#darkrime delves

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

‘nother character study on Trahearne because no character study can be comprehensive

Absolutely the difference between people who relate to Trahearne and people who don’t is LONELINESS, and being the weird kid, and being quiet and nerdy. But mostly loneliness. Normal people (as far as I know, since I’m not) are not super lonely. They have friends and acquaintances and such, even if they don’t see them super often or only online.

And, side note, not being able to see and interact with people (as during COVID lockdowns) is DIFFERENT from not having those people to exist in the first place. And a huge chunk of people I think don’t understand that. Like, in my personal life I have the opposite of those things. I have a huge family (eight siblings) and we all live in the same house (it is a big house, don’t worry), so I have PLENTY of actual human interaction and contact and talking to people and living my life, and lockdown couldn’t take that away.

Anyway: being on good terms and friendly with your family, that’s great and all, but there’s something… necessary about outside friendship. It’s a real problem when there’s no one OUTSIDE your family you can be friends with. No one you can be sure cares about you. And you’re trying to find friends, but, again, you’re also naturally the weird kid and also absolutely nerdy, and no one is quite sure what to make of you, and so you never do make any friends.

Enter Trahearne, who has that same situation, and is also, by the dictates of the story he’s in, your best friend.

I latched on to Trahearne initially because he died and because I had to kill him, which was horrible for me even though I couldn’t remember why I cared about him at the time. I knew the story said he was my friend and we’d spent the whole time trying to rescue him, and now I had to kill him, and that was Very Bad.

But I think I CONTINUED to obsess over him because, once I looked into the story as a whole, I related to him so hard. Yeah, he’s supposed to be your best friend, that’s his role in the story, you couldn’t not be his friend, but... if you distance yourself and say the Commander is just simply a faceless character, not your own self, and reframe it as reading a book where you’re purely an outside observer - Trahearne is still a compelling character to people who are truly lonely because he’s lonely, and for a lot of the same reasons, too, in a way that’s widely relatable to people who are lonely.

And his story arc about finding friendship and finally accomplishing his goals in life and even achieving more than he’d ever dreamed of, and finally dying for those people he’d come to care about - THAT’S relatable. That’s so fiercely something I want to happen to ME. That’s wish fulfilment right there. That’s living the dream. That’s skipping the lonely part and setting the story at the time where you finally find friendship.

And then you remember that, actually, he ALSO spent a full twenty-five years of loneliness first that the story never really bothers to explain, but that’s because - well, because the story says “he was alone for twenty-five years” and then it moves on so fast because you’re supposed to fill in the blank with your OWN experience. You’re supposed to relate to him SO much because the story is essentially saying “imagine yourself, all lonely, and then THIS happens” and it’s amazing? It’s what you’ve always wished for? And what’s not to like? I would love to have Trahearne’s situation, to have a real-life friend that I honestly cared about so much I’d die for, because I know - since I’m also the Commander - that the feeling is reciprocated. That relationship is almost a closed circuit in your head.

But also, the way the story gets you to relate to Trahearne so that it can build on your own experience that way? Leaving his past a blank slate so you can relate to him as hard as you need to? That’s - I mean that should be the high aim of all literature, honestly. To say “imagine yourself, in this particular area of life, and now imagine this new development!” This is my new philosophy: Literature is supposed to be fan-fiction of real life. And good literature can be fan-fiction of the life of anyone in the target audience (or broader), and the only requirement is that you suspend your disbelief in the details. It’s the feelings that really count, and in order to have those you need relatability.

But what if you DON’T have relatability? What if you’re not the target audience? What happens when you’re NOT a lonely person? You have friends, you have a social life, you’re fine. Trahearne then becomes offensive to you, because the story is treating him like he’s supposed to be you - like you’re supposed to relate to him, and you DON’T, and there’s this jarring disconnect, and you can’t even begin to comprehend why the story is treating him as someone who’s so important. And if you’re only playing for the story, well then, you leave, because it’s not your thing. But if you’re here for the game and the min-maxing and stats, and you’re playing the story for achieves, levels, and loot, well, you’re stuck, and you’re bitter, and now you’re a hater.

And that’s really the real tragedy here - not that Trahearne’s fate was shaped by haters, but that Trahearne’s fate was shaped by people for whom his story was not even intended in the first place. If the story was aimed at you and you hated it, that’s one thing; another thing entirely to count the opinion of people who are forced to be here as valid.

