The only issue with this is the fact that we will not be seeing Cantha in the foreseeable future.
NCsoft has put their foot down and said "No Cantha in GW2"
I really liked Cantha too.
The Scrying Pool: Deep Sea Horrors
In this week's article of The Scrying Pool, we look at the very mysterious Deep Sea Dragon.
The Dragon
There are three main reasons why I believe that the Deep Sea Dragon could be a Jade Sea Dragon: the Karka, underwater combat and the isolation of Cantha.
First is the Karka. This was a race added in the November patch that we meet on an island in the Sea of Sorrows. The reason we are just now meeting these creatures when they are so close geographically is because they haven't been on the island for long. The karka had recently moved here from the deep trenches of the Unending Ocean to escape the dragon. On the forums Matthew Medina, content designer for ArenaNet, had this to say:
“The karka are recent arrivals to the surface from their original home deep in the ocean...and they avoided Orr for the same reasons they fled their home. The karka are an old, old species so they have encountered Elder Dragons and their minions before…and they’re certainly smart enough to understand the threat they represent.”
So if they already knew about the Elder Dragons and are smart enough to understand the threat the dragons represent, why are they just now evacuating the deep trenches of the sea supposedly 50 years after the Deep Sea Dragon awoke there?
If the dragon has been awake in the deep trenches of the ocean, then you would think the Karka would have evacuated a while ago. To support this is the attitude of the Krait. They believe they are the greatest race in the world having never been on the losing side of any fight. Which sounds more believable, that the Krait killed an Elder Dragon by themselves while a coalition of five races and three orders had to pull together to defeat one or that the Krait have only been fighting off minions and the occasional Shatterer level champion?
These support the idea that the Deep Sea Dragon is not actually present. Krait have only been killing the small stuff while the Karka wouldn't have felt too threaten until the dragon started sending larger parties of minions further away from home. Sending threatening forces into much of the Unending Ocean from the Jade Sea wouldn't be much for a dragon that can create minions in “every lake and river of the land.”
So why is underwater combat a reason for the Deep Sea Dragon to be in the Jade Sea and not the Unending Ocean? Some people love underwater combat, some people are indifferent to it and a large portion probably hate it. I don't know about you, but I have seen more people in the past week due to daily achievements requiring underwater kills than I had seen since launch. Just imagine the outrage if you put an entire campaign underwater in the middle of the Unending Ocean.
If the dragon was in the Jade Sea, however, there wouldn't be a completely underwater campaign. Sure, there will be bits still underwater which is understandable since, well, it is a sea dragon. Most of the campaign however, could be on land. There is an entire nation surrounding this dragon, surely a large part of the campaign is going to be working with, or near, this nation.
Which brings us to the last point: Cantha has completely isolated itself. Having an Elder Dragon in the middle of your country that you can't deal with by yourself is a good reason to rethink your isolationist point of view.
The placement of a dragon in the Jade Sea also makes things interesting. The Jade Sea was the front line between the Luxons and Kurzicks, when they battled, before being dissolved by the Empire of the Dragon. It would only take a few vocal citizens of the Empire to wonder what would happen if the dragon awoke in the middle of a war and not the middle of a peaceful and unified empire before people wondered if the Empire’s choices were the right ones. And what was the Empire’s other choice at that time? Exiling any and all non-humans.
This line of thought then opens up the door for all five playable races to enter Cantha. Sure, the people of the Empire are probably not going to trust these new races especially when you consider that the people of the Empire haven't seen another race in generations. Then again, I don't see the Charr hugging any human they can find. The point is trusting these new races just enough for them to protect Cantha's future. After a future is guaranteed there will be plenty of time to build trust.