So, Vloxx doesn't really "tickle me creatively" that much in any of my alt!Comm scenarios (Aurelia is confused and uncomfortable big time, Ardea in her AU is tentatively trusting yet ready to burn him to a crisp, Tocchix in his AU is torn about trusting a "good Inquest higher up" due to Iotta while Iotta is mighty unsure and uncomfy about the situation), BUT the "what if Iotta and Bunnie swapped places as progeny" AU is oh so ripe for it.
We don't know enough about Vloxx for me to get the exact shade of their dynamic (something like the Silco/Jinx one is reeeaaaally tempting because its surprisingly fits both of their vibes) and we don't know when he joined the Inquest nor when he rose to power, but:
- Vloxx was a golemancer in the Inquest, and Bunnie is a master golemancer (her genius reaches even more "impressive heights" with the megakrewe's push and near unlimited resources). They would have an understanding, a reason to work together AND something to talk about for starters!
- due to her "parental issues" (that got worse than canon and practically sent her into the Inquest in the first place), she always latches onto any older figure that is supportive of her shenanigans. Vloxx would be the least shitty one in that AU by miles, even though [see next].
- Vloxx absolutely manipulated her into trusting him, because she's a good chip to have on the board due to her past with the Commander's [Aurelia is still it in that AU] technically-adoptive son [Tocchix].
Still, I also see potential for genuine care towards her, regardless of what type of relationship I settle on.
- bonus: Bunnie would hate Sebb's guts, right from their introduction, and you bet she actively tries to sabotage his experiments at any given chance... or save them in some way (she definitely reversed some augmentations much to his annoyance, and culled those who were suffering too much).
And of course Vloxx lets her get away with anything. What do you mean, Sebb? She's been innocently by my side the entire time, and you come here with no proof? *had someone go clean up any potential trace* I'm sure it was someone else :)
- bonus bonus: she's in a long-time situationship going on with Kuda. For your own safety, don't ask either of them :)
After being left for dead in Rata Primus and saved from sure death by the Commander and his recently-found magic, Iotta swore loyalty to him and only him. He was the only person she was ever right to trust, and she was ready to pay for her mistakes by serving as his shadow.
[This is for the AU in which Tocchix is Commander]
3. Is there an NPC your commander is closest to?
For most of the story: Taimi.
After Tocchix saves her from the Inquest in Dry Top and spends a lot of time with her to make sure she's okay, Taimi becomes his little sister as far as he's concerned.
They are the only ones allowed to fuss over each other's well-being, and while the sarcasm levels of it varies and they still keep a lot of things from each other, it is done with the mutual understanding that when one of them insists with it, the other should drop the facade of being fine and take a break/care of themselves.
For a time she's also the person he's the most comfortable with. Taimi doesn't (directly) ask about how he's doing, and she doesn't need encouragement to eagerly infodumps on things, which is often enough to drown his thoughts out, so much so that at times he even falls asleep with relative ease... which accidentally made her the only one who knew of his issues with nightmares.
Her krewe in Rata Novus was also fairly good company, and he met Huki there, who also helped him a bunch and much later became his other partner.
Taimi was openly heartbroken on the comm when he was found dead, and while she did not tell him of her condition getting worse until she was forced to, he wasn't surprised as he had still noticed the changes over time.
Notably, at the start of season 2 Tocchix would have said Kas and Jory due to nearby (former) fields of work, but after Iotta's decision to leave and the aftermath of that, things became... awkward.
For years Kas felt guilty due to having been the accidental catalyst for it, and even though he doesn't blame her one bit, he still tried not to be alone with them to avoid making things weird (being a third-wheel was particularly bad for him + he felt guilty because they acted differently around him to avoid that).
[Things get much better after Iotta is in the picture again, but at that point Caithe has nudged herself in between them and Taimi on the "podium" of most important bonds with NPCs.]
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4. Is there an NPC your commander doesn't care for at all?
Tocchix not caring? Impossible.
Whenever he's brought up during s3-s4, Tocchix often snappily claimed not to care for Braham.
He was still hurt and angry about their argument in s3 (which takes on a more personal bad turn than canon), but that anger came from a deep place of caring and he is a bit sad that, despite mending their friendship, they never managed to fully remove the layer of awkwardness between them.
As for genuine "not caring", he's not really close to most of Destiny's Edge.
Eir and Logan always felt too far from what he knew to really bond with them beyond being "allies".
While he was friends with Zojja, their relationship has always been mostly informed by Bunnie yet also filtered by her presence, so he doesn't really "know" her.
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12. Did your commander die to Balthazar? If so, was their experience different from canon in any way?
Yup and yup!
Like in canon, the former god chucks the fireball at him after having toyed with him and used him as bait, but Tocchix doesn't die immediately and Balthazar leaves him to pass away slowly.
It takes a few excruciating minutes to succumb to his wounds, burns and sheer exhaustion (the fight was long, and being healed so much by magic still takes a toll on the body), during which Tocchix still tries to rally and go save Aurene as he fades in and out of consciousness.
