Guild Wars 2

Introduction

Greetings. As you might know, the Canthan continent is an Asian-themed Human Empire located on the far east of Tyria. It is the oldest known human nation which existed even before the rest of the humans began to appear on the northern continents of Tyria and Elona. For nearly 200 years we have known very little of Cantha, first due the isolationist policies of the last known Emperor, Usoku, and in the last hundred years as the result of the Elder Dragon Zhaitan blocking Tyria from the outside world.

The continent remains a popular subject of speculation and ideas for future campaigns. The Tengu, possibly the strongest candidate for a future race, was exiled from this land. While there are many possibilities of other expansions, I remain confident that we will visit Cantha again some day in the future.

For this reason, I have prepared a series of proposal that could be interesting for a potential expansion set on the Canthan continent in the following days. Some of these suggestion, the gameplay ones in particular, might be used for other expansions as well. I only hope that some of these ideas might prove useful for inspiration for the future expansions.

The Last Human Empire.

Besides seeing Canthan sailors being sporadically washed ashore on the southern coast of the Maguuma jungles, the people of Tyria have remained almost completely ignorant of the events beyond the cursed land of Orr. Zhaitan’s undead fleets have prevented the races of Tyria from communicating with the outside world for a hundred years.

Mankind’s role in Guild Wars is often compared to the ones of the elves in other settings. An powerful old race, almost divine, that once ruled the world and now are on full retreat with most of their old glories being nothing but a memory. A very classic and refined aesthetic in everything they make, from architecture to crafting weapons. Often too traditional for modern technology compared to the Charr, and in possession of a much more traditional portrait of magic than the likes of the Asura. Often this comes from being an “un-fallen” race in the eyes of the gods. Besides the characteristic pointy ears and immortality, humanity in Guild Wars conform to virtually all the aspects of most elves in fiction.

Going back to Cantha, the Canthan Empire is the biggest human nation in the world. The oldest known human nation in history, with the Empire having existed for more than 300 years before humans on the continents of Tyria and Elona even appeared. Ruled by an unbroken dynasty of Emperors since its formation, and blessed by the stars as Weh no Su since the gods left the world. Although full of decay and ruined as result of Shiro’s Curse in the original Guild Wars: Factions, their capital is a massive megalopolis, as big as the whole old nation of Ascalon, the city of Kaineng easily dwarfs all the cities of the world put together. Cantha was by far the most urbanized and probably the most advanced culture of the original Guild Wars.

Besides the chosen nation of Orr, no nation comes as close to the level of influence and lasting power in Tyria’s history. The Xunlai Guild dominated the financial and banking system of Guild Wars and for centuries the Empire traded with the northern kingdoms in Tyria prior to the isolationist period of Emperor Hanjai’s successor. The Zaishen Order controlled the main access to the Myst, to The Hall of Heroes (Gw1 PvP). Whereas other, once great ancient nations, suffered defeat and became extinct – Orr being sunk under the sea and the Elona dynasty broken and fragmented into independent provinces- the Canthan Empire survived even in the face of almost annihilation by Shiro Tagachi and still remained powerful.

It is for these reasons that I believe that Canthans in Guild Wars 2 should be characterized as the High Elves of Guild Wars 2, or at least believe themselves to be such, the Imperialist version of the High Elves. Xenophobic, arrogant, proud of its history and position, dominant and tremendously powerful. Given what we know about what happened 200 years ago in Cantha under the last known Emperor, Usoku, and the xenophobic Ministry of Purity, it is more than likely they do so. (The Orrians might have had a stronger case to be called High Elves once, as the chosen ones of the gods, when they were alive, but all of them are dead now).

While it’s unlikely to see a full human continent. It is likely that any future Guild Wars 2 campaign will be pretty human-centered one with humans being the dominant species in the campaign and the plot mostly revolving around them. The Canthan campaign is also a pretty strong candidate to explore the origin of mankind and its place in the world of Guild Wars 2. Even more if we expand beyond the original Guild Wars: Faction borders if we take into account that the first humans came from somewhere south of the Canthan continent.

