[Spotlight Concept #1] Dwayna's Realm

Heya all, here's the first ever Spotlight Concept. I hope you all enjoy it and that there are lots of good contributions from the community.

I haven't decided how long it will be until there is a new Spotlight Concept, as there is no set pattern between each. Let's just see how this goes for now.

(if you want to know more about these Spotlight Concepts, see this thread.)

You may have already guessed from the thread title, but the topic is 'Dwayna's Realm', i.e. the goddess Dwayna's equivalent to the Fissure of Woe and the Underworld.

Some things to bear in mind right from the beginning:

• The top half of page 46 in the Guild Wars Manuscripts Book 1.
• The top half of page 19 in the Guild Wars Factions Manuscripts.
• 
  (this is what you'll get when you click on any 'Statue of Dwayna')
• The layout, design and feel of the two already existing gods' realms.

As stated in the thread linked to earlier in this post, we are starting on a blank canvas here, and it does not matter how many threads have gone before on any Spotlight Concept topics. We as a community will create and expand these concepts together with everybody's ideas. Feel free to contribute as many ideas as you like, and discuss others'. Above all, stay on topic and don't let arguments take over - I sincerely doubt there will be any arguments anyway.

So, contribute what you like.

Ideas could include:

• Landscapes and layout
• Enemies
• Allies/NPCs
• Quests
• Tamable creatures
• Tie-ins with the main Guild Wars/Guild Wars Factions storyline
• Drops
• Special Armourers/Weaponsmiths?
• The name for this place!

I'll be contributing my thoughts later on, since typing this post has got me almost out of time for tonight.

Let's make this good.

Duck pond.

Discuss.

Monsters:Azure army rebels, Fallen monks, heretics, aeromancer rebels, etc. ("guerilla" warfare people), necromancers attacking beach
-Skills that must be seen: dwayna's sorrow, heaven's delight, dwayna's kiss, shield guardian, restore condition, life barrier

Allies: Mhenlo, Alesia, Sister Tai, Jamei, Karei and other monk NPCs, shock henchman (as NPC)

Quests:
-Reclaim villages (7 different villages= diff. quests for each) back from the rebels
-annihilate patrolling groups of rebels
-cleanse villagers (gather 3 cleansing orbs to activate a cleansing station like in Augury with the 3 crystals)
-defend beach from assaulting necromancer scarab mobs
-Assault head of the rebels, a necromancer boss lvl 31 (inspired by killing Eater of Souls quest)
-capture defense points (towers with mind shock or ) from rebels
-help fertilize the farms with flowers (pick flowers and then bring them to farmer NPC)
-defend villagers going to pick fruit from orange trees
-awaken aurora guardians to help defend village (look like flame djinn but whitish and clear)


Tamable creatures: lamb, deer, rabbit, parrots, turtles, pandas?

Landscape: fertile Plains, beaches like the north of Fissure of Woe and Sanctum Cay (Mesopotamia or Babylon inspired), villages in plains
-rocks sticking out that are pure white like marble
-a steep mountain to one side with a nice view of the village


Drops: ghostly staves, platinum/celestial weapons (so they drop in more places), Aurora weapons: Zodiac weapons with a twist (color changed to light blue instead of glowing yellow), diamond aegis, glowing zodiac shards, Runic axes that are silver in color

Armor: Aurora Armor: same as FoW armor, but in silver/WHITE or zodiac glowing yellow for all the black nondyeable locations

World effects: +20% enchantment length near beach, +20 armor against physical on beach, +10% recharge on all attack skills, halves condition/hex duration

Tie-ins:
-Rebel aeromancers and monks run a strong guild that wants to destroy but not help villagers (sort of like the crimson skull, but twisted)
-azures and compatriots theraten security of the location
-Guilded villagers will be hostile, cleansing them causes them to realize the guild's struggle for dominance and monopoly is wrong
-assault by beach (Dday style) by Necromancer scarabs

Name: Burnished Pasture of Hope

Ok so Dwayna is the god of healing and protection. Something for healingmonks.

