Help with Overarching Lore

[elchancho.3759]

So I have played GW on and off since very first GW release. I was barely a teen in those days and didn't think much of the story and lore. I was always more about the combat and action while skipping audio and scenes. I'm nearing 30yrs now and have a deeper appreciation for that sort of thing and want to understand more.

 

What is the best way to get a good understanding of the overarching story of the GW world? Not even just the stories we have played through from gw1 to EoD, but the basis that all those stories rest on.

[Randulf.7614]

The GW1 wiki and by association the GW2 wiki, is the perfect site to browse pretty much everything you need lifted from in game sources. There are plenty of intro pages, links to follow, timelines, history of the world etc to fill you in as little or as much as you want.

There are also plenty of streamers out there who do recaps, but I don’t watch them so can’t give any first hand recommendations.

 

There are also 3 tie in novels to GW2

- Edge of Destiny. Prob the least well written, but the prequel to the game and sets up the Dragons and the original story characters. It’s fun if nothing else

- Ghosts of Ascalon. Prob the best written one and a fantastic novel to explore Ascalonian lore

- Sea of Sorrows. The least fun to read imo due to the dreadfully dull protagonist, but some good lore on LA and set ups for the rise of Zhaitan and after.

 

Also, if you own any of the original GW1 boxes, the instruction manuals contained some decent lore background if I remember correctly

Edited October 8, 2021 by Randulf.7614

[The Greyhawk.9107]

Gunna be honest, OP, that's a little bit of a tall order to put into a mere forum post.  Even a TL:DR is going to be LONG.  There's also little bit of contradictory story threads, which further complicates things.  Randulf recommendation might be the best, read through the lore pages on the GW1 and GW2 wikis to get the most comprehensive info on the story of Guild Wars, and if you have the time read the books.  Personally I wouldn't bother with the streamers, wiki's faster and more accurate, plus WOODEN POTATOES IS A FALSE GOD.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Best source is always going to be "play the game and read all the dialogue", followed by "browse the wiki". But for those who don't want to track down and piece together things old-school, here's a list for the tip of the iceberg that is GW's lore:

GW1 Lore:
* https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/History_of_Tyria
* https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/An_Empire_Divided
* https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/History_of_Elona
* https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stories (some short stories made for the first campaign, most occur concurrently with the story)
* https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline (this covers the main storylines of GW1)
GW2 Lore:
* https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Movement_of_the_World
* https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cultural_Diffusion_in_Contemporary_Kryta
* Main racial lore:
* * https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/That_Old_College_Try (Asura)
* * https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Ecology_of_the_Charr (Charr)
* * https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Legions_of_the_Charr (Charr)
* * https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Line_of_Duty_–_The_Three_Military_Orders_of_Kryta (Humans)
* * https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/A_Spirit_of_Legend (Norn)
* * https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dream_and_Nightmare (Sylvari)
* https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Short_story (short stories made by ANet for GW2, most take place leading up to the now unavailable Season 1 content, which happened after the core personal story)

And at the bottom of each of these pages you'll find additional links to more lore-centric documents form ANet. These typically serve as introductions to the various plots, however, so they are as said, the tip of the iceberg.