#brook splitstorm

Cubs (top left image)

Transcript

Casca-Brook (best friends): Close to the point of codependency

Brook-Pol (friends): Understand each other well

Casca-Pol (friends): Constantly fighting to protect each other

Brook-Ari (friends): Validate each other's magic

Casca-Ari (friends): Take turns being "leader"

Brook-Lifa (enemies): Avoidance

Brook-Weylon (enemies): Avoidance

Ari-Pol (best friends): Group caretakers who take care of each other

Casca-Lifa (enemies): Active and enduring hatred

Casca-Weylon (enemies): Hatred here, too, though slightly less so

Pol-Lifa (enemies): "Easy" target and bullying victim

Pol-Weylon (enemies): Confused frustration and dislike

Ari-Lifa (enemies): Openly disdainful of each other

Ari-Weylon (enemies): Dislike and frustration

Lifa-Weylon (best friends): The only other person who's worthwhile

Explanation/Context

As cubs, Casca, Brook, Pol, and Ari all bonded closely and more quickly due to being "outside the norm" for charr in some way. Casca used and loved her magic, which, although a military asset, was seen as slightly strange. Brook had magic that the fahrar didn't understand (namely burgeoning revenant abilities). Ari was inclined towards guardian magic and chose to train as a guardian. Pol hated fighting and combat despite being large and theoretically dangerous even as a cub.

Lifa and Weylon bonded as well, but they took to bullying the other four in various ways. Lifa's dam/mother was well-known in the Ash Legion but stuck to the letter of what charr are supposed to do and didn't really interact with Lifa at all as she grew up. Lifa nonetheless felt like she should follow in her mother's footsteps, and her desire to succeed came with several chips on her shoulder. Weylon's sire/father was almost as well-known--at first for similar reasons to Lifa's mother, but then for challenging his legionnaire to single combat and losing dramatically, violently, and quickly. Weylon wanted to do better than that.

The bullying became worse when the six were assigned to work together in the fahrar. Lifa tended to lead the bullying, but Weylon more than willingly went along with it. Pol didn't understand why they cared so much about hurting him; Brook dealt with the whole thing by avoiding them as much as possible; Casca developed a fierce hatred for both Lifa and Weylon; and, Ari held onto as much of her pride as she could and tried to return the energy if not the insults.

The dynamic shifted when Ari saved both Lifa and Weylon from a storm and a group of Ascalonian ghosts, forcing them to think a little more about what they were doing and eventually leading the six of them to become a pretty solid warband.

Young Adults (top right image)

Transcript

Casca-Brook (romantic partners): Nearly inseparable

Brook-Pol (friends): Problem-solvers (intimidation [Brook] vs persuasion [Pol])

Casca-Pol (friends): How can we cause controlled chaos this week

Brook-Ari (friends): Secrets investigation team

Casca-Ari (friends): You [Casca] come up with a prank and I'll [Ari] get you out of trouble

Brook-Lifa (neutral/positive): Awkward, but they're both trying

Brook-Weylon (friends): I [Brook] trust you [Weylon] enough to confide in you who I am

Ari-Pol (best friends): We still take care of each other as responsibility gets heavier

Casca-Lifa (neutral/positive): On better ground, learning to spar together

Casca-Weylon (neutral/positive): Better terms, but rule-breaker [Casca] vs rule-follower [Weylon]; they don't click well

Pol-Lifa (friends): Both fans of devourers [Pol's ranger pet is a devourer]

Pol-Weylon (best friends): Can talk for hours about anything and everything

Ari-Lifa (friends): Leader [Ari] and lieutenant [Lifa]

Ari-Weylon (friends): Sparring partners, mutual respect

Lifa-Weylon (romantic partners): I like who you've grown up to be

Explanation/Context

This map is years later once they're all working as a team. Brook and Casca are romantically involved, as are Lifa and Weylon. The effects of the split when they were cubs are absolutely still present, but they all consider themselves at least friendly with each other at this point, if not close.

Additional context for a few of the points:

Brook and Ari are one of the best stealth teams out of the whole warband, though all of them are trained in both espionage and stealth.

