A war spear, and a cooler noon

Four changes went into the game today that you can see, so the clips and stills on this site are filmed again to match.

A war spear

The vel looked like an ornament. A thick copper shaft, a ball at its collar and another at its butt: it read as a sceptre, something a king holds, not something you throw into a wall and stand on. The spear we wanted was already on this site, in the painting of Reed Lake, so the vel is built after that one now.

The vel side on, before and after. Before: a thick copper shaft with a ball at the butt and a ball collar under a leaf-shaped blade. After: a slim dark shaft with a polished line, a blunt cone at the butt, and a shouldered war head on a socket and flange. — The vel as it was, and as a war spear, as the game draws it.

Its head is a war spear’s: a blade half a metre long that flares out of its socket to two sharp shoulders, then narrows to a long point with a ridge down the middle. A flat flange and a plain collar sit under it, and the collar still holds the six seats for the sparks Aru takes back. The butt is a blunt bronze cone. The shaft is slimmer, five centimetres where it was eight, and nearly black, with one polished line along it, so on a Steam Deck’s screen the spear still reads as a clean dark line with a bright blade.

None of it changes how the spear plays: it has the same length, the same reach and the same grip.

No more glow

Every character had a pale line round them. It was a rim light, there to keep Aru readable against busy stone, but against the gorge’s mid-toned sandstone only near white could do that, and it read as a glow. The rim is quieter now. It darkens an edge against lit ground and lightens it against dark ground, only on the side the sun is on, and in the colour of the light.

A brute in the shade, enlarged: a pale line runs round his whole outline, from his helmet down to his feet — A brute in the shade of the narrows, enlarged three times: with the old rim, and with the new one.

The same brute with the new rim: the pale line is gone, and his dark edges lift only a little from the dark ground — A brute in the shade of the narrows, enlarged three times: with the old rim, and with the new one.

A cooler noon

The Lion Gate is the dry land at noon. Until today the far side of the gorge looked warmer than the walls beside Aru, and that flattens a picture. Now the haze cools with distance to a pale blue-grey, the sky is deeper, the shade is darker and bluer, and the light thrown up off the sand is warmer, so the near stone stays warm and the far side sits back.

The top stair this morning: the haze warm from the near walls to the far hills — The top stair, this morning and now.

The top stair now: the near walls still warm, the far hills cool and blue-grey through the haze — The top stair, this morning and now.

Rock, not walls

Behind the salt line, two crags in the middle distance looked like a triangle of wall and a broken trapezoid. They were painted in the same beds as the masonry, and fell away evenly from a peak like a stepped pyramid. They’re painted as the far side’s granite now, on uneven ridges, and read as rock.

The salt line now: the new spear, the quieter rim, the cooler noon and the crags behind as rock.

The paintings too

The paintings on this site had the old spear in them, so they have been painted again with the new one: the picture at the top of the home page, Aru calling the spear home, the Lion-Faced General, the Mirage King and five of the lands. Reed Lake keeps its painting, since its spear is the one the new vel is built after.