#Path of Fire Spoilers

[riessene]

decided to color it actually 🌱🔥

[jollycryptid]

I beat Path of Fire earlier this month with my partner @lofilesbo & the gals were going through it, so doodled what happens in The Departing.

[feathered-dino]

"The mists are a dangerous place, but....something happened to her in there." -Rytlock Brimstone

Liza Sandstorm used to be a lighthearted 'give it your best shot' kinda charr.

She Grew up in the Crystal desert, on the outskirts of amnoon. she practiced fighting with the surrounding branded and quickly tamed her own raptor. She named the Raptor Stikk

As one of the only charr native to the desert she longed to go to the citadel to meet her own kind.

Eventually, she did. she fell in love with charr culture and joined the ash legion. Some of her desert wanderer tendencies crossed over but she wouldn't elaborate on her homeland if asked.

She rose the ranks and eventually became rytlocks right hand man. Joined the order of whispers and got promoted to commander.

🌿The rest of the personal story plays out the same as in game. until HOT

"Maybe the commander just needs time to process it"-Rox

"We've given her enough time already. we have gods and dragons to kill." -Braham

When scarlet briar attacked lions arch, Liza of course, was at the center of the action.

But the story you know changes after this point.

During the chaos of the fight right after the last of scarlets forces fall. A surge of now released magic pulls Liza into the mists.

The Pact, Destiny's Edge, and Dragons Watch, all believe she's dead.

They move onto the fight against the dragons without her.

The Entirety of HOT she does not witness. Traherne and eir die. She does not see it

"She....she's back but.....she's changed."-Taimi

When Balthazar escapes the mists with the help of Rytlock instead of it being a deal for sohothin, it's a deal for Liza's freedom.

She had been trapped in the mists for this entire time, fighting battles and challenges over and over again. it's obviously taken a toll on her.

now she's more quiet, reserved, pessimistic.

She helps Dragons Watch with the rest of the POF story.

She refuses to tell anyone what happened in the mists or the land of the lost.

The Exalted will hear her cry and scream from Aurenes chamber. It's the only time Liza will express her real feelings.

She defeats Balthazar, Joko, and Kralkitorik with an uncomfortable rage.

She learned about Traherne and Eir's deaths and she disappeared into Maguma alone for months. only sending out a proof of life every so often.

In her time in Maguma she learned about what she missed and single handedly cleans up the remaining mordrem.

"Do you think she should step down as commander?"-Canach

"You can't take the one thing she has left away from her"- Rytlock

[commanderhorncleaver]

welcome to the danse macabre

pov: the commander has just been murdered by the rogue god Balthazar and his son has decided that you, Rytlock Brimstone, are the problem

(art done by @telltalecoyote)

Grief surrounds me, mixed with confusion and a singular spark of outrage, but I push aside my own pain and focus on Oberon and Sigmund, seizing theirs instead. Their eyes flare a bright pink as they stand rigid–  then their weapons are out and Oberon is charging down Rytlock while his cub nocks a crystal-headed arrow onto his bow. Remorse tugs at my concentration–while Vlast’s echoes may not forgive me, I know Sig will, but that doesn’t make me feel better–but I push on while the rest of the group focuses on evading the tumbleweed that is Rytlock and Oberon. The traitorous charr allows himself to be bowled over, and in that moment Sig halts his fire to avoid skewering his sire.  Though I didn’t expect him to fight smart, the wind is on my side: barely a thought is needed for it to carry me towards them. I drift toward the wrestling charr and command Oberon–the lieutenant kicks Rytlock and rolls away towards his fallen gunblade.  Arrows begin to rain around us, and Rytlock shouts, “Dammit, cub, don’t do this!” “I have every right to kill you!” Arrows that would hit me are torn asunder as I lash a whip of pink energy forward. “Balthazar–” “You won’t have to worry about Balthazar!”

[herald-of-aurene]

My AU commander, Kenna Baszar:

Born to a dervish mother and a Sunspear father in elona

Mother and father died and became awakened when she was 12

She fleeded joko's wrath at 15 with her 13 year old sister, Deborah, and met Logan, who took the two in and became their ward.

Kenna served him until she was 20, where he pushed her to join the vigil like she wished

She volunteered to undergo the Durmand Priory ritual to become Balthazar's Avatar as she was blessed by him anyway*

Story continues like normal until she and caithe get drunk post Zhaitan's death, where caithe confesses to Kenna about Aurene's egg

Kenna is able to keep caithe rational during LWS2 & HoT, and asks Caithe to chill at tarir while she goes hunt down mordremoth and DE

PoF rolls around, and she is forced into Balthazar's army as his Avatar. She is able to temporarily break out of his control with Dragon's Watch's help, and is forced to confront him at the departing. He mistakes her to be a champion of Aurene, and toys with her till he realizes she's not coming, and simply kills her.

