Moonrose Valley

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[moonrosevalley]

Chronicles of Roses Devlog 4: Design Notes Lovia & Holborn

Hello!

This devlog is about the two side characters we have prepared, Lovia & Holborn, and their role in the narrative! It’s also a little reflection on how we intend to portray our world, and how we want to use characters to do that. A big focus here is interpersonal relationships, so it’s important to us both that we can create compelling characters.

At time of writing, the below characters are the least fleshed out - we have an established reason for their existence in the story, and what they are meant to represent or influence in the game world, but their visual markers remain vague, for now. What they have provided us, however, is a useful tool to test out our existing worldbuilding for the factions they represent, & how to depict these two cultures.

Lovia, Witch of Death, the Visitor

Lovia is a relatively mysterious character that Ronya meets as she traverses into her cursed home city. She is a witch, & keeps mum about the reason she is present, but provides the protagonist with a method of finding out more about the bogeyman of her current society, when she is hesitant to admit to her own heritage. 

Lovia is meant to be a vehicle to allow the audience to learn more about the outside world, and what witchcraft looks like, as well as what witches believe & practise. The only other witches in the narrative (at time of writing) are Ronya, a self-admitted recusant of her background, and Lilith, a proud witch, yet one who has never stepped outside of the city, and doesn’t truly have connections with witches beyond her blood & study in the craft.

We’ve made a connection between gold & silver to witches & the city respectively, and Lovia is also meant to embody that, with strictly gold motifs. As a witch of the same heritage as Ronya, she also shares the same red hair, a secret that hints as to what her true purpose in the city is.

Holborn, Defender of The City

Ronya & Lilith are witches, and the central characters of the narrative. In a city where not only witchcraft, but the mere sin of being born of witch blood is a crime worthy of persecution, it’s difficult to understand why, and feel for the inhabitants of a city that would propagate such a belief. The closest real life events to this are seen by us in the contemporary days as a malice beyond description. 

Holborn is a character who, unlike Lovia, was initially designed to be a vehicle for players to learn about & understand why the inhabitants of the city believe the things they do, and why they are so staunch about it. He is a high ranking member of the city’s armed guard, and provides a direct foil to Lovia, seeking to uphold the city’s safety & a staunch believer of it’s moral righteousness

The city’s current biggest motif is silver, compared to witches’ gold, so Holborn will likely be wearing a full set of silver armour as the city’s protector. We also are big fans of big weapons! So he may possibly have a big old sword, or a long spear & shield. 

These two act as ideologies the player can choose to engage with, and provide the player with an opportunity to assess the characters’ respective reasoning & backgrounds - this is why we feel they’re a good fit to introduce together! They’re not quite tangible yet visually, but they serve as a foundation for the narrative buildup, which is a big focus in this story.

This concludes our tentative characters! The lineup of current characters & thoughts around them is complete, and so our next posts will be about the world itself, & some thoughts on production, pre-production, and the things we want to make. Please stay tuned!

-Li

[moonrosevalley]

Chronicles of Roses Devlog 3: Design Notes Ursula

Hiya !! 

It’s Scarlett :D

Today I’m showcasing Chronicle of Roses’ mastermind, catalyst, and secondary antagonist: the Holy Prophet, Queen Ursula.

Queen Ursula is the ruler of Lorne, worshipped by all her people as their Holy Prophet. She’s revered as a god-like figure to her people, ruling with benevolence, generosity, and a tightening iron fist.

Queen Ursula is the one who starts the game’s plot as she’s the one who kidnapped Lilith. She’s the catalyst for everything, she's the one who found the prophecy, took Lilith in as a child, she promoted Ronya to a Raven despite Ronya’s heritage. Ursula’s taken care of both these women in her own way (favouriting Lilith quite a lot). She’s the one who’s manipulated countless situations and souls in alignment with her and Lilith’s destiny. Setting off the ritual that corrupts the entire city, or will it cure it?

Ursula is absent throughout most of the game, but she’s set up through other characters talking about her, through notes, and paintings found scattered throughout the city. Her presence is felt at all times despite her only showing up for one fight. 

The main inspirations for Ursula were Queen Marika from Elden Ring, Falke from Signalis, and Odin from Norse mythology. Ronya already had a lot of Raven imagery surrounding her, since I absolutely adore ravens, and Armored Core 6 is one of my favourite games, but the idea of the Ravens came properly into fruition with us connecting Ursula to Odin, who has two ravens Huginn and Muninn which he uses to keep an eye on all nine realms. Putting that and the Valkyrie together really facilitated the bond between COR and Norse mythology. This also impacted the ideation for the Circle of Roots, the holy order of warriors protecting Queen Ursula and the realm; they will be discussed in more detail in the next devlog.

