Anitarf
02-20-2008, 06:43 PM
Having little experience with modeling, I was uncertain wether I should join such a big thing as DWIII. However, while reading the contest details, I stumbled upon the word "angel" and since those were my favourite creatures in the card game Magic: The Gathering, I couldn't resist starting to brainstorm; so now here I am ready to fight as cannon fodder for CGTalk. :) Hopefuly I'll be able to finish a decent model in time and learn a couple more things about making models along the way.
For starters, here's the background story for my character that I made up over the past few days. I'll be posting some sketches of it soon.
Race: Seraph
The Order of Light was one of the first groups to study magic as it appeared in the galaxy. Maintaining its traditions, the Order has never specialized in the study of a particular type of magic, but has maintained a mixed membership of Invokers and Clericons studying the ways of magic together. It was this collaboration that, after six centuries, led to their greatest achievement: synthesizing an organic, intelligent being, the Seraph.
These graceful winged humanoid beings would follow seemingly any command given by their makers, but would otherwise remain passive and do little on their own. Because of this, they were initially regarded as no better than a summoned beast, but it was later concluded that they were very intelligent, independent and in fact sentient. Some argued that the will to act was an important part of living beings and that Seraphs who seemingly lacked this were incomplete creations; however, in the end, the view that prevailed was that the Seraphs were in a way the incarnation of pure Good, beings without sin. While the concept of morals seemed alien to the Seraphs, their creation has ironically spurred a lot of debate about ethnics and morality within the Order.
The Seraphs became sacred beings to the Order and restrictions were put in place regarding how they could be used. The Order would also dedicate much of it's time into further creation of Seraphs in order to maintain a steady population since, as artificial beings, they could not reproduce on their own. While some cynics viewed the Seraphs' loyalty as a means to achieve just this, most members of the Order still felt they weren't doing enough for their creation, their children. Seeing how the only thing the Seraphs actually did on their own was observe the world around them, it was decided that their destiny was to be explorers and that's what they would from then on do.
Class: Stalker
The Seraphs have excellent perception, apparently using senses that even magically apt humans don't have. As a result, some people have proposed that the Seraphs can in fact perceive the Truth of the world around them. Skeptics see this as an ungrounded attempt to further sanctify the Seraphs, and metaphysical subjectivists downright refuse to comment on such theories. Either way, Seraphs are well aware of their surroundings, making them good at, among other things, locating and navigating planetary wormholes and avoiding trouble in the worlds they lead to. Their ability to fly allows them to cross large distances quickly and reach wormholes in remote places.
As a result, the Seraphs have over the course of two centuries explored many worlds and mapped countless routes, in most cases surviving until their natural death. As wars between different worlds erupted, the Order of Light offered this knowledge as their contribution to the war effort, but the generals demanded more, they wanted to see the fabled Seraphs on the field of battle. The Order opposed this strongly and eventually reached a compromise with the generals: the Seraphs would serve their world's armies as scouts and messengers, using their great knowledge of and access to the network of wormholes to keep their allies ahead of the enemy as far as information goes. The Seraphs accepted this task with the same, for lack of a better phrase, indifferent enthusiasm as any other.
Artifact: Bow
Now, the machines appear to be returning.
As Seraphs are sent ahead to bring some more tangible information on this new threat, the Order grows more and more concerned for the safety of their beloved creations. In these uncertain times, they have decided to arm the Seraphs so that they could defend themselves from foes they can not elude. Since they can not carry heavy armour if they want to fly, the Seraphs are equipped with powerful bows instead of melee weapons so that they could fight their enemies from safer distances.
The metal bow has a crystaline core infused with stone magic; when activated, it can momentarily considerably increase the stiffness of the bow limbs, allowing a drawn bow to fire an arrow at a much higher velocity. Likewise, it can be used to strengthen the tip of the arrow, allowing it to penetrate heavy armour. Should the arrow break on impact despite that, or be otherwise unretrievable, the bow also has a materialization chamber which can use the bow's power source to generate new arrows slowly over time.
For starters, here's the background story for my character that I made up over the past few days. I'll be posting some sketches of it soon.
Race: Seraph
The Order of Light was one of the first groups to study magic as it appeared in the galaxy. Maintaining its traditions, the Order has never specialized in the study of a particular type of magic, but has maintained a mixed membership of Invokers and Clericons studying the ways of magic together. It was this collaboration that, after six centuries, led to their greatest achievement: synthesizing an organic, intelligent being, the Seraph.
These graceful winged humanoid beings would follow seemingly any command given by their makers, but would otherwise remain passive and do little on their own. Because of this, they were initially regarded as no better than a summoned beast, but it was later concluded that they were very intelligent, independent and in fact sentient. Some argued that the will to act was an important part of living beings and that Seraphs who seemingly lacked this were incomplete creations; however, in the end, the view that prevailed was that the Seraphs were in a way the incarnation of pure Good, beings without sin. While the concept of morals seemed alien to the Seraphs, their creation has ironically spurred a lot of debate about ethnics and morality within the Order.
The Seraphs became sacred beings to the Order and restrictions were put in place regarding how they could be used. The Order would also dedicate much of it's time into further creation of Seraphs in order to maintain a steady population since, as artificial beings, they could not reproduce on their own. While some cynics viewed the Seraphs' loyalty as a means to achieve just this, most members of the Order still felt they weren't doing enough for their creation, their children. Seeing how the only thing the Seraphs actually did on their own was observe the world around them, it was decided that their destiny was to be explorers and that's what they would from then on do.
Class: Stalker
The Seraphs have excellent perception, apparently using senses that even magically apt humans don't have. As a result, some people have proposed that the Seraphs can in fact perceive the Truth of the world around them. Skeptics see this as an ungrounded attempt to further sanctify the Seraphs, and metaphysical subjectivists downright refuse to comment on such theories. Either way, Seraphs are well aware of their surroundings, making them good at, among other things, locating and navigating planetary wormholes and avoiding trouble in the worlds they lead to. Their ability to fly allows them to cross large distances quickly and reach wormholes in remote places.
As a result, the Seraphs have over the course of two centuries explored many worlds and mapped countless routes, in most cases surviving until their natural death. As wars between different worlds erupted, the Order of Light offered this knowledge as their contribution to the war effort, but the generals demanded more, they wanted to see the fabled Seraphs on the field of battle. The Order opposed this strongly and eventually reached a compromise with the generals: the Seraphs would serve their world's armies as scouts and messengers, using their great knowledge of and access to the network of wormholes to keep their allies ahead of the enemy as far as information goes. The Seraphs accepted this task with the same, for lack of a better phrase, indifferent enthusiasm as any other.
Artifact: Bow
Now, the machines appear to be returning.
As Seraphs are sent ahead to bring some more tangible information on this new threat, the Order grows more and more concerned for the safety of their beloved creations. In these uncertain times, they have decided to arm the Seraphs so that they could defend themselves from foes they can not elude. Since they can not carry heavy armour if they want to fly, the Seraphs are equipped with powerful bows instead of melee weapons so that they could fight their enemies from safer distances.
The metal bow has a crystaline core infused with stone magic; when activated, it can momentarily considerably increase the stiffness of the bow limbs, allowing a drawn bow to fire an arrow at a much higher velocity. Likewise, it can be used to strengthen the tip of the arrow, allowing it to penetrate heavy armour. Should the arrow break on impact despite that, or be otherwise unretrievable, the bow also has a materialization chamber which can use the bow's power source to generate new arrows slowly over time.