#dormarch

[dailydemonspotlight]

Dormarth - Day 105

Race: Beast

Alignment: Dark-Neutral

September 6th, 2024

Many mythological dogs fall into a set of strangely similar tropes, even beyond just the idea of them having multiple heads, as observed in the Orthrus analysis. One that I find particularly interesting, though, has to be in their common connections to death. Likely stemming from how dogs were, and still are, seen as intrinsically connected to hunting, many dogs in mythology are connected to death, the spiritual realm, and many such things. We've already seen this with the Inugami analysis earlier this week, but another curious example, and a personal favorite of mine, has to be in the Celtic Wild Hunt's goodest boy, Dormarth.

While the Wild Hunt is a demon itself in SMT, its intrinsic connection to death and the afterlife makes it a very curious topic in connection to Dormarth, also known as Dormarch, a hunting hound that joins in during said hunt. Originating in Wales, Dormarth is a beast that accompanies the riders during the Welsh version of the Wild Hunt. The Wild Hunt itself is a common motif throughout many different European mythologies and cultures, with many cultures offering their own spins on the general concept. This, naturally, leads to differing figures throughout the recurring motif, and the Welsh version has its own fair share of unique ideas, with one of them being the collection of souls of warriors to join in on the hunt, and who else does that collection than Dormarth?

The games' recollections of Dormarth are somewhat inaccurate, from what I can tell- for the most part, they paint the dog as being a guardian of the Celtic version of hell, but most actual historical references of Dormarth seem to split that between many other concepts regarding death and the afterlife. In fact, we don't really know much about Dormarth, given that the dog only appears in one passage throughout old Welsh literature, being in The Black Book of Carmarthen. The name Dormarth is also rather controversial, as the original text is somewhat fragmented, missing a letter in the name that could be either Dormarch or Dormarth, both of which carrying wholly different meanings. To quote the only reference we actually have of Dormarth,

My hound is sleek and fair, The best of hounds; Dormach he is, who was with Maelgwn. Dormach rednose – why stare you so? Because I cannot comprehend Your wanderings in the firmament.

A lot of controversy has surrounded Dormarth for years, but that's beside the point. Dormarth, as a name, seems to roughly translate to mean an 'embodiment of death,' giving light to the idea of Dormarth being just that. Combine that with Dormarth's connection to the dead due to being in the Wild Hunt, a hunt made up entirely of spirits, and one can easily draw a connection between it and Cerberus or other such guard dogs of the underworld. On top of this, though, its connection to death may also be it guiding lost souls to the underworld, or even collecting dead warriors to join in on the Wild Hunt. Language is fun like that, no?

Given that its natural habitat is described as being 'among the clouds,' being associated with the Wild Hunt, it's commonly believed that Dormarth accompanies the Wild Hunt, and observations in the Black Book of Carmarthen by one John Gwenogvryn Evans in 1906 seem to also give a physical description of the hound as being a two-legged dog with swirling fish tails behind it. Its overall role is rather unclear, as I've gone over in extensive detail, but Dormarth does seem to play a rather interesting role in the Wild Hunt overall, whether it be a guardian of the gates of Annwn (the Welsh underworld) or a hunting dog that accompanies the Wild Hunt, to even one that collects new hunters for it. With all of that, though, how's it portrayed in SMT?

I love Dormarth's design, but given everything related to the dog, it's really hard to see where a lot of the elements came from. Like, come on, where's the fish tail? Where are the only two front legs? Why is she bipedal, and why is she a girl? As strange as it is for a Dormarth design, though, I do like how it looks. She is incredibly gender, and I like the spike collar- it plays well into the whole themes of death- and helmet, which ties her (though vaguely) to the Wild Hunt. Overall, a pretty good design, though not one I quite understand for the hound of the hunt.

[autoacafiles]

Honestly someone like Dormach would be really cool in any series!

He's right, my god, resta yall get on this shit!

#hastagDormarchMultiverseSweep

[wildbasil]

question 1. do you like my funky little gwyn ap nudd pin badge?

question 2. would you perhaps be interested in buying one??? 🥺💖

[blazescompendium]

Blaze's Compendium entry #1: Dormarth- The Celtic hound

In most of sources, Dormarth is described as some kind of ''Cerberus'' of Celtic Folklore, being described as a guard dog of the gates of underworld on those cultures. And also in most sources, Dormarth's name is referred as meaning ''Death's Door''. This was also replicated in her Shin Megami Tensei appearance.