Weylon was the first person Brook talked to about their gender identity and pronouns.

Lifa came to be something like Ari's second-in-command, though it was never anything official. They trusted each other a great deal, especially in combat situations.

Post-Betrayal (bottom left image)

Transcript

Casca-Brook (separated by distance [unwillingly]): Desperately hoping the other is still alive, but believing it less and less as time goes on

Brook-Pol (separated by [Pol's] death): Grief

Casca-Pol (separated by [Pol's] death): Grief

Brook-Ari (separated by distance [unwillingly]): Imprisoned [Brook] vs trying to free them [Ari]

Casca-Ari (separated by distance [unwillingly]): Imprisoned [Casca] vs trying to free her [Ari]

Brook-Lifa (complicated): Each hopes the other is all right, but not focused on them

Brook-Weylon (hatred): [Brook] Would kill him [Weylon] in a heartbeat

Ari-Pol (separated by [Pol's] death): Grief and guilt (as the leader of the team)

Casca-Lifa (complicated): Misses her and doesn't [can apply to both Casca and Lifa on either side]

Casca-Weylon (hatred): [Casca] Would kill him [Weylon] in a heartbeat

Pol-Lifa (separated by [Pol's] death): Grief

Pol-Weylon (separated by [Pol's] death): Grief and guilt (as [Weylon is] the one responsible for Pol's death)

Ari-Lifa (complicated): Mixed-up blame and grief and confusion; not on good terms

Ari-Weylon (hatred): [Weylon's] Betrayal and the one blamed for it [Ari]

Lifa-Weylon (exes): I don't know who you are now

Explanation/Context

Weylon, convinced by a Flame Legion shaman/recruiter that the best thing for both himself and his warband would be for them to join Flame, betrays the other five. The resulting conflict leaves Pol dead, Brook and Casca captured by Flame and separated, and Ari and Lifa to figure out what to do about it. (The map describes their relationships with each other shortly after that point, though I go on to describe more of what happens afterwards below.)

Ari immediately starts speaking to whatever higher-ups in the Citadel she can to try and gain support to go after Brook and Casca. But shortly after she starts doing so, Lifa--grieving for both her dead friend and the partner she thought she had--ends up blaming Ari for everything that happened. She goes off on her own and refuses to help Ari get the others back, convinced that they're gone permanently. She eventually joins a new warband, then another when the first is lost.

Ari is unable to gain support alone and instead heads to Lion's Arch, aiming to see if the Order of Whispers can provide better support. By the time she is able to join and become a full member, it's been over a year, but the Order agrees to help. They find that neither Brook nor Casca remains held by Flame--a lone warband found the location they were being held during a patrol and raided. In the confusion, Casca managed to free herself and ran into the patrol on her way out. The Order doesn't know what happened to Brook. Ashamed and upset, Ari does not go to see Casca and instead stays with the Order, determining to at the very least be useful there. Casca, for her part, does not return to the Legions and instead begins to take on mercenary work, believing Brook to almost certainly be dead.

Brook, however, is not dead, and escaped in the confusion as well. They were found by no one and, in turn believing Casca to be most likely dead, decide to head as far away as they possibly can. They eventually end up in the Sandswept Isles and make a home with the Olmakhan.

Weylon stays with the Flame Legion, some of his confidence shattered by everything that's happened (not least by Pol's death). He continues to follow the ideology of his mentor, even recruiting others himself, but becomes progressively more and more disillusioned. When Gaheron is killed five years later, Weylon in turn kills the shaman who recruited him to Flame, deciding that he'll find some sort of way to be better than he's been.

