#ryland steelcatcher

[solvevi]

my fanart of ryland steel catcher from hit 2012 mmo guild wars 2: the icebrood saga

[skaald-of-the-hearth-fires]

Y'all I've always thought it was hilarious what Anet did to warbands.

So. you have Rytlock, who in Edge of Destiny said he had "about a dozen" brothers and sisters each. so including himself, that's 25 in a warband. The wiki says a warband is 6-25 members, so Rytlock was on the high end, and average would probably be 12-18 members.

and then every warband in the game proceeds to have BARELY 6.

you have 5 options to choose from for a sparring partner. Rox's old warband had 6 members (or maybe 7). We've still never met more than one of Rytlock's 'bandmates. Almorra gets one 'bandmate mentioned by name.

most charr in the entire game, including top-ranking tribunes and imperators, are not with their warbands, do not talk about their warbands, do not go places with their warbands. Tribune Bhuer Goreblade shows up with a small handful of 'bandmates in the charr level 10 story.

You do not see groups of 12-18 charr warbands roaming around Ascalon with fascinating life stories and 'bandmate dynamics and mourning the latest one(s) who died, with mementos, with stories about how 'my sparring partner saved my life' and 'this member of the warband whom I know least of all my bandmates would die for me and they proved it last week' and 'Im unhappy with bandmate X but I would kill for them' or 'bandmates Y and Z obviously love each other. wanna join the betting pool?' and the legionnaire who confides in you about their tough decisions of who they're picking to be their second/replacement. All within the same warband.

Not even one warband like this. Much less the multiple that charr culture deserves.

Even in IBS, the, at least half-way, charr-centric story, our main focus warband is Ryland's Steel warband. Who has, predictably, 6 members. And like 10 fresh-faced, unnamed recruits who have 0 history or dynamic with the Main Cast. even the 6 named members, who have vibes and character and a bit of a dynamic, are stupid shallow. (and tbf they didn't have time to explore it much, but really?)

We do not see Bangar's 'bandmates. We do not see Rytlock's 'bandmates. We do not hear anything about Almorra's old 'bandmates. We do not see Ember Doomforge's 'bandmates. We do not see Smodur's 'bandmates. We do not see Malice's 'bandmates. We do not see Efram's 'bandmates.

We see a lot of 'cubs this' (with Rytlock and with Efram), I heard a lot of speculation about 'cubs that' in fandom spaces, we see a lot of 'ohoho relationship/mating drama' (from Rytlock/Crecia and also Almorra/Bangar). We do NOT see ANYTHING about warbands, supposedly the building-blocks of charr society.

Even the charr player's old warband is mostly disbanded/defected to Dominion.

I have yet to see any real warband dynamics in canon.

Even in the books! Rytlock's 24 'bandmates are fair game because they're offscreen. And Anet has consistently refused to show any of them. Even Rytlock's dynamic with Crecia is pretty much just "we're old exes" and never "we grew up together. we fought together. our bonds are deeper than those of biology, than the fact we have a cub. I stabbed you once and you knew I didn't mean it because we are 'bandmates." Sure, Crecia mentions once "ohoho we used to see the ice elementals here as cubs."

But in the books! Sea of Sorrows for instance! iirc the majority of Sykax's warband is unnamed! Ember Doomforge, again, no mentions of warband! Rytlock nor Malice nor Almorra talk about inter-warband relations!

we never see any warbands larger than 6 members.

And this is all because, OBVIOUSLY, who wants to come up with 12-18 whole characters when it's just the one who's relevant to the story? Coming up with 6 is hard enough it only happens in special occasions. which doesn't include the legit actual player character.

(the player character, whose warband is decimated to TWO flaming members (including yourself!!) in the tutorial, and! yay! fun lorebuilding! you get to rebuild the warband. this adds a flaming total of TWO members. now you're at flaming four. FLAMING FANTASTIC. the player-flaming-character gets FOUR 'bandmates. this is atrocious!! and tbf if you compile all the options across all the branches you might end up in the (low end, probably) of 12-18. which is fair!)

but like. I do sympathize. I really do. characters are hard. names especially! which would be the bare minimum yknow. have an 18-member warband with zero dialogue but! they do have names! that wander around Ascalon. not even an event chain just average-sized warband representation PLEASE.

like. I did it myself. I invented a warband and I BARELY got them to 6 members. I had name, gender, profession for each of them. they were minor characters so they didn't even get the development that Ryland's Steel got. names, professions and the vibes from that. I felt so bad for only giving them 6 bc I was reinforcing the stereotype!!

but, so, uhhhh

I have been handed an OC. from a friend. who has given me full creative license to write abt them in my story.

I gave him 23 'bandmates. They all have names and genders. They're split up into who is whose sparring partner and who bunks with whom. That is all.