However, a superficial research into this creature always reveals that it is also called by another names such as ''Dormach'' and ''Dormarch'', and it's more often than not, treated as a hunting dog of sorts.

Speaking into the context of Welsh mythology and folk tales, it's said that the underworld has a king, called Gwynn Ap Nudd. He supposed owns a beast called Dormarch/Dormarth, that follows him during hunts. Specifically, his hunts for lost souls. (See Below the connection to the concept of Wild Hunt).

Gwynn is a very important figure when talking about Dormarth, since this mythical being is closely associated with the later. The so called ''King of Underworld'' is also associated to the concept of Wild Hunt, which is a common sight in European cultures. Famous examples include the Nordic Wild Hunt, with Odin presiding over it. In most of the depictions of the phenomena, hunting dogs are with it. Gwynn's Wild Hunt was no exception.

*It's also worthy to note that, i have focused my efforts on researching Dormarth, and have not gone deep into Gwynn's lore. I will probably do it later as another entry in my compendium series.

It's said in the Black Book of Camarthen, that Gwynn obtained Dormarth from the legendary King Maelgwn Gwynedd. The later really existed, but gained a mythic status in Celtic history. The figure lies buried in Puffin Island, UK.

The Black Book of Camarthen describes Dormarth as a beast with two front legs, only one head, and a tail that has 3 ends. There's no mention of lower legs, or other heads like a Cerberus would have.

To better understand Dormarth's discription and meaning, we have to go back to the first apparition of this creature, in the said Book of Camarthen. It's a 13th century Welsh book, that details poems, legends and folk tales from Wales. It was re released in 1906, and the original was scanned in 2002 and archived online for public view.

Read online

To my knowledge, that's Dormarth oldest written account. The book by itself contains a lot of contents from the time, and i was very interested to keep going with it, but for the topic at hand its already a very satisfactory base. In case you are curious, the 1906 version from J. Evans is available to buy and read online as well!

With the 1906 version as a base, Dormarth the modern author inserts some of his interpretations, and describes Dormarth less as a dog, and more as a sea creature, like a whale. Some authors associate that to the Christianity becoming more and more popular in the region at the time. Although, i could not find any credible sources or reasons to link the facts. Some say that Dormarth was associated to the biblical tale of Jonah and the Whale, which... I don´t really know why. The biggest theory is because, in this newer version, Dormarth is drawn like a whale of sorts (?). That would, in theory, suggest the old 13th century tale was being now interpreted by 20th century Christians. Evans was a christian by a matter of fact, so i can see why this theory exists, but for me its a kinda of stretch. Probably has more to do with his own interpretation of the creature. (Even thought Dormarth is clearly a dog...)

But what about our Fantastical Hound? What does the old texts says about it?

Surprisingly... Not much!

According to the Black Book of Camarthen, Dormarth supposedly inhabits the ''Ar Wybir'' which literally means ''mounting in the clouds.'' -Specifically the ones surrounding mountains. We can presume that's their ''natural habitat''. This also could mean Dormarth manipulates winds, and can fly.

In the book, Gwynn meets the king Gwyddno from Cantre'r Gwaelod (which, by the way has a really interesting tale) an old mythical land that supposedly sank in the ocean just like Atlantis.

At this meeting, there's a dialogue where Gwynn presents his hound, Dormarth. The owner of such creature praises its features, and talks about its role in the Wild Hunt. At the later, Gwynn collected the soul of his fallen soldiers with the help of his hunting dogs, such as Dormarth, which he praised as his best dog. (Good boy, or girl!)

Here's a small part of that poem:

"Handsome my dog, and round bodied, And truly the best of dogs; Dormath was he, which belonged to Maelgwyn. Dormath with the ruddy nose! what a gazer Thou art upon me because I notice Thy wanderings on Gwibir Vynyd."

-Black Book of Camarthen, 13th century

To better understand this fantastical Welsh creatures, we need to be presented to the concept of the Cwn Annwn, this translates itself to simply ''Hounds of Annwn. This said Annwn is another type of netherworld, another dimension, or plane. It's been seen in other traditional Welsh works, such as Maginobion which is a collection of folk tales and texts. This plane is also associated strongly with Gwynn Ap Nudd, since he is the king of the netherworld, mytical beings, fantastical creatures and this kind of stuff.

