Before the ruins learned to keep their silence, there was a name spoken carefully — the way one speaks near something that listens.

Sylvias Dracauris. The Red Priest.

He was a priest once. He studied the mechanisms of civilisation with the patience of something that already knew the ending — the weapons, the currencies, the systems of obedience — and found them worthy of worship. The only honest theology he had ever encountered. He found the book. Performed the ritual. Traded fifty years for the full truth of human power, body and soul as payment. The transformation came as promised. Scales. Horns. Gold fusing through flesh. The souls of the powerful dead bound into his chest, still reaching, still hungry — proof of everything he believed, carried inside the believer.

He walked out convinced he was the architect of the collapse.

He was the instrument of it.

Now he stands in the rubble of everything he helped unmake. Before him on a crumbling wall — a mural. Still intact. Made with no weapon behind it, no gold beneath it, no system of power in its service. It should be dust.

It is not dust.

The souls in his chest reach harder. The chains hang still. He does not move. His theology has no category for what he is looking at.

The demon does.

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Historical Sources

-The Grand Grimoire - historical occult text to form the basis of the pact

-Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sulvester II) - A real historical priest whose name a origin helped render the character. A medieval priest accused of necromancy, a diabolic pact and whose town latin name means golden place. The character's surname Dracauris is a combination of the Latin roots.

---- Visual Intent----

Sylvias Dracauris stands at the precipice of his victory on the desolate hill of a world he helped dismantle — horns glowing, gold embedded in flesh, the souls of the powerful dead writhing inside him. He has won everything there was to win. He looks down into the rubble and finds the one thing his theology never accounted for. A mural. Alive with colour. Untouched by everything that destroyed the rest. The most dangerous thing he has ever encountered — and the only thing in this world that has made him stop.

Production Plan: 

-CC5 base mesh

-Zbrush

-Substance Painter

-IClone

Symbol references for character:

Alchemy References:

Sigils and Seals:

Credit to some of the artist who I drew inspirations from 

I wanted to make an original concept environment for this challenge a build a scene of a mystical Aztec city scape secluded in a cavernous  terrain. I find some of the canyons and landscapes in the mountains to be entrancing and wanted to imagine what a beautiful city scape would be like build in the area. 

I plan on using Unreal Engine 5 to create the environment. I plan to use some of assets from Cosmos. It is my first time  making an environment so I will give it my all. I primarily use Zbrush, 3ds max, maya and substance painter. 

#learteschallenge