Author: Alex Jaldon

As he is a pivotal and important figure within this narrative, the next character that I ultimately decided to concept would be the fallen ruler of Sol (who I titled the Martyr). I knew that for this concept, I wanted to go for a decrepit, fallen hero, who ultimately remains in stasis in the ruins of the Kingdom of Sol. I looked to many FromSoftware games for inspiration, as the progression of their storytelling is mostly set when many heroes are fallen and past their prime- I wanted to depict the same thing within this character. Though, I did look to many examples of Greenwich armour as there was a level of intricacy I wanted to put that suggested someone who was of noble status, as it represents his former glory. I also looked to the Arthurian Legend when doing research for this character, as it held themes of power, vengeance and chivalry that I thought was fitting for my narrative- and used King Arthur himself as one inspiration, as he was a troubled king and it was a testament to the Martyr’s old fashioned traditions, and time past of the region he belonged to, as it never had time to develop due to its imminent downfall.

I thought of the conflict between King Arthur and Mordred, and envisioned and Arthurian-like conflict between Ascanius and his brother Lupus. And Ascanius’ ‘death’ or rather, his fate was decided by his brother, marking a fall in his kingdom (like Camelot), and himself, leaving the people of Sol to ultimately flee.

Compared to the other ‘boss’ characters, I wanted the Martyr to feel more human due to his disposition, to make the encounter feel more final, and make it clearer that you faced against your own kin. So, unlike the other two enemy characters, I decided to make his silhouette less imposing, yet still authoritative but gentle in his stance, not only was making him look ‘weaker’ a way to make him seem more human than many of the other creatures, but it would also show how whittled he was over time. The Martyr is the antithesis of his tyrannical twin brother, so, deriving from the initial concept, I drew out his figure in a full rough concept and chose opposing colours to convey his good nature and demeanour. The dulled gold was a way to make him look ‘washed out’, and the dull colour of his skin was intended to make it seem like you were seeing a corpse reanimated. I then decided to develop on this concept further, as I was satisfied with the overall .aura of this quick concept. I intended for the scar-like light formation on his chest to be where the Seal of the Sun (the source of his power) was ultimately pulled from his body, leaving a permanent scar on across his chest. I also gave him a halo and ‘wings’ like fragments of light, dim to represent his dying state, and give him more of a benevolent look along with relating to his holy title of ‘The Martyr’.

I had the idea of him being put through multiple gauntlets and waves of fights until he was put into an idle state, so, I wanted to convey this battle-worn, chivalrous warrior, and ultimate ruler of a Sun-inspired kingdom into one design. I decided to go for much more light colours, adding bright elements onto the renditions to show his affiliation with the sun, but kept it to a minimum to still make it look as if he was on the verge of ‘fading away’. I experimented with many types of armour, but making sure to crack it on enough places to still keep the intended look of a war-experienced, fallen hero. I made sure to stay among the threshold of the black and gold armour much like the aforementioned Greenwich armour, but to expand my ideas, I also referenced Roman armour, which remained the same within the years of the Raman Empire, as it was an effective set of gear for battle that also eluded to going through many fights as the Roman Soldiers did not only against other armies, but within the Coloseum. I did not intend for him to have Ilythium armour, to show his dedication and commitment to his kingdom, even in his fall, and visually make him differ from the other armoured warriors. I leant more towards making him look younger but ‘degraded’ in a way to show just how long he had been in his fallen state.

One of the the designs had red as a way to incorporate his previous power and royalty, and also because it was a common colour used by the Romans. This thumbnail was also heavily inspired by the ‘Nameless King’ from Dark Souls III, who is supposed to also be a fallen king in some way, and I thought he was a fitting inspiration to look to. Another one of the thumbnails utilised green to reflect the colour of the Tidal Soldier’s hooded cape. Moving forward into the finalised designs, I wanted the Tidal Soldier to have some reflection to Ascanius in some way, shape, or form.

I wanted to make sure that for Mercedes, she would convey an aura of a dutiful knight, who has upheld her obligations for many, many years. I kept in mind that for this character, I wanted very angular, sharp shape language. Looking back at the concept art for TEKKEN 8, specifically the one for Leroy Smith, I wanted to emulate that style in a sense, by keeping my concepts loose, whilst still conveying the character’s intended personality and essence.

I looked to different sea creatures once again as reference for tweaking the different parts of her outfit, whilst also playing around with the colour combinations that I would use for the character.

I like one particular silhouette, and then tweaked it slightly whilst aiming to lean more towards my using a marlin for reference, as they had very angular and sharp elements to them.

I envisioned her to be the guardian of a larger power/primordial creature in the depths of the Abyssal Hollow called ‘the Heart of the Sea’, so, her first and main encounter with the player would be underwater. I developed on one of the designs that I experimented with, picking this particular one because it exuded the intimidating, ominous aura that I initially wanted her to have, along with having a refined and almost formal danger to it, that I thought would be well-suited to her ruthless and dutiful personality whilst also remaining true to that ambiguous nature, like ‘Lady Maria’ from Bloodborne and the Darkmoon Knightess from Dark Souls , subverting from the usual gender-conforming feminine characters shown in many video games, but also relaying a slight femininity without being too gaudy. I temporarily omitted her weapon within this stage as concepting the weapon separately would add more clarity to both concepts. When experimenting with the designs, I used different types of fish for inspiration- the base and foundation being a marlin for their sharp and angular features. Though the encounter would be underwater, I gave her a lot of flowing cloth in each rendition not only for an elegant look as they would naturally float within the water, but also to mimic the fins of a betta fish. I also looked into other types of fins that fish had and decided to reflect that into the scarf/cloak of her design. I also gave her other elements that would float underwater as I thought it would be very visually interesting underwater, and give her a more other-worldly silhouette.

