KQ6 Winged Ones - early concept for appearance

[Baggins]

I played dos originally, but played windows later. I've always preferred most of the high res versions overall, but that's probably because many of the characters like Jollo look superior in the high res.

Jollo's face looks like its sliced in two in los res version.

Alhazred looks alot more sinister in the high res.

Beast looks more beastly.

[Damar]

When I saw those first pictures, I just assumed that the Winged Ones were supposed to have blank eyes.  Having them be literal marble statues just seemed too weird.  But now I'm thinking back on the game and it seems I remember the Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles talking about the Winged Ones' belief in the Ancient Ones, who predated them.  I think (not one hundred percent certain) that there was an implication in their legend that the Ancient Ones actually created the Winged Ones, or gave them culture or some such.  I wonder if the original concept, then, was to literally portray the Winged Ones as a created species, a series of marble statues brought to life by an ancient civilization.  The Ancient Ones were big on carving stone after all.  They were the ones, according to the Guidebook, that created the Cliffs of Logic.

It also, if they were originally supposed to be marble statues, buts some of the comments that are made about the Winged Ones in context.  They're always described as beautiful, which I found interesting.  Yeah, the wings are nice, but outside of that, they're human.  Tall and athletic but still looking pretty human.  If they were originally supposed to be living statues, then those comments suddenly make more sense as someone describing art.  Living, breathing art.

Ultimately, though, I like the current look of the Winged Ones.  Monochromatic statues would look kind of boring.  And as for the blank eyes, while it would be cool, the only thing I'd be able to think of would be Gary Mitchell from Star Trek the Original Series.  Seriously, silver eyes and a disdain for humanity?  That's Gary Mitchell.

[Baggins]

Damar the quote that you are referring to is;

It is a matter of much debate whether or not the Ancient Ones themselves possessed the power of flight. Despite their theology, the remains of the Ancient Ones do not bear the wings that distinguish the Isle of the Sacred Mountain's current inhabitants. The Winged Ones firmly believe the Ancient Ones flew without wings, thus proving themselves superior even to the Winged Ones themselves. Some scholars on the Isle of the Crown, however, believe that the Ancient Ones could not fly, and that their obsessive interest in flight and their secret knowledge enabled them to create a winged race, the descendants of whom are the Winged Ones. Ah, but such things we will never know for certain, for true understanding was buried along with the last of that long-dead race. -Guidebook

[koko_99_2001]

I can see why the high-res shots look better. But for me, it's all about the nostalgia. The first KQ game I played was DOS' KQVI.

[Baggins]

My first KQ (well at least owning a computer) was KQV floppy.

[ATMachine]

Interestingly, the KQ Companion 3rd Edition describes Lady Celeste as having "long red hair." In the actual game all the Winged Ones, including Celeste, have black hair.

The Companion also confirms that the Ancient Ones created the Winged Ones. Plus, not only are the Winged Ones constantly referred to as "beautiful," they're even described as "perfect" in appearance, as contrasted with the "imperfect" beauty of a human like Cassima. I suspect that Damar's analysis of them as "living, breathing art" is pretty much spot-on.

[Baggins]

To be fair, the Companion has some slight differences to the history of the Winged Ones vs. Ancients compared to the Guidebook.

For example it suggests that the Winged Ones built the Logic Cliffs rather than the Ancients, that the Ancient language, is the language of the Winged Ones, and that the Winged Ones set up the traps in the catacombs, and it is the Winged Ones who were buried in the catacombs.

Actually the companion just calls the Ancients, the "the precursors of the Winged Ones", or describes the winged ones as their "decendents", which actually would suggest that Winged Ones may have not just been created, but "evolved/decended" from the Ancients (perhaps implying genetic engineering). There is also several references to the race being 'humans with wings", but much larger (humans are described as being "stunted").

The Companion novel is based on early storyline concepts for the game, and has several differences from the final version seen in the game. The copper coin has Valanice's face rather than Graham's. The drink me bottle is empty. The feather stays black after being stirred into the magic paint, etc. Peter Spear actually discusses the fact that things were different in the finalized version in the game in the chapter before the novel.

The Guidebook would seem to suggest that there was some kind of intermediate race, that evolved to become the Winged Ones.

On a related note;

Winged Ones

Ancients

Celeste's Wardrobe

Winged One Guards

[KatieHal]

That link goes to Celeste's wardrobe, Baggins.

[Baggins]

It should be going to Celeste's wardrobe . Just a typo.

[ATMachine]

Thought I'd do a little thread necromancy here.

Remember I mentioned how I surmised (based on close scrutiny of black-and-white character portrait drawings from Behind the Developer's Shield) that the Winged Ones of KQ6 were originally going to look like living statues?

Well, today I watched KQ6ART.AVI, a movie file on the KQ6 CD which contains almost all the high-res background art from KQ6. It's a treasure trove of unused stuff, incidentally, and is really fascinating to look at. (However, I had to run it on Windows 3.1 emulated in DOSbox; the .avi file doesn't like modern media players, in which the picture tends to get glitchy.)

So, look what I found:



It's the background drawing of Lord Azure and Lady Aeriel as they originally looked--white-marble-esque, blank-eyed living statues.

[kindofdoon]

Good find. I'm surprised the .avi file was giving you trouble. I remember watching that on Windows Vista without problem.