#gw2 ALMOST gets me what i want

[atalana]

and everyone always uses the hitbox excuse like so many fantasy games don't make many different sized races and that's fine

or like games where you have beefier races so their male models can be fat but the female model is always just more boob

and then there's people going 'oh but not every game can accomodate for more than one body type' and okay, i accept that. make fat your only body type. why are extremely skinny or extremely muscular the only 'default' bodies

i really wish i knew more about game design so i could be the person to make a game with a singular protagonist who is also fat

actually now that i'm thinking about it. every single video game that lets you costumize characters but doesn't let you be fat is extremely revealing to the fact that most people can't imagine fat as something a person would want to be. there's other examples but like, fuck, i can't even choose to be fat in imaginary spaces. My size isn't accommodated for because they couldn't imagine a player who wants to be anything other than skinny.

Like, you see it right. How media shapes people's beliefs, and people construct beliefs into the things they create? If all you can ever choose to be in a game is one of two body shapes, and you have to physically alter the game to be anything bigger, like. "why would i imagine a world with you in it."

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

"It is done, my Champion. When this world comes to heel, you will be my blade in the dark. Together we will remind mortals why they once feared the night."

Guess who just finished Mordremoth's Fang the other night. :)

[bluebudgie]

I accidentally sausagefinger deleted my 20k DA4 review so you get an abridged version now. No more nuance and elaboration, i can't be arsed to retype all of this.

Tl;dr

- Solid game with many flaws.

- If you already are a DA fan it's worth playing

- If you want to get into the series don't start here unless you really want to for a specific reason

Not entirely spoiler free:

Liked the game overall. Also no game has annoyed me this much in years.

Here's some good stuff:

- Beautiful, gorgeous environments.

- Overall cool and likeable cast with mostly interesting companion quests and fun character interactions.

- High quality german localization and VA (didn't try english)

- Appreciate the inclusion of gender neutral pronouns which is even less a given than it is in english since as of now there is no officially recognized equivalent for they/them in this language

- Loved the little things. Returning voice actors. Punching Solas in the face. Dorian Pavus.

- Great sound design during the Weisshaupt quest. Felt very immersive.

- Rivain exploration Tangled Depths moment. When you look at your destination 5 meters above your head and go HUH?

Stuff I hated that's extremely subjective:

Combat. Least fun combat I've experienced in any game ever. Every battle is a pvp match against 10 longbow bear rangers that spam point blank shot with no cooldown. Spending 98% of the battle dodging isn't fun

- Why is there a parry build in the skill tree when half of the enemies have huge hammers you cant parry (skill issue?)

- Party members being invulnerable pets that do nothing but use 1 out of 3 skills off cooldown is bullshit

Soundtrack. Ok no listen I didn't spend the last two months agonizing over this to give you the abridged version now. [takes a deep breath] Here we go again.

"I'm not angry with you, I'm just very disappointed." [Heavy Silence]

Seriously what the fuck was that. The biggest nothingburger that ever nothinged. Or burgered. Like cool they got Hans Zimmer or whatever but if they only had the budget to pay for 2 songs and 3 chords then maybe... don't?

Half of the game is dead silence interrupted by the same 3 notes. Once in a while you dare hope that a song starts playing only for it to fade out within a few seconds. Even many of the battles (including story battles) are fought in silence. And like. Don't get me wrong here. Silence can be good if utilized effectively. I like a good ambient soundtrack. Inquisition had great ambience (mage quest or winter palace bgm anyone?). Super Metroid has great ambience. Hell my favourite gw2 map has insect chittering for music. But this game. They really went "Go girl give us nothing!" with full conviction.

The little music that is there is largely generically inoffensive but also extremely repetitive. And despite all the repetition it's still forgettable as hell. Dictionary definition of an orchestral slop soundtrack. And also the dictionary definition of disappointment. Good god.

Ok moving on with the abridged review. The following points are things that sort of bugged me and I could imagine that other people feel similarly.

- I mean the main story with those saturday morning cartoon villains speaking in stock villain lines was silly but that's just kinda bioware storywriting so all as expected. We're here for interpersonal relationships and side stories anyway.

- So I said I liked the cast. They're too likable. Too safe. Too sanitized. Has everyone forgotten how to be an asshole?

- It's almost impossible to have companions disagree with your decisions. Where are the contrarians? Who do I throw fists with? Why is everyone licking main character boots? I know we've all* hated on Solas for years but that doesn't mean we can't have dicks in the party anymore? We're not babies?? *not you

- Also why does main character get to do life altering decisions for everyone 😭 Bruh none of your business... In some cases it made sense, but some of these... (Taash...??)

- Taash's questline sucked we all agree on this right

- That extremely unsubtle choice pop up whenever a decision you made had an influence on something. Like bruh ok you don't have to tell me about every little choice branch, where's the surprises man

- Companion quests being a mandatory gameplay element isn't the worst of these things but I did prefer when they were entirely optional so it was your bad when you missed out on relationships etc. Plus the gameplay loop created by this in da4 was very tedious after a while

- I don't like how the main character was kinda predetermined as a sassy jokester no matter which dialogue choices you pick but you get used to it

- The also extremely unsubtle faction meter that practically screams "if you don't fill the meter it will have consequences during the final battle". Again where's the surprises?

In general the game felt too predictable and too sanitized to be the least amount of inconvenient as possible.

And that's all I can think of right now.

Overall I'd say

DA2 < DA4 < DA:O < DA:I

[astralarias]

Skyscale Essay aka man I kinda miss the pre-skyscale days

Disclaimer that this is just my personal opinion and I don't hate the skyscale!! I think it's definitely a good mount for ease of access and is my second most used after the griffon! However, I've always felt it does take away from the other mounts quite a bit, so I wanted to go into that a little bit!

After mounts released with Path of Fire, the maps of that expansion and the following Living World 4 were built, in no small part, around the mounts themselves. Considering each mount’s unique ability and movement set led to what I feel was a very fun map design that almost was like a puzzle, and the mounts the missing pieces.

I could jump vast distances on raptor, then see a tall cliff and switch to springer to get up. At the top I might see a sand portal, and use jackal for a shortcut. At the other side of the portal, I could come across quicksand — the skimmer would fit this piece of the puzzle. Even with the griffon, the “prestige” mount, I would use a variety of mounts to get myself to a suitable launching point — and from there, a game with gravity and momentum began.

Although I can understand it may be frustrating to some to have to swap mounts often, I found that to be part of the immersion and fun. It felt like these mounts were not just transport but animals who filled different niches and belonged in the world, had adapted to it. It was engaging to me to look at where I wanted to go and consider not only the best but the most fun way to get there.

Then skyscale released. The change was felt, I believe, in the map that came with it. A lot of the map was just plain awkward and frustrating to navigate without the skyscale. You could get around it without the skyscale, sure, but it was a much less pleasant experience than before.

