If you've played Guild Wars or its sequel, you'll know that the land Tyria is a godless place. It didn't used to be, but more than 1200 years before the events of the original 2005 MMO, the gods upped sticks and abandoned the planet, leaving the different guilds their own devices. As the series' name would suggest, those devices were largely swords and siege weapons.
In looking for a good spot in the series' timeline to set a new game that would be as alien to people who have played the games for the past 20 years as those who have never set foot in the land of Tyria, developer Arenaet have settled on the moment the gods decided to leave.
Guild Wars 3 is going to be set in the land of Orr. In Guild Wars fiction, this was a region of Tryia favoured by the gods, it's where their temples and holy cities were and after the gods left, the Orrians maintained the old buildings in the hopes that that's where the gods would return. Instead, it was the site of the first of the Guild Wars, a vast conflict between the different kingdoms of Tyria. Guild Wars 3 will start just before all this takes place.
"We've told many stories in our lore about [the gods] existing in Orr and then disappearing and leaving the world," studio head Colin Johanson told IGN during SGF. "We're setting this game 1,200 years before Guild Wars 1, just before the first Guild War breaks out, just after one of the gods has been deposed."
I'll admit, I've not played Guild Wars in about 15 years, but I do love that Arenanet's chosen to move backwards instead of forwards with their setting. Like Bioware with The Old Republic, looking for a place in its past where its history is only a scribbled note on the edge of a manuscript, rather than a fully fleshed out tome. "A huge amount of the mysteries and the stories behind the entire concept of Guild Wars all originate from this timeline," Johanson explains.
Across Guild Wars 1 and 2, Arenanet has given reasons for the gods' departure from Tyria, it's to do with an approaching fight with Elder Dragons that would leave everyone the worse for wear should it happen, so they hot foot it before it kicks off. But actually being in the world when the gods leave and every faction is left newly in the lurch should lead to some exciting quests. That should be especially true for players more deeply familiar with the goings ons of the next millennia.
Hopefully when the game goes into beta next year I can find a handy tour guide to point out the local history/future events – 'In 1200 years time, this will be the site of the Charr Invasion. Let's stop for a drink in That tavern, which will be burnt from the face of the planet in The Searing. Would you like me to take your photo in front of the spot where Kintah died?'
As well as talking about the game's setting, Johanson confirmed that Guild Wars 3 won't have a subscription fee, nor will it have a battle pass: "We think players are sick of those."