How relevant are your alts in the story?

[Guy.9207]

This isn't a question where there is a correct answer (unless Anet dev steps in), but I would like to ask what kind of headcanon you all have.

Say, you have a character, that character is The Commander, the Dragon Slayer, The Scion of Aurene.

But what about your alts? Unless you're Snargle who only plays a single character, everyone is bound to play multiple characters at some point, which brings me to the question...

How do you see your alts? How relevant they are in the stories? Who ARE they?

Are they also The Pact Commander? Are they from the same world as your main? If they are not The Commander, how close they are to them, and what role do they play in the narrative?

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Alts are just alternate timelines.

[mythical.6315]

I don’t look into it that deeply. 

[Kalavier.1097]

42 minutes ago, NeverLoseGuy.3894 said:

This isn't a question where there is a correct answer (unless Anet dev steps in), but I would like to ask what kind of headcanon you all have.

Say, you have a character, that character is The Commander, the Dragon Slayer, The Scion of Aurene.

But what about your alts? Unless you're Snargle who only plays a single character, everyone is bound to play multiple characters at some point, which brings me to the question...

How do you see your alts? How relevant they are in the stories? Who ARE they?

Are they also The Pact Commander? Are they from the same world as your main? If they are not The Commander, how close they are to them, and what role do they play in the narrative?

None of my characters are "THE commander"

However, I do consider each character (not all at once, but randomly) and how they'd interact with each episode. I mainly play my necro I started GW2 with in terms of gameplay (no other char has fully setup builds, gear, etc) but in reality she'd rarely go out as far as some of these maps, like the heart of the maguuma.

The closest character I have is my norn guardian, who is part of the vigil (My necro is a priory member, but more homebound) and a warmaster. She'd know Trahearne and some other major characters, even if just brief interactions during the Personal story and beyond. She'd be on the front lines of each major vigil excursion against the dragons, but obviously not involved in other chapters that don't feature the Pact much.

[Rogue.8235]

I haven't yet decided which of my characters is the actual Pact Commander in lore.  However, all my alts are the Commander's JSOTF (joint special operations task force).  Essentially, they're well-trained Vigil/Whisper/Priory specialists assigned to a separate unit to be called upon as a quick response force on a multi-theater scale.  Basically, the Pact isn't quite sure what to do with a given situation, so send the alts in to figure it out.

 

[Narcemus.1348]

I used to head canon that they were all part of an elite task force that would split up and overcome different obstacles (I had one Priory, one Vigil, and one Whispers) and they would all tackle different tasks. But honestly since LWS3 I have mostly played my main solo and just treated my other characters as other Fractal build options. So I have somewhat started to consider them separate timelines.

[mercury ranique.2170]

Any story that you do not experience first hand requires some bit of immersion. To me playing a different character is like re-reading a book. The story is the same, but some details are different. I might sit in a different chair, read at different times of the day and in a different speed. But most of it is the same as the story and the book is the same.

[Batel.9206]

I have one main, a sylvari, who is "the" Commander. My initial alts are his friends, who met him and each other early on in the personal story and, by chance or choice, wound up sticking together throughout. My human guardian chose to stay close to the Commander because he was scared spitless this disturbingly innocent plant boy was going to get himself killed. My norn ranger wanted to be alone (ironic for a follower of Wolf), but the Priory and then the Pact kept dragging her back into everyone's lives. My charr elementalist and asura engineer encountered each other a few times before they wound up both joining the Vigil, and from there the fledgling Pact at Claw Island; they immediately started bickering with one another and stayed together so they could do it more easily. Nobody's had a moment's rest since.*

They've had ups and downs and their own little dramas and side-stories (for example, the norn and human kinda sorta fell in love...then the human's criminal past caught up with him and he got shipped off to Lake Doric as a prisoner sometime in the middle of LWS2's storyline; he was reunited with the rest of the characters when the White Mantle attacked two years later), because my character-first writer's brain just cannot calm down. Sometimes I wish it would...

Other alts are for RP, and with those, I just decide they exist somewhere in the (far) background of the "main" story. Maybe my Commander and his friends pass by them once or twice, but they've never interacted. I've a sylvari botanist who was at Siren's Landing with the rest of the reclamation team; he may or may not have seen the Commander from a distance, but didn't pay attention since he had rather more important things to deal with at the moment. If you asked him about it now, he wouldn't be able to tell you who the Commander was.

Heck, I have one Priory scholar who's firmly convinced "the Commander" doesn't actually exist, and that their legend consists of stories conflating various members of Dragon's Watch - I mean, really, how could one person cause that much chaos and be that impactful? That's just silly. (She's also convinced that wind comes from trees waving really hard. I never said she was a competent scholar, now did I? 😜)

 

* NORN: [after enduring yet another round of arguing between them] I thought you two were getting along now. Silly me.

