This week's article of The Scrying Pool continues expansion talks with new races!

Not including new races in the previous storyline would also make updating the dungeons easier. If they were not there during the Zhaitan story, then dungeons would only require the character’s voiceover to include the new race. Otherwise there would somehow need to include the new racial iconic in one or multiple of the original dungeons or give some reason for the absence of a race’s NPC in any of those dungeons. Setting the stage for these races having come in after the Zhaitan confrontation explains their absence in the dungeons.

Having a new race come in after the Zhaitan fight also reduces how many older personal story quests need to be updated to include the new race’s voiceovers. With this idea those 93 story quests needing updating is reduced to 34, including up through the level 50 story missions at which point the Zhaitan story starts with the attack on Claw Island and Lion’s Arch.

The Tengu is the most likely race to become playable in the near future. If you talk to Tengu NPCs in the game currently they are very closed off, but are currently deliberating whether to come out and join the other races. The sentiment given is that they are hesitant to put themselves out there before the other races can prove themselves. With the defeat of Zhaitan, it is possible that the Tengu will agree to join the other races after seeing they are capable of defeating one of the Elder Dragons.

If the defeat of Zhaitan is really the final proof the Tengu needed to join all the races, wouldn’t it be odd to have personal storylines of the Tengu participating with the other races in defeating Zhaitan? “We are going to join you because you were able to defeat Zhaitan, so now we will go help you defeat Zhaitan…”

The biggest problem with this would be newer players. If they pick the Tengu as a new race, they would be missing a big part of the story as Zhaitan wouldn’t be a part of it. While ArenaNet has said it will release an expansion as part of the free Living World updates, I don’t think that races would be included in the free part of the expansion. Maybe when the expansion comes out all the new map and skills are free, but unlocking this new race might cost 800 gems. This would help to pay for all of that armor and voice acting that would need to be updated for a new race, but it would also serve as an introductory barrier. How many new players would buy GW2 and then immediately buy the Tengu to play one as their first character? Then for added security, a little description in the gem store unlock for the new race could say something like “Does not include the Zhaitan storyline.”

So what races could we see added as playable races in GW2? There are a handful of basic requirements for a race to fall in line with the current races. A race needs its own racial city, needs to not be labeled as a minor race and needs to have a faction within the race that is at odds with other members of its race.

I have mentioned the Tengu already as being the most likely race to become playable in the future for a couple of reasons. A map included in the Ghosts of Ascalon book showed the Dominion of Winds and its encompassing wall, which Jeff Grubb had revealed to be a walled Tengu area including its own racial city. This combined with a very old interview that mentions Guild Wars 2 originally having six playable race (with the Tengu being the sixth) before being scaled back to five races for launch makes the Tengu’s return highly plausible. And with a racial city the first criterion of a playable race is met.

The second criterion doesn’t really apply for the Tengu, but against many of the other races in the game. The Quaggan, Hylek, Grawl, Ogre and Skritt are labeled as minor races. These are races that are not as advanced as the major races. Much like the conundrum I mentioned with the Tengu helping defeat Zhaitan after the fact, helping the minor race of Quaggan as a Quaggan would be equally odd. Besides, everyone is in love with baby Quaggan. Who wants to play an adult or berserk Quaggan?

More Tengu and other Races -->