Charr Commanders and our status within the legions.

Hello everyone,This is something that's been on my mind for quite a while now, as a Charr Commander and Blood Legion Centurion (or former), where do we stand now among the legions ranks?It's been years since I played personal story, but I recall that when we left our warband someone told me that we were going on a temporary assignment (Pact) on the fight against the dragons. But its been a while since we left the pact and joined a group of multi cultural heros.The Hight legions have not comment on this matter so.... are we some kind of "Honorable Gladium" the legions prefer not to talk about?I've used the search tool but found nothing related to this topic.

Yes, we are pretty much that, and I hate it. Rytlock carefully called it Free Agent.After the original "Personal Story", we've been thrown out of every military order we earned a rank in. We were let go as a Blood Legion centurion by Brimstone, we were let go as a Vigil Warmaster by Almorra herself, and I guess I already repressed when I was thrown out as a commander of the pact.Since then I've been running around in some desert on the whims of a kiddo Asura.

It is one of the reasons for the jarring gap between my understanding of the character I created, and what is presented to me in the story from HoT onwards. If you play a Blood Legion (or probably any) Charr, you're only de-evolving after the original story.

That's largely because there's nothing there. The specifics, as we were told them, were that Rytlock "arranged for you to permanently join [a] order. You'll still be a centurion of the High Legions, but you'll also be a link between us and your chosen order. Your warband will continue doing Citadel business while you're gone." Then the Pact happened. Then we wandered away from the Pact and did our own thing for awhile. Then we quit the Pact, ditched our order, and made our own group. And in the middle of all that Rytlock also went AWOL, and now he seems to have stopped working for the Blood Legion altogether and started working for us.

Where that leaves our character, our standing with our legion, even our warband? It's never been discussed, never been touched on. We haven't gone back to charr territory sine 2014, and even then, the most we got was A.) an assurance that Smodur approved of the work we were doing at the time and B.) what may or may not have been an oblique hint that Rytlock considered us a 'free agent' like Rox, working on a mission to destroy the Elder Dragons. To my knowledge, we haven't been in touch with our warband even once since the early Personal Story.

So, in short? Your guess is as good as anyone else's right now.

Yeah you pretty much abandon your racial legacy when you join up with one of the orders and you later pull away from the order when you become second in charge of the pact, and more or less completely pull away when you become pact commander as nobody associates you with any of the individual orders anymore but as a leader of all 3.By the time you leave the pact and just become the commander nobody considers your previous ties to your racial provence or order to bind you in any way to them.At this point you're more or less a free agent operating under your own guild much like Destiny's edge was.

It hasn't really been handled in the best of ways in all honesty but oh well, perhaps we can get some political racial and order throw backs in later content sometime.Would be nice to have some closure on those things.

Logan and the case of Kralkatorrik/Jennah episode on book was the last time that where a conflict between someone position in some anti-ED organization VS racial loyalty ties was explored?

@ugrakarma.9416 said:Logan and the case of Kralkatorrik/Jennah episode on book was the last time that where a conflict between someone position in some anti-ED organization VS racial loyalty ties was explored?

Depends on your threshold for 'explored'? It was touched on a couple times during the PS and S2- the last time, I believe, was the arguments the racial leaders put forward during the world summit. Albeit, we always approach from the PC's perspective, whose position on that conflict has remained unmuddled and ironclad. Putting racial loyalty first is always written to be a suicidally short-sighted position.

@Aaron Ansari.1604 said:

@"ugrakarma.9416" said:Logan and the case of Kralkatorrik/Jennah episode on book was the last time that where a conflict between someone position in some

anti-ED organization

VS

racial loyalty

ties was explored?

Thank you for reminding me, I really did not remember even the world summit.basically, from what I remember from the world summit narrative the racial leaders prioritize problems of their realms and "we" as Pc is that prioritize the E.D. or "global problems". Rytlock and his "vow of silence" about his mists trip could be a case of confrontation with the commander, prioritizing the orders of the "racial kingdom."

Free Agent, which is essentially a heroic gladium. As long as you keep doing amazing heroic things the Legions will be happy to call you one of their own. If you fail or fall short... they'll kind of pretend you didn't exist.

