Original Guild Wars game manuals

Back in the days when manuals were actually worth reading and weren't simply "press X to jump" ArenaNet released these amazing manuscripts alongside their games. While the PDFs below aren't quite as amazing as the real thing, they do offer an incredibly in-depth source of lore, history and context for Guild Wars 2.

Each manual goes into incredible detail on each of the five Human Gods and how the different nations of humans worship them, the heroes of old of whom we've likely seen easter eggs pointing towards, and in particular the all needed human perspective on the true nature of the Searing of Ascalon, and how gruelling and impossible the fight really was.

It's also worth mentioning that the Factions and Nightfall manuals probably aren't the most relevant just yet. However, and this is heavily implied in game, with our personal story currently finishing with the fall of Zhaitan we have now opened up the Sea of Sorrows once more, allowing us to venture south and regroup with our Canthan allies to strengthen our forces against the remaining Elder Dragons. Furthermore, Elona is attached to Tyria by the Crystal Desert, and as such once Kralkatorikk has fallen, it's likely we'll be venturing south there to deal with the menacing Undead overlord Palawa Joko who, if memory serves, has conquered the entire continent.

Also, Elona is the birth place of the Order of Whispers and they're fucking bad ass. Nuff' said.

Guild Wars Prophecies Manuscripts
Guild Wars Factions Manuscripts
Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts
Guild Wars Eye of the North Manuscripts