Guild Wars 3 is set in ancient Orr, more than a thousand years before the events of the original Guild Wars, and ArenaNet has already named which peoples you can play as. Three races are locked in for launch, a fourth is being held back for a later reveal, and a few familiar faces from Tyria have not shown up at all.
Quick answer: Humans, Kodan, and Asura are confirmed playable in Guild Wars 3. A fourth launch race exists but has not been named, and no other species has been officially confirmed yet.
Confirmed playable races in Guild Wars 3
ArenaNet spelled out its plans in a post about its approach to playable species. Three races are confirmed for the character creator at launch. Each has a different history with the series.
| Race | Description | Series history |
|---|---|---|
| Human | The most numerous people in the world, playable as always | Playable in earlier games |
| Kodan | Large bear-like folk, seen in both the trailer and the concept art | New as a playable option |
| Asura | Small, highly intelligent people spotted in the corner of a released art piece | Playable since Guild Wars 2 |
Humans headline the roster because they dominate this world by sheer numbers. A Kodan appears in the reveal trailer and again in the art shared on the ArenaNet website, which points to them being selectable. The Asura is harder to spot, tucked into the edge of one concept piece as a small figure walking out of frame, but its inclusion is treated as certain.
The fourth launch race is unannounced
A fourth playable race is planned for launch, but ArenaNet has not revealed its identity. That reveal is being saved for later in the run-up to the game. Until the studio names it, any specific pick for that slot is speculation.
Note: The earlier setting matters here. Guild Wars 3 takes place roughly 1,000 to 1,200 years before the first game, so some peoples familiar from later eras may not exist yet, and others could be present that later vanished or moved on.
Races seen or absent, but not confirmed
Beyond the confirmed trio, a few details in the trailer and art dump have fueled guessing without any official backing.
- Norn: Stockier humanoids in the reveal materials may be Norn, but their presence is not confirmed.
- A fuzzy, Asura-like creature appears in the trailer. Its identity is unknown, and it has not been tied to any playable option.
- Charr and Dwarves have not appeared in any of the reveal footage or artwork so far.
Treat all of these as open questions. Only Humans, Kodan, and Asura carry ArenaNet’s confirmation.
Playing a Human in Guild Wars 3
The Guild Wars 3 narrative team has started detailing what each race is doing in this era, beginning with Humans. At this point in history, Humans have only lived in the region for about 700 years, brought here by a group of gods as an exodus from an unnamed world. They survived the Mists and now call Tyria home, with long-standing settlements such as Cantha already thriving.
Orr sits before them as an untamed frontier, home to powerful magical spirits called the Vael. Some human factions, like the Mavenwright Guild, want to seize that power and steer humanity’s future by force of ambition. As a Human, you instead join the Vaelwardens, the oldest guild in Orr, sworn to protect the Vael and their lands while acting as mediators. That places a human Vaelwarden between two pulls at once, the drive to push your people forward and the oath to guard Orr’s magic.
This all unfolds long before Humans become the dominant power in Tyria and, much later, an empire in decline. It sets up the central conflict the game is named for, with rival guilds clashing over whether to shield or exploit the Vael.
When more races will be confirmed
Guild Wars 3 was revealed at Summer Game Fest 2026 and is coming to PC and PlayStation 5, with the first beta planned for fall 2027 and no full release window announced. The beta is the earliest realistic point for hands-on confirmation of the character creator, though an official feature spotlight or updated Steam page copy could name more options before then. For now, three races are set, one is a deliberate mystery, and everything else remains guesswork until ArenaNet says otherwise.
