[Comic] Pain Response

PAIN RESPONSE; Trait: Major, Training: Acrobatics
Gain regeneration and remove damaging conditions when struck while below the health threshold. 

Well... that took a forever and a half.

I know the Almorra comic is officially the first one I showed to the world (both finished and in early preview), but this is the first one I conceived, all the way back some four years ago. Not much has changed on the comic side of things, really. I added a few panels here and there and tweaked about two more, but art-wise, it's pretty much exactly how I planned it (which is why the anatomy's much further on the human side).

Writing, however, changed a lot. And I have to say I quite like what I arrived at in the end at least in this department.

Snarl and Galina have always been my most favorite charr ever since I started the game and got to join the Vigil. I usually avoid couples that are based on the tired concept of "I hate you but then I love you", but this is one of the few exceptions. I think it's mostly due to how it's built over time and how it plays off well-established interlegion rivalry rather than some contrived personal slight, and that the characters themselves don't "change through the power of love", but rather learn to see past the attributes they despise in one another and later make it click not in spite of their differences, but embracing them.

When Heart of Thorns was released, I was relieved to find these two were confirmed to be alive. And even though the game outpaced me (again) and had them appear during the Drizzlewood campaign, the details of their Maguuma adventures went unexplained, giving me just the right wiggle room. 

This project has been a bizarre variant of a dead albatross hanging around me for the past seven months. While the character art went extremely smooth and fast and I was done with it in early January, what came after can only be described as a period of failure after failure for reasons I only half understand. At the same time, I couldn't really focus on anything else any better, and the results were rather subpar overall.

I did learn a lot, however, both about my limits and how to overcome them. I can't pretend I'm 100% satisfied with the result, but I do appreciate what it gave me in return.

And while the measly six pages can't really do right by them, I hope you'll get at least a sliver of joy I had when writing this.

Context for non-GW2 players:

Charr have three (later four) allied legions at the start of the game – Blood, Ash and Iron, relying on open warfare, stealth and technology, respectively. There's the usual brand of inter-service rivalry between them as they bicker over their philosophies. If the player starts as Iron, they meet representatives from the other two legions fighting over the rights to use their tech – Snarl Backdraft, Ash thief preferring tactical approach, and Galina Edgecrusher, Blood warrior who just wants a big canon to fire at things.

Regardless of race, you can later meet them in the Vigil storyline to fight alongside you on Claw Island, and regardless of order allegiance, they join you later during several steps of the Orrian campaign.

They disappear with Heart of Thorns, only existing further through a quote (at the start of the comic) of another NPC you can ask about their fate. Any other details were uknown until very, very recently when they resurfaced during the Icebrood Saga fighting for the United Legions.

These past months have been odd, to be honest. On one hand, it was a period of calm, and I should have been able to achieve much more than these six pages (groundwork on some other projects notwithstanding), yet at the same time, whatever broke me last year will need more fixing than I anticipated.

Thank you all for your company and support. I'm not exaggerating when I say I wouldn't be here doing what I love if it weren't for you guys. I hope I'll do right by you and I'll keep trying to do it better.