Melandru, Lyssa and Dwayna join the fun!

Once you have completed the game there is basically only one true challenge left: the two zones acesible from the Temple of the Ages. This was remedied slightly by the Sorrow's Furnace update, as it added several new challenges (Sorrow's Furnace quests, Titan Quests).

But that's not really enough. Sorrow's Furnace was cool, but the green items weren't exactly "unique", there's no demand for the collector items and in my opinion enemy mobs in the Furnace itself are too widespread. I've run around for 5 minutes without seeing anything alse than 3 Deep Knights and a Priest of Sorrows.

Something must be done. But seeing as you can't keep adding big explorable area's, I think the time has come to add some new non-mapped zones for Melandru, Dwayna and Lyssa. I'll be adding them one by one during the course of the day (I still need to invent the things). I'll be starting with the Dwayna one. This one is a bit less like the FoW/UW and more like Sorrow's Furnace. But you'll see that soon enough.

Why don't you just post them all now, it's not that hard to think of what they would be like. It's not that amazing, you don't have to relay it throughout the day.
By the way these things have been talked about before. People did notice that 3 statues in Temple of Ages don't have anything to go to from them.

But I'm not just going to note the basic idea, I've actually worked the entire things out (zones, baddies, drops...) and I'm writing the full versions right now.

Probably they did, the reason I started this thread in the first place is because a lot of people I spoke to think its a good idea to add those zones.

Yes, I would like to see zones from Melandru, Lyssa and Dwayna too. And I can already think of what they would be like.
I'll be interested to see your ideas, but I can't think they would be things that others could think of or have already thought of.

Take a look at the map, sonny. Take a look at the gaps. There's enough space to add at least times the current world by 1.5
Yes areas going from the gods would be cool but there's plenty of space on the map to add new areas, such as the Orr Peninsula, the area between Ascalon and the Crystal Desert, a huge area south of the Maguuma Jungle, an area north of the Maguuma Jungle, and area north of the current Kryta, and a Charr area north of Ascalon. There's enough space for like 7 more 'big explorable areas'.

I didn't mean it as in there's no room, I meant it as in they've already been claimed, by em... you, in a very good thread with loads of great ideas. I'm especially for the idea of adding a connection between the desert and ascalon. Remnants of the Orrian peninsula also sounds really cool.

And there's no Elementalist god now that I think of it...

But yeah, regardless of the rehash of an old idea...

/resigned

Elementalists have :

Balthazar - Fire
Dwayna - Air
Melandru - Earth
Grenth - Water (I think - The Lore doesn't explicity say this but hints at it)

so they don't have a unique God themselves, just whichever one fits their Elemental profile...

---

New areas for the remaining 3 would be good - be interesting to see what you come up with

I thought water was Dwayna too
Or Melandru
Whatever...
I think if I was a water ele I would prefer to worship Dwayna. Sure is fun kneeling in front of those statues. For me, anyway.

Entrance: Avatar of Dwayna in the Temple of Ages, after paying 1K.
Party size: 1-8, no henchmen allowed

The Place: Non-mapped area, upon pressing U you see it is located somewhere in the unexplorable area to the southeast of Lion’s Arch, in the narrow green strip between the Lornar’s Pass and the ocean.

Zones:
-Upper Level: temple gates and courtyard
-The Tower: fortified bastion and entrance to the subterranean levels of the temple
-The Barracks: White Mantle quarters, packed with soldiers
-The Armory: Enslaved Blacksmiths toil here day and night against their will. If you kill their guards, they’ll be happy to craft some stuff for you.
-The Inner Sanctum: chests with rare items, guarded by the elite of the Mantle priests
-Catacombs: the corpses of fallen knight’s are kept here, guarded zealously by their spirits
-Blood Chamber: the last section of the temple, deep underground. Even amongst the Mantle, few know it exists. This is where the highest clerics meet with the Unseen Ones (Mursaat).

This is where the White Mantle have their seat of power. Not too far from Kryta to lose control over it, just far enough to be safe from prying eyes. Also, it explains how the White Mantle got into the Shiverpeaks without assaulting Beacon’s Perch.

