trizinc-zn3 - Tumblr blog

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going on five years strong

got inspired by others who did this so i made a group shot of all my gw2 characters too! i love how the non-human races are all so unique and credible to the fantasy worldbuilding (which made me decide to play the game in the first place)!

...one day i will be able to draw all of them...

(pssst - happy 10th birthday Guild Wars 2! )

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Not quite done with the EoD story yet but am loving it and just couldn’t wait to draw this tribute! Featuring my new virtuoso Riley (aka Yeh-Hsin) Hsia, One Angry Goblin, Big-Hatted Man (or New Husband😏), Best Birb, Good Boi and a very ominous lady (whose dress I love tho!)

Also loving the new skill animations and effects:

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just some cantha hype rambling

...alright so i basically only ever post my artworks on the internet, and have no experience writing blog posts ever since middle school (which doesn't count, right?), but i have so many thoughts and hype for the very-soon-upcoming GW2 EoD release that i need to put it out somewhere so... here goes nothing!

I'm sure there are many reasons to be excited about End of Dragons, but for me the most significant one must be the very *personal* connection that I finally feel I can have for Tyria as an Asian player (and EoD being the Asian-themed expansion).

I first realised this when I saw this in-game screenshot (from Shing Jea, I'm guessing?) on the EoD website when it just came out:

Well, goodness! It reminded me so much of Jiufen, a town / attraction in Taiwan (my home country) - even my friend who is not Taiwanese but has travelled there agreed! Pic below for comparison - it's not visible in this photo but the town actually faces an ocean too:

(Source: Gregg Tavares from Stanton, California, 180124 Jiufen, Taiwan 九份, CC BY 2.0)

Anyway, I had a very similar moment of epiphany earlier today while re-watching the New Kaineng trailer, when I saw this frame (around 00:15) of a skiff entering a canal, with buildings on either side:

And I immediately remembered the canals in Suzhou, China (where I've also lived in) - in which we used to take boat rides during school excursions. The photo below shows a more tourist / commercial area, but some boat rides would pass by narrower canals, right behind people's homes:

(Source: Peter K Burian, Grand Canal, tour boats, Suzhou, China, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Granted, I've always just considered GW2 a 'western fantasy game' so didn't really expect to experience any cultural resonance from it (rather I wanted to experience cultures and aesthetics that are different from mine - that's what fantasy is for!), but seeing things that are more familiar and closer to home for me in my favourite game has made me happy in ways I've never imagined before. Especially since I have not been able to visit either Taiwan or China since the pandemic, I'm looking forward even more to 'reconnect' with these places via Cantha =D

Since my main is still in the middle of the LS4 story so it will take her some time to reach Cantha, I decided to make a new alt to play EoD in the meantime: enter Riley!

Despite already having one character of each race-gender combination and originally thinking that I do not need any new characters anymore, I still created Riley because I just wanted to have some Canthan / Asian representation in my character roster after feeling that special connection thanks to EoD (my current human male is of Elonian descent and human female is Ascalonian-Krytan) (also how good are the new faces and hairstyles!?? I couldn't help but notice that I ended up choosing the face with features most similar to my own, something which I wouldn't have been able to do in the past)

I've used the name 'Riley Hsia' in a few other games before, but this time I decided to give her a proper Taiwanese-Mandarin name: Yeh-Hsin ('葉欣'; so adding in her surname Hsia/夏 her full name would be 夏葉欣). [Although when in a name the characters may not always carry meaning, the literal meaning of the characters are: Hsia/夏 - summer, Yeh/葉 - leaf & Hsin/欣 - happy or flourishing]

And I love how this name will be lore-relevant in GW2!

...Well, it would have always been lore-relevant in the game anyway, but EoD makes it even more relevant...?

In any case, I've decided that Riley (born & raised in LA) is the descendant of Canthan merchants stuck in Kryta after Zhaitan's rising (I love this notion because my ancestors arrived and settled in Taiwan via sailing across the sea as well). This explains why she has a Krytan (English) name 'Riley', and her surname 'Hsia' is still placed behind her given name(s), instead of in front. This would also help explain why her Canthan name is not as Korean-sounding as the 'modern' Canthans will apparently be?

I am also currently planning to make her a Virtuoso as that is probably the EoD elite spec that I am currently most interested in playing (and it definitely has nothing to do with the pretty glowing flying daggers! XD).

I think this about sums up most of what I have wanted to say when I began this post; just three more things: 1) I need those sweet sweet EOD soundtracks like yesterday?? 2) I cant wait to meet my drone camera jade bot and 3) really looking forward to give my main a Scepter Spectre spec :D

[trizinc-zn3]

(light LS3 spoiler...?)

...since I’m posting valentines stuff, here’s a snippet on Commander Pytra & Whispers Agent Benkarr’s first-ever meeting in Hoelbrak❄️

(Yes I’ve paired up my main with my banker/ bag-opener 😂)

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My valentines piece this year ft. sunna and kailu from the F2C AU 💕✨

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a group shot of all my gen1 project vxy characters in vanity fair photo style :-)

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happy lunar new year of the tiger 🐅 ft. leona (cuz she is project VxY's resident big cat hehe) and her gf kyrie

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Sorry for the like spam just found your blog, your art is so freakin coool!!!!!

awww thank you so much!🥰 appreciate the likes too!!

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also posting my #shirtcutmeme challenge here... done a while ago (august) but i seem to have forgotten to post it here back then

featuring characters from my VxY project

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third commission for @/vaansscake from instagram =D

i love elonian architecture😊

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a little late as a halloween piece but at least it is finally out! ft. gisila x heather as vampire hunter x vampire queen hehe

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drew a webcomic-esque style cover for my VxY project😊

this one's a yuri story about a villainess who went back in time and her maid

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...aand finally, a more recent piece of work!

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some more snippets for F2C - in my mind it has a more classic (i.e. older) shoujo manga-style western fantasy setting... there's something about that vibe i just really adore!

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wow its been a minute! Uploading some pics from my new F2C (name tbd) AU :D

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happy new year from season 3 pytra and me \o/

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second commission for @/vaansscake (on instagram)