Overseer Kuda

Overseer Kuda

Race

Asura, Hologram

Level

80

Location

Western Complex
(Sandswept Isles)

Organization

Inquest

Image(s)

Kuda's hologram on Sandswept Isles.

“

Your contributions to Inquest science will be a shining footnote in my breakthrough research! Father would be so proud.

— Overseer Kuda

Overseer Kuda is an asura and a member of the Inquest. She is the daughter of a former Inquest kingpin, Kudu. Kuda has created Subject Beta, the successor of Subject Alpha. She has recently been recruited by Director Vloxx, along with Principal Biomancer Sebb, to go on an expedition to Castora. Ever ambitious, Kuda is not content to live in her father's shadow and has slowly risen in prominence among Inquest leadership.

While exploring Eternity's Garden, Kuda oversees the creation of the Omega Team, a group of magically enhanced asura loyal to her. Following Vloxx's ascension and departure, Kuda becomes the latest director of the Inquest while revealing a personal grudge towards the Pact Commander for contributing to her father's demise.

Biography

Early years

Kuda was born as the daughter of an Inquest kingpin, Overseer Kudu. She eventually joined the megakrewe as well but was not content to live in her father's shadow. She gradually rose in prominence in Inquest hierarchy, eventually claiming the rank of overseer like her father had done before her.

Living World Season 4

Kuda continued her father's work with dragon minions and combining multiple Elder Dragons' energies into a singular being. She created Subject Beta, the successor of Subject Alpha, with this goal in mind. Kuda used the Specimen Chamber of Rata Primus, built on Sandswept Isles, as her testing grounds.

The local Olmakhan tribe and their allies, including the Pact Commander, invaded the Specimen Chamber to stop the Inquest's experiments in the region in 1331 AE. Kuda appeared through a hologram to greet the trespassers and forced them to face off against simulacra of her dragon minion experiments, including Subject Beta, to test the specimens' effectiveness and cross-linear synergistic potentialities. Although the Commander and their allies were able to defeat the synchronized specimens and shut down the lab after a fierce battle, Kuda still deemed her experiment a success as she could now use the trespassers' and the specimens' recorded combat data to further improve her creations and win the Inquest's discovery prize. Although Rata Primus fell during the Awakened and Olmakhan assaults, Kuda managed to depart from the isles to continue her experiments elsewhere.

Visions of Eternity

Act 1

Principal Biomancer Sebb and Kuda oversee Sebb's augmented creature project.

In 1338 AE, Director Vloxx, who had been recently promoted as one of the leaders of the Inquest, had Kuda and Principal Biomancer Sebb accompany him with their krewes on a voyage to the remote Castora where the director hoped to find the means to further his far-reaching goals. Kuda, whose krewe consisted of remnants of her father's old krewe, had begun experimenting with Void effects, reflecting Kuda's continued interest in dragon energy. The overseer warned Vloxx about the possibility of the Pact Commander deciding to interfere with their mission as the Commander had historically done with other Inquest operations, but the director dismissed her concerns. Despite this, Kuda nevertheless had the foresight to leave assassins disguised as dock workers behind at Rata Sum Port Authority and instructed them to give the Commander a lethal greeting if the Commander attempted to follow the Inquest's trail.

The Inquest expedition lost some vessels and krewe members on the way to Castora due to the island's magical and physical defenses, forcing the director to seek to replenish their diminished ranks with local castaways who had formed the rival Freebooter and Hullgardener societies. Vloxx was able to persuade the freebooter Captain Jessica Hammerhart to aid his cause; in return for gaining access to freebooter laborers and being allowed to operate within the pirates' cave network of Shipwreck Strand, the Inquest would provide the freebooters with some golems and augmentation tech to give the pirates an edge over the Hullgardeners. Ever shrewd, Vloxx gifted the freebooters with older Inquest equipment which was not critical to their mission. The director extended the same offer to the Hullgardeners as well in order to benefit from both factions, but Mayor Osborne rejected the offer.

