That’d freak any (sane) person.

lordkrall.7241:

I believe the Charr-dungeon is actually taking place a few minutes before the Foefire. Dessas reaction after killing the boss does imply that it is about to happen.

Except:
1) That looks nothing like Ascalon City, even in GW2.
2) The Flame Legion never made it that far into Ascalon City, based on first-hand witnesses accounts (the Fireshadow warband who were watching from the Viewing Hill).
3) When the Foefire happened, the soldiers all fled. No fleeing soldiers can be found here.
4) If this was the Foefire event, Anet did a massive screw up by not showing it.

lordkrall.7241:

As for the Raving Asura I think that might be the “future self” from the Asura Personal Quest (the one responsible for the Steam Creatures)

Extremely unlikely.

Firstly, there are a multitude of futures. The Grand Sovereign figure that is a possible future version of the asura PC won’t exist in all of them. Secondly, unless that asura mimics the appearance of any asura in the dungeon, that’s even more so to be unlikely.

It’s likely just a survivor of Rata Sum’s destruction, which is simply one of many possible futures.

Just because it’s not used in modern times doesn’t mean it wasn’t 450 years ago, or isn’t possible to be done.

That method of using the school may be frowned upon if not completely banned – just as murdering for the sake of experimenting on corpses is in GW1 Ascalon.

This isn’t a case like resurrection, which even in lore is a rather rare and “that’s possible?!” aspect in GW2 (with the only known attempted case being Gaheron).

Regarding the elementalist skill, it depends on how its done. Can the Elementalist turn others into stone? And is it actual stone or just appearance/a growth?

And I would agree with any mesmers “petrifying” individuals – that is what Queen Jennah did, after all. Created the allusion that those people became branded while petrifying them (to a degree).

Curuniel.4830:

Did they decide to just claim Southsun Cove for themselves and start opening resorts, inviting tourists for a quick buck?

Pretty much.

The Consortium, asuran established, seems to have few morals (though much more than the Inquest) and are simply out there to make money.

In regards to intelligence, drax noted on Guru2 that the places the karka attacked were all where the Consortium survivors of the exploration of Southsun Cove fled to (Morgan’s Spiral being en route to where Noll was).

As for the metamorphosis – that’s actually not true. It seems that from hatchling to young they grow a tail, but further changes are just additions of the shell on their body (and, of course, their own size increasing). They always have 4 legs and a rather lobster like body once they grow the tail (though from young to adult, the tail goes from swinging upwards, like a devourer’s, to swinging downwards – most likely due to the extra space beneath them).

The hylek don’t know about them. The hylek we talk to is told of the karka and helps make an acidic potion he thinks can help. It’s in other words a run-of-the-mill dissolvant (well, very powerful and not so run of the mill I guess).

As for what the Consortium did – it’s left fairly unknown to them, it could have just simply been their presence. Though Canach suspects its because they began experiments on the flowers there (their food source, most likely).

Kyratic.7038:

Karka = bubbles dragon minions. equivalent to destroyers/undead.
my opnion of course.

Your opninion is wrong.

We’re told that they were forced out of the water depths just as krait, quaggan, and largos were.

@OP: If you heard the term “bubbles” in game, then that held no relation to the deep sea dragon – Bubbles is a fan-made game. If you heard it from the people, then you were hearing speculations. Unless it was that the DSD forced the karka out.

Well, even that’s speculation still, but highly immensely implied.

LoreChief.8391:

As far as the destroyers are concerned; I’ve seen destroyer trolls and spiders
[…]
the destroyers appear to be corrupted creatures from the mountains (trolls and spiders.

Destroyers mimic life. And it would be crabs, not spiders.

There are “Destroyer Crab” “Destroyer Troll” and “Destroyer Harpy” models, but they’re not corrupted beings. They’re just made in mimicry of crabs, trolls, and harpies.

If you observe the destroyers carefully, though its harder for crabs, you can tell that they very much were never living creatures. No bones, skin, hair, etc. And Destroyer Harpies are actually hollow (you can only tell this when they die, at a certain angle). Other dragon minions always retain some fragment of their former bodies – even Icebrood Colossi, despite being giant blocks of ice, still contain the original skeletons that the creatures once were.

Curuniel.4830:

Yeah, there’s a part in one of the novels – Caithe in Edge of Destiny? – where a sylvari is eating moa. Meat eating seems fairly normal among sylvari.

Killeen in Ghosts of Ascalon.

Though there’s also a scene in Edge of Destiny where Caithe eats food.

Danikat.8537:

There is some debate about whether Shiro uses swords or daggers,

Mechanically, he uses daggers.

