For my Fantasy brief research, I have decided to primarily base my idea on the Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogy as there are similarities in my series and the lord of the rings series. Most of my ideas came from my head through random thoughts and during tasks in online lessons.
I made a mood board to share my thoughts and ideas:
The current plot idea:
History of the stones:
This will be explained at the very beginning of the series: Many hundreds of years ago, a powerful sorcerer named Straviar sought to rule the known world and plunge it into darkness. He created 3 Stones of Desire: Health, Wealth, and Emotion. When merged, they form the Flame of Oblivion, which can bring death and destruction. The Three Kingdoms united against the sorcerer, and a tremendous battle took place. In that battle, the sorcerer was vanquished and the three Stones were split and were given to each of the three kingdoms. The Elven Kingdom was given the Health stone, and they used it to bring strength and vitality to the world. The Dwarf Kingdom was given the Wealth stone, and they took it deep into the mountains, where it became lost in mystery. The last stone: the Emotion stone, was given to the Kingdom of Men where it lived in the king’s castle above his throne. The king used the stone to create a happy and harmonious place.
The Stones of Desire are inspired by the Infinity Stones from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they are six stones with unique powers and Thanos, the villain of the Infinity Saga wants to get all six of them to fulfil his main goal of wiping out half of all living things. This is like Bartosz’s goal, as he seeks to get all three stones to form the Flame of Oblivion in order to destroy the world around him. The destructive power of the Stones in the wrong hands worries Zeph, so he wants to stop Bartosz from obtaining all three for his own purposes by collecting and destroying them before the villain can get to them. The Stones of Desire can only be destroyed when they are altogether forming the Flame of Oblivion, forcing Zeph to hasten if he is to save the world.
I made the Stones red, orange and yellow to help make the audience associate them with the colours of fire, as together they create the Flame of Oblivion.
Red: health Orange: wealth Yellow: emotion Infinity Stones from Marvel:
Zeph and Bartosz’s Backstory:
This will be explained towards the end of the series as it is very spoiler-heavy: There was once a land named Oclaria, there was a king from the Kingdom of Men named Phillipe and a queen named Alana. They were childhood sweethearts and their love for each other was very strong. They had a son, but the queen died during childbirth. The king blames the baby for it and gave no love to him. The son grows up not knowing love and is drawn into the darkness. Later on, the king married a new queen named Esmeralda, and they had a second son, who they named Zeph, and the king loved him dearly. The first son grew jealous of the second son so he tries to kill him but gets caught in the act. He gets banished from the kingdom but he stole the Emotion Stone before he left; the Stone fed off his hate and malice and devoured and disfigured him. The first son fled north to the Shadow Lands. As further revenge on the king and also driven mad by the Stone, the first son pays mercenaries to kidnap and murder Zeph. They take him to the forest at the edge of the Kingdom where they were about to do the deed when they were themselves ambushed. Zeph survived and was left alone and then found by the forest elves and taken to the Elven city of Galnelon. He was taught and raised by the way of the elves by Lafarallin, the Elven king who treated Zeph like his own son. Zeph would have many adventures with the elves before learning about his accurate family history and setting out to bring peace to the kingdom. The first son stayed in the Shadow Lands, growing stronger and plotting destruction upon the world.
The series will be split into three seasons, as each season will act like a three-part movie trilogy.
The current character ideas:
I have made my hero character Zeph a typical warrior character by giving him a sword and a shield and a cape. He lives with the forest elves during season 1 and later on goes out with his friends to find out his true family history and fulfil his main goal which is to destroy the three stones of desire as he worries they will go into the wrong hands and form the Flame of Oblivion once again and destroy the world. He is inspired by the main character Frodo Baggins from The Lord Of The Rings as Zeph is very similar to him; both are kind, likeable characters. Frodo was a hero, and so was Zeph. He had a lot of goodness and wisdom in him, too. The film was very successful and Frodo is one of the most well known and iconic fantasy protagonists of all time. Zeph’s name means “Hidden by God”, suggesting that his good nature makes him worthy of protection from evil, such as when Bartosz tried to have him killed.
