Alora Fane

I've done more work on the MARDEK Remake, so here's an updated version of the character silhouettes with almost all the major characters, not just the 'main protagonists'! Also some possible titles!

Christmas is behind us now, though the New Year still looms ahead. I'm aiming to have the plan for the MARDEK Remake's story roughly finished by then, allowing me to start working on a demo in January, which I'd release alongside a Kickstarter and the Steam re-release of the original MARDEK (as I've said before). It's coming along nicely; I've got a rough idea of all six chapters now, though I still need to clean some things up. I think I said that in the previous post??

I've been drawing more in the last week or two than I have all year (now that I have something I need to draw), and I've now drawn all the major characters with these stylised proportions which'll be used for the in-game models. Originally I wanted to group them into Protagonists, Supporting Characters, and Antagonists or something, but unlike in many JRPGs where you get a fixed party early and keep them for the whole game, in this all those categories are in flux, with characters shifting between them so much that it's too difficult to group them like that.

(In MARDEK, were Deugan and Emela "main characters" despite being absent for chapter 3??)

This shows most of the major characters who appear throughout the second MARDEK-based trilogy, though there are a few not included here who play important roles but never join or battle your party (probably).

They're all based on characters previously in either MARDEK or Taming Dreams, some more loosely than others. I'm not sure how many you'd be able to recognise!

The bottom row are obviously the Governance de Magi equivalents, here called the Magisterium. They're designed to all be wearing hoods, which they can put up to look like the original MARDEK designs (roughly), though they can also be left down to reveal horned lucen heads, which is the case in these silhouettes. Some of them take heavy inspiration from their Taming Dreams incarnations, while a couple are completely new designs. They've all got new names too, based on some actually relevant mythology, which I'll talk about in a later post.

Starting at some point in (probably!) January, I'll start revealing these one-by-one a day at a time, with a post roughly describing them and their origins in MARDEK, and I might have this image as a sort of 'calendar' on the main page of this site (where the Sindrel Song thing is currently), with one being revealed/lit up for each post. It'd be a good idea to have the last one align with the release of the original and/or Kickstarter for the remake, but I'm not sure how it'll all work; I'll have to plan it a bit!

My art's nothing special since I'm using these to explore and demonstrate concepts rather than make pretty pictures (and I rarely draw), but I like how these have turned out and really want to show them all off! And to make 3D models of them for use in the game. But I also know revealing them gradually would be a good way of building hype, so that seems the best course of action!

While I have the urge to just blurt out all my planning because I like a lot of what I've come up with, I'll be trying to keep that to myself to avoid spoilers. I will mention that I've been considering what to call the series though, since "MARDEK Remake" isn't really a title! And I don't want to just use the "MARDEK" title again, partly to create distance from that so it doesn't seem like I'm defiling people's memories, but also because I don't know why I used that title in the first place; it's not exactly meaningful.

The whole setting is based around the idea that consciousness is the fundamental substrate of reality, which minds can manipulate, which is why the elements are 'mind-like' (Courage, Sorrow, etc) rather than the typical physical-oriented ones (fire, water, etc), and it ties to the formation of miasmon and 'elemancy', and the nature of life and what happens after. Interesting things to explore, which I already began exploring in MARDEK with things like the dreamrealm. That plays a major role in this story, as the 'mental sea of chaotic potential' in which dreams happen and the petal worlds of Alora Fane exist as 'islands'. "Dreamrealm" is a bit of a clunky word, though, so I've condensed that to "drealm", which I feel is a nice bit of lore specific to this setting that gives it a bit more flavour.

So I've been wondering whether to call the game Drealm. It's six letters, and google doesn't come up with any major results (though it has been used for a few obscure things), so it'd become strongly associated with this game if it ever gained traction. As a word, to me it sounds like a combination of menacing and mystically intriguing, which is fitting, but it doesn't contain much information... but then again neither do titles like MARDEK or the bizarre "Chrono Trigger" (which we just take for granted now despite it being such a weird title; I suppose the 'chrono' hinted at time travel though).

Another possibility is Divine Dreams, which is a variant on Taming Dreams. It's a title I already used for another non-game project I worked on briefly, so I own ∞ this url ∞. It's multi-layered; the world is the dream of divine deities, plus 'divine' as a word means discover, especially through insight or magical means, which is relevant to the story. Plus it means 'dreaming of becoming divine'... Neither word is unique, for which there are pros (better remembering) and cons (less association). "Star Wars" is made of two common words though, hmm... Plus Divine Dreams can be shortened to DD, while Drealm can't be shortened at all. HMM.

