[Comic] Frostbound, chapter I: One Charr

I hope you haven't forgotten where you came from.

Tyria, Grothmar Valley, 1332 AE. Season of the Scion is entering its seventh decade. The Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik is dead, its branded minions scattered and slowly dying out. The Flame Legion is about to shake off its past and rejoin the other High Legions. In what feels almost like overnight, the charr are free of two major threats that were keeping their forces occupied for years.

To celebrate both of these occasions, Blood Legion imperator Bangar Ruinbringer invited any and all to Grothmar Valley. Imperators and tribunes, centurions and legionnaires, soldiers and gladia, charr and other races alike are to come to the home of the Bloods for an All-Legion Rally, to witness the rebirth of charr as one, unified force.

Some see it as an obvious political power play – a chance for Bangar to establish dominance over the other imperators and shift power in Blood's favor. Others consider it a chance to mingle and celebrate, safe in the knowledge they can breathe just a little bit easier from now on.

And for certain charr, it is a time ripe with opportunity.

For all of them, life changes in less than a fortnight...

[This story is set shortly before and during the episode Prologue: Bound by Blood].

Note: The original release of the story had a few lettering issues that I failed to catch  before publishing. If you keep my stories stored somewhere, you may wish to redownload the files.

When I first started making charr comics, I made the conscious decision to focus on characters existing within the game's lore. Granted, I take a lot of liberties filling the blanks, but I always prefer to work within the framework of what's already there – it means there's already a common thread between me and those familiar with the story. 

While my Commander (and a few of my other charr) made some cameo appearances here and there, I never felt the need to deviate from that particular format, as there was enough interesting people (well, charr) fan theories to chew through for pages and pages to come.  Icebrood Saga is a peculiar beast, however, because when I thought how best to tell a story about it and not just repeat what was already the main quest, the solution was extremely obvious: shift the POV to a common warband, a dime a dozen... and watch it get torn apart by a civil war so fierce that all past rebellions combined pale in comparison.

And thus, the Blade warband was born.

So strap in, readers, we have rest of the Saga to go...

Context for non-GW2 people:

Icebrood Saga was a Living Story series of story updates set between the fall of Kralkatorrik (LS4) and End of Dragons. It saw the imperator of the Blood Legion (dominantly comprised of soldiers and heavy infantry) attempt to seize control of not only vast number of charr from other three legions, but also of Jormag, the Elder Dragon of ice and persuasion. 

While this will be probably a lot more digestible to the un-initiated than my usual charr work, since it's a lot longer story, it is still meant as a companion piece to the Icebrood Saga.

 If you with to read up on the story, you can do so here.