I imagined that in her fight, she would have many moves where she is suspended in the water, which would make these flowing elements stand out more.

PRIMEVAL ILYTHIUM AND ILYTHIUM DEVELOPMENT

Lorewise, the Kingdoms of Sol, Selen and the ocean were all previously united, and thus, a special metal-alloy would be made, embedded with the scales of the aforementioned ‘Heart of the Sea’. This certain metal, called Ilythium, or in its purest form, Primeval Ilythium would be used to make armours that could traverse waters effectively without rusting, and could provide extremely protective measures against the original threats of the sea. I experimented with different ways in which pure (Primeval) Ilythium can shine and the overall colours of the metal so that I can apply it to not only Mercedes, but the Tidal Soldier as well, as I planned for him to also have armour in Primeval Ilythium, as it showed his connection to the old civilisations of Sol, Selen and the ocean.

All the other soldiers that work in modern Old Sol’s coast do not have armour made of Primeval (Pure) Ilythium, as it is much rarer to gather the scales of the ‘Heart of the Sea’ due to the lack of ties to the Sea, and the broken ties between Sol, Selen (now the Eclipse Domain), and the Sea. Only the most elite, or more ancient soldiers from the time before the ultimate separation have armour made of Primeval Ilythium. When the player (the Tidal Soldier) explores the Sea and the Tidal Hollow, the player can freely traverse due to their Primeval Ilythium armour, and can even walk.

As I did with the Tidal Soldier, I looked back at the mood-board for reference when concepting the Playwright.

I wanted a very imposing stature for the Playwright, to emphasise his pretentiousness and level of danger. I wanted him to dress very extravagant despite being secluded most of the time, showing his commitment to his craft and also a strange sort of lunacy. I made some initial silhouettes that conveyed what I wanted to see in his character, moving away from colour for the first stage of the Playwright’s concept as I wanted to focus on his silhouette initially the most.

I was most drawn to the aura that one of the silhouettes that I gave the Playwright, as it exuded the imposing, yet higher-class gaudiness/extravagance that I wanted to convey. I further developed this design, tweaking what aspects of it I liked, and doing a colour test to see how I can draw attention to certain parts with accent colours, in this case, I used gold as it exuded a pretentious demeanour. Though he is mostly humanoid, I wanted there to be something eerily off about him, as not only was he acting on behalf of the Eclipse region, he is overseeing the Ecliptic Blight and also slowly being consumed by it himself, thus, I went a more ghost/spectre like direction by omitting his legs, suggesting that he floats around using power rather than walking around. I experimented with the appearance of the mask, giving it three faces all with closed eyes, to symbolise the ignorance and dismissiveness of his character. Though I did add some moon motifs in the design, such as on the lapels of his jacket or subtly on his forehead, I thought that for the pretentiousness of his character, I should experiment with making the symbol of the Eclipse bigger. I also looked to many images for inspiration regarding the details of his outfit as I wanted there to be many extravagant elements to it such as ruffles and puffed or larger sleeves, along with a very exaggerated hat like the ‘Red Death’ costume for the Phantom within the stage production of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, and the elaborate hats seen in many Venetian Carnival outfits.

After developing this design, I was satisfied with the overall concept, and liked the direction that it was going- however I wanted to add more ocean-like motifs within the character, along with making the symbol of the eclipse more obvious on his design. I used the above references to develop some layers of his outfit, and then rendered it in black and white, before tweaking some elements to improve the aspects that I believed were lacking.

I developed many of his designs based off of certain sea-creatures such as octopi, squid, jellyfish and sea dragons, as well as experimenting with the ratio of aspects and elements of the design such as the size of the symbol of the Eclipse and the shape of his layers and outfit. I felt that exploring the design in this way was very useful in gauging what I liked and disliked in the design, what I wanted to keep and otherwise.

When developing the Tidal Soldier visually, I decided to test with concepting on paper first as it forced me to draw from a farther distance. It allowed me to work more loosely and I was able to develop the idea of making his armour resemble a tidal wave in some way, so I curved the visor inwards. Using some of the practices from the concept art I studied, I did several close-ups of important areas such as the gauntlets and the patterns on them, too.

I referred back to the Tidal Soldier’s mood-board when moving back onto digital.

With this as a reference, I drew up a developed concept for the initial rough one I did for my summer work, this time, approaching it in layers, so that I would be able to gauge the logic behind each piece.

I wanted to conceptualise the armour layer by layer, as I planned for the very base of the set to be the standard armour that would be worn by many Tidal Soldiers that protect the coast from any terrors. Through developing the design in layers, I was able to determine what aspects to ‘personalise’ in the standard tidal soldier set, to make it unique to the main character. I still wanted to keep the pirate-like elements of the design by giving it boots, and various aspects of ripped cloth to suggest that it has been worn a great amount of times, and has been through much conflict, I also gave the laces around the boots wrap around the bottom of the boot as I felt it added a level of unique character. I also experimented with an emblem for the Tidal Soldiers’ affiliation, as that was something that I wanted to put on the back of his cloak. They fight on behalf of the Sun, so I incorporated sun-like elements with some sort of spear or trident, both being weapons that are commonly associated with the water/ocean due to spear-fishing and gods of the water like the Greek Poseidon and Roman Neptune wielding it. I didn’t want to corrode or add any markings or evidence on the armour yet as I wanted to figure that out when I had the final rendition of the concept. I then moved onto several colour tests, experimenting with ratios of gold, black and silver to hint at the Tidal Soldier’s connection to Sol and Selen without making it look too much like he was of nobility or looked too wealthy.

