Guild Wars 2

This thread is to make your own Scarlet. Your new story must be somewhat related to the game play that we have seen. The goal is to make a Scarlet that is believable the fits the game play perfectly.

Here is mine. ^^

Scarlet was a normal Sylvari engineer who was hired to work on the first airship prototype. She was very good with with what she does, and she got many idea on improving the prototype. However the Asuras rarely let non-asuras intervene with weapon design, so they all ignored her. All her ideas were hence kept inside.

(These idea will eventually allow her to build that giant drill that can fly.)

One evening, a senior member of the airship project came and kidnapped her during her sleep. In reality he was a crazy Asuran scientist with a mad interest in the Eternal Alchemy.

He forced Scarlet to enter the Eternal Alchemy. And “what Scarlet saw” was what she saw…

Scarlet returned, killed that mad Asuran, destroyed his machine, and left the airship project. She will not be seen again until a few years later.

No one knows who Scarlet was. She was a nobody.

Scarlet returns when Queen Jennah were hiring engineers to build new weapons called Watchknights. The humans aren’t as racist as the Asuras, and they quickly took in the talented Scarlet. She became one of the top project managers. Because the Watchknight project was a top secret, no one outside knew who Scarlet was.

(Scarlet had secretly changed the Watchknights into her Twisted Clockworks, without anyone else noticing.)

In a time unknown, Scarlet had talked with members of Flame Legion, Dredge, Aetherblades, Nightmare Court and Inquest. Though a mix of fear and sweet talk, she made the alliances that we seen today. However, other than Aetherblades, none of them works directly for her. She only made them ally with each other, and then leave them be.

(In her later invasion of LA, only the Twisted Cloackworks and Aetherblades would join. These are the only 2 factions that works directly under her. )

The Kraits never joined Scarlet. The Tower of Nightmares never ever happened. There is no hybrid. Scarlet cannot do hybrids. She is an engineer. She do not know biology or magic.

No.

If I were to write a villain, I would make him/her a character that could just as easily be one of the heroes in under slightly different circumstances. That’s because straight out evil villains are boring to me, and so are villains that are just crazy. Being mad is such a weak excuse for someone to be evil. I prefer characters that are sort of gray. That goes for the heroes of the story too. I like the idea of having heroes that are not infallible. Heroes that could become the villains if they go too far. That’s why a character such as Logan Thackery is so utterly boring to me. There is no dark side to him, not even a hint. He’s the good guy through and through. Apart from a devotion to Jennah, that’s all there is to him. How dull.

But imagine stepping up the writing just a little bit, and taking the character out of it’s comfort zone. Logan could be made into a character whose devotion to Jennah borders on the fanatical. Suddenly the character becomes a whole lot more interesting. But currently the story takes no risks.

I feel the same about Scarlet. She’s mad, and she’s evil. Up till now, that’s all we got from her, and we’re not shown any good side of the character. So how are we as players expected to empathize with the character if she’s so purely black hat?

If I wrote a villain, I’d make him a giant purple hippopotamus wearing a top hat and hate any villain that wasn’t that.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

If I were to write a villain, I would make him/her a character that could just as easily be one of the heroes in under slightly different circumstances. That’s because straight out evil villains are boring to me, and so are villains that are just crazy. Being mad is such a weak excuse for someone to be evil. I prefer characters that are sort of gray. That goes for the heroes of the story too. I like the idea of having heroes that are not infallible. Heroes that could become the villains if they go too far. That’s why a character such as Logan Thackery is so utterly boring to me. There is no dark side to him, not even a hint. He’s the good guy through and through. Apart from a devotion to Jennah, that’s all there is to him. How dull.

But imagine stepping up the writing just a little bit, and taking the character out of it’s comfort zone. Logan could be made into a character whose devotion to Jennah borders on the fanatical. Suddenly the character becomes a whole lot more interesting. But currently the story takes no risks.