Setting the Stage

Guild Wars Fans who played Winds of Change know about the rise of the ultra-nationalist Ministry of Purity which foreshadowed Usoku’s reign 50 years later. Under his iron fist rule, united the Canthan Empire, conquered the unruly vassal nations of the Kurzicks and the Luxons, and expelled all non-humans from the continent. This has lead to speculation that modern Cantha will be inspired by Japan’s isolationist period under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate. However, I argue that this resemblance is only superficial.

There is no such thing as a Samurai class in Cantha. The Canthan Empire is a centralized nation controlled by the Emperor with the aid the massive bureaucracy of the Celestial Ministry. The Ministry of Purity was a populist movement seeking to restore the old glories of the Empire, not to empower a new generation of nobles. By contrast, it is the Tengu the ones who seem to be following the Bushido cliches, with their emphasis on honor and refusal to let anyone inside their walls. In this sense the Tengu are closer to Tokugawa’s Japan.

In my opinion Cantha should be characterized as the foil of the Tengu race, even if the Tengu are introduced way before we set foot on Cantha. If the Tengu are isolationist, the Canthans will be expansionist. If the Canthans have an urban culture, the Tengu will be close to nature and feudal. If the Tengu are honorable and “spiritual”, Canthans will want nothing but material goods and profit.

To represent this contrast better between these two different world views, I suggest basing modern Canthan Empire primarily on the European Empires of the 18th and the 19th centuries, in particular the Napoleonic period, instead of feudal Japan or ancient China. The reason for this is because I believe that a Cantha heavily influenced by this period would represent not only the High Elves tropes much better, but also make the antagonism between the Tengu and Cantha stronger. In fact, the option of characterizing Cantha as a modern state might be even more attractive to those who wish to see the Fall of the Samurai themes played in the Canthan storyline, which was in effect industrialization, modernity and technology making obsolete and ultimately ending the old Samurai world. In fact, I would say that a significant portion of the Samurai tales in fiction are set during their decline and modernization of Japan, during the Meiji era. The key word is Modernity. Examples in China, such as Shangai, often called the Paris of the East, and elsewhere could serve as an inspiration for modern Kaineng.

I suggest making Cantha’s storyline one of Romanticism versus Enlightenment. The Enlightenment movement appeared during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe-in particular France and England- as part of an intellectual movement that believed that science and rationalism would improve the world and make the world of tomorrow better. This age of optimism and idealism for science and human progress was called the Age of Reason. Eventually the Romanticism movements rose as a backlash. They believed that Enlightenment was creating a totalitarian, conformist and dystopian world. They believed that science and reason could never hope to understand the world or human nature.

While both movements are no longer around in their original form, the ideas behind them survive today. Romanticism and Enlightened themes are common in fiction.

• Mother nature vs Father science.
• Harmony vs Discipline.
• Emotion vs Stoicism.
• Utopia vs Dystopia.
• Wagner vs Mozart.
• Gothic vs Neoclassicism.
• Apollo vs Dionysus.

The Canthan Empire is the perfect place to explore these themes. Both mindsets should be represented not only in the way of life of Cantha but also the non-humanoid races who oppose them. Canthans following Enlightenment should believe that they are the message of civilization, the beacon of light that the world should follow as the European Colonial powers saw themselves. Non-humanoid races contrary to the Empire, would see these as lies by a selfish, imperialistic and xenophobic empire who see everyone else as inferior and want to destroy their culture, way of life, nature and lands.

Personal History

As with the main campaign, the player would be presented with some question before or at the start of the story. These questions will determine which mindset you have more affinity to (Romanticism/Enlightenment) and will be reflected in the interaction with other characters and unlock some particular branches of the storyline otherwise unavailable to your character. For example, for Tengu and Humans, you will be asked if your ancestors came from Cantha allowing the chance to either re-encounter your relatives renaming in Cantha (might be interesting if they work for the Ministry) or honoring your forefathers.