ASURA: We "get along" as only we know how--

CHARR: I hurl insults at him and he does his best to keep up.

ASURA: [sulky] It's the other way 'round, but semantics aren't important right now.

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

I only have one character that I consider the Pact Commander. I specifically made her (with the help of a friend) based on her appearance in the LWS1 recap video before LWS1 actually came back this year.

 

The rest of my 44 characters (including one NPC recreation so technically that one isn't mine) pretty much do their own thing.

[Super Hayes.6890]

My alts are simply the commander's guild. It works well for me since I have a personal guild hall. Takes fooooorever to upgrade but they all pitch in. The captain's airship is theirs too 😉

[Gibson.4036]

I have two characters who haven’t done any of the story apart from accompanying my two kids through their stories.

It’s kind of fun to be the commander’s closest companion.

You have to ignore the occasional open world NPC interaction.

And until you play through the story this way, it’s easy not to notice just how many times the writers assumed people would be playing the story alone. It’s kind of amazing how many times they say things like, “I thought more than just one of you would have come” or “I guess it’s just the two of us”.

Meanwhile I’m standing next to the commander saying, “Hey. I’m standing right here. Hello?”

[Batel.9206]

6 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

And until you play through the story this way, it’s easy not to notice just how many times the writers assumed people would be playing the story alone. It’s kind of amazing how many times they say things like, “I thought more than just one of you would have come” or “I guess it’s just the two of us”.

Meanwhile I’m standing next to the commander saying, “Hey. I’m standing right here. Hello?”

There's two exceptions (sort of), and those are in PoF and LWS4.

Spoiler

In PoF, during The Departing, other players in the party are also taken to the Domain of the Lost - transformed into little orbs called "spirit guardians" that can aid the main player with little buffs or tiny attacks. It's kinda cute.

In LWS4, episode one, when the Commander is "held captive" by Sayida in order to break into the prison, Sayida will say, "I live only to give Joko what he wants [...] And there's nothing he wants more than the Tyrian hero - in the flesh."

Buuuut if you're in a party with other players, Sayida will amend that last line: "And there's nothing he wants more than the Tyrian hero and some co-conspirators - in the flesh."

To my knowledge, there's no other time in the entire story where it's actually acknowledged if you're with other players. I could be wrong?

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Batel.9206 said:

There's two exceptions (sort of), and those are in PoF and LWS4.

  Hide contents

In PoF, during The Departing, other players in the party are also taken to the Domain of the Lost - transformed into little orbs called "spirit guardians" that can aid the main player with little buffs or tiny attacks. It's kinda cute.

In LWS4, episode one, when the Commander is "held captive" by Sayida in order to break into the prison, Sayida will say, "I live only to give Joko what he wants [...] And there's nothing he wants more than the Tyrian hero - in the flesh."

Buuuut if you're in a party with other players, Sayida will amend that last line: "And there's nothing he wants more than the Tyrian hero and some co-conspirators - in the flesh."

To my knowledge, there's no other time in the entire story where it's actually acknowledged if you're with other players. I could be wrong?

In part of the shining blade initiation other players get put in a balcony watching the commander do their ordeal below. If I remember correctly they are given some support skills.

I never expected the game to acknowledge other players, per se, though occasionally the game designers have clearly thought about it and provided for it. I was surprised by how many times the dialogue is written specifically around the commander being alone, though.

[Wolfb.7025]

My main character isn't the pact commander.

 

I don't roleplay, and I like summerging into the story as if I was the pact commander, but my main character AND my alts have their own backstory sepparated from the plot of the game.

[Farohna.6247]

Can't say I ever really thought about, but it's an interesting question.  It's sort of like a choose your own adventure, so each alt has its own version or timeline.  The commander is whichever I'm playing as atm.  

My sylvari ranger was fun as the commander from core through HoT, playing alongside Trehearne, and gave it feel of urgency as a sylvari.  My charr rev is really fun from HoT through EoD, just because of the introduction in HoT and the charr storyline in IBS.  

[Brycar.2651]

My original core group of alts are all pact commanderS, they are in a guild together. 
 

my Asuras are all part of the same Krew with my first Asura also a pact commander. 
 

 my Charr are all in the same warband with same naming convention. my first Charr is also a pact commander 
 

my characters from Elona and Cantha have not gone thru the personal story. They are not commanders. They are representatives of their regions. 

