Red Carpet Hall - The Dark Prophecy - Legacy of Kain: The Lost Worlds

Red Carpet Hall

Media

Screenshot [1/2]

Screenshot [2/2]

Description

The screenshots show us a hallway, its surfaces assembled with the same materials and architectural style as the other areas of the Inner Bastion. On the floor of this hallway is a red carpet that stretches from a golden door above a short series of steps, down to a wall with doors at its left and right sides. The end of the room has a grey and brown decoration on the wall, the size and position could suggest that the decoration conceals a door or passageway. On the floor of the hallway before the exit doors are dark emblems of curved sharp shapes, carved in grey circles.

Annotated Image [1/2]

Annotated Image [2/2]

Story Speculation

The portfolio in which these screenshots were found names this area as being part of the boss section of the game, and the images of the Boss Arena strongly suggest that the two areas are directly connected. It seems likely that when Kain finished his various tasks in the Bastion (solving the mysteries of the Winged Being Shrine, imbuing the Soul Reaver in the Dragon Statue Reaver Forge, and destroying the Soul Machine Core), he would enter a doorway in the Inner Bastion that would lead him down the Red Carpet Hall and to the final boss battle of the Bastion.

The red carpet is significant. Consider that in Blood Omen, only one part of the Bastion was shown to be important enough to be decorated with red carpet: Malek's chamber. The suggestion would be that the Boss Arena is an incredibly valuable and prestigious part of the Inner Bastion, to such a degree that the Sarafan would fit a regal carpet in honour of its importance. The essay on the Boss Arena itself, offers theories concerning the area's significance.

On the floor of this area, metal grating seems to border the room. This may suggest the area has an industrