Design Spotlight: Vargr October 8, 2015 09:01

Hi folks, and welcome back to the spotlight.  Last week we looked at Leo, and this week we’ll be looking at the big bad wolf of the Zephyri: Vargr.

Vargr was the first Atlantean designed for the world of Arena Rex.  As part of the Zephyri, we were less focused on the traditional gladiator feel and ornate arena design embellishments that go into many of the characters.  Instead we went to the opposite extreme and made him as simple as possible in design terms while still keeping to the baseline of Arena Rex. 

We knew we wanted to draw primarily from the Native Americans of the northeast for his design.  With a history of warring tribes and fluid alliances that made for a complex culture overall, we felt that these were the people who had the most in common with the Scandinavians they’d interact with in our world.  We wanted Vargr to come across as a lean and hungry hunter like his namesake, which tied into the minimal design.

His hair and face paint were some of the sleekest and simplest traditional styles we could find.  He was stripped down for the arena, wearing only a loincloth and his armament to keep him minimally restricted.  His armament was based on a sort of dimacherius feel with more personal weapons. We chose the traditional tomahawk, since it was something that both the Atlanteans and Norse of our world would recognize as a tool of war, and in place of the traditional manica used by a dimacherius we used tight sleeves of the fine maille that Norse craftsmen were praised for. 

Sebastian Archer really impressed us with Aquila, but captured Vargr entirely.  The motion of the sculpt is fantastic, and really makes the character feel like a threat that is constantly moving and dancing with his foes.  The anatomy is fantastic on such a minimalist model, and we are always thrilled to have another chance to work with Sebastian. 

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading, and thanks for joining us in the spotlight.  Join us next week when we’ll go over some more Zephyri deisgn aesthetics – maybe even something new!