#zhaitan posts

[zhaitansvisage]

Think it’s so funny how every single commander of mine in gw2 and it’s all AUs, truly there is no canon compliance in my house.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

just for fun, I've been snapping fancy shots of each of my beta test characters this time around. so without further ado, these fellas are:

Kara the Fierce (Norn Soulbeast) Valiant Luaith (Sylvari Daredevil) Goria Deathcaller (Charr Reaper)

[valentineveils]

idk but i think without lesbians we would not have the story of gw2 . everyone say thank you caithe

[smokinsid]

Meet Gravewatcher Siobhan. Shiv, to her friends.

Shiv is a paranormal investigator and archaeologist, fascinated with the ancient origins of life on Tyria and the intricacies and interplay of the material world and the Mists. A fast friend to the Deldrimor and a committed Priory scholar, she got her "Dark Souls"-esque name from her habits- rather literally, she watches graves.

During the Risen incursions following Zhaitan's rise to power, she served the Pact in her own grim but highly necessary way- walking between fresh graves with lamp and censer, driving off corruption in the soil, diverting Zhaitan's influence away from fallen soldiers in times where the magic was too rampant to purify.

She remained with the Pact for some time following the showdown in Orr- when news of Zhaitan's fall reached Fort Trinity, she was already on a ship heading toward Siren's Landing for continued investigations.

It wasn't until long after the events that shook Maguuma- she thought it best to sit Mordremoth out, given her already-malleable state of mind- that she left her little patch of Orr to serve the world's best interests again.

The Thunderhead Peaks were calling.

Between Ogden Stonehealer's observations recorded at the Priory, the various ruins she'd explored, and the numerous conspiracy theories she'd entertained herself with while digging up Orr's beaches, she was ready to involve herself in history and get some answers.

Some distinguish themselves with acts of great valor or daring. Shiv rose through the ranks as if steadily walking, one at a time, at a pace she set- an explorer until it served better to be a magister, a magister until her studies called for the access afforded to Priory archons.

It was from this position of magical affluence that she investigated the Great Dwarf- and began to seek linkages between the Eternal Alchemy and rituals of collective consciousness. Her theory held that all things were conscious- and that by mapping that consciousness with techniques similar to those used by Omadd's machine, an individual could- in essence- get a message out to all creation.

More practical means won out- before long the soldiers were beating Kralkatorrik's crystallized blood into spears and swords, and that was a good deal more straightforward than trying to map his brain and then solve it like a Rubik's cube.

But somehow she knew she wasn't done playing with the Eternal Alchemy. Some might've taken Scarlet Briar's dangerous foibles as an object lesson in not playing with cosmology, but when Cantha opened up to the world, she was quick to hop a ship and race to Echovald Forest.

She had heard a thing or two about Wardens, and needed very much to prove a point.

Their unity with Urgoz was a little too similar to the Rite of the Great Dwarf. Were they another inroad to map the way minds could connect?

If there was any hope of finding out, it was swallowed by the crisis in the Jade Sea. She, like everyone else, had to rush east and put her magic to good use to keep the continent- and so much beyond it- from being consumed by dragonvoid.

But now?

Now there's wizards. Wizards explicitly keeping secrets in their flying castle high above Tyria, watching the world churn below.

Shiv wants in. It's time to connect all the red twine on her corkboard and crack the case on whether consciousness in Tyria is all linked, and whether the will of one is the same as the will of the world.

If she can prove this, it has the potential to change everything. Change how Tyrians at large understand each other.

If it takes looking a little crazy to get to that point, she can live with that!

[icebrooding]

I wonder how Zhaitan would have thought of sylvari if they'd existed during a time of his mental stability. How would he feel about his brother creating something that would inevitably die and he would be powerless to 'save' them, unlike everything else that lives.