The story is and should be for the people who want to be here. In fact, everything should be only for the people who want to be there. I mean it’s even the philosophy behind our entire government - that in order to be valid you need the consent of the governed. I could write a whole essay on why school shouldn’t be mandatory, because if you don’t want to be there you won’t learn anything. The people who don’t want to be there shouldn’t shape the thing they’re part of.

The thing should be shaped by the people it’s designed for, otherwise you’ll get the people it’s designed for - the target audience, the marketing demographic, etc - you’ll get them up in arms and hating you, and nobody wants that. Everyone should be working towards peace. But that’s what we see with the GW2 fandom and Anet - the people who don’t want to be in the story complaining, and Anet listening to them and changing it, and the people who really care - the people for whom Trahearne’s story was written - WE are hurt.

I could do some meta-analysis on how this is a - to borrow a phrase from another fandom - another turning of the Wheel, that we’re lonely, that we’re the overlooked ones, the ignored ones, and we had this beautiful story lovingly crafted for us, knowing we’re quiet and don’t talk much and aren’t that confident talking in front of people - but now even that is yanked out of our hands by the people who manage to be louder, talk more and better and are good at enthusiastically expressing how much they care about everyone - except us lonely folks.

But - back to Trahearne - the story leaves out his backstory because that’s the key. All you need to know is that he was lonely. If there was more details we wouldn’t be able to relate so much. And yet, because we relate so hard, we desperately need and yearn for that very backstory. We want even further validation, because Anet has proven they know us extremely well, and we trust they’ll continue to deliver. Usually fans would get this fulfilment from sequels, but Trahearne is dead so there is no more going forward, only back. But his story is sort of dependent on that blank slate, so there really is nowhere else to go with him unless he comes back, and maybe that’s why nobody writes fic about Trahearne’s past, only about him not dying, or coming back - because his unexplored backstory is the cornerstone of the reason we care in the first place.

I used to be afraid that once I’d played all the missions Trahearne was in (back before I’d done all the sylvari missions) that I’d lose my obsession over him, that I’d stop caring because there was nothing more to learn. I’ve since found there was no danger of that, but it may have stemmed from the fact that, for me who mains a human character, playing the sylvari missions was delving into his backstory. And it was; but not too much. You gotta hand it to Anet, they’re good at this. I surrender my emotions to them every time I step into a story mission. I have to trust they’ll take care of my emotions properly.

Anet did everything so perfectly with Trahearne, coaxing you into trusting them, that not only was his death a shock, it was a betrayal of that trust. It wasn’t only that his death was wrong, it was that it was done so poorly, which again would be the subject of another post. His death wasn’t the problem.

I remember one day I logged in to play a story mission and I said to myself “I know I’m putting my emotions in Anet’s hands with this one” and that very mission was Darkrime Delves (I didn’t know that ahead of time) and it was a rollercoaster, it was brilliant, it was amazing; it brought me close to the edge of panic I’d once felt for Trahearne, and threaded through it all the knowledge Almorra was dying whether I did it or not, they had me fight it out, gave me the opportunity to die rather than kill my leader (but then, hey, you gotta come back and finish the fight - ) and then I didn’t have to kill her after all, Bangar came and killed her and stole all that anger and fear and terror and pointed it all at himself like a spotlight. It was a BRILLIANT handling of my emotions, an amazing catharsis for Trahearne’s death. And Trahearne’s death was just. hi. you win. you gotta kill him now and it was short and brutal and they didn’t even TRY. The dying isn’t the bad part (although I will hate Bangar until the end of my days). It’s how the dying is handled. I hate Bangar for Almorra’s death, but who do I hate for Trahearne’s death? Not Mordremoth. Not myself. No, Anet bears the full brunt of my anger for Trahearne’s death, because as the storytellers THEY were at fault for how it was handled.

--

I don’t know where I wanted to go with this post, I wrote it at midnight in a fit of passion - you can tell it's not my usual writing style and might not be as good as usual - and so it’s bounced between several separate subjects and has no proper ending tying it all together, but hey. this is a glimpse into my Midnight Trahearne Thoughts (also partially spurred by that Homeric hymn I had to write).

[thepinkywarband]

For Kirnaash: 2, 3, (ranger) 7 and 9

2: Did they have a teacher? If so, who were they and were they good instructor?

