I have four different timelines (so far). And I sort of mix-and-match my characters for it. (Eveanin is a prime example.)
Timelines:
One is my Commander's timeline. This is Eveanin's native timeline (and Pharlt's.) I tend to take most of the minor characters from Timeline Four and work them into this one somehow. Vriré is a prime example: I can think of one time where she ran into my Commander, and that's all.
Two is the same as my Commander's timeline, except she's never the Commander - Pharlt is the Commander. She was besties with Pharlt and Eveanin before they went off to Orr, though, and she did still meet Trahearne at Claw Island. (She just didn't like him!)
The third is the timeline that came when Dad decided to have three characters instead of one, and I decided to give each of his three one of my alts to be a friend, so there's six of them. This may or may not be the same as Timeline Two, since Pharlt and Eveanin are two of the six. But also perhaps not, since there will be six commanders-to-be already at Claw Island and I don't want to overload our poor introverted Trahearne.
The fourth timeline is the story I've been hinting about for ages but haven't posted yet. (This is Vriré's native timeline!) It is pretty solidly AU by this point. Eveanin is in this one, too, except she's basically a stock background Vigil NPC. This timeline is the reason I like talking about Vriré so much, and also why she's so incredibly boring, because this is the timeline where she gets all her development but I don't want to give you spoilers as;ldkjf. This is, FYI, the timeline that eats up all my time and the reason why all my characters are stuck in the PS. I'll post it someday I promise a;sdlkfjasdf
Shout-out to @rouxipanda who wanted to hear more about my OCs! I'm going to twine it into a headcanon post concerning the structure of the Vigil, which I imagine General Almorra came up with as a sort of twist on the warband system.
Let's start with our Warmaster Forgal; I imagine he'd have joined the Vigil early on. He seems to have a friendship with Almorra and isn't afraid to butt in with his opinion in the middle of diplomatic encounters, so he's not just a random Warmaster, and he told Efut that the player is "the kid he should've had" which means he has a fairly close relationship with other high-level Vigil members as well.
But then my future Commander, then going by Soulstrider, comes along, a few months after the Vigil's founding in 1320/21, at that time a representative of the Krytan throne, to negotiate with General Almorra concerning this random charr's interest in building a military keep on human soil.
Those negotiations went well, and Soulstrider was assigned to oversee the construction of the Keep. (Meanwhile, some random charr explains the concept of a warband and what exactly happened to Almorra's, causing Soulstrider to become self-conscious about her name.) Anyway, a while after that she joined the Vigil, changed her chosen name to Solestrider out of respect for Almorra, and was assigned to Forgal. (Almorra told her she totally didn't have to do that, but she did anyway. And she started going by her given name Tiffany.)
So Forgal and Tiffany went and did all sorts of missions together and Tiffany got promoted and by the time 1325 rolls around, Forgal and Tiffany are both Warmasters and have comfortably been working as each other's partners for four years or so.
Around this time, Eveanin, sylvari guardian, awakens from her pod and goes through the basic sylvari quests until level thirty. At this point, I stole a line from human Crusader Hiroki (from level thirty) and put it in the mouth of sylvari Crusader Branthyn (from level thirty). The line was to a new Vigil character about who their mentor might be; she said "hope you don't get Forgal; he's a real bear. Get it? 'Cause he's a norn?"
A human character replies with "I hope not! I couldn't bear it!" My sylvari Eveanin, however, knows nothing about norn. After the quest, since she had time before meeting General Almorra and her new mentor in Lion's Arch she hopped right along to Hoelbrak to learn about norn. There she met Pharlt and his wife Creepylaugh, and became their friend through assisting them with their level thirty norn questline. Pharlt joined the Vigil and Creepylaugh joined the Priroy (and promptly is almost never relevant again).
Eveanin and Pharlt, then, head to Lion's Arch to meet with General Almorra and their respective mentors.
Now, since Eveanin and Pharlt are already friends, General Almorra thinks it would be a good idea to keep them together, so she should assign them to a pair of mentors who are already partners. Pharlt is assigned to Forgal (because they are both norn) and Eveanin is assigned to Tiffany.
