Largos Evolution – English – Since Idea Games

Welcome to the launch of our collaborative project between GuildNews and the german Gaming StartUp Since Idea Games: „Largos Evolution – A Largos from concept into the Game Engine“. A few weeks ago, the survey ended, in which you could define yourself, what race our character will join. The choice was between Kodan, Tengu and Largos. Total 1690 votes were cast. It was a very close race between Tengu and Largos. In the end, with 725 votes the Largos were able to record the victory.

It is very important to us, to copy nothing blunt. We want to incorporate our own thoughts, ideas and speculations into the character design. For this reason, we have used the last few weeks intensively in order to create our own Largos profile. For this, we have scoured all wikis and read many interviews of the past 10 years. We have visited every Largos possible in Guild Wars 2, and we traveled back in time about 253 years to find clues, traces and parallels that permit to draw possible conclusions about the origin of the Largos. The effort was worth it, because we believe that we have solved the mystery about the Largos.

We want to use this blog post to introduce you to our Largos profile, so you will already know our backbone on which we will build up our Largos Design, when the video series starts. With this knowledge it will be significantly easier to retrace our design choices in the conception phase.

But before we tell you our theory about the origin of the Largos, we first of all need to look at all we can find about this race in the existing game.

Homeland:

With a very high probability we can say that the home to the Largos is located in the deep sea. We also know that they are subordinated to “ government Houses „. Mentioned by name are the Tethyos Houses. In addition, they live by the rules of Tethyos Compact. However, there is at least one spin-off of this house, the “Shadow Scions”. Since the Largos are located in the deep sea, Krait and Quaggan are well known to them. However, they count the Krait to their main enemies, because they dim and darken their home waters. To the Quaggan they are attuned neutral. Generally, you get the feeling, that the Largos are convinced that they are superior both mentally and physically over most beings.

Mentality:

The Largos are a very proud race. Honor is their highest priority. They trust no one but themselves. Should it come to a sort of agreement between a Largos and another species, then the promise will be kept under all circumstances. Their purpose in life is the hunt. Who or what selects their targets is unknown. The hunt is only finished when the target has been turned off. If a Largos fails, then he loses the honor of his people. Through various dialogues we learn that in their homeland deep under the sea, has erupted an incredible terror. Because of that, the Largos have put the teaching of Survival Tactics onto their main priority of their education. A young Largos will be first of all apprentice of an older Largos, his master. Together, they go on the hunt, and he teaches him. If an apprentice has gained enough honor by hunting, he will eventually become the master of another young Largos. Their martial art resembles an Assassin, and they have mastered invisibility and a kind of phase jump.

Anatomy:

So far there are very few Largos to find in Guild Wars 2. Probably the best known is Sayeh Al‘ Rajihd, which you can meet in the personal story in the level range 70 – 80. In addition, there are a few other Largos, for example Master Sdias, Apprentice Yius and Urrahn The Hunter, which can be found  in Mount Maelstrom. When comparing the different Largos, we noticed that the Largos have also something like gender. There are exactly two variants. The female version (eg. Apprentice Yius) and the male version (eg. Master Sdias). Both have some similarities. They are quite large, have two arms and two legs, and a slightly more elongated head. In basic anatomy they are very similar to the human one, except their wings. The wings are similar to a mixture of the wings of a skate and a butterfly. In addition, both variants wear long white hair, but the female version has braids and the hair is even a bit longer than the male variant. The skin of Largos is in both cases bluish turquoise and you can see an approach of dandruff. In addition, blue bioluminescent strips can be found on the wings and skin. They hide their faces behind a mask, which probably serves amongst other things as a breathing aid. At least the synchronization sounds like that.

The difference between male and female variant lies in the details. The armor of the female Largos has a female breast rounding, also the face masks are very different. Moreover, it seems as if only male Largos possess these long, elf similar ears. The female body doesn’t show ears at all. Also the wing shape is very different. The wings of the male Largos seem stronger and more pronounced, while the female version comes along more filigree and butterfly-like .

Now that we have covered all the information that we were able to draw on the Largo from the game itself, it is time to talk about our postgraduate Largos profile. At this point we clearly point out again, that everything from now on is pure speculation on our part.

We’re pretty sure about one point. The deep sea is not the original home of the Largos. Two things speak mainly for this theory: the human-like legs and the breathing mask, which they obviously have to wear even under water. Now, however, raises one important question: Why should a race leave their natural environment, and moving into a completely different, for this anatomy unsuitable environment? We have found the answer very quickly, because in our mind there is only one plausible explanation: Fear and/or Coercion.

With this realization in mind, we have looked at the anatomy and the history of all beings within the Guild Wars Universe. Then we found one being, which in fact fit perfectly to our theory.

The word Tethyos can be derived from Tethys, a Greek Titan and goddess of the sea. Interestingly, one of her descendants is Thetis, which in Greek mythology is known as the mother of Achilleus (Achilles). If our theory should be true, then exactly such a development would have gone through our species. Fallen from a godlike essence to a warrior. We see their belief in themselves and their appearance as an evidence that they had at some point greater influence, or a higher position.

Our Largos are a very old race. In fact they are much older than the human being. They live on Tyria even for so long, that they have witnessed the setting up of the Tome of Rubicon and experienced the awakening of the Elder Dragons in the last cycle. Since their disappearance they only have to write legends under another name. They lived in this time, neither under water in the deep sea, nor were their wings strong enough in order to be able to swim.

