What's the difference between Mursaat Jade and Dragonjade from Cantha?

[Milo.3840]

Is there any correlation? Why is jade itself so significant to magic?

[Sajuuk Khar.1509]

Canthan jade was originally formed by Shiro Tagachi's death-wail after he had absorbed the magics of Dwayna that had been bestowed on the emperor during the Harvest Temple ceremony. It later became affected by the death of Zhiatan, which turned it into the green color it is in GW2.

IIRC there is no real origin story for Mursaat jade, but its not related to Canthan jade in any way that we know of.

[Milo.3840]

50 minutes ago, Sajuuk Khar.1509 said:

Canthan jade was originally formed by Shiro Tagachi's death-wail after he had absorbed the magics of Dwayna that had been bestowed on the emperor during the Harvest Temple ceremony. It later became affected by the death of Zhiatan, which turned it into the green color it is in GW2.

IIRC there is no real origin story for Mursaat jade, but its not related to Canthan jade in any way that we know of.

Hmm so when I looked it up on the wiki, it says jade was purple-ish. Had no idea Zhaitan caused it to turn green. I wonder what that implies for the future lore

[Danikat.8537]

In real life most minerals and precious or semi-precious stones have been credited with magical properties but various cultures, right up to modern day, so it's not surprising that in a fantasy world where magic is a fact of life jade (and likely other minerals) has magical properties and various cultures take advantage of that.

I don't think there's anything particularly special about the mursaat's jade constructs. They seem to be basically a type of elemental or golem - normally inanimate matter infused with magic to make an animated construct. The mursaat might have used jade for cultural reasons, or maybe it's harder and/or easier to infuse with enough magic than other available materials.

Canthan jade on the other hand is unusual even for Tyria. It's actually magically crystallised sea water, created when Shiro Tagachi's Jade Wind froze the Jade Sea and the Echovald Forest, and seems particularly susceptible to absorbing magic from the surroundings. It was infused with the magic of the Jade Wind (and possibly some latent magic from the sea it used to be and the creatures frozen within it), then absorbed magic from Zhaitan's death and the other Elder Dragons. The Canthans (who have been experimenting with ways to use jade since the Jade Wind) have figured out how to not only use the magic the jade already holds but how to infuse it with even more so it can be used to store and modify the magic to make it easier to use.

It's possible all types of jade in Tyria are especially good at absorbing and holding magic (which as I said above could be why the mursaat used it for their constructs) but Canthan jade and especially the type they call draonjade seems especially good at it.

[maxwelgm.4315]

58 minutes ago, Milo.3840 said:

Hmm so when I looked it up on the wiki, it says jade was purple-ish. Had no idea Zhaitan caused it to turn green. I wonder what that implies for the future lore

The Jade of the Jade sea was always some Cyan-ish hue - in fact it was an inland sea with actual water before the Jade wind and it was still called the Jade Sea because it had the same color. It supposedly turned fully green and opaque due to absorbing Zhaitan's Death magic (you can see the difference of how it looked like in GW1 easily from GW1's wiki). 

 

This should emphasize a bit more actually how the Jade that makes up the Jade Constructs from the Mursaat has little to do with the Jade from the Jade Sea (that one is even melting in fact).  A few hints in GW1 of the nature of the Jade constructs was that they have 6 eyes (same as servants of Abbadon and other demons from the Mists) and also that this material was also making up much of the architecture of the Mursaat including the seals they came up with for the Door of Komalie. So that particular "Jade" is either something infused with magic (maybe even bloodstone shards) or straight up some otherworldly mineral brought by the Mursaat to Tyria.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

2 hours ago, Milo.3840 said:

Is there any correlation? Why is jade itself so significant to magic?

As far as we know there is no correlation. While the mursaat purple jade's origin is unknown, there is no indication it comes from divine sources, nor does it absorb magic - there is no significance to it and magic. Mursaat jade is powered not by magic in the jade, despite the above comments, but by Ether Seals which, based on the mission Abaddon's Mouth, seems to house souls inside - which is to say that mursaat magical devices hooked up to their purple jade is powered by souls. Anytime mursaat architecture has magic involved - be it a gate, tower defenses, or even the Door of Komalie, an Ether Seal is involved, and the seal's destruction deactivates all magic within the jade architecture. This makes it clear the Ether Seals are vital to the magic involved, and as per the aforementioned mission, they appear to be sealing souls to function.
Jade constructs seem powered by Mursaat Tokens which have the same emblem as Ether Seals, and are implied to house some rather curiously dark magic - perhaps suggesting a soul is trapped inside those too.

Jade Sea jade is magical due to its creation, which was brought up, similar to the Echovald amber which is harder to get and presumably more rare (though not more rare than high quality Jade Sea jade). And as Drax mentioned, there is mythological correlation of jade having magical properties.

1 hour ago, Milo.3840 said:

Hmm so when I looked it up on the wiki, it says jade was purple-ish. Had no idea Zhaitan caused it to turn green. I wonder what that implies for the future lore

Mursaat jade is purple jade, while the Jade Sea was always a green-blue hue. Zhaitan's magic turned the Jade Sea into a more bright greenscreen/toxic-looking green - it had no effect on mursaat jade.

For the record, the sea was originally called the Jade Sea because of its greenish hue, and the Jade Wind made the sea's name rather literal.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[nutri.1385]

I didn't see it in the map, all quarry water being nice and clean but imagine the melting Jade Sea infused with green undead Zaithan essence turning into a sea of green undead goo. 😶