Prince Rurik, son of King Adelbern, is the prince of Ascalon and one of the major characters of Guild Wars: Prophecies. He is one of the first NPCs that a character meets, and player characters journey with him through the first section of the game.
Character's games and general info
He was born in Drascir, the former capital of the kingdom of Ascalon, a normally peaceful and pastoral kingdom in Tyria. The main threat was the Charr, a warlike, feline race that lived to the north of Ascalon, and in fact Drascir had fallen to the Charr several years before the events of the game. The Charr had access to powerful magics, however, and called upon many large burning crystals to rain upon the land, devastating Ascalon and turning it into a wasteland. This event is known as the Searing.
He is by nature a very optimistic and charismatic man, and is able to rally his subjects into following him easily. He is not the sort to use his subjects, though, and rather cares greatly about their welfare. He is very passionate about keeping Ascalon safe and defending his country from attacks by the Charr and trying to free his people from such atrocities.
He and his father, the king, do not always get along; Adelbern prefers to simply stay in Ascalon and build up their defenses to hold out against the Charr attacks. Rurik, however, would rather confront the Charr and forcibly make them leave Ascalon.
He had been betrothed to the Lady Althea, but the marriage never happened; not long after the Searing she had been taken by the Charr, and was tortured and brutally murdered. This act made him a more vengeful and reckless man.
While Rurik is determined, he knows when a fight is lost and it is time to retreat. While he and his soldiers, the player character among them, cleared the Nolani Academy of Charr and killed the Charr responsible for the Searing, discovered that the capital city of Rin had fallen. Adelbern wished to try to retake the city, but Rurik was more concerned about the fate of the people there, and wanted to bring them to the neighboring kingdom of Kryta, to safety. Father and son fought on the topic, which ended with Rurik exiled from Ascalon and thus tasking the player character to help him lead the refugees through the Shiverpeak Mountains to safety.
The Shiverpeaks are notorious for being harsh and inhabited by many sorts of unfriendly creatures. Rurik was able to contact the Deldrimor Dwarves, though, old allies of Ascalon, who helped the refugees make their way through the mountains. Things did not go exactly as planned, however. During the last push through the Shiverpeaks, the party had been set upon by a group of Stone Summit Dwarves, enemies of the Deldrimor who hated humans. Rurik stayed back to hold them off, instructing the player character to continue on and make sure that the refugees made it the last bit of the way to Kryta. This is successful, but at a price; Rurik is killed by Dagnar Stonepate, the Stone Summit leader.
This is not entirely the end for Prince Rurik, though. His body is been found by the Undead Lich, and reanimated back into a mockery of life. The player character and his or her party encounters him on their last trek to find and stop the Lich, and Rurik is forced to fight the party. He is aware of what he is doing, recognizing the player character, and does not want to do it, though he has no choice; as an undead he is bound to the will of the one who reanimated him. When he is defeated, he gives the player character a hint as to how to stop the Lich once and for all, and asks the player to perform one last duty to the prince – to kill him, thus releasing him from the spell and ending his misery.
Overview of powers
Rurik is a Warrior, and as such uses primarily sword attacks. Many of his powers are based more on defense or self-healing (Endure Pain, Defensive Stance, and Healing Signet), which means he has a very high endurance and is able to last a long time in a fight on his own. The two attack skills he has are Thrill of Victory and Hundred Blades. Thrill of Victory does additional damage to foes with less health, and Hundred Blades, an elite skill, does additional armor-ignoring damage to all surrounding foes with each attack for a certain amount of time.
When he is faced as Undead Prince Rurik, the skills he uses are a bit different; he still has Thrill of Victory and Hundred Blades, but lacks his usual defensive skills and instead has Deadly Riposte and Final Thrust. Deadly Riposte will block the next attack made, dealing damage and inflicting the Bleeding condition on the foe (causing health degeneration), and Final Thrust will deal extra damage; the extra damage will be doubled if the foe is under 50% health.
Equipment
As a Warrior, Rurik has the maximum armor rating available, with additional armor against physical attacks. He carries a shield, which boosts his armor even higher.
- Note: As shields only give their maximum effectiveness to someone who meets the attribute requirement on it, it is possible that Rurik does not gain the full benefit from his shield, and instead only gets half the armor rating from it. As he already has such a high armor rating as it is, though, the possible difference is fairly negligible.
- The exact type of shield he uses is random and not consistent; this is because NPCs tend to spawn with randomized weapons.
The sword he carries is a Fiery Dragon Sword which, as the name suggest, deals fire damage instead of simple physical damage. This makes it a good choice for fighting other warriors with, as it bypasses the additional armor they have against physical damage. His sword is named Sohothin, and is a relic of the Ascalon Royal Family.
Equipment info, quotes, feats
Character feats
As he is considered a boss-like NPC, he has an automatic 3 pips of health regeneration.
Notable debates
List of debates this character has been in.
Controversial debates/Debates with no clear winner
Trivia
- Rurik has a habit, in missions where you are accompanying him, of rushing ahead into mobs of enemies carelessly. While his natural health regen and defensive skills make him sturdy, this can still be dangerous, especially in Hard Mode. He is commonly refered to as "Prince Suicidal" or "Captain Suicide" because of this.
- Because of the way that the cutscene is scripted where Undead Rurik is met, he will recognize the player character, even if said character does not originate from Prophecies and hence would not have met the prince before.
- His voice actor is Robin Atkin Downes, who was also the Prince in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
- His name is from the Old Norse for "great ruler", and it is possible he was named for Prince Rurik of Novgorod.
