#lws3

[clemmykins]

This one spot in Bitterfrost Frontier... so pinkish yellow..

[sylvaridreams]

can i have stuff.

[konig-varorson]

Fun Lore Fact: On Mursaat genders

With Secrets of the Obscure opening the possibility of us meeting more mursaat, and female mursaat at that, I want to point out a little noticeable fun fact about mursaat in Guild Wars 1.

While there is only one model used for all mursaat, thus leading one to think we only see male mursaat, based on the names of the various bosses it can be concluded that we do see female mursaat as well.

For example:

Willa the Unpleasant

Willem the Demeaning

Male and female form of the same name. Willa and Willem. There are other feminine names seen too, of course. Such as Aily the Innocent and Mercia the Smug.

So what does this mean?

This means mursaat have no notable sexual dimorphism from their models, particularly of note being their chest. Their females' chests look just like their males' chests. This is a female mursaat:

And it is also a male mursaat.

This is NOT accurate female mursaat clothing:

But adapted for the sake of humans and norn to wear (and sylvari just use this because humans and norn get weird seeing nude sylvari).

Let's see if ArenaNet keeps to this idea. #FreeMursaatNonBoobies!

[the-six-official]

i cant believe people dont like livia... the shining blade thing was whatever to me but the banter between her and the commander is SO funny

[redcanoli]

I finally finished the first chapter of Living World S3, and I hate Bloodstone Fen SO MUCH, the amount of constant aggro makes it impossible to explore and I had to listen to Caithe flirt with my boyfriend because he was in control of the instances. Ridiculous.

[champion-of-aurene]

For the Aurene ask game: 1, 3 and 8!

Thank you for the ask (and for making the post in the first place)! :D

1. How does the Champion feel about Aurene? Do they consider her a daughter, a sister, a friend, a ward, a burden, just a dragon or something else?

Twilight definitely considers her both a daughter and a friend. I don't think there is anyone Twilight is closer to than Aurene, she loves her deeply and would say that Aurene is at the center of her chosen family. From the beginning she felt like a mother to what once was just a little baby dragon, and she felt that even more deeply when she went through training Aurene with the Exalted (and the closest a Sylvari can feel to maternal instincts when Aurene was kidnapped by Balthazar). But she also sees Aurene as a very close friend, she's her closest friend and in that way feels similar platonic feelings as she does for her other friends such as the Dragon's Watch members.

3. Is there anything non-canon/unique about your Champion and Aurene? Powers, ways to communicate, transformations/brandings, etc

Yes! So I may have posted about this once on this blog before, but you know the Mini Plush Aurene? Basically, those are Aurene's "minions". They're not gonna fight anything, except maybe the Commander's negative feelings, but they do allow her to keep eyes and ears out all over Tyria for her, while also helping people in small ways, such as hugging a crying child, stopping someone from walking into danger, bringing back dropped or lost items to their owners, things like that! This is partially why Twilight's main Mini since I got it was the plush Aurene, and I believe that her plush is more powerful and communicates with Aurene more often than any of the other plush Aurenes, and any time Twilight hugs it or talks to it, Aurene will feel and/or hear it, even if she's asleep c:

Twilight also for the longest time had the Nightspeaker Wings, but sometime around the time of EoD Aurene branded them intentionally with Twilight's consent, now making it the Aurene Wings.

And lastly, Twilight uses the Aurene's Claw dagger, but often with the appearance of the "Kralkatorrik's" Claw dagger. Basically, sometime after Twilight got the Aurene's Claw dagger, Aurene used the magic she absorbed from Kralkatorrik to re-brand/change the colour and effects of it as a gift to Twilight, since she knew that Twilight's favourite colour is purple. Aurene of course also gave Twilight the ability to change it between the two at any time so she can go with either one depending on her mood or preference at a given time (because she knows that along with loving purple, Twilight also loves her and her beautiful prismatic scales and branding) c:

8. Are there others who are close to her? What's their relationship with her and her Champion? Does it impact canon?

Astromancer Tavii is close to her, it honestly started as being a huge fangirl for Aurene before they got close xD Twilight and Tavii are good friends and Twilight knew she could trust her to be around Aurene even when she's not around as well. Tavii basically became a member of the Crystal Bloom, helping Aurene with whatever she needed and keeping the Commander up to date with how Aurene was doing alongside Taimi doing the same.

[soulbeastdragon]

Oh boy, time to re-play LWS3!

[wyldblunt]

little guide i whipped up for our clashing timelines (probably terrible 2 read on desktop if u don't open it in another tab, sorry lol!!)