Due to some...bizarre circumstances as a cub, I was unable to find placement in a farhar and ended up with a more practical education as a ward of the Soul warband. Almorra was responsible for my physical well-being, but there was little formal training, mostly learning by watching then doing. I learned leather craft by helping with armor repairs, and about the ways to handle weapons while I cleaned away blood from their blades.

Once I showed up with my first pet though, I found myself pushed into the field with a bow on my back alongside the band scout, Namyra Soulstrider. She was a bit of a jokester at camp, but at work it was all business. I tried to emulate her best I could - I was wowed by her ability to navigate and work wordlessly with her devourer. Runs with her are what inspired my interest in cartography. Any wrong steps I made were met with a sharp look while we were out, and a frustrated lecture on what went wrong once back at base. At the end she'd give a heavy sigh and ruffle my mane, crack some joke at my expense and everything was alright again. I don't think she ever had primus aspirations, but if she'd lived to get long in the tooth, I could see her surrounded by a group of cubs pretending to be grumpy while letting them climb all over her.

3: Have they dabbled in any other professions than the one they ended up with?

I've had a strained relationship with magic. My sire was a shaman, and I spent most of my life being warned away from or actively suppressing any fiery tendencies. When my dam was discovered in Darkrime Delve...well, there wasn't much willpower left to hold it back. I was a walking fireball for a time. Can you be considered an elementalist if you only use one element...?

Anyways, a lot of my magic got siphoned off by Aurene in the fight against the twin dragons. I spent the next year learning to balance what remained and use it in combat. I also studied the sword, partially as tribute, partially as grief work. In Cantha it turns out they have a name for the ones who use this fighting style called "willbenders". But to me it'll always be part of my memory of Almorra.

7: What’s their favorite pet and why?

Don't tell the others...but Pinky is gonna be my baby forever. Even if he is almost as big as my raptor now. He knows how to make me laugh with his silly expressionless face, and his habit of winding up in spaces I cannot conceive how he reached. I'm so glad drakes have long life spans. He deserves it for all he's been through with me. He's my original life partner. [Sorry Tek <3]

[9 was already answered]

[i-mybrunettelady]

okay, so. i’m grinding drizz, as one does (seriously i spend a good chunk of my gaming hours there) and it makes me consider a portion of nyra lore i don’t think i’ve talked about much before - her mounts!

mentions of animal injury below!

her only official mounts rn are her raptor trippy and her skyscale maurizia (pronounced mauriTHia thank you very much) and they’re both very much present with her during icebrood saga.

trippy is there with her for the first half of it, up until drizzlewood. she was trapped with him in bjora in darkrime delves alongside almorra’s grave because the snowstorm was so bad she had to wait it out with the grave of her order’s general - order she watched slowly thin out by the way - which is y i k e s. not being with trippy, who is like an oversized dog but with claws and lizard-y. everything else about it is. he then almost died by falling so terribly he injured his spine and she branded him so he’s half-branded now, like her!

maurizia takes over after that, because she sent him home to recover for a bit. i imagine she’s flown on zia’s back for scouting purposes across the entirety of the map. there were snipers, of course - but if they so much as grazed zia’s wings, they had the full wrath of the legendary commander to contend with. also, the sight of nyra flying down on a skyscale of all things must have chilled blood in dominion’s veins (i know it would in mine) considering that by icebrood saga, nyra’s quite a proficient skyscale rider.

(don’t ask me where she keeps a whole ass skyscale. she just does. when she lets me know i will let you know as well.)

[axe-trio-commanders]

So y'all remember that one mission back when where you just sort of possess Ryland for a bit, and you have the option of letting Bangar wait at a door for a half hour while you go treasure hunting (and then get yourself stuck in a hole)?

Good times.

(typed dialogue under cut, because. Handwriting.)

Bangar: Get this gate open.

Bangar: ...Ry-

Bangar: -land...?

*Half-way across the ruins

Ryland, crouched over an open chest: (Treasure box Treasure box Treasure box Treasure box)

[hydrowing]

a hero’s end

[pyreo]

The Fate of the Stone Summit Dwarves (Or: How I realised Primordus was in Forging Steel after doing it 9 times)

It took 9 repeats of the Forging Steel strike for me to notice the real reason the Steel warband goes through the forgotten dwarven ruins. But let me back up and add context. 

