#tiffanycommander

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

do you genuinely not have at least one body part that just always hurts. i dont believe you are real

The closest I've come to that is being on my period, which is awful. I've learned to bless that it comes in waves, every fifteen, thirty seconds or so, and it only lasts for one day. I don't know if chronic pain comes in waves like that, but if it doesn't I think going insane is a good option.

But anyway, yeah: Chronic pain is not normal! My body is comfy and pain-free most of the time. I'm sorry you have to live with that 😔. I can't comprehend dealing with chronic pain, it sounds awful. (Hence why I inflicted it on my Commander for about twenty-eight years.)

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

I have something similar, actually! Part of my understanding of the human commoner background is that Tiffany was adopted. In one storyline she gets isekai'd into Tyroa, like Szallejh here, and in one story she was raised that way. She has a bunch more backstory in the no-isekai version lol. But they both get to be commanders! The isekai storyline is AU fic, but for my main Commander it's all canon-compliant (except where she's halfsylvari). There is a BUNCH of stuff added but I don't change much that's already there. So.. yes Canon ps in its entirety. With extra. Couldn't choose between those first two options so that's what I went with lol.

My curiosity exists largely because I was talking about this with my friend the other day but!

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Fashion wars on MY blog? Likelier than you think

I'm finally getting around to playing EoD (which I'll detail in another post), so have Commander Tiffany's new and updated outfit!

Those gloves are the Leystone Vambraces, which have a soft ley-line-magic aura... which matches Aurene. I consider that to be traces of Aurene's magic due to the Champion bond.

See how much she looks like a half-sylvari?? She can't actually grow leaves on herself (sadly), but the Twilight Arbor dungeon armors aren't race-limited so I assume they canonically can be worn by other races. Oh and I believe those shoulderpads are a Soulbeast thing? I forgot to check.

Commander here just likes attuning to her heritage. And confusing people. Don't forget that (not shown in this image) she has lines in her would-be sylvari pattern all across her face (and hands... and any other visible skin, which is none in this case. Old habits die hard.)

Also notice her gloves! (again) Her left hand is more covered... this is because, since every character in-game ever is right-handed, her left hand is what holds the shaft of her longbow in place while her right hand draws the string to shoot. When she lets go, the string can snap back and hurt her off-hand... hence the protection.

However, since I'm a lefty and I generally imagine Tiffany Commander as a lefty (although I like my headcanon that lefthandedness Does Not Exist in Tyria) I can also pretend that means her left hand is more protected so it can be in on the action. Like, you know, punching someone in the face. Even though that's not how she fights. Oh well. A girl can dream.

(Initial concept of EoD outfit below)

Now, this was not originally the outfit I intended for EoD! My above-all-and-preferred outfit would have been this (...perhaps without the cape):

Because those are very Aurene-like headpiece and hands, and a rather vague vibe of Aurene through the whole outfit, what with the crystals, AND this outfit still looks sylvan. (But the Aurene pieces (and cape, I think) take gems and for the rest of the outfit I... haven't done the necessary work.

But! I prefer the new version. For now at least.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Ok so - it always slightly bugs me whenever people write about sylvari getting married? Just because

- they had no contact with other races until Malomedies was captured by asura

- their first human contact was Waine, who by all accounts was still a teenager

- in Caithe's memories from S2 the sylvari are still really isolated and the Secondborn had been awakening for months at that point

It is not inconceivable - in fact it is highly likely - that the sylvari developed their own cultural flavor for things like falling in love and getting married before they really encountered the human way of doing it. I think Caithe and Faolain, being the oldest canonical sylvari couple we know of (until Wynnet died), would have set the tone of the cultural romance of the sylvari.

The tradition of marriage in real-life human culture has its roots in the Jewish/Christian practice of a lifelong pledge of oneness to each other. Sylvari have no tradition or precedent like that, and their love works differently to begin with.

Sylvari don't fall in love with a person so much as a concept or ideal that two sylvari fall in love with together; so they're kind of pursuing this concept or ideal together and bonding over it. This is why, for a sylvari player, Trammander is not just a fan-pairing, it's almost lore canon. But anyway - ideals and concepts change and you change and your partner changes, so a breakup for sylvari is less brokenhearted - like if your partner changes and you don't you're just kind of like - I thought I knew you? and you know them of course but they're just not your type anymore and you have to find someone else with your ideal or concept, or maybe you also change because of the breakup, or something.

