The next Guild Wars 2 expansion releases this August, and will finally answer an 18-year-old mystery

pcgamer.com:

Surprise! Guild Wars 2's fourth expansion, called Secrets of the Obscure, will release on August 22. This will be the first in the MMO's new style of smaller, more frequent expansions, which is why it's releasing so soon after last year's End of Dragons.

I'll get more into the what and why of this expansion below. But first, here are the four biggest things you need to know about what ArenaNet is cooking for this release:

With the dragon threat dealt with, Secrets of the Obscure is our first major taste at what's next for the game's story. «The adventure will begin with a climb through the Skywatch Archipelago, the first of two new maps being added to the game on release day,» says ArenaNet's press release. «Hanging high in the sky above Tyria, these floating islands are under attack from the Kryptis, a demonic race of malevolent beings streaming through instabilities in the Mists and threatening the fragile peace of the world in the wake of the defeat of the elder dragons. What follows is an epic struggle into the Demon Realm, where the fate of the world rests in the hands of the player and their secretive new allies.»

You'll note there the mention of two new maps. As announced earlier this year, Secrets of the Obscure is the first of Guild Wars 2's new style of expansion. These smaller releases will feature just two maps on release, with a third arriving as part of the free post-expansion update cycle. The test for this new style is going to be its consistency: old expansions and Living World episodes were infrequent and sporadic, often leaving the playerbase to wonder if the game was going to continue at all. Even if each new release offers less stuff, it will be a net positive if ArenaNet can keep up with a regular