Today I'm doing two photo challenges in one: 6 on 6 and IntPiPoMo. Win-win, right? Only this month's colour, gold, was hard. Really hard. On the positive side: by having to dig deep through my screenshot library, I found some pictures from games I don't usually write about. Enjoy!
6 times gold
1) Warrior Haradwen
Guild Wars 2: As is common practice with MMO jugglers, I tend to recreate characters and their traits from other games in new MMOs. Such is the case for warrior Haradwen in GW2, based on my champion Haradwen in LOTRO (which I wanted to include at first, but the GW2 picture ended up being infinitely better, so here you go). If you are familiar with Tolkien's lore, you might recognize that the name "Haradwen", given to her by the people of Gondor, consists of two parts: Harad, referring to the unknown lands south of Gondor, and wen, meaning "woman". I tried to create Haradwen as someone who could have come from those lands: dark-skinned, tall and wearing the gold and red of her people. See also the Lotro-wiki for more on Haradwen and Harad.
Finding good-looking outfits with red and gold in MMOs turned out to be somewhat of a curse. I'm not happy with what GW2-Haradwen is wearing, but it'll have to do for now.
2) Sentinel Haradwen
Star Wars: The Old Republic: My SWTOR Haradwen is known best on this blog for her near-infinite struggle to find a hoodless outfit in the appropriate colours. It took the dye system and the outfit designer to finally come up with this one, which I'm very happy with. Unfortunately I'd already completed all class stories by then, so I only have a sub-par planetary picture to show.
LOTRO Haradwen is a hurt woman. Having left a world of slavery and abuse behind, she has a closed personality and feels a deep hatred for her people, and males in general. SWTOR Haradwen reflects this, giving in to her hatred when something angers her. Curiously enough, she still ends up being mostly light side. It's hard to get enough dark side points if you're not going all the way.
I'm not happy with the name "Haradwen" outside the Middle-earth universe, because it sounds so utterly Tolkienish. Perhaps I'll rename my GW2 and SWTOR characters if I come up with a similar name that fits those worlds. Suggestions are welcome!
3) Old Ezio
Assassin's Creed: Revelations: I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Assassin's Creed. I'm not that much into conspiracy theories and don't like the combat very much; I pretty much get bored by the quests. The storylines in the present interest me more than those in the past; however, I love the detail and historical background of the past virtual worlds you travel through. Assassins Creed: Revelations is the last game of the series that I enjoyed. I'm still stuck on its sequel in which I cannot seem to get myself to like the main character in any way - a game breaker for me.
4) Lothlórien
Lord of the Rings Online: Lothlórien, alias "the Golden Wood", could not be missing on this list. Here it shines in its most golden fashion in Lord of the Rings Online. It looks good, but it didn't quite catch the wonder of the place as I had imagined it from the books. That said, I don't think anything could: some places just never can be as beautiful as they are in our imagination.
5) Grey Warden Juniper
Dragon Age: Origins: There's no particular plan behind this picture: Juniper happened to be wearing this outfit with golden details in this golden light when I took the screenshot. I've enjoyed playing Dragon Age a lot, and have recentlyish replayed it together with Conrad. He goes totally crazy with funny builds and overpowered spell combos, while I enjoy the RPG side of the game more. That way we both take parts of the gameplay on when playing this single-player game together - perfect for one of those days I don't feel well and have to stay in bed.
6) Sage Adelynn
Star Wars: The Old Republic: As is tradition by now, I'm ending with an alien with a skin in the colour of the month. This time it's Conrad's sage called Adelynn: a mirialan with a golden skin. She is portrayed steering her jedi ship, accompanied by her padawan Nadia in white. SWTOR is doing very well with colourful aliens, scoring 3 out of 4 so far. No doubt more will follow.
"6 on 6" is a series of 6 screenshots on the 6th of each month, themed on colour: August: blue - September: purple - October: orange - November: gold - December: red - January: white - February: black - March: pink - April: silver - May: green - June: brown - July: yellow. The event is hosted by Emma of the Scruffy-Little Nerd Herder.
My first thought was that the GW2 Haradwen actually came from Age of Conan --the (lack of) clothing made me think that-- but I realized the facial design is to much Guild Wars for that.
ReplyDeleteNice pics.
The heavy armour classes in GW2 either get super revealing armour, or pretty unimpressive very covering armour. I reckoned this one at least works with both red and gold and it shows off her cool tattoos at her back. Once I'm at level cap I'll look around and hopefully find something better-looking!
DeleteI totally agree with you that some places just can't be as beautiful as they are in our imagination. Pretty much nothing is ever as good as in my imagination, haha! But Lothlórien does still look gorgeous, and I'm loving these amazing golden outfits! Especially your Warrior Haradwen's...despite the lack of chest coverage, it's still a really cool, intricate outfit<3
ReplyDeleteYay, so glad you approve of Haradwen's outfit! I usually go for more covering outfits, but in her case the other options were just so uncharming... this was the best option, really. I'm allowed to sin on one character, right? O:)
DeleteI had similar thoughts as Redbeard on seeing the first picture. Then I couldn't stop staring at her cleavage. Those GW2 outfits...
ReplyDeleteIf you want Sentinel Haradwen's name to sound less Tolkienish, you could simply add a random apostrophe, like so: Harad'wen - boom, instant Star Wars-ification! ;)
Though on second thought, "Hara'dwen" would sound even more Star Wars-ish...
DeleteI like "Hara'dwen". Dwen sounds a bit like Gwen, and I really like that name. I want the name to be a little bit more different still; I still think of Lotr when I read it. Thanks for the suggestion, though, will definitely keep it in mind!
DeleteI agree with you regarding Lothlórien. It's pretty in the game, but nowhere near to what I have imagined in my head with the book descritpion. Despite that, it remains one of my favorite zones in LOTRO.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I love your Nadia Grell's outfit !
It's my boyfriends Nadia, but I'll pass on the compliment to him. :)
Delete*LOTR(O) fan high five*
I haven't touched my GW2 in a good two months now. I was just casually playing SWTOR and then stopping again, went into my second life, hung around some old friends, and anything really. Like last night I spent a good 4 hours hanging out talking, dancing with some old friends, and exploring. Even talked about creating a dark side RP there for just about everything from Vampires to Demons. Or I'll go watch SWTOR Videos on youtube to improve on my movements in game. Love reading your posts they are so entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI'm slacking in GW2 as well, the KOTFE expansion absorbed me. :$ It's fun to have so many guildies log on and be enthusiastic about the game again, though. And it's super nice to hear you're enjoying my posts so much, thank you!
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