The dwarves in GW1 were a hardy, friendly race with whom you ally multiple times, usually while crossing the Shiverpeaks, taking their enemies as your enemies. This includes the dwarven faction called Stone Summit, a xenophobic group who resent anything but total dwarven dominion of the world. The storyline of the GW1 expansion, Eye of the North, involves Primordus as the first elder dragon to awaken for the consumption part of its 10,000 year cycle. (The death of Abaddon and the magic upheaval following is noted as the bump that started the dragons’ hunger.)

Destroyers built up in the depths and caused the asura to emerge and meet surface races for the first time. The asura, dwarves, norn and humans banded together to push them back and Primordus’s champion is defeated, which saps Primordus of enough energy to delay it awakening fully for about 40 years. To do this the dwarves used the Rite of the Great Dwarf, a sacrificial ritual that immediately rendered dwarves functionally extinct. Their bodies turned to stone to allow them to fight Destroyers endlessly, with no personal or individual concerns. The spread of the Rite could be resisted for a time but not forever. One dwarf remained on the surface as a last point of contact with the rest of the world, the others sank into the depths to live their newly petrified eternity. It was assumed that the Stone Summit, as the Rite took them, gave up on their ideals and joined their brethren. 

But some didn’t. 

The hardest boss in GW1, Duncan the Black, last leader of the Stone Summit, hides in Slaver’s Exile attempting to create a ritual that will channel the power of Primordus’s defeated champion. His quest involves defeating him before he can succeed. Duncan was resisting the Rite and the slow transformation into stone to attempt this. But why? We didn’t find out until...

Enter the Steel warband, Ryland’s most trusted friends on a mission to deliver a modified charr tank to the war effort under Bangar Ruinbringer. As they travel the pass, Jormag’s champion rains ice down on them and they opt to break through a set of gigantic dwarven doors to shortcut through the ruins. They’re met by rank upon rank of feral, howling dwarves that have been holed up here for centuries - and didn’t turn to stone. 

And after a few waves of these burning-eyed, voiceless armoured shells, who throw fireballs and make lava erupt from the ground, they throw in some Destroyer minions too. It was on the 9th run that I realised that dragon minions do not ever ally with members of other groups; they lack the capacity. Minions serve their dragon and that dragon only. Destroyers being summoned alongside dwarves this way means one thing: the Stone Summit are now in the control of Primordus. 

Primordus itself had been rather conspicuously absent from the Icebrood Saga. Why, if it’s a chapter about Jormag? It’s well established that Jormag and Primordus are linked as mirrored opposites, opposite elements and each being the weakness of the other - and their link meant they were both ensleepened again by Taimi’s machine just before Path of Fire. In Icebrood Saga, Jormag is up again. So in accordance with that, shouldn’t Primordus be up as well?

There’s an optional collection inside Forging Steel and the following mission in Darkrime Delves where you can find the journals of Forgemender Arngirn, a Stone Summit dwarf making notes on the process of the ritual they undertook. 

This would appear to be the final result of Duncan the Black’s ‘profane ritual’, as Vishen calls it. While most of the Stone Summit gave in to the Rite of the Great Dwarf and joined the others of their kind, one last group resisted it as long as possible. Their bodies started changing into rock but they clung to their beliefs of being above all others, and Arngirn writes that he would rather die outright than have his mind taken from him. Duncan the Black is named in the journals as the author of scrolls they are following to attempt to change their forms into anything other than stone. 

They watch each other’s consciousnesses ebb away, lock the doors to seal themselves in, and succeed. Connecting to the magic of Primordus allowed it to overwhelm their minds. If they survived their insides being consumed by fire they became minions of Primordus, recorded only in a hidden book collection that concludes a mystery left hanging in Guild Wars 1, 13 years ago.

[scythe-of-house-aurkus]

Some random thoughts after just doing Forging Steel + Darkrime Delves again:

The Forging Steel map is still gorgeous. Reminds me of Yellowstone. Design-wise in hindsight, it's a 10 man DRM with a tailormade map. Would love more like that idea in the future.

I like Nicobar's premise, wish we'd gotten to see a bit more of him + Steel in general before Drizzlewood. The idea of a reformed Renegade is pretty interesting.

I forgot how absolutely h o r n y Vishen is. "That's kinda hot," she says after the pc snipes a target. Indeed.

