Character creation: which answers the story remembers

The character creation screen asks a handful of questions about your past. It reads like an optional survey, so most people click through and later wonder where the unfamiliar characters in their story came from.

Those answers branch the first act, levels 10 to 30. They cannot be redone, only replaced by a new character.

Two questions everyone gets

The profession question decides starting equipment and appearance only: a helm or shoulders for the heavy classes, a back item or headgear for engineers, which pet a ranger begins with, the style of headwear for thieves and scholars.

Click freely. That item is obsolete in ten levels.

The personality question reads “Trouble may follow, but I use my ____ to overcome it”, with Charm, Dignity or Ferocity on offer.

It sets the tone of your dialogue: charming, dignified or fierce. No plot consequences, plenty of flavour.

The race-specific questions

Every race gets three of its own, and these are the ones that shape the story.

Asura

1. College: Statics, Dynamics or Synergetics
2. First creation: VAL-A Golem, Transatmospheric Converter or Infinity Ball
3. First advisor: Bronk, Zinga, Blipp or Canni

Affects story missions and the mentor in your home instance.

Charr

1. Legion: Blood Legion, Ash Legion or Iron Legion
2. Sparring partner: Maverick, Euryale, Clawspur, Dinky or Reeva
3. What your sire was: Loyal Soldier, Sorcerous Shaman or Honorless Gladium

Affects missions, your companion character and the make-up of your warband. Charr branch the most visibly of any race.

Human

1. Upbringing: Street Rat, Commoner or Nobility
2. Greatest regret: Unknown Parents, Dead Sister or Missed Opportunity
3. Blessed deity: Dwayna, Grenth, Balthazar, Melandru, Lyssa or Kormir

Affects childhood friends, the storyline itself and the priest in your home instance.

Worth knowing: “greatest regret” carries the most weight for humans. It is the thread that unwinds into its own line at level 20.

Norn

1. The quality that matters: strength to defeat ancient foes, cunning to protect the Spirits, or intuition to guard the Mists
2. What happened at the Moot: Blacked Out, Revenge or Lost an Heirloom
3. Spirit guardian: Bear, Snow Leopard, Wolf or Raven

Affects the story and the shaman in your home instance.

Sylvari

1. Your vision in the Dream: White Stag, Green Knight or Shield of the Moon
2. Ventari’s teaching: “act with wisdom, but act”, “all things have a right to grow”, or “where life goes, so too should you”
3. Cycle of awakening: Dawn, Noon, Dusk or Night

Affects missions and how other sylvari speak to you.

What matters out of all this

Race is the biggest choice, and it is not among these questions. The first thirty levels are five separate stories. Everything else branches within yours.

The three racial questions produce roughly three variants of the early chapters. Noticeable, but not a different game.

The personality question changes nothing beyond the tone of your lines.

The profession question changes one piece of starting gear.

Three things not to do

Do not pick a race for power. Race has no effect on stats whatsoever. Every profession is open to every race. What differs is appearance, starting zone, home instance, story, and a few racial skills that see little practical use.

Do not agonise over the survey for an hour. When in doubt, take whichever option sounds more interesting. Your second character arrives sooner than you expect and can answer differently.

Do not ignore your home instance. It is your corner of the capital, and the characters from your answers turn up there. Plenty of players never visit it.

How the story itself works from there is covered separately.