Now we have a little happy multiracial warband here, which was the whole point, and I have a future Commander who didn't have two-and-one-instance questlines before being promoted to top rank, while also keeping the original Vigil progression more-or-less intact.
Now, Eveanin and Pharlt's progressions through the Vigil system isn't exactly like in-game; they do all the racial sympathy quests at level 50 that are available to them, so we get quaggan and skritt and grawl and hylek and ogres storylines. So Eveanin and Pharlt spend quite a bit more time as Crusaders than the player normally does, and they still don't get promoted to Warmaster until after the whole Claw Island debacle, instead of just before (since neither of them become the Commander.)
Then Forgal dies.
Now, we kind of had a pyramid structure/Fibonacci sequence going on; Forgal was there first, and then came Tiffany, and then came two students; if things had been normal, then after the two students became full Warmasters, all four of them would retain their little warband-like structure and then take on four more students, and then there would be eight of them, and they would take on eight students, and then there would be sixteen - and so on.
But also, in a normal situation where the top of the pyramid (Forgal) died, that would shatter the pyramid. Tiffany would have become the top of the pyramid, but Pharlt's role doesn't necessarily have a deep connection with her, and he also doesn't necessarily have a deep connection with Eveanin, so now he's by himself and he has to start a new pyramid.
It wasn't like that - he was fast friends with Eveanin and had a respect for Tiffany, but he would have always felt very slightly left out - especially when Trahearne showed up and Eveanin knew him, and Tiffany had complicated backstory involving him, and Pharlt was just like 'who now?'
But I think this is really how General Almorra might've planned the structure of the Vigil, kind of based on the warband system but adapted for the needs of a recruiting military and without the stigma of a gladium; there are single-person roles and you can always be lumped in with another group, and groups can be lumped together, and so on for harder missions. And of course actual whole warbands that join the Vigil together stay together; General Almorra is a charr and she understands that kind of bond and tries to capitalize on it as much as possible - which is why she stuck Pharlt and Eveanin together when she saw that they were already friends. If they'd joined separately they'd have been assigned mostly at random the way the player kinda was.
But the Vigil feels like a cohesive system with a core identity, and I imagine this system would be a good conduit to that; encourage pyramid/warband/family system so you stick with your group and feel loyalty to them and as a whole you are loyal to the cause of the Vigil, and pyramids splinter all the time because people die, and bigger pyramids you don't always have that connection with everybody else on the pyramid, so you get splintered-off smaller pyramids being put together with other small pyramids on missions that need that many people and at some point the groups kind of merge.
And at some point technically you don't even have a pyramid, it's just a bunch of friends on a team who fight together. And maybe from an outside perspective it looks like a normal military with different companies and platoons and all that stuff, only how they got like that is cool and fun and dynamic.
And when someone dies there's always blame and grief going around, and maybe you didn't have the best relationship with some of the others anyway, so the pyramid-splinter enables you to break away from potentially toxic relationships and start over with just the people you feel comfortable with.
But anyway, this is just a theory I thought up when I wanted Eveanin and Pharlt to stick together and to stick with my Commander, and then at some point down the line they all pick up students and the pyramid grows.
The first time Tiffany met Trahearne, she did NOT want to see him.
Tiffany Solestrider, long-time Warmaster of the Vigil, her partner, Forgal, and their two trainees, Crusaders Eveanin and Pharlt, have just landed on Claw Island.
“The creature we found hadn’t been in Lion’s Arch long,” Tiffany reminds them. “We may still have time.”
“We have to find Watch Commander Talon and convince him to ready the defenses,” Forgal tells her. “He might not be… agreeable, but he’s the one in charge here.”
“Pharlt, that means no threatening him,” Eveanin says in a teasing tone.
Pharlt pays her no attention. Instead, he is looking at the fortress. “They’re serious about this place,” he observes.
“They built this fortress to last,” Forgal tells him. “Only a complete, full-bore invasion could break these walls.”
“And that’s exactly what’s coming, if the scout was any indication,” Tiffany says with a grimace. She doesn’t even know why she came here. That was one of Zhaitan’s scouts, and she and Zhaitan have a worse-than-normal relationship. For many, many reasons. She can already feel the beginnings of the discomfort that heralds the presence of Risen. They’re still far away… but they’ll come closer.
