Gladiators

Author: Flosha
Written: 14.04.2024
Last update: 10.08.2025

Status: work in progress

Heavy Gladiator Artwork

In this article we will at first deal with the facts about the guild and its design known from the different concept sources and builds, with both the relevant background story of the guild as well as the general appearance of members of the guild (in form of the armour design). At the end of each section we will put all of it together to summarise how we will present the guild in PHOENIX. What we will not consider here are the individual characters of the guild and their role; this will be done in the character section in /story. Sources: Guild System V1 & V2, NSCS per Guild, Sequel Design Docs.

Name

They were first described as “Gladiators” on the first sketches, then as “noble Mercenaries” in Guild System V1, then as “Paladins” in Guild System V2, then as the “Guard” (of the Watermages) in the Alpha versions until ~v0.7 and finally as the “Mercenaries” of the Mages, when the names of the NC and OC fighter guilds were switched (the mercenaries of the orebarons were renamed to “Guard”).

Characteristics

The Guild System and Sequel docs inform us, that they…

Relationships

V1

How? to whom?  
Good Healing Mages, Halforcs  
Neutral Orethieves, Digger Bodyguards, Free Diggers, Sect Nad Mafia, -snitches, -thugs, Old Diggers, Battlemages, Sect Gurus, Evil Witcher, Free Thieves

V2

What they say about others:

What others say about them:

What they say about locations:

Relevant Dialogues

Jarvis on the SLD (0.94k): “Our goal is to break out of here. We work hard for this. We do not want to lounge around, like the rags from the Old Camp, who just rest on the shoulders of the miners.”

Jarvis on the SLD (1.06): “There are no guards or templars here, who protect you. Everyone looks after himself first and we, the Mercenaries, are the only ones who hold together.” […] “We - we are the Mercenaries of the Watermages. […] And we all follow Lee. He is a great man. He is the only one who holds this damned camp together.”

Jarvis about their heap of ore, hating on the king (1.06): “When we would exchange it with the Outside World, the king would sell us his wife for this. / But we’ll do a damn thing to give the ore to this old fuck. We want to get OUT of here!”

Lee on the responsibilities of a mercenary of the mages (1.06): “Very simple. Protect the ore - protect the mages. / Sometimes the mages have a special mission for one of us too.”

Orik on the SLD (0.94k): “I am Orik, head of the mercenaries. My guys here are all former soldiers from the army, mercenaries and deserteurs. Good guys.” […] We protect the ore and the watermages. The mages may be able to look for themselves, but nobody touches the ore.”

Kharim about the independence of the New Camp (1.06): “[…] You know nothing about us! The New Camp is INDEPENDENT of all this shit!”

Conclusion

Armour Design

The armours will have to be a direct representation of the above summarised characteristics, combined with the specific conditions and limitations of their life in the colony. But let us start with the first relevant concepts.

The following drawing by Mike can be seen as the very first idea for the armours of a member of this guild:

Mikes first NC Warrior drawing

It was, based on later sketches by Mike, roughly implemented into the game, in form of the general fighter armour in v0.56c including the leather helmet, as it was often shown alongside this armour in early Alpha screenshots. One may recognise how the helmet has been modeled in the shape of the helmet in the drawing above.

Below are Ralfs first two known concepts of the guild (please remember, before imagening a mistake: “Garde” (Guard) was the name of the New Camp Warriors and “Söldner” (Mercenaries) was the name of the Old Camp Warriors at the time). It can be seen how the concept below has taken Mikes drawing into account and tried to develop it in another direction.

Ralfs first known concept for a member of the NC Guard guild

Ralfs first known concept for a member of the NC Guard guild with the rank of an Officer

The second concept also exists in a colorised version here. The coat that he wears is made in the very same style as his early watermage concept, which shows that his original idea was to present both guilds in a very similar style. It was one faction with two strongly linked guilds, one being specialised in fighting, one being specialised in magic (healing mostly, as they are opposed to the battlemages of the Old Camp). Even if these concrete concepts can surely be critizised in several regards (Ralf himself is not too proud of these early ideas), I see some value in the general idea of a shared style of the two guilds, which, based on the individualisation of armours and robes, can still be fulfilled in case of a few NPCs in at least a similar style, mixed with the general design direction of the later concepts.

