Turel - Devolved

Turel is a devolved vampire. In Soul Reaver 1, he, along with his other brethren, including Raziel, were seen in the opening intro as still humanoid. Evolved vampires, before the fall. Inherent in them, passed on from their maker, Kain, is a corruption that would eventually cause them all to devolve into monstrous, animalistic forms. Raziel never faced his brother, who, along with Dumah, tossed Raziel into the Abyss where he burned, becoming the undead wraith we see in the games from the on. Raziel was able to get revenge on Dumah and the rest, except Turel. They finally meet in Defiance.

The remaster of Soul Reaver from 2024 gave us the first full glimpse of what the encounter would have been with Turel, as the original cut content from Soul Reaver did have them face off. It was awesome to see the model brought to life. Ever since the textures for Turel were unearthed over a decade ago, it’s been a dream to see the final brother in all his glory. When modding the original Defiance years ago, I repainted his base textures with those from SR1 as inspiration. While the Defiance model has its unique charm, when thinking back to the monstrous, twisted souls the brethren were in Soul Reaver, it felt different. Even working with far less polygons, the texture artists in Soul Reaver were able to invoke such a sense of gritty realism, of mutating, or decaying skin and flesh, worn leather, metal – just so much amazing artistry packed into those tiny texture tiles. They have a certain viscera that made the models feel more real and more tragic/horrific than they had any right to be. Details like invoking the look of near translucent skin with underlying tendons, muscle, and sinew. The texture work and concept art by Arnold Ayala is so amazing, when crafting the Turel for this remaster, it was clear that had to be honored. Turel had to be worthy of that, the brethren that we saw in their monstrous state before him, and worthy of Raziel’s own amazement when he meets him in Defiance, “The others were grotesque, but…” What could make even him balk after what he’s seen since facing his devolved brethren and ending the rest of their lives?

Turel has exoskeletal bony parts, creating a sort of mask of bone over much of his face and framing his large ears. Bony mandibles have grown around his face to hold fast whatever he bites down upon. His great evolution in telekinetic powers have pushed parts of his very brain to tear through its skull, not unlike the fate of the mentalist, Nupraptor – the originator of the very curse that has made the brethren devolve into these bestial forms. Parts of his skin are ripping apart, bone and muscle growing too much to fit inside as he continues to mutate, heavily showing down his neck, over upper chest, and throughout his back, where his spine pushes through. Bony tendrils protrude from his back, acting as feelers for detecting motion and vibration in the air. His skin oscillates from tough, rhinoceros-like and armored, to thin and sinewy. His legs have mutated to become grasshopper-like with exoskeletal chitin sections and spikes, allowing his huge mass to jump incredibly far, incredibly fast. He wears the last vestiges of leather clothing, part of his last uniform that remains, stretched to its absolute limit, since these great mutations became too much for his garments. Dirt and grime has become ingrained into those bits and onto his skin, after however long stuck in this hideous pit.

Turel is a massive being, over 30 feet (900 cm) tall if stood upright, close to 36 feet at the tip of the ears. He could literally bite Raziel in half and swallow that hole. Creating such a massive character comes with its own challenges, trying to maintain the fidelity needed at such a large scale and the consistency of it across the massive body. He’s the closest I’ve come to creating a Kaiju monster, and I’m extremely happy with how he turned out. Despite the monstrosity, it’s important that he still retains the original character that he was, the humanity just about fleeting in his features. I wanted to make sure the Lieutenant he came from is still present. I am so honored to be able to bring this vision to this remaster and to do the best justice of Turel that I can!