#that aren't mutually exclusive anyway

[aquariusxiv]

Guild Wars 1 Blorbos: Prophecies Characters

Laurel Starling, Ranger Nadya Ravenwood, Mesmer

I settled on three characters in Prophecies (rather than my impulse of 4 to match the initial 4 character slots in base GW1) to easily make an 8-person party with the 5 iconic characters.

Laurel was undergoing military training at the same time as Erik, becoming fast friends. Nadya circa 1070 was helping organize royalist efforts at rebellion at the behest of her mother, Countess Ravenwood. (The 'Countess Nadya' that is a target of one of the LDoA levelling quests.)

Of course after the Searing the division between royalists and loyalists ceased to matter.

[[Plot of Guild Wars Prophecies goes here]]

After defeating the unleashed minions of the Flameseeker, Nadya remained behind in Ascalon to assist with the war. Erik could not forgive Adelbern and refused to return, and Laurel already felt most at home with the Shining Blade and the fight to free Kryta. Despite growing close over the years and the devastation, and both holding their Shining Blade allies in esteem, Erik was not keen to return to the life of a guerilla war. They embarked on one final mission together, to destroy the Stone Summit stronghold of Sorrow's Furnace - then Erik would answer the call to travel south to Cantha. Laurel remained in Kryta, helping Evennia and Bartholos fill the vacant leadership roles after the betrayal at Denravi. After nearly six years of fighting on her own, she's away from Lion's Arch at the time of the Emergence of the Destroyers - her experience with the Bloodstones led to her overseeing Livia's magical research with the asura, unexpectedly leading to a reunion with Erik as he follows the asura Vekk while organizing an offensive against the Destroyers.

Nadya's time in Ascalon was altogether short. Her past history against the King, as well as abandoning the kingdom once before, left her with a lot of loyalty to prove. Together with a treasured scout, she was assigned to the command of Captain Langmar, the same officer who so long ago had placed an official bounty on her family. She would accompany Langmar's Ebon Vanguard on their northern expedition. Her lengthy experience with the Shiverpeaks proved vital in setting up a mountain camp just outside of Charr territory, and she was present on the day that a young girl escaped the Charr work camp and found their camp seeking refuge.

[[Plot of Guild Wars: Eye of the North goes here]]

Reunited with their old friend Erik, and introduced to his companions met on his travels through Cantha and Elona, the group remained together for a time. When the Krytan civil war reached a boiling point, they were instrumental in getting Ebon Vanguard backup deployed into Kryta. They also travelled to Cantha, accompanying Master Togo's former pupil to deal with the remnants of Shiro's plague and contend with the Ministry of Purity. Afterwards, they went their separate ways once again - all having duty calling them home.

Erik and Laurel remained in Kryta - what had cooled over his absence had reignited after their reunion, and the two married. Like Erik, Laurel turned down a noble title, but unlike the jaded warrior she remained involved with the Shining Blade and newly-formed Seraph. Missions would take her away from home at length, leaving Erik to raise their son Rurik and see to their house until his illness set in.

Though Erik did not give his formal blessing until Rurik was old enough, he knew Laurel had been training their son with the intent that he follow her into the Shining Blade. He remained proud of the work they did, and they took to heart his caution to keep their eyes open for the truth as they fight.

In Nadya's case, she was the first of their number to have tragedy befall her. Though the Ebon Vanguard was stationed in the distant Ebonhawke fortress, she had joined the main forces at Ascalon City to hold back the Charr by the time of the Foefire, her soul now forever trapped by the man she'd once decried as a false king, long ago.

Despite the tragic fates of most of the other characters, Laurel I can't see dying of anything but old age. Like Erik she's named after a random ghost in GW2 Ascalon who has a line from the GW1 PC, in this case 'Laurie' which I lengthened a bit (Laurie is probably an affectionate nickname for her close friends). Elizabeth uses a longbow as part of carrying on Laurel's legacy.

Nadya is probably the only character I'm playing as part of a plot with someone else, but I kinda see that version of the character as slightly different (broad strokes are the same, but it's a version of the story with her as a main character instead of Erik, rather than sitting out of Factions and Nightfall). While in between the two games most of the human settlements outside of Kryta end up sucking for anyone there (and me wanting to inflict torments on my blorbos) Ascalon sure does suck the soonest. Her names are taken from Countess Nadya (her mom is probably egotistical and named her after herself) and 'Captain Ravenwood', a ghost who guards the jumping puzzle in Plains of Ashford - not a mesmer, but a close enough fate in spirit.

