Which race/story has the most ties to the story content?

[Dao Jones.6720]

When I played back at launch my first two characters in the game were an Asura and a Norn. Neither seemed to have any real tie to or investment in the core story; you get dropped in by circumstance and experience events and meet people that spring up around you with little context.

I recently came back after an 8 year break; I rolled a Sylvari, and I’m amazed by how much more cohesive the story felt. My prelude puts me on a wild hunt to fight a dragon, I met Trahearne, recovered (and wielded) Caladbolg, and even experience the story that explains why we have a magic mirror to use against Zhaitan in Orr. And while I haven’t played HoT yet, I know the Sylvari figure heavily there, and even in season 2 there are again references to my back story (you fight the shadow dragon from your dream during the alliance mission in The Grove, for example). And the repeated involvement of the Pale Tree in the core story and S2 feels more impactful when you’re not just some person holding a conversation with a glowing talking shrub you’ve never met before that day.

So it got me wondering - do your race, order, or back story choices end up impacting (or even being relevant to) things in future seasons or PoF? I know some elements from the human noble story (e.g. Lord Faren and Countess Anise) show up again in season 2/HoT, but do other races take more of a center stage in S3 - S5 and PoF?

[ugrakarma.9416]

humans by far. because gw2 "inherited" gw1 lore, and humans gods shaped gw1 a lots.

i didnt played gw1, but ppl who know both games lore can explain better, its seems gw1 is around humans(i didnt know if theres even another races to plays).

in gw2 expansions icebrood saga is the less human related lore of all. basically the only foot of human lore here is the logan/kasmeer.

im my opinion icebrood saga lore is a bit underrated,

EDIT - i misread the question lol, ignore.

[Balor.8432]

IMO Human noble that goes vigil or durmond, or slyvari that goes durmond. Those 2 have the most interactions with other npcs and lore up to icebrood.

[Fueki.4753]

If going purely by the first chapters of the personal story, it's probably Sylvari with the most ties.But that probably goes back to them being the most effective counter to Zhaitan (which always seemed like an elaborate Plats vs Zombies reference to me) and then being minions of Mordremoth.

But in the overall story, humans have the most ties to the story, possibly even more than the other four races combined.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

I'm going to have to concur, when taken in its totality the story has the strongest ties to humans, due heavily but not exclusively to humans being the playable race of gw1.

[Narcemus.1348]

To add to this Human Noble plot point, make sure that you are blessed by Balthazar. It's nothing huge, but it adds a little flavor to Path of Fire.

[Hypnowulf.7403]

I think that "there exists" is being conflated with "there exists a connection."

The only case in which this is actually true is the original storyline—because unless you played sylvari, you'd miss out on a lot of context and nuance. "Who is this Trahearne guy? Why is he the leader now? Where'd Destiny's Edge go? Why is taking credit for darn nearly everything I do?? Did Tyria get mind-taken in its sleep?"

After that, they learned their lesson. There exists focus on different races past that point, but it's nonsensical to think that you'd be missing out on anything important by playing whatever race you chose. I mean, for example, there are a few lines of dialogue in the Icebrood Saga which occur if one plays a charr, yet one wuoldn't be missing out on anything by not seeing those, really. For thoe most part, the links that exist now are largely inconsequential.

The main focus right now is Aurene. So whichever race you so choose, you're going to be the focus of the storyline as her champion. You could be a quaggan, but so long as you were her champion, the storyline revolves around the both of you. This is how they disentangled the story from being about the player races, by making it about the dragons. I'm fond of that choice, as it doesn't give unfair import to anyone.

As such, I don't think it matters who one rolls. All of the races get a look-in, perhaps least of which the asura—but I think that's because they're difficult to write for as they can be a very fourth wall-breaking presence. A lot of that has to do with how their magitech doesn't especially make a lot of sense, so it's easy to fall into the Star Trek technobabble problem where every issue is solved by gobbledegook. I do feel bad for them as I've been fond of a number of asura characters—notably Taimi, Gorrik, and Blish.

Even still, the asura do get a look-in every now and then. And due to the aforementioned factor regarding being Aurene's champion, the Commander's race isn't of great import.

In other words, feel free to roll whatever you like. You won't miss out.

[Kovac.4372]

I agree with you about the Sylvari ... but what I do is have different characters for different content .... so Sylvari for the jungle, Norn for the snowy parts ... I made a human thief (daredevil) so I can weild a spear (be a sunspear) for the Elona content etc ... I have an asura for just he asura techy stuff, like the fractals ... charr for murdering ghosts in ascalon (was so excited when icebrood saga started out charr focused)

you dont need to have a main