[parme-san]

laughs suddenly in an otherwise perfectly silent room

[meeeeeeese]

Thoughts on Rugan's romantic experience, or really lack thereof:

Rugan's first real mate was his warbandmate, Howl the brazen. He was cocky, brash, not all that smart and had a terrible habit of running ahead in battle. However, he was also confidant, fun to be around, was always supportive of Rugan and... He was crushed to death in a tomb collapse triggered by Barradin's death wail, subsequently being raised into an undead by Zhaitan. Rugan had to kill his former mate himself.

So that was a bummer. But after that incident, Rugan was sent off to go join the priory, where he was paired up with a sylvari magister named Sieran. Rugan quickly came to enjoy her company as she was incredibly smart, with a quick wit and always cheery. Sure she was a notorious troublemaker but that just made her more interesting to be around! Especially for Rugan who'd always existed within the legions strict laws. He started to develop feelings for her as they worked together gathering allies and securing dangerous artifacts but, before he could examine them or even acknowledge their presence she sacrificed herself on Claw Island to give Rugan and the surviving garrison cover to escape the risen invasion.

So he was burned twice by having those he loved die on him. Unfortunately he didn't really have time to meet anyone new because it was time to form the pact and take on Zhaitan, and then Scarlet, and then Mordremoth, and then The White Mantle, and then Balthazar, and then Jormag AND Primordus, and then the void, and *takes breath* a powerful demon, and suddenly it's been ten years and all your friends are moving on in their lives and finding love. hmm.

While he's had plenty of hookups along the way, the combination of being both hot, as well as sad and pathetic, is irresistable to many people, he hasn't really fallen in love for a good while. At least Taimi and Gorrik are now trying to fix that I suppose?

[ratasum]

Gonna try to go back to sleep but thinking about how Vezz managed to make a prosthesis for himself using his necromancy and the leg he'd just exploded off.

And he did it in a blind panic because he was laying on the floor of his lab in pain with Mindless going absolutely bonkers.

I think he's a much more powerful necromancer than he realizes; he just doesn't care enough to hone that to it's terrifying uncanny potential.

[manasurge]

Just a bit of lore relevant vent art (with terrible proportions bc apparently I mess that up horribly when I'm tired ugh. Watch me regret posting this tomorrow. The head size is already driving me mad bc it's too big, and I can feel myself wanting to abort this mission already) of Mourynn just, lying down on top of one of those large elevated Pale Tree roots far above the Grove (and far away from everyone else), and during the time between the early years and before the Personal story. Caithe is gone (Destiny's Edge), Wynne is gone (bc well, y'know...), even Faolain is gone (bc of Caithe in DE), and she's just feeling miserable, lost, and alone. (Her hair is in between her sapling hair and the Zhaitan hair, so it's grown out a bit bc she's depressed, and she's meant to be in the new outfit she designed, but I'm in the process of redesigning it a bit, so I've made a few tentative changes for now. Her collar is now just an extension of her clavicle leaves which can be put up like a collar, or can be draped down over her shoulders or back)

[red-wood-reaper]

How well has Achlys been with adjusting to normal life gain? How do other charr view him and how does he believe they view him?

I feel as of JW He is fairly well adjusted? He's gotten enough time to get used to how he looks, how he sees himself and how other people view him. With the acceptance of the Awakened by other groups I think he's probably seen as fairly 'normal' for those raised from the dead in some fashion. He doesn't view himself as badly as he did when he first regained his own will.

Fresh after the death of Zhaitan however? I can't imagine a lot of other Charr who would have seen him would have been so ready to get friendly with him? He's a lot like those other walking corpses shambling around Orr, but he does have a certain light in his eyes. A lot of them would probably stay away- especially if they have had bad experiences with Risen - though some might be willing to talk to him.

He was picked up by the Priory as one point as he was traveling through Orr, so some of the Charr working there would at view him as an oddity possibly, and be more open to interacting with him to study him more than anything.

Over the years though I think other Charr would just kinda get used to him tbh.

For how he thinks other Charr view him? That's something he was fully panicking on at first. He's catastrophizing, thinking hes got to be some kind of abomination and that he's gonna be attacked by everyone who meets him. That there's no possible way he'd be able to return to Ascalon, or have some semblance of a normal life ever again.

