#including and especially Rytlock

[foefire-flame]

Sorry this is related bc I was thinking abt Rytlock's short story but what I Really like Emphasizing about Rytlock and Leo's dynamic when they first meet is how they met at the perfect moment but thats not necessarily a like, good thing. Rytlock took an interest in Leo bc something about him reminded him of Crecia, and had already severed so many of his close relationships until there was nothing left. And Leo was coincidentally at the right place at the right time, he was sent into the catacombs and emerged to find nearly all his warband dead, and was only starting to just gain a lead on rising to prominence due to Rytlock's favor and his legionnare scrambling to pick up the pieces which Leo used to his advantage and finally get rid of him. And throughout all the hardships they stick together bc it seems like theres no other choice and how hard loyalty, which they formed with each other at their lonliest points, is coded into them, its fun

[entering--hyperspace]

Leo went from legionnaire to Tribune all within a year and I cant help but think about how he would be viewed in charr society as bit of a mixed bag.

I think he would be popular among the less elite like ranchers, Gladiums, and otherwise those who are bit of outcasts themselves. Even though they may not all be hardened warriors, they make up a large portion of society even if its not the ones in power. Outside of taking part in the battle against Zhaitan, he doesn't have anything at face value (Like Rytlock wielding Sohothin) as something that warrants popularity or an acceptance to jumping the ranks so quickly, so theres a bit more rumors and guesses surrounding why and how he was able to achieve such things.

What they do know is:

-He lost nearly entire warband and had to rebuild it with honorable gladium

-Challeneged his legionnare in the gladiator arena, won, and chose mercy

-Rytlock very obviously took a shine to him

- Was "rewarded" to become a tribune after recapturing claw island (this was really just an excuse for Bangar to keep tabs on the new commander while also knowing that if Leo got included into whatever the commander was doing, he had his own soldier that ultimately had to answer to Him in his pocket that was also less of a loose canon than Rytlock was.)

In between Personal story ->Ls2 Leo was working primarily within the black citadel and doing things the commander didn't. I think there might've been a lot of presumtions made about Leo that he had to gracefully fight through or brush aside. But the thing with Leo is that this was an opportunity he has been preparing for for a Long Time. He knows he cant just thrust his ideals and beliefs upon the charr and expect change to happen over-night, he has to be subtle. He does a great job in dancing to their tune while also doing things His Way and showing how he can get equal or better results while using whatever language is better suited to the ears around them. Its easier to say "by having less casualties we can better focus on these other threats which will be more efficent in the long run and turn out a larger profit" vs "I dont want soldier getting hurt needlessly." Its still a harder hill he has to fight up towards, but by taking it slow And successfully setting out what hes asked to do, he proves that he earned the rank he was given.

I do think Leo becomes pretty well liked later into the story especially by living story 5 but its cool to think about the beginnings

[skaald-of-the-hearth-fires]

DoF:RefTE chapter 5 - Throwing Fire

Dreams of Freedom: Reforging the Edge

Chapter five: Throwing Fire | (AO3 link)

Across the Shiverpeak Mountains, in the once-human land of Ascalon, Tribune Rytlock Brimstone lashes his tail impatiently. He has only half the force he needs to take on the ghost of the human Duke Barradin - and half of the force he has isn't even Blood Legion. “Where’s Centurion Krysknife?” Rytlock rumbles to the charr behind him.

The soldiers shift nervously on their feet, claws clicking on stone, and avoid his eyes. Several of them have twitching ears. The highest-ranking charr - a Blood captain - mumbles, “I don’t know, Tribune.”

“What’s that, soldier?” Rytlock demands.

The captain clears his throat. “I said, I don’t know, Tribune.”

Rytlock snarls to himself and turns his back, glancing quickly over the non-Blood troops as he does so. Quite aside from the additional troops under Centurion Krysknife’s command, and regardless of the fact that Rytlock outranks him, things will run more smoothly if the Iron soldiers have an Iron leader to look to. And having a guardian on the team, at that.

Rytlock hates waiting on guardians. Reminds him of Logan. His replacement Blood Legion pendant shifts in his fur. Rytlock wants to claw it out and throw it away. But he doesn't, and instead turnes to glower through the archway into Barradin's chamber.

At the far end, the chamber contains a coffin, topped by a grandiose statue in the prideful human style. The room is shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the sickly-blue glow of the Ascalonian ghosts. No telling how many, of course - the bloody things prefer staying hidden, unformed trailings of mist drifting about.

The underground crypt is getting on Rytlock’s nerves, and waiting had never been his strong suit - he thirsts for Barradin’s blood... metaphorically, of course. Stupid ghosts don’t even bleed right. Barradin and his ghost army had been sieging the Black Citadel for weeks, in enough numbers that they can’t be killed quickly enough to matter, and Rytlock is about fed up with fighting off enemies that come back a few days later. Defeating Barradin himself will, hopefully at least, cause the other ghosts to scatter.

A surge of ephemeral pain that is beyond the physical shoots through him, and he clutches at his chest in pain, claws passing through a transparent blue blade. Rytlock roars and spins around, ripping his own sword out of its stone sheath. Fiery blade in his claws, Rytlock slashes repeatedly at the human ghost until it disintegrates, then angrily slams the flaming sword back into its sheath.

Not even Sohothin kills the Ascalonian ghosts easily, and it is brother to the sword that created them in the first place!

More ghosts spring up, and the rest of his soldiers spread out to tackle them as more periodically materialize out of thin air - probably reforming from the last time they’d been killed a few days ago. What a blight on Ascalon… !

Rytlock slashes through the ghosts angrily. His soldiers fall back and let him take the killshot on each ethereal foe. Although each ghost has a different reform timer, killing them with sohothin does cause them to take longer to reform. A day instead of a few hours, a week instead of a few days. That's a hint right there that Sohothin is linked to its brother-sword somehow, and to the curse of the Ascalonian ghosts.

Half-a-dozen charr die in the battle, but when the ghosts are cleared, there is still no sign of Centurion Krysknife. Rytlock is about ready to charge Barradin’s tomb, reinforcements or no reinforcements. They’re losing soldiers by the minute in this siege, soldiers that Black Citadel leadership - including, no, especially Rytlock - can’t afford to lose.

He fumes for a minute in silence. The ghosts don’t threaten Ascalon themselves - the charr had defeated the humans once already. But the charr fight on other battlefields, too - the minions of an Elder Dragon have been only too eager to overcome steadily weakening defenses. This - none of this would even be an issue if Logan had stayed. The brass had been keeping it from the soldiers, but Ascalon doesn't have much time left. A solution to at least one of the three major threats to the Legions has to be found, and soon. Preferably the ghosts - they're the most annoying and least beneficial to kkill. A permananet solution would be... lovely. 'Till then, temporary solutions are the best to be had.

That’s why he, a Blood Legion Tribune and the feared wielder of Sohothin, is leading this mission to put a stop to this siege, and not Centurion Krysknife, who apparently wasn’t going to show up anyway -

Just then, the sound of many claws clicking on stone reverberates throughout the crypt. Rytlock doesn’t wait for them to arrive and starts speaking immediately.

“Fall in, soldiers! It’s time to remind these ghosts who’s in charge.” Rytlock is about to go on, when the newcomers - a mix of the three Legions but predominantly Blood - round the corner. They are led, not by Krysknife, but by another Iron Legion soldier, a well-armored charr with rust-colored fur and a big bulky backpack probably filled with odds and ends of machinery. No evidence of him being a guardian. Scorch it. Rytlock nearly snaps at him to ask where Krysknife is, but it isn’t relevant. This Iron soldier is in the lead of Krysknife’s forces - if Krysknife couldn’t come, he couldn’t come. He continues, “we’re going to hit Barradin so hard it’ll take him weeks to reappear! Move out!”

Fuming, Rytlock leads the way into the last chamber. As the troops separate into their warbands, that Iron soldier remains alone. He doesn’t have a warband. Krysknife had sent him a bloody gladium. A gladium to lead his warbands! Well, no - Rytlock would have to lead Krysknife’s command, on top of the others. He snarls. He’d asked for a qualified Centurion for a reason!

…but at least, Rytlock muses, pulling out his pistol and aiming for the ghosts that are charging his position, at least Krysknife sent someone, and at least that someone came. The loyalty of a charr is hard to break. Not fickle like certain humans he could name. He resentfully unloads a few rounds from his pistol into one of the ghosts, picturing it with the face of Logan Thackeray.

Now that's satisfying. The ghosts blindly charge his position, and Rytlock gladly engages them, slashing wildly with fiery Sohothin, tearing them apart, picturing each one with Logan's face. He'd destroyed any hope Destiny's Edge had of killing the Elder Dragon. He's the reason for the force of dragon minions embedded within Ascalon. He'd betrayed Rytlock's trust... Rytlock had given him his Blood pendant, and he deserted!

Rytlock slashes through the ghosts mercilessly. His allies give his flaming sword a wide berth.

A new wave of ghosts appears, and Rytlock shouts to the soldiers behind him, “dig in and stand fast!” The charr spread apart in a line, waiting for the ghosts to come to them. There’s the Iron gladium on the end of the line, wielding a flamethrower, scorching the ghosts as they approach him. He seems to be holding his own, so Rytlock ignores him and fires more pistol rounds into the ghosts as they charge, switching to Sohothin as they get inside the flaming sword’s range. A few hot minutes later, the ghost onslaught fades and, finally, ceases.

For a moment, all is still. Rytlock breaks the formation and strides toward the statue.

Immediately, more ghosts coalesce out of nowhere.

“Rally to me!” Rytlock roars, now charging, slashing with Sohothin. “Cut them down, stomp them flat.” The line of charr breaks and surges forward, ramming into the ghosts and tearing them apart. They converge on Rytlock and the loose collection of warbands face off against the ghosts as the incorporeal forms flood around and surround them.

Rytlock finds himself fighting side-by-side with the Iron gladium. He is a blur of rust-colored fur and flames. Rytlock can’t help but approve, grudgingly, of the gladium’s choice of weapon. Most charr would avoid fire as a matter of course, but this one had embraced it. Rytlock’s own Sohothin is looked at in fear and awe by other charr (something Rytlock quite enjoys), but this one joins him fearlessly.

The last wave of ghosts is defeated, but the respite is brief; Rytlock grins in satisfaction as the form of Duke Barradin coalesces in the center of the chamber, ringed by ghostly attendants and guards. Barradin roars, his voice distorted by ethereal matter; “filthy animals! You will regret this!”

