Guild Wars 2

Hello, after doing part of One Path Ends of S3, encountering the shining blade members and going through the ritual kind of raised more thoughts and questions.

I looked through the lore of the shining blades, and saw many/or all of its members are human. Yet, if you play as a different race in-game, does that imply they’re open to recruit the commander (your character) regardless of race? I just think it’d be neat to see the organization being multi-racial and follow a higher fellowship and duty of other races willing to protect the leader/human queen like the Vigil in a sense, but a more elite force.

But TLDR: Do the Shining Blades restrict recruiting strictly to humans, or are they open to anyone who’s willing (regardless of race) and prove able to successfully pass trials/the joining process?

They normally restrict recruiting only to humans. The Commander was a special exception, made because it was necessary for the mission and because Anise trusts the Commander. Even then, it’s questionable whether a nonhuman Commander is genuinely considered to be part of the Shining Blade now, or whether it was purely to get around their magically binding oath of silence.

(Note that the objection Salia raises to a nonhuman taking the oath is “Never before has a nonhuman supplicant taken this oath”, and after the oath-taking, she mentions that the Shining Blade isn’t opening up per se, it’s the Commander in particular that’s special.)