Paranashi “Para”, they/them, Firebrand. My Commander, and my first ever gw2 character. They’re pretty much the same as canon Commander. The wings pictured are just an accessory, they don’t have actual wings. 

On the field they’re focused and serious, determined to keep Tyria safe and to yet again stop more loonies from wrecking it. They have the utmost trust in the Dragon’s Watch and the original Destiny’s Edge, and those are the people who’ll hear them cracking jokes under their breath while on duty. 

Being the Commander has taken its toll on them, and nowadays whenever they can get away with it, they’ll be wearing their armour, even to formal events if in any way possible. There are people they talk to regularly that have never seen them without their armour on, their helmet being the same as their face to those people. 

Despite the weight of being the Commander and all that’s come with that, they have their silly moments and habits. They love to get to high places just to stay there and watch the view, taking it in and pondering. They also have an iron stomach and a yearning to try out foods that range from slightly off to “this might actually wreck your whole stomach." And sometimes a well placed joke is just the right way to ease the tension before a battle, though their humour has turned dryer over time as Commander. 

Paranashi has an emotional support jackal a sand jackal named Kroshnvi they rescued from smugglers in Lion’s Arch when it was still a pup. They originally meant to give the sand jackal pup to someone who’d take it back to the Crystal Desert, but on the journey to find a person willing to do that, the two got attached to each other. When Paranashi did eventually get to the Crystal Desert, Kroshnvi had been with them for longer than it had been on its own, and neither was willing to let go. The Djinn helped Paranashi and Kroshnvi figure out jackal portals and how to safely ride Kroshnvi. 

Khrinkt, he/him, Soulbeast. Favored pet is a Fern Hound called Ferr. (I used to use a Smokescale called Hobbers, too, but a Soulbeast ain’t changing pets)

Khrinkt is a Cycle of Noon sylvari, and it shows. He’s strong-willed and determined, and is willing to do anything to protect his friends. His friends include his “pets”, which he just calls friends or companions. He’s especially close to his Fern Hound, Ferr, who came out of the same pod as he did, and with whom he has a brotherly bond. He has sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and Ferr has sworn to protect Khrinkt, whose headstrong and not-too-bright nature can lead him to trouble. 

He’s friendly and well meaning, but he isn’t the brightest sort. Once he was hunting with a Jungle Spider he named Karlaktik, and forgot that the venom spiders use to hunt doesn’t magically disappear from the prey so it’d be safe for eating. He was fine, after having to lay down for the rest of the day with poor Karlaktik fretting over him. 

He works as a scout for the Pact, and has become more comfortable in the wilderness than he would be in cities, which can make interactions with him somewhat whiplash-inducing. Just might try to tame new people with food like one would a wild animal. 

He has a disney princess thing going on in that animals seem to trust him with ease, so he befriends animals easily and often. It’s not uncommon to see him having made camp somewhere and a wild animal appears to take a nap nearby, or nip at his lunch while he tries to eat. Khrinkt’s theory is that this has something to do with him and Ferr having come from the same pod, but honestly he doesn’t care about the reason. He just enjoys the company. 

(Might be that he eventually finds his way to working with griffons, but I don’t know how yet. I’ll figure it out.)

Cithol, he/they, Mesmer. He was supposed to be a kind and patient older brother type, but alas, I found his “Consortium officer clothes”, and it was all a downfall from there. Three clothes there because his look changes throughout his arc, going chronologically from left to right.

Cithol is quite the opposite to how sylvari are usually perceived to be: he is serious and uptight, blunt and to the point, doesn’t understand empathy too well, and his underlings have a bet going on about when if ever they’ll see him laugh. He’s a Consortium Officer who takes pride in how well he does his job. He would forgo eating and sleeping to get the job done in time for the sake of his pride. He sees the world on a “Useful vs Useless” scale, and is doing his utmost best to remain as someone he sees to be useful. 

Unlike what his underlings would believe, he does feel emotions, but he pushes them deep down, thinking of them as illogical and useless, and as something that only gets in the way. He looks down on humans and the norn for praying to the Gods or the Spirits, as he feels that everyone has to make their own paths, and that if you fail, it’s your own fault. 

