Behind the Scenes: Carmilla

Greetings brave Knights!

Today we'll be telling you about the creation of Carmilla, our Blood Moon Legendary Hero!

Carmilla first appeared in Blood Moon 2020. Sophie had a rather open brief - we wanted an Alchemist, who fit into the Blood Moon theme. So off she went, making concepts.

As you can see from the first set of concepts, Carmilla wasn't very Carmilla-ery at this point.

1. How about a bat? Although Carmilla has a bat familiar, originally Sophie considered the Hero itself being a bat. Who knows we won't be having this Hero in the future?

2. The second idea was a Witch/Vampire Hunter. Again, a great idea (and one that eventually bled into the Night Hunter armor that graced the first Blood Moon reward track).

3. Keeping in line with being both an Alchemist and (thematically) a hunter, Sophie proposed a crossbow that fired syringes.

4. The bat again! This time resplendent in a cape, with a more humanoid version.

5. The first concept that was close to the final version - a femme fatale in a long slit-skirt gown. This one had a massive hat though, with potions and elixirs dangling down.

6. At this point, the concepts started to get more overtly vampiric, with the fangs now visible.

7. TOO MANY FANGS, SOPHIE!

8. Numerous bodice styles were concepted, including ones resembling rib-cages and spider webs. The winner was the charming inverted pentagram, however.

And above we have the final concept - although, as you can see, a few alterations were made in the final model. And also present is Ozzy, Carmilla's beloved bat familiar (named by a community poll back in the days).

So our vampire Alchemist had her final form, resembling our in-game Realm of Fire vampires (grey skin, white hair), but ever so much more stylish. It was time to give her a name and a backstory.

Her name was easy - Carmilla, after the classic 1872 vampiric novella by Sheridan Le Fanu, written over twenty years before Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Her backstory was a little more awkward, due to a slight miscommunication. You see, Carmilla was originally pencilled in to be a Holy Alchemist, but... well, that was a bit of a hard shell when the character is a vampire with an inverted pentagram as part of her outfit. Eventually we looked at the Hero Matrix and decided there was a space for a Logical Alchemist instead. Thus Carmilla's history with the famed Dwonach Tower was born!

Power-wise, Carmilla was created to be primarily a PvE Hero, and one that would be particularly useful against the Fenrirgard. Befitting her vampiric nature, both of her powers are 'life drains' - attacks that damage the enemies, and return damage to the Knight's health. Her Base Power, Enervating Haze, hits all enemies on the front row, with a chance to apply Unfocus. As the Fenrirgard have an increased crit chance in their lycan forms, this can be ideal for reducing their general damage - and countering the Focus Garm applies with his Pack Howl.

Her Rage Power, Vampire's Bite, hits all enemies and is Strong vs Burn - meaning that if you partner her with a Hero that applies Burn, she will do more damage, and naturally heal more as a result.

To create the Carmilla skin for the Blood Moon '25 event, Amy studied the armor concept that had been created and worked out which aspects would work best for Carmilla's body shape and personality.

She noticed the logo that had been created for the overall theme and thought it'd make a pretty cool looking breastplate, and then went from there. Amy made sure to utilize colors and shape language from the armor concept, while ensuring to maintain Carmilla's femininity.

She ensured to look at past skins Carmilla had and tried to be as distinct in her look as possible. She'd not really worn armor before, so that was a fun aspect to dive into, giving Carmilla more of a combat feel opposed to what she'd had prior. Amy also thought it'd be neat to change her hair color and really liked the gradient we had in this theme's set.

With the design decided, Amy went and brought her to life in 3D.

If you have any questions for us about Carmilla, fire away!