I feel the same about Scarlet. She’s mad, and she’s evil. Up till now, that’s all we got from her, and we’re not shown any good side of the character. So how are we as players expected to empathize with the character if she’s so purely black hat?

Yes yes yes! So much yes!

I hate perfect heroes and perfect villains. Both are equally boring. I too love grey characters.

Heroes in shiny armour are boring. Heroes with their own internal struggles and are borderline villain themselves are much more interesting.

Villains that just wants power and money are boring. Villains with a valid purpose is much more interesting.

Sounds like we want a villian more like Canach?

She was just a small town girl. Living in a lonely world. She took the midnight train going anywhere.

Fortunately, that train took her away from Tyria and out of our game.

The OP is hilariously silly.

I think morally gray villains and heroes are too fotm. We need some straight shooters mixed in too, like Logan. I think Zojja is pretty alright too.

I like villain straight shooters too – ones who know they are monsters and don’t flinch when confronted by the horror of what they have done.

“The destruction… The horror… What have you done?”

“Exactly what I set out to.”

Nike.2631:

I like villain straight shooters too – ones who know they are monsters and don’t flinch when confronted by the horror of what they have done.

“The destruction… The horror… What have you done?”

“Exactly what I set out to.”

I don’t mind a straight shooting villain, if they sell the character well. Good examples are for example The Emperor in the old Star Wars trilogy, who is purely blackhat, but convincing. Or Toht in Raiders of the Last Ark, or Clarence Boddikker (seriously, I can’t spell is name with CK? Someone tell the grammar police to grow up please) in the old Robocop. If you establish someone to be a true menacing psychopath, then yes, a straight out evil villain can work. But it requires good writing. You need good dialogue, and some good examples that show just how evil this character is. I think even with a character that doesn’t have any areas of gray, you need some elements in there that make him interesting.

For example, with the Emperor one of the defining traits that makes him an interesting villain, is that he uses no weapon, and even other villains are afraid of him. He’s clearly a sadist, and he is fun to watch, because he enjoys taunting the hero, and using psychology against him. With Toht, he’s interesting because he’s even menacing when he just hangs up his coat. It adds to his characters, to see him be really menacing while doing ordinary things. And with Boddikker, he’s not only a sadist, but he also has no trouble throwing his own goons out of a bus. He’s clearly a dangerous psychopath.

With Scarlet, she comes across more as comical, rather than threatening. She has a habit of escaping, much like Shredder always does at the end of a TMNT episode. But apart from being told she’s mad, I’m not getting any dangerous vibe from her that makes her menacing in any way.

Ceara starts as an investigator of mysterious moves of Risen in Orr. She is clever, professor-style character. Over the time she becomes players’ friend and boss.

Somewhere is the early-middle of the story arc, she discovers that Risen along with their commander – the only Risen Sylvari – Scarlet – are planning an invasion on Lion’s Arch. Ceara claims that the only way to win the battle is to gather the magic from ley lines. For the couple of updates she leads players to build the probes, convice races to make the alliances (to help defending LA), etc..
At the same time she’s investigating the story behind Scarlet (because the Pale Tree knows nothing about Scarlet and it is believed that Sylvari are immune to dragons’ corruption). During one of her secret missions, Ceara dissapears. Players start looking for her. We discover the message from her under the huge rock in Orr, that she has been kidnapped by Scarlet.
Then the players notice a strange looking human in hood. We are told to follow it but some kind of magic make us faint. We wake up in Fort Trinity.

The next update – we defend Lion’s Arch. The most suprising fact is that the attackers aren’t Risen but the alliances players helped to make. The city is also suprised by attacks from the air made by pirates. The only hope is to activate the huge generator that make the energy from ley lines gather in the giant probe in the center that would create the explosion pushing back foes and then leaving magnetic barrier preventing them from re-entering (as Ceara claimed).
That plan fails and the only thing we see is the VERY tall green pillar of cumulating light on the south-west sky. Lion’s Arch can’t defend any longer and must evacuate to Vigil Keep and Durmand’s Priory while the Order of Whispers use their secretly planted bombs. The city is destroyed but so are the attackers.