Rytlock doesn’t need to repeat his orders; the charr surge forward, some bounding on all fours, weapons flashing, firing, and slashing. Rytlock makes straight for Barradin while his troops finish off the ancient duke’s coterie of ghosts. This is his task. Rytlock bares his fangs in a snarl as he ducks Barradin’s swings and returns the favor, tearing ethereal matter from Barradin’s form in raggedy trails. The other charr surround and flank Barradin, and he is pierced by a dozen blades.

Finally, his form wavering with instability and wreathed in flames, Barradin turns and flees intangibly through the mass of charr behind him, toward his tomb and statue. The charr make way for Rytlock, none wanting to accidentally deal the final blow to their quarry.

But suddenly the statue above them creaks, groans, shifts; Barradin’s ghost vanishes; and ghostly energy flares from the statue, from its mouth, eye-holes, and every stony joint of its massive chest. The statue swings a huge sword in one hand and a massive fist with the other, and smashes down upon the warbands, crushing and scattering them. It roars in Barradin’s ghostly voice, “I will not be defeated! I will destroy you all!”

Rytlock rises from the ground with aches that will become bruises later, and hoists Sohothin high. “You lost this war long ago!” he roars, “and we’ll kill you until you get the point!” His soldiers roar in return and charge the statue. Rytlock clambers atop the tomb, making sure to keep his claws out so as to disfigure the regal human relic, and wedges Sohothin between the statue’s stones, prying them apart.

The charr bash the stones, smashing them. The rust-furred gladium ratchets up the heat on his flamethrower. Barradin howls.

“We burned down his kingdom and buried the ashes!” Rytlock roars. “Make him remember that day!” The day his own king turned him into a mindless, vengeful ghost rather than admit defeat - yeah, that's gotta be a pleasant memory. He yanks Sohothin around inside the statue, and Barradin roars, swinging wildly, flinging charr across the room.

Flamethrower boy dodges and climbs up beside Rytlock and then continues clambering up the statue, despite the heavy backpack with the machinery of the flamethrower. He finally reaches the top and wrestles his flamethrower around to blast Barradin in the face at full heat. A cheer comes from the doorway behind them.

Barradin claws at his face in agony and flings the gladium to the floor, where he crumples.

“Forward, Legions!” Rytlock shouts, glancing back at his scattered soldiers. “Finish him!”

There is a new charr, white-furred, barreling across the floor from the doorway, a massive sword held high, a snarl on his face. He pauses a moment next to the flamethrower-wielding gladium - hm… perhaps no gladium after all - who stirs and seems to speak, before the white-furred arrival joins the other charr as they surge forward. Rytlock turns back to the statue as they reach him, and stabs Sohothin into any available hole in the statue.

Stones are smashed, and the ghost roars in agony. Stones are dislodged, and the statue wavers. Its base is cut out from beneath it, and it falls, stones raining down around Rytlock and piling up past the tomb he stands on. He leaps out of the way, landing ten feet away on all fours as pieces of the statue continue to rain down. Last of all, Barradin’s fire-scorched head lands with a thud on the mound of the ruins of the statue.

Rytlock rears upright on his hind legs and stretches head and shoulders above the other charr, looking around at his soldiers in grim satisfaction. Flamethrower boy is getting up, and his white-furred maybe-warbandmate is hovering anxiously next to him. There is no sign of any more ghosts, and the other soldiers are gathering around, looking to him for next actions. Rytlock returns to a natural position and grins at them. “Mission accomplished. You’re heroes now, boys and girls; congratulations.”

The soldiers roar in victory, but while this battle is won, it remains to be seen if defeating Duke Barradin had ended the siege outside the crypt. Motion catches Rytlock’s eye as Barradin’s head rolls off the pile of rubble and across the floor. Rytlock frowns, realizing that the rumble from the falling statue had not stopped, and indeed is getting stronger. “Report back to Smokestead!” he barks.

“Yes, Tribune!” comes the chorus of replies.

Rytlock sheathes Sohothin, its flaming length disappearing inside the stone scabbard. Rytlock drops to all fours, and bounds towards the door, followed by his warbands. Rytlock spares a glance for the Iron soldier - that flamethrower-to-the-face trick was impressive - but he seems to have recovered nicely and is running alongside the others.

Rytlock chooses the most direct way out of the crypt, avoiding the side passages. Occasionally another ghost pops up, but each charr gives it a slash of their claws and by the time the whole column passes, the ghost is dispersed.

Emerging outside the crypt, Rytlock sees that the ghosts attacking Smokestead seem to have retreated at the death of their leader, and the charr are regrouping. Rytlock turns to his troops, grinning again. They’d done it. The ghosts are gone and the Black Citadel is safe. It won’t be overrun today, not by long-dead humans or by other foes - Rytlock envisions dragon minions bleeding out of a miles-long scar in Ascalon, and bares his fangs in a grin. The battles aren’t over yet.

But for now, Rytlock’s troops had earned their victory. “Report to Smokestead,” Rytlock repeats. The crypt collapses with a loud rumble as the soldiers salute. Aah, and maybe that ghostly mouse won’t be reforming at all. That’d be something indeed. One can hope, at least. The charr scatter, heading to meet up with their respective legionnaires and centurions.

One rust-furred, flamethrower-wielding Iron Legion soldier stays behind, frozen, staring at the entrance to what is now rubble. Now is as good a time as any. “Name and rank, soldier.”

“Howl was in there,” the soldier says irrelevantly, still staring.

Rytlock snarls. “Unless this ‘Howl’ was a ‘bandmate of yours, I want your name and rank, soldier.”

“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir.” The soldier turns to Rytlock and salutes. “I’m Vargok Hellforge, of the Forge Warband. Howl was my legionnaire.”

“I see.” It’s always unfortunate to lose a ‘bandmate, but in Rytlock’s estimation, this Hellforge fellow is decent enough to replace him. He doesn’t know the warband, though, and that’s not his call. “I assume Krysknife was your centurion?”

“Yes, sir. I don’t think he survived.”

“He didn’t,” Rytlock snorts, “if he had to send a soldier without any leadership experience to lead his troops to a pivotal battle. But you did an admirable job. I like your flamethrower; innovative, thinks outside the box. Find the rest of your warband and report to your Tribune.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rytlock turns away. Now these ghosts are dealt with, at least - for now - and the Legions can focus on the dragon minions in eastern Ascalon. At least until the ghost forces recover... Rytlock stomps toward the Village of Smokestead and the gate to the Black Citadel, lashing his tail. He needs a breakthrough. There has to be some way of reversing the curse of the Ascalonian ghosts.

Or at least, some way of slowing them down. Rytlock passes warbands gathering, repairing damage, rebuilding defenses. The dragons are only getting more bold and more powerful, and with the ghosts participating in the war of attrition to wear down the charr Legions...

Well, this situation isn't tenable. Something has to change. Rytlock's research on the curse that turned the humans to ghosts two centuries ago... hadn't been going well lately. Absolutely no clues on if Sohothin could help reverse the curse its twin had cast. And the Legions don't have long left.

If only there was a band-aid solution to tide them over... something to nudge them into a holding pattern, at least...

Who am I kidding?

Rytlock has two leads, and two only: the myth, untenable and unsupported, that his sword Sohothin has the power to reverse the curse; or the proven strategy of teaming up with Destiny's Edge and Logan-flaming-Thackeray, and slaying the Elder Dragon outright.

Rytlock would take the myth.

[brightwingedbat]

Naz, tell us what camping with Dragon's watch was like sometimes (I am, going to just act as if there's actually alot more downtime in the campaigns)

Tent distribution, campfire stories etc. Maybe some fun disagreements that happened? Cultural clashes

"Hmm, camping out was interesting at times. Certainly nothing I was new to, did plenty of it in my time as a legion soldier before I was the Commander." "For a start, it should be obvious but Marcus and I shared a tent pretty much every time we camped. For the others, they mainly stuck to their own tents. Except for Kas and Jory, they'd share if they were around at the same time. Taimi rarely camped out too, the few times she did she mostly stayed in Scruffy, having a golem made to suit your needs helps with that."

Nastazya brushes her chin as she thinks about some of those camping moments. "I do remember Kasmeer complaining about both Rytlock and Braham's snoring. She'd never tell it to their faces though. She probably had the roughest time camping out, especially when Jory wasn't around."

"Oh and there was this one time Marcus was telling stories about his time in the Mists along with Rytlock. Including one where Marcus woke up to Rytlock shouting, only to find him dangling about by one leg by some... demonic creature with tentacles on its head." She chuckles lightly at the thought. "Rytlock was not happy about these stories, not one bit."

"I do miss those times, we're all split apart doing our own things now..."

[anghraine]

@venndaai, I hope it's okay to answer your reply in a separate post! This is likely to be long (since I'm incapable of not rambling when it comes to GW, lol), so I wanted to be able to put in a cut.

Ah, thanks for this response! I was feeling a little worried my ask had been annoying so I’m glad it wasn’t!

Oh, not at all! I was so thrilled to get a GW2 ask that it took awhile to organize my thoughts, lol, and also was just busy with some RL things (including crafting my first legendary for my mother's birthday present when I only had the resources for a staff and no Artificer character >_>). And then it happened again sans legendary, but! I've been looking forwards to being able to reply properly :)

Honestly, thinking about it, I think I abandoned my human character because playing them felt like I’d skipped a lot of homework and I just didn’t know the lore that would have made the story and the locations feel meaningful? The Sylvari and Asura characters feel the most accommodating of my ignorance- everything about the Sylvari is new, and the Asura don’t care about anything outside their personal projects.

That makes a lot of sense! Even though human characters aren't (IMO) allowed to "lean in" to their culture in the way of the other playable species, so it's not quite as bad as it could be, there are a ton of references to a lot of things. Part of my undying Ascalonian rage is that it's continually fed by references that aren't necessary to understand to play, but like ... for instance, in the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon, Rytlock goes on about how Master Ranger Nente killed his (Rytlock's) ancestors like a coward by hiding behind his beasts and shooting ye olde Charr full of arrows. In GW1, before the Searing, Nente is one of the first teachers for Rangers and the one you have to talk to in order to get a pet. (The context of him shooting the Charr full of arrows is pretty clearly their invasion of his home, since he's stationed in a zone with zero Charr until the Searing.)

You don't need to know that to play the dungeons and it's not hard to guess that Rytlock's version of history is slanted, but yeah, it is a richer experience that way.

(Additionally, I tend to prefer fantasy human characters in general, especially magical ones, and since GW2 humans get the kind of spirituality, familiarity with magic, and weight of ancient history that often goes to Elves or whomever, while still being very recognizably human, it triggers a similar affection to what I have for Númenóreans and such—they're special and weird but their culture and history are nevertheless essentially human and shaped by being human. Even my aasimar D&D character was basically the same type in that respect: sure, she has lots of cool powers and is very tall and lives to be 160, but her sense of identity and culture has been profoundly shaped by her ostensible humanity and the aasimar arc resolves with her accepting her celestial and human sides as both essential to who she is.)

