Hello everyone! I didn't have the opportunity to write my own blog post yet but now the time has come! A quick little introduction: my name is Fiona and I work as a Concept Artist for Beyond Worlds. Having started as an intern, I've been trying my best to support Zongi and Hakim on our art team since the beginning of the year. My work here primarily focuses on Creature Concepts, but I generally work on all sorts of concepts for Silberheim, such as cities and their inhabitants or different plants and structures. But enough said about me, I'd like to introduce you to a creature I really liked working on: the Arak.

It all began when I went through our own Wiki articles and came across the Arak. It immediately grabbed my attention and inspired me to come up with a suitable design for the already existing lore snippets: A giant orange bird that glides down into the valley from its high perch on the "Weltensteig". It has multiple eyes and falls from the sky when there's no light. Sounds awesome, but why? That was one of many questions that needed answers. Because creating a compelling creature isn't only about a nice design, it's also about creating good lore surrounding it; why does something look the way it does? How does my creature behave and why does it behave the way it does?

Now try to imagine: You are a Fenn, laying comfortably on a juicy green meadow near the Eimh (a river), sunbathing on a peaceful day. And suddenly there's a huge shadow gliding over you. You warily open your eyes and there it is, sky-high and unbothered, focused on the lively fish in the Eimh: the Arak. These creatues are huge! They have a wingspan of 4-6 metres, some even reaching 10 m and a body length of approx. 8 m, including the tail. But as fast as it arrived, it's gone, gliding back to its nest.

And now the question: what am I gonna do with this description? How exactly should it look? The pressure was on, I really wanted to create something impressionable and majestic since it was supposed to be the focus of quite a few cards. I wanted to avoid a typical bird-like silhouette, we already had enough of those with more to come. But Manu, one of my bosses, was a great help: "Take a look at an Ornithocheirus!" he said. And so I read up on prehistoric avian predators; on Quetzalcoatlus, Ornithocheirus and Hatzegopteryx. Because an Arak should be something from an ancient time, something prehistoric and not exactly fitting in our current world. A giant from a forgotten past.

In the end I started by reading everything I got my hands on, to look at all inspirational references I was given and to finally sketch whatever came to mind. It was a lot. I suddenly had a canvas full of different body-types, head- and beak-shapes that didn't necessarily fit together. That's where the lore-work came in handy again:

Araks save a lot of their energy by gliding. They are quite heavy despite hollow bones since they have a lot of dense muscle mass to keep them afloat. Therefore landing during a hunt, without being certain to catch something, would be quite a strain on their bodies. A good solution was to make them catch prey by flying lower to the ground or using flexible beaks to catch fish from above the water surface, similar to a pelican or heron. Eagle-like concepts were off the table at that point, I wanted a long beak that was great to catch fish since that sort of silhouette was a lot more memorable.

A little anecdote: Fenn children are told early on that Araks might mistakingly pick them up, thinking they are prey, but let them go as soon as they recognize them because Fenn are not on their menu.

And so I accumulated more and more lore which formed the Arak along the way:

Since it was supposed to be slightly prehistoric and I looked at several dinosaurs for reference, I wanted to give its general body shape some more reptilian attributes without losing the avian qualities. The beak got longer and I added a casque on their upper mandible to make it look more unique. The beak wouldnt end right behind the nostrils, but rather engulf the whole front of the head to protect the 3 pairs of sensitive eyes. This created a rather intimidating look but they are typically very peaceful and sluggish. Its wings are not wholly feathered but rather have bat-like membrane feathers right at the outer tips of the wings. More membranes connect the inner edge of the wing with the torso, increasing the surface and stability. Their sternum, which is generally more pronounced in birds, is pretty massive. Its blue-ish color stands out in the orange plumage and forms a tipped plate on its chest. Their legs are quite strong, the hindlegs can even carry them for a while but the claws on their wings are even stronger, being able to push them off the ground to lift off into the sky. I really liked adding more blue highlights to the design like their scaly underbelly or tail since I love the orange and teal contrast it creates!

The elastic skin on its throat, which enables a "fishing-net"-effect, should have more than one function. They also use it to emit a very loud scream to communicate over great distances. This happens most likely when 2 parental animals warn each other about danger or a predator nearing the nest.

They are outstandingly good parents and protect their young with everything they got. The fledglings will stay in the nest until their skulls harden out completely; until then they are also big and strong enough to fly on their own.

Their nests are built into tree-tops. The parents break off the inner parts and branches of the tree to create a sort of "bowl" with the outer branches, perfect for nesting and big enough to carry a parent and their younglings. They even use their own splendid feathers to cushion their eggs properly. The same feathers are usually presented to the female Arak during rutting time to impress her. Whenever some of these feathers happen to fall down from the nest, they'll be collected and used as an important ressource.

Due to their size its entirely possible to use them as a riding-animal but it's close to impossible to domesticate a mature specimen, they are very cautious and avoid any sort of contact with other species such as humans or Fenn. Young Fledglings could be tamed, but you'd have to get past the parents first. If one of these beautiful animals ever land in the hands of merchants or animal smugglers, they usually get very lonely and wither away slowly. Their magnificent back-feathers get trimmed or in the worst case get pulled out to make space for a saddle. The elastic skin on their throat gets partially sown together to avoid their loud, ear-piercing screams. Summed up a very sad and miserable existence, but this fortunately happens very rarely.

The worst aspect of this scenario is their loneliness because Araks are very social animals and seek life partners. During rutting season, the male Arak changes its feathers colors, making them even more majestic than usual. They inflate their throat and increase their neck size to appear imposing and catch fish to impress their chosen female. If she is convinced, they'll lift up into the sky and "dance". A pair of chosen mates stays together for life.

My idea for this creature was to create something with many contrasting factors: A dangerous look but a shy and calm demeanor. A strong protective instinct and aggression against enemies but a very social behaviour around other Araks. It could very well be a dangerous predator but it's a gentle giant high up in the sky that catches some fish here and there. Of course I hope that in addition to the lore aspects and the interesting contrasts, a coherent, memorable design has also emerged. The final concept and possible artwork-thumbnails could then be sent to our Card-Artist Joe Watson, who was responsible for the "Erbostes Arak", "Junges Arak" and "Baumkronensprenger". Thank you very much for reading. I hope I was able to give you an understanding of my process and the ideas behind it c: