Can someone explain how the different Guild Wars expansions/sequels and base games fit together?
There are 3 stand-alone Guild Wars games, Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall. You can travel back and forth with your characters between games, but none are required to play the other. Then there is one expansion, Eye of the North. To play it, you need at least one of the stand-alone Guild Wars games. Sources: guildwars.