#scillareth

It's the 18th here so happy birthday to my dearest @elder-dragon!! QuQ

Oh yeah, a while back I got to take a pic and see how tall Ai is compared with Gavin!

In her lore, the two met while still in the Dream, and he was even the first to help her acclimatise to existing, which sparked a romance between them. When he left to awaken in Tyria, she stayed behind due to a feeling (which she would eventually realise to be her Wyld Hunt) which kept her there for several years until the sylvari who would go on to become the Pact commander (Kaushue) was ready to awaken too.

Scillareth's story begins as one expects:

A Valiant emerges from the Dream, completes their Wyld Hunt, carries out an adventure, then goes on to recover Caladbolg and join an order before their journey leads them to the Pact and Zhaitan's defeat. For Scillareth, this was the White Stag, then meeting Malyck, then the Vigil, and she did in fact help Trahearne bring the Pact together while also striking up a passionate and loving relationship with him.

But this is where it all changes. She meets a strange fortune teller on her way to Orr and changes course after, traveling to a secret location in the Maguuma jungle. It's there she finds Malyck once more, reunited with his own mother tree, and said mother tree has a story to tell her: that of her own future as the Commander, what she must do to the dragons, and who she will lose in the process.

Scilla comes back to the Pact changed, her blue bark turned ashen and white, and armed with a plan and the abilities to pull it off. When Zhaitan falls from the tower, she doesn't go back to Fort Trinity with her husband and the rest of the Pact. She takes with her a young human, a villainous Necromancer she'd captured and forced to serve in the Pact, and approaches the dying Zhaitan.

"Did you know you could die?" she croons to Zhaitan as she treads past debris and ruined ground. Her Necromancer follows close behind her, an eager participant in what she is about to do. "My people did not, until you."

But she doesn't let Zhaitan die. She offers a deal. Serve her, or fade away. Help her do the same to the other Elder Dragons. Help her bring them to heel, and she'll spare them all. Help her take control of her Tyria, and she'll give them free reign to consume magic on other worlds.

It's magic and a device from another world, mysteriously acquired, that she uses to save Zhaitan and turn the Necromancer into him.

When she returns to Fort Trinity, it's with Zhaitan in step behind her and an unexpectedly changing story before her.

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Bonus - a not at all comprehensive list of things that change in Scilla's timeline:

Destiny's Edge collectively considers Scilla's deal with Zhaitan and plan to use the dragons a betrayal so they go off to figure out how they can kill the other dragons themselves

Mordremoth isn't woken up so Scilla recruits Scarlet at some point

Without Scarlet's armies, there aren't refugees in Southsun, Canach retains his original appearance (for now) and then ends up recruited by Caithe

the rest of would-have-been Dragon's Watch also slowly get recruited into Destiny's Edge over time, though the circumstances would be kinda different for sure

today I sat down and designed Branded Salad's brother and Yulan's sister...I still need to make a ~proper~ post about my various timelines and such, but for now here is a chart of my four pairs of siblings and the timeline they're from!