Loreposting: Romantic Relationships In Charr Society
So there aren’t many instances of this being directly addressed and I’m mainly working from examples and wider implication so this is very much a ‘pointing at the corkboard and red string, raving wildly’ sort of post. Still, I hope it’s of some use. Or at least entertaining!
Every culture has a distinct undercurrent that colours all they do. A kind of vibe to them. The sylvari, being a very young, new race, have their optimism and curiosity. The asura, their drive to discover and innovate. Humans, a kind of dogged determination to stick around. Norn, glory and sharing in it.
Charr have their industry and their unrelenting fatalism. Promotion? You’re going to be shot and killed. New hobby? That’s great! You’re going to be shot and killed. Warband died? Horrible! You’re now a non-citizen until you find a new one and also you’re going to be shot and killed. Love? You’re going to be shot and killed. New baby? Enjoy the time you have before they’re sent away to be raised and shot and killed.
If you’re alive long enough the people around you will start leaving subtle hints. You’re getting on in years. Have you considered being shot and killed?
Of course, romantic relationships vary depending on the individual person, circumstances, preferences and so on, so this post isn’t to say every charr is like this, but I feel like it would be fair to say most High Legion charr are at least influenced in some capacity. There’s a part of Ghosts of Ascalon, the prequel book with Ember Doomforge (love u queen) where she lays out how things work pretty bluntly.
Dougal looked at Ember’s shadowed form in the darkness... “Human relationships are hard to explain to other races.”
Ember snorted, “Oh, I understand. Charr relationships have all that stage drama as well. We on occasion mate for life, though our relationships are usually more casual, and we have more than our share of jealousies, rivalries, expectations and disappointments. Lovers come together, break apart, and come together years later.”
So, two things stick out to me here. One, well, they’re gigantic roman cats. I cannot imagine monogamy is particularly high on the list of priorities and having children with several different people seems to be the norm. Of note, in the season 4 short story Requiem: Rytlock , he mentions having cubs, plural, but he and Crecia only ever mention Ryland. Either they’re so wrapped up in what’s going on around him (which, you know, that’s fair) that they never talk about their other children or, in my opinion, Rytlock has children with other women. I lean towards that because Crecia lays into Rytlock over not being there for Ryland, not ‘our cubs’ or ‘our kids’. And, if that is the case, that it’s not brought up implies that it’s just the done thing for charr. Crecia may have children to other men, we don’t know.
So then comes the question; how much of their behaviour is intrinsic and how much comes from the society around them? High Legion charr have the fahrar system and Flame Legion have family units but they can’t be considered good examples because they live under a regime where that’s enforced. The Olmakhan, however, make a great barometer, especially since they fled and made conscious, considered choices about what parts of their culture to keep and what to discard. This manifests in abolishing the warband system and lifting the taboo on magic while notably keeping family units from the Flame Legion. Family isn’t the topic of this post, that’s for another day, but I think it’s worth bringing up because the deeper you dig into how the High Legions operate the more you realize its children really, truly aren’t well.
So that brings us to the people itself. From a young age, charr are nursed up until they’re weaned at which point they’re placed in a fahrar where physical and emotional abuse is at best tolerated and at worst expected. It speaks to the kind of pragmatic, routine cruelty of the Legions. It saves on resources. A cub already has free food.
They’re placed with warbands. The warbands, inevitably, die. New warbands are found. They die also. It’s treated with a kind of casual ‘eh, what can you do’ shrug and if you do dare commit the cardinal sin of being unable to get over your family dying you’re relegated to the lowest rungs of society, gladia doing the dirty work the real soldiers don’t do. That kind of pressure is catastrophic.
In my opinion, left to their own devices, charr generally raise their children in family units but frequently engage in consensual non-monogamy.
I wonder, then, if Ember’s comments about lovers coming together, breaking apart and coming together again, having fraught, frantic, combative relationships that burn out quickly isn’t something inherent to the charr. They aren’t born like that. They don’t even want to be like that.
But in the thousand-ton gears of the war machine they don’t know how to be anything but.
In HoT, we got Rytlock as a rev and (a little later) Braham as a dragonhunter.
A little after PoF we got Zafirah as a deadeye, and Joko's wurmmarshal as a soulbeast.
What are we getting with EoD, now that most of the specs are out?
My current theory is: Ember Doomforge as a vindicator.
Ember already wields a sword and a gun (as per Ghosts of Ascalon) AND having her in the cast of characters would be a way to keep working on the Vigil storyline.
