Guild Wars: Prophecies - The "Spellcaster Races"
There are two races in Guild Wars: Prophecies that are strangely similar in structure. These two races are presented as spellcasters, rather than physical attackers.
But let me back up and go over some of the simple structure of the game, for those who are unfamiliar with it.
The very first Guild Wars game, later subtitled "Prophecies," was released in 2005 and is a sort of online RPG. It has six classes, called "professions," because why not. Of these six, four were spellcasters: Mesmer (a sort of disruptive caster), Necromancer, Monk (the healing class—analogous to priests in other games), and Elementalists (basically a black mage). The other two professions were physically oriented professions: Rangers (bow users) and Warriors (could use swords, hammers, and axes).
Every character in the game has a profession. You can technically use two at once, a primary profession and a secondary profession, but in the base game, this wasn't really used much on enemies. In general, each major race of enemies (dwarves and humans, for example) would have a type of enemy of each profession. For example, a Stone Summit Sage would be a Dwarven Mesmer.
Anyway, the Forgotten and Mursaat are two ancient races that follow this sort of model. Except they're both spellcaster races, rather than physical attackers. So what do they do for the two physical professions of Ranger and Warrior?
Simple. They make enchanted constructs to fight for them!
The Forgotten enchant armor, while the Mursaat make and animate jade constructs.
I love this approach, because it allows these two races to indeed be strictly spellcasters, while also having physical attackers associated with them, and in a way that reinforces their prowess as spellcasters! I like this sort of approach, and I think it's very useful to keep in mind for my own world building in the future.
But let me back up and go over some of the simple structure of the game, for those who are unfamiliar with it.
The very first Guild Wars game, later subtitled "Prophecies," was released in 2005 and is a sort of online RPG. It has six classes, called "professions," because why not. Of these six, four were spellcasters: Mesmer (a sort of disruptive caster), Necromancer, Monk (the healing class—analogous to priests in other games), and Elementalists (basically a black mage). The other two professions were physically oriented professions: Rangers (bow users) and Warriors (could use swords, hammers, and axes).
Every character in the game has a profession. You can technically use two at once, a primary profession and a secondary profession, but in the base game, this wasn't really used much on enemies. In general, each major race of enemies (dwarves and humans, for example) would have a type of enemy of each profession. For example, a Stone Summit Sage would be a Dwarven Mesmer.
Anyway, the Forgotten and Mursaat are two ancient races that follow this sort of model. Except they're both spellcaster races, rather than physical attackers. So what do they do for the two physical professions of Ranger and Warrior?
Simple. They make enchanted constructs to fight for them!
The Forgotten enchant armor, while the Mursaat make and animate jade constructs.
I love this approach, because it allows these two races to indeed be strictly spellcasters, while also having physical attackers associated with them, and in a way that reinforces their prowess as spellcasters! I like this sort of approach, and I think it's very useful to keep in mind for my own world building in the future.
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