#and idk i'm just thinking about gilmore dueling a dragon just before all of that

[tunedtostatic]

This was a train of thought thing because I was thinking about paladins and the Oath of Devotion, and Gilmore is not a paladin, but...thinking about how Gilmore's biggest heroic plot moments (that I've gotten to so far - I know he does stuff at the end of the campaign) are the duel with Thordak and rescuing the royal family, and then the shield over the city of Whitestone. Gilmore is not an adventurer by trade. He's not a knight or a guard, nor is he the leader of a place in the way that Percy and Keyleth become leaders. But he is a guardian. The way he uses his trades, sorcerer, merchant, shopkeeper, ends up tying so deeply to a sense of place.

When the worst happens to Emon he fights a fucking DRAGON. While the worst keeps happening, all over the continent, he's working with Allura to create the shield over Whitestone and holding that shield together.

He's a hero who is able to draw on the skills and the knowledge base that he has BECAUSE he's not an adventurer/"professional hero" type. He has a different vocation and it's the tools of those trades - magic, courage, resourcefulness, broad knowledge - that he draws on when the chips are down. In particular I think it has a lovely meta-resonance with the archetype of the NPC Shopkeeper. As a game mechanic, the NPC Shopkeeper is entwined with a geographic location. They're there when you go there, and he Knows Things, and she has the capacity to help you. The NPC Shopkeeper is not invulnerable, and Gilmore isn't. But she's always a little more powerful than you, the adventurer, in the ways that someone who has chosen a different path than you will always be a little more powerful. He's there, when you need him. And Gilmore is.

Campaign 1 takes a step back and shows the world where Gilmore doesn't only exist when Our Heroes need him. He's there for Vox Machina in the ways that he's there for Vox Machina because those are the ways that he is there for the other people around him. Gilmore is a sorcerer and a merchant and a researcher, and an NPC Shopkeeper. When the chips are down that's not only why but also HOW he's there for Emon and Whitestone, and Tal'dorei and Exandria.