User:Lysander/Charr

Asura	Sylvari	Humans	Norn	Charr

Though they were not playable in the first game, the Charr are rich in lore from Prophecies and Eye of the North. They also have the most thorough (relatively-speaking) lore from the transition centuries of all of the non-human races. There were, therefore, several possible directions to go with the story of my Charr characters.

Legal Disclaimer: I have also expanded on details of existing lore to flesh things out a bit. For legal purposes, everything on this page should be regarded as fan-fiction, intended in no way to infringe on ArenaNet's rights to sole control of the lore of their game. As they continue to develop the true lore of Guild Wars 2, any of their changes that overwrite what you see here will obviously take precedence.

Symon's Library

In the weeks following the carnage in Barradin's Vaults, the Iron Legion guardian Majid wandered the Plains of Ashford in something of a daze, unable to pull his mind away from his fallen allies. He felt lost, and took to performing meaningless, menial tasks. Eventually, he made his way to the Ascalon City Ruins, and joined the constant, repetitive fight there to clear the ghosts that plague the area.

In the course of clearing the ghosts from the ruins for the umpteenth time, Majid found himself in a part of the ruins that he had never been in before. Looking around, he realized that he was lost. He wandered further in, greatsword at the ready to vanquish any foes that attacked him. Instead, he found a vast room of books covered in dirt and dust. A large volume sat on a sturdy old table in the center of the room.

Majid opened the book, finding the name of the author, Symon. The book told of the story of a guild of heroes from long ago who had performed many great deeds, uniting individuals from all of the human nations to save the world time and again.

Ignoring the puny human-sized chair that was present, Majid stood there for hours, reading about the exploits of Lysander and his companions. Eventually, he began to feel tired, but he was not yet ready to discard the book. Instead, he lifted the book from the table, and as he did so, a ghost appeared beside him.

Majid immediately raised his sword, but the ghost did not attack him, and was not armed. Instead, the undead human demanded to know what Majid intended to do with the book. The ghost was apparently surprised by the civility of the Charr's response, and revealed himself to be Symon the Scribe, the author. The scribe had diligently documented the war against the Charr, and had come to know them as vicious beasts devoid of rational intellect. Majid showed him otherwise.

Nonetheless, Symon felt the curse of the Foefire calling on him to attack his nation's ancient foe. He urged the Charr to leave, and take the book if he so chose. Majid knew that the unarmed scribe could be no threat, but did not want to harm this particular ghost himself, and so departed, taking the book and finding his way out of the ruins.

He brought the book to the Hero's Forum in the Black Citadel, and resumed reading at a table there. He sat there through the night, and was found there in the morning by Hariq, an elementalist from the Blood Legion. When the mage asked about the book, Majid told him of the old guild of humans who had accomplished so much. For the first time since the collapse of his old warband, he felt inspired, and determined that he should build a new warband that united Charr from each of the High Legions. He asked Hariq to join him, and the elementalist agreed to.

Reestablishing the Guild

Majid Longsword, co-founder of the Long Warband.

Zhaitan soon manifested itself as a threat that demanded the attention of more than just the Charr, and Majid and Hariq found themselves impressed by the Vigil, a military force that united fighters from all over Tyria to fight the dragons. Agreeing to join, they travelled to Lion's Arch. There, they met a small group who had just joined the Durmand Priory.

One night, Majid was approached in a tavern by a member of the Priory group, a human named Alexei Hart. Alexei was unaccustomed to fighting alongside Charr, and he sat down opposite Majid and tried to strike up a conversation. Majid regarded him skeptically at first, but they sat there long into the night, and as the conversation progressed, the ice melted. Eventually, Alexei asked Majid what had brought him to the Vigil, and Majid told him about the old Ascalonian book that he had discovered, detailing the exploits of the great hero Lysander and his companions. Alexei laughed at this, and revealed that he was a direct descendant of Lysander and at least two of his companions. Majid didn't believe him, until Alexei revealed details from the book that the Charr hadn't yet told him.

Impressed, Majid suggested that they might reestablish the guild that Alexei's ancestors had created, this time uniting heroes from Tyria's various races rather than just the human nations. Alexei agreed, and added that they should recruit members of each of the three Orders. The following day, while Alexei raised the topic with his Priory companions, the Asura Nokkx and the Sylvari Neilida, Majid brought the news to Hariq. With that, the guild was reestablished.

Harba Ruststrike.

