GUILDWARSINSIDER

GWI: Art Spotlight #2

Focusing on…

 Creepy Forest (unofficial title) 

by Kekai Kotaki {Couldn’t find a title for this – So I just gave it one, until Mr. Kotaki sees this and has the real title }         

That…that is a forest of bones and corpses isn’t it…We’re gonna have to go there and fight things aren’t we…

- Beliasta

There is quite a bit of bone and what looks like seaweed spread around the picture so I suppose it could be somewhere in Orr.

…

Well it also kinda reminds me of Riven Earth that’s featured on his main page so it could be a part of that area but at night or maybe an area belonging to the nightmare court. But it does kinda look like coral which I didn’t really think about when I made my earlier post. So I’d say Orr still seems most likely over the options I’ve just mentioned.

- Skarr 

I noticed several things upon first glance, the most prominent of which is that the trees are cast in the same shade of glowing green that is used for the Necromancer. This works well with the otherwise grey palette as well as the shapes found in the scenery. The general impression of the forms of the trees is that of coral, yet upon closer inspection you can see bones. “Bone trees” are only visually strengthened by the green pallor that the player will associate with the Necromancer class. The middle tree is the one with the most pronounced and identifiable shapes, the “leaves” and “branches” being composed of arms and finger bones. 

As with the first piece, this one casts the human figure as less significant than something else in the illustration, yet the purpose of this is different in either work. In the first piece, the human is the poor sot who has to face both a warband of Charr as well as the Shatterer who just appeared in the background; in this piece, the human is merely passing through with no particular threat as his sword is unsheathed but trailing behind him. He is really there more for size reference, as is common in concept art. Notice, too, that there is a fallen, dead tree that is in fact an actual tree, not a “body tree.”

I agree with prior assessments that this looks to be related to the Nightmare Court. The interview with Ree cast Orr in the light of constant battle and upheaval, a nightmare of a place (for obvious reasons) — therefore if this really were Orr, we’d see it crawling with monsters (and, too, there wouldn’t be an actual fallen dead tree underwater in Orr). Even though the “trees” look like coral to an extent, this seems more of a Nightmare Court-related piece to me, though of course it could just be from a forested area affected by the dragons.

It does however bring to mind the question of what Necromancer did this — or is this the work of one of Zhaitan’s minions? 

- Jala-chan

As long as there aren’t spiders… o_o

- Lephys

If you have an idea of where this is, its real title and its spider-content, why don’t you drop by this excessively long url link and tell us about it.