Golaure: Neopets, furries, other weird stuff

So, I haven't updated in a while, since I haven't been playing much games or anything else. I'm busy with school, the semester is coming to an end so I decided, in between final projects and exams, I'll revive this blog by writing about a character of mine.

This time I will write about Golaure Alistair Foxglove, who is one of the many characters who has a fairly odd history.

It all begins about a year or two ago, when I relapsed into one of the more unlikely hobbies: Neopets. My main account was several years old and I realized I could play a gambling game, Food Club, and earn a pretty penny. Eventually I accumulated several million neopoints, which is a lot, and bought paint brushes to change the colors of my pets.

I also got into other old accounts and adopted a bunch of pets. One of them was a Kacheek named golaure444416. As you can see, the name is pretty "ugly" for Neopets standards. I just thought he was cute so didn't care. Looked up what golaure meant, never found anything in any language, I honestly think it's some keysmash.

Tobias the Courier : Fallout: New Vegas

Haven't posted in a while, so decided to post some screenshots from a game I started playing. I'm getting into the Fallout franchise because I really like the concept. I'm playing the original game on my laptop and New Vegas on my pc, both because of my time constraints and tech constraints.

 

 As the title suggests, I sort of tried to style my Courier after Tobias, which wasn't very easy so all he has in common with Tobi is blonde hair.

I like putting my characters in different situations, so here's a Courier Tobias more akin to what the character actually looks like. In a Fallout universe he'd probably be addicted to painkillers or something, considering his injury and all. He'd have to chem himself up to not feel the pain. 

Tobi would probably live in a moderately sized settlement with Veronica and Rebb - Rebb would use his knowledge of technology and engineering to get the place rolling and the dudes would protect Veronica who, being blind, would be quite vulnerable in a wasteland.

Anyways.... some more screenshots.

City life in Aelhollow : Worldbuilding

Since I'm not good at environment drawing myself, I will showcase art I like to illustrate the world my characters inhabit.

Artwork by @MatiasPan on twitter

I want to focus on the city of Aelhollow, since it is the place where the events of the story take place. It is a large city with richer, more gentrified parts and also several shady parts. The drawing I showcased would fit how the shadier parts look - the buildings in general are vertical and stacked on top of one another. People are forced to live in cramped spaces and shops, bars and other public places are close to living spaces. The shady parts of Aelhollow come to life at night, since night is the only time when the poor, overworked people can relax.

It is said that being forced to live close together makes a community in general unhappier, as humans need their space, so I think the poorer and shadier parts of the city would fit with architecture like in the picture.

It also can create an iceberg effect - you see the bright fronts of stores but you don't know what goes down in the basements. That's how Wiike built her mafia - flashy store fronts in the upper levels, shady labs and warehouses in the lower levels of the city.

Achievements and Map Completion : GW2

I need Heart of Thorns mastery points to unlock ley line gliding so I decided to do some story quests with achievements that I thought would be on the easier side. Did it with my sylvari necromancer as I needed the "sylvari solidarity" achievement which has your character talk another sylvari out of succumbing to the dragon.

I took the defense path so I got to see the wreck of Mr. Sparkles. Pressing F to pay respects. 

Seeing this made me think - does Zojja know that Eir is dead? I remember that in the canon Anet went with the story that Logan recovered better than Zojja so she was pretty much out of it, right? Considering the fact how hard it is to get Felicia Day to voice any lines Zojja will probably be lost for a long while. I wonder if that's why they chose Zojja to be the one who was hurt more by the blighting pod. Unless I've forgotten what the plot is, I'm too lazy to look it all up as I'm writing.

I was worried I would let the turret break but it survived! You can see it's health bar - almost at zero. I was worried I made a mistake doing the quest alone, especially since I'm not used to necro and I'm not very mobile and good with mixing skills but I persisted.

I earned exactly one (1) mastery point out of this ordeal. I need six more to unlock Ley Line gliding. I also have Itzel and Nuhoch lore at like 4 out of 6 but lord help me if I'll be doing more achievement runs. I might do some mastery insights since it's easier to try and travel the world than actually do the story over and over again.