Totally agree on Trahearne and Mordremoth being well integrated into the Sylvari storyline. But I think the Crystal Desert and Cantha probably work better with human characters? Not to mention the Bloodstone stuff and all the Mists and gods content. My reaction to Balthazar was very “well I never voted for you, whoever you are”

Oh, true! I have terrible altitis and mostly play in Central Tyria with the various characters I've accumulated over ten years, lol, so I didn't think of that. But yeah, essentially part of the promise of the expansions was that we'd get to go to GW1 places that didn't originally show up in GW2 (the maps are a bit strange because GW2 is much bigger and more expansive to experience, but covered less actual territory than even the first GW1 game (which included the Crystal Desert, Ring of Fire islands, etc). But since the GW1 places and cultures were largely human-dominated and humans were the only playable species back then, a lot of the lore for those regions is human-oriented and much more rewarding if you play as human, even without necessarily playing GW1.

(Like, Kasmeer's angst over Balthazar makes perfect sense if you play as a GW2 human and are constantly encountering human spirituality, hearing "Balthazar bless you with courage" etc etc all the time and you yourself refer respectfully to the gods often enough. I like this despite being agnostic IRL because it's one of the ways in which human PCs do get to embrace a widespread aspect of human culture despite being railroaded into being more "reasonable" than many humans in other respects, so—yeah, I do agree here, though I do low-grade resent GW2 retconning human lore yet again.

I have a post in my drafts about it that I probably won't bother posting, but one of the kind of fun though ultimately pretty inconsequential aspects of choosing human in GW2 (which you may already know) is that the abilities you get from your species all come from the human gods. That's a cool concept IMO, even if most of the abilities kind of suck—and until you get well into the game, the best one is pretty indisputably the fiery hounds that Balthazar gives you (esp if you're a squishy spellcaster who could really use a couple of elite meat shields). So this god who had been comfortably established in the franchise for well over 10 years and always seemed cool and helpful being turned into the main antagonist is kind of /sigh, here we go again.

I would love to hear rants about Gwen! Whenever she’s appeared in GW2 I go “oh it’s blorbo from Elizabeth’s game!” but don’t know what to think of her otherwise.

Awesome. She is very definitely Peak Blorbo for me, so I'll talk about her in a separate post where I can give her full attention, haha. But thanks <3

(I had just over 700 gems left over from something I bought recently and suddenly realized that would just cover Gwen's outfit in the gem store and Althea could dress up as her hero for Halloween. It's 100% going to happen, lol.)

Haha, I did get my map completion, but I also realized the real reason I hadn’t finished Ascalon, which is that the Charr heart quest givers are so deeply unpleasant to deal with if you’re not playing a Charr and have no real reason to want to help them.

Yes. Like, the responses seem to either assume you are a Charr or at least are going to be totally chill about destroying historical artifacts of humans driven from their homes by the Charr reconquista, and there are a couple I simply refused to do the "short" way and instead just completed by killing enemies within the range of the heart. Or, even aside of human stuff, the one where you're supposed to like ... whip prisoners who are the real labor force fueling the Charr war machine is just mind-boggling, or "kill the dredge who are just singing happy communist work songs to steal their resources" are just like ... jfc, why should my character feel the slightest desire to do any of these things whether I'm human or any other non-Charr species??

I really really want to get Crystal Bloom armor but I’ve gotten distracted trying to unlock my roller beetle. After that I’m going to be grinding on Dragonfall which seems like a really really fun map.

Ooh, cool! I hope you either are enjoying or did enjoy doing that. I've been scouring the Silverwastes for crafting resources, which somehow I hadn't done before, and it's actually been really fun to do RIBA runs and rake in the rewards. (I think I've gotten 4-5 mastery points out of it? It's very satisfying.)

[kerra-and-company]

🔫🔧❄️ for kerra

Kerra answers for your Kerra asks! :D

🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?

Ooh, lots of questions in this one! All righty, let's see here:

Does Kerra trust people easily? The short answer is "probably more easily than she should, even if she's usually right". The slightly longer answer is that she's good at reading people (even without the advantage of her empathy power) and she knows it. She doesn't quite judge a book by its cover, but at the same time...kinda? It's maybe like if you judged a book by its cover and a decent idea of the themes covered in it, I guess, if that makes sense. She's never (nowadays) all in on trusting someone right after she meets them, but she will kinda be like "okay, this is someone I think I can trust" or "this is someone I might not be able to" and then proceed from there.

How easily will she turn her back to someone--not easily! Kerra cares very deeply about her friends/family, and even if they deeply hurt her, she'd have a hard time letting go. For people she's more like...friendly acquaintances with at best, she'd turn her back more easily, as long as it wasn't diplomatically necessary to play nice. (Even so, her whole dynamic with Smodur during Icebrood was...Not Pleasant after he tried to do the whole war crimes thing.)

Has Kerra been backstabbed before--yes, kinda? Not exactly in the traditional sense of "this was an intentional backstabbing", though. To give a couple instances, Marjory and Rytlock's distrust of sylvari during HoT (mainly Rytlock, since Jory made maybe one or two comments in Verdant Brink and that was it) hurt a lot and might as well have been a knife in Kerra's back, even though (and honestly? especially because, in some ways) they saw her as an exception. Rytlock's refusal to talk about what happened to him in the Mists coming back to bite literally the entire world in the ass via Balthazar is another big one for Kerra. Again, not an intentional betrayal or backstabbing, but ooh boy did she have a hard time talking to/working with Rytlock during the rest of PoF/LWS4. They're on better terms now, at least a little, but...yeah, not great! And last but not least, she and Caithe were on rocky ground for a while thanks to Caithe taking the egg in LWS2 and not explaining why (at the time, at least). The not explaining was the thing that hit harder for Kerra once everything calmed down slightly after HoT (considering it came on top of her Mother not explaining the origin of sylvari--except by proxy through the memory seeds--and the assorted feelings that came with that), but she and her sister are on good terms again now.

Would she betray someone if given an ultimatum...assuming it's someone she cares about, you'd have to be real damn creative with that ultimatum to even have a shot at that, my friend. So, broadly speaking? No. If you managed to fully back her into a corner, she'd hurt herself first before anyone else. You'd have to literally take away any other possible option somehow.

🔧 WRENCH - are they good at fixing relationships? or do they tend to avoid doing so?

As you might have guessed from the mentioned bit in the last question that she's on decent terms with Rytlock and good terms with Caithe despite past events, yes, Kerra's track record on fixing relationships is good! She and Caithe are closer than ever, now that they don't have to deal with huge secrets pulling them apart. She and Rytlock are on significantly better terms post-Icebrood, though still not necessarily great terms.

Other notable relationships that Kerra's worked to fix include: a) her friendship with Braham, who she tried to reach out to even when he was out on his own and who she sees as something close to a little brother; b) her friendship (sibling-ship?) with Trahearne, which was a bit of a mess after he tried to sacrifice himself to save the world and she very nearly sacrificed herself in his place, but they talked it through; c) her and Canach, who were barely friendly acquaintances before the whole fight with bombs and things--she ended up visiting him in his cell in Lion's Arch to check in, and formed a real friendship (and a couple years later, relationship) that way; and, d) her and Mai Trin during EoD, which honestly was less of Kerra working to repair/fix something that had only ever been hostile and more of Kerra seeing who Mai was now and leaving the door for a friendship open a crack if Mai wanted to walk through it, which she did.

(It is worth saying, though, that Kerra didn't jump to instantly fix her relationships with either Caithe or Rytlock. It took a second--for Caithe a few months, for Rytlock the better part of two years--for her to both want to and be stable enough emotionally in that area to try.)

❄️ SNOWFLAKE - do people consider them cold? if so, what made them this way?

No, definitely not; if there's one thing Kerra's rarely referred to as, it's cold. The closest thing she'd get would be the kind of thing that Kalidris says during Icebrood--that it's a little concerning how used to world-ending violence she is. Which...fair! But it's been literally her entire life (Kerra awoke at the very beginning of 1325), so getting as used to it as you can be kinda tracks.

[0carkki0]

Heart of Thorns! Overall song: Nights of Ecstasy by Acting Lovers.

This song probably hints how now Taimi is 15 years old and has learned more about the achievements of Vivs (and Scarlet is gone, Zojja being her guardian (being more of a parent figure)) he has become her target of learning more. While going through Vivs’ stuff and the computer, and being able to hack in some of his files, she has found out that even if Vivs does have a fair amount of magi mechanical inventions, he leans more to the biological side of research, including mind (psychology) especially the dark side of it… Since dark stuff has been kind of a taboo more or less through the years, it appeared alluring to Taimi as well… Seeing How the Commander seemed to suddenly at times act like he went insane also triggered Taimi. Not to mention doing the more logical deed over the emotional in the end.

Chapter 1: As soon as the Vommander heard about the fleet disaster after the Pact started to approach the area where Mordremoth was believed to be, the giant vines attacked the entire fleet destroying it completely, he rushed to the area with the other group to investigate.

Song: Left in the Dark by Meat Loaf

Taimi couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty sneaking around going through Vivs’ stuff and was a bit Paranoid about if Vivs already knew. Perhaps he was jealous since Taimi was better friends with Braham. 

Chapter 2: Torn from the Sky. The Vommander and the group find some Pact soldiers and then goes to try to rescue a few other soldiers that were taken as prisoners. Then they return back to the area where those survivors were, and while fighting the Mordrem, meet with Rytlock again.

Song: Poker Face by Blowsight

Taimi while following the Vommander can’t seem to notice any interest showed in her. Is he hiding it?

Chapter 3: Establishing a Foothold. The Vommander arrives at the main Pact camp to talk with people to know What people are thinking and What is the situation and hears about an Itzel -hyleks, that have a village nearby.

Song: Nights of Ecstasy by Acting Lovers.

Taimi notices Vivs talking and acting a bit more like an army leader. He talks a bit more aggressively and seriously and doesn’t discriminate sylvari just because some of them can’t resist Mordremoth’s will. He seems to have this crazy excited facial expression on his face whenever they faced an enemy. That is a bit admiring…

Chapter 4: The Jungle Provides. The Vommander goes to look for the Itzel hylek village mentioned before since they could be helpful in knowing where the mordrem took their prisoners. They find one itzel hylek fighting the mordrem, so the Vommander's group helps him out and he takes the group to his village. There the Vommander returns the favor by staying to protect the itzel village against the mordrem.