The next and last known NC Guard armour designs by Ralf are the following:

last known NC Guard armour designs by Ralf

The light armour is now very much resembling what the armour would later become in the Alpha as presented below, only lacking the fur at the legs. It is the same armour that Gorn was shown wearing in the concepts by both Ralf and Tom Thiel. The medium armour is also already looking very much like the medium armour known from the game, but with no fur either. The heavy armour on the other hand has not too much resemblance to what it would finally turn into. It also may be noted that the three Guard armours are all shown with a blue hand as a distinctive mark (an idea that was completely rejected), while the organiser armours are all presented with a blue piece of fabric instead, which has been preserved and developed into the scarves of the alpha armours, with an exception of the heavy armour.

Concept vs. Ingame Discrepancies

The final armour design came from Mike himself, in cooperation with Uwe Meier, evolving the latest concepts that Ralf came up with. Below you can compare the actual ingame realisation of these armours in the game with their concept. Sadly we only have the concepts of the light and medium armour, not the heavy one.

Mikes and Uwes light and medium Mercenary Armour Concept

Both the light and medium armour from the Alpha (as seen below) follow the concept very accurately except for a few details.

In case of the light armour there is a differently designed shoulder part; throughout development it has either been designed from leather, from metal framed by leather or completely from metal, as it has been done in the Alpha; different variations can co-exist.
Other than that the leather straps around the upper body could and should be improved in their mapping, size and weight. We have reconstructed it accordingly.

The medium armour diverts in a few more ways; the concept presents the armour in a more believable way and gives a more harmonious impression.
For one, the central metal plate on the chest is less oval in the concepts and more round and bigger overall. And the form of the metal parts at the legs was also slightly different.
Secondly, the other metal plates are attached to leather strings, which is the case with the ingame armour too, but there is has been done very randomly, while on the concept the plates and leather strings are drawn in a much more believable way.
Thirdly, and this is a problem that the medium armour shares with the light one (and probably the heavy one too, of which we have no concept art): All the mercenary armours were meant to have medieval “hose” from leather, no regular leather pants. In case of the medium armour we can still see these “hose” and the green-blue “underpants” underneath; but in the concept these underpants can be seen much more, while in the ingame version, especially from the backside, they are almost hidden completely by something that can only be interpreted as a leather slip above the actual, long underpants, which is not very believable. The same applies to the light armour, where iz cannot be seen anymore at all, that he is wearing medieval hose; the texture is actually presenting it accurately, but it can barely be seen, because the colour of the hose is too dark and too similar to the underpants in comparison to the much lighter leather in the concept. According to the concept the light and medium armour were meant to use the exact same hose in colour.
The heavy texture then presents the very same pants as the medium one, but now as complete pants with no kind of “opening” anymore through which the underpants could be seen. So it cannot be seen as any kind of organic “upgrade” of the same armour anymore (as which the progression from light to medium armour can and should be seen in the concepts, so it is likely to be the idea behind the heavy version too). But as it is displayed in the game the pants must have been replaced completely for the heavy variation and cannot just be upgraded, as we would then at least need to see some kind of a seam. It is more likely that the original heavy concept may have had the same “hose” as the light and medium armour too and should be presented accordingly.
The hose that all the mercenary armours have in common in some way, are a particular characteristic of the New Camp; only the Mercs and Organisers are wearing these, which we may see as an older, more traditional or more primitive form of wearing pants, all the other factions are wearing regular, closed pants.

Another important factor is that the colour of the fur does not match the concepts. In the concepts the colour is a darker, faded brown and the fur on the legs of the light armour in the Alpha is the only one that comes close to the colour of the concepts. The fur of the medium and heavy armours does not match the concepts (where the fur had the same style in all the armours) and goes into more of a grey tone, although there is no animal or monster in the game with a fitting fur of that kind. In the Alpha it still was a work in progress and at least a bit darker than in the release versiom, but the colour was not matching. In the release version then, where the fur has been improved in graphical regards, the colour turned into something even more unfitting. The same dark, faded brown colour, according to the concepts, was also meant to be used with the Organiser armours. And here too, the final colours didn’t match and they ended up with a grey fur that does not fit to any monster in the game, apart from, perhaps, a shadow beast, while the darker brown colour of the Concepts and the light Alpha armour was roughly matching the Alpha wolf.

Garde Light in the Alpha

Garde Medium in the Alpha

Garde Heavy in the Alpha

/world/factions/guilds/gladiators.md