I need to bring the Cwn Annwn to the topic, because they were strongly associated with the Hild Hunt themselve, being the literal dogs that hunt down souls at this phenomena. We can thereby, conclude that Dormarth is indeed one of the Cwn Annwn, but a notorious one.

The Cwn Annwn also had other duties, such as carry the souls of the dead on their journeys to the after life. (Its often interesting to me how many cultures regards dogs as companions to lost souls, trying to reach heaven, or just guarding heaven. I can think about the Aztec dog of Xolotl, Cerberus, and many other instances.) At the Wild Hunt, they also had the duty to pursue criminals, until they could not run anymore. This is the modern depiction of the Wild Hunt hunting criminals, where before the Christians came, they would hunt anyone! The Christians probably were not satisfied by the idea of the righteous average christian running the risk of being hunt down by a demonic dog, so they nerfed it.

The author John Rhys comments also on the idea that Christianity changed the way Gwyn's Wild Hunt worked, where before Gwynn would hunt any dead soul, now the Wild Hunt was believed to hunt only criminals.

''What Gwynn hunts, is the soul of the dead. But Christianity has narrowed his field a lot, now he only hunts criminals.''

-Rhys on the Christian influency on this old Celtic myth, around page 156 of Studies in Arthurian Legends, 1891.

Note: The British Islands had a lot of Wild Hunt folklore. Actually, Europe had it in general, it was a trope. And hounds were also a common theme. There's cases you can read about from the entirety of the continent, and maybe one day i can bring the Wild Hunt to our compendium, there's a lot of material!

Coming back to Dormarth, since she's not going anywhere here. She's described specifically as a hunter dog helping Gwynn, in what one can only suppose it's the Wild Hunt. Still, at the 1906 version of the Black Book of Camarthen, page 97, there's a drawing of Dormarth. The creature is present in the pages 13 and 14 of the original manuscript, which can also be read online.

That's... Nothing like what Kaneko drew...

The interesting part about Dormarth it's not their features, nor their powers, as with some mythical creatures, but the etymology of its name...

You see, the real origins and meanings of the name Dormarth are uncertain. If you research by your own, you see some people call it Dormarth, while others call it Dormarch, as said earlier. This is because the original work had a bit of paint in the last letters, or it just eroded with time. If you read it as Dormarth, it means something like ''Death's door''. However there's evidence the name was actually written as Dormarch.

I will talk more about the creature's name in a bit. You just need to know now, that over the internet, books, and many sources, usually this being is named either Dormarch or Dormarth. For the scholars of the Breton language, you can notice that Dor= Door, and March = ...horse. Yeah, i will address that eventually, keep reading.

Evidently, if you look deep down into books and overall sources, there's no legend of Dormarth as a guard dog. It's never told for us that Dormarth is one, but still many modern media portray Dormarth as such. Even at her mentions in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, most of its compendium entries describes her like that.

There's also a lot of online articles connecting Dormarth to the Irish Goddess Callieach. Where most of the times being also depicted as a guard dog, but being side by side with said goddess. This also has no backing from anywhere, there's no citation -as far as i know and had researched- that put those two together.

Talking about it's academics sources, Dormarth is only born and mostly portrayed in Welsh mythology and folkloric literature. But Callieach as mentioned it's an Irish goddess (Albeit sometimes appearing in Welsh and Manx mythology as well) ,and was never present in the works where Dormarth was. Again, as far as my research has gone.

Callieach is a goddess of the winter, also associated with landscape and nature. There's few and almost no room to put a Guard dog of the underworld near her, but i don't eliminate the idea of word of mouth doing this, and being less recorded. Just a theory of mine thought, because i could not find any sources on where this association with this goddess has begun for Dormarth.

It's widely known that Celtic mythology spreads itself by all the Britanic islands, and their ages vary a lot. I could locate Callieach being recorded mentioned at a 8th century poem, but as far as i researched there was again, no mention of Dormarth. It's clear now, that this association has no backing, and it's mostly a misinterpretation of Celtic culture.

*I got curious on where Atlus and most of modern depictions of Dormarth took this idea of it being sided with Callieach, and after an extensive search, i found a 2004 post at Deviantart that make this exact association, and it was the oldest i could get. Since Dormarth first appearance at SMT was from the Raidou novel, in 2007-8, maybe Kaneko got his idea from here? I dont know...

In the book ''Celtic Folklore, Welsh, and Manx'' by Jhon Rhys written in 1901, at page 216 Dormarth is cited by the author, who is pondering if the creature is indeed a Cwn Annwn. Rhys was a very interesting author, because he actually went to research personally, and collected local testimonies and tales from ordinary people. Here it's no diferent, and he tells about a local tale of a business man, that had the unlucky fate of being a town attacked by the so called Cwn Annwn. In this report, Dormarth is not cited directly, but the creature itself is at the glossary in the last pages of the book as well.

At this point deep in the study of this creature, i was a bit walking around in circles, because everything went to dead ends, and my lack of knowledge in Celtic languages certainly did not help me. I've found that some people online really theorized that the interpretation of Welsh myths could really trip over to Ireland, for example and be slightly different, and not very well recorded. This could in theory explain the discrepancies in the descriptions of the creature.

Dormarth is also present in the 1905 book: ''Celtic Myth and Legend'' by Charles Squire. Squire is a very known author from the 20th century, and wrote this very huge and detailed collection of Celtic Mythology. Some things in the book did not aged well, but in the most part is a very usefull book.

Squire cites the poem from the Black Book of Camarthen, which i exhaustively read and talked about here. But, in the bibliography section of the book, you can see where Squire found Dormarth in the first place. It was in a book called ''Studies in Arthurian Legends'', Written in 1891 by John Rhys (You again!).

Time to raise an eyebrow and ask yourself what in the world is Dormarth doing in an academic study of the King Arthur legends? Well, around the page 150ish, Rhys is lecturing us about a poem about Lancelott and Elayne. (The book its available online in its entirety, go check it out if you want to.) In this poem, we are told about the time Lancelott goes to a tournament with the other knights of the Round Table, where a young woman falls in love with him, only to be rejected and later committing suicide. The tale by itself it's interesting, but there's the part that really interests our text, that is the woman's mysterious father.

Rhys explains that her father was a weird man, that was always by a well, described himself as ''King of the Islands'', and devoted himself so much to this title, that according to Rhys reflection, he could not save his own daughter from suicide.

However, what concerns us the most here is that the man was described being always accompanied by some ''beast''. The man stated that this beast belonged to him, and only him and his descendants. The creature was only described this way, as a ''beast''. And supposedly had a powerful roar.

The poem in question was written by Thomas Malory (1405-1475). Malory is important for this research, because of many things, but specifically because of its place on time and space.

He was an English romanticist, living during the 15th century and wrote mainly about King Arthur. His works were based on Gaulish books from the 13th century. He knew much about the folklore and myths of that age.

Back to the poem of Lancelott, the father of the young woman had his own history with King Arthur. The man was keen on fighting Arthur, and had the habit to take away the horses of the knights he defeated. He waited Arthur at his well, with his beast, in hopes to duel with him.

Here, Rhys does his connection with Dormarth:

Malory tells that the beast roared with the strength of 30 hounds. Rhys reflects that maybe Malory was referencing some kind of guard dog with 3 heads, just like Cerberus. It's also cited during this reflection, other mythical dogs from around Europe -page 156-, but ultimately he traces a parallel with the nearest culture, the Welsh.

Rhys interpreted that the figure being the father of Ellayne, is actually a Breton version of Gwyn App Nudd (!!!)

As said before, in his other book from 1901, Rhys tells us more about this modern depiction of Gwynn's Wild Hunt. He even writes about hearing it personally from townsfolk in Cardiganshare.

Gwynn then take us back to the 13th century Black Book of Camarthen. (Notice that Malory was notorious for consuming 13th century works!) Here, back to the original welsh depiction of Dormarth, Rhys explains the problem with the name Dormarth. There's something erased from it in the original book, where it's written Dormach, instead.

Rhys theory on why Dormarth is written with march, and also erased, it's because the original scribe must have been instructed to write it as Dormarth, but ended up writing it as Dormarch. As said before, Dor= door, but March means horse. This probably confused anyone in charge of finishing the book, which made the decision to erase the ''R''. This creates a name with no meaning, thus solving the typo. Still, Rhys assure us it must have been instructed to write it as Dormarth. And he is probably the first author that does that.

