Corvolin's Secret History & Design

Hey there, it's the Lone Wanderer again. It's only the second character design post I've written so far, and I thought you might be interested to know more about Corvolin. To do that though, we must first talk about "The Bed Monster" as we used to call it. 

The Bed Monster

This creature was introduced in the old version of the game, in 0.1.03, as a nondescript black figure—it had glowing red eyes and red light coming up from its throat. This creature was different from the monsters that appeared at the start; something I personally didn't get the first time I read it. 

To sum up the one scene it was in: The player character is in a sleep paralysis and he is convinced that there is a ravenous monster in the room who wants to eat him. However you could either pull yourself out of your paralysis and head-butt it, ending the encounter, or you could choose not to fight it. If you chose the latter it ended up pleasuring you, giving the scene some BDSM undertones. However at the end of the latter path, it engulfs your head with its maw and you wake up with your shirt missing.

To my surprise, there were no further plans for this bed monster, but I personally quite liked him. This is perhaps one of the instances where different writers would focus on different aspects of the same story. Whatever plans there were next before the rewrite actually would have taken a far different direction than one might have expected, not necessarily keeping in line with existing themes. The story would get less and less horror and more about groups of interest getting into each others hair.

In contrast to this, I wanted a more centric view on the player character both in horror themes but also with the overall story. I wanted you to get the opportunity to investigate on your own. And what better way to do it than to discuss with these weird spirits by your own volition?

Corvolin

I was trying to figure out how to make the bed monster reappear in the plot but also have it staying odd, have an odd purpose but tone down the almost rape-like nature of its encounter. Then Blue Bishop joined our crew. He had made one particularly amazing character concept before Identity which I felt fit too perfectly into Identity and here he is now!

Corvolin is a raven-pangolin hybrid. He was adapted from an old concept of a bony pangolin with a canine skull mask guarding a labyrinth in a hellscape area. Corvolin isn't the bed monster, however he does now take its spot with his nightly visit.

His design process art-wise was interesting to see. He used to be a bit thinner before and he had the face of a raven instead of a raven skull mask. We wanted him bigger in order to bring a bit of variation to the available body shapes and we are sure that some may appreciate having a character being more on the fluffy side.

Despite his fearsome looks, he was a pretty chill guy, given that nothing really happened on his plains of existence. You could visit him and he'd just hang out with you. Whether or not Corvolin is in a similar spot now I won't tell just yet, but looking at the ravens alone, you may have taken note of one particular change with them: They don't hurt you anymore.

So, here you have it, a (hopefully) huggable oddity that is a means to connect to the weird world of which you only saw a little so far. We hope you enjoy!