Song: Thank God It's Friday by ICE NINE KILLS

Hmph! The Vommander decided to stay to protect the village, even if in Taimi's opinion it would have been wiser to take the fight to the mordrem. Taimi would have asked Vivs for his reasoning, but then this tough-looking mordrem appeared and seemed to recognize the Vommander. Did Mordremoth see Vivs as a threat? The tough mordrem didn't say anything about the others, and was that a smile on Vivs' face? Did Vivs know that this tough mordrem was coming? Who was that Mordrem anyway? 

Chapter 5: In Their Footsteps. The Itzel and Nuhoc hylek scouts help the Vommander's group to track down the prisoners. While going through the jungle, they go from Itzel to Itzel getting information about the prisoners, that may or may not have Destiny's Edge members in it.

Song: Your Muse by Silent Opera.

Taimi can't shake off the feeling of the Vommander acting a bit differently than before. So she just observes and helps while they go. Why is this so intriguing?

Chapter 6: The Vommander's group finds a prison camp that works also as a minion factory. Eir Stegalkin and Faolain were imprisoned here. They fight their way to them and free them, but while they escape Faolain is behaving dumbly.

Song: Half God Half Devil by In This Moment.

Observing the Vommander, it's like he at one point was this helpful caring mind, and then all of sudden he makes this excited crazy smile when they are about to fight the mordrem. Well, his clothes seemed very torn since they entered this part of the jungle. As if his top just suddenly exploded. What was going on with him?

Chapter 7: Prized Possessions. The Vommander's group minus Braham and Rox see a glowy person wandering around and they learn that it is looking for something relating to Glint. It was Caithe with the dragon egg and when the Vommander's group catch up with her, something looking like Faolain attacked her and she dropped it. The Vommander then took the egg and ran away from this Faolain-looking creature and escaped her with the glowy guy's help.

Song: Summertime by Acting Lovers.

Taimi when saw the glowy guy she got the feeling that they might have known something they didn't. Also, the golden structures looked like they had some kind of function to them and she wanted to look closer at them. When they found some Durmand Priorians studying them (and helping them to defend against the Morderm) Taimi suggested to the Vommander that she could stay with them and study the golden structures. The Vommander didn't have anything against that. Or was he just glad to get rid of her for a while? Nah... He must know that studying those structures could turn out to be helpful.

Chapter 8: City of Hope. The Vommander arrived at the city called Tarir. It was the city built to protect the egg, so the Vommander handed off the egg to the Exalted (glowy people) to keep it safe and went through some trials that were created a long time ago. To prove he is really the one worthy of being the Egg Bearer.

Song: Eye of the Thylacine by The Unguided.

Taimi wondered about the Vommander being glad to leave her there. If he was glad he must've been glad just the reason that one of his friends was in less danger than the others. And out of everyone who was a better choice to study and lead the Durmand Priory group than Taimi? Going through his stuff back in Rata Sum did give Taimi the impression that Vivs' mind was a lot more complex than he let on. He did respect the laws of the city but knew very well that the only law that really mattered, in the end, was the law of Eternal Alchemy. The city laws were only to keep order and control in these cities that involved a lot of minds in one area. Anyone outside that system had no responsibility to obey those city rules. Just the law of the Eternal Alchemy. Actions have coincidences. Even small ones. Is that why he helps people so that when the time comes, people can return favors? More people are helping in this Elder Dragon war, the better.

Chapter 9: The Predator's Path. The Vommander was getting back to his group after the egg was safe in Tarir by following the disks Taimi left for the Vommander to find. The disks have hologram recordings telling the Vommander which direction to go.

Song: Kingdom of Love by Acting Lovers.

Taimi hoped that the disks impressed the Vommander.

Chapter 10: Strange Observations. The Vommander found the group but then learned that Taimi has wandered off somewhere, so being concerned about her he goes to find her and does so. Taimi had found a data station that was a mix of Exalted and asuran magitech. With the Vommander's help, Taimi gets it to work and another glowy guy appears. With him explaining the data station, they learn Mordremoth's location and of another asuran city.

Song: Phil by Acting Lovers.

Let the 'Impress the Vommander' -program continue! Observe, Taimi's intellect in getting an old data station to work! Did that work? Is he impressed?? And if it really is another asuran rata, perhaps it offers more opportunities to impress the Vommander.

Chapter 11: Roots of Terror. Canach appears and tells about the Pact lieutenant wanting to talk to him. We head to the camp they have put up, and find out where the Caravan of prisoners went. Braham and the Vommander go look for a Magister that was going to kill a 'monster' that has been capturing them and most likely eating them, and find him, but he was too injured to survive. They also come across some strange giant bugs, before the rest of the group catches up with them. Then they split up; the other one continues to track down the prisoner caravan and the other one goes to check out the Rata Novus.

Song: Ravenlight by Kamelot

A lot of casualties. Has the Vommander healed from the depression that was weighing his mind, or has he forcefully pressed it in deep in his mind, not allowing it to affect his role as a Pact Commander? He was a necromancer, so he may have a way of dealing with death.

Chapter 12: The Way In. The Vommander speaks with one of the Nuhoch hylek, who has information on how to get to the Rata Novus, but it has its own troubles. To help himself, the Vommander has to first help the Nuhoch. He also encounters a scammer Nuhoch, who he then beats the poop out of.

Song: The Eyes of a Child by Tarja Turunen.

Apparently, the Vommander can't turn down help someone with children.

Chapter 13: Buried Insight. Canach, Taimi, the Vommander, and Braham enter the Rata Novus finding Its citizens long dead. Taimi turns on devices that turn on the Novus’ magical system, which attracted the chak, giant magic-eating bugs. With Taimi’s help, they navigate through the Rata and find an asura gate. Now they end up in the smaller room, and on the other side was a giant Hall/ lab, and there there was another door that had a dragon marking on it. They wanted to get there, but the door that lead there did not work and in the Hall, there was a lot of chak to greet them. Taimi had to sacrifice her golem to connect the magical energy to open the door, and then they proceeded to burn all the chak with the light system Rata Novans had put up. Then they go through the dragon door, and Taimi says she can’t go with them without her golem.

Song: In Vain by Within Temptation.

The way Braham behaved reminded Taimi of How differently the two cultures dealt with different things. So it was wiser to turn more to someone who didn’t immediately Smash everything up and wasn’t so emotionally driven, or too sarcastic. Of course, it was understandable why Braham was so eager to go and deal with Faolain -looking creature and Mordremoth. He just lost his mother to them. Asura wasn’t exactly an exception when dealing with loss unless they were completely unable to feel tender feelings. Vividatt being an asura himself made it an easy choice to look for support. This was also a good opportunity to impress the Vommander. Vommander also didn’t treat Taimi like a toddler, but more maturely. Although he was still concerned that Taimi wandered off alone somewhere. Well, Taimi was still officially a progeny, so as long as she was with the group of the Vommander, he was also responsible for her. At least he did let Taimi stay at the Rata by herself. And did Taimi catch the Vommander staring at her and then quickly turning his head when Taimi noticed there before he went out to look for the caravan searchers? XB Did Taimi manage to impress the Vommander? There is a high chance... Too bad Taimi can’t go with the group anymore, but it wasn’t so bad; she got to study whatever the Rata Novans had found out about Elder Dragons so far. Right up Taimi’s alley. It seemed like the Vommander was interested in it as well. He stayed there for a while to look around and mess with the computers. 

Chapter 14: Sign Cutting. The Vommander was following the tracks Rox left behind, to catch up with them. 

Song: Father/Son by Wovenwar. 

At the time Taimi was at the dragon lab alone, she was thinking about what she had found out about the Vommander’s parents. They were very different from Vivs himself. They were dock workers, which may imply that their son somehow got a higher intellect than his parents. Parents and their progeny can be so different from each other. The only things that may be similar are the physical features and behaviors the progeny have learned from their parents. This reminded Taimi that Vivs’ parents died when Vividatt was still a very small toddler. In other words, he was an orphan just like Taimi was, except Vivs didn’t have no one in particular who looked after him. Only some random people from his father’s group at times made sure to feed him. They also made sure he got a basic education. Taimi had Zojja. Vividatt learned the things that were not taught at school by himself or by observing others, most likely. 

Chapter: 15: Bitter Harvest. The Vommander’s group gets closer to Zojja and Logan, but the Vommander has to choose who he goes to save first. Since Zojja was Vivs’ mentor, he goes to save Zojja with Marjory and Canach. The rest go save Logan, but when Zojja is being saved, the other group meets trouble on the way, so Vommander and Canach go help them. Caithe joins in, and they save Logan as well, but he’s in a bit worse condition than Zojja for being a bit longer time in the giant seed -prison. Then they run into Faolain -a creature and they go after her. Go up the circling spiral -thingy and see Trahearne being trapped in a tight grip of vines. They fight the Faolain -creature, but after she is defeated. Trahearne gets pulled away by the vines. Vommander’s group goes after him. 

Song: Electroheart by Amaranthe

Taimi, while others were dealing with the troubles, still alone in the dragon lab wondered about how Braham and Rytlock shared the same way of dealing with problems. Their passion to fight. While Taimi and the Vommander usually dealt with problems from a wider perspective. Not that the Vommander or Taimi could not fight, but dealing with problems from a more intellectual perspective, rather than attack, smash, and kill, came more naturally to asura. The attack smash and kill did have its times, and it was easier for Braham and Rytlock to use, since they were physically bigger and stronger than Vommander, or Taimi, so as asura they had to use more of their knowledge about weaknesses of the enemy, and even take in consideration environment when fighting. This may explain why the Vommander was leaning more toward the biological side when being interested in science. It made sense. He hardly used golems in a fight, if you didn’t count the minions. But that’s about it. The minions are organic, while the golems were inorganic. Of course, being able to get inside a golem made Taimi one of the physically big and strong... blah blah blah... But what bothered Taimi was that the Vommander had so many inventions he never told anyone about. It was like the Vommander didn’t care about becoming a famous inventor? Or perhaps he thought that these were not worth mentioning? That he was aiming to become the most brilliant mind there is. That he would tell the world about his invention when he happens to invent something great enough worth it? Well, hopefully, Braham finds a good way to deal with his loss. Perhaps if they manage to kill Mordremoth, he will feel a bit more at ease. 

Chapter 16: Hearts and Minds. The group finds Trahearne again, but it’s too late for him. Instead, he will give the Vommander one last helpful push, he lets them use his mind to enter Mordremoth’s mind and battle him there. Vommander had to choose who he would take with him, Braham, Caithe, or Canach. He could choose only two. Since Braham lost his mother to Mordremoth, and Caithe her ex-lover, Vommander took them with him. After the fight, Mordremoth takes over Trahearne’s mind, so that to defeat him once and for all the Vommander has to kill Trahearne. And does so. 

Song: In the Palm of Your Hands by Leah. 