Fighting Zhaitan's forces all the way down to Orr, the guild helped Trahearne and Neilida fulfill their respective Wyld Hunts, cleansing Orr and destroying the dragon. Along the way, the roster of the guild fluctuated. The Norn Yoric Stokson was recruited as a representative of the elusive Order of Whispers, while two Vigil soldiers, a Norn named Helna and a Sylvari named Corilen, briefly fought alongside the guild but later abandoned the war. Once Zhaitan was vanquished, a number of the remaining members parted ways, some temporarily and some permanently.

Majid and Hariq continued to fight alongside Alexei and Yoric as new threats arose in Tyria, culminating in the awakening of Mordremoth. When Tribune Rytlock Brimstone's attempt to eliminate the Foefire curse went horribly wrong, Majid felt that he should perhaps remain at the Black Citadel to see what would happen there, but he knew that he would be needed at the World Summit.

By the time of the final campaign against Mordremoth, new faces had joined the guild, including a fellow Iron Legion soldier named Harba. Together with their companions, they vanquished the jungle dragon.

The Second Attempt

Harba told Majid how things had changed at the Black Citadel following Rytlock's disappearance. The remaining tribunes had clamped down on indiscipline among the High Legions. Punishments such as Scrapper Duty were rampant, and divisions between the legions had deepened. Majid anxiously returned to Ascalon, and decided to reconstruct his multi-legion warband to promote unity among the Charr.

Khawaf Longsight, recruited from the Blood Legion.

Blood and Shadows

Majid turned his attention first to the Blood Legion. Attending a spar at the 20th Blood Cohort, he watched as a young necromancer named Khawaf outsmarted a large warrior. The caster was unpopular among his peers, who were generally still suspicious of magic, but they acknowledged that he was an asset in the field. Later on, Majid found Khawaf in Hero's Forum and bought him a drink. He told Khawaf of his warband and his battles against the dragons, and the necromancer was impressed.

The discussion was interrupted by Khawaf's commanding officer, Centurion Volante Tornpaw, who had taken a more prominent role at the Black Citadel after Rytlock's disappearance, and who was known for believing that the Blood Legion was superior to the others. Knowing immediately what Majid was planning to do, she tried to take the former Iron Legion Centurion to task, deriding his attempts to strengthen bonds among the legions and refusing to allow Khawaf to join him. After Majid defeated her in combat, she relented, but instead of letting Khawaf go, she pointed Majid towards a different Blood Legion soldier, Lail.

Lail Darkclaw

Lail had been a member of the Ash Legion, stationed in Fireheart Rise. Despite being a thief, he had grown to dislike the legion's stealthy and underhanded style, and left his warband to wander as a gladium. Making a name for himself across the dangerous lands of Northern Ascalon, he gained the attention of Centurion Anun Surecut, the commander of the Blood Legion's northern forces. Surecut tracked him down and introduced him to Blood Legion tactics, which Lail found more direct and much more appealing. Agreeing to join, he returned to the Black Citadel and enlisted in the cohort.

His background quickly drew the ire of Centurion Tornpaw, who was particularly scornful of the Ash Legion, to whom she owed a debt. Despite his prowess, which earned the respect of many of his peers, he continued to be least favored by the commander. The fact that he took every one of her insults in stride angered her even more.

Now, Tornpaw tried to turn her humiliating defeat by Majid into an opportunity to be rid of the Ash Legion turncoat. However, Lail showed far less interest in Majid's warband than Khawaf had. He knew by now that the Blood Legion was where he belonged, and he wanted nothing to do with the other legions, particularly Ash. To Tornpaw's dismay, he politely declined Majid's offer, and she was forced to watch as Majid departed with Khawaf.

The Blind Brothers

The Blind Brothers, Sahib and Saqib.

Like the other two legions, the Ash Legion was having its share of issues after Rytlock's disappearance. Despite being the most independent of the legions, it was still embedded enough in the culture of the Black Citadel to feel the tremors occurring near the top of the militaristic society. Tribune Torga Desertgrave had joined her counterparts in becoming more devoted to discipline and impatient with weaknesses among the ranks. For her own reasons, she was particularly watchful of the Blind Brothers, Sahib and Saqib.

Years ago, long before she became a Tribune, Torga had discovered a pair of blinded cubs wandering the edges of Flame Legion territory. They were seeking their sire, whom they insisted had accidentally taken their eyes with fire magic. Realizing that the Flame Legion had likely left the blinded cubs here to die, Torga took them with her to the Black Citadel and tried to find a Primus who would train them. After finding one, she watched their progress in the fahrar carefully. Although they underperformed and were not likely qualified to join a legion, she realized that she had become too attached to allow them to fall into the cellars of Charr society. She recruited them into the Ash Legion, hoping that she could continue their training in secret in order to remedy their persistent weakness.

