Ndividual Guild Influence Be Tracked

Actual characters cannot be transferred to GW2, though you will be able to reserve character names. If you purchase Guild Wars: Eye of the North, you will have access to the Hall of Monuments. The HoM is a way to track various achievements from GW1, such as miniatures collected, prestige armor/weapons acquired, titles and accomplishments you've achieved, etc. ArenaNet has confirmed that your character in GW2 will benefit from any accomplishments you have logged with the Hall of Monument by linking your two accounts. The bonuses you can acquire are account-based, not character-based, so if GW1 character A got the Tyrian Explorer title and GW1 character B got the Canthan Explorer title, you will still get the benefit from both characters' accomplishments in GW2 as long as you've logged those accomplishments in the HoM. Happy achievement hunting! :)

Additionally, there is now a website where you can fill in your character's name and your GW2 rewards will be calculated based on what is currently in the Hall of Monuments. Calculations are based on account, so even if you fill in a certain character's name, the rewards you are receiving are based on your account as a whole. You will be able to continue adding to the HoM after GW2 releases.

Additional Source

You do not need a charter or to go to a special area, though you can create a guild by speaking to a Guild Registrar in a city.

You will need to have 1 silver in order to create a guild. Then all you need to do is open the Guild window (G by default), choose a name (31 character limit) and guild tag (an abbreviation that will show up next to your character name, up to 4 characters), and that's it.

Note that guild members don't even have to have be on the same Home World (server) as you, though you do need to be on the same Home World if you wish to play World vs. World together.

The default maximize size for a guild is 50 members. In order to increase this size, you will need to speak to a Guild Registrar. The following table from the official wiki lists the costs and upgrades as follows:

Tier   Membership Cap    Cost
 1          50         1 Silver 
 2          100        1 Silver
 3          200       10 Silver
 4          300        1 Gold
 5          400        1 Gold
 6          500        2 Gold