Character Studies: Dante Alighieri ❤️🔥
As you know, Hell Maiden is based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, but how did this come to be and how did we get here?
𓆩♡𓆪 Why Dante's Divine Comedy?
Everything started with our creative director's, Kira, personal take on Dante and Beatrice. What started out as a fun redesign exercise was then picked up as the foundation for this new game idea!
Our main goal coming out of Little Goody Two Shoes' development was to do an action game of some kind and that's when we put two and two together — why not put these designs to use and try out the horde survival genre?
It all felt like a match made in Heaven (pun intended) from the very beginning! ❤️🔥
At the time, we knew next to nothing about the original Divine Comedy, however, so catching up became imperative if we were going to build a game based on this narrative poem.
𓆩♡𓆪 Research
After reading the Divine Comedy in its entirety (and taking a ridiculous amount of notes) we got a better grasp on what it's all about but didn't want to settle for a faithful recreation of the work.
At this point, we were still on the hunt for a core message for our take on the Divine Comedy; more than adapting it into the videogame medium, we wanted players to find meaning in Hell Maiden just like in Pocket Mirror and Little Goody Two Shoes.
Instead, our writer, Ebee, dug deeper into Dante Alighieri's other works and the man himself, his life and his convictions. Luckily, he wrote extensively about all of this in his other works, Il Convivio and La Vita Nuova.
Perhaps more than the Divine Comedy itself, these two really inspired much of Hell Maiden's soul and purpose, as well as its worldbuilding.
Il Convivio focuses on a lot of different topics from philosophy, to politics, linguistics, astronomy, among other areas of knowledge. This is where Dante wrote extensively about his personal views on a lot of things, the most relevant to Hell Maiden being his views on love, justice and God.
La Vita Nuova, on the contrary, focuses almost solely on his love for Beatrice and how corrosive, overwhelming and all-encompassing it was. Curiously, he mentions a lot of the Poets of Limbo (Virgil, Homer, Ovid, Horace, etc.) and their views on love as well in this work!
All of this helped us shape the world and message of Hell Maiden, being that 95.5% of what's in the game's lore, narrative progression and framework derives directly from these three works.
One of the passages that most informed our Dante as a character is found in Il Convivio, more specifically in Book III, Chapter I where he delves into his love for philosophy:
"Finding my life disposed toward ardor, this love later blazed up like a fire, from a small to a great flame, so that not only while I was awake but also during my sleep the light of her penetrated my mind."
Just like Dante Alighieri, our Dante has a special and natural predisposition toward ardor, passion and love! ❤️🔥
𓆩♡𓆪 Dante as a Character
From the get-go, we knew our Dante would be a cool and collected, yet intense protagonist.
This conclusion was derived mostly from Kira's original approach to her characterization, but it became clear that that was the way to go after reading up on the Divine Comedy.
While we've done it before in Pocket Mirror, and it may seem convenient in a way, having Dante lose her memories became a necessary plot device to drive the point of the narrative home. In truth, she was never supposed to lose her memory at first!
Instead, we went with a Dante that doesn't know anything about her own circumstances, but that very much knows who she is, what she stands for and that is very true to her instincts.
A concept that's very present throughout Paradiso is dubbio (doubt in English), which is very much a part of her drive and ambition throughout the story. As you've probably seen in the demo, there's a prideful and arrogant side to Dante as well which will no doubt will make itself more and more noticeable with time.
If there's a word to summarize her that would be passion and we hope her blazing resolve will resonate with you!
𓆩♡𓆪 Character Design
From the very beginning, Dante's character design was inspired by depictions of Dante Alighieri himself: more specifically this particular portrayal on the right.
A lot of elements are pretty straightforward: the red beret, the olive branch laurel and the black-red color scheme were all direct inspirations from various depictions of Dante.
The symbol on her chest was also directly inspired from this portrait.
The sleeves are reminiscent of the Italian slashed sleeves, which were very popular during the Renaissance.
While from a totally different time period, they suit Dante's design perfectly and even made it into Beatrice's as you've probably noticed! 🪽
Other elements of Dante's design are a little sneakier to spot and more specific than meets the eye: take for example the white ribbons on the back of her head.
Originally much shorter and meant to be tied under the chin, these linen coifs (as they are known) were widely used in medieval times. In Kira's interpretation, he decided to elongate them to a dramatic length, thus giving more movement to the design!
While a lot of the design elements were of medieval inspiration, a lot them can be found in modern day clothing — from the silhouette to the chunky boots and hardware!
The feathered pen and gigantic book are self-explanatory though, aren't they? 🤭
𓆩♡𓆪 In Sum
Taking on the challenge of representing Dante Alighieri within the context of his own work has been incredibly fun. As we mentioned before, the goal isn't to be completely faithful, but to reinterpret his work into something unique that embodies some of its core elements while embodying our own message and convictions.
Obviously, turning every single character into a girl was an absolute must! 🙂↕️
Thank you for reading and let us know your thoughts on the origins of Hell Maiden!