I also experimented with an ‘expression’ or more story-oriented piece that gave the character context and broke away from the idle nature of the concept art. I decided that when he woke up, he had a small fragment of the original Seal of the Sun, much like the one that Mercedes would have, but much weaker and had less influence.

WEAPON DEVELOPMENT

The Tidal Soldier was always synonymous with his unique weapon, and was greatly known for his special sword that could harness the power of the Sun and his shotgun. I decided to develop upon this concept and expand it. So, to begin this concept I wanted to combine the element of a common soldier/pirate and mesh it with a refined and noble looking sword. Eventually the idea came in that it would be some sort of fusion weapon comprised of two weapons that could be taken apart, like the various ‘trick-weapons’ used in Bloodborne, such as Ludwig’s Holy Blade, which could be turned from a small, lightweight sword to combine with its handle and then be used a great-sword, and the Whirligig saw which could be used as a baton or club of sorts, but then combine with a circular saw to create a long-hilted saw. These two weapons would then form a bayonet-like fusion of a sword and shotgun which would have to be lightweight for optimal use, I looked through various sword types, and ended up settling on a rapier, as not only was it light weight, and had a refined and noble aura, it also allows for quicker pierces, and it usually had a meter length, which was longer than a shotgun, and much thinner, which would ultimately result in a unique, yet balanced design that was efficient. I also looked at various rapier hilt styles and ultimately settled with a quarter-hilt style that protected the hands, as it produced a better silhouette.

After looking at how shotguns are held, using many stances and pictures as reference, I managed to fuse it in an ergonomic and logical way that didn’t feel too clunky or gaudy.

I mainly looked at the Winchester Model 1887/1901 for reference when it came to the shotgun, and I kept the blade of the sword thin as rapiers are.

CONCEPT ART STUDY

I studied how many professional games artists produce their concept art and compiled several images that I aspired to achieve the effect of. I admired the way that FromSoftware compiles their character sheets, with focuses on aspects that had great detail or would be major within the character design such as a crown or an emblem or symbol on a character’s cape. Namely, I looked into Pontiff Sulyvahn from Dark Souls 3, who I thought had a very focused concept due to it being centred on emphasising his threatening form in the second phase of his boss fight. I also picked a concept from Bloodborne of an NPC character, Djura as, and one of an Old Hunter enemy from the Old Hunter DLC of the game, along with enemy NPCs from Dark Souls: Kirk and Lautrec. And also within their concept arts, I observed that many of the boss or enemy characters would be in important, appropriate poses or something that suggested movement rather than a completely static, idle pose. I also picked several concepts from TEKKEN 8 as I liked how concisely the rough concepts for the character Leroy Smith were compiled- they were rough, but conveyed enough information and experimentation with colour and form that it was clear to tell what the character is and does whilst playing around with many ways to explore the character. I also liked the way that they compiled the more developed concept sheets for their characters King and Yoshimitsu, as they showed many close ups of details that had to be brought attention to such as masks or patterns and emblems. I also like the way which King’s pose says a lot about his character, much like the FromSoftware concept arts. I looked into the concept work for Devil May Cry 5 as I liked how they showed progress for the character Dante’s conceptualisation along with placing it near the final render for the idea, as it shows the thought process through making him. Finally, I looked into the design works of several characters from Arknights. I looked into the character Hellagur’s concept sheet as I liked how it showed the multiple thumbnails for the colour tests which also once again show the thought process in composing his design, as well as this, like for the TEKKEN works, it closed up on the important details that would be important in his design, such as his weapon, the hilt a gas mask and more, the reason most likely being that these characters would be rendered in 2D fully, and the artist would have to see everything in complete detail much like in the concept works for characters before they would get transferred to 3D. I the looked at the characters Silverash and Executor’s design, which showed the design in layers which added context to the functionality and logic behind the clothing, such as how a series of straps on Executor’s design would connect to the edge of his cloak, or showing how the the straps under Silverash’s waistcoat appeared. The logic and thought behind these designs was something I also wished to reflect in my work.

2D RENDER STUDY

Keeping in mind that I wanted to do full body 2D renders as well for my main character and potential other characters, Using the inspirations I looked to for one of test renders for summer, I built upon this foundation, developing my idea for a 2D render and finding other references to look to when thinking of the overall style I wanted to go for. At the start, I was completely set on what type of style I wanted to achieve for my 2D renders, which was the rendering style I observed in FromSoftware concepts. To prevent this immediate decisiveness, I decided to compile 2D renders that I liked the style all from games that did not have a similar rendering style to the FromSoftware concepts. Through this process, I kept my horizons broad for aesthetic and style, and allowed myself to not be strict with what I wanted.

I looked into renders from various games, such as the artwork used within TEKKEN 8’s panels, along with character art from Soulcalibur and NieR, and also various character sprites from Reverse:1999, FGO and many from Arknights, as I deeply admired the way that the characters were rendered. I thought about leaning towards this (Arknights’) style of rendering, and thus, analysed a few of the designs that I thought would be very useful to look at.

