Greetings, Tyrians! I'm Aaron Linde, narrative lead on Guild Wars 3, with a curious question for you: What do you suppose Tyria might look like without the rampaging Elder Dragons?  After almost fourteen years of Guild Wars 2, that might be difficult to picture. But the annals of Tyrian history offer some glimpses of what a world might be like, and few of those glimpses are as striking as the Orrian golden age.

In this mythic era, the Elder Dragons' slumber is at its deepest point in their long cycle, their endless hunger for the magic flowing through Tyria silent and still. A season of radiance is spreading throughout the world, but nowhere as vividly as Orr, where magic flowed so richly and abundantly that it drew the human gods from the Mists to Tyria. A place where magic itself, unbothered by its great predators and free to do as it willed, bloomed into its freest and grandest expression: a wondrous ecosystem of magical spirits, unique to this period of Tyrian history, known as the Vael.

In Guild Wars 3, players take up the banner of the Vaelwardens, the protectors of this panoply of majestic spirits and the magical wilds of Orr they inhabit. Years before the gift of magic would be given to the mortal species of Tyria, the Vaelwardens—sanctioned by the human gods in support of their charge—are renowned in this period for their artificing and mastery of signets, small gems containing fixed expressions of magic. Equipped with this power and sharpened by their close bonds with the spirits of the Vael, the order finds itself teetering over the brink of ruin at Guild Wars 3's start, struggling to keep a foothold in a world that is rapidly and irrevocably changing.

Today, we want to introduce you to the guild at the heart of Guild Wars 3: who the Vaelwardens are, where they came from, and why their fading vigil over the wilds of Orr makes them the perfect lens through which to experience this fabled era.

A Cause Worth Dying For

The Order of the Vael holds a distinction as the first guild ever chartered in Orr. Its origins trace to the earliest days of humanity's arrival in the region, when catastrophe tore a deep and lasting wound in Orr's magical ecology—the first great loss suffered by the Vael since its emergence.

A group devoted to the Vael spirits, those who would become the order's founding members, met with the human gods hoping to stave off further ruin. They found unexpected allies in the goddesses Melandru and Dwayna, who, moved by the Vael's suffering, offered to sanction the creation of an order that could assure the Vael's protection in perpetuity. To prove their commitment to this cause, Melandru and Dwayna gifted the fledgling guild with the capacity to create and refine signets, empowering the order with the strength to fulfill its purpose.

And so it was that the use of magic, previously held exclusively by the gods and Tyria's elder species, passed for the first time into mortal hands. The Vaelwardens were the first to be blessed in this way, but they would not be the last, and as settlement and development of Orr proceeded, more and more came to Orr seeking to make their fortunes and to wield this strange and incredible power for their own benefit.

Magic Spreads in a Rapidly Changing Orr

The Vaelwardens made their home in the eastern Tughra Basin region of Orr and began the long watch over the Vael—a vigil that would stretch more than one hundred and fifty years by the time Guild Wars 3 begins.

Those years drew settlers and fortune-seekers from all corners of Tyria, lured by the immense opportunity gathering in Orr. So saturated with magic was the land that it crystallized in the soil, condensed in flora, and created all manner of exploitable and valuable resources to be extracted. As more guilds were given access to their manufacture, signets proliferated as the decades passed, and magic became a coveted commodity—signets were bought and sold, pilfered and stolen, and trafficked through black markets reaching across all of Tyria. Meanwhile, against this backdrop of sweeping change, the Vaelwardens' mission began to falter. The Vael took wound after grievous wound, among them the deaths of several of its elders and ancients—the greatest and most wondrous of its creatures. Insular by nature and slow to open themselves to the wider world, the order entered a long decline, their numbers thinning year by year.

For their part, the human gods seemed content to leave the affairs of greater Orr to the guilds as they dealt with loftier matters in their high city of Arah. Recent events, such as the deposing of the erstwhile god of death, Dhuum, highlight this to a significant degree; the gods' high council sessions, where they meet with the envoys of the empowered guilds of Orr, have become rarer with every passing year. And though Melandru and Dwayna emphatically and enthusiastically agreed to the formation of the Vaelwardens, the order's esteem among the pantheon—and recognition of the Vael's importance—was far from universal.

By the start of Guild Wars 3, the Vaelwardens have been pushed to the margins, seen by ordinary Orrians and many of the guilds as aloof zealots clinging to a cause that died decades ago, obstructing the progress that some claim will uplift humanity and every sentient species of Orr into a grand, glorious, and advanced future. Foremost among those rivals are the Mavenwrights, a guild of industrialists who hold that the magical wilds exist to be exploited—a birthright, as they see it, of all Tyrians.

Raising the Banner

So, then: What does it mean to take up the banner of the Vaelwardens? As a Vaelwarden, you are not a chosen one, anointed by destiny to save the world—you are the last of an order that the world has written off, defending and preserving spirits that few still believe are worth saving.

You and those like you are all that stand between the fading majesty of the Vael and the forces eager to strip it for parts, exploring a world that is only just beginning to understand the revolutionary power it represents. You'll wield an arsenal of magical signets and deepen your relationships with spirits like your Seeker (more on them later!) to see your charge fulfilled. You'll adventure the legendary lands of Orr at the absolute height of its splendor, challenge the encroaching forces that seek to dominate it, and determine the course of your guild's future in an uncertain and unsteady time. And you'll fight in service of the Vael and its wondrous spirits, who have no one else to stand in their defense.

The Order of the Vael's banner—a bit tattered and dirty, but still intact—awaits someone with the conviction to lift it. We think that someone is you. We cannot wait for you to see this vision of Tyria, these staggeringly beautiful lands of Orr, and this tumultuous, precarious period of its history through the eyes of the Vaelwardens.