Guild Wars 2

Nightmare Court Necromancer Sketches | January 31, 2026

Animated Images, Digital Art, Guild Wars 2, Sketches & Studies
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Drawing two hairstyles from the in-game options to figure out which look might fit the character (Animated).

I’ve been idly wanting to figure out a look for a new Nightmare Court necromancer character I’ve been thinking about recently. He’s in the same setting as “Nightmare’s Embrace,” but isn’t a major character (he likely won’t feature in the mini-comic later this year). Different from my existing sylvari characters, the idea for him arose from a short story I was writing, instead from one of my existing in-game characters. My other sylvari characters originated from their in-game versions first, with their personalities developing afterward. Oftentimes, influenced by the experience playing them in-game. 

I haven’t made a new GW2 character in a long time, and thought this was the perfect excuse to create a new one. I played around with the in-game style options the other day, and thought drawing them might help me decide on this character’s look. I think the color scheme is close – especially for the hair and glow color – but I’m not entirely satisfied on his hairstyle. The two here are the closest I was partial to for him, but I’m leaning toward sketching a few ideas at a later point not based on an in-game style, to see if I can figure out a look that fits him more closely. 

Line drawing of a sylvari showing two hairstyles from the game. Left shows a short hairstyle with broad leaves. Right shows a long hairstyle with numerous small leaves.
Lineart sketch.
Painted still of the previous artwork without the added glow.
Still of the drawing, without glow. 
Same drawing as before, only the right shows the lineart sketch, while the left shows the color sketch.
I just liked how this version looked.
Animated gif showing the pulsing glow of a sylvari with long hair. The glow is warm orange, his hair a dusky, reddish-violet.
Animated version of the hairstyle on the right.

I also tried out animating the glow color to see if it would help me decide on whether I liked either of these hairstyles for the character. Between these two, the one on the right fits him slightly better, and I think it turned out better when animated.

But doing this helped me decide I don’t think I will be satisfied with either hairstyle for him. 

Still of the animated version from the top of this post.
Still of the animated version from the top of this post.

The Harbinger’s Path at Manga Ichiba this Fanime 2026

Comics, Guild Wars 2
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Happy New Year! I hope your year is starting off well. 

I have exciting news! Earlier this month, I learned I was accepted into Manga Ichiba at Fanime this year, the first-ever doujinshi-focused (“indie fan comics”) event for NA.

I applied with The Harbinger’s Path, and I’m pleased to announce I will be self-publishing a very limited print run of my “Trahearne-Malyck doujinshi” comic for this event. It will include all 3 completed chapters (50+ pages), and I hope to also add some bonus material for this print version. (More about this to come.)

If you’d like to learn more, I’ll be sharing more info through email updates. You can receive them by joining here.

Below is an overview:

What is Manga Ichiba?

This is an event officially affiliated with FanimeCon, specifically designed to encourage NA-made indie fan comics (or “doujinshi”). 

Fanime’s official description:

“A brand new event is coming to FanimeCon this year! Manga Ichiba is America’s first original English-language doujinshi market.”

More info on their official page here.

Fanime is one of North America’s largest anime conventions – I remember first hearing about it from the artists I followed tabling at it. I was able to visit for the first time a few years ago as an attendee! They have a plethora of events going on, and I had a wonderful time with people I met there. It takes place during May in Northern California for a few days over a weekend. 

How is this different from an Artist Alley? 

One reason I’m excited about this event is because it aims to be distinct from Fanime’s existing “Artist Alleys.” Today’s Artist Alleys – in general, not only at Fanime – tend to focus primarily on selling commercially. These is nothing wrong with this, but commercial incentivizes tend to push artists toward selling prints and merchandise over doujinshi comics. Doujinshi both take more time to make, and tend to have smaller potential audiences. 

Doujinshi has a well-established community in Japan, while this type of community hasn’t historically been as nurtured for NA-made doujin comics. Manga Ichiba hopes this might begin changing this! 

Manga Ichiba aims to cultivate more of a doujinshi community in NA by shifting the focus less on commercial selling, and more on encouraging artists who are creating doujinshi comics primarily out of their love for their fandoms. 

What is “Doujinshi?” 

You might have seen me refer to “The Harbinger’s Path” as my “Trahearne-Malyck doujinshi” in places since starting this project. Doujinshi is a Japanese term which refers to self-published comics, especially fan comics (but it can also refer to original works).

I have always thought of The Harbinger’s Path this way, but I wasn’t sure how widely-known this term was to western/GW2 audiences. I started also calling it my “fan comic,” in case this was more clear.

Final Note

Quick reminder that this project is entirely fan-made and unofficial, and not sponsored by ArenaNet. If you are affiliated with ArenaNet and have questions or suggestions about The Harbinger’s Path, you are always welcome to reach out!

Warband Commission | January 7, 2026

Commission Process, Commissions, Digital Art, Guild Wars 2
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Illustration of a charr warband sitting around a tea table in the Red Duck Teahouse in Cantha. There is a festive Wintersday atmosphere. I can finally show this commission! :D 

I wanted to also show a few detail close-ups; I’ll update this post at a later point, when I have time to crop and export those! 

