Various GW nations/races/factions economical system

[otto.5684]

Governments and factions require funding to operate. I was curios what is the economical system that various governments and factions in GW2 make money.

Kryta, my best guess is this is similar to ~1,700 western European nations. Government collects taxes. Few lords have control of most of the wealth.

Charr is a bit complex. They seem to be similar to communist Russia in their political/economical system, but not exactly. Not sure also if the 3 legions receive funding from a centralized government or they have their own funding operations. Also, the relationship between the Black Citadel and Charr homeland is not very clear. Is the Charr homeland the central Charr capital and Black Citadel a city under its command or is it a separate Charr nation, controlling most of Ascalon with the Black Citadel as its capital? Are the legions the same in the Charr homeland? Does the Black Citadel and Charr in Ascalon receive funding from the Charr homelands?

Norn, I do not think there is a central economical system. Just a bunch of tribes which trade with each other. It is not clear how much centralization the Norn have.

Asura, I would say it is somewhat similar to Kryta with more emphasis on trading with other nations. Primarily selling technology and expertise.

Sylvari, not sure. I would say they started communist, but probably relies more on open trade and taxes now.

Black Lion, I assume it is primarily a trading hub. It probably relies on taxes, fees and tariffs.

Amnon, taxes most likely. Rest of Elona, probably high taxes levied by Joko regime. It probably will stay the same afterwards.

Factions are a bit more confusing. The Order of the Whispers, my best guess a combination of selling secrets and some funding from Kryta and Black Lion. The Drumond Priory, not sure who funds them and for what purpose. The Vigil requires even more funding, since they have an army. My best guess is the Black Lion funds their operation. The Pact probably supersedes the old factions. It seems that Black Lion is their primary backer, with various nations also contributing. It is not very clear.

[Kalavier.1097]

There is no central Charr nation. Each legion has a "homeland" that they operate out of. Blood, Ash, and Iron all have their own capitals (their name, Citadels) and rule specific regions. For example, Ascalon is Iron legion's homeland/territory. Ash and Blood operate on Iron laws and rules while inside Ascalon. To the north is the blood legion land, and IIRC to the east is Ash. Flame legion's home territory hasn't quite been explained or described but I'd wager it's probably north-east of Ascalon.

The Norn don't really have tribes, though I suppose some families could count. They have various homesteads, but whoever owns the place determines who is welcome there. Hoelbrek isn't considered a city, but Knut's homestead. They do have people to help organize trade and such, but that's because Hoelbrek is so large.

[Fenom.9457]

I think most races (certainly the ones in central tyria) all have the economic system of gold silver and copper to make trade among races easier (and to explain game mechanics)

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

Kryta, for the most part, I concur with, although there are suggestions here and there that the crown might own a good chunk of the land itself. Not sure how common that was through European history.

Charr are definitely a command economy, although I don't know if real-world communist examples are a good fit. Regardless, there's a merchant in the Black Citadel who mentions that trade with other races is a new thing, but one that has short-term hurt the charr, since the foreigners don't have to report their earnings. It remains to be seen whether that disadvantage will cause the Iron Legion to loosen their rules or just impose them on outsiders. (The Blood and Ash legions don't seem to have direct contact with the continental market; I imagine they go through Ascalon for what foreign goods they desire. And Flame, of course, are somewhat hampered by their whole kill-on-sight routine.) Regardless, their monopoly on industrial goods should offset things for a while.

Like Kalavier said, there aren't any norn tribes, or any other sort of political entity. From what we hear in Hoelbrak, it seems norn typically produce/obtain one type of good and sell/trade their surplus for the other things they need/want, but it's all very individual- and family-based.

Asura are tricky. In some ways they seem to be a post-scarcity economy, or something close to it; they've found some trick that allows the bulk of their society to shift away from producing goods and towards experimentation and innovation... and, according to some dialogue in Rata Sum, that is at least partially funded by research grants doled out by the central government. No idea where they get their money, but my best guess would be asura gate fees and sale taxes on those asura who do actually sell their inventions. (Or, alternatively, the grants may have less to do with money and more to do with access to the pooled materials of the three colleges, which function as government affiliates.)

I suspect sylvari are less communist and more communalist, but I agree that they don't seem to have much in the way of a formally structured economy. It's telling that the Grove is the only city that doesn't have a marketplace. Their ability to, seemingly, freely grow buildings, furniture, and tools pushes them a bit towards the post-scarcity side of things as well, but that doesn't seem to extend to food. Most telling, though, is the fact that saplings can go for years without picking a profession, despite not having parents to provide for them. Clearly, whatever system they've got, it aims to ensure that basic needs are met regardless of what you do.

