Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Kraits ; A question.


killfil.3472

Recommended Posts

@"killfil.3472" said:Has there ever been a peaceful/beneficial interaction between the allied races of Tyria and Kryta and Krait?Has there ever been such a thing as a neutral or friendly Krait encounter?

Thank you for your question, killfil.3472. Afaiaa, most interactions between krait and the Northern Continental races of Tyria are traumatic. In the EotN manual, we learn that terrestrial survivors of encounters with the krait are so affected by said encounters that they often have trouble recalling the details of them. There is, however, at least one unusual example of a successful partnership between krait and a terrestrial race of the Northern Continent: the Toxic Alliance.

I believe that this alliance represented a successful agreement between at least three (aether, water, and earth) of the six magical elements (air, fire, earth, time, water, and aether). Such an agreement is struck by powerful spirits (life forms made of aether, similar to souls) dwelling both within and beyond the field of perception of most terrestrial spell-casting races. Of the magical elements, I believe that aether is the most influential; the catalyst behind the Mists' strain "toward creation". Aether forms relationships with both itself and the other elements; these relationships express themselves as biodiversity.

Thus, the elemental agreement behind the Toxic Alliance produced a new kind of life form: the Toxic Hybrid, or Nightmare Incarnate.

I think that the reason why krait don't mix well with terrestrial races is a reflection of the current way that magic works. In my opinion, the tormented magic generated by the spell-casting of mortal terrestrial races flows via the ley-line network into the sea and ultimately, to the Mists themselves. For Taimi once remarked that "[m]agic finds it's own path, like rivers running to the sea". Note that Taimi intuitively associates aether (magic) with water (the sea). What this really means is that aether enjoys a special relationship with water. Whenever an agreement (e.g. a species) between aether and the other magical elements is broken by, say, a breach of trust, aether tends to turn to water for solace. It is less inclined to seek comfort from the other elements.

So, there is a lot of tormented magic in Tyria's deepest, darkest waterways, especially after the Great Battle at the Gates of Heaven, in which some aether (possibly Dhumm) teamed up with water (Abaddon) to fight against both itself and the other magical elements. Why aether did this is still undetermined. However, the idea is that all of the tormented aether that has aggregated within Tyria's seas has led to the creation of many, many life forms that are offensive to most terrestrial spell-casters' minds. If I have explained myself adequately, you would understand that this is because the majority of the terrestrial races of the Northern Continent were affected by the Great Battle at the Gates of Heaven, such that whenever an aquatic race whose evolution has been heavily affected by tormented magic exiled from the continent (e.g. the krait) interacts with the magic that remained on the continent (the other, terrestrial races), It's too painful for either form of magic to bear, at least at this time.

I hope that this helps answer your question :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Most of the above answer is made up stuff which doesn’t help you at all.

There was an alliance between Krait and other races as part of an enemy faction fitted by Scarlet, but that was an enemy faction abd has nothing to do with magical elements, aether, gates of heaven or anything else. That’s just some random made up fan fiction not related to the game

They joined the alliances if memory serves due to promises Scarlet made to help them unite with their “prophet”. Or along those lines at least

I’m not aware of any neutral or friendly alliances in answer to your question. The Krait aren’t necs evil, but are generally pretty xenophobic and have no love for any other race (which made the toxic alliance a little jarring)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"killfil.3472" said:Has there ever been a peaceful/beneficial interaction between the allied races of Tyria and Kryta and Krait?Has there ever been such a thing as a neutral or friendly Krait encounter?

I would ignore most of what Stephen.6312 said as a lot of it is made up, like the comments of magical elements - that's pure fanon on his part, largely without any basis, and he's repeatedly refused to accept anything that points his theory wrong. His first paragraph, however, holds fairly true.

The krait are one of the few "pure black" races among the archaic "black and white spectrum", which is to mean that they are one of the few species in which they are intentionally treated by the writers as being irredeemably evil. As such, the only time they've cooperated, was with other villains. But this cooperation was not without a lot of strings attached. The Toxic Alliance was formed by Scarlet Briar effectively blackmailing the krait into joining - she had, somehow (it's untold how), gathered pieces of one of their holy relics dubbed "krait obelisks", and used those pieces to ensure their cooperation long enough for the Tower of Nightmare's powers to latch onto them, altering their mind and body so that they would work with her even without her having any more obelisk shards to return.

To your second question of "neutral or friendly krait" - the answer is, simply put, no. As far as Tyrians are aware, there is no sect of krait that have isolated themselves from the tyrannical oppression of the Oratuss priesthood that rules krait society.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sadly we've yet to learn if there ever were peaceful krait relations as they've been exclusively written as evil because of their absolute indoctrination into the oratuss's belief system which the oratuss keep rewriting to benefit their agenda (e.g. the whole part about the abyssal prophets who are destined to return to flood the world and raise krait as the rulers of Tyria although I wouldn't be surprised if there's a shred of truth to the oratuss' seemingly fabricated myth).

