The world of Orr

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.

When it takes place

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. Orr here is a frontier still being explored, not the kingdom or ruin that fans know from later in the timeline.

That choice gives the game a clean starting point. You do not need to have played the earlier games to follow it, but the location ties the whole series together.

Why Orr matters

For longtime players, Orr is one of the most loaded names in Tyria. In established lore it 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 reaches back to a time long before any of that, when Orr is a living land full of magic rather than a graveyard. Seeing the place whole, centuries ahead of its fall, is a large part of the appeal.

Lore background from the Guild Wars 2 wiki: Orr ↗, used under CC-BY-NC-SA.

The spirits of Orr

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.