Gaius Redblade/Gaius The Red is a Charr, a species from the games Guild Wars & Guild Wars 2. As such, all rights to the species, lore & world building are owned by the company behind the games, Arena.net. However all characters involved in this story are of my own creation & I reserve the rights to all artwork of these characters, visual, written, or otherwise, to date. Also please note that real life events have inspired parts of this story however as previously stated ALL characters within this story are of my own creation thus any likeliness or similarities to anyone else's character(s) is purely coincidental. If there is any confusion then the reader can contact me directly & I will be happy to clear up any misconception (Last updated 24/10/2019).


Artwork by  Booshie



Early life

Gaius was born in the year 1307AE to Julius Fireceheart & Cornelia Fireheart, a warrior & elementalist within the Hearts warband of the Blood Legion.
When Gaius was a year old Julius & Cornelia handed him over to a Farah, as is customary in Charr society. From there Gaius was to join a band of other cubs his age & form a warband which would be his new family from here on out . The warband already consisted of Titus, Isabella & Guinevere & would be joined by Claudia & Cerosi later that same year. Julius kept tabs on his cub throughout the years, something that was uncommon in Charr society but not unheard of.
Under the tutelage of their Primus the young warband would all be taught the basics of warrior training but would be free to pursue whichever career they wished in their spare time. Titus & Gaius knuckled down on their warrior training, mastering all manner of weaponry & firearms. They would often have friendly competitions between themselves. Titus, being the largest & most headstrong cub in the farah, would almost always win any strength based contest, frequently leaving Gaius battered & bruised but Gaius on the other hand would almost always win skill & marksmanship based contests. Gaius relayed his dismay of not being able to beat Titus in physical combat to his sire Julius, who then began to train Gaius in the finer aspects of combat such as Norn wrestling & the human martial arts. This new knowledge enabled Gaius to use Titus' weight against him & before long Gaius was winning most of their fights leaving Titus to have to settle for calling him an equal (he'd never admit defeat).
Cerosi, Claudia & Isabella would all hone their archery & hunting skills. Claudia was the stealthiest & would often wrack up the most kills, Isabella became an expert tracker & would go to great lengths to learn about the fauna she was hunting, Cerosi was less interested in hunting but would often use her bandmates kills to create hearty meals for the whole warband. She was definitely more passionate about cooking than hunting but anyone who would question this would soon take back their criticism upon eating one of her meals. Titus was particularly fond of her cooking & would happily eat the whole banquet if he wasn't stopped.
Guinevere (Gwen for short) originally pursued further warrior training alongside Gaius & Titus, however she changed career paths after meeting a Centurion on his way through the Farah. This centurion was a Guardian & he relayed stories of his conquests & his rise through the ranks & the glories he had achieved in the war with the humans. Utterly starstruck, Gwen instantly changed paths & convinced her Primus to find Guardians to help her in her training. It was clear she had a knack for ward & healing spells & when these were combined with her previous warrior training they helped to make her the perfect guardian for her warband. Besides, Gaius' constant scrapes with Titus provided her with an abundance of wounds with which to practice her healing spells on.
Gaius & Gwen became rather close during this time & even when Gaius required less & less healing following his battles, he would insist on spending just as much time with Gwen after the fights as always.

In 1314AE a new Charr was brought into the warband after being rejected by his former bandmates. This Charrs name was Maul & it was easy to see why he was rejected. He was small, timid, his sire was a Gladium meaning that he had no warband of his own. Maul was doomed to have a hard time in the farah & Titus wasted no time in belittling him, making sure he knew his place, kicking him around & making him know how worthless he was. Nobody paid much attention to him, he was indeed a weak, lonesome runt & the warband was content to see the outsider be put in his place by Titus. Gaius however, remembering something his own sire had taught him, decided to put an end to the bullying & in a heated row with Titus he was once again able to overpower the larger Charr & with the threat of choking him with his own tail Gaius was able to force Titus to promise to leave Maul alone. When questioned by Gwen as to why he had helped the runt Gaius quoted his sire in saying "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link". From then on Gaius took Maul under his wing & saw to it that Maul was brought up to the same standard as everyone else, never again was he refused food, never again was he left out of any sport or hunting trip, never again was he to be seen as the runt. Titus fell out with his former friend because of this however their Primus had taken note of Gaius' actions & could clearly see the leadership qualities he was displaying even at such a young age.