Zeph is also inspired by Marth from the Fire Emblem series as I looked at a Marth amiibo figure when designing him. Both these characters have similar boots, and both wield a sword and wear a cape. The Fire Emblem series is very popular with the age group that would watch my series which is 15-24, also Fire Emblem is in the fantasy genre, so it fits. Marth has appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series, which is extremely popular and it gets people to know who Marth is and what games he’s from. According to the lore of Fire Emblem, Marth is a prince who is viewed as a legendary heroic figure, which makes him similar to Zeph. He is also one of the most famous characters from the franchise, which might help draw in fans of Fire Emblem to Flame of Oblivion as the two franchises are similar.
Finished character design: No shading: No colour: Very early concepts:
Marth from Fire Emblem:
I have made my villain character Bartosz, another warrior who is covered in armour and has a different sword and a better and bigger shield. I gave him an eyepatch to show how many battles he has been through. His primary goal is to destroy the world around him by collecting the remaining Stones of Desire as the Emotion Stone corrupts him and turns him mad. He was almost planned to be an orc at one point, but that would make my idea too similar to Lord of the Rings, and orcs are often the villains in most fantasy series. Plus, I never planned it from the start of the brief. Voldemort, the principal antagonist from Harry Potter, had inspired me when making Bartosz because they both have similar facial structures and Voldemort is an iconic villain who did really well in making Harry Potter an iconic franchise. During season one, he will wear a helmet that covers and hides his face, which makes him anonymous. In the middle of season 2, he will remove the helmet and reveal his face.
A lot of villains in the fantasy genre typically wear grey or dark colours and a good example is Sephiroth, the iconic villain from the video game Final Fantasy 7 who was also an inspiration for Bartosz’s design and characterisation. Even though Bartosz and Sephiroth look different physically as Bartosz is disfigured from the Emotion Stone, their armour incorporates similar colours and both use swords to fight. Like Bartosz, Sephiroth is a warrior as he was part of SOLDIER 1st Class, and he is also driven mad before the main events of his first appearance.
Finished character design: No shading: No colour:
Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7:
Sephiroth was designed in total physical contrast to Final Fantasy 7’s protagonist, Cloud Strife, as shown in the image below. Sephiroth is taller, with long smooth hair in contrast to Cloud’s short spikes and even their swords are very different. This is like how I designed Zeph and Bartosz, as their contrasting appearances including their weapons tell the audience that they are on different sides because of the audience’s set expectations based on the connotations of the colours they wear with black and grey often connoting evil for example, while Zeph’s brighter colours connote to the audience that he is the hero.
Comparison between Cloud & Sephiroth (Final Fantasy 7 Remake) and Zeph and Bartosz from the Flame of Oblivion animation:
Of course, supporting characters exist within the Flame Of Oblivion universe, as Zeph has a few Elven friends and a dwarf friend that they find in the dwarf mines when they locate the Wealth Stone.
Poster:
I will make a poster that would promote the series. It will have a fire background with both Zeph and Bartosz’s arms with their swords clashing, and each one will have a Stone of Desire. Zeph will have the Health Stone on his sword as he was given the Stone from the elves and Bartosz will have the Emotion Stone on his sword as he stole the stone from his home when he got banished. And the Wealth Stone falling into the flames to symbolise the disappearance. There will be the title at the top with “A Netflix Original Series” above it and a caption below the title with “Coming Soon 2021” at the bottom of the poster.
Finished poster:
Animation:
I will make a full scene that takes place towards the end of the series at season 3 where Bartosz and Zeph are about to have a major battle in the city of Men where it is all in flames as Bartosz has the Flame of Oblivion. there will be 6 scenes that I will animate.
Bartosz approaches Zeph
Bartosz says “It’s over Zeph! the city is ours!”
Zeph gets mad,
Zeph says, “The stone isn’t yours! It doesn’t belong to you!”
Bartosz smirks
Both charge at each other and clash their swords
Finished animation:
Inspiration for the animation and poster:
Sephiroth is standing in the fire that he has caused, as shown in Final Fantasy 7, which is an inspiration for the animation, as Bartosz has the Flame of Oblivion which he used to burn the entire city. Bartosz also walks towards Zeph to say “look what I’ve done”.
I chose a black silhouette of buildings to use as a background for my animation, as it would look decent in a night scene as distant buildings and they would be blended in with the fire. Also, it would fit in well with the aesthetic of the series.