Now that she was a Tribune, however, she had to prioritize differently. Her relationship to the Blind Brothers was known, and they had become a drag on morale. After a brief captivity at the hands of the Flame Legion caused further damage to her reputation, she became desperate to see them finally develop into valuable Ash Legion soldiers. She began putting them in increasingly dangerous situations, hoping that a trial by fire would finally bring out their true potentials.

Targyir

Other leaders of the Ash Legion turned a blind eye towards this situation, until the return of Torga's former warband-mate, Targyir. A gladium who had left the legion to join the Order of Whispers against the dragons, Targyir was known for the same compassion that Torga herself had once shown. Upon learning of her actions with regard to the Blind Brothers, he confronted her just as she was planning to dispatch them to the Ascalon City Ruins.

It was into this confrontation that Majid stumbled when he arrived to try to recruit members of the Ash Legion. Targyir had known Majid years earlier, despite growing up in a different fahrar, and fully expected the reputable hero to take his side. He was stunned when Majid agreed with Torga that a trial by fire would be good for the much-maligned recruits, and for the legion that was begrudgingly carrying their weight. If the Blind Brothers had potential, a trial by fire would bring it out. If they were as incapable as it seemed, the legion might soon be rid of the dead weight. Majid would join Targyir in standing by to make sure nothing went too wrong.

The Ritual

Majid and Targyir traveled with the brothers to the Ascalon City Ruins, where they engaged the ghosts. The brothers quickly became surrounded, and fled deeper into the ruins. The veterans followed, and Majid realized that they were approaching Symon's Library, the same place where his mission to recreate Lysander's guild had begun years earlier.

Only one ghost was present in the library, and Majid stopped the others from attacking it. Symon recognized him, and asked about the book on Lysander, which Majid was still in possession of. Majid thanked him, and introduced the other Charr to the scribe. When Symon realized that the brothers were blind, he was surprised to find them fighting among the ranks.

They heard other ghosts approaching the library. Symon revealed that he could keep them out, at least until the Foefire Curse overtook him once more. He knew that the blind Charr would likely fall at the hands of his rabid brethren, but perhaps a book in the library could help them.

The old Canthans had rituals that made use of blindness, giving the blind powers via communication with the Mists or with ancestral entities. Such rituals could empower the Blind Brothers, but Symon knew that he didn't have time to do any before the blasted curse overtook him and forced him to fight the Charr. Finding the book that the Charr would need, he gave it to Sahib, then channeled what power he could to them to help them escape the ruins.

With Majid and Targyir leading the way, the Charr managed to fight their way out of the ruins with the book. Bringing it back to the Citadel, they located Khawaf, who had some understanding of ritual magic. The necromancer was skeptical of using old human spells, but agreed to help.

While Khawaf perused the rituals, Sahib asked Majid about Lysander. As a mesmer himself, he took an interest in Lysander's abilities, fascinated by some of the old magic that the legendary human had been able to do. Turning to Khawaf, he asked if there was a ritual that could enable him to channel the power of the humans who had once lived in Ascalon.

All of the others stared at him. He wanted to channel a human? But Majid knew about Lysander, and knew it was not a bad choice. Khawaf found the ritual, which required them to find Lysander's ancestral home. This meant finding a map of Ascalon City from before the searing.

They braced for another venture to the ruins, but Targyir pointed them in a different direction. As a member of the Order of Whispers, he had once assisted with the defense of the Ascalon Settlement in Kryta from the centaurs. While helping repair some minor damage that had been wrought, he had seen an old map of Ascalon, from the time when the humans controlled the whole area.

The group traveled to Lion's Arch and exited the north gate of the city, where they found a magical anomaly wreaking havoc on the area. A large gaggle of mercenaries was racing after the anomaly, trying to minimize the damage it would cause. Among them was Helna, the Norn who had abandoned the Guild during the campaign against Zhaitan. The Charr joined in, assisting the mercenaries. Once the anomaly was vanquished, Majid tried to confront Helna, but she departed without a word.

The group of Charr continued on to the Ascalon Settlement, where they aroused the suspicion of the Ascalonian descendants. Targyir tried to point out that he had helped them before, but the humans were still unwilling to let them get their claws on the old map. Placing his sword on the ground, Majid ordered the others to do the same with their weapons. Even though only Khawaf was under his command, everyone complied. Majid then pointed out that the humans were still holding their weapons, and had the Charr at their mercy. They would do no harm to the beloved map.