Lore wise, which is what we care about, he dual-wielded swords.

Danikat.8537:

Even outside of lore it takes a minimum of 2 people to bring him down (although you can solo him you need a monk henchman or hero)

My assassin disagrees with you and says it takes a minimum of 1 person. But keep in mind that our PCs are special.

Also that’s mechanics not lore.

Anyways, as to the OP, I don’t think there really is any definitive answer. Same goes with reality. Because we cannot – accurately – compare the abilities of Shiro to Koss, Jora, or Lord Victo (all renowned warriors), let alone to the most famous swordmaster of Kryta, Bongo the One-Eyed! (he trained Lord Faren and Minister Duran)

It would be rather neat if we could have a GW version of Deadliest Warrior, but that’s unlikely to happen.

Ryuujin.8236:

Even in lore it did. And the Luxons and Kurzicks were fighting over it hundreds of years later

If you want to get technical, there were dozens of warriors who fought Shiro alongside Viktor, Vizu, and Archemorus. Those three simply survived (until the Jade Wind) where the others didn’t.

Rehashed Jibe Tube.7102:

The arena was knocked down to make way for something. Possibly the pad with the asura gates?

Correct. It was removed in the past year in order to make room for the asura gates that lead to the Mists.

Vrede.8942:

What is the time frame between GW2 and the ending of Edge of Destiny.

Five years since the end of the novel, six since the forming of the full group.

Vrede.8942:

Then again we already lost the Lion statue and now the observation tower. I just thought I would put it out there and see if anybody had an answer.

Lion’s Court is already being rebuilt.

And it was a lighthouse. One from GW1’s time, even.

There was a chicken in the containment cells? I recall a Champion Rabbit but not a chicken.

And something to note about futures in Guild Wars, as proven by A Light in the Darkness and the entire Infinity Ball storylines, best summarized by the Pale Tree herself:

: “the future can change in the blink of an eye.”

That is a possible future for Rata Sum (one which apparently disturbed Dessa, and with good reason). Just as the Infinity Ball storyline glimpses a possible future where the asura PC turns evil and takes over Tyria. And in A Light in the Darkness, that’s one of the futures where Trahearne leads the Pact – possibly without the PC’s aid given the lack of his presence – which was changed as shown by the lack of the Arah Gate Guard fella.

Nothing’s really known about them. They appear to be a guild-like group of explorers and cartographers. You’re not a member of them, they just heard of your exploits and felt the need of thanking you for proving such feats are accomplishable.

: Turning something to stone is literally the definition of petrification. We’re used to the term also meaning immobolisation because stone isn’t normally self-mobile, but that’s what’s impressive about elementalists doing it – they can turn themselves to stone and still move.

But that’s a different situation all together, not close to the kind of petrification we’re talking about. Elementalists, effectively, turn themselves into living golems (the original kind, not GW kind); this is the cease of life petrification. It’s not something I’d attribute to the Elementalists’ skill at all.

: There’s no reason why petrification should be more effective against undead

Nor is there any real reason given outside “it’s divine” for why undead are more effected by Smiting Prayers. Should one consider Smiting Prayers to be Preservation, then naturally what would be the harmful form would typically be less – if at all – effective against undead compared to the living.

Unless one were to consider that the same skills in mechanics are functioned differently based on the target of the spell.

And I’d like to point out that I never said – or at the least intended to mean – that all forms of negative Preservation is in the form of petrification. An alternative, which I view would be most effective against undead, would be rather the excess of benefit on a cellular level. For instance, healing a cell to the point where it may explode from overworking. To a living, this is harmful, but the cells can be replaced – undead cannot replace cells, being unable to recover naturally, thus would be more harmed by this.

Not all smiting prayer skills do more damage against undead, so it’d be silly to believe all smiting prayer magic must use the same methodology.

: From my viewpoint, if the Jade Wind had been purely Preservation, then the form I’d expect it to take is a wave of intensely luminous blue flame that simply vaporises everything exposed to it. It’s the light and energy that is required for life dialed up to an intensity that life cannot survive.

In other words, how you view highly concentrated and widespread Preservation magic to be, based on GW2, would be the Cataclysm. In the Arah storymode dungeon, we see an artistic cinematic of the Cataclysm (and Orr’s rise), which included a light blue light (rather Guardian-esque in color). And in GW1, most undead from Orr were rather skeletal – even the zombies had a lot of flesh missing. Which would account for the “vaporizing” bit.

They were pushed out of the ocean depths.

So they were likely fleeing from the DSD just like krait, quaggan, and largos.

They had did this before too, if Zommoros is to be believed.