...and whatever comes my way.
The main human story - "centaurs are bad so kill them to death" - wrapped up in Harathi Highlands, after which rather than moving straight on to the next on-level zone I decided to see what the Durmond Priory had for me to do and followed that story thread to Lornar's Pass. I'd signed up with the Priory on the promise of ancient ruins to explore and tombs to raid, and I'm very glad I did. They may have funny ideas of what a sword should look like but the quests have delivered.
At this point I should qualify one of my previous statements. Back during my first run of Guild Wars 2 I described the personal story as being as optional as everything else. It kind of is - I can't imagine this game ever telling me I have to do it - but there's no reason not to, and it's good fun.
Mainly because the Priory quests involve Magister Sieran, and she's the best.
Too many escort quests in MMOs over the years have left me very iffy about any situation that gives me an NPC to lead around - all too often they're either so underpowered they become a liability, or so overpowered I start wondering if I even have to be there. Thankfully Sieran is more a Neverwinter companion than a SWTOR one - I'd likely notice if she wasn't there in the fights, but I don't feel overshadowed. That's incidental though, because it's the moments in between combats where she really shines.
Bubbly and enthusiastic, Sieran perfectly embodies the Let's Go On An Adventure! attitude that I find so refreshing in this game - at least in the portrayal of my character - and she's brilliantly written and voice acted. I look forward to every interacton I have with Sieran, and if anything bad happens to her ever then whomever is responsible is going to rocket to the top of my most hated enemy list.
When I've not been going on Adventures! with Sieran I've been exploring the world some more. Having finished the Priory story in Lornar's Pass I made my way east toward the Ascalonian Catacombs, taking the long way through the Shiverpeak Mountains and Ascalon. I made a few detours to unlock fast travel points, visit points of interests and vistas, and complete a few events that I happened upon along the way, but my impressions of these areas remain sketchy at best.
It's only a matter of time before I write Nord instead of Norn when talking about the Shiverpeaks, but fantasy naming conventions aside my main impression of this region is that these guys really need to learn to dress for the climate. The bare chested barbarian look is a classic of the genre, but even Conan would take one look at the weather in this place and at least put a shirt on.
Also what's with the trend in MMOs for dragon cults? Every time I ran into the Sons of Svanir I was having flashbacks to Neverwinter, and if one of them had shouted "The Cult of the Dragon will reign supreme!" I'd not have been surprised.*
*Actually it's more like "The Cult of the Dragon wi-aaargh!" most of the time. Playing a class with a hard hitting opener in Neverwinter you get used to truncated aggro shouts...
Meanwhile in Ascalon the Clarr are trying hard to out-macho their Norn neighbours. They may dress a bit more sensibly but they make up for that with surnames that Khorne Himself would consider a bit much. Strongpaw, Fierceblade, Rageaxe... the only way the Norn could compete with this would be if they all had names like Bjorn Bearfucker.
Also, are we sure the Charr weren't meant to be one of the bad guy races? Quite aside from their Blood For The Blood God names and an architectural style that starts and ends with massive iron plates - including what looks like a Death Star under construction in their capital city - the Charr quests mostly seem to revolve around killing the human inhabitants of Ascalon. After spending 40 levels protecting my fellow humans from centaur attacks it's a little jarring to be hunting them down at the behest of a pack of black metal furries, and I haven't felt quite such a narrative dissonance since the last time one of my villain characters in City of Heroes picked up a co-op mission from Vanguard in the Rikti War Zone.
As superficial as my impressions of the Nords and the Thundercats undoubtedly are my travels through their zones have at least highlighted how flexible the Guild Wars 2 questing model actually is. With no linear story to worry about I'm free to dip in and out of whatever activities I come across without having to think about the order in which I do them or whether or not I should actually complete them. I did finish up a few in passing, but the rest can wait until such times as I succumb to the lure of 100% map completion.
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