#its kind of mroe rambly under the read more sorryyyyy but i tried to make it all make sense lol

[incense-and-iron]

Here is all of Vastha’s hairstyles + highlight changes through all the expansions (so far); newest to oldest! The first picture I took last week, and the very last one I took a bit into ARR (can’t remember exactly where I was in that story unfortunately).

“But where’s his little nose mark in all the more recent pictures?” Good question! Lore wise: I had him add it on after the main EW story as a mark of such a high success in doing the impossible, but also following the lore for Keeper of the Moon face paint lore in it being readiness to continue to hunt and take down things only a WoL can; willing to carry that burden of blood on his hands fully due to the impossibility of anyone else being able to handle such a burden-- let alone attempt. Not lore wise: I... didn’t know I had another option for face paint open until around EW when I went and made him the height I always thought he was but wasn’t really bc I play with a lot of tall people in game.

Which also leads me to want to talk about his face paint in general! This will go under a cut tho bc this is already very long!! So thank you if you read! @woltourney

You can find more pics and info of Vastha here and on his blog @wanderer-of-light !!

As is known, Keeper of the Moon Miqo’te’s face paint is very important them them [taken from the wiki!]:

The ritual application of war paint to the face is still regularly practiced before going on the hunt, a tradition symbolizing their readiness to stain their hands with blood, as well as sending a message to their gods that they are prepared to serve them as warriors in the afterlife should they fall. It is believed the vivid colors grant lunar powers.

Now, Vastha’s are very bright, considering they’re mint colored! He chose that color due to his family more or less running off everyone getting a specific color; though in his family they keep that color and wear it in their hair (highlights/dyed tips/etc) if they aren’t going out hunting or to fight. With Vastha being the youngest and going out to adventure, his mother helped him pick a color and his sisters helped paint his face before he was to leave home.

He picked one of the brightest colors possible that they had access too at home (and one that wasn’t already taken), wanting to comfort his family that he would be safe and would be strong enough for the journey ahead of him. While he doesn’t entirely subscribe to the last bit of the blurb above with serving a god in the afterlife, the rest of it he does believe and follow; so he maintains and keeps his face paint very clean/redoes it after combat. The paint has extra meaning due to how it was done before leaving home, so he is much more on top of maintaining the paint than he would otherwise if he had done it himself.

It’s incredibly rare to see them without their face paint, maybe one or two times in the middle of reapplying has anyone around Vastha ever seen their face without the mint colored markings. At this point in their life, they feel naked without the paint on; so to see them without the paint is actually a very special and almost vulnerable thing.

Oh! I should mention; there is a span of time you can see in the pictures above where the color in his hair isn’t mint, but a faded blue! That was around HW... To avoid spoilers, it’s kind of a “if you know, you know” around when that change occurred. Due to That Event (tm), Vastha felt it was more right to lighten the color due to the helplessness in that moment and that he didn’t deserve so much protection or gift of power from the moon or any lunar power. Eventually he came to terms with it all and redid his hair to the proper color, but it took a very long time for that reconciliation and coping to happen.