Blish

Blish

Race

Golem, Asura

Location

Allied Encampment
(Domain of Kourna)

Organization

College of Synergetics
Inquest

Image(s)

Interactive map

“

Life as a machine is incomprehensible to living beings.

— Blish

Blish is an asuran portal specialist, the older brother of Gorrik, and a college friend of Taimi's. He has transferred his consciousness into a Mark I Golemite body.

After leaving the Inquest with Gorrik to aid Taimi, the Pact Commander and their allies in the fights against the lich Palawa Joko and the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik, Blish ultimately sacrifices himself in the Mists to power up a tracker attached to Balthazar's Sword so that the allied forces can monitor Kralkatorrik's movements and bring about the Elder Dragon's downfall.

Biography

Early years

Blish became a member of the College of Synergetics like Taimi and got to know her during their studies in Rata Sum. It is hinted that, similar to Taimi's degenerative disease, he suffered from a disease that would prove fatal in time.

During Taimi's time in the Heart of Maguuma, Blish and his brother Gorrik joined the Inquest. Blish eventually transferred his consciousness into a Mark I Golemite body. This technology was developed by the Inquest, but until the M.I.G. project by Hronk's krewe, always proved fatal. Due to the generic appearance of his golem body, Blish wore a lab coat to distinguish himself.

Living World Season 4

A Bug in the System

In 1331 AE, Blish and Gorrik were working in the Inquest base of Rata Primus on the Scarab Plague samples taken from Fahranur, the First City and discovered the Awakened invasion that was being covered up by the megacomplex's upper echelons. They took it upon themselves to send out distress signals and barricade the plague samples, as well as attempted to tamper with the Primus gate network that allowed travel without a receiving gate in order to hamper with Awakened attempts to use the gates for their own purposes.

Blish and Gorrik were contacted by the Pact Commander and Braham Eirsson who had spearheaded an Olmakhan assault on Rata Primus to investigate what the Awakened and Inquest were up to. Blish was surprised to hear Taimi's voice coming out of the Commander's personal remote communicator but quickly set the surprise aside as the brothers instructed the team where to find the gate hub so it could be shut down.

The brothers kept Awakened invaders from reaching the bottom lab and hid there long enough for the Commander and Braham to come to the rescue. Blish introduced himself to the newcomers, but before Taimi could inquire why his voice sounded different, the Commander suggested that they keep the reveal of Blish being a golem from Taimi until after they had reunited with her in person. Blish and Gorrik revealed that the Awakened presence had triggered the decontamination protocol which would make the complex self-destruct with no way of stopping it.

Teaming up with the Commander, they rushed to the vaults containing the plague samples, only to discover the samples had already been taken. They headed for the gate hub next, witnessing Palawa Joko and Commander Lonai in possession of the samples and about to flee through an asura gate. Joko taunted the Commander by promising to unleash the Scarab Plague on Central Tyria before entering the portal with the samples, leaving Lonai behind to deal with the group. During the resulting clash the gate, which Joko had tampered with to prevent anyone from pursuing him, began malfunctioning and sucked the Commander, Braham and Lonai in.

Blish and Gorrik began working on the gate to stabilize it and return the Commander and Braham from wherever the gate had sent them, using Lonai's energy signature to direct a portal to the trio's location. However, the attempts failed at first as the battling trio were being teleported around Tyria before they ended up in an unknown location somewhere in the Mists where Lonai was finally defeated. The brothers were ultimately successful in teleporting the Commander and Braham aboard Sayida the Sly's airship outside of Rata Primus and fled the complex with Gorrik's pets just as it was destroyed in an explosion.

After reuniting with Blish, Taimi expressed fascination with his condition, a welcomed change to the usual disgust or horror the brothers had seen. Blish was happy to be with Taimi again, admitting that he had missed her mind. He revealed that he had managed to back up Inquest data on the Scarab Plague and the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik, and Gorrik warmed up to the idea of working with Taimi as long as they discussed authorship hierarchy for any published research and stipulated that Taimi did not have supervisory authority.

