Guild Wars 2

New Living Story Arc:

As with Konig and Ludovicus, here is a living story Arc I came up with in order to answer some guildwars 1 lore questions.

As with their works, I will use the same disclamer:

Legal Disclaimer:

I hereby declare my agreement that all the content ideas posted by me in this topic are freely usable by ArenaNet™ in any type of content like(but not limited to) patch releases, books and short stories. I give up my copy rights about this ideas to ArenaNet™.

(just because I would be honored if they used this, even an inkling of it – copied verbatim from Ludovicus and Konig)

Chapter 1: A Lord’s Invitation

Following the events that occurred at the Queen’s Pavilion. Lord Faron extends an invitation to the players to join him at his private manor for a masquerade ball held in their honor. Among the guests are Marjory Delaqua, Lady Kasmeer, Countess Anise, Logan Thackery, Rox, and Braham. Upon the release of this chapter the following new items are made available by Ebon Gnashblade in support of the masquerade ball:

-Sapphiric Gown/Tuxedo (500 gems, town clothes)
-New Hairstyles (1 release for each race/gender)
-Maplewood Violin (new musical instrument)
-Piano finisher (drops a piano on foes to finish them off with class)

Upon this release players will be able to enter a new instance in Divinity’s Reach that leads to the actual ball itself. Afer the completion of this event, Lord Faren’s mansion will remain as an interactable instance (for RPers and exploration). The ball itself is an event that is filled with various minigames such as simons says with the mime or juggling with the jester. There is also a private room where omnomberry drinking contests are being held.

Players can also perform a dancing minigame that is similar to dance-dance revolution (keys are replaced by arrow keys and like the jingle bells game at Christmas, players have to align their dance steps to the music). There are various achievements that can be gained during the ball.

Once players have finished exploring, they can start an event conversation with Lord Faren. As Lord Faren begins his toast, dark assassins in black will suddenly appear and kidnap him in front of the crowd. At this point in time the players will be charged with protecting the remaining guests by defeating waves of enemies that are named ????.

These enemies are highly skilled and will coordinate attacks. Some will be trappers that lay down various types of traps while others will attempt to scorpion wire the players into them. The enemies will make use of combo fields and drop healing turrets that create water fields for enemy mace wielders to blast in.

(cont.)

Once the enemies are defeated countess Anise will proclaim her shock at the ability of the mysterious enemy to infiltrate the manor without her or her shining blade guards being able to detect them. Kasmeer and Anise agree that Faren is a friend of the crown and that action must be made to return him to safety. At this time Seraphs and Shining Blade guards will enter the room and report to Logan that other mysterious kidnappings are happening all over the kingdom. As with Faren, the abducters are disappearing without a trace.

Majory will ask the players to aid her in an investigation of these mysterious foes, Logan and Anise agree with this plan. Logan states that the Seraph will aid in this investigation while the Shining Blade guards the queen and other persons of interest. The investigation will have the players aid Majory and the Seraph in finding clues about the mystery attackers and where they might have taken Lord Faren. There will be 7-10 items for the players to collect to gain information about the attackers (some items are personal belongings of Lord Faren, such as a journal with hilarious entries about other characters such as Lady Kasmeer), each time they interact with a clue will be ambushed by the ???? enemies.

During this time, world events that call players to protect citizens from being kidnapped in the human lands will begin occurring. There will also be mystery chests in the open world that sometime contain loot but sometimes will be traps that spawn enemies when interacted with.

The investigation provides the following clues:

-The enemies call themselves the Shadow Mobius.
-They use some kind of powerful magic to conceal themselves from detection.
-They have special lists of individuals they are kidnapping. The reasons for these kidnappings are unknown.
-Many of their tracks seem to lead to dead ends, such as open fields where they have disappeared from plain sight.

Chapter 2: The Mysterious Ambassadors

In chapter 2, the players will be invited to the Queen’s Chamber in Divinity’s Reach. In this story instance a new NPC in bluish silver magi-like armor will reveal himself to the players. This man will introduce himself as Boltof. There is also a female NPC with white hair and blue eyes that introduces herself as Coventina. Boltof and Coventina will state that they are members of a order called the “Arbiters” that hails from the Isles of Janthir. They state that they have fought these mysterious enemies for several years and believe that Shadow Mobius is actually an elite sect of the White Mantle.

Boltof and Coventina will claim that they believe that the White Mantle has stolen a powerful artifact from their homeland called the Eye of Janthir. They state that the White Mantle’s possession of the Eye and these targeted kidnappings are part of some sort of nefarious White Mantle plan. Boltof and Coventina agree to offer Arbiter aid in the fight against the Shadow Mobius. They also claim that their Arbiters use special magic that has the ability to reveal the secret camps that the Shadow Mobius are using to hold their captured prisoners.

