Cofgods and Hunters: The Cofgod

This Project was initially undertaken as part of my Masters Degree whilst studding at Falmouth University and revolved around creating a “Hero Asset” of our own choosing, it could range from just a simple object to a character, the possibilities were many and the brief was left open to interpretation.

Cofgods:

I knew that for this brief I wanted to stick to my comfort zone and to create a dark creature steeped in old folklore and inspired by old traditions. For this I researched into old English folklore and Saxon mythology and came across a creature known as a Cofgod, an old Saxon household god similar to that of Roman Penates or Lares. These deities were represented through a small totem that was placed on shrine kept within the household and the family residing inside would place offerings of food and drink upon the shrine in order to have the blessings of longevity and protection. With this information in mind I thought of the following questions what would happen to these gods if they were abandoned and neglected and what would they do to those that made them this way? It was then that I came up with the concept of having these creatures be these distorted, corrupted ethereal beings seething and loathing the centuries of abandonment, and those who thrust this upon them, and who sought nothing but the ruin of those who had left them this way.

I then began worldbuilding in order for this creature to belong and fit in a narrative, and in order to consider some potential gameplay mechanics that could be televised through the design of the creature itself. I decided then on the following;

• The world must be at a place in time some centuries after the Cofgod would have been seen in peoples homes and worshipped.

• The world must also be a time of religious reforms in order to really drive home the abandonment of the paganistic old ways

• The world must not fall into typical fantasy and monster hunting tropes and the early to mid medieval period must be avoided in order to distinguish itself from games such as the Witcher and Elder Scrolls series

• However, this is not to say that parts of the games history and world cannot feature the early to mid medieval period just that the part in which the player would theoretically play would be set someplace different in order to distinguish itself.

• Any weapons systems and hunting organisations must also be able to fit into this time period.

With this in mind here what I came up with:

World Building:

Civil War rages across British soil as both Parliamentarians and Royalist forces clash in a bid to seize power and determine who should govern England. Battles fraught with casualties and bloodshed are seen throughout the land, castles and fortresses are besieged and their walls laid low, and many towns and villages throughout the land feel the physical and economic strain that this divisive conflict has placed upon them.

Yet lurking in the shadows stowed away in the back of cupboards, lost under floorboards, or left rotting on strange old shrines in abandoned buildings sits the remnants of the old ways… of the old gods. Feelings of paranoia were rife as people seemed to notice things…strange occurrences and happenings that seemed to plague the land and their homes. Poor harvests became commonplace as crops weathered and wilted away, stored food that could be scavenged from these disastrous harvests seemed to sour and rot despite preservation efforts, unexplainable and bizarre disappearances and deaths led the naïve common folk to turn their attention to so called witches and practitioners of “dark magic” leading to the deaths of many innocents who had been branded in such a way. Yet the lesson learnt here amidst the famine and bloodshed was perhaps one of neglect and abandonment, the foregoing of traditions, and the lack of remembrance for these items that now sat in shadows of their minds.

You see these forgotten items; these totems of the old gods hold great power that used to reside with purpose and pride in the homes they were now neglected in. These deities were bound to their totems and placed upon shrines in their homes where they were beloved and worshipped through offerings and devotional prayers. In many cases these lesser gods were treated as family and as such would grant those loyal and loving, longevity, prosperity, and protection. But, through centuries of neglect and abandonment something rotten stirred up inside these creatures, twisting and tormenting them creating the catalyst of cursed corruption to witness them emerge as bitter resentful beings, swearing revenge on all those who left them revoking their blessings of protection and longevity and replacing them with gifts of suffering, misfortune, and death.

These creatures cannot be destroyed by conventional means, and many who have tried have found themselves helpless and unaware of the power that these creatures possess. And those who have by some miracle temporarily dissipated its ethereal form have found themselves in their final moments staring into the eyes of the creature they swore they had killed in their previous encounter. Instead, these creatures must be killed at the source, the totem itself must be destroyed in order to permanently banish this creature. Thus, to efficiently combat this ethereal threat, the Hunters Guild was created. The Guild was originally established around the 13th century due to the widespread nature of Christianity throughout Europe and the phasing out and abandonment of some of the old practices and beliefs, and the hunters were dispatched to eradicate the first known corrupted Cofgods. This at first proved to be a challenging task fraught with danger and difficulty.

However, through the years they discovered how best to tackle these troublesome foes and recorded all their knowledge in vast bestiaries to pass down to the next generation of hunters. These hunters were respected and, in some cases, feared by the public due to their ability to combat corrupt and ethereal beings, these warriors were paid well and were fitted with the best armour and equipment at the time. However, as time moved on and centuries past, both the numbers of hunters and Cofgods dwindled and began to fade into obscurity, “Magic” became science, and the immaterial and ethereal became nothing more than cautionary folk tales told around campfires.

Because of this people questioned these hunters, these relics of a bygone era, these men who had swindled peasants out of many a coin fighting things that didn’t exist, as such their funding was cut, and the guild had to improvise modifying weapons and armour from a generation ago in order to fit their purpose. However, the guild is needed once more as these strange occurrences have once again risen into the public view. Religious reforms, wars, and a besmirching of the old ways has angered the last remaining Cofgods who will stop at nothing to rid the world of those who betrayed them and left them to rot.

The Design:

With the World Built it was then time to design the creatures themselves. I knew I wanted the creatures to have a wispy ethereal look to them, yet a sense of weight and density to them in the physical world, I also wanted them to have a sort of skeletal frame dependant on how they’re totem was carved and created. I experimented and researched into various skull shapes from all manner of animals such as cormorants, dogs, cats, humans, shark, crows and fish such as Cods. I also looked at how the creature could initially manifest itself from its totem into the physical world.

Cofgod Skull Variation Sketches

I then created three designs based on a cormorant, human and cod skull and got to work experimenting with certain textures and weight to the wispiness trying to really dial in how these creatures would move and what effect they would have on the world around them. In the end I settled on the Cod skull as I thought it looked the creepiest out of all the various designs and is something I have not seen used a lot in folklore and horror.

Cofgod Variations

After this I then modelled the skull and bones in blender trying to get as close as possible to the look and texture of bones, I also then experimented with different ways of creating the wispy smoke effect through blenders own quick simulations as well as custom creating cloud effects. I also experimented with the human skull variation as well but ultimately kept with the Cod skull design.

3D Modelling and Experimentation in Blender

I then posed the creature in an environment that I had modelled myself to create a ruined house in the marshes in which the creature roamed tethered to its totem. This was then subsequently brought into photoshop for a final paint over.

The Cofgods totem was also created following a similar pipeline. for this however I knew I wanted to have the totem be a smaller cuter curled up version of the creature itself to show the once pure nature of these beings before their abandonment and corruption. This once finished was then added to the final layout as well. I also wanted to have a spiralled nature in order to harken back to similar patterns found in old Anglo-Saxon carvings and metalwork.

Cofgod totem

Cofgod Final Layout.