Character Assignment: Game World

This week we have begun creating characters in the 3D course, the first step was to come up with concept art and a turnaround for a character for which we would then create a character backstory and game world.

Concept Art that I drew for the assignment of noble son William

The game takes place in medieval England, to some extent inspired by the Sword in the Stone and the village in Beauty and the Beast. The country is divided into several shires managed by lords serving the king. The noble boy William is the eldest son of one of these Lords that has been sent to the castle of another Lord to serve as a page as preparation for knighthood training.

The environments are made up of lush deciduous forests and vast open moors used for farming and for cattle to graze. There are many small villages spread out in the shires and the occasional larger cities, there are only three very large cities in the land, one of them, the Capital, the home of the King.

The inhabitants of the world are humans although there are many legends of dragons and other fantasy creatures, no one now alive is known to have seen any though. There are a few witches and wizards in the land, but they are sure to hide away from the church as it is not looked mildly upon.

People living in the world has an expected life span of 60 years, some can become as old as 100 but it is very rare. The population is very well distributed between infants and elderly and men and women, since there have been no wars recently that could change the distribution.

Highest up in the hierarchy is the King, after him there are Dukes, Counts and Barons holding steadings of sizes according to their rank. Priests are also considered very high in rank, although they have their own line of hierarchy, answering both to the Lord and the King.

There are many types of people and professions, merchants, craftsmen, soldiers; you could find pretty much any profession that you would expect in the medieval time. The knights are very high ranked and are almost with no exception the sons of noble men that have served as pages and gone through knighthood training.

Occasionally someone from lower status may become a knight for performing exceptional service for the King. There has also been a few female knights, they are very few though as the noble families do not tend to want to send their daughters away for page service and prefer to educate them in other areas, trying to keep them safe. Apart from holding the titles (which only knighted people can) the knights are as high as you can climb in the hierarchy and it is a great honour and achievement to do so.

Since it is placed in the medieval times the Catholic Church has a great impact on the people living in the land. They are very religious, have great respect and appreciation for the priests and go to church regularly without question. The people believe in witches, fairies, dragons and other magical creatures, even though no one is known to have encountered them, and because of their religious beliefs often assume them to be evil.

The shire that the main character lives in, as well as the surrounding shires, has not seen any wars or problems lately. It has been peaceful for quite some time and the weather has been kind, this means that the land is prospering and there is little to none famine or disease.