Instead of an actual landscape with forests and trees or anything, I'm thinking more about a huge temple-like structure. Marble floors everywhere. Fountains (of life) everywhere. Springs (of healing) everywhere.

Now to find a reason to go there... Like an invading army (done before: charr, mursaat kind of, shadow army, shiros army. Need a better conflict thing)
Maybe the realm is endangered by a volcano that is about to errupt. Maybe something with bloodstones?

I think coming up with an excuse to go to that realm is the best way to start this thread off. That sets the idea for what enemies you'll incounter (if any), after all.

Plot ideas... hmm...

The invading army idea isn't bad, but has been done a lot already. Still it's the best excuse to have enemies. Let's put an interesting twist on it. Dwayna is the Goddess of life and protection. Perhaps the invading army is not a malicious one, but one that is seeking shelter and cure from Dwayna. I'm thinking we could tie in the souls of the Afflicted from Factions here.

The Souls of the Afflicted are very ravenous and insane, and in their madness they desperately flock to Dwayna to seek her aide. They look transparent and ghost-like, and also tremendously ugly. Their faces are warped and twisted, yet they don't have the cysts and boles that they had in their mortal form. They still have faces that look vaguely human, and you can see a frightfully sad and insanely desperate expression on their faces. Unfortunately their insanity and corruption are too much for Dwayna to bare, and they are greatly weakening the gentle Goddess. She tries to help and cure them, but there are far too many for her powers. She asks you to help with this delicate situation by releaving them of their burden (destroy their souls forever).

Various quests within the realm can be variations of helping your enemies. For instance, perhaps lead them (pull them) to a fountain of cleansing in which their souls will be cured, but the fountain will be ruined in the process and only able to cure a meager few of them. Along the way more Afflicted Souls will ambush you and you must try to survive by killing just enough to be able to continue, or escape them and pull them all.

The Afflicted Souls will shout mean, nasty things to you as they fight you because they are insane and don't understand your purpose here. They are full of Shiro's hate as well. They see you as interfering with their pilgrimage to Dwayna and don't realise that Dwayna actually asked you to help her save her realm from them.

How's that?

The souls of the afflicted is a good idea.

I have an addition^^. Let's say you have shrines all over the map, and running with Undivine's idea of fountain of cleansing. You can also use it yourself and an enchantment such as the following would happen

Fountain of Healing - World enchantment
For 30 seconds, all of your attacks heal for that amount instead

Fountain of Pure Elements - World enchantment
For 30 seconds, all elemental damage heals instead

Fountain of Cleansing - Enchantment
For 30 seconds, and conditions you inflict are immediately removed and heal target for 20 health.

Fountain of Rejuvenation - Enchantment
For 30 seconds, any degeneration you inflict is reversed and regenerates instead.

Now whenever you bring 20 or so souls to any fountain, it is destroyed. The target is to keep as many afflicted alive while pulling them into the fountains. When you successfully pull them in, they are... cleansed (effectively they die) and then they drop items. And the whole time you are doing this, they are trying to kill you.

Or another alternative is that the monsters are at 0 health, and they must all be fully healed before they will react to the shrine. It's like the reverse to killing them.

Ideas?

This would make it more interesting when the enchantments run out^^

Same rules still apply though, you cant directly heal them seeing as they are monsters and all^^

Edit: you know I always thought there were more scriptures than that one... but I keep thinking about lyssa...

I would like a medium-sized city surrounded by walls. This city would NOT be like Kaineng City, it would be clean, white stone buildings, all planned out well.

Then, there would be a large, snowy area surrounding the city with enemy forts, etc.

To get out of the city(which you spawn in the center of), you have to do a quest to defend the city. Then, you can run around outside, doing quests, etc

Drops
Anything Dwayna related, like exalted aegises.

I'd say, for allies, you should have a few npc's that would bear armor that looks like some kind of a "Dwayna Uniform", containing an Exalted Shield, a weapon, and a nicely designed armor with Dwayna in logo;P.

