Guild Wars 3 races

The four confirmed species

ArenaNet's blog post names three: humans, asura, and kodan, with the kodan playable for the first time in the series. The fourth species is not named; the post says it is connected to the history of Orr. ArenaNet also switched its wording from playable races to playable species, and says there will be no statistical or mechanical differences between them, so the pick is about look and story, not power.

The roster can grow. ArenaNet says the game is designed with the goal of adding more playable species after launch. One line is already ruled out: the Forgotten, whose four arms and serpentine bodies would need extensive custom support.

Why the timeline matters

ArenaNet placed Guild Wars 3 in Orr, over a thousand years before the events of the original Guild Wars. Not every Guild Wars 2 race existed that far back.

The sylvari are the youngest playable race in Guild Wars 2. The first of them did not sprout from the Pale Tree until 1302 AE, more than a thousand years after this game is set.

Race and timeline background from the Guild Wars 2 wiki: Sylvari ↗ and Guild Wars 2 wiki: Playable races ↗, used under CC-BY-NC-SA.

Your role stays the same

Whichever species you pick, you play a Vaelwarden, a guardian of Orr who protects the people and spirits of the land.

The fourth species, called a month early

On July 2, Jay Oddity's video made the case that the Guild Wars 3 reveal was hiding a fourth playable race. On August 5, ArenaNet's species blog confirmed a fourth playable species. The name is still under wraps, but the count was right, and the video below is the timestamped version of the argument.

Where to follow the facts

The fourth species still has no name, and the post launch roster is open. For everything confirmed so far, see what we know, and for the setting, the world of Orr page.