[Mara.6782]

My keyfarmer alt is on endless fractal. Repeating to kill "don't you know who i am" guy and other goons. Sometimes it will go further to join an order or even to run away from undead dragon. But mostly stays in divinity reach fractal and its surroundings.

[Gibson.4036]

8 hours ago, Mara.6782 said:

My keyfarmer alt is on endless fractal. Repeating to kill "don't you know who i am" guy and other goons. Sometimes it will go further to join an order or even to run away from undead dragon. But mostly stays in divinity reach fractal and its surroundings.

After all these games of “Who can hit the hardest?” you’d think Big Nosed Ted would let me go first for a change.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 6/15/2022 at 4:40 PM, NeverLoseGuy.3894 said:

Say, you have a character, that character is The Commander, the Dragon Slayer, The Scion of Aurene.

But what about your alts?

Parallel universe. For me, each character is the Commander. Whoever I play is the current Commander. No need to complicate things, it's not like ANet supports RPG'ing in GW2 by giving you means to make each character unique and special. Everything is merely cosmetic.

[EdwinLi.1284]

I only have one character now being my Engineer and she is the Commander of the story.

 

The way I see how this game is with Alts is that they are more Alternate realities to different Commanders of different origins.

 

This is reflected alot in the first story arc in GW2 being the Zhaitan Arc since it focus on building up who the Commander is as a individual from their origins to how they became the Commander through their own choices. Each reality having different choices and origin for their own Commander.

 

This is even more so when you consider a Revenant Commander since Rytlock is the first Revenant in all realities except for the realities where the Commander is a Revenant since that means the Commander is the first Revenant or Revenant always existed in that reality before Rytlock became a Revenant.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

My alts are no more relevant to the main story than ordinary NPCs. But they are relevant to my main's story 🙂 While my main joins the Pact and fights alongside them throughout the entire Elder Dragons campaign, my alts only join her in The Icebrood Saga and onwards. So I guess they only become more "relevant" to the main story then. 

[Tom.8029]

Didn’t you see Duncan and Anja in Hoelbrak fighting the holo vinetooth?  None of us are the commander. XD

Edited June 17, 2022 by Tom.8029

[Teleoceras.1298]

    Well I have 42 characters, but only my main is considered the Commander. I did write a short story series where one of my alts and my main did become a couple and eventually married with the Warmaster being the Commander's wife and bodyguard. Both were at Claw Island, but first met at Shaemoor. Now my 4 Asura also exist on that world and a parallel world where one of them is the Grand High Sovereign of the Asuran Empire. Basically they wiped out the Sylvari once they found out they were dragon minions and used WMD's on the Pale Tree and Divinities Reach. They were hunting "The Ripper" of their world when they accidentally transported the Commander and Warmaster to their world thinking the Warmaster was their version of Ripper. Later on they had to reset time jumps when the bridge between their worlds lead to excess magic contaminatinating because the Commander kept dying leading to the main world going BOOM! There is much more, but that gives the basic gist of it all with the wibbily wobbily timey wimey stuff.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/teleoceras/art/Anna-and-Natasha-Part-One-627898673

[Gibson.4036]

3 hours ago, Teleoceras.1298 said:

    Well I have 42 characters, but only my main is considered the Commander. I did write a short story series where one of my alts and my main did become a couple and eventually married with the Warmaster being the Commander's wife and bodyguard. Both were at Claw Island, but first met at Shaemoor. Now my 4 Asura also exist on that world and a parallel world where one of them is the Grand High Sovereign of the Asuran Empire. Basically they wiped out the Sylvari once they found out they were dragon minions and used WMD's on the Pale Tree and Divinities Reach. They were hunting "The Ripper" of their world when they accidentally transported the Commander and Warmaster to their world thinking the Warmaster was their version of Ripper. Later on they had to reset time jumps when the bridge between their worlds lead to excess magic contaminatinating because the Commander kept dying leading to the main world going BOOM! There is much more, but that gives the basic gist of it all with the wibbily wobbily timey wimey stuff.

 

https://www.deviantart.com/teleoceras/art/Anna-and-Natasha-Part-One-627898673

Wow, I’m taken aback by your thoroughness and genocidal tendencies in equal measure.

[Teleoceras.1298]

15 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Wow, I’m taken aback by your thoroughness and genocidal tendencies in equal measure.

    Well I like writing darker stories with the main characters being flawed. Plus I took aspects from the character stories and expanded on them. The Infinity Ball arc was where my Asuran Empire came from although I changed that Grand High Sovereign Psych O'Killer didn't die on our world since she had a temporal shield up which blocked most damage is one example.😈

 

     Geeze, I just looked at my word doc on the story and it is 61,808 words so far. That includes the stuff I didn't post.😬