In both story steps, Ryland is really pulling all the stops on "loyal soldier that toes the line" huh

Bangar's line "The Ice Dragon will know a true champion when it sees one" has a different feel post-Jormag Rising. How'd that work out for you buddy

"Kiss my hairy ass." Almorra, I miss you :(

[brax-was-here]

In the Darkrime Delves instance where Almorra yells "Piss off!" at the Icebrood warrior and kicks him off the ledge, Anet missed a chance to use the famous "Wilhelm scream" as he fell to his death.

[plantwalkingamongstmeremortals]

☕️ and Icebrood Saga

Just did the update so be ready for the spoilery salt oops

So. First of all it started off super strongly. Bound by Blood? One of the best chapters in all the game. I love it so much. Dont remember the exact plot for whisper in the dark/shadow in the ice but bjora is an amazing map w such a strong mood and i love it so much. Visions of the past? A lot of really interesting shit. Steel warband is long and everything but great way to introduce secondary characters and their dynamics. And lets not talk abt darkrime delves im still hearbroken a year later. Anyway - the plot doesnt advance that much but good work on the characters so im okay w that

Then we get into no quarter. It had some weird characters decisions (smodur yknow) and the choice to kill off all the steel warband was weird but aside from this stuff, good episode, i like the aesthetic of south drizzlewood a lot (even if i cant be bothered to do the meta lol)

Jormag rising had some great stuff too iirc? Honestly i havent played it since release and considering the no voice acting thing i missed. A lot of plot on that part. I dont get the desire to make the frost citadel super technological and everything tho? (Like idk what vibe they want us to get from it, it doesnt feel like it goes anywhere?)

And then we get to champions and everything goes downhill

I dont hate drms as much as others but i still think they get very repetitive and def get the focus away from the story. I'll have to replay it later to be sure but i expect it to feel very weirdly paced. What im sure is it was kinda weak plot wise lol

And todays release was just so underwhelming for me? Just shoot some breakbars and boom the dragons kill each other. It lasts like fifteen minutes. Tequatl feels harder and its a dragon minion (i guess the fight has that same big issue as the zhaitan fight that we're not really facing the dragon directly but thx to story structure shit, the zhaitan fight was such a culmination that even if the fight itself isnt that good, the writing compensates it v well)

I guess something drms fail to do is upping the stakes? Jormag felt more dangerous when they were pushing people to die in bjora than just freezing them in lake doric or whatever.

And theres a lot of back and forth on whether we should kill them or not and the question isnt that well resolved? (Well everyone realizes that jormag is evil actually and like. Weve known for over a year guys) and overall it just was weird idk

Anyway oof this was. A longer disorganised ramble than i anticipated but i didnt like the update so i gotta complain im sorry (and also some stuff in the final instance was really good too!!! It was a really neat ending for ryland imo, they didnt mess all of it up even if i sound like thats what i think)

[idrawtoomuch-gw2]

OH YEAH So

I was thinking about the Darkrime Delves story mission and the reveal of Bangar being Ajax's father and

How many Vigil Commanders are mentally freaking out rn because YEAH

[rata-novus]

Okay so I just finished both Steel & Fire missions and I have some t h o u g h t s.

-I solo’d both on a minionmancer, using this build, with a mix of valkyrie & marauder armor for almost 30k health: [&DQg1KQIVEz6bAKIAcAF0AXYAcwHkAHUBlQCVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

-The first mission took about an hour, but I didn’t die nor fail so that’s nice. The second mission was much shorter, but it was so fun to explore all the nooks and crannies of Darkrime Delves! It reminded me a lot of the dwarven area in Thunderhead Peaks, which I mean makes since, but I really liked it. Quite a few champs in both missions, but they almost melt like butter on a minionmancer.

-Not surprised at all that Bangar killed Almora, but just from a flavor standpoint I wasn’t really into playing as Ryland fighting her. Maybe I’m just biased bc she was my favorite secondary character and I’m hella pressed that she’s literally actually for real dead, but whatever. After Bangar killed her and Ryland said “Some must fight so that all may be free” I literally started tearing up. WTF Anet that made me so emotional. ;_;

-Bangar and Almorra definitely fucked. Okay.

-You can’t skip to just the second mission after completing both. You must play through the entire first mission before returning to Darkrime Delves. :/

-AKSHULLY,  you just need to restart the Steel & Fire story in your story journal, there will be a purple marker near the scrying pool to take you directly to Darkrime Delves. Whoop!

