Quick Links
Of the many non-playable races you may encounter inGuild Wars 2, the Kodan are among the most popular. These bear-like people and their mysterious godly patron have always been at the edges of stories, with no one plot going in-depth about who they are.
That changes with Janthir Wilds, a Guild Wars 2 expansion that has the Kodan as the main allies we can meet. They, however, look different from what we are used to, so it is time to unveil the mysteries of what makes this race as a whole tick.
Who Are The Kodan?
The Kodan are bear-like humanoids(or Bearkin, as they are sometimes called in the game) that live in small to medium-sized tribes. Their culture isvery similar to that of the playable Norn, mostly in their connection to the spirits of nature and overall lack of technology.
Where they differ from the Norn is intheir search for balance in all things.They aren’t afraid to use violence to hunt or defend themselves, but they don’t see any glory in it; they do what they must to survive or to ensure thatnature is in perfect harmonyin their surrounding areas.
We don’t know how long the Kodans can live, but like the Norn, it seems they can grow as old as a few hundred years.
Their naming conventions revolve arounda phrase that they feel describes theminstead of an arbitrary identifying word. As such, they end up withnames made up of a noun and an adjective, likeWatchful Moon or Still Waters.
In the base game, all Kodans you’ll encounter willlook like polar bearssince they hail from the frozen lands north of the Shiverpeaks. They are called Kodan becausetheir entire culture revolves around Koda,a divine entitythat they believe created the world.
Koda The Founder
The Kodan religion speaks ofKoda, an entity that created the worldand all spirits that dwell in it.Spirits are real, andwe can meet several in the game,not only as ghosts, but as embodiments of animal concepts, like Wolf, Raven, or Bear.
Bear became the first spirit to speak, asking Koda why the world was so chaotic and unbalanced. Asa reward for thinkingcritically,Koda tasked Bear with guarding and improving the balance of the world, and the spirit that stood by Bear’s side becamethe first of the Kodan people.
Now, we know that Koda didn’tcreate the world; itwas Soo-Won,the mother of all Elder Dragons. Koda could still bea real creationist entity, but instead of being in charge of the physical aspects, it might have only createdthe spirits of the wild.
Voice And Claw
The Kodans usually havetwo leaders of equal power,the Voice and the Claw.The Voice lives secluded from all outside contact, spending its dayscommuning with Koda in the mists, and trying to decipher the teachings and tasks set upon them by their governing entity.
This is a very taxing experience, hence whythe Voice is constantly being taken care ofby an elite group of shamans.The Claw is the only other individual allowed to see the Voiceand does whatever it can to enforce the Voice’s will since their will is the will of Koda.
When not doing the Voice’s bidding,the Claw is in charge of all government mattersof the Kodan’s daily lives, working to ensure the tribe’s survival. The Voice and Claw are usually chosen at the same time, and when one dies for whatever reason,the other often retires early.
The Dragonstorm
When theElder Dragons rose, they forced many civilizations toabandon their homes in search of safetyelsewhere. The Kodan, much like the Norn, were pushed from their northern homes towardsthe warmer south,becoming visible for the first time to the other Tyrian races.
While the Norn had an easier time adapting and engaging with the other communities, the Kodandidn’t see eye to eyewith their way of living. The only ones they might have been able to coexist with, the Sylvari, lived too far from their frozen mountains to ever become properly acquainted.
The Kodan And The Norn
As we said before,these two races are similar in various respects, particularly in their reverence for the spirits of the wild.The Norn can even turn into humanoid animalsby channeling a patron spirit, Bear among them, so it stands to reason to assume that these two species are related somehow.
The Kodans do have a myth regarding the Norn, abouta tribe without a Voicethat ventured during a harsh blizzard to find food, never to return. The Kodan believe that this tribe became the first Norn, but in truth,they might have been the first Lowland Kodan.
Lowland Kodan
In Janthir Wilds,players can meet the Lowland Kodan, who still look bear-like but more like grizzly bears instead of polar ones. Yet that isn’t their most significant distinction since the Lowland Kodans havea different view on religionto their northern brethren.
You see, this Kodan tribe worked pretty much like the polar branch, buttheir Voice went mad and left them.This is not something unheard of since theVoice’s constant exposure to the mists can have dire consequencesfor mortal bodies that don’t belong there.
Instead of electing a new Voice and Claw, the Claw of the time decided thatthe role of Voice was no longer neededsince it was putting an unnecessary toll on their people. Instead,the Claw would rule with a close council of elders; the Claw would still have the final word, but it would make decisions based on what the tribe needed, not what the mists might whisper.
This makes the Lowland Kodanhighly distrustful of magic since they believethey can get everything they need from nature itself. Fortunately, they are open-minded when it comes to their stances, so you can still play a spellcaster and not be shunned by these Kodans.
