Once again, we turned to Jeff, Corinne and Romain to reveal some interesting facts and exclusive concept art for the Roving Clans: the faction of nomadic traders who happen to own a pug. Yes.
Jeff (aka Slowhands), on the Lore
"The very first inception of the Roving Clans had them as a fairly straightforward faction of nomadic traders mounted on horses and camels. Their origin was as an offshoot of the Broken Lords, before the Lords lost their physical form. Once the cataclysm ended and life began to reassert itself on Auriga, the survivors who sought far and wide for resources, artifacts, and information became more and more estranged from those who dug in and built fortified cities. By the time the Broken Lords had their Dust Epiphany and began using that to extend their lives, the Roving Clans had already trained the great setseke beetles to carry their cities. Disagreements over the radically different ideas of what Dust is for (sustenance or profit?) led to war, though the Broken Lords had little luck nailing down their elusive foe and the Roving Clans were not well equipped for siege warfare. A treaty formalized the separation of the two cultures, and from that point on the two groups evolved rapidly in different directions.
This origin story, I have to admit, gave us a fairly simple blending of a few Silk Road cultures....
But then the artists stepped in. The notion of temporary tent cities linked to more permanent settlements evolved into not-so-permanent settlements perched on the backs of these enormous beetle-like monsters. Then the mounts turned into other types of giant bugs, and all sorts of colors and pennants and stuff got added on until they were this colorful, eye-catching faction of fantastic cavalry.
To further enrich things, the designers liked the idea that, being the trade-oriented faction, they would have information on everything that happened in the auction house. Suddenly the Roving Clans were uber-nomadic quick-witted wheeler dealers, the sly and elusive insider traders of Auriga, the monster-mounted Wall Street bankers gone bad who used secret information to manipulate the rate between Broken Lord ducats and Ardent Mage shekels (or whatever their currencies are).
I tried to bring this out in the diplomatic dialogs; that is where we had the most leisure to explore the mercantile and commercial soul of the Clans. As far as faction lore goes I think it's probably the Roving Clans who reveal themselves the most during these dialog exchanges with other peoples -- but then, that's what their society is all about, isn't it?"
Corinne (aka Sostene), on the Art Direction
People
"When Jeff wrote that Roving Clans would be a people of merchants, some Silk Road-inspired travellers, it seemed obvious that their identity would be oriented around being mobile and nomadic. Everything they own: Entire villages/cities, or personal clothing/equipment, has to be assembled and folded in a short time frame, in order to quickly change locations.
Keeping in mind all the plant and animal diversity existing on Auriga, we chose not to focus exclusively on horses. Soon the concept-artists began to draw much stranger beasts than horses and camels… then bigger and bigger beasts again, capable of pulling an entire house/tent… then totally gigantic beasts that could not only pull props and people, but even carry entire buildings!
A bit like the Broken Lords, who were transformed from medieval European knights into Indo-Persian warriors, the inspirations for Roving Clans moved far more towards the East than initially planned ^^"
Main inspirations
"Mix between Mongolian and Tibetan styles (with addition of some ancient Kazakh elements for costumes)
And most important : Millions of bright colors!"
Costumes, colors, patterns and textures to focus on
"Their clothes and jewelry follow these Eastern inspirations; although the forms can be spectacular, the materials are mostly raw and "simple":
- fur
- wool
- cotton
- leather
- hammered metal
- horse hair
Everyone carries their possessions with them: Stacks of fabrics, jewelry and over-sized ornaments, in an way which can be heterogeneous, but which must be grandiose (it's often amazing, but never ridiculous)
Precious materials of weapons and jewelry also maintain the idea of ‘raw’ stuff :
- Semi-precious stones
- Use of silver rather than gold
- Colored glass beads
- Horn
- Stone
- Bone
- Interlacing, weaving, braiding
On the subject of braiding, I found some interesting stuff when I was looking for information on the net: For some Tibetan people the social rank is marked by the number of braids in the hair. (The 'must-have' number is apparently 108 ^^) so the braid can be a pattern that's important to highlight in the Roving Clans apparel too!
It was interesting to give the Roving Clans a physical type rather Caucasian or Eastern, to balance their exclusively Asian wardrobe. That would mark the fact that they are a travelling people who could through time, integrate a myriad of nationalities or physical types."
Habitat
"Everything is robust but light in weight, and focused on the practical, functional side -- an emphasis on protection against elements and mobility as huts, square tents or yurts, all must travel carried by man or animal as part of a caravan. For the ‘hard construction’ we preferred a tiered aspect that would give more visual magnitude to the city; ramps, streets in stairs, terraces, etc. (Nepal, Tibet).
The buildings were always with a white base, but lots of colors on all the ornamentation; with flat roofs, and built from rough materials:
- A minimum of wood - the wood is hard to find, and heavy, so a minimum amount of wood is used in construction - only to reinforce the tent’s structures for instance.
- Packed/rammed earth/mud bricks, covered with whitewash
- Very rough irregular stones for private homes"
Romain (aka Spacetroll) on the Game Design
"We wanted a faction to focus on commerce, a faction that could win the game by playing only on that aspect of Endless Legend. That faction should be encouraged to create commercial ties between the other factions, and therefore benefit from the overall prosperity and peace in the world.
This is how we came up with the idea that they should make commerce essential for the others, so banning players from the market place would be the ultimate punishment.
To counter balance, we added the fact they could not declare war… We loved that idea, that they should play in such a way that they should encourage others to declare war onto them."
>> For more information on the Roving Clans, check out the [FACTION PAGE] and [FACTION CARD]. Download on [DEVIANT ART] our wallpapers: LINK, and submit your own fan art!
Come back on Monday for an exciting preview of Endless Legend's future update: "Eye on the Stars".
Have a great weekend!