But again, if you know the Breton language, you know that ''marth'' is not death. It instead is ''marv''. But Rhys explains that as well: In the also from the 13th century ''Book of Taliessin'' (not to confuse with the Deep Purple album), there's a poem about death, where it's mentioned as ''Marth'', not marv. The academics of the time deduced that Marth is death personified, a way to name Death itself. Rhys supports this idea by the etymology of the word, for example, starting from Latin:

-Mors > mortis > morte>marv>marth

By this idea, Dormarth is had as the personified death at the door of Annwn. To support even more this claim, Rhys describes old sayings from south Cardiganshare, where death was often described as a dog's mouth.

Going even further, Rhys proposes that maybe even English modern expressions like ''in the maws of death''. Or the german expression ''Rachen des Toden'' originated from here.

Rhys concludes:

''Its by this way, that one seeks to understand and the meaning of Dormarth.''

Here is where Dormarth as a guard dog originated. But as a guard dog of Gwynn App Nudd and his domain, not Callieach. At the same book from John Rhys, he also tells us that the Welsh believe that Gynn's hounds are led by a way bigger and fearsome one.

''He's bigger, louder, hunts at night, floating sometimes silently, sometimes devouring a victim that screams.''- Page 158.

So... Let's finish with Dormarth's resume:

Dormarth is one of the hounds of Anwnn, and Gwynn App Nudd in Welsh mythology. Due a gramatical error, its true name its hard to decipher, but it's clearly depicted as the hound that leads Gwynn's wild hunt and probably guards the gates of Annwn. It is the death at Annwn's door for anyone who shall approach.

Sources:

-Black Book of Camarthen (reprint and 13th century version)

-Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx - John Rhys

-Celtic Myth and Legend - Squire, Studies in Arthurian Legends - John Rhys.

[quanticlub]

The Knight Five

as Cursed Miraculous Wielders

Pardus: Félix Diamant

Pardus: (latin) panther

Kwami: Hexx - Black *Cat

Zag’s Concept Art/Background for K5 - vampire

Phantom: Allan Mercury

Phantom: (english) a ghost

Other Possible Names: Ectoplasm... Acheron... Charon... Hubur... Urshanabi... French Phantom... Blue Ghost... Blue Flame... Blue Demon

Ectoplasm: The more viscous, clear outer layer of the cytoplasm in amoeboid cells / a supernatural viscous substance that is supposed to exude from the body of a medium during a spiritualistic trance and form the material for the manifestation of spirits.

Acheron: In ancient Greek mythology, Acheron was known as the "river of woe", and was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. In the Homeric poems, the Acheron was described as a river of Hades, into which Cocytus and Phlegethon both flowed

Charon: In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.

Hubur is usually the "river of the netherworld" in Mesopotamian myths.

Urshanabi was the ferryman of the Hubur, river of the dead in Mesopotamian mythology. His equivalent in Greek Mythology was Charon.

“The French Phantom” makes use of alliteration (the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words).

“Blue Ghost” / “Blue Flame” / “Blue Demon” just sound more American superhero-y

Kwami: Styxx - Blue Moon Jellyfish

Zag’s Concept Art/Background for K5 - ghost 

Diabelle: Daeva Hari

Diable: (french) devil

Belle: (french) beautiful

Kwami: Toxx - Red Indian Scorpion

Zag’s Concept Art/Background for K5 - witch 

Creature: ??m

Creature: (english) fictional or imaginary being, typically a frightening one

Kwami: Shriexx - Green Winged Cicada

Zag’s Concept Art/Background for K5 - “creature” zag wtf

Lycanthrope: ??f

Lycanthrope: (english) a werewolf

Other Possible Names: Fenrir... Fenris... Ragnarok... Asena... Lupa...  

Fenrir is a monstrous wolf in Norse mythology.

Fenris is an alternative spelling of Fenrir.

Ragnarok is a series of events, including a great battle, foretold to lead to the death of a number of great figures (including the gods), natural disasters and the submersion of the world in water. The prophecy states that the wolves Skoll and Hati, who have hunted the sun and the moon through the skies since the beginning of time, will at last catch their prey and that the chain that has been holding back the monstrous wolf Fenrir will snap, and the beast will run free.

Asena is the name of a she-wolf associated with a Göktürk ethnogenic myth. She cares for a young boy injured in battle and later gives birth to 10 half-wolves.