Because the story is at its core one a conflict between Enlightenment vs Romanticism, the characters in Cantha will fall in a sliding scale between the two views of the world. Some characters might present different attributes from, or be seen under, the two divergent movements. Typically characters from Enlightenment tend to believe in society, the good of the many over the few, order, science, modernity, and progress, while characters from Romanticism tend to be outcast, often very flawed (Byronic Hero), nostalgic over mythical pasts or nature, individualistic and introspective heroes (more than once self-destructive).

I suggest having a much smaller stock of characters that will be present throughout the entire storyline. The reason for this is because I believe that while some characters from Tyria were compelling, most of them were very lightly developed and the story, with some exceptions, presented very few opportunities to form long-lasting attachments with any of them. I would even say to bring back some characters from the first two arc of Zhaitan’s storyline from the original campaign, such as the Warband you formed as a Charr, to be developed further, even if the story will not be about them.

Occasionally the player will take control of other characters other than his own, even villains to make their actions more poignant. This would serve as a more natural form of explaining the story in places where the main character couldn’t hope to be present. Choices will be fewer but will have a bigger impact in the events taking place in the story and the consequences of your actions will not be seen until much later in the storyline. There will be multiple antagonist and hostile characters in the storyline with their own agendas, but very few of them should be outright villains. The story will follow a series of factions, at least three for maximum opportunities for twist and turns, each one with its own separated agendas colliding and becoming more or less radical in motives and actions as the story advances.

One of the most important characters and one of the biggest players in the plot I’d like to suggest, would be The Hand of the Emperor: A Napoleon-like character, Grand admiral of the Canthan Imperial Navy, Hero of the Empire against the Deep Sea Dragon and Palawa Joko’s undead Fleets, one of the best administrative and military minds in history. The Hand of the Emperor will be a reformist and modernizing figure, popular among the masses for ending the excesses of the previous administration and for his reforms and efforts to improves the lives of the average Kaineng and Canthan citizens. He will be one of the most influential and central parts of the story to the point that he might slowly become one of the main antagonist as his and our own agenda diverge and he rises to absolute power in his seek to eliminate the Deep Sea Dragon once and for all. Regardless of that, I suggest presenting him with many heroic attributes typical of a worthy opponent with him being presented as a counterpart to the player character and a hero of its own history, like the rest of the cast. (I consider the Deep Sea Dragon to be the one most likely to represent a threat to a naval nation such as Cantha. But in practice any Dragon could do the job because I think the Dragon should be represented more as a force and a reason for the characters in Cantha to act.)

Other characters I suggest would be:

• A non-human (Largos or Tengu) admiral, yes admiral, pirate from the Crimson Skull inspired by the real female Chinese pirate Ching Shih, one of the most successful pirates ever (at her height she commanded 1.800 ship and more than 8.000 pirates challenging both the British Empire, the Qing dynasty) and one of the only ones who retired, were pardoned and died of old age.
• A one-eyed Naga prince exiled by his own people, “Moby-Dick complex” and enemy of the Xunlai, who now wants to reclaim his rightful place.
• And finally an abolitionist from the Obsidian Flame who wishes to end the bad treatment of the Empire towards no-humans.

The Empire on which the Sun never sets

“C is for colonies, rightly we boast that of all the great countries, Great Britain has the most."

It has been argued that of the 5 playable races only the Humans, plus the Tengu, would be interested in attempting to reach Cantha. The Charr, Norn, Sylvari and Asura would have no interest in attempting a dangerous and long expedition to a potential hostile and xenophobic land such as the Canthan Empire. So I suggest that Cantha come to us instead.

The first contact with the forces of the Empire will be a massive Canthan Expeditionary Fleet made of 52 ships near the coast of Tyria. Having recently defeated a Deep Sea Dragon’s Champion blocking their attempts to reestablish contact (thus explaining Cantha’s delay). The armada will be directed by the Xunlai and commanded by Hand of the Emperor. This will be the first sight of Cantha in more than two hundred years and it will set the tone for the state of the world outside. The Canthan flotilla will be composed of paddle-wheeler warships and commercial sail ships giving us a first glimpse of the technology present in Cantha. I’m aware that this goes against the idea of an isolationist Cantha. That’s because I’m against having an isolationist Cantha.