With Queen Marika, the inspiration is quite obvious; Ursula manipulated countless chains of events which led to the ritualistic sacrifice of Lilith. Such as sending Ronya away for her quest, rewriting her people’s history, and manipulating her entire queendom for decades.

Falke is a great piece of inspiration due to her close relationship with Elster and Arianne and her immense power that potentially helps the sickness spread in Sierpinski-23. In Signalis it’s a one-sided (?) kinship, whereas in Chronicle of Roses, the relationship Ursula has with Lilith and Ronya is real and two-sided (I’m sorry Falke, you will dance with her again i promiisise). And in COR, Ursula's actions might be what undoes everything she's built up.

Most of our visual inspirations are from quite ethereal paintings, royal sets from different Soulsborne games, and for me, Talulah from Arknights. As both Li and I love silver and black, we decided to subvert common depictions of churches and holiness used in media, i.e. the use of white, gold, and red. Instead, we let the witches be associated with those colours, giving the church and holy order black, silver, and greys as their primary palette. Ursula’s armour is heavily based on mid-1600s armours, especially royal armour with their intricate engravings and flourishes. We have yet to decide on a weapon for her but I’ve been heavily leaning towards her using a Zweihander or some sort of great-sword. 

Thematically, Ursula is a foil to Ronya. Ursula will do whatever it takes to fulfil her prophecy, and Ronya will do whatever it takes to save her wife. Ursula clings to her destiny with every fibre of her being, and Ronya clings to Lilith with every fibre of her being. What differentiates the two, is that Ronya learns to let go, to move forward without the need for another being, ideology or faith. 

I love Ursula. She was the character that really tied everything together at the beginning of our ventures with this game. Li and I were quite lost in the beginning of the summer on how to progress and flesh out the story. Then we started riffing on and on about Ursula, her prophecy, and her role in the whole game as she was very underdeveloped. Developing her also led to us properly fleshing out Lilith and her relationship with Ursula and Ronya, leading to Li getting fully on board with the game ! Which I’m very thankful for to this day haha :3

Ursula is also a fascinating character to write about and explore, her relation with destiny and fate, both growing more and more weary and tired of seeing any attempt at deviation leading to exactly where she needs to be while also pushing further and further to see it through. Her relationship with Lilith is so juicy to write, the irony of Ursula growing so close to the lamb that she has to slaughter for the greater good. And to be 100% set in going through with it nevertheless rather than having her change her mind right before plunging the knife into Lilith’s heart. Ursula’s fully intent on killing Ronya for it; another girl that she’s seen grow up, taking care of her little by little. Fascinating.

Next time ! Li will showcase Lovia and Holborn ! Ronya’s best friends that will make it through the whole game without a hitch :))))

[moonrosevalley]

Chronicles of Roses Devlog 2: Design Notes Lilith

Hello!

This is Li : ).

This devlog is about Lilith, the secondary character of the narrative & lover of Ronya - a witch & holy disciple who is missing when Ronya comes home after a long mission, prompting a new journey to find her and discover the city’s sacrificial plot. For ease of credibility, all portraits and art of Lilith in this post is by Li.

This city is set in a world where witchcraft is looked upon as a great sin, and witch heritage (largely passed down by blood) is inherently seen as lesser or vile by the cityfolk and non-witches. Lilith’s features mark her as a witch clearly - her white eyes & hair are abnormal, and she easily becomes a target for persecution under the public eye.

Despite her blasphemous heritage, she was taken in by the Holy Prophet for unknown reasons, and has been raised as a dear daughter to her. Her markings & hair define her as a witch from the coven of life & nature, although her exact origins are largely unknown.

The events of the narrative largely exclude Lilith’s presence, as she is the passive hidden character, missing & hidden away from Ronya, but she is not written or designed to be a passive character. She is a scholar in her own right, & does not shy away from the pursuit of knowledge.

She’s been designed as a character who is not ashamed or afraid of her defining features - her hair is well taken care of, and she wears a distinct purple & gold palette of clothes, compared to the city’s concepted silvery blue tones. This contrast of gold & silver in particular is a strong foundation for the difference in visual language between the persecuted witches & ‘the holy’, as we currently call them, and presents a thematic switch from the usual modern association of silver, albedo, and the moon (although this will be touched on later) with femininity/magic.

