Hey, I love the idea you’re working on here. Here are my submissions. I’m trying to dictate as little as I can of what happens after the formation of the Pact, and instead focus on how they came to be there and outline what their place in the Pact is.
Also, a quick, friendly note to Unfathomed about Matthew the Voiceless – using separatists like that in his story suggests that the current truce between humans and charr has been there for nearly 30 years, but in fact the ceasefire was only signed a year before GW2 launch. Before that the humans and charr were in open war, there was no treaty for the separatists to oppose.
Anyway, submissions:
Human – Megan Reedly
A descendant of the Ascalonians who followed Rurik over the Shiverpeaks, Megan (Meg to some of her friends) is a cheerful, playful woman with a love of music. She is 22 years old, born and raised in Rurikton, Divinity’s Reach. When she was young she would spend hours listening to musicians playing near the statue of Dwayna, and when she was six, her parents bought her a cheap lyre to play on, and she managed to get some basic lessons from a charitable minstrel.
When she was sixteen, she got a job as a minstrel at the Maiden’s Whisper. She was given an adequate lyre for this, but after some years she was able to buy a much higher-quality one. Since the development of Uzolan’s mechanical orchestra, she has been worried about what music-playing machines will mean for minstrels and the art of music itself.
Eventually Megan began to feel stagnated and wanted to travel, but she didn’t have the impetus to do so until Corporal Kellach’s attack on the city flooded the streets with undead and pushed her out of her home. She journeyed to Lion’s Arch and had a brief job playing at the Crow’s Nest before Zhaitan’s attack once more threw things into disarray. After the recapture of Claw Island, she decided to travel with the Pact and help to keep morale up.
For the most part she intends to stay within camps, playing music and conversing with resting soldiers. However, she wants to help any way she can and is not wholly useless in a fight, as she learned mesmerism to enhance her performances, and is able to adapt it to combat purposes. She will do whatever she can to prevent anything from happening to her lyre. She also happens to be afraid of spiders.
Charr – Varina Brightburn
An impressive Blood Legion charr veteran equipped with a mace and shield, Varina was assigned as a legionnaire to the siege of Ebonhawke and later field-promoted to centurion, but in 1320 AE she was ambushed by Vanguard guerrillas and took a blow to the head from a mace almost as soon as the fight began. As a guardian she saw the protection of her fellow soldiers as her responsibility, but this became impossible as her concussion all but blinded her and left her unable to do more than flail wildly as her warband was cut down around her. She herself was recognised as a valuable prisoner and captured rather than killed.
Varina spent some months in Ebon Vanguard captivity but refused to break under their interrogation. She still bears scars from this period including an unsightly burn on her face which she usually keeps covered out of courtesy to her comrades. She was eventually freed by Logan Thackeray in the Ogre Revolt, but was stripped of rank on her return to the Black Citadel and relegated to scrapper duty. She spent months living on as little money as she could until she had saved enough for a one-way gate trip to Lion’s Arch where she began a new life far from the stigma of her past failures.
Still capable and eager to fight, Varina joined the Lionguard and protected Lion’s Arch for years. She was one of the survivors of Claw Island, and after its recapture she was one of the many Lionguard who joined the Pact, in her case the Vigil. She is a strict but fair leader who looks after her troops, secretly terrified of suffering the same loss as at Ebonhawke. She still struggles to trust humans, and she is deeply wary of fire.
Norn – Inga Arnisdottir
Inga is an independent norn woman born 28 years ago in Njordstead, in the north of the Snowden Drifts. She is a curious explorer, and as a kid one of her favourite pastimes was to explore the nearby dwarven ruins of Grooble’s Gulch. Though she didn’t understand anything she found there, this did little to quell her fascination with the ruins. She also learned hunting as a way of life, and became versed in the use of the longbow and the warhammer.
Shortly after Inga came of age, the Durmand Priory came to Njordstead to mount a proper expedition into the Grooble’s Gulch ruins. Inga’s childhood interest was rekindled and she offered to help them in their explorations, finally learning about the dwarven civilisation which had lived there. Excited by the prospect of learning more about the dwarves, Inga joined the Durmand Priory herself. When the Pact was formed, Inga gladly joined the fight against Orr, feeling a similar passion towards learning Orrian history to that she had long felt for the dwarves.
Inga is friendly and reliable but also competitive, and enjoys drink as much as the next norn. She does not feel affinity towards any one Spirit of the Wild in particular, though if asked she would choose either Bear for her self-reliance or Raven for his valuing knowledge. She keeps her blonde hair short. Since joining the Priory she has largely abandoned the longbow in favour of her hammer, which she can wield with devastating force.
Asura – Kraxx
Kraxx is an excitable older asura and an alumnus of the College of Synergetics. From a young age, he was fascinated by the Elder Dragons, and he dedicated much of his life to studying them. His early works attempt to examine their place in the Eternal Alchemy, drawing comparisons and contrasts with other powerful forces and entities. Later he moved on to trying to understand the magical processes behind their abilities, particularly their corruption and minions.
Perhaps predictably, he joined the Durmand Priory to gain access to greater resources for his research. Though much of his work is undertaken in secure laboratories, it also necessarily involves a large amount of field research. Despite the danger, he is excited by the prospect of observing dragon minions first-hand, and is reluctant to trust the accuracy of second-hand accounts. When Kralkatorrik awoke five years ago, he dropped everything to be among the first researchers to study the Dragonbrand. When fighting, however, he keeps his distance and uses pistols and alchemical compounds.
He makes no secret of the fact that he is more interested in understanding the dragons than in destroying them, which sometimes puts him at odds with other scholars. Nonetheless he takes part in large-scale projects to combat the dragons. He is a proficient alchemist, working alongside the likes of Professor Gorr (whom he looks up to) and Researcher Maeva on the compounds used against dragon champions and later Zhaitan himself. He has a wife who is also in the Durmand Priory, though she works in the field of history rather than that of alchemy; the two met when Kraxx requested her notes on Alkar’s Alchemical Acid.
Sylvari – Gethin
Gethin is an aloof eight-year-old sylvari ranger of the Cycle of Night. He is quite tall by sylvari standards, and has dark, barky skin. He is a loner and a wanderer, who left the Grove early in his life and joined the Soundless at Naulshead Refuge until he had learned to distance himself from the Dream, after which he eventually moved on. His sole constant companion is his black stalker, Umbra, who often remains out of sight, waiting to take by surprise anything that decides to attack her master.
Though he is uncongenial, Gethin is not uncaring. In his travels he witnessed first-hand the dangers presented by the dragons’ minions and, recognising them as a global threat which needed to be fought, he began taking action against them when he got the opportunity, relying largely on traps and ambush tactics. His favoured weapons are a sword and a parrying dagger.
In 1322 he caught the eye of the Order of Whispers when he unknowingly interfered with but ultimately helped one of their operations. He joined the Order as a reconnaissance agent and occasional member of small strike teams. While he is slow to bond with others, those he works with often enough will find he warms to their presence, engaging more in team tactics and sometimes joining in celebrations and other off-duty gatherings, though he remains quiet and contemplative throughout.