The Charr were permitted to look at the map, but not touch it. They soon realized that their task was more difficult than they thought. Lysander had not been a noble in Ascalonian society, and the residences of commoners were not marked. However, they could see where the most populated areas of the city had been. If they could fend off the ghosts for long enough, they would likely be able to cast the ritual in a broad enough area for it to work.

Returning to ruins of Ascalon City, the Charr found the area of where the Lysander's neighborhood had likely been. Majid and Targyir had the Charr soldiers in the area set up a perimeter outside the range of the ritual, giving Khawaf time to cast it. With the Blind Brothers standing anxiously before him, he called to the Mists for the spirits of the Ascalonians who had once resided here.

Both of the brothers felt sudden surges of power. Sahib knew instantly that the ritual was successful, as he was assaulted by memories that matched what he had learned about Lysander. He saw Lysander's adventures, his well-documented triumphs and his more private chapters. Drawing his staff, he let loose a powerful blast of chaos magic, causing the nearest ghost to collapse, screaming.

Saqib, for his part, was suddenly endowed with the abilities of some of those whom Lysander had encountered. While he did not receive the rush of memories that Sahib did, he quickly realized that he was now able to fight as well as any of the Charr who had once looked down on him.

The Staff

Lysander with his Destroyer Staff.

However, Sahib's staff suddenly felt wrong in his paw. It was not Lysander's staff, forged using the power of destroyers he had defeated. That staff had been lost in the south, after Lysander and his guildmates had a confrontation with the dragon Glint. The dragon had cast them out of her lair, and they had wound up stranded in the Blazeridge Mountains, where the staff had tumbled into the inaccessible darkness below.

Sahib felt instinctively that he needed to find the staff, or he would never be able to fully channel Lysander's power.

The following day, Majid left to attend Eir's Memorial in Hoelbrak. Shortly after he left, Targyir and the others were summoned to appear before the War Council. There, they were questioned about the ritual they had cast in the Ascalon City Ruins. Ever suspicious of magic, the War Council did not take their story well.

Tribune Desertgrave stepped forward, and announced that she would handle the discipline of the Blind Brothers. Khawaf expected Centurion Tornpaw to have something in mind for him, but she apparently wanted nothing to do with him now. Targyir was asked to leave the Citadel and return to his secretive order, and to take Khawaf with him.

The Blind Brothers followed Torga back to her office, where she revealed to them that she believed something was wrong at the highest level of the Charr hierarchy. Imperator Smodur and Tribune Goreblade were taking advice from new and suspicious faces. She advised the Blind Brothers to leave the Citadel for the time being, and when Sahib told her of his quest to find Lysander's staff, she told him to contact the Ogre Chieftain Lagula, who had recently returned to the Blazeridge Mountains with her tribe after finding new pets in the Maguuma.

The brothers sought out Lagula, declaring that they would help her tribe retake their Kraal from the Branded. In return, the ogres would help them search for the staff, though they were skeptical that such an artifact would be found in their mountains.

The campaign to retake the Kraal received help from another unexpected source: the Norn Helna, whom the brothers had first encountered during the fight against the magical anomaly. Helna had previously helped the ogres fend off a Branded attack on the Kraal, enlisting their support for the very same fight against the dragons that she later abandoned herself. She had retained the favor of Lagula's tribe, and as an outcast from many of her own kin, sometimes dwelt with them.

When she learned of the brothers' quest, she too was skeptical that they would find the staff in the mountains. But she had a possible alternative solution: a Charr who was studying the shifts in Tyria's underground ambient magic resulting from the demise of Mordremoth. This Charr apparently wielded a weapon forged from destroyer magic, just as Lysander had.

After defeating the Branded, the Norn bid the brothers follow her into the Shiverpeaks, where they would meet this Charr. As they entered the solitude of the mountains, Helna transformed before their eyes, taking on a demonic appearance with glowing, blue skin and fiery armor. She explained that this was her true form, the result of a ritual that had increased her elemental power. She had only recently learned to control the form and disguise herself as a normal Norn caster.

Sahib with his Destroyer Staff.

The meeting occurred at a Pact encampment near the icy Frostgorge Sound. Sure enough, the Charr was wielding what appeared to be a destroyer scythe. Helna introduced the Charr as Seis Burntheart, and the brothers were immediately alarmed by the warband name, recognizing it as coming from their ancestral Flame Legion. Seis ignored the ensuing questions, pointing out that the internal squabbles of the Charr were of little consequence when faced with the might of the dragons.