Lion's Arch, agreed. The Black Lion is only the largest of many companies based in the city; they aren't actually affiliated with the government.

Amnoon, also agreed.

Elona, I suspect, was less taxes and more Joko plundering everything of worth and redistributing it at his own leisure. Our experiences with the farming communities in the Riverlands and Desolation suggest that he had no compunctions about increasing demands and seizing property, but he generally kept it reasonable enough that the farmers hadn't actually starved to death. Whatever Elona ends up with next, I doubt they're going to be able to make free with their citizens' livelihoods in the same way, and unless a central government is established that's able to pry some of the wealth back out of Vabbi, Kourna and Istan are in for some bad times for the foreseeable future.

The Order of Whispers, I'm guessing, doesn't have any one source of funding. They have connections and influence everywhere, so I imagine they just pry the funds they need out of wherever it makes the smallest splash. I'd wager a lot of it is black market, though. The Priory and Vigil, I'd guess, are funded by their arrangements with the various governments or private donors, and maybe, in the Priory's case, by charging for access to their collection or expertise.

[Kalavier.1097]

About the factions, I'd like to put forth that the factions do keep friendly terms with all five major races, both helping with trouble and sharing information. I'm sure they get donations, have rich members, or do trade some to get what funds and supplies they need.

The Pact does not replace the three orders, but is instead the joint command for combined field ops. A great example of this in the post personal story world is how we see a Priory expedition to the Dwarf ruins in the highlands, but a more Pact operation in Jahai.

[Megametzler.5729]

@"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:(...) The Priory and Vigil, I'd guess, are funded by their arrangements with the various governments or private donors, (...)

To support this, I have only ever found one dialogue about this. It's in the Vigil Keep, two asurans discussing:

Vigil Crusader (1): If only we had the technology in Rata Sum...Vigil Crusader (2): Easier spoken that actualized. The Arcane Council thinks the Vigil is naive.Vigil Crusader (1): How can they, with Tyria at stake? They have to know danger threatens even them.Vigil Crusader (2): I concur. Logic dictates they'll aid us in greater quantity. It's merely a question of when.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigil_Keep#Ambient_dialogue

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

@Megametzler.5729 said:

@"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:(...) The Priory and Vigil, I'd guess, are funded by their arrangements with the various governments or private donors, (...)

To support this, I have only ever found one dialogue about this. It's in the Vigil Keep, two asurans discussing:

Vigil Crusader (1): If only we had the technology in Rata Sum...Vigil Crusader (2): Easier spoken that actualized. The Arcane Council thinks the Vigil is naive.Vigil Crusader (1): How can they, with Tyria at stake? They have to know danger threatens even them.Vigil Crusader (2): I concur. Logic dictates they'll aid us

in greater quantity

. It's merely a question of when.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigil_Keep#Ambient_dialogue

Indeed. There's no mention of any of the orders receiving government funding... but there's no mention of any other funding source, either, and yet they're obviously well enough supported to do their thing. In the absence of any indication as to how that's done, the best we can do is take the guesses that make the most sense to us.

For my part, for the Vigil, it comes down to the staggering amount of recruits it drew in over barely five years. If there are that many people willing to die for the cause, it stands to reason that there are many more who support their aims in less extreme ways. Giving money/supplies is the most obvious avenue to do so. For governments, it's down to the fact that A.) the Krytan, Iron Legion, and Lion's Arch governments are willing to let them conduct military operations in their territory, and B.) Kryta and the Iron Legion both used the Vigil as a secret diplomatic go-between. That, frankly, absurd degree of trust suggests that those three governments wouldn't oppose funding the Vigil, and doing so may actually be to their advantage, since the threat of withdrawing that funding could allow them some coercive capability on what is otherwise an unchecked militia.

(The Pale Tree is also very open in her support of the orders in every way she can, for what it's worth, but given the unclear state of the sylvari economy, it's not at all clear that such support could translate into funding.)

[Valmir.4590]

I think that Kryta is a strange mix between France and England during late Middle-Age/early Renaissance : the crown seems to own most of the land and nobles are largely deprived of sprawling estates (Caudecus being really the outlier here) like in France, while the Kings and Queens don't posses the power over the rest of society since there has been a council keeping them in check, like in England. Things seems to be changing over, since Jennah has dealt with the White Mantle and seems to have overpowered the Ministers, as far as I remember. It could lead to a short-term bolstering of the Kingdom, with a more effective centralized political power, but it also has many downfalls in the future.

