Imaginary Towers! #3

Hello, all! (if anyone is still there)

Unfortunately, I was unable to do what I said on the previous post. Since there really is nothing to do, I’ve not really been able to maintain the interest that I had when I wrote that post.

I’ve recently had a look at the forums to see if people were still posting and, to my surprise, people have been doing so albeit only seldomly. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to make this post for some time now as I’ve had these files sitting at my hard disk for quite a long time. Seeing Lilli’s post on the forums which contained her ‘imaginary towers’ (which are also, by the way, have a very distinct, inspiring and fantastic style) spurred me to action instead of just postponing so, without further ado, here is the continuation of the previous post:

I tried to create something like the images from news announcements here to introduce the story concept of the new ‘cave of trials’.

This picture shows the location of the lobby of the new stage. I couldn’t think of a good name so I just called it exploration site here. I realize that the location isn’t a good one and doesn’t make sense but I wasn’t sure where else to put it.

 

This is kind of like a sketch of the lobby, I suppose; this was so that I could visualize the general appearance of the lobby.

 

This is the finalized concept of the lobby. Arc is the quest giver. As for his title… This is only a, err, fan concept/headcanon: there is a group employed by Morias called the magic alchemists who are responsible for the discovery, research and creation of ‘secret magic’. These are the spells that only work in the season 2 area and require xaps to cast.

I’ve also tried to write a sample quest that he gives:

Quest #1: Welcome! I can see that you’re an experienced adventurer. Since all of the magic alchemists, including me, are very busy, King Morias has allowed anyone willing to venture into this place to help with the exploration. This place, to which we now call “Magis” according to the inscriptions inside, is unknown to us. Apparently, it is an ancient place that goes down to thousands of floors, similar to the Cave of Trials. Although it seems so, Magis isn’t directly below Splendor Mythos. You are here to venture into this place, yes? Could I ask for help then? As you can see, I am an experienced magic alchemist. What? You don’t believe me? Well, although I am not directly doing fieldwork, I do a lot of experimenting in here. I am very experienced in investigating the properties of various items, you see. …If you still don’t believe me, then I will show you a trick. Well, rather, I will teach you a spell. For this however, I will need a Terrestrial Rock, as we have named it. I cannot use these ones as I need them for my experimentation. You can find those inside. Just walk forward pass that magic symbol over there and you’ll suddenly find yourself in Magis. Once you have one, come back to me and I will show you how to cast the spell.

Completion: Excellent! Thank you for this sample. I suppose I’ll have to teach you how to cast the spell now. Now, if you could please stand back. [The message box closes and the spell animation is shown by Arc casting the spell. After this, talk to him again to learn the spell]. I told you, didn’t I? Now, to cast the spell, you will need a catalyst, or a xap as we call it. For this spell, you need one of the rocks that you have brought me, “Terrestrial Rock”. Concentrate and simply speak the incantation “Trembling Earth”.

As for the incantation, I wasn’t really sure what to put because I lack the Japanese knowledge to imitate how the English version of the game translated the incantations.

This is an updated map compared to the one on the previous post. Actually, this is the version where the 2 stages: Emerald Tree and Cave of Judgement (which is basically the second level) have already been unlocked. The map changes depending on the stages unlocked. If compared to the map on the previous post, you’d see crystals blocking the way to the Emerald Tree. The ‘entrance’ to the second level is just an opening created by damaging the crack caused by the collision of the two ‘islands’. As for the story, the reason for doing so is because another ‘island’ is right underneath these two ‘islands’ and it’s the closest one to safely jump on.

 

A concept of the starting spot. The concept was that these inscriptions altogether are one way to tell the story of the new area: ‘Magis’. In actuality, Magis is basically a mysterious dimension of some sort. Nothing much is known about it. It seems to be enclosed in a gigantic ‘cave’ (hence why the levels are called caves) which does not seem to have walls. The whole area seems to extend to infinity. The Order of the Sapphire Leaf was an organization (an organization with a focus in researching the principles of magic) in Hamian, a country from a far away region. They discovered a way to traverse Magis and created a gateway as a final option in escaping the war. The simplest way to put the cause of the war is to say that it was caused by the fear of the seemingly infinite capabilities of magic.

This one is a concept of what the ‘spots’ will look like. If I find the time, I’d like to create a final concept of one of the spots. This image isn’t a very good representative of what the ‘spots’ look like. Very dull and colors are used and the enemy designs are very simple. I’m hoping to change that some other time, though!

The boss of the stage. Again, it’s not the best in terms of appearance but I think it’s good enough for a general idea. The boss is an artificially created one (quite like a golem or a homunculus). Not much is known about it, except that it is powered by powerful nature (emerald) magic.

 

And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this. This time, I won’t promise to be active, and will instead just say that I’ll periodically look at the forums every now and then. As for the next one (I’m not sure how long this one will take as I’m someone whose interest switches frequently from one thing to another), here is a ‘preview’:

A quick sketch of the map layout.

A sketch of two of the enemies inside the stage.