I might come up with something else later; I'm still very much in the brainstorming stage at the moment!

(I've been doing tons of that, too... I've been more productive these past couple of weeks than I have been in ages. Too bad most of it's unseen behind-the-scenes stuff though!)

10 COMMENTS

Dingding32167~5Y

Just a quick comment--it's great to hear you all motivated and I really congratulate your productiveness! I personally like the name Drealm more, and I don't think the lack of a shorter version matters much for a 6 letter word that is quite unique, whereas DD can be misunderstood in other contexts and are actual words, both relatively common ones that people might not immediately associate with the type of game you're trying to produce and "brand", as you've mentioned. I can't wait to see all the character designs, and I bet you've done a better job than you give yourself credit for art-wise!

Ampersand68~5Y

While "Divine Dreams" does roll off the tongue better, something about the title "Drealm" feels so nostalgically "old school", like the name of some 90s adventure game. You're right that it inspires a certain sense of foreboding that DD doesn't, so I guess which title you'd want to go with would also depend on the tone of the story you want to tell.

Maniafig222~5Y

I'll take a stab at guessing all the characters!!

First row:
-Mardek
-Deugan
-Emeela
-Steele
-Collie
-Enki?
-Or maybe this one's Enki? Then the one before could be genderbent Zach, who was planned to be a Taming Dreams character IIRC.
-Meraeadyth
-Gloria or perhaps Sylvia
-Elwyen
-Maybe this is Gloria?
-Sharla?
-Muriance
-Maybe this is Donovan?
-PUP
-Rohoph
-Ghraafuar
-Melodramatic Morric
-Belsueim
-Qualna with an afro mirror!!
-Maka who has obtained laughing unicorn duck pauldrons which also serve as rocket launch sites. As one does.

Make sure to properly research Kickstarters before stepping into one! There's a lot to keep in mind when setting one up to maximize the chances.

I also much prefer Divine Dreams over Drealm. Drealm is a sort of unpleasant sounding word isn't it? Like the name for a swamp in a fantasy setting. Divine Dreams is also two six-letter words!!

Hm, interesting. When I opened the Divine Dreams url, the character at the bottom of the page was a lingon. I don't remember a lingon from that story. Interesting to see you had one of those in there, considering lingons featured in your oldest games too. Could it be that ELARNA WERE LINGONS ALL ALONG?

I'll take a stab at guessing all the characters!!

First row:
-Mardek
-Deugan
-Emeela
-Steele
-Collie
-Enki?
-Or maybe this one's Enki? Then the one before could be genderbent Zach, who was planned to be a Taming Dreams character IIRC.
-Meraeadyth
-Gloria or perhaps Sylvia
-Elwyen
-Maybe this is Gloria?
-Sharla?
-Muriance
-Maybe this is Donovan?
-PUP
-Rohoph
-Ghraafuar
-Melodramatic Morric
-Belsueim
-Qualna with an afro mirror!!
-Maka who has obtained laughing unicorn duck pauldrons which also serve as rocket launch sites. As one does.

Make sure to properly research Kickstarters before stepping into one! There's a lot to keep in mind when setting one up to maximize the chances.

I also much prefer Divine Dreams over Drealm. Drealm is a sort of unpleasant sounding word isn't it? Like the name for a swamp in a fantasy setting. Divine Dreams is also two six-letter words!!

Hm, interesting. When I opened the Divine Dreams url, the character at the bottom of the page was a lingon. I don't remember a lingon from that story. Interesting to see you had one of those in there, considering lingons featured in your oldest games too. Could it be that ELARNA WERE LINGONS ALL ALONG?

Tobias 1115~5Y

You got most of those right, but it's interesting seeing which ones you got wrong and what you guessed they were! Donovan's totally a sindrel this time, that seemed like the most sensible choice really. I like that you got Muriance (or "Murias" here) though!

When I was thinking and writing about researching things and promotion etc before, I was avoiding a lot because it was all so distant and hypothetical... but now that I've actually released Sindrel Song and been through the process, I feel that's shifted my perceptions a bit, in a way that'll hopefully motivate me to do much more research. I'm definitely not intending to dive in blind!