Her name is taken directly from the daemon Lilith, who is commonly considered the first female demon, in particular for her refusal to obey. Lilith is written as a largely quiet and gentle character, but her quiet visual and scholarly defiance is intended to be a parallel to the daemon Lilith’s demonisation. Owls also tend to have an association with Lilith and the devil/evil in general - the owl is an early concept in Lilith’s development, but her eyes and hair already give off an owl-like appearance.

The iterations of her clothes in current concepts are largely dresses, cloaks, and belts/bags - she’s a scholar and an apothecary, unlike Ronya, and requires no armour. This is where the obligatory Dark Souls mention goes:

Some of her designs take from the witch of Izalith clothes in Dark Souls I. The obvious direct naming of them as witches, and the fact that they are a mostly all female faction are big influences for this reference. But the witches of Izalith can also be read as an interpretation of the medieval & gothic interpretation of the female body & female sexuality.

T B Skyen has a wonderful video on the boss design of Chaos Witch Quelaag in particular, where they take a similar reading on Quelaag’s design in the same game. She is largely considered a Dragon Pass easter egg from Miyazaki for many fans, but there is merit in reading her narrative existence and her obviously seductive visual design/cutscene as a commentary on the ‘eviling’ of desirable women - this is similar to a load of modern analyses of historical witch hunts, and why they primarily targeted women.

The narrative we are making doesn’t necessarily delve into sexism, whether historical or contemporary, but the use of witches and witchcraft in any story cannot exist without this context - for us, understanding the witch hunts of the medieval and gothic ages is fundamental to the construction of this entire fictional world.

Lilith is a personal favourite of mine - I am a massive Souls fan (Elden Ring in particular), and a large part of my love for those games is the delicate design of creatures and characters that are strong or otherwise beholders of a new age.

There's a running joke in the Souls community that there's a bizarre number of characters that appear barefoot in Miyazaki’s games. It's a really funny joke, but I think the reason for a visual choice like that is very deliberate.

We as humans have not chosen to be barefoot for thousands of years, and a lot of us largely cringe at the idea of our bare feet touching pavement, or even natural rock/soil - the very fact that people online have actually noticed the number of characters with no shoes, as opposed to the number of characters with long hair for example, is I think an easy example of our reaction to that kind of physical vulnerability.

Divine and immortal characters in Miyazaki’s games often have their feet visible & unprotected, and I think it very clearly separates them visually from the mortal and human. They are a deliberate show of mortal vulnerability, and an indication that human vulnerability is beneath their weaknesses by a long shot. It can either mean that they are beyond a lot of the physical weaknesses of humans, or that they are a particularly vulnerable character.

Lilith’s feet are not bare at this point in time in our concepts, and will by no means show up anywhere, but the approach of visual delicacy and vulnerability is something that I value a lot with her. The appearance of unprotected limbs in Fromsoftware games is just a very funny and (I think) very poignant example of what that sort of design approach looks like.

Ultimately, I love Lilith’s initial design, and her story as a determined quiet scholar - I have always loved the quiet important characters in stories, and working on her development is a joy.

This devlog was posted a couple days late - apologies! The next one will be about the Ursula, the Holy Prophet of this fictional city, and her connection to these two characters so far.

[moonrosevalley]

Chronicle of Roses Devlog 1: Design Notes Ronya

Li's Portrait of Ronya

Hiya ! This is the first devlog of Chronicle of Roses ! I’m Scarlett, the narrative and game’s designer and today I will showcase the game’s protagonist, Ronya. Showing the influences that helped me mould her character and the concepts for her design as well. This is still early in development and subject to change, those changes will be clear as the project continues.

This game is set in the holy city of Lorne, based in a highly theocratic society headed by a holy prophet worshipped as a protector & harbinger of safety. The citizens heavily disdain witchcraft and magic, anything that goes against their holy scripture. In a cruel twist of fate, Ronya was born with the markings and blood of a witch. Ronya was orphaned as a young child and was taken in personally by the holy prophet Ursula. Ronya was raised to be a soldier, climbing the ranks to the top despite her persecution. Eventually, she became a ‘Raven’, a member of the prophet’s most trusted inner circle of soldiers. Carrying out espionage, scouting, and assassinations under Ursula’s direct orders. 

