Posted September 20, 2020 Welp, I finally decided to finish the Colossus of Fo we had started and was so excited to place that final brick! I stared at it, gave myself a high five for my accomplishment, and stared at it some more. And then I realized that compared to the other Colossi of Wurm, Fo is just a bit...bleh. Underwhelming in his colossus form. And that is confusing to me. This is the god of nature. Yet he looks menacing and cartoonish and not at all like a god. I looked back at the forums and found I wasnt the only one truly disappointed with it. Many have asked since the Fo Colossus was brought into being why he looks like, well, a big ol' blob. I saw many very cool alternatives offered by fellow Wurmians. With all of the awesome changes in how Wurm looks and feels, why can Fo not be more impressively represented?? As a Fo Priest, I am happy to create this and look at it with pride. But as a fellow gamer, dang Wurm lets take this up a notch puhleeze! I can hear the other gods in the distance whispering "Yeah...try taking that guy seriously." 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 20, 2020 Fo needs a fresh set of verts This comes to mind. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 20, 2020 I'm still trying to figure out why the priest statues of the deities look nothing like the colossus. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 20, 2020 Well here is the avatar of fo And for comparison here are vyn and mag Straight from the wiki Just be happy they dont look like this anymore or this when dead The statuette's to me have always been the wurmian depiction of the gods where as the avatars and colossus's are the embodiment of the gods their power with the gods themselves having no real form Now saved lib for last as she looks the best but also shows she is a different type of god To me the 3 white lights gods have always come across as a union of forces of nature and lib as death and decay and thus was formless until wurmians started to worship her and she got a form But that also plays in with the others as well still especially with mag and fo where fo is this mossy creature that could just lay down in the forest and become part with it and mag's avatar being an oversized minotaur fits with the theme of him and his spells So fo might not "look up to par" with the other colosses but in terms of theme and what in my opinion anyway he is based around he fits in perfectly like they dont have to be human looking like vyn and lib after all gods in rl regardless of religion are all kinds of different things even though the majority are human or human like there are plenty of animal related gods or object related gods so why is fo such a bad thing when he looks like a swamp/mossy creature that rose up out of the forest ground(fo's domain) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 20, 2020 8 hours ago, wipeout said: So fo might not "look up to par" with the other colosses but in terms of theme and what in my opinion anyway he is based around he fits in perfectly like they dont have to be human looking like vyn and lib after all gods in rl regardless of religion are all kinds of different things even though the majority are human or human like there are plenty of animal related gods or object related gods so why is fo such a bad thing when he looks like a swamp/mossy creature that rose up out of the forest ground(fo's domain) So many options to choose from than swamp/mossy creature. He could be made from the roots that pull nourishment to the plants and trees that give us oxygen to live. The branches that serve as protection. Even something like that along with the moss could look amazing. He wouldnt need to be human or animal like. But more nature like would be pretty cool IMHO. I appreciate your opinion tho! I can understand your point! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 20, 2020 11 hours ago, Katrat said: I'm still trying to figure out why the priest statues of the deities look nothing like the colossus. Because the Altar of Three, the statuettes and the original designs for the God's were seemingly abandoned when the team made or purchased these avatar models. They changed the altar, made all the collossi match the avatar models and even brought in archaeology statues that say "this is a statue of x god" when in fact its a statue of the avatar. No idea why they did all that but the statuette models were never changed or updated. They're all that's left of the original designs for how the gods were originally intended to look. Everything else has been replaced with avatar models instead. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 21, 2020 I love Fo. And nature and healing and plants and animals. I'm just the most stereotypical tree-hugging healer-type hippie peacenik in the entire world. But I cannot stand the avatar / statue / colossus of Fo. I'm really really over this recent era of our 'woodland god" / "nature spirit" / "avatar of the fields and forests" all looking like a swamp creature-ent hybrid thing. I know that Tolkien is one of the big time god-daddies of fantasy... but there are more things that exist in a forest than just a whole bunch of trees. There's flora, there's fauna, there's different species of trees, there's bugs, there's underbrush. And Fo isn't only a forest god type - he's a god of nature. In his conversion speech and inscribed on the altar is all kinds of stuff about love and healing and all living things. Why did the design end up all barkskin and fangs?? This topic is now in the 'suggestion' forum.... so here are some of my suggestions for a Fo image update. Images of examples included under the snips. 1) Did you know that nearly all the cultures on Earth have envisioned at least one of the nature or forest spirits / demigods / gods / protectors with horns or antlers? Spoiler This guy is Cernunnos - from Gaelic origins. Also known as The Horned One, this guy is the god of beasts and wild places. This dude is a modern blending of various nature folklore, including Cernunnos and another nature-favorite, the faun Pan. When there's a bit of blending to have a generically universal type of nature / caretaker god, he's often called The Green Man. Although there are nature gods with horns & antlers all over the world - England likes their men horny so much that they came up with a second specifically for Windsor Forest. As far as we can figure, there was maybe once an actual guy named Herne who worked as a forest keeper a long time ago, and after he died his name got mixed in with all the forest spirit folklore. Herne The Hunter is sorta a nature caretaker for vines, vegetation, and woodland beasts... but he also has this super nasty ghost aspect that rides hunting at night & torments cattle. Cool, right? Fangirls love this guy. 2) Is there even a single person that saw #1 and didn't immediately think of the Greek nature god Pan? btw, anyone who knows the difference between a faun and a satyr gets 10 x high QL sprouts of any kind free from me. Spoiler So yeah, Pan (usually