I thought "Drealm" was an ugly word too (like 'gremlin')... and the more I think about it, the more Divine Dreams seems to fit. So I might end up going with that, but we'll see!

I forgot I added lingons in that thing! And about lingons in general, really. Maybe I should have made them the Elarna?! It's too late now though; I designed them last week, and I'm quite happy with what I came up with! I've drawn all the races in this deformed style; I should upload that image soon.

When I was thinking and writing about researching things and promotion etc before, I was avoiding a lot because it was all so distant and hypothetical... but now that I've actually released Sindrel Song and been through the process, I feel that's shifted my perceptions a bit, in a way that'll hopefully motivate me to do much more research. I'm definitely not intending to dive in blind!

I thought "Drealm" was an ugly word too (like 'gremlin')... and the more I think about it, the more Divine Dreams seems to fit. So I might end up going with that, but we'll see!

I forgot I added lingons in that thing! And about lingons in general, really. Maybe I should have made them the Elarna?! It's too late now though; I designed them last week, and I'm quite happy with what I came up with! I've drawn all the races in this deformed style; I should upload that image soon.

purplerabbits148~5Y

I love the way how even in silhouette you can tell who's got the melodrama with just the posesxD

I am not sure all of the new silhouettes but they are very interesting. I wonder if the "fluff", for the person second from the left on the first row, is part of the person or part of the clothing

I like the way how Drealm sounds a bit more than how Divine Dreams sounds. For me, it's similar to how you came up with Memody and it plays into the two words combining. On the otherhand, I like the meaning behind Divine Dreams it hits a deeper level of thought that Drealm does in my opinion.

JohnnyBoi45~5Y

This release calendar you've concocted sounds fantastic! Hopefully it funnels some traffic and interest into this project - it certainly deserves it.

I do think "Divine Dreams" has a better impact as a *title* than "Drealm," though I love the latter's ingenuity. As a previous comment mentioned, Divine Dreams is two six-letter words so you still get that continuity. While both are viable titles, I do wonder how each relates to the full scope of the story being told, assuming it is based on Mardek's storyline to the extent I (and likely others) are expecting.

One thing I actually disagree with is your claim that Mardek as a title was not meaningful or informative. Those games (as I played them) are Mardek's story, simple as that. The subtitles provided useful context on the plot events taking place, but the fact remained that this was a game about Mardek and his journey. Mardek's trajectory through the 3 games certainly lines up with the "hero's journey" archetype, something I don't recall you mentioning explicitly but I'm sure you're well aware of. Part of why the games remain so compelling (at least to myself) is that he only ever makes it partway through. I believe this is one reason the many nostalgics (such as myself) will always clamor for a continuation but never be satisfied by it. That absence of an ending, and the endless possibilities that come with it, are in some ways better than anything that could have actually existed.

Anyway, this is a very long-winded route to get back to my point, which is that Mardek, though not the perfect title in itself, was the perfect title for that game. This is not going to be that game, so it would no longer be the perfect title, but to find that for this game I feel one must distill its core essence. Your current title options are mainly about setting. Certainly many an RPG has used its setting as the title (for an extremely literal example see most every elder scrolls game). But these are often games about self-insert protagonists, where you are your character. The setting becomes the most important thing because it is the defining aspect of that game. But Mardek was a game about characters, and lots of them. And they had their own personalities and charms and even if they weren't perfectly developed in every aspect, they took your interest. I wanted to know Emela's secrets back in chapter II, long before they were revealed. I wanted to find out the history of Legion's souls, and Solaar, and Enki, and the Manta. And when bits of this information were given to us, it was so satisfying, because we wanted it. It wasn't just exposition and explanation being thrust on the player. Not just any game has the subtlety and intelligence to do that so successfully. Mardek had a level of world-building that was truly shocking for a flash game at the time. I know this remake will not be using the worldbuilding from the original series, which is, again, something I am a bit sad about, because there was so much good content there. I hope you can perhaps incorporate some things into this new world, but more importantly I hope that this remake contains the level of care and detail that you gave (though I'm not sure you always recognize it) the original Mardek series. I'm not particularly worried about that, though.

I apologize for getting slightly carried away this comment - your revisiting of the series has sparked my interest greatly and I have about a decade of thoughts on the series to share... I remain very excited to see what happens next on this project.

This release calendar you've concocted sounds fantastic! Hopefully it funnels some traffic and interest into this project - it certainly deserves it.