As the foursome head up to the fort, Tiffany hears some Lionguard talking.
“I smell something odd,” one remarks to another. “Do you smell it?”
“Smell? No,” his companion replies. “But the back of my neck keeps itching for some reason.”
“I don’t like this. Something’s definitely wrong.”
“Look, there’s Talon,” Forgal says.
Tiffany can see two figures standing in the archway that leads to the courtyard. As they draw nearer, she can hear that they are engaged in conversation.
“I’ve researched the situation extensively. The Orrians will strike here, on Claw Island.”
Tiffany frowns in an unease that has nothing to do with the Risen. Or maybe everything to do with them.
“Trahearne!” the younger sylvari exclaims. Tiffany stiffens, her ears flicking backwards in mixed shock and stubbornness. Eveanin goes on, “It’s been a long time. You study Orr - have there been any signs of an attack on its way?”
Trahearne. No. She’d left those dreams behind long ago. She hadn’t known that Eveanin knew him - the Crusader and Forgal can handle this conversation. She takes a step back, but Trahearne had already noticed her.
And recognized her, of course he’d recognized her. He couldn’t not recognize her, with the markings on her face.
“Soulstrider?” he asks, and Tiffany notices Eveanin blink in confusion.
“The Risen are coming,” she says, her tones short and clipped. She can’t allow herself to begin dreaming again. Trahearne frowns slightly, and turns back to Eveanin, but his eyes keep flicking over to her. Tiffany tries to think about something else. It’ll be less… painful that way.
As Forgal and Talon join in the conversation, Tiffany finds her gaze drawn southward. The Risen are coming. She hadn’t faced Risen in five years - not close enough to do combat with them, in any case. But she only came today because she would face them in combat.
But I don’t know how. Oh, she knows plenty enough about wielding the greatsword she carries, had studied extensively how to quickly and efficiently ‘kill’ the Risen… but she had never actually done so. She can’t.
She had only come here because she had to, and she still thinks she will only be a liability here. Nappa had tried everything to figure out what her problem with Risen is, but even that necromancer had been unable to cure her. And now, with Trahearne here… she wishes more than ever that she hadn’t come. She could have gone to get backup from the Vigil, and not ever thought about her youthful desires to go to Orr.
“Tiffany,” Forgal calls, jerking her out of her thoughts. “You and Pharlt can go find Deputy Brakk, warn him of the attack. The rest of us will speak to Deputy Mira.”
Tiffany nods, grateful that Forgal is splitting them up this way. He knows that she doesn’t want to be around Trahearne.
Word seems to spread fast. The Lionguard are already discussing the news of the Risen.
“Deputy Brakk,” she says upon seeing the asura. “There are Risen coming, and Talon isn’t listening. Are you ready to handle them?”
“Tell the Watch Commander Talon that the gunnery emplacements are ready,” Brakk replies. “The fortress here on Claw Island houses more 24-pounders than a ship of the line. We’ll be ready to fight the Orrians, don’t doubt that. Inform Deputy Mira - she’s in charge of the beach patrols.”
Tiffany glances toward the beaches, where Forgal, Eveanin and Trahearne are talking to another Lionguard. Everything seems normal, peaceful even, so far. She could almost imagine this being her life, she and her friends and Trahearne - except for the constant itching that is spreading over her body. The Risen are getting closer. She relentlessly quashes the momentary desire - no, soulful longing - for ‘peaceful’ to be her life.
The itching turns to pain - light pain, at first, before it gets fiercer. Mentally, she predicts when the Risen will come out of the water. She guesses that they’ll be coming for Trahearne first, and her predictions on when are nearly spot-on. Pharlt rushes down to join the fight, but Tiffany stays back, biting her lip as the pain of the Risen washes through her like a wave.
She stays away even when the Risen are defeated, and silently rejoins the group only when they enter the fortress, taking care to stay in Forgal’s shadow.
“Do you think the commander will listen to us now?” Trahearne is asking.
“I hope he does,” Forgal says with a grimace. He glances at Tiffany, his gaze asking if she is alright. She nods imperceptibly, trying not to look in Trahearne’s direction.