However, the sylvari blog post called "Dream and Nightmare" had the following segment which shows the philosophical differences between Niamh (Firstborn leader of the Wardens) and Cadeyrn (future founder of Nightmare Court) about how to deal with krait children that they find in the aftermath of a battle:

Despite the signs of long-ago death, the slumbering ruins felt somehow alive; the hush and whisper of tide below the cliff rising and falling like a sleeper's breath. Something low and shadowy, stinking of brine, cast a slender shadow among the crumbling rocks. Cadeyrn watched it pass between the tilted walls and fragmented arches that must have been a chapel. Saw it flicker where an altar once stood. Marked where the shadow vanished away.
"Are you prepared?" Niamh murmured softly behind him, her frond-like hair rustling in the cold breeze. She drew her sword and checked its edge, finding it keen. Eager silver eyes met his dark gold gaze. "It is time to strike." Two others of an even younger generation than Cadeyrn stood with her; both, like them, members of the Cycle of Noon.
Cadeyrn stepped away from the little ledge on which he'd been crouched. "They are ready for us. We must move cautiously."
Together, they crept down onto the beach and into the ruins, and there, they found their quarry. Cadeyrn's sword cleaved a krait in two with a single stroke. He spun the weapon expertly behind his back, blocking another creature's claw before snapping down to slice away the extended hand. A krait sorceress's unblinking eyes widened as she wove a thaumaturgic web of slaughter, and two of the sylvari died in her flame. Fiercely, Cadeyrn leapt toward her, his blade tearing through the krait's flesh.
He left nothing behind but scale and scream.
When the krait were dead, Niamh and Cadeyrn stood in the center of the ruined chapel, blood on their blades and fierce smiles lighting their faces. A sound caught his attention, and he raised a hand for silence, slipping forward to the place where he had seen movement from above.
Cadeyrn tilted the altar aside, and the sound grew louder. Beneath the stone lay a cave, long ago flooded by the advance of the sea. There, in a sea-cavern below the ruins, krait lay in hiding, unperturbed by the icy waters. But these were not warriors. This was a hatchery, filled with krait eggs and terrified young.
He raised his sword to continue the extermination—
"Cadeyrn!" Niamh said sharply.
Cadeyrn paused, looking up at the leader of his Cycle in confusion.
"Leave them."
"But...they are krait."
"They are children."
"Children." He frowned, for the word had little meaning. "You mean 'they are small.' They are small, but they are krait. They will grow up to be large krait, and then we will kill them. Why not kill them now, when it is easy and they are undefended? It seems the wisest course of action. Otherwise, we risk losing more sylvari lives when these return fully grown."
"We must take that risk, to give them a chance to change their ways," the firstborn said. "All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed." Soberly, she put away her sword and pushed the altar back. Beneath it, Cadeyrn could hear the snakes scrambling, splashing away into the ocean tide.
"Again the firstborn quote the Tablet when I ask for logic." He growled beneath his breath. "I do not agree." (Source)

Niamh seems to believe that the krait aren't born evil but raised evil (the popular debate of nature vs. nurture), and she wants to believe that some of them can find a better path one day if they're given the chance to prove themselves as per Ventari's teachings. Given how the GW2 storyline has always been about separate peoples, (most of the) opposing politics and factions coming together when facing a bigger threat that requires everyone's contribution to survive the catastrophe (which should ring true in the upcoming Champions chapters which teased that Primordus's threat will make us work alongside "unlikely" allies, some of whom might be villains), it's possible we may one day encounter friendly or at least morally grey krait.

The question then becomes if these would-be krait allies will be genuinely trying to change their society for the better once they've come to realize how the oratuss (and if someone like a high priestess exists even above the oratuss as the supreme ruler of the krait theocracy or whatever it'll be called) manipulate their kind, or if these "allies" were only using the Commander and friends to oust the current leadership so these krait would take over instead with such gullible fools' help.

While Cadeyrn had the pragmatic if ruthless solution to the problem, I'd stand with Niamh when it comes to the issue of krait morality and if krait children deserve to die. I like to believe that even the worst villains should be given the chance to redeem themselves even if that means they'll have to atone for their sins for the rest of their lives to compensate for past wrongdoings.

ANet has specifically been writing the krait as the "black hat" race, though, but they've also mentioned that many of the aspects written about in these blog posts have undergone changes over the years (such as the usually xenophobic krait suddenly allying with non-krait like Scarlet once she dangled an obelisk shard in front of their faces), so it's possible they might look at the krait again and decide to flesh them out a bit more and offer them a tiny chance of redemption just like gave us with Duchess Chrysanthea's Nightmare Court splinter group (who I hope we'll meet again) or Utumishi's Loyalists and the Mordant Crescent.

I also hope we'll see the Forged redeemed one day if the writers reveal that some of them survived the Elonian campaign as they're ultimately tragic villains; after all, we still haven't seen the General of the Burning Forest who Devona/Herald of Balthazar referred to in her writings during "Night of Fires", so he might still be out there fighting the good fight while his Forged could be useful allies against the Elder Dragons. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea, have to side with most of the posts here as well.

There is nothing I can think of either that potreys the Krait as anything other then evil.Back in Gw1 they were equally as vicious and cruel as the Charr and nothing seems to have changed since then for Gw2 either, they remain just as vicious, cruel and xenophobic.. not to mention racially supremacist and fanatically religious.Krait believe themselves to be the superior race on Tyria which is one of the reasons why they look at other races and see nothing but slaves and food.. things to be taken and used nothing more.All in all that is an extremely bad combination of traits that very much warrant the species being designated as evil.

That said though the Charr were redeemed for Gw2 despite the monsters they were pre Eye of the North, so I wouldn't say it's impossible to have good Krait somewhere out there but it's highly unlikely we'll ever see one.Considering how their society works and the belief system it has it's probably very likely that any Krait dissenters that may exist from time to time are routed out and killed. There's nothing to suggest that in game or anything.. I'm just speculating there, but it's hardly a leap of the imagination considering what we do know of them and their culture.

The only big difference between Krait in Gw1 and Krait in Gw2 is that they seem to have lost the ability to change their form.. I am not sure if there is any explanation for this though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...