One of my main issues with the way that the world of Guild Wars is presented, is the self-contained nature of each of the continents. Tyria has been blocked for 100 years from the rest of the world, Cantha adopted a politic of isolationist 50 years after the events of Guild Wars and Elona was ravaged and conquered by an undead Lich. Each one of the continents is self-contained by design.

I believe that this approach to artificially containing each continent in its own little world not only makes the world feel less alive, but also produce all sorts of problems once we decide to venture beyond the shores of Orr. One of the bigger ones is that the technologies, skills, weapons, magic and ultimately professions developed in Tyria, might have not been developed in Cantha or Elona. Even fundamental gameplay elements such as the Asura Gates and Waypoints, even if one can doubt its existence in-universe, might be not present in the lands outside of Tyria. For this reason, I’d like to suggest to present a more dynamic world.

The Empires of Cantha and Elona have been free to explore the world on their own without Tyrian interference for a hundred years. Plenty of time for both nations to engage in opportunities of exploration, trade, war, expansionism and colonialism. Both nations are traditional sea powers and could have hundreds of overseas possessions by the time we reach them. I believe that having both Cantha and Elona isolated and frozen in time would go against Arenanet’s own ideas of avoiding an stagnant an unchanging world. The world outside shouldn’t be waiting for our interference, it should have changed on its own.

A more dynamic and expansionist Cantha, in particular, would not only solve the issue of stagnation, but would also solve the problem of technological development in every single future expansion. Canthan organizations like the Xunlai Guild could have spread technology across the four corners of the world. Another issue is that an isolationist Cantha would be 100% human-centered. While it could be possible play a campaign where all the characters were humans, I don’t think it would be compelling for anyone but the humans themselves.

For all this reasons, I suggest transforming the Cantha we know into a global Colonial Empire. The Canthan Empire will have expanded during a good part of the last century, virtually unopposed by anyone but Palawa Joko’s Empire and the Eldritch Deep Sea Dragon. The most obvious source of inspiration for this Canthan Empire would be the British Empire, which at its height was the largest empire in history, with one quarter of Earth under its control and a total population of 458 million people, but other European powers could be used as well. Given that Cantha, especially, its capital, the city of Kaineng, was inspired by the former British colony of Hong Kong (Kowloon Walled City), it would be perfect to base the modern Cantha primarily around the British Empire and it would give a reason for non-human races to be hostile to Cantha, and also a better reason to go to Cantha other than following our spirit of adventure.

An Empire Within an Empire

The Canthan representatives will have come to Tyria to reestablish contact with the isolated Tyria. The site for of the meeting would be the Karka Island (an ideal neutral ground for players who have completed the main storyline). The Hand of the Emperor will tell us that the Empire is aware of our victory over Zhaitan and will claim that they want to resume the trade between Tyria and Cantha, seeking to open the untapped markets on the continents for the Canthan merchants after 200 years of limited contact.

This section of storyline will be partially based on the Opium War but in reverse. The Empire would have expanded its colonies by a combination of trade, exploration, sneaky diplomacy, gunboat diplomacy and even chemical and biological warfare. Overall, Cantha will behave like a modern nation-state. Part of the storyline would take place in Tyria, the Ring of Fire, and the surrounding islands up to the Battle Isles (Now a Penal Colony). Unlike the main campaign, the nations present in Tyria will have a far stronger role than what we saw during our fight against Zhaitan, thus leaving a more background role to the three Orders of Tyria (Vigil, Priory, Order of Whispers). Canthan diplomats will appear in the Krytan throne in Divinity’s Reach, the Arcane Council and the rest of the courts and government buildings of the continent. The Canthan diplomats will offer advisers, technicians and ambassadors to the different governments in Tyria and modernization of Kryta in a gesture of goodwill. In reality, this will be the prelude to t he colonization of Tyria by the Empire.

