It's GDC week (and PAX too, but we're not going)! We'll let you know more about our plans in the upcoming days, so stay tuned. For now, let's focus on the Ardent Mages, who recently won a G2G vote on the 3D menu scene.
Jeff (aka Slowhands), on the Lore
"Though the Ardent Mages were one of the first factions we designed, they didn't make it into the game until the beta. Part of the reason was that we weren't very happy with the lore and gameplay that we first came up with.
Initially they were known as the "Rage Wizards"; they were going to be a faction that used powers of anger and rage to build up powerful spells. We started unit design and town design based on that, but then realized that it was too much like the Sharing and the bestial madness of the Wild Walkers. As a result the faction was put to the side while we scratched our heads for some better ideas (and developed the other 6). The breakthrough came with the idea that the power of their spells came from pain and mortification, not simply rage. Once we had that base, it quickly evolved into the whole series of ideas that pain forced a separation of mind and body, which purified and strengthened the spirit, thereby making their spells more potent. From there, of course, it was a small step to the idea that if they could really separate their mind from their bodies, they became similar to another famous group of beings in the Endless universe...
The artists and game designers had a field day with these ideas. Mortification, self-flagellation, scarification, and a lot of other unpleasant words ending in "-ation" began to surface in the images and gameplay. Steve, the writer who did the faction quest, thought it would be interesting to build that story around a murder mystery, which somehow seemed fitting in such a cruel society. The faction style and design turned out to be one of the easiest for me, and at the end of the day I'm very happy at the way it all came together.
The Ardent Mages -- More pain, more gain."
Corinne (aka Sostene), on the Art Direction
"People
The Ardent Mages are obsessed by the acquisition of new powers or the increase of those they already have. They are ready to sacrifice everything to increase their power, going through physical suffering to enhance their control over this power.
Idea of voluntary physical alteration, mutilation
At the beginning of their civilization, we can imagine that overexposure to the Dust (voluntary or not) may be enough to have produced a slow mutation of their physics of origin. Then, as with most mythologies related to occult and magic, every power has its price. The stronger the power, more expensive the accompanying (usually physical) sacrifice.
Therefore we can show that everyone has eagerly sacrificed a part (or more ^^) of their anatomy or of one of their senses to acquire more power. The amount and significance, in body surface, of those voluntary mutilations allows you at a glance to understand the social rank of the character.
Ardent Mages can be seen as a kind of precursors to the bodyfication art movement in some way ^^
Main Inspirations
Ardent Mages show by their appearance how far they are ready to go to acquire and retain power.
The main idea was not to use classical SM leather/latex/string/dog collar iconography ^^, but to enhance it with some happily mixed ingredients from various sources:
- Elizabethan costume: this period is full of costume items that give a feeling of stiffness and strain on the body, but with some grandeur and magnificence
- Joel Peter Witkin (for his blending between morbid horror and pictorial baroque scenes)
- The illustrator/painter artist Brom
- Designer Iris von Herpen for her researches about body volume alteration and the very atypical use of new materials in her creations
Costumes - contents, patterns and textures to focus on anything that can make reference to coercion, restraint, or deformation of the body:
- Corsets
- Use of links, various lacings
- "Fraises" and every oversized collars having a 'neck brace' rendering
- Gags
- Blindfolds / headbands
- Ornamental body modifications: scarification, piercings
- Any cosmetic or aesthetic alteration aimed at changing the geometry perception of the body (ex: front line pushed back by shaving off the root of hair - shaved eyebrows, etc.)
Habitat/City
For the more generic buildings we liked Indonesian traditional constructions for their elegant curved roofs and very sharp roof ends; we also used some decorative architectural elements coming from Nepalese traditional buildings. For the most important building (in terms of size), we wanted to highlight the mystical spirit of the Ardent Mages. These constructions are inspired by ancient ziggurats for their grandiose, although strict and geometric decorum.
Magic has to 'sweat' from all the various urban elements. The representation of this 'daily dose' of magic in the city is given by small buildings in levitation above the main buildings."
Max (aka Skamaks), on the Game Design
"We had a mage faction in mind from the beginning but didn’t really know how we would make them fit in the universe and the core mechanics. We left it aside for a while, but when we started revealing the first factions, the players (you guys!) told us that Auriga needed magicians, magical powers… and you were right!
We have always tried to work our factions with a world map game changer and a battle game changer. Having spells in battles for the Ardent Mages was a no brainer and we knew that Julien (aka ech_ooff), one of our FX magicians, would have some fun with those. We added the “Fire Rain” capacity, a powerful AOE effect and made the Eneqa Wing have a phoenix-like resurrect. We also wanted to illustrate the lore of the faction (more pain, more gain aspect) by adding the “Ardent Fire” capacity, where the more damage the units endure, the more powerful they are.
Finally, the world map game changer we designed was the ability to summon Arcana Pillars on the map. We wanted the players to be able to choose the location of the different boosts making the Ardent Mages interesting in any region as those can boost FDSI production. Moreover the Arcana of Agility can create a real highway for the units by boosting the units movement on tiles, which can be very interesting to either defend a large area or create a fast path towards an opponent’s region. Don’t underestimate those who are closest to the Virtuals’ knowledge of Dust."
For more information on the Ardent Mages, check out the [FACTION PAGE] and [FACTION CARD].
Download on [DEVIANT ART] our wallpapers: LINK, and submit your own fan art!