depicted as a faun) is an ancient Greek god of nature. You've probably seen him depicted like this: But maybe a faun like Pan could have a face like this - Or maybe check this guy out - What if you wanted to keep Fo as a nature god with bark skin... but thought that maybe instead of ent you could go faun? 3) You know how the Lion is the "king of the jungle".... well, if you asked around with people are IRL religiously devoted to nature, most of them would probably tell you that the Stag (or Elk) is the "Lord of the forest." Spoiler This is Eikthyrnir, from Norse lore. Among other things, this gorgeous guy can purify water. Apparently water pours from his antlers and is the source of clean forests waters, like springs, creeks, and rivers, and stuff. I know I said that horns and antlers can be found on nature gods all over the world - and I haven't yet really gotten into anything outside of European parts of the world.... so, because I honestly have no idea where else to show you this BAMF - here is the forest god envisioned by Japanese creative god, Hayao Miyazaki, in the film "Princess Mononoke." There is so much crazy packed into this character that I really can't say much more about this Lord of the Forest; you really just gotta watch Mononoke and see this for yourself. If you want more humanoid in your nature god.... there's things like this! Or you want less peaceful loving nature god, and you want some BAMF in the design?? Dedicated to the mossy / tree look? I dunno what this is, but at least he's not going to eat my soul like the god above... What's that you say? There are more animals in the forest than just stags? Well did you know that there is a whole entire thing about horned wolves as forest protectors? A whole thing. People are also big into horned bears and horned foxes as nature guardians, too. And, sincerely devs, could we at least consider some sort of hybrid or chimera for the god of all living things? That would be epic. We've done guys with horns, animal-guys with horns, animals with horns... you know what we haven't done yet? 4) Plants. Plants and sprouts and flowers are part of "all living things," too. Spoiler When we talk about humanoid plants, currently the most creative concept design is going to be the Sylvari from GW2. Foliage for skin, sprouts and vines and petals for hair, tree branches and bark for bones and joints... (and they are bioluminescent) Did that last guy look like he has horns/antlers, to you? GW2 is not the only place to look for flora inspired humanoids... This guy was just chilllin' on DevArt like artists draw plant people every day, NBD. And there's a race in Starbound called the Floran. They are adorable. They are tribal carnivores. They are made of plant. one of the things I find neato about the character design for this race is that they are not a sexually dimorphic species. Since they are plant-based people, they were designed as basically a single-sex species, and the game mechanics allow players to adapt dimorphic features & male/female identities if they choose. Because they are plants. (Of course, once players got ahold of them all kinds of fanart for female Floran characters spread all over the internet. Srsly, don't image search for the lady-Florans, you'll never be able to water your houseplants again). All that I really want to suggest here is - nature gods don't always have to have tree bark for skin. Or branches for limbs. Just think about it. It's a possibility. 5) Okay, so you really want Fo to be a tree based humanoid.... Spoiler It's time to talk about Slavic lore. As a note - this stuff is from my grandfather's father who I only met a couple times when he was literally on his deathbed. Recently I've tried to get more details and info about the Slavic European folk traditions, but if this is stuff you know, please feel free to correct me here. Especially if I have added a picture saying it's a leshy, and it's actually Veles. Veles is the one with the bull or cow horns, right? Soooo, first you should know that most of the Slavic gods / spirits are shapeshifters in one way or another. The next set of images might be extremely diverse due to all the different ways that a shapeshifting nature god could decide to appear. With that in mind..... Let's take a look at the leshy. In Slavic lore, the leshies are a type of nature god or spirit. There are a couple different words for this same entity (because the area that Slavic European lore comes from is now like a billion different modern nations, each with their own language. So you can see leshy, or leszy, or leśniczy, or lesovik. In a nutshell: "[he] from the forest." Sometimes there's a specific deity, named Svyatibor, who is called The god of all forests and the lord of the leshies. As far as I remember, he has basically the same description as Veles, which is part of why I get them mixed up all the time. To get a picture of this guy, imagine a European version of Santa Claus, put him in tunic and breeches, and send him off to hang out in a forest for the spring, summer, and fall. And all the animals love to hang out with him. Annnnyway - lets look at how people have imagined leshies over the years: That last one was leshy concept art for Witcher 3 - I have also seen some ah-mazing cosplay for these guys. Anyway, I have a serious thing for nature gods, don't tease me. All I'm sayin' is that I agree that Fo needs a character model update. And maybe some new skin. Or some more detailed features drawing from some of these non-Ent nature god influences. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 21, 2020 Well, to invoke Tolkien, maybe a Tom Bombadil type being would suit? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 21, 2020 1 hour ago, TheTrickster said: Well, to invoke Tolkien, maybe a Tom Bombadil type being would suit? Well, yes, very much so..... can we put antlers on him, tho? 😅 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 21, 2020 @AmataLOVE!!! Your suggestions are amazing and well thought out! When I saw some of the images you shared I thought "Yes!!! This is what I would envision when imagining "Fo, god of the Forest, Nature and all living things!" If I saw any one of those I would think "MAJESTIC!!!" When I see the rendering we now have I think "HIDE YOUR CHILDREN!!!" or "That thing needs a Snickers!" 🤪 Or, well, both! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted September 21, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, Amantnovi said: When I see the rendering we now have I think "HIDE YOUR CHILDREN!!!" or "That thing needs a Snickers!" 🤪 Or, well, both! Right?!! Fo says - Do my bidding. Let all things grow into the splendor they may possess. Strive after beauty and harmony with nature. Let your soul become a lustrous gem. With the same passion by which I once created all this, strike down at those who aim to destroy these creations. Love me. Let me love you. ..... now excuse me while I go floss MY SHARP SCARY SHARK TEETH. o.0 Edited September 21, 2020 by Amata Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
