Janthir Wilds - Springer and Iboga presence?

[Zola.6197]

I'm curious if there's any dialogue or lore pages that reference how/why these creatures arrived in Janthir.

Both are native to Elona as far as I understand it. The first instance in the lowlands described the iboga as "invasive."

It's not necessarily out of the question that Springers could have been brought to the lowlands as the result of trade with Elona, with iboga accidentally being transported over to mainland Tyria as well. That said, with the lowlands/Kodan being framed as isolated, it's hard to imagine an outsider purposefully brought Spingers all the way up there.

Wondering what the story is behind that, or at least if these Spingers are intended to be native to Janthir. They are on the same supercontinent, so I could buy that Springers naturally migrated at some point over the eons to other regions. The iboga though seem like they'd have to travel through environments completely unsuited to them like the Shiverpeaks to arrive in Janthir without outside influence.

[Teknomancer.4895]

Fun fact: using your Homestead fishing holes apparently applies to the Maguuma Fisher achievement. 🤷‍♂️

Edited August 29 by Teknomancer.4895

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

10 hours ago, Zola.6197 said:

I'm curious if there's any dialogue or lore pages that reference how/why these creatures arrived in Janthir.

Both are native to Elona as far as I understand it. The first instance in the lowlands described the iboga as "invasive."

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fanged_Ayahuasca

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Jackrabbit; https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caledon_Short-Tail; https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Krytan_Lop

Different subspecies technically but they're present in / around the Woodland Cascades / Kryta / Maguuma / Janthir region. The local springers simply weren't domesticated as mounts until PoF, lorewise.

It would have been better if they kept to these names / skins, especially for the springers, but ANet flubbing a bit isn't new - especially post-EoD like the presence of Risen Coral and Otherworldly (read:extraterrestial) mushrooms in Gyala despite lore telling us otherwise.

Most disappointing is we didn't get our Woodland Sprites in JW.

[EdwinLi.1284]

On 8/29/2024 at 9:44 PM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fanged_Ayahuasca

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Jackrabbit; https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caledon_Short-Tail; https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Krytan_Lop

Different subspecies technically but they're present in / around the Woodland Cascades / Kryta / Maguuma / Janthir region. The local springers simply weren't domesticated as mounts until PoF, lorewise.

It would have been better if they kept to these names / skins, especially for the springers, but ANet flubbing a bit isn't new - especially post-EoD like the presence of Risen Coral and Otherworldly (read:extraterrestial) mushrooms in Gyala despite lore telling us otherwise.

Most disappointing is we didn't get our Woodland Sprites in JW.

Yep, the mount skins are skins but they do have lore to them. 

Most cases, they are basically different species of these mounts located in different regions of Tyria. Anet only began developing these Mount skin lore around the time of SotO pre-release starting with the Skyscales. 

Though they made Skyscales very short lore being that all Skyscales skins are canon because the appearance of a Skyscale is based on what they eat so they physical forms change as a result of their diet. So yes, something like the plush skyscale and Synergetics are canon because these skyscales ate very specific things that have high magical energy. Plush Skyscale being obviously magical enchanted plushies but this does raise a lot of questions involving where did a Skysclae find enough Plushies with magical energy to change its form into this.

The other mounts have been mostly the result of certain magic or corruption affecting them or a species found in specific regions.

Edited August 31 by EdwinLi.1284

[Kalavier.1097]

6 hours ago, EdwinLi.1284 said:

Yep, the mount skins are skins but they do have lore to them. 

Most cases, they are basically different species of these mounts located in different regions of Tyria. Anet only began developing these Mount skin lore around the time of SotO pre-release starting with the Skyscales. 

Though they made Skyscales very short lore being that all Skyscales skins are canon because the appearance of a Skyscale is based on what they eat so they physical forms change as a result of their diet. So yes, something like the plush skyscale and Synergetics are canon because these skyscales ate very specific things that have high magical energy. Plush Skyscale being obviously magical enchanted plushies but this does raise a lot of questions involving where did a Skysclae find enough Plushies with magical energy to change its form into this.

The other mounts have been mostly the result of certain magic or corruption affecting them or a species found in specific regions.

The plushie set isn't "A skyscale ate enough plushies" It's the same thing as a synergetic skyscale, it's a golem constructed to a skyscales shape and abilities, but it's got a fluffy soft doll wrapped around it. basically a giant toy made by Tixx. Same as the plush raptor, turtle, jackal, etc.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

10 hours ago, EdwinLi.1284 said:

Yep, the mount skins are skins but they do have lore to them. 

Most cases, they are basically different species of these mounts located in different regions of Tyria. Anet only began developing these Mount skin lore around the time of SotO pre-release starting with the Skyscales. 

