#mage's asks

Thank you for the ask! These ones I think work best for the entire Dumbass Brigade and, because they were designed together to an extent I feel like they need to have most of these answered together.

2) were they modeled after a specific plant? If not, what was your inspiration?

Not many of my Sylvari are actually modeled after real plants! Usually they are associated with plants later down the line, like Theitia is loosely connected to roses. I usually pick a colour scheme and run with it. In this case, they were kind of made as a group, loosely speaking. Arceidai was made first, they were my first character, they're my commander. Loosely their design was based on an oc I had back then for a different thing but that evolved very quickly in the design process. Until about, maybe four years ago, they weren't a proper character, which was kind of allowed by Theitia's involvement in their story.

That was prompted in part by going "Oh what if there could be different commanders and they could be in different timelines!" (Which have now evolved to be the five main Corvus Timelines) Then I came up with a series of, let's say design prompts. Their names started with G C A and T after the four nitrogen bases that make up DNA, their colour schemes cycle through Green/Purple, Purple/Blue, Blue/Red, Red/Green. There was also brief consideration of basing them off the four horsemen of the apocalypse, because every timeline that wasn't the main timeline, now called Corvus Luminiferous, was supposed to fall apart. I'm now properly writing their lore and a story with them so that might still be a thing if I can make it work.

The very first concept I had that got absorbed into Theitia was a revenant who channeled the commander and became the new commander after Balthazar killed them, became the new weilder of Caladbolg. Later I got to thinking about Wyld hunts being fucked up, she became a character foil to Arc, and once I had her figured out Ghainen and Caivere just fit naturally into the story.

8) during what cycle were they born?/12) how old are they?

Ghainen was born in the Cycle of Noon on the 13th day of Phoenix, 1322. He is 12 years old.

Caivere was born in the Cycle of Night on the 73th day of Phoenix, 1323 AE. He is 10 years old.

Arceidai was born in the Cycle of Dusk on the 28th day of Colossus, 1324 AE. They are 9 years old.

Theitia was born in the Cycle of Dawn on the 45th day of Colossus, 1324 AE. She's also 9 years old.

10) Would they take selfies?

Ghainen absolutely would if he was feeling cute, he probably would have the most fun with the act of just taking photos,

Caivere would mostly take selfies with friends

Arceidai wouldn't BUT they would show up in the background of other peoples selfies just slightly blurry or out of focused, usually looking kind of alarmed,

Thank you for the ask! I'll be answering these for Theitia :D

1) Are they woodier or leafier? Succulent, deciduous, evergreen?

Aside from the left over scaring from being corrupted by Mordremoth, which is definitely more of a wood-like texture, Theitia's skin is probably more like leaves, specifically rose leaves, but her hair is made up of thorned vines as opposed to leaves. She's never really grown her own armour, she prefers fabrics because they feel more dignified to her and she prefers the look in general, but if she were to it would naturally tend towards petals and some thorns as opposed to leaves or bark.

6) What’s their relationship with the Pale Tree?

Contentious. She believes that she is uniquely qualified to be the knight of the thorn because she is willing to, and I quote, "tell mother dearest where she can stick it." Basically she had a lot of misgivings towards the Pale Tree as a sapling, she was given a wyld hunt and she resented that, she didn't like being told what to do, hence, nightmare court, then soundless. She came back to the dream because everything with Mordremoth kind of gave her more perspective on the situation and prompted her to reevaluate. But even as the Pale Tree's champion, even with her new respect for her, she uses her position to challenge the Pale Tree when she thinks that she's being unreasonable or unfair. Theitia worked fucking hard to stomp out the Nightmare Court after Faolain died and she's not about to let that be undone because the roots of the issue, so to speak, weren't addressed. She understands that the Pale Tree is wise in a lot of aspects and loves her children, but she doesn't understand them all the time. She doesn't have a mortal perspective on this, she's a fuck off big magic tree. Theitia understands how people work and why, and she's willing to challenge the Pale Tree, and the Pale Tree values her insight. It's difficult for both of them sometimes but it seems to be working.

7) How do they react to Mordremoth when they first hear him?

Hey remember how a paragraph ago I offhandedly mentioned Theitia was soundless for a bit? Yeah. Yep. I wouldn't say she reacted well. Using a bunch of Asura gates she came basically straight from Ascalon where she was hiding from the Court to the Heart of Maguuma because "Oh free will is my whole thing guess I'd better help!" This was widely regarded as a shitty idea on her part and she did loose her mind a bit there the second she got in the vague proximity of the call. All things considered she kept it together pretty well. I mean yeah she killed some people, yeah she got sent into unfathomable rage at Arceidai for things that were pretty much her fault, yeah she did try and kill them and steal Aurene's egg, but the important thing is she didn't! And she learned some valuable lessons from the experience! Or at least she said she did which almost counts for just as much.

11) Random headcanon!