I just thought of something. Perhaps we could jump into the time past , present, and future times, and grant protection and help to those, that need it.
1st)
Future - Totally ruined Tyria, a total mess, the whole world is messed, by... hmmmm ... Creatures from Tombs of Primeval Kings? Probably everything should be covered by ashes, and chaos, and the rest of people would be hiding from those creatures in special hide-outs, within you could meet the future of some of our Henchmen, get to know wth is going on, etc. Sounds like a good idea to me.

2nd)
Close future (present) - Stop the onslaught coming from the Tombs, nothing much else here, perhaps a few quests from the ghosts. If you fail, you'll go to nr 3. Indeed, 2nd would be probably hard... since... Well imagine! 8 people against an entire army! Oops, omfg we're dead, bye bye.

3rd)
Past - Try to get to know what was the reason of the onslaught, and try to prevent it before it grown too powerful. There, you get to know past of some of our henchmen, and help them on their way.--- You could see ,what happend to Gwen :O!!! --- A good idea would be, to try to seek knowledge from a uber npc, and then use it to seal the Tombs.


For Factions, we could use the same theme, but those would include Shiro and ... his army? trying to sneak out of the Underworld, destroying everything on its way.

In future, Shiro would be immortal, tand a bit other creatures ruling the place.

In close future (present) you can be able to try and defend ... Kaineng city? from swarming Shiro's minions, which of course, would be mission impossible, but possible.

In the past, you can try the same thing as in 3rd, that is trying to seal Underworld.



Ufff, that would be it, i guess

Finally a thread on Dwayna's Realm.

Name
Well, I dont really have one. Something having to do with life and creation. Maybe the Genesis Forest or something like that.

Setting

Because we already have a "heaven" area (upper levels of Heroe's Ascent), Dwayna's Realm should be somewhere else. I picture it to be a mix of the Jade Sea and Maguuma, with things growing everywhere and a beautiful, tranquil landscape.

Specific Areas

Fountain of Light
This would basically be a large pool/fountain of holy water and energy with some cool effect while in the area (+max health/energy or plus regen or something) It would be filled with spirit creatures (mostly spellcasters) and NPCs.

The Orchard
Because Dwayna's Domain is pure life energy, this area would contain lush plants of all types. Plantlike enemies would also be placed here as well. A big open area like the 2nd area of fow would do nicely.

Temple of Life
This area would be similar to the Forge in FoW. You could do a bunch of quests in order to get access to an NPC that either crafts uber-expensive armor like FoW, or have some other suggested cool-expensive thing (give characters auras/weapons with the coolest skins?) I think a weapon crafter that offers zodiac stuff (or other item skins) would be sweet.

Enemy Types
Because Dwayna is the god of life, all enemies in this area should be large, lively, and hard to kill. Warrior monsters would include large plants or angel-like avatars. Caster classes would incluse generic-looking spirit creatures (the Kami illustrated in MtG come to mind) and water/air elementals.

Drops
Materials:
Dust, Spiritwood Planks, Sapphires, Rubies, Wood.

Weapons and armor:
Of course exalted aegis, hammer of the nephilim, chaos axe, eternal shields, etc.

Quests:
To help trapped NPC's or such to stress the "PEACE" feel of Dwyana.
Maybe have bright retro coloured flowers and hippie signs to xD

Possible name for the realm: 'Dove's Reach', doves are associated with peace, holiness and good news.

NPCs could be similar to the Monks given in Hall of Heroes (imho) but with a mysterious white glow coming from within. They could also be given wings (a la Avatar of Dwayna). Or maybe only the higher-up Servants are granted wings.

Totally different approach:
Instead of the hero's doing something helpful in Dwayna's Realm, our characters would basically be there to rob the place.

Reward: Various chests including a "green chest" in different treasure rooms. Instead of doing quests, you simply try to get in and rob the place. Rooms with better (or multiple) rewards would be harder to get into and may require openning gates or kill various mobs.

Environment: Some sort of palace or city works fine.

