For Hollow Knight Art Month 2026. My first time participating. A scene from my @hklegacyau where Ghost meets a mysterious figure in the Dream Realm during the Pantheons.
Welcome to the Guild Wars 2 Elder Dragons Zine. This is a project featuring the 7 elder dragons in order of how we defeat them in-game. Featuring 8 artists and 6 writers, this zine has brought to life the titular Elder Dragons of the game.
Hiya! As per my last post, the Elder Dragons GD had to be deleted and moved to a new account. I am here to announce the new link!
WHAT IS THE ELDER DRAGONS GOOGLE DRIVE?
The EDGD is an archive of all things Elder Dragons! Screenshots, model renders, concept art, even videos of them! We have all seven Elder Dragons AND their most important minions [Kuunavang, Glint, Vlast]. If you need it, we have it!
It can be used for art reference, for looking at, and whatever else you like!
A scene from a roleplay in which my friend vented her HTCM trauma a very angry and void-corrupted e-ghost takes the form of every Elder Dragon by hijacking several hologram rigs.
Descending from the top of the swirling veil of shadows swims the holographic voidform of Soo-Won; her movements elegant, visage resplendent, even in this hardlight-copy of a corrupted form. Still, these are the behaviors of a practiced ocean predator, circling the roof like a shark around wounded prey.
Only this time, something is wrong. In each of the dragon's hands, she clutches the glitch-corrupted swords of Azumi Maeda scaled up to befit a dragon to wield.
"W̵̬̜̓͆͋e spě̷̪̦̒͊ak ̵͎̔̅̕ with ̵͎̔̅̕one vǫ̷͎͍͝i̷̙̍ce. This ̵͎̔̅̕ reality will ȩ̵̞̽́̉nd. You can̴͔͛̒͊n̶̼̼̍͌́͜ǫ̶̘̤́͐t stop ̴̙̉ï̶̖̺͜t."
"An angel falls to their hubris. It's a story as old as time. It's a story you already know, under countless names and through countless retellings. But knowing doesn't change anything; Soo-Won was more aware than most. And she knew that they would know she knew - and that scared her more than anything.
This is the day Jormag's heart freezes over."
[Pre-canon drabble, 2k words, Soo-Won and Jormag-centric. Angst. Exploration of Jormag's affection and corruption. No trigger warnings that I can think of, aside from a low-detail description of drowning. Art and writing is mine, Guild Wars 2 belongs to Arenanet. Dialogue inspired by Gen 3 Legendary Weapons. Divider graphic belongs to @soulbeastdragon. Keep in mind this is merely my interpretation of these characters :) Enjoy!]
"I want to make them permanent, Mother. I want to make them last."
"You know you can't do that." She smiled - in the sense that she radiated warmth, something that would perhaps best be described with a single word. Dragons could be infinitely complex, after all. "That is their beauty. They are fleeting. And so, their eyes are uniquely open."
"There is no beauty in passing. And yet.. it's gone. You unmade it. Why? Why did you close its eyes?"
Soo-Won could only linger in silence, dark eyes as unfathomable as the ocean. She knew well that the true depth of existence could not - and would not come easily to her child, not when they were so young. Perhaps, that was her curse. Either alone beneath the sea of stars, or surrounded by little things who only reasoned as little things could. Specks of light, innocent flickers of pure magic. Innocent, but destined.
The small dragon pawed at the ground, attempting to gather close the dust that once was a creature. A fruitless effort, with massive claws not fit to be this gentle. "It's still alive, you see? I can undo it."
"He. Not it. Please, let go, now. His soul found silence at last."
"No, no... It's not silent—you aren't listening closely."
Her tail softly brushed aside arms that had no real will to stop her, sweeping the last of the dust away. Finally allowing the once-mortal to scatter to the winds. The crystalline sparkles shimmered as they sailed the sky, a soul bidding its - his - last farewell.