“What will we do if he does?” Pharlt asks. “They’ll just press on to Lion’s Arch. Will we retreat from there, too?”
“We’ll figure it out,” Forgal tells him.
“Even with all my research, we still know so little about defeating them,” Trahearne worries.
I really need to get out of here as soon as possible. Tiffany grimaces. Her father’s Wyld Hunt might as well be her own, with the way her chest aches with the desire to help Trahearne. How, she doesn’t know, even if she could. She glances at him, only to find the Firstborn looking at her with an inscrutable expression. Her eyes snap to staring blankly ahead again. She is not going to think about this. It’s safer that way.
“A paltry attack,” Talon sneers as they approach. “It barely ruffled our feathers. Is that all they brought?”
“There will be more,” Trahearne tells the charr. “Much more. Keep watching the sea.”
“You’re a scholar, not a general, Firstborn,” Talon snorts. “Why should we trust you?”
Tiffany’s hand twitches. Her ears flick back again. But she doesn’t move or say anything, much as she desperately wants to - not that she knows what she would say. Just something. Anything. No, no, no! I can’t do this. I need to not be here. And she has Risen, debilitating pain, and a whole battle to look forward to. With Trahearne. Who may or may not know that she literally can’t stand when around Risen.
Pain blossoms, every nerve ending screaming. Tiffany stiffens, and inhales sharply, biting her tongue to keep from crying out.
“The fortress is under attack!” Mira screams. Not that Tiffany hadn’t already known that. “Ready on the wall!” Mira continues. “Hostiles incoming!”
“There are too many!” Brakk hollers. “They’ve breached the wall! We’re being over - ”
Talon cuts over Brakk’s voice, shouting over an unnatural wind that had sprung up. “They’re catapulting abominations onto the western wall! Repel the invaders!”
“There’s something in the clouds!”
Tiffany glances up, only to see a shadow flitting through the dark clouds.
“We’ve held out against worse than this,” Talon snarls. “I defy the dragon to take our island! YOU HEAR ME, ZHAITAN? DEFY!”
Tiffany would liked to have said something sarcastic, but her eyes are on the Risen. Forgal, Eveanin, Pharlt, Trahearne and the Lionguard are fighting the Risen, but Tiffany doesn’t dare get closer to help them.
But the Dead Ship in the harbor… Tiffany can sink that with a trebuchet. She hurries over to one that isn’t surrounded by Risen. “Protect me,” she whispers to her bear, Beorn, who - lucky for him - does not have her inhibiting condition that keeps her away from Risen.
The pain is nearly unbearable, this close to the Risen on the wall, and her hands are shaking as she loads the trebuchet. On the beach below, she can see Eveanin and Trahearne fighting through the Risen to get to Deputy Mira and what remains of her squad. Snarling to herself, she fires the trebuchet. Wish I could fight Risen like that, she thinks sourly as she watches the missile sail toward the Dead Ship. It misses.
“G-great,” she snarls, falling to one knee. She glances at Beorn, who is keeping the Risen off her, at least, but not far enough away. Grasping the wooden frame of the trebuchet, she hauls herself upright again, but she leans heavily on it for support. Her muscles aren’t working right. She can’t possibly reload, aim, and fire the trebuchet.
“Soulstrider, are you injured?” comes Trahearne’s voice from behind her.
“No,” she snaps. “I’m trying to sink this ship.” It’s true - she’s just in pain. There’s absolutely no physical reason for it. But she still can’t stand on her own. At least the pain doesn’t multiply when there’s more than one Risen.
Trahearne frowns at her for a long moment before he joins Beorn in fighting off the Risen, which helps immensely. When the Risen are far enough away that she can trust herself to stand, she goes about shakily reloading the trebuchet. And wishing with all her heart that it had been anybody else who’d come to see what was wrong with her. Forgal would have understood. Eveanin or Pharlt would have known what was going on. The Lionguard would have not cared and just started helping. Trahearne…
She can’t go to Orr, and wishing for it isn’t going to change a thing. If anything, this battle is only reinforcing that idea that she is completely stuck on the continent of Tyria. At the same time as doing its best to break her heart about it all over again.
