Do Kurzick and Luxon still exist in GW2?

[Rico.6873]

What are the chances of meeting any Kurzick/Luxon after LW Season 5? (new expansion after season 5)

[Kalavier.1097]

Kurzicks and Luxons still exist. It's just their governments got forcibly absorbed into the main Canthan Empire, going from Vassal states to part of the empire. The big thing is their long, silly rivalry was forced to end, and they don't have their own unique governments compared to the Emperor's throne.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

The Kurzicks and Luxons were defeated by the armies of Emperor Usoku, according to The Movement of the World. Therefore, it is not likely we will ever see them back in their former glory, or maybe at all.

[draxynnic.3719]

We can't really say. It's likely that people with Kurzick and Luxon ancestry still exist, but whether they retain their cultural distinctiveness, or even if they've managed to regain their semi-independent status since the last time we saw Cantha, is impossible to say.

[Rico.6873]

So there is a chance it will be as bad as what happened to the Sunspears?

[Dami.5046]

Aren't they just friendly now? I think cantha's lore was changed shrugs and man I'm not a happy oni.

[adormtil.1605]

Is Cantha the biggest and strongest nation human or not?

[Zola.6197]

There’s always a chance. I wouldn’t discount going to cantha as a possibility, but meeting those factions again in recognizable forms would depend on a lot of the above factors mentioned in other posts.

If they were absorbed by the empire, it’s very possible their cultures were assimilated and faded depending on how tyrannical this new regime is.

@adormtil.1605 I believe it was in GW1. But we don’t know enough about “modern day” cantha to compare. We can say that Kryta and Elona have been ravaged by different political struggles and ED conflicts. Elona’s immortal leader is now dead and government totally shattered. Cantha has closed its borders and it sounds like the government is strict there. Could have either led to a type of strength and stability, or could have turned into some awful North Korea type situation. Maybe a mixture of both. Gotta wait and see.

[Kalavier.1097]

@draxynnic.3719 said:We can't really say. It's likely that people with Kurzick and Luxon ancestry still exist, but whether they retain their cultural distinctiveness, or even if they've managed to regain their semi-independent status since the last time we saw Cantha, is impossible to say.

@"Svennis.3852" said:There’s always a chance. I wouldn’t discount going to cantha as a possibility, but meeting those factions again in recognizable forms would depend on a lot of the above factors mentioned in other posts.

If they were absorbed by the empire, it’s very possible their cultures were assimilated and faded depending on how tyrannical this new regime is.

@"adormtil.1605" I believe it was in GW1. But we don’t know enough about “modern day” cantha to compare. We can say that Kryta and Elona have been ravaged by different political struggles and ED conflicts. Elona’s immortal leader is now dead and government totally shattered. Cantha has closed its borders and it sounds like the government is strict there. Could have either led to a type of strength and stability, or could have turned into some awful North Korea type situation. Maybe a mixture of both. Gotta wait and see.

According to the movement of the world. "In the year 1127 AE, Emperor Usoku, successor to Kisu, took a firm hold of his nation. He raised the Canthan military, spending millions in gold to arm his troops, and then swept the countryside. He defeated the Luxons and the Kurzick, incorporating these disparate people back into his nation. Usoku unified Cantha behind a strong national identity and began to drive out all non-humans. His regime was ironclad, tyrannical, and fierce. Those Canthans who did not agree with the emperor's dictates were given no choice but to leave their homeland, seeking refuge and sanctuary in Elona and Tyria. "

It doesn't really imply anything either way. It's perfectly possible they retained their culture, but are forced to answer to the Emperor's rule now and can't fight each other anymore without punishment.

Similar to how some like in the USA, some states have their unique cultural quirks but are all "American"

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

@Rico.6873 said:What are the chances of meeting any Kurzick/Luxon after LW Season 5? (new expansion after season 5)It more depends on where the plot goes. It would have to involve Cantha to have significant chances of meeting Kurzicks or Luxons.

@Rico.6873 said:So there is a chance it will be as bad as what happened to the Sunspears?

More or less. The lore about Usoku subjugating them is very ambiguous. Their culture could be as changed as Elona's culture was under Joko's rule, or it could be that they were left alone beyond being forced to end their war and having to pay tributes and whatnot.

@adormtil.1605 said:Is Cantha the biggest and strongest nation human or not?

Last we saw it. But it's been ~100 years since contact with Cantha. They could have crumbled in that time, though implications from Festival of the Four Winds 2014 dialogue implies that, as of 1327 AE, Cantha is still prosperous. Whether they're stronger than Kryta remains unclear, but they'd be bigger if they retained Kurzick and Luxon territories.