But anyway; so I don't think sylvari 'get married' in any traditional human sense where you pledge faithfulness and the law recognizes you as one entity and divorce is long and painful and often traumatizing and interactions with that person later are just kinda awkward at best. I think when a sylvari says 'I love you' to another sylvari and they say 'I love you' back, that's the sylvari equivalent of marriage, and it can and does end peacefully at any time more often than someone gets angsty over it.

I'm not saying sylvari don't form interpersonal ties; I'm not saying if your partner leaves you just have to find another one to be happy, because it's clearly not. See Tiachren and Ysvelta, from sylvari level 10, and when Ysvelta changed, either Tiachren tries to bring her back from Nightmare because this isn't the person he knew (and Nightmare adds a whole other dimension of complexity) and eventually has to kill her because he still loves who she was and Nightmare kinda cheated and stole her mind, or else he joins her in Nightmare because - I think she still had whatever concept or ideal it was that they fell in love with together, and doing it in Nightmare is the negative side of it was better than abandoning that concept or ideal.

I also don't think sylvari use words like 'husband' or 'wife' - the sylvari term is the gender-neutral 'dearheart.' The words 'wife' and 'husband' just feel wrong when we're talking about sylvari because those are human terms.

Now, if there was a romance between a sylvari and a human and the sylvari was like 'sure we can get married your way' - then that would be cool and interesting.

But like - making sylvari just planty humans culturally is lazy when there's so much potential. And I'm aware I didn't do anything special in this post, I'm just being picky about words.

But hey, it's a concrete system for romance that doesn't feel like humans that happened to be born as plants!

For example, I don't ship Trammander. He's always been a friend/brother to me. My Commander specifically sees him as a father figure. Eveanin, my kinda-sorta 'backup Commander' - it's complicated - is head over heels for Trahearne (she's a sylvari player! her Wyld Hunt and Trahearne's are intertwined!) but he only has eyes for the Commander, but the Commander - who is sylvari enough to fall in the love the way sylvari do - sees him as a father figure and Eveanin lowkey resents her for not seeing how amazing Trahearne is and tying up his affections like that without even realizing. Eveanin knows she has no chance with Trahearne and is just kinda pining watching him stare at Commander while she (and actually Ridhais too!) are just left on the side. And so it's this massive love-square-thing and Commander just doesn't get it and it's tragic because then the Mordremoth Disaster happens and all three of them are devastated.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

I envy y'all putting your characters in costumes and keeping your characters so perfectly up-to-date and relevant to present day that you can write miniscule social interactions given each character's state of mind that day.

Me? I'm sitting at roughly post-HoT, pre-S3. (OFC I know what's been up since then, and a general sense of what she's been through and how she feels about most major story beats, but - ) I don't even know what my Commander thinks of Caithe. I don't know if she's ever thought about how much she relied on Taimi in S3. How well did she know Blish? How much hope did she put in Aurene? What IS her present understanding of the dragons? Does she or does she not want to lie down and rest already? Does she want to hug Braham and cry in relief that he's alright, or is she mad at him for endangering himself, lots of innocents, and perhaps even their chance at victory? How has she been affected by Jormag? What subtle things are going on in her mind? What was her real opinion of the temporary truce?

But it's not just recent stuff! How did she feel about Braham in S3? Did she explore the nuances of her resentment of Logan? How did she react to finding out she was going up against one of the Six? What about the secrets of the Shining Blade? What about dying - how does she feel about that, aftermath aside? How does she feel about fighting Elder Dragons anymore given Taimi's discoveries? Is she annoyed or worried by Joko's rant? Confident or concerned about Aurene eating him? What about the free Awakened? Does she feel uncomfortable around them simply because they're undead, or does she pity them, or does she desperately wish Joko could have helpfully Awakened some of her dead companions before he died, or did she have that thought and find it revolting? How does she feel about Kralkatorrik after that strange talk by his heart? How does she feel about Aurene's feelings about Kralkatorrik?