Taimi could feel the ground shaking a bit and thought that they must be close or already fighting the dragon. She wondered if they had found his weakness and what it could have been. And hoped that the group will survive. She also made a promise, that if they survive, she will support the Vommander as much as she could and put all of herself into it. Make sure that the group knew, that if the Vommander was the dolyak that pulled this group forward, she was the one with the rein. The core. The brains of the group. And perhaps, she will make the Vommander be enraptured by her mind. 

[hedjblogr]

Are supernatural creatures a thing in the world of GW2? Who cares, let's pretend they are! What supernatural creature would your charr be, including any and all were-beasts? If they could choose, which would they like to be, of different from what you choose? - moonlit-grove

aight so fun fact half my characters are based off of characters from elsewhere, either my own ocs or canon characters i’ve roleplayed enough to diverge in some way, so like half of them are already supernatural creatures of some kind

i don’t think a lot of the same supernatural creatures exist, and some have different names (what was fun was having someone who’s called a gargoyle a lot find out that tyrian gargoyles are just spicy griffons)

this got long so i’m gonna drop most of it under a readmore fhdskjfgh

hestia’s sire, kain bloodreave, is based on a vampire so that’s one right out the gate hfjFKJDSFHJGH though granted the vampire he’s based off of has some nontraditional abilities - telekinesis, little a lightning magic of a sorts - but can also do standard stuff like turn into bats, turn into a wolf creature, turn into mist, dominate/mind control people, hover/float, super strength and speed, stuff like that

and i think if he knew anything about his non-tyrian self, he’d be like “aight that’s kinda cool except the being allergic to water thing, if we can fix that we’re golden”

hestia herself would probably beeee... oughhh this one’s hard, but werecharr/werehuman might be interesting? basically giving her the ability to change into a human sometimes. okay maybe not that interesting but she’d have interesting applications for it as a member of the ash legion

jhitts would be some kind of werebeast for sure, probably a classic werewolf but fuckoff massive (as the character he’s based off of is actually a were of a sort! and tends to turn into a massive doggo that shoots lasers)

omen would very much like to be the classic cauldron and broomstick witch and she’d probably end up dressing up very cute for it... but in truth i really like the idea of her being a barghest? they’re literally omen dogs :> staunch protectors of the dead and dying, company at the end kind of thing

now here’s an interesting one! wig, aka mad king’s wig - while i don’t have a ton of stuff for her beyond being a lunatic courtier cursed beyond death, i think she’d end up one of the worse off for becoming a more supernatural creature as part of this question

what would make most sense for wig’s personality would be some manner of banshee - awful that she’d be a ghost in a literal sense, given the relation charr have with ghosts, and twisting what’s good left in her into all the horrible things. the likely war crimes, the obsession gone too far, viciousness and madness hooooh this is fun to think about 80

all that would be left would be a shrieking demon that mostly haunts male charr, especially ones that resemble rytlock in like any way. (tldr on that is she has a weird obsession with rytlock??? i have NO idea how this happened she just kinda did it)

i could go through the side characters (aria, wisp warband, fengor etc) but i don’t have as much down for them...

but also i could just cheat and say aria would be a fire djinn, wisp warband would all be vengeful will-o-the-wisps, and idk for fengor maybe a cerberus since he’d be more pubby than his grandcub omen

[guildwarsgirl]

Give us a few of your fave Trahearne x Emilie headcanons pls ✨

Thanks for the question, @i-mybrunettelady ! Let's see: P.S. WE IGNORE THE ENDING OF HEART OF THORNS HERE, DAMMIT. MY BOI DESERVES ALL THE LOVE.

- When it comes to who's a better cook, I say Emilie. Like Trahearne can make some stuff, but he can't make everything. He nearly set their kitchen on fire baking cookies at one point, so he leaves that to her.

- They cuddle, ALOT. It's hard to pry them away from each other if they're sitting together. If you try, Emilie won't hesitate to smack you. Canach tried once for shits and giggles just to see what happened and Em had a flesh golem yeet him out their window.

- They use the sweetest pet names for each other, with Trahearne calling Emilie his darling, while she calls him dearheart. Kas and Jory described them like an old married couple.

- Trahearne once stated that his love for his wife is so strong, he'd give her the moon and all the stars in the sky if she asked.

- Rytlock is annoyed by how lovey dovey they are (Though he secretly wishes he had something like that 😂)

- They're great with kids, so whenever they stop by Claypool to see Vanessa and Logan, you can always see the little Thackeray children surrounding them with admiration, this includes holding any tiny babies, which Emilie has been wanting. Like, seriously, she's hung around Nessie long enough to get baby fever, and Trahearne finds it adorable at how she is around kids in general. So they may adopt 😉

- Trahearne reads his darling poetry in bed all the time, reading glasses included. If Shakespeare's work was in Tyria, you bet that salad man would read it, especially to Em.

All in all, cute salad couple and I love them so much!!! ❤😊😍

[redwoodrroad]

where did you get the idea that it’s part of norn culture to demoralize women

Here’s the thing: This is the sort of thing you pick up around NPCs in the game, and it’s something that I’ve decided is worth an essay. Norn men tend to fall into a category of hypermasculinity--they’re loud, they’re stubborn, they’re aggressive, and all Norn have massive complexes related to power and prestige, especially as applicable to the Hunt, etc. These traits may sometimes extend to Norn women, but they are emphasized in Norn men. I have actually included a read more at the end so I could offer some anecdotal examples, leaning on Braham, Eir, and Jora to discuss their actions throughout the game. For the moment, there are a couple of things I’d like to point out here: 1) these stores do not exist in a vacuum, they come from real life inspiration and experiences; 2) the Sons of Svanir didn’t invent the idea of hating women, it’s an idea that’s intersected with a yearn for power; and 3) Jormag also is not advocating for the demoralization of women, they also just want power.

First off, here’s something pretty key about this that my friend @jorasdottir brought up: Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 do not exist in a vacuum. The culture that came up with Norn culture is a hypermasculine and hugely westernized culture. We see hypermasculinity all around us, and it exists in this game. I get into more of this later.

Second, the very fact that the Sons of Svanir are so anti-women doesn’t come from nowhere--you don’t just start systemically hating women because one woman killed someone; the Sons of Svanir were bourne from someone who already hated women but who found the justification for it by pinning all their anger on Jora partly out of their respect for Svanir. Not only that, but no one starts a whole movement of hating women by being alone either--one guy yelling in the street about how he hates Jora doesn’t start a movement, it’s something that several people would have to calculate. It’s also not all Jormag’s funny little whispers because if that was the case, we’d primarily see mindless Norn attacking you for not agreeing with them--in reality, the Sons of Svanir essentially have a motel built into Hoelbrak’s caves, and they got jackasses handing out fliers. They believe that women are not to be trusted, that they are weak-minded, and that they are not worthy of Jormag’s blessings in the same way that the Sons of Svanir are worthy of them.

Lastly, and to wrap up, if Jormag was only utilizing promises of power, the Sons of Svanir would not be willingly chilling (no pun intended) 100 feet away from Knut Whitebear, and Knut Whitebear wouldn’t be letting them stay there if they were visibly hostile. Jormag isn’t telling the Sons of Svanir to hate women, and Svanir himself didn’t represent all Norn men before he was killed--Jormag promised power to the few Norn who were already prescribed with larger yearns for power, and those Norn didn’t just happen to be men. These were men who themselves felt demoralized enough to want power. They must be competitive, reckless, untrusting of others, unempathetic, and selfish. It is not a coincidence that these qualities can become more intense in men--and this is something that extends past the walls of this game. This is what I meant when I said “we see hypermasculinity all around us.” These are the qualities of hypermasculinity--and sure, you can see all of these qualities in women too, in the real world and in the game, but it is not without purpose that these qualities apply to the most extreme members of Norn culture, in Norn men. There are also many essays that examine the intersection between sexism and power, it comes from a history of demoralizing women--yes, in the real world, but as I’ve established, these games were created by people who also live in the real world--and it’s honestly worth reading up about.

All of this is to say that Norn men didn’t just come up with hating women simply because of anything like Jormag’s influence or hating Jora, it must come from the culture. Norn culture involves seeking power. Power requires demoralizing others. Hypermasculinity in a culture that emphasizes power, legacy, prestige, etc. breeds otherism. Otherism causes a rift between those who deem themselves the most worthy of receiving power--those who have heightened traits of hypermasculinity, predominantly men, to include those who are extremely competitive--and those who they deem most unworthy of receiving power. If you’re a man and you’re experiencing otherism mixed with competition and other qualities of hypermasculinity, the subject of that otherism is most commonly women. When there are a lot of you who feel this way, you make a group because you may also in turn be rejected from the larger society for having these views. This is what leads to the creation of groups like the Sons of Svanir. This is why it is part of Norn culture to demoralize women. It’s not by any means a priority, it’s not a central quality of Norn culture, but it is part of the culture.

Obviously this is a lot to swallow, I’m sure you didn’t expect six paragraphs of Sociological perspective here, but hey! this is what I went to school for. I’m very passionate about this topic, so I’m glad you were inspired to ask! This also wasn’t meant to be preachy or condescending in any way, so I’m sorry if any of this might come across that way. If you’d like ask me anything else about my perspective on this type of thing, please feel free! Of course, thank you so much for reading all of this, and I hope you found it useful. Feel free to read some anecdotal evidence under the read more below; otherwise, take care! Let me know what you think!

For even just one example, remember how Braham acted towards us when we admitted we weren’t going to uphold Destiny’s Edge, that we thought it was more respectful to start Dragon’s Watch in her honor instead. Braham reacted by claiming it was not only unhonorable to her legacy but then turned on us while accusing us of letting her die, going against all the good terms we left him on during the Heart of Thorns campaign. In the caves during Season 3, he became more reckless than ever, newly obsessed with upholding his idea of her legacy by unearthing this scroll, right, and risking Rox’s life in the process. He didn’t even hold any remorse for her when she was in that ice--even after she was freed and brought back to proper health--and look, I’m not saying Braham is a bad person for acting this way. He was going through a really terrible mourning process after losing someone he only recently realized he still loved. Even so, this attitude was not something necessarily present in Eir, even though she was raised in the same community.

Eir wasn’t necessarily a nurturing person herself, but she didn’t have as extreme a version of those qualities as Braham--and if the implication during the Personal Story was that all the members of Destiny’s Edge were close close friends, having spent years fighting and traveling together, you’d think she’d be just as stubborn and reckless about Snaff’s death as Braham was about her own, later down the line. Instead, Eir drew into herself and stopped fighting dragons all together. When fighting with Zojja all those times we were there to witness it, she didn’t get aggressive, she got depressed; she didn’t blame Zojja or anyone else in defensiveness, even though Rytlock would be the first and loudest to blame Logan at the time, she maintained that she felt horrible for what had happened. She was full of remorse. It’s likely she had never experienced a level of remorse like that, and neither had Braham for losing Eir.