Enemies: No evil enemies, just guardians and ghosts of various types. All groups would be healer heavy. Mini-glint dragons would be fun. Basically you should feel like you are attacking a good fortress. Perhaps you could also meet some "saints", who tell you that you don't belong than kick your butt.

Perhaps there should be a "public area" where you can meet with Dwayna and friendly NPC's; only in leaving that area do things get interesting.

what if the invading army was grenth relatedf(wintersday rivalries)? like some crazy wizard(galrath finally got into wizards tower =P) opened another rift to a different spirit realm, and now the armies of grenth are marching on the place. Because dwayna's realm would be an afterlife for peacemakers, healers, and good people, but people that weren't nessecarily heroes in balthazar's eyes(or else they would end up in the hoh), but were loved so much by dwayna that she took them to live in eternal bliss in her realm. Unfortunately, they can't defend themselves from grenth's forces, and it's up to you to stop grenth.

Enemies: maybe grentchies XD, sort of like the white mantle but devoted solely to grenth.
Name: The Ascended Plane maybe? idk, i'm not great shakes at names.

Well I think the enviroment should be somewhere in the air (like a cloudy place) since dwanya is also the goldess of air.

Perhaps you could get a one of 5 quests where you have to kill one of the champions of the gods but their really hard to get to and REALLY hard to kill.

Mybe you cna tame a winged wolf if you do this other hard quest.

Silverbolt!!! =D

Landscapes: Cloudy floors(walking on clouds) dark blue sky with bright stars big floating temple of dwayna in the middle

Enemies: banished angels(banish mesmers/monk/warriors ect..)

Allies/NPCs:callers of dwayna

Quests: Race to the temple!. timed quest were you have to get to dwayna's temple before something happens

Tamable creatures:buffalo with wings(to make buffalo wings yum=])

Drops: weapons made of clouds

Special Armourers/Weaponsmiths: something that will let you add stuff like rubys and sapphires on your weapons/armor

Name: something like idk "apostles rejuvenation"

See it's the concept of 'fighting enemies' in the first place that I disagree with. If you enter a realm in which there are 'just monsters there for you to kill' it totally goes against the purpose and the role of dwayna - her realm should be held no differently.

I'm really standing by Undivine's idea.

urbnatr's landscape sounds really cool

Invasions and enemies seekeing redemption are good ideas.

An earlier suggestion mentioned taking the "dark side" of this topic- not actually helping Dwayna, but robbing her heaven blind. I like this idea, but I don't think we should be forcing players onto a particular moral route. This was my biggest issue with Guild Wars from the beginning; RPG's generally allow people to make essential decisions based upon their character's particular moral standards. Past games have done this by "aligning" your character on two scales, one from chaotic to lawful, the other from good to evil. Thus, your character could be Chaotic Good (rebel), Chaotic Evil (Satan), Lawful Good (Jesus), or any combo of the types. "Neutral" characters were also possible- you didn't have to align with any particular route, you could play both sides of the tug-of-war.

Generally, certain character types adhered to certain alignments. Paladins tend to be Lawful Good, Monks tend to be Good, Necromancers tend to be Evil. The alignments are not concrete per character class, but players generally adhere to them. Truly, though, the system adds a form of roleplaying to the RPG.

Factions saw the introduction of a player's real first choice as to her character's allegience and alignment. Having to pick a side, either Kurzick or Luxon, was an essential step in moving towards a more roleplaying Guild Wars, and thus a step towards more plot involvement. Unfortunately, the concept really only goes so deep.

My main suggestion is that players align themselves with particular Gods. Having to choose a God to devote your character to would be another step towards a more plot-involved, roleplaying Guild Wars. And, like everything else in Guild Wars, you can swap paths once you choose- no choice should be permanent, and players should have the opportunity to experience everything.

Now, as it stands, two Gods have "dungeons," Grenth and Balthazaar. (Grenth is cooler, face it.) I'd like to eventually see every God with their own "dungeon." But here's where the fun comes in- what God your character chooses to align with would determine how your character would react in a particular dungeon. A Grenth-aligned character wouldn't be prancing all over the screen with Dwayna's RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOs, but would be fighting them tooth and nail.

