BA3 - (CS) Design Ideas for Mudra
- charlightart
- Apr 17, 2015
- 3 min read
So how is Mudra is described in the novel?
“long, sleek hair hung to his waist in a thick ponytail.
“His face was painted green, with scarlet lips.”
“Exaggerated black brouzen eyes”
“what terrifying eyes they were, instead of whites, they had blacks, and the irises were grey as twilight, and the pupils were white as milk.”
“white stripes on his cheeks”
“His athleticism and swordsmanship were beyond anything Haroun had ever seen”
“who almost looked like a shadow”
“blade as dark as night”
“Champion warrior of Chupp”
From the descriptions written by Salman Rushie, Mudra is very much represented as an athletic, skilled, viking-like warrior. With long hair, terrifying eyes, war paint and a sword at his side. Upon reading this, I thought it would be good to gather some images which commonly showed what was described but within popular characters from television shows, comics, video games and movies.
The characters I have chosen which I feel exemplify the design of the warrior archetype include Khal Drogo from the television show Game of Thrones, the Dovahkiin from the video game Skyrim, Conan the Barbarian from the comics of his own name, Geralt from the role-playing game The Witcher, Garrosh Hellscream from the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World Of Warcraft, Aragorn from the movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Varian who’s also from the game World of Warcraft and Ragnar from the television show Vikings.
Most of the way these characters are designed, whether they be represented by an actual human or just a drawing; have very similar traits. Apart from Garrosh and the Dovahkiin wearing a helmet, most of them have long hair, either in a ponytail or without. Conan, Khal Drogo and Garrosh are also appeared to be shirtless, however wear quite large belts around their waists. Although not shown in these images very well, The Dovahkiin, Geralt, Varian and Ragnar also wear large belts. What surprised me the most about all these characters who weird weaponary, is that a lot don’t wear helmets, which you’d think would be the opposite. Especially as these are the type of characters who enter battle frequently throughout their movies, video games, comics and television shows.
As much as Mudra is depicted physically like a common warrior archetype in popular culture and video games, while reading the book I imagined him as more of a stealthy rogue. His shadow plays an important role within the book as much as himself, and I want to incorporate that angle into my design.
A video game character which I feel resonates with Mudra very well is Zer0 from Borderlands 2. Most notably for a specific ability he possesses called ‘Decepti0n’. "Decepti0n" grants Zer0 the ability to deploy a holographic decoy of himself and enter an invisible "stealth mode.” (Borderlands Wikia). I feel this ability would lend itself very well if Mudra was a playable character in a fantasy or first person shooter game. However, instead of deploying a holographic decoy, this would be his shadow which could help out in battles/boss fights e.t.c. Zer0 is also an assassin class that specialises in sniper rifles, so you have to be stealthy and remain hidden while playing as him. Not only this, Zer0 is also very proficient in using swords, and carries a blade with him when you play the game. I found this quite interesting as Borderlands 2 is a first-person shooter, and I think incorporating a character which uses a sword is quite unique.
Although visually I don't want my finished design to look like Zer0, there are many elements which I would take from him if I were a game designer and creating the mechanics for a video game adaptation of 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories'.
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