Drops:
The main replacement for globs and shards here are rubies and sapphires. These will be included in a new armor, raising their value and making them worth having.
Unseen Weaponry from the Mantle Armory will drop from the soldiers, Unseen Staffs and wands from the casters. These will appear to be made of silver, and beautifully made. Each will have the Mantle Emblem somewhere on it.
Temple Badges and Emblems will drop from all creatures. These will be worth 50g each.

The avatar of Dwayna that appears every now and then gives quests and rewards. Sole exception is the quest required for armor crafting, which a desperate blacksmith will assign to you.

Baddies are:
-Temple Guard (Ranger). Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Bows
-Temple Knight (Warrior-Swordsman): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Swords
-Temple Zealots (Warrior-Axe Mastery)
-Temple Ritualist (Necromancer-Blood Magic): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires.
-Temple Fire/Water/Earth/Air Mage (Elementalist): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Wands/Staves, rubies, sapphires.
-Temple Abbot (Monk-Smiter/Prot): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires.
-Temple Priest (Monk-Healer): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires.
-Mantle Drill Masters (Warrior-Hammer Mastery): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Hammers, rubies, sapphires.
-Mantle Armorers (warrior-swordsman): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Shields, rubies, sapphires.
-Mantle Librarians (monk-healer/smiter): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires, runes
-Guardian Spirit (Monk-protection): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires.
-Restless Spirit (Monk-smiting): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires.
-Unseen One (Mursaat-All professions): Unique drops: Badges and Emblems, keys, Unseen Staves/Wands, rubies, sapphires.

There will be unique armor here, as mentioned above. It will obviously be a 15K set. The reason I’m including it is that there is no “good” 15K armor. The Fissure one is all gothic and evil looking (especially the warrior one). This will have base color silver, emblazoned with the Mantle emblem and rubies (male) or sapphires (female).

All the zones will have a pure look/feel to them, except the Blood Chamber, which will be dark and candlelit (to illustrate that the Mantle may look honest and pure on the outside, but rotten and dark at heart). Maybe also add dark stains to the walls and sacrificial altars covered in ancient bloodstains? Even the catacombs are well lit, not by candles, but by shafts dug into the rock and leading into the open air. For the Inner Chamber, I visualise a chamber dug into the rock (underground), but right next to a cliff overlooking the ocean (thus there is a huge window instead of a wall on that side). The floor is made of shining silver, with a huge White Mantle Emblem carved into it. The armory will be a forge, but not like the Sorrow’s Furnace one. None of the fiery dark tones, more light and silver. The fires that the smiths craft in have white flames. For an idea of what the Tower looks like, picture the towers on Watchtower Coast, only bigger.

You start just outside the Temple, meaning you have to assault the gate first (see the riverside province temple for visualisation). It will have archers on the walls, and knights guarding the gate. The gates will be opened when they come out, and then closed again within a minute. The party must slip in before that, or wait until all the archers on the wall are dead for it to open again.

I’m not sure on what the quests will be. At least one will involve rescuing the blacksmiths. The last one will be to scourge the Blood Chamber and protect the Avatar of Dwayna as she restores the monuments in the temple.

That’s all for the moment on this one. I’ll be starting on the Lyssa zone soon. Another thought: How about replacing the opening in the middle of the temple by a statue of all 5 gods, entwined in a single masterpiece? For 5K it warps you to a huge air bubble created by the gods to preserve the city of Arah during the cataclysm. Enemies would be amphibious creatures (like skales). The reason it’s so expensive to go there is that if you kill the very last group of baddies, a ghostly hero spawns that drops a single celestial sigil when killed.

i think lyssa should be like a catacomb type of things with a tar river running through it, melandru a jungle of course with black drakes, and big wolf creatures, big cougar creatures, and pets to tame

Nice...

I like all of it, and Melandru should probaly have tons of new creature to tame just like Hannibel said, like a firey pheonix or a huge serpent type of creature, a tameable dragon or drake of some kind would also be very appealing...

I'm not sure. I visualised the Lyssa thing should be all trickery and illusion, with building that disappear when approached, briges over huge ravines that suddenly stop halfway, leaving you stranded and pursued by creatures. Also loaded with invisible warp points and invisible walls to frustrate players. Enemies would spawn randomly there, so you never know what you're up against. Also, there should be tricks and traps: you attack a lone Aloe and suddenly 6 giants materialise out thin air.

