> [**Image:** The Lastborn, a Sylvari of Guild Wars 2 infamy. He’s tall and svelte, with an enormous mane of yucca that terminates with loose braids. They weave around a flowering stalk, which sits at his feet like a ponytail. He has a skirt of agave that looks a bit like a tailcoat, as well. The features of his face are trim and sharp, with a tall, broad nose that’s almost kitty-like, and a pointed gaze that’s lidded by pointier eyelashes. Most striking is the wound over his right eye, which runs all the way from his jaw to his scalp. It exposes much of the darker tissue under his cheek. > > He sits on the ground with his arms on his knees, clutching a makeshift ocotillo walking stick and brooding.] ◆◆◆ "No, you're right. I lied to you. I was not birthed, but expelled, like a malignant tumor being cut out of a body. The Tree deposited me here with her furthest root. I crawled out of the dirt and into the desert, alone. When the Court finally found me, they said that they had created me, that they had finally inoculated the Tree with their nightmares. But I believe they were merely taking credit for what was a natural immune response—that is, ridding her body of trauma— in order to groom me. Nonetheless I carry it inside of me. I am called every day by morbid visions that are mine, but which do not belong to me. The Court wants to use me to sow anguish and heartbreak among their kin, and the Wardens want me dead. Some believe this is why I was really created, so that this immortal and intangible evil could be made into something mortal and tangible… Something that could be killed. But you are already familiar with such things, no, dragonslayer? Why are you really here? Did the Pact send you? The Wardens? The Tree herself? Because I cannot imagine why someone like you would come to meet someone like me, except to do their dirty work." ◆◆◆ The Lastborn is a sylvari(?) pariah who mostly keeps to himself and fucks around in the desert. He is dry (pun intended) and emotionally austere, but insightful. People typically get a selfish, callous vibe over a thoughtful vibe, though, because of his rigid commitment to isolation and nonintervention. In truth, he feels he must “go it alone” to protect himself and those around him. Everyone knows that something went wrong during his creation… or maybe something went wrong long before his creation, and he was just collateral. Either way, the Lastborn emerged from the Pale Tree less like a daughter sprout and more like a root parasite. The Dream that he was fed is completely unrecognizable to most of his peers, a fever dream of fear and pain. The Court considers him to be the first son raised from their Nightmare, and whether or not this is actually true, this narrative has been compelling enough to estrange him from the Tree and her children. His apparent abandonment—coupled with his induction into the Court during his formative years—is the ultimate condemnation in the minds of his peers. Worse still, he feels his Wyld Hunt calling him to return to these morbid memories, the way you might pick and scratch at a wound that won’t heal. The possibility that he’ll be called to do something terrible has frightened him into living in isolation—or at least, that’s what he tells those who have the grace to ask first, instead of attacking him on sight. Really, he’s a hermit by choice as much as he is by circumstances outside of his control. He’s not as desperate for belonging as he used to be, and it’s been years since he made his quiet exit from the Court… Though he’ll probably never be out of the shadow of (indicates generally) whatever that was. Other schtuff: * Not in touch with the Dream, but constantly receives Visions And Nightmares against his will. You could probably consider him an oracle, but only for worst case scenarios, intrusive thoughts, and terrible ideas. And he can’t even tell you if they’re actually going to happen or not. * Not outwardly hung up about being estranged from the Pale Tree and her kids, but maybe a little bit on the inside. Un poquito. I think the two of them reach an understanding later that she did All That to try and protect him (for better or worse.) * Unsure if he emerged with a name or not. If he did, he has never spoken it to others. “The Lastborn” (sometimes “Lostborn”) is an epithet bestowed on him in lieu of a true name. Later on he learns from his friends that you can give yourself a name, or ask other people to name you, and you can change it as many times as you want, and he goes appropriately ham. * Ofc not actually lastborn (others come after him, albeit in a more normal way.) but my lot in life is that every couple of years I recreate [the last firstborn](https://celldweller.bandcamp.com/track/the-last-firstborn) * ⠀ * I just think it’s funny if the Court did all these awful things in order to make an eeeevil treebaby. But in the end you fucked up a perfectly good sylvari is what you did. Look at him. He has anxiety.