Guild War Art Book
Guild War Art Book
Guild Wars Prophecies (April 2005), officially known as simply Guild Wars , is the first campaign of the Guild Wars series of Action RPGs, developed by the Seattle-based ArenaNet game developer studio, a subsidiary of South Korean game publisher NCsoft. Prophecies introduced players to the world of Guild Wars , known as Tyria , and premiered several elements that are now known as core components of the Guild Wars games.
Like all Guild Wars campaigns, Prophecies contains a co-operative role-playing portion and a competitive Player versus Player (PvP) portion. Co-operative characters may be used in the competitive portion, or new PvP-specific characters may be created at maximum level and all skills unlocked to the accounts.
Gameplay
Professions
Guild Wars Prophecies introduced the six core professions of the game. These are:
All four of the campaign-specific non-core professions ( Ritualist , Assassin , Paragon , and Dervish ) can travel to Tyria via their port city, however these professions cannot be created in Tyria.
Co-operative missions
The main component of the co-operative story in Prophecies is told through a sequence of 25 storyline missions. Each mission consists of certain objectives that have to be fulfilled by a team of four to eight player characters and player-managed NPCs. The missions take place in a variety of settings: from the desolation of burned Ascalon to the snowy peaks of the Shiverpeak Mountains , the lands of Kryta , plagued by undead, the lush forests of the Maguuma Jungle , the unforgiving Crystal Desert , and finally the hellish Ring of Fire islands . See the plot below.
Player versus Player
Prophecies introduced the core competitive modes of Guild Wars : the Random Arenas with randomly assigned teams, the Team Arenas for four-on-four team combat, a global continuously running tournament arena for teams of 8 called Heroes' Ascent , and the ranked strategic Guild Battles mode. Initially the arenas were situated in the co-operative world, but they were subsequently removed to the separate Battle Isles designed solely for PvP combat, which is accessible from every campaign in the Guild Wars sequence. See Guild Wars for more information on these forms of PvP.
Story
Player characters begin the game in the fictional idyllic kingdom of Ascalon , which serves as the tutorial content for new characters. The setting is friendly, with few aggressive monsters and a number of easily completed quests. New characters are introduced to the main protagonists of the multi-campaign Guild Wars story: the monk Mhenlo, the warrior Devona, the mage Cynn, the ranger Aidan, and the necromancer Eve. Player characters also interact with Prince Rurik (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes), the heir apparent of the kingdom. After completing a number of initial quests and selecting a primary and a secondary profession, the character is then inducted into the Ascalon Vanguard , an elite force led by the prince himself who are fighting the armies of the Charr beasts who are planning an invasion of Ascalon. During the final quest in this tutorial world, the Charr complete a ritual to unleash a rain of fire and stone upon the world, breaching Ascalon's defensive Great Wall , and reducing most of its cities to ruins. This in-game event, referred to as the Searing , transports the characters into a post-apocalyptic world of constant strife, with no way of returning to the pre-Searing areas. The mechanic employed in the Searing is often cited by ArenaNet as a primary benefit of the instanced design of Guild Wars , which allows world-changing and time-advancing stories to be told individually to player characters instead of requiring the game-world to be static and timeless.
In the post-Searing world, the initial portion of the non-tutorial plot sees the protagonists and player characters try to recover their footing against the Charr in the ruined kingdom of Ascalon. In a climactic event, Prince Rurik realizes the battle is lost, and beseeches the king to give the kingdom up and escape alive to the neighboring human kingdom of Kryta . The stalwart King Adelbern—his father—sees no merit in Rurik's plea, and banishes the prince for daring to suggest abandoning his country. A few refugees, including the protagonists and player characters, follow the now-exiled Rurik to Kryta; during the trip, Rurik is trapped and slain by the Stone Summit dwarves, a xenophobic faction who seek to control the passes through the Shiverpeak Mountains and are waging war against the other human-allied Deldrimor Dwarves .
The protagonists arrive in Kryta leaderless and attempt to set up a refugee settlement. Soon, they become involved in the war brimming between the White Mantle who govern Kryta and an army of undead who are laying waste to the Krytan countryside. During a sequence of missions, the players help the Mantle hold back the undead, for which they are rewarded by being allowed to participate in a Choosing ceremony. During the ceremony, it is revealed that the Mantle are actually murderers who worship obscure evil beings known as the Mursaat and use the souls of the slain Chosen villagers to power arcane magical devices. The protagonists quickly decide to put an end to the Mantle. This plot twist also introduces the leader of the undead and the main antagonist of the story, the Lich Lord , who in life was the vizier Khilbron of the destroyed divine kingdom of Orr . Unbeknowst to the protagonists, Khilbron is enacting an ancient prophecy, the Flameseeker Prophecy (from which the campaign derives its name), wherein the prophesied one obtains control of a race of demonic beings called the titans and becomes the ruler of Tyria. He is stymied by the Mursaat, who have sealed the portal between the titans and Tyria located in the volcano in the Ring of Fire islands. As both the players and Khilbron find themselves opposing the Mantle and their overlords, Khilbron appears to the players in a human form and conspires to use them as his pawns against the Mantle and the Mursaat.
