[Concept] Amaranth & Beaumont Lore

I apologize for making you wait on this post. Recent circumstances have disrupted my productivity, but there's still enough interesting content here for a short post. I'm not feeling quite as wordy as usual.

Brief Lore

One of the things I find most fascinating about fiction is the world and history predating my involvement in the story. This, I think, is probably what I am most excited by games like Dark Souls. Even Nier: Automata had a lot of exciting background lore that you can easily ignore, but help add to the believability its world. You can even look at the Zelda franchise, with its complex timeline -- I enjoy those things.

So, with that having been said, I've provided a brief timeline to lend some context to Elayne Beaumont's world. Some of which contains information we knew previously, but shown in a manner that helps enrich our understanding. This allows us to explore the ramifications of those events long after they’ve occurred, but we may still take a closer look at them at later points in time too.

The information present in this timeline simply represents our CURRENT understanding of the history, which may change as new revelations come to light and we better understand those events.

What fun is there in ancient history if you don't have a mythological hero with a legendary sword? One such hero is the great Hero-Queen, who waged war against the evils of magic until the very end. 

Of course, that content really doesn't have much relevance to Beaumonts and Vampire Queens, does it? That said, it does seem to eventually connect to the Great Witch Purges, which we heard about briefly in the Beaumont prototype comic… 

I wonder what that’s about?

Amaranth

Anyway, let's get back to Amaranth. I've been stuck on him for a while, but we spent some time looking at his design last month. We didn't end up solving anything, and were uncomfortable with most of the colour schemes. I did like how he looked in darker, de-saturated colours, and have always felt he looked better in black & white though, so let's try that.

I've been using the classic red & blue colour scheme for a long time, but it might be holding us back. It's a bit Superman-like, which could've been great before, but doesn't serve our needs under the new framework. I'm playing around with de-saturated values, even going as far to completely remove elements of intense colour. I've also added asymmetry with the belts and broach on his cape, which is good because his design is otherwise unremarkable.

I eventually found myself liking this colour scheme. He's a bit like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, with his cool, sexy dark clothing that makes him look mysterious. This feels much more appropriate for the tone of the story, which seems to feature themes of mystery and isolation. This darker aesthetic makes him look more like a formless shape, making it harder to grasp his appearance. It also helps the viewer's eye focus on his voice, which is the brightest part of the design.

The prototype comic didn't do a good job of really communicating very much depth, but it did suggest an element of uncertainty around Amaranth. We're never quite sure what he's thinking at any time. I think this design fits that version of the character much more before. Though I might still want to bring his red scarf into the design.

We haven't altered this design much since the prototype comic, so I guess that means we're pretty comfortable with the major shapes. That said, let's play around with it a bit more, emphasizing different bits to see if it changes our perception of the design.

I like the first one most, which helps more visual interest to his arms without exposing the underwear to us. It also lets the eye rest much more easily at the top, instead of being dragged down to the long unbroken, black shapes of the legs. I think I'm much more comfortable with the visual expression of this character than before.

Anyway, this seems good enough for now. I hope you enjoyed this post, and seeing the development of this character's design over time. Amaranth was the last of our major players that needed a stronger design, and since I'm feeling good about it, Beaumont Characters will be included in the list of subject matter for the Dungeon Master Reward tier.

Don't forget to eat & sleep.