The dragon cycle has been the backdrop for everything in Guild Wars 2 since it launched more than a decade ago. The game’s narrative lead has a new preview ahead of the Secrets of the Obscure expansion coming next month, going into deciding what comes after the decade-long dragon cycle.
With ArenaNet’s decision to change how they create and release Guild Wars 2 content, there would be more frequent chances to tell different stories or to focus on something new.
“We’ve only explored a small portion of Tyria to date—and even then, a great deal of the world we do know has vastly changed over the events of the last eleven real-world years. We want to dig into that with more focused, self-contained stories, and we hope to bring each of these into the limelight as we see Tyria react and unravel to a future without chaos (well, without dragon-centric chaos). But before we slow things down and explore modern Tyria, we opted for something a little more mysterious to mark the beginning of this new arc.”
After thinking about what direction to take first, “a franchise-long mystery quickly became our leading focus: the Wizard’s Tower”. The mystery dates back to the original Guild Wars, and it has been on the horizon, owned by a mysterious wizard no one has ever seen and aside from a few mentions and teasers, hasn't really been mentioned. Now it’s the jumping off point to tell a storyline that will ultimately span thousands of years. Although the devblog talks about the many times it came up behind the scenes as something the team wanted to explore in some way.
At a turning point when Tyria is rebuilding, the intent is to take the commander on their own journey without familiar characters.
Except for Zojja, who is returning after Heart of Thorns. Her experiences and story, and how she'll figure in the expansion is under wraps for now, but “we’re going to have some incredibly tender and vulnerable moments with our asuran ally”. Other familiar characterrs will be present but doing their own things as Tyria rebuilds.
The Kryptis, being creatures from the demon realm, are designed to be formidable enemies. Yet, it seems that some of their purpose is to set off “a much more personal rivalry between some of our key players—one that has lasted for over a millennium”. Better yet, after we’ve completed the first leg of the story high above the cloud cover of Tyria, we’re going to continue this journey in a much more…curious environment”.
The mysteries continue, but will begin to unfold when Secrets of the Obscure releases August 22nd.