Visiting the Crystal Desert : GW2

So, the Path of Fire demo weekend has hit Guild Wars 2 and I made a character to check out what's new. This post will contain minor (?) spoilers about the demo, my impressions and some pictures.

I made an elementalist in hopes of being able to test out Weaver - you don't get to do that. You can have the Heart of Thorns specialization but you can't utilize any of the new specs. I think you could in HoT preview?  Maybe you could only make a revenant. At least I remember making a revenant. So have a picture of my placeholder ele on a raptor in a burning city. That's your first mission after meeting the first baddie - rescue villagers and put out fires. 

Rest will be under cut for spoilers and such.

Solana : Worldbuilding

I have finally crafted a map of the world of Solana. Granted, the base for the map is Pangea Ultima, a future vision of our very own Earth. I am not sure whether I will be able to keep the design as I have no idea if the concept of Pangea Ultima is copyrighted. I'll cross that bridge when I reach it. 😅

Anyways, here is the map with some explanations. 🙌

The large names are the names of the countries/regions. I will split some of the regions in smaller sub-regions and maybe add more capital cities. So far the biggest dots are capital cities of the regions, the smaller dots are points of interest that are essential to the story or are otherwise noteworthy.

Nord - The North lands, based on Scandinavia (in this map the oddly phallic shape is actually real-life Scandinavia). Sauoa is the capital city of the Northern lands. Crystalhaven is a popular winter home city (some of the characters of the Walpurgisnacht have their winter houses there, so they can visit the local ski resorts). Used to be invaders and pillagers - have a long history with Elnmidde and Kazek, however now they are inventors and offer goods and services for other lands in return for food and other goods that cannot be grown in the long winters of the North Lands. Their traditional food involves fish and meat (especially deer and boar). They love their milk and cheese, made from the milk of furred cows, goats and sheep.

Kazek - The Mountain lands, based loosely on Russia (at least the inhabitants are slavs). Kazek and Elnmidde are separated with a stretch of mountains so historically the Kazek traded and interacted with the people of Kaesano and Nord. Kazek in general is a very mountainous region, which affects the culture and people. Goranska is the capital city. I literally took the Russian word for "mountain" (gora) and formed it the way a lot of Russian cities are named (with the end -nsk). I don't know what sort of frankenword it creates but I just feel like revealing my thought process from the get-go.
The Kazek are known to be resilient people and their mythology and culture revolves around mountain life and birds. Similarly like slavs, they love their booze. They were mostly hunters so it was important to trade with the Kaesano and learn to farm in the Low Lands.

Kaesano - The Eastern lands. Based on Asia. Tokje is the capital city. Historically connected to the Kazek but has connections to Elnmidde, the Kaesano people often worked as mediators between the Kazek and Elnmidde. A lot of Kaesano and Kazek people have mixed ancestry since the people have a long history together, especially with the Kazek living in the Low Lands. Some of the Kazek, especially those with more Kaesano ancestry, see themselves more as Kaesano despite living in Kazek.

Elnmidde - the Middle lands. The largest region - generally inspired by the United States, a mixed society with white(?) people as the majority population. Bluewyvern, the capital, and cities near the borders are known for high mixed-ethnicity populations. The Middle Landers are known to be very welcoming but they often assimilate other cultures in their own. Elnmidde is generally a melting pot type of land, where multiple cultural lineages live together - so Middle Landers are not necessarily an ethnic group but simply citizens of Elnmidde. There are certain regions which are more ethnically homogeneous . I guess I'll have to add places based on English, German, French people or something. Some of the regions used to have monarchies, notably the Von Brandt lineage.

The Citadel is the capital for the Hilren, a group of people devoted to the Pantheon. It's like the Vatican but cut off from all other civilization. They compose many ethnic groups and are united by their devotion. They accept anyone from the outside but don't let you leave without a special ritual.

Marbleshore is a popular summer house resort and beach city complex.