I looked closely into an NPC, Wang’s, official render, as he visually had a lot of cloth, which I knew that most of my characters would at least have some element of. I looked at how values were used in order to in order to bring attention to certain things, bringing our eyes to his quite ‘shabby’ clothing, suggesting he is not someone of noble or wealthy status. The way accent colours affect the mood of this character is also quite crucial- the use of brown or washed out bronze colours show the ripped clothing much better, and the use of textures on his clothing bring more of that worn-out, tattered feel that emphasises Wang’s disposition. The way his tail is in more faded out values also suggests it is not the main focus either, whilst remaining clear.

Another character I decided to look into deeper, since I had already looked to him multiple times for reference and within my mood boards, was a boss and NPC, The Last Knight. I liked his unique armour shape, as well as the way his armour was rendered with various textures to suggest rusting or wear and tear, as he mainly fights in water. I thought this would be useful when approaching my designs as it is also quite water-oriented. The composition was in the armour was also well thought out and suggested a lightweight mobility that didn’t feel too clunky despite him wearing mostly metal.

The last character I dove into the full official render for was another boss character, Zubayr. I wanted to dissect this mostly because despite being mostly in gold, it brought effective attention to the places which viewers were supposed to be drawn to such as the head. I saw this was through an effective use of value and lighting, as well as colour composition and design complexity. The bottom half of the design is not nearly as detailed as the top half of the design, as the top half of the design is where the main focus is. The highlights and brightness of the gold immediately tell me that this character is someone of royal or high status. I was also very fond of the way the metal was rendered on this character, as well as the use of textured shine effects, giving the effect of something that shimmers. There are also many features that frame Zubayr’s head which make it stand out.

3D RENDER STUDY

As compiling various images to aid the visualisation of my 2D concept, I decided to do the same practice for the 3D side of my Final Major Project. I knew I wanted to go for a high quality model, so I kept my moodboard within that level of work. Once again, I looked to Tekken as they have a high level of polish for the renders, due to being used for promotional material, although I had to keep in mind many of the high quality renders that I observed such as the ones for Tekken 8 (2024) and Devil May Cry 5 (2019) are most likely not fully optimised for gameplay, and have higher polygon counts that are purely for visual/display purposes. I also looked at how some higher end figurines are constructed, and a lot of detail is also put into it for printing, with textures even being embedded into the print. Once again, this is not optimised for gameplay, as intricate sculpted patterns would be embedded into the textures via baking, displacements maps and more. Looking into TEKKEN character, Yoshimitsu’s render, I saw the sheer amount of detail put into it, along with Vergil’s official render from Devil May Cry 5.

When looking into armoured characters when present in the game as a fully rigged model, it is clear to see that a lot of the details are not embedded into the mesh, but within the texture, and made to show depth through various techniques mentioned before. Along with this, the polygon count is obviously more optimised, as it is essential for a rigged character for efficiency. Since I knew I wanted to rig my character, I kept in mind that I would have to polish these practices in order for it to meet the standard that I wanted. For this, I looked into Elden Ring and the Demon’s Souls Remake’s models, as whilst both meeting high standards within the gaming industry, both follow different looks, whilst Elden Ring settles on a realistic yet slightly stylised fantasy style whilst still remaining realistic in a unique way, the Demon’s Souls Remake goes down the route of complete hyperrealism. And they both look incredibly high standard nonetheless. As I would be using Substance Painter, I thought going down the route of Demon’s Souls appearance would be much more achievable, as it was quite hard to tell how to achieve the slightly matte appearance of Elden Ring.

MODEL BASE CREATION

Using various references, and my previously learnt skills in Zbrush, I decided to make the base for the model of the Tidal Soldier, keeping in mind that I did not want to give him a build that was too bulky or muscular as I did not intend for him to be too imposing.

I struggled initially to get into the flow of sculpting again, but reach a satisfactory result, holding off on fully making the hands until when I was in the production stage.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT OUTCOME

With a feel of the general narrative down, I wanted to start to develop the designs for some of the characters that I thought would be important. As a final decision, I decided that I would make a 3D Model in high quality, most likely of the main character/ Tidal Soldier, and along with that, I would decide to make a matching 2D full body render of this same character. I would design a matching weapon for him, and then perhaps transfer this to 3D to make sure that I can make this character go into a dynamic pose (as I also want to rig the model of it). I would plan to use Zbrush and Blender for the modelling process, then Unreal Engine 5 for the rigging and rendering process with Adobe Substance Painter for the texturing process. I kept in mind that I would have to watch many tutorials to get into good practices with these software. As a stretch goal, I would decide to do full renders for at maximum three of the ‘boss’ characters, one for each region of the

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

I started by making a mood board for each character to fully gauge what I wanted to see from each of them, and so that I would get a proper feel of the aesthetics that each of them would cover.

THE TIDAL SOLDIER

The first and main character I would focus on is the Tidal Soldier (also called the Half-Moon Soldier), who ends up becoming a central point in the story. The rest of the characters that I would develop would be the ‘boss’ or some of the major enemies he has to encounter within the progression of the story. I decided that I liked the original concept that I developed for summer and went down this route for making a mood board for him. I wanted to make him someone who looked unimposing, yet have something leader-like or unique about him, as he had previously led several people into a nearly successful battle against the Eclipse Monarch Lupus long ago, due to his immunity to the Ecliptic Blight (as he is of half moon and sun lineage). Though, Monarch Lupus eliminated his men, with the Tidal Soldier inadvertently causing all their deaths- he sent the Tidal Soldier all the way back to the coast, personally throwing him on the edge of the water, lying and telling many of the terrified soldiers who witness this that the Tidal Soldier’s Moon-oriented powers had gone out of control and he had directly killed all of the soldiers who had joined his campaign. Before any soldier could protest, the Half-Moon Soldier was dragged into a prison cell where he was sealed inside using Ecliptic power that could not be undone. Lupus disappears, and does not elaborate further.