Feeling superior in his mental capacities, Cithol went to the Maguuma Jungle with all the confidence in Tyria, to show himself and others that some dragon wouldn’t affect him. He didn’t make it further than Dry Top before Mordremoth slithered into his mind and mocked him for how easy it had been. Cithol ran away in panic, a mess of teleporting and running and missing his own portals. 

He runs to the furthest place he can think of, Forstgorge Sound, and stays with the kodan on the Deep and Troubled Waters, a kodan sanctuary. Miserable and cold, fishing to earn a living, too rattled to return to the Consortium, the kodan teach him about the importance of balance, which he at first brushes off as nonsense, but the more he listens to it, the more it makes sense. Through a lot of snarky questions and very patient answers he learns that maybe emotions aren’t a complete waste of time. Maybe. 

He has tried to bury his feelings for so long he has difficulty recognising them, and the kodan aren’t the most emotive of people, so he moves to a norn settlement somewhere in Frostgorge Sound, where the people are loud and their emotions are shown with ease. Cithol has trouble adjusting to these loud, obnoxious idiots, but eventually he, as he’s told to stop brooding in the corner by a group of norn, starts asking them questions. Why is it that you laugh? What use is crying? The norn are confused by this - who asks that? Isn’t it obvious? - but try their best to tell this odd sylvari why you’d laugh. He even ends up befriending a norn called Havren, who entertains this odd sylvari by answering his questions, and asking her own in turn. And so their conversations continue deep into the nights. 

Cithol tries, but he still has ways to go. He has the tendency to blurt out, with a straight face and a monotone voice, what he’s feeling currently, and his laugh sounds like a wooden actor’s, but it’s there, and he’s trying to understand. And just maybe he’s enjoying this life better than he used to. 

Solarmancer Wisp, she/her, Evoker.

Wisp was created out of the corpse of an unfortunate Inquest "volunteer" and golem parts. She was made to be a weapon that could also perform espionage by blending in like any asura. The budget of the project was however low on funds, and the asura who was responsible for her code wanted to flex their abilities, and gave her more personality and independence than intended, giving her free will. She utilised her free will by escaping from the Inquest, and now she lives a life on the road, hiding from the Inquest and searching for her purpose in life.

She is solar-powered, and the Inquest cube - which she programmed to show a hologram of a rabbit around itself - that always travels with her helps her with capturing solar energy. She has only a small reserve for stockpiled energy, so she needs to avoid places with little to no sun, such as dark winters or the underground, the previous home of asuran civilization.

As a golem that relies on her programming, she lives in both fear and anticipation of someone finding out a way to reprogram her: there is the horror of everything that makes her herself being unmade, but there is secret relief in the idea that she could stop living life as a fugitive from the purpose given to her at birth. As someone who was programmed to be a soldier, she finds using her magic exhilarating, but her time with the Inquest made her wary of using it, which creates a tug of war inside her; whether to use her skills and learn how to improve them or to avoid hurting anybody is something she has to decide for herself.

Mheop, she/they, Revenant, gon be Herald when I get there. 

One of the asura of Elona that separated from the Inquest, and are now living by themselves in a small village hidden in the desert. All her life, Mheop was amazed and inspired by Vlast, the magnificent dragon that fought against the dragon minions, flying high in the sky and bringing swift doom to the enemies. Mheop had always been timid and shy, and she was afraid of joining Vlast’s fight, so all she could do was to cheer him on silently. 

Then Vlast died.

Mheop was devastated, and felt that Vlast’s mission had been prematurely ended, that his journey wasn’t over, shouldn’t have stopped yet. She mourned Vlast, and during her mourning, she heard a voice calling to her. The voice led her to a beautiful lair of crystals and memories, and a voice from the Mists asking her if she was ready to continue Vlast’s mission. That her dedication had been seen, but if she wanted to help, she would have to act. Dazzled, Mheop accepted the offer, and so Glint agreed to help her. 

Mheop is scared and timid, and at first relies on Glint for assistance both in combat situations as well as social situations. Glint tries to nudge Mheop to learning to do these things herself, and eventually she learns to stand on her own two feet, even in front of the mighty Commander everyone talks about, and who doesn’t seem to trust her. 

