What's that you say, guild wars 2? How does that have any relevance to this group?

Well, read it and weep.

http://www.arena.net/blog/norn-week-begins

http://www.arena.net/blog/legend-and-legacy-of-the-norn

http://www.arena.net/blog/norn-week-go-big-or-go-home

http://www.arena.net/blog/norn-week-designing-and-redesigning-events

http://www.arena.net/blog/a-spirit-of-legend

“If you can thank the spirit of Griffin even as you kill one to feed your family; if you instinctively know the difference between a playful brawl and a deadly battle; if you’d climb a dangerous mountain just because someone said it couldn’t be done—then you might want to play a norn.”

Basically I'm not-so-secretly a huge MMO nerd although I've retired from my gaming career for a few good months now, I'm simply just biding me time until this epic game is released, as no MMOs currently out can keep my interest longer than a day. However there's one race in particular I'm a huge fan of because they basically stand for everything I do in terms of spirituality, known as the Norn. If you've read the above blogs you understand why. I've got a good feeling Anush would be interested in them too.

The Norn are a large race of shape shifting humans but by cultural standards they're more than their own race compared to Humans in GW2. The Norn's culture seems to be an exciting mix of the Nordics and Native American shamans, where they consider "worship" of gods weak and prefer instead to revere the animal spirits of the wild, drawing strength and even sometimes aid from them in battle.

To copy and paste from the "Spirit of Legend" blog;

"Because of their history, the four most important Spirits of the Wild to the residents of the Great Lodge of Hoelbrak are Bear, Snow Leopard, Raven, and Wolf.

These spirits manifested themselves to lead the norn survivors south after their northern homelands were ravaged by the rise of the Elder Ice Dragon, Jormag. Bear is the most revered of all the spirits, and she is seen as an icon of strength, insight, and wisdom. Snow Leopard is a solitary, stealthy spirit, much like her animal kin, and the norn respect the secrets she collects. Raven is the cunning trickster who loves riddles and wordplay, and Wolf is the spirit of teamwork, friendship, and family. Norn choose to follow the path of a certain Spirit of the Wild because they feel a kinship to the lessons it teaches.....

Norn culture stresses individuality. It demands that a person be judged by their own actions, not by the actions of a group to which they belong. If three Sons of Svanir attack a shrine, those individuals are hunted down and punished. That does not mean another Norn who claims to be part of the Sons of Svanir will be punished or treated badly because of the event—in the Norn mindset, he didn’t do it, so he isn’t to be blamed. This doesn’t mean that the Norn ignore a person’s allegiances or that they don’t understand Sons of Svanir are dangerous people. It is simply that, as a race, Norn do not judge an individual for the sins of his tribe.

A Norn lives and dies by her own legend."

Pretty deep, no? Anyway I'm putting this out there for any other gaming nerds who are interested. You can find more info at www.guildwars2.com. I recommend it, it's nothing like existing MMOs out there. It's in it's own league.

Here's a video of one of the so far unveiled classes. Ok, so it was an april fool's joke. But it's so funny I nearly fell out of my chair. That's a giant chicken! Dragons vs helicopters, can't go wrong there.