Long Live the Lich

After traveling to the Free City of Amnoon, Blish and Gorrik began researching the Scarab Plague. Gorrik discovered that the scarabs only infected humans and planted Petey, another species of beetle, under his skin to test another theory of his, but locals discovered what he was up to and arrested him after mistaking him for planning to unleash some pestilence in the city. While Gorrik was put on trial, the Cavaliers impounded his materials at the docks, including Blish who was shoved into one of the crates with his neural net cut off.

After the Commander and Taimi had helped clear the charges against Gorrik, the trio went to the docks and eventually found Blish. Upon being rebooted, Blish returned to consciousness with a horrified scream, letting his companions know of his lack of sensory experiences in what he described as nothingness while he had been shut down. Taimi and Gorrik hastily promised never to let him experience that kind of state again and monitored him while the Commander left them to meet with Lord Faren and Councilor Mayameen who were waiting for a Tyrian supply ship to arrive at the docks.

Blish, Gorrik and Taimi went to the docks later and learned that the Commander had barely prevented an outbreak of the first generation of Scarab Plague carried by the crew of the supply ship whom Joko had secretly infected. Upon realizing that Joko was breeding a more potent third generation of scarabs, which would be ready to be unleashed on Elona and Tyria in a mere few days, and that Joko's stronghold in the Domain of Kourna would take weeks to reach, Blish offered a faster way to reach their destination. He had a portable base prototype of the gate system, which Joko had used earlier to send Awakened invasion forces to Tyria, and could calibrate an instant entry point to Kourna behind enemy lines. Seeing the benefits of Blish's suggestion, the Commander asked him to set up a portal near the Tomb of the Primeval Kings as they would need help from all the people sympathetic to their cause in Elona, including the ghosts, if they were to fight through Joko's army to get to Joko himself.

Upon setting up the portal, Blish lost his arm into it, and the Commander followed it to Kourna. The portal closed soon after, and Blish began working on stabilizing it to turn it big enough for their allied army to get through safely. Blish was able to continue communicating with the Commander and instructed them to use the gadgets on his severed golem arm during the scouting mission. He turned the portal into a permanent rift and sent in troops in waves at the Commander's suggestion.

Upon entering Kourna through the rift, Blish participated in securing the area with the rest of allies, turning the overtaken garrison and its nearby holdings into the Allied Encampment. After listening to the Commander addressing the gathered allied army, Blish asked to have his arm back and began working on reattaching it to his golem body. While staying in the allied base, Blish witnessed the Commander, Gorrik and Taimi discuss Petey's recent growth spurt and how this roller beetle could be used against the scarabs if properly mutated and incubated. He helped build a saddle for Petey after having received relevant parts and schematics for it from the Commander who scoured Kourna for them.

Blish continued working on his arm during the Battle of Gandara which ultimately led to the deaths of Palawa Joko and the third generation Scarab Plague. Once he had fully repaired his golem body, he focused on keeping an eye on the rift near the allied base and began wondering whether it had been a wise idea to rip a hole in the fabric of space-time as it could have unforeseen effects on Tyria.

A Star to Guide Us

While the rift anomalies of Jahai Bluffs were being investigated, Blish was with Taimi, observing the data obtained by the Commander and theorizing with Taimi and Gorrik over what might have caused them. After the allied forces had claimed Sun's Refuge for their base of operations in the region, Blish was the one to calm down all the refugees by saying he already had a plan and was in the midst of enacting it with the Commander. He thought that he could place a tracker on Kralkatorrik if the dragon were tricked into eating a magically-rich item, such as Balthazar's Sword. He proceeds to follow the Commander around the world until finding out that a sniper priestess had taken the sword and was hiding out in an abandoned citadel.