In 1315AE the warband reached it's eighth birthday & they had yet to name themselves. A couple of suggestions were offered & rejected however it was decided in the end that they would name themselves after the one weapon they had all been proficient with from their inception, the sword. Be it claymores, zwiehanders, the gladius, arming swords, broadswords, they were all experts in using one type of blade or another & thus they unofficially named themselves The Blades.
A couple of the Blades immediately began thinking about their surnames. Titus declared himself as Titus Goreblade, Isabella adopted the name Sharpblade on account of her sharp wit, Isabella & Claudia joked that Cerosi should be called Messblade due to all the time she spends in the mess hall to which she instantly agreed. The three also decided that Claudia should be called Shadowblade because she was the stealthiest of the three. Maul, Gaius & Gwen decided to wait until they were older before deciding on surnames.
Over the following days Maul became somewhat depressed. Gaius & Gwen were the only two to notice however. They took him to one side during a marksmanship lesson in order to find out what was wrong. He confided in them that even before the warband named themselves The Blades he knew he wanted to take the suffix or prefix Shadow on account of his black fur & was going to announce himself as Shadowblade after everyone else had announced their names but he hadn't foreseen that Claudia would choose that exact name. Through discussion it became clear that no other name would do & so Gaius brought Claudia over to discuss it with her. As her friends had given her that name, she wasn't willing to give it up but was indifferent about Maul sharing the name. Their Primus wasn't happy about the idea as it went against Charr customs but there was nothing legally stopping this from happening & so Claudia & Maul both became known as Shadowblade.

The Blades celebrated their tenth birthday in 1317AE by going on a camping trip in Oldgate. This wasn't something the Primus or his superiors were happy about due to human activity in the region which made this a dangerous idea but the Hearts warband was back off of expedition & were happy to escort the Blades, giving them ample security.
During one night Gwen couldn't sleep & was sat by the campfire outside of the tent. A compelling feeling drew her to the flame & without thinking she reached out & grabbed it but the fire did not burn her, she was able to channel her Guardian magic to ward off any burning. In fact she was able to take a portion of it away from the campfire, using her magic to fuel the flames in her palm, turning it a light shade of blue.
Gaius' Dam, Cornelia Fireheart, saw this & approached from out of her own tent. Being an elementalist she was quite well versed in the use of fire magic. That night she trained Gwen in the art which cumulated in Gwen being able to engulf her entire body in searing hot flames & then dousing the fire without receiving so much as a single strand of singed fur.
Gwen was elated at being able to channel her magic this way until she looked behind her & realised that her entire warband had woken up & was watching her do this, causing her to blush & hug her tail in embarrassment. The Blades looked at her, then to each other, then back to her & in unison said "Fireblade". Thus, Gwen had found her surname.

Gaius was the last to adopt a surname, he had always been indecisive & even as the last of his warband to take a surname, he never felt it necessary to pick one. Just like with Gwen however, he found his during the warbands birthday celebrations. The Blades were celebrating their thirteenth birthday in The Serrated Blade Tavern when an older Charr took a disliking to Gaius. The reason for the fight was unknown however it began with the elder Charr approaching Gaius from behind & slamming his face on the bar, cutting his cheek & busting his nose, leaving him with blood dripping down his face. Gaius was then grabbed & thrown across the tavern. Words were flung however Gaius heard none of them, at this point he was enraged & didn't care about the why, only the who. Who was this utter coward that didn't even have the decency to approach him head on, who dared to emasculate him in front of his bandmates, in front of GWEN! He looked up, half expecting Titus to have betrayed him, to have finally snapped after all these years. Instead he saw a Charr that he had never seen before approaching him. He was twice as tall as Gaius & built like a brick shithouse, Gaius didn't care, he pounced. The rest of the night was a blur, all he could remember after that moment was being dragged off of the older Charrs lifeless body by three Adamant guards who swiftly threw him in the Stockades.
He then spent the next three months doing supply runs for the legion. The Blades didn't think any less about him though. In fact his fierce response to his attacker had left them in awe & prompted them to declare him legionnaire of the Blades. Even Titus was so amazed by Gaius' ferocity that he immediately forgave him & accepted him as his superior. Furthermore, the Blades had decided on a surname for him. Seeing his once grey & white fur totally stained red by his & his attackers blood as he was dragged away by the guards prompted them to begin calling him Red. Henceforth Gaius was known as Gaius Redblade.
As for the older Charr, he survived. However he spent the rest of his life crippled & unable to serve on the frontline, a great dishonour for a Charr.