These efforts will be directed by the Xunlai Company. The Xunlai will act as the Imperial Agents with the task of setting contact with foreign cultures, opening trade, colonize them and assimilate them into the Empire. The Great Collapse section in Divinity’s Reach will be replaced by a financial district under the control of the Xunlai. The old Xunlai Guild we know will have evolved into a something similar to the Honourable British East Indian Company, a megacorp which ruled India from the 17th century onwards and de facto Empire within the Empire. I would go so far as to name the modern incarnation of the Xunlai after the real life company. The Xunlai Company will one of the biggest responsible for ending the isolationist policies of Cantha and subsequent expansion. Like its real life equivalent, they will have their own army, their own navy, their own administration and even their own flag. The Tyrian Consortium and the Xunlai will clash more than once. They will represent the main foes during the first portion of the storyline and will remain a strong influence throughout the storyline to the very end. The Xunlai armies will be composed of a combination of Canthan Soldiers, Kurzicks and Luxons mercenaries, and conquered non-humanoid races conscripted into their armies.

The sum of the Canthan Fleet will outnumber and outgun all the fleets of the planet put together. The threat of Cantha deciding to destroy the cities of Lion’s Arch and even Rata Sum and even invade Tyria’s mainland will be a major fear throughout the campaign. The smallest Canthan warship will have a total of 34 cannons with a firepower far superior to any vessel in Tyria. The average Canthan Ship of Line will have more firepower than an entire army with a total of 80 cannons and depth charges (developed to fight against the Deep Sea Dragon and other undersea threats). The most powerful warships will be the five Dreadnoughts ironclads (The Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise and The Yellow Dragon) distributed around the world. With 180 cannons and incendiary rockets. A single Canthan Dreadnought will have enough firepower to destroy a major city such as Lion’s Arch in a matter of hours. The legacy of a Cold War with it most immediate rival Elona.

New Kaineng

Eventually, we will be asked to go to Cantha itself to clarify the situation with the Xunlai Company. The player character will be offered the chance to be the ambassador of their particular nation to the gargantuan metropolis of Kaineng. As a symbol of courtesy, the Hand of the Emperor will offer his personal flotilla to Cantha Mainland and from there on, he will become a major character of the storyline to the very end.

The Empire will be ruled by an Enlightened Despot whose reign would have lasted for the last 50 years. The last of the Weh no Su Emperors will be presented as the antithesis of Queen Jennah and his character will be as burdened by paradox as the Empire will be. He will be the biggest representation of the Canthan faith in the ability of humanity to understand and categorize the natural world fully. The Emperor will have a predominantly scientific background like King Sejong (from Korea) or the Tsar Peter the Great and other similar rulers who were inventors as well as statesmen. As an engineer himself (unlike Queen Jennah who is a Mesmer sorceress), the Emperor will be the patron of science in the Empire and his palace will reflect his numerous inventions with multiple members of the Imperial Court being technocrats, scholars and scientists along with member of the Celestial Ministry. Despite his general antagonism toward us, especially if the player is a Norn, a Sylvari or a Tengu, the Emperor will grants us full diplomatic rights, immunities and courtesy while remaining in the “New Kaineng” district but he will offer no protection if we venture beyond the city.

The history behind this “New Kaineng” district would be inspired by Haussmann’s Renovation of Paris commissioned by Napoleon III in 1853, during the Second French Empire, that transformed the old cesspool of disease and squalor that was Paris into the city with wide streets and boulevards we know as Paris today. The project bulldozed three quarters of Paris and was not finished until the end of the 19th century. “New Kaineng” will be the pet project of The Hand of the Emperor to reform the city with all the lessons learned during the last 250 years of Urban Planning. New Kaineng will be the most modern and clean section of the city with fountains celebrating his victories (very popular in Old Kaineng), water works, modern sewers and roads, modern looking flags adorning the streets and official buildings, schools for engineers and scientists, clubs for the rising bourgeois class, monuments, theaters and museums. This area will also be the site of the Ministerial District and Xunlai Headquarters. Its inhabitants will have vastly superior sanitary and working conditions to the rest of the city.

However, like the Haussmann’s Renovation, this New Kaineng will have an implied, never confirmed, ulterior military motive. The wide open streets would facilitate not only transport merchandise but also the movements of troops and artillery to supress any potential revolt and making the construction of improvised barricades impossible. I suggest centering it around the old Vizunah Square, having replaced the old Kaineng Central as the core of the city after the result of its devastation caused by the Zhaitan’s Great Tsunami. The project will be largely unfinished but will serve as a safe haven for our characters outside the storyline.

