Beyond the Western Deep

“TAD? Wait, is Alex doing that thing again where he hints at the chapter by giving the acronym before the real name?”

YES.

Yessir I am.

So, I’ll be saving most of the big details for the story itself–but I’ll give a little history as to the story’s genesis (without divulging too much, of course).

The story you’re about to read was based on a seven page prose short that I wrote as a birthday gift for Jerome back in early 2016. It was a fun little adventure story and we both really liked it. So much so, in fact, that when Jerome and I noodled on ideas for possible follow-ups to Song of the Eastern Sands (though not necessarily a sequel–as you could see from the latter bits of Chapter 3, a few of those characters have already transitioned into the main Western Deep story). We hit upon the idea of an adaptation of the short story I’d written.

Here’s a sample from the original text that won’t make it into the comic itself, but certainly helped inform the scene design:

They weren’t in their home city of Nessa–not technically, anyway. The ruins outside the gates, half-buried in the dunes of the Desert of Zin, had belonged to vulpin precursors in ages’-past. Long before the Treaty of Cenolau, long before any of the wars began, there was another history–its intricacies and secrets relegated to a few transcribed tomes in Nessa’s older libraries and academies.

These ruins were off-limits to all but the hardiest of explorers, or the most foolhardy of thrill-seekers. Rumor had it they stretched for days throughout the desert underground, and that its ancient springs still kept the modern Nessa’s many gardens and waterways from going dry. There were also rumors that most explorers who tried to navigate their depths got lost and perished in the endless darkness.

The header image you’re seeing here is the very first tone piece/page example that Jerome painted up back in late 2016.

YES this one has been percolating for a bit. But as time passed, Jerome would level up his skill set in some extraordinary new way that would require him to completely retool previous pages. Eventually it fell by the wayside–until about a year ago. Jerome started producing new pages using all of his combined skills, and the results were incredible.

And that’s all! Next week, we’ll reveal the title page and new webpage header (!), along with some additional story details.

ALSO ALSO

This upcoming Tuesday, May 14th, the big new thing I’ve been working on at ArenaNet will release! The Season 4 finale of Guild Wars: Living World! Check out the trailer here (NOTE: There are spoilers for Episode 5 if you haven’t caught up with the story yet!)

I was one of the main writers for this (frankly massive) episode, and will be talking about it in more detail on the company’s streaming interview platform, Guild Chat, next Friday–May 17th, at around noon Pacific.

See you all next week!