#Gw2 Agent Y

[eisbee]

This picture is a collection of all birthday gifts I created for every main Agent of our Krewe improvetimized strategy.

It came all well together for a group picture that I planned back in January ✨

Showcasing in the backrow (from left to right)

Agent A, L, X, Z

Frontrow

Agent Y, J, H, B and Q

(And on the table Agent N)

[carrinth]

Carrinth Rambles 🐲🍪

Just wanted to say that I'm still very much alive and active on Tumblr. I just haven't been drawing much lately because of Severe Art Block. So I've been spending my time Very Aggressively playing GW2 (I recently bought End of Dragons expansion) and Spite Baking.

You probably did not ask "Carrinth, what is Spite Baking"? And I will answer, it is spite and anger at the increasing prices of delicious baked goods. Also a reaction to stuff being too sweet and diabetes being a real concern. So the only solution to Overpriced Baked Goods With Too Much Sugar is to Make Them Yourself. Out of spite. I have made two disastrous batches of cookies. You again did not ask "Carrinth, y u suck so bad at this?"

I tell you: "Idk. I was a college grad. I scored A in chemistry. My grandparents (both sides) were chefs. In my blood is the blood of bakers. They now scowl and shake their heads in shame. I have shamed my bloodline. Perhaps there is truth in baking with love, of love and joy being the Secret Ingredient. Because I was not joyful. I poured all my hate, my malice, my fury into those cookies and forged them in Working Oven. You bite into them and taste nothing but salt and broken dreams (apparently sugar is a binding agent and too little makes them brittle go figure). I sit, fuming and enraged, swearing I will triumph in the next batch as I watch my family surreptitiously eat them all. They think I do not hear the fridge door opening and shutting at odd hours of the night. Of where there were over a dozen misshapen lumps, only four remain. Did you eat my cookies... Brother? Blood of my blood, how this betrayal cuts deep. My foolish kin, they were MINE! They belonged to me! And you took them in the dead of night like a thief. A cookie thief. I'm telling mom." 🍪

[worldsforanyoccasion]

Here be no Dragons and Parthenogenesis

Something that occurs and reoccurs, aside from my numerous typos (more on that later) is most fantasy worlds have dragons. There are, of course, numerous dragons or dragon-like beings in our own mythologies from the Western dragon to the Lung dragon and more in between.

Why? What is our love affair with dragons and why do they show up in so many settings?

I don’t think I will attempt to provide an exhaustive answer to that question, since many of its answers may just boil down to “dragons are cool” or “because dragons mean fantasy.”

I did a lot of that too, in my older worlds. But somewhere in getting from there to here, I started questioning that. It began with Guild Wars 2.

I started playing GW2 just a scant few months before the Heart of Thorns expansion released. In that time, I played with friends, tried a few dungeons, fractals, and world vs. world. And I played the personal story. Now a bit of spoilers, but the big bad evil guy of the story is the Elder Dragon Zaithan, a massive undead dragon and elemental force of necromancy. Then HoT released, and the big bad evil guy was Moredremoth, Elder Dragon of plants and elemental force of mind. Recently, the third season of living story involved two further dragons, two dragon offspring of another dragon from GW, and a mad god bent on killing said dragons. The other gods left rather than fight the elder dragons. Dragons. There, that should be enough that semantic-satiation kicked into effect and the word dragon looks weird now.

And that is kind of how I felt about dragons in settings. But there was something else in effect, part of what lead me to create the Vayern instead of re-using another fantasy race, and that was the Charr. In GW, they were the villians, in GW2 they are a playable race. Something of a cross between a lion or tiger, a goat, and other, odder bits, the Charr are not simply re-skinned orcs, as is a common trope, nor are they one of a seemingly endless iteration on elves ala World of Warcraft style. They are their own thing.

Now there is a trope for “Our dragons are different” and one of my favorite comics, Gunnerkrigg Court has things that fall into that vein. And I started thinking, what would my dragons be like? And then I asked, do I need dragons at all?

No. I don’t. Instead of trying to make my dragons different, I decided to do something entirely different. There are no dragons in Archipelago.

No fire-breathing winged lizards, or serpents, or any of that. Why? Because it didn’t fit with what I wanted Archipelago to feel like. Any setting I crafted would be made same-y if I added dragons, so there are not any.

What things exist in their place? Ecologically, nothing since I didn’t remove them, but never included them instead. Thematically? Big baddies that hoard wealth or pose as a serious threat kind of things?

Well, there doesn’t seem to be much need to have hoarders, but as for threats... I have a few.

Some spirits are malevolent, and many beasts are dangerous, but the real terrors start showing up in the things that are tied to the void, the Shadows. Shadows (never shades oddly enough, only the capital S Shadows) are part of the void and can’t really untie themselves from it. They are agents of unknowable agendas. They can distort reality around them, but can’t create anything, only consume.

And here are the real terrors. As of yet, they have no names, but they may never have names for all I know. The are feline in appearance, though with six legs ending in seven toed claws with double opposable thumbs, even if they walk on all six (not bipedal or centaur-esque). Their eyes let them see the physical and spiritual. They act somewhat like a matriarchal society, but are conceived via parthenogenesis, meaning they reproduce from eggs without fertilization. And most importantly, they are hive mind.

What one of them knows, they all know. What one of them sees, they all see, etc. Due to this, they are never encountered individually, preferring pairs or a pack (6-36?).

What role do they serve in Archipelago? None that is known. While of the void, they don’t seem able to cross it, and so are limited to a few realms where they stalk the shallows, the places where the void encroaches on reality. They are clever and cunning and seemingly indestructible. Why? Because I want them to be. What will they become in the future? I don’t know.

As for the numerous typos, when inspiration strikes, I rarely set forth to calmly and deliberately record these things, instead trying to stick the idea down in whatever shape I can before it fades, or worse, I forget it. Often, this means numerous words out of place or horrifically misspelled. Throw in the fact that a lot of my writing involved made up words and unusual names and a bunch of red squiggly lines often looks about normal for me.

[eisbee]

The Art Party was extra special this time! I ve met amazing people and with a bunch of inquest rats it felt like we are going to finally conquer the grove... but we decided to take it easy and have fun. Bonus: Sylvari Art!  Artworks of:

Ray @Drewcakemix Jhoushi @mabaki Skorr @what-the-flux Agent Y Ithikk @the-skrool Dunnh @catiuapavel Nhyrra @cherrylight-art Agent B @eisbee  Solemn Hunter @el-is-away Ilphmyr @ofelvenkind Neljje @bluebudgie Daphne @creativebrainrot Morr @diesvitae

[eisbee]

Improvetimized Strategy