Denis Loubet has been contributing to a post here on the Sword & Shield forums, which he has entitled Early Character concept for SotA. Essentially, he has been mirroring similar posts that he makes to the Ultima Dragons Facebook group here on the site, revealing piece by piece the visual style he was helping create for Shroud of the Avatar in one of its earlier incarnations.

Because obviously, the game in its present form does not look much like any of this:

Concerning the male shopkeeper, Loubet had this to say:

Early Shroud of the Avatar character concept art. I like this guy! Big splashes of color and knee-high boots. I could totally see him in the Wizard of Oz. It’s the apron and arm-bands that say shopkeeper.

Meanwhile, concerning the image of the two variations of female shopkeeper, he offered this explanation:

Early Shroud of the Avatar character concept art for the female shopkeeper. Variation 1 is less steampunk and more Wizard of Oz, while variation 2 would be more Victorian if it was black and grey. But again, the apron makes the shopkeeper. (Yellow boots? What the hell was I thinking?)

Concerning the Socialite character class concept, he had this to say:

Early Shroud of the Avatar character concept for the Socialite. The outfit would be at home in Flash Gordon or Jupiter Rising. (I also think the bust got away from me a bit…:-P)

I ask myself how many people would actually want to play this character.

Here are his comments on the female shopkeeper that includes the reference photo:

Early Shroud of the Avatar character concept piece. This includes a bit of reference material supplied by Portalarium. This is a tame example of some of the runway fashions I was using as reference. I made it drape to the floor, use a single huge button, and show more skin. I think the attempt at high-heel spats is fun, though the “Playboy Bunny” wrist cuffs may be a little much…

And concerning the last of the female shopkeeper images, he had this to say:

Early Shroud of the Avatar character concept piece. Last of the female shopkeepers, I swear! This is a fairly innocuous design, and again the apron spells shopkeeper. She would also make a great waitress.

The most recently-revealed of the images is the Alchemist character class. It would seem that Mr. Loubet had a good deal of fun with this one:

Early Shroud of the Avatar character concept piece. This one is very steampunk! The half-mask was a client request, as was the non-symmetrical cape. Massive brass chemical contraption on the arm fed from the Etheric Synthesizer on the back. I probably should have put the extra canisters on the other leg for the left hand to draw and slap into the projector. I like how the “Iron Man” style palm-projector unit came out.

I’m not the first to say it — Sergorn Dragon, in particular, has bemoaned this fact before — but I’ll say even so that it’s kind of a shame that Portalarium didn’t elect to pursue this visual style for Shroud of the Avatar. Not that there’s anything wrong, in particular, with the more realistic medieval style they have gone with instead…but these designs had some pretty impressive visual flavour to them, and certainly would have made the game look and feel a bit more distinct. Plus, the integration of technology here feels more natural; outcroppings of electrical gadgetry tend to feel a bit tacked-on in Shroud as it stands.

As you can no doubt guess, these art pieces are being revealed bit by bit, and I suspect by request, as part of Denis Loubet’s ongoing Patreon campaign. If you’d like a say in what art piece(s) he releases or works on next, consider becoming a backer thereof.