Throughout the game, we follow Ronya as she searches for her lost wife in the newly corrupted Lorne, having to fight old neighbours and comrades whose minds have been lost. Battling against the strings of fate, old prophecies, and horrors beyond human comprehension.

Li's Early Concept Art

Ronya’s inspiration is from a plethora of stories and mythology. Still, a few of the main ones are Ronja the robber's daughter, a Swedish kids' tale about two kids from rival robbers gangs becoming friends, leading to the two gangs making peace eventually. My early idea for Ronya was more feral and outgoing, much like the Ronja of Astrid Lindgren, but we developed her to be more restrained and no-nonsense. 

Norse mythology was a heavy surplus of inspiration for Chronicle of Roses, especially for Ronya. We were inspired by Huginn and Muninn, Odin's ravens, and the valkyries of Valhalla. This is where the raven, winged and death motifs came from.

Signalis, Silent Hill, Bloodborne and Dead Space, were heavy inspirations for the game’s plot and characters. Elster as well as Kratos from God of War (2018) were the characters that inspired me to make Ronya more no-nonsense and hard-set on saving the person she loves most. The existential and personal horror of those games were heavy inspirations for COR; Ronya is looking for her wife, time and space are warped and fragmented, and the story is incredibly personal and character-driven. Where the horror is directly linked with a character's mental health, and tackles heavy themes of motherhood, codependency, and hate.

Scarlett's Moodboard

Ronya’s armour and equipment, as well as the rest of the game, are heavily based on the mid-1600s. A time of religious turmoil and witch hunts. Ronya’s main weapon is similar to a Polish sabre, which saw its popularity rise through Europe during the Thirty Years War, & she has access to bombs and early flintlocks, as stealth is not particularly a worry anymore. Her armour is based on the early 1500s to mid-1600s armour that was used throughout Europe. 

My intention with her design was to try and showcase a quiet specialist, struggling with her born identity, the use of the black armour and cloak was to symbolise her relation with death. Her hair used to be black in our early designs, but as we started figuring out the different covens and Ronya’s link to fire and magic, we changed to make her hair long and red, almost like a mane, to showcase that separation between her societal identity and her actual identity. To really hit it home with the split of her personhood, we gave her a burn across her face, splitting her face in two, she has loads of other burn scars but they can’t be seen under the armour. 

Scarlett's sketches.

Ronya’s story is one of self-actualisation and self-acceptance, her story is a very personal one to me as it is a heavy allegory of queerness and transness, and I’m literally the gayest queer to ever exist and I’m about to start my hormones this coming week ! Ronya’s themes of codependency and having to find purpose and meaning for herself also add to the list of things I grapple with. I use my art to shed light on those struggles to hopefully make someone who relates to this connect with it, see that they’re not alone, and potentially to find my work helpful in their journey of growth. 

For next time ! We will showcase Ronya’s and Li’s favourite character, Lilith, the second most important character in the plot of Chronicle of Roses (Ronya being third~).

(Don't mind this being a few minutes late of schedule <3)

[moonrosevalley]

Hello! 

We are Moonrose Valley, a pair of gamedev students in our final year who have decided to sit down and commit to our first project as a duo: Chronicles of Roses. We would like to share this project with you as we make it.

Chronicles of Roses is a 2.5D hack n’ slash about life, sacrifice, and lesbian witches. The story we have created is a character driven one, deeply inspired by Gothic fiction & history, as well as mythology from North & East Europe, and some Celtic folklore & classics. There’s a little bit of casual existential horror in there as well, if you’re into that!

We are still in the conceptual phase, and are hashing out details for characters, narrative, gameplay, & environment - ultimately, we want to share this process with the public, because we believe that it’s a beautiful one, and because game development details are not usually accessible to the public, hidden behind layers of contracts & NDAs. We have had that issue ourselves when scouring for resources. We hope that even one person can benefit from seeing our production pipeline and the difficulties, whether expected or unexpected, that can happen in the process.

Our goal is to maintain a semi-consistent schedule and post every 2 weeks, alternating writers between each of us. This also functions as a motivator for us, luckily! 

You can expect to see concepts and profiles for our characters, narratives, and ideas, in the coming weeks, as well as some (possible) prototyping towards the end of the year and the beginning of 2025. 

We are both deeply in love with this project & story, and we hope that it thrives. We hope that you, too, fall in love with our world & characters as well. 

Thank you for reading!

-Sleepylisard & Scarlett Blom