Current (bottom right image)

Transcript

Casca-Brook (romantic partners): Found each other and we stay together

Brook-Pol (friends): Trying to figure out the world again, in touch regularly

Casca-Pol (friends): Rebuilding the past friendship they had

Brook-Ari (friends): We're different now and learning how we're still the same

Casca-Ari (friends): You [Ari] blamed yourself, but I [Casca] never blamed you

Brook-Lifa (dislike): [Brook] Can't stand her [Lifa's] decisions

Brook-Weylon (hatred): [Brook] Can't stand him [Weylon] but shows it by avoidance [much as they tried to do when they were younger]

Ari-Pol (best friends): Welcome back, I missed you, I love you, I'm sorry [can be read from either of their perspectives]

Casca-Lifa (dislike): You [Lifa] went the wrong goddamn direction

Casca-Weylon (hatred): [Casca] Still wants to kill him [Weylon]

Pol-Lifa (complicated): Grown a lot in different directions, not on stellar terms now

Pol-Weylon (dislike): I [Pol] can't hate you [Weylon], but you're certainly not my friend

Ari-Lifa (hatred): You [Lifa] blamed me [Ari] and went on to do worse. Fuck you.

Ari-Weylon (complicated): Your fault or my fault, we don't know where to go from here

Lifa-Weylon (complicated): One of us [Weylon] spent years fighting propaganda after betraying his friends and the other one [Lifa] got taken in by entirely different* propaganda

*There are similarities between the two propaganda sources, but my point here was simply that one's Flame Legion (in Weylon's case) and one was Bangar and the Dominion (for Lifa).

The state of everyone's relationships post-Icebrood-Saga!

Ari stayed with the Order of Whispers and then with the Pact as an airship pilot, ending up meeting an asura named Cio who became a close friend and later her girlfriend as well.

Casca's mercenary work led to her working closely with the Pact, and she traveled to the Sandswept Isles with them during LWS4, where she--much to both of their shock and joy--is reunited with Brook.

Pol wandered the Mists as a spirit for years, having adventures of his own before joining the ghost army that assists the Pact in Dragonfall. Thanks to a human necromancer named Minei, he ends up restored to something along the lines of corporeal and begins to rebuild his relationship with some of his 'bandmates (as well as rediscover exactly what he wants his "life" to be).

Weylon joins Efram Greetsglory in working towards a new future for Flame, but he still very much firmly believes that there is no truly making up for the things he's done. When he runs into Casca and Brook in Drizzlewood, Casca attacks him, and he would have let her kill him. She's stopped by Commander Kerra of the Pact, who's doing her best to keep peace amongst those fighting the Dominion. Weylon avoids both Brook (for the most part) and Casca after that, but later makes an effort to talk to/know Ari, which is immensely awkward and tense and still in progress.

Lifa, in turning away from the Storm Warband, turns full-on into the Legions instead, priming her to latch onto and follow Bangar when he emerges as a prominent figure. She considers herself someone he's mentored and is proud of it, though Bangar himself truly doesn't care much about her and sees her as a tool, if anything. She ends up facing Brook, Casca, and Ari in combat in Drizzlewood, and later fights as part of the Frost Legion in Dragonstorm. She survives, though badly injured from battle and the abrupt loss of Jormag's ice, and has to find her own way forward from there.

9. How are their personalities different?

Brook and Casca can both be abrasive, but it's slightly different forms of abrasiveness. If it's mission-related, both of them are more than capable of acting differently/playing a role, but in general, with no motive to act otherwise, Brook is just kinda...I think I described them once as "spiky", alsjdkf. They need a reason to be pleasant to someone (adults, at least; they're pretty good with children). Casca, on the other hand, can be...sort of aggressively pleasant, if that makes sense? Not in a cloying way or an insincere one. She's the kind of person who will tell you with 100% honestly that you're pissing her off and she's really exhausted and would rather not deal with your bullshit today so could you please fuck off while grinning. This still feels like it's not quite capturing what I mean, but I think it's close. (Side note, for whatever it's worth, Casca is very awkward with kids, though she does like them.)

Also worth noting for these two is that Brook has faith in the gods--more specifically, in Kormir--where Casca does not. Brook's faith is not in quite the same form as Kasmeer's, but it is pretty unshakable, even though (and partially because) they do believe in the gods' fallibility. Casca, on the other hand, has never had that kind of faith in any sort of higher power--not a god or gods, not the Legions, not the Pact. The closest she's ever gotten to that was the trust she put in Ari, but it's not really the same thing.