This is actually the perfect excuse to post this scene I've had swimming around in my brain for a while now regarding this:

Overall it's def rough for him at first but with time it gets better and he heals, learning to accept himself.

[just-eyris-things]

Eyris's outfits masterpost

So at the beginning of May I started drawing Eyris in various outfits that she wore throughout her life. Adding a Read More because this will be a long post.

NOT SPOILER FREE

We start with casual clothes she wears for the first year before she grows her first plant set.

STARTER OUTFIT / CASUAL OUTFIT 1

I added the Hero word card, which I later on regretted - I should have added it on the second outfit (plant armor), but I will elaborate on that later. She can be seen wearing a similar outfit in her early teens in my comic.

In the first year of her life, she studies under Caithe, learns how to wield daggers and a bow and also acquires a fern hound, which she later on names Airost. The two are inseparable. They are almost like one being in two bodies.

FIRST PLANT ARMOR 1: HERO/NOBLE

Eyris wears this plant armor when she's still the Valiant. As mentioned earlier, she studies under Caithe and is preparing for her task of slaying Zhaitan next to the two Firstborn. Eyris completes the White Stag story line alongside Tiachren storyline. Her eye scar comes from Gavin. Thanks Gavin :) I still love you, even if you are the reason Eyris is scared to trust people and that's why she chooses to go with Tiachren instead of saving the village - she doesn't want to lose a friend to Nightmare again (babygirl Gavin was NOT your fault...)

She then attempts to help the Order of Whispers to retrieve Caladbolg, but she fails. Eyris slowly loses faith in herself after that failure. She uses it as an excuse to escape and become a Soundless - if she cannot retrieve a sword, then how can she possibly battle a dragon? Furthermore, that failure only quantifies her fear of death (reminder: she's seen in her Dream that a dragon consumes her and as a result she wakes up prematurely from shock and fear). So, she thinks that as a Soundless she will be safe.

She stays with the Soundless for a while until their village is raided by the Nightmare Court. Eyris is one of the very few that manages not to get caught. She does not wait for her fellow villagers to escape - she packs her bag and leaves to travel the road.

SHIVERPEAKS!

During her travels Eyris eventually reaches Shiverpeaks. She is not as "green" (pun not intended) as she used to be when she first began her journey, but she's still quite young, naive and inexperienced. She meets Ragnar Bjornskin, who adopts her and teaches her not only important survival skills, but also a bit about the world, especially about norn culture. Eyris sees Ragnar more as a parent figure than she sees the Pale Tree.

Unfortunately, Eyris and Ragnar get ambushed by the Sons of Svanir. Eyris gets her nose broken and Ragnar... Ragnar dies, which devastates her and eventually... leads her down the path of crime.

CASUAL OUTFIT 2

Eyris still travels, but her most common "hunting" ground for goods and money is Lion's Arch. She becomes quite infamous there at some point, but more as "the unknown person that we KNOW is responsible for all of THOSE crimes". Eyris, girlie, you're using the skills that Ragnar's taught you the wrong way... he would NOT be proud.

But it would make someone else proud, and by someone else I mean...

THE ORDER OF WHISPERS

Eyris is recruited by the Order of Whispers. She uses them as a kind of "reputation reset" card. She is good at her job, and after she gains trust of her coworkers, she begins plotting. She betrays the Order many times by selling classified information or using the Order's resources for side hustles, or other stuff. When she's caught, she knows she has to disappear - The Order chases after her in every possible way.

Around that time Eyris meets Freya - a vigil soldier with whom she has Beef TM. The Beef TM doesn't last long though.

Eyris then switches between Casual Outift 1 and 2 most of the time, when she's forced to join the Zhaitan war she wears a slightly more fortified Casual Outfit 2 (to protect herself from the undead bites and scratches, as well as to protect herself from weird Orrian weather). And then... we're back to plant fits.

