Guild Wars 2

So we know in the personal story the High Legions offer some support to the Pact by delivering tanks and supporting personnel (e.g. mechanics) – if not other supplies – to Orr, but how do the High Legions really feel about the three orders, especially the Vigil? Consider that Almorra Soulkeeper, was formerly a Legionnaire of the Blood Legion before going on to found her own army independent of the High Legions. It’s also worth noting that when a player charr joins the Vigil, it’s by special order and with instruction from Rytlock (does he really have authority to give those orders to charr from other legions? I don’t remember if it’s cleared with the character’s respective tribune or not) that the character will remain a member of his legion, acting as a liaison between them and the Vigil.

Now, it’s highly unlikely that every charr in the Vigil is there by the same special orders that the player character follows. It also seems unlikely that Almorra Soulkeeper would still be taking orders from the Blood Legion, so are most of the charr in the Vigil’s ranks deserters? The same thought applies to the Order of Whispers (charr members undoubtedly contribute military secrets) and, to a lesser extent, the Durmand Priory. Hell, even the Lionguard might have this problem. Yet, in-game at least, I can’t remember ever seeing even a hint of animosity between legion loyalists and charr belonging to the aforementioned orders and organizations. Is there any?

I guess Almorra’s goals line up with the High Legions’ long-term goals, and she’s at least provided them with support (e.g. in the Fields of Ruin) in several areas. So while I could understand there being tolerance for her and her order, there being no tension between legion and Vigil charr is, at best, unexpected.

I’m also a little curious where Almorra got the funding to start the Vigil. I’m sure she managed to find a lot of skilled craftsmen and masons to build their armory and keep, but that land had to belong to someone before the Vigil took it for themselves. Assuming the order’s initial engineers worked for the greater good, where did they get the materials? Seems a little weird that no one would be at all upset by an entirely independent army staking claim to all those materials. I guess it’s hard to argue with that much manpower (again, how did she recruit everyone?), but still.

As a bit of an aside, how do fahrars actually work? The wiki says that cubs are sent to the fahrar of their legion and forced into a warband, which are made up of charr only from one legion or another. Yet we have NPCs in-game telling us that they chose their legion in the fahrar. One in particular, a Vigil NPC whose name I don’t remember, talks about how she and her brother both joined the Blood Legion and later the Vigil, while her sister joined the Ash Legion and later the Order of Whispers. So, something seems off somewhere.

Almorra is a Gladium, so she kind of went on her own after Kralk’s rise and made the Vigil. There’s one charr in the last instance that mentions something about missing his warband/legion, but he likes hanging out with other people.
The way he worded it sounded like he’s still part of that warband/legion, but it’s not like it’s forbidden to go off into the orders.

There’s another character who says something to the effect of, “I may be a gladium, but I’m still a soldier of the legion!” in the Black Citadel.

Do gladiums not get any orders until they find a new warband?

The legions seem to allow some personal freedom to their members if they arent on specific missions and are considered trustworthy. We see charr all over tyria in various roles many of who even mention they are still loyal to their legion. I think the legion understands the value of their people getting life experiance and learning things from outside their own areas.

The deciding factor I suspect is weither the Legions feel that the charr in verious organisations still have the Legion’s best interests at heart. The Durmond Priory and the Vigil certainly are organisations that the Legions respect and whos interests are favorable to the charr. The Order of Whispers on the other hand I think the charr are more inclined to be working with considering the age and resources of the group than working against.

Remember Warbands are like families to the charr rather than just military units. As long as they are honest and communicate there desire to join an order or travel to their Warband and by that their ranking officer, Id say they would have the freedom to act on it as long as they werent needed at home.

Really the same would apply to a human. If a human walked out while their family needed them they wouldnt be too popular either.

One thing that Almorra mentions, in Ghosts of Ascalon I think it was, is that she had assistance from “surprising” sources in founding the Vigil. I don’t think that’s been expounded on yet, but it does indicate that ArenaNet does have a story in mind for how the Vigil formed. However, there are a lot of powerful figures who could likely see the benefit of forming a military order dedicated to fighting the dragons after Kralkatorrik’s rise, especially one that presents the possibility to allow humans and charr to be united by a common goal – Smodur, Malice, Queen Jennah, the Captain’s Council in Lion’s Arch. If the Vigil is being backed by the Iron and/or Ash Imperators, that answers a lot of questions, and if it’s being backed by Jennah or Lion’s Arch, than Vigil Keep may have been a keep formerly belonging to Kryta or Lion’s Arch (it’s a little unclear whether eastern Gendarron Fields is technically part of Kryta or a Lionguard protectorate) given to the Vigil to serve as a base of operations.