duranin

I have a horrible tendency to reuse my character designs over and over in different MMOs. Sometimes I also get a huge kick out of (re)writing my characters' back stories and maybe even connecting the storylines of my characters from different games.

This coming Thanksgiving Day, I have plans to revive another one of my characters that has gone untouched for many years. Why Thanksgiving? Because I want the character's birth date to be easily remembered and more meaningful/planned than an arbitrary day of the year. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be consciously reminded to be thankful for what I have, as well.

It's come to my attention that a large part of the reason I complete very few drawings now is because I get hung up on the pose/lines and I end up trashing my sketch instead of continuing to work on it.

Until I figure out some way to get past that, I'd like to keep experimenting with coloring and stuff. Could anyone recommend/link me some lineart that's free to color? Preferably of human characters. Style (anime, realism etc) doesn't matter. Prefer OCs/custom designs over fan art.

Alternatively if you're a lineartist I would love to do a collab where you draw the lines and I color it.

In the wake of my last journal... I have started playing GW2 again. A huge HUGE thank you to SandySothe and psychokitteh for offering some support and help getting back into the game.

Although I still think most of my original complaints/dissatisfactions with the game still hold true, actually knowing enough about the game and current meta tactics (particularly for dungeon running), and having a supportive environment to learn these things, has helped a lot. I would still say it's an atmosphere very hostile to solo beginning/returning players.

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Anyways, the purpose of this journal is to document my character Araiia's updated GW2 backstory as well as some incoming changes. I've had the character 'Araiia' since release (mesmer) but only actually worked on leveling her to 80 recently. Today I created a second character, Nightstalker Araiia -- a thief (no surprise here). Thanks to GW2 non-class-specific character sliders, she has near-identical physical features as my mesmer. The only difference is a slight change in expression (thief has a relatively flat/emotionless expression) and hair (mes has long, light silver straight hair, thief has long, light white gold wavy hair).

I am incorporating this into my character's canon, and here's the explanation.


Araiia, blessed by Kormir, is a Commoner with Unknown Parents. N.Araiia, blessed of Lyssa, is a Noble with Dead Sister.
Similar to the relationship of Araiia Shadowsong and Araiia Artifice in GW1, these two characters are one and the same. Unlike Shadowsong and Artifice, both GW2 characters/professions occur simultaneously as opposed to one after the other.

1. Araiia was born with mesmeric abilities but trained as an assassin.
Since her inception as an assassin in GW1 Araiia has always had an affinity for the mesmer magics of domination and inspiration, which is part of the reason why she eventually gave up the way of the assassin in favor of being a full-time mesmer. This has passed down through the years and all of GW1 Araiia's female descendants have mesmer abilities, albeit not always skilled at controlling them. GW2 Araiia's thief abilities are purely a result of a personal decision to train in that area. (Apparently, wearing medium armor blocks her mesmer abilities or something, which is why she's only one class at a time. hue)

2. Araiia was born an upper-middle class commoner.
Thief/Noble Araiia is essentially her alter ego. She was born a commoner, but as the niece of a merchant family she frequently had contact with highborn children. (Her own parents as mentioned in-game are dead; she was raised by relatives.) In fact, she spent most of her free time hanging out with noble kids and also received education alongside her friends. The 'Dead Sister' in her personal story refers to a close friend who joined the Seraph and went missing on patrol, as per the in-game personal story.

3. Araiia's physical characteristics do not change between professions, although she does carry herself differently. When playing as a thief she also applies a simple glamour to change the color of her hair from nearly white to a light sandy blonde to stand out less in a crowd. She is not actually 'changing'/dyeing her hair, just altering the way light reflects off of it (particularly yellow light waves). Her hair remains the same length; she either combs it straight (mesmer) or leaves it fashionably tousled (thief).

GW1 Araiia's hair was not always silvery white. She was born with dark brown hair, typical of a Canthan. It was only after ascending in the Crystal Desert and meeting Glint that her hair turned white. The process behind this is unknown but may be related to the mechanism by which Gen. Almorra Soulkeeper's fur turned white. Araiia's DNA appears to have been altered by the event as her white-hairedness has been passed down to her descendants.

6/23/13 update: no DNA was changed when Araiia's hair turned silver. The source of the silver coloring is an enchantment/status cast by Glint meant to help Araiia blend in while traveling through Kryta, but the silver was an unintended side effect. The enchantment was meant to end for each individual when Araiia (or her descendant) no longer needed its protection.