Guild Wars 2

I’ll keep most of my long back story a secret. But suffice to say, Malafide is married to the Mad King. Not out of love of course, but out of mutual benefit. She is not undead, just immortal, which is why she is still alive after 250 years. She considers this immortality a curse, not a blessing. She teamed up with King Frozenwind (aka Daniel Frozenwind, who guards the Hall of Judgement where Dhuum is locked up), and together they host various events for the people of Tyria.

Malafide was not born on Tyria originally, she came from a world far away. She has an intense hatred for mesmers, as most people know. And there’s a stubborn rumor that she really wears a wig, which is an easy way to make her very angry. Her marriage with the Mad King is bizarre and twisted, almost as twisted as the mad monarch himself. Thorn delights in playing deadly pranks on his wife, and tries to kill her at least once every day (as he did with his other wives). But as she is immortal, he has so far failed miserably.

Malafide is vane and egocentric on the surface, to hide her true feelings inside. And while she is evil, she often fights on the side of good, just for all the wrong reasons. Oddly enough Malafide does seem to have various dedicated followers in Tyria. She has a little companion called Miya, whom she shares many adventures with. Malafide hides her feelings about Miya behind a mask of spite and contempt. But she obviously cares for the little girl almost like a mother, even if she isn’t a very good influence. Miya is Malafide’s opposite in many ways: Friendly, compassionate, innocent, care free, and positive. Which is why they are a perfect match. Malafide also has an adversary on Tyria: a mysterious man named Crimthan Lucombe.

Because of Malafide’s marriage to the Mad King, she considers herself the true Queen of Kryta, and has nothing but loathing and contempt for Queen Jennah, who also happens to be a mesmer (as if Malafide didn’t have enough reasons to hate her already).

But Malafide’s hatred extends far beyond just mesmers. She despises Charr, Asura, Sylvari, Skritt, Quaggans, especially Quaggans! She does not think highly of anyone who isn’t noble, or of anyone who happens to come from Ascalon (she believes only people of lower intellect hail from Ascalon). She distrusts golems (after they attacked the Vabbian princes in GW1), and any other Asuran contraptions. Malafide is a dedicated follower of Grenth, and she is of course a necromancer.

I don’t think you can be “against lore”. Not really. I mean I think some of your personal character background (as you see it) can be undermined by the Personal Story and Living Story writing (say you want to roleplay a charr ranger that rejects industrialisation and would rather live in the world forests than the Black Citadel – you can’t) but as far as any race being against lore to be any class, that’s imply not the case.

I think some races more naturally fit certain classes better than others. Charr engineers strongly support this, the industrial revolution is driven by them so engineering is a now-important part of their culture and a charr engineer epitomises that. Still, a sylvari which is a natural born plant creature that can magically interact with nature, often considered a contemporary victim of industrialisation, does fit the idea of a tinkering engineer, obsessed with how things work (sylvari are curious) and approaching the world with curious and innovative sensibilities others wouldn’t (because they are intelligent and capable of performing with an advanced level of knowledge without the social condition that comes with raising a person to adulthood). Sylvari engineers make sense (and I believed this long before Scarlet).

Another commonly cited conflict is a charr elementalist. Charr have a bad history with magic users and the Flame Legion so there is some prejudice there. But that doesn’t mean an elementalist charr can’t or wouldn’t exist. Society is full of groups of people that are part of that society but have fallen out of favour. Once dominant religious groups may become less popular but they don’t stop from existing. In that sense, while charr elementalist may not be the most common path for a charr to go down, it certainly fits with their world (they don’t exclusively shun elementalists). The practical abilities of an elementalist (not ideological) certainly do fit the lore for a charr. A soldier is a soldier, no matter their tools.

There are some profession combinations that do seem to make a little less sense for me and do require some suspension of disbelief to allow for game balance and mechanics. Asuran warriors or guardians require suspension of disbelief or simply the attitude that they are less physically formidable than say a norn or charr and make up for it in magic potency. That same argument though suggests that asuran warriors are stronger “physical” magic users (as in, an average asura can enhance their strength magically than the average norn or charr, otherwise norn and charr with greater physical strength and the same ability to magically enhance their attacks would once againt outclass asura). I don’t really have a problem with this because it’s the same level of suspension of disbelief that allows all humans of any size (whether if be the Arnie sized males or the petite females) and all swords of any size to do the same damage. Sometimes to have nice things you need to suspend disbelief. In a more realistic world I would expect asuran heavy classes to be incredibly uncommon (in the story I think they are) or eclectic in how they accomplish their tasks.