For now, two three WIP process pages are below. Some text is omitted, as aside from Achyrd, the rest of the characters for this one wish to remain anonymous! 

“Wintersday Warband” | Initial sketches.

 

“Wintersday Warband” | Sketch Revisions + Color Tests
“Wintersday Warband” | Outfit Block-in + Wintersday Accessories

January 15, 2026

  • Added a third WIP process image! (Initial Sketches; “.01”) 

Cadeyrn Warm-up | January 9, 2026

Digital Art, Guild Wars 2, Personal Art, Sketches & Studies, Work-In-Progress
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Loose sketch drawing of Cadeyrn from Guild Wars 2. He wears a crown of golden, glowing vine, as he slouches smugly against twisted thorns.
Cadeyrn Warm-up (Crop)

Super rough Cadeyrn warm-up! I’ve been wanting to sketch the ending portion of Ree Soesbee’s “Dream and Nightmare” passages, particularly the final one describing Cadeyrn after he’s founded the Nightmare Court. The specific portion reads: 

Cadeyrn lounged on his throne with a careless, prideful slouch. A crown of golden vine glittered on his forehead as courtiers bowed and whispered before him, hanging on Cadeyrn’s every word, their eyes as lightless as the space between the stars.

— Source: Dream and Nightmare by Ree Soesbee

I love the imagery this passage depicts, and it’s been on my task list for a while to try sketching some ideas based off it. This is my second (very loose) attempt. Below is the full, uncropped (and very rough) composition: 

Full version of the Cadeyrn drawing shown previously. He sits atop a throne-like tangle of thorned vines.
Cadeyrn warm-up (Full composition)

I thought it might also be fun to play a little with Cadeyrn’s design, namely his outfit. I’m not a huge fan of his in-game armor, but I wanted to try something that is still recognizable as having that as its inspiration (for comparison, this is Cadeyrn’s in-game appearance). I really like how in the Nightmare Court outfit series of armor, there’s a mild sense of lasciviousness, or this air of seduction, which works thematically with their concept of corrupting (or “seducing”) Dream sylvari to Nightmare. 

I also thought it didn’t quite make sense that Faolain (the canonical leader of the Nightmare Court) wears Nightmare Court armor, while its founder wears low-level sylvari cultural armor. From the Grove, no less! This never made sense to me, given how arrogant Cadeyrn is depicting in Ree Soesbee’s writings. (I imagine he might likely have disdain for anything associated with the Grove.) But I do love when concepts are created based off in-game appearances – it’s why often, my favorite games to do fan art for tend toward those with lesser graphics. Because these allow more freedom with how artists can imagine their depictions, and allow more creativity and play among different interpretations across a variety of people. 

That’s the idea behind his alternations here – I tried combining features from the sylvari male version of the Nightmare Court light armor (as Cadeyrn is a mesmer) – mainly by opening the chest, and changing his collar armor to thorns instead of leaves – while attempting to keep the “spirit” of his in-game appearance intact. 

Incidentally, the first sketch I tried was from two days ago, sketched as an even looser warm-up: 

Loose sketch showing Cadeyrn toying with his “crown of glittering vine.”

There are aspects of this sketch I also like. I’m not sure which version I’ll take further – it might be neither, maybe I’ll try a few more ideas! – but it was fun to finally sketch down some potential tries for this idea. 

Finally, the first sketch is also part of one of the “sketchpages” I use for warm-ups – this is how the full page looks: 

Loose sketches | Left, Cadeyrn from Guild Wars 2; Right, Corveil, from my own setting (not GW2)

This page started as as warm-up with Corveil first, on the right, as some anatomy construction practice. 

Spellweaver Caydren (WIP) | January 7, 2026

Digital Art, Guild Wars 2, Sketches & Studies, Work-In-Progress
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In-progress drawing of a Nightmare Court sylvari elementalist. He has a fiery, charred-bark color scheme, and holds a thorned vine whip. Happy New Year! I have so much I want to post, but those will take me a little more time to write (I’ve had very little time in the start of the new year, though some exciting news to share later!) – I wanted to post something quick in the meantime! 

Work-in-progress drawing of “Spellweaver Caydren,” one of three main characters in the “Nightmare’s Embrace” mini-comic I plan to finish this year. Caydren is a Nightmare Court elementalist. I have always enjoyed the idea of the thorned vine whip weapons Nightmare Court NPC’s in the GW2 game use, and that I don’t believe are accessible to us as players (though it’s been a few years, correct me if this is no longer the case) – so, what better reason to vicariously enjoy this, than by fitting one of my characters with one in comic form? :D 

This drawing is from several months ago, and I had hoped to finish it by now, but other projects have been arresting my time. I felt like showing its current progress for now, instead! I plan to finish this one, though in some ways it is mainly a “concept drawing,” to see how he looked with the horned vine whip. 

Copyright © 2026 Landylachs (Liz Liu). All rights reserved.