-The public Hall of Monuments is neat, don’t know how much I’ll upgrade it (haven’t looked into it really), but I like it. I’ve only visited the private instance once when I first started playing. I have like.....3 Hall of Monument points or whatever they’re called from GW1 so I never had a reason to go there. The NPCs and stuff are cool, especially Snargle.

-New armors are very very good.

-I’m not a fan of how the Season 1 stuff was implemented. I haven’t played it yet, but I just mean having to play through the whole Ryland/Bangar/Almorra story before getting to meet characters from Season 1? It’s so out of order and idgi. Still looking forward to it, but I think it’s really gonna confuse new players who are looking for a chronological story without spoilers being thrown in their face. It’s just an odd choice to go personal story > Steel & Fire > season 1 > etc. imo

Almorra was a badass and I’m gonna miss her. :’c

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

"I survived an abusive relationship" - Soulkeeper

Content warning for abusive relationships.

~oOoOo~

Years ago I observed that Almorra Soulkeeper had the name Soulkeeper before her warband was Branded. Clearly the name "Soulkeeper" is a reference to the event wherein she was not corrupted. Except that she had the name before that.

I've always wondered why, but it wasn't important. She could have had some other reason for naming herself Soulkeeper before that, or maybe it was just a dev slip-up.

BUT.

BUT I say I have figured out the real answer.

Bangar, proven and confirmed and hard cemented by his own actions, is an 'abusive boyfriend'. I mean, he killed his """fire and blood""", so there's that universally recognizable hallmark of an abusive boyfriend, but I'm not just talking about murder.

I have studied the types of "dangerous men to avoid" and the Dark Triad types of psychological disorders top that list: the narcissist, the psychopath/sociopath, and the antisocial personality disorder. All real, diagnosable disorders that I use for character development in my writing. Full disclosure: the boundaries between these three do shift every few years. At heart, though, it's still the same basic concept, and it's generally enough to label a person a "Dark Triad type" and be done.

But Bangar, in my observation, classifies as a Dark Triad type (Crecia specifies sociopath, but that distinction isn't super important). Certainly not a clinically diagnosed Dark Triad type, since he's a fictional character, but he fits the criteria for one.

Dark Triad types have a trick called 'trauma bonding', where they blend good and bad experiences; you have pain and pleasure at the same time, which dreadfully confuses your psyche. You're not sure what to believe; this creates a psychological illusion that you can't construct a reasonable internal narrative for why he does the things he does. This can also be seen as an intense form of apparent hyprocrisy.

With Bangar, this is most evident in the Darkrime Delves VotP and One Charr, One Dragon, One Champion, if you want to look at his own actions and words. (I won't get into that in this post.)

However, I will note that in the same conversation as some of these actions on display, is a direct accusation from Crecia during the Confer With Bangar achievements:

Crecia: What happened to you, Bangar? Were you always like this? Was I just blind to it? Bangar: "Like" what? "Blind to" what? Crecia: The hate. The sociopathy. Flames, you murdered Almorra! Bangar: She wanted to stop me. Crecia: She told you the truth! Time was, you expected that. From me at least.

Like I said, changing your narrative. Moving the goalposts. Disorienting the people who know you until they don't know what to believe anymore.

In the midst of this confusion, a trauma bonded victim chooses the "good" path and just suppress, ignores and forgets all the bad things. It's very destructive, abusive and hard to get out of. The Dark Triad types will cut you off or alienate you from your support network, making escape even harder. And if you do get out? Other Dark Triad types can tell that you've been in an abusive relationship. You're vulnerable to their tactics. They'll come hunting you like vultures to death. It's a fact that most people in abusive relationships get into one after another after another, no matter how many times they tell themselves they won't.

It's also a fact that, if you spend enough time around a Dark Triad type, their unpredictable behaviors and the trauma bond will cause you to start violating your own principles. Eventually, in extreme cases, you'll even adopt his mannerisms and act a lot like a Dark Triad type yourself, trauma bonding other people.

But Almorra Soulkeeper escaped this destructive cycle. She broke away from Bangar at some point after Ajax was born, freed herself from his grasp.

I think this is why she was so desperate to stop Bangar in Darkrime Delves; I've always thought she could have just gone along with it until the Commander showed up, but she knew that was far, far too dangerous, especially given her history and the likelihood of falling back into his traps.

