Sigh.
The charr were never evil. Even in Prophecies there were hints to there being more to them, and more going on. Essentially it was a campaign of propaganda, and I’m not just talking about the Flame Legion, either. Adelbern and the nobles spoonfed the peoples of Ascalon whatever lies he needed to in order to keep them unified against whichever evil he sought to crush.
Consider, that only years prior, Ascalon had almost been wiped out in the guild wars with Kryta and Orr. The human race on Tyria almost went extinct at that point, that’s how big those wars were. Adelbern was a proud, bloodthirsty warmonger. And he wasn’t going to surrender to the Flame Legion. Oh no. He wanted blood. So the official party line was that anyone who wasn’t an Ascalonian was a vile beast.
Now, keep in mind the visiting Krytan dignitaries. They were bringing supplies and aid. Starving children and sickly elders were behind the Ascalonian walls, and the Krytans were ready to do all that they could to help out. But nope. Any gifts that the Krytans brought had to be enchanted somehow, with some evil curse. Adelbern paranoidly had you check out a sample of their generosity with every mage he had at his disposal. And even still, once it turned out clean, he didn’t trust them.
On the other hand, the Flame Legion were basically using Ascalon as a political launching grounds. They didn’t care much for the humans, in fact, a surrender would have made their lives easier. Think about it. The only reason they invaded Ascalon was to prove their power to the rest of the charr, which aided with keeping control over the rest of the charr legions. It was a purely political move on their part.
Had the humans gone quietly, it would have made the Flame Legion seem more powerful. Ascalon would have been under Flame Legion occupation, but otherwise no worse for wear.
Furthermore. The nobles told us that the charr eat people. Turns out they don’t. The nobles told us that the charr have no mercy and don’t take prisoners. Turns out that the Flame Legion had kept a group of prisoners alive and in good health (good enough to fight) for a decade or so. You can see all this in Prophecies. So it was a political thing on both ends. Anyone keeping an open eye would have picked up on this.
But Adelbern pushed the war. As such, the Flame Legion got ever more and more desperate in their attempts to prove their superiority over humankind. Prisoners ended up in gladiatorial arenas (the Gwen missions), and the charr made a unified push against he gates of Ascalon. At the same time, the charr rebellion was already chipping away at their control, and their numbers.
The charr we see today aren’t under Flame Legion control. They’re just charr. And frankly, aside from being more hard nosed and wary, it turns out that they’re not that different from us. That they actually take care of their lands, and their beasts. Imagine that. No, they’re not mindless monsters that ate people and were bereft of mercy. They never were, even under Flame Legion rule. That was just the Ascalonian line that was fed you to make you want to fight them.
Basically, they were just people who’d been enslaved (thanks Abaddon), and were forced to fight a war. And they were forced to fight by a bunch of bumbling, inept shamans who—if not for the magic of the titans—could have been easily defeated. I mean, we’re talking about how they thought that the correct response to a woman training a small underground of rebels was to punish not only her, but every charr female ever with kitchen duties.
Gee, that’s not going to further inspire women to train in secret and join the rebellion, is it?
These guys weren’t exactly all there. Or very clever.
So the fact of the matter is is that around the time of Guild Wars, the whole thing was a massive mess. A big, huge, ugly mess. On the humans’ side you had the bloodthirsty, idiotic Adelbern, who couldn’t set his pride aside long enough to save his subjects. His son, desiring to do what his father wouldn’t (save his subjects), was cast out and disowned. On the charr side, you had the Flame Legion, whom I’ve explained about above.
And if that’s not enough… the people who remained around were turned into ghosts who were then enslaved to fight for Adelbern, forever. The man was a nutcase. A grade A nutjob. A whacko. Three-fries short of a happy meal. You know, completely bonzo. So now these poor people have to fight for eternity, unendingly. Why? Because they wanted to retreat when Adelbern didn’t.
So you have to understand that there’s a lot of perspective going on, here.
And you’re seeing things from the craaaaaaaaazy perspective of mad, mad ol’ Adelbern. Have fun with that. Or! Understand that things aren’t so black and white, and read up on the lore!
The point, in clearer words is… Charr are not Humans. Why do they behave like Humans do? They still base everything on honor, which really should lead anyone who claims honor to a point of extremes, which is why I was expecting Charr to be extremists, different, engaging. But no, humans with fur.