Cailce, he/they, Holosmith.

Cailce, a Priory researcher who seems to have extraordinary amounts of knowledge on very specific subjects, and to be incredibly clueless about many ordinary things. This is because Cailce was created by an ambitious Gardener Rhein who molded plants into the shape of a sylvari like the Grove was molded, and used an ancient asuran artifact that had magic of the Elder Dragons inside it to breathe life into this creation. He and his creator traveled and researched the ancient cities the underground races were driven from, and is in fact where Cailce was born. He learned about history and the Elder Dragons, and gained a curiosity for them. 

He is especially curious about the Elder Dragons. His creator and he came across a piece of Primordus that had been cut away long ago, whether by dwarves or by something else, he doesn’t know. They took a chunk of it, and made a sword out of it. That sword has the ability to absorb magic, similar to an Elder Dragon consuming magic, and Cailce, having a connection to the Elder Dragons and their magic itself, can channel that magic the sword absorbs into itself. The sword seems to be a bit too eager to use this ability, and will attempt to absorb the inner magic of anyone who touches it, which is why Cailce is careful not to let anyone near the sword when he goes outside. Not leave the sword behind, no no, it is too interesting of a device, and has proven to be useful against any wayward robbers. 

Cailce plans to attach pieces of all the Elder Dragons to his sword he's simply named Elder Sword, and in fact has a few already attached to it (and I will list them once I get to working out his story more, but there is at least Primordus and Zhaitan). The Commander is wary of him, ready to drag him to the Realm of Torment by their own hands if this turns out to be some roundabout plot to bring the Elder Dragons back, but is willing to let him be for now, as he is an excellent researcher, and has uncovered useful information from time to time for the Commander and the Pact’s cause. 

He has a crisis over the meaning of his life, seeing himself as an experiment or a tool created by his teacher, and thus inherently having none to very little meaning now that his teacher has left, and he becomes obsessed with the last "mission" his teacher left behind: the sword they made together and his teacher told him to complete. And complete it he will, even if it kills him. (spoilers, it almost gets him turned into an icebrood as Jormag finds a way to whisper to him through it, but Para manages to save the day and tell him that he's the only one who can decide his own fate. He's currently trying to decide on a good purpose in life to have.)

Having started his life underground with only his oddball mentor and the Destroyers for company, neither great conversationalists for different reasons, he struggles with understanding social rules. His emotions are naturally on the low-key, but learning about new things, big (a new secret about the Elder Dragons) or small (so you're telling me those things are called clouds?) is a surefire way to get him excited, and asking him about his interests is a way to get a free ticket for a few hour long PowerPoint lecture about it. Embraces his lack of knowledge as part of himself, and isn't shy to tell others he doesn't understand/know something.

Gadir, he/him, Scrapper. Oh how I wish I could give him the Charr cultural armor in-game. 

Gadir, an asura raised by a tough-as-nails charr who saw an asura couple get slaughtered by renegades in a larger attack, and missing her own cubs that had just been sent to the fahrar, she took in the weird, tiny grey blob of a baby, and raised him as she would raise a charr with the help of her warband. 

Gadir couldn’t get into the fahrar, being born an asura - though he will  deck you if you call him anything but a charr in front of him - but he often sneaked around the fahrar, listening in on the lessons. The primuses eventually just told him to come out of the bushes and join, if nothing else than to be able to actually see what they’re being shown instead of squinting from his hiding spot and getting it wrong because of that. So his training is at the level of any Iron Legion charr’s. 

Not being in any warbands and never having been part of one, Gadir became a free agent. He wishes he could be part of a warband, but “such what-ifs are useless, let’s get back to what we were doing.” He tends to get called in mostly by Rytlock, who likes the “asura-shaped charr’s” tenacity. He respects Rytlock, who takes no nonsense and respects him back.

Gadir has been hazed enough to have learned how to respond to it, and that is by decking whoever is talking trash about him, the charr way. He even built himself a set of mechanical claws that rest on his knuckles that he could use in the fahrar when primus told everyone to use their claws, and has now become important to him both in the field as a tool and on an emotional level. He is also just as emotionally constipated as your average charr tends to be. 

Volus Sandfiend, she/her, Weaver. 