Now, this isn’t a perfect 1-to-1 comparison, but it’s pretty clear that it’s at least somewhat a pattern based on the fact that other major characters fall into these categories too: Svanir turned into a bear and went mad due to Jormag’s influence, that’s not necessarily his fault, but Jora chose to find another way to heal him or break him out of the curse. Only when she realized there was no other way did she decide she had to kill him--you can honestly ask jorasdottir more about this because she’s very knowledgeable about the whole affair--but if the theory is that all Norn, regardless of gender, should be the type to run in, guns (or, axes) blazing, in order to kill everything on sight, that would extend to Jora as well, right?

My point is that we have witnessed Norn men take extreme approaches to situations, especially in moments of high emotion, and we have witnessed Norn women take careful or even passive approaches to situations, likewise in moments of high emotion. I believe these anecdotes further emphasize my point here that some men in Norn culture may sometimes be raised to act differently and more aggressively than some women in Norn culture, even those within the same family. Again, thank you for reading!

[stormseyebastion]

So: No Quarter

I’ve calmed down a little now, so here are some scattered thoughts on No Quarter:

-It makes me sad that our first warband recruit is a traitor, but I’m happy they included whoever your first bandmate was on the map. I was so HAPPY to see Clawspur. :3

-Someone needs to get Rytlock and Crecia out of positions of influence and power during this entire campaign. I’m proud of Cre for not letting Ryland kill Smodur, but my god, please stop letting these two makes leadership decisions when they clearly can’t think straight regarding their horrible son.

-Speaking of Smodur, who IS this new character? Where is the patient diplomat who forged a peace treaty between two peoples who had been fighting a brutal war for CENTURIES? It feels like Anet just wanted to have a loose cannon asshole on the Legion side, to make things more “complex” or something. Please be more consistent with your characters, Anet. This aggressive, rash charr couldn’t have possibly sat down with his people’s greatest enemy and hammered out a workable peace accord. This Smodur couldn’t even sit through a hostage negotiation without murdering the hostage.

-Lol good attempt to get us to sympathize last chapter with the Steel warband. They are complex, interesting characters, and I feel NO sadness putting them down. Any attempt by the commander to reason with them get thrown laughingly back in our face, which, whatever, they chose their side. But it shows how little remorse they have for the many awful war crimes they are complicit in. I don’t care how sassy Vishen is, or how fatherly Nicabar is, they all need to go down, including (especially) Ryland.

-This whole thing is presented as a complex conflict, and a war for the souls of the Charr people. Aurene even wants to stay out of it to avoid making it worse. Bangar feeling terror at the possibility of the Commander destroying his people with an Elder Dragon, wrong and paranoid that it is, is sooooommmmmewhat understandable from an aging leader who fears being displaced, and fears for his people’s future after he’s gone. And who knows the power of an Elder Dragon, without understanding or trying to understand the relationship between the Commander and Aurene. The (stupid) solution this paranoid old warrior came up with was “well we need one of those to fight for us!” Again, understandable, if misguided. I might even have felt a bit of pity for the old man and his followers, doomed as they are. 

-Where all this complexity ended for me was when I read Goro Cleverclaws’ journal. All of Drizzlewood coast was populated. With norn, humans, and tengu. Living their lives, presumably peaceful, judging from the journal. One day, the terrifying sound of horns and steel and death is heard in the distance (anyone who’s played the new map meta knows the sound.) The residents flee if they can, and any who fight for their homes are slaughtered to a man. No mercy, no quarter given. “No prisoners were taken. Few escaped. The invaders didn't bother asking for surrender.” The Dominion has one goal: charr above all, every other race, and any charr who disagree, are slaughtered like animals. So that’s the complexity gone for me. 

Honestly though, overall is was my favorite Living Story chapter in a while. And I’m terribly excited to see where this goes. Hopefully the Pact and other nation’s forces will get involved when they hear what the Dominion has done.

[moonlit-grove]

Random useless facts about my characters (and some not-so-useless facts about the storyverse characters)

Cybill laughs to stop herself from cringing

If there's too much fabric around Ailbhe's throat, she feels like she's choking

'Corbeau' is technically a family name but I only use it for everyone but Aengus so that I can actually name them what I want.

Vie expects things to go wrong during the last month of the year.

Dubhan's title in the Court is the Count of Bleeding Hearts. It's supposed to be ironic: a bleeding heart usually means you're so kind and thoughtful of others. But he makes your heart bleed with his cruel “love”.

Naomh can read Orrian.

Wikki and Lexii both have the same amount of knowledge, but Wikki is the one who shares it. Lexii is too shy.

Cybill and Keeva both need name changes in-game but shush.

I only give sylvari surnames when I play. For the most part, their surnames don't exist in-universe.

One exception is Romeo, Saoirse, and Jarlath. They adopted their brother's chosen name when he became king of Orr.

Saoirse's wolf is related to Garm and was a gift from Eir. She jokingly calls him Garmling sometimes.

Ailbhe chose the name "Cuana" when she became Pact Ambassador. She needs a full name when dealing with humans.

When she reads some words, Vie's mind mispronounces them. Even when she knows how to say it properly. "Steppes", for example, her mind reads as "steppies"

Aria's mesmer abilities appear in silver, hence her name as Silveralloy.

Storywise, Cybill's sire is Rytlock. She is told after the battle against Zhaitan but before she and Alloy are put under Spymaster Vielcos's command. Other than he and her dam, she is the only one who knows.

Cybill is a long-haired charr. She trims her fur around her face though.

Wikki knows a lot about sylvari biology. When she learned she'd be working closely with one, she asked her aunt to send her vital information through her golem.

Around Malomedies, Vie is the living embodiment of :3c

Aengus loves that Kahedins can lift him.

Vie was taught weapon/armorsmithing by Occam when she was a sapling. Malomedies made the suggestion because of something a former warden had done to her.

Keeva would love to run around with her twin if he’d actually want to go to all the places she runs off to.

Vielcos is a lilac, Jamilyn is a bluebell, Ailbhe is a white lotus, Saoirse is a prickly pear, and Naomh is a grape, and Jarlath is a cherry blossom. The flowers are chosen based both on what they visually resemble, and the meaning of the flower matching to their personality.

White lotus and Ailbhe, for example, the flower signifies things including beauty, grace, knowledge, and faith. Ailbhe is well known for her beauty and grace in dealing with other races, her knowledge of the world, and her faith in the Mother Tree and the Pact.

Alloy Warband is actually very large for an Ash Warband. There are many honorary members of other races as well as official Charr members. White gold if the “official” color of the warband.

Aria’s sire is a Flame sorcerer, though her dam died in trying to escape with her shortly after she was born. She was found by a charr who had recently lost a cub, so she’d decided to take her in until she was sent to the fahrar.

Dubhan would probably get along with anyone who indulges his obsession with Aengus. Especially if they help him with his countless plots to get him “back”.

[sett-sparkclaw]

Answers to these great questions proposed by @aurenes​ 

I’ll try to keep the timeline limited to events that occur before Sett’s exile in 1333

Which dragon scared your commander the most? Sett would prefer that everyone he encountered had clear motives, for he himself has a very upfront and blunt personality. Consequently he really hates anyone being not being so forthright or clearly not letting him in on the whole story (which is funny because his love is an Ash Legion spy). For this the dragon he fears most is Aurene, who is more often than not unclear about her motivations or feelings towards things Sett finds to be important issues like the Charr Civil War of 1332. The idea that he will potentially have to fight her terrifies him.

Who is your commander closest to now? In 1333 Sett is “closest” to Tyborr Horngrabber (charr of a friend I made through game who exists in this lore) who took him in after finding him near death wandering the desert in Elona. I say “close” because Sett absolutely despises him because he has to rely on him. He would prefer to not rely on anyone, but after losing a hand and and an eye after his fight with Smodur it’s not like he’s in much of a position to fend for himself.

Who was your commander closest to prior? He was close to his love Roa Firedagger (the secret daughter of Aethin Skulltwister) who he accidentally killed a year before during the Campaigns of Drizzlewood Coast. She had been spying on the behalf of Malice in the hidden barracks located east of Petraj Overlook when Smodur ordered Sett to blow it up with a charged crystal, killing her and 14 other of Malice’s agents.

How does your commander remember the fallen? In this lore, the charr honor the deaths of warbands by having Immortalization Ceremonies, where charr gather to remember the fallen members of warbands and determine whether the warband is to continue. Higher profile warbands have more public ceremonies while less significant ones are remembered by smaller ceremonies or even private ones. Sett, being well aware of at least the members of his own warband that he killed or saw killed in the war a year prior, and himself being incapable to properly conduct a ceremony given his circumstances in Elona, held a private ceremony on his bedside in Tyborr’s shack. Here where he placed relics he kept of his fallen friends near a candlelight and recites codes of honor and loyalty to maintain that he will never let the warband die. He reignites the candle every night.

Which death caused your commander the most grief? The death of Roa has caused him the most grief. It was the most contributing factor to his eventual confrontation with Smodur. Another event that caused him grief would be the death of his father in 1329, who was killed in front of him by the charr warlord Gore.

If your commander could revive one person, who would it be and why? He would likely want to revive his father the most. Sett has very little memory of him because Sett was captured at such a young age. Sett only got to know his father briefly nearly 20 years later and he was soon after killed.

How does your commander feel toward their position of power? In 1333 Sett has no power, not like he had grown to like the political power he gained after his feats throughout the 1320s as the Pact Commander. He never thought of himself as a leader of the charr and consequently never took the pleas of his peers to take a position of power seriously. Instead he acted as a tool used by Smodur and Bangar to get what they wanted, hoping that playing both sides would deescalate the friction evolving between the two and their legions.

Does your commander fear death? He does not fear death, but he wishes he were dead. His will to live is fueled by his hatred of the United Legions and more specifically Smodur.

Does your commander believe they’re on the right path? He has no idea right now what path he is on. As far as he is concerned he is lost and hopeless. However, very soon he will encounter the hundreds of charr seeking refuge in Elona due to the mass death happening in Tyria at the hands of the of the United Legion, and he takes steps to lead and assimilate these charr.

When alone, how does your commander handle grief? He takes his grief out on his craft. He was taught how to create various weapons and devices by the Spark Warband’s Iron Legion defect Bane Sparkhammer. With plenty of forges in Amnoon he always keeps himself occupied to keep himself from reminiscing too much (while selling the weapons he makes).

