Do you think the Charr have an Olympics-style sporting event? What sort of sports would be in it?
I do know that, in canon, Legion charr have the Circus Charricus! or nascharr.
Theeere’s also the Bane? I’m sure they absolutely have more gladitorial events too. But in terms of Olympic type events? Definitely Legion charr would have direct, physical competitive events like races, boxing, things like that? stuff that two warbands or two nominated individuals could do?
Olmakhan could have similar sports too, but maybe more along the team-oriented games, with less emphasis on combat or physical competition? idk! sports/games are a cool cultural aspect that’s always work lookin into tbh tbh
I was thinking about this the other day, but what’s your take on Charr flavor preferences? Are they as diverse as humans (EG some loooove sweet things, others can’t stand them) or does their physiology make things a bit more uniform? If you had to guess, what would you say is the big defining touchstone of Charr “cuisine” (other than “lots of meat”)?
I actually talked fairly in depth about how the Charr diet could function in one of my earliest Lore series I started a few years back here! Meat is obviously a staple of the Charr diet especially given that it’s their (most obvious) main source of food through the practice of cattle ranching. Meat is an excellent source of protein, and if paired with a healthy carbohydrate it’s a viable sustained energy diet for an army as long as the supply of meat does not falter (See Mad Mardine’s Cattlepult).
There is evidence of Charr enjoying aggregate fruits however, such as strawberries - Anya Fairmind is actually tending to a secret strawberry garden in the Town of Nolan after all! With the cease fire and the formation of the Pact, the introduction of new foods would have naturally occurred within the Citadel as trade routes opened and the Charr began interacting with the other races in a non-conquering fashion. Lion’s Arch is a diversified shmorgishborg that would allow the opportunity for anyone to expand their palate! So personally I would say it’s safe to assume that it’s likely their palate was quite uniform for the sake of practicality (and given their previous isolationism due to the war) up until the point the Citadel was connected to Lion’s Arch and has expanded for the aforementioned reasons!
i was going to add some thoughts on this excellent post but instead i've just decided to post more about what's my headcanon for charr re: mental health & disabilities
tl;dr in charr society, simply having a disability or illness is not cause enough to treat someone like shit. yes, some charr treat disabled individuals shittily, but they're jerks and not indicative of society as a whole. every charr is important
first off with a warrior race like charr, there's gonna be a lot of people with PTSD. i'm pretty sure charr have found ways to deal with it - the primuses teach cubs some basic self-care techniques as preparation, but there's also definitely warbands who work essentially as therapists for charr.
granted, charr therapy tends to be less 'why do you feel that way? let's talk about it' and more 'here, let's spar until you work it out/take this mortar and go blow some shit up'
charr are also farmers though, so i imagine they've also found herbal remedies that help - like chewing a certain kind of root seems to ease charr who feel panicky, meanwhile adding the dried powder of another leaf to tea seems to help charr who have difficulty focusing on tasks.
wrt physical disabilities, for the most part it's considered a 'bad' thing bc it's a threat of losing one's job and perceived social status - All Char Are Soldiers and All Jobs Are Important but everyone knows those who are out running patrol and fighting ghosts/dragon minions/Separatists/Flame Legion/etc are the real badasses. nobody recognises the individual efforts of the farmers, cooks, mechanics, primuses, medics, smiths, janitors, etc.
so for example: a frontline engineer loses a foot and her tail in combat. she's sent back to the Black Citadel to recover, and while she quickly learns how to walk with her prosthetic paw + a cane, she certainly can't run patrol in Orr anymore. she's placed with a warband of engineers in the Citadel, and while these gearheads are very friendly, she misses the 'bandmates she grew up with. they still write her, and while she's proud they're driving the cars she's working on, she still feels like it was a demotion. her job is still important, but it lacks the prestige and certainly the excitement of her previous job.
individuals will vary, of course. there's going to be some assholes who will think (and say) some really nasty things about her. there's a possibility that her original warband will shun her. potentially also her new warband might be unwelcoming; either averse to having this stranger forced into their established little family group. possibly even the engineer herself is cranky and bitter and she's snappy with her new 'bandmates, taking her frustration out on them.
but the concept of 'now you have panic attacks/can no longer fight, so you're useless' seems to be a Flame Legion thing, and charr who really harsh on those who are disabled are dickheads and probably also Flame sympathisers. you know, the types who liberally use "female" as a noun.
warband changes are a thing that also Happens - it's uncommon when it's a voluntary choice, vs being shuffled off to another warband because of injury/death of 'bandmates/kicked out of the initial warband. but a gentle charr who hates the sight of blood isn't going to fit in well with a frontline soldier warband, no matter how close they all were growing up - and it's honestly a relief for all involved when he decides to split from the Rampage warband to join a 'band that raises cattle.
[text: Spirits and their uses vs the atheistic society of Charr. For example. A Charr says, as a revenant. “A am spiritual.”Current Charr society vs the tribal (implied nomadic lifestyle) of GW1 and how the transition may or may not be a loss for certain cultural values over the past 250 years.]
This is something I think about, at least with a charr who reveres the Spirits of the Wild!
From what we’ve known of the charr’s past history with religion, the main distrust is in how it has the capability to mislead and manipulate, which then can be used to control and oppress them. The whole “rely on iron, not false gods” attitude drives their whole modern society. There’s even a charr you can talk to in the Perimeter Loop who talks about the potential for establishing a distinction between faith itself or its misuse to subjugate.