Lupa = “wolf”; in reference to the Capitoline She-Wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus.

OR Amarok!!!  ... Barghest** ... Black Shuck~ ... Dip^ ... Anun$$ ... Dormarch%

(!!! Amarok is a gigantic wolf in Inuit mythology, said to stalk and devour any person foolish enough to hunt alone at night. Unlike wolves who hunt in packs, amaroks hunt alone.)

(**Barghest is the name often given in the north of England, especially in Yorkshire, to a legendary monstrous black dog with huge teeth and claws)

(~Black Shuck or Old Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog said to roam the Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk coastline of England. For centuries, locals have told tales of a large black dog with malevolent flaming red eyes. It is said that his appearance bodes ill to the beholder, although not always. In some cases it has supposedly happened before close relatives to the observer die or become ill.).

(^Dip is an evil, black, hairy dog, an emissary of the Devil in Catalan myth, who sucks people's blood.)

($$Cŵn Annwn [Coon Anoon] are said to hunt in the mountain of Cadair Idris, where it is believed "the howling of these huge dogs foretold death to anyone who heard them". According to Welsh folklore, their growling is loudest when they are at a distance, and as they draw nearer, it grows softer and softer. Their coming is generally seen as a death portent.)

(Dormarch% is responsible for escorting newly deceased souls of British warriors from the battlefield to the afterlife. A type of Cŵn Annwn; the hound  normally used to assist hunters by tracking or chasing the animal that is being hunted.

OOOORRRRRR Moon Hound (aka Mánagarmr) - Simple and sticking w Norse mythology... Cursed’s name could be Hati 

Kwami: Vilxx - Silver Dire Wolf

Zag’s Concept Art/Background for K5 - werewolf

[hcavensarrow]

krykofa replied to your post: @krykofa asked:  Friend? FRIEND! Dormarch bounds...

According to wikipedia it’s ‘Coon Anoon’ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

somehow that tracks. welsh sure is. something.

[xenobladeimagines]

I had a bit of a bad day. Can I have some HCs about how XC2 characters may comfort someone? Thanks in advance, this blog is great c: Also thumbs-up Nia is best Nia

Hope you get better soon, anon! (thumbs up nia IS best nia)

Rex: He’ll sit you down somewhere quiet and if you want to talk, lend you an ear. If you don’t want to or can’t, he’ll talk instead to take your mind off of it, telling stories of his time as a salvager. Usually, it’s misadventures to make you laugh. 

Pyra: She’ll offer to make your favourite food or drink. Once it’s done, She’ll sit next to you at the table and offer her warmth. If you’re alright with it, she’ll hug you; otherwise, she’ll pat your arm or back. 

Mythra: She figured out pretty quickly something’s wrong and confronts you about it. Once you tell her though, she’ll offer and awkward hug and a shoulder to lean on until you’re ok again. 

Nia: She’s used to healing people physically, not mentally, but she’ll try, dammit. She’ll offer a hug and a ride with her on Dormarch’s back, along with someone to listen if you need it. 

Dromarch: He’ll offer his fur as a shelter to recover in and give some well meaning advice. He’ll even let you sleep against him. 

Tora: He’s terrible at it, but he does his best. He’ll say “there there” a lot and ask if you want some tasty sausages. 

Poppi: She’d better than Tora, if only because her database has more information about comforting, though it’s mostly about comforting Tora so it might be weird when converted to a human. Some sentences might come out a litte weird, but she does her best.

Mòrag: She’s used to comforting young children, so she almost picks you up as a reflex. Instead, she’ll rub your back and offer some support and wisdom. Maybe even a hug if you’re both up for it. She’ll stay with you until she’s satisfied with how comforted you are.  

Brighid: Do you want a hug? Food? Someone beat up? She’s got you. If you just need a shoulder to cry on, she’s there too, along with hugs ad some wise words. 

Zeke: He’ll do some dramatic theatrics to cheer you up and if that doesn’t work, he’s gonna hug the discomfort out of you, as long as you’re okay with being hugged. Otherwise, he’ll feed you and keep going with his antics. Maybe he’ll even take you to one of his favourtie spots nearby. 

Pandoria: She’ll dish out the best hugs and back rubs in all of Alrest. Otherwise, she’ll let you lean against her for as long as you need to, while also telling stories of the shenanigans she’s been through with Zeke. 

