A kind of GW Viking land - the land beyond Giant's Basin

Ok, I had a previous thread about gaps in the map ( click here if interested ), and one of the ideas was a land beyond the Giant's Basin.

The Giant's Basin is the one on the left of the two seas above Kryta. There is a bit of land in between the two that goes up and round. This is where the new land would be.

Now. I've been in Watchtower Coast a number of times and looked out across the sea from the beach. And there are all these watchtowers all along the coast. Somewhere, I forget where, either in-game or in the manual, it says that these watchtowers were built to defend against invasions from across the sea. So what I've been wondering: Who were the invaders? What was the land they lived in?

GW Vikings! And they sailed across the sea in their longboats to raid Kryta! And where do they live? A chilly, foresty land like Scandinavia!


(to see the big pic just click on the image...)

Ok, so, it's the land of the 'GW Vikings'(well they're not called that). The first little area coming off Nebo Terrace there 'Wallmoor County' is still in Kryta and is kinda like it with a few little buildings and a bridge. Then you reach a big ancient wall built by the ancient krytans to defend against the northeners. You go through a portal at it into 'Saerfor wood' which is like shusky suggested, all foresty a bit like some areas of pre-searing ascalon. It is barren and the road running north kinda wears out in the north. There are a few trails through the forest too. Then there is another portal and you go into 'Varlund Hills' which is the country of the 'Gw Vikings'. There is more forest, some cliffy hills, beaches, and areas of buildings. At the corner of it is a little outpost (adapted from 'Stockholm') which is a little walled town/village with a keep and port and crap. Maybe some quests can go from there.
In wallmoor county the enemies could be mostly normal krytan ones like ettins. Then in saerfor woods there could be more krytan things but also some other things, and also some 'viking' troops who would be a bit like the stone summit but they would have different armour and looks and stuff. Then in Varlund Hills there could be pretty much all 'vikings', maybe some mergoyles and skale near the beach and a few ettins.

sounds pretty cool. I think the new areas look like golf courses.

yup, looks pretty neat.

I think its pretty creative, i wouldnt mind playing with some vikings.

Was thinking the 'Vikings' could be called 'Varlundians'.

They would have a bronze helmet with horns, then their armour is ragged chainmail with brown padding. There could various types, just like Stone Summit, such as

Varlundian Berserker - Axe warrior
Varlundian Stormer - Sword warrior
Varlundian Hillman - Ranger
Varlundian Caller - Elementalist
Varlundian Darkhand - Necro
Varlundian Charger - Horse-mounted axe raider cavalry

They could roam around whole areas in sort of raiding parties, attacking Krytan NPCs, so obviously you will be rewarded if you save these NPCs.

I was also thinking, maybe you could go up to the outpost in this new land and get some quests that attack Kryta...and you can get quests from Kryta to attack them...'two-faced'

On another note, I've been thinking about actionjack's GW invasion idea. Perhaps this could link to that?
Well I mean, maybe you could go into watchtower coast and you walk to the beach and you can see loads of moving longboats, then the boats land and drop all the soldiers, and its a huge army and you must fight them?

Vikings... == Pirates ?!?!

Yes, Invasion would be cool...

mabye they could do a mission like LOTR??? on top of the wall, tons of krytan npcs, and the vikings come by ship and etc.. you know where im going. but im looking for npc's ON A MASSIVE SCALE, 50+ 100+ etc

A Helms Deep sort of idea would be neat, but goodbye freamrate!

well you would obvoisly need a good comp and internet. i was thinking this mission to be optional, liek a mini-game. for those poor people on dial up....

You say 100+ NPC's, that would mean at least, another 100 enemies fighting against them at the same time, at LEAST. Plus your party, I think it would screw many framerates.

agreed. It would probably have to be a continuous flow of coming enemies rather than 100 all on the screen in one big attack.

ever played star wars battlefront2???? its an army of 250 vs 250. but they come in 5 groups of like 10 every 5 minutes. not all at once..... And frame rates well..... cant help that now can we my advice would be get a non-crap computer

I do think it would be fun to fight these waves of Vikings as they unload from ships, then scale the walls and you can push ladders, etc etc.

Bah this thread died...o well, very nice idea king, love it

I don't think it died, and hey this post will put it back up, I think people have different interests about ideas, to do with professions, land, general in-game features, and some just relatively small issues.
-as you may have guessed my favourite is new land though I do like looking at other ideas.

the ladders bit sounds alot like Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers game, at helms deep you have to stop the ururki from getting on the wall ^^

Sounds good, but maybe in chapter 3, or like SF style area ^^

but like another thread said it could have been the Charr, but i doubt that cus charr are a recent threat to Tyria!!

