To start, I love that the central theme of pretty much every adversary in the Guild Wars franchise is corruption. From the undead in prophecies to the afflicted in Cantha, demons in Elona, and destroyers in EotN.
When I was thinking about how expansions would work in GW2, I came to the conclusion that it absolutely can’t work the same way as in the first game. With the main story of GW2, and the living story being measured in years and having a static structure and timeline, you wouldn’t be able to make an Elonian character and do the main storyline with them, as that would break continuity. Instead, I figured that the expansions would have to work one of two ways:
ONE – by making the campaign of each expansion be completely separate from the main story, with only minor connections such as the dragons themselves;
and TWO – by having the expansions take place AFTER the events of GW2 and the living story, and all characters would originate from Tyria and visit the other continents; this would require that people finish the Zhaitan mission line for it to make sense, and probably mean that all areas introduced would be level 80 as a consequence.
So after those thoughts, I had a ton of ideas about the actual content that might be presented in those expansions, if they were ever released. Keep in mind that I haven’t scoured every bit of lore prior to posting this.
The campaigns could be released in the same order as before: Tyria > Cantha > Elona > EotN.
Cantha: After defeating one of Bubbles’ lieutenants, the protagonist and the pact make it to the isolated island of Cantha, where all hell is breaking loose. Minions of the water dragon would be the main adversary, with perhaps the Afflicted being a secondary enemy or the subject of a living story.
Elona: After doing a thing (yeah, a thing) in the Dragonbrand (perhaps the defeat of a revamped Shatterer), the protagonist crosses the crystal desert into Elona, where the crystal dragon is the primary foe, with Palawa Joko being a secondary villain (or, again, the subject of a living story) or a begrudging ally once again. My original thoughts about Elona were that undead could be introduced as a playable race, but my recent conclusion on the continuity issues make that an impossibility.
Eye of the North: After defeating Mordremoth at the climax of the living story, and Bubbles and Kralkatorrik at the climax of “Factions” and “Nightfall”, the final campaign should be focused on both Jormag and Primordius, the two dragons foreshadowed the most in the EotN story; it would involve several underground areas like before, and perhaps even a showdown with both dragons at the destroyed Eye of the North, which would be a pretty crazy awesome conclusion to what GW1’s protagonist started.
Any thoughts on these ideas? Feel free to post your own ideas and suggestions relating to other campaigns and living stories.
As an aside, I’d also love to see more references to the mursaat and seers in GW2, perhaps as the focus of a living story or something.