The world of Athelheim

The World of Athelheim:

World Overview:

The world of Athelheim is a personal worldbuilding project that doubles as a D&D campaign setting. For this project I wanted to practice and showcase my worldbuilding and narrative skillset and create characters, creatures and environments that fit within the world.

With the setting also doubling as a D&D campaign setting I had to establish early on the hierarchy and governing systems of the world, what the lands were like that the players detailed in their backstories, as well as creating interactable NPC’s that are both relevant to the players characters, as well as other NPCs who the players can interact with throughout the world.

I had to ensure that the world building made sense and that the groundwork was laid effectively for multiple stories to be told using this world. To help with this I created a worldbuilding document using the software campfire I order to keep track of important information, and to group information together by kingdoms and alliances.

I then created a map outlining the world and its boarders taking inspiration from historical towns and cities, as well as fortresses an castles to ensure that each one was placed in a believable way. When naming these Kingdoms and their domains I created a naming convention that I would use in order to denote the history of select cultures and where various peoples settled based on the place names. I took inspiration from British Place names, as through looking at them you can see which areas were settled by which group of people, and this was something that I wanted to incorporate to make the world feel more grounded in its own history.

Dawnfjell, Sunderfjell, and Torstheim are all based on old Germanic and Norse dialects, whereas Titan and Soltise are based off Latin and Greek. The Summer Isles are based on Spanish which itself is one of the Latin based romance languages hence its close proximity to Titan and Soltise. The frozen Isles are also based in Germanic languages but shortened and with certain syllables taken out to show its departure from mainland culture and naming.

The Heavy Enforcers:

In regard to the particular concept piece showcased, it depicts the Torstheim Heavy Enforcers conducting a raid on the trading district in response to civil unrest caused by rebellious mine workers. The Heavy enforcers are an elite group feared throughout the world, and are known for their efficiency and violence. They are extremely quick and will complete their objective by any means necessary. They where thick armour plating which can only be pierced by high caliber projectiles and always advance in squads of four.

To create this particular scene I first created a basic block-out in Unreal Engine 5, then using Epic Game store asset populated the scene. I then posed the various character assets to order to create the composition of the scene before lighting, and rendering then bringing it into photoshop for a paint over.