Ever since this mount was added, I feel the maps have been forced to cater to it, instead of the maps lending themselves to fun use of all mounts. Everything has to be designed with where the skyscale can go in mind. The puzzle-piece feeling of older maps is just gone for me.

Riding your raptor and see a tall cliff where springer would be ideal? Not any more. You’ll likely already be on skyscale, stay on skyscale, which is decently fast on land, and fly up the cliff. It’s efficient, but to me lacks so much of the spirit of GW2’s original mounts. Whilst you could still play this way — and I often do when solo — it’s become inconvenient to use other mounts when doing anything on a timer. Trying to get to an event, bounty, rift, etc? A flock of skyscales gets there first, bypassing any creative level design, and — oh, the event is over.

It just feels to me that skyscales, presumably intended to represent the freedom of flight, are just a roadblock in the way of more fun map design nowadays. The way new players whose only expansion is SotO are given an entire new way to unlock the skyscale, and given a permanent (to the SotO maps) rental skyscale — because the expansion is built around one mount, maybe two if you count the griffon at a stretch, and playing without it would be utter misery. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to give new players easier ways to get stuff at all, I really like it and it's something I'm always happy to see!! My concern is, when you’re fast-tracked to one specific mount, or else the expansion is blatantly unfun…that feels like such a reversal of the philosophy behind the original mounts — doing something new and unique, the idea of joy of movement. What’s joyous about the skyscale’s movement, that you couldn’t find in other games? It is wonderfully animated, but it has none of skimmer’s smooth grace or griffon’s dance with gravity. It just feels so bland, and brings down the map exploration aspect with it. 

[meeeeeeese]

Moose's Guide to Quick and Easy Gold

So I get the vibes in the community here that a bunch of people don't really know all the tips and tricks to making easy money, so I thought I'd do a writeup on some of the small ways I make gold in Guild wars 2

Trick 1: You have wealth you don't know about

An inportant thing about Gw2 is that a lot of the wealth it gives out isn't in actual gold but in materials that you can then sell for gold. For a lot of people I think its easy to just click 'deposit all materials' and then forget about it. For me personally I have only 100 gold in my wallet but If I were to empty out my material storage I'd gain an additional 300 or so gold. The site GW2 efficiency is really helpful for telling you what high value items you might be holding on to, though It takes a bit of setting up.

Trick 2: Sell Orders!

Admittedly this is something I'm bad about, but if you can delay your gratification, but when you sell something don't fulfill someone elses buy order and instead, set up a sell order. I'll give you up to 10% more gold out of everything you sell

Ok now onto the acutal wealth generation methods

Trick 3: Send your least favorite character to the New Kaineng Jumping Puzzle

Jumping Puzzles in EoD reward jade runestones from their final chest, which go for 80 silver on the trading post.

Find the wiki page to get you through the jumping puzzle here, though there are often commanders on the New Kaineng lfg offering teleport to friend transport to the end of the puzzle. Basically you get a character to the end chest and every reset log in on that character and get your free! runestone, almost a gold for ~30 seconds of work

(as a note you only get the runestone once per day per account so don't send multiple characters there)

Trick 4: Leivas Hands out Gold, make sure to collect it

Ok not actually but he may as well. So this guy who hangs out in Arborstone, once you've gotten the Globalization mastery, will sell you 5 antique summoning stones every week for a grand total of 10 green prophet shards, 10 unusual coins, 100 imperial favours, 7000 karma and 1 gold. The summoning stones can then be sold on for ~3 gold each, netting you a profit of 14 gold for going up to an npc and pressing 'f' (or whatever your interact key is)

Trick 5: fast and profitable metas you should be doing daily

Let me introduce you to my favorite wiki page:

the event timers list

This lists out every meta event and world boss that'll be happening soon and all of them will give you at least something, and the meta's from HoT onwards awards you a hero's choice chest that'll contain at least one of these valuable materials to choose from: amalgamated gemstone (60 silver), jade runestone (80 silver), ancient ambergris (1 gold 70 silver) or an antique summoning stone (3 gold). It should be noted the last 3 only appear in the EoD meta's, for all other times choose the amalgamated gemstone.

With that aside there are 3 events in particular that you should try to get done that'll take 10 minutes or less

first up is the Legendary Ley-Line Anomaly, the naked man. The timer's page tells you which zone it'll spawn in and when it does you have to seek it out and murder it. Mounts are very recommended because this thing dies fast. Anyway when you kill it, it drops 2 things: a mystic coin (1 gold 20 silver) and some vendor trash worth 50 silver, pretty gold for 5 minutes of work

next is Dragonstorm. It happens once every 2 hours starting from the eye of the north and affords you the opportunity to beat up Ryland. If you join the public option you join a crowd of up to 50 other people and its easy enough that you could even afk if you wanted (though that would be very rude). Anyway once you murder the champions and blast the dragons you get to watch them share a passionate kiss as the die and you then get 2 gold straight up, 6 memories of aurene (worth 1.5 gold in total) as well as a chance to win the lottery and get ascended weapons or, even rarer, the very expensive eye infusions

Finally is Tequatl the Sunless, a world boss in Sparkfly Fen that awards you 1 gold straight up as well as a chance at an ascended weapon as well as a bunch of materials and unidentified gear

speaking of which all the other events give unidentified gear too and they aren't actually terrible rewards, you can get a pretty penny from selling them.

Trick 6: Daily Rewards

Firstly, just logging in every day gives you a sadly decent amount of income, mostly in laurels and mystic coins. Coins can just be sold if you're after cold, laurels can be spent on a variety of stuff. And if you're looking to turn a profit, HERE are the best ways to do so.

Also, do your daily achievements people, sometimes they're a pain but the daily completionist gives 2 gold as well as 15 achievement points, more than most other achievements in the game. Also they drive you towards content you wouldn't do otherwise (the daily achievements are the reason why I've done most of the jumping puzzles). Also If you're bad at any of the dailies on offer, usually a bunch of other people are also trying to do dailies and they're often willing to help. I see mesmers porting people through the daily JPs all the time.

Trick 7: Spirit shards can be converted to Gold???

I admit, this isn't something I do myself but if you're accumulating spirit shards like I am there are methods to turn them into gold

They're listed HERE

(again, this isn't something I've tried myself, I can't vouch for how well it works and all the methods require a starting amount of gold. But if you're desperate it might be something to consider

But I want more Gold, how do I get it?

If your looking for serious gold farming there are probably better guides than this but here are a few pointers to start raking in the money

1: As far as I understand, Drizzlewood Coast is the most profitable activity in the game, gold per hour wise. Runs take a while and you kind of have to pay attention to maximise gains but, if gold's what you want this is a good option.