In the two weeks since their arrival to Castoran shores and striking a deal with the freebooters, the Inquest had managed to construct an extensive subterranean research facility in Shipwreck Strand but had also pushed deeper inland to build their base of operations, the Command Complex, in Starlit Weald, while Sebb boosted their ranks with local wildlife which he had augmented to become subservient. Vloxx spent his time in the Command Complex overseeing the operation and studying artifacts, historical records from the late asuran genius Zinn and seers who had once inhabited Castora, and anything else of note that could lead him towards his ultimate goal. While Kuda and Sebb carried out the director's orders to the best of their abilities, the pair did not get along with each other as Kuda viewed Sebb's augmentation experiments as crude while Sebb believed Kuda to be too careful and the remnants of her krewe to have become obsolete.

After successfully tracking the Inquest to Castora, the Commander hijacked a golem to infiltrate the Inquest base in Shipwreck Strand in order to learn more about the Inquest's plans in the region. Although only one golem immediately started malfunctioning after the Commander had hacked several golems to hamper the Inquest, it was still enough to draw out Kuda and Sebb on site. In an argument, Kuda told Sebb that he should instead delegate the responsibilities such as this to underlings, to which the biomancer replied that he preferred a more hands-on approach and accused the overseer of not wanting to get her claws dirty. Sebb then ordered the disguised Commander to open the animal pens nearby, releasing two experimental augmented saurians called Creation 5 and Creation 7, which promptly ripped the malfunctioning golem to shreds. Kuda expressed annoyance and a want to focus on their current mission as opposed to something she saw as a minor incident. She then summoned Agent Thessa and made their way out with the agent's procurement team.

After leaving the facility with Thessa and the procurement team, Kuda and Sebb continued their operations deeper inland on Castora to seek out one of Castora's enchanted guardians: a giant crustacean called Kela, Seneschal of Waves. Sebb intended to test his theory by procuring seer artifacts inland to bait the protective Kela into appearing so he could attempt to enslave and augment the seneschal just like he had done with Castora's native wildlife. Unlike Sebb, Kuda respected and even feared the power that Kela wielded and felt that enslaving such a creature seemed. While pursuing the Inquest trail, the Commander intercepted several Inquest caches containing recorded messages sent between Kuda and an unseen informant who kept tabs on both Sebb and Vloxx, including a message from Kuda in which she expressed clear disdain with Sebb and his impulsive methodology, making clear that she would be happy to see him dead.

By the time the Inquest lieutenants had located the beach where they intended to bait Kela to, they had dismissed their escorts and had begun planting artifacts. They were intercepted by the Commander's group, forcing Sebb to improvise: he threw the last artifact in the interlopers' direction and bolted, leaving Kuda behind as well. Before the group could pursue him, Kela emerged and threatened both the Commander's party and Kuda. The overseer used the momentary chaos to her advantage to escape as well while taunting the Commander, leaving the party to handle the enraged seneschal in her stead. Kuda would remember Sebb saving his skin and leaving her behind to die while she made her way back to the Inquest.

Act 2

After the confrontation on the beach, Kuda and Sebb hurried to inform Director Vloxx about the Pact Commander's arrival to Castora and the failure to subdue Kela. Some time later the Commander infiltrated the Inquest's Command Complex in Starlit Weald and set off alarms that drew Kuda's attention although she remained unaware that the Commander had had a conversation with none other than Vloxx inside the complex. The overseer remotely instructed the guards to find any trespassers and deal with them but the Commander narrowly escaped her wrath while Vloxx kept his meeting with the Commander a secret from the rest of the Inquest.

As the Inquest explored and excavated seer ruins in the region, Kuda persuaded their hired Freebooter muscle to enter trap-filled buildings, including the Lost Basilica, in search of treasure although the real reason was to sacrifice their lives instead of asuran lives. Vloxx did not approve of Kuda's harsh methods even if they provided results, and her krewe spoke of it often as they were torn between the overseer and the director. Trinna, one of Kuda's agents, kept her informed about Vloxx sending Sebb to subdue another guardian of Castora: Gwyllian, Seneschal of the Forest. In her report Trinna also expressed her preference for Kuda's leadership over the other two. Kuda was displeased by learning what was going on and tossed the research log down the drain so it ended up below the Command Complex.