The city will be protected by the Imperial Guard and the Grand Canthan Navy. Strategic section of the city will be protected by forts with powerful anti-ship cannons and naval minefields. Kaineng will have resisted an invasion of the Deep Sea Dragon no less than three times. At least one major war between Elona and Cantha will be mentioned as a major drive for Cantha’s current state.

Canthan Soldiers patrolling the streets wearing a mix of traditional Asian lamellar armor, on top of Napoleonic-style uniforms will protect the city from incursions of the Deep Sea Dragon and other threats that might endanger the city. Officers will wear a heavier solid cuirass, similar that of the Cuirassier cavalry of the 19th century, often adorned with particular motif to their regiment. While it is unrealistic to believe that another culture would develop a similar sense of fashion as the ones used by Europe on their own, I believe here the image of having Canthan Soldiers dressing and fighting like the infantry of line of the Napoleonic Wars is more important for the audience and it would reinforce the image of modernity and expansionism of Cantha. In practice, as long as they dress how the Ministry of Purity dressed in the original GW but with a rifle and, a shako hat, it would produce a similar sense of modernity.

Most Canthan soldiers will use rifles with bayonets or polearms. Imperial soldiers will be equally skilled at distance as at melee. They will be highly disciplined, used to fighting vastly outnumbered by Elonian undead hordes and non-humans barbarians as result of having to often fight thousands of miles of Cantha’s mainland with all logistical constrains it involves. Canthan soldiers will use their superior technology, and magics, in form of field cannons, grenades, minefields, terracotta wargolems, incendiary and gas rockets, and advanced tactics to win the day.

The Ministry of Purity

We won’t be the first to visit Kaineng. By the time we reach the city, a year would have passed since the first contact in Tyria. The city will be full of Tyrian merchants attempting to open business in the massive city and adventurers seeking fortunes. This way the presence of Waypoints and Asura Gates in Cantha will be easily justified. Canthans will be interested in Asura and Charr technologies but they will remain mistrusting and even hostile to the newcomers. Canthan authorities in general will be shown to know surprisingly a lot about what was going on in Tyria despite the 100 years blockade thanks to the divination and fortune-telling skills of the sages from the Canthan Oracle.

The Canthan Empire will be a ruthless meritocratic state heavily influenced by the ideals of the xenophobic Ministry of Purity who will behave as its State Sec. During “Winds of Change”, The Ministry of Purity was characterized as a populist movement with a ruthless approach to the enforcement of the law in their determination to clean up the city after the Jade Brotherhood and Am Fah criminal gangs and hunt down anything they perceive as a threat to the Canthan Empire.

As result of this, I think that the ideology that best describe the acts of the Ministry of Purity is the Chinese philosophy known as Legalism. Legalism, is a Chinese radical utilitarian school of thought that defends that the beginning and end of morality and purpose of life itself is the law at the service of the state, nothing more. Legalism was known for its harsh and severe punishments -Not reporting a criminal (even if that criminal was your father) meant the death penalty or worse- regardless of the circumstances. The Legalism philosophy ultimately believes that all people are flawed and even outright evil and only the law can create a prosperous and ordered society. It is also intensely meritocratic, allowing anyone with the skills necessary reach high places of powers regardless of their origin.

Obsessed with order and structure, the philosophy demanded an highly efficient and well-oiled Celestial Bureaucracy even going so far as to calculate exactly the amount of work done by all the artisans under the orders of the official with mathematical precision and absolute obedience to the Emperor. The law is harsh and applied equally regardless of your social class. Because of this, I believe that no other ideology describes better the modus operandi of the Ministry of Purity. They are the perfect representation of the Utilitarian ideals at its most extreme, without any idealism attached. A second source of inspiration for The Ministry of Purity might be the excesses performed by the Jacobin during the French Revolution with the infamous Great Terror and the Committee of Public Safety lead by Robespierre.