2: Look for meta trains, I notice them happening a lot around reset, basically its a group that goes from meta to meta doing them in sequence. There are a few guilds that do them every day so if you see a train, chances are its on at the same time every day. I find them to be pretty chill, offer some nice variety in content and offer good rewards as well.

3: Fractals. Yeah I know this is getting into endgame content but doing T4 fractal dailies every day gives you around 20 gold straight up, a bunch of materials worth even more gold and a decent chance at ascended armor and weapons (and so many ascended trinkets, seriously at this point they get auto-salvaged if they drop)

Apart from that, pretty much everything in this game gives you some amount of rewards, even if they aren't entirely obvious, so don't stress too much, provided you aren't roleplaying in the serrated blade or whatever (Though good on you for having fun!) you're likely earning some amount of income. Even if it's only in materials

[wishiwaspretty]

I am remaking my intro post.

Hello, you can call me Nancy (NOT my real name). I'm 18 years old and I use she/her pronouns (but I'm really not picky with what people call me).

Short ED History:

I've been insecure of my body for a pretty long time, but I only started have disordered eating patterns the fall of my Junior year of High School. I am now a Senior. When I first started I was ~121 lbs and I got down to a much lower weight pretty quickly. But, now I'm a lot heavier. I really enjoy invalidating my emotions also so I don't really say/think I have anorexia (I binge too much 🫠), but I definitely have "disordered eating".

Stats: AFAB 5'6" or 168 cm HW: Low 140 lbs LW: 114.3 lbs CW: 127.6 lbs GW1: 127.5 lbs GW2: 125 lbs GW3: 122.5 lbs GW4: 120 lbs GW5: 117.5 lbs GW6: 115 lbs

Motivation: -On March 7, I get out of school for Spring Break. I am going to the beach with three of my closest friends (kind of going all out for Senior Spring Break). I will be under 125 lbs by then (hopefully much lower). -Whenever I go to college, I NEED to be thin. This is not a want. It is a need. -There's also kind of this guy I've liked for a long time?? Idk, I'm not REALLY the type to starve for a man (fight the patriarchy!!!! 🤬🤬), but if I'm trying to scrape together motivation, there's some. -Long hair. Skinny arms. Flat stomach. Elegant thighs. Sharp jawline. Loose ponytail. Sparkling eyes. Waterfalls and rainbows and running through fields without fat to hold me back.

Strategies (basically just stuff I do/am going to start doing to try to keep this up): 1. Whenever I first started this and lost so much weight, I kept a journal every night to physically write out what I ate. I am going to start doing that again AND I will post a picture to show what I have eaten every day. 2. I will post on tumblr once a day. Reblogging someone else does not count, I need to make my own original content. 3. I will liquid fast every day until dinner. Coffee in the morning, and maybe tea/diet dr. pepper at lunch or after school. I will try to only have tea OR diet dr. pepper to save my teeth (I've already got weak enamel, this isn't going to help lmao). 4. I don't care how much I've eaten, I don't care how awful I feel, I will never, EVER purge. This includes using laxatives. Obviously none of what I'm doing is healthy, but I want to do this as 'healthily' as I can. 5. Read more!!!! Read read read read read. If I'm reading I'm not eating. :)) 6. No doom scrolling. This includes Tumblr. I can check in but I can't spend TOO long on here just scrolling.

Random Stuff: -My blog is a safe space for everyone besides bigots <33 -I do NOT support fatspo. Let those beautiful happy and, yes, fat people live in peace. Jeez. -I think I'm pansexual. Maybe. Probably. -I love nature and being outside sm. I love (almost) all animals. I love the sun. -I HATE feeling cold with a passion, lmao. Which is kinda funny because starving makes you feel colder 🫠 -In college I think I'm going to pursue a degree in biology and then veterinary science, and then try to open my own veterinary clinic. -I'm Greg (*coughDannyGonzalesfanswhereyouatcough*) -I'm Christian but I PROMISE I'm not the bigot kind I promisssseeeeeee 🙏 -I do weight lifting. I couldn't tell you why, I just do. It's REALLY not a good combination with ana, the amount of times I've been benching and almost dropped the weight on my rib cage... It's not even funny anymore 😔 -I've struggled with self harm in the past, but I'M ABOUT TO BE ONE YEAR CLEAN!!!!! -I LOVE FAIRY TALES!!!! Omg fantasy, omg JRR Tolkien, omg A.A. Milne (he's not exactly fantasy but you knowww. love winnie the pooh). To clarify, I don't like the fantasy books where it's just a barely-passing story laid over smut. Sex scenes CAN be tastefully done and make sense with the story but so often it's just like... ew. No. -Book recs: The Thorns Remain (I could DIE it's so freaking good omllllll), The Last Hour Between Worlds, The Familiar, Caraval, Six of Crows, The School for Good and Evil (Sophie my LOVE), Twilight (never actually finished the series tho smh), The Wind in the Willows (love these little guys sm), ASH PRINCESS, The House on Pooh Corner. -Currently reading: Anna Karenina, Godkiller

**Eating disorders are very serious and I would not wish this on anyone. As the saying goes, this account is 'pro for me, not for thee'. Please get out while you still can. Recovery will always be waiting for you. It is never too late. Love y'all <33**

[cozystarred]

Going to try and take a break from calorie tracking and do high-res. So no wieiad for a while

I just realized that this'll be my last Christmas before turning into an adult (which I'm NOT looking forward to) and I don't want to look back and only remember the calories I ate

We yearly do this 10km walk with my family and on the way we eat ofc, but this time instead of having a cosy, happy dinner+lunch all that happened was so much STRESS about trying to find the lowest cal options and the anxiety about accurate cal tracking.

At dinner I was prepared to refuse to eat at all because the chicken turned out to be fried (oil oil oil). I was almost crying because the dish my mother got was less cals than what I got

I was hoping to get to my gw2 (50kg, 56kg rn) by January 15, which is 6kg in 18 days, which isn't possible in a healthy way. And definitely not possible considering we're going on a trip for new years eve.

I'll still be restricting at most times (like lunchbreaks at work, no reason to eat normal then), but wont be choosing options I hate when I'm out with my family :(

I know this is going to be so fucking stressful for me, but I wanna enjoy this Christmas as a child.

I still haven't had a hot chocolate (nearly 200kcal for a glass like shut up). I used to love hot chocolate in winter. It was the highlight of winter. I don't even like tea (0kcal)

I'm going to try and not log my cals on days im out with my family, but I already know that wont workot (see my Christmas days failures)

Besides, with the way things are going I'm gonna end up with an "ana coach" again, which was a HORRIBLE experience

[i-had-bucky]

GW2 Commander Week Day 2!

Profession - Necromancer - Reaper

Part 1 - The Past

Keres had always felt a connection with death. 

