Gwen

Gwen, Pre-Searing
Gwen is one of the biggest mysteries in the game. She is a little girl that you can see behind the Resurrection Shrine on the east-side of the Ascalon City entrance. The first time you speak to her, she will give you the Gwen's Flute quest in which you need to find her lost flute. If you complete the quest she will want to follow you in your adventures. She is a very useful sidekick as she is never targeted by enemies and can heal you for 20 HP randomly when your health is down. Speak to her to have her follow you and speak to her again to have her wait. If you have any of the items you can give her, she will ask for one of them instead.

If she is following you, she will be waiting for you anytime you enter an explorable area (with the exception of the Catacombs and The Northlands) but if you log out or if you enter Ascalon City she will return to her original location.

You may also give all or any of the following gifts to Gwen to make her more attached to you:
 * Flute
 * Bought from any merchant in Pre-Searing Ascalon.
 * You can give it to her only once.
 * Her appearance will change once you give it to her, she will carry it in her hand.
 * It will make her a little happy, and she will start playing it.
 * While she is following you, she will play it once in a while when you are idle, and always when she heals you. It is currently not known which skill she uses to heal.
 * It seems that she will not heal you unless you give her the flute.
 * Small Girl's Cape
 * Bought from any merchant in Pre-Searing Ascalon.
 * You can give it to her only once.
 * Her appearance will change once you give it to her, she will be wearing it on her neck.
 * It will really boost her attachment to you.
 * Red Iris Flowers
 * Found randomly in most explorable areas in Pre-Searing Ascalon.
 * You can give her all the Red Iris Flowers that you find, she can't have enough of them. Note that if you have given her the flute and the cape she will take all the red iris flowers you have in inventory before offering the tapestry shred.
 * It will slightly increase her attachment to you. If you plan to save the 200 gold pieces the Small Girl's Cape costs, you may just give this item to her.
 * Once she gives you the Tapestry Shred there is no reason to give more to her, so you may want to sell them instead.

Once she likes you enough, she will give you the most valuable thing she has (according to her) which is the Tapestry Shred.

The fastest way to get the item is to give her the Flute, the Small Girl's Cape and two Red Iris Flowers (total cost: 214 gold pieces). Alternately, you can give her the Flute and four Red Iris Flowers (though the number of Flowers has been known to sometimes be higher).

Quests Given

 * Gwen's Flute

Location

 * Pre-Searing Ascalon
 * Lakeside County (just outside Ascalon City behind the Resurrection Shrine)

Skills used

 * Spontaneous Combustion (during the end of the beta-test)

Quotes
Gwen speaks of many things as she follows you around. All the characters she talks about are characters you meet in the game. The following are possibly all of Gwen's lines:

While following you:
 * "Are we there yet?"
 * "Are you a hero, too, like Aidan and Devona? My daddy was a great warrior, but he died when I was seven. Mommy says maybe we'll see him again after we die. Do you think that's true?"
 * "Devona is so pretty! I love her hair. Do you think my hair will be that pretty when I grow up?"
 * "Have you met my mommy? Her name is Sarah. She's the town herbalist. She helps make sick people well again."
 * "I hope this isn't too dangerous."
 * "I'm on an adventure!"
 * "Lady Althea's father is a duke. That means he's important, and he knows Prince Rurik. I'd love to meet the prince someday."
 * "Mary Malone brought us apples today. They're so lovely and ripe! Mommy wouldn't let me have one. She's saving them to bake a pie. Yummy!"
 * "Mommy says I shouldn't bother the grownups so much, but there aren't any children for me to play with. Besides, they're all so nice to me! Well, most of them are, anyway."
 * "Mr. & Mrs. Hathorn have children, but they're too young to play with me. Sometimes Mrs. Hathorn let's me hold the baby. He's so cute!"
 * "Old Mack has a bull named Bill, and he's really mean. Once I saw him chase a man and hurt him real bad. Someone ought to do something about him. If my daddy was here, he'd kill that old bull and carve him into steaks!"
 * "Prince Rurik and Lady Althea are going to get married! I can't wait! I hope I get to attend the wedding. I just love weddings!"
 * "When I grow up, I'm going to be a hero like my daddy. I'd like to be a warrior, but the mesmers' outfits are nicer, don't you think?"

