GWI: Yoh from the GWI Forums also had a question. Are there plans to collect/gain pieces of lore and other information about the GW2 world to be saved on a codex, and will they be accessible in game?

Ree: We have a couple of different answers for that. One is your personal journal. As you do things in the game and go through your story, you have a personal journal that tracks what you do, talks about the NPCs that you’ve met, and the places you’ve been and the things that you’ve done.  We also have books in the game that you can go and quest and find.  A lot like you you would quest and find elite skills, you can find people who sell them or will only give you this book if you complete a challenge in the game. Those books will be things that you can keep to read over and over. To sort of see the story that they tell; whether it be about parts of the past or monsters in the game. We want that lore to be accessible and we want it to be something that if you really liked the story, you can go click on the book again and see the story again and so forth.
GWI:  Mr. Agony also had a question. This will be the last one before we wrap up. Can you tell us about the Norn exodus and how exactly the Spirits of the Wild were involved?

Ree: Absolutely. Jormag arrived far north of the Norn and started his way down. So the Norn had some preparation that there was something awful going on and that it was coming their way. A lot of their great heroes went to go fight it and didn’t come back. Hero after hero was going and dying. The Spirits of the Wild are very invested in the Norn, more than the Human gods even. I think they have more of a one on one relationship, where as Melandru has many worshipers, many priests – the church of Melandru that is. The Spirit of Wolf feels a kinship with you because you have the Spirit of Wolf in you. So when you call on him, he gives you his wisdom.  Its a little more personal and a little less organized. So when Wolf’s hero dies, Wolf knows it, Wolf feels it. When an entire swath of Owl shaman are wiped out, Owl feels that pain in a very keen sense like its children are dying. So when those spirits looked and saw that not only their favored heroes of the Norn race, but the race was really on the verge of wiping itself out, they know the Norn are not going to flee. The Norn are just by nature not going to turn away from this challenge, because they feel like someone is going to take it down. One of us is going to be able to do it. And the moment that the Spirits realized that, that the hero is not here yet or not ready yet, the Spirits kinda have to step in or all the Norn will fall.

And so the Spirits, several of them – four of them – Snow Leopard, Raven, Wolf and Bear, said “We will lead them south to a place where they can grow strong again. Where a hero will rise among them and come and lead them against Jormag.” Some of the spirits who had taken the most damage or who was most suited to hold back Jormag, such as Owl, said “We’ll stay behind and we’ll do what we can here.”
When those spirits weren’t heard from again, it became pretty clear that they were destroyed or otherwise taken out by the dragon.

The happiness in that story is that the Norn firmly believe a hero will come. And the Spirits of the Wild that have lead them to the south and established Hoelbrak where they can learn and train, and they believe it to.

GWI:  Ree, I want to give you a big thanks for spending some time and answering a lot of questions. I think its been a pretty good amount. So again, thank you so much for your time.

Ree: It’s been fun! Thank you!

 

GWI would like to thank everyone at NCsoft and ArenaNet who helped over the course of a month to make this interview happen. Also, a very special thanks to Kefkah, Lady Gallo, Thrainesd, Bargamer, RolandDaemon, Feral Engineer, and Moosefaces for the tremendous amount of work prepping and translating the entire interview. You all seriously rock!

Bubbles says “Hi.”

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