Maybe it was because she’d almost died during birth, or maybe it was just her odd fascination. She didn’t know, but she did know that the bones and blood and corpses of the earth were calling to her. 

“What are you doing?” Eury asked, pushing one ungainly paw onto her shoulder and leaning into her space. Her nose was wrinkled. “I can feel your magic.”

“Hush,” Keres told her, flapping one hand her way. “The magic wants something.”

“The magic wants?” Eury’s tone insinuated she was crazy. But Eury’s tone always insinuated that, so Keres ignored her. 

She sat in the dirt, tail curled around her, and buried her claws in the soil. The magic welled up in her, dark and green, snaking its way down her arms and out of her hands. She gasped, suddenly able to feel the bones and meat below. It was not life that it wanted, that she could give to it, but it wasn’t undeath the way the dragon did it. She was not taking the unwilling and turning them. She was using what was there, pulling it together into a new shape, connecting the bones and meat with magic sinews. 

She paused. “It wants a shape,” she told Eury, flicking one ear towards her. 

Eury grimaced. “Uh…What does?” 

“The bones, the magic.” She thought of the devourers, the first creature she’d ever seen on the plains. A good shape. She gave it to the magic and pulled it up, dragging her hands from the soil. Eury scuttled backwards as the thing erupted from the earth before them. 

It was almost a devourer. Bones and decayed meat. Magic holding it all together. It…Chirped?

Keres smiled, pleased. “Bones,” she called it. Euryale snorted. 

“Creative,” she sniffed. The little minion scuttled towards her. She leaped up in surprise and landed on all fours, hissing. 

Keres laughed, standing when Bones scuttled back around to hide behind her. “Oh, it’s alright. She won’t hurt you.” She knelt and set one hand on its back. It was wet and cold, but she could feel her magic. “She’ll get used to you. They all will.”

Part 2 - The Present - Grenth.

“Isn’t this a human god?” Euryale stood before the little shrine over the hearth, peering closely at the small idol of Grenth. She blinked over at Keres, eyebrows raised. 

“Grenth,” Braham confirmed, carefully adding spices to the pot of stew bubbling over the fire. “Pretty sure she stole that from the temple in Divinity’s Reach actually.”

“No I didn’t,” Keres argued, rolling her eyes. She was carefully setting out wooden bowls on the table. It was probably the first table she’d ever owned. Funny, that. “I stole it from the Temple of Grenth in Orr.” Where no one would miss it. And she didn’t think Grenth would mind. 

“But why?” Euryale picked it up to study it closer. Keres had to resist the sudden urge to snatch it away. She caught Braham’s sideways glance and made a face. He huffed a laugh and gently reached out to pull the little idol from Eury’s paws, tucking it gently back into its spot. 

“Stir this,” he ordered, sticking the long wooden stirring spoon in her paw. 

“He’s the human’s god of Death,” Keres said finally, sitting down on the log bench. “It was his Judge that allowed me to come back after Balthazar.” 

Eury stopped stirring, her ears dropping. “Oh,” she said softly, turning to the little idol. She reached out to run the tip of one claw down its face. “Well, thanks then.” Then she shrugged and grinned, glancing sidelong at Keres. “She’s always had a thing with death anyway,” she whispered to Braham. “Was real weird about it when we were cubs.”

“Really?” Braham’s voice was entirely too interested. “You got any stories from when she was a cub?” 

“Absolutely not,” Keres tried. Euryale giggled and patted Braham’s shoulder. 

“Oh, absolutely yes, big guy. I’ll tell you everything.”

[imafatwomannnnnn]

This is the back up account for @imafatmannnnnnnn !!!!!!! Will make it fancy if the other gets T'd.

Well I didn't get T'd. I got locked out.... so I'm on here until I can get back in my other. I hope i get to find all my old moots.

About me:

I have an ED but encourage and support recovery. I myself am in therapy. Therapy is a process. I actually came back on here bc I started gaining too much and now I stay bc of the connection and understanding.

Im old. Like almost 40 old. I'm what you young kids have to look forward to if you don't get help. Sounds great right? (That's sarcasm.)

Stats.

HW: really don't know anywhere from 180 to 200

LW: really don't know but think it was the 120s. I was a size 2 in gap and it was amazing.

Im 5'5"

Sw 173

Cw 160

My goals

Gw1: 159 I'm kinda there but not really I'm around 160.

Gw2: 149

If I get to 149 and can maintain it, I'll go lower.

I suffer primarily with BED. Atypical ana. Past othro (really fucking miss this one). And past Mia (do not miss this one).

Minors, I don't hate on you but it just feels wrong. I won't shut you out bc I hope you see how messed up I am and think you know what, I don't want this anymore.

Guess with that being said I should say, I have had an ed since my teenage years. And though I have hard very successful periods of recovery, well here I am.

Also I hate assholes. If you are an asshole of any variety, I will block you.

Ask me anything.

[madame-cookie]

Ranger Pets

I have been wanting to make a post about the different ranger pets I liked from GW1, since there have been a couple thought here and there I have had while interacting with GW2 pets. There are more than a couple homages to the skills, locations, and designs of pets in GW2 in relation to pets from the first game.

Ranger was my main for most PvE content in Gw1, and I think I ran with the original phoenix the most out of any pets there were available at the time. It had a simplicity to its design that I really liked, and I loved how it would screech as it flew around and attacked. I do really like how it got a little makeover though. Those colors are gorgeous! Ever since I first saw the redesign for them in GW2, I have thought about making a character centered around this colorful palette. I tried some stuff out but didn't care for it much. I think it would be super cool if they did more reintroductions of pets like this because it feels like a great opportunity that they've already done a couple times in Cantha.

They don't even have to have originally been pets either, because the wallows that you can tame as pets now were originally just some bumpy guys rolling around in the maps between Echovald and the Jade Sea. Here's them side-by-side, with the older one on the left:

Definitely had some work done and is very much cuter, but a part of me wishes I could have this cute wallow as a pet while still having the chubby necromantic rat that looks like a pug a bit to me hahaha.

I also think it would be cool if there were achievements to get some pets. I love how they do quests in this game and enjoyed a lot of the little prerequisites to charming animals, because it made it feel more immersive. Not to knock on the convenience of "press F to love forever <3", but I'm a lore fiend. This alternate, fancier version of the phoenix from GW1 that I posted above could only be obtained after doing the final mission in the campaign in Cantha where you would face off against Shiro Tagachi:

Do I hear breathtaking? The feathers render in such a way that they are almost transparent like silk and like I said already-- breathtaking. There was also a popular series of sidequests and collections in which you could acquire a rare moa bird egg that would hatch into this:

(I would kill for a minipet anet pls) But you would take care of the little guy through a series of quests and over time they would become this rare full-grown moa that you could charm. There is a GW2 version available through the Hall of Monuments for veteran players, and both are pictured below. Gw1, and GW2 respectively.

