#aka my trahearne clone

[archesa]

Happy anniversary, Æthnen!

Two years ago, today, I made this beautiful fern for my Trahearne lives AU and I've never looked back!

More pics and some lore and creation details under the cut.

The choice of face preset has been a real pain in the arse (Trahearne's facial features in creation mode when, Arenanet?!) and took a good long time staring at my Total Makeover Kits, but I'm quite happy with the result.

The loss of the dark thicker leaves framing his face to Mordremoth's corruption left furrows in their stead, and his once violet glow has turned golden due to the fusion with the dragon.

He lost his left arm to the dragon's possession and ultimate attempt on the Commander's life and arbours a complex prosthetic, a combination of asura and exalted technology fuelled and activated by his hard-earned control on the draconic magic that remained after Mordremoth's defeat.

Nightmares and draconic magic were not the only reminders he keeps from his possession - as the Dragon's unwilling Champion and Vessel, he retained some hold onto the Mordremoth's domain, and if the fact that flowers endemic to Caledon seemed to grow wherever he went was easy to ignore, the entanglements and coils of vines that armoured his necromantic minions called for some reconciliation with the darkest hours of his existence.

He also develops a strong bond with Aurene/ First, a connection through the energy he was once the vessel of, filtered and diffracted through a prism to allowed the Egg to hatch.

And an evergrowing attachment for the little dragon he and Anwen consider as their daughter.

He rarely - if ever - returns to The Grove after Maguuma.

It never felt like home to him, his heart turned towards the shores of Orr long before he left to complete his wyld-hunt, and the divide between him and his kin too deep already when the darkness shrouding him called to the deep ingrained fear of the dragon of shadow and death... irreconcilable now that his mere presence called the memory of the shadow of a dead dragon within them all.

To conclude... I really need to get back to writing for this verse as most of the development has happened in conversations between @lilypixy and I, in my head or via answers to asks, so... if I have as much time on my hands as I expect this week I'll try and actually finish one or two of these WIPs!

[archesa]

Ouuuuh! Nice prompt!! 🤩

Anwen : Carapace pauldrons (a gift from her brother 🦋 he had another pair forged to replace those she had lost in Maguuma) and after Season 3, the Desert Rose (a blossom of Caladbolg🌹)

Æthnen (aka my necro Trahearne clone 🪴) : Etherbound pauldrons and gloves

Galaëd : Lunar Backpack (he's fascinated by stars 🌌)

The others don’t have anything quite fixed about them, but in time they will 😄

Hello GW2 community, I have a lil fashion wars prompt for ya! What are the pieces your characters always have on, regardless of the current look? Their wardrobe staples, if you will?

I'll go first!

El: Aurora boots;

Nyra: Dragonhunter Gauntlet, (Blossoming) Mist shard boots, Wreath of Cooperation;

Sanne: Zaphyrite gloves;

The other beebs don't really have staples but they have styles. I'm curious about your kids now. Gimme that good fashion wars content

[archesa]

have 2, 17, 28, and a free space from the gw2 asks! :D (i feel like i've missed a couple instances of you reblogging ask games recently, though i could be making that up alsjkdfadf, but i caught this one! xD) @kerra-and-company

 Oooooh! These call for pics and long answers 😁

Thanks so much for these! 🥰

2. fave profession :

I got to say Guardian because I have a long history of playing paladins and valiant knights on several games (*cough* 12 years of WOW *cough* ) and I absolutely adore Anwen but, I've been playing a lot on my Necro lately and Æthnen has become my first character to go to if I want to chill, do map exploration or even meta events. I play him as a Reaper but rarely use the greatsword 😅 I feel like Trahearne would not have gone anywhere this kind of weapons of not for Caladbolg 😅 and since, for now, it's Anwen who weilds it...🌹

17. Your glider? (if you don’t have one, the one you want the most)

I got a few actually ^^' Elianora, both Anwens, Æthnen and Galaëd all have their own, personal glider that I wouldn't use on any other character no matter how much I love the skins, they're theirs!

Eli shifts between the Fox Spirit Glider, which fits her personality and is a little nod to her mini (you guessed! a fox!) and the Elemental Fury Glider.

Anwen Evergreen has the Crystalline Dragon Wings since (at least - jury’s still out regarding Anwen’s becoming as a dragon champion) Aurene's ascension.

Her elementalist counterpart, Anwen Swynwr has the Spellforged Glider (that her Guardian-self had before she used the crystalline wings)

Galaëd has the Lunar backpack and assorted glider! The funny part is, for other characters I chose the glider based on their story / personality. For Galaëd it was the other way ‘round. I got the Lunar backpack in a Black Lion chest, so I decided he loved fireflies and stars. From there @lilypixy pointed the connection with the Moon Shield, Canach being its current bearer, and bam! Two sylvari who thought they had found what the dream had showed them only to have their whole perspective shifted (Galaëd with the Green Knight, Canach with the Moon Shield).