[jollycryptid]

what if we were both deeply alienated from our people by the horrors we experienced and left forever changed, but grew closer while co-parenting a child.. and we were both lesbians?

[just-norn-things]

Yap away about all of them with 2, 5 and 14!

Ohhhhhhh honey strap yourself in!

Questions from this ask game:

Quick roll call for reference, left to right. Kara: Pact Commander, Soulbeast. Torvi: Warmaster, Scrapper. Aaria: Vindicator, typically Alliance stance, but Jormag often pops in for a chat.

2. How do they feel about norn society's expectations and traditions? Are they comfortable in norn society? Is there anything they wish was different?

Kara is the Norniest Norn who ever Norned, at least until around halfway through POF. Everything is about the legend, nothing is more important, and leaving a legacy is all that matters. Almorra teaches her the selfishness of this way of thinking early on in the PS, but it's only after The Incident that it really hits home for her. She comes back from the Domain of the Lost feeling like the things you do are far more important than being recognised for the things you do. Additionally, when she later has children, she hopes her generation brings in more of a balance of being there for your kids and building a legend, instead of letting others raise them while you get famous. Torvi is very comfortable in Norn society, but she does prefer the company of Charr in general. As an engineer, she feels like her ingenuity is more celebrated amongst those who value the machinery she is so good at fixing, and she is well suited to the Warband lifestyle. Whilst she's not really accepted in the Black Citadel, the Gear Warband thinks of her as one of their own. Aaria typically leads a nomadic lifestyle, but is comfortable among her peers when she returns home. However, she tends to converse openly with the Spirits inside her mind, and others aren't comfortable around her for this reason. She's not a shaman, and not often talking to one of the Spirits of the Wild, so the other Norn tend to give "the woman who talks to herself a lot" a wide berth.

5. Which Spirit of the Wild do they have a connection to? How was the connection forged? How does their Spirit influence them? What do they think of their Spirit? Do they revere any other Spirit?

All three have a connection to Jormag, as all three survived being abandoned at a shrine to Dragon as babies, which caused them to be exposed to Jormag's lingering magic. However, they all deal with this very differently, and were all raised amongst Norn who encouraged them to bond with the other Spirits instead. Until Jormag wakes during LWS3, none of them believed the connection was real at all. Kara is a staunch follower of Wolf, much like her adoptive parents. She lives and breathes Wolf's teachings all her life, even when her connection to Jormag becomes apparent. Wolf gifts her with the ability to become the Wolf when she is 14, just before the start of her PS. Torvi was raised as a ward of the Bear Lodge and reveres Bear in general for their strength. However, she has little connection to the Spirit, and cannot become the Bear. As a revenant, Aaria has a connection to many Spirits, and not just Spirits of the Wild. Because of this, she has little attachment to any of them. If you put a gun to her head and forced her to choose then she would choose Raven, and Raven does often speak to her, however when Jormag is active they tend to completely drown out any other Spirits in her mind. That said, she is fairly nonchalant about this. Another voice in her head is hardly new, and whilst she has no interest in doing the bidding of the ice dragon, they are a decent conversationalist.

14. Do they have any heirlooms? Are there legends behind them or do they only have sentimental value? Or did they earn/find someone else's?

Kara isn't really one for sentimentality, however when Braham gifts her Eir's hairpin in the latter part of LWS4, she does get a rather foreign fuzzy feeling in her chest. Still, she makes him swear to take it back once his hair grows out, because Eir's stuff should be his, no matter how much Kara loved her too. "Yeah yeah, I'll take it back tomorrow." (he never does) Torvi is very attached to an old hunting knife that Forgal gave her when she joined the Vigil, since she broke hers. These days it's brittle and largely useless, but she keeps it in the best condition possible and never uses it, despite it being on her at all times. Aaria wields a hammer rumoured to have belonged to King Jalis. She is highly protective of this and will consider no other weapon, no matter how unsuitable the hammer may be in the moment. Any suggestion that the hammer is merely a replica is met with...well...the hammer.

[jynxghoststep]

i dont trust gw2 players opinions of the story till i play it myself bc some of you think lws3 was good and loudly proclaim that it was the peak of the game in lowland shore map chat and to me who has 0 nostalgia for it and started playing 3 yrs ago it was the most boring slog. Isn’t it beautiful that we can all have our own opinions about things

[clemmykins]

can you tell i like ansel adams and bitterfrost frontier no way couldn't be me

[sylvaridreams]

WHAT THE FUCK IS HIS PROBLEM

[praise-joko]

My activity has been a bit sporadic here the past few days because I've been grinding out this baby.

[anarkhebringer]

Post-Heart of Thorns Endobelles is now real

[just-eyris-things]

....she?