Material

I am an extremely visual person, being a photographer and all. In the first weeks when I began imagining and outlining Trinity, it was like an on-going mental movie that kept playing 24/7 while evolving at the same time. It was an extreme photographic and organic experience, as weird as it sounds. I wouldn't exagerate if I described myself as an ultra-rational, and it was of vital importance to me that I imagine everything to the smallest detail and preserve coherence in the elaboration of Trinity's universe.

I tend to be sloppy in many things, but I am passionate about projects I invest myself into, and when I do, I get overly organized. During the writing process, I created various timelines, plans, maps, drawings of rooms or places I needed to describe, all so I could create the most authentic world possible. Whenever I read a book or watch a movie I'll unconsciously try to find any plot holes I can during the entire lenght of my experience, inconsistencies that make no sense within the boundaries of the universe the author or screenwriter has created. By being more organized, I feel I can avoid those as much as possible.

I was really serious about creating a world that would feel real to myself and the readers. My ultimate goal is to provide a total and satisfying immersion and I knew I could never achieve that unless I brought certain images to life. This page will serve to share some of the material that have helped me shape Trinity's universe.

Illustrations

I've already mentioned I wasn't very artsy until a much later age, and to this day, I still couldn't draw a matchstick man to save my life. I was really excited in having some of the elements I had written and imagined come to life in visual form, so I went through the interweb to find freelance artists that did small jobs, which is how J.J. Abrams found the 3D animator who did the opening sequence of Fringe and Star Trek by the way. The Internet is filled with amazingly talended artists!

I hade made many 2D sketches on paper which I digitally scanned, with detailed descriptions attached. I have thus far worked with six artists from all over the world: US, Argentinia, Belgium, Australia and Thailand.

Here are some of these illustrations with accompanying description, all of which were a joint effort with myself and each artist.

In the beginning of Trinity's story, the remnants of the ancient Maya, who call themselves "Protectors", are split in the only two remaining royal havens. The Tutors live in the west, in a territory that extends from the Arctic all the way down to the vascinity of Mexico. The Perkeles live in the east, in a vast territory that extends across Europe, Asia and Africa. Central and South America have been off limit ever since the signing of the original Treaty & Scriptures, while most of Oceania is considered neutral ground and is unaffiliated with either haven.

Though geography used to be the only aspect that differentiated both havens, Tutors and Perkeles have grown further and further apart ever since the Apocalypse that banished them to the shadows, forcing them to live in their vast and impressive underground cities. Toturia is the royal capital of the Tutors and is situated in Swanton, Vermont. Inferis, the Perkele royal capital, spans under the mountains of Europe in Budapest, Hungary.

Toturia and Inferis are the only two underground cities of importance that we know of. Certain Protectors live normal human lives on the surface, while other have chosen to establish smaller camps far from the politics and drama. However, every Protector is bound to the Treaty no matter where they find residence, and those living on either Tutor or Perkele territory must also follow the laws their king have set forth, whether they live within the capital city or not.

Today, both kings operate their house following two fundamentally different doctrines and have only in common the very few basic rules that were established at the signing of the Treaty around 900 A.D..

Toturia is said to be a megalopolis of magnificient beauty and architetural perfection. Bringing both Toturia and Inferis to life was difficult and the risk of alienating the reader's imagination is always present. Working with some very talented artists (four to be exact: three for Toturia, one for Inferis), concept matte paintings were made to help me improve ont he city's description and provide a visual reference for my own work. Some are closer to what I had personally imagined, but it was still interesting to see what each artist's interpretation of the excerpts that were provided to them were.

Two of the four paintings are currently done and took about two months each to paint. The other two have been worked on for three months already (as of June 29th 2010) and will take another month to complete (four months production time in total) as they are ultra-detailed and painted with to photorealistic standards.

3/3 are available. Click to enlarge!

Trinity is based upon Mayan mythology as well as a very popular mythos (which I won't spoil here for the time being). The main influences that guided the "costumes" creation were mainly Elvish styling from the Lord of the Rings, Jedi wardrobe from the entire Star Wars franchise (games have elaborated Jedi fashion a lot more than the movies) and finally, but to a very small extent, the original wardrobe Maya actually wore. Since it was very rustic, it wouldn't have served the purpose of the book and required some further elaboration. There are twelve planned drawings of different costumes to come in the next weeks: combat robes/outfit, offical robes, regular citizen wardrobe and certain costumes that are pertinent to very specific scenes.

