Saltspray dragons

[Tyson.5160]

Do the Saltspray dragons have some sort of connection with Soo-Won? They seem to have a connection to water, call Soo-Won, mother dragon.

[Fueki.4753]

They might be Soo-Won's minions.

At the very least, Kuunavang is her minion, since she's her champion.

[Kalavier.1097]

They are unrelated to Soo-Won. Kuunavang, as I recall, comments on going TO Soo-Won to plead for help, and after they bond like Caithe and Aurene did. That's when she got the whole "Can turn into a human form." IIRC.

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

1 hour ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

 That's when she got the whole "Can turn into a human form." IIRC.

Nope, according to Kuuvavang being able to turn human was something the Saltsprays learned themselves.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kuunavang

Quote

<Character name>: How are you able to take human form?

Kuunavang: I'm...not certain I can explain it. I become like water, and water can take many forms.

Kuunavang: We saltsprays taught ourselves many tricks over the years. This one is not...easy for us. But it is certainly useful.

Kuunavang: There are times when it's easier to protect if you can blend in among those you are protecting. Live their lives. [...]

Kuunavang: The empress knew my identity, as did her father before her, and his father before him. [...]

Kuunavang: I felt it when she woke. All those of the sea did—a presence powerful enough to drive back the shadows in the depths.

Kuunavang: But it was not until Zhaitan that I sought her out. An act of desperation to save what was left of a land I loved. [...]

Kuunavang: My bond with her is much like yours with Aurene. Or perhaps more like your friend Caithe's. I feel her, but she doesn't control me.

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Sajuuk Khar.1509

[squeegee.4320]

You could throw a dart at a pile of fanfiction.net printouts and find a plausible answer for GW2 lore.

In the first Guild Wars they're just a race of Canthan dragons. There was also a race of Orrian dragons at some point before the Cataclysm as evidenced by bone dragons like Rotscale. And then there was Glint (and her offspring).

[The Greyhawk.9107]

4 hours ago, narwhalsbend.7059 said:

You could throw a dart at a pile of fanfiction.net printouts and find a plausible answer for GW2 lore.

Woah, woah, woah.  I'm one of the bigger critics of Anet's writing quality (especially lately) but even I wouldn't go THAT far.  There's no reason to be malicious my dude.

[Kalavier.1097]

On 4/18/2022 at 12:54 PM, Sajuuk Khar.1509 said:

Nope, according to Kuuvavang being able to turn human was something the Saltsprays learned themselves.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kuunavang

 

Ah yeah. I do believe I've read that Albax outright comments on Kuunavang's scales changing, and she replies that it's because of Soo-won connection.

So at the very least, if there is some sort of connection between them all, Kuunavang had a deeper one.

[draxynnic.3719]

It'll be interesting to see what develops in the future, however, I think it is worth noting that saltspray dragons appear to have access to a range of types of magic, not just Soo-Won's. So they do appear to be an independent species (unless corrupted or made into a champion). It's possible that they are nevertheless descended from Soo-Won, but so were the other five Elder Dragons, and they were independent. So the saltsprays might be descended from Soo-Won, but Soo-Won doesn't appear to do minions at all in the conventional sense. She has champions (in the same way that Aurene does) and she has children.

Saltsprays seem to me to be more akin to more intelligent and more magically attuned, but more gracile, relatives of wyverns. They can be corrupted, but are nevertheless part of Tyria's natural biosphere. 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Based on Albax's dialogue, I'd say they don't have a connection to Soo-Won. Not a direct connection, at least. But they are aware of her, or at least Albax and Kuunavang, being ancient dragons in their own right, were aware of her for some time.

 

They are elementalists in GW1, so it's no surprise they know some water magic in general. And Kuunavang became bonded with Soo-Won, which changed her appearance, implying that the other saltspray don't hold that same bond.

[Kalavier.1097]

27 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Based on Albax's dialogue, I'd say they don't have a connection to Soo-Won. Not a direct connection, at least. But they are aware of her, or at least Albax and Kuunavang, being ancient dragons in their own right, were aware of her for some time.

 

They are elementalists in GW1, so it's no surprise they know some water magic in general. And Kuunavang became bonded with Soo-Won, which changed her appearance, implying that the other saltspray don't hold that same bond.

It could be the reason they got hit by the void so hard in EoD is because they were acting like Ishan, as trying to protect humans under Kuunavang's lead and thus ended up directly in contact and eventually transformed?

[draxynnic.3719]

16 hours ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

It could be the reason they got hit by the void so hard in EoD is because they were acting like Ishan, as trying to protect humans under Kuunavang's lead and thus ended up directly in contact and eventually transformed?

It's possible. What might be more likely, though, is that dragons are able to withstand more magic than humans and other playable races. Humans - at least those who aren't bonded to Aurene - seem to be pretty much universally killed by the Void rather than corrupted. With the possible exception of Ankka, we just don't see humanoids being corrupted, they just end up dying in gruesome ways, while human-shaped void entities are just the Void making copies of past Elder Dragon minions. Saltsprays seem to be tough enough that they do get corrupted rather than dying outright.

Mind you, it's also possible that most of the corrupted saltsprays we fight were also constructs of Void energy. Even in Ishan's case, while it seems that Ishan was corrupted, and the characters react on that assumption, it's possible that he actually died fighting and then the Void used him as a template (or simply animated his body).