Janos Audron

The last of the Ancient Vampires in the world of Nosgoth. Vampires in Nosgoth were an actual race of blue-skinned, winged beings, and not undead drinkers of blood. They were cursed with with blood thirst and immortality by their rivals, the Hylden, during the end of their war in Nosgoth's past. This is a truly unique take on vampires. These ancient, winged versions all died out in Nosgoth thousands of years ago, save for Janos. Due to necessity to preserve the bloodline of vampires in Nosgoth, the curse was passed onto humans, which is where the other characters in the series come in.

Janos was the first of the characters I started on that wasn’t one I’d already done. Initially, we were talking of just upgrading the Soul Reaver 2 Remaster’s face in order to keep the fidelity consistent. I soon found that it needed more than just a face update and it would be better to redo most of it. The overall face and features were good. I sculpted more subtle features, more veins, updated the clothing to feel more like the material it was made from, and the wings to have more detail and accurate layered feathering. For inspiration, Soul Reaver 2 Janos is definitely already using Bela Lugosi as reference. I would use him and a bit of Janos' voice actor, the late Rene Aberjenoi, as references for my version. I’m very pleased with his look in the game. His face needs to feel wise and worldly, while also having that contrast of benevolence and dark mystery from the curse in those features. Heightened brows and cheekbones already made the vampires stand out in that dark way, bust Janos can’t look too dark, or evil. I was extremely happy with the result. It was a lot of work, but worth every bit. It also would set the stage for the level of quality to adhere to with the rest of the cast.

Janos goes through multiple stages, so this was important to get right. From here, the gory dead version of him could be made, with his alternate chest showing the exposed cavity and broken ribs where his heart once was. Unlike the mod I did years ago, I kept the blood a bit fresher in look here, as if it was still being preserved, along with his body, as long as the heart remained functioning somewhere. I made sure, as with all such models, I kept the gore as realistic as could be, showcasing Janos’ end was truly a grizzly one. Sculpting and detailing things like this are both fun for me, and can be a bit unsettling when I go looking for references, but the end result is worth it!