She comes back, and as Aurene isn't there to soak up the majority of Balthazar's power, Kenna accidentally does and becomes a god.

(* the ritual is different here, one it is permanent, two, instead of becoming a blood-crazed psychopath, you have to fight to keep on the path of an honorable warrior and not fall to bloodlust. You aren't doomed to become a "blood-crazed psychopath." You are also bound to Balthazar's will)

[commander-gloryforge]

The Departing

[archesa]

WIP Wednesday !

Because I'm rereading my wips and I found this... single... endless sentence.

@lilypixy when can I no longer hide behind the 'it's my writing style' excuse ? 😆

The shadow of Kralkatorrik obscured the last simmering remains of Balthazar, but before Kodash and the pyramid where the god killers had brought an end to the War Eternal vanished, lost too, to the dragon's appetite, it withdrew, sated, — its eyes briefly setting on the crystalline hatchling standing defensively on the edge of the platform, energy radiating from her crystals, a tempest brewing inside as she curled and coiled, pained, confused, terrified chirps ruffling her scales as she shimmered with unbridled magic, volatile plumes like lightning coursing her and her Champion — lazily turning to the east to disappear beyond the scarred horizon.

[aquariusxiv]

During one of the confrontations with Balthazar during Flashpoint he does a big dramatic gesture of stealing way Liz's fire magic.

The Herald repeats this gesture during Sparking the Flame, powering her fire shield. Both the Herald's shield and the Forged hounds get empowered by her attempts to channel anger into fire magic, forcing her to calm down and apply everything she's learned about leylines into trying to disrupt their magical power - basic spellbreaker techniques (Wastrel's Ruin).

[senterya]

[thatoctokittenclutchinganotebook]

I think of my commander as having a place at the Grove, Dreamers terrace where her brother and other friends live. Officially it's her home but she hardly ever lives there. When she's been through so much, she doesn't feel right returning to the Grove. Aurene is her priority. She will try to find lodging near Aurene where she can and when she knows where Aurene is. She also worries that after Mordremoth she'll be seen as different or a monster because she's a dragon champion. She feels, because of her trauma, that she doesn't belong around the innocent new saplings.

Officially, Dreamer's Terrace is her home. She's always welcome there. In reality, it's her brother Islwyn's home and she spends her time travelling.

Does anyone's Commander have a permanent residence? I'm thinking about Alba and how the Grove has never been his home, because he's lived in active warzones half his life, and spent the other half in those same places cleaning up post-war. The idea of dreamers terrace being "his" home is almost laughable. At most he may have laid his head there a night or two as a sapling. It's like if you couch surfed at your cousin's house twice in your youth and people later started calling it your house as a result.

Personally I view the home instances not as "where the Commander lives" or "Commander’s house" but as "a community the Commander is welcome to visit and stay in," i.e. that cousin you can couchsurf with temporarily, but I don't consider Alba as having any permanent residence and don't want him to honestly. 🧍‍♂️ But I'm curious to see if anyone else views it differently, i.e. does your comm live in one specific place, do they own a house or other residence, do they return there after every adventure, etc.

[korribanarchive]

After a solid three weeks of working daily in PvE and WvW, I finally finished it. Vision.

Huge shout out to Fort Aspenwood WvW guilds BB and BADA for the solid commanders who kept me running through WvW.

[riessene]

post PoF Siyvhe.. new haircut!

[serennes-art]

the branded

redraw of this 2018 set of pieces, with old versions under the cut:

as well as older versions of micaiah and zelgius, from 2020:

gotta say im pretty happy with how the redraw came out! thanks for watching

[archesa]

Dying and clawing one's way back to life did not deter from death wishes.

Otherwise, Rorschach would know better than to wake a duskbloom at the break of dawn! Especially when said duskbloom had a busy night and already one once in a lifetime coup d'éclat in insubordination. Especially when said duskbloom was currently very much grafted to bed by a nightbloom with a not so distant past of close relationship with murder and explosives.

The first drawing for 💕

@archesa

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[OLD ART ALERT] A COLLECTION OF SCENES FROM THE GILLIONS CATSCRATCH ARC THAT BROUGHT ME GREAT JOY. i love fishy chips especially when its just gillion being delirious and violent and hostile

[lady-quen]

TO KILL A GOD.