Cover for “The Harbinger’s Path” | A Trahearne and Malyck Guild Wars 2 Fan Comic

Cover for "The Harbinger's Path," a Trahearne & Malyck Guild Wars 2 fan comic. The cover shows Trahaerne with arms open wide, as sylvari below extend their hands toward him. We can see Malyck in the crowd of sylvari, among other characters from the franchise.
“The Harbinger’s Path” Cover (not final)

“Pact Marshal Trahearne spent 43 days captured by the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. What happened to the Firstborn during this time?”

I’m excited to announce The Harbinger’s Path, a new project I’ve started and have been wanting to do for a while! It’s a Trahearne and Malyck short Guild Wars 2 fan comic, taking place in an alternate, non-canon, fan-take on “what could have been.” I always thought it would be fun to explore this with these two characters. 

The Harbinger’s Path is a completely fan-made project, unofficial, and not affiliated with ArenaNet – it’s a small passion-project I’ve toyed with in scattered artworks here and there over the years. I’ve contemplated doing a longer project about it for a long time, and now, I’ve finally decided to do so!

To start, above is the cover reveal! This cover is still in-progress and not final, but hopefully it’s in a mostly presentable state. I’ll add a few earlier process images and share some additional to the this post soon!

Because this project is a little more personal to me compared to Guild Wars 2 art I’ve done in the past, I’ve decided to leave the ArenaNet Creative Partnership while I work on it. I felt more comfortable working on something more personal to me while not sponsored, especially as I’m not sure how much interest there might be in this project beyond my own specific tastes.

 

Here’s an earlier version with the cover art in an earlier stage, and before adding Trahearne and Malyck’s names to the subtitle.

Guild Wars 2 Commission | April 4, 2025

Guild Wars 2 commission commemorating the characters' owners' anniversary! Shows two characters standing beside each other, one wielding Bifrost, the legendary staff, and the other holding the Flameseeker Prophesies, the legendary shield.
Guild Wars 2 Anniversary Commission

Guild Wars 2 commission to commemorate the characters’ owners’ anniversary! This one was commissioned several months ahead of time for a surprise gift, and I’m excited I can show it now.

It’s painted in the “Speedpainting (Tier 3)” style.

Initial sketches to choose the idea. Several thumbnail ideas with notes are shown.
Initial sketches to choose the idea.

After reading the commissioner’s description for what they’d like to see, I had four initial sketch ideas.

In-progress stage after the initial sketch idea is chosen.
In-progress stage after the initial sketch idea is chosen.

The painting in an in-progress stage after the initial idea is decided upon.

With support from ArenaNet.

GW2 Illustration Work-in-Progress | March 19, 2025

Current version (in-progress). A forested scene with three sylvari characters and thorned vines winding throughout the background. One character stabs his Mordrem Saber through another character, while the third character summons thorns in the background.
Current version (in-progress) | From left to right: Caydren, Landis, and Lorcan

Had an idea with my sylvari characters I wanted to jot down! It turned into a book cover composition, somehow. It’d be reversed if I used it as one – but I mainly wanted to sketch my three characters together, since I haven’t drawn them all together in an illustration in a while.

The left character is my Nightmare Court elementalist, Caydren; the middle character is my sylvari reaper/necromancer, Landis; and the right character is my Nightmare Courtier ranger/druid, Lorcan (who has yet to have his outfit added).

Initial sketch
Initial sketch
An earlier progress step
An earlier progress step

My Nightmare Courtier ranger/druid’s favorite pet Iboga, which he affectionately named “Mordremoth.”

Close-up of two sylvari characters, a Nightmare Court elementalist piercing his Mordrem Saber through an uncooperative necromancer's chest.
Close-up of the current in-progress version.

Close-up of my necromancer before I begin adding sylvari features to his anatomy.

Trahearne Sketches | March 7, 2025

Trahearne line sketch.
Trahearne line sketch.
Light colors added.
Rough colors.

Trahearne sketch ideas (character from Guild Wars 2).

The idea was, I wanted to see how Trahearne looked if he held Caladbolg in the “modern fantasy” greatsword style, where the weapon is slung (probably impractically) over the shoulder. I suspect (though could easily be mistaken) this pose was once popularized by FF7’s Cloud Strife player character, and has since become a standard fantasy pose. I think GW2’s in-game male humans and norn also take inspiration from that pose, instead of the more practical carried to the side, as GW2’s in-game male sylvari characters wield them. Incidentally, this was one of the early things which endeared me to my male sylvari character – and eventual new main – over my original female charr main.

While I cannot help but think the pose is impractical whenever I see it, there’s no denying it looks slick, in an anime sort of way, haha. It admittedly also probably looks more practical in this case, as I made Caladbolg smaller than I would have otherwise, to fit in the composition. If I take this further, I’d need to push Caladbolg’s perspective more, to appear its proper size.

Earlier versions, plus a rough color test.

Black and white line drawing of Trahearne from Guild Wars 2, drawn in a loose or sketchy style. Random Trahaerne sketch from last week. I think it became unintentional practice for the sketch from this week.

With support from ArenaNet.

Malyck Pencil Sketches | February 5, 2025

Finished pencil drawing of Malyck.
Finished pencil drawing of Malyck.

Edit: February 6, 2025

I decided to refine the Malyck drawing a bit more, seen above! I since wrote on the following page, and there was quite a bit of see-through. I tried to remove it as best I could digitally, but it makes me consider acquiring a pencil board in the future. There is a Hobonichi pencil board I was eyeing the other day, and looking for an excuse to justify its purchase… haha.

Anyway, since I ended up adding more to it today, I changed the date on the drawing to today’s.

Original post below:


Malyck pencil sketch
Malyck pencil sketch, pictured with my beloved Staedtler 0.3 mm drafting pencil

Did a warm-up sketch of Malyck earlier today, initially with the intention of inking it. I’m very out of practice with clean pencil drawing – I mainly use one for jotting a quick note or a rough sketch idea, nowadays – but I was enjoying using it a lot today. And ended up adding more to it in pencil instead, which may or may not have been to its detriment. I’ll try an ink test another time. :)

Earlier version of the sketch.
Earlier version of the sketch

I was going to leave the sketch like this, before deciding to draw on it a little more and ending up with the sketch at the top of this post.

I love working with mechanical pencils, and it used to be the medium I used the most often. I still use one (the Staedtler 0.3 mm drafting pencil is a thing of beauty, and incredibly durable), but it’s more infrequent than I’d like. I mainly use it for jotting down quick ideas, and not finished drawings. Maybe I’ll try doing some cleaner sketches this year.

With support from ArenaNet.