In the end, you'd end up with a very dynamic "War of the Gods." While this kind of thing is cool, it's not necessarily plausible to the immense amount of work involved. It would be possible to slowly incorporate each God's dungeon with certain expansion packs, perhaps creating a new dungeon every year. But we need to give some flexiblity to Arena Net in the form of plot construction, because certain God relashionships are not as clear as Dwayna and Grenth's good vs evil. Arena Net would need to systematically create their own version of Greek mythology, giving certain Gods beneficial and detrimental relashionships with one another. By giving Arena Net this leeway in plot, it becomes easier for them to create an in-depth plot that players could actively participate in.

To everyone who likes the idea, I'd appreciate the positive feedback, but also mention places where things could go wrong.
To everyone who dislikes it...


And since when is the word for "a person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain" a curse?

First of all. This should deffinatly be made next. Doesn't have to be exactly like my idea but I think if it were like this it really would be dwayna's realm.

Names: The Crystal Palace. The Crystal Fortress. Crystal Haven. The Holy Temple.

Landscapes and layout: I diffenatly want to see alot of blue crystal/white marble(Personally I don't like White Marble, Crystal just sounds so much better). Should have several differant looks(Like the forest and beach in FoW). I want to see a crystal palace floating in the sky. How about you zone in and you see the crystal palace in the distance. First area is a walkway toward it. It will be fairly sort. Not soooooo long that it'll take a while to clear. Maybe about the size as the first part of the new Tomb of the primavel kings. Then you perhapes do a quest that opens the door to this palace. As soon as you enter you see that it is lite up by glowing orbs floating in the air(maybe like stars). The palace should be divided into differant rooms/levels, and balconies. Maybe a corrupted part of it with undead and other zombie like creatures that are "invading". There should be plenty of clouds also.

Enemies: They should be made of glowing light(Energy?), White materials, and crystal. Maybe a crystaline creature that looks like an Aatxe. Basic undead if we do have a "Corrupted Section". Perhapes a creature like a bird that weilds a spear that flys close to the ground like the pheonix. Glowing worms.

DropsI drop should be an all new crafting material. Maybe called Crystaline Shard or Essence of Stars. You should use these shard to craft weapons at a weapons crafter. The weapons should be gold rather than the usual light blue color we all hate. All normal drops should be anything dwayna related.

Tamable creatures: No new tamable creatures. I thats what makes UW special. Its the only god/goddess realm where you tame a creature.

Weapons Crafter: There should be a weapons crafter there that makes a Pre-Chosen selection of Gold weapons out of the new special rare crafting material and other various materials and gold. The weapons should be expensive to craft. 15k or more. But req should minimum and all mods should be max and useful.

Quests Maybe to help fight of undead/corrupted souls that are "corrupting" it?

Brother Gilburt

I definately like the whole White marble palace idea. Right now some evil forces are lurking in the underworld. How about a 2nd wave of those forces up in dwaynas realm? Sure its unoriginal but if its Challenging enough and has some story to it, it would work out perfectly. I really want to see something happen to these evil guys. However i dont want zaishen helping dwayna. Helping balthazar is enough. Maybe dwayna templars that want you to help them?

I think that the enemies shouldnt be diseased or anything, just that they are overzealous and see you as tresspassers that should be eliminated, the whole "wrath of heaven" thing.

I just want to add in that the relationship of Dwayna & Grenth being on the opposing sides of good and evil isn't necessarily true unless you are thinking in the most broad of concepts. The 'good' in Dwayna does not fight 'evil', and similarly, 'evil' in Grenth does not spread like a black plague, those two ideas are soley reliant on the character's perception. Note how the white mantle didn't worship the gods, but what they thought they were doing was right, was also seen as horrific in the eyes of the others. The good and evil in that situation was based on perception.

