Post by Zone Fighter on Dec 4, 2011 9:20:45 GMT -8
Still in development, the developers will only say that Guild Wars 2 will be released "when it's done".
Two-hundred and fifty years have passed since the events in Guild Wars: Eye of the North. A threat greater than the legendary heroes of Tyria had to face has arisen forcing former enemies to unite as allies. Fifty years after a combined army of humans, dwarves, asura and norn defeated the Great Destroyer, this evil creature's master awoke from its centuries of sleep. The Elder Dragon Primordus and its minions now rule the underground world once ruled by the asura. The dwarves rushed underground to meet this threat and for all intents have ceased to exist. Fifty years after this, Jormag awoke, driving the proud norn from their homeland. The norn would have fought, as individuals, norn do not believe in armies, and would have been wiped out but the animal spirits the norn venerate would not allow this and led them to safety, three of the spirits staying behind to give the norn time to get away. One of those spirits died, all contact with the other two has been lost. The norn morn over all three.
If the humans thought they would be left unaffected by the wakening of the Elder Dragons, they were wrong. One hundred years after the awakening of Primordus, fifty years after Jormag arose, Zhaitan came up from the depths of the sea, bringing with it the lost continent of Orr. All the dead Orrians and any sailors unfortunate enough to be caught in the dragon's wake become Zhaitan's undead minions. The raising of Orr flooded the coastal lands of Kryta including the capital of Lion's Arch.
Another fifty years passed and the fourth Elder Dragon, as not yet seen and its name unknown to mortals, awoke and claimed the waters of Tyria as its domain.
Did the charr rejoice at their ancient enemies troubles when Zhaitan destroyed the human's capital? If they did their celebration was premature. One hundred years after Zhaitan, fifty after the unnamed deep see dragon awoke, Kralkatorrik flew across charr lands, where its shadow touched all living things, plants, animals and charr, were transformed into hideous monsters.
Before the first Elder Dragon awoke, a strange seed burst open. As the Elder Dragons were awakening the Pale Tree was growing. About 25 years after Kralkatorrik awoke the Pale Tree developed pods. When these pods opened a new race stepped upon Tyria. The Sylvari, a race of intelligent plant people who are born fully grown. Although they have little personal experience they have been taught much from their "mother", the Pale Tree. Each Sylvari is born with the belief that it is their destiny to fight the Elder Dragons.
For centuries humans and charr have been bitter enemies, fighting over the same territory.
The norn are highly individualistic. When charr tried to take norn lands individual norn taught them this wasn't wise. And the norn and the charr now have mutual respect for each other. Though norn and humans once worked together the norn now believe the human queen is too dependent on others in her government.
The asura believe themselves more intelligent than every one else and that because of this they shall one day rule Tyria.
The first sylvari had an unfortunate encounter with the asura.
Now these five races must but aside their differences and unite if they are to stand any hope of defeating the Elder Dragons, ancient creatures that rival the gods in power.
Apparently player characters will not, at least to start, actually face all five dragons. The primary enemy of the game is Zhaitan. The others serving as background.
Unlike Guild Wars 1 which was instanced (once players left a town the area was created just for their party no one else could join in), Guild Wars 2 is mostly persistent. Only the short tutorial areas, player characters homes and the five man dungeons are instanced.
Also unlike Guild Wars 1 which had only one playable race, human, Guild Wars 2 has five, human, charr, asura, norn and sylvari. Guild Wars 1 has ten playable professions (classes) and after having had time to learn their primary profession players choose a secondary profession. Guild Wars 2 will start out with 8 professions and there are no secondary professions.
Each of the five races has its own capital city where the player characters have their home instance (visitable only by the player and anyone the player invites), which makes up abut 10% of the city, 90% being persistent (anybody can visit). After the short tutorial its possible to journey to any of the other racial cities. Lion's Arch has been taken over by a group of ship's captains and is no longer just a human city but is now open to all races.
There are no restrictions on races playing professions so you aren't forced to play a race you don't' like because its the only one good at your favorite profession.
Humans - once the rulers of Tyria, the humans have fallen on hard times. Ascalon has been taken over by the charr. Orr sank into the sea then centuries later arose as an elder dragon's home. Only Kryta stands and its been fighting, charr, centaur and human traitors The human's last remaing major city is Divinity's Reach. The royal family makes its home here. Humans are the most religious race of Tyria. They believe in 6 gods, 4 female and 2 male. Although the gods left Tyria long ago and their influence has wained. Theologically all of Tyria was left to the humans by their gods, but in actual practice the other races don't recognize this.