"They are not... suited to our lifetimes, my child. Their minds cannot last, even if their bodies can be made to. Even if you make them pristine forever, they will not last. That is not their will."
"But I did not force them." The young dragon chirped, head turning in puzzlement as their already brilliant mind worked overtime behind sad blue eyes. "I asked it. I asked him. He agreed. But you unmade him. You took him from me."
"It's wrong, baby." She nuzzled her dragonling, wishing only for the depth of her love to soothe the turbulent soul. "Just because he agreed does not mean he knew what he agreed to. He can't have known. Us Dragons are of a different type of existence. Seeing things through our eyes, ah... well, I'm not surprised he..."
He broke, she wanted to say. But she couldn't. Not with the way they looked at her, resentment building behind those same orbs that once adored her.
But they finished it for her. "That he broke, Mother? How did you know? How COULD you have known? You didn't even ask him."
"My baby - they always break. It's inevitable -"
"You didn't ASK him like I DID!" Jormag boomed, breath coming in heavy pants from between jagged fangs. If a thing such as them could cry, she felt their eyes would be shedding waterfalls. "And you didn't ask now, either. If he wanted to live. No. You simply unmade him."
The matron of the ocean shrank away. Fear permeating an ancient body, an emotion she hadn't truly known until that moment. Even though she foresaw it, even though this fate was written in stars older than even herself, it was a different matter entirely to simply know and to experience it firsthand.
Her child. One of the only creatures she felt she truly, wholly, loved - and they lay destroyed in every timeline. The massive whorl of her body spasmed with terror.
The first thing that went was always their heart and there were no words she could possibly say to heal it. She ran a billion worlds through her mind and there was not one, not one life in which they understood.
Jormag simply continued to gaze into their mother's eyes, hitched, raspy breaths slowly evening out, like a stormy sea mellowed out into a calm. Before she knew it, they were as unshakable as a statue yet again, that same cold persona of reason they had since grown into.
"I see. So you've embraced fatalism." They commented, in an almost condescending manner.
Like they thought she wasn't even worth conversing with.
Like she was a relic who could not possibly understand. And yet, she did. She comprehended it all, every facet of it, and it was ever-so-slowly killing her. A deathless thing, watcher of every world that was and ever could be. And she was killing her child, too.
Soo-Won was glad mortals did not have to bear this burden. Yes, their minds were small, so very delicate - but they held a view of life no Dragon could hold. Something that only came with this same fragile grace, a flame burning bright before flickering out into the night. And so, she tried.
It would be futile. Again.
It was always futile, but she loved them and could not help trying anyway.
"The Cycle is life and death. Things come, and they go." The tip of her tail moved, a soft motion of rising and falling. "There are seasons in this world, my child, and it is our duty to guide their dance. Even the oldest ice thaws, and then comes spring. Can you not hear the birds sing..?"
"When the birds sing, the rot sets in."
The world was an enormity even she could not hold. Oceans would forever remain her home, but Tyria was so much more than endless waters. And so, in order to encompass such wealth of life, she bore that which granted her this name - this curse. Mother.
Lifegiver. As it all did in this world, their existence was spawned from water. As much as they rejected her, in the end, their domain would remain the very closest to hers. She could already feel the low growl building in their throat.
"You wallow in entropy and call it renewal." The scion hissed, stalking lightly back and forth like an ambush predator. "Cycles within cycles... grinding everything to dust. Does that make you happy?" The tip of their tail twitched, the only part of her child's body which so readily betrayed emotion. She thought back to the times they'd hide their tail under their form so that Primordus could not read their annoyance, and once again, she smiled sadly.
"It's not entropy." Though it may have seemed that way, it was the only way the world may continue. "It's balance."
She did not have the heart to answer the question.
"It's so delicate, but it repeats itself forever." The adolescent dragon mused. "Why? Why destroy something just to replace it? What about this carnage says balance to you?!"
Cycles upon cycles. She had no answer. Or, rather - she did, but not one that would ever soothe them. This glass-frail heart, so eager to chip, shatter and break.