-Following the week that the Arbiters are revealed, new Arbiter Weapons will be made available from Black Lion chests.

Boltof and Coventina will state that they know of 3 Leaders within the ranks of the Shadow Mobius that might know the entirety of the White Mantle plan.

At this time, new world events that require players to assist Arbiter NPCS in uncovering Shadow Mobius camps will be made available. Players wll protect the NPCs, who will go to a certain area on the map and use a spell to uncover huge Shadow Mobius camps that will be filled with both Shadow Mobius and fully armored White Mantle NPCs. These camp battles will be epic fights that can scale to include large zergs of players. Upon revelation of a camp, there is a chance that one of the 3 Leaders will be present. The leaders are as follows:

Bartrios the Devoted:
A white mantle guardian who summons armies of spirit weapons to attack the players while he commands them from a protective bubble. The players must defeat his spirit weapons and then use them in order to break his shield.

Demodred the Shadowheart:
A Shadow Mobius assassin who spawns shadow copies of himself that attack players while he phases into stealth and backstabs with a skill called Shadow Assassination. His Shadow Assassination attack is a devastating cleave that causes him to appear and provide a tell to players before striking. Some of his images leave a shadowy aoe behind when they die, forcing players to selectively target the proper images or end up filling the ground with black wells that damage the zerg. Once enough images are killed Demodred phases back into a state where he can be damaged.

Savant Vestilla:
A powerful elementalist that uses searing bonds on random players, causing them to erupt in flames and deal massive damage to anyone near them. Also drops searing heat and summons rolling balls of fire that chase random people. She is a positioning fight that tests the ability of the zerg to avoid ground based AoE.

Each time a leader is killed, they drop loot, a reward chest, and a map piece. The map pieces will come into play when the event advances to the third phase.

Chapter 3: Heroes of the Past and Present

In this chapter, players who have all three map pieces will be able to speak to Majory, Boltof, and Coventina in the Queen’s Chamber. Majory’s appraisal of the completed map will indicate that Lord Faren and other prisoners have been taken to a secret white mantle stronghold deep within the Maguuma Jungle. The final chapter will allow players access to a short mini-dungeon similar to flame and frost dungeon event. Boltof and Coventina will assist the players in breaking into the stronghold in order to end the combined Shadow Mobius and White Mantle threat in order to save the prisoners.

This dungeon is filled with coordinated enemies and White Mantle/Shadow Mobius commanders. After 2 bosses, several traps, and unique mechanics, the players will come to the final chamber…

(Note: If players pay careful attention during the dungeon, they will notice that both Coventina and Boltof will use Spectral Agony on enemies).

Where Things Get Epic:

So this is the grand revelation of the entire arc. Players will enter the final chamber to find the Eye of Janthir hovering over a circle of prisoners. Lord Faren is included in the bunch. Before them stands a row of white mantle/shadow mobius guards and Lazarus the Dire in all of his Mursaat Glory. An artistic dialog will take place:

Coventina: “Lazarus, this ends now!”

Lazarus: “Ahh… Coventina… I see that you’ve still thrown in your lot with these pathetic mortals.”

Boltoc: “Enough Lazarus, return the Eye to us!”

Lazarus: “(He laughs) Oh, and I see you’ve brought Saul with you as well. How amusing.”

Lazarus raises his hand, channeling the power of the Eye into the prisoners. After a flash of light Lord Faren glows.

Lord Faren: “Oh dear, never thought I would glow like a Sylvari.”

One of the white mantle guards speaks. “Only he is chosen, the rest are unworthy my lord.”

Lazarus: “We take him with us, kill the others.”

Coventina: “No, stop!”

As the guards move to the prisoners, Coventina changes into her Mursaat form (with white wings instead of black). Her name becomes Coventina The Matron. She blasts the approaching guards with spectral agony, defeating them.

Lazarus: “How annoying. Unfortunately for you Coventina, your not the only one who has made new alliances.”

Lazarus raises his hand to the skies above, where an airship comes into the scene. The airship has a giant Jade Armor chained to its underside. Scarlet is shown on the deck of the ship.

Lazarus: “Release the Perfect Jade.”

Scarlet: “Fun fun fun fun! Let’s see how you like my newest toy! Mursaat technology was already killerific! Now its double killerific with my upgrades! She’s all your Lazarus. All she needs is some juice to power her up!”

