Do I need to play PvE in order to unlock content for my PvP character?

No. The seperation of PvE and PvP characters was removed altogether in Guild Wars 2; any character can participate in both aspects of gameplay without the need to unlock content first. In Structured PvP, your character will be scaled up (or down) to match the requirements and stats and skills will be updated as well.

Skills and stats temporarily obtained in this way will be lost upon leaving Structured PvP. World versus World can be accessed shortly after character creation. In WvW, current equipment, attributes and skills will not be scaled up or down.

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I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.