#ridhais

Well… just this… guess which couple of silly Commanders completely forgot there was a quest to fix broken Caladbolg until they reminded us in the Return to Janthir event…

Just think of all the people who would've been there: and I'm not even talking about the Pact.

Canach would be there, extremely uncomfortable about this whole thing but here to pay his respects anyway.

Izu Steelshrike, Trahearne's tengu smith friend.

Riel Darkwater, who owes her rank to Trahearne's aid.

Ridhais, his bodyguard, crying.

Rytlock, who can't help but respect Trahearne's sacrifice even if Rytlock didn't know him.

Caithe, of course, his sister, letting her emotions out for the first time.

Sayeh, representative of her race, lurking in the shadows but there, even though she paid her oath, because they were friends.

The Commander smiled. Ridhais's curiosity was a refreshing departure from the obligatory expressions of sympathy she usually received from colleagues. She looked back down at the shard of Caladbolg in her hands, gently tracing the shapes of the interlacing vines as though they could bring her back towards happier times.

"He was quiet. Thoughtful. He'd always prefer the peace of solitude and getting lost in his books."

"Really? He's always surrounded by people and seems so confident when in command."

"That's the wonderful thing, isn't it?" The Commander said with a light laugh. "He cares so much that he never hesitated to put aside his comfort for the sake of protecting others. He cared so much..." she said, her words trailing off.

Eager to hear more, Ridhais leaned forward, her eyes lit with fascination. "I never thought of it that way. I awakened when he was already Pact Marshal. It's so easy to forget he was a scholar before all of this."

"He was a scholar, alright," she replied, smiling mischievously. The sylvari's youthful energy was highly contagious, so she leaned in with a whisper, as though sharing a schoolyard secret. "Did you know he liked poetry?"

"Poetry?!"

"Love poems, if I might add. He was quite the romantic that one."

"Commander! You tease me!"

It’s simple! Go in your instance home and find Ridhais, then talk with her:

Chapter Two: The Power of a Broken Blade

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Oksuré meets with Ridhais in Caer Aval in Fort Trinity. Oksuré remembers numerous times she had reported back to Trahearne after a mission, with Ridhais standing professionally in the background, hand on blade, always ready to chime in with her youthful suggestions, always ready to fight for Trahearne’s safety. It had been her Wyld Hunt. And she’d failed.

"Commander Oksuré,” Ridhais greets.

“Valiant Ridhais,” Oksuré replies. “Are you well?”

“I didn’t succumb to Mordremoth, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ridhais answers with a tight smile. “But… well, I heard you fought Mordremoth with Marshal Trahearne.” Ridhais’ eyes drop to the ground. “And that you used Caladbolg to end his life.”

The words pierce Oksuré’s heart like a blade; she almost flinches away from Ridhais, stiffening slightly and squeezing her eyes shut against the memory. She swallows and takes a deep breath. “Yes,” she murmurs softly. But the tight feeling in her chest doesn’t go away. “It’s my fault,” she whispers, not meeting Ridhais’ eyes. “I didn’t get there in time.” She realizes she is about to cry.

It’s not because she cares about Ridhais and her Wyld Hunt. It’s because she had failed to save Trahearne. It was she, Oksuré, he was depending on, not Ridhais. She’d known how much danger Trahearne was in and she chose to go after Caithe and the egg anyway. She knew and she decided to turn aside to Rata Novus.

And now he was dead. All because of her Spirits-cursed pride that she’d killed a dragon once and could do it again.

- 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!

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.

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Total: 9

Closure || 54/?

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Remember all those characters who showed up for 3 pages and then got lost to the salad drama? lolololol