With some reluctance, the brothers helped Helna and Seis track the movement of magic south through the mountains, until it turned west into the Sea of Sorrows. Helna theorized that it meant Primordus was on the move, as only an Elder Dragon could create such an intense flow of magic. In return for the help, Seis gave Sahib a container of gathered magic left behind the dragon, from which the mesmer was able to create a replica of Lysander's staff.

Testing the new staff with Lysander's channeled powers, he found that the new Destroyer Staff worked very well for him. His quest was complete.

As they returned to the Black Citadel, the brothers realized that they had seen Seis before. She had been present during the interrogation at the War Council, though she had not spoken. Did the Imperator know she was from the Flame Legion? Had the Flame Legion secretly infested the Citadel hierarchy?

Upon arrival, they sought out Tribune Desertgrave. She bid them keep their suspicions quiet for the time being. Things were going wrong at the Citadel. She had learned that Tribune Brimstone was about to be stripped of his rank and court-martialed.

The Bow

While they waited to see what fate would befall Rytlock, Sahib honed his abilities with the Destroyer Staff and Lysander's magic. Saqib watched. Despite having his own connections to characters from the past, he envied the depth and strength of the connection that his brother had forged with the hero of old. He began to wonder if there was a figure from the past whom he would be able to channel in a similarly deep fashion. Unlike Sahib, however, he preferred that his strong connection be with a Charr.

One morning, while walking up the ramp in the Citadel's Memorial Quadrant, he looked up at the massive statues of the old Charr heroes. As he passed the statue of Kalla Scorchrazor, he thought he heard something, like a faint, unintelligible whisper. Pausing, he stared at the statue, and heard it again. Then, abruptly, he somehow knew what he had to do.

Saqib with the Guerrilla Arc.

At the time, Commander Alexei Hart and the humans were planning an expedition to the Crystal Desert in pursuit of their god, Balthazar. Majid, who had also witnessed Balthazar's reappearance, was preoccupied with what was happening at the Citadel, and decided to send Khawaf ahead to rendezvous with the expedition at Amnoon. Saqib volunteered to join Khawaf, and Sahib, though mystified by the abruptness of Saqib's decision, agreed to join as well.

Once he arrived in the desert, however, Saqib focused little attention on the mission against Balthazar. The whispering in his head was growing louder. He understood by now that the whispering voice belonged to Kalla herself. Her spirit reached out to him through the Mists, and he allowed her to make use of his mind and body, summoning the spirits of her allies to aid in battle. He learned to wield a bow as adeptly as she once had, and her voice guided him on a quest to restore the Guerrilla Arc, the bow that had once belonged to her.

Sahib followed him to the Desolation, but there became preoccupied with Lysander's memories of his own time in the region. The brothers stationed themselves near the Chantry of Shadows for a long time, each catering to the needs of the spirits that occupied their minds. Saqib scrambled to put together the pieces of Kalla's bow, while Sahib was drawn to the Mouth of Torment. Horrific images emerged from the foreign memories, filling the darkness behind his useless eyes. Lysander had ventured through the rift, through the Realm of Torment beyond. The nightmare memories grew more and more forceful, until Sahib felt the need to escape them.

Fortunately for him, Saqib finally managed to reconstruct the Guerrilla Arc. Once this quest was fulfilled, the brothers retreated well away from the Mouth of Torment, and Sahib was relieved as the nightmarish memories receded.

Discoveries and Divisions

Khawaf as a scourge.

Saqib was not the only one who gained new abilities in the desert. Khawaf learned to channel his necrotic power into the sand itself, creating powerful shades that could devastate his enemies and protect his allies. As he pressed on alongside Alexei and his allies, with the rest of the warband trailing behind, he gained a new confidence in himself and his ability to defeat enemies without the aid of his warband mates.

By the time Majid arrived in the desert, the battle was all but over, and Khawaf had grown impatient. He kept silent about it for a while, however, and continued travelling alongside Alexei.

