Defining the Lore of Guild Wars 2 - A Q&A with Jeff Grubb

[Shew]

Ten Ton Hammer interviewed Jeff Grubb, Game Designer.

Originally Posted by Jeff Grubb

The effects of all the Elder Dragons are ever-present on Tyria and all the races in Guild Wars 2. Encountering them in person is an opportunity for future expansions. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves—let’s see if you make it past the first dragon.

Originally Posted by Jeff Grubb

The players grow personally throughout their quests, going beyond the race-specific challenges of their people to the point where they join one of the multi-racial orders (Durmand Priory, Order of Whispers, or the Vigil) [...]

Originally Posted by Jeff Grubb

The facets are interesting (this is a reference to a set of quests in Eye of the North in which the player tracks down the facets of the various gods for a researching asura). They are not the gods themselves, but rather ghostly servants, and are tied to the Forgotten, who are not minions of the Elder Dragons.

Read the rest here: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81024

[aspectacle]

Thanks Shew. ^_^

I'm glad there are some new interviews going on atm. I'm always hopeful for more tidbits of info. Joining multi-racial societies is definitely interesting.

[Daelin Dwin]

Mild new info is mild, but awesome.

[Shew]

Originally Posted by aspectacle

Joining multi-racial societies is definitely interesting.

Yeah, that's something I'm excited about as well. ^^ I wonder what the Vigil is.

[Konig Des Todes]

Thanks for posting! Interesting to know the historians play a major role in the game, and I wonder what this "the Vigil" is.

At the start of the game, the dragons are considered elemental forces—like earthquakes or tidal waves—that are uncaring and deadly to living things.

This seems to mean that they are, in fact, not elemental forces and are very much sapient beings.

Interesting to know the Dwarves knew of three dragons, at least - Primordus, Jormag, and Zhaitan (Zhaitan was confirmed before, and Primordus via Great Destroyer).

The facets are interesting (this is a reference to a set of quests in Eye of the North in which the player tracks down the facets of the various gods for a researching asura). They are not the gods themselves, but rather ghostly servants, and are tied to the Forgotten, who are not minions of the Elder Dragons.

I KNEW IT! The Facets are not related to the elder dragons!

Time to add this interview to the lore forum thread with lore related interviews.
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[Malchior Devenholm]

So do we get to pick only one of the three alliances? Or do we help out each one along our way? The wording got me confused...

Also, the edition of the Durmand Priory as an OFFICIAL alliance, REALLY strengthens the backstory of our RP guild

And oh yeah, the Asura have underwater laboratories. Saw that coming!

[Konig Des Todes]

Seeing how it says "join one of three" I think we only help one of the alliances in the storylines. Which means there may be (at least) two "story splits" in the storyline - one based on the racial affiliation (18 story splits), then the 3 alliances. Allowing possibly 54 storylines to play through based on the affiliation and the alliance chosen - though it would still be 18 storyline "replay value" (if I am correct, and if you play through each alliance an equal amount of times, then you'll play through each alliance storyline 6 times).

I am very interested in the "under the frozen lakes of the Shiverpeaks" aspect now (Oh noes! I can't breath!).
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[Slash Beast]

So much for gameplay information...

[Shoyon456]

Originally Posted by Slash Beast

So much for gameplay information...

This. Lore matters little if the game is /epicfail.

[Malchior Devenholm]

To the posters above me...

Underwater possible in the frigid Shiverpeaks, underwater Asura labs, choices of affiliation...

Yes, it's not professions or skills, but for the love, learn to accept what's given to you, as often in life, you don't get what you want.

*end rant*

[Plumpsy]

Hmm. The multi-racial societies sound cool. Not a lot of new info here, but I always enjoy reading new GW2 interviews. Thanks for the link!

[Slash Beast]

Originally Posted by Malchior Devenholm

To the posters above me...

Underwater possible in the frigid Shiverpeaks, underwater Asura labs, choices of affiliation...

Yes, it's not professions or skills, but for the love, learn to accept what's given to you, as often in life, you don't get what you want.

*end rant*

Oh gosh underwater environment? Completly new gameplay information! What's that? It's under the shiverpeaks? What does that have to do with gameplay mechanics?

/end rant

[bigwig]

kralkatorrik. i don't think I've heard that one before.

and the choices between durmand priory, order of whispers

"The players grow personally throughout their quests, going beyond the race-specific challenges of their people to the point where they join one of the multi-racial orders (Durmand Priory, Order of Whispers, or the Vigil), which transcend racial agendas and face the greater challenge of the Elder Dragons. The players are keystones in pulling other people together."

that sounds interesting.

[Konig Des Todes]

@Slash Beast and Shoyon456: Without good lore, a game will have a terrible storyline and will be "/epicfail." It was said at the very top that they are not ready for major releases of gameplay, but there was some in there. Besides, you waited years without any information - just be glad you get something.

Anet has never needed to give us information, they choose to give us information. If they wanted, they could of been silent since EN's release - they didn't even need to state there would be a GW2.

@bigwig: Kralkatorrik has been known for a while, actually. It was nicknamed "Grothmar" before we knew its name and is found in the Charr Homeland in GW:EN.
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[Sabre Wolf]

"(Durmand Priory, Order of Whispers, or the Vigil)"

mmm, this sounds like their maybe be 3 Factions in-play instead of the 2 from GW1 (Kurz and Lux). Durmand Priory and Order of Wispers we know some stuff about... but the Vigil? Thats a new one for us. I wonder if it has somthing to do with the Ventari Stone ad those beliefs.

[Camkam]

I bet more information is released in early to mid March just based on the timeline between the first 2 trailers. They released the second trailer a little more than 3 months after the first trailer, so 3 months after the second trailer would be in March, and that also goes along with the whole beginning of 2010 thing (because its in Q1). I hope Im not just being hopeful though...

[Slash Beast]

Right but they said they'd offer *gameplay* related information early in the year, yet they keep feeding us lore related info? I'm not buying GW2 to read an online book, Im buying it to play a game.

This is just more of the same stuff they've been feeding us for the past 6 months. Oh and don't forget the novels that are coming out soon either.

...just freakin' wake me up at christmas.

[Konig Des Todes]

Just remembered. The Nightmare Court has something called "the Dark Vigils" - perhaps "the Vigil" is the normal sylvari version.

And Slash Beast, it isn't garbage. Without lore, the storyline would be crappier than WoW. Do you want a poor and crappy version of WoW? Seeing how most people here (Knighthonor excluded) don't want a WoW clone, I doubt they want a crappier WoW.

And this is new lore, actually, so not "more of the same."
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[Camkam]

The interview did say the Sylvari are the only ones focused on fighting the dragons

"Of all the races, they are the ones who are directed against the dragon minions."

[Sabre Wolf]

Originally Posted by Konig Des Todes

Just remembered. The Nightmare Court has something called "the Dark Vigils" - perhaps "the Vigil" is the normal sylvari version.

Ya, thinking the same thing... which is why I mentioned Ventari's Stone earlier in the thread. Because that stone, which is the bases of the "Ten Commandments" for the Sylvari, talks about everyone beening at peace reguardless of Race. So that might be the Vigil's bases for its track.