The first step of Khilbron's plan involves the players journeying to the Crystal Desert to partake in the ritual of Ascension (as foretold in the prophecy). Ascension consists of a sequence of missions with various victory conditions that simulate the player versus player mode of the Guild Wars game, with NPCs instead of other players. One mission, for instance, requires the players to annihilate a number of other "teams" of NPCs in a simulation of deathmatch; another has them hold an altar against a siege, which is one of the victory conditions in the Hall of Heroes PvP game. The final ascension mission requires the player character to defeat its exact double, forcing players to choose their skills wisely and be mindful of their counter skills. These ascension missions are an obvious tutorial for the competitive Tomb of the Primeval Kings (renamed to "Heroes' Ascent" after Guild Wars Factions release) arena, which initially was accessible immediately after ascending. (This arena was later moved off the continent of Tyria in a prelude to the Factions release that consolidated all core PvP arenas in a separate location called the Battle Isles .)
After ascension, the players have an audience with the ancient dragon Glint, the author of the Flameseeker Prophecy. She aids them in a sequence of missions against the Mantle and the Mursaat, leading eventually to the volcano where the titans are sealed. Still beguiled by Khilbron, the players storm the Mursaat stronghold built around the volcano and release the seals on the door to the titans. Khilbron then reveals himself as the evil Lich Lord , takes command of the titans, and proceeds to attack the Tyrian capital cities. The players must defeat him in the final mission of the campaign before his titan army succeeds.
Sorrow's Furnace
Released half a year after the campaign, the free Sorrow's Furnace expansion returned players to the Shiverpeak mountains, specifically to the caverns underneath it. There, they participate in a sequence of quests with the final goal of defeating the Iron forgeman , an immense automaton used by the Stone Summit dwarves to drive their war effort. Sorrow's Furnace introduced "unique items" to Guild Wars : these are items of set stats dropped by bosses. This model was repeated and expanded in the following Factions , Nightfall and Eye of the North releases.
Gods' Realms
Prophecies also introduced two high-end dungeons that have been present in every subsequent Guild Wars release: the Fissure of Woe and the Underworld . These areas are accessible by the avatars of the in-game gods (for a small fee), and contains some of the most prestigious weapons and armor in the game series. It is, therefore, one of the most intensively farmed areas of the game.
Critical response
Guild Wars Prophecies has been well received by critics and players alike, especially for its attractive character designs. In 2005, it won several prestigious awards including IGN's Best PC RPG and GameSpy's MMORPG of the Year
Guild Wars
Art of Guild Wars 2 Hardbound Book
Art | Guild Wars 2
The Art of Guild Wars 2. The Art of Guild Wars 2 is a hardbound book packed with 128 pages of eye candy by ArenaNet's award-winning artists. The vivid collection of concept art offers ...
The Art of Guild Wars 2 | Guild Wars 2
The Art of Guild Wars 2 is a hardbound book packed with 128 pages of eye candy by ArenaNet's award-winning artists. The vivid collection of concept art offers a long-awaited glimpse ...
Guild Wars Prophecies - Guild Wars Wiki (GWW)
Guild Wars Manual: The Manuscripts: 144 pages of information (Different from Collector's Edition) Hardcover Guild Wars Art Book: The Art of Guild Wars Book 2; 72 Pages (Different ...
The Art of Guild Wars 2 - Guild Wars 2 Wiki (GW2W)
The Art of Guild Wars 2 is a 128 pages long hardbound artbook filled with ... It is a stand-alone book and will not be included in the Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition.
Art | Guild Wars 2
The Art of Guild Wars 2. The Art of Guild Wars 2 is a hardbound book packed with 128 pages of eye candy by ArenaNet's award-winning artists. The vivid collection of concept art ...
Art of Guild Wars 2
The Art of Guild Wars 2 is a hardbound book packed with 128 pages of eye candy by ArenaNet’s award-winning artists. The vivid collection of concept art offers a long-awaited ...
NCsoft Already Preparing Guild Wars 2 Art Book - guild ...
The art section of the relatively bare Guild Wars 2 website now features a listing for The Art of Guild Wars 2, a 128 page art book for a game we've only really seen a trailer of.
Guild Wars 2 Art Book Now On Sale - guild wars 2 ...
You know that splendid and poignant Guild Wars 2 art book NCsoft was handing out at PAX? Now it can be yours for a price! It's just like getting it for free, only with money!
Halloween Art Contest (2009) - Guild Wars Wiki (GWW)
Top Winners (3 awarded): One The Art of Guild Wars 2 Book, signed by members of the Guild Wars 2 development team. One randomly selected, signed Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 ...
