Monday, August 21, 2017

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.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

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.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

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.


Thursday, August 10, 2017

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.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

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!