While not following you:
 * "Eww! A big beetle!"
 * "I think I'm going to follow you!"
 * "I want to be an adventurer too. Can I come with you?"
 * "I wonder how many flowers it takes to fill a vase?"
 * "My daddy was an adventurer like you. Once, he let me go on an adventure with him."
 * "Someone help me!"
 * "The Red Iris Flowers are my favorite!"
 * "When I grow up I want to be just like you."
 * "You look really strong. Can you teach me anything?"
 * "That last flower had a bee on it!"
 * "Your friend found my flute. Thanks!"

During her appearance in the Beta Weekend Event:
 * "My name is Gwen. And I don't like yooou."
 * "My mother? Let me tell you about my mother."
 * "Mommy always said not to play with fire. But Mommy's dead."
 * "Why does everyone I love always die?"
 * "We need no water, let the ..."
 * "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!"
 * "Painful to live in fear, isn't it?"
 * "Hey, where are you going?"
 * "You didn't save Ascalon, now I'm gonna hurt you."
 * "Burn it to the ground! Muhahahaha!"
 * "My favorite 3 things: skipping, playing the flute, and burning towns down."
 * "Ashes, ashes, you all fall down!"
 * "Burn baby burn!"
 * "Ok, time to die."
 * "If you don't get off me, I'll burn you, ."
 * "Do you like fire, ."
 * "Eeny Meany Miney Mo, I pick you, ."
 * "It's not an easy thing to meet your maker, ."
 * "Stop touching me,, that's inappropriate behaviour."

Gwen, Post-Searing
After the Searing you can find Gwen's Broken Flute in Ascalon as a remnant of Gwen (a Tattered Girl's Cape also used to be found in Kryta, but no longer appears). Her fate, though, is unknown.

In Elona, players adventuring in Barbarous Shore will find a Preserved Red Iris Flower in an unlocked chest. All these items are marked as Quest Items.

It is believed by many players in the game that, given the above, there is some quest that has to deal with her fate after the Searing that is yet to be announced.

Upon entering the Underworld players will see the ghost of Gwen's mother, Sarah, worriedly asking other ghosts if they have seen her daughter.

In the March 2007 issue of PC Gamer magazine, there is a character with a similar hair style to Gwen that will be encountered in GW Eye of the North. A caption says that she is someone you met in Prophecies as a child. It is speculated that this is Gwen. This character is pictured with armour of mesmer overtones. Speculation that Gwen is a Mesmer is supported by her quote "When I grow up, I'm going to be a hero like my daddy. I'd like to be a warrior, but the mesmers' outfits are nicer, don't you think?". Another thing of interest is the similarity between the armor in this picture and the armor worn by the high res character rendering seen on guild wars box art, the only rendering which depicts a character not already found in game.

Trivia
At the end of one of the BWEs during the beta stage of the game, the developers at ArenaNet unleashed a destructive Gwen upon the unwary citizens of Tyria as seen in this screen capture and in this movie.

This fueled the famous wallpaper (by a player) that shows her as some creepy demon-possessed child. Some players have misconstrued this as Gwen's actual future role.

In the Japanese Website of Guild Wars, Gwen makes an appearance as "Gwen-chan", and together with Dr. Boar, teaches the basics of the game to new players.

The quotes by Gwen during the beta event include a number of pop culture references:
 * "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire" and "we don't need no water..." are likely a reference to the frequently sampled and covered 1984 hip hop song The Roof Is on Fire by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three and owing to the language in the song is probably why the second quote ends in "...".
 * "Burn baby burn!" is from the 1976 The Trammps song Disco Inferno.
 * "Ashes, ashes, you all fall down!" is clear reference to the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring O'Roses.
 * "Time to die" is Roy Batty's last line in Blade Runner.
 * "Painful to live in fear isn't it?" is another of Roy Batty's lines from Blade Runner, during his fight with Deckard.
 * "It's not an easy thing to meet your maker" is yet another of Roy Batty's lines from Blade Runner, when he meets Eldon Tyrell.
 * "My mother? Let me tell you about my mother" is also from Blade Runner, said by Leon Kowalski as he shoots Dave Holden.
 * The "stop touching me" quote may be a reference to several Orc Grunt and Peon quotes from Warcraft 2 and 3 which they say in response to being clicked on.
 * Gwen is a Welsh name which means "blessed", "white" or "light skinned". See Wikipedia's Gwen disambiguation article for a list of celebrities, fictional characters and historical figures who Gwen may be named after.