I definitely don't think the invaders were the Charr, as in the lore manual it states that the Charr came over the mountains, not over the sea. And, of course, the description for these watchtowers is that they were built to defend against invaders a long time ago...the Charr only invaded in recent years!

I was hoping to see this thread revived, so...great!

It's a pretty cool idea, but to be honest, I would rather see a Norse theme for chapter 4.

GW Vikings --> Pirates --> Luxons!


Anyway, I think it'd rock to have Vikings (I'm a Dane, of course I love Vikings), but yeah, change the name. Vikings are cool, but the name Viking doesn't fit with the Guildwars theme somehow.

Glitched: Why not a Norse theme for chapter 3?

Because Chapter 3 has been in develeopment since Fall 2005

Hmm.... Sorry, but that's too creative. It is neither generic fantasy RPG, nor Asian. Those are the two big RPG worlds that are "in" these days and we mustn't stray from what works.

Seriously though, I welcome any new setting that breaks the mold a little. Vikings rock! I want the enemies to have huge-ass beards with golden braids and a scar over one eye. Heck, do they need to be enemies? I mean, they're just too awesome for me to fight. Make this a whole freaken expansion!

Vikings are getting some love too. They are ressurecting the Valkyrie Profile series for PS2.

Wall that's good. Actually there is also the new Conan MMORPG.

I'm just bitter because nobody has yet made a game themed on Celtic mythology.

No, of course they wouldn't be called Vikings

Sound good enough?

Or what about Pirates + Vikings = 'Pikings'?

Yeah but Conan wasn't a Viking. He was a Hyperborean, which roughly corresponds to Modern day Greenland, of the Cimmerian tribe. The Hyperboreans were the barbaric descendants of the Atlanteans I believe. Been awhile since I got into the Conan universe. I'd play the hell out of it though. Conan FTW!

A Norse themed Chapter would be my favourite of the entire Guild Wars line.

Personally I think a Native American Theme would be sweet. They had a lot of rich mythology to draw upon. The Anasazi and the Hopi lived in organized cities not unlike the Aztec, Olmec, Incan and Mayan civilizations. Not a lot of metal working skills there though but obsidian weapons would be pimp.

*Smacks head* Silly me, hadn't thought of that.

Now, if we had a Norse mythology-stic () themed Chapter, what sort of classes would come out of it? Berserker would be an obvious candidate for a profession but is it original? Not really.

New profession: Bearded God?

A lot of people would like to see a bard-like class, or one that focuses on enchanting allies and hexing enemies. How about a Skald? Not 100% original, I think it has been done by one other game.

Should the vikin-like raider be of human race, or another race?

I would go for altnative race... maybe a Frost Giant?

I dunno... I read in an IGN interview with someone from the Anet staff (Alex Weekes I believe), and he said that (while not implying anything at all), they wanted to break away from your average fantasy western themes and used ASIA (chapter 2), and the MIDDLE-EAST arab stylie (possible chapter 3?) as two sources of inspiration and what-not. It may have been just an example of something he pulled out of his head but maybe it had some real meaning to it...
Soz for no link since I can't be bothered to check for it.

A 'Viking-style' expansion might open up such classes as a 'Barbarian' or a 'Raider'. Perhaps. Though this idea would obviously have to be added to for a whole new Guild Wars chapter....perhaps even a whole new map of similar size to Tyria above it?

That would be "skjald" if it were to be 100% correct Viking/Scandinavian... Not important though

Anyway, the problem with a character that specializes in hexes/enchants is that we already have stuff that's very much alike that. It sounds an awful lot like a Mo/Me or Mo/N...

Barbarian isn't bad, however, it may be a tad unoriginal. There are some good ideas on how a barbarian class could be made, and I wouldn't mind seeing it. Just not all that new.

Raider sounds cool but I can't exactly imagine how a Raider would be different from a warrior. I don't quite understand the idea behind a Raider. Isn't it just a greedy warrior*?

*Which would in turn mean the same as practically all warriors in GW already...

It think it's quite obvious that a Skjald deals in 'shouts.' This would actually make a veeeery interesting bit of gameplay, as shouts are instant cast like stances (can even be activated mid-cast, I believe) while stackable and area affect.

The raider would have attributes like:

Rape - No inherent effect. Many skills associated with Rape, especially those related to dehumanizing people and having your way with them, improve as you put ranks into Rape.

Pillage - Gain + 3% more loot from killing innocents for each rank in Pillage.

Raze - No inherent effect. Many skills associated with Raze, especially burning stuff and burning other stuff, improve as you put ranks into Raze

Etc. I think it would be a pretty cool class.