In the Domain of the Lost things go similarly to canon, but the memories he sees while following His Purpose are a lot more and more personal to his own journey. When he tries to reach for that one unknown asura who appears often yet he can't recognize, Tocchix somehow manifests specter-like powers, which help him defeat the Eater of Souls.
Taimi later theorizes that it might have been the domain's influence activating some latent magic within him, but he's afraid he knows the truth, and he gets confirmation of it when he encounters Iotta again.
May have finally figured out some outfits that can work for Tocchix in his Commander AU, or at least decent starting points for them.
Respectively:
1. PS-S2 / 2. S2-first half of PoF / 3. post-Balthazar PoF
4. S4-EoD / 5. Gyala
[rambles under the read more]
Biggest hurdle with finding outfits is that he's a very acrobatic fighter (daredevil), so he needs gear that allows fairly free leg and arm movement.
Hard task, given most skins have "trip hazard" written all over them (buttcapes aren't the issue themselves), and it's even worse when you consider the stealth factor lol.
So... most of these are somewhat altered in my mind.
1. Not long after he becomes Commander, he swaps out the Whispers agent coat for something else, but he sticks to the rest of the uniform for personal comfort, just with Pact colors instead of regular Whispers colors.
Having the Pact symbol somewhere is an option too.
2. He progressively loses his positive vibes, with Iotta's betrayal being the turning point and everything getting worse with *gestures at HoT and S3*. He's overall exhausted yet laser-focused on getting Commander/Dragon's Watch work done.
Still sticks to Pact colors (even after leaving the Pact), just duller, so he can be a bit stealthier again.
Head is not always covered, but it does feel comfier when traversing sandstorms, the thick of the jungle and especially crowds.
3. Post-Balthazar he's a mess. Not only he has some new weird magic powers after his tooootally chill time in the Domain of the Lost, but his gear also got partially turned to ash.
Alas, his one and only priority is that there's a God to wallop for kidnapping Aurene, so he quickly puts what he can find (and himself) together and calls it a day.
4. Between PoF and S4e1 he gets a bit more used to his Specter powers, and since he can move through shadows for quick evades, he can prioritize defense a little bit more, with the shroud giving him some extra protection if that's not enough. Good call, given the uh... *gestures at entirety of S4*
Darker colors were suggested by friends, since his powers are all shadows (and his mood isn't that much brighter at first). The fur probably gets added during IBS since it's cold as balls in the Shiverpeaks.
[Not entirely sold on this but it's better than anything I had so far]
5. The fight with the Dragonvoid totally wrecked his gear again, so, since he's pretty much mastered his powers at that point and the effects of Aurene's power boost kinda lingered, he goes back to wearing lighter armor in the peaceful aftermath (and vacation) before Gyala Delve.
No idea about further changes since I'm still considering different paths for this AU for everything post-Dragon Saga.
Random, but Aurelia in the Commander!Tocchix AU is actually put together enough to be the one hitting on Ellara.
She's not "okay" obviously, but that one Aurelia confronted Glint head on about the truth and had a lot of time to process the grief of her losses during her years in the Mists, avoiding the mistakes that led her to getting lost in the Mists and fucked over by [redacted].
To be more specific, "process the grief" meant:
- breaking down nastily for a brief but heartshattering time.
- only managing to pull herself back together by pretty much dissociating fulltime.
- singlemindedly kinda fully obsessing over herald training in order to get her revenge.
- still pulling the fuck-the-rules card a while later than main!universe Aurelia, sneaking out on Glint to go find her warband's spirits in the Mists and actually succeed in doing so.
- breaking down 2 electric boogaloo upon seeing her warband's spirits, but hey she also regains some sense of self thanks to them. (bonus: contact with Kalla is established not by accident but purposefully, so she can actually summon her warband directly)
- the hurt is still there and the need for revenge only grows stronger, but it's more quiet, and she finds some sort of balance as she trains with renewed focus. (Glint ain't happy about what she did because she knew the risks, but she can't be mad at her reasons)
Timeline-wise, Aurelia pops back out of the Mists only when Rorick's spirit is yanked away by the Rissa's amulet bs.
She's not fully ready (Glint had high expectations and she still had to train from no magic at all), but she's a lot more put together, and she causes a bit of an internal uproar in the Legions (she asks for her presence to be kept quiet in exchange of resolving the issue).
She's a lot more quiet, stoic and sort of "disconnected emotionally" in general, acting more as an avatar of Glint than herself sometimes. While that sort of wisdom is useful, she can be a bit offputting with how "quiet giant standing there without a clear expression" (not helped by the fact she's "in vc with her warband's spirits" most of the time anyway).
Ellara is still into her, but it's like flirting with a wall for the entire personal story, so she gives up. Aurelia kind of noticed through her warband's comments, but she was focused on the matter at hand, following Glint's orders.
Only when things are a bit more quiet in S1, Adamas points out why Ellara always sort of removes herself from her presence.