What is the proudest moment your commander has experienced? The feat he is most proud of would be delivering the killing blow to Gaheron Baelfire in 1325. Not only was this his first accomplishment that earned him higher status among the members of Blood Legion, it was what he considered to be tasteful revenge for making his father suffer extreme consequences in the aftermath of the Flame Uprising of 1299.

How does your commander feel about Braham? Throughout the 1320s Sett was very uncomfortable with the idea of cooperating with other races because of the horrors he suffered from 10 years of slavery. Braham could sometimes break through this because of his fierce personality that reminded Sett of other charr at times, but ultimately for the time he knew Braham he did not ever fully trust him the same way he trusted Rytlock or his bandmates.

How does your commander feel about Caithe? Caithe is even worse with trust issue. He felt uncomfortable sharing any information with her because of this extreme lack of trust that developed the moment he knew of her. This also contributes to why he becomes so distrustful of Aurene in the early 1330s.

How does your commander feel about the dragons? His has the opinion that anything that poses a threat to the Legions must be destroyed or controlled, so this opinion extends to the dragons as well. Of course this does not include his skyscale Gnas, who he trusts with his life.

How has your commander changed overtime? The biggest changes that Sett has gone through include his thoughts about charr diplomacy and cooperation with outside races, his own position in charr society, and what the best form of governance would be best for the charr. Sett had an especially burning hatred for humanity when he was brought to the legions in 1322. All of his slave masters were human, so that association suck with him for a long time. It wasn’t until his time as the Pact Commander that he began to open up to other humans, in part by force at times because of warranted situations. This is why in the years following the defeat of Balthazar, Sett would act on behalf of both Smodur and Bangar as he was split on whose policy would serve the charr the best. This time also tested his thoughts on his own position in charr society. By 1329 he wanted to settle down in Fangfury where his warband resided. They were settling down themselves as the relations between the charr and humans were otherwise normalizing. Sett aspired to participate newly open trades between Blood Legion and Ebonhawke as the sword craftsmanship of the charr in particular interested him, and was in high demand. During this time his 4 four cubs were born which further contributed to this goal. This time of relative peace was short lived with the combined events of Kralkatorrik ‘s reemergence and the charr civil that shortly followed a year later throwing any possibly of settling out the window. In 1333 he has the biggest change in perspective when the charr refugees arrive in Elona. The governance stuff does not really happen until much later.

If given the chance, would your commander give up their fame and power? If so, why? Before it was ultimately taken from him by force, he would have given it up himself. The role of commander had too many obligations that ultimately got in the way of his relationship with Roa and eventually preventing him from ever seeing his cubs.

How many people truly know your commander? The only people who truly know him are his most trusted friends: Rytlock, Roa, eventually Tyborr, Ryland (way way in the future in the 1350s), Aethin, and Tybalt. I could explain why for each but look at the length of this post.

How does your commander handle stress? Up to this point he handles stress by taking more dramatic actions to reinforce his plans. His problem has been not knowing when to stop or being unable to evaluate when a situation is getting out of hand, oftentimes requiring powerful figures around him to keep him in check.

How does your commander unwind? He unwinds in various ways but the most effective is playing instruments. As a cub he was taught various traditional Flame Legion songs by his father that he often plays while meditating or entertaining others.

Can anyone calm your commander down, no matter what? If yes, who and why? Sett isn’t very hard to reason with as long as the one reasoning with him is up front and direct about what he is doing wrong and offers a better alternative. He more inclined to listen to charr he trusts.

[ohpollenpowder]

7 and 12 from the commander asks part 3 for all 3 of your commanders?

7. When in doubt, what can always make them smile? Gavin - His kids. (Aurene included, especially when they get on an inside joke run.) He's adopted a lot of kids from a lot of different races, all orphans like himself. There always seems to be one of them trailing along in the camp—on a rotation so they all get a chance to "hang with the Commander+friends"—though now a days it doesn't happen as often given dangerous circumstance. At first, he was very much against it, way back in his earliest days of Commander. But he saw how kinda...joyless a lot of soldiers got and he knew he could keep at least one kid safe out there in the wilds of Orr. (Plus, it annoyed Trahearne so it was a plus in his book.) Trahäym - This one...he's a slightly different story. He's always felt a bit different than others of his kind, wandering without a Wild Hunt to guide him, yet planted on such a path of purpose somehow. So often he'll look to Aurene for moments to smile upon, though it's a little more difficult with her all grown at times. And sometimes he'll travel back to the Grove, to sit and talk with those he helped in their earliest of days outside the Dream. Their tales of their own Hunts and journeys make him smile. They always sound carefree and he envies that. Eona - She often looks to her Dragon's Watch companions for any kind of smiling, honestly. They know her sorrows, know her joys, know how exactly to get her smiling again. Even if it's a sad smile because something lurking sneaks its way in to her thoughts, there's brief happiness. And any kind of happiness she'll take. 12. Who knows their deepest and darkest secrets? Gavin - In all honesty? For all the family that Gavin has with his adopted kids? He doesn't really have anyone that he leans on. Anyone that he tells any secrets or burdens to, which in the end isn't a good thing... For Gavin, finding that sort of person has never been a priority, never something he's looked for. After all, who would want all of the kids that come with him? Very few. He'll probably have a breakdown at some point? Probably the point where the world doesn't need him anymore and the Commander can become stories and legends that folks (stupidly) aspire to. Trahäym - He also doesn't really have anyone close, in all honesty. But he does share, he shares with the team as a whole. Because he does recognize that he needs support. There's plenty of late night talks with Canach and Rytlock, mostly because for him they're the ones that understand the most. Aurene does too, in her own way, but she has her own problems that Trahäym tries to help her with himself. He tries to rely on Caithe as well since he's forgiven her, but the closeness they once had doesn't seem to be there. Eona - She, too, relies on Dragon's Watch. More specifically Canach and Aurene. She's got a strong bond with Aurene, the connection between the two helps ease any darkness swallowing her. Truly, it's Aurene out of anyone that knows the truth of things going on with Eona. She'd...love to tell her older sister Halla. But for now their relationship remains strained. Sorry these are varying in lengths.

[skullsunflowerstars]

A twist on the “memorable dates” fic prompt from @tyrias-library, wherein the Commander is encouraged to take a day off for once. No direct spoilers, but maybe don’t read unless you’re up to date with the story.

--------

“Commander? Do you have a minute?”

Kasmeer’s voice broke the Commander’s focus from being hunched over the war table, assigning tasks to their various delegates. They looked up at her with a mild irritation on their face, raising an eyebrow at the wrapped gift held in her hands. “Yes, Kasmeer, what is it? We’re planning an attack on-”

The mesmer stepped forward and cleared her throat, offering the gift between them almost as a shield. “I know, but we thought, well, -hic- we thought we’d get you something. I know you don’t have anyone to celebrate today with, not since-”

The Commander frowned and held up a hand, cutting Kasmeer off, and waved the Vigil lieutenants away. When the two of them were alone again, the Commander rubbed the bridge of their nose and sighed. “Kasmeer, we’ve talked about this. I’d really rather not be reminded. I appreciate the thought, but-”

Now it was Kasmeer’s turn to hold up one hand, and three clones appeared behind her, looking stern with their arms folded. Until all three of them hiccuped in unison with Kasmeer. “Look, Commander, I was hoping not to argue with you. Just listen to what I have to say, please?” She hesitated to confirm the Commander’s response of silence, then nodded with some confidence and another hiccup before continuing. “Jory, Taimi, Rytlock, Braham, Rox, Logan, Caithe, Gorrik, even Canach and Zojja… we all got together to make sure that you, well, that you felt appreciated. We’ve all gone through a lot together, including you. Especially you. And today, if not other days, you should go take some time for yourself. Please. You need to take a break and do something fun sometimes.” 

There was a long pause where the Commander looked at Kasmeer with some apprehension, then they leaned forward and placed their hands on the table, careful not to knock over any figurines. “Truthfully, I wish I could take some time off. Pretend that all… this… isn’t happening for a few days. Or even a few months. But there’s so much to do. There’s always so much to do.” An exhausted sigh left them and they stood up again to slump against a nearby pillar. “I wish I could, Kas. I just can’t.”

Kasmeer shook her head, and the clones behind her disappeared as she relaxed a little, and she stepped forward to place the gift on the table in an empty area of the map. “You can. You can, even if it’s just for today. Look, I’ve already cleared it with the others - we can handle things here today. As much as your very experienced hand is appreciated, this attack can wait for one day while you take a break. We’re on the offensive here, after all. Didn’t you say to me once that the offensive party is the one in charge of the timeline?” She smiled and nudged the gift forward. “Please, friend. Stop being the Commander for one day.”

The Commander glanced between the gift and the mesmer, and sighed with a hesitant smile. “Fine. Just for today. You’re right, I should take some time. And today… Thank you, Kas. Thanks for doing this. I do appreciate it.” They reached forward to pick up the gift and looked briefly surprised at the unexpected weight of it. With a smirk, the Commander joked, “what is this, the weight of the world again?” The attempt at humour drew a giggle from Kas, and they both relaxed a little as the gift was unwrapped to reveal a small carved stone chest. 

Turning over the chest, the Commander noted a small inscription in Braham’s writing. “‘Commander, may your spirit forever be as strong as the strength you inspire from us every day.’” They looked up at Kasmeer, emotion filling their eyes, and was met with a silent encouragement to carry on and open up the box. Next to come out was a small wood carving of Garm and a carved crystal of Glint in the shape of Aurene, as a baby, both featuring Caithe’s subtle signature on the bottom. 

A slight gasp escaped the Commander’s lips as they pulled out the next item - a large silk flag with delicately hand-embroidered areas representing the major cities they had helped to defend: Lion’s Arch, the Black Citadel, Rata Sum, Divinity’s Reach, the Grove, Hoelbrak, Tarir, and Amnoon. “This is beautiful, Kas.” They were about to say something else when they realised there was still one last item in the chest; an Asuran holoprojector. 

Pressing the button on the side, the Commander noticed Kasmeer’s inquisitive look and they held it up for the both of them to see. With a crackle, the hologram started, showing Taimi’s face. 

“Hi Commander! This is a message from Taimi, obviously, Gorrik - say hello Gorrik! Gorrik? Pah, whatever. Zojja was here too but she just stepped out and I don’t know where she is. Aaaaanyway, we just wanted to tell you that-”

The hologram skipped, stuttering over Taimi’s next words and then shifted to reveal Faren’s grinning face, and Kasmeer suddenly looked horrified. “What? Oh no.” The Commander briefly looked up at Kasmeer, frowned, then focused on the hologram again in time to hear Canach’s voice while the view panned down Faren’s oily, mostly-naked body, then back up to his face while he happily gyrated, beginning to serenade the Commander. 