[draxynnic.3719]

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:Last we saw it. But it's been ~100 years since contact with Cantha. They could have crumbled in that time, though implications from Festival of the Four Winds 2014 dialogue implies that, as of 1327 AE, Cantha is still prosperous. Whether they're stronger than Kryta remains unclear, but they'd be bigger if they retained Kurzick and Luxon territories.

I could see it as being a case of Kurzick and Luxon culture not being formally suppressed (apart from the faction wars part), but with how overpopulated Kaineng was, I could see the Echovald and Jade Sea being flooded with Canthan such that the Kurzicks and Luxons are made minorities in their own homelands. If NCSoft and ArenaNet is still caring about the Chinese reaction they might avoid this since it hits pretty close to home as to what China is doing in the western territories under its control, but you don't need that specific historical analogy to see that being a logical end result.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Well Kaineng was certainly overpopulated before Factions, but the Affliction plague likely killed a significant number of people. I'd imagine there's larger issues with poor housing conditions post-Factions than population.

I don't recall whether or not Winds of Change touched the topic of population issues.

[Narcemus.1348]

I was going to say something similar, you had overpopulation which allowed the affliction to run rampant turning people into afflicted which then turned around and started slaughtering survivors. After years of waiting, the afflicted were finally wiped out and then the gangs became a target, using the freedom of having the afflicted gone to war with each other. Their war was short, but bloody and many of them were also wiped out in the process. And then there was a bit of a civil war against the Ministry of Purity to kill Reiko. I feel like if all of that didn't bring down the Canthan population then any war waged against the tengu and the Kurzick and Luxons would have. Cantha may look very different today.

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

That was all in a period of ~60 years, though. Two centuries is long enough to recover from quite a bit. I'm hoping things have changed, personally, just to make Kaineng less unpleasant to run around in, but it wouldn't be a hard sell to say it's back to the status quo.

[draxynnic.3719]

@Narcemus.1348 said:I was going to say something similar, you had overpopulation which allowed the affliction to run rampant turning people into afflicted which then turned around and started slaughtering survivors. After years of waiting, the afflicted were finally wiped out and then the gangs became a target, using the freedom of having the afflicted gone to war with each other. Their war was short, but bloody and many of them were also wiped out in the process. And then there was a bit of a civil war against the Ministry of Purity to kill Reiko. I feel like if all of that didn't bring down the Canthan population then any war waged against the tengu and the Kurzick and Luxons would have. Cantha may look very different today.

Ehhh... apart from the Afflicted, I'm not sure that would have had an appreciable effect on the overall population. The gang wars were between the gangs, and while innocent people were caught up in it, we're probably not talking about a significant percentage. Similarly, from memory, the strike against Reiko was fairly surgical - there probably wasn't a lot of collateral damage in that particular battle.

Plus, given that Kaineng was presented as essentially being a region of overpopulated high-rise slums comparable in size to modern Kryta, it's entirely possible that the population could have been halved and still be dense enough that they're eager for more living space.

[Valmir.4590]

It also depends on how the Jade Sea and Echovald Forest evolved over the decades/centuries. If they remained mostly stone, I doubt they could accomodate a growing population. However, if they have mostly reverted to their previous state, from before the Jade Wind, then all bets are up. If we ever go to Cantha, we could even find ourselves in the middle of such an attempted colonization by the main ethnic group, if the changes were reversed only recently.

[Aeolus.3615]

The emperor went on dictatorship and beated both kurzik and the suxons before expeling the avicaras and tangus from the continent.

Altough a form of resistance m8 still existe on the souths parts.

[Kalavier.1097]

@Aeolus.3615 said:The emperor went on dictatorship and beated both kurzik and the suxons before expeling the avicaras and tangus from the continent.

Altough a form of resistance m8 still existe on the souths parts.

We actually don't know a single thing about how he treated his human subjects at all.

We know he forced the two vassal states to be once again fully part of the empire, but that doesn't mean he burnt down every town and erased their culture. It should be noted that they respected the throne in Factions, the real problems was with the other faction.

[draxynnic.3719]

Well... they had a certain "we'll respect you as long as we can do so from afar and you keep out of our business" air in Factions. There are a couple of points early in the campaign where despite being recognised as representatives of the Empire of the Dragon, the characters are treated... well, not with contempt, exactly, but not exactly respectful either.

We also know from the Movement that his rule was "ironclad, tyrannical, and fierce", creating refugees from human Canthans fleeing his reign as well as nonhumans. He also united Cantha using "a strong national identity", which might have involved forcing the Kurzicks and Luxons to conform to that identity rather than maintaining their own.