Claw and Voice/Mouth or Aurene.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

Hi.

Could we consider the Commander as the Claw of Aurene and Chaith as the Voice/Mouth of Aurene?

Just some thought.

[Randulf.7614]

Not really, no - why would we?

I mean Caithe was her vocal link briefly but not anymore.

[draxynnic.3719]

We probably could consider them to be analogous. While Aurene can talk for herself, Caithe can still use her connection to act as an ambassador.

One distinction, though, is that unlike a Claw, the Commander can also hear Aurene. Essentially, both are champions of Aurene, even if the Commander isn't physically changed.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

Is the Commander even considered corrupted into a dragon minion? Sure, they're called "champion" but this always felt more like the more traditional champion (representative for combat) than a dragon champion. And there's no blue skin or crystal coming out from under said skin. So I would argue that the Commander does not relate to any dragon champion role, because they are not corrupted like Caithe is into dragon minions.

That said, to play the devil's advocate, the Claws of Jormag and Claws of Kralkatorrik weren't anything all that special. The former are just dragon champions that attack things (like a beast would use claws for), while Claws of Kralkatorrik, well, I suppose they could be said to do the same. Mouths of Zhaitan were used for consuming magic (the Mouth of Mordremoth is a bit of a red herring, as that was Mordremoth's core body and not a minion). Were the Commander already corrupted, then they are neither a minion designed for assaulting Aurene's enemies, nor a minion designed for consuming magic for Aurene. So they don't really fit.

If the Commander is related to any specific kind of dragon champion role, it'd be that of Herald. Like the Great Destroyer, Drakkar, and Scarlet Briar, who worked to prepare for and help awaken their Elder Dragon early, the Commander prepared the way for Aurene to ascend into Elder Dragonhood. Caithe plays a similar role, but not quite the same as a herald. I guess she'd be more akin to the Disc of Chaos or Svanir which were powerful dragon minions/champions working under the herald.

[draxynnic.3719]

I was actually thinking in terms of Claw and Voice of Koda... one does the fighting, the other (supposedly) acts as the mouthpiece.

The Commander is an interesting case. As you say, there's been no outward physical changes. However, the Commander has clearly been enhanced in a few ways by Aurene: Bond of Faith is probably the clearest indication, since it's a similar "spectral crystalline wings" graphic to when we were carrying the egg back in Heart of Thorns. There's also clearly a mental link - for instance, we can hear Aurene's voice in Episode 5 while the NPCs only heard Caithe's voice relaying the message (similar to how only sylvari heard Mordremoth in Heart of Thorns).

So I think it's quite likely that Aurene has formed a bond with the Commander which is similar to the bond that the other Elder Dragons have with their minions. The distinction is that Aurene's connection to her "minions" is a much lighter touch: she doesn't forcefully rewrite anyone's loyalties to her, but only forges links with those who are willing and doesn't use the link to force anything on the recipient. Like Caithe said: Not corruption, connection.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

Aurene has a special power to connect and disconnect anyone at will. Just like how she connects with everyone to show her vision of the future. However, those connections seems to be temporary. Thus, in the case of the commander, Aurene connects only when she deems it necessary and most of the time the Commander is left in the dark. I don't believe that Aurene collects "minions." Her connection is just a form of communication or sharing resources. Caithe's transformation is something else.

[serious.9730]

Minions are mostly collected by corrupting an individual or corpse, the exception is Mordremoth being able to produce new minions from pods and plants. The production of Sylvari from the pale tree is definitely different.

Caithe made a choice whereas others do not.

After linking to Caithe Aurene developed an ability to communicate that she did not have before. Unfortunately this was not explored before they temporarily killed her.