My Olympian God that I have chosen is Apollo, he is currently not featured in the game Hades, so I have chosen him as my God to create 22 two boons with. The 22 boons are split into different tiers as shown below:
· 8 Tier One boons
· 6 Tier Two boons
· 1 Tier Three boon
· 7 Duo boons
In Hades a boons are upgrades given by the gods to help Zagreus in his attempts to escape the underworld. They can be obtained as rewards for clearing a room marked with the respective god's symbol or purchased for 150 coin from Charon's shop. Each god has there own boons specific to them, for example Zeus being the god of lightning has many lightning based boons that make Zagreus use lightning to defend or attach against enemies. I am going to use this theory to make the god Apollo have his own boons that can be used by Zagreus to aid his venture out of the under-world.
Apollo
He has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. These key themes are what I am going take forward into mood boards to create an idea of how his boons would work.
Apollo was the only one of the 12 Olympian gods to have the same name in both Roman and Greek mythology.
Symbols:
Apollo is recognised by the following symbols; Lyre, laurel wreath, python, raven, swan, bow and arrows. His symbols are shown bellow using modern day imagery:
These symbols all mean something to Apollo and his myths in some way, for example the bow represents his connection with his sister Artemis, goddess of the hunt who wields a powerful bow. The python refers to a myth that Apollo defeated a giant powerful snake when he was young. The Lyre represent Apollos musical talents such as his song that is played using his beautiful lyre.
These are just a few of the kind of themes and symbols that represent Apollo and his connection to ancient Greece and the Olympians. Below I have gone into more detail over his themes through mood boards.
Mood Boards:
Sun and light
These images all represent Apollo and his Sun and Light Characteristics. From these images I can make out that the boon for Sun and light would be to do with heat and Brightness. The boon could inflict a blinding affect and could slowly cause burn damage to enemies.
Music and Dance
These images all represent Apollo for his Mythical music and his dance. From these images I am thinking of a boon that could perhaps slow the enemies attack and defences speed when Apollos music plays. The music and dance theme would work well as a high tier boon that can be played upon entering the room.
Health and Disease
Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius. Apollo delivered people from epidemics, yet he is also a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague with his arrows. From this mood board I can think of a boon that could apply a slow damaging attack which could work like a virus that will slowly take away the enemies health and replenish Apollo's health.
The mood boards above all give me clear ideas of how I can interpret Apollo's themes into boons. The theme of truth and prophecy however is one that I can not picture making boons from, I feel that it is a very vague topic and it will be hard to fit it into any gameplay mechanics,
because of this I will be discarding the theme of truth and prophecy from my research.
Keepsakes and Key Term
Through the research I have conduct I have decided on a key term. Each god has their own key term that relates to there boon, such as Zeus and his Jolted affect. For Apollo I have decided to use Scorched as his key term. I chose scorched as it is related to the sun and light theme that Apollo has.
As well as a Key Term Apollo also needs a Keepsake. A keepsake is an item that gives Zagreus benefits on his run. Apollos keepsake is going to be a Burning Arrow witch will give Zagreus a 10% damage buff to long range weapon attacks.
Final Choice
Across all the research and mood boards I have completed I have come to a conclusion that only one key theme for Apollo is allowed to continue into the design phase. This is because all the gods from hades are only based on one of there key themes, so Apollo should be no different. The key theme I have chosen is Sun and Light, this is because it is one of Apollo's greatest and most recognised characteristics and because it fits perfectly with my keepsake and key term ideas that I have created. The reason I didn't pick Music and Dance or Health and Disease is because I didn't feel confident that I could create 22 boons with those subjects, I also felt that I would struggle trying to create Duo boons as the connections to other gods is limited where as Sun and Light has more in common with other gods. Overall I have decide to chose Sun and Light as my theme for Apollo in hades and I will use my research to create his boons.
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