Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds - Who Are The Kodan?

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• Who Are The Kodan?

• Koda The Founder

• The Dragonstorm

• Lowland Kodan

Of the many non-playable races you can encounter in Guild 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.

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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 is very 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 in their 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 that nature is in perfect harmony in 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 around a phrase that they feel describes them instead of an arbitrary identifying word. As such, they end up with names made up of a noun and an adjective, likeWatchful Moon or Still Waters.

In the base game, all Kodans you’ll encounter will look like polar bears since they hail from the frozen lands north of the Shiverpeaks. They are called Kodan because their entire culture revolves around Koda, a divine entity that they believe created the world.

Koda The Founder

The Kodan religion speaks of Koda, an entity that created the world and all spirits that dwell in it. Spirits are real, and we can meet several in the game, not only as ghosts, but as embodiments of animal concepts, like Wolf, Raven, or Bear.

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Bear became the first spirit to speak, asking Koda why the world was so chaotic and unbalanced. As a reward for thinking critically, Koda tasked Bear with guarding and improving the balance of the world, and the spirit that stood by Bear’s side became the first of the Kodan people.

Now, we know that Koda didn’t create the world; it was Soo-Won, the mother of all Elder Dragons. Koda could still be a real creationist entity, but instead of being in charge of the physical aspects, it might have only created the spirits of the wild.

Voice And Claw

The Kodans usually have two leaders of equal power, the Voice and the Claw. The Voice lives secluded from all outside contact, spending its days communing 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 why the Voice is constantly being taken care of by an elite group of shamans. The Claw is the only other individual allowed to see the Voice and 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 matters of 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 the Elder Dragons rose, they forced many civilizations to abandon their homes in search of safety elsewhere. The Kodan, much like the Norn, were pushed from their northern homes towards the warmer south, becoming visible for the first time to the other Tyrian races.

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While the Norn had an easier time adapting and engaging with the other communities, the Kodan didn’t see eye to eye with 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 animals by 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, about a tribe without a Voice that 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 have a different view on religion to their northern brethren.

You see, this Kodan tribe worked pretty much like the polar branch, but their Voice went mad and left them. This is not something unheard of since the Voice’s constant exposure to the mists can have dire consequences for mortal bodies that don’t belong there.

Instead of electing a new Voice and Claw, the Claw of the time decided that the role of Voice was no longer needed since 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 Kodan highly distrustful of magic since they believe they 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.

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