#i want more info on soundless please i am so curious

[icebrooding]

“There is something wrong with me, and it’s hardly my fault.”

(Oops I just wanted to make some background OCs to go with Cotharach and then this one ended up running away from me and becoming much more fleshed out than intended)

Rasene awoke in the grove some ten years ago, and where those who awoke with them were joyous and excited to have joined the real world, Rasene only felt one thing; discomfort. Their bark felt wrong. Their name felt wrong. They were plagued by a perpetual feeling that something was not right, but unexplainable why or how.

As a sapling, they would find themselves constantly embroiled in discussion with their fellows, with talks of Wyld Hunts and destinies, and the first and secondborn a constant topic. But in a contrast to the enthusiasm of others, Rasene could not help but wonder; what an awful thing. They had plans, they had goals and ambitions... and if a Wyld Hunt were to come to them, would that mean the end to such things? Would they too have to throw away their life, or spend an eternity in a futile, hopeless pursuit, because of a pre-determined destiny bestowed upon them? They could only hope such a thing would never happen.

But as it seemed, such hopes were only tempting fate, and one day Rasene woke with a Wyld Hunt calling them to far-off lands. Away from home, from the life they had slowly begun to build for themselves, away from everything they ever knew. While they kept the details of their Hunt to themselves, the pressure from other sylvari to follow it was incessant. It pulled at their mind, but Rasene was firm. This was their life, and they would not spend it following and dying for a destiny they never asked for.

It would be a mere few months after receiving their Wyld Hunt that Rasene chose to leave the Grove behind, no longer able to tolerate the blind acceptance being forced upon them. If the Dream, and their mother, did not know them well enough to let them awaken with a fitting appearance or name, then what hope could they have in their Hunt not taking away what little was left of them?

They would wander the forests, and escape the grasps of the Nightmare Court several times over (for all they would do is force a different ‘destiny’ upon them), until Rasene found a small settlement of soundless.

They were taken in by the other soundless sylvari and treated as one of their own. An elder woman by the name of Rhinan would go on to tutor the young sylvari in coping methods, and the two became like family. When another of the older members of the settlement would eventually find companionship with a non-soundless, Rasene was the most vocal about their disapproval.

They would spend months working to undo the mistakes they felt were made upon them, shearing their leaves to grow them back the way they should be, and hiding for weeks at a time while their bark shifted to the right colour and shaping. When a new name came to them, the other soundless rejoiced in Rasene finally finding themselves.

After the news regarding the nature of sylvari reached their settlement in the early weeks of the Maguuma Jungle campaign against Mordremoth, Rasene volunteered to join a small contingent led by same sylvari that they disapproved so strongly of; Cotharach. Despite the animosity regarding the older man’s decisions, Rasene was determined to prove that they, as well as the other soundless, were their own, Dreams and Nightmares be damned.

The contingent fared well in the jungle, being comprised exclusively of soundless who had lived long and weathered the pull of the Dream and the Nightmare through even their deepest struggles. While some had feared that Mordremoth would overpower them eventually, the few stayed resilient--those years of training to blot out all voices other than their own were not for nothing.

At Dragon’s Stand, as they took part in the assault on Mordremoth, Rasene couldn’t help but feel sombre, thinking how this would be the first and last time all sylvari could stand side-by-side. No dreams. No nightmares. Only them.

In the months following the death of Mordremoth, the soundless were given more consideration by traditional sylvari who followed the dream. And when new saplings finally came, with the trauma of the entire campaign flitting through the dream, there was a surge in kindred spirits.

Rasene would never fully be able to reconcile with traditional sylvari, the pains suffered too great to forget or forgive, but they would no longer turn away others who came to their settlement out of curiosity or interest.