The trees and rocks are angular, pointed, and twisting with few if any rounded edges so that it evokes that perilous feeling. The sky pours down rain, the winds are strong, and lightning constantly slams into the ground all around you, leaving scorched obliteration in its wake. The northern section is also quite alive and malevolent. Hand-hammered, uncleanly fit metal bands. This driller cuts into stone without so much as a guard to shield the operator’s body from debris.Ī flamethrower held together with bandages. This concept once had more protection involved and an interior section. Our artists took inspiration from wooden dolls and manikins for their designs.įinal concept art for the Driller. An advanced weapon may be just as likely to fall apart or eviscerate its users as they are to achieve its goal. The people of Gloomrot hold little regard for their lives, so it makes sense that while they do have advanced weaponry and tools, those tools are barely held together.

Much of the metal was replaced by wood, and the metal we kept was made to look and feel dangerously ramshackle. To achieve that feeling, we took what were initially very metal-heavy designs and used a few different techniques to downgrade them in a way that is intuitive. The technology of Gloomrot is supposed to be advanced well beyond the rest of Vardoran, but it shouldn’t feel like an entirely different setting. While this makes sense in our world, we ended up moving away from the human element being hidden inside these machines. These models felt a bit too modern before we went with a more “hand-made” route. It can be very easy to slip into the space of ‘sci-fi’. A large part of the challenge of evoking the feel of a machine-ridden land in a fantasy world like Vardoran is striking the balance of how you represent the level of technology. The northern section of the zone is darker and has a richer color than its lower counterpart.

Not an elegant design, but a powerful one. The final concept art for Henry Blackbrew. It was important that even if in the game you don’t always get the word-for-word story we envision, you can feel it through the character, the world, and the little hints sprinkled throughout the words of the characters. V Rising is a story told largely through visuals. He has shaped this society to his philosophy, for his own whims. Doctor Henry Blackbrew is a character-driven by self-importance and hatred, and his influence can be felt all across the land as others are driven to follow his example. From the notes of Callista Alchemica, Senior Electrostatician of the TrancendumĪs explained by our Art Director, Johan Wahlbäck, the region of Gloomrot was our first opportunity to model an entire zone after a central figure, so quite a bit of time went into trying to capture his visual essence. … hundreds of years of a prolonged, unnatural life led to this moment. Even as he was exiled in disgrace to the dangerous and hellish lands of Gloomrot, he KNEW he was correct. Blackbrew was a heretic, a madman with… ‘twisted, abominable methods.’ Yet, what is petty morality in the pursuit of human perfection? Of evolution? Of knowledge? Even as they came for him, torch and pitchfork in hand, he stood by his philosophies. When the hungry fangs of the great conqueror Dracula hung over the throat of man, poised to sink in, the scientific luminary was celebrated.

Henry Blackbrew was once heralded as a savior of man. So let us then talk about the most important, the most brilliant of them all, Doctor Henry Blackbrew. All that matters is knowledge and who provides those brilliant breakthroughs. Their efforts are single-minded, sacrificing morality, their land, and even their very lives in an attempt to discover the next big breakthrough.Ĭoncept art for the home of a lower-class Gloomrot resident.Īs our 2D artist, Viktor Blomqvist, would say, life is cheap in Gloomrot. Over hundreds of years, the Trancendum has studied and advanced its studies through electrical and chemical engineering, inventing incredible technology and jealously hoarding their secrets for themselves. This pathology dates back to the times of Dracula, when their still-living, seemingly ageless head-scientist Doctor Henry Blackbrew, originally founded this pursuit in an attempt to fight back against Dracula’s armies. The group responsible for organizing these erudite efforts is called The Trancendum, a collection of psychopathically obsessive technologists on a mission to create the next stage of human evolution. Gloomrot is a biome themed around science gone mad, the old and familiar ideas of unchecked ambition and arrogance in the face of the natural order.

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