Vandham: Who needs to get beat up? Say the word and it’ll be done. If you want any kind of comfort food, it’s on him. Rumour has it he gives the best hugs in all of Uraya and maybe even all of Alrest. He’s like a father comforting his children. 

[vetrowolf]

Do you have any thoughts on Dormarch (xenoblade chronicles 2)?

I don’t play xenoblade chronicles, but Dormarch seems to be a cool cat. 

[lewis-philipstaylorart]

Still on the mountainous Coblyano world, at the very peak of the tallest point the player will come across the ghostly hounds from the start again, only this time you have to confront them for real! Their monstrous leader, Dormarch is there too and it seems he is the once who has been creating the disturbances on this world.

Drawing this scene was a lot of fun, as the character of Dormarch is one of my favorite character designs so far, so figuring out how to draw his massive form in an environment was also quite tricky, but rewarding! Using the same colour scheme as the previous, but adding some white because of the drastic temperature drop, also represented by a flurry of sleet starting to fall. This was supposed to capture the atmosphere one might feel before a boss fight, which I think it does quite well, with the dramatic landscape, the jagged rocks, the gloomy weather and of course the scary-huge boss himself. I really like the sky in this scene, it really depicts the heaviness of the clouds and sets the scene for a battle, as if there is a heavy atmosphere and a feeling of dread building up. In this scene you can see that there is a difference between Dormarch and the other ghostly hounds, he is much larger and foreboding but is also more physical than the others, his larger and much more fearsome form clearly the dominant of the group. I also really admire the circular patterns in the rocks and strange floating plants, these, accompanied by the hounds of course really look like some mystical, far off place. The composition with Dormarch’s long body and tails snaking off into the distance really does give you an idea of the scale of him, and makes it seem that much more foreboding.

One thing that worried me about this piece was that it might look drastically different than the other pieces, due to the main characters not being in it. I think it works though, and its not really necessary to have them in every scene really, and perhaps I needn’t have included them in some of the others. This one might have been a good one to have them in however, to really emphasize how large these creatures are compared to the protagonists and show that they’re now ready to face them when they couldn’t before. I do think the peak they are standing on should have been completely covered in snow though, due to the altitude, and also the world below also being rather chilled already.

[autoacafiles]

Is there any plan to make the elita triplets from the movie as a character? Thought of this after seeing Dormarch and other characters with consciousness division.

[autoacafiles]

Concept: Dormarch being part of an alternate Menasor.

Well, Motormaster would likely prefer to get the original components since he's most familiar with them. But it won't hurt to get some... back-up options.

[autoacafiles]

Any chance we may get some more info on those Lucifarians we saw MotorMaster with?

[autoacafiles]

Is there a pun or portmanteau or wordplay for the name Dormarch or no?

Celtic Hunting Dog Deity thing

(Kerberos was taken)

[hcavensarrow]

@krykofa asked:  Friend? FRIEND! Dormarch bounds with overenthusiastic abandon around the stranger, dropping a femur at his feet to throw. Nevermind the fact that he looked like a dog chopped in half (arguably a more disturbing sight to those who /did/ know of the Cwn Annwn), here was a new friend and he wanted to PLAY!

    Well, time to weigh the pros and cons. Cons: this thing was a bit terrifying, and he certainly didn’t know enough about the local creatures to know whether or not head running for the hills. The pros, however, were that it wasn’t actively trying to kill him, or go anywhere (as far as he could tell). Generally speaking, that was usually a good sign. 

    Cons, part two: he really didn’t know much about dogs.

    “Uh... G-Good doggy?” Gods help him. He picks up the bone, awkwardly waving it back and forth. “You want to play? Is that it?”

[lewis-philipstaylorart]

Research on Video Game Character Design

A book which was pretty instrumental when helping me decide on/ create character designs earlier on in the project was Better Game Characters by Design, written by Katherine Isbister, mainly by looking at the first two chapters.

The chapters talked all about how human brains work, how we identify people and make decisions about who they are and what they’re like just from their appearance. They identified attractiveness, baby face, stereotypes and dominance/submissiveness, as key aspects of methods of characterisation in video games, but also how we think in real life. 