The transmission was cut short by the Commander throwing the unit across the room and storming over to the pile of weapons in the corner, grabbing a handful and barging into the door to leave. Left alone in the room, Kasmeer buried her face in her hands as the Commander’s voice echoed through the courtyard, trailing after their angry presence. 

“CANAAAAAAAAAACH!” 

“Canach, what have you -hic- done…”

[tyrias-library]

Thought I'd try a different type of alternate universe

The Twitch Streamer AU

Subtitle: One small change can make a huge difference

I’m Kazukoh, and I guess you can say I’m a leynet celebrity. Despite being born with a metabolism-afflicting chronic illness, I’ve managed to blossom in my own right.

I guess you can say much like another prodigy born a season or so after me.

Though outside of my diagnosis, my life was fairly average. My Grandma Miimii was horribly injured during a lab accident, and we thought she wouldn’t make it, but she pulled through. If anything, I owe my success to her for being there for me when Mom and Dad can’t.

Went to college, Dynamics, specifically, did an internship with Terranexic after my graduation, as my revolutionary power source that was my final project had all of the Golemancy Krewe’s eyes on me. I remained with Terranexic after my internship as a lab assistant until a position in a relatively small Krewe opened up.

The Krewe I joined was one that made custom Golems for people who were less versed in Golemancy-or were physically unable to put them together. We occasionally also got bulk orders of standard issue Golems, since we could put together simple ones in a relatively quick manner.

It was on one of those bulk-order days that Golemancer Klikk asked the Krewe Chief if we could use the projection-screen terminal to play some videos in the background, since today’s bulk order was extremely simple. Our Krewe Chief, being the generous leader she is, approved. Klikk navigated to a leynet site called “Stream.Ear”, and put on a Calamity tournament, between a handful of Statics-backed teams. Given that I enjoyed playing videogames in my spare time, I thought perhaps I could do such a thing.

~~~

Headset, check. Terminal, check. Motobox and capture card, check. Layout. Check. Leycam, check. Going live now.

“GOOOOD EVENING, GENIUSI AND GENIUSETTES! Golemella here, coming at you live with Super Adventure Box! Yes, folks, the home edition of Super Adventure Box, with 8 completed worlds-but only normal difficulty! I’m not just going to beat it, I’m going to attempt to beat it as fast as possible!

And beat the game, I did, since I’ve been playing for as long as I can remember. While it wasn’t even close to a top 100 on leynet records, it was a fairly decent time.

“And that’s that! Sorry it’s so short, I’m just here to test the waters, but I’ll be back tomorrow night! May all your games be winners, and may all your theories be sound!”

~~~

I’ve gotten quite into the groove regarding content releasing, especially now that I have affiliate status and can get money from this. While my job with this Krewe has good pay and decent benefits, I often allot most of my paycheck to an emergency funds account, given my medical issues, so there isn’t much left for leisure. I do have time for leisure, my Krewe is off 3 days a week, but which days vary depending on scheduling and tasks, but I stream all 7 days a week because I find it fun. I even have a schedule-at least for 6 days. Fun Fridays are party games with my viewers, Speedrun Saturdays are speedrunning games I grew up with, or have played a ton of-not trying for Tyrian records, but just for personal bests, Storytime Sundays are for visual novels, Mondays…I’m not sure yet, so I mainly just play what I feel like that day, Teamwork Tuesday is cooperative Leynet games, Wildcard Wednesdays I pick 3 random games and let my viewers vote on them, then play that for an hour before the process starts again, and finally, ‘Thunder’ Thursday, which is competitive leynet games.

What I’m about to dictate happens on one of those Thursdays.

A viewer of mine gifted me “Tyrian All-Star Battle”, a PVP game where you play as major figures in Tyria’s history, heroic or villainous…well most figures. One great hero has not enough records of their battle style, and the Pact Commander declined their role. Destiny’s Edge and Dragon’s Watch are in, however, as are many high level Pact members from recent history. I tend to alternate between Taimi, Snaff, and Dragon’s Watch!Rytlock, depending on if we need a support, DPS, or tank, respectively. You play in teams of 6, you have a main and secondary of each role (I often play secondary since my mains can take other roles if needed), and winning depends on different win conditions-either most points after a set time limit, or last team standing after a limited set of lives.

I chose Taimi for this set of matches, since I was playing with a team I signed on with, called Damsels in Dynamics, which is all female Asura streamers whom graduated from Dynamics, and we commonly play a team of all Asura heroes-and we already had a Snaff. My other teammates were Zojja, Warmaster Efut, Agent Zrii, and Steward Gixx. Our first matchup was against Team IGD-Inquest Gaming Division, a meta-team for the meta-krewe, though thankfully this was just six of them. They were playing Kudu, Kuda, Teyo, Tazza, Vebis, and Frizz. Kudu’s player was also a streamer, known as “TheBloodyDirector”, and was pretty much the ‘face’ of IGD. We were completely destroyed. TBD took out all of the Snaff and Zojja players’ lives alone, thanks to Teyo’s player taking out Gixx’s player early on. I was pretty much the only one healing, and since Taimi is not a high tier support, led to Zrii’s player getting wiped fast as well. It was down to me, and Efut’s player. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my chat was blowing up to the point that my own fans could barely even speak. While I was trying to figure out the chaos, my last life was taken. Efut’s player struggled to hold on while I sourced this bomb. It was not a raid at all-TBD’s fans decided to swarm my chat. And he did nothing. This. Means. War.

Every day I would check his channel, and it seems he streams on Mondays and Thursdays, but only plays competitive games on Thursdays (Mondays seem to be clearing single player feats in said games). Every Thursday, I’d rally viewers to help defeat him as one of the matches/games of the night. And every time, I would fail. The closest I got was 4 members defeated before I, as the last one standing, was wiped out, and yes, this was in Tyrian All-Star Battle. That seems to be the game we usually battle in, though we’ve occasionally duked it out in others.

~~~

Another Thursday, another battle. I checked TheBloodyDirector’s stream…and turns out, he’s not streaming today. Instead, he’s hosting another Inquest member. I didn’t catch her name, but she’s advertising doing something called a ‘mukbang’…but she’s just slowly eating a single cup of instant noodles while doing paperwork. I then looked up what a mukbang really was….and immediately hit paydirt. People watch others eat monstrous amounts of food? Sign me up! Now I know what to do on Mondays!-well that, and social eating, depending on my funds during the week. But for now, I’ll just play some casual competitive matches with my viewers.

~~~

Monday came, and I had some extra money stored up, so I ordered 25 family sized buckets of Metrica Fried Moa, sides included, some curtains to obscure the hospital related things in my room, and a fancy leycamera. Hung up the curtains, my multipurpose Golem (A project from my spare time that transforms into various mounts, a hoverchair, or a Scruffy-like Golem) carrying the food, and I installed the leycam, running a quick test with it. The test was perfect, let’s go.

“GOOOOD EVENING, GENIUSI AND GENIUSETTES! Golemella here, and now I know what I’m doing on Mondays. Every Monday is food related! Normally this’ll be social eating, but today I’m doing something special. Some days, like today, will be mukbangs.” I then pulled each and every one of the buckets and sides closer. “I’ve got 25 buckets of Metrica Fried Moa here, and I’m going to eat ALL OF IT. RIGHT HERE. ON STREAM.”

I was shocked. People were HYPED in chat. Some people were worried that I’d fall ill, some others were concerned about my appearance, but nobody was mean. Most people were hyped up to see me eat all this food, and I sure gave them such. I ate ALL of the food on stream, engaging with viewers all the way. However, if anyone asked how I could do this, I kept it a well-guarded secret.

~~~

TBD wasn’t streaming this week, so I organized a spontaneous tournament between myself and a handful of my viewers in Tyrian All-Star Battle. Rest of the week was uneventful, as was Sunday. Monday on the other hand, was my first normal social eating stream. I sent my Golem out to bring back takeout-this time from the Canthan place near Mom’s lab-I moved out and into an apartment owned by the hospital out in Soren Draa, but visit often-and then started up the stream.

“GOOOOD EVENING, GENIUSI AND GENIUSETTES! Golemella here, we’re doing social eating tonight! I won’t be eating as much as I did last Monday, but it’ll still be a sizable amount, since there’s more focus on you, the viewers, my intellectual fans.” I smiled, waving at the camera. I began to interact with everyone, and things were going well. At least, they started out well. The food hadn’t come yet, and I was starting to grow hungry. I kept speaking with fans, answering questions, engaging in conversation, but it was not to last. My stomach growled. Loudly. And the mic picked it up. My face went dark purple and I was completely silent…but the chat. Alchemy’s Catalyst, the chat! Someone made a BETSEAR emote and uploaded it, and the entire chat was spamming it. That did get a slight chuckle out of me. The Golem soon arrived, with food, and I dug in, profusely apologizing as I did. But they didn’t seem to mind, thankfully.

~~~

I started feeling horrific after work one day, but I felt I was still up to streaming. Thought I’d do a Just Chatting stream since I didn’t think I could play a game, either competitive or otherwise-thankfully it wasn’t a Thursday.

“Hey, everyone. Sorry for no game today. I haven’t been feeling the greatest today, so I’m just going to take it easy. But enough about me, how was your day?” I asked, my voice still on the weak side. Questions and answers didn’t go super fast, unfortunately, as my vision started blurring a bit, and I was growing more and more confused.

The next thing I noticed was I was in my bed, hooked up to IVs, and there was a bowl of soup being placed in front of me, atop a tray. I glanced over to the terminal as I ate, and the stream feed was off, but the chat, there were people constantly asking if I was alright. I didn’t get a chance to even let them know what happened until a few days later, since I was resting, not working or streaming, and was under care of a new doctor-one whom watched my streams.

~~~

Even despite everything, I still practiced and practiced, getting better and better at Tyrian All-Star Battle. I was determined to beat TheBloodyDirector at his own game. Loss after loss, some completely wipeouts, others just close. Until that fateful day, where I decided to try Zojja out. I’ve found another hero I love to play. I got into a 1x1 match…against TheBloodyDirector, as, you guessed it, Kudu. And yes, he was streaming this day. Someone suggested in my chat that we hook up, and I was shocked. I heard him splutter over voice comms as well, so I suspect he got the same suggestion. No, random viewer, not happening. But despite this, the match was HEATED. And it was CLOSE. We were neck and neck, if he killed me, I’d kill him shortly after. And given that this was a time match and not a stock one, it was tense. But finally, the timer was up…and I had won. By one kill. Finally…sweet victory against TheBloodyDirector.

(A/N: You thought I was some random writer, but it was me, Kazukoh, this entire time!

Also I'd like to thank ProtonJon, StephenPlays, and Wahnthac for (unintentionally) showing me how Twitch works, and @lewn-acies for the idea for this AU!)