I also get VibesTM from each member's name. I'm slowly building relationship maps. (mostly just. from character A's PoV, ranking who they are closest with. Then doing it from Character B's PoV. it's WILDLY fascinating.) I have three charr 'bandmates who have their own little niche, they three are besties, they're each other's sparring partners and bunkmates and everybody (main relevant characters at least) knows them as 'those three'. and I know their names. none of the characters I'm writing about know them very well (relative to the rest of the warband ofc. ofc each one would DIE for them and probably knows their struggles and combat strengths and weak points and so on. but I haven't invented any of those yet) and that's all. I don't have a single bit of info about them except that and the vibes of each name. but hey!!!! WARBAND DYNAMICS MY BELOVED!?!!

[wheatskers]

I’m on a gw2 character kick so here are Almorra and Ryland because I’m obsessed with the entire cat drama mess that Blood Legion is.

[jollycryptid]

Redaar declaring war on his own imperator.

don't mind me taking inspiration from the Horus Heresy trailer quote

[guardian-instincts-bad]

so last night our guild were bringing a friend new to gw2 through all the dungeons, and at some point for the bit we all decided to switch to our most gimmicky characters

and i now have my new favourite gw2 screenshot!

(credit to @fractal-quadrilioquy for ryland steelchair)

(and also have my runner up because dear god ryland just brought so much irony to everything)

[guildwarszeke]

sorry for not being active recently i unfortunately find soto not as interesting as like. icebrood saga

i didnt talk about icebrood saga much here because i was stricken by the illness of glued eyes. couldn't look away

but i will say this about icebrood tho. they had NATIONALISM in guild wars NATIONALISM??? AGAIN???

[elderdragonapologist]

Blorbo bingo Ryland!

Oooh, starting with a fun little guy lets goooo.

Oh I have many a opinion on Ryland, I feel like it's a bit of a hot take that I genuinely like the guy and he's important to my personal lore. He definitely suffers a lot of development with....everything that happened with IBS, we all know this at this point in time. I long to know what Champions was actually going to be. I've spent a lot of time thinking and talking about him as a character and whilst he's more of a blorbo in law for me, I think thats given me a lot of time to see him with a lot of depth. Ryland as a character definitely shines best for me in the dynamic with Jormag and of course my precious specialist babies ever, the Steel Warband. Ryland as a whole is a character whose relationships are incredibly defining to what we get in my opinion? His lack of a relationship with Rytlock, the messy family that is the steel warband, the shady, abusive and exploitative dynamic with Bangar, the implications we get of him and Jormag as a duo. I think this is part of (a fair few reasons) why Champions falls short because Rylands relationships all chip away and we get to see little of the fallout of that and a lot of tell not show with how he and Jormag are together. This is something I love to explore in personal work, I wonder a lot about the days following the death of his warband, about the conversations he and Jormag had together that supposedly gave Jormag reason to see some value in mortals. About if it felt good getting revenge on Bangar, or if it quickly rang hollow because it wont undo the damage or what he needs.

[ancientkarka]

i had a vision

[mimisunsea]

I love Ryland

[heyitsmejona]

Huevember // Week 4 // Ryland

[lunod]

I don't really understand the Ryland storyline. I get that Rytlock has regrets but this is repeatedly mentioned as a result of him living outside the Legions and absorbing their family values/ideals. But Ryland specifically having emotional issues wrt his parents makes no sense to me. Why does he care At All what Rytlock did with his life, or what Crecia did with hers, and about not turning out like them?

[brightwingedbat]

The collection unlock dialogue for Cinder Steeltemper's combat blade oh my god

[bluekitsvne]

I also made this because I'm RIDICULOUSLY IN LOVE WITH VISHEN she's in my brain now and this happened

[commanderhorncleaver]

Rambly thoughts about Gaius adopting Ryland

featuring @brightwingedbat

[ratasum]

The events of Voice In the Deep. Things don't go according to plan... feat. @wall-legion's Garrus Firstblood

Qirri's ears twitched. Near her, she could hear Garrus breathing heavy, the battle having taken as much a toll on him as her. But their eyes, for the moment, did not waver from Bangar. He stood staring at the spot where Drakkar had stood, tail slowly swinging back and forth behind him.

"Do you hear that?" he was saying, tipping his head towards Ryland.

The younger charr's ears twitched, and he kept his attention on his imperator, never once sparing a glance to the others that had fought viciously alongside them. "What?"

Bangar gave a mirthless chuckle, turning his muzzle skywards. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

No one else was laughing. But Rytlock looked wary, head down and eyes narrow, tail lashing hard as he regarded his imperator. Qirri watched his claws flex, moving up closer to him as the tribune spoke. "Hrm. Where's the rest of your army?"

"Drakkar was a threat to my soldiers. Corrupting the weak, as you now know." Bangar grinned, and there was something wicked in his smile that she did not trust. There was no space to voice it for now, though, so instead her hands tightened on her sword, shoulders curling forward as he continued. "We did what no norn could. We drove Jormag back, and now the dragon's running scared."