Snarling vehemently, she fires the trebuchet again...
Right before a charging abomination rams right into the trebuchet, breaking it and throwing Tiffany back. Tiffany screams, the sudden agony of the presence of Risen unbearable. The pain of where she’d fallen on the pavement of the courtyard pales in comparison. She curls into a protective ball as the pain washes over her. She bites her lip to keep from screaming, but tears are coursing down her face.
There’s nothing to be done about it except killing the abomination, and she almost literally can’t move of her own free will. Her muscles are spasming and she has to lock her arms together to keep them relatively still, but she’s still shaking uncontrollably. It would have been better if there was anything to do about it - if she could even feel like she was doing anything about it - but the pain isn’t even centered on one spot. It just is.
“We did it!” she hears Mira yell. “It’s sinking! A small victory.”
Tiffany dimly realizes that she must have hit the ship. Well… I never thought I’d kill a Risen.
The pain vanishes abruptly, and she realizes that Trahearne and Beorn must have killed the abomination. There are still nearby Risen, but they aren’t as close as before, so the pain is less.
She tries to stand, but her limbs are still shaking uncontrollably from the aftershock of the pain. Beorn is already at her side, and Tiffany lifts a shaky hand to pet his nose. “You alright, boy?” she asks, her voice coming out in a raspy whisper.
“I think the more pressing concern is whether you are alright,” Trahearne tells her, offering his hand to help her up.
“I’m fine now,” she assures him, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “Thanks for the help. Is Claw Island safe?”
Trahearne only points back to the harbor, where there are now dozens of ships.
“Oh, no…”
“Talon, this is no normal attack!” Mira exclaims to her commander. “The Lionguard cannot hold! We’re overwhelmed!”
“Claw Island has stood for nearly a hundred years. We’ve faced a dragon champion and survived! It cannot fall! We’ll fight them to the last soldier! To the last sword! We’ll never surr - “ He is cut off by a shell from a Dead Ship hitting him.
Tiffany growls. “That champion killed my mother,” she mutters, as she half-limps toward the charr. “Talon wasn’t there for that.”
“Medic!” Deputy Mira shouts. “We need a medic over here! Commander Talon, hold on. You’ll be alright.”
“Quiet, Mira,” Talon tells her. “Soldiers don’t need lies. Retreat to the city. Tell the commodore…” he is interrupted by a hacking cough, “…we did all we could…”
“By your will, Commander. I swear to you… this isn’t over,” Mira declares.
“Mira, the island is overwhelmed,” Forgal says as he hurries over with Eveanin and Pharlt. “We have to evacuate the Lionguard and ignite the watchtowers to warn the city.”
“No,” Mira counters. “You’ll never make it to the beacon with these Risen monstrosities chasing you. We’ll have to fight our way back. The Lionguard will make a stand in the courtyard while you go for the tower. Gods willing, the Risen will be too busy fighting us to stop you.”
“Your bravery is commendable, Deputy Mira,” Trahearne tells her, “but your soldiers cannot survive a protracted battle against this many undead.”
“It’s the duty of every Lionguard to lay down our lives to protect our city. If that’s what it takes, that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
“Only one person needs to light the watchtowers,” Forgal points out. “The rest of us can help you. Tiffany?”
“I’m on it,” Tiffany replies, turning to head toward the watchtower.
“We should stay together,” Trahearne says. “I’ll come with you.”
Tiffany feels like slamming her head against the wall. She does not need to deal with this right now. At least before they didn’t have time to talk. Now…
But there will be Risen on the way up, and Beorn can’t deal with them alone. She nods once and starts toward the stairs. Trahearne falls in beside her. Tiffany keeps staring straight ahead in silence.
“I’m sorry about your father,” Trahearne says quietly. “I understand if you blame me for his death, but I thought I should say so.”
“Blame you? No. I appreciate your concern, however.” Tiffany wishes Forgal were here to distract the sylvari, however well-intentioned he might be.
“You don’t - ? Then why - ?”
“Because I can’t fight Risen.”
“I have studied Orrian creatures for twenty-five years, but even I rarely engage in combat with them,” Trahearne tells her. “I find it quite terrifying.”