I wish I could stay caught up, but I'm just getting further behind. I don't know how y'all do it.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

This post and the tags/comments to it are REALLY interesting to me, for two reasons: I slowly "grew out of" saying Mommy and Daddy as I became a teenager and started calling them "Mom" and "Dad." not even sure why except that it felt like something childish. It felt like a struggle to do so as well because I had so many younger siblings still saying it. I'm not sure why I wanted to, I think I wanted to feel "more grown-up." (I do still sometimes call them Mommy and Daddy if I'm calling for them across the house and need more syllables to yell with.)

The second reason is that in my Commander's backstory, which I've written parts of, I deliberately left her saying "Daddy" to indicate she'd never had that growing-up stage in her relationship with her father because, although they loved each other and kept in contact, they were never able to see each other (up until he died 🙃). It's something that she doesn't really grow out of until she meets Trahearne. It's supposed to be childish and innocent. And perhaps, seeing such an otherwise tough, cold, emotionless warrior refer to a parent as "Daddy," with a note of vulnerability in her voice, is a sign of trauma and pain.

this is like 100% petty all things considered but i just can’t wait until some of u learn that it is absolutely normal for people of any age to refer to their dads as “daddy” in many parts of the south like it isn’t a red flag there. 60 year old women in my family still refer to their dads as “daddy.” and btw i think anyone should be allowed to call their own fathers whatever they want without someone either making it nasty or being accusatory like don’t you get tired of making ppl uncomfortable for no reason

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

More Eveanin

From @kerra-and-company:

Oh? You want more? I'LL GIVE YOU MORE!

- guardian magic, 10/10 about protecting people

- sylvari sapling, 10/10 about respecting the Firstborn

- Trahearne or - "YES"

- Dusk bloom

- Wyld Hunt Valiant, this impossible Wyld Hunt shall be completed IDC what you say (Caithe and Trahearne: -shakes head- 'oh the poor little sapling' but Eveanin ignores them)

- Pale Tree's golden child in sylvari PS

- Vigil girl! 15/10 some must fight so that all may be free

- NOT the Commander, and irritated about it (sylvari sapling is too young for this job)

and, last but not least:

- love square where Trahearne is in love with the Commander; Eveanin, the Commander's direct subordinate, is in love with Trahearne; and Ridhais, Trahearne's bodyguard, is also in love with Trahearne. Oh, and the Commander is completely oblivious.

-----

Total: 9

Verdict: the personification of my loyalty to Trahearne, my star-crossed heart will remember you always, you were the light of my life and I will protect you until I die, if the dragons were stars you would outshine them all

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Notebook asks: Tiffany on Taimi?

Thanks for the ask!!

Tiffany on Taimi, set in S3:

~oOoOo~

Taimi showed up to help fight Balthazar. And Primordus. She

--

--

She prepared for this. Scruffy 2.0 was heat-shielded and everything. She said it was her fault Balthazar was a problem in the first place.

Balthazar isn't her fault. The machine isn't her fault. How can she blame herself for something like that when

--

I've made -

--

I -

--

But she was there.

--

Nobody else was there.

I was up against a god and an Elder Dragon and nobody else was there.

Not even

Taimi shouldn't have been there either it was dangerous she's too young she isn't

She can't even fi

Scruffy wasn't battle-ready. He wasn't ready. If he'd broken or the heat shielding wasn't enough or if Balthazar targeted her or Primordus -

--

She almost

But if she hadn't been there I wouldn't have been able to stop the machine or Balthazar. Well maybe

maybe I could have but

--

--

I don't think I woul could have. I don't think I could - I don't think

--

--

Nobody else was there. Nobody else is here.

If she wasn't there -

--

--

It's dangerous around me. I have to go. I hear Balthazar's in Elona. Taimi will want to stay in Rata Novus.

--

And nobody else will come.

Nobody else

--

Taimi will stay. I don't have to worry about her.

Well - maybe I do. She gets into a lot of trouble.

But not real trouble.

She'll be safe.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

My Commander with her baby skyscale, sometime after Kralkatorrik's defeat. She's tired from a long day hunting treats for the skyscale, and resting against her lifelong companion, Beorn. In the corner, Gorrik is absorbed in his datapad. The skyscale chitters away happily, but Commander is just resting. At peace. For now, there is a lull in the storm; she is not fighting and killing, and instead she can take care of a baby skyscale. Healing and growing. Life things, not death things. Peace, happiness. Quiet.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

YES!! THIS!!