I have never been a fan of description and Trinity is proof of that. However, I felt it was important for a more complete and satisfying immersion that the reader be given limited description of the wardrobe that is unique to Trinity's mythology. I wasn't sure which style or art direction I wanted to take as far as clothing was concerned when I wrote the first three drafts and very little description was added to the manuscript. As the drawings add up and I am satisfied with the overall feel of style, more descriptions will be added to later drafts.

Thankfully both the artists I am working with on the costumes are extremely detail-oriented and actually embrace crystal clear art direction and detailed opinions. It was extremely important to me that each design looked both good and felt logical. This is especially true when it comes to the combat robe designs... armor or no armor, placement of weapons, etc. I am 100% opposed to superfluous details that make either no logical sense or provide no practical advantage other than "looking cool" (example: warriors in the book are unnaturally speedy and agile. Giving them a full lenght robe or cape, although cool looking, was practically a stupid idea as far as combat function was concerned).

As you will notice in the following drawings, great attention was given to little details and to make sure the wardrobe design hinted at the feline mythology that is part of the very soul of the book. About 50% of the novel--more or less--happens in or near Toturia. So while all other scenes have all the characters wear regular civilian clothing, I felt it was important to provide a full immersion whenever the action was in Toturia. Wardrobe is part of that.

Click on each image for an enlarged version.

Though Protectors are naturally strong and fast, they do make use of ADNR forged weapons. ADNR stands for Aggregated Diamond Nanorods, a special alloy that is exceptionally strong, and is the only material hardened enough to be efficient in combat. Because of their superior intellect, they had already developped hyperdiamond in the early 900's, more than an entire millennia before humans began reporting its properties.

Standard military protocols want each warrior to have their own sword and dagger, atlhough those of elite or royal status will have the handle decorated with more precious stones than the standard version. The Tutors especially have came to cherish the diamond, a beautiful and hard stone representative of their strenght and elegance. In their early days, when cities were simple caves, they kept stumbling upon large deposits of raw diamond stones as they kept digging deeper and deeper. The diamond eventually introduced itself in their architecture and culture, which wasn't present in the Early Ages when their ancestors still lived on their Mexican and Guatemalan territory.

The elite Tutor version of the anicus sports a golden handle ornated with multiple diamonds of different sizes. The standard version has the same handle, but with a lesser amount of smaller stones. The blade is identical on all swords, regardless of origin or status.

The golden jaguars that form part of the handle are representative of the Maya's love for these animals. Felines are an important part of the Mayan culture, especially the leopard, cheetah and jaguar, who are sacred and cared for with the outmost respect. Each Maya warrior is allowed to adopt one fidemele, the special name they use for their feline companion, who are tamed to evolve beyond their natural instincts. Once a fidemele is sworn to a master, he is loyal for life, and his name will be forged upon the warrior's anicus, as an extension of the animal's soul.

The Scriptures say that in the older days, Jaguars and Leopards would follow their masters on the battlefield, while cheetahs were used as scouts. Today, a high number of felines live in the underground cities with their master, where a specially designed ecosystem is installed to allow for vegetation and a healthy environment to grow.

This angle allows to analyze the blade's precise architecture. Three blades forged into one, its pyramidal shape was specially designed to accommodate the only two ways of assuredly killing a Mayan warrior.

The first, decapitation, requires an uneven cut so the nerve endings, veins and arteries are left too badly damaged for surgical reattachment. A rotating motion with a powerful slash would be sufficient to achieve this goal.

The second, the stabbing of the warrior's liver, would usually only require that its walls be pierced to allow the toxins to leak. However, there have been documented cases where Mayan healers were able to heal and repair superficial organ damage quickly enough to avoid septic shock. Therefore, the blade was redesigned with small indentations at one third of its length so a twisting motion would completely shred the liver's wall, assuring an almost instant and most painful death.

Mastering the art of the sword isn't easy, but some warriors have ascended to legendary ranks because of their skills and talent at wielding the anicus. At almost 65 pounds, The Maya consider it to be a relatively lightweight and incredibly well balanced weapon.

The brevacus is a shorter version of it's sister, the anicus. It is not the bearer of any fidemele soul, but can be made useful in certain situations.

It was often used for executions, because of its size and practicality.