Charr - having taken back Ascalon from the humans the charr's capital city is the Black Citadel built over the ruins of the human city Rin. Not all of ascalon is under charr control however. Human ghosts control Ascalon City and as they cannot be permanently defeated, a dissipated ghost will eventually reform to fight again, the charr are perpetually at war with them. The charr originally had no gods but for a time they worshiped the titans. After humans wiped out the titans a charr civil war resulted in most charr being essentially atheists. Although they have no choice but to acknowledge that human's gods do exist they don't see them as deserving worship and consider humans weak for worshiping them. Charr don't trust magic and as a result have advanced in technology. Charr are highly militaristic and are divided into Legions which are further divided into Warbands. It is to the warbands rather than to families that charr are most loyal.
Asura - one the rulers (at least according to them) of the underground world the asura were driven to the surface world by the Destroyers centuries ago. Although the asura did not originally build Rata Sum (an anagram of Mursaat, an ancient race of magical creatures now believed extinct) the took over the city and built it up over the centuries. Rata Sum is now a floating city, magically removed from the surface of the planet as a form of protection. Asura believe in something called the Eternal Alchemy. To them everything is part of the Eternal Alchemy, including the humans gods and the norns spirits. Asura understand magic better than anybody. Other races can practice it but only the asura can explain it, of course only an asura could understand the explanation as they are very fond of technobabble. Asura government consists of the Arcane Council, theoretically its members are the most intelligent of the asura, but in actual practice its members are usually those not intelligent enough to avoid getting stuck with the job. Asura are serially monogamous, while in a relationship they are loyal to it but their relationships even after producing offspring are short lived. When they break up the argument isn't over who gets the kids but who gets the inventions the couple worked on together.
Norn - highly individualist the norn treasure personal glory over all else. Hoelbrak is their largest meeting place. The norn venerate nature spirits, the most important being Bear, Snow Leopard, Raven and Wolf. Owl was killed by Jormag. Eagle and Wolverine are missing in action. Worthy norn gain the ability to shapeshift into half norn-half animals. For players this will be an eltie skill. Norn loosely based on vikings.
Sylvari - the youngest of the five races, only existing on Tyria for about 25 years. The sylvari are intelligent plant people. While they can get some nourishment from sunlight they do need to eat food like the other races. They are incapable of reproducing as new sylvari are only born to the Pale Tree. The Pale Tree is in the center of the sylvari home The Grove. Eververy sylvari is considered family since they all came from the Pale Tree. This does not of course mean that all sylvari get along with each other.
Each of the five races has an evil group to deal with, although the name of the human group has not been revealed, I think this not telling us is actually telling us. Have to explain that. Part of Guild Wars: Prophecies was the war between the Shining Blade (Krytan royalists) and the White Mantle (a cult which worshiped Unseen Gods, which were actually the evil Mursaat). The Shining Blade with the help of Ascalonian refugees (Prophecies player characters), Canthan and Elonan mercenaries (Factions and Nightfall player characters) won the war. The White Mantle and the Mursaat by Guild Wars 2 time are considered boogieman, scarry stories used to frighten children, no one really believes in them. So, I think the Mursaat and White Mantle probably do exist and are behind the bandits raiding human settlements.
The charrs evil group is the Flame Legion or as the other charr call it the Gold Legion. To humans gold is valuable, to the charr gold is a a weak metal not fit for use in making weapons thus calling the Flame Legion the Gold Legion is a gross insult. The Flame Legion once ruled all the charr and forced worship of the titans on the others. The Flame Legion lost the civil war but still exists. Now they worship one of their own.
The asura have the Inquest. Asura come together to work on projects in temporary Krewes, which disband once the project is complete. Some asura decided to form a permanent corporation, the Inquest, which sees the Eternal Alchemy as a machine and intends to learn to control it in order to rule everything. These asura don't have other asura's scruples against using sentient races in experiments.
When Jormag appeared some norn accepted it as the ultimate spirit, which they call Dragon. These norn are known as the Sons of Svanir (after the first norn to have an ecounter with the elder dragon). Svanir was killed by his sister Jora (hailed as a norn hero by most norn for this action) thus female norn are not accepted by the Sons of Svanir. The individualist norn do not judge others by the company they keep only by their own actions so as long as a Son of Svanir does not cause them trouble they are allowed in Hoelbark. These followers of Dragon will eventually become totally corrupted by Jormaq unless they come to their senses first.
The Sylvari are linked by their Dream of Dreams. In this dream their are nightmares. Some sylvari have embraced these nightmares and have formed the Nightmare Court. These sylvari believe the sylvari true nature has been corrupted by the writings of Ventari the centaur which the Pale Tree embraced. So they are at odds with their own mother, who grieves over her lost children.