And last but not least, Æthnen (aka my Trahearne clone for the two in the back 😁) has been very much nurtured back to health by the Exalted after the campaign of Maguuma, and as such he has the Exalted Glider (complete with Luminate’s Backplate Exalted Shoulders and Auric Weapons)

Avalwyn (my other Trahearne clone, yup I got two of them, don’t rub me the wrong way or I’ll show you my third! 😅) aka Druid!Hearne also has the Fox Spirit one, as a little nod to his Fernhound Caliborn.

28. What is your favorite legendary weapon?

I loved collecting stuff for Kudzu! I still have to upgrade the precursor to its actual Legendary form but I had a great time collecting the seeds for it! It tingled my herbalist sense nicely and fitted quite well in Anwen's themes and story!

And of course, since I'm an eenie-meanie I just have to collect Mordremoth's weapons for Æthnen ! I'll probably go with the staff but if @lilypixy 's conjecture is right and next Necro elite spec has the hammer as its weapon I will full on embrace it and give Trahearne a very nice not at all corrupted by any dragon what are you on about hammer!

Let Trahearne smash things with a hammer! He deserves it!

Mordremoth, dead, somewhere in the Mists, with its siblings : I gave my Champion my weapons! Look how stylish he is!

Kralk, being the only lucid one in their brood, probably : Fucked up a perfectly good scion is what you did! Look at him, he’s got anxiety!

Edit : I forgot the free space! I used a random number generator and got 37, so...

37. Your favorite HoT event?

I have to say the Octovine! Yeah of course it's extremely infuriating when you get slackers and auto attackers but if run right it's so very satisfying! The loot is sweet and even the 'Event failed' cutscene is heartbreaking!

Apart from that I would say the first event from the Pale Reavers outpost, in Verdant Brink! That was the moment I truly felt the weight of the mantle of Commander (and I loved it 😅🤣), when you make a stand atop that cliff with the wreckage of the fleet still burning on the horizon and the mordrem swarming below — especially when Laranthir's so relieved and happy to see you!

[archesa]

Your main(s) for blorbo bingo!

Ouuuh ! That's gonna take a while! *brews some tea* 🍵 Thanks a lot for this!! ^^ As you asked for my main (and I wanted to leave room for other asks in case) I only did my currently played characters (and Elianora, because she's The canon!verse Commander!)

Elianora, my beloved!

My feral little gremlin, 5' of whoop ass, and since she follows the canon!verse, in dire need of therapy! I don't play with her at the time (and to be honest I don't think I ever will again) but I cherish her so much! She's the first character I played the PS with, and she still owns a huge part of my heart! As for the Beloved (derogatory), it comes more from her novel counterpart, that I can't seem to get right and it frustrates me to no end! 😤

Anwen Evergreen (Trahearne lives AU, aka Storyverse) & Anwen Swynwr (Blighting Pod AU / Blighting Clone AU because I can't seem to decide which one sounds best 😅)

I'm cheating a little bit there! But since they're the same person, at least till Hearts and Minds, I thought I could do them on the same page ^^ (Anwen Evergreen in dark blue, Swynwr in light)

No surprise there, she's the one I get closer to Bingo with! I'm basically never not thinking of her, lately. I had been in a pretty bad drought as a writer, before I started writing my Trahearne Lives AU and I'm having so much fun with playing the story, picking things that would change, filling the blanks with headcanons, sharing this verse with my best friend @lilypixy and now, with EoD finished just as today, imagining what will come after (yup, that's a whole ass fanfic to come! yup this will end up like my skyrim fic, I will probably spend the next ten years on it. no I regret nothing!)!

I don't yet play with the Elem version of Anwen (I wanted to finish EoD and progress on the storyverse fanfic before I explored the Blighting Pod AU deeper) so she's a bit of a Cryptid, but if you happen to see her in game, don't hesitate to say hi! ^^ I happened to do the Octovine with @thorns-and-brambles the other day and I was soooo happy they recognised one of my characters (Æthnen to be precise) ! 😄 And of course, as a character who lives through the canon ending of HoT, she's in dire need of therapy too! (Oh, and, "A world without you" is now, with the season 4 version of Fear Not This Night, the official theme for the Blighting Pod AU, thanks to @lilypixy 🥰 I'm sorry I don't make the rules! 😄)

Galaëd of the Cycle of Dusk, my somft autumn twig! 🍂

I love him, and I can't wait to develop his story further when @lilypixy and I play through the story with him and Rorschach! Unapologetic Mary-Sue, because his resurrection of the Green Knight is over the top and I can't pretend to care! 😄