IronVigil: Embers of Rebellion
“They keep a vigil in iron until the empire falls.”
A lone rebel soldier runs and guns his way through a colossal gothic war-empire, from its ash mines to the throne at the top of its spire.
The name is the rebels' oath: they keep a vigil in iron until the empire falls.
Design Pillars
For a thousand years the Ascendant Dominion has ruled the world of Vharos from the Spire of the Undying, a cathedral-fortress taller than the clouds. At its top sits the God-Chancellor, a ruler kept alive inside a throne of pipes and engines, whose stone face watches from every square.
The Dominion turned cities into cathedral-factories: gothic arches over endless assembly lines, choirs singing over loudspeakers, and walker tanks the size of chapels marching between monuments. Crimson banners with its emblem, the Crowned Iron Eye, hang from every wall.
Roan Kross, 32, is a former Dominion officer who defected after he was ordered to burn his own home district. Broad-shouldered and rugged, with dark stubble and a scar across one cheek.
His left arm is a heavy dieselpunk prosthetic of riveted iron and pistons, rebuilt from a Dominion walker. He wears scratched heavy armor with the Dominion emblem scraped off and an orange ember painted over it, a long patched coat and an orange scarf, and carries a rotary rifle.
His companion is Wick, a salvaged hovering drone with one warm orange lens, once a Dominion surveillance unit until Roan rewired it.
A colossal spider-like walker with a whole gothic cathedral on its back, a red rose-window eye, gatling and organ-pipe cannons, and crimson banners.
The God-Chancellor leads the final battle from inside it.
Districts turn from crimson Dominion control to orange rebel fire as they are liberated.
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1
The Ash MinesThe rebel base under the slag heaps.
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2
Foundry CathedralAn assembly-line cathedral where tanks are built.
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3
The Avenue of MonumentsA parade road lined with giant statues.
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4
The Bastion WallsBunkers and searchlights around the capital.
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5
The Spire of the UndyingThe throne at the top of the world.
A lone rebel soldier runs and guns his way through a colossal gothic war-empire, from its ash mines to the throne at the top of its spire.
Stylized 2.5D mobile game art with chunky heroic proportions and slightly oversized armor. Cold grey light from above, red lenses and stained glass, warm orange fire, searchlights, smoke and embers.
- Crimson and gold always mean the Dominion. Orange fire always means the rebels. Never mix them on one character.
- The Dominion is vertical, symmetrical, spiky and gothic. The rebels are rounded, patched and asymmetric.
- Thick oil-black outlines on characters, machines and items.
- The empire is always bigger than the frame.
- The only empire symbol is the Crowned Iron Eye: a mechanical eye under a spiked crown inside a gear ring.
- Avoid gore, real-world political symbols or insignia, real uniforms, franchise looks, neon and tiny details.