I like the sleek black look more personally. But I love that they kept his hot topic look because we deserve it.

But as far as quests go, there was a fun one available to people in Ascalon after the searing where they would track down the remaining members of a species and found a small sanctuary to protect them moving forward. They were called Melandru's Stalkers and looked like this:

Kitty <3 And it has been a long time, so I'm not sure if the jungle stalkers pictured just below here are supposed to be their successors or not. but I always thought it would be a very sweet collection to have in Grothmar Valley or maybe even the Secluded Glen in the Fields of Ruin. Jungle Stalker:

Most of all, though, I really missed this map called the Zaishen Menagerie, where you could go and visit all of the pets that you've charmed before in these curated little biomes across a small map. It was a convenient place to go on new ranger characters to tame harder-to-get pets, as well as my favorite place in the game that I would just hang out with my friends at.

This google image i grabbed real quick doesn't do it much justice because it was expansive. They even had caves by the water to house these little guys:

I don't know what directions they will go moving forward with pets, but I have enjoyed all of what has been added so far, and you KNOW I'm making plans to snag those new Wizard's Tower pets as. we. speak! Below are some other pets that aren't in the game yet that I would personally love to see. By no means an inclusive list, I just find them charming.

[sylvaridreams]

20 19 questions for writers

<- why did they lie to me about the #? i demand answers.

I was in bed and going to bed and then I saw that I was tagged by ANTA MY FRIEND @antariies so i got out of bed to answer these

tagging: um. well i dont know. teensie. do you write...? you have to do this then. even if you are in bed.

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

39 right now, but I know I've orphaned about that many as well

2. what fandoms do you write for?

right now... all guild wars 2.

previously I've done a lot of metro 2033, half life, jojo's bizarre adventure, digimon, katekyo hitman reborn... and then less of hlvrai, final fantasy vii, and fruits basket... gw2 is all i do for right now. <:)

3. what are your top 5 by kudos?

This is super skewed because I orphaned a tooooon of my more popular stuff but Nuclear Option, two other vrai fics, Lent (<- should be number 1 if we're being honest and true) and a fruits basket thing that i should have probably also orphaned. the overwhelming urge to orphan things to skew the data further. you have to hold me back

4. do you respond to comments?

yes but not in a timely fashion (last round took me. over a year before i replied to anything. pensive.

5. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I dunno about actually angsty.... the fic that makes me cry every time is butterfly bridge; I wrote it after having to put a pet to sleep. if I ever got around to writing more "portal to the metro" the ending would probably also rank up there. due to. the tragedies.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

proooooobably Lent? idk I feel like I get a lot of "fuck yeah that ending ohhh the catharsis" type reactions on Lent.

7. do you get hate on fics?

I have a number of times. sometimes anon but sometimes people put their names to it?

8. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

yes. sorry. the apologetic kind.

9. do you write crossovers?

not often... usually a crossover is a pretend thing just for me in my Imagination. however. portal to the metro... it was a roleplay between myself and a friend. and then i started writing it in earnest. and then i got tired. then i started writing primarily gw2 stuff. you understand. but someday I'll return to it. and then they'll all be sorry.

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

um. kind of. when I was 17-18 I plotted out a fic I was working on and shared it with a couple of dear close friends. and then like a couple weeks later a massively popular person in the fandom in question posted my fic: their version. down to every little detail. 🙈 never found out which of my friends shared the planning with them.

11. have you ever co-written a fic before?

yeah, Pluto's Moon -- started 8 years ago, finished almost a year later... I wouldn't bother rereading it at this point but. it was a fun experience. we had fun. I also cowrote several chapters of a Reborn crossover fic with my long distance mmo friend when I was a freshman in high school. I don't think we ever got anywhere with it let alone posted it to FFN or anything-- I was handwriting short chapters between classes lol. I might still have those pages somewhere...

and then I think I would also consider portal to the metro a co-write in many ways. because it came from both of us :)

12. what's your all-time favorite ship?

well. I think Canach/Alba has been too prominent for too long for me not to say it. canon/oc numero uno!!!!!!

13. what's one WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i dont even wanna answer and jinx it nooooo cry2. I yearn to finish everything... i guess maybe I have some weird misc smut fics I don't anticipate finishing. due to the strangeness.

14. what are your writing strengths?

dialogue is my dearest sweetest friend. my sweetie pee

15. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i LIKE it! thumbs ups. am I GOOD at it? thumbs in the other directions

16. first fandom you wrote for?

Kingdom Hearts before I ever touched any of the games. (like 17-18 years ago)

17. favorite fic you've written?

I feel like my most recent is always my favoritest 😭 uhhhhg

The Echo (current project)

Drochshúil (recent work)

18. what are your writing weaknesses?

I have no pacing control. I can't meet goals, OR i'll go full crazy and write 160k in 2 weeks. you have to watch out because that can happen to you too if you just go off your antipsych meds for a while

also filling in the stuff AROUND dialogue. so often i'll be editing a fic and just (sighs) dama (me) you (i) can't just have 8 lines in a row of dialogue. what are these people doing in between talking. and then dama (me) is like alright wise guy why don't you take a crack at it if you're so smart. and i do. but in the moment of writing i'm not super good at figuring out the in betweeeeeeens.

also I feel like ending scenes and such is really hard. also getting characters from point a to point b (locations) without doing a timeskip to "well here we are at point b!"

19. have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone ask to do so with one of my metro fics, to repost on a Russian fanfic site; I wasn't particularly attached to the fic so I told them go ahead. but also I have no idea if it ever happened. heart hands. so maybe. there may have been another but I don't rember.

[icebrooding]

Honestly even though I didn’t have the same negative reaction that much of the online gw2 community did, I do kinda appreciate some of the learnings for story they outlined in the retrospective 😅

I agree completely. I personally loved Secrets of the Obscure, I rate it very highly while acknowledging that it definitely had flaws. Handling as many new characters and lore topics was going to be difficult, and I understand the frustration of people who felt that things felt a bit underwhelming or glossed over, I really do. I feel it myself.

Personally, however, I think those things affected me less because I've always been rather focused towards story, and digging as much out of it as I can in a rather aggressive way, in almost everything I enjoy, and that allows me a different (not necessarily deeper) level of enjoyment. Sometimes I may come to conclusions or thoughts that may not be there actually, or may not have been the intent, but the enjoyable thing is that art is subjective, and if nothing comes out to specifically say 'this reading is wrong', I can satisfy myself with those interpretations.

