Vorador

The Vampire Vorador is one of the most interesting characters from the world of Nosgoth. Always a favorite and always, to me, one that was the hardest for the games to depict. The limitations of Blood Omen 1’s era of 3D modeling aside, they had a vision that was clear. Vorador there is less green than in later incarnations. His nose in Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance wound up inching further and further upward under his brow, to the point it made him look more and more like he had simian influences in his evolution. His mouth grew wider and wider, too. I think it was losing the original intent, which had more of a wolf-like feel, even in the ears, to his evolutionary influences. The chin spikes went through many incarnations in the concept art from spikes, to tufts of hair tied together with twine, and the final designs making it to the games change in SR2 and Defiance drastically. While less spikes in SR2 are more accurate to BO1, the harsher angles of them sticking out became more blocky-looking, vs. naturally occurring. For that, Defiance’s look a bit better, bu they increased them to a full spiky beard of six. Then the outfit changes a lot between titles. SR2 makes a more regal attempt at his outfit, vs the very leisurely robes of BO1. It’s probably the best of the outfits. Defiance opens his chest more and alters the medallion a lot. Given that it’s a direct sequel to SR2, it would be better if the outfit remained consistent. For these characters, vampires keep their attire throughout the centuries, so while it could be chalked up to Vorador just having more in his wardrobe, it most likely was not the reason for these changes. The one downside to SR2’s outfit in the game is he looks like he’s got modern jeans on with a modern belt. So, there really does not wind up being a perfect interpretation.

With that said, when going into this, the goal was to unify with SR2 and make a more definitive version of all of these aspects, where possible. The concept art for Vorador in SR2 has finer, black silks for his sash and black pants. The red cloak is complex, an inner red vest with an outer, longer cloak. These layers help to pull it together with BO1’s feel of his longer robes with a sleeveless vest up top. While not having them at the extreme 90 degree angles of SR2, the chin spikes are 4 like those and more of a bridge from BO1, SR2, and Defiance. I did not give him full hair instead of spikes, but hair over them and up the side of his face, up at the base of his ear, so hearken back to the beard he had as a human and to give more of an organic realism to his evolution influences. There is a bit of wolf there, of a predator of the night, of the ecosystem of the dark swamps, all coming through his skin, his features, and his look. I wanted to expand on the runic symbols on his pauldrons. We see a lot of the same ones used by many of the characters, and in many places. I tried to pick symbols here that were unique, more angular, seen in the ruins of the vampire structures, that would also play off of the concept from SR2. Really bring it to life in bronze with gilded accents.

Unlike the rest of the vampires, Vorador’s eyes are vertical slits for pupils. It was how vampire eyes were depicted in Blood Omen 1 for both him and Kain, but it instead became his unique, defining look from then on. I feel that I captured the best of all worlds in his look here and one that unifies still with the previous title, to feel like it's a direct sequel. It’s another honor to work on this and bring him to life! Though he only has brief time in both SR2 and Defiance on screen, when he does appear, you feel the weight of this character. Paul Lukather brought such a power and gravitas to this role, it is fantastic to be able to bring the visuals up to hopefully match his great performance! I also looked to his features for facial reference for my model.

Note the goblet that was to be included in the game for Vorador, remade here by my fellow colleague, Mihai Morar https://www.artstation.com/fire_paladin; its design has its roots in Blood Omen 1, seen with both Vorador offering Kain a drink at his table in an earlier scene, and with Kain drinking from one at the end when choosing the "bad ending," after dooming the Pillars to ruin. The awesome table and chair were modeled by another member of our team, Andrew Moon.