Asuran heavies aren’t incredibly uncommon. I feel like they are actually incredibly common but I don’t have much in the way of lists to back that up. Also it’s hard to tell what profession members of the Vigil are since they all wear heavy armor. Asuran warriors existed even back in GW1. Any race of any size is going to wind up having a militia or army or even just having average citizens be able to defend themselves. Skritt and dwarves are tiny, but they use martial weapons all the time.

Vigil doesn’t all wear heavy armor. You can distinctly tell the staff users as wearing light, rifle guys/pistol guys as wearing medium :P.

Well maybe some of them have different levels of armor, but many of the magic users are wearing full plate. For example these guys are elementalists: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Vigil_Warmaster.jpg

Fluffball.8307:

Well maybe some of them have different levels of armor, but many of the magic users are wearing full plate. For example these guys are elementalists: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Vigil_Warmaster.jpg

Hm. I think that might be norn related. It seemed like Sylvari and human vigil mediums get more light/medium armor as well (Though Charr and Norn vigil wielding rifles are always medium in my experience).

It doesn’t help that what I presume is medium armor looks like heavy armor.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Vigil_Marksman.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Vigil_Siegemaster.jpg

Anet probably didn’t care too much about professions and just made the shocktroops of the vigil wear cool looking battle armor.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Vigil_Tactician.jpg

Well, it makes sense vigil medium (and maybe even light) would be (visually at least) ‘heavy’ then others, as they expect the most combat. I wouldn’t honestly be surprised if a Norn elementalist was wearing robes which were basically on par with human heavy armor or high end medium, simply from strength difference and all.

As far as the armor goes, there are several examples in-game, and even at least one from the books, of characters fighting outside their “weight”. I think it’s safe to say that armor type restrictions are purely mechanical, not part of the lore.

I try to keep my armor logical though. I don’t wear any armor that is on fire, or any nonsense like that. I wear things that are practical and look convincing. No bikini armor.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I try to keep my armor logical though. I don’t wear any armor that is on fire, or any nonsense like that. I wear things that are practical and look convincing. No bikini armor.

Uck, yes. A thousand times yes. As a general rule, I am very, very iffy about equipping any of my characters with a skin I’ve never seen on an NPC.

sylvari elementalist
human warrior
human guardian
charr warrior
norn guardian

Eggman.1405:

Most of my characters lean towards lore-

• Sylvari Ranger
• Asura Elementalist
• Charr Engineer
• Human Necromancer
• Norn Guardian

Mine are similar. I’ve got:
* Sylvari Ranger
* Asura Elementalist
* Charr Engineer
* Human Guardian
* Norn Warrior
* Tengu Thief (the moment they’re made playable)

Eggman.1405:

I had thought that maybe Engineer might be good for an Asura, but this was when I knew nothing about the game and wrongly expected an Asuran Engineer to be able to make a Golem. And I mean make a Golem that stays around all the time, not the ones from the racial Elites.

I was actually torn between a Charr Engineer focusing on turrets, mines, and other mechanical contraptions and an Asuran Engineer focusing on alchemy.

darkace.8925:

I was actually torn between a Charr Engineer focusing on turrets, mines, and other mechanical contraptions and an Asuran Engineer focusing on alchemy.

Make both, then when I perfect the asura-launching trebuchet we can have chemical weapons development.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

darkace.8925:

I was actually torn between a Charr Engineer focusing on turrets, mines, and other mechanical contraptions and an Asuran Engineer focusing on alchemy.

Make both, then when I perfect the asura-launching trebuchet we can have chemical weapons development.

Catapults are for bookahs. Real asurans use teleporters.

Sure, I rely on lore for my character… my Asura(s) doesn’t convince himself that he’s a product of game coding. I just try to steer clear of being a pivotal or main character in what’s going on.

For example regarding Season 2, my Asuran Warrior is a member of the Vigil. His task is exploring and traveling across Tyria as a form of reconnaissance. So the reason why he’s investigating Dry Top is not only because some unseen force of plant-like quality has reached Concordia (that’s a couple thousand miles mind you if we’re to think on real scale) but also affecting the WPs. Now WPs aren’t just an asuran thing (he is an asura) but also a means of transportation across vast distances – they can make the difference between getting supplies on time or fail to make it. So he’s investigating Dry Top to understand what is doing this – as far as story goes though, he’s not “The Boss” of Destiny’s Edge 2.0. As far as he’s concerned, he never met them so he doesn’t know they exist. They’re just “adventurers” he hears about.

