Heroes of Arkesia,
Join the Design Teams including the Scenario and Sound teams at Smilegate RPG for a look into the design and insight into the process when creating the themes, experiences, and sounds of Voldis. There may be a few spoilers found below if you haven’t played through Voldis’ storyline yet, so proceed with caution or come back after you’ve ventured to the city of the sages.
How does Voldis fit into the larger story of Lost Ark? Are there future stories that will take place there?
Voldis is the continent born from the butterfly effects of many important events throughout Arkesia’s history. Key events such as the Hollow War, Chain War, choices made by the Guardians, and the reform of Sacria all played their unique roles in the creation of Voldis. The Adventurers’ journey of finding the Ark ends in Elgacia. After that, adventurers visit Voldis for the pursuit of a new objective, opening up a whole new phase different from the past. In a nutshell, Voldis is where the past and the present encounter each other, leading to the future— making this region a crucial bifurcation revealing deeper concepts of the lore in Lost Ark.
Is there a message you want to send to the adventurers through the Voldis storyline?
We want to share with the adventurers another story through Zeherade and the Sages of Voldis. So far, Lost Ark has discussed themes regarding creators and creations, determinism and free will, cause and effect, light and darkness, good and evil each with various perspectives for us to think about through the stories found within of Lost Ark.
We wanted to tell a new story to adventurers through Voldis, the current endgame continent with Zeherade, Mariu, the Sage’s Tower, and the Guardians.
From Sacria where their endless pride was answered by an apocalypse, to Voldis’ Ivory Tower of knowledge that was built by those who lost their faith, Voldis shows many concepts - Sorrow of mortals that struggles in front of the immortal beings. Ironically, because mortals inevitably meet an end, their remarkable will gets passed on to the next generation. This also leads to the concepts such as birth and death, and interesting perspectives surrounding life and creations.
By travelling around the Sage’s Tower, which houses all the knowledge of the world, and being part of their story, you will be able to take a peek in the interesting thoughts of people of the Voldis. With that, you may find out the intersecting perspectives of the people from Voldis, and from the continents as they have faced or got influenced by various events, and also compare the previous journeys in older continents in terms to understand or compare what each continent or individuals represent. This would make your journey in Arkesia more fun.
We hope you enjoyed Voldis, and please look forward to the evolving stories of Lost Ark with various perspectives and stories across Arkesia in the future.
Various gods consist the world of Arkesia, and appear to play important roles in the lore so far. Will the adventurers meet gods more in the future to collaborate with or oppose them?
For example, Procyon appeared-indirectly in a form of a bird when we had to look for Diogenes, and a real goddess appeared in Voldis very recently (Sceptrum, the god of wisdom communicating to us in her own voice).
Gods of Lost Ark are constantly going to play key roles in the future lore. Look forward to their stories as well! Do keep in mind that the gods have personalities and do exist in the world of Arkesia. Their powers and authorities are real here.
What are some fun stories or decisions made during the development of Voldis?
Some of the countless places you visit in Arkesia are intentionally designed and created to express the theme we wanted to show, rather than focusing on the beauty, mystery, freshness, gameplay compatibility and so on. We believe that the Tower of the Sages in Voldis would be a good example of this.
In Voldis lore, sages have critical roles. The sages, as important as they are, reside in a gigantic, tall tower of 123 floors. The reason for designing the tower so tall is that ‘tall tower’ typically implicitly represents will and drive for improvement of the humans. Nowadays in real life, tall buildings are bit too common, but the iconic tall landmarks(such as skyscrapers and Eiffel Tower) have represented civilization and technology, especially that they required ‘strong will and skills’ to build. We felt that this very point best illustrated the identity of Voldis and the Sages we wanted express. Thus, the tower became the abode for the sages.
How were some of the key soundtracks for Lazaram / Kalinar / Zeherade designed?
Lazaram the Trailblazer
The soundtrack of Lazaram, the final boss in Voldis storyline, was inspired by its blood-red façade and skills, ceaseless attacks and actions. With sense of weight and grandeur as basis, we tried to dissolve the feeling of sharp high-pitch, and fast beat sounds without a gap. Following the concept of Chaos Guardian, we wanted to convey the sense of chaos, and also the fast-paced, intense combat happening in a tight environment with the music.
Kalinar
Soundtrack for the metropolis of Voldis, Kalinar, was composed based on the following keywords: city of sages/alchemy/hymn for the humans (the concept of human beings challenging mother nature or supernatural beings that are deemed more powerful than them) /city built on river/aspiring.
Tribal Part– Sets the tone, and demonstrates the vibes of city.
Orchestra Part– Symbolizes hymn for the humans (the concept of human beings challenging mother nature or supernatural beings that are deemed more powerful than them), with aspiring and magnificent melody.
Zeherade Theme
The song expresses the mystical golden aura of this artificial elemental (Zeherade) with this soundtrack dedicated to its namesake, Zeherade, the Great Sage.
What was the design process for the Ivory Tower and the Elixir System? How does the team feel about this type of endgame content moving forward?
Ivory Tower of Chaos
As always, an Abyssal Dungeon is added yet again for this relatively new continent, Voldis. Abyssal Dungeons exist for each continents in Lost Ark with the difficulty resembling Raids, thus more difficult than the story dungeons. Lazaram, who was sealed in the Sage’s Tower, summons Chaos Guardians resulting in the tower being saturated in chaos.
Elixir System
As more and more endgame contents are getting updated, we wanted to introduce the new progression system for progressing the characters in diverse ways for players in the 1600-1620 Item Level range. As this system is tied to the Voldis, the concept that the sages of Voldis who are also experts in alchemy are giving advice for creating elixir was added.
However, as various progressions are being added alongside increasing level caps and content which may fatigue/pressure players, we will constantly be easing the earlier stages of progression as more and more endgame content releases.
Thank you for joining our teams at Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG for a look into creating Voldis. Curious what’s next for Lost Ark? Checkout the 2024 Part 1 Roadmap. Thank you for your support! We’ll see you in Arkesia.