PLANT ARMOR 2: IN THE JUNGLE

Eyris doesn't really show up during LWs1 and we see her come back in LWs2 right before the Summit. She is accused of bringing the Mordrem in, despite her actually coming to warn the attendees.

After that Commander Airell has to do a lot of work to get her in their ranks - they believe they could use her skills but they also want to minimise the risk of in-fighting within the Pact ranks.

Eyris also wears this outfit during HoT - Eyris plays a minor role in the expansion, in LWs2 she mostly chases after Caithe and the egg, and after she gets the egg in the expac she just stays in Tarir until LWs3. She doesn't participate in it much, she heads to Divinity's Reach for Head of the Snake, where she is supposed to attend a wedding as Freya's plus one in this lovely dress:

After the wedding, Eyris travels to Elona with Canach and we get...

THE DESERT OUTFIT 1

Eyris heads to Elona to find Vlast, she considers that task an extension of her Wyld Hunt that she clearly can't escape. She reunites with Kasmeer, Rytlock, Canach and the new commander, Nia Furaha at the time of Vlast's death. Eyris does not tag along with the group, but they meet again in Kesho. After that, Eyris and Nia face Balthazar. Nia escapes, Eyris...gets burnt to a crisp, which brings us to...

NECROMANCING EYRIS BACK TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING, COURTESY OF AIRELL!!!

When Airell rejoins the group in the desert and learns of Eyris's death, they go to the place of her demise to pay respects. Since Airell is now, unknowingly, the new Jungle Dragon, and they also absorbed Zhaitan magic....yeah, they accidentally bring her back by accidentally sprouting a blighting tree. Well, the tree doesn't get enough nutriens from the rock so when Eyris falls out of the pod...she's a bit unstable, and her body is covered in necrotic energy that keeps the body safe from harm and lets it finish regrowing. Since, yknow....there was nothing left.

Death still leaves a mark on Eyris - she now has a big scar around her waist, at the place where Balthazar has cut her in half. In the Necrotic Form, the wound glows ominously. The extra eyes were added as a simply stylistic choice to point at her connection to Airell (the connection replaced the Dream), just like this flame that's in the middle of her stomach. Hands are in a different colour just because I wanted to draw them like that, so probably not canon.

Anyway, eventually Eyris is done regrowing her body, especially her face, which leads us to

THE FALLEN HERO ARMOR

Eyris wears this post resurrection and during Joko arc. This is a simplified version of the haunted armor outfit, I was at Tyrian Pride so I'll admit that I got lazy with drawing the outfit perfectly and just simplified it.

The hole in the armor glows with Airell's magic (I might get rid of this part). For majority of time, Eyris wears a skull mask to hide her face which is..well, gone for majority of the story. She has a Grand Face Reveal during the final Joko Face-off. Yes, the differences between the eyes on the face close-up were drawn on purpose. Also new hairstyle, more accommodating the desert heat.

I'll update the post with the last 7 outfits when I'm done drawing them :) For now - enjoy some Eyris content.

[zhaitansvisage]

Shoutout to Guild Wars 2 for having extremely diverse dragon designs.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

one of the many miscellaneous things I always wish is that there was a void-affiliated variant of the EoD legendary weapon set. the closest you can really get are the Zhaitan variants because of the shadowy effect they produce, but the weapons themselves and the kill special effect are still very obviously decay-themed.

[mordremrose]

Bite sized lore dumps for my 3 thieves, 3/5 necromancers and one (1) elementalist to fill out the “human in game but not in lore” page! Blorbos go brrrr

Transcriptions of their blurbs under the cut bc I know what my handwriting is like i promise

Dyraoi: She/her, Nightmare Courtier— Lady of Decay, minion-mancer

Briefly left her duties with the Court to study Orr

Her most beloved pet is a recreation of Zhaitan’s dragon champions, based on Tequatl and Blightgast

-

Rhialora: she/her, spector— “The Viscount”, Order of Whispers agent in the Nightmare Court, while undercover in the Court she grew attached to those loyal to her.