The reason I recommend the disassociation (is that a word?) between dwayna/good and grenth/evil, is that the teachings of dwayna can aspire to peace but then you have her aspect of air, to which the elementalists follow, and can therefore do harm. On the other hand, grenth can be seen as a vile dominating overlord over souls, but his teachings can also involve communicating with the dead.

And to the quote above, anything 'wrath of heaven' like is more associated with balthazar. That's why smiter monks follow balthazar.

I wouldn't mind if they decide to make it so that when you enter dwayna's realm, you can choose what you do in there, either help or invade... But then you would have to share that idea amongst all the realms.

I'm think more of Grenth trying to take over Dwayna as leader of the gods. So there would be a whole undead army trying to take over (like the things from tombs). There would be another armor set AND a weapon crafter which would make truly godly monk weapons (like a 20/20 to all monk skills) which to be crafted would need 45k, 100 sapphires, 50 rubies, some steel and dust. (plus it would be customized). As a focus item there would be a +20 energy, and has: Monk spells cast/recharge instantly (10%). Price and materials should be proportionate. Instead of the avatar of Dwayna (which is busy taking care of the mortal realm) there would be an unknown mysterious character which after you complete 2 or 3 quests she gives you it would be revealed that she's no one other than Gwen who was saved by Dwayna's hand just before a crystal during the searing hit her (and finally we would get to know what became of her too). After the last quest she gives you an item to give her mother in the underworld. Just delivering this gives you 5k and 15000exp.

Scenario: Kind of pre-searing ascalon (no outposts of course) but much more beautiful and all buildings would be solid white marble.

Drops: Solid Diamond weapons (always rare)
Ruby/Sapphire weapons (rare but may be uncommon)
Enlighted weapons (common, uncommon or sometimes rare)
Dust...
Unearthly Keys (with chests around to match)
Candy cane

Pets: Faerie
Hawk
White Dragon Hatchling
Bird of Paradise

Morale boost +10%: Kick (kill) the Voice of Grenth.

Lordhelmos, that's fraking awesome!

Ty, im still working hard... soon I'll have the whole thing pattented and finished up

Enemies
I like Undivine idea of "peacefull" invaders, tormeted souls. There are plenty of Dwayna worshipers that has in multitude died in the sacking of Ascalon, the freed sacrificed souls of the "choosen" from Door of Komalie & Shirows afflicted.

perhaps a simmilar afflicted condition disease (like in Zen Daijun )
quite alot of "peacefull" foes (as in pre-seering, and shig yea) but that are swapped for more vicious if struck by the "disease"

Doupleganger party (copies party ) that guard something desireble loot.

Not to mention foes slayin by the heroes &
some bosses that are/were allied with Dwayna, that can make reaperances as vengefull souls

for example :
Monk Ssuns- Blessed of Dwayna (-from archipilagos)=>Vengfull Ssuns


npcs reapering
Kilnn Testibrie (the ghost from defend the wall), since he promised to meet the heroes



Areas

Sun & Springtime-ish(remember the wintersday conflict) , perhaps night and snow in the "corrupt" areas.

IceFires city idea, I envision the city similar to Minas Tirith (Return of the King)







The area would have blocking gates (some hidden) that requires keys & or switches to be activated (think pre-seerings northland entrance system)or particular bosses to be killed -behind the gates would be something desireble (loot ^^). Gates could lead into certain "houses" or "rooms", and not just be area dividers

quests, nonliniar several scatted smaller quests, using it to tie ups some minor loose ends

No. Just no.

One of the important points of Guild Wars is that there aren't supposed to be any 'godly' items - skill over time played and so on. There are some items that are slightly better than the norm - some greens that can't be reproduced with collector items with upgrades, and things like the difference between the Amulet of the Mists greens to regular collectors, but on the whole, these differences are fairly subtle.

The +20 energy focus item DEFINITELY has to go. Even as a staff, that's high. As a focus... could you imagine combining it with one of the Amulet of the Mists wands to get a total of 25 extra energy where most people would only have around 12. That's a big advantage.

