Where can I learn about the lore?
just search on youtube gw2 lore. There is a whole series by woodenPotatoes that covers much of the history of guild wars 1. There are 7 episodes. He also has some interesting episodes if you search on youtube gw2 mysteries. There are 11 episodes. Finally, here is just a brief gw time line to tie everything together.
Schrödingers Clone: PvP Mesmer
You can also read the three GW2 novels. Be warned that they aren’t great literature and you might want to punch Logan and Rytlock for behaving (and talking) like idiotic human teenagers instead of grown man and charr. However they do a fine job of showing a hunk of the world, displaying the races and professions, and giving you the set up to understand the Personal Story.
Ghosts of Ascalon is a treasure hunt through the ruins of a major human city.
Edge of Destiny is how the five main characters of the PS met and explains the DR/Ebonhawke situation among other current politics.
Sea of Sorrows is set much further back, with the rising of Orr and the devastation and rebuilding of Lion’s Arch into a pirate town.
Sadly in-game there are few good or easily accessed lore (and that which it does have is at best small snippets).
So the wiki is probably the best bet. Alternatively you could also just ask questions in the lore forum.
the GW2 and GW1 wiki, is where I learn Tyrians lore basically.
try this:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lore
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lore
For GW1 Lore (the better stuff)
I would foremost suggest playing through GW1 and doing all the quests you can – in the starter areas of the first two campaigns (pre-Searing/post-Searing Ascalon for Prophecies and Shing Jea for Factions) it’d be worth making native characters of all professions due to origin-and-profession restricted quests (Nightfall just has origin-restricted quests).
If you cannot find the patience to do such, then there’s always WoodenPotatoes’ playthrough of GW1 (not sure if he finished those though). He reads through all dialogue for the main missions and I believe secondary quests too. I would NOT recommend WoodenPotatoes’ lore theory or lore recap videos. He adds in a lot of speculation without making it clear that it is such. Though some can be interesting and he does cover interesting concepts, he presents them all too often as if he’s reciting facts – there are other issues, but people unaffected by them tend to find such… petty.
If that’s too much of a hassle, I would then suggest reading the mission and quest articles on the wiki, as well as their lore summary articles:
From GWW:
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Prophecies_missions_and_primary_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Factions_missions_and_primary_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Nightfall_missions_and_primary_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Eye_of_the_North_missions_and_primary_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Prophecies_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Factions_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Nightfall_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Eye_of_the_North_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Beyond_quests
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Prophecies
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Factions
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Nightfall
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Eye_of_the_North
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Beyond
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stories
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lore
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline
- http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Category:History_of_Tyria
For GW2 Lore (the okay stuff)
I’d play through each primary personal story storyline – which means making 3 of each race and playing through the first two chapters for all 15 characters, and up to the racial storyline (chapter 5) on five characters, and finally all the way through on at least three characters. Don’t forget the story mode dungeons.
I also highly recommend reading all three books – while they may not be the best literature, they offer good lore.
Unfortunately, the wiki is still very under-documented when it comes to the personal story dialogue and characters. More so for event dialogue. It is very, very lacking even after 3 years (people are more interested in documenting the new stuff than the old which is understandable).
Further unfortunately, the game does not offer many one-stop shops for lots of lore. You get tidbits throughout the game, throughout the various events and personal stories and hidden dialogues. A lot of GW’s lore is all about stitching together these pieces – like a jigsaw puzzle that encompasses the entire franchise. So if it isn’t player-made, there is no short list of places to go to.
Some links to consider:
- http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_1
- http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_2
- http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Tales
- http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lore (note: this is basically a light version of the GWW’s lore article, covering only up to GW1 events, but with some of the addendums that GW2 has done to old lore)
- https://tyriantomes.wordpress.com/ – an ongoing off-wiki project to document all static (read: non-event affected) dialogue
Stop treating GW2 as a single story. Each Season and expansion should be their own story.