I meant to post this at some point, and why not now. This is one of the concept drawings I did for the “Avatar of Mordremoth” we see in Chapter 1 of “The Harbinger’s Path” GW2 fan comic, seen most prominently on page 13 in Chapter 1: The Firstborn’s Stand. I drew one or two concept designs before this, and remember not being satisfied with those earlier attempts, until drawing this one.
I sketched the pages for chapter 1 first, and did placeholder drawings for my fan-version of the “Avatar of Mordremoth” in the early drafts. I believe I tried to figure out a design on the page initially, but wasn’t pleased with the results I was drawing. This caused me to try concepting some ideas for how this “mind-avatar” for Mordremoth might look like in the comic.
I knew I wanted him to be a foil for the Pale Tree – who Mordremoth initially impersonates during his infiltration into Trahearne’s mind in my comic. I am also partial to the idea – inspired by the Mordremoth canon design that Mordremoth “is the jungle” – that Mordremoth might take different forms for his “mind-avatar.” This is why I wanted him to first appear to Trahearne as the “Pale Tree” – as a way to try and weaken Trahearne’s resolve, by wearing the image of what is almost a deity figure for the sylvari people. This is also why, to me, my design for this version of the “Avatar of Mordremoth” is not necessarily the “final” or “true” form of him (within the lore of my fan comic).
This form, since I wanted to try a version which is more directly opposed to the Pale Tree design-wise, clearly takes much of its inspiration from the Pale Tree’s design herself. Many aspects are similar. I tried to add more malevolent features, influenced from Carlyn Lim’s Mordrem Commander concept designs, as well (mentioned in this post from last month). I will admit some of my drive to try this design is also because I found the canon design for the “Avatar of Mordremoth” in-game to be somewhat comical, haha, and always thought it would be fun to see different takes on this design that are a bit less goofy, and have a bit more of that dark fantasy visual flavor that I love so much in Carlyn’s Mordrem concepts.
