The art of crafting believable iconic characters for a video game IP is one that perhaps only a handful of MMOG developers have ever truly mastered. Yet it can be as integral to successfully immersing players in a given title as the cornerstones of combat, crafting, and character progression.

This concept is certainly not new to longtime fans of the original Guild Wars campaigns and expansion. From the very beginning you were introduced to iconic characters that formed a direct link to the destiny of your character. Even a character that you were introduced to within the first five minutes of the Prophecies campaign, Gwen, has gone from a storytelling device of lost innocence to iconic status thanks to her role in Eye of the North, and the Guild Wars Beyond storyline.

For Guild Wars 2, fans have already been introduced to the iconic characters representing each of the five playable races through promotional images and videos, but the release of Edge of Destiny marks the first time we’ve been introduced to them on a more personal level.

I recently had the opportunity to learn more about what went into shaping Guild Wars 2’s iconic characters into living, breathing entities that fans can connect with once the game is released. In the following interview, Edge of Destiny author J. Robert King gives us a deeper insight into that process, and the integral role that GW2’s iconic characters will play in the destiny of your own characters in the live game.

Ten Ton Hammer: In previous interviews you’ve noted that this isn’t the first time you’ve
had the opportunity to work with members of the ArenaNet development team, such
as Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee. For our readers who may not be familiar with your
work prior to Edge of Destiny, could you share a bit of your background as an
author?

J. Robert King:I first met Jeff Grubb in 1991, when I started work at TSR as a game editor. The
editorial department was housed in a series of cubes, set up rather like a rat's
maze. Jeff was one of the lead rats. He actually was on vacation, but a designer
told me that Jeff was a novelist and pointed out his cube. I peeked in and saw a
battered chair surrounded by avalanches of paper. When Jeff returned from
vacation, I was impressed by his tremendous energy and imagination. Whatever
project Jeff was working on - whether Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Al-Qadim, or Marvel
Superheroes - was his favorite project ever. After a five-minute conversation with
Jeff, it was your favorite project, too. That's his creative style - infectious
excess. I'm glad to report that, these twenty years later, Jeff still has that
style. He was the one who got me involved writing for Magic: The Gathering, and
he's the one who introduced me to Guild Wars.

I first met Will McDermott in the late 1990s when I was writing Time Streams and
The Thran for Magic: The Gathering. Will was head of the Duelist and wanted a
set of three short stories that told the origin of one of the main characters in
the world. We worked closely together on those stories, and Will collaborated
with an amazing artist and inker to present them in a graphic-novel format. I
was impressed with how many pies Will had his fingers in. Later, when I was a
novels editor for Wizards of the Coast, I was impressed with Will's writing. He
contributed short stories to a number of Magic anthologies I edited. With Edge
of Destiny, Will was the nexus, gathering and collating comments from the whole
group, presenting them to me, and receiving draft after draft from me. He once
again had his fingers in many pies.

I met Ree Soesbee also in the late 1990s. Wizards had just acquired the novels
license for the Legend of the Five Rings game, and I was lining up writers. We
held a writers' audition, and out of about fifty entries, I chose Ree's proposal
as one of the top three. She really knew L5R, and she could really write. Her
characters were always compelling and genuine, psychologically very convincing.
Now, a dozen years later, Ree brought that same skill to creating and fleshing
out the iconic characters for Guild Wars 2. Ree had a character arc in mind for
each of the iconics and sketched out how their agendas worked at cross-purposes.
She's always been able to see multiple perspectives and trace how each of them
is “right” while they all contradict each other. In that sense, it's not
surprising that fate dragged these iconic characters apart. What is surprising
is that fate ever drew them together in the first place.

Ten Ton Hammer: What was it like to work closely with a team on Edge of Destiny while much of
the game world that the novel is set in was still being developed? Were there
any unexpected challenges or even surprises that arose during that process?

King: The team was composed of the best world-builders and novelists I'd ever worked
with, so I was tremendously honored to collaborate with them. And what a world
they were creating! The original Guild Wars had already captured my imagination,
but Tyria reborn was even more thrilling.

Yes, of course, it was a messy process. I got in on the early stages, when the
air was exploding with ideas - some of which were my own. The great thing about
being involved that early is that you can help shape the world. The tough thing
is that it's impossible to know exactly what ideas are going to stick and what
ones are going to go poof! Creativity, by its nature, is prodigious and
productive but also profligate and prodigal. There's a lot of waste. Edge of
Destiny went through six drafts, each getting nearer and nearer the mark and
each evolving beyond the last. It was work, but the team and I were in it
together, and the final book was the result of all of our dedication.

Ten Ton Hammer: As the first detailed look at the iconic characters of Destiny’s Edge - their
motivations, disposition, and even attitudes towards the other races - what was
it like to bring these characters to life for the reader knowing that Edge of
Destiny would help influence how they’re perceived by players in Guild Wars 2?