Cio and Ari both had walls up in very different ways when they first met. Cio was afraid of letting people get close because she was afraid of losing them, but she was still outwardly friendly/amicable to most people, just distant. Ari refused to confront all of the complex emotions she was dealing with as a result of past experiences, and therefore barely talked to others beyond what she had to for her job (or what slipped out as a result of being angry/irritated/pushed past her limits for the day). Their personalities without walls up have some semi-similar differences. Cio is entirely unafraid of calling out anyone who's being an asshole, but she's also quick to be friendly to a stranger, whereas Ari is not. Ari has a sort of gruff teasing thing she does with people who are (at minimum) on the cusp of progressing to the friend stage from the acquaintance one, but Cio really only teases the people she's closest to.

20. Who holds a grudge the longest?

For Brook and Casca? Casca, by a mile at least. She'll give a second chance, but very very rarely, if ever, gives anyone a third.

For Cio and Ari...hmmm. Cio, as far as who's actually held one the longest. Ari blamed herself more than anyone else for the losses she experienced, and she thought her primus was horrible (which he was) but didn't exactly hold a grudge against him. (To be fair, by the time she was in a space where that grudge would maybe have resurfaced over the various other feelings she was distracted by, the guy had already died, so.) I was going to say that I could maybe see her holding more of a grudge against Weylon (and Lifa, later on) if she thought more of herself, but...honestly, no, not really. She was in charge, and as far as she's concerned, on her head be all of it. Cio, on the other hand, does hold a very justified nugget of resentment with her towards a large part of Rata Sum and the Arcane Council, one that she would likely be holding even if they hadn't repeatedly proven over the years (often specifically to her face) that they're no better than they were when she was a child.

31. What’s the relationship like? Smooth? Rocky?

Brook and Casca were inseparable as cubs. They were a team before they really formed a warband with the others, and they remained a team afterwards. They got together romantically during their early teenage years, and their relationship was pretty much like their friendship. They had some arguments, some minor rockier times, as well as some things that were more or less related to growing pains--both of each other, as they were literally growing up at this point, and of the relationship. But they'd had a whole lot of practice with those things in the thirteen years before they got together and managed to navigate it pretty damn well in the following seven years. And then their warband was shattered, they were both captured by the Flame Legion, and they were separated for nearly ten years.

After reuniting, it's...both smoother and not as smooth. They have to relearn each other in some ways, but they're also not kids, and they have a sense of stability in a different way now. There's places they have to be cautious that weren't there before, triggers that are new, ten years worth of memories to go through together. But they've always known each other, and they still do after everything. And they love each other. And they're making it work. It gets easier every day.

Cio and Ari have a very smooth romantic relationship, but in terms of their relationship in general prior to that, it started off somewhat rocky. As kinda mentioned in question 4, they didn't like each other that much when they first met, but they worked well together when they were forced to, and their back-and-forth switched at some point during their trek through Maguuma from having a tone of "I'm irritated with your existence" to having one of "I care about you and would very much rather you didn't die"--not that neither of them would have admitted that at the time. They kept working together throughout the rest of HoT, and their friendship progressed from there, but it wasn't necessarily smooth or linear. They worked for different parts of the Pact (Whispers for Ari, and the Priory for Cio), and therefore were deployed to different locations at some points during LWS3 and early PoF. When they were together (or when they sent letters), there absolutely were miscommunications occasionally, and hurt feelings, and a decent amount of hey, I care about you, please eat/sleep more than you are currently. LWS4 was when they reached a point of making key decisions based on each other--which group they wanted to be deployed with, where they'd be stationed during the fight with Kralkatorrik, what they'd do afterwards. Whether or not they'd go to the All-Legion Rally.

These days, they're no longer part of the Pact, and they get to make their own decisions. They fight very rarely, though they disagree over smaller things on a semi-regular basis. They have somewhere they're comfortable and they're building a life together. Aside from that one time recently that the world almost ended thanks to the Dragonvoid, their lives and their relationship are both going pretty smoothly!

34. Do they give each other nicknames?

Brook and Casca will use shortened versions of each other's names when they're alone--just B and Cass, nothing super fancy--but that's pretty much it.