Ronin.7381:

that’s a couple thousand miles mind you if we’re to think on real scale

I’m not criticizing you, but this comment made me stop and think. The distance is actually much, much shorter than that. I don’t know if it’s been done, but it would be fairly easy to create a scale bar on the map of Tyria based on how far a toon can run in a set amount of time, assuming toons run at a reasonably realistic speed. I’d bet if we do this, we’ll find the the entire explorable world map is less than 10 miles across.

Ronin.7381:

Sure, I rely on lore for my character… my Asura(s) doesn’t convince himself that he’s a product of game coding. I just try to steer clear of being a pivotal or main character in what’s going on.

That’s a really nice way to approach the story. It’s what I try to do with my character as well. I play not a pivotal role, but more of a side character. I pretend it is actually the other players that I encounter on my journeys, that are the heroes.

Facepunch.5710:

Ronin.7381:

that’s a couple thousand miles mind you if we’re to think on real scale

I’m not criticizing you, but this comment made me stop and think. The distance is actually much, much shorter than that. I don’t know if it’s been done, but it would be fairly easy to create a scale bar on the map of Tyria based on how far a toon can run in a set amount of time, assuming toons run at a reasonably realistic speed. I’d bet if we do this, we’ll find the the entire explorable world map is less than 10 miles across.

As an experiment, a while back I did toggle walk and went from the eastern edge of Blazeridge to the western edge of Brisban in a little over 2 hours. There are a few ways that you can interpret that, but by the direct way that you suggested, and setting the walk speed at approximately 3 miles per hour, you come up with a map less than 7 miles wide. Of course, that’s a product of gameplay scale, not lore. GoA is probably your best source for trying to figure out the lore dimensions.

Facepunch.5710:

Ronin.7381:

that’s a couple thousand miles mind you if we’re to think on real scale

I’m not criticizing you, but this comment made me stop and think. The distance is actually much, much shorter than that. I don’t know if it’s been done, but it would be fairly easy to create a scale bar on the map of Tyria based on how far a toon can run in a set amount of time, assuming toons run at a reasonably realistic speed. I’d bet if we do this, we’ll find the the entire explorable world map is less than 10 miles across.

IIRC, ghosts of Ascalon established that Ebonhawke to AC, in a direct line travel(Not the path we must take ingame) of good pace with little breaks (for a small group of adventurers not weighed down by pack animals, or caravans), was 3 days.

While I honestly don’t think the ingame scale isn’t THAT far from lore, one could take the world make, make a line from Ebonhawke north gate to AC, and then use that to figure out travel times based off that.

Though in terms of NPC mentions, there is a Norn in Gendarren fields who sometimes approaches the Haven south of the Dredge caves, and if you talk to him he ends up saying that at his current pace of travel, he’ll end up at Vigil Keep a WEEK early, because he tried getting the most travel into each day. He doesn’t mention a starting point or how long his trip was supposed to take though. (or how long he’s been walking already >_>)

I DID want to make such a scale/line thing and figure stuff out, but RL happen. Like figuring out how long it’d take a character to travel from DR to say, LA or the edge of the shiverpeaks. as part of a group or caravan, or on horseback.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

As an experiment, a while back I did toggle walk and went from the eastern edge of Blazeridge to the western edge of Brisban in a little over 2 hours. There are a few ways that you can interpret that, but by the direct way that you suggested, and setting the walk speed at approximately 3 miles per hour, you come up with a map less than 7 miles wide. Of course, that’s a product of gameplay scale, not lore. GoA is probably your best source for trying to figure out the lore dimensions.

Erm, is that RL time for ingame time? I wonder what that scale comes out to if taking ingame time into account. Of course, that’s a harder thing to figure out…

i’ll say i like having a little story going on with my characters. i gave the ones i play PvE a backstory, though only my main is really fleshed out. he’s also the only one i use to play any story content past the founding of the pact (including story dungeons), so i have no problems making him the main character of the story. it doesn’t interfere with the “lore” of my alts. i mostly keep it to myself though, more as an exercise in creativity than an attempt to RP.