The Charr Invasion of Orr

If Orr is that archipelago located in the area west of the Crystal Desert, then how on earth did the Charr manage to get there?

1- They could not have gone through Kryta because they were beaten there by Saul and the Mursaat.
2- Going through the Shiverpeaks all the way the Snake Dance and Lornars Pass is also highly unlikely.
3- Did they circumnavigate the Shiverpeaks and go through Ascalon south then through the northern part of the Crystal Desert? I assume that is also unlikely because: a- if that happened before the Searing then they were held back by the Great North Wall and b- if it happened after the Searing then they still faced stiff resistance south of the wall and their logistics lines would not have held.
So how did they get there then?
I am not sure if this was discussed before. I did a basic search and did not find anything.

Rift Portal?

They did not go through the southern shiverpeaks, but around it. They ran down the Shiverpoeaks boardering Ascalon, and just went down and around after the searing.

Well its weird how even post searing we hardly ever encounter any charr south of the Wall.
Also, EoTN made known the motives behind the Charr invasion of Ascalon, being the desire to reclaim lands that were historically charr owned. So what would their reasons be for going so far south west?
Also the charr that invaded Ascalon were wimps that would have been easily owned in the areas they are supposed to have gone through.
I guess its just one more piece in the nonsense jigsaw puzzle that is Prophecies.

Below is my account of the Charr's movement based on my Rouge Ascalon Warband tracking these beasts over the past years.

After reclaiming the historic Charr land, the wimpy Charr leveled up higher and higher until they were able to successfully make their way further south. The Charr care not for anyone but themselves and would love the chance to claim more land as their own. They avoided human detection by sticking close to the mountains we were unable to explore (that is why theses areas are still blurry on the maps of Tyrian Grandmaster Cartographers).

They probably crossed the border of small mountains between Ascalon, the Crystal Desert, and the Shiverpeaks. Remember "Blood Washes Blood"? They at least have some chance of crossing harsh tundra.

Well Blood Washes Blood is another can of worms. First the Charr mysteriously appear in the heart of Norn land skipping zones controlled by the Stone Summit, the allies of the their ex-enemies: the White Mantle. Then they show so much disregard for the war-like Norn.

Not only do the Charr do that to the Norn, the Stone Summit also capture Norn land and establish war camps under their very noses.

Then those oh-so-great Norn have us, the little ones, free their lands for them.
Judging by the quest a Hunter's Pride, the Norn are nothing but drunken bags of hot air.

I've read somewhere that they did take a route just like Avai said.

Once they'd seared ascalon the bulk of their invasion force swarmed through ascalon to take Orr, only a few remained behind. That's how the humans managed to rebuild, if the charr army had occupied Ascalon our heroes would been slaughtered.

That could have made the story more interesting

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Orr

My guess is that they just battered their way through the heart of Ascalon during the searing, before the Ascalonians had a chance to regroup.

WHO knows lets ask Pyre he should know

I think there is some sort of pass linking ascalon to the crystal desert. I think it was metioned in the info about gw2 released in pc gamer, it said that the ascalonians had fallen back to this pass which links ascalon and the desert. After blowing the wall the charr probably went south, thorugh this pass, marched through the desert and eventually got to orr.

If this is totally incorrect then I apologize, but hopefully i got it right

There is a bridge in Old Ascalon that has been destroyed by the searing. It looks like it was a bridge heading towards the Crystal Desert mountains. So there are probably a few more passages that the Warband heading to Orr took.

.....maybe were all just underestimating the charr and they actually are one insanely tough brute force...eh eh???

When I read that, I just assumed that it meant that the cataclysm happened when the Charr were invading Ascalon (i.e. The Searing). Either you guys are looking too far into it, or it actually says that they invaded Orr and I'm just an idiot. In which case I'd go with what Free Runner said.

I really doubt that... that path goes directly through Rin and the wall.

It might be more likely that they travelled around the east side of Ascalon, through the Blazeridge Mountains.

A warband made it to Orr (I believe they never actually made it in to Arah) however thats when the Orrian Kings " advisor" used the powerful magic causing the cataclysm. There is a Charr in the Realm of Torment that was a witness to it.

lulz wut? Someone never made it to the Southern Shiverpeak missions I see

I believed that they crossed the Northern Shiverspeak through Norn land. The Norn and the Charr have some sort of truce, and the Norn should not have many problems with the Charr crossing their land to invade humans.

I think by the time Saul defeated the Charr, the half of Kryta was overrun with Charr, and Charr had access to Orr through marching south from North Kryta Province.

One part of the invasion force was destroyed together with Orr, and the other was defeated by Saul.

As for Charr invading Norn land, since the Charr and Norn have a truce, but does not seem to be all chummy, it would be inevitable that occasionally, Charr warbands would raid the Norn, and perhaps some Norn like to hunt Charr.

The Norn are so independent minded that they would do not seem the sort to act together against an intrusion. Look at Blood Washes Blood, the young Jora has to sort out her own family problem herself. It is their idea of independence, which may be a vital part of surviving in the North.

I think this is the most likely. It seemed like, in Saul's BMP mission, that the Charr had already set up base and all but declared victory on Kryta. From there, and with enough forces, they probably decided to continue on to Orr, building off their morale boost from having laid waste to Krytans.

The question is, does this theory fit the timelines? Were the White Mantle formed at around the same time as the destruction of Orr?