My Commander's playlist starts with her parents meeting and starting their family, and then goes on up until the present. (Well, mostly through the end of IBS at least.) It's a STORY. I'm not sure I do such a good job with the vibe and the flowing, but it works for me XD

But one thing I really like is that I have the same symbols repeated over throughout different artists and songs (such as stars, in my Commander's case, and in another playlist there's the repeated motif of a voice in my head that consistently represents self-doubt) and it REALLY makes the whole playlist come together and feel like a coherent whole.

none of you understand what character playlists are supposed to be anymore. this is not a “what the character would listen to” situation this is not a random song order whatever feels right type of thing YOU DONT GET IT. you are supposed to tell a story . you are supposed to cultivate a vibe . each song needs to flow into the next so well you wonder how theyre not same artist. you need a list of songs in custom order with lyrics that make you think of your blorbo and then you throw up. do you get it? do you understand ?? SHAKES YOU . 

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

I'm also kinda curious about how you characterize Ridhais in your stories since iirc she plays a bigger role? You don't need to answer this if you don't want though, just curious 😃

Ooh, Ridhais! Thanks for the ask!

I haven't quite gotten to Ridhais yet, I just know she does play a bigger role - in my current main fic which is about to go into the Orrian campaign, I'm going to include Ridhais because canonically she was there. Since I'm going to get into sylvari lore/headcanonry that also centers around Caladbolg, which will be a significant part of the story, yeah I'll be drawing on her expertise some, although I'm not currently sure how else she'll contribute to the story.

However, in the story of my Commander - I've spoken about Eveanin before and mentioned that she and Ridhais both have crushes on Trahearne (who is blind to that and has eyes only for the Commander). So that's a thing, and I don't think that'll exactly change when I get there with my main fic? It'll definitely be offscreen though because I have no idea how to write romance or anything.

But the major way I'm planning on characterizing her is probably going to be a mix of the two things we know about her: she's ridiculously young (younger than the sylvari Commander, imagine that) and has a Wyld Hunt relevant to Caladbolg.

Ridhais post-HoT gave me distinct 'tired veteran' vibes, like - she's only three years old at that point, she didn't even have early-PS buildup like the Commander had - she's still young and you can tell, but she's learned a lot and she's older.

One thing that's always puzzled me about Ridhais is how she knew all the stuff about Caladbolg that she knew; did she learn it in her Dream? I feel like it's not common knowledge, but it's definitely portrayed a lot like 'her Wyld Hunt magically granted her this knowledge' - almost as if they were trying to give her a similar role to Trahearne, but forgetting that Trahearne paid in decades for the knowledge he has and that Wyld Hunt does not equate to knowledge just by itself.

I mean, Trahearne's not the sort to say 'you are too young, go home and get some experience' because a) he didn't say that to the Commander, probably because b) it's her Wyld Hunt and Trahearne of all people would not deny someone the ability to get close to their Wyld Hunt.

I really hate how they added Ridhais in to the PS by word-alone retcon (they didn't actually go back and even just add her model in the background of the instances) and so they didn't even think about what would have been impacted by that. For example, the cleansing of Orr. If I were Ridhais I would have wanted to be there - quite apart from hero-worshipping Trahearne and being his literal bodyguard, this is a significant milestone for Caladbolg and she should've been there? But canonically she hardcore was not there and Trahearne even says that he and the Commander are alone!

Now, for my Commander's timeline, she and Ridhais have a stiff rivalry with regards to protecting Trahearne, so all the times Commander was there and Ridhais was not can be waved away with "Commander won the argument that time," and Ridhais won all the off-screen arguments where Trahearne was leading armies and doing map metas (which he absolutely did, you cannot change my mind) while the Commander was doing missions Trahearne didn't accompany them on.

