Joko's Mistress

Presentation


Here is Palawa Joko's mistress.
I made her quickly a little backstory merged in the game lore :

Dancer and courtesan, before meeting Joko, she occasionally accepted assassination contracts, seducing her targets and then poisoning them.

Nobody ever knew if she truly fell in love with someone as repulsive as Joko or if she stayed as his mistress for safety.

Everything changed the day she received an anonymous gift: Lyssa's mirror, presumably from a secret admirer whose intention was to subtly compare her beauty to that of Lyssa. The discovery of this gift drove Joko mad with rage and jealousy. He took the mirror and shattered it, showing similar "tenderness" towards the dancer. He also threatened to brutalize her lion cub. (You can see the broken mirror in the screenshots.)

Naturally, a coldness set in afterward, knowing that the relationship was from the start imbalanced in power. Gradually, she emotionally distanced herself from him and ended up discovering his secret laboratory and his preparations for the scarab plague.

Unfortunately, on the same day, Joko learned about her past as a contract killer and shortly after caught her in his laboratory. He immediately thought she had seduced him to stop him but didn't want to kill her because he was too obsessed with her. He tried to lock her up, psychologically torture her to try to break her will by showing her clones of herself being tortured, but she managed to escape.

After her escape, she met people who wanted to stop Joko but didn't know how to do it. She then offered them her help, explaining that she was Joko's greatest weakness and that she was the best person to stop him, as it was a personal matter. They explained to her what they had discovered, how to do it, how to get there.

The dancer thus followed the instructions to the letter, went in search of Joko to stop him, and completed the preliminary missions (more or less the same as those of season 4).

When she finally found him, she was immediately overwhelmed and taken aback, having underestimated Joko's madness, who was even more powerful than before. She failed to use seduction, he quickly gained the upper hand, and, knowing he could never possess her as he desired, he killed her, considering her forever his by having control over her tragic fate.



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Armor/Dyes/Weapons


Dragon's Eye Circlet -> Honey Ice/Humiliation
Apprentice Shoulders -> Enameled Anamnesis
Winged Tunic -> Eternal Ice/Pink Tint/Gold
Embroidered Wristguards -> Flare/Fling
Embroidered Pants -> Flush/Primrose/Golden Sheen
Tribal Walkers -> Perseverance/Gold


Backpack/Dyes :
Canthan Spiritualist Backpack -> Pink Tint/Celestial/Pastel Lemon/Eerie Purple


Weapons :
Peacock Scepter
Replica Mirror of Lyssa
The Bifrost


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Behind the scene



- How it gets here -

Initially, just a few days after joining this site, I wanted to create a look specifically for it, rather than just posting something I already had. I experimented with various combinations and remembered my fondness for the embroidered pants, a piece from the early game which I've always admired despite some reservations due to its simplicity.

So my goals where merged. I aimed to create a look having that pant in and to make me love it, but couldn't help myself to not grin. But at least, it was starting to take on a desert dancer vibe, so I've investigate in this way.

That's here an idea gets in my brain : there was a character from another game that I love so much who embodies this desert dancer essence : Matari from naraka bladepoint. I adore a lot of her gears and there's two outfits with a similar pant. So I take the pink one : Misty Gauze and crafted a guild wars version with my personnal take.
Then I tried some colors combination, and after a little try, it left me amazed by the result.

I then decided to give her a backstory, integrated within the game's world, aiming to deliver more than what's typically expected here, to share the pleasure I felt in creating it.

When looking at her, it gets me immediatly the sens of the typical desert dancer, that could captivate someone powerful, wicked and dangerous.

It's something that happen to me quite oftenly while I create a character. (I'm not talking about guild wars but generally) it feels like i'm not the one deciding or create the character, I often feel that I just discover it and that it's the character that tell me who he is, without letting me decide anything and I love it.



- What was the most challenging -

What was the most challenging at first was to make me like a look with early game pieces. I jokingly say I'm a bit 'racist' with these early game pieces xD, or at least I was.
Then, as long as it's quite uneasy to make it look similar as what I wanted, the challenge was to make it looks the most jewelred possible and only chose pieces that fit in the desert dancer vibe, while staying realist without coming out of context by wanting to make it too eccentric. In elegance, less is more.


The other challenge was immersion, because I decided I had to redid two episodes of personnal story about Joko, first for immersion, and second for taking screens. Doing personnal story is something painful for me and I have no patience for it, but for the sake of science... sake art I mean :p I tortured myself !

And at least, I would say the last challenge was to take at the same time :
- Creating good and visually pleasing screenshots while respecting some fundamental rules of photography and pressing the button at the right moment.
- Achieving diversity in the screenshots with some unusual poses: I aim to avoid just the character standing like a selfie with different background and basic poses.
- Producing screenshots that not only showcase the story I've created but also convey a narrative, adding layers to the character, that tell something everytime.
- Ensuring the game's screenshots align with my story. For example, a cinematic scene where Joko immobilizes the hero, standing close in a way that could be interpreted as intimate, was perfect for this purpose. So it was challenging to found every way, every occasion in the game cinematics and co to make it credible and realistic.
- Organizing the content in a way that allows it to be assembled chronologically, like an illustrated story, to ensure a coherent and storytelling way.



- What I am proud of -


I am proud of the outcome in every aspect that presented a challenge.The look itself mesmerize me. I'm very proud of my dyes choice and high diversity, and their combination. Nothing was left to chance, every detail was chosen with a lot of reflexion behind.

I am captivated by the beauty and the content of the screenshots. The way I've managed to weave them into a chronological, storytelling, and believable narrative way. I success to make it feel it really happens in the game story ! Now I can't look at Joko without the feels he really had this character as a mistress and killed her.
I also cherish the small details, like creating a backstory integrated for the Mirror of Lyssa.

AND i'm proud of having the courage to make her die, a tragic and a bit ironic end because she thought him being captivated by her beauty would be enough to stay alive ! I love that I didn't avoided any embarassing fates for her by avoid cliché and valorisating fates for her, keeping her end not dignified !

My poor beautiful dancer, why didn't you just stay away from that ugly wickened lich ! :'D



- Funny fact(s) -

My funny fact here is about transitioning from something I couldn't stand to something I can gaze at in admiration for minutes without blinking.


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Please keep in mind that english isn't my native language.