Scarlet’s airship releases the giant jade construct, which crashes before the players. Lazarus extends his hand and draws the souls out of all the non-chosen prisoners then siphons the souls into the giant Jade construct. The Jade then comes to life.

Lazarus: “It is a shame I can’t stay to see you be destroyed.”

Lazarus creates a portal then teleports up to the airship. The ship then moves away.

Boltoc: “Faren, get back, we will handle this with the aid of these heroes.”

Lord Faren: “Hey wait! I’m a hero too! Someone get me a sword!”

At this point the players battle a colossal jade construct. Coventina will erect a Mursaat Cannon and ask the players to protect her while she charges it. At intervals throughout the fight she will fire the cannon at the construct, causing its chest to blow apart. This triggers Faren to create a mesmer time slow to buy the players time to damage the soul battery that is vulnerable inside construct. Between the cannon shots and phases were the players must protect Coventina from Jade shards spawned by the Perfect Jade, Boltoc will direct the players to damage vulnerable parts of the construct in order to weaken it.

After the Jade construct falls, Boltoc and Coventina will inspect the soul battery inside. Coventina the Matron tells the group that it is not completely destroyed and uses her magic to restore the souls of the prisoners.

Coventina thanks the players and calls in several other arbiters, who reveal their Mursaat forms and take the eye of Janthir to a place of safekeeping using a giant portal. Boltoc states that he will remain behind to answer the many questions that players may have:

Boltoc’s Revelations:

Boltoc reveals that his true name is Saul D’Alessio. Over 200 years ago he discovered the Mursaat by accidently stumbling into their hidden city. Saul states that the Mursaat used him in order to force the Krytans into believing they were gods. He was imprisoned by Lazarus in a crystal tower that kept him alive with Mursaat magic and forced to watch as the Mursaat continued their hegemonic rule over his homeland.

The humans rebelled against the Mursaat, defeating them once at the Ring of Fire then again during the War for Kryta. This searing defeat forced the Mursaat to retreat back into the pocket dimension that contained their hidden city where they would remain until the rising cycle of the dragons has completed.

Over time, the Mursaat discovered that the pocket dimension that held their hidden city was becoming increasingly unstable and that they would not be able to continue hiding from the outside world. Lazarus the Dire proposed a campaign to re-enter the human kingdoms and reclaim rulership over them as gods. Coventina the Matron disagreed with Lazarus, stating that they already underestimated the humans once before and that a second attempt would ensure the destruction of the Mursaat.

The Mursaat became divided into two factions, the Unseen led by Lazarus the Dire and the Arbiters led by Coventina the Matron. The unseen believe that they are gods over the mortal races and still practice the ancient Mursaat art of consuming mortal souls to extend their lives and power arcane contraptions such as Soul Batteries, Jade Constructs,
and Ether Seals. The Arbiters believe that Mursaat survival lies in cooperation with the other races, thus they have abandoned the practices of the Unseen. Coventina has also freed Saul D’Alessio and asked him to become the Arbiter’s messenger to the mortal races.

Afterword:

This living story sets an initial arc that draws some interesting ideas behind the return of the Mursaat and sets the stage for the Mursaat civil war. This war will take place in the Isles of Janthir and will be heavily influenced by the actions of the players (ultimately leading to possible Mursaat allies or even playable Mursaat).

This living story arc also ties the lore of the Mursaat together by bringing back Saul and explaining what happened in the world of the Mursaat after his capture.

This arc also reveals Lord Faren as a chosen and lines him up for other story arcs.

This arc also lines Scarlet up for even more acts of villainy and her role of spreading chaos in the upcoming Mursaat war (she and Lazarus are likely using each other to fuel their own agendas).

My hopes in doing this is to throw out some ideas that may lead to a more lore-driven living story that players can really get into and bring back those. “No way! That didn’t just happen!” moments.

Certainly an interesting idea. I do love how it does manage to at first present itself as new lore and then reveal itself well rooted in the past.

I am a bit iffy about Scarlet Briar being used, but on the flipside, the Anet seems insistent on using her and the Aetherblades as much as possible, so they might as well be executed properly.

Though part of me also worries about forcing a bit too much exposure on Lord Faren, but the guy is always good for a laugh, so he’s fine. The only possible suggestion I might make is that instead of just Lord Faren, we also get Riot Alice and Petra in on the story too to tie this to all human players and not just noble path ones.

Elric.6971:

Certainly an interesting idea. I do love how it does manage to at first present itself as new lore and then reveal itself well rooted in the past.

I am a bit iffy about Scarlet Briar being used, but on the flipside, the Anet seems insistent on using her and the Aetherblades as much as possible, so they might as well be executed properly.