Our next main goal is to reach Orr where the energy is gathering. We discover that all Risen moved to Arah, where Zhaitan’s bones remain. The energy seems to go down right on them. Then appears Scarlet that orders Risen to defend the bones by killing everybody (including players). We manage to reach Scarlet and deal a blow to her. Nothing happens. Scarlet is laughing but attacks go through her. She’s just a holo. We see Ceara down the hole, around the bones, smiling. It was all her plan. Right from the start.
The light comes closer to the bones, there is nothing we can do, players and friendly NPCs become overwhelmed by Risen. Suddenly, the strange person we tried to follow few updates earlier appears. The young, beautiful lady with one move of her scepter sends a wave of magic destryoing all the Risen on it’s way. Then she channels an extremaly powerful spell that makes everybody faint. In cinematic, as player’s eyes close we see that she aims her spell at Ceara and bones. When we wake up, we see her and dead Ceara. She tells us with calm voice that Zhaitan’s powers let him control ONE living being after his death. He, through Ceara, leaded the players to gather the magic. He wanted to be ressurected. Lion’s Arch was just a cover. Magic still flows through his bones but Lady (who is in fact Livia) made a seal to prevent futher controlling. When we ask why she killed Ceara, she says that her soul was corrupted by Zhaitan and with the making of seal.. she had to die. She also seems suprised but happy that player, being so close to her channeling the spell, surived. Then she takes Zhaitan’s skull, order the NPCs from Order of Whispers, Priory and Vigil to take care of rest of the bones and mysteriously vanishes.

Next update is the funeral of Ceara, the innocent choosen by Zhaitan.

If I were to rewrite Scarlet, it wouldn’t fit within the context of what we have from the game as it is now.

Ceara would still be inquisitive and bright, but also lacking in empathy to some degree.
Not quite a Nightmare Court, but more akin to Soundless like the current version.
There would some slight differences though in the story.

She wouldn’t have traveled all of Tyria yet, at first she would have been a disciple of Malomedies. Since he was the first to meet the Asura, and suffer from it, he grew private. Ceara is interested in them academically. Thus travels to Rata Sum and becomes a glorified lab assistant to all the colleges.

She learns a lot from them, their culture, and eventually the Inquest.
Ceara then begins to tinker within their system. Sabotaging samples, experiments, and overall causing some pain to krewes around.

The Inquest recruit her, initially underestimating her potential due to racial bias.
That’s where we come in as players. The Living Story would begin looking into this growth of the Inquest with her inside. Eventually she would disappear at long stretches of time “performing experiments”.

Eventually it would lead to Rata Sum being harassed by a Scarlet Krewe.
Inquest, Bandits, and some Nightmare Court all working for this character named Scarlet Briar.

Ceara would be tracked down and captured. Interrogated because of her Inquest connections, eventually asked who this Scarlet Krewe is and she would plead ignorance.

As a plea bargain she offers to help take down elements of the Inquest to find out more about this krewe for the players. That’s when her big plan comes into play.
She manages to round up head researchers and members of the Inquest and kills them with the Scarlet Krewe.

The Inquest is weakened, but so is Rata Sum because this attack showed how influential that faction was in their society. Head members we never thought had Inquest ties die that day, shocking the Asuran culture.

Ceara then dons her new name: Scarlet Briar. All leading figures in the krewe must adopt a new name, prefixing Scarlet to it. She steps out to the damaged city of Rata Sum and addresses the people. The Asura hurt Malomedies, experimented on him, hurt her people, allowed corrupt elements within their halls to exist still, and now they are shown the depths of this due to her results.

We would then have a Scarlet Guild/Krewe who would experiment on all the races of Tyria. Thus beginning the Living Story chapters and Scarlet Briar’s work.

No race is safe, Tyria needs heroes now more than ever.