Ostfort is the biggest port city of South Elnmidde.

Aelhollow is the place where the events of the Walpurgisnacht story takes place. It's a medium sized city with a mostly rich population but certain shady areas.

Sa'gga - The Desert lands. Thriving cities along the shores, hwoever vast stretches of desert making the country generally a poor place to live. Obviously based on the Middle East. A very reserved people, unlike the Middle Landers - very hostile to outsiders and don't travel much. The people care about passing down their lineage but do not wish to mix with others. Have a strained relationship with Mala, historically both countries influenced each other but after two bloody wars both have decided to let the desert be their separator. Despite living in barren lands, the Sa'gga people found their niche - they excel in hydroponics or no-soil agriculture and are the main exporters of food to Elnmidde. Ba'nidah is the capital city and is said to be the first city of the Sa'gga people.

Mala - The Middle South. Based on Africa. Mostly known for their colorful cultural robes, sometimes mistaken for Sa'gga people (Mala will hate you for that assumption). Hate the Sa'gga with a burning passion. Good relations with Sur, often intermixing and trading.

Sur - The South Lands. Based on Latin America. Work as mediators between Sa'gga and Mala. Has better relations with Mala since they are more open to foreigners, supplies food to them since it's easier and Sa'gga prefers to depend on their own food sources. Spread the Southern island with Elnmidde to use it as a trading hotspot. If Elnmidde's South Land is for resorts and leisure, Sur's Southern Lands are for trading and banking.


That's the outline for now. I will update map with geographical landmarks like mountains and deserts and with a more detailed drawing of regions and more cities. 😗😗

Ps. I discovered emojis, finally I can add some emotion to my posts.

Caym : SCP, Biblical myths and Ars Goetia

I had this post in my drafts since the end of June so I think it's only appropriate to finally get to it. It's going to be a long origin story for sure, since I want to go through the initial inception of Caym (and a certain other character who's related to him) up until what he is now and what's in the store for him in the future.

It all started with the SCP Foundation - a site and community dedicated to writing about anomalous "objects" who have to be secured, contained and protected. Right now there's more than 2000 entries about many things, entities and places. I'm not gonna get into details about it but leave a link to their site, so if you like horror themed stories, go on and read em! The rest of this post will be about my characters so yeah... this is the cutoff.

I guess I will buy it after all : GW2

Guild Wars 2 is the sort of game I relapse in and out of regularly - similarly to Granado Espada. I might not be interested for months but then log in and play some. Especially with Living Story or seasonal events (but truth be told this year I managed to skip Wintersday...).

The new expansion pack, Path of Fire, actually reignited my interest in the game. I knew I'd buy it anyways as I would not want to "fall behind" other players but the previews looked genuinely fun. Real talk - I love how Elona looks, I love the aesthetic and design. I'm a sucker for deserts and oases (is that the plural for oasis? spell check says so), Guild Wars 1 wiki says Elona is based on Africa but it's giving me Egyptian/Middle Eastern vibes (I know Egypt is in Africa but it's not the same as Central Africa, you feel?)

I'm probably putting too much thought in that aspect, however.

Really excited for the mounts, especially the manta ray, I just love its design and colors. Since the premium pre-purchases have nothing related to mounts and the mounts themselves are game mechanics I suppose we won't get much diversity. Would be cool if mounts had cosmetic accessories or like "skins" - alternative skin/fur patterns. That'd be cute.

I even warmed up to the concept of a human god returning - though they better explain why Balthazar and where are the others. I guess we're having a shift from dragons to gods as the trailer implied - killing the dragons destroys the natural balance of the world so we can't do that but, oops, a god now wants to kill all dragons! Time to stop him. Time to punch a god in the face.

As a way to "prepare" for the new expansion pack I'm thinking of doing 100% with more characters. So far I only had Qayin for all the exploration but I feel like Kwin and Tobi also deserve some love since I actually like playing Mesmer and Thief. Ironically I'm most excited for the elementalist's elite specialization but I'll unlock most of them anyways. I haven't mastered some of current elite specs because I just don't play the class - guardians, warriors, rangers and engineers just aren't my cup of tea. Necromancer is fun but I'm trying to be realistic here - I can try to manage 3 characters, but 4? A little bit too tough.

