ARAH: PLANNING THE CITY
11 November 2008 07:23 GMT

I've been considering doing a concept render of Arah, the capital of Orr in Guild Wars. I'm not sure at this stage if I'll complete it, given that it will likely be a lot of work even after I've nailed the idea down. But logistics aside, I'm considering what the place is going to look like.

Arah is one of the few places left in Guild Wars with very little visual material available. The one piece of concept

art shows sunken structures that resemble pipe organs deep within an undersea rift. Lore indicates it may have some architectural similarities to the Temple of the Six Gods in the underworld Domain of Madness, and nomenclature hints at Arabic influences as well.

Given that the kingdom of Vabbi, which is geographically fairly close, has strong Arabian influences, and the kingdoms of Ascalon and Kryta are medieval European, it makes sense to me that Arah, "City of the Gods", might be Greek / Persian in appearance. The architecture of the

northern Middle East is quite heavily based on Greek ideas introduced by Alexander the Great's empire, but distinct from Roman designs by geographical and cultural separation.
Arah is supposed to be much older than the other human kingdoms in Guild Wars, however, and perhaps built by the pantheon themselves, so it's going to need something else thrown into the mix. A bit of modernist monolithic structure might do the trick - both giving it a distinct flavour and making it look very difficult for mere humans to construct.