Once the sword was retrieved and reignited, with Rytlock Brimstone's help, Blish and the Commander took the sword through a rift tear into the Mists and placed a tracker on it. However, the sword started reacting to the presence of Kralkatorrik and began attacking wildly, heavily damaging the tracker's power core. Unable to fix the power core in time, Blish told the Commander to go as he stayed behind to fix it, claiming that being a golem, Kralkatorrik could not brand him, and asked the Commander to come back for him after the storm was over. As the Commander retreated, Blish revealed that he had lied to the Commander, and could not fix the power core, but would have to use his golem body to power the tracker indefinitely-at the cost of turning off his higher level functions. As Kralkatorrik grew closer, he said good-bye to the Commander and asked them to give his apology to Gorrik and Taimi, before shutting off.

Legacy

End of Dragons

When the allied forces of Tyria, Elona, and Cantha faced off against the Void-maddened Elder Dragon Soo-Won at the Harvest Temple in 1335 AE, the Pact Commander and several of their allies' souls were separated from their bodies while shielding their comrades from the Water Dragon's attacks. As their disembodied spirits tried to climb up the Harvest Temple to return to their bodies, memories of the past which belonged to allies and enemies alike whispered to them to encourage them to keep going. One of these whispering memories was Blish who once again asked the Commander to give his apology to Gorrik and Taimi, take care of Gorrik, and stop keeping secrets from one another.

What Lies Within

After a harrowing escape from an oni known as the Ravenous Wanderer which weaponized its victims' traumas deep within Gyala Delve, the Commander ventured across Tyria with the goal to revisit some crucial and emotional moments from their past and harness these memories' emotional power to charge Gorrik and Taimi's new invention, the Recollector, with which to turn the tables against the Wanderer.

During this journey the Commander and Gorrik visited Rata Sum where they perused Blish's old writings detailing his past. While reliving the guilt of not being able to save Blish, the Commander and Gorrik witnessed brief manifested memories of Blish. The visions reminded them not only of Blish's apology to Taimi and Gorrik and his request for all of them to stop keeping secrets from one another but also Blish's wish to not relive the existential horror of being shut down, how him being able to live on as a golem had given him to resolve to make his second chance at life count for something, and him asking the Commander to come back for him once Kralkatorrik's storm had passed as they had come too far to give up. Gorrik comforted the Commander by stating that Blish would be proud of what their group had accomplished and that the Commander still remembered him after so many years since his passing.

Location

Crystal Desert

• Domain of Kourna
  • Allied Encampment
    • Zelbahn Garrison

Story involvement

Living World Season 4

• Episode 2: A Bug in the System
  • The Charge
• Episode 3: Long Live the Lich
  • Seized
  • Forearmed Is Forewarned
  • Tactical Triage
• Episode 4: A Star to Guide Us
  • Chaos Theory (voice only)
  • Legacy
  • From the Ashes
  • Storm Tracking

End of Dragons story

• What Lies Within
  • Bottle Your Emotions (as a memory)

Event involvement

[Group Event] Defeat Soo-Won (80) (as a memory)

Combat abilities

Effects

Stun — Vulnerable while broken.  Occurs when defiance is broken.

•  Blish's Fire Resistance (during Storm Tracking)

Dialogue

In Allied Encampment, after unlocking the Beetle Saddle achievement

A saddle would be incredibly simple for me to build. Just bring me all the parts.

Parts?

I've given you a list. I even titled it "Beetle Saddle."

I'm on it.

I'll go get started.

In Allied Encampment, during Beetle Saddle if the player has all of the necessary items

Excellent. Give me just a moment and I'll have your saddle ready.

Thank you, Blish!

Gallery

A vision of Blish appears upon collecting the Wandering Memory during The Battle for the Jade Sea.

Notes

• During From the Ashes and Storm Tracking, Blish follows the player around the relevant maps but is only visible on client side; to other players, he appears as a Prairie Dog.

Trivia

• In an earlier story draft for A Bug in the System, Taimi played the part of Blish and Gorrik.
• Blish is voiced by Tommie Earl Jenkins.
• Blish has his own leitmotif, called "Blish's Theme", which was composed by Lena Chappelle and Maclaine Diemer.

Related achievements

• Long Live the Lich: Beetle Saddle — Collect saddle parts and bring them to Blish for assembly. (3)
• A Star to Guide Us: Right On Track — Successfully prevented the Branded from interrupting Blish while setting up the tracker. (1)