[polinated]

inside me there are two wolves: one who will agree with you when you critique s3, especially part 2. and one who will cry when you critique s3, especially part 2

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

"Nine is homophobic" this and "Classic is homophobic" that

WRONG

They're literally both gay

[tabellae-rex-in-sui]

I'm new to Sade so sorry if this is a stupid question, but was Sade gay? I'm currently reading Justine and noticed the passionate, semi-romantic descriptions of m/m sex, which contrast with the crude descriptions of f/m sex. I've not read all of Sade's books, but the ones I have read also feature characters who're mostly disinterested in women, who give off self-insert vibes (e.g. Dolmancé). Am I reading too much into it? IDK but I was wondering if you could shed some light.

Happy deathday to Sade!! lol

Really all that can be said with certainty is that he definitely wasn't straight lol. Like anyone who died before modern queer theory, Sade's sexuality can be difficult to label with today's terminology. He was certainly attracted to both men and women, so for simplicity's sake I just say he was bisexual. But really, who knows...

Characters that he uses as self-inserts like Dolmancé in PitB or Bressac in Justine are pretty exclusively attracted to men. Like you said, there's multiple times in his writing where characters will praise m/m sex and show blatant disgust towards sex with women. But if you look at Sade's life, there's only one known* male sex partner and many women. There's also several women Sade was in love with throughout his life, but there exists no letters of him professing love to any man. Could this be because male victims were less likely to go to the police, therefore less known to us? because women were easier to pursue in public? because even he felt the pressure of societal norms? because he kept relations with men better hidden? because any such letters or records were selectively destroyed by a relative? Who knows! It could be some, all, or none of these things. It's really up to the interpretation of the reader. The misogyny, philosophical extremism, and very culturally different ideas about sex add so many different variables to Sade's sexuality.

To add further confusion: gender and sexuality were much more correlated in Sade's writing (and seemingly in the time period in general, I mean look at the bisexual Lord Hervey being referred to as "the third sex"), male characters who get sodimized call it them "becoming women", women who put on strap-ons "become men", even women who get sodimized are masculinized: Saint-Ange says she wants to be a "Ganymede" to Dolmancé. So sodomy seemed inherently gay to Sade, regardless of the sexes involved or what roles they played. Whereas today, that's definitely not the case. Beauvoir follows along with the sexuality-gender correlation and suggests that Sade felt more feminine than masculine and his written contempt for female genitalia was a product of his own gender frustrations. From what I've read, most modern historians tend to avoid labeling Sade with anything other than "sodomite" and "libertine" only using "bisexual" and "homosexual" to label certain actions he performed like "homosexual sex" "bisexual orgy" etc. This is when the word queer is godsent.

Tldr; He's too 18th century libertine for modern labels. Colloquially, I default to calling him bi, but we'll never really know. Maybe he would have preferred gay due to his preferences/philosophies. Who knows. Safest bet is to just call him queer.

*Should go without saying but, there were obviously more. Latour is just the only named one with recorded proof.

[silver-grasp]

I need to never look at youtube comments on.... well anything really because while most of them are inane but harmless there's always a few that make me want to throw people through windows. But anyway that's besides the point because I am laughing hysterically at someone in the comments of the ep where Second Prince and Ye Ling'er talk on the roof going "I wonder if the second prince is playing her?" and I'm like you. wonder. WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK HE'S DOING????

[rillette]

What do you think happened to Charlie during Emerald Twilight? Did he know what was going on or did his ring just suddenly not work while he's on some strange planet and now no way to get off, for like. Years.

oh theres actually an issue of quarterly (#3) that tells us what happened when the battery was destroyed the first time!! he was on a planet (Hwagaagaa) trying to stop an invading military force from taking over and he ignored the call to assemble bc he was busy, and then his ring cut out and he was stranded in the middle of a warzone with literally nothing, so he ran for his life and hid until some farmers found him and then bc gerard jones is gerard jones, charlie somehow teaches the farmers to become a fearsome military through the power of acting even though charlie is, lovingly, a bitch and a pussy. anyways these panels are interesting to me bc if you squint and ignore the author you can pretend that the subtext here is that charlie became an actor because he's running from himself and he wants to be someone better than he actually is but he chooses the escapism route instead of self-improvement which adds a layer to his alcoholism and dead brother guilt backstory

and this is where his bandanna comes from! its more of a cape but im ignoring that godbless

anyways they eventually repel the invaders through a war of attrition (the invaders go this sucks idc anymore and leave), and charlie roams around the planet teaching people about the wonders of Shakespeare. and then somehow he joins the darkstars so i guess he either got off planet somehow or john swung by and rescued him. and then he dies 👍

