#Arengar Hopebringer

[the-blazing-light]

Some random Arengar facts I've kinda just. Accumulated and I need to throw them Somewhere jdfhgjhdfg

Arengar is, a lot more unhinged at times than a lot of people expect this big, serious charr with a severe case of resting bitch face to be. He can be quite reckless and is actually extremely curious, curiosity might've killed the cat but it didn't kill this charr yet. He is also willing to eat, pretty much anything. Not something surprising given he's the commander but when this 8 feet tall charr you've come to see as extremely serious and reasonable just completely devours weird-smelling soup some creepy lady in the swamp gave to him with absolutely no second thought and asks if she has more you start getting concerned.

To expand on the first one, Arengar's also got an utterly deadpan, sarcastic sense of humour. Half the time he delivers his jokes in a way that makes people question whether he's actually serious or not. Canach actually gets Arengar's sense of humour very well and appreciates it a lot.

One thing Arengar learned in Elona is that he absolutely loves coffee. That said his way of consuming coffee is definitely. Very Charr because what he does is mix like ten shots of espresso and down them all at once.

[glitchgw2]

Aww thank you for drawing me and Ray too! <3 Arengar looks amazing as well! 👀

Ray Statics is Drewcake but she's not on tumblr anywmore, so here's her ko-fi!

Arengar Hopebringer @the-blazing-light Pictomancer Glitch @glitchgw2 Ray Statics

[evilpol]

"Justice, Courage and Resolve carry me forward!"

[wilsons-journey]

A bunch of symmetrical Bust for VsArtParty (September) ;v;

Biester - @tastethepaper Nomad Masika - @ilona-art Curo Shadeclaw - @mordremrose Tinka Tinkerclaw - @tinkerclaw Nastazya Ragewelder - @brightwingedbat Murramia Bittentale - @sylvaridreamers Arengar Hopebringer - @the-blazing-light Falco Burngrace - @rostomanologist

If any of you want the plain Outlines to color, just poke me in DM and I'll send it to you <3

[brightwingedbat]

Another art party, another five from meee

Briester - @tastethepaper Mabaki - @mabaki Curo Shadeclaw - @mordremrose Arengar Hopebringer - @the-blazing-light Fuma Aschewind - @wilsons-journey

[evilpol]

Well, this is Arengar. He is a giant max-height charr guardian and is around 9'8. It's even more fun when he's compared to my smallest charr, who is 5'2.

hey guys show me your max height babies. the ones who are in danger of hitting their head on every doorframe meant for a regular-sized person. show me your tols please. doesn’t matter which race!!! :3 

(tho I’d love to see more max height lady sylvari cuz i feel like that’s something few ppl pick adlfjads so if you have one pls let me admire her).

[the-blazing-light]

"Son of fire and ruin, destinied for conquest, now claims to be a savior?"

Some thoughts about Arengar that have been cooking in my head for a while, and about the importance of blood for charr in general.

Blood and family is a big theme in Arengar's story, because even though charr parents don't participate in raising their children and we're told that, to quote Bangar, "charr don't have sons", it's shown time and time again that your lineage matters quite a lot and reflects the way you're treated and seen in your legion: an entire chapter of personal story for charr being entirely dedicated to who your father is/was, despite him not participating in your upbringing, you're still the one on whose shoulders it falls, in some cases, to respond to your father's wrongdoings or even kill your father if you choose that option during one of the possible story missions. Ryland's entire conflict is trying to split away from who his parents are, to do something worthwhile himself instead of just living in the shadow of his parents' big names and achievements. And in another case, you can find a statue of charr called Ferro the Butcher in the Black Citadel, father of one of Iron's tribunes, Bhuer Goreblade, who was obsessed with the 'tainted legacy' of his flame shaman grandsire, and after Bhuer was born has volounteered to answer for the crimes of his ancestor so that Bhuer doesn't have to face the same predjudice as him. So while charr don't raise their children, lineage matters a lot to them, even going as far as generations back.

And Arengar's lineage is nothing to scoff at. Grandcub of the Blood Legion imperator, son of a respected Blood warrior who'd fought viciously and became known for her ferocity during the siege of Ebonhawke, he's had a lot to live up to since the day he was born.

He was born to become a model soldier of his legion, heavy expectations of his blood always weighing down on his shoulders. His lineage is that of duality, as while his mother's side of the family are respected, well-known Blood warriors, his father is an ex-Flame shaman, who caused quite a stir when Maja, Arengar's mother, took him into her warband, placing the trust into a shaman who'd turned his back on Flame Legion and claimed to want vengeance on his former comrades. That trust seemed to pay off, as Scorchface, a nickname he'd gotten due to the burn scarring on his head along with black markings on his muzzle, became a loyal and invaluable part of her warband and later on, her lover, resulting in Arengar being born.