Though part of me also worries about forcing a bit too much exposure on Lord Faren, but the guy is always good for a laugh, so he’s fine. The only possible suggestion I might make is that instead of just Lord Faren, we also get Riot Alice and Petra in on the story too to tie this to all human players and not just noble path ones.

Thanks for the feedback on this!

My thoughts on Faren and my choice to use him was generally because although his initial role was that of an ally in the human noble story, he has been included in almost all of the living story arcs. Like Tybalt Leftpaw, I feel as if Lord Faren has become a character that is easily identified and recognized by the community, so players would relate to him much easier.

So far Lord Faren was present at the opening of Southsun Cove with Lady Kasmeer during. He was also present during the Queen’s Pavillion and displayed some comic heroics to protect an illusion of the Queen. He was then captured and featured in the dungeon of the same arc to compound Scarlet’s introduction.

It is also a great idea to have Petra, Riot, and perhaps other personal story characters present at the Ball (and perhaps playing roles the events thereafter).

Also in my Arc, I was going for a story that would have alot of mystery and intrigue. Having Faren being kidnapped was a good guise for this plan because he is such a comical character that the players would never expect such a huge revelation.

I also wanted to use the exhaustion of festival events to my advantage. By the beginning of my arc I would want players to be like “oh great, another festival…”

By the end of my arc I would want my playerbase to be jawdropped at the short teaser of “what is to come” at the Isles of Janthir and the possible role of the Mursaat and Saul in the future of Tyria.

He would also be a good character to add some humor and offset the very dark, brooding, and ‘mastermind’ theme that Lazarus would bring to the table. Also Boltoc/Saul and Coventina would be depicted as very diplomatic and serious in their dealings.

Faren would be a good offset to balance the gravity of the story arc.

My choice to include Scarlet was to portray the creation of an antithesis to Destiny’s Edge. Lazarus and Scarlet joining forces would be the first step in the creation of a sort of “Evil Destiny’s Edge” that would really give the players sinister trouble in their future endeavors. Also, it seems that there seems to be a great interest on the developer side for her to play a larger role against the players. I thought adding her to this arc would give her a short time in the spotlight and perhaps kindle more interest in her evil agenda.

Initially I was concerned with the length of your post but unlike other long posts I actually found that I couldn’t stop reading. You’ve got a really great idea going for tying the living story into Guild Wars 1 lore. I will say that at some point in time ArenaNet plans on ending the Scarlet arc because they said the invasions will end for good when Scarlet is defeated. With all loose ends tied up, I think it would also make things a lot cleaner for the start of a new arc like the one you are suggesting.

Unfortunately, I think ArenaNet already has a lot of story planned already and I don’t think it would go in the same direction as your story. While I still have faith in their story-telling abilities it does sadden me to think that they would choose not to tie the game’s current lore into Guild Wars 1 lore better.

I found it an enjoyable read. The only critique I had is Scarlet’s late entrance. If she is going to be in this LS arc, I would introduce her a bit sooner. Her suddenly showing up at the end, with the final boss no less, would probably get a bit of backlash from the players. I would have her either crashing the Faren’s party with the Shadow Mobius or hinted at or mentioned by Boltof and Coventina in chapter two.

Though, I think her crashing a party would be more in her character. It would also allow more joke filled dialogue. Which she seems to love.

“I decided to barrow someone else’s goons, since I thought you might have grown tired of seeing my Aetherblades.”

lordhelmos.7623, you had me at “piano finisher”! I LOL’d hard.

The rest of it is brilliant. A fantastic read! Has Anet offered you a job yet?

I feel flattered that you took my idea about creating a LS patch thread. I like the Mursaat being included in this. But I’m a bit jealous because your story got more feedback than mine

Ludovicus.7980:

I feel flattered that you took my idea about creating a LS patch thread. I like the Mursaat being included in this. But I’m a bit jealous because your story got more feedback than mine

I am a big fan of both you and Konig’s ideas, we should continue to think tank and offer up ideas. If anything I’d be happy if any ideas I throw out offer inspiration to both players and developers.

lordhelmos.7623:

Ludovicus.7980:

I feel flattered that you took my idea about creating a LS patch thread. I like the Mursaat being included in this. But I’m a bit jealous because your story got more feedback than mine

I am a big fan of both you and Konig’s ideas, we should continue to think tank and offer up ideas. If anything I’d be happy if any ideas I throw out offer inspiration to both players and developers.

I was looking for a living story idea from Konig. I’m kind of a fan of his too. But I wasn’t able to find it. Where is it?