The War in Kryta
The War in Kryta sits at an interesting point in Guild Wars’ life: it’s both a continuation of the original Prophecies storyline and a bridge towards the world we see later in Guild Wars 2. It arrived as one of the Guild Wars Beyond updates, set after the defeat of the Great Destroyer in Eye of the North, and shifted the focus back to Kryta, a region that had once been all rolling green hills and sunlit vineyards, now turning into a battleground under an increasingly oppressive regime.
On the surface, Kryta is ruled by the White Mantle, a zealous order that originally presented itself as the kingdom’s saviour but long ago slid into authoritarianism. Opposing them are the Shining Blade, a rebel movement that has been simmering away in the woods and back alleys since Prophecies, now moving out into the open as they gather support for a full-blown civil war. The War in Kryta follows this clash as the Shining Blade push to topple the Mantle and restore the old royal line in the person of Princess Salma, heir to the Krytan throne.
At the heart of the conflict lies the White Mantle’s relationship with the Unseen Ones, the mysterious beings that underpinned their power back in Prophecies. By this stage in the story those “Unseen” have long since been unmasked as the Mursaat, an ancient race whose magic and ruthlessness the Mantle happily draw on to hold the population in check. Confessor Isaiah and his followers use that backing to justify arrests, disappearances and increasingly brutal crackdowns, while the Shining Blade work to expose what’s really going on behind the sermons and pageantry. The narrative unfolds through a mixture of dialogue, ambient encounters in Krytan explorable areas, and a chain of quests that slowly escalate from skirmishes to outright war.
One of the main strands in that chain is the “Wanted by the Shining Blade” quest line, which more or less drafts you into Salma’s resistance movement. Each wanted poster sends you after a different White Mantle officer or Peacekeeper commander, chipping away at the regime’s reach and morale. Things come to a head in set-piece missions such as the Battle for Lion’s Arch, where you join Salma and her allies in retaking the capital from Mantle control, fighting through wave after wave of enemies in the streets and on the walls. Another key step is the assault on the Temple of the Intolerable, a fortified religious complex in which you strike directly at the Mantle’s inner circle and their Mursaat patrons, forcing a reckoning with the Unseen that have lurked behind Kryta’s politics for so long.
Along the way you spend a lot of time in the company of familiar names. Princess Salma gradually moves from being a figurehead in exile to an active commander, issuing orders and rallying the rebels as they get bolder. Evennia, one of the Shining Blade’s senior leaders, is there as a steady presence, linking this newer conflict back to the earlier days of the resistance in Prophecies. The story also weaves in characters like Livia and various Krytan nobles and commoners, sketching out the sense that this is a civil war with roots that run through almost every level of society.
From a gameplay point of view, the War in Kryta added a surprising amount of new material to what was already, by then, a mature game. Random encounters with Shining Blade fighters, White Mantle patrols and their hired Peacekeepers started appearing across Kryta, giving the impression of a region on edge even when you were just travelling between outposts. Peacekeepers themselves essentially serve as a paramilitary arm of the Mantle, part law enforcement and part bandit, shaking down villagers and attacking travellers under the guise of “keeping order”. On the players’ side, you work alongside Ebon Vanguard-style units such as the Ebon Falcons, who lend some extra muscle and give the impression that Kryta is not entirely alone in its struggle.
Progress through the quest line unlocks tangible changes in the world. Towns and outposts that begin under White Mantle control gradually shift allegiance as the rebels win ground, with new NPCs and services appearing to reflect the restored royal authority. The rewards on offer go beyond gold and experience: completing key quests earns Medals of Honor, which can be traded in Lion’s Arch Keep for Oppressor weapons, a set of distinctive endgame items with their own weapon skins and prestige value. The combination of story, visible world-state changes and desirable rewards made the event feel like a genuine campaign rather than a thin layer of temporary content.
In the longer term, the War in Kryta ended up doing more than simply tidy up unfinished business from Prophecies. Its outcome reshapes Kryta into a kingdom under Salma’s restored monarchy, and that political shift echoes forward into Guild Wars 2, where Kryta’s later struggles are rooted in the scars and compromises left by this period. The event also helped establish a template for how Guild Wars could deliver story updates within an existing game, foreshadowing the living-world approach the sequel would later adopt. As a self-contained arc, it remains one of the more memorable chapters in Tyria’s history: a civil war fought across familiar countryside, with enough weight and consequence that its resolution still matters in the games that followed.
