- Anet likes borrowing from other cultures - The Asian Canthans, Germanic Kurzicks, and aboriginal Luxons are all good examples of this. Furthermore, ANet's borrowing is vaguer and more subtle than, say, a Disney cartoon; the Teutonic theme of the Kurzicks rests on little more than naming styles and dark, oppressive atmosphere, nevertheless the Black Forest feeling is quite real.
- Anet loves ironic settings - Maguuma, a jungle in a desert. The many, many shipwrecks scattered around the Crystal Desert. The German-Asian Kurzicks, and Indian-Asian Luxons. Seas and trees turned to stone.
Also keep in mind that chapter Four will arrive in mid-spring and be played throughout the summer just as Factions was, and that it will be preceded by a desert-themed expansion. Therefore, chapter Four will be a land of ice.
Ice, yes, but not always so. A few decades ago Four was a warm marshland, heavily forested with giant mangrove trees towering above the swampy undergrowth. The oldest of the old remember this clearly, looking back on the days when huddling around a campfire was a joyous thing, and not a necessity. Their children have vague memories of the warmth but were old enough to mark its end, as the world became colder and colder from the ground up. First the deep land froze, driving the dwarves from the earth along with a myriad other horrible creatures. Then the swamp, forcing its inhabitants to convert their boats and pole barges to impromptu sleds, pulled by tame gurshak. Finally the mangrove trees froze, caught as perfectly as if in a painting. It still hasn't snowed, but no one doubts that it will someday. The youth of Four know only the cold, and it's said that it can be seen reflected in their eyes.
Before the cold, Four was already split along class lines. An aristocracy of mesmers and other spellcasters in decadent cities (Architecture: Mississippi steamboat stylings. Interiors: cozy, ornate, festive, like the smoking room at an English hunter's club with Mardi Gras decorations) ruled over the hovel-dwelling peasants. Like most feudal systems it was despised by the commoners, but not quite enough for them to rebel. Since the ice came the divide has grown. The ruling class, comprising the vast majority of magic in the land, has almost entirely withdrawn into their plush, magically heated lifestyle and cut themselves off from the outside world. The common folk have been left, quite literally, in the cold.
The Have-nots
And what cold. The focus of the common folk and the theme of player time spent among them should be mere survival. It's nearly impossible to survive on your own out in the cold; fire elementalists might be able to do it, while water eles and necromancers have their own ways of handling the chill. Everyone else huddles together and gets along as best they can (architecture: stereotypical cajun shacks, bordered by swampboats converted to sleds, with open fires everywhere). Early missions and quests should revolve around this: escorting a fire mage to a struggling camp, helping monks look for survivors in a fallen one, fighting to establish a new location and strike a blow against the ice, etc.
A few missions in, the quest line shifts to address the actual story. A fragment of an ancient prophecy is uncovered that warns of the "glacial genesis." Efforts to connect it with other prophecies to find some way of ending the cold should involve trying in vain to cooperate with the aristocrats, getting snubbed, and eventually breaking into their libraries and stealing what you need. You locate the cold's source, and the player party leaves their friends behind to find it.
New shout: "I've Got Mine!"
The aristocrats, on the other hand, focus on different matters. I don't mean to cast them as bad guys, though they might appear to be such. In their minds they are justified: how are they supposed to magically divine the root cause of the cold snap if they spend all their efforts keeping everyone warm? "Insular to the point of negligence" is the theme of this area. Assuming Nightfall does not feature a false prophet character it would be good to base these missions around one: a "seer" who insists that he can uncover the source of the cold if only he had a personal pocket dimension or some powerful item, presumably to see with. Quests and missions should partly deal with the outside world at first (defending a city from outside monsters/rebels, securing some aid for the commoners) but quickly introvert into political squabbles, establishing and securing the seer's dimension, i.e. navelgazing.
At this point, several things can happen. The seer can turn out to be a good guy and uncover the source of the cold weather. Or, the seer can turn out to be a jerk and disappear instead. Lastly, the seer himself can turn out to be the source of the cold, and reward your efforts for him with "Thanks, suckas, now I can freeze the rest of the world, too." That one's not very likely seeing as Prophecies had a very similar plot twist, but it's there for completion's sake.
This ambiguous area ending can be handled in terms of gameplay in several ways as well. The quest line could terminate there, with the inhabitants squabbling and fighting each other like the end of Dr. Strangelove. The player party could rendevous with the commoner quest line ala "Into the Whirlpool," and continue on to beat the game (this would be best for the "helpful seer" ending). Finally, the missions could also be one huge loop: the players decide "screw these guys" and go back to help the poor instead, starting from the first wilderness mission.
We ain't in Lhasa any more, Burntfur
Astute readers will have mentally pointed out that Guild Wars expansions thus far have had three major areas (Kaineng, Echovald and Jade Sea, for example). You are right, and I would not want to rob you of that. What the third area should bring to the chapter is a chance for a decent storyline. Anet, hire a great writer and get good voice actors. Hire some other writers and have them help your first writer. Have them come up with a subplot. A character conflict. Something more interesting than Generic RPG Fodder. Take that script, and do not let whatever department in most game companies is responsible for shitting on good storylines shit on it.
What the area is composed of is less important than removing ANet's "horrible PvE storyline" albatross. Certainly it would need to be an open area, after dense forest and claustrophobic fortresses. One possiblity is to draw on other views of Americana - cattle ranges, or the wheat fields of the Midwest. Another approach deeply steeped in irony would be to borrow from Tibet instead, and set the area in a very high plateau, where either from the altitude or the fact that it's always cold anyway few people even notice the curse. Or my preferred third area, the Charr.
I'll elaborate on this, because I think another encounter with the Charr offers the best shot at making the game deeper than it currently is. To begin with, the fire based Charr would be well prepared to combat the ice on their own, without human assistance. Also, Tyrian allies likely have a deep and profound hatred for the Charr. It'd be great if in an early mission the party comes across a band of Charr getting their furry little asses whooped by ice monsters. A native ally wants to save them as they'd be helpful in locating whatever the writers have agreed is a good way to end the expansion, while Aidan (for good reason) wants to watch them die, preferably as slowly as possible. Have an argument break out. Have there be screaming. Aidan ragequits, and the rest of you go on to rescue the Charr and explain that you're there for a peaceful purpose that would benefit everyone, not to wage war or anything. Said Charr, though understanding that you saved their asses still refuse to talk to you, but they don't outright attack you either. They're still not good guys, but honorable bad guys who owe you a serious favor. This incarnates as a large outpost near their clan encampment, and smaller ones dotted here and there. Finally, one quest in the area should be to find Aidan and make peace, after all these are not the same Charr. Apologies are spread all around, and the reunited party continues on.
At any rate, that's my vision of Chapter Four. Or Five. Or whenever ANet decides they need a good one. What's yours?
P.S. If it's not too much trouble, at least try to stay somewhat grammatically correct. The general dearth of capital letters and punctuation in this forum saddens my heart.
I really like your ideas. It'd be fun to play a chapter like what you described. And your idea about the Charr is quite interesting, and I'd bet on it happening some time or the other. We've already got a little buddy on the Tengu side of things.