Besides my necromancer, Rafflesius, is more of a "craft slave" - she's my tailor and makes armors and has her inventory loaded with crap. Same for my ranger who's a Huntsman/Leatherworker.

Speaking of crafting - only Qaying has an (almost) full set of ascended armor. Should work for Tobias first because leather might be easier than silk. I know everything needs silk but maybe the amount changes? I'm just not much of a grinder it seems. I mean, I don't have a single legendary weapon. My attention span is too short for that. Maybe I'll get a bifrost one day. Aiming low for gen-1 legendaries.

To sum this all up - I'll get the expansion pack, won't pay extra for it, will attempt filling out world map with other characters, might craft some stuff. 

Until September 22, I guess!

New families : The Sims 4

I've been lagging with the character development post (I have a draft that is just a headline sitting but I doubt I''ll get to it too soon) so I'll post more about games. This time The Sims 4 since with a new computer, comes new experiences. Mostly the custom hair looks nice and loading times aren't abysmal so I can enjoy get to work and going to festivals.

The twins indulging in creative activities - Veronica plays the piano while Tobias paints. None of them are all that artistically inclined canonically but whatever. Technically Vera would struggle with playing an instrument since she's blind but in Sims 4 land is "anything happens" AU!

About time for an upgrade : iz dzīves

So, as a graduation gift I bought myself a new PC, my mom bought a new monitor for herself so I got one of her "old" ones - it wasn't old but it's a widescreen one and it doesn't  work well for her type of job so I got it.

Phone picture in the evening was probably a bad idea because the pc box and the monitor vanish into the general background, you can only see the outline of the actual screen.

As you can see, I love clutter in real life and order on my desktop. Truth be told my pc is a full-on gaming computer - I only have games on it so far and also Fraps. Maybe will get video editing software or something else.

In general I'm happy about the computer update - finally can play games in decent framerate and not have infinite loading times. Well, except some games, and then I can't figure out if it's the game being "old" (like 2014 or older), windows 10 being a shit or maybe my graphics card or something else. 

Other than that, this week I started working at my new job, I'm an assistant at the institute of horticulture. Mostly doing garden work right now - picking cherries, cutting stems for mass producing. I don't know how it's all called in English so pardon if it sounds dumber or more convoluted than it should. Since my supervisor works with pear trees I got a patch of pear plantations to maintain too. Mostly weeding and cutting branches. 

I'm pretty tired at the end of the day but at least my responsibilities change day to day. At least for now - I'm sort of "on call" so I just get sent wherever and help out my colleagues. I'm also part-time so I won't have to work all week. This is my first job ever so I have to get adjusted. Mostly to the smaller amount of free time. 

Me every day after work, especially after lugging around buckets of cherries and portable stairs.

Ps. the tag for everyday blogging is "iz dzīves" which can be translated to "from life", I like that phrase in Latvian but not sure if I will blog much in my native language

Tobias : from priest to witch to start athlete

Decided to continue my character building posts, this time I will focus on the protagonist of my story - Tobias Nevermind. I think recently he turned one or even two years old as an OC, but his history and inspiration goes deeper. In his inception, the prototype for Tobias wasn't even an original character but a re-imagination of an existing character.

Image from here

As some might know, a few of my Granado Espada characters had off-canon backstories, Valeria was one of them - I genderbent her and gave the recruitable character the name "Tobias". I also made it so that Valeria Vendetta wasn't Valeria's "evil" side but the third sister, alongside  princess Gabriela.

Wiike, from one to another : character building

So, I promised I'd make blog posts about my original characters, so I shall start with Wiike. Ironically, she was a minor character that has recently piqued my interest. I will start from the beginning.

Here is Wiike in her first iteration - an asura from Guild Wars 2. She is one of the characters I made in a game with the intention of staying within that universe. In fact, GW2 Wiike is vastly different from OC Wiike, I can't even call it an AU, it's like character evolution that leaves footprints.