“There have been a lot of questions about the Seers and their ancient war with the mursaat. Sadly, these aren’t questions we can answer at great length without giving away some very deep secrets of the Guild Wars world. I can say that they are one of the oldest races of Tyria, dating back long before the Gods brought the humans to the world; to the time of the writing of the Tome of Rubicon. In those ancient days, the Seers fought against the mursaat, but they were in turn defeated by their enemies, and their civilization lost to the ravages of time.

Some remnants of that civilization, and that ancient time, still remain in modern-day Tyria (both in GW and GW2), but often, those who discover such things do not realize what they have found. There are opportunities in Guild Wars 2 to uncover some of the most ancient lore, including  previously untold tidbits about the Seers and their story, but such information will be very difficult to come by.” (Ree Soesbee, GuildMag Interview)

Our Largos are the descendants of the Seer.

Not much is known about the Seer. They belong to the five oldest to be known races of Tyria, including the Dwarves, the Jotun, the Forgotten and the Mursaat. Together, they have feared the awakening of the Elder Dragons in the previous cycle. The Seer were the ones who constructed the first Bloodstone. The plan against the Elder Dragons had provided that the five nations give their entire magic into this Bloodstone to withdraw the food source of the Elder Dragons, even before they were awakened. Except for the Mursaat all peoples handled according to this plan. While the other races sacrificed their magic, the Mursaat betrayed their allies, and refused to cast their magic into the bloodstone. Instead they fled into another dimension by using its own technology. Nevertheless, the plan was still on the table. The Elder Dragons didn’t find any food after their awakening and went back to sleep again. They went back to sleep, and their dragon-champions remained, including Glint. The Forgotten used a spell to free her from her master Kralkatorrik

Subsequently, the former Dragon Champion prophesied some important events of the future, including the destruction of the Mursaat by human hands. At that time humans were not yet existent. As the Mursaat returned to Tyria a war between them and the Seer was triggered. The outcome of this war is not known. We only know that the Seer, although they possessed quite effective weapons against Mursaat, slowly disappeared from the planet. But were they really wiped out?

We argue that the Seer have hidden out of fear and in the knowledge of the power of Mursaat. Precisely where no one would suspect and search them. In the depths of the seas, in the deep sea.

To the tragic history of the Seers the mentality of the Largos could not fit better. For whom trust is difficult, and who holds promises in honor? Someone, who has been cheated on the worst. Moreover, all that is known about the Largos sound as if this is a civilization that had to start over again several hundred years ago, and still has to recover from it.

This fact alone wouldn’t likely be sufficient to keep our theory. Fortunately, also the Seers’ anatomy fits perfectly into the scheme.

Beneath their dress, which we will explain later on more accurate, is also a body that appears to be very human. The Seers are large, have two legs, a slender body, and a long face. The most obvious difference between Seer and Largos lies in the supposed absence of the wings, and the second pair of arms. With a closer look at the garment it is very striking that on the chest, on the arms and in the eyes of the Seer exactly the same blue bioluminescent color can be found, as on the wings, on the arms and in the eyes of the Largos. At the same time we are sure, that not everything that initially seems like a garment, in fact is part of the clothing. If one visits the Seer in Guild Wars 1, then it is noticeable that large portions are not really connected to the side and rear with the garment. Rather, it looks as if these parts disappear under the clothing and mold themselves to the body in secret. Also the texture of these parts and its movement in the wind are different. We are convinced that the Seer also have a kind of wings. They only keep them hidden under their clothing.

The question of the wings is solved, so the theory is still on the table. But what is with the four arms? The Evolution plays funny tricks. We remember the biology lesson – Vestigiality. Vestigiality describes the process when organs or organ parts are no longer needed in the course of time due to changes of certain influences, and therefore they will regress (appendix, wisdom teeth,  …). In our opinion the second pair of arms had no longer any point under water. The wings were an essential part of getting around, and they no longer had to be collapsed. Thereby, the second pair of arms lost its purpose. While these arms regressed over time, the wings got way more stronger. The evolution-related transformation of the Seer to Largos. With the fact, that the Seer come from the land, the breathing mask of the Largos makes more sense because it lasts significantly longer in evolution, to completely convert the respiratory ways

Generally it should be noted that both, Seer and Largos, in addition to their partially humanoid physique, have something very insect-like (wings, head shape, bioluminescence,  …).

For a while we still had the problem of the long, elf similar Largos ears . This problem, however, was solved by noticing the relationship between gender and ears. All the Seer, we could have met in Guild Wars 1, were female nature. Since female Largos obviously do not have any ears, it also makes sense that the female Seer from the first part did not have ears.

The last two differences are the skin and the hair. In the dialogue with the Seer in Guild Wars 1 (Mission: Iron Mines of Moladune) we learn that she waited for us at this point for a very long time, and that she came from very far away. It is very likely, that she was an old, ancient Seer. Therefore, we believe that the difference in skin color and the absence of hair is due to two factors. Her age and the fact, that she has remained on land. We assume that the Seer already lived underwater at the time of Guild Wars 1. The only Seer, we could have met in the first part of Guild Wars has remained ashore to wait for us, the humans, because of the Flameseeker-Prophecy. For this reason, she didn’t took part in the evolution of her conspecifics. The skin of their living relatives in the sea was also bleached by the sea salt, like their hair.

Now you know our Largos profile. Hopefully we were able to meet the tastes of some of you. We are delighted about it, to develop our Largos on the basis of this background the next few weeks for you.

We look forward to your feedback.