Status of Each Race and Future expansion hints [SPOILER Lore]

[ThatOddOne.4387]

On 10/21/2024 at 4:20 PM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

It's also interesting to note that the griffon-like Valravn in JW may be a reference to the harpy young in Nightfall, which looked like griffons. A handful of dialogues and events talk about valravns trying to eat the hearts of kodan cubs (and from their corpses); if they do they "evolve" into something similar to a harpy.

On 10/21/2024 at 1:47 PM, draxynnic.3719 said:

Come to think of it, isn't that model similar to the flying generic demons? Probably a case of reused skeleton and new skin obviously, but it does make one wonder with the current theme of the story.

https://img.goodfon.com/original/1920x1080/c/22/guild-wars-2-demony-krylya.jpg

Edited Wednesday at 02:36 PM by ThatOddOne.4387

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

3 hours ago, ThatOddOne.4387 said:

Come to think of it, isn't that model similar to the flying generic demons? Probably a case of reused skeleton and new skin obviously, but it does make one wonder with the current theme of the story.

https://img.goodfon.com/original/1920x1080/c/22/guild-wars-2-demony-krylya.jpg

Harpies, imps, fleshreavers, and most other 'upright humanoid with wings' use the same rigging, yeah. Wouldn't say harpies are the reuse though, since they were probably made before imps and fleshreaver models were but they're all also part of core content.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

On 10/4/2024 at 9:52 PM, draxynnic.3719 said:

With the Cantha versus asura thing:

Councillor Ludo claims that the asura are still more advanced, and I think she might technically be correct. Pretty much everything you see in Cantha, you can find somewhere in asura magitech if you look hard enough, and some of the more exotic stuff the asura have probably is ahead of what the Canthans have. The difference is that Joon and Chul-Moo have turned it into an industrial revolution for the masses, while with a few exceptions the asura have a series of jealously guarded prototypes with constant reinventing of the wheel when an asura's knowledge dies with them.

I think part of Ludo's realisation is that with Cantha eager to start selling jade tech into Tyria, they need to follow suit or they'll find themselves in a position where the odd super-invention doesn't stop them from being outcompeted into irrelevance by pragmatic mass production.  

i wanted to reply to this even though its much later (i forgot about the thread):

 

i think if you pay attention to the dialogue between joon and taimi is pretty much confirmed she based most of the technology on hundred-year-old documentation. however, what's more useful overall, a modern supercomputer or a million cell phones that contain 1970s supercomputers?

 

its clear that asura tech is still far more advanced, however i feel like its also wildly impractical. its kind of like..everything always staying in beta. its like the asura haven't woken up from their whole society being a testing grounds while cantha already moved into production. the net result is that century-old tech ends up seeming like its more useful, user-friendly or even advanced simply because its being finished, polished, and subsequently mass-produced.

 

i think the only way rata sum will be able to keep up with the world is if they actually start caring about their civilian populations' quality of life. the irony here is this is kind of the same lesson that the charr had to recently learn, although in a completely different context!

Edited Wednesday at 11:15 PM by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Wyrdern.4092]

19 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

I think "ascended harpies" is a reliable way to refer to a "something else" when you don't have the actual name of said "something else" in situations like this. Especially if we're talking academic take on legends like the gemstore quote seems to be taking inspiration from, it'd be falsification to just label them as angels when angels are an actual thing in Tyrian folklore.

As to harpies being ugly... In Greek myth, sure, but in Tyria? I dunno. They don't look ugly to me. GW1 skin complexion is bad but while the mask hides too much of the face to tell what we see is pretty standard humanoid average at worse. And GW2 depictions of harpies feels much more "humanoid that's not human" and would be in the range of as ugly / good looking as, say, teiflings. And I think we all know that's not enough to deter people. So I wouldn't classify Tyrian harpies as demonstrably ugly.

I wouldn't call harpies "ugly" they just have a kinda "rough" appearance which matches with their half-beast nature and living conditions

[draxynnic.3719]

On 10/23/2024 at 6:49 PM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

the mask hides too much of the face to tell

Maybe there's a reason...

I mean, beauty standards vary, but all the bird features are naturally going to, at least, make them less conventionally attractive to a typical human than, say, this, which seems to be representative of a messenger of Dwayna in good standing. There's also precedent for the gods punishing people by transforming them into something related to their domain, while still allowing them the potential to redeem themselves.

I think "ascended" is still a curious choice of adjective to represent proto-harpies that simply never fell, since it's a term that's fairly specific to refer to something that started from a low state and, well, ascended. "Hallowed", "blessed", or similar terms could have been used. Now, I'm not ruling out that it could just be a clumsy choice of adjective, but if the intent was to refer to 'harpies that never fell in the first place', there were certainly better choices. And if there is (or, possibly more accurately, was) a way for harpies to regain a consecrated status, that does present potential for future storytelling that isn't there if it's just a one-way street.