Chronicle of Roses Devlog 1: Design Notes 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.
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.
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.
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)