Now my idea of the bard has always been not so much a hex / enchant sort of character, but rather a shouts and mass group buff sort of character with some swordplay skills. The bard in EverQuest was a freaken awesome character, for example.

ANet does not neccessarily have to be original in this regard; just balanced. In fact, if they make too many original classes, we could end up with cheese. Yes CHEESE. Original ideas can often be very lame indeed, especially if they have no real-world historical context behind them.

Now if they make a Celtic themed region, the Bard and the Druid are obvious choices. But I'm just being too hopeful.

I know this thread's been down for a while, but the mystery of what's beyond Giant's Basin was irking me, so I did a forum search to see what other people thought about it.

Vikings are a good idea, but I think the more logical answer to what's north of Giant's Basin is well, giants (hence the name!). North of that area might have been the homeland of the giants.


I thought that since the lake was called Giant's Basin, it was the main route of attack for giants that felt they needed to expand their territory (they are huge after all, they probably eat a lot and need land) and through kryta was the only way to do it.

I belive they would have tried to go through the west, which was desert. The desert would have stopped the giants since they were used to living in a tropical climate with plenty of water, UNLESS they went around the lake, which means there might be a few explorable outposts and locations left.
The eastern path was right through what would have probably been a bog, and since the giants weigh so much, trying to move an army through the terrain would make the swamp like quicksand.
Therefore, the only logical route of invasion would be accross the lake, with COLOSSAL barges, which would be pretty cool to see and explore in game if we could go there.

As they landed, I would assume the Krytans did not have a large enough army to fend off the invasion, and therefore pleaded to the Elonians for aid, who came to the rescue (yeah, like the elves in Helms Deep). This accounts for their presence in the desert. On the way to kryta, they probably had to make a pit stop in Orr, and that might be how they learned of ascension in the desert. After aiding Kryta, they fended off the giant invasion using their superior fighting force (including dervishes and paragons ), and enslaved giants because they could have been of some use. They took the giants with them to the crystal desert, and upon failing to ascend and their settlers going extinct, the giants were set free and the mystical properties of the crystal desert (I guess, maybe someone else might come up with something more logical) made them turn to necromancy, instead of remaining warriors and rangers.

After the Elonians came to aid Kryta, some giants would have probably deserted the army and gone off into isolated areas, fearing all people and attacking them. This explains the giant's presence in Kryta and why out of the three species, these are the only giants with actual armor.

After suffering defeat (or before deciding to invade Kryta), the giants probably migrated to the shiverpeaks for hope of more land, resources, and food. Upon entering the mountains, they were seen by the xenophobic Stone Summit, and enslaved. The SS took them through the mountain pass to the south, and some giants rebelled and escaped, which explains the large presence in Dreadnought's Drift and Snake Dance.

Here's a map if you didn't feel like reading all that.


I think it'd be cool if there was still a giant capital north of Giant's Basin, maybe on that little peninsula, the architecture of giants has got to be pretty awsome. But even more awsome, if the Giants have forgotten their hostile ways in isolation from everyone, giant henchmen complete with giant giant weapons and finally giant stomp on OUR side. Of course, they'd have to make a reason for us to help the giants, maybe the undead found the giants and are trying to feast on them or something...heh.

TY for reading, feel free to expand or modify the story, especially if I left out any important lore that would make any of this impossible.

I really do like this idea. In fact.. I want it... now... XD

Anyway, I would also like to see a "Jarl" profession. For those who don't know, a Jarl is like a norse nobleman, if I'm not mistaken. The pillage attribute mentioned before would also be cool! Or like, an attribute where you dealt more damage if there were more allies near you, and obviously more damage the higher the attribute got. Vikings tended to travel in packs and kill in packs, didn't they? Anyway, it'd all be cool. The options are near-limitless.

Perhaps they could have attributes that were gender specific? From what I understand, a Valkerie was a female, and Jarls were rarely women, because of the times. I may be mistaken, but it'd still be pretty interesting.

I like the Giants too.

I think it would be fun to play a addon mission, where you are to help defend a small walled village against the invasion of Giants. They would come down from the mountain, and lay seige on this little village, and throw boulder all over (which would crash the wooden wall defense and the village homes, a good use of destuctible terrain). You have to fend off their waves, escorting the villager to safty, and eventually take the fight to them by assassinating their leader.

Actionjack, so you're suggesting something more like a Sorrow's Furnace expansion, rather than a campaign 4 or 5?

*shifts his weight from side to side and moves his toe against the ground* I was kinda hopin for a whole new continent and land.