Why else do you think I can sit here and write essays on 'here's why X character makes me think they're like Y based on one throwaway line or an implication in a piece of lore in a book I found on the overworld' :P

This is definitely how SotO appealed to me, because there was a lot there that I could dig into personally and get my mental cogs ticking. But on the same note, I get why people want more concrete answers, more time spent on developing new threads. I would have loved SotO to be longer, myself, because I truly enjoyed the world and characters it brought to the table. That's what Wildflowers will be for--

Gameplay, I think could have definitely been improved. While I wasn't particularly fussed with the first or last Nayos release, the middle one is where I felt the impact hardest. But I do enjoy things like Rift Hunting, Convergences, etc, I just pace my time. I know that's easier for me though since I only started playing in '22.

I appreciate the transparency on this front, in all honesty. I've only dabbled into game dev myself in times long past (I feel old, but I'm really not), and can understand the need to push out an excuse for why x or y didn't turn out as expected, but I can respect flat-out saying 'we tried to do too much, and we failed to achieve what we set out to'.

And with the certain extreme-level volatile reactions in other sections of this player base, I think recognising that treating the places where SotO tripped over itself as something not done maliciously is important. Not saying that criticism isn't deserved, but I have seen some genuinely horrific things said that make me feel ashamed to be part of this community.

All in all, I'm going to hold my faith in the next expansion and am greatly looking forward to it, and seeing how these lessons take. I've stuck through way worse in other MMOs, so one expac that struggled to handle everything it set out to do is barely a blip on my radar.

And I feel this is the best moment to bring up my general blog's attitude: it's no secret how horribly negative this playerbase can be, to the point I've had to turn off map chat a number of times because the negativity is so constant it is genuinely bad for my mental health. I have fairly severe depression, I do not need to sit here and wallow in even more negativity. I think too much of the world as it is right now thrives off of negativity and hating things and not being happy, so when I talk about story beats or characters, etc, I always try to do so in a positive way. I'm just here to enjoy something that's come to mean a lot to me, not to sit here and hear for the eightieth time about why X is a shit character or Y is the worst thing that ever happened or Z blah blah blah.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

cracks my fingers

for the asura ask game: 1, 3, 24 for non-evil Ruju

and 1, 8, 27 for Sylffa!

Just an asura ask game

Thanks so much for the ask!! Time to crack my OWN fingers because that's a whole lotta questions-- I offer you Rat Lore, Deluxe Edition(tm) below the cut for everyone's convenience.

1. Do they fit well into asuran society or are they more at home with other races? How do they feel about fellow asura? Is it because of their personality or something else? Is there any deal maker or breaker?

It's probably no surprise that Ruju's opinion of asuran society isn't particularly great. Between growing up among Inquest and struggling with a learning disability that made school much harder for him than his peers, the guy just never felt like he fit in anywhere. The highly individualistic dog-eat-dog culture really did NOT do him any favors. Even in his Dynamics timeline he still felt like an outlier, preferring hands-on work and often requiring detailed written instructions that he could refer to when his memory blanked.

It really wasn't until Ruju left it all behind to join the Vigil that he ever felt like he really belonged somewhere. He still keeps in contact with his old krewe as friends, but they all know he's never rejoining.

Likewise, his initial feelings about other asura are generally cautious at best. And at worst? He's been known to get pretty hostile even right at the start if someone puts him even a LITTLE on edge. Ruju's much more likely to give a fair chance to others who are like him, leaving it all behind to find somewhere they feel more at home. While he can learn to live with asura that are proud of their own personal accomplishments, those that cross the line into mocking other races and customs raise his hackles IMMEDIATELY. The guy has no patience whatsoever for the ideologies that allow the Inquest and others like them to flourish right there in Rata Sum. He also tends to assume the worst of anyone with past Inquest ties, even if they've long-since left the organization behind.

But really, any asura stubborn-- and perceptive-- enough to get past Ruju's prickly exterior will eventually find an extraordinarily loyal friend. He's tough to win over, but even tougher to shake.

So I know what you're (maybe) thinking; 'are there any races Ruju gets along with better, then?' Well, that's complicated. He didn't have a whole lot of contact with other races until he left Rata Sum, so most of his knowledge base was from asuran stereotypes of their cultures-- which, well, led to more than a few awkward and insensitive encounters. It took him a while to feel them out on their own terms and figure out what was true and what wasn't.

Unfortunately, this guy's mouth moves a fair bit faster than his brain most of the time. That probably says it all right there.

The only race he never warms up to is, ironically, the charr. He finds their heavily militaristic society and loyalty to the chain of command too stifling for the most part, despite initially relating to their ferocious fighting spirit. It's really only the outliers like Rox and the Olmakhan that he winds up liking by the end. By contrast, he comes to really appreciate both norn and sylvari-- and he'd probably like skritt a lot too if he was a bit more open-minded about them. But alas, Ruju is pretty sure that having more than one chaotic rat in a room together would lead to horrible no-good things, and he MORE than fills that quota.

3. What's their family like?

That one was answered over here!

24. Do they have any particular opinion on the Peacemakers and the Arcane Council (and Eye)? Do they have any direct experience with them?

HOO boy this is another meaty one. Ruju didn't really have experience with any of them until he moved out to Rata Sum, but none of his interactions were particularly positive. When he was young and naive he wanted to believe they were better than the Inquest... And then he realized that the moment there was any real danger-- or ESPECIALLY a direct conflict with the Inquest-- the Peacemakers were always conspicuously absent. As soon as he noticed that, all semblance of respect was out the window.

Ironically this menace actually WANTED them to do their jobs, at least in the situations where it actually mattered. (Like, say, when Teyo is wreaking havoc with hacked security golems.)

As a result, the Peacemakers got the brunt of his rebellion; Ruju found out pretty quickly that they didn't dare to rough him up because of his parents' notoriety, and he absolutely took advantage of that to be a pain. On top of that, magitech cuffs would almost always fall off from his air element shorting out their circuitry, creating a whole fiasco as they assumed he was slipping them on purpose. Sometimes this led into wild 'races' across the city when he'd get sick of squabbling with them, just casting superspeed and swiftness on himself and bolting... Straight to the cells. All that fuss JUST to turn himself in without being cuffed. Once they realized Ruju was messing with them and not actually trying to escape, they just stopped chasing and let him at it-- and put that note specifically on his file to try and warn any new recruits not to engage.

Not that every rookie necessarily READ that file, though...

Regardless, Ruju still spent enough time in a Peacemaker cell during his younger years that they practically had one reserved for him. But despite the many arrests, he never really considered them more than a nuisance-- and a method of getting back at his parents by being a total embarrassment in public and getting them to pay his bail.

The Arcane Eye on the other hand... Over time, Ruju's opinion shifted from vague annoyance, to disrespect, to outright disgust. In his Dynamics timeline, well. Let's put it like this. He had the option to either reveal the truth of Gorr's research on the Elder Dragons to everyone via transmission, or go violently beat an entire squad of Arcane Eye officers to death in their own hideaway. Guess which option won out. (How has this guy NOT gotten banished.)