Melandru would obviously be a jungle, I agree with that. Pets will be there in abundance. But I'm not sure on this:
I like the idea, but unfortunately ArenaNet will never accept it. Phoenixes and Drakes aren't exactly animals are they? There's a note somewhere in the GW policy to draw a line for pets on existing/non-magical creatures. Drakes and phoenixes fall into neither category. And drakes are already in the game as enemies. Phoenixes would be cool, with the respawning and all that, but it would be hard to balance.

Thanks to both of you for suggestions/comments/feedback! I'm trying to get ArenaNet to do this stuff, so it should be as close to what Guild Wars players want as possible.

Thats a very nice post Deadlyjunk. I would love to see a new type of armor which indeed will be worth having. Spending 1M+ on fow armor that doesnt add anything special so isnt worth it..

Dude... that temple is awsome, i love you. I personally think the lyssa area place should look like this. With all the stuff you said like mirages and such.

edit* I have always wanted to dress up like a white mantle. Maybe that should be the uber temple armor.

Thanks for the comments guys!

Got a question for you benmanhaha...
Who made that painting? Very freaky... reminds me of the molten watches by Dali.

Lol I thought you said you were gonna do the others to within the day

Yeah I know. The real world wouldn't let me.

It was made by Dali. I like those abstract things.

Yeah I must say that statue of Lyssa in ToA did remind me of Dali...it's just...the body, the weirdness, the...well.

Lyssa's place would be a place with tons of really annoying traps and mesmers. Flame gysers like in one of the necro quests in presearing, super-gay ranger-mesmers, a maze(wrong turn and you are forced into a battle).
It would be in maybe a cave in the ocean in the middle of the map.

That explains a lot.

For the Lyssa thing, I'm all for traps. Maybe some other stuff like lone enemies that when attacked turn into mobs and wards that have random ele area of effect spells raining down on them (like those in the Dragon's Lair). So you'd be randomly hit by Maelstorms, Fire Storms, Earthquakes, Chain Lightinings, Deep Freezes... without them being cast by anything.

I'm having trouble with writing it in a concrete form (the Lyssa one), so I'm leaving it open to suggestions and then gonna include everything that's worthwhile. I like the trap idea! And making the whole thing look like a Dali painting would rock too...

i didnt read all that, just thought i'd mention something cool...

anyone ever seen the statue to lyssa all tangled in thorns, up past granite citadel? in a ice cave? it had all weird portals around it.

well, if theres any place to lauch a weird quest from, its there.

Main entrance will be Temple of Ages, but like the Grenth one in Lornar's Pass, there will be one statue that warps you in from an explorable area so you can go with a morale boost. It should be hard to get to, so the place you said sounds cool .

come on man i want to hear you ideas for the other areas. the dwayna one was cool but what aboot melandru?

Oops. Forgot about this thread. I'll get to work on it right away!

Good idea...it would be very cool if it actually gets into Guildwars..man i would really want to visit these areas

I really do like your Dwayna's dungeon idea. Very well-thought-out, and appropriate to the goddess to which it is linked. I'm interested in seeing what else you can come up with.

My idea for Lyssa:

Dunno if anyone here played Summoner 2 but towards the end you go into this big tree that controls the world or something, and it's all like you're walking along on branches and there are various different areas that are different-looking. If you look at the statue of Lyssa it looks all tangled and twisty. Well there you go, that's what her land will be like. There will be branches that twist and turn so you're walking upside down, walking vertically upwards or downwards, and twisting around everywhere. There could be occasional things like holes in the branch (little caverns), and perhaps even you could go inside the tree. I guess the branches would be all purple and weird, and visually confusing. There might be remnants of buildings on the branches, weird teleports, visual tricks and illusions of people (i.e. gwen, rurik, althea, etc. ahhhhh) and it would just be all confusing and scary.

GWEN AND RURIK DOUBLE TEAM ANNOYANCE!

sounds pretty cool to me.

Good Idea, I liked how you worked out the kinks. /Signed on your part, friend.

--The Shim

Deadlyjunk if you can coem up with some more ideas I will be most pleased to /sign.

/signed

ugh. was this topic not discussed in stickys for Months?

QFT

oops sorry