#he can also be summoned forth forcibly from the spear in the same way by anyone skilled enough in magic.

[bigsnaff]

So!!! Here's that Merlish post mentioned several months ago that I'd write pretty soon after the first SotO update dropped (I did not). But here it is now!

So, in all the time I've had Merlish, I've never really had a solid story for him. He's my second oldest character right next to Cyna, being 8 years to her 11 years (the 3 year gap being because he's the only other character that survived deletion from that period), but only in the last 2 years has he had any... actual substance.

Anyway, disregarding previous incarnations of him, Merlish Cendigg is a ghost of Ascalon, except he's not bound to the same limitations that all of the rest are.

I'm not nearly as familiar with GW1's lore and have only played a couple of hours of it, so inaccuracies and headcanons that are contradictory to canon are probably impossible to avoid while developing a character that's literally from the time period of said canon, so... bear with me a bit. But Merlish was in King Adelbern's court. His specific role, I'm not entirely sure. But suffice it to say, he was, and still is, an extremely powerful sorcerer - enough so that he drew the attention of the Astral Ward, probably became a member somewhere along the line, and was seriously considered a candidate for ascension. Until the Foefire.

Merlish had taken some precautions. He embedded his soul into his spear. His body was incinerated by the Foefire and he became a ghost as all the other humans did, but he was spared of many of the limitations that the other ghosts suffer. He has retained his awareness, consciousness, isn't just a complete rage-blinded specter (though his emotions are far more volatile than they were when he was alive, and he is much more prone to anger and restlessness), and he is overall more independent.

But, nonetheless, he is entirely bound to the spear, and remained dormant within it for centuries, until it was eventually plucked from the rubble by a member of the Ward and brought to Isgarren.

The spear happens to be the very same staff skin that Isgarren actually carries in-game! This was completely coincidental, as I had already been using that skin for Merlish since it was released, but it stirred a lot of ideas in my head and is what spurred a lot of this post to begin with.

But anyway, the post-effects of Merlish finally being awoken from his dormant state after his discovery are still TBD, especially on account of the fact that we haven't really figured out Isgarren's actual angle in SotO yet, but I'm assuming that either:

1). Isgarren felt some amount of guilt for Merlish being imprisoned for centuries in the ruins of Ascalon, and is looking to rectify that in some way, which is why he's carrying the spear in-game as we can see.

Or, the other option, (which is probably more likely tbh):

2). Isgarren is using the spear, and by extension Merlish, as a conduit for his power, strengthening his own magic. He regards this as a necessary sacrifice of Merlish's own autonomy in order to ward off the Kryptis.

Either way, I think eventually Isgarren hands Merlish off to Cyna (a precaution for her while in Nayos, as Merlish is a very valuable ally and formidable foe, and portable, no less), which is when Merlish finally regains much of his autonomy, and Cyna finally gets to experience at least a little bit of what revenants have to go through with a ghost rattling around in her head. Which, added with Peitha, is not a very good time. At least Merlish is a little more polite though, if angrier.