The Tidal Soldier is only finally allowed to get out of prison when a messenger from the Eclipse Domain removes the seal from his cell, and his sentence is lifted. The Eclipse messenger disappears and a fellow soldier of New Sol tells him that a case of Ecliptic Blight has made its way into the thriving half of New Sol- the Tidal Soldier is begrudgingly sent out on this mission, where people are ultimately surprised at his return- but he cannot seem to remember anything beyond a few foggy memories, all he knows is that he has his weapon, and that he is exceedingly proficient with it: a sword of light, a rapier that can harness light and also an almost standard looking, but special shotgun that only is given to higher rankings.

The tropes surrounding this character are heavily based off of the book ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, where the main character, Edmond Dantes is falsely accused for the crime of conspiracy (being a Bonapartist), and is sent to prison for thirteen years. He eventually escapes and becomes the elusive ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ and seeks revenge against the men who had him sent to prison in the first place.

LUNATIC PLAYWRIGHT

The first boss that would be encountered, and an introduction to how precarious the situation would be the ‘Lunatic Playwright’. He is a famous playwright and composer within the thriving New Sol for his popular plays, which always involve tragedy in one way or another. No one had ever seen him, but he is simply referred to as ‘Dante’ among the crowds who speak about him. The Tidal Soldier finds many traces of Ecliptic Blight around the main theatre, and eventually attends a show that was rumoured to be one of his best. When attending this show, the Playwright makes an appearance himself, and knowing that the Tidal Soldier is there, he threatens him publicly- this then initiates a fight after most of the audience run out in a panic. As the Playwright is weakened, he melds with the Ecliptic Blight, showing his form as a mangled monster, and once killed, the theatre becomes a hazard zone. Through this, though, more of the Blight spreads into the city, causing mass distress.

The Lunatic Playwright acts on behalf of the Eclipse Domain, and is Lupus’ personally sent overseer for the progress of Ecliptic Blight. The reason I had chosen him to be a playwright and composer is because it was a very remote yet extravagant set of occupations, where one can be hidden away from the general public and still be well-known, and also become a covert threat.

He was inspired by ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, specifically the titular character, The Phantom, as he composes and writes plays whilst being generally unseen by the public and terrorising the opera house covertly. Along with this, he is also inspired by the covert threats experienced and perceived by Victorian society, as after the case of Jack the Ripper, London was still in quite a terror and additionally Gothic literature moved its horror closer to where the readers were, such as with ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. This book received much scrutiny from Victorians as it showed themes that they were fearful of, such as degradation.

MERCEDES

In the middle of the story’s events, when the Tidal Soldier has to go back to the coast after gaining context for the origin of the Blight, he seeks a Fragment of the Sun’s power that is reportedly being protected by a formidable guardian. The Tidal Soldier then sails to the main depth of the Abyssal Hollow in the vast ocean, encountering monstrous foes.

When finally encountering Mercedes, it is meant to feel like a stark contrast to all the horrors you have faced at sea- she is a ruthless yet elegant warrior whose stubbornness and initial caution cause her to defend the Fragment but most importantly defend the Heart of the Sea. Upon her defeat, and finding out the Tidal Soldier’s true nature, she collaborates with him, and eventually hands the Fragment to him, which will allow the player to make a choice on what they would want to do with it: to empower the Age of the Eclipse… or find the fallen Martyr.

When finding inspirations for Mercedes I wanted to convey a strong, capable female warrior that acted on her own volition, so I wanted her design to be mostly, if not, completely concealed in armour or cloth for utmost protection and efficiency in combat. I also had the idea to make her wield some kind of lance, harpoon or trident to reference spear fishing or Poseidon and Neptune (as they are synonymous with the trident). I was also set on referencing a type of sea creature within her design- I initially wanted to go for swordfish, but I expanded this idea to be more broad with my concept. I wanted her to exude a ship captain or huntress aesthetic, as well as a chivalrous warrior, straying from most gender-conforming convention, which I thought was very important in conveying in a character.

For Mercedes, characters I looked to for inspiration were namely Ulpianus from Arknights, a leader of a sea-oriented group who was thought to have died, but sought the truth of his situation underwater- a lot of his aesthetics were taken into account when I made this character. Additionally, I also looked to strong female figures such as Malenia from Elden Ring and Lady Maria from Bloodborne. Lady Maria specifically was also a larger inspiration as she is swift, nimble and acts within her own volition.

THE MARTYR

For the last character that I would decide to concept, I chose the Martyr, Ascanius, who the Tidal Soldier would eventually end up meeting upon deciding that he does not want to activate the Age of the Eclipse, and instead wants to restore harmony, or bring Ascanius back for the sake of purging his authority. Either way, a duel would be initiated with him as a form of respecting his dignity as one route would have him dead, and the other would prove that you are worthy of deciding the fate of Sol and Selen.