I suspect that there is tax collectors who responded to the Ministers and Fermiers-Généraux in the countryside, who collects taxes and feudal rights and redistribute a fixed portion of it to the Kingdom. However, the whole Krytan situation is kind of hard to know, right now, because the state of the game doesn't translate to the changes the kingdom endured : there is no White Mantle anymore, bandits are probably a lot weaker now, the Seraphs are rising again, Centaurs are on the run, and Kessex has been largely destroyed, which is bound to offset a lot of political and economical elements of the Kingdom. Mostly, I think that the situation has improved for Kryta economically, which could allow it to extend his range of production and even his territorial ambitions toward Lion Arch's hinterland.

Ebonhawk is probably still largely a war economy, where luxury goods are extremely rare and costly -and possibly not that sought after yet, considering how long those Ascalonians endured a grievous siege and probably leaned ever more toward a spartan-like furniture and housing behavior. I also suspect that behind the Fallen Angels who arrived only recently I think, economy here is largely self-contained and backwater compared to mainland Kryta, except in the fields of war (armors, weapons and siege engines are probably top notch in Ebonhawk, out of necessity).

The Iron legion (the only Legion we truly know about, economically) are obviously a ver fixed-income economy. A nation-army can't allow goods to suddenly become so costly that supplying the rank and file will be impossible. I don't see them at all as Communists, despite the fahrar. For me, they are merely a militaristic totalitarian state which doesn't really care about equality and in fact put a lot of importance into hierarchy and order. To not respect those is basically begging to become a Gladius, scrapping a meager existence at the bottom of this society. It's doubtful that they have much incentive to go out of their way to trade with outsiders yet, since most of those are confined to the Black Citadel anyway. Things could change however, but I think that the Ash and Blood Legions are vast enough to absorb most of the surplus produced by the Iron Legion.

The Norns don't have an economy. At least not in the sense that we apply to this word. They produce goods, sure, but I highly doubt that they see production, selling and buying as some massive system. For them, it's probably one guy producing quality goods in the vicinity and selling them to those who needs them, so he can buy things HE needs. I wouldn't be surprised that troc and reciprocal exchanges still are a large part of the everyday life of any Norn settlement and family. The most important part -and the smaller- of production is probably in the range of artifacts, however, goods considered so good that they are legendary in themselves, because they were created by legendary artisans.

As for the other two races, I really don't know enough about them to fathom how they work yet.

[draxynnic.3719]

One thing to note with the Order of Whispers is that there are nobles who are part of the Order - Lady Wi, for instance. Given that they have wealthy members, it stands to reason that some of that wealth goes to supporting the Order.

For the Durmand Priory, it's worth considering that there's that dropped plotline with the Krytan throne sending important artifacts to be looked after by the Durmand Priory. So it's likely that at the very least, Kryta pays the Priory for services rendered, and possibly provides general funding as well. It also wouldn't surprise me if there are some research projects that the Priory does on commission that funds some of their other projects.

[Valmir.4590]

I had forgotten about him, but it seems that the Norn may have a more controlled economy than I believed, at least in Hoelbrak : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ayslin_Hovde

[Kalavier.1097]

@"Valmir.4590" said:I had forgotten about him, but it seems that the Norn may have a more controlled economy than I believed, at least in Hoelbrak : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ayslin_Hovde

I think It's less of the Norn having a proper economy, and I think more of Hoelbrek being such a massive homestead that they understood there needs to be a certain level of control over the trade within Hoelbrek.

[mercury ranique.2170]

The charr is best recognised as a militia. Well organised, but not driven by gold as a primary base of trade.When the iron legion builds a new base, they do not buy the iron, but will mine it. If they lack mines, they will conquer them and protect them and take it. They provide bunks, food and clothes to the soldiers, which also are not bought, but taken in war. Charr get paid a bit, but it is minimal and mostly used for pleasure activities (e.g. in the tavern). So they take what they need and it lacks a real economical system.

This is true for the black citadel charr and the falme legion charr. It is unknown how things are in the charr homelands. The militia has always been on the move to go where the fighting is. They settled in Ascalon as there is a constant stream of ghosts to fight. war is so much part of the culture of the Charr it is how they are identified and without it they would be without purpose and likely move on to the next war, just as they did before Ascalon. This means that the charr homelands situation is of no consequence. We deal with the charr from the black citadel and they are working as a militia.