So since his birth Arengar had to contend with two very conflicting legacies: that of a renowned, respected warrior, pride of her Legion and her father, the Imperator, and that of a flame shaman seen as dangerous even after proving time and time again his newfound loyalty to Maja, her warband and her legion. Notably though, his loyalties were specifically to her, not to the Blood legion. To the warband and its leader who took him in and trusted him while the rest of the legion saw him as a danger to them and a tratior.

Despite that, Arengar held a lot of pride in his blood, it is reflected even in Arengar's fighting style: being a guardian he combines the martial prowess of a warrior while wielding searing flame, his father's shaman legacy. And even despite his father's reputation, Arengar was still seen as a progidal son, someone with a lot ahead of him, someone destinied to reach great heights within Blood Legion, and his performance in the Fahrar and eagerness to become the best soldier his legion has ever seen has only cemented that. A born conqueror, one to bring glory to the Blood Legion and he intended to do just so.

That is, until an accident and a series of bad decisions led to his warband dying, Arengar being left a sole survivor, a gladium. Still young at the time, filled with ambitions that have been shattered before his eyes and dealing with the pain of losing his warband, becoming a gladium, returning to his legion as a disgraced sole survivor felt like a fate worse than death. Scared, pained and still young, Arengar couldn't find it in him to go back to his legion and face the tribunal, the progidal son of Blood Legion now being a member of the lowest caste, a gladium, the disgraced sole survivor of his warband.

[the-blazing-light]

Pride month is just around the corner so I'm blasting you with transgender cat

[the-blazing-light]

"Bring 'em to justice!"

Love the willbender animations, even though they're really hard to screenshot :')

[the-blazing-light]

The Hero Covered in Gold

Bit of an experimental painting of Arengar as a tribute of sorts to the ending of the elder dragons plotline. Mixed some inks, watercolor, gouache and acrylics in there for details and I did have fun with that

[the-blazing-light]

Arengar's two canonical mounts: his raptor, Aria, and his skyscale Caesar Big mounts for the big boy

[the-blazing-light]

he's Polite

[the-blazing-light]

This was a questionable affair to begin with and then Arengar shoves his whole face into the plate eating like a feral beast out of social awkwardness. It makes everything Worse. Yao has to sit and watch trying to pretend they're fine. They are not

[the-blazing-light]

tell us 1, 2, 8 and 9 for Arengar!

Thank you for the ask! <3

Why did they choose their profession? Arengar was trained in martial combat as well as any Blood Legion warrior would, being prepared to be a front-line soldier, leading his warband into a charge, however since a young age he also displayed an affinity for fire magic, his father's shaman legacy, that he had been able to train and incorporate into his fighting style. A combination of martial prowess enhanced by searing flame turned to be an incredibly effective strategy, and he less chose to be a guardian and rather just happened to fall into his profession.

Did they have a teacher? If so, who were they and were they a good instructor? Arengar actually got very lucky with his primus, as where most would see his affinity for fire magic as a threat, his primus, an elementalist himself, saw Arengar's potential and helped him develop his magic abilities further. Way later on though, after joining the Vigil, Arengar got into a habit of sparring and training with Almorra, the older guardian helping him hone his abilities and giving him a little more insight on guardian magic, rather than relying solely on incinerating everything in his path. Do they focus more on healing and protecting their allies or incinerating their enemies before they can do harm? This would be a continuation of a previous point, all that to say that yeah. Arengar is very aggressive in combat, preferring to solve conflict with brute force. Despite being a guardian and even training with Almorra, he never had an affinity for protective or healing magic, but he did learn to incorporate protection into his fighting style, all to keep up aggression. Parries, counters, a well-timed magical aegis to deflect an incoming attack and retaliate with searing flame. He's fast, he's relentless and he's damn powerful, with the combination of brute strength and incredibly potent fire magic, Arengar is a force to be reckoned with. "Best defence is a good offence" is basically Arengar's motto. Unga Bunga his way to victory

How much do they rely on their magic in combat? Could they still be effective if they were stripped of their guardian powers? Arengar relies on his magic a lot in combat to enhance his attacks with fire and control the battlefield, but he's far from defenceless if stripped of his magic. He's still a well-trained Blood soldier with years of experience in combat, along with generally just being a massive, powerful charr, hard to take down by default. He knows how to fight even without magic, but with magic in hand he becomes an unstoppable force

