Guides/Story and translations
The five races: what the choice changes and what it does not
Race has no effect on power at all. It shapes the first thirty levels of story, your starting zone and your capital. How asura, charr, humans, norn and sylvari differ.
Start with the part that causes the most doubt: race grants no advantages. Not to stats, not to skills, not to available content. All nine professions are open to all five races.
So the choice comes down to whose story you want to live through and who you want to walk among for the first thirty levels.
What race changes
- Act one of the story, levels 10 to 30. Five distinct stories rather than variations of one.
- Your starting zone, where the first fifteen levels happen.
- Your capital and your home instance, your private corner of it.
- Appearance and the options available at creation.
- Racial skills. They exist, and they see little use, since they are weaker than profession skills.
After level 30 the story moves under your order’s banner and the racial line concludes. From there, race is looks and a handful of lines of dialogue.
Asura
Capital: Rata Sum, in the Maguuma jungle.
Tiny geniuses who regard every other species as intellectually deficient and see no reason to hide it. Their magic is engineering: golems, laboratories, colleges, academic feuds.
The story opens on your first invention and the attempt to steal credit for it. The wittiest of the five if you enjoy condescension as a comic register.
Charr
Capital: Black Citadel, in Ascalon.
A military race organised into legions and warbands. Family in the usual sense does not exist: your unit raised you, and your unit is your family.
The most heavily branched first act. Your legion, your sparring partner and what your sire was all visibly change who walks beside you and what about. The story is hard-edged and unsentimental.
Human
Capital: Divinity’s Reach, in Kryta.
The race that lost everything. Humans once held most of the continent; what remains is one city-state and the memory of better days.
The most classical line: an upbringing running from street rat to nobility, lost family, gods. If you arrived from other fantasy games, this is the familiar seat.
Norn
Capital: Hoelbrak, in the Shiverpeaks.
Giant hunters pushed south by the Ice Dragon. A culture of personal glory: what matters is doing something worth a song.
The lightest of the five in mood: drinking, hunting, rivalry, animal spirits. A good pick when you would rather not have drama.
Sylvari
Capital: The Grove, in the Maguuma jungle.
The youngest race. They grew from a tree and woke a few years ago, which is why they look at the world like children who happen to be good with a sword.
The strangest and most interesting line for anyone who wants something unusual: the Dream, Ventari’s tablet, and the vision your path begins from.
How to choose
You want the most familiar fantasy story → human.
You want military drama without sentiment → charr.
You want humour and arrogance → asura.
You want lightness and adventure → norn.
You want something odd → sylvari.
Bear in mind that the first thirty levels go quickly and character slots are cheap. Most players end up with one of each eventually, purely for the stories.
What creation asks you, and what it affects, is broken down separately.