A Fictive Look at the Asura

With a release pending for the end of August, ArenaNet and their
respective PR companies are churning out the material for Guild Wars:
Eye of the North. This time around, we take a look at the Asura, a
diminutive race with a case of "I'm-better-than-you" and some inherent
mechanical abilities. ArenaNet has written up a fairly cohesive
background story for the small race, and we have opted to present their
latest release here at Ten Ton Hammer. Inside you'll find the story
and four screenshots for you to enjoy!


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.

New Guild Wars: Eye of the North
Screenshots:

style="width: 22px; height: 19px; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
class="vatable" border="0" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="5">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9967" title="Ratasum"> src="/image/view/9967/thumbnail"
alt="Ratasum" title="Ratasum" class="image thumbnail"
height="75" width="100"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9966" title="Ploymock"> src="/image/view/9966/thumbnail"
alt="Ploymock" title="Ploymock" class="image thumbnail"
height="75" width="100"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9965" title="Mamp"> src="/image/view/9965/thumbnail"
alt="Mamp" title="Mamp" class="image thumbnail"
height="75" width="100"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9964" title="Golem"> src="/image/view/9964/thumbnail"
alt="Golem" title="Golem" class="image thumbnail"
height="63" width="100">

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unofficial source for Guild Wars: Eye of the North href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">news and
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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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