The charr in Guild Wars 2 are a criminally underappreciated race compared to the other four. After all, their aesthetic seems fairly harsh in contrast with the Sylvari homes made out of overgrown leaves or the floating, geometric designs of the Asura.However, the charr have a history and culture as well developed and fleshed out as any of the other playable races. In this article, we'll round up some of the very best and most interesting things that you may not have known about these 6-foot-tall bipedal cats.
10 They Are Carnivorous
This first fun fact is one that doesn’t occur to many players. When you realize it, it seems obvious in retrospect, but you’d probably just never thought about it. The charr are a carnivorous - not omnivorous - race.
Cats and other felines aren’t omnivores, they’re “obligatory carnivores,” meaning that they need particular amino acids found only in meat. These required nutrients are added to their food when it’s made. The cats may eat plants or other foods, but they are defined as carnivores because it’s what their teeth are built to eat and because they require those particular amino acids.
9 Technological Geniuses
As a militaristic society, ingenuity and inventiveness in young charr is put towards finding new military advantages. They have succeeded tremendously - and by learning to craft in-game, you can follow in their footsteps!
The charr have invented a number of machines that are now used all over Tyria. These include, but are not limited to, steam engines, choppers, submarines, and the printing press. They even created the Engineer class! Asura might be known as the genius race, but the charr should not be underestimated.
8 Why They Have Two Pairs Of Ears
If you’ve spent time making a charr character, you’ve probably looked at the charr models closely enough to notice that they have four ears on their heads. As it turns out, each set is used to hear different sounds.
The top set of ears hears high frequencies (ultrasound), while the bottom set hears low frequencies (infrasound). Neither ultrasound nor infrasound can be heard by the human ear. Mid-range sounds, the ones which humans hear and make, are actually quite difficult for the Charr to hear. Needless to say, this doesn’t help the already-tense relationship between these two races.
7 Maturing Rate Of Cubs
Charr cubs mature at the same rate as human children do, and they live to the same age (around 100 years). However, unlike humans, charr babies are very capable soon after being born.
A few days after being born, young Charr can walk and follow their mothers over difficult landscapes. Around a month after their birth, they start to eat meat. Only a few months after that, they’re considered “fully independent.” This is obviously quite different than humans, who only start to crawl around 6 months of age.
6 Their Distrust Of Magic
The long and sad history of the charr has led to a strong distrust of magic among most members of the species. In contrast, they are mostly willing to trust new technological innovations with few complaints.
Magic is actually seen as a sign of weakness, a marker that you weren’t strong enough to accomplish your task without magical help. This doesn’t affect the classes that players can choose from, of course, but is present throughout the game’s lore.
5 (Almost) Everyone Works In The Military
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Avid Guild Wars 2 players are probably aware that the charr are very militaristic, but you may not know the details. Young charr don’t generally communicate much with their parents; they are raised in a fahrar (kind of like a school within a legion) among other young people, which teaches them to fight (among other things) and helps them create warbands - military groups which include between 5 and 15 charr.
In this way, everyone is funnelled into the military automatically. Any job that can serve the military directly will be done by members of a legion. Anything that is too far outside the realm of military day-to-day life - including farming and trading goods with other races - is only done by young charr, injured charr, and retired charr.
4 Coming-Of-Age Tradition
When young charr form their first warband in the fahrar, the members are trained to work together as an effective military unit. They are overseen by an adult charr from the fahrar.
Eventually, the warband will no longer need to be supervised. It is at this point that the warband’s members are considered to truly be adults. Due to the subjective nature of this assessment, there is no set age for it to occur.
3 They Don't Often Mate For Life
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While some charr may choose to mate for life, most charr relationships are temporary. This probably grew out of their militaristic culture; each charr is expected to be loyal to his legion and warband first-and-foremost, so charr couples would have a hard time maintaining a long relationship when they were constantly moving with their separate groups.
This habit leads to the cultural phenomenon wherein charr do not raise their own children. Once they are weaned from their mothers, young charr leave for the fahrar. While the child is probably aware of who their parents are, they are encouraged to think of their warband as their family. Officially, the parents do not contact the child unnecessarily once they join the fahrar. Unofficially, charr care about their children as much as the next species, and are known to send gifts to them in secret.
2 Meatoberfest
One of the few cultural celebrations of this harsh, rough-and-tumble race is Meatoberfest, a festival held in the Village of Butcher’s Block in the Diessa Plateau.
This is clearly just a play on Oktoberfest, a German festival where a fair is set up and attendees drink millions of litres of traditional beer. No reason or origin is given for Meatoberfest in-game. However, it’s still just a nice, goofy easter egg for players to discover on their own.
1 Why They Are A Kratocratic Oligarchy
A kratocracy is a government whose power comes from coercion/intimidation by the members of a society who can seize control (whether they do it through force or manipulation). An oligarchy is a government where power lies with a small number of people. The charr government runs this way: the leaders of each legion sit together on a council, of sorts.
Technically, the charr should be a military dictatorship. The leader of all charr would have the title of “Khan-Ur,” rank above the leaders of every legion, and coordinate between them. However, to be the Khan-Ur, a charr must have an artifact known as the Claw of Khan-Ur. It was retrieved recently by the humans under orders from Queen Jennah, after having been lost for centuries, and was returned to the charr as a gesture of peace. It sits on the war table, where the leaders of the legion meet, unclaimed. That’s because, in order to claim it, the charr would have to do a sufficiently great deed to call themself worthy. No one has successfully laid a claim.