@CETheLucid.3964 said:Free Agent, which is essentially a heroic gladium. As long as you keep doing amazing heroic things the Legions will be happy to call you one of their own. If you fail or fall short... they'll kind of pretend you didn't exist.

Simply put, thats how I feel right now. At this point it seems like a taboo subject for everyone, while sparing us from the ugly truth....Gladium, writen on our backs

@Regh.8649 said:

@CETheLucid.3964 said:Free Agent, which is essentially a heroic gladium. As long as you keep doing amazing heroic things the Legions will be happy to call you one of their own. If you fail or fall short... they'll kind of pretend you didn't exist.

Consider even someone like Pyre Fierceshot's statue is located outside the Black Citadel. Consider Rox:

! She's leaving the system altogether and joining the Olmakahn.At the end of the day the PC is a hero and heroes don't get much recognition nor are they conducive to a stratocracy. We'll be honored and renowned at any rate and the world can't ignore what we've done so far so it's a semantics issue the legions will be forced to deal with eventually.

I expect with time and with the discovery of the Olmakahn that charr military culture will eventually mellow out, at least a little bit. They can't ignore the multiracial issue forever either.

With the peace between humanity and charr holding steady and the Vigil and the Pact having proven that multiracial forces are more than merely effective in safeguarding the world, we could easily be turning a new chapter in history.

I don't think Anet remember our personal story at all, it sucks that we never mention our warband or have our warband show up to aid us. I'm annoyed that we don't have Forrest Gump/Lieutenant Dan moment where Rytlock should has said "You are commander of the Pact now but don't think i'll be calling you sir". Another thing is that

As far as we can tell, the charr commander is still a centurion in good standing with his legion. It's just that you are on a mission to basically solve the dragon crisis/save the world and you are making good progress. Smodur, Bangar and Malice are likely well informed about recent events including the formation of Dragon's Watch and the defeat of Balthazar. And really, what charr imperator wouldn't be impressed to hear that their centurion managed to not only have a leading role in the defeat of two three elder dragons, but also managed to put down a human god on a rampage? (Joko is basically a dessert at this point.)

At that point your agent clearly seems to know what he's doing (if only they knew the truth...) so you let him do his thing, while bragging to the other imperators that it's your officer who's saving the world.Meanwhile at home, the troops are busy stomping on Flame Legion, which is contained, but you have to get into their thick skulls that they're defeated. Then there's the ghosts of Ascalon, which need to be pacified and ghostbore ammunition is doing a really great job here. To the east there are ogres trying to conquer charr land, but the unlikely alliance of Ebonhawke and the legions is keeping them under control. Finally, the Dragonbrand will continue to be a problem for the future. Siren's Landing shows, that the damage done by the elder dragons will last for quite some time, but the threat of the branded has likely peaked. From now on the Brand is getting smaller, so there's no need to recall that centurion.

In fact, I imagine even the imperators are secretly a little nervous about recalling the commander. A charr of his achievements, who has done the seemingly impossible multiple times over might just claim the title and Claw of the Khan-Ur and unify the four legions under a legendary ruler. Each of the current imperators might at least think about this possibility and may not like it as much as imagining themselves as Khan-Ur.For now the commander is on his mission to save the world and the rulers of the charr are perfectly okay with that. Except Kralkatorrik is now dead. We have Aurene, who manages magic, Primordus and Jormag are sleeping, Zhaitan and Mordremoth are gone and there is no trace of Steve Bubbles. So unless the deep sea dragon shows up the commander might actually come home to report mission success!

I guess the Charr commander situation largely depends on the current world situation and the personal affiliation of every Legion. Basically, when things seems to go awry really bad (like with Scarlet and then Mordremoth, mainly), he's probably considered as "A Gladium in all but name" by most, perhaps even his Warband. The rest of the time, it'll depend of his Legion. A Iron Legion Commander right about now is probably very much acclaimed by his Legion and Imperator as a true champion of the Black Citadel, a pinnacle of Charr's devotion to their Legion and its survival. Blood and Ash Legions are probably a lot more reserved on that front.