I do think "Divine Dreams" has a better impact as a *title* than "Drealm," though I love the latter's ingenuity. As a previous comment mentioned, Divine Dreams is two six-letter words so you still get that continuity. While both are viable titles, I do wonder how each relates to the full scope of the story being told, assuming it is based on Mardek's storyline to the extent I (and likely others) are expecting.

One thing I actually disagree with is your claim that Mardek as a title was not meaningful or informative. Those games (as I played them) are Mardek's story, simple as that. The subtitles provided useful context on the plot events taking place, but the fact remained that this was a game about Mardek and his journey. Mardek's trajectory through the 3 games certainly lines up with the "hero's journey" archetype, something I don't recall you mentioning explicitly but I'm sure you're well aware of. Part of why the games remain so compelling (at least to myself) is that he only ever makes it partway through. I believe this is one reason the many nostalgics (such as myself) will always clamor for a continuation but never be satisfied by it. That absence of an ending, and the endless possibilities that come with it, are in some ways better than anything that could have actually existed.

Anyway, this is a very long-winded route to get back to my point, which is that Mardek, though not the perfect title in itself, was the perfect title for that game. This is not going to be that game, so it would no longer be the perfect title, but to find that for this game I feel one must distill its core essence. Your current title options are mainly about setting. Certainly many an RPG has used its setting as the title (for an extremely literal example see most every elder scrolls game). But these are often games about self-insert protagonists, where you are your character. The setting becomes the most important thing because it is the defining aspect of that game. But Mardek was a game about characters, and lots of them. And they had their own personalities and charms and even if they weren't perfectly developed in every aspect, they took your interest. I wanted to know Emela's secrets back in chapter II, long before they were revealed. I wanted to find out the history of Legion's souls, and Solaar, and Enki, and the Manta. And when bits of this information were given to us, it was so satisfying, because we wanted it. It wasn't just exposition and explanation being thrust on the player. Not just any game has the subtlety and intelligence to do that so successfully. Mardek had a level of world-building that was truly shocking for a flash game at the time. I know this remake will not be using the worldbuilding from the original series, which is, again, something I am a bit sad about, because there was so much good content there. I hope you can perhaps incorporate some things into this new world, but more importantly I hope that this remake contains the level of care and detail that you gave (though I'm not sure you always recognize it) the original Mardek series. I'm not particularly worried about that, though.

I apologize for getting slightly carried away this comment - your revisiting of the series has sparked my interest greatly and I have about a decade of thoughts on the series to share... I remain very excited to see what happens next on this project.

Tobias 1115~5Y

I'm glad to hear you feel the characters' stories were the most interesting and important aspect of the games, since that was how I felt myself. It's why I feel that doing something like this calendar is more true to what the game's going to be than if I were to, say, boast about all the POWERFUL SKILLS!!! you'd be able to perform gameplay actions with or whatever.

I'm definitely aware of the Hero's Journey, and I've been thinking about it a lot recently as I plan this remake, wondering to what extent it actually fits with what I've got planned. Now that you've mentioned it, I'm curious to try to explicitly use it a bit to shape what I've already got.

Personally - though I'm saying this as someone who had at least a vague idea of where the whole eight chapters would go - I feel that "ROHOPH" would have been a better title for the series than "MARDEK". I imagined Mardek as a character who's sort of dragged along with the plot rather than driving it, while Rohoph's at the heart of everything (though we all interpret stories differently!). When I talked about a remake a few months ago, I wondered whether to call it "ROHOPH" for this reason. Similarly, "DHARMA" seemed a possibility for this version's title, since that's what he's called now.

I'm leaning towards Divine Dreams as a title because "Drealm" is just a setting name, whereas Divine Dreams is multilayered, and all those layers are applicable (the two-sixes is also deliberate, like with Taming Dreams). The world was literally dreamed up by the gods, so it's a setting name in that sense. But each character also has a personal motive or 'dream', which drives them; I'll probably do what I did with Taming Dreams and give each character a brief 'motto' encapsulating their personal dream (eg from Taming Dreams, Deugan's was "I wish a was a warrior instead of a worrier"). Divine also means to discover, especially through intuition or mystical means, and figuring out dreams - both in the 'hopes and purpose' sense, but also more literally later - is a big part of the story.

Perhaps that's the better title by far, actually...

