foxmallow

[foxmallow]

sketchcomm for Zeke, of their charr Reba!

[foxmallow]

Had another great year at the GW2 meetup! Kirnaash made her fullsuit debut and I couldn’t be happier. Thanks to everyone who chatted, danced, or took a photo!

[foxmallow]

y'know. we've kinda blown past it in gw2 and that was the last thing I wanted, so I have to hope we'll circle back on this after things settle

but the map Skywatch Archipelago absolutely explodes the game's entire lore. which is great, honestly. it's the wildest thing that may have ever happened, at least for a few hundred years.

people on the map all appreciate how absolutely *wild* their situation is, and some of the wizards are experiencing doubt/guilt/regret. If you haven't pieced together the storyline here, it's this:

When we visit fractals in the Mists, those are like pockets of time surrounding intense events which repeat themselves everlasting. The team in mistlock is studying these and you can visit them.

The wizards in Skywatch figured out how to create and run customised fractals of their own design to essentially manifest simulations of 'what if' scenarios to help them experiment and prepare for eventualities. The ethics of this are acknowledged to be on the level of 'what in the actual fuck were you thinking'

"When Isgarren's magic was fractured by the end of the dragon cycle, these tiny realities were ripped from the Mists and manifested here above Tyria. They're not entirely dissimilar from the fractals monitored by Dessa, from what I can tell—Dessa's naturally occurring in the Mists and these deliberately formed—but the inhabitants that live within these are flesh and bone. They're outside of the Mists. They're alive, and I can't imagine the fear they're experiencing."

I honest to god wish the entire expansion had been about exploring this single idea in its entirety and establishing how this would go on to change tyria forever. Here's a spoiler rundown of the different fractals:

Devastated Garenhoff An emergency simulation to find out what would happen if the Wizard's Tower exploded, leaving the Garenhoff inhabitants scared and confused and the elemental constructs turning on them. It is inhabited by copies of the current population of Garenhoff, meaning everyone who lives there has a real, living clone now.

Rata Novus Promenade Instead of being overrun by chak and abandoned, this area explores what could've happened if Rata Novus, which we discovered in Heart of Thorns, had thrived. The asura here are kind of just going about their daily lives, and still have to manage pushback against chak from inside their hi-tech energy-pulsing city. They are aware that their home was ripped out of space and shoved into the archipelago, but they're used to shit like that. I don't think they know they originated as a simulation. Most important of all, though, in this fractal, Zinn is alive. The guy who founded Rata Novus and Rata Arcanum. Had a secret lab at the Falls in Auric Basin. Who made several unique robots, including M.O.X., the one from Draconis Mons you can adopt. The first person to develop a counter to the Mursaat's Spectral Agony, saving humankind from them 250 years ago. He is scattered through the DNA of both games and he's alive again. And his society, propelled forward into the future (for them), is actually ahead of all currently existing ones! This HAS to go somewhere!

Jade Mech Habitation Zone 03 A section of Kaineng city, if the jade mechs they rely on became sentient. The humans here don't seem to be copies of existing ones, and this fractal is more just a sad, violent eventuality. The sapient mechs have turned on their masters. Also Mr Bots is dead in this reality, making it the worst one.

Skyward Marches A segment of Elona from a reality where Balthazar was never defeated. This fractal has the clearest inflection point - it's what would have happened if The Commander had not managed to win their rebirth after being killed by Balthazar in The Departing. Filled with despair, the traumatised humans here react badly to the Commander's presence, understandably blaming them for what really appear to be the end times. Interestingly, Palawa Joko remains at large, trying to push back the Forged armies by himself. Perhaps the one thing that stopped the Commander from returning was if they had taken Joko's plea for allegiance and then been double-crossed, leaving them forever stranded in the Domain of the Lost.

Primal Maguuma A fractal made by Dagda for reasons sort of unknown, though Zojja says:

Maybe…this is an ideal version of Maguuma. One without Mordremoth. One that Eir didn't die in. One that…I didn't die in.

Seemingly a jungle that was untainted by Mordremoth and allowed to thrive, teeming with ley energy that was not absorbed and eaten.

Droknar's Light: The location of this fractal is deliberately a town area from GW1, and apparently this reality pocket was formed so that the Wizards could use the dwarven forge - the way they do in the meta event to re-open the tower. The only reality to contain the forge was one where the Deldrimor Dwarves, such as Ogden Stonehealer, were overpowered by their Stone Summit breathren who refused to undergo the rite that turned them all to stone. This may have resulted from a fork in history where the team of heroes in GW1 did not help in defeating Dagnar Stonepate at Thunderhead Keep. As well as being long-lost kin to Lyhr, the emergence of this fractal means dwarves are no longer an effectively extinct species with all known individuals either turned to stone, ghosts, or Primordus-enslaved husks. They are real again.

So, it is made damn clear in game that these chunks of potential realities now completely and fully exist. There is no undoing this. This has such massive implications for the future of the world. The foremost concerns being a living Zinn, restored dwarves, three different sets of humans from ruined homes. It's just. It is impossible to now overlook this.

I don't care if it's a sidebar to future content, or if we just hear back from the developments of the fractals occasionally, I don't care if this is the basis of the groundwork for GW3. It just needs to have its impact on the world at large be shown somewhere because god damn.

Interesting thought: any dead character could have been brought back if they had been in one of the fractals that warped into reality. A blighted and overgrown Tyria if they had refused to sacrifice Trahearne. A doomed and crystallised Lion's Arch if Blish had not used himself as bait. A second chance for Droobert. Literally anything could have been changed to salvage a character. Just interesting to consider.

[foxmallow]

Muy gyro : )

[foxmallow]

EU August VSArtParty - right at the end xD

Sorry for posting this so late, I wanted to colour but its been a pretty hectic month, so just the lineart for now.

Eavarin @mordremrose

Pictomancer Glitch @glitchgw2

[foxmallow]

witness this exorbitantly stupid thing i drew in all of 20 minutes earlier after my partner made a joke about Amalgam’s ferrofluid thing being akin to ‘truth coming out of her well to shame mankind’, but it’s just a gremlin emerging from The Goop to antagonize Rytlock

Their name is Goop Stance

fucka you

[foxmallow]

𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐬 Landscape study. Sponsored by ArenaNet

[foxmallow]

𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄 Quick piece ft my Bladesworn Tetrica Jadeblade. Her entire jaw and wrist were replaced by cyberware with the help of a Canthan noble after she was left gravely founded after a fight. In return she would serve her and a family as personal bodyguard. She adapted quickly to her new life but both a combination of her fiery and aggressive personality in general, and the lack of freedom, it would sometimes get the better of her. Sponsored by ArenaNet

[foxmallow]

[foxmallow]

"Sucked up by the waves, shot to outer space Stranded, but I'm not alone Fly into your blue" [x]

[foxmallow]

*vibrates happily towards you*

[foxmallow]

Hm i wonder why i feel so disconnected? *watches from afar* *watches from afar* *watches from afar* *watches from afar* *watches from afa

[foxmallow]

A journey through Crystal Desert... only your wings for shade...

Some art of my main Veemor! Yes he is a winged Charr.

[foxmallow]

THEY CAN BE ANY OF US!

[foxmallow]

Born of Blood, robbed by the Flame and raised by Ashes that remain.

Every year she looks more and more like an actual Charr.

[foxmallow]

I recently did a 6 fan arts post and got to draw a familiar face :)

[foxmallow]

Only stopped in very briefly at the art party (if you saw a glimpse of Nerius Llyr, that was me) and got a few nice screens before escaping