The idea for a 20/20 for all monk skills wand - also not good. All skills for a given profession isn't much different in many builds to all spells period, and that's capped at a 10% chance. Furthermore, I don't think I've ever seen a wand that has both fast casting and fast recharge - it's usually one or the other (although that could be just that I haven't been lucky enough to find one - but while I haven't entered the UW or the FOW, I have been playing for close to a year). Having both is restricted to staves and focii.

Anyway, enough ranting. Just remember that Guild Wars is not about looking for the ultimate weapon that will give you the advantage, but that higher level PvE play is more for looks than to actually increase your character's power.

I imagine an area where healing and damage is inverted, so for every damage taken, you actually heal and every heal taken, you take damage ect.

There obviusly needs to be some wierd enviromental effects for this to be viable.

i think the main point of the area is to protect it from the invasion of grenth and balthazar(well, dwayna try to heal and preserve the land while balthazar bring destructions and death) and the traitors within..and there will be 'restore the land', 'unseal the guardian' kinda quests that need to be done within a time limit perhaps..

it will be kinda cool with the existence of artifacts like 'tears of dwayna' and there will be things like eternal sun in the realm

moreover, well, anet can add one uber unique boss in the realm that need one or two 8 persons party to kill

Right, Ill post up my full idea of what it could be later...But for now, the special thing about this place could be:

Weapon Crafter: Not "godly" weapons, but rare, perfect weapons for all proffesions, with no mods bar damage/spellcast mods (15^50, 20/20 etc), that would require a sizeable amount of money, and a certain amount of Rubies/Sapphires/New rare crafting material.

Unique title: After you say, clear the area, you get a title like "Guardian of the Holy realm", or "Keeper of Peace".

Something like this would kinda balance this area, as in FoW you have unique armours, and in UW you have the Spider, each realm should have something unique, and somewhat challenging to get.

Anyway, as I said before, more to come from me.

This all is a great idea, and dont forget to solve the mystery from Gwen .

And yes, the general theme from this piece of world should be light, white and like a heaven. And make a quest with were u can cap a white pigeon just like a spider in UW .

I really hope aNet makes this, im all trough UW and FoW, so it would be a new challenge like the Elite Missions in Cantha.

Bring up the ideas!!!

I like Thom and TopGuns approach.
-A relationship between the different gods.
-You pick a side.

UW and FoW exist for fow armor alone now. Thats a little chessy. Nothing wrong with special armor, but there was a day when highly rewarding quest was the reason to take a trip too.
I wouldnt mind in the slightest if UW and FoW was altered altogether for a broader relationship between the other gods dungeons.

Including crafting drops to get various types of special armor, quest with high exp rewards - I could see an item, just like the Amulet of Mist, given at the completion of the final quest.
It will get you a cool green weapon and this item is given as many times as you beat the final quest.
Perhaps because of this, the quest are all together lengthy and hard, or you may need more than one "amulet" (like a collectors item) to get the weapon. ...or a combonation of both.

Aside from rewards, I dont think every character needs to be on the same page when addressing these gods. Some will admire one, others will blame another. I could see robbing dwayna blind as proper motivation, especally someone alligned with Lyssa.

i really like what lorhelmos has to say, however "obelisk" is just another name for a pillar, so i think the name is a bit redundant. Ivory tower, crystal spire, etc something like that i think would be more appropriate.

I just had a vision of Mario 64...

I think it would be cool to have to "activate" certain seals to protect the realm. Also, you could have the cliche "invading army," but also make it so there are good ghosts coming in as well, and you have to distinguish between the two.

You could have four different seals placed on four elemental planes: Air, Water, Fire, and Earth. Once inside the realm, have a staging area with portals between the realms, and of course have a boss between you and the seal, and ultimately, the exit.

When all seals are activated, you allowed entry into a "treasury" of sorts. You are then ambushed by Grenth himself, or some other badass monster, and you have to make it out alive.

