First design mockup
Nature spirit
The top dog of the island. Grew the jungle out of a barren rock and oversaw it for hundreds of years. A small group of humans settled there at one point, eventually growing into a mighty wizard civilization with the spirit’s help.
An overview of the things the nature spirit did on the island:
- Arrived on the island and kicked the previous owner of the island off (Lava Spirit - see below)
- Cultivated the jungle and its plants. With the spirit’s guidance it became a garden island, nowhere near the hostile environment it is by the time the player arrives
- At one point, a roaming band of wizards showed up on the island. The nature spirit welcomed them aboard and they built a civilization of sorts with the spirit’s help.
- At some point after, the clay spirit pulled up to try and boot the nature spirit off the island so it could take over. There was a short scuffle between the two (the clay spirit was hopelessly outmatched).
- Things were good for a while. The wizards performed a few secret, shady experiments the nature spirit didn’t know about - experimenting on the clay spirit’s remains to try and study how gods work - but nothing came of it.
- The sea devil one day sneaks into the island while possessing a human. Things go south quickly, and the nature spirit gets possessed during a confrontation above the volcanic well.
- To keep the island safe, the nature spirit uses the last bit of its strength to fling itself down the well into the lava below. The nature spirit dies, and hopes to take SD with it. However, the SD just barely survives and lays dormant for hundreds of years.
With the nature spirit dead, the jungle is allowed to grow free and wild, completely unleashed from the spirit’s grip. It becomes a dark, overgrown, and dangerous place without a force guiding it.
Notes + Personality
In general the nature spirit is a good guy, but is capable of some scary stuff due to the amount of power it possesses. See lava spirit below: The nature spirit showed little remorse in killing the god who owned the island before it - drastic action taken just because the nature spirit wanted the island.
The nature spirit should feel like a far more serious presence than some of the other gods. Out of the three or so you meet, it’s the one that really has its shit together and is capable of planning, executing, and sustaining the world that it created.
The spirit does have a lot of compassion for humans and doesn’t shy away from interacting with them or helping them build their civilization (the wizards and the nature spirit have a mutual respect for each other and the wizards mostly aren’t afraid of it). But there should still be a HUGE contrast between it and human NPCs in terms of visuals and just general presence. Where the Clay Spirit gives off more of a “oh yeah, it’s a big clay golem” kind of vibe, the nature spirit feels more like a force to be reckoned with, and the type of guy whose good side you really want to stay on. Leaning into the slightly creepy side of things might help?
While The Sea Devil is pretty undeniably an ultimate evil, the nature spirit shouldn’t be seen as an ultimate good: Occupies that delicious gray area - Islanders talk about the nature spirit bringing life to the island, but its form is wild and uncontainable - Pirates routinely aren’t able to tough it out in the jungle and fight for their lives - Literally in the name: Just a force of nature - Basically the whole conflict between SD and Nature Spirit is two primal forces clashing: Land and sea - Did have interest in wizards - gave them their magic and led them astray, made them completely dependent on nature spirit - Calm and composed
Reference images https://pin.it/10MMxroqh
- Humanoid form, 7-8 feet tall but can scale up as it pleases
- Stoic / serene emotionless expression - maybe wearing a mask or helmet of sorts?
- Easter Island moai 🗿
- Visually I think this is the one I have the least idea for - most “nature spirit” or “forest god” depictions are usually pretty similar, so it’s no problem if this design ends up being a little similar to those ones