Between the games
The 250 years
Guild Wars 2 begins about 250 years after the first game — long enough for the world to change beyond recognition. Here is what filled that gap, assembled from the sourced events of the interbellum, with every beat linking into the timeline.
Spoiler-aware: this page follows the story between the games, so it reveals how the first game ends. Each beat links to its full event whenever you want the detail.
How many years are between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2?
Roughly 250 years. Guild Wars 2 opens in 1325 AE; as the Guild Wars 2 Wiki puts it, “in the 250 years since the events of Guild Wars, the Elder Dragons have awoken.” The original game’s story closes around 1075 AE, and its Eye of the North epilogue (1078 AE) is the last chapter before the gap.
Eye of the North — where Guild Wars ends and the dragon age begins
The last chapter of the original game is also the first tremor of the next. Open it, then follow the gap forward.
The Great Destroyer rises beneath the north
The Shiverpeaks · Far Shiverpeaks
Earthquakes herald the Great Destroyer as the Elder Fire Dragon stirs underground; the asura surface, the Charr fall into civil war, and the dwarves undergo their Transformation.
What happened on each continent
The gap plays out in parallel across the three continents. Each moment below is a sourced event on the timeline.
Tyria — the northern continent
- 1080 AE1,590 CC1,280 DR
Ebonhawke is established
Ascalon
King Adelbern of Ascalon recalls the Ebon Vanguard, who found the Stronghold of Ebonhawke, a fortified human outpost that will outlast the kingdom itself.
- 1088 AE1,598 CC1,288 DR
Kryta unifies behind Queen Salma
Kryta
Queen Salma consolidates the Krytan throne, uniting the kingdom that will become the foremost human nation of Tyria for centuries to come.
- 1090 AE1,600 CC1,290 DR
The Foefire ends Ascalon
Ascalon
As the charr High Legions storm Ascalon City, King Adelbern unleashes the Foefire, a spell that destroys the city and binds its people as Ascalonian ghosts.
- 1105 AE1,615 CC1,305 DR
The Durmand Priory is founded
The Shiverpeaks · Shiverpeak Mountains
The Durmand Priory, an order of scholars dedicated to gathering and preserving knowledge, is established in the Shiverpeaks; New Krytan is set down as a shared written language.
- 1112 AE1,622 CC1,312 DR
The charr raise the Black Citadel
Ascalon
The charr erect the Black Citadel over the ruins of Rin, the old Ascalonian capital, making the conquered land the heart of charr power in the region.
- 1116 AE1,626 CC1,316 DR
Kalla Scorchrazor leads the charr rebellion
Ascalon
Kalla Scorchrazor leads the charr in casting down the Flame Legion's shaman caste, breaking its grip on false gods and restoring charr females to their place on the battlefield.
- 1120 AE1,630 CC1,320 DR
Primordus awakens in the depths
Central Tyria
The Elder Fire Dragon Primordus fully awakens deep beneath Tyria, forcing the remaining subterranean races to the surface and loosing its destroyer minions on the world.
- 1125 AE1,635 CC1,325 DR
The dwarves become stone
The Shiverpeaks · Shiverpeak Mountains
The last of the flesh-and-blood dwarves answer the call of the Rite of the Great Dwarf, completing their race's passage into living stone to fight Primordus's destroyers below the world.
- 1128 AE1,638 CC1,328 DR
Construction of Tarir begins
The Maguuma Jungle · Maguuma Jungle
Work begins on Tarir, the Forgotten City, built to house and protect the second scion destined to be raised against an Elder Dragon.
- 1165 AE1,675 CC1,365 DR
Jormag awakens in the north
The Shiverpeaks · Far Shiverpeaks
The Elder Ice Dragon Jormag arises beyond the Far Shiverpeaks, raising a bitter four-year blizzard and marching south on the norn, killing them by the hundreds.
- 1169 AE1,679 CC1,369 DR
The norn flee south and found Hoelbrak
The Shiverpeaks · Shiverpeak Mountains
After hundreds die fighting Jormag's forces, the norn abandon their northern homeland and migrate south, establishing the city of Hoelbrak.
- 1173 AE1,683 CC1,373 DR
Chak overrun the asura city of Rata Novus
The Maguuma Jungle · the Heart of Maguuma
Rata Novus, a hidden asura city devoted to learning how to kill the Elder Dragons, is overrun by swarming chak; nearly its entire population is killed and the survivors abandon the city.
- 1180 AE1,690 CC1,380 DR
Ventari dies by the Pale Tree, leaving the Ventari Tablet
The Maguuma Jungle · Tarnished Coast
The aged centaur Ventari, who tended the young Pale Tree with the human Ronan, dies at its roots, leaving a carved tablet of peaceful values that will become the founding philosophy of the sylvari.
