Headcanon time: Blorbo of Ascalon talks candles
OOOOKAY, hello people and welcome to this new subsection of my lore posts featuring Ascalonian culture via the lens of Nyra. And this topic has been on my mind for a while now, and it seems to be universal for like human cultures in gw2, but I wanna add a special twist & angst, probably :)) PoF &S4 spoilers in there!!
Let’s start with canon: we see a lot of candles in Kormir’s temple in Elona (image by Dulfy) as well as in the Shrine of the Six in DR (image) so this leads me to believe that candle lighting is a universal thing used in human worship of the Six, regardless of culture. We unfortunately don’t get a temple in Ebonhawke (though we see priests in the Hawke heart), but my point still stands.
I think the candle is a symbol of thinking about someone, when used outside of religion; even atheist humans light candles for their loved ones, not because of any faith reasons, but simply as a physical manifestation of their love for the person. Lighting a candle for someone is always a positive thing, so when a human tells you they’ll light a candle for you, it’s like saying “i’ll pray for you” or “i’ll keep you in my thoughts” which is a nice sentiment I think!
But let’s zoom in on Ascalon now that we have laid the general foundation. From here on out, this is my total headcanoneering, so keep that in mind. Balthazar is a god of fire, amongst other things, and for Ascalonians, the heart of the practice of candle lighting is in what you’re lighting - fire. A controlled fire. Fire is in the domain of Balthazar, as is war, and in a culture as defined by war as Ascalon is, keeping a candle up at all times, one for the living and one for the dead, is a constant reminder what you’re fighting for.
That is why you’ll find two candles lit at all times, safely at a corner so nobody gets hurt, in any Ascalonian home, rich or poor. The one for the living goes on top, while the one for the dead goes beneath it. If the upper one went out suddenly, it means that someone has died, and if the lower one goes out, it means that a deceased person found peace in the Mists, and you hope it’s one of your deceased loved ones.
Nyra grew up observing this custom and in fact diligently did so (instructing servants to keep them up while she’s away even, one on each floor of the mansion) in her own home, ‘till after PoF. She knows of the tradition’s ties to Balthazar and to this day, she cannot stand him, nor keep reminders of him in her home (her home shrine lacks any representation of Balthazar, she asked her family to remove all statues of him from their home as she found them to be disrespectful since he’s the one who killed her; the only mentions of him around are in the prayer books and sacred texts.) She also didn’t want any fire around, no matter how controlled, because trauma is a bitch, and she is adamant about not observing it anymore, even if it brings conflict with some of her family members (fun fact, but after Aurene died and Nyra’s all mad with grief for her child, she straight up toured some parts of Kryta waiting for the world to end for about a week or so and destroyed some Balthazar statues. The gang in Thunderhead Keep could just hear broken, angry shouts and stone coming down. I think she apologized for that later to the communities whose temples she went to and blamed it all on the maddening grief. I mean understandable, Nyra. But also, her going all out on a statue all of a sudden till it’s in pieces is just-- ma’am)
No applicable ending to this one, I hope this makes sense because writer’s block is a bitch, enjoy <3