Ascanius was trapped within his kingdom as it eventually fell into ruins without his power, and the people of Sol moving out to New Sol, with only a few protecting his body and acting as his loyal defenders even if they would rot there. He eventually fell into a deep stasis/slumber where he would remain idle for years, until Lupus would change his plans and return his authority, or someone would defeat Lupus and attempt to restore balance once more. I planned for him to look decrepit, but have a look that he was once radiant in his prime. Like my initial concept for his encounter, I wanted him to have dim glows on him in the form of some halo or something else. I also wanted his armour to allude to his nobility, but be dulled out by battle and time. So, I looked to many references such as some of the fallen heroes from various FromSoftware games like the Twin Princes from Dark Souls 3, or Marika and Radagon from Elden Ring. I planned for his armour to be very intricate, and for him to wear a good amount of cloth to suggest his status, but be ultimately worn out.

To continue the development of my overall Final Major theme, I decided to create a mood encompassing all the themes and areas that I wanted to cover within my narrative. I was set on connecting my concepts together, as I believed that they could intertwine together to create an expansive world and narrative, which was one of my goals- to bring my concept alive by developing the world-building.

I decided to make the disparity very clear within my mood board to show the influence these kingdoms have on the rest of the story.

BUILDING UP THE STORY

NEW SOL AND THE PLAGUE

To begin with the narrative, I wanted to start with the significance of the main character. I decided to make him a descendant of both the Sun and Moon kingdom, who does not know of his origins- only waking within a dark, damp prison. The only thing he knows is that he has been within this prison for a long time- which sets a dreary opening to the wider world. Though, he is continuously told that he was previously an elite soldier who fought back terrors that threatened to destroy and invade the city and that he has a very special weapon exclusive and iconic of him being some sort of sword that can channel light. With this little information, he is ultimately told that he can get out of his cell by a messenger, and that he can ‘resume his duties’, and is sent to the heart of New Sol to purify and purge a threat that has loomed within the city’s thriving half.

I looked to many novels and media to build up the foundation for my story, and the idea of some sort of plague came into the narrative as I looked at one of my inspirations, Bloodborne. Though, instead of the plague being caused by blood, and causing a beast-oriented plague, I took in another inspiration, Arknights and saw their ‘Seaborn’ creatures, and decided to make this plague sea-oriented. I wanted the Eclipse Domain to be the root of the initial problem, so, the Eclipse kingdom had corrupted the waters, which corroded and infected the creatures within the ocean, causing them to mindlessly want to search and consume anything related to Sol. A lot of the creatures developed into much worse threats, being the main reason why armies are built up on the coast of New Sol to fight back these creatures and save the entirety of the city from being consumed by the Eclipse’s influence.

As the original Sun Kingdom already had a name, being the ‘Kingdom of Sol’ as ‘Sol’ meant Sun in Latin, I decided to look for a name for the Moon Kingdom, and eventually used the name ‘Selen’, deriving from the the Greek Mythos’ embodiment of the Moon, Selene.

The Kingdom of Sol and Selen were united for many ages, with the first rulers being a King and a Queen of two separate families who were granted the astral power given by outer gods that encompassed the Sun and Moon. They used this power as a foundation to rule their respective kingdoms, leading them both into prosperity and unity. The only looming threat of this time, were the ocean’s terrors, but eventually the two rulers had made an alliance with a civilisation within the Abyssal Hollow of the sea, which housed and protected an outer god who was completely embedded within the ocean floor who was simply titled the ‘Eye of the Sea’ or ‘Heart of the Sea’ and considered one of the origins of creation, and would help them control and fight back these ominous terrors that originated from outside the realm. After their alliance, they coined the term: ‘The Sun, the Moon and the Sea are one’. During the two rulers’ rule, most of the people they ruled over were various species of ‘ancients’ whose origin were from the Eye of the Sea’s vision. Though, because of her pure love for everything around her, the original Sun Monarch used her power to bring life and human vitality to many non-human things, such as inanimate objects, plants and even animals, giving them sentience and a more humanoid form. These people became the start of the ‘New World’ races, which were comprised of elementals, tree-like people (like the ents from the Lord of the RIngs), various mixes of humanoid-animal species and many, many more. However, many elitists from in the ‘ancient’ species harboured hatred, jealousy and even disgust for the people of the New World Species- but in the end, most of the New World people returned the same love and held much gratitude for the original ruler of Sol, whilst there was a rare New Worlder who would question their existence and hold some of kind of self-hatred due to the treatment they received.

After time, the line to the thrones of both Sol and Selen had to be succeeded with each family successfully producing heirs for generations. Many ruled and died off, but then, there was a point in which Sol had no viable heirs, and a random New World, lower class elemental managed to win a set of trails and duels for the throne. At this, they had no choice but to marry the elemental and the pure Selen monarch together, which caused much backlash, as not only was it unconventional to marry a Sol and Selen monarch together- they only managed to have one child, who they could not let into the public, and was thus, locked away. This would later be revealed to be the main character, who has lived so long, but lost many memories when he finally awakens in the prison in ‘modern-day’ New Sol.

After a strained rule with the married Selenian and Sol elemental, an heir was produced on the Sol’s side by another section of the family, and the elemental was quickly kicked off the throne, and him and the Selenian secretly raised their son behind closed doors.

