#secrets of the obscure

[lady-quen]

Always wanted to do a what-if fully corrupted Mael, and what better opportunity to do so than Isgarren's shady little experiments? Introducing codename "Harbinger", also known as Sun Eater, Fenrir, Shadowlord, Bleak Raven.

As a failsafe in case of the Commander ever losing himself to the demon magic he wields, the Wizards ran a simulation of the worst possible future - orchestrating the deaths of all his loved ones, to the point he finally lost himself to madness. All in all, standard fractal business - except, whoops, the real Mael was never supposed to learn of Sun Eater's existence! And Sun Eater was never supposed to learn it wasn't in the real Tyria! Oh no... what's this about scientific hubris...? A little fucking around and finding out, perhaps?

And oh no! Is the former Pact Commander (the real deal) now plotting to assassinate Isgarren as well as trick the Wayfinder, Maolmuire, into slaying him in turn to prevent the possibility of a very dark future? Maybe.

His mental state hasn't been the best in quite some time and this is the straw that broke the camel's back. Except it was several bricks thrown at his head.

[anzalias]

mental image of a ranger commander trying to keep the kryptis secret with their new pet

[rosewoodroad]

demon gf demon gf demon gf--

[ilona-art]

Enya facing one her of her "brainworms": The Avatar of Envy. The kryptis are really fun to draw. Especially since they are so complex yet perfect for my way of texturing.

Artwork sponsored by ArenaNet

[blufox3542]

Alright, I’ve personally been wondering what other people’s opinions on this would be, so

*I know IBS isn’t a true expansion but it’s got its own mastery line so I’m counting it

[achromant]

only a few days left until he gets a gun.

[sponsored by ArenaNet]

[grasping-earth]

For the record, I'm walking the rare and unusual path of not hating Guild Wars forever because I didn't like their last releases but also not getting hyped for the next thing as if it will fix everything. I'm cautiously optimistic that the next thing will be better, but still not expecting it to be what it was at the peak of living story.

To be fair, I think one of the most important things they slipped into the retrospective post was including in their reasons for changing the content model, "enabling ArenaNet employees to have a better work-life balance."

Certainly making money for parent company shareholders will have a role in it too, and I'd personally rather have less frequent new content that was higher quality, BUT, having the company run sustainably and the people who do the work able to have their own lives and remain happy to be doing it is important too. We should all be in favour of getting less if it means the people making things we love have better work lives. So I'm definitely going to let ANet experiment and hopefully improve on a model that might not be the best model for me, but might be the right compromise overall.

[diesvitae]

"Hush now, Wayfinder..." Had to paint the waifu supreme. Peitha my beloved. Sponsored by ArenaNet

[icebrooding]

Some improptu pics of everyone's favourite unfavourite of the Nephus house, Cerus!

[commander-henrietta]

Hm

[guardian-instincts-bad]

start of soto like

[milkratz]

Peitha being consistently referred to as a child really changes the context. At the beginning, at least, I thought she was like a beguiled old noble who finally saw a chance to seize power. Now, she's apparently more like a revolutionary child? She speaks so refined and clearly is well aware of war tactics and etc. but ultimately she's a child.

Peitha to me is like.. a young commander just starting out. But demonic.

[rosewoodroad]

Times have changed, and so have we.

[ilona-art]

The Demon Siblings: Deimos, Peitha and Cerus

Sponsored by ArenaNet

[eparch]

Isgarren is an Idealist (and Mabon is a Cynic)

This was originally going to be part of a longer post I'm working on, but I decided it warranted being its own.

And yes I know the title sounds insane! But in the grand scheme of SotO's narrative, Isgarren is an idealist at heart wearing a cynic's armor, and Mabon is a cynic at heart wearing an idealist's mask.

And Isgarren is an idealist because you kind of have to be one to dedicate yourself to 10,000 years of protecting a world that doesn't even know you exist.

And one of the only things we know about him from before his ascension was that he tried to go help the mursaat fight Zhaitan anyway even after Sidony decided against helping them. Most of what he calls his mistakes were also born from his attempts to help others - taking in Eparch and ascending Waiting Sorrow being the biggest examples. And still he keeps helping others. Still, no matter how many times his attempts to better the world led to another "mistake", led to his own exile from his kin, led to the deaths of people he loved, Isgarren still kept doing it because he believed in doing good no matter what.