Since I had no warriors and no asura I made Wiike. In universe a warrior asura seemed a bit odd to me - they're an inventive race, not really brutes. I know, Vigil asura exist and so on but I still went the "warrior asura are not common" route. So Wiike was made into a "runt", I even wanted to make it that she has a learning disability that put her behind her peers, but since she was a minor character I never actually looked into such characterization. She has her own story alongside Lieire, a charr, in the Vigil. They went to Orr, got stranded in the Maguuma jungle, lost many friends and so on. Wiike's story was stuck in limbo because I focused on other characters I actually played, warrior was simply not for me.

So I decided to turn Wiike into an independent character. An original character without a trace of Guild wars 2 (you now, to avoid copyright infringement among other things).

I seem to post once every 6 months : GE and some other things

Due to my inability to stick to one thing consistently, from time to time I come to blogger to simply blog. Also to show off my constant relapse into certain things, however, I will cover many things in this blog, sort of starting with most interesting and then turning to rambles as the post goes on.

Right now I'm messing Granado Espada Europe since there was a an event that gave all sorts of gears, got several evil weapons. As you can see I also got cadet Lionel, who's pretty cool. At this point I have better gear in GE Eu than in GE Online, so after the event ends and I lose interest in GE again I will probably return to the European server if anything. 

I'm doing all the quests which is honestly a pain in the ass only because I hate redoing things and also some things have changed significantly. Some quests are obviously nerfed so even experts can do this but for Grace's return to Bristia quest you had to fight a really strong Cherlyn for some reason, I put the quest off because she would simply decimate my team but with patience I did it. 

Here's Grace posing next to Heyran with a constellation shotgun because that weapon series in now quite affordable and accessible. A lot of low-tier weapons are now that they're basically baby-tier.

Doesn't bother me since I will never be a full fledged player - won't join any factions and farm for high tier weapons anyways, will leech off events.

Here's a picture of my current team: Emily, Battle smith Idge and Cadet Lionel. Emily is just an old favorite of mine and I'm most used to her. Battle smith Idge is a pretty good melee character, considering the fact I don't have any other "good" rare melee characters or regular characters. Cadet Lionel simply is a good addition because getting Punisher for regular Lionel is a pain in the ass, even if now it's cheaper and all. 

I should work on getting all sorts of characters, especially since recruitment quests get nerfed too, or changed and then I screw myself. Apparently for Ion's quest you can get a quest version of the instance, but it's solo and actually quite difficult and you can't cancel it. So I get to about 10-20 % of the boss' HP and then get decimated. I even got a fighter to Master and got her a shield that adds together 4 DR and still when the Rose spirit summons her little minions it gets too spicy... Maybe I need the fighter to have a slightly better weapon. Or racials for Lionel. Whatever!

I think this is all about GE, I'll put the rest of my ramblings under the cut, it's mostly about my original stories and some semi-personal stuff I suppose.

Sims 4: New year, new game, new impressions.

So, haven't updated this blog for about half a year. Now it's 2017. Needless to say I drifted off from Granado Espada again and sorta stopped having a reason to write in this blog. I'm mostly playing offline games now or watching play-throughs. Though sometime around the beginning of January I got into sims 4 - the game had a huge sale so I get the digital deluxe version for like 25 euros which was a catch for a 60/70 euro game.

Anyways! Nobody cares about pricing, everyone cares about the sims.

So far I've made three households, first was a random character for trying out. Then I downloaded some mods/custom content and made my OCs.

First family was my newer characters, Mikhail (Misha), Cecilia, Ben and Sebastian.

Misha is childish, mischievous and a slob. He is actually my favorite dude of the bunch because he turned out handsome and also because I love his goofy personality. His hair looks a bit bad in this picture as I can't play on high settings and the custom content waters down on lowers. His hair should be a deep red! 

Other than that, he is in the criminal career and brings the big dosh home. 

Looking for frogs.