14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer ArenaNet has announced that the Jotun, a race already known to fans of the first game, will return in the upcoming Guild Wars 2, although there will be quite a few changes to their behavior and their abilities.
Ree Soesbee, the main writer working on Guild Wars 2 and also in charge of keeping lore and continuity straight, stated on his own blog that the Jotun had “fallen far from their state of grace, losing command of technology and magic they once utilized, and remembering their place as kings of the land only in legend and story.”
He added, “We wanted them to be more than ‘nasty customers with big clubs,’ and the way we chose to do that was to give them a long history—but a tragic one,S’ she wrote.
“We wanted to make the ogres an old race and follow that with the Jotun, since the two species are interlinked. Giving the Jotun a history that had been lost—ruined by their own flaws—gives them a lot of depth and plays into the overall story of Guild Wars 2.”
The developers have created a new look for the Jotun, making them somewhat taller while emphasizing their intelligence.
The backstory of the Jotun will involve a once mighty race, whose past is recorded by the magical monuments they still have in their camps, which has devolved over a long period of time because they have been unable to stop the intra-race fighting.
Soesbee says that the state of the Jotun is a way of showing the player character that he needs to be ready to unite with old enemies in order to be ready for the threat posed by the Elder Dragons.
At the moment Guild Wars 2 is in beta stage and gamers can expect a launch for the MMO during the spring of this year, although an exact date has not yet been announced.