After much deliberating in Aurelia's mind (the warband is cheering her on, Ardea most of all), she tries to awkwardly and clumsily flirt a bunch of times before it clicks for Ellara, but as of S2 they're testing things out.
With Aurene's egg entering the picture, Aurelia pretty much stays in Auric Basin the entire time, so they get to see each other a little less, but Ellara becomes better friends with Caithe overall. (no idea yet about how exactly things happen regarding the egg thievery, either Aurelia goes berserk chasing after her or she changes some stuff lore-wise, but still her and Caithe become kinda like sisters)
And afterwards, it's pretty much smooth sailing.
What would each of the Commanders be like if they were npcs that could be added to the guild (like marjory/Rox/Braham/Kasmeer/Taimi/etc) instead of the main hero? How would they get pulled in narratively, how would it change and affect their character arcs?
@mystery-salad
Okay so, for reference: Aurelia is Commander in the "main" timeline.
Vesska is Commander in a doomed timeline (where no other OCs exist in it, just canon npcs) and then reaches Aurelia's through the Mists (possibly through [redacted]'s influence)
Tocchix and Ardea are Commanders in their own separate timelines, sharing other OCs (Vesska excluded) but with no direct contact with the other timelines.
Easiest one, Tocchix is just himself in the main timeline, going through his own personal rollercoaster while occasionally helping out Dragon's Watch.
He is an honorary Dragon's Watch member (was technically invited but refused) and he's positively neutral with all its (canon) members, but he considers himself actually friends with just Taimi and eventually Gorrik (post-s4ep5).
Ardea is just... not alive in any of the other timelines, as whenever she's not the one disappearing into the Mists and instead witnesses both Aurelia's disappearance and Adamas's apparent death, she always opts to sacrifice herself "deus ex machina" style against the branded, as a last ditch attempt to save those who were still alive.
[still gotta talk about the "ace in Ardea's sleeve"]
Aurelia is actually already an "npc" in Tocchix's AU.
What leads to him becoming Commander is that she doesn't fail her training with Glint, becoming her Herald instead of ending up lost in the Mists and corrupted by [redacted]. The dominoes fall differently enough in Tyria that Tocchix is the one who ends up with the Commander role. Not 100% sure exactly how early or how she is introduced (on her own to find Adamas? through the dungeons? idk yet), but Aurelia still appears early in the story in that timeline.
She is much calmer and collected, though kinda... otherworldly aloof and weird, as she's mostly serving as an independent vessel for Glint and can properly use her late warband as her secondary legend (still works kinda like Kalla, but they're more "alive" than just echoes) to a detrimental level at times.
That makes bonding with others kinda hard. Ethanryel clicks with her immediately because of their "shared prophecy" regarding something (Aurene), while Adamas is sure happy to have his dam back yet kind of unnerved at first, between being nothing like she used to be and her talking as if her warband was actually still there.
She kind of has to "relearn" herself and reality, with highs and lows of her being "in control" during parts of the story tied to Glint's Legacy. After the Legacy is done, she's a lot more free and "normal", and potentially becomes Wayfinder.
[most is still a bit of a wip, especially the later post-EoD stuff]
Vesska... would probably be more hated than Braham and Taimi combined lmao.
They're full of themselves due to their skills/luck, so even as an npc they'd feel and act like the main character of the story, joking and smoothly flirting with anyone and everyone just because they can.
They'd get pulled into the story through the Order of Whispers (in their universe they're officially Vigil yet still report to them as a double agent, and that comes up eventually) to aid with some dangerous stuff that needs their "skillful lucky touch".
They'd still be Phlunt's adoptive ward, so they'd have some insider knowledge of the Arcane Council's deals, so they'd have a history of dealing with stuff surrounding the Inquest, leading to their own path in the Crucible of Eternity dungeon.
They'd show up in HoT, leading some survivors to safety after the Fleet's crash, facade noticeably cracked but still playing their usual part as if that wasn't a thing everyone notices. They'd probably insist on tagging along for at least one leg of the journey, but then they'd accept to do something necessary and separate from the group.
If the Trahearne ship stuff can remain a thing (either actually dating or just with them just crushing hard/courting him), they'd take ages to recover from his death and absolutely blame the Commander for it (both for dealing the killing blow and for not letting them be there "when it mattered"), but they'd still stick around just to make absolutely sure things don't go wrong and rail the Commander with jabs.
They wouldn't become Aurene's Champion or even a minion, but they'd grow fond of her anyway, and that'd mend the bridge between them and the Commander eventually, plus making them open up emotionally a bit.
Ships with Braham, Caithe and Yao are still on the table for them lmao
The fave lil' tidbit of change in the AU is that Tocchix is taller and physically stronger due to the influence of magic.
Like, five cm taller and barely buffer, and since it happened mostly in quick bursts (after Mordry's and Kralk's deaths) no one really noticed. Still, more than enough to throw Iotta for a loop when she's back in the picture.