Though they made Skyscales very short lore being that all Skyscales skins are canon because the appearance of a Skyscale is based on what they eat so they physical forms change as a result of their diet. So yes, something like the plush skyscale and Synergetics are canon because these skyscales ate very specific things that have high magical energy. Plush Skyscale being obviously magical enchanted plushies but this does raise a lot of questions involving where did a Skysclae find enough Plushies with magical energy to change its form into this.

The other mounts have been mostly the result of certain magic or corruption affecting them or a species found in specific regions.

I don't think those two skyscale skins are actual skyscales who ate a golem or plushies. The other plush mount skins are, IIRC, already confirmed to be the same as the Tixx toys - that is, golems made with wood and/or cotton frames instead of stone and metal, so the skyscale one is no doubt the exact same, and the synergetics is no doubt just a golem built shaped like a skyscale. The SAB mount skins are likely the same as non-mount stuff of the dame design - just hard light holograms.

Not all the skins are literal as they're shown either - the mordrem jackal skin is confirmed from the news blog post to be a mesmer illusion cast over a sand jackal, for example. The branded mounts are likely the same, given the nature of dragon minions. Some others could be mesmer illusions too, though which is hard to tell.

Basically there is no catch-all lore for all mount skins. "Skyscales vary by magic eaten" and "subspecies that live in a different region and got domesticated after PoF" is just for a specific group of skins. For example, while the Stormscale is no doubt due to eating air magic, the Shattered Nightscale skin is likely just a variation that came into existence alongside the default skin.

Edited August 31 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Kalavier.1097]

5 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

I don't think those two skyscale skins are actual skyscales who ate a golem or plushies. The other plush mount skins are, IIRC, already confirmed to be the same as the Tixx toys - that is, golems made with wood and/or cotton frames instead of stone and metal, so the skyscale one is no doubt the exact same, and the synergetics is no doubt just a golem built shaped like a skyscale. The SAB mount skins are likely the same as non-mount stuff of the dame design - just hard light holograms.

Not all the skins are literal as they're shown either - the mordrem jackal skin is confirmed from the news blog post to be a mesmer illusion cast over a sand jackal, for example. The branded mounts are likely the same, given the nature of dragon minions. Some others could be mesmer illusions too, though which is hard to tell.

Basically there is no catch-all lore for all mount skins. "Skyscales vary by magic eaten" and "subspecies that live in a different region and got domesticated after PoF" is just for a specific group of skins. For example, while the Stormscale is no doubt due to eating air magic, the Shattered Nightscale skin is likely just a variation that came into existence alongside the default skin.

This is pretty much it. We know Skyscales will see drastic changes depending on diet as they grow up, but patterns are likely just regional for them. Likewise probably for changes that are physical but not extreme or magical based. Like the broad-horn bull is probably just that... a fat skyscale. Where as the Canthan skyscales developed into the leaner bodytype.

 

[Zola.6197]

So the springers could be native to the area if we take that at face value, though I’m still curious about the iboga. I’ve yet to find all the lore books so I’m hoping there’s something about that.

[Mithral.8516]

It doesn't take much for an invasive species to get settled. While yes, the lowland kodan are isolated from society-at-large, it's not impossible to get there. It is, after all, a short trip down the river from Divinity's Reach. Snargle Goldclaw (am I recalling that name correctly?) canonically arrived before us. Who's to say some travelling trader couldn't have lost a few iboga eggs from his cart as he was passing by? 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

On 9/9/2024 at 5:55 PM, Mithral.8516 said:

It doesn't take much for an invasive species to get settled. While yes, the lowland kodan are isolated from society-at-large, it's not impossible to get there. It is, after all, a short trip down the river from Divinity's Reach. Snargle Goldclaw (am I recalling that name correctly?) canonically arrived before us. Who's to say some travelling trader couldn't have lost a few iboga eggs from his cart as he was passing by? 

Not to mention that Jennah stated her father had trade relations with the lowland kodan.

They weren't actually isolated, they just kept to themselves. Bit of a difference.

[Dean Calaway.9718]

You know I never seen the Kodan ride a Springer... don't they have you cook rabbit meat? 🙃

[Zola.6197]

On 9/9/2024 at 2:55 PM, Mithral.8516 said:

Who's to say some travelling trader couldn't have lost a few iboga eggs from his cart as he was passing by? 

Yeah, never said it is impossible. I am just curious if there was an existing story behind it - some ambient dialogue referencing how they came to Janthir, or an obscure lore page tucked away. I think it would be interesting to find out, but at the very least it's nice that the devs made an intentional choice to label them "invasive" iboga to establish they aren't native... flora? Fauna? hard to tell with Iboga lol.

[Mithral.8516]

@Zola.6197 I see. Yeah I haven't seen any in-game lore about it beyond the name of the iboga being labeled invasive.