Volus is an Olmakhan, who travels Tyria with her brother Clawspur - oh excuse me, totally a warbandmate of the uhhh Claw warband, yes yes - in order to satisfy both of their intense curiosity about the world. Volus has a desire to understand why everyone does the things they do, and she spends a lot of time figuring out others’ motives. Ironically enough, she often leaves herself out of these ponderings, and doesn’t have a solid understanding of her own motives and driving forces. She’s also light hearted and often jokes around, whereas Clawspur is more down-to-earth, and though he might join in on the joking, his jokes tend to be on the morbid side. 

She keeps a well-guarded journal of her journey and discoveries, and hopes to one day return back home and tell her family and friends about the world beyond their home. And give them lots of Tyrian snacks. 

Volus is a sandshifter, an Olmakhan specialised in sand-based spells and summoning sand effigies. She tries not to use these skills too much in the sights of outsiders for fear of questions, but she greatly enjoys weaving these spells, and tends to forget to be careful about it, and Clawspur has to remind her not to attract too many questions. 

Sandfiend isn’t her given name, it’s something she picked for herself when she left to have a name that would sound typical for a charr so as to avoid questions. She just managed to forget that if she and Clawspur were to act as bandmates, they should have the same warband name. When they did realise this, they were already too attached to their new names to change it, so they always end up telling a lie about having joined each others’ warband at a later age. 

Agent Modd, he/him, Daredevil. I know that’s not exactly how the colours of Whispers go, but I prefer this look. Also, that’s a rose on his back. He’s also the smallest asura I’ve ever seen.

Modd is a charming fellow, who has the tendency to jokingly flirt with people, and he  has lots of practice of talking himself out of trouble - mostly from pranks he and his brother pulled as children - which comes in handy with his Order of Whispers assignments. He always seems to be grinning and joking around, though that just might be his desperation to be the one who makes others happy.

He and Zojja momentarily teamed up to get back at Plonka for stealing his invention, and during that team up they ended up in a cell at the Inquest base. A sylvari called Peredur helped them out of there, and Modd in his typical manner complimented him, which flustered the poor sylvari to high heavens. Modd found this reaction to be absolutely adorable, and he continued flirting with the guy, and these moments soon enough turned into actual conversations and the two got to know each other. Modd was impressed with Peredur’s willpower to not let his years with the Inquest to weigh him down, and Peredur in turn was impressed by Modd’s courage, which inspired him to get out there and try his damndest. Before they noticed it, they realised that they had been in a relationship for quite some time, and now are happily married.

Modd’s family is a patchwork of people: his fathers are a human, an asura, and a sylvari, and his brother is a skritt called Snikk’tik. He grew up in a very loving household, though the people of Soren Draa were not always kind to a young, mischievous skritt, so he grew fiercely protective over his brother, and carries this protective streak with him, it extending to Peredur.

Him and Peredur found an abandoned litter of five Aqua Stalker kits, and his protectiveness and Peredur’s compassion forced them to take them in.

Vodrich, he/him, Revenant. I try so hard to learn how to play Ventari rev just for him. Do it for him.

Vodrich, one of the Firstborn sylvari, was so enamored with the Dream he had no desire to wake up to Tyria. So he stayed, becoming its protector and caretaker, guiding the still sleeping saplings and chasing away Nightmare wherever he finds it taking root, whether that be by word or by weapon.

The Dream is near endless, constantly expanding and shifting, giving Vodrich an endless area to explore and guard. He cannot imagine ever growing tired of the Dream. He learns about Tyria through the memories he finds in the Dream, and uses that knowledge to give advice to curious saplings. However, information gotten from highly emotional memories and moments of others has given him many biased opinions, which sometimes clash harshly against each other, or give him a one-sided view on things.

The teaching he emphasizes the most is his own, to not fight without a cause. Ventari may abhor violence, but Vodrich accepts it if it is to defend the Dream. He won’t stand for violence used for cruel and selfish ends, and makes sure to tell the saplings that instead of looking to hurt, they should seek to protect.

His Firstborn siblings used to worry for their unawoken sibling, but the Pale Tree smiled and said that he has such deep love for the Dream that tearing him away from it would be cruelty.