#sorry if it doesnt make sense ajhsjahsiahsis i swear i tried

[regentlord]

Sir ....... did you ....... and Dar'Khan, did you ...... sIR DID YOU AND .... DID YOU??? DID YOU. YOU KNOW. :(

always accepting meta asks !

— @acherys

we will neither confirm nor deny those allegations at this time, the regent lord is taking no more questions today

...

ok let me answer this for real because i have had this thought for years and was always too much of a coward to properly elaborate.

in blood of the highborne, we're introduced to liadrin, gallel and dar'khan having been captured by trolls. lor'themar, also captured, arrives later - and immediately promises he'll find a way to get them all out of there. no one will be left behind. it's all or none. ultimately they escape by uniting forces, and become a group of close friends. liadrin's narration makes it clear though they met in struggle, they went on to share in each other's growth and victories - as well as that, being the only one not advancing professionally, dar'khan started to grow envious and bitter.

my point, though, is that while she notices this, she seems like the only one who does - and not really without reason, I think, because to me lor'themar always read as closer to dar'khan than she was. it makes sense, too - despite their eventual friendship, dar'khan shows disdain for the priests. he is proud, arrogant and constantly placing himself above others from the start, but I suppose that wouldn't be so easy to see to one he may have treated as an equal. and I imagine he did because the farstriders are important, they're quel'thalas' main and nearly only significant military force they have. lor'themar is not only one of them but suggested to be high-ranking. I think dar'khan would've treated lor'themar very differently from the disdain and arrogance he shows to others.

and, well, if he was arrogant and a bitch on occasion, lor'themar can't quite criticize when so is he. they're young when they meet, and certainly more foolish; he'd let a lot slide.

anyway. back to the point: I think between the group itself, there are different dynamics at play. lor and lia are best friends, but he isn't as close to gallel as he is to her. he is most definitely close to dar'khan, though, I just think it's. a different type of close.

I don't think they were ever deeply romantically involved, though I do think the tension existed, maybe even some initial feelings. idk about dar'khan really, idk how much of what he showed all this time would have been real and what would've been fake (and not knowing even after is one of the things that plagues lor'themar the most. some moments are easy, he can remember and think himself foolish for not seeing through him before. but others... others he'll replay over and over in his head, turn around inside out, analyze every pause and each breath and be unable to say whether it was true or false and it'll torment him long after dar'khan is finally gone for good). but I do think lor'themar cared for him deeply, and that there was a romantic interest as well, but he never acted on it, at least not in the sense of truly being in a relationship. they were good friends and he didn't want to threaten to ruin that (lol), and they were also both seemingly very focused on their jobs to bother with serious relationships back then. doesn't mean they never explored each other's bodies carnally but I'm not saying they did either.

the tldr is: I think they were really close, in a way that was particular to them and not about belonging to a friend group. I think the tension existed and lor'themar at one point did have an interest in him as more than friends. I don't think they were ever in an actual relationship in that sense, not in any way either of them would consider it a relationship. and I think their even closer bond is also part of why lor'themar would never in a million years distrust him. they had been close friends for ages. he thought he knew dar'khan, flaws included, and treachery wasn't one of them. he definitely saw more good in him than dar'khan proved to have, be it out of it being what he wanted to see, dar'khan faking it, the homoerotic tension clouding his vision or all previous options.