Secrets and Shadow

Today is Heart of Thorns' 10-year anniversary! :D

To celebrate, I'd like to show a rough practice animation of Trahearne and Malyck I've been drawing on the side. I have to emphasize this isn't polished - I started this to try and learn more about 2d animating. But hopefully you are a little amused by it. ;p

This little interview dropped and I have two things to say:

1. HELL YEAH WE WILL FINALLY SEE GUILD WARS IN GUILD WARS

2. When I saw the exclusive artwork my first thought was that the giants they're fighting may be gw2 Abominations, and then I remembered the Arah middle boss - giganticus lupicus. So for all the furries disappointed with the lack of beastly Charr, there is a big werewolf daddy living in Orr at that time.

Or at least I hope Anet remembers this guy ಡ⁠ ͜⁠ ⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠ಡ

I for sure do. He killed me and my friends way too many times while we tried to conquer Arah. We even made a meme from that failed run.

There's a spot in GW2 that's a surface asuran settlement with little to no information known about it. There's a renown heart there, with the Priory investigating the ruins. The only things known are a) it's asuran in origin and b) it has artifacts dating to when Orr was a thriving nation.

"The scholar witnessed the fulfillment of his dream."

Wow, I somehow never posted this one here - I saw fan speculation earlier about how the gw2 (?) teaser from today might be a cleansed Orr! :O Which reminded me of this older art I was inspired to paint shortly after finishing the Knight of the Thorn questline.

My friend has been suggesting to me how it could be possible we see Malyck's tree in GW3, and how, if so, it's possible this could be a way to have sylvari in GW3, even this far in the past.

He particularly reminded me of Amaranda the Lonesome's passage here:

"A distant shore—and darkness. A root, a cave...you. You are the seed. What Ronan knew and never told still lingers in the Dream."

One of the reasons I am so fascinated by Malyck's story is because of this line. What did Ronan know? We still have never found out!

MY POOR TRAHEARNE

MY POOR SYLVARI

MY CONFLICTED HEART

Edit: Here's a link to one of the press releases sites are starting to post now: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/20548-guild-wars-3-ps5-pc-2027-beta

Relevant quote!

A few points from the press release I found interesting!

The mount in the trailer is called a "Seeker," and is our "connection to the spirits of Orr and a mount that will carry them on their journeys through the game’s open world."

Very interesting to me, "spirits of the wild" are mentioned twice.

Because this takes place 1000 years before GW1, this brings up some interesting questions & fun speculations I've been reading:

Combined with the press release's intentional emphasis on the "spirits of the wild," could the kodan in the trailer be the ancestors of GW2's present-day norn? This seems like it'd be very fun for norn players.

Also because this is during a part of the timeline when asura were not yet known, could the asura in the trailer be pre-subterranean asura - asura who lived aboveground, before later dwelling underground. This could explain their fuzzier appearance.

I also wanted to write a short note for anyone who is disappointed:

Silly Trahearne & Malyck sketch to warm-up my hand. Just for fun/my personal amusement, don't take it too seriously. :p

There's a bit of a story behind this sketch (I mention it briefly in the linked sketchblog post above) - the idea for it has percolated in my mind for a while.

In a different(?) version of my Trahearne/Malyck story, which I've posted a few times before - where both return to core Tyria after felling Mordremoth. I've contemplated several ideas for how Malyck would be cleansed from Mordremoth's influence, leading to this outcome.

They involve varying degrees of severity for how Trahearne might go about this - which I won't elaborate just yet, in case I end up exploring any of those in future comics ;p

"The scholar witnessed the fulfillment of his dream."

Wow, I somehow never posted this one here - I saw fan speculation earlier about how the gw2 (?) teaser from today might be a cleansed Orr! :O Which reminded me of this older art I was inspired to paint shortly after finishing the Knight of the Thorn questline.

Quick note as a few have told me it's tricky finding where to sign-up!

Scroll down & sign-up here to join the interest-check for "The Harbinger's Path" hardcopy fanbook.

Info will be emailed tomorrow on Monday, June 1! Only emails part of this group will be able to view it.

Please keep an eye out tomorrow for this email, because it will be slightly time-sensitive once I send it.

Info is only visible to people part of the interest-check as of this post. If you see this message late, join the interest check-through the link above, and I will periodically check the list and manually grant you access.

The Harbinger's Path Cover + one of my favorite interior spreads!

If you'll be in the Bay Area this weekend, see these books yourselves at Manga Ichiba during Fanime, in the "DoubleTree" part of the convention!

Table: B16 Date: Sat May 23, 2026 Time: Day, 10 am - 4 pm ("General Audiences") 

Directions and maps in the full post, I hope to see you there! :D

Oh no what have I done

(Very simple test with my necro as sacrifice)

Try and view the clips in 1080p or above if you can (it looks most crisp & like the source in 4k, which is weird since the videocapture was taken in 1080p) - the model becomes very blurry at 720p and below. D:

Bonus booklet preview :D

Thank you to the kind people of bsky for enabling me into doing this additional booklet lol.

And here is the back cover! I'm unreasonably pleased with how it printed. :D

While still a low possibility, it's slightly more likely here - if you happen to recognize the art even from the back cover, I applaud your astute eye. ;p I finally finished it!