But overall, it's a little sad that the two races with the less prominence in the recent lore additions, Charr and Norn, are the ones the most impacted by the events at a personal level. The Charr commander, because his entire social standing basically depends on how well he performs and how bad the Imperator of his Legion has slept the night before; the Norn because her legend is so damn great now that there is absolutely no way she'll find a worthy mate and is probably extremely isolated, even in her society, since she almost never comes home to see how the Norns are faring with all those changes. Hell, she didn't even really bother to be there when the Serpent's Fang was pierced !

That's why I hope that if LW5 is about smaller threats and all, that the Charr at least, and hopefully also the Norns, will have a significant role. They really need some love beyond the Olmakhan who are so far removed from playable Charrs than they are basically a whole new civilization.

@Above who is less impacted or at least impacted in an good way by the events at an personal level then?

As a charr, you took a Shining Blade oath to protect Kryta. You've betrayed your legion and race already since LS3E06. You should be a wanted charr, at best - a nobody. But nope. Carry on, do your thing!

@adormtil.1605 said:@Above who is less impacted or at least impacted in an good way by the events at an personal level then?

I would say the Sylvaris and Asuras are the least negatively impacted at a personal level. After all, while the revelation of their origin may have been hurtful, the Sylvaris Commanders powered on and proved that they weren't Dragons Minions but true heroes, probably inspiring whole new generations of their kind in the Dream with their actions, tilting perhaps forever the balance toward it and away from the Nightmare.

Asuras have witnessed countless magical events of incredible magnitude, probably took note and, while Taimi is the one credited with the Elder Dragons' research, they are surely extremely sought after for their field knowledge and their personal work which has probably bolstered their standing with their College. Applications for every discoveries made in each map must be enormous, really - just the elite specializations being brought back partially by the Commander must be extremely interesting to Asuras.

Humans are a mixed bag. They are obviously very heroic figures, who have risen from whatever their initial status was to legendary level. I highly doubt that even the poorest of street urchin Commander is anything but an absolute savior in Kryta, what with dealing with the White Mantle, once and for all, reuniting the Kingdom with Elona and saving it. But they also had to face off with one of their Gods and kill him, while learning that the others have utterly given up on Tyria and left, even Kormir who was humans barely 250+ years ago. So at a personal level, they must be happier than before but also shaken in their devotions.

Edit : in essence, Charr and Norn commanders are both facing structural problems impacting their lives as members of their species, whether they wanted them or not, while the other races' commanders face situational problems which, while sometimes dire, can be surmounted and left in the past.

Are not charr imperators required to be descendants from the their one and only Khan so the charr commander is disqualified? Also being the biggest legend the norn ever had would that not bring the opportunity for an norn commander to make an homestead(sorry meant an lodge) bigger then the biggest?

Concerning the status of Imperator, being a descendant of the Khan-Ur is indeed supposed to be necessary. Now, I suspect that a Charr as victorious as the Commander could gather a lot of troops if he so wished, like the Renegades did, and possibly stake a claim that he is an heir of the Khan-Ur, since as of today, there is probably a lot of Charrs able to trace their lineage to him : the Khan-Ur had several children, who had several children, etc. And it was many generations ago (more than 1300 years ago, even) so the number of Charrs able to say they are from the Khan-Ur distant family must be enormous.

As for the Norn, would it even be possible to make a bigger homestead that Hoelbrak ? The Norns are solitary, would they truly gather to his homestead in enormous numbers when they already have something more than enough for them ? And would this homestead survive the death of the Commander when he wouldn't be able to have children to protect and nurture it, like Asgeir Dragonrender did with Knut Whitebear's father, Knut himself and his sons ?

The size of a norn homestead never necessarily corresponded with the fame of the norn in charge- it's just that, back in the old days, it was common practice to face challenges for control of the lodge, so a fearsome reputation helped keep those inconveniences to a minimum. We hear very little of that sort of thing in GW2, so it may be that the practice is dying out anyway.

@Ultramex.1506 said:

When i met Gwen as a Charr in Dragonfall, she is completely oblivious to my race, Rytlock said Charr tells story about Gwen to scare cub but my Charr doesn't seem to know