ALSO:

I think the staging area should take place in a Mausoleum sort of thing, with branches off into the realms, that change slightly to show which realm you are entering. For example, having the fire realm have a red hue, and alot of torches, while the water realm would have a faint blue color, with fountains etc.

Just an idea, but perhaps there should be a way to travel through each relm one after the other. Example, say you and your group went to fow. After going to Fow and completing most of the quests (and for some weird reason feel inclined to play some more) maybe there should be a quest that would link to UW. After completing that particular quest (you only have an on the spot option) you can travel to UW. Etc etc

While I really don't want to add a whole bunch of moral philosophy to this discussion, Dwayna is the God of life and air. People in most culture tend to see life as generally a moral good. If you read the initial lore, it sounds pretty much like one of your major religions. "Lay down thy weapons, and as I have done unto ye, so ye must do for your brethren. Offer protection to the weak. Give solace and shelter to those who need it. Be ye a salve to the wounded. For I am your goddess, and I will give blessings to all those who follow these teachings." Sounds a lot like the Beatitudes among other things. I really don't know any better way to define "good" beyond the golden rule and this is basically what Dwayna is saying. Grenth seems to be the god supporting an exploitation of the dead (necromancy). Most cultures tend to revere the dead and wish them to rest in peace undisturbed. While Grenth may or may not be evil, he doesn't stand within what most cultures would consider good.

The idea of warring Gods seems a bit silly to me. I feel that the gods seem to be quietly indifferent to one another. Each has a plane of awareness which are largely non-overlapping. What would concern Melandru would for the most part just concern Melandru. What they would share is an interest in human events and in that sense their interests would overlap. The fact that some monks serve both Balth and Dwayna would seem a bit conflicting from a purist point of view, but from the human perspective they share the desire for order.

I do see it as interesting to have 2 types of objectives in Dwayna's realm.
1) The ability to loot and fight against the spirits guarding the realm.
2) The ability to do quests which involve providing healing and protection which unnecessary blood shed.

Perhaps for 2, Dwayna would teleport you into the middle of some sort of brutality and your quest would be to cure the injustice. One quest could transport you into the middle of Tyria to save some tengu who are being brutalized by bandits. Another may be running to various luxon bands and cure them of disease. This would reuse existing maps making them a bit more interesting and when the quest is finished Dwayna would appear and reward you.

Summary: You enter Dwayna's realm to get transported to another instance where you would do some kind act, which could be fairly rigorous. While in the realm you could move freely without attack except for certain protected treasure rooms. Within the deepest vaults one would find green artifacts of various degrees of usefulness.

Yes quests that are kinda like the pre-seering monk quests and the Bloodstone Fens bonus, such quests would fit nicely in dwaynas realm.

I would love to see more mystery/puzzle solving quests and perhaps this would be a good place to start. Lever manipulation, certain spell portals (activated by a certain spell type), enchantment type trigers (certain ench's cause things to happen), special hard-to-get skills training, larger bosses (suggested earlier of a holy djin perhaps or glint type monsters), god collaboration bonuses (grenth, melandrus, dwayna, balthazars quests oriented bonuses that are musts to defeat a final boss?).

I think bringing a puzzle dynamic to elite levels like fow,uw and this new proposed area would draw in more players other then the typical hack and slashing stuff that continues to be the main focus of quests now. Although creating a dynamic area would be tough from a design/programming aspect, it would be awesome to see something like that to keep down on the guides that solve such areas (by posting builds and solutions) and keep it interesting for those that like to contribute to the forums but dont always want to have complete solutions to some of the dilemas. Perhaps if i have time I'll post some concept art soon.

just thought I'd comment on that. The way i see it. the gods are eachothers opposites. and in a way they are not.
Grenth vs. Balthazar - twisted evilish Vs. honorable knightly god (also ice vs fire)
Melandru vs. Lyssa - Nature vs. Chaos
Dwyanna vs Balthazar - Damage vs. healing

My point is that at any conbination of the two you can find something one one of them that is opposite form the other one.
and in any combination you will be able to find similarities.
even between dwyanna and grenth.