Who came first, the asura or the humans?

[Birgir Fannar.3825]

We know the asura appear on the surface in 1078 AE. We also know the gods brought humans to Tyria in 786 BE for the first time. Were the asura already around in Tyria at that point?

[vampirelazarus.9403]

From the Wiki:

"The asura are a race of diminutive artisans who secretly dwelt below-ground for thousands of years until the minions of the Great Destroyer forced them out of their underground homes in 1078 AE."

 

So yeah, more than likely.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

This actually raises an interesting question about *all* races in the world.

 

We know that the humans and Forgotten came from the Mists, and are told that the Seers, mursaat, dwarves, and jotun managed to survive the last dragonrise thanks to Glint, with very heavy hints that the charr, karka, djinn, kodan, and tengu survived on their own, but we don't really know about the origins of any other race.

 

Do the asura, skritt, dredge, grawl, centaurs originate from Central Tyrian areas (be it above or below ground)? Were they there during the last dragonrise? If so how did they survive? If not, where do they come from and when did they arrive? This question can extend to other races - hylek, quaggan, ogres, harpies, largos, krait, etc. etc. - with their own respective origins.

 

10,000 years (or 3,000 if Glint's age of memories mark the end of the last dragonrise) is hardly enough time for evolution to come into play and produce new species, likely even with magic added (double so when some races, like the charr, seem to seldom change over those thousands of years). So where from and when did these races arrive, and/or how did they survive the Elder Dragons before?

[Bobby Stein.3612]

General consensus with the ANet Lore Brain Trust is that the asura were here first.