[hazmatazz]

You're not trans you're a loser with no personality

sorry followers I promise I'm only answering one of these but can we sit and laugh at how fucking stupid this is. like these anons typically only work on a person's following and not the actual person answering but this anon is targeting specifically me (someone who doesn't care)

[xellandria]

Okay, hear me out: an All Systems Red (+AC/RP/ES if needed to supplement) AMV in the style of the late 90s-early 2000s, set to 3 Doors Down's "Kryptonite."

It'd be so literal and cringe but I can't stop laughing every time I think about it. I've even got, like, 80% of it mapped out in my head already.

Sadly given the whole text-based format of the books it's not particularly feasible for a shitpost right now (I always drop my animation projects like three days into them, and also that'd be getting too close to personal/sincere and my teenage self does not need to re-emerge twenty years later). But oh my god, can you imagine?

[sparrownnax]

LMAOOOOO i think the jewelry store in the mall was Not Happy about my response to their application process

[every-naomi-misora]

[snekdood]

me, on the one hand: its weird to gatekeep people identifying with characters just bc they don't share their same race

also me, upon watching a video of someone wanting the saiyans to be in ssj form 24/7: you just want them to be blonde with blue eyes all the time bc you're mad that otherwise you can't project on to them since they're likely asian 🙄

[five-star-stay]

Boy have I got news for you

[adrianastrix]

I refuse to believe it was drawn in anger. It was someone who secretly loved werewolves and wanted him to feel better, but had to disguise it as a diss to not be persecuted.

That's my headcanon now, screw reality. What are they gonna do, time travel to the future to sue me? *looks around nervously, then breaths a sign of relief* Well, I though so!

Thinking about the werewolf from the hate mail Lemgo council pharmacist David Welman (1595 - 1669) got after being accused of being a werewolf

[tidesreach]

actually so tired of this frankly very ableist idea that you should remain single until you are 100% healed from all of your trauma because it implies that a) healing from trauma is a linear journey and b) you are somehow less deserving of a romantic relationship if you aren't 100% healed like i need some of you to stop treating mental health conditions as some sort of GOTCHA in a ridiculous fandom ship war it's extremely fucking harmful actually traumatised people are not unworthy and should not have to close themselves off from romantic love like i'm not sure who needs to hear this but you can both heal and be in a relationship the two are not mutually exclusive you can love and be loved while you heal sometimes it can even be conducive to the healing to know someone has your back to know that they love you anyway

[spacebugarts]

That depends: does National Geographic count as an encyclopedia?

I have always listened to songs on loop…

Life in an Autism World

[1ncult]

thinking about that devnote that says something like "emphasis on you. YOU with the exclusion of all others" when gortash is trying to get durge to work with him again.

the chosen of bane, bane as in the god of TYRANNY, genuinely wanting to share his kingdom with durge and ONLY durge.

this person comes along, another devout follower of their evil and demanding god, just like you. you've been dealt a bad hand and no one, not even your own parents, ever truly understood you or even tried. but this person, this vile, disgusting creature, formed from the very flesh of the murder god, seems to understand you, and you them. you've come to mutually respect and admire each other, so much so that they feel the need to beg their god for forgiveness. because you have distracted them from their path. and they have distracted you. everyone in this world will either die or be dominated, they aren't real or important. but bhaal's child? they could be--no--they ARE your equal. because perhaps you see yourself in them, and they see themself in you. whatever it may be, you know you want them to live. you know that they can become something more than what bhaal has planned for them. and in this thought, you've betrayed your own god. you no longer want this for your god--you want this for you, and for them, even if it means being punished for eternity in the afterlife.

anyways blah blah blah something about religious trauma and loving someone more than your own purpose. i do enjoy ambiguous queer relationships that end tragically but we should have gotten the evil durgetash ending we deserved.