Considering how the gods and Spirits of Tyria have a proven presence and impact in the world, I doubt the problem would come from the lack of evidence in power and ability, but the intent and trust in the god/spirit? “I pray to the Spirits, but they rarely answer” comes to mind. Why rely on something inconsistent? Or gods that bugger off into the Mists when shit goes down?
If the charr in question is of the Legions, I’d imagine that a charr who believes in the Spirits could still hold that pragmatism, and might use it in a sense as an explanatory belief system. The spirits could have afforded you luck in a scenario, but you were the one to instigate the situation itself, if that makes sense? I don’t think it could conflict so much, especially used in a guiding way like the norn do. But charr history does point to a well-earned mistrust, and I doubt the individual wouldn’t get flak for it, even from the brass, depending on the superior that catches wind.
As for the last bit! I’m not wholly familiar with GW-era charr yet (still gotta play through it!), but if they’re anything like the Olmakhan, I imagine that there’s not a whole lot of “loss” per se? The continuing theme within overall charr culture is the remembrance of past heroes and leaders, those who fought and sacrificed for the betterment of their society, models for what a charr aspires to. Of course, like the Flame Legion’s zealotry, that has the opportunity to get dicey, but it does seem to be working for them!
HEH! The short answer, for myself personally, is that it’s dependent on the individual. I tend to draw/portray charr closely to the model in-game (I suppose, non-retractable, like a cheetah?)
If you’re curious, I did do a poll on public opinion on charr claws.
Charr skull based on Guild Wars 2 player-generated charr. Bobcat skull as reference.
This picture from xstarrx on Deviant Art is one of the best interpretations of the charr skull i have seen so far
Althought not made to support the theory of the Horns as cooling device it can be used to illustrate it. the skull has a horn root that act as foundation of the Horn. the first third of the actual horn (not seen here) would be filled with veins that enter the horn thru the root. the other two thirds of the horns are either mostly hollow or filled with with an organic substance that can cool the blood in the in the first third when the temperatur is high - or save warmth by low temperatures. in this theory horns were not developed for Territorial fights and in fact more fragile than charr would like to admit. what would explain why Rytlock is very sensible about the fact that some one wants to touch his horns or use it as lever to pull him out of a misery (see Ghosts of Asclaon). During the Horn growth in younger ages the horns can be formed and manipulated to grow in certain shapes or to to grow around trinkets and andorments. it could explain why charr horns are sometimes fortified with metal when theiy are “grown” in unusual shapes like the inverse ram horns - and why broken horns stumps are often capped when the break is near to the head (danger of bleeding to death) while those horns that are broken in the last third are often attacked back (see Gear segmented horns). the latter might not be painful but the attached parts hinder the rest of the horn to splinter further.
!!!! this is super well done omg... thank you for submitting :O
I'd also dig finding out more about the Tribunes. Who are they and how many are around? Also, my boyfriend wants to know where Rytlock got his armor. Haha
There’s still a lot we don’t know about Revenants lore wise. Rytlock and his story has been pretty much an extended cliff-hanger since HoT dropped and even within the latest living world arcs there hasn’t been much going on on that front. I won’t go into too much detail because spoilers but in regards to Tribunes - there are 13 known named Tribunes past and present across the four Legions. One Tribune of the past, Rall Oldroar was named in memorial of Guild Wars fan Roger Rall, who unfortunately passed away before Guild Wars 2 released. (It’s also the fan Sanctum of Rall is named after!)
There are certainly more Tribunes however that we aren’t aware of by name considering Iron Legion alone currently has six and we only know the names of four. On top of that there are still extensive areas of Charr territory north of Ascalon that we have yet to encounter in-game such as the Blood Legion Homelands. It makes sense that there are so many Tribunes - Ascalon is a large region to cover on top of the numerous ongoing theatres across the various other fronts. Orr, Maguuma, the Shiverpeaks and so on. I’m not sure if there’s enough available information on the individual known Tribunes (Outside of Rytlock, Bhuer Goreblade and Torga Desertgrave) to write an entire blog post about them but I’ll certainly look into it - Hope this answers your question for the most part!
IDK if it's already been asked, or if you want to look into this?- how many cubs can a charr have at a time? ... they are "cat like" so would they have litters/multiple cubs in 1 pregnancy? So far it only seems like they have just 1 at a time tnough.
I could have sworn I wrote something about this before but I can’t find it! It might have been in a private conversation but I did cover the topic of Charr pregnancy theories in this post! In regards to how many cubs a Charr female can have at a time, I’m personally of the opinion that Charr possibly at one time produced a higher number of cubs (2-3) before they became technologically advanced. However as technology advanced and survival rates alongside of it, the number of cubs produced at one time most likely decreased to the point where 1 or 2 cubs (With two becoming increasingly rarer.) became the common number. Cub production and survival rates typically go hand in hand in nature with high amounts of offspring being produced in species that have high mortality rates but it’s not always true. It’s generally more common for prey animals to produce a higher number of offspring (think fish!) than that of predators to keep the balance in check - too many predators and you’ll have no prey, too few predators and you’ll have too much prey. Food availability is also a large factor - wolves are known to forego having offspring in years where food is scarce. We also have to consider the fact that Charr cubs, similar to Equids, are born fairly well developed and species who produce highly developed young tend to have a singular birth - there are the rare cases of twin births but they more often than not lead to the death of one or both offspring if not the mother as well. With this theory and taking highly developed young into account, it’s more likely that birthing singular offspring has always been the common number produced with higher numbers of offspring being abnormal!