With new generations coming in, a royal Selenian and Solan returned to the throne. They announced their marriage, which was met with joy in connecting the kingdoms in this fashion- which caused confusion to New Worlders who saw the backlash that the elemental and one of the previous Selen rulers faced for their marriage- unfortunately, it seemed they had an issue with the fact he was an elemental over anything else, as the New World species still faced much discrimination. Upon this marriage, a set of twin brothers were born- Ascanius and Lupus, and when they were slightly older, they gained an adoptive sister, Mercedes, who belonged to one of the ruling families of the Abyssal Hollow. This truly solidified the unionisation of the Sun, Moon and the Seas. But not all of them had good intentions. It was clear that Lupus was not intent on uniting the kingdoms with prosperity, and everything fell apart as Lupus led a campaign to forcefully and violently take his twin brother Ascanius’ Seal of the Sun, the holder of Sol’s power. It led Sol into chaos and turmoil, whilst Ascanius was sealed within his throne room, after being forced to fight many, many battles within. Mercedes silently disappeared into the Abyssal Hollow, to protect the fragment of Sol she was given, and to defend the Eye of the Sea. Lupus then used the Seal of the Sun to join with his Seal of the Moon, creating what he called the ‘Age of the Eclipse’, and renaming Selen to the Eclipse Domain.

The Ecliptic Blight started as Lupus used his newly taken power to corrode the waters beyond the Eclipse Domain, seeping into the bodies and minds of the creatures there- it is highly infectious, making the waters beyond deadly. The monsters develop using the Lunar power, and seek anything that indicates that it has traces of Sol, due to the Seal of the Eclipse not being completely imbued with the Sun’s power, being the reason why many of the threats seek New Sol.

New Sol was a City built off of the separation of The Kingdom of Sol and Selen when the now tyrannical Selen Monarch, Lupus forcefully took the Sol Monarch’s power and, leaving the original Sol to rot without its Lord to maintain the kingdom’s order and power (as he would use his power to support his kingdom entirely). All the inhabitants of Sol had to move, many of them sailing across the seas far from Selen or Sol to find a new place to call home. Eventually, New Sol was created by many Solans, where they developed, trying to live a prosperous life away from any influence of Selen or rather, the Eclipse. Many, if not all New World species moved to New Sol to escape from the current Eclipse regime.

I wanted this city to feel developed away from from the conventions of Selen or Sol, paralleling to the real world’s development from old ages, so I remained fixed using a mix of Victorian and Classical era society, building up and developing from the long past medieval ages of the old kingdoms. I planned to at least make one ‘boss’ character for each area, so I continued to look around and further developed the fashion and aesthetics of New Sol. I looked into the dressing conventions of the Classical era (from 1750-1820) and through the Victorian Era (from 1837-1901). For the thriving half of Sol, it is usually comprised of middle to upper class people, as most of the lower class people who move into here are welcomed into a prosperous life. The population of this half lives a comfortable, ignorant life, as they mostly disregard any mention of the plague, as they feel it is beyond them. The people here either live in ignorance as an escape from all the previous conflict and torment Sol had been through, or as a way to escape duty, thinking they are untouchable. As it is inspired by Victorian and Classical eras, theatre and music are some of the common ways to enjoy here, with New Sol’s theatre scene being very largely prevalent and accessible.

For the other half of Sol, the side that touches the coast, it is far less developed due to the degradation and the plague, called the Ecliptic Blight, seeping into the city slowly through the coast. It is comprised of mostly soldiers and lower class people who refuse or cannot move into the more thriving half of Sol. There are many fortified and highly armed boats along the coast of New Sol, with many active soldiers patrolling the area.

The people within the coast wear mostly very protective gear, as they are ready for whatever threats crawl upon the coast- the majority of soldiers that patrol the area wear a mixture of lightweight cloth and armour in order to have better movement when facing any monsters. However, there are some more heavyweight soldiers that remain on the coast, for the sake of acting as a back-line barrier for defences. I wanted there to be a mix of pirate-like and knight-like aesthetics in the clothing as I thought it would be very visually unique and it built upon one of my concepts. Looking at medieval armour or armour from around the 1500s was a way to connect it back to the old fashion armour trends of Sol and Selen.

Throughout the summer, I had gotten to thinking about the main themes and aesthetics that I desired to cover within my Final Major Project, with no major emphasis on what form the final outcome would be. Whilst 2D art is something I wanted to completely hone, I wanted to explore the extent of my 3D modelling abilities, as well as being able to learn new skills and pipelines within the workflow.

The main thing that I wanted my concept to include was a wider world and narrative with larger themes that I felt would be important to include. I decided to build multiple sections of this world that would all encompass unique, yet coherent aesthetics that emphasise the separate factions/ areas of the world, and how they have developed individually.

CONCEPT 1

For my first concept, I decided to explore the aesthetics of an old, Victorian and Classical era society. Taking much of my inspiration from the Gothic texts that I had read, along with the setting of the game ‘Bloodborne’, I decided that I would build a world from this initial foundation. In many Gothic texts, the class divide and disparity is shown through many instances of duality and explorations of morality, and I wanted to reflect this divide in my narrative here as well. I decided to create a city that would be victim to a sea-borne plague on the coastal side of their land, yet, be thriving and ignorant to the suffering of that side on the other section. This would not only socially, but visually display the disparity that I wanted to convey. The gothic text, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, a text that I looked back to as part of my research, displays this divide through displaying lower class family struggles amidst the affairs of high-life society. Another text that I also looked back onto, Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, displays the class divide in many ways of symbolism, and the discovery of the corruption of the upper-class, their restraint from associating with them and their own hypocrisy.

