#azilab

[lady-quen]

An art trade with @scourgeblooms that I should've finished before gw2cc lol! STILL ahhh I'm so glad I got to draw Azi he's so cooooool 🌹🫠💞

Sponsored by ArenaNet

[scourgeblooms]

when I'm not thinking about The Departing, I am thinking about SotO Act 2-3

🩸🔮⛓️💫

I rarely ever color/render my stuff so this was a half-successful exercise in patience and perseverance (lmao) and I think I still prefer my lines and flats. but!!!! I still learned a lot.

(sketch, lines, flats, wips, etc below the cut👇)

[scourgeblooms]

voe-mandated beach goth time 🐚 🌴

[scourgeblooms]

went file diving and I found a bunch of stuff I did last year that I just???? forgot about????? so here's whatever this is

(I've forgotten the context for these but those last sketches were from an abandoned comic of my commander cussing out isgarren. I do remember that.)

[scourgeblooms]

For Azi: 1, 5 and 7!

1. What's their voice like? (Voice claim and/or describe it)

I ADORE Brandon Bales' voice and voice acting and I could gush about it forever, and it fits all my other sylvari wonderfully well. However… Azi's voice is a bit higher, and he's pretty pitchy. He has a crazy vocal range and is a very, very expressive speaker. He tends to speak from his nose, and his tone can come across as slightly sneering or derisive at times. His voice has a slight rasp, and a reoccurring upper respiratory infection can make him sound a bit under the weather occasionally. His voice falls somewhere between Alice Cooper (for his insane range, growling lows, sneering highs, and overall theatrical vocals) and Layne Staley (for his pitch, nasally tone, and subtle rasp).

5. What animal do you identify them with? / What would their fursona be?

I put way too much thought into this, but I think a bearded vulture represents him pretty well. A scavenger that can adapt to almost any climate, has the tendency to be very resourceful, dyes its feathers red with blood, and eats bone marrow as it's number 1 source of food--THAT is the most necromancer-coded thing I've ever heard of. They're a little bit intimidating, a little bit ragged-looking, and can be aggressive. The red/yellow eyes and badass corpse paint just happen to be an aesthetic plus as well. (runner up animals were: vampire bat, some sort of goat, or some sort of prehistoric raptor).

7. Have they changed much since their first concept? Could they be considered the same person? If not, would they get along with each other?

I mentioned in a previous answer that Azi was a port of an original character, and I didn't expect him to change much when I first started playing. That did not last long lmao. I consider him to be The Commander now, and he's strayed pretty far from his original version. I absolutely love the Commander's story and journey, and it's been fun to adapt his lore. His ruthlessness, combat ability, and fierce sense of justice has carried over well, but so has his paranoia, anxiety, and trust issues. Azi is selective about who he gets along with, and that's true for every version of him.

His in-game look has changed quite a bit too, but I feel like I've settled on a look now that portrays him well. (I've also gotten better at taking screenshots lol. That being said, Azi baby pics below the cut.)

[scourgeblooms]

some wintersday shenaniganry of a more krampus-themed variety 🎀✨🕯️❄️

catch me spending absolutely insane amounts of hours in toypocalypse and fumbling my musically inept way through bell choir

[scourgeblooms]

🕷🧪 rot stalker 🧪🕷

[scourgeblooms]

wanted to do a physical timeline for my commander and highlight how he’s changed through the years. this is mostly for my own entertainment BUT I do enjoy seeing the same thing from other folks so I’m posting it here in the hopes that other people share my sentiment. 

(I was ALSO totally inspired by @/manasurge’s hair timeline. it kicks ass. go look at it.) 

elaboration/rambling below the cut!

Personal Story, LW1-2: Popped out of the pod blunt, solicitous, and already maybe a little too paranoid for someone who was born yesterday, but all those traits made him uniquely qualified for a position in military leadership.  Healthy and floral, soft aspen-bark-like skin, delicate petals. black anthers produce pollen. undergoes more fashion changes than physical transformations during this time. gets a little banged up here and there (and maybe has some lasting respiratory effects from the toxic alliance era) but overall feelin a-okay. 

Heart of Thorns: it’s all gone to shit. took a spectacular headdive in both a physical and mental sense with breakneck speed. never “officially” answered mordremoth’s call, but anyone who spent time around him would notice a distinct lack of self control and logical thinking. took on a more sickly pallor, stress caused leaves to shrivel, rot, and decay. lost his lil flower top notch and ability to produce pollen. pupils narrowed to take on a more animalistic look, and enamel growth resulted in sharper, larger teeth. fingers also elongated into claws. never fully physically and mentally recovered from the hell jungle. 

LW3: chopped off most of his leaves to encourage fresh growth. lots of physical healing during this time, though it takes quite a while for his complexion to fully recover. takes on the role of aurene’s champion with gusto. relatively unaffected by bloodstone, but feels the effects of mordremoth’s loose/uncontrolled magic deeply. continues to hear mordremoth’s “voice” and is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 

Path of Fire: still healing from HoT. continues to grow out his leaves. glow returns, as well as some of his eye color. likes the crystal desert, but finds the harsh, dry climate to be particularly challenging; he’s definitely more of a ‘temperate’ sylvari. does not handle dying well. death only adds to his paranoia and psychosis. has an increasingly hard time picking apart what is real and what is…. not. 

LW4: let’s get ready to kill an undead lich!!!! absorbs even more magic after the death of joko and kralkatorrik, and it starts to show in a there-and-gone shimmery aura that takes on a similar appearance to ley lines. starts to suffer from migraine auras. flower top notch grows back, but stays closed and dormant. picks up a few nifty necromancy tricks from the elonians, and the tips of his fingers start to show signs of necrotic decay; all that death magic can’t be good for the complexion, can it? 

Icebrood Saga: having another dragon in his head does not help his mental health in the slightest. braided leaves (courtesy of braham <3) to protect against frostbite. his ley “aura” gets more intense, hard to miss, and is a near constant. flower topnotch remains closed due to the cold weather conditions. after being shot by bangar, his wound is covered/healed by aurene’s brand. migraines increase in frequency, makes it difficult for him to focus. a bone deep exhaustion starts to set in, and more often than not, he catches himself thinking that a nice long nap underneath a blanket of snow doesn’t sound so terrible….

End of Dragons: back in a more agreeable climate, his topnotch finally blooms, but does not grow anthers or produce pollen. easily physically corrupted by void magic, and he feels soo-won’s pain and struggle deeply. the void corruption eventually shows up in the form of darkening leaves, and seeping out of his eyes/tearducts (it’s fine. don’t worry about it.). starts to incorporate chaos magic into his own necromancy practices. has a fucking terrible time in gyala delve. has a fucking terrible time saying goodbye to aurene. 

Secrets of the Obscure: nothing feels entirely real to him anymore. still willing to help, to fight, but it’s done on autopilot at this point. this magical, floating palace in the sky looks and feels like a dream, with the kryptis acting as the encroaching, inevitable turn to a real, living nightmare. still uses a bit of leftover void in his magical practices, but most of the corruption has left his system. that respiratory illness he picked up back in kessex hills comes back to bite him in nayos. finally grows back his anthers, but instead of producing pollen, it's an outlet for void/magic energy.