- 1219 AE1,729 CC1,419 DR
Zhaitan awakens and raises drowned Orr, the Rising of Orr
Orr
The Elder Undead Dragon Zhaitan stirs and hauls sunken Orr back to the surface; the Great Tsunami floods Lion's Arch and drowns Old Kaineng, and the dead of Orr rise as Zhaitan's Risen.
- 1220 AE1,730 CC1,420 DR
Divinity's Reach is founded as Kryta's new capital
Kryta · Shaemoor
In the year after the Rising of Orr, humanity raises Divinity's Reach in the Krytan province of Shaemoor, a great walled city honoring the Six Gods that becomes the heart of the last strong human kingdom.
- 1230 AE1,740 CC1,430 DR
Cobiah Marriner refounds Lion's Arch on the ruins of the old city
Kryta
A decade after the Great Tsunami drowned it, corsairs and refugees settle the drying ruins of Lion's Arch, and Cobiah Marriner begins rebuilding it into the free port that becomes Tyria's great crossroads.
- 1302 AE1,812 CC1,502 DR
The first sylvari sprout from the Pale Tree
The Maguuma Jungle · Tarnished Coast
The Pale Tree awakens her Firstborn (the first twelve sylvari, among them Trahearne and Caithe), bringing an entirely new sapient race into Tyria, raised on the values of the Ventari Tablet.
- 1304 AE1,814 CC1,504 DR
The sylvari Secondborn awaken
The Maguuma Jungle · Tarnished Coast
Two years after the Firstborn, the Pale Tree brings forth her second generation of sylvari, the Secondborn (among them Canach and Cadeyrn, the future founder of the Nightmare Court).
- 1316 AE1,826 CC1,516 DR
Jennah is crowned Queen of Kryta
Kryta
In 1316 AE, Jennah is crowned queen of the human kingdom of Kryta, a descendant of the ancient founder-king Doric and the last known heir of its ruling dynasty.
- 1319 AE1,829 CC1,519 DR
Destiny's Edge forms and slays the Dragonspawn
The Shiverpeaks
In 1319 AE the norn huntress Eir Stegalkin unites a band of heroes into the guild Destiny's Edge, which kills the Dragonspawn, a champion of the Elder Dragon Jormag, along with several other dragon champions.
Cantha
- 1127 AE1,637 CC1,327 DR
Emperor Usoku unifies Cantha
Cantha
Emperor Usoku launches his campaign against the Kurzicks and Luxons, unifying Cantha under imperial rule and beginning a purge of non-humans and political rivals.
- ~1219 AE1,729 CC1,419 DRApproximate
Kuunavang rouses Soo-Won to shield Cantha from the Great Tsunami
Cantha
When Zhaitan's awakening raises Orr and hurls a Great Tsunami toward Cantha, the saltspray dragon Kuunavang seeks out the Water Dragon Soo-Won (the only power able to stop the tide) and together they turn back the flood. Kuunavang bonds to Soo-Won as her champion, able to hear the dragon's thoughts yet never controlled by her.
- 1310 AE1,820 CC1,510 DR
Yu Joon discovers dragonjade in Cantha
Cantha · Kaineng City
The Canthan inventor Yu Joon first discovers dragonjade (jade from the petrified Jade Sea that has stored magic for centuries) and begins the experiments that will grow into Jadetech.
Elona
- 1093 AE1,293 DR1,603 CC
Palawa Joko raids the Vabbian border
Elona · Vabbi
Palawa Joko raids along the Vabbian border to strengthen his army; a Sunspear strike force under Koss Dejarin and Lonai attacks the lich-king and fails.
- 1135 AE1,335 DR1,645 CC
Palawa Joko invades Elona
Elona
Palawa Joko launches his invasion of Elona, redirecting the River Elon to bend the land to his will; the city of Kesho is swallowed by the encroaching desert.
- 1175 AE1,375 DR1,685 CC
Elona falls to Palawa Joko and the Sunspears are destroyed
Elona
Four decades after returning to conquer Vabbi, the lich-king Palawa Joko completes his conquest of Elona, wiping out the Order of the Sunspears and sealing the land under his undead rule for a century and a half.
The threads that carry over
A few powers span the entire gap. Follow any one across its full throughline — before the games, between them, and after.
The Hall of Monuments — the account bridge
Your progress crosses the gap too. In Guild Wars: Eye of the North the Hall of Monuments records a player’s deeds; the wiki calls it “the bridge between the original Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.” Linking a Guild Wars account carries those honours into Guild Wars 2 as exclusive rewards.