Likewise, he can't stand the Council either, but just generally tries to avoid them and stay out of their jurisdiction. And after what he did to their finest spies, that avoidance is DEFINITELY mutual. He's threatened multiple seated members at this point and they don't particularly care to test whether he'll make good on that.

Ironically, Phlunt is one of the few he can actually tolerate. Meanwhile, lock him in a room with Flax or Haia for more than a few minutes and the Council might have a very freshly vacant seat to fill.

Now for Sylffa's questions!

1. Do they fit well into asuran society or are they more at home with other races?

8. Do/did they have a krewe?

You can find both of these ones too over here!

27. Have they been impacted by that whole Pact thing? What do they think of the First Pact Commander, Aurene and the whole Elder Dragon mess?

Sylffa was a member of the Priory when the Pact first started taking form, but limiting her knowledge and exploration to a single faction always bothered her to an extent. So, saying that she was curious about the prospect of expanding her horizons would be a MASSIVE understatement. As soon as those doors opened, she was practically on the first flight over. If something THAT big was in the works she absolutely wanted to be a part of it! Getting to work on the Pact airships was one of her proudest moments, immediately followed by getting to see the fleet she helped design soar into action.

While Sylffa might not have seen a lot of the action herself, she also made a point of assisting many of the outer camps with repairs-- along with working on defensive measures to keep dragon minions at bay. She was NOTORIOUS for seeing just how many laser cannons she could cram onto the walls before they'd have structural issues. Some would argue that she wasn't taking the situation NEARLY seriously enough, but the rest would respond that even if she was maybe a bit too excited about getting to see her heavy artillery designs at work, you couldn't really discount the results. In reality, burying herself in her work was just the easiest way to compartmentalize; focusing on getting results and then putting them into action made all the stress worthwhile.

The fall of Zhaitan wasn't the end for her, either. She stuck with the Pact all the way through to the end, occasionally sending inventions to Ruju to test out in the field. A few-- like a prototype position rewinder-- have stayed in his inventory to this day.

As for the Pact Commander and Aurene: that definitely depends on who it is! In any world where Ruju reaches that station, she definitely has a positive outlook on the two! They might not be as close as they were during college, but still very much qualify as friends. He shared quite a bit with her about his 'honorary progeny' during Aurene's younger years so she knows the dragon isn't quite as scary as she might seem. They've only ever met briefly though, with Aurene having assisted her group during a Branded outbreak on Dragonfall. Sylffa made a point of saluting her before she flew away.

In any other version of events, though, Sylffa would've been unlikely to know much of the Commander and Aurene-- aside from their role, that is. She would've considered an honor to meet them, though! And even MORE of an honor if they used any of her gadgets in the field.

If you were to ask her if she had any regrets now that the cycle is over, she'd claim she wishes she could've given Primordus a good whack herself for her ancestors' sake-- but really she's just glad it's over. In the wake of the dragons, Sylffa hopes she can put her focus into inventions that help people via means OTHER than blasting dragon minions to bits. She's made enough laser cannons, it's about time to try something new for a change! How she'll apply her expertise in the future remains to be seen, though.

[thefreelanceangel]

Tagged! 9 People, Let's Go!

@madalyn-maeve tagged me (directly, by messaging me, because Tumblr was being a bitch) so I'm going to IMMEDIATELY do this.

Last Song Listened To:

"Let The Children Watch" by Tom Cardy (LOL I KNOW... I actually keep YouTube playing largely in the background when @tlbodine comes over for our biweekly coffee & chat, so the last ACTUAL song on the play history was "Hell is Forever" from Hazbin Hotel, but I fiddled around last night and Tom Cardy was the last thing I clicked on.) If you want the last non-hilarious song I listened to, it was "Footfalls" by Soken and the Primals. [Because of COURSE it was.]

Currently Watching:

"Seinfeld" is playing in the background as I type this because my ADHD can handle new books easy, but does Not Play Well with new shows/movies. (I have to be in the mindset to SIT and WATCH NEW.) Most of the time, I play the same few TV series in the background so I can glance up, watch for a few minutes, and then go back to what I'm doing. Which means in rotation, it may be: Seinfeld The Simpsons Hazbin Hotel Helluva Boss American Horror Story (Coven, Freak Show, Hotel are the most likely seasons to be watched, but I like Asylum and will rewatch Roanoke) Forged in Fire Mythbusters

Sweet/Savory/Spicy?:

I will take sweet over ANYTHING else. I am very much a hummingbird and prefer sweet flavors to anything except garlic. Savory is secondary, mainly in favor of sandwiches. And... no spicy. None. No. I am the Whitest of White Girls and just cannot even with spicy. I do not like to EAT PAIN for fun. {I still get mocked by my husband and my roommate for fussing about "this ketchup is too spicy" after a lot of black pepper got mixed into it. IT WAS SPICY, DAMN IT.}

Relationship Status:

Well, I did say above that I have a husband, so kinda outed myself on that one, huh? :D My hubs is @scarssdoesrp (and yes his Tumblr is basically nonexistent, much to my eternal frustration, and yes, at a glance, it hilariously reads like 'Scarss Does ERP' which is just so gd funny.) We met ... lemme think... I want to say back in 2010 when my then-boyfriend got me playing Neverwinter Nights and I joined a server that Scarss was modding. We stayed in touch, off and on, throughout the years, and then I ran into him on NWN again after splitting with my ex. He trundled over to GW2 and welp... Now we've been together nearly six years and married for two!

Current Obsession:

HAH. Books. Books, books, books, books, always books. Always books. ...yes, FFXIV, I'm logged in almost every day, I GPose during my work hours *cough* I GPOSE A LOT, and I genuinely enjoy the gameplay so I have fun trying to Git Gud. (But also books, seriously, like I LOVE books, if you want to talk about books, let's talk about books.)

Tagging:

I know this has been going around for a while, so I'm going to tag people from my notifications that I'm not familiar with! LET'S GET TO KNOW SOME FOLKS! @im-thinking-arson (Love that name btw LOL) and @wingedflame and @swishysword annnnnnnd @ithaerielbrenagh and @hazoret

@arinaxiv annnnnnnnd... @lizzy-calaxio and... @zeloinator and... @thefrostflower

(Let's try fixing the tags YET AGAIN...)

[brightwingedbat]

GW2 EoD What Lies Beneath spoilers -

Some thoughts for more of my story writing.

Since my story plays out slightly differently in headcanon (Commander Nastazya is always accompanied by her mate Marcus) I have some very terrible ideas to do for my story of them when fighting the Oni.

The first hallucination appears as Forgal for Naz, and Tybalt for Marcus. They both brush it off pretty well.

