As the story of this expansion unfolds, players will delve into eighteen vast dungeons to face untold enemies, search for clues about the menace facing the world, and uncover new weapons they can use in the final confrontation. These immersive, multi-level dungeons will take characters deep beneath the earth and expose them to challenges the likes of which have never been seen in any Guild Wars game to date.

Heroes are born in the crucible of conflict and tempered in the flames of battle. Their deeds shine throughout history as a beacon of hope to those who must rise to defend the world in ages to come, becoming part of the legend of the land. The legends forged within Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and the Eye of the North will not be forgotten in the future world of Guild Wars 2.

Your deeds from the original Guild Wars campaigns will be commemorated in the Eye of the North expansion in your Hall of Monuments. The Hall of Monuments will reflect the achievements you earn in Eye of the North as well as those earned in Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall. You will even be able to show off your hall to friends. Then, when Guild Wars 2 arrives, each of these monuments will correspond to special features your Guild Wars 2 characters can "inherit" from your own legendary past, giving you access to exclusive titles, companions (Heroes and pets), weapons, attire, and miniatures. These inherited items are unique: there is no other way within Guild Wars 2 to acquire them.

The Asura of the Tarnished Coast are a brilliant, if diminutive, people who dwelled, until recently, within the Depths of Tyria, where they regularly dealt with Dwarves, Dredge, and other underground races. However, a dangerous race from even deeper within the world—the Destroyers—overran their subterranean homes, forcing them to the surface. Now, the Asura must learn to survive in a hostile, strange, and all-too-brightly-lit world. Still, the surviving population is of two minds—half of them long for a return to their underground empires, while the other half believe their former lands are lost forever, that their future lies among the strange races of the surface world.

The Asura fled from the encroaching Destroyer hordes through magical gates that link the caverns of the Depths throughout Tyria. While these refugees reached the surface in a variety of locations, the bulk of the exodus came up along the Tarnished Coast, across the Sea of Sorrows from the sunken remnants of Orr. Here they found abandoned ruins high in inherent magical energy—the perfect location for a race of magical researchers to settle and continue practicing their craft. Rata Sum, the largest of these settlements, sits at the western end of the massive canyon known as Riven Earth. Many Asura meet in these magical ruins to exchange ideas and plan for the future.

The Asura brought their culture, heritage, and architectural styles with them to the surface, renovating the ruins by magical means to more closely resemble their subterranean homes. In addition to pyramids and great gates, the Asura erected geomystic generators to focus the magical energies brimming in the Tarnished Coast to further aid in their research. They also built large forges and kilns to produce prototypes and finished magical devices. This is no collection of lore-gathering scholars—the Asura are inventors and builders. And their creations tend to work more often than not.

In addition to architecture and magical devices, the Asura brought another important piece of their culture with them to Rata Sum: the game of Polymock, which they have begun spreading among the other races of the surface world with varying degrees of success. The Polymock master, an Asura named Hoff who lives in Rata Sum, is willing to instruct interested individuals in the basics of the game.

Rata Sum is also home to Mamp, the closest thing to a leader among the Asura. Mamp is a genius, like many Asura, but his genius lies in an innate ability to get other Asura to work together, putting aside rivalries and personal conflicts for the common good. Mamp's gestalt outlook allows him to pull together diverse individuals, make critical connections, and find combinations that are truly greater than the sum of their individual parts. He is less a leader than a herder of cats, which is the way most Asura like it.

The Asura are nothing if not adaptable, however, and take pride in their ability to conquer new challenges through the strength of their prodigious intellect; a pride they display exuberantly to all around them. Faced with the impending destruction of their race at the hands of the Destroyers, they have instead found new lands to tame, new races to ally with and/or manipulate, and new opportunities to seize and profit from. The Asura are, of course, confident of their inevitable success.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North Features :

• Reveals what happened in Tyria after the end of Guild Wars: Prophecies
• Introduces the Norn and Asura, which you can enlist as Heroes
• Primarily set in the dungeons and caverns north of Ascalon
• 100% max-level content
• The Hall of Monuments - Provides access to exclusive Guild Wars titles, companions, miniatures (mini-pets), armor, and weapons that are not obtainable in Guild Wars 2
• 18 new multi-level dungeons
• 150 new skills across all ten Guild Wars professions, of which 50 are special PvE-only skills
• 10 new Heroes
• 40 new armor sets across all ten Guild Wars professions

And for those looking even further down the road at Guild Wars 2, Guild Wars: Eye of the North will provide a Hall of Monuments where players' accomplishments are memorialized and eventually inherited by their Guild Wars 2 characters, unlocking exclusive items and bonuses in Guild Wars 2.

Due to hit store shelves during the 2007 holiday season, Guild Wars: Eye of the North will require at least one of the previous Guild Wars campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall) in order to play. It’s a game that will benefit long-time players of the Guild Wars games, with all of the content targeting existing Guild Wars characters.

Related articles, Click here!