Liore of Herding Cats notes in an interesting post that the Moms of Azeroth appear to be typecast as baby-making machines, appearing long enough to pop out a famous heir and getting shunted back out of the spotlight.
Or they become drama engines, fueled by a tragic death that conveniently removes them from the story while leaving their offspring motherless and bereft of a functional family unit.
Automatically, I think about the game I’m playing. Are there any famous mothers in Guild Wars lore?
This is, of course, a game that has had some criticism thrown its way for the efficiency of materials usage in female light armor designs (ie. very little cloth or leather required.)
Would their character stories potentially be any less sexist?
On the surface, looking at the famous characters of Destiny’s Edge, it’s hard to say. No one mentions the mothers of Zojja, Rytlock, and so on. We know Logan has had a famous great-great-however-many-greats grandmom in the form of Gwen, is about it. Those NPCs may as well have sprung up from the brow of Athena for all that their mothers are referenced.
(The Sylvari as a race, are right out of the runnning, of course, since they don’t have mothers per se. The Pale Tree is as close as it gets, and she’s more of a… steward, caretaker, guardian figure?)
Then again, is it simply a case of being too ordinary an origin and unnecessary to trace back and mention the lineage of every famous character?
—
On further deep thinking, I managed to locate a number of notable mothers in the GW lore.
In the Living Story, Eir is revealed to be a mom herself.
The relationship between her son Braham and her is an estranged one, but neither party is dead, so I guess that’s something.
In fact, both are leading their own lives and fighting their own separate fights, rather than the mother being overshadowed by the son.
There are likely to be some abandonment issues to be resolved in the future – their relationship is a promising character story to learn more about, at any rate.
Almorra Soulkeeper, the head of the Vigil, is also a mother.
(Spoilers for one part of the Vigil storyline follow.)
Her son turns out to be Ajax Anvilburn, the leader of the renegades disrupting the human-charr peace treaty talks near Ebonhawke. That relationship is buried rather abruptly when she gives or approves the order to protect the talks at all costs, including over the dead body of her son.
Who’d have thunk? A mother that thinks some causes are greater than flesh and blood, and willing to make sacrifices for it. “Like many in the legions, Ajax never looked beyond the charr. I will grieve for my son, but I will not look back.”
(End of spoiler.)
Moving back in time to Guild Wars, we have a non-human mother, Glint.
Considered a dragon back in GW1, but apparently an enslaved champion of the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik, she has a long history of being a mover and a shaker, heavily involved with the GW1 player heroes and then with Destiny’s Edge up to the point of her death.
No disappearing out of the spotlight for this mom.
In GW1, players had a challenge mission to protect one of her offspring, a baby dragon. It’s rumored that the child may have been hidden and still lives to this very day – a lore thread that should be pretty promising if ever picked up again (assuming that joker Scarlet doesn’t get her hands all over it.)
And finally, back to humanity and the most famous character in GW lore, Gwen.
The girl we see grow up from the ashes of a charr invasion and get romantically involved over the course of one game and three expansions. We know, of course, that she marries Keiran Thackeray and spawns a whole line of descendants down to the current less-than-impressive Logan, so she’s technically quite the uber-mom.
But that’s not who I want to highlight today.
No, let’s talk about HER mom.
While she does suffer a tragic death from the Searing of Ascalon and leave Gwen orphaned at an early age, does this mom quietly fade away?
Hell no, it turns out she’s quite a lively ghost in the Underworld.
And if you bring Gwen in your party along with you when visiting, they engage in some rather delightful dialogue.
Fer instance:
Sarah: “Husband? By the six! My little girl is all grown up now! Keiran is it? Come, come, tell me about yourself. I want to know everything!”
Gwen: “Everything mom? That might take a while.”
Sarah: “Sweetheart, I’ve got all the time in the world.”
Now that’s one mom you’re not going to get away from in a hurry.
—
Those are the major moms that I can think up offhand in the Guild Wars universe.
Have I missed out any others?
Why I Game 