OC Animatic - Draka Imperium: The Centurion's Ward
AFTER SO MANY WEEKS, IT IS FINISHED!! My first Draka Imperium animatic set to actual dialogue! KEEP READING FOR STORY CONTEXT:
Here we get a glimpse into the story of one of the main characters of Draka Imperium, Uovos: a mixed-blooded drake whose childhood was briefly spent with his sand drake mother, snow drake father, and older half-sister, Yuvaika. Uovos' mother was a fugitive skonite ore miner - she had fled with her daughter (Yuvaika, at the time only a few years old) from her servitude in the Imperial skonite mines in the Orodulu desert, taking a little of the precious skonite ore with her, and went into hiding in the northwestern region of the Imperium. There, she met the snow drake who would become Uovos' father, and the family remained in hiding as nomads for as long as they could.
However, the fugitives couldn't stay hidden forever. Uovos' mother was eventually tracked down by Imperial forces, headed by the Centurion known as Glacignius: an extremely rare fire/ice bi-elemental, renowend across the Imperium for his prowess in battle as well as his cunning. Glacignius arrested Uovos' mother but not before being wounded by Yuvaika, who gave him his facial scars - the Centurion would have executed Yuvaika as punishment, had Uovos' father not struck a bargain: he offered to go into servitude in the mines alongside his mate, provided that the Centurion let the children live. Glacignius rejected this proposal, insisting instead upon taking Uovos back to the Imperial capital, Zenith, as his ward; the father accepted.
Uovos was raised in the capital and was trained alongside other Imperial soldiers. Despite his small stature and lack of both wings and an element, he became incredibly proficient at melee combat, and won many fights against otherwise more arcanically adept opponents, helping him to rise up the ranks of the Legion. All the while, Glacignius conditioned him as subtly as he could, attempting to overwrite the young drake's previous upbringing underneath his parents and sister, so as to transform him into the Imperium's perfect warrior: a soldier with unshakeable loyalty to the Imperium, yet with intricate knowledge of its enemies and the outside wilds. As effective as the Centurion's efforts may have otherwise been, however, they never completely erased Uovos' memory of his family and thier teachings.
Uovos' final test of his loyalty before being promoted from Decurion to Glacignius' own Optio (second-in-command), however, is what we see in this animatic: he is tasked with bringing the Centurion the head of his sister, Yuvaika, who had grown over the years into a formidable rebel leader known as the 'Viper of the West'. Will Uovos remain loyal to the Imperium, and in so doing obtain a rank and reputation that every other soldier could only dream of? Or will he betray the Empire and return to his roots, siding with the renegades alongside his sister?
Dialogue is based loosely on two scenes from Netflix's "Barbarians", referencing Riv's Latin translations, which you can find here:
• Barbarians (2020) S1xE3 Latin subtitles-- ...
• Barbarians (2020) S1xE2 Latin Subtitles-- ...
Programs: Paint Tool SAI 2.0, After Effects
Characters: Uovos, Glacignius [ original characters / OCs / Draka Imperium]
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