Mortanius

For Mortanius’ updated Defiance look, I stuck closer to the amazing concept art done by Kory Heinzen. The overlapping, crisscrossing waist fabric and sashes, the more slicked back hair. I kept the feel of his face while mixing in some familiar horror icon features. For Moebius, the great Hammer films’ icon Peter Cushing references inspire his look, while here, for Mortanius, it was the great Boris Karloff. Along with this, his voice actor for Defiance, Alistair Duncan, has great eyebrows and forehead features to reference which help complete this overall incarnation of Mortanius. While keeping the dark red tones of his clothing, fine velvet and silks are used to bring forth that flair. The upper leather chest armor is closer to the ingame Defiance model in that it isn’t covered over by more fabric as it is in the concept art. The leather is stitched together with large (probable demon) horns on the shoulders, and the high collar. The boots and/or feet coverings in the ingame model are not so easy to parse as to what they are made of. I went with leather boots, slight red staining to the leather, with bronze metal sabatons covering the top.

The original’s mask is also hard to fully see in the game, but in the textures it is a bit easier to make out that it is a bony mask with actual stitching to it, implying that it stitches itself to his actual flesh and skin when called. I made this much more pronounced here in the remake, with the shape of the mask actually hearkening more toward his face shape from Blood Omen 1. As much as possible, even in this version, the philosophy is to tie these creations of the characters back to their original origins. For Mortanius, it’s Blood Omen 1, for Turel, it was Soul Reaver 1. The deeper reds in the clothing are also for that reason. The other thing that I wanted to bring forth in Mortanius is the torture he’s gone through. You should be able to read it on his face, even if this is a more youthful presentation of him than the used up husk that is seen in Blood Omen 1. I’m very proud to have been able to bring Mortanius to life for this remaster!