Guild Wars 3’s Asura Are Taller, Furrier, and Headed for Orr

ArenaNet has posted a new playable species spotlight for Guild Wars 3, this time focused on the asura of Orr during the Orrian golden age. The setting puts them more than a millennium before Primordus and before the Exodus of the Gods, so these aren’t quite the same asura players know from Guild Wars: Eye of the North or Guild Wars 2.

According to the official post, Guild Wars 3’s asura are still small, brilliant, argumentative, and deeply ambitious. They’re also a little taller and furrier than their later descendants, since this version of asuran society hasn’t been shaped by centuries of exclusively subterranean life. They still favor underground spaces, but they spend more time on the surface for trade, curiosity, and research.

The spotlight frames their arrival in Orr through the founding of Rata Pten, a surface outpost started by Zouelle the Archengineer and her granddaughter Niommi. After failed attempts to tunnel toward Orr from below, Niommi eventually leads the Rata Pten Expeditionary Krewe overland. The journey is rough, with heat sickness, supply problems, and hostile wildlife thinning the group before they finally reach the Vael.

That puts the asura at odds with Orr’s native forces and the Vaelwardens, who see their investigative style as reckless. The asura, naturally, see the Order of the Vael as rigid and overly reverent. Some eventually join the order to study signet artificing, a craft tied to Dwayna and Melandru that lets multiple signets bind to a single weapon, while others stick with their own krewes and institutions.

In Guild Wars 3’s present, the descendants of that expedition have spread across Orr, with Rata Pten serving as a small terranean link back to wider asuran civilization. ArenaNet also teased more reveals to come, including Vael-born spirits, competing guild interests, and a fourth playable species planned for later this year.

Further reading: Playable Species Spotlight: Asura