In a new dev diary, “Breathing Life into Ash — Building the Ashbreathers”, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen dev Convo details the creation of the Ashbreathers faction.
The Ashbreathers lore was just the beginning, as a concept, “beings whose very essence is tied to ash and cinder”. Convo also got some early story details, “hinting at their transformation from something primal to their current, eerily organized state” and from there, thought they were worth building on through gameplay, world detail, and even just atmosphere.
Props you’ll see through the trench and enclave are assets, like others here, intentionally designed to tell a story and not just to be things in a place. World War I battlefields in Ypres, Belgium inspired the trench areas, and the visual world-building process from concept to execution, was multi-layered. Story and culture informed where to place the particular assets in the environments in a society where the quality of ash you are near is symbolic of your place in the world.
Working with the world-building team, as well as with narrative and encounter team members, was key to making sure that the order-obsessed culture and belief systems were represented visually. Also that the NPCs, boss encounters, and even weapons contributed to something that felt like it all fit together.