He figured out at some point that the Elder Dragons were vital to Tyria's magical ecosystem, so he turned his efforts to fight for the good of Tyria outward, especially once Eparch gave him reason to think all kryptis were threats. He wasn't going to step in with the Elder Dragon wars until it literally threatened the destruction of all Tyria not because he didn't care, but because he had faith in us.

Keep in mind that in the personal story, the Commander and Trahearne successfully united the world to fight Zhaitan. Isgarren had seen this before. He saw Sidony unite all the other elder races to fight Zhaitan, only for them to suddenly betray each other and leave the mursaat and Forgotten to die on their own. The Pact succeeded where the elder races failed. Why wouldn't he believe in the strength of mortals at that point?

Not to overuse and refer back to my favorite conversation in SotO too often, but Isgarren doesn't save farms not because he doesn't care, he doesn't save the farm because he knows the Commander will be there to have his back and do it while he takes care of the dragon minion.

Isgarren, for all his faults and his grumpy and bitter attitude, is an idealist.

Mabon called him naive for a reason. He even calls his own choices naive.

And speaking of Mabon...he's a cynic at heart.

This might seem contradictory to the way he is characterized as an optimistic and positive force among the Wizard's Court and for the Astral Ward (and he is), moreso than Isgarren being a hidden idealist under his sour armor, but consider that Mabon's entire character rides on his idea of atonement.

In his journal from shortly after his ascension, he doesn't remember what he was like before it. He just remembers that his own people are cruel and evil. He assumes Isgarren is avoiding him because he's afraid of him as a violent mursaat and never truly trusted him at all (when this could just as likely be because Isgarren is feeling guilty of the ascension wiping Mabon's memories, but that's just me speculating). He assumes that he must have been just like all other mursaat and he must have been a terrible person himself. So he must atone. And atone he does for 10,000 years.

Isgarren tells you, when you ask him about Mabon, that Mabon was not like other mursaat when they first met.

In SotO, Mabon's arc starts shortly before we meet him. Asthenes is attacking him mentally the whole time, but he puts on his outward mask of idealism and strength to save Dagda and Lyhr and to lead the Astral Ward while Isgarren is missing.

Knowing the Wizards, knowing the Commander, wouldn't we have found some way to save him too? If we knew? If we had realized? Isn't that what the Wizards and the Commander do? Wouldn't we have just made it possible to save Dagda, Lyhr, and Mabon?

Mabon didn't want to die, but he felt at that point "there is no other way this can end" and he outright asks us not to hesitate "when the hour arrives." He doesn't bother to ask for help with his own possession because he thinks he's beyond saving, and he needs to save the others first.

He also notably meddles with Tyrians more than Isgarren does. Many of the Astral Ward's recruits are his specifically. He travels to Tyria frequently to meet people and experience the world "on the ground", so to speak. Compare this to the historical mursaat modus of sitting back and manipulating an entire society unseen.

Even when it's someone Isgarren (and Uenno) recruits like Frode, it's not until Mabon involves himself that they heal and find their place in the Astral Ward.

That's not to say he didn't believe in mortals at all, just that as part of his trying to be a better person than he believed himself to be, he ended up taking it upon himself to help those he felt no one else would.

Finally, it's notable to me that both Isgarren and Mabon attempt to distance themselves from their races in some manner, and they both go about it in very different ways.

Isgarren made himself blue so he might be mistaken for a djinn at first glance but he still takes great pride in being a Seer. He wants to be seen as part of the rest of Tyria despite sitting above it, but will happily answer your questions about Seers.

Mabon hides his wings to be less threatening, but he's still very obviously a mursaat at first glance. He's still other from the rest of Tyria, but he distances himself from the other mursaat so much that he considers his own race extinct with Lazarus's death.

And somehow, it's so very fitting that these two found each other and created the Wizard's Court together.

[zlideart]

Is this still considered a spoiler at this point? I'll just refrain from using names. Loved her visuals, had to include her in my drawing experiments :)