This week's article of The Scrying Pool continues expansion talks with new races!

The last criterion is where the Tengu specifically could be really interesting. Each of the five races has its own internal antagonist faction. The humans have bandits and separatists, Charr the Flame Legion and renegades, Sylvari the Nightmare Court, Asura the Inquest and Norn have the Sons of Svanir.

What will make the Tengu interesting is that they are not a single united race. The Tengu fall under four different tribes that came together to live within the Dominion of Winds. During character creation every player picks one of three options that decides the first story arc of the personal story. The Tengu could have this option where players pick which tribe they join.

But you mentioned there are four different tribes, what about the last tribe? That is where things could be interesting. The Tengu have been out of the loop while they decide whether they want to join the other races. The defeat of Zhaitan could have convinced three of the four tribes, a majority needed to pass the vote, but that fourth tribe could still be firm in its belief that the Tengu shouldn’t or doesn’t need to join the other races. Now the antagonist of the race wouldn’t be inherently evil as the other races’ antagonist factions are, but is instead an antagonist that is very pro-Tengu and anti-everyone else.

Now we have the antagonist faction that is found in the capital city much like the Sons of Svanir are, but unlike the Sons of Svanir this faction would still be respected among its peers. What is evil with being concerned with the well-being of their whole race?

But as with any antagonist, the methods might get away from their intent. All of the antagonist factions attack their own race, but with this setup the Tengu antagonists wouldn’t be attacking its own but disrupting the other races. If they can’t convince their own to not associate with the other races, maybe they can convince the other races not to trust the Tengu.

This antagonist faction also hinders some races from being playable. The Kodan for example are very peaceful and at balance with the world. I don’t see how the Kodan could have an antagonist faction. Likewise, there isn’t really a racial city for the Kodan as they live on floating icebergs in individual little communities. This would make for a great other race story, but doesn’t really hold up for having a playable character story.

As they would make a good outside the player story, I could see them becoming a big part in future Dragon and Living World stories. Spoiler: Trahearne is no longer part of the Pact. He steps down giving the reins over to the player just before the Arah story dungeon. While Trahearne wasn’t liked by many, he did do a really good job at bringing the story and pact together and guiding the story in a general direction.

The Kodan could be the Trahearne of the Jormag story. In the current generation they have what is likely the most experience with Jormag. The Norn were pushed out of the North long ago by Jormag, and any dragon minion fighting experience they have now was brought around by the Sons of Svanir. The Kodan, however, have been in the North for longer and have faced minions sent more directly from the dragon. And with Trahearne being replaced by a whole race, we could see multiple Kodan that act as our guides and won’t have the huge anti-Trahearne outcry again.

Something that would be cool but unlikely would be to get Dwarves as a playable race. The Dwarves undertook a ritual to turn themselves into stone in order to combat the Destroyers. Part of this was not aging, but also not being able to reproduce. In their lore, however, the Dwarves were originally crafted from stone by the Great Dwarf. Now that they are stone again, it would be interesting if they discovered a way to “build” more Dwarves out of the stone and players would be one of these newly crafted stone Dwarves.

To finish this off I want your opinion. I mentioned that a new race might cost something like 800 gems to unlock. Would you be willing or interested in paying 800 gems to unlock a new race on your account? Would you only buy it if it was cheaper or maybe be willing to pay even more for a new race? Comment below, tweet @ZAMOfficial or @MattstaNinja or comment on ZAM’s Facebook page. Let me know what you think.

Matt "Mattsta" Adams managed to get the Faster than Light achievement in the final days of the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon. It felt incredible to get that achievement, but I wish there was at least a title to show off that single accomplishment.

The Bazaar of the Four Winds content came out earlier this week and I've been having a lot of fun playing it. The most exciting thing this week however would have to be the surprise package I received from ArenaNet. With kites being a big theme of the new content, ArenaNet sent out some actual kites! I didn't know these were being sent out, so it was a complete surprise when the package showed up at my door.

As always, if you have a question for me or a topic you would like to see talked about here, comment below or tweet it to @MattstaNinja.