Of Guild Wars Lore: The Wall

The story starts with a female, hammer wielding, warrior named Devona. She, for the first time in her life, looks upon 'The Great Northern Wall' and finds encouragement (the slightest hint of hope?) in it. The Great Wall divided Ascalon, or rather what is left of it, from the outside, which is now 'ruled' by the Charr.

This first section of the story leaves open a lot of questions:
- who are the Charr and why have they invaded Ascalon?
- Is Ascalon a city, a country, or a continent?
- who built the Wall, how big is it, is there a southern, western, eastern wall, was it build as a defense against the Charr, did they have enough time to build this obviously giant defensive structure, or was it something that already existed for ages, or was the Charr's invasion anticipated?
- what role will this Devona (an ideal first level character) play?
- who are the Charr?



The continuing story provides some answers. Ascalon is a fallen kingdom. Apparently there has been an invasion by the Charr. Ascalon, or at least the walled part of it, is the last (even referred to as best...) remaining defense the kingdom has. The invasion may have taken place fairly recently, as the trees and grasses Devona sees from on top of the wall, are still black and scarred. These scarred remnants, however, may also be signs of recent siege attempts made by the Charr, or might even due to an evil so hideous, it has blighted the countryside *now that would be something to worry about*.

Though the story seems good so far (there's talk of an enemy that has invaded and a place to defend, an invader to defeat. and quite possibly a number of expansions in the form of rooting down the evil from their place of origin), there are some stylistic problems. Take for instance the following sentence: "Reaching the top, the warrior walked to the edge and peered over." I have no idea why they suddenly refer to Devona as 'the warrior'. It sounds a bit corny to me and makes me think whether she will be a character of importance to the story. Also she seems to do a lot of staring to the outside, three sentences start with what she sees outside: devastation.

Fortunately Calhaan, a captain, helps us readers a little and draws Devona's attention. Devona apparently has had some military training as she straightens up and calls the captain 'sir'. The captain asks her a question and Devona is quite forward in her answer, which shows signs of strength, courage, and hope. Devona expected 'worse'... It is hard to say what the captain is thinking during his heel-rocking. He may not very pleased with her answer and feels he should put her in place, or he thinks she might be strong enough to go outside. In any case he becomes formal in his reply and asks her to rally up a team and go out.

Again there are some questions. Who is this Devona and why is she allowed to lead a team? What tactics and strategy lie behind the captain's order? Do they simply lead small parties outside in the hope they will do some good? To me this seems strange. Then again we are talking fantasy here, and in fantasy one person is usually more capable of doing more good than a whole army. It would have made more sense to me if Devona was some kind of rogue foot soldier that thought she could stand a better chance outside the military ranks. She, after all, will probably be fighting alongside necromancers and the like, something which probably isn't what the military had in mind for recruits. The story hasn't evolved to such a point yet though, so we will just have to wait and see what the writers of Guildwars have come up with.

written by Nick Tandoori
on March 31st, 2004
Illustrations by ArenaNet