This obsession the Ministry of Purity has with order and control could be reinforced by them by replicating the attempts of French Revolutionaries to make a complete humanist system with things like creating a calendar without royalist or religious influences made up of only 10 months, instead of 12, and changing the hours of the day to 10 hours and each hour 100 minutes and calling everyone “Citizen” and the newcomers of even the own Canthan citizens complaining about these changes.

Most agents from the Ministry of Purity will hold, Inspector Javert-like attitudes, however the higher ranks will be more politically savvy and will manipulate our presence for their own goals. Canonically, the Ministry of Purity will not persecute us because we are foreigners in their land, but because we saw a crime and didn’t report it. Thus the extremist views of the Ministry of Purity will be reinforced. They will have instructions to not persecutes us inside the walls of New Kaineg, but in the Old Kaineng, all bets are off.

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This time’s infinity

Sorry, I had more work than I expected during the last week and I have been busy. Anyway. The next section of my suggestion talks about Cantha and its relationship with the outside world and its re-encounter with the continent of Tyra.

The second part is centered on the first contact with Cantha. This part of the story doesn’t even need to be part of the main expansion and could be introduced as a demo or prelude to the expansion itself, similar to the current Flame and Frost event.

Amazing post! I can find myself in your ideas, but I believe this will be a very, very, very distant update, and although I want it to come soon, it might be better if they refined the stuff that is in-game at this moment.

Amazing post! I can find myself in your ideas, but I believe this will be a very, very, very distant update, and although I want it to come soon, it might be better if they refined the stuff that is in-game at this moment.

Thanks. Indeed, I’m aware that any future expansion will take a long time and it is possible that a couple of years might pass even before we see a glimpse of a proper expansion. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to post my ideas in advance.

The following two sections are centered on Cantha proper. The idea of New Kaineng is partially a homage to the whole fictional concept of Neo Tokyo often found in manga, anime and videogames. New Kaineng would serve as the main hub of the campaign (similar to Divinity’s Reach, the Black Citadel and so on). Other potential sources for inspiration could be found in works such as Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The film Metropolis (1927), and the anime, could serve also for inspiration for the themes and design of modern Kaineng.

Keeping with the concept of a modern Cantha, I also suggest to base the modern Canthan army on the Napoleonic age. The idea is to reproduce the same feelings of modernization seen in Japan during the Boshin War while creating an unique look for Cantha in Guild Wars 2. The key is to combine Asian and Napoleonic styles almost seaming-less. (Last pic made with HeroMachine 3.)

Finally, I talk about the Ministry of Purity and how they could be portrayed in the world of Guild Wars 2.

*Metropolis (1927) is under Free Domain.

This could be added as a free living world small in-game story development that later develops into an expansion?

Who knows what could have happened within Cantha in the past 200 years? Remember the Lion’s Arch was destroyed by the rising of Orr, it might have affected Cantha in such a way that it doesnt even exist ((geographically speaking)). I’d like to think of Cantha as being in rune, maybe some zones that are half underwater, maybe alot of Krait? If it were up to me we would see Bubbles in the depths of the Canthan sea! ((Bubbles= Deep sea dragon)) The story in gw: Factions was ofcourse really cool, and it always gave you a sense of danger… ((I mean zombie plague! Come on! Who wouldnt be afraid of that!))
But to be honest, i’d like to see more of the deep sea dragon, I think Cantha would be a good setting for this, an expansion that is mainly underwater, adding new underwater weapons and skillsets. Imagine! swimming in the ruins of Kaineng, using old temples as new dungeons, all that sort of stuff would be really cool! ((My own opinion ofcourse))

@legion

Incredible content you have provided here. I would personally love to see a developer take a look at this. It is very interesting!

Not sure I like the idea of a non-asian themed Cantha to be perfectly blunt. I really like the information you’re presenting mind you, but Cantha needs to remain as… well Cantha. As close to it’s GW1 heritage as it can get while obviously having some major changes depending on how the continent of Cantha has changed in time, otherwise they might as well create a new continent entirely and not release Cantha at all.

As long as they keep the Asian look of the people (and of us in character creation) I could deal with all (with what I can see from the images you provide for ideas) a more modern, (by gw 2 standards) Imperialism look.