24. Art Direction (per nation)
Overall style: stylized low-poly 3D tiles with painterly textures and strong silhouettes, readable from far zoom; warm global lighting; each nation’s palette and architectural language are unmistakable. Since v0.3 there is no element layer. Five drivers shape each nation’s look: government (civic architecture, ceremony, dress codes), culture (festivals, crafts, daily life), climate and geography (materials, roofs, light, vegetation), currency (coins and notes, banks, markets, tickers or queues) and religion (temples, shrines – or their absence). No real-world flags, landmarks, scripts, religious symbols or ethnic dress.
| Nation | Palette | Government & culture | Climate & materials | Currency visuals | Religion visuals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kindle | Ember orange, basalt black, brass | Civic plazas, courthouses, campaign billboards; fully free fashion | Hot savanna: basalt, sun-baked brick, shade awnings, forge light | Spark tickers, bank towers, ads everywhere | Many temples side by side; no state symbol |
| Confluence | Deep blue, jade, lantern gold | Congress Hall, murals of collective work; cooperative badges | Delta: canal houses, terraced fields, waterwheels, lanterns | Cooperative ledgers, banded price boards | Modest registered meeting houses with plaques |
| Meridian | Red-copper, white, slate | Party halls and slogans; conservative official dress, wide consumer fashion | Geothermal coast: plumes, copper pipework, turbine gorges | Neon SEZ exchange boards vs plain onshore banks | Uniform-style approved association halls |
| Korund | Ochre, slate grey, rust red | Monolithic party architecture, Chairman mosaics, loudspeaker plazas; regulation uniform | Cold mountains: carved stone halls, snow, granite | Coupon books, state stores with queue rails | No temples; civic altars of labor; hidden home shrines |
| Aurelle | Sky blue, white, gilt | Sky Throne, heraldry, rich court dress with sumptuary rules | Windswept cliffs: white spires, wind-vanes, terraced gardens | Gold Crowns with the Monarch’s face; palace mint | Kinward name-stones of great houses |
| Ilmar | Sand gold, white, prism colors | Sanctum courts; canon vestments by order | Desert: sandstone cloisters, shaded courts, mirror arrays | Glass-inlay Prism coins; endowment counting-houses | Glass domes and prism windows – the state’s own image |
| Hoarvale | Ice blue, white, silver | Moot Hall, ceremonial pageantry; free fashion; Honors sashes; regalia for the Crown House only | Glacier fjords: pale timber and stone, bathhouses, aurora light | Portrait coins restruck on succession; sober bank houses | Crown chapel with Kinward name-stones beside other faiths’ houses |
| Varkand | Gunmetal, slate green, signal red | Bastions, parade boulevards, recast statues; duty uniform on shift | Fog moors: concrete, watchtowers, searchlights | Ward notes overprinted with the Alert Level; Field Scrip chits | Austere garrison chapels with Chaplaincy seals |
| Veldwood | Forest green, amber, bark brown | Ring-shaped Moot glades, petition stands; fully free fashion | Old-growth forest: timber halls, moss roofs, canopy walkways | Dividend Day notice boards; co-operative banks | Many small houses of worship; The Round’s season-posts |
| Fulmara | Storm violet, electric blue, copper, verdigris | Arc Exchange, public share register; trading-house liveries | Storm coast: rod-tower spires, canals under thunderheads | Coupon tickers, bank-house mastheads | Fair-Wind harbor chapels with votive ships; chartered temples on the quays |
- Character art: stylized, slightly chunky proportions for readability at distance; diverse skin tones and features in every nation (no nation mapped to one real ethnicity).
- AI leader portraits (v0.7): each persona gets an authored portrait set (neutral, speaking, triumphant, under pressure) in the nation’s style, with a subtle shared AI sigil in the frame; no real-person likenesses; no AI image generation at MVP.
- Iconography (redrawn in v0.3 without element motifs): each nation emblem is an original geometric mark drawn from its government, currency or faith – Kindle: an open ballot-star in a hexagon; Confluence: three joined rivers; Meridian: a gear on a meridian line; Korund: a stone keystone; Aurelle: a winged crown; Ilmar: a prism-eye; Hoarvale: a crown over a parliament arc; Varkand: five bars in a watchtower (the Five Commands); Veldwood: a ring of seven leaves; Fulmara: scales over a ship’s prow. Faith marks: a clear lens (Lumen Canon), a name-stone (Kinward), a four-colored ring (The Round), a full sail (Fair-Wind), a dot above a level horizon line (Quiet Path), an open palm holding bread (Open Hand). All to be cleared against existing trademarks and real religious symbols (Sections 1.4, 14).
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