Scott McGough, an excellent writer for the game developer ArenaNet, posted a short story to accompany yesterday’s new release in the game Guild Wars 2.
The update, Twilight Assault, adds a new path to the level 80 dungeon Twilight Arbor, inserts a collectible mini, allows players to strive for new achievements, creates a new line of Nightmare weapons, and offers limited time Black Lion Trading Post items.
The story details events that happen before you enter the dungeon and prior to Caithe calling for heroes to challenge Scarlet and her machinations. It’s a good story you should read because it gives lore-lovers like me a chance to dig in to the backgrounds of the Lionguard, the Aetherblades mentalities, and command systems in about 1000 words.
In this story we meet Turma the Liongaurd Norn. She joins Caithe and the team of heroes in the dungeon to stop Scarlet because of a personal vendetta after the Dragon Bash.
Turma’s strong, passionate, and a bit badass if you focus on the story (not the AI). One thing I love about ArenaNet tales is that they tend to have at least one awesome lady fighter. Turma would fight you if you insinuated she wasn’t as good as Magnus or any other man.
Her story passes the Bechdel test and I think she’s just generally good for women in video games. Most of the time Guild Wars 2 is pretty fair in terms of gender, but it’s nice to point out anyway.
In this story we are also told about Spur, Slick, and Sparki of the Aetherblades. I like them. I mean, they aren’t as distinctive of characters as Tybalt, but they all fit their racial stereotypes and have lovable moments.
The problem is that they are the villains. I’m going to Caledon Forest to stop them when they seem like they’re being coerced in a mean and unfair way. I feel bad enough about murdering them that I’d really like an option to let them go. I have a feeling they’d be pretty peaceful if Scarlet wasn’t driving them like slaves.
I’ll still play the dungeon, but stories like “Twilight Preparations” really make me wonder about Guild Wars 2 villains. Sometimes it seems like Scarlet shouldn’t be a villain because of her happy childhood and the dragons motives are murky at best. Having complex characters like Spur, Slick, and Sparki make the Aetherblades seem… not that evil. Who’s left to point to as a good “Big Bad?”
The Guild Wars 2 story foreshadows the conflict we see on the Aetherpath, but it doesn’t give any spoilers as to what you’ll find in the dungeon other than that it’s big, defended, and there are definitely Nightmare Court and Aetherblades there. When you want to find out if Turma can fight, if Spur, Slick, and Sparki get mentions, and if we finally kill Scarlet, you’ll have to play the game. I’ll see you there.