But that only works for my Commander, so what about everyone else? I need to understand Trahearne's view of Ridhais during the PS so that I know how he would approach her as a character, because I work with systems; Trahearne has this system of thought regarding Ridhais that he had in canon (or that I made up for headcanon) and that system of thought then interacts with his systems of thought for my other characters and with the interactions of other characters, and that creates dynamic stories. All my characters have systems like this that then must interact with the unpredictability of life and other people.

Now, in greater scale than that, my Commander isn't in the main fic - I have a multi-Commander story and none of them are my actual Commander - and events are going to play out wildly differently from canon, so at that point I can pretty much make a case for Ridhais being anywhere at any time, regardless of where she was in canon.

But it's just really frustrating when a million tiny details about the PS and about my understanding of Trahearne's overall mindset (taking into account people he knows, places he's been to, information he has, and his opinions on those) change without, apparently, Anet putting in any thought whatsoever to what would change.

I've said it before and I'll say it now: there is a lot of information that maybe couldn't make it into the game for one reason or another, but they should have put it in a blog post or a Guild Chat or a livestream of any sort, especially something as major as adding in a whole new character to a pre-existing storyline.

Anyway... this devolved into me being frustrated at the lack of information, which is par for the course while I'm inventing new headcanons lol.

Wasn't quite what you asked, but that's all my thoughts on Ridhais haha. It's not much, but then, I haven't actually written the thing yet. It'll get better then lol.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Timeline reference

I have four different timelines (so far). And I sort of mix-and-match my characters for it. (Eveanin is a prime example.)

Timelines:

One is my Commander's timeline. This is Eveanin's native timeline (and Pharlt's.) I tend to take most of the minor characters from Timeline Four and work them into this one somehow. Vriré is a prime example: I can think of one time where she ran into my Commander, and that's all.

Two is the same as my Commander's timeline, except she's never the Commander - Pharlt is the Commander. She was besties with Pharlt and Eveanin before they went off to Orr, though, and she did still meet Trahearne at Claw Island. (She just didn't like him!)

The third is the timeline that came when Dad decided to have three characters instead of one, and I decided to give each of his three one of my alts to be a friend, so there's six of them. This may or may not be the same as Timeline Two, since Pharlt and Eveanin are two of the six. But also perhaps not, since there will be six commanders-to-be already at Claw Island and I don't want to overload our poor introverted Trahearne.

The fourth timeline is the story I've been hinting about for ages but haven't posted yet. (This is Vriré's native timeline!) It is pretty solidly AU by this point. Eveanin is in this one, too, except she's basically a stock background Vigil NPC. This timeline is the reason I like talking about Vriré so much, and also why she's so incredibly boring, because this is the timeline where she gets all her development but I don't want to give you spoilers as;ldkjf. This is, FYI, the timeline that eats up all my time and the reason why all my characters are stuck in the PS. I'll post it someday I promise a;sdlkfjasdf

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

For the latest ask game, may I ask for what would be Tiffany's opinion on Warmaster Nohsi, and Vriré's opinion on Lightbringer Viilhelm? (I decided to ask for Order specific time period thinking it'd be most plausible. Thank you for your time!) ~ @thoseofuswhoblossom

Oo, Lightbringers and Warmasters! Thanks for the ask (and the timeperiod XD)!

Warmaster Tiffany on Nohsi (I couldn't find much about him, but here goes! Different timelines because Forgal XD)

At this point in time, Tiffany would have greatly envied Nohsi for a reason that Nohsi would find shocking: she wishes with her whole heart that she did not have a Wyld Hunt. She doesn't have to ask why Nohsi joined the Vigil, however: that's what she did, after all, when she realized she couldn't complete her Hunt. The Vigil is a good place to be - it gives you purpose and a reason to fight. She would respect Nohsi for this reason and feel a sort of kinship with him that goes slightly beyond the fact that they are both Vigil; they both joined the Vigil in search of something more - not led by a Wyld Hunt, but rather driven by the search for meaning - and the fact that Nohsi found it in the Vigil (and not, say, the Priory or or the Order of Whispers) says something about him that Tiffany can appreciate.

(I'm not sure when Nohsi and Forgal got together, but Tiffany would be at first shocked - she's never pictured Forgal as the type to get married or have kids - and then mightily intrigued. She's happy for Forgal, of course, but she feels a sort of detachment because of the timeline difference and a strong curiosity: her parents were a sylvari and a human, so she's interested to see what comes of this sylvari/norn union.)