Tiffany doesn’t reply. Let him think she’s afraid of them if he likes.
Suddenly, she pauses. “Wait.” She peers upward toward the watchtower. There are no Risen. She glances down at the courtyard, where she can pick out her friends among the Lionguard. There are Risen closer than that. She can feel it. She glances up again. “Can Risen stealth?” she asks Trahearne.
He shakes his head. “No. Why do you - “
“Are there any more… magically potent Risen that can affect things from further away?”
“I don’t understand.”
Tiffany points up. “Can any Risen fly?”
“Only the champions,” Trahearne replies.
“By all Six Gods, there’s a champion here,” Tiffany snarls. Of course champions would have a wider range of effect. “Maybe more than one.”
“How can you - ?”
“I can feel them,” Tiffany shoots back, now mounting the steps by twos and praying she can make it to the top. Trahearne hurries after her.
Tiffany is shuddering by the time she reaches level ground, but at least she’s still capable of moving with any degree of reliability.
“Feel them how?” Trahearne asks her.
“They’re pain. I can’t get too close to them. I’ve never been able to figure out why.” Tiffany hurries to the control panel on the watchtower and jabs the button. “Let’s get out of here,” she says, as the three towers light up one by one. “Hopefully it doesn’t attack Lion’s Arch immediately.”
Trahearne glances at the sky, worry clear on his face. Tiffany hurries down the steps as quickly as she can. She stumbles suddenly as the pain mounts exponentially higher.
“Forgal!” She hollers, screeching more than shouting. “There’s a champion here! We need to evacuate, now!”
She comes to a halt, not trusting her legs to carry her safely down the last flight of stairs. “Retreat!” She hollers.
Trahearne catches up to her. “Are you alr - “
“No!” Tiffany snaps. She sinks down to sit on one of the steps before her legs can collapse. “I - just - get down there and get them off the island! Beorn can protect me,” she adds as she sees his hesitation. She bites her lip to keep from crying out as the pain increases. “I’ll be down in a moment. Go!”
Then, the champion flies right past them, and Tiffany faints.
“ - can’t form a defense and still get them all aboard,” Eveanin’s voice is saying as Tiffany wakes up.
“Hmm,” Forgal murmurs. “A heroic but nearly impossible task, against great odds and an unrelenting enemy.”
“Forgal,” Tiffany says slowly. The pain isn’t gone, but it’s more bearable. The champion must be on the other side of the island. “What are you planning?”
“Get the wounded to safety,” Forgal tells her - really all of them, but he’s addressing her. “Warn Lion’s Arch. One day, you’ll come back and retake this island - of that, I have no doubt.”
“Not me,” Tiffany whispers. “I can’t. You can’t just go die - not now! Not after - “
“Tiffany,” Forgal says, kneeling down beside her and speaking urgently. “I lost my mate and children to the dragons. I thought my legend was buried with them, that I had no one to walk in my footsteps and tell my tale. Now, that’s changed, my friend. Thank you for being my legacy. Tell my tale at the hearth fires, where the skaalds sing of heroes.”
“I should be the one to hold them off,” Tiffany tells him. “I’m useless anyway, I might as well do something - “
“No!” Forgal shakes his head vehemently. “You can’t hold them off - you’ve already fainted once today. They’d walk all over you and turn you into a Risen - I’m sorry, Tiffany, but you’d only buy us about ten seconds. You can do more good than that by staying alive. Go. I will not fail.”
Without waiting for a reply, Tiffany’s only friend turns and heads into the fortress.
“But so can you,” Tiffany whispers, reaching after him. “No…”
“You may win the battle, dragon,” Forgal roars, “but you will never defeat our spirit! I am Forgal, son of Kern. My father was the last Dolyak Shaman! I am a Warmaster of the Vigil! You will never make me kneel!”
“Come on, Tiffany,” Eveanin says urgently, pulling Tiffany to her feet. “Even Forgal can only buy us so much time.”
Tiffany imagines Forgal fighting all those Risen. She allows Eveanin to lead her to the ship. What wouldn’t she give to be able to fight Risen like that. Even imagining doing so almost feels painful.
