The last time, I went sight-seeing in Lion’s Arch. For this BWE, I chose Black Citadel because I haven’t seen or heard that much about this place so far. For reference, read the wiki entry for Black Citadel. As you can see, there isn’t too much information about Black Citadel. Most notable is that it is built above the ruins of Rin which was the capital of Ascalon once in a time, and you can still see the Great Northern Wall on one side of it. You do not even have to look at closely to spot the ruins as they are everywhere in the charr’s city. What surprised me, partly because I obviously had not paid attention to it prior to this BWE, is that the Black Citadel is not the capital of the charr. It is the headquarters of the Iron Legion, which explains the look of the place. I am once again impressed by ArenaNet’s art/world design team! The ruins of Rin together with the Iron Legion’s work formed this city and I couldn’t have imagined it any better if I had tried.
I have taken 285 screenshots but only 80 were uploaded now, because I seriously doubt many people (other than Rakuno, of course) would want to look at that many pictures. If you have any questions about anything you see on the screenshots, feel free to ask.
It took me quite some time to take all those screenshots, sort through them and upload them here. However, they’re not just for looking. If you want to use them (e.g., as a desktop wallpaper, for fanart, in your blog,…) feel free to do so – as long as it complies with ArenaNet’s copyright, of course, and you’re not saying it was you who took those screenshots. ;)
Nerdy Bookahs 
Thanks for the screenshots. :)
*WARNING!* Person who didn’t play Guild Wars 1, besides a few levels, babbling incoming! *WARNING!*
And I thought the Black Citadel was the charr capital too but that makes more sense sice the charr were already around back in Guild Wars 1 and if I understand things right their starting zone in Guild Wars 2 is the territory that they conquered from the humans back in the first game, no? Or some time in between or something. @_@
In any case, it makes sense they would build a city in their new conquered land instead of moving their entire capital there.
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I have no idea if they even have a capital. In GW1, I’ve only fought against them and definitely never set foot into any charr capital or major city. ^^ I do hope that we will learn a lot more about charr in the higher levels, higher level regions, etc. Especially by playing a charr, I would assume. :)
Right now, I cannot decide whether I want a charr warrior or an asura warrior. Warrior and mesmer will be my main classes, though, because those are the only ones I always go back to whenever I try out a different class. ;)
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I don’t think they do have a single capital. The Charr are really broken up into legions, each being pretty much an individual “nation”. One of the story lines established on the books (in particular Ghosts of Ascalon) and that perhaps the game will follow is the attempt to unify the legions under a single banner, which depends on acquiring an artifact that represents the Charr seat of power lost during the fall of Ascalon, which is the entire reason why the Charr are at a truce with the humans during the time of the game.
I really haven’t even looked into Charr characters on the game itself. I already picked this race for my main character, so I’m saving the Charr for release. The images look amazing, as everything on this damn game. So pretty. :D
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Which makes me wonder if there are other big towns/headquarters out there. But as I said, maybe they’re saving this for later regions in the game. :)
I left all pictures uncommented because I didn’t want to spoiler people with anything, although I don’t think there is anything to be spoilered here. Still, you never know.
I’d save everything asura-related if it was in the game… with the exception of actually playing one because I would love to do that. ;)
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Hm. Interesting information there. And yes, I would imagine other legions having their own towns and headquarters. Perhaps even some who don’t like all the idea of being allied with the other races and becoming enemies.
As a side note, I should really buy those Guild Wars 2 books. They look fun. That will have to wait for next month though. On this one I already spent a bit too much on games…
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According to… lore (I can’t recall where exactly, Charr week?) The Blood and Ash legions have their own capitols, but Iron Legion’s is most centrally located to the other races (and fits their shtick as builders and organizers). The Citadel of Flame is the Flame Legion’s capitol, and a level 70 dungeon. I for one hope we’ll be able to visit the other citadels (if they’re all called as such), but I don’t think we will.
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I’ve done a bit of research (that is, I googled and looked at the wikis) and couldn’t find anything about the other Legions’ capitals, unfortunately. But that just means that I now have another thing to look forward to when the game is released as I’m pretty certain we’ll get to hear/see more from the charr then. :)
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I’m still trying to find a way how to best publish my screenshots of this BWE with blogger. your gallery is simply amazing, beautiful shots in great quality! I realize I’ve missed a few spots now, but then who hasn’t! :) cheers!
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Thank you. :)
I have no idea how it works with blogger, but I’d just assume that there should be some functionality with pictures uploaded to your Google account. :)
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Man you sure got talent for taking photos! Some are truly amazing.
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Thank you! :)
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These are awesome shots.
I played as a Charr on the first BWE. But I never really explored The Black Citadel because I jumped right into WvWvW. I’ll go explore the place next time.
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Thank you! :)
I haven’t done much WvW yet. On the other hand, it wasn’t much fun this time because we were matched against the same server that was just so much stronger than us and the other server… the map was red all the time. Not much fun, unfortunately.
But I think I’ll wait with that until the game is released. Instead, I’m looking forward to testing more structured PvP the next time. :)
Exploration is a lot of fun, though. I always love finding little corners that I didn’t expect… :)
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You say your map was Red all the time? We were red last Saturday.
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