Two-hundred and fifty years have passed since the events in Guild Wars: Eye of the North. A threat greater than the legendary heroes of Tyria had to face has arisen forcing former enemies to unite as allies. Fifty years after a combined army of humans, dwarves, asura and norn defeated the Great Destroyer, this evil creature's master awoke from its centuries of sleep. The Elder Dragon Primordus and its minions now rule the underground world once ruled by the asura. The dwarves rushed underground to meet this threat and for all intents have ceased to exist. Fifty years after this, Jormag awoke, driving the proud norn from their homeland. The norn would have fought, as individuals, norn do not believe in armies, and would have been wiped out but the animal spirits the norn venerate would not allow this and led them to safety, three of the spirits staying behind to give the norn time to get away. One of those spirits died, all contact with the other two has been lost. The norn morn over all three.
If the humans thought they would be left unaffected by the wakening of the Elder Dragons, they were wrong. One hundred years after the awakening of Primordus, fifty years after Jormag arose, Zhaitan came up from the depths of the sea, bringing with it the lost continent of Orr. All the dead Orrians and any sailors unfortunate enough to be caught in the dragon's wake become Zhaitan's undead minions. The raising of Orr flooded the coastal lands of Kryta including the capital of Lion's Arch.
Another fifty years passed and the fourth Elder Dragon, as not yet seen and its name unknown to mortals, awoke and claimed the waters of Tyria as its domain.
Did the charr rejoice at their ancient enemies troubles when Zhaitan destroyed the human's capital? If they did their celebration was premature. One hundred years after Zhaitan, fifty after the unnamed deep see dragon awoke, Kralkatorrik flew across charr lands, where its shadow touched all living things, plants, animals and charr, were transformed into hideous monsters.
Before the first Elder Dragon awoke, a strange seed burst open. As the Elder Dragons were awakening the Pale Tree was growing. About 25 years after Kralkatorrik awoke the Pale Tree developed pods. When these pods opened a new race stepped upon Tyria. The Sylvari, a race of intelligent plant people who are born fully grown. Although they have little personal experience they have been taught much from their "mother", the Pale Tree. Each Sylvari is born with the belief that it is their destiny to fight the Elder Dragons.
For centuries humans and charr have been bitter enemies, fighting over the same territory.
The norn are highly individualistic. When charr tried to take norn lands individual norn taught them this wasn't wise. And the norn and the charr now have mutual respect for each other. Though norn and humans once worked together the norn now believe the human queen is too dependent on others in her government.
The asura believe themselves more intelligent than every one else and that because of this they shall one day rule Tyria.
The first sylvari had an unfortunate encounter with the asura.
Now these five races must but aside their differences and unite if they are to stand any hope of defeating the Elder Dragons, ancient creatures that rival the gods in power.
Apparently player characters will not, at least to start, actually face all five dragons. The primary enemy of the game is Zhaitan. The others serving as background.
Unlike Guild Wars 1 which was instanced (once players left a town the area was created just for their party no one else could join in), Guild Wars 2 is mostly persistent. Only the short tutorial areas, player characters homes and the five man dungeons are instanced.
Also unlike Guild Wars 1 which had only one playable race, human, Guild Wars 2 has five, human, charr, asura, norn and sylvari. Guild Wars 1 has ten playable professions (classes) and after having had time to learn their primary profession players choose a secondary profession. Guild Wars 2 will start out with 8 professions and there are no secondary professions.
Each of the five races has its own capital city where the player characters have their home instance (visitable only by the player and anyone the player invites), which makes up abut 10% of the city, 90% being persistent (anybody can visit). After the short tutorial its possible to journey to any of the other racial cities. Lion's Arch has been taken over by a group of ship's captains and is no longer just a human city but is now open to all races.
There are no restrictions on races playing professions so you aren't forced to play a race you don't' like because its the only one good at your favorite profession.
Humans - once the rulers of Tyria, the humans have fallen on hard times. Ascalon has been taken over by the charr. Orr sank into the sea then centuries later arose as an elder dragon's home. Only Kryta stands and its been fighting, charr, centaur and human traitors The human's last remaing major city is Divinity's Reach. The royal family makes its home here. Humans are the most religious race of Tyria. They believe in 6 gods, 4 female and 2 male. Although the gods left Tyria long ago and their influence has wained. Theologically all of Tyria was left to the humans by their gods, but in actual practice the other races don't recognize this.