The Commander, the seer Isgarren, and their allies Rytlock Brimstone and Sayida the Sly learned that Vloxx was after the seers' arcane staff Ancora which had the power to empower individuals beyond mortal levels. They began searching for the staff to prevent its power from falling into the wrong hands, unaware that Vloxx and his two lieutenants had discreetly been keeping an eye on their movements due to the director's connection to the Commander. Once the party had located the arcane staff deep within a concealed seer vault, the Inquest trio forcibly opened the way into the vault with explosions and used the party's disorientation and Isgarren's weakened state due to the vault's arcane wards to their advantage so the director could claim the staff for himself.

In order to let himself depart without interference, Vloxx tasked Sebb to keep the Commander's party occupied. The biomancer noticed that Kuda was leaving with Vloxx as well and questioned her. The overseer admitted to Sebb that she would not be aiding him this time as payback for leaving her behind on the beach during their confrontation with the Commander's party and Kela. The biomancer dismissed Kuda's remark by stating that he did not need her to deal with the Commander. Kuda did not stay around to argue, opting to retreat with the director now that they had claimed their prize and could begin the next phase of their operation before the Commander could catch them.

The Only Way

Kuda looms over her elite enforcers, the Omega Team.

Location

Crystal Desert

• Sandswept Isles
  • Western Complex (as a hologram, only during related events)

Story involvement

Visions of Eternity story

• Act 1
  • Eyes, Ears, and Arms
  • Truths Unearthed
• Act 2
  • Beneath the Canopy (voice only)
  • Path of Divinity
• The Only Way
  • On the Threshold (as a hologram)
  • Within Your Grasp
  • Divitium Nava
  • A Bold Strategy (as Director Kuda)

Event involvement

Sandswept Isles

[Group Event] Defeat the Simulacrum of Beyn, Scion of Thorns (80)

[Group Event] Defeat the Simulacrum of Destroyer Crematus (80)

[Group Event] Defeat the Simulacrum of Jord Ironfrost (80)

[Group Event] Defeat the Simulacrum of Subject Beta (80)

[Group Event] Defeat the Simulacrum of Tlati, the Unchained (80)

[Group Event] Defeat the Simulacrum of Varkesh, the Branded (80)

[Group Event] Defeat the dragon minion simulacrum (80)

Eternity's Garden

[Group Event] Capture and hold the eastern chamber (80) (voice only)

[Group Event] Capture and hold the northern chamber (80) (voice only)

[Group Event] Capture and hold the western chamber (80) (voice only)

Combat abilities

Abilities

• High-Ranking Inquest

Effects

Stun — Vulnerable while broken.  Occurs when defiance is broken.

Gallery

Concept art

• 

  The Only Way key art with Kuda, Rytlock Brimstone, Sayida the Sly, and Canach.

Miscellaneous

• 

  Kuda and Principal Biomancer Sebb in the Inquest Subterranean Research Facility.

• 

  Teaser for Visions of Eternity.

• 

  Kuda's visage in The Only Way achievement category.

Related achievements

• Return to A Bug in the System: Revenge of Kuda — Defeat the Inquest's champions in the Specimen Chamber. (0)

Trivia

• Kuda is voiced by Julie Nathanson.
• Kuda narrates the trailer for The Only Way.
• Given Kuda's name and the topic of her and her father's research, it is suspected by many players that said father is Kudu. Senior Game Designer Clayton Kisko has likewise pointed out that while ArenaNet has not outright commented on Kuda's parentage, her being Kudu's daughter has been heavily implied. The family relation was later confirmed in-game in the A Bold Strategy chapter.

See also

• Kudu
• Omega Team

Associated items

• Relic of the Cruel Overseer