Most video game protagonists and their allies are attractive, and most villains are the opposite. While there are some examples of this not being true, this is the case most of the time. The reason game developers choose to do this is because our brains try to gauge what a person is like via appearance, from what is called the “halo effect” our brains often see someone who is attractive as warm, kind, strong, more sensitive, outgoing, dominant and smart. It’s in out nature to make decisions like this based on appearance, though what is considered attractive (which includes behavior) is different in everyone. Notably, what is considered attractive may differ vastly depending on culture. It’s important that the player-character be easy to identify with for the player, and if the character is nasty and looks down on everyone, or is perhaps their design is ugly for no particular reason, this will probably not click with the audience. 

“Baby face”, characters or people with large eyes, small chins, full lips, high eyebrows etc, are often considered to be warm, kind, trustworthy, but less responsible and submissive. Compared to characters with sharp features, smaller eyes, lower eyebrows etc, while also being considered attractive, are labeled to have a more dominant personality. People would be more likely to want to interact socially with the softer-faced person, but might not trust their abilities as much as someone with sharper features. Interestingly, the reason we want to care for and identify with certain animals is because they fit this category, their faces remind us of human infants. 

The original reason for giving video game characters (particularly main characters) large eyes and other features was so that the player could make out their face (eyes were larger because of limited resolution), though this has carried on into 3D graphics. Above is a picture of Link, as seen in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker with large eyes, a rounded face and a small nose, these features evokes trust, sympathy and warmth.

Game designers also rely heavily on stereotypes, something which has spawned critique in the past, but makes sense and is useful in a fast-paced game. For example; once the player has been attacked by an enemy, when they come across similar looking enemies they know they are hostile. Sometimes stereotypes can be used in an interesting or unlikely way, where the “hero” is someone who typically wouldn't be seen in that way, to comedic effect or not. Another way of creating memorable characters is by taking stereotypes and making characters which match that particular type, but include traits which are unsual for that type. Asgore from Undertale is an interesting “final boss” whom characters have been warning you about all through the game, when you meet him he is possibly one of the saddest, sweetest and most tragic characters in the game and doesn’t look at all like someone who would harm you, yet he is one of the hardest bosses. Before the player reaches him they expect a fearsome looking king, but get a friendly- looking goat man.

Changing a stereotype can be as simple as having a female as the head of a pirate gang.

Body language also plays an important role in how we see people, mainly this is to do with dominance/agreeableness. Often when given the choice you will choose to speak to someone who looks agreeable rather than dominant. For example someone who is seen as receptive will have a more relaxed posture, might stand closer to people, have a warm and energetic tone of voice, will be very open to interaction. Whereas someone who is behaving dominantly will make more intense eye-contact, take up more physical space around them, have a louder voice and will control the topic of conversation more than others. While both these things are used in video game characters, they may be used for either a villain or a hero, or any other character. Like everything else mentioned so far, these are devices to used to help with characterisation.

I believe I have done a good job with my character designs, particularly for the two main protagonists. Cors I particularly like, as he is small in stature (smaller than most characters) though acts in quite a dominant way, which will make for some humorous situations. My idea for the main character to change her behavior depending on how the player wants her to act will be interesting to see too, as she has quite a cute character design, though is a very plot-important character with a lot of power. I used all of these methods in coming up with designs for all of the characters thus far, and found it very helpful in creating concepts for their appearances and personalities. I haven’t done much in the way of stereotyping, except for perhaps the design of Dormarch who very much looks like an evil character, but even then I have ideas for him which I can hopefully actualise when taking this forward!

Ref:

Better Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach, Katherine Isbister, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (Chapters 1 & 2)

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Nintendo

Undertale, Toby Fox

[lewis-philipstaylorart]

Future Changes

Whilst drawing my 10 final concept illustrations, something about the 6th one in particular irritated me. Its that there seemingly isn't many height differences in different species so far (from what I’ve drawn, though fully grown Afnac are pretty huge). Also, in mythology coblyanu (the gnome/brownie-like creatures) are quite small -- 1.5ft tall on average, something I forgot when drawing them in the scene! This isn’t a problem however, as these are concepts, and in the future when creating sprites and such I can rectify this. I believe making certain characters/species have greater height differences will generally make the world more believable and interesting. Some characters in my final pieces you can tell are a lot bigger (Dormarch the huge fish-dog for instance), but I like the idea of this being carried on to traits of the different species -- tiny coblyanu! 

I could even use this height comparison converter/chat to help me visualise how hight each character should be.