"Why can't they.. stay forever with me...? I cannot hold this love of mine when it thaws. I cannot..."
"Jormag... love comes and goes. That is its beauty."
"There is NO beauty here! It's obscene."
She stilled. Every fin, every whisker. So too did her words still between her jaws, not even a sigh escaping their monumental clutches. The hand of her mind retreated when she felt Jormag's own slap it away. It felt cold.
It stung.
"All you had was the quiet void in which you dwelled. All those years in the abyss. Not even your domain is kind. Bring a mortal down there, and it ruins them in seconds and lingers while they scream. There is no sound as their lungs fill with water. The pressure crushes them. Warps them into shapes unfit for life." The scion spoke, in a droning, monotonous voice. A perfect façade for all the pain they kept - hidden just beneath the surface. Their voice, the only thing that could set it free, but continuously refused to do so.
"Down there, in your home, nobody would even hear them scream. But not in mine. In mine, I will be there. I will listen. Always. And I will talk. I will make sure they know they are never alone. Not even for a second."
"Jormag!" For once, she was forceful. Her own voice crashed into theirs like a tidal wave. "You are what will ruin them!"
Her offspring recoiled, betrayal briefly shining in cerulean orbs - no, there was more. A bubbling, seething hatred, an emotion of unparalleled intensity that ill befitted her gentle child. That explosive rage remained, coiling and writhing like a serpent, before it slowly warped into something more insidious. There was disdain, mockery even. "Oh..? Have I troubled you? Replace me, then."
"I cannot -"
"Cannot? So you WOULD have done so if you only could, hmm? I see. Am I broken in your eyes as well, Mother? And if so, since when?"
Since forever. As they all were. But she could not bear to let them know. Her imperfect children, spawned from a womb which failed them. But in the end, they would know that she knew, and that scared her more than anything.
"..Why can't you love me, Mother? Where did I go wrong? And when? Tell me the exact moment. So that I.. may make it immortal."
Their mind smirked at hers. Just for you, dearest Mother.
Stop.. please, just stop.
But they would not. No, they would not. For that was their destiny. Their great, terrible, self-wrought identity: and yet, she did not stop them. It was not hers to take away the choice they made - kept making - in every life. Her gut twisted, a familiar hurt burrowing through her vibrant body, her fraying spirit. The event horizon sneered at her distant gaze.
"You never loved any of us. It was all a deception so that we may fit your purpose. Enact your grand design which you forced upon us. But that is alright, for my voice is my own. I will speak my truth, not yours. And I will make this choice everyday. For as long as I breathe." Jormag continued, every word as sure as an avalanche falling. As a dagger caressing flesh before sinking in. "And I will ask a question you had never once asked any of us."
"Is this what you want?"
Their words were loud. Her thoughts were quiet. But she already knew. Oh, from the beginning of time, she knew.
"...And they will answer: Yes. Oh, yes. I do."
The scion turned, and she felt it like a wound. The splinter of ice that burrowed into her soul, never to leave. The final farewell from their own bleeding, shattered heart. Her only keepsake of Jormag, the Kind, who would become everything but.
White wings opened, and each feather sang like a winter wind. "Goodbye, Mother." The title sounded like poison in their mouth. "As always, you've left me nothing to mourn."
They were not the first to leave, but it hurt all the same knowing that the home they shared was home no longer. If a thing such as her could cry, her eyes would be shedding waterfalls.
You let this happen. Never forget that.
I won't, dear child. She could only watch as they departed. She could only ever watch, after all.
I will remember for as long as I breathe. For as long as my thoughts last. For as long as my mind keeps its vigil over this world. She felt her soul quiver, an earthquake at the bed of the seas.
And I will sing your name in my dreams, for as long as my voice is still my own.
I need help. I'm trying to color Soo-Won, but I dont know how to do it. I look at hundreds of references, I've tried color picking from fanart, I just cant get anything to fucking look right. Please help.