The second is Eir for Nastazya, but for Marcus it gets really strange. Rather than Eir, it's Nastazya for him. The actual one vanishes from his sight, instead this one is blaming him for abandoning her when he chased after Rytlock in the Mists, and for letting her die when Balthazar ambushed them.

Once the two are out of it, Marcus comments at Naz, but doesn't push it further. She didn't hear him during the hallucination anyway. Especially as the both of them are too busy reeling from the Haze-inflicted guilt.

The last one, Nastazya gets Almorra. But Marcus, he stops hearing Kalla in his head. Replaced by Mallyx the Unyielding's voice. His current great fear is losing himself to Mallyx like he almost did when fighting Void. He panics, so harshly. Repeatedly telling Mallyx to get out of his head, even though truthfully he's still invoked to Kalla. Even when he's trying to summon Kalla's warband spirits he sees them as demons.

By the time the hallucination is out, Nastazya is blacking out, Marcus is holding on by a thread. Rama ordering for them to get out but Marcus is fearfully telling them to stay away cause Mallyx is in his head, it takes Kalla putting all her voice into his head to snap him out of it. Then he sees Nastazya, and all his fear shifts into a desperate need to help her get out of here.

When they all escape, and Nastazya finally wakes back up, Marcus is tearfully kneeling beside her with his paw gripping tightly on hers. Needless to say, he's awash with relief. Gorrik doesn't even get the chance to ask if she's fine before Marcus does.

-

After all that's done and they have nothing to do but wait, they'll be going back to their Lion's Arch home. But Naz is gonna start catastrophising after being unusually still and quiet for a while, the Haze affected her badly.

She starts actually believing some of the twisted words, especially the 'You'll be the end of the charr. Killing and corrupting, it's what you were born to do.' One of the first harshest moments for her was having to kill her branded mother, and that also got half of her original warband either killed or branded. She's still never fully recovered from this, the guilt has always been there, but buried.

It takes all of Marcus' care, along with some voice raising to get her to calm down, there is gonna be crying from the both of them.

"We'll get through this, Naz... We always do, always have done..."

"...Why does it always have to be us, why is it always me?"

"I don't know... But what I do know is despite everything, we're still here. I'm still here, and I always will be here for you. Alright? You got that?"

"...I got it. I got it. ...Burn me, I don't want to go back there. I don't want Taimi and Gorrik to rip these... wounds back open."

"I know, I know. I don't either. I wish I had an answer to all this, I wish I did. Whatever happens after all this, I'll do anything to make things better for you, whatever it takes."

"I'll hold you to that, so you better not leave me. Don't you dare ever leave me."

"I promise, I'll stay by you, no matter what."

"...Those are the same words you told me when you returned from the Mists all those years ago."

"And I still mean them just as much as I did then. Always."

[tequatls-favorite-spoon]

man i gotta figure out what to do with juyun :/ he’s one of my absolute fave ocs but his gw2 version is kinda boring which makes me sad! also here is a couple pics of him bc i know that helps me to remember what character ppl are talking about lol

so like, og juyun is the god of beauty in his world, and him being a literal god while eless is Just Some Guy, is something i try to keep the vibe of in most aus i make. so eless is a charr, and i made her from the olmakhan bc her family, and her decision to leave her family, is also important to her character. meanwhile, juyun is a norn in the order of whispers. and like, that’s all i gave him?? and like, there is the fact that he’s from mainland tyria and eless has been relatively isolated her whole life, that sort of fits their dynamic, but i want juyun to be more special 🥺 he’s my special little beautiful boy 🥺

so like, i have three ideas rn. i ended up rambling a bit, so here’s a quick list: juyun becomes aurenes champion/branded by aurene, juyun is actually a saltspray dragon, or juyun is an avatar of lyssa (could also be an avatar of a spirit of the wild, but idk which one)

the rest of my thoughts and rambles are below the cut

first is that he gets branded by aurene. the vibes fit him SO well, like god!juyun literally has opalescent skin, so aurene crystals are sooooo perfect for him. the issue tho, is idk why he’d be branded. like, i could go the route of him being aurene’s champion, but then i’d have to figure out who the commander is. i wouldn’t want it to be onyx cuz they’re from different stories for me? so it’s like. they shouldn’t know each other. having eless be the commander would be So Good, bc that lets me have them interact a LOT and i Love Them. but then i have to deal with the fact that she’s from elona so idk how she’d get to mainland tyria at the right time to become the commander :/ like, it could work? but it would almost be easier to make her from the legions, and that doesn’t feel right to me…

my second idea is that juyun could be a saltspray dragon! i like this bc the color scheme and vibes fit him really well, and bc he’s literally meant to be (half?) korean, so him having a direct link to cantha is cool. like, norn can be asian and stuff, but it’s mostly just looks at that point? anyway, the issues i run into here is that idk if all saltspray dragons can shapeshift? like there’s kuunavang/navan obvi, but idk about the others? and i don’t know a ton about the saltspray dragons in general, tho i think that’s just bc there’s not a lot to know? i also then have to decide if he left cantha, bc if he didn’t, then he and eless meet WAY late in the story. and if he DID leave, then i gotta figure out how, when, and why he did.

my last idea is that maybe he’s like. an avatar or something? i thought about him being linked to one of the spirits of the wild, but idk what one it would be, yknow? but then he could be an avatar of one of the six? like, he is sooo similar to lyssa! he’s literally a mesmer and i already associate him with illusions, glamours, and masks. the only issue here is that idk why he’d be here. like. i looked into avatars on the wiki a lil bit, but i still feel like i don’t know enough >:/

honestly, i think both the saltspray dragon and avatar ideas are stopped only by the fact that i don’t feel like i know enough. i think a lot of that is cuz i didn’t play gw1? (technically i played the free trial cuz my cousin played it, but that doesn’t really count) then again, i could always just. make stuff up. i can fill in blanks with whatever hand-wavey stuff i want! except that i’m rly indecisive lol and i like having characters like this be as canon-compliant as possible :(

returning to juyun as aurenes champion though, i think it might work the best? like, eless could have left the olmakhan and elona during the personal story. maybe juyun does the like, 10-50 story, and then eless shows up as part of the priory? and eless becomes the commander, and juyun is just like, there to help out. and then with lws2, maybe they split up? so juyun goes after the egg, while eless does something else? then again they don’t need to split up i think, cuz aurene could still just choose juyun.

so like, i think champion!juyun would be the easiest to figure out, but then his ‘special-ness’ takes a while to happen. saltspray!juyun gives him ties to cantha, but idk if it makes sense for there to be another saltspray dragon that can transform, and that he’d want to look like a norn. avatar!juyun is the most similar to his og version, but idk a lot about the gods and their avatars, and it being so similar might be a lil boring.

mm i think i might be leaning towards champion tbh, with saltspray dragon coming in second for now