Lightbringer Vriré on Viilhelm (I scrolled through your tag on Viil because I don't know him super well, but here!)

Vriré tends to keep to herself and she is not a social butterfly by any means of the word, but she heard Doern had a student. She professionally never commented on the rumors about them, and personally she thinks that rumors is all they are, just bored agents with overactive imaginations.

Viil is "one of those Order agents" - the ones who make a lot of loud noise and draw attention to themselves, so that the quieter agents (like Vriré) can sneak around without being noticed. She respects his job, and she assumes he's doing important things under Doern, but she doesn't envy it.

Viil has given Vriré some thoughts on corruption: specifically, the Order's corruption-sensing mechanism at the Chantry's entrance was turned off in the early 1300s due to a myriad of false alarms, and given that Viil has a mist-corruption-spike thing in his back, Vriré wonders if someone else might have a little hidden corruption as well that accidentally triggered the Chantry's alarm, and this worries her - Viil seems to be lucky in that the corruption isn't spreading, but Vriré believes this is an exception (a very, very, very lucky exception, possibly due to the Mists thing) and not the rule, and if there are any other partially-corrupted agents, that should be a thing the Order is aware of.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

I call it "Ascended Reborn."

At the end of HoT, Trahearne's soul got trapped inside Caladbolg, and when the Commander and Ridhais try to reforge/heal it, they encounter the REAL him (not just a vision).

He's been trapped in there for a year by that point, his mind fragmented and mostly broken, unable to heal from the traumas Mordremoth inflicted on him, since he's sort of One With Caladbolg now and Caladbolg is in six pieces. (There's a fragment of Mordremoth in the pieces, too, but neither he nor Trahearne can do anything to each other, and they're only vaguely aware of each others' presence.)

Once my Commander bonds with Caladbolg and defeats the vision of Riannoc (which is still a vision), her healthy mind starts exerting a force on the minds of Trahearne and Mordremoth.

The vision of Trahearne is also still a vision - a representation of Caladbolg somehow (which eventually winds up healed in two separate halves). But instead of the second half being a duel, the fragment of Mordremoth shows up. The Commander, who in this iteration is not sylvari and never heard Mordremoth's voice during HoT, hears it now and struggles resisting it, but vision-Trahearne helps her through it and they defeat the Mordremoth (finally!).

Meanwhile, the Commander is making friends with Ridhais, grieving for Trahearne, and learning various lessons (Riannoc taught her stubbornness, vision-Trahearne and Mordremoth taught her mental fortitude, etc). Most significantly, she's battling intense guilt about having killed Trahearne/having not gotten there fast enough/stopping for Rata Novus/survivor's guilt/etc.

The first half of the third vision is about this; the Commander confronts an echo of herself (Remnant of a Hero) who presses this line of thought even further and tries to get her to give up entirely (which Commander refuses to do in the process of defeating the remnant).

Since the Commander is now bonded to Caladbolg, her feelings are sort of...imprinting into it and affecting Trahearne, essentially trying to mind-control him into believing the same. Trahearne, whether or not he agrees with her (which, in his currently extremely disabled and half-insane state, he has no capacity for figuring out), is sensing a foreign mind trying to mess with him, not even having the capacity to understand what it is that it's trying to force on him and who is doing the forcing. So he reacts predictably and lashes out strongly.

This manifests in the second half of the third vision, when the Commander has to fight Trahearne (while not realizing it's real-Trahearne), at the same time as Trahearne does mental shenanigans to make her stop being guilty. (The Commander doesn't realize this, she thinks its all her own thoughts.) Eventually, she realizes that he's essentially telling her shut up about killing me, it's not your fault and, since it bothers him so much, she lets him change that part of her mind.

With all the rifts out of the way, Caladbolg knocks the Commander unconscious and sets down to heal itself (and Trahearne's mind) the rest of the way.

This takes a few days (during which Ridhais, outside the vision, is getting more and more worried), but finally the healing is done, Commander wakes up (still inside the vision) and talks to Trahearne. Trahearne feels immensely guilty at himself for messing with the Commander's mind, since he (understandably) believes in the sanctity and privacy and autonomy of people's individual minds and he just messed with the mind of his closest friend and confidante, and the Commander had to convince him that it's alright.