And for that reason she was in extremely dangerous territory at the moment she first encountered Bangar in the Darkrime Delves:

Almorra: Bangar! Are there any more of you? The Vigil needs our - Bangar: Almorra...! What are you doing here? Almorra: Svanir kidnapped me and Jhavi. Slaughtered the others. They've surrendered to Jormag's whispers. Bangar: The Svanir are norn savages. Troglodytes. Nothing more. Almorra: There's no time for this. They still have Jhavi. Help me save the Vigil! Bangar: Yeah. [they get moving] Almorra: So many lives lost... all because of Jormag's seduction. Ryland: Imperator Ruinbringer has a plan to subdue Jormag. We'll bring the dragon to heel. Almorra, shocked: What did you say? Bangar: You heard him. I'm gonna become Jormag's champion. Bend it to my will. Almorra: That's not possible. Bangar: "There's no time for this." You want to save your precious Vigil or not? Almorra, reluctantly: Exit's up there...

He was already re-capturing her. Turning her own words back on her, blaming her for the situation, putting the pressure on her to get things done. Almorra might even have known it was happening - it's a possibility that she kept arguing with him on purpose to keep herself distanced from him, eventually escalating into a full-blown fight. She was panicking and trying not to fall into the same trap, especially since she knew that if she did, there was every likelihood she'd eventually be corrupted by Jormag as Bangar was bound to be.

But: all this to say, somewhere in Almorra's backstory, she broke out of Bangar's trap. She survived an abusive relationship. She was proud of that and took the name Soulkeeper to remind herself what she had avoided.

She confronted Bangar in Bound by Blood - that took guts, and she did it in defense of her people, the Vigil. She heavily avoided him and everything to do with him the rest of the time. She knew she was vulnerable. She didn't want to compromise her own freedom.

She argued, shouted, and outright engaged in combat with Bangar to keep from falling into his traps. She died rather than succumb to it again. Because we know that, above all else, Almorra Soulkeeper values freedom.

[khorren]

Bjora Marches - 1078 AE

Some screenshots of Bjora Marches, which is a relatively small zone, in Guild Wars (1).

Volsung’s Stead and the entrance to the dungeon Darkrime Delves are the last two shots and I expect to see some remnants of these in the upcoming Living Story for GW2. The story “Blood Washes Blood” takes place in this zone as well, and I expect some mention of that. I also came across Kilroy Stonekin on my travels while taking these screenshots. I miss that dude :)

[marcopastorino]

ArenaNet ha pubblicato il trailer di Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire, il nuovo contenuto di Guild Wars 2 che uscirà il 17 marzo. I giocatori potranno di vivere la storia di The Icebrood Saga nei panni di un membro della Steel Warband.

In aggiunta dopo circa 6 anni potremo finalmente rigiocare quattro missioni della Living Season 1.

Molte le novità di questo update gratuito: - I personaggi interpretabili della Steel Warband avranno 5 varianti alle skill per spadone a due mani, spada, staffa, pistole e fucile e si potrà guidare un carroarmato charr. - L’Eye of the North diventerà un Hub upgradabile con portali diretti per le Strike Mission. - Come ricompense ci sarà l'armor set parziale “Stone Summit” e l'armor set e mantello “Runic”. - Giocando nei panni di Ryland si visiteranno le antiche rovine naniche di Darkrime Delves.

Visions of the Past non fa parte della Icebrood Saga e ma è un nuovo tipo di contenuto.

[amnyatas]

Sad headcanon time! during a post-mordremoth celebration, Vashildr called Almorra "mom" as a joke, and Athena brought it up the next day...and no one ever forgot. They had been through so much already as Vigil, and Almorra took care of them as more than just a leader and commanding officer.

So Vashildr, Athena, and maybe Jhavi too, all called Almorra "mom" when decorum was relaxed.

Athena and Vashildr ran into Darkrime Delves with one shout of "Almorra?" before resorting to "Mom".

Vashildr volunteered to go through the Raven Havroun trials. She had a mother to avenge.

[pyreo]

This is incredibly hacked together and not all that nice to listen to, but I overlayed the Metal legion’s Ballad of Soulkeeper with Almorra’s battle theme from Darkrime Delves, on the part that matches up. 

You know, if you just wanted to see how the theme was used.