King: Early on in the project, Jeff told me that Edge of Destiny was the story of the
Beatles. When I asked him what he meant, he said that this book was about the
coolest band ever, telling how they came together, why they were the greatest,
and what tore them apart. That's a tall order—and a huge responsibility. These
iconic characters provide the backbone for GW2, so it's crucial that each
character is well developed and interesting. Readers need to want to know these
characters and seek them out in the game.

As I said, Ree had already worked out the emotional arcs for each of the
iconics - what the person wanted, needed, feared - but I needed to create a plot
that would bring the characters together. Also, I needed to depict each of the
iconics as a true representative of one of the major races while simultaneously
being an individual. As I say - a challenge.

The team helped me. At first, my tone was too light, the characters too comical.
A revision took care of that, but it still wasn't quite working in regard to the
Rytlock-Logan connection, or the Eir-Zojja antagonism. More adjustments. Then
there was a romance to develop with a certain queen, and a set of minor
characters from all across Tyria . . .

So, yes, a whole lot of characters took their first breaths in the pages of Edge
of Destiny. But they'll be coming to life in all-new ways in Guild Wars 2.

Ten Ton Hammer: Were there any specific instances where something you’d written for Edge of
Destiny helped directly influence things players will encounter in Guild Wars 2?
If so, are there any that you could elaborate on?

Early on, the team sent me a 300-page Guild Wars 2 World Bible with the caveat
that it was a living document that would be changing multiple times over the
following months. I read this bible from cover to cover and used it to write my
original outlines. Occasionally, though, there were details that the bible
didn't cover, so I would make something up. Often when I did, the team would
respond saying, “That's not how it works” or “We'll send you another document
that explains that part.” Once, though, I invented a major point of continuity
and gritted my teeth, waiting for the response. This time, the team said, “That,
actually, really works. That fills a big hole in the story in a really
interesting and satisfying way.” And my idea became a major piece of the
continuity for the novel and the game.

I can't tell you what that part was - mostly to avoid spoilers. But it doesn't
matter which part I created. The world was built by many creators, and I am
honored to have been numbered among them. And, honestly, the world isn't truly
alive until it is out of the hands of world-builders and novelists and into the
hands of gamers. They're really the ones who make the game.

Ten Ton Hammer: In many ways Edge of Destiny closely mirrors different aspects of MMO
gameplay, such as how successfully challenges are overcome based on teamwork and
communication, or how certain enemies require a larger group to defeat. Was this
aspect of the narrative intentional written with that in mind?

King: Absolutely. When writing a game-related novel, your challenge is to capture the
best aspects of game play in a story. The fact that MMOs often require diverse
groups of heroes to band together to fight a big boss works well in a story
format.

And, to get back to Jeff's Beatles analogy, the greatness of that band lay in
the combination of talents. McCartney and Lennon both were brilliant but were
very different songwriters and performers. When they got together, the creative
conflict between them made both better. If you could get McCartney and Lennon to
agree on a song, it would be a classic. There's that same dynamic with Destiny's
Edge. Each member of the band is amazing in his or her own right, but put them
together, and the synergy of their abilities as well as the conflicts between
them make the group greater than the sum of its parts.

As to other aspects of the MMO experience, I definitely wanted to capture what's
great about the game. Bold heroes, terrible villains, epic battles, otherworldly
landscapes, ferocious monsters - they all had to be there. The novel needed to
feel like the game, only in book form.

Ten Ton Hammer: Of the iconic characters in Destiny’s Edge, or even the in-game races they
represent, did you have a clear favorite that you enjoyed writing the most, or
would want to explore further if given the chance?

King: I really like Rytlock and the new charr. In many of my novels, heroes turn out
to be villains and villains turn out to be heroes. I think that's realistic and
interesting. So now, the much-demonized charr turn out to be heroes after all.

Rytlock, specifically, is a study in contrasts. He's the most powerful, brutal,
and brash of the band, but he hates nothing more than a bully. He does not give
his trust lightly, but once it is given, it is completely given. Like all charr,
he is a pragmatist, doing whatever it takes to win, but Rytlock also has a
streak of justice in him. He's fierce and funny. He's superficial and deep. He's
like me, which is why I'd very much like to write more about him.

The other thing to remember, though, is that Guild Wars 2 is a shared world. I
didn't create these characters. The team did. Then, they leant them to me for
the space of a novel, helping me bring them to life. I'm eager to see what
others do with these characters—what the artists, game designers, and voice
actors do, but also what other novelists do. That's where I want to see these
characters - rendered by other people's hands, and out in the wide world, doing
things I never dreamed of.

Many thanks to J. Robert King for taking the time to discuss Edge of Destiny with us!

If you haven't had the chance to read it yet, a preview chapter is available, though I highly recommend picking up a copy of the book itself. For the "paper is gross and gives you cooties" crowd, Edge of Destiny is even available for your favorite e-book reader, so be sure to pick it up!