Loading...
Loading...
Guild Wars 3 is set in Orr, a region of Tyria. ArenaNet describes it as a vast wilderness frontier imbued with the world's magic, set over a thousand years before the events of the original Guild Wars.
The original Guild Wars is set around 1070 AE. Placing Guild Wars 3 more than a thousand years before that puts it deep in Tyria's past, long before the events either earlier game covers.
On June 11, 2026 ArenaNet published a setting deep dive on the official site. It places the story before the First Guild War, at a moment when hostilities between rival guilds are rising, and before the human gods left the world. Orr is entering a golden age: the gods entrust guilds to cultivate the land and protect its people, and magic is out of reach for most, granted only to guilds chosen by the high council and the gods.
Two story threads are named directly. ArenaNet writes that “the former God of Death has been recently usurped” and that the Order of the Vael, the guild behind the Vaelwardens, is on the back foot. In established lore the god who took the throne of death from Dhuum is Grenth, so the post puts the game close to one of the oldest events in the series timeline.
The post also describes the shape of the world itself: a version of Orr that is “more layered, more detailed, and more interconnected than anything we’ve done before,” with fewer loading screens than previous Guild Wars games. And Orr is only the start. ArenaNet says “Orr is where we’re beginning this journey, not where it ends” and plans to explore more of Tyria in this era.
Source: ArenaNet: Stepping into Ancient Orr↗. Grenth and Dhuum background from the Guild Wars 2 wiki ↗, used under CC-BY-NC-SA.
In the original Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, Orr was one of three human kingdoms, home to the holy city of Arah, before the Cataclysm of 1071 AE sank the whole kingdom beneath the sea. Over a century later the Elder Dragon Zhaitan raised it again and twisted its dead into the Risen, the corrupted enemy Guild Wars 2 players fought across the drowned ruins.
Guild Wars 3 is set long before any of that, when Orr is a living land.
Lore background from the Guild Wars 2 wiki: Orr ↗, used under CC-BY-NC-SA.
The reveal ties the land to its spirits. You play a Vaelwarden, a guardian who protects the people and the spirits of Orr, and your Seeker companion is described as a connection to those spirits as well as a mount. Read more about your role on the Vaelwarden page, or the full list of confirmed details on what we know.