Post HoT, she welcomes [both] Mordrem and Courtiers to her side to heal and recover

-

Jian Cain: he/him, Soundless Deadeye

Makes a living helping [around] a small fishing village, though he spends almost all his time either in or on the water

Vaikeres: she/they, Dreamer (sorta), Harbinger

An incredibly skilled and reckless alchemist, Vaikeres once created a potion that reversed a death. She has not been able to recreate it

Joint: seaweed/kelp twins— Since Jian cut himself off from their shared dream, the twins have steadily drifted further and further from the Grove

-

Countess Andreas: she/her, scourge— A powerful and respected Orrian necromancer who avoided the same fate as the rest of her people by trapping her own soul in an amulet… or so she claims

Niawah: catalyst, he/they — A young Largos in self-imposed exile on the surface after the death of his older sister on a hunt

Luca Anatole: she/her, daredevil — A young Shrine Guardian who bound herself to a sickly human girl to save her life. The lines between them have blurred into one mischievous mind

[ascalonianpicnic]

i never posted maz, shit

Solmaz is a vampire who, after crossing her girlfriend and sire, was locked away in a tomb until someone would come find her. The unfortunate situation that happened was that Orr, Maz's home, sank beneath the ocean with her still trapped on it in her early tomb. She sat at the bottom of the ocean for too long, unable to get free until Zhaitan raised Orr back from the water and some hapless priory explorers cracked open a tomb

[tricksterpale]

I’ve done and received a lot of art of Caspian since I first made him back in 2021 [sweats nervously in 127 total pieces of art in Caspian’s toyhou.se gallery so far]. The point is, his design and features have been refined down to a science at this point. So I thought it was high time I did a proper turn around ref of him. 

Some Caspian basic info below the cut!

This is Caspian as he first appears during Personal Story. He’s 30 at the time, a captain on the captain’s council in Lion’s Arch, and has already established himself as a pirate legend from coast to coast. He’s a career pirate and has been for almost his entire life. He’s been holding the front lines against Zhaitan’s bone ships since he first went onto account at the age of 7 but that’s been an increasingly losing battle as Zhaitan becomes more active and more tactical (and they continue to lose capable ships of the line to skirmishes and to gold). At this point in Caspian’s life, he’s at odds with the consortium who has bought a seat on the council and is meddling in a big way for the sake of commerce over defense of LA.  Other details:  -He’s very musically inclined! He likes to sing shanties (and has a lovely baritone singing voice) and play his fiddle. 

-He doesn’t have a lick of magic in his entire body (He’s tried conjuring the elements before to either disastrous or lackluster effect...) and so relies heavily on his engineering and holosmithing in fights. He fights with his holodeck, pistols, and a laser sword that doubles as his walking cane when it’s stowed in the sheathe. 

-He can’t walk without a custom leg brace that immobilizes his right ankle due to traumatic injury when he was 26 (He was struck by a scatter shot when he and his crew were betrayed by the second mate and ambushed by two other pirate crews. The medic, Merry, had to prioritize healing to his vitals over the healing to his leg since there’s only so much healing magic a body can take at once.) With the leg brace and cane for additional stabilization, he walks with a light but noticeable limp that one might mistake for a swagger. 

-Caspian is poly bisexual but doesn’t start taking his relationships more seriously until after the events of Heart of Thorns due to not having a good example of love growing up and also his intense prioritization of freedom (I may discuss this in a separate post as it’s a long story, but basically the events of Heart of Thorns forced him to realize that his feelings for his sylvari boyfriend, Daimine, ran deeper than he had been willing to previously accept....the lengths he went to save Daimine, even over the safety of his crew was eye opening for him in a big way) There’s a lot more I’d like to say about Caspian but I’ll probably do so in separate posts. If you have any questions about Caspian or comments, feel free to come into my inbox or DMs. I’m also always happy to discuss how our characters might interact with each other in the world! Caspian is very social and outgoing and loves people. Throw em his way <3