[the-blazing-light]

How about, rank characters from dexterity to strength as in what they use for combat maybe note a specific trait of dexterity/strength for some characters

I ain't gonna do all characters cuz that's dfhjgjh a lot of 'em to get down to but I'll throw in some that I think deserve a shoutout in that sense but dfjghjh that's gonna be a long one anyway

To no one's surprise, Arengar is extremely physically strong, and being Blood Legion born and raised, yeah he prefers to approach fights with brute force of muscle and magic rather than in any dexterous or stealthy way, and being a heavy-armored, 8 feet tall charr makes trying to be agile or sneaky hard to begin with, him preferring to block hits with aegis and other guardian spells or just straight-up take 'em as opposed to dodging them. All that to say, not that he can't fight with strategy and intelligence put into it, but he certainly prefers just a plain, head-on approach 90% of the time, as for a charr of his particular skillset the alternatives are usually a waste of time

Kaia is yet another meat wall of a charr. She's extremely strong and durable, as expected of a warrior, and is even more hard-headed and straightforward than Arengar is. Being a warrior, she can't really protect her friends with any sorta spells, instead using her own body as a shield, able to take the punishment and give it back to the enemy twice as hard. Additionally, she's a spellbreaker, with her approach to it involving literally throwing whatever magic her enemies tossed at her right back in their face, so a lot of the time getting hit is her battle tactic. Get hit, shrug it off, toss it back and pummel your opponent with a hammer until it's done.

Alistair on the other hand really isn't physically strong nor durable. He's an agile, quick mesmer, who can't really take hits but if he plays his cards right, he doesn't in the first place. Confusing his enemies, teleporting around constantly, staying away from the opponent and cloaking himself with mesmer magic is core of his fighting style, with the way he fights it's almost a dance: graceful, fast and quite deadly.

Now Arren's a perfect combination of the two. He's very short, but stocky, quick and unexpectedly strong. His hits pack a punch but also being a thief he's extremely hard to catch and pin down, which he uses to his advantage.

Now Aela is on the other side where she's surprisingly agile. She's a heavy-armored soldier, and yet she's extremely lean and fast, dashing and teleporting around, delivering quick, deadly strikes, cutting down the enemy before they can even strike back. Her and Arren actually share a very similar fighting style, being trained together in Ash Legion, but both adapted it to suit better their professions, thief and guardian respectively.

Lani's just another massive, bulky brick wall that swings around a hammer that's twice as big as some humans. Not much to say here, he's not known for being good at strategy or... Some would say thinking in general, but he sure can handle himself in a fight, be it an all-out war effort or just another bar brawl.

Zemzus is interesting, because he's your typical run of the mill scholar with athleticism of a wet noodle, but he's also an extremely powerful reaper necromancer. While he's not powerful physically per say, he more than makes up for it with his magic, which allows him to just rely on sheer brute force of it.

[the-blazing-light]

🖊 FOR ARENGAR (@commanderhorncleaver)

HDJFHFJT OKAY sorry it took forever to answer but I finally have something I wanna ramble about, which is really a part of a larger theme with Arengar: how despite all his attempts to appear as a perfect Commander he's actually a deeply flawed person, far from that golden facade he tries to maintain, be it not out of any malicious intent but rather to give people that hope they need, an idol they can believe in and follow to keep them going, fighting the fight that needs to be fought.

Arengar's stubborn, hard-headed and short-tempered, he's got a very firm view of what is right and wrong and is quick to get annoyed with people and draw conclusions. He can be quite harsh when it comes to it and has a tendency to overlook other people's feelings at times, in part due to his own diffictulty with emotions and understanding those of other people. Despite that he's also got an unintentional bias towards certain people, i.e. him forgiving a lot of things Rytlock did for a long time, things he wouldn't forgive anyone else, because he's still got that deep-running respect towards him as a Blood Legion Tribune, only finally losing his temper with Rytlock throughout Icebrood Saga, which was a bad time for Arengar in a lot of other ways.

So all that, combined with his intent to appear as the perfect pact commander everyone wants to see causes him a lot of stress, because at the end of the day, he's just a charr. He can't be perfect, no matter how hard he tries, and that glowing golden image of a hero he himself built is weighting down on him every day, every time he makes a mistake, or snaps, or feels bad or down, anything, well, that makes him a person and not just a symbol. That causes Arengar to repress his emotions and trauma heavily, after all, no one wants to see The Commander mop around, they expect him to always be ready to jump into action, to fight and lead, an approach that causes Arengar fall down hard after Icebrood, when all the pain and emotions get too much to hold down.