And then they figured out how to make Trahearne 'alive' again (beyond just being inside Caladbolg) and it turns out that they take turns piloting the Commander's body (which morphs to reflect the mind inside it) and living inside Caladbolg.

I didn't get much further, and it's based on an extremely old version of my Commander (back before I even decided on her parentage and that she's part-sylvari). I was going to turn it (eventually) into my one-and-only Trammander fic, which would be difficult because they can only speak to each other while they're both in the mindscape (which the one piloting the body can do at will, with a vision crystal at least), and so on.

But I didn't get around to writing any of that, I need to rewrite it up to present-day standards of my writing, and I need to decide whether to update the Commander to Half-Sylvari Edition, and so on and so forth. But I haven't touched it in forever, so... I don't know.

(The name Ascended Reborn comes from the fact that it was inspired by League of Legends lore.)

(For the record, let me know if you want me to change that "I don't know" to an "I'm working on it." I've been in writer's block recently, and this might just crack it, so...)

Dear people with a “Trahearne survives/revived AU”

TELL ME YOUR STORY OF HIS SURVIVAL / REVIVAL

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Headcanon Time: Ranger Pets feat. Tiffany Commander

Now that new ranger spec is out, I want to talk about my ranger main, Tiffany Commander!

Growing up she never really had much magic of her own, but her companion, a brown bear named Beorn, does, and I headcanon that the shout skill "We Heal As One!" can be fueled by the magic of either the ranger or the animal companion.

I also believe that ranger/animal bonds are magical; it's a two-way mental/spiritual bond. It does have a boundary, though; if you get too far away, you can't sense your companion anymore, but the connection re-activates once you get in range. Through the bond there is limited mental communication (the three ranger hotkeys, for example; attack, return, defend, etc.) and you can get a sense of the other's physical state; are they injured, etc. If your companion has been killed, though, you'll only know because of the signals through the bond that they were injured and then dying and then dead. After that, though, you only get a jumbled, confused signal - no matter how out of range you are. Your connection's been broken, but you're not attuned to anything else. Maybe you'll get glimpses of other ranger signals, but not enough to know really who it is - so if you didn't know your companion was dead you might not know it until you found their body.

Anyway, this hasn't happened to Commander yet, but if it did, she'd be without any magical source of healing. She'd have to carry engi elixirs or something.

For a long time, Tiffany only wielded a greatsword, but she didn't really use the ranger's greatsword skills; in fact, if she were an NPC, the only way you'd be able to tell she was a ranger would be Beorn, because she just uses basic, generic NPC-with-a-sword skills. After her sister, Deborah, died (for realz; not the lost-sister storyline dead, but after that) Tiffany Solestrider began wielding her sister's sword.

When she met Trahearne and changed her last name to Commander, though, she started wielding a longbow, and it quickly became her favored weapon.

After Zhaitan's defeat, Trahearne gave her a Pact longbow and told her it was a symbol of their partnership; Commander wielded it loyally all through Maguuma.

There she encountered druid magic, but Commander couldn't wield it because she had almost no magic of her own. Something within her was responsive to the druid magic, but it wasn't anything she could use or channel.

After the Mordremoth Disaster, Commander couldn't stand the sight of the bow Trahearne had given her and she left it in Fort Trinity. She returned to wielding Deborah's sword until Ridhais approached her about healing Caladbolg.

As a weapon, Caladbolg was more than simply a greatsword; with it came the ranger's more magical greatsword skills; Tiffany Commander, with an affinity for sylvari magic, was capable of limitedly harnessing some of Caladbolg's magic in a fight. Since the bond with Caladbolg was also linked to the Commander's mind/spirit, it was also bonded to Beorn. Same for the bond with Aurene. This triple-bond is what allowed them, after the proper training, to assume Beastmode and merge with each other, despite the Commander's lack of native magic.

But the triple bond was useful for more than just becoming a practicing Soulbeast; Balthazar also didn't just kill the Commander; he also killed Beorn, because why wouldn't he? But it was the companion bond, plus the Caladbolg bond, plus the bond with Aurene that allowed the Commander to bring Beorn back, too. (I've believe that, after the Commander killed the Eater of Souls, she held more than enough magic to revive just herself.)