Charr - having taken back Ascalon from the humans the charr's capital city is the Black Citadel built over the ruins of the human city Rin. Not all of ascalon is under charr control however. Human ghosts control Ascalon City and as they cannot be permanently defeated, a dissipated ghost will eventually reform to fight again, the charr are perpetually at war with them. The charr originally had no gods but for a time they worshiped the titans. After humans wiped out the titans a charr civil war resulted in most charr being essentially atheists. Although they have no choice but to acknowledge that human's gods do exist they don't see them as deserving worship and consider humans weak for worshiping them. Charr don't trust magic and as a result have advanced in technology. Charr are highly militaristic and are divided into Legions which are further divided into Warbands. It is to the warbands rather than to families that charr are most loyal.
Asura - one the rulers (at least according to them) of the underground world the asura were driven to the surface world by the Destroyers centuries ago. Although the asura did not originally build Rata Sum (an anagram of Mursaat, an ancient race of magical creatures now believed extinct) the took over the city and built it up over the centuries. Rata Sum is now a floating city, magically removed from the surface of the planet as a form of protection. Asura believe in something called the Eternal Alchemy. To them everything is part of the Eternal Alchemy, including the humans gods and the norns spirits. Asura understand magic better than anybody. Other races can practice it but only the asura can explain it, of course only an asura could understand the explanation as they are very fond of technobabble. Asura government consists of the Arcane Council, theoretically its members are the most intelligent of the asura, but in actual practice its members are usually those not intelligent enough to avoid getting stuck with the job. Asura are serially monogamous, while in a relationship they are loyal to it but their relationships even after producing offspring are short lived. When they break up the argument isn't over who gets the kids but who gets the inventions the couple worked on together.
Norn - highly individualist the norn treasure personal glory over all else. Hoelbrak is their largest meeting place. The norn venerate nature spirits, the most important being Bear, Snow Leopard, Raven and Wolf. Owl was killed by Jormag. Eagle and Wolverine are missing in action. Worthy norn gain the ability to shapeshift into half norn-half animals. For players this will be an eltie skill. Norn loosely based on vikings.
Sylvari - the youngest of the five races, only existing on Tyria for about 25 years. The sylvari are intelligent plant people. While they can get some nourishment from sunlight they do need to eat food like the other races. They are incapable of reproducing as new sylvari are only born to the Pale Tree. The Pale Tree is in the center of the sylvari home The Grove. Eververy sylvari is considered family since they all came from the Pale Tree. This does not of course mean that all sylvari get along with each other.
Each of the five races has an evil group to deal with, although the name of the human group has not been revealed, I think this not telling us is actually telling us. Have to explain that. Part of Guild Wars: Prophecies was the war between the Shining Blade (Krytan royalists) and the White Mantle (a cult which worshiped Unseen Gods, which were actually the evil Mursaat). The Shining Blade with the help of Ascalonian refugees (Prophecies player characters), Canthan and Elonan mercenaries (Factions and Nightfall player characters) won the war. The White Mantle and the Mursaat by Guild Wars 2 time are considered boogieman, scarry stories used to frighten children, no one really believes in them. So, I think the Mursaat and White Mantle probably do exist and are behind the bandits raiding human settlements.
The charrs evil group is the Flame Legion or as the other charr call it the Gold Legion. To humans gold is valuable, to the charr gold is a a weak metal not fit for use in making weapons thus calling the Flame Legion the Gold Legion is a gross insult. The Flame Legion once ruled all the charr and forced worship of the titans on the others. The Flame Legion lost the civil war but still exists. Now they worship one of their own.
The asura have the Inquest. Asura come together to work on projects in temporary Krewes, which disband once the project is complete. Some asura decided to form a permanent corporation, the Inquest, which sees the Eternal Alchemy as a machine and intends to learn to control it in order to rule everything. These asura don't have other asura's scruples against using sentient races in experiments.
When Jormag appeared some norn accepted it as the ultimate spirit, which they call Dragon. These norn are known as the Sons of Svanir (after the first norn to have an ecounter with the elder dragon). Svanir was killed by his sister Jora (hailed as a norn hero by most norn for this action) thus female norn are not accepted by the Sons of Svanir. The individualist norn do not judge others by the company they keep only by their own actions so as long as a Son of Svanir does not cause them trouble they are allowed in Hoelbark. These followers of Dragon will eventually become totally corrupted by Jormaq unless they come to their senses first.
The Sylvari are linked by their Dream of Dreams. In this dream their are nightmares. Some sylvari have embraced these nightmares and have formed the Nightmare Court. These sylvari believe the sylvari true nature has been corrupted by the writings of Ventari the centaur which the Pale Tree embraced. So they are at odds with their own mother, who grieves over her lost children.