Week 4: Oddbot

Hi all!!

Today a I'm introducing a new character, with a mysterious past... CER-2, or Oddbot!

Oddbot is an assassin robot, the last remnant of what was once at army serving the whims of a warlord during the Blood Years. Once numbering in the thousands, now less than 50 remain with many dormant under decades of sand after succumbing to the harsh desert climate.

Oddbot was one of the first characters to be visualised, originally via AI art in a less detailed capacity, and finally later on through my artist which was able to give the character its own uniqueness while staying true to the idea that the AI work had represented. Below I created a little comparison between the two so you can get an idea of what the process changed!

AI generated concept of Oddbot and a cloaked figure First artist rendition of Oddbot

Oddbot was designed as an instrument of destruction- as such, he retains all of his combat routines and processes that are hard-wired into him. Many of these functions are damaged, however- thus, Oddbot's arsenal is limited to what functions after decades of weathering the desert.

When I was coming up with the narrative behind Oddbot, I wanted to go for as complete a story as possible, such that I could expand on it in the future. I'm hoping to introduce issues between arcs that play outside of the chronology of the series, that can expand on certain points of lore in the world that I think need more exposure. Oddbot's story is incredibly cool, and even though it deviates a little bit from the themes I want to portray in the rest of the series, his story really warrants some exposure down the line.

I'm excited to expand upon this and the main narrative soon! Thanks for tuning in this week, and I'll see you next week for another look at the creative process behind sahar and an update on the work to bring it into this world!