Bariqa after joining the Olmakhan. He was thus present at the discovery of the Olmakhan, and independent tribe of Charr living off the coast of Elona. He was startled and mystified, as few in the High Legions could have been aware of the Olmakhan's existence. The Olmakhan lived a lifestyle very different from the legions, growing up in families rather than fahrars, and living at peace with nature rather than constantly pushing it aside for metal structures and machines of war. For the Charr he knew, warfare was a way of life, but for the Olmakhan, who at the time were fighting off the Inquest, warfare was a temporary nuisance. He wasn't sure whether news of the Olmakhan should immediately be sent back to the Black Citadel, but it happened anyway. After the Inquest and Awakened in the area were defeated, he stayed with the tribe for months, waiting to see how the High Legions would react. He half-expected emissaries from all three legions, demanding that the Olmakhan immediately return to the Charr fold. However, the emissaries and demands never came, and eventually, Khawaf began to feel more at ease. One Charr from the Citadel did come, however. Her name was Bariqa. Khawaf had met her once, but barely remembered her, as she had been a standard Iron Legion mechanic. Now, however, she had abandoned the Iron Legion, and desired to join the Olmakhan. She was an elementalist, and found the Olmakhan's widespread, open use of elemental magic far more appealing than the High Legions' distrust of it. For the first time, she would be able to make use of her skills as much as she liked, and she quickly learned the various ways in which the Olmakhan utilized their magic. Weeks earlier, Khawaf might have felt disdain for her decision to abandon her legion. Now however, he found himself appreciating the independence of her thought. Between his time among the Olmakhan and his pre-existing frustration with Majid and the intrigues at the Citadel, he had begun thinking more independently about the legions himself. He watched as Bariqa tried to ingratiate herself among the tribe more and more, slowly getting past their mistrust of outsiders, and admired her determination.

Ramad Steeltorch. As the Olmakhan joined the subsequent battles against Palawa Joko and Kralkatorrik, Khawaf and Bariqa joined them. As much as he enjoyed spending time with her and the tribe, however, he knew that he would eventually have to return to the Citadel. He could not abandon the High Legions the way she had. In the meantime, another previously little-known member of the Iron Legion was making a name for himself in Elona. Ramad Steeltorch was a member of the Iron Legion's Steel Warband, protecting Steeleye Span in the Blazeridge Steppes. During a foray north to gather scraps in the aftermath of a battle between the Vigil and the Shatterer, he discovered a large hammer lying on the battlefield. A Vigil soldier told him that the hammer had belonged to a powerful scrapper named Harba, who had mysteriously disappeared. A scrapper himself, Ramad decided to keep the hammer, using it to channel the powerful lightning attacks of his specialization. Once all of his scraps were gathered, Ramad turned back south. No sooner had he reached the wall, however, than the Shatterer attacked again, and he rushed back to help the Vigil fend it off. Several powerful heroes joined in the fight, and this time, the Shatterer appeared to be defeated once and for all. As Ramad began gathering the scraps from this latest battle, however, the Shatterer reappeared in the sky above, this time with his purple energies mixed with a green power reminiscent of the necrotic energies of Zhaitan. The resurrected Shatterer flew south, and the Vigil immediately set out in pursuit. Ramad went with them, hoping that his warband would understand that he was not abandoning them. They followed the dragon as far as the highlands on the border of the old human kingdoms of Vabbi and Kourna in Elona. There, the Shatterer attacked the Fortress of Jahai, where Commander Alexei Hart was meeting with representatives of the various Elonian peoples in the aftermath of Palawa Joko's defeat. The Commander and his allies joined the Vigil forces for a final battle against the Shatterer, and it was there that Ramad caught the attention of Majid. Ramad knew who Majid was, of course, as the Centurion had become a legend among the rank-and-file of the Iron Legion. He was flattered, therefore, when Majid invited him back to the Black Citadel to meet with Tribune Goreblade. The Tribune was visibly impressed when Majid told him of the skills Ramad had deployed in the battle, and suggested that the young scrapper had a future among the higher ranks of the legion.

Names

I chose to use Arabic, rather than Latin, for my Charr names. Why Arabic? Well, think about Charr history in the context of Tyrian interracial relations. See it? They were the ancient enemy, and today the radical Flame Legion zealots continue to cause trouble, though they are a clear minority among the more reasonable voices of the other High Legions.

• Majid: Arabic for "glorious."
• Harba: Feminine version of "harb," the Arabic word for "war."
• Khawaf: Modification of "khawf," the Arabic word for "fear."
• Lail: Masculine version of "laila," the Arabic word for "night."
• Targyir: Anglicized pronunciation of the Arabic word for "change."
• Sahib: Arabic for "master."
• Saqib: Arabic name meaning "sharp/keen."
• Seifus: Modification of "seif," the Arabic word for "sword."
• Bariqa: Feminine version of "bariq," the Arabic word for "lightning."
• Ramad: Arabic for "gray."