Through this, I used various inspirations such as theatre and opera aesthetics, the Classical period (along with their era of music), traditions and customs from the Victorian period, old fairy tales (Alice in Wonderland became a large inspiration when it came to the character’s races/species), many themes explored in the Gothic (such as incarceration, duality, evolution, corruption etc..), to create a small mood board to encapsulate the concept, with plans to create a more extensive moodboard when solidifying my concept.

Using this general idea, I created a couple of quick ‘NPC’ designs for the ‘brighter’ part of the city. Due to wanting a more ‘surreal’ feel to the city, I did not want every single citizen to be fully human, and decided to add designs that were derived from inanimate objects and humanoid species that had non-human features such as tails, horns, wings etc- many of these ideas were inspired by the character designs from the games ‘Reverse:1999’ and ‘Arknights’.

Overall, I was very pleased with the aesthetic and vibrancy of these designs, and I think it conveyed the feel that I had desired from this concept.

CONCEPT 2

When thinking of concepts, I wanted to be linear in terms of my narrative. So, I decided to move this concept and focus on the coast of the CIty that I had previously mentioned. I decided that I wanted to keep the Gothic themes and the Gothic in general as a core foundation for all of my potential concepts, so, that remained when I was making a mood board for the aesthetic that I desired. I wanted to explore the concept of fear in this own, especially the fear of the unknown, so I took a lot of inspiration from H.P Lovecraft and the concept of Eldritch Horrors. Not only that, I also wanted to explore the human condition, madness, and many themes that relate to the human psyche. Within this concept, I thought of the sea itself as a threat, by making the ocean, and the unknown creatures within it enormously dangerous. In order to combat these threats and push them back, elite, armoured soldiers would have to be sent to battle to fight against the horrors within the sea, and sail to pursue these threats to fight to protect their already dying City, and for the right for their own land.

Instead of any form of duality within the themes, when I compiled the small mood board, I wanted to convey a sort of gloominess and dread. I took a lot of clothing inspirations from films like ‘Van Hellsing’ and ‘Brotherhood of the Wolf’, along with Bloodborne once more. I felt that the isolation of being in or sailing on the sea would be an effective way to explore the human mind. Pirates also became a point of inspiration within this concept, and I also took many sea-based creatures into my mood board as part of my inspiration such as Cthulhu, the Orphan of Kos (from Bloodborne) and more. Within this spinning of themes, I wanted to place armoured knights within an ocean setting, so I found some inspiration for that as well.

Using this general idea of this concept, I thought of how to approach making a lead character for this concept. I thought it would be appropriate for the main character to be one of the ‘Tidal Soldiers’ that have to sail to the depths of the ocean and fight back the terrors that threaten to breach the coast. So, I wanted to design a unique armour set for the main character that would have some narrative depth to it, along with fitting the multiple aesthetics that I wanted to encompass.

I wanted to create a good balance between well-protected, and also keep the aesthetic and clothing choices from some of my inspirations. I experimented a bit with the balance and ratio of armour to cloth, and found a combination I was satisfied with in the end.

For the next designs under this concept, I decided to make several ‘boss’ characters that would be encountered during the player’s time in the ocean-area (which I had decided to call the Abyssal Hollow, to invoke a mysterious, threatening feel to it). Whether it is on a ruins or small island above or under water, I wanted the player to have to get across many, many threats before finally reaching the final area, and get a feel that many of these enemies hold much more depth than they initially let on. To remain aligned with my theme of the ocean, I decided to base the character designs off of already existing ocean animals, such as an angler fish, a lion fish, and a swordfish. For the lion fish character, I decided to approach in a different way by making it a creature entirely.

Overall, I was very satisfied with this concept, and liked the direction that the designs went.

CONCEPT 3

For my third and final concept, I wanted to explore the origin of all of these disasters, along with bringing back the core theme of duality. I wanted to make two kingdoms, one that thrives, and one that his been destroyed by the other and has been left in ruin. To create a foundation for the contrast, I made the kingdoms based on the Sun and the Moon. One of the central themes of this concept would be corruption, so to build upon this, I decided that the Moon Kingdom would have taken over, or taken the power of the Sun Kingdom in one form or another. Since this is an initial concept, the idea was still quite underdeveloped, but, overall, I wanted there to be some sort of ‘Eclipse’ Kingdom that was built by the Moon Kingdom after the power of the Sun was taken. Using this idea, I constructed a mood board, making sure to show the differing sides clearly. A lot of inspiration was from the medieval era, along with the Arthurian Legend’s knights and their myths- one of the knights, Gawain, attributed his power to the Sun, so I also took him as inspiration when I contemplated this concept. In terms of games, I took a lot of my inspiration from Demon’s Souls, Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

When developing this concept, I first leant onto making some sort of servant or warrior that fights on behalf of the Moon’s monarch. I did some research on old types of armours and then did a couple of experiments for this concept. I wanted to create someone that was both elegant and threatening, but experimented with the degree to which he looked threatening by tweaking the ratios of armour and cloth.

However, I was quite fond of how one of the silhouettes ended up, and then figured that I would use this to actually design the current ruler of the Moon instead (now turned Eclipse Kingdom).

I thought it would be more appropriate to not emphasise the half nature of the eclipse, and lean more towards the Moon aesthetic, with hints of Eclipse motifs, to truly emphasise how the Sun’s power had been stolen.

I really liked the development of this concept, so I developed with different colours, accent colours and the sigil above his head.

After designing the Eclipse Monarch, I moved onto creating a concept for how the player would find the Sun’s Monarch, practically in stasis due to having the sole source of his, and the Kingdom’s power taken from him.