That drew an irritated sound from Braham, who moved forward, fists clenched tight at his sides. "Hey, we've been fighting Drakkar all over this lake. You can't just swing in—with my bow—"

It was now or never. Straightening her back, Qirri moved forward, pulling back her shoulders as she glared up at Bangar, who turned his head to look down at her. The disinterest and disdain in his expression were not lost on her. "Bangar, you've seen how dangerous Jormag is. You just said it yourself: you can't risk others being turned!"

He regarded her for a moment longer, but then he moved, faster than she could have reacted. One massive paw was on her chest, claws on her shoulders, slamming her on her back so hard into the thin coating of snow on the ice that it knocked the wind out of her, pressing down so she could not catch it again. "Drakkar's death at my hands sends them all a message: I am Jormag's champion now. I alone can control the dragon." He leaned in, his sharp teeth felt only millimeters away, ignoring the angry shouts from those around him and the desperate wheezing of the asura beneath him. "And I don't take orders from frail, sickly little rats."

Now Garrus moved forward, anger and fear mixing in his voice, tense as he pulled himself to his full height. "Bangar! Let her go! Jormag can't be controlled! Listen to us, that's not how this works."

For a moment, no one moved. Rytlock's eyes shot from Qirri, pressed hard down against the ice, to Bangar's smug grin. Then, his gaze returned to Ryland, the fur up the back of his neck beginning to rise. "Ryland. Don't tell me you believe this."

"My imperator gave us an order." He looked at none of them. Not even Bangar now. "Will you follow it?"

By now, Garrus had moved in closer, enough to hear how the asura he'd protected for a decade was struggling to breathe under Bangar's weight holding her down. He needed to act. He needed to act fast. "I can't let you take credit. And I won't let you keep hurting people. Let Qirri go and step away. This needs to stop. Now."

Bangar finally shifted. He stood straight, lifting Qirri as he went, keeping his claws dug into the leather armor on her shoulders, holding her like she weighed nothing. One smooth movement and he'd thrown her, hard, towards Braham.

Braham, to his credit, dove to catch her before she slammed into the ice, lifting her carefully as he swung his attention back to the imperator and the commander.

Briefly, Bangar regarded Garrus. And then, all at once, he lifted Braham's bow and took aim.

"I couldn't agree more."

It was a single moment. It was an eternity. The fiery arrow struck true, slamming into Garrus's chest as Rytlock and Crecia's voices blended over one another, rushing to the commander's side.

"What have you done-?!"

"NO!"

And for a moment, Braham stood speechless, eyes wide, holding Qirri tight up against his chest. He could feel and hear how she still struggled to breathe, her small frame nearly limp in his arms. His eyes stayed focused on Rytlock and Crecia where they were trying desperately to keep Garrus alive.

"Commander, get up!" Gone was Rytlock's composure. This had gone horribly wrong. "C'mon!"

Bangar, for what it was worth, seemed all too pleased with himself. "You should understand, Commander. Better than anyone."

"Commander? Listen to me. Focus!"

"It ain't working, Cre!"

By now, Qirri had gone fully lax in Braham's grasp, and he felt his shoulders tense, something burning in his chest he had not felt before. Storming over to the trio, he pulled Rytlock's shoulder back, carefully moving Qirri into his arms instead. "Make sure she keeps breathing too. We can't lose either one of them."

Shaking his head, Bangar shifted his weight, notching an arrow as Braham turned to face him. "It was always gonna end this way. One charr. One dragon. One champion."

He didn't have time to fire this time. Ryland was calling out a warning, and all at once, Braham was charging towards them, frame altered as the spirit of Wolf overtook him, bellowing out a furious roar and swiping hard at Ryland, driving the two charr back from their would be slaughter.

Garrus's vision flickered. Faded out and back in as he heard Crecia and Rytlock cry out at their son, and the screams of both charr echoing through the cave where they were fleeing.

He couldn't feel much of anything now. Just the painful heat in his chest and a strange, unpleasant floating sensation he'd last felt fighting Balthazar. This couldn't be it, could it? If he fell this time, he wasn't sure he could walk back out.

And Qirri would have watched him die.

Sensation returned only briefly as he was jostled, groaning as he heard Crecia speaking. "Rytlock, we have to move him. What about the krewe chief-?"

"Damn it! Put her on the commander's chest or something and we'll lift her with him! It's not like she weighs anything. Can't just leave her; we don't know when Braham will get his damn head back!"

"Put her in my sling, Rytlock; I'll carry her that way! I don't want to risk dropping her- here now, help me lift! We need to get out of here!"

Was she dying too? How had he failed them, all of them, this badly?

But by then, his thoughts were fracturing. Drifting and floating in that same awful, looming darkness as everything finally faded to blissful, painless nothingness.

[brax-was-here]