The bond with Beorn - and the practice Commander had had differentiating herself from Beorn all her life - is also part of what helped her resist Mordremoth. She was more easily able to differentiate between Mordremoth and herself, and of course, later on, the same was true of Jormag. And also, Aurene: we know Aurene can project herself at the Commander and also show the Commander what she's seeing, and probably a few other things besides.

After Balthazar was defeated and Taimi was on her way up to Elona, the Commander told Taimi to please and thank you stop by Fort Trinity and pick up her old bow.

Commander now has her two full weapon sets, greatsword/longbow, and there's no room for more. If she switches to Untamed when the expac drops, that doesn't mean she'll use a hammer (though she might try it out to see what it's like). More than likely, if she switches, it'll mean more lore-thoughts about how she wields Untamed magic. Possibly even a retcon of her Soulbeast status, but I kinda doubt it.

But I like making magic headcanons, so that'll be fun! And please can it have more ranger/pet lore. (But also, I've built up a pretty solid and extensive headcanon - more than what you see here, per the meme - about rangers and I don't want to have to rethink half of that for no reason XD.) I really want more info on Untamed, because it sounds genuinely interesting. We have a healing/support spec and a DPS spec, I'm interested to find out more about this new one.

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

Tiffany Commander's hatchling

All the Commanders who spend time loving on baby Aurene in this utterly wholesome, beautiful way...

And my grouchy traumatized lonely girl just... being busy. Barely ever there, and when she is, worry is rolling off of her in waves.

Aurene got a heavy-handed glimpse of Tiffany Commander's emotional profile right after she hatched; Commander was in panic mode with the Destroyers and then Lazarus showing up, panic and concern and worry based on protecting the egg. Aurene couldn't really tell the nuances that Commander was more worried about the egg getting into Primordus' or Lazarus' hands than about protecting Aurene as a person.

But then Marjory wanted to go with Lazarus and Aurene got a full look at Commander's I'm concerned about you and I don't want you to be hurt and THEN she got a faceful of worry, a sort of hurt betrayal-like feeling when Marjory left, and then a whole maelstrom of feels at Caithe that I haven't quite worked out the details of yet.

That's a lot to stew on for one hatchling, but this is also the dragonet that showed Commander a vision of what Mordremoth was up to with Logan, Zojja and Trahearne back in HoT, so she seems pretty smart.

Aurene kept projecting herself at Tiffany Commander for a while, and then later they had their training instance, and Commander kept having feelings during that too, and so Aurene got a more balanced picture of Who Her Champion Was - a desperate sort of lonely individual who didn't have friends, more like allies, except for Taimi who called at the end.

And there was Caithe. I like to think Caithe would tell stories of Commander's exploits and, maybe when she heard about them, what she was up to, and why Commander was too busy to be there.

And so Aurene grew to love Tiffany Commander fiercely, and then when she went away to Elona and could only talk through the communicator - we have a few moments where we know Taimi is with Aurene, seemingly in her lab, so I bet Aurene bullied Caithe into taking her to Commander's only friend.

Vlast died and Aurene was - well. I think she could sense him, too. And so now she knows what death and loss is like.

When Commander was dying in PoF, Aurene couldn't lose her Champion.

Commander had never been close to Aurene - in fact, until now I don't think Commander ever really saw Aurene as more than a dragon who happened to be small and cute. She didn't have the time or the emotional capacity to invest in raising a child. But Aurene loved her sad lonely Champion with her whole big heart, because this was a person who fought for her in far-off lands, who defended her from Destroyers, who came back from the dead to chase after the God of War and rescue her.

It's rather sad, because Aurene was really a footnote, a side concern, a thing that had to have an eye kept on it, during all these things. Commander came back from the dead for unrelated reasons, and was fighting Balthazar for unrelated reasons, but that was the start of the blossoming of their relationship which occurred in S4.

Aurene is a beautiful crystal flower, and Commander could have benefitted greatly from taking some time out of her busy life to spend quietly with her hatchling, had some downtime, some de-stressing, but she didn't. But Aurene still loved her.