I'm excited to see where this goes too, and appreciate your input!

I'm definitely aware of the Hero's Journey, and I've been thinking about it a lot recently as I plan this remake, wondering to what extent it actually fits with what I've got planned. Now that you've mentioned it, I'm curious to try to explicitly use it a bit to shape what I've already got.

Personally - though I'm saying this as someone who had at least a vague idea of where the whole eight chapters would go - I feel that "ROHOPH" would have been a better title for the series than "MARDEK". I imagined Mardek as a character who's sort of dragged along with the plot rather than driving it, while Rohoph's at the heart of everything (though we all interpret stories differently!). When I talked about a remake a few months ago, I wondered whether to call it "ROHOPH" for this reason. Similarly, "DHARMA" seemed a possibility for this version's title, since that's what he's called now.

I'm leaning towards Divine Dreams as a title because "Drealm" /is/ just a setting name, whereas Divine Dreams is multilayered, and all those layers are applicable (the two-sixes is also deliberate, like with Taming Dreams). The world was literally dreamed up by the gods, so it's a setting name in that sense. But each character also has a personal motive or 'dream', which drives them; I'll probably do what I did with Taming Dreams and give each character a brief 'motto' encapsulating their personal dream (eg from Taming Dreams, Deugan's was "I wish a was a warrior instead of a worrier"). Divine also means to discover, especially through intuition or mystical means, and figuring out dreams - both in the 'hopes and purpose' sense, but also more literally later - is a big part of the story.

Perhaps that's the better title by far, actually...

I'm excited to see where this goes too, and appreciate your input!

JohnnyBoi45~5Y

Thanks for such a detailed reply! I definitely support your leaning towards Divine Dreams - I hadn't even thought of the connection of using Divine as a verb, which is great now that I see it.

I suppose I don't have the knowledge of where the series was going, but I certainly understand why "ROHOPH" would make sense as a series title. I'd say it's a strange choice because in my mind Rohoph was clearly shaping to be the main antagonist (though I imagine that was your intention), but Lord of the Rings is technically named after the antagonist as well so there's no reason that isn't valid. I always felt that the overarching plot was not just Rohoph's vigilante quest to destroy the rest of the GdM and enforce his views on others, but maybe that events were inevitably spiraling towards a real confrontation between Rohoph and Mardek, which I'd hoped Mardek would have outlasted. Of course, those were only my speculations and hopes for the series. Maybe those notes that you intend to put in the re-release will put some of my mind to rest.

Thanks for such a detailed reply! I definitely support your leaning towards Divine Dreams - I hadn't even thought of the connection of using Divine as a verb, which is great now that I see it.

I suppose I don't have the knowledge of where the series was going, but I certainly understand why "ROHOPH" would make sense as a series title. I'd say it's a strange choice because in my mind Rohoph was clearly shaping to be the main antagonist (though I imagine that was your intention), but Lord of the Rings is technically named after the antagonist as well so there's no reason that isn't valid. I always felt that the overarching plot was not just Rohoph's vigilante quest to destroy the rest of the GdM and enforce his views on others, but maybe that events were inevitably spiraling towards a real confrontation between Rohoph and Mardek, which I'd hoped Mardek would have outlasted. Of course, those were only my speculations and hopes for the series. Maybe those notes that you intend to put in the re-release will put some of my mind to rest.

Astreon152~5Y

The first paragraph of your answer (Tobias) made me think of a possible "goofy" feature : skills become more powerful if you press CAPS before you select them.
Or maybe it could be buff, like you cast the spell 'CAPS' (or reach a certain level of motivation if you go with emotions) and suddenly for a certain duration all skills' efficiency increase by a percentage, and they are written in caps when you select them: it's not "slash" but "SLASH" or it's not "healing song" but "HEALING SONG".

Though the sillyness of it might make it more consistent with Mardek's 1 chapter childhood period (like chunibyo, when you shout your moves outloud), and i don't know if you'll keep that in the remake.

zool1236~5Y

I care about the design of the characters, I'm excited about the game
Would you add a personal industry, hmmm (maybe not)
Will the combat system be difficult, such as Taming Dreams or mixing fighting?
Anyway, I am excited about your rpg games and the second games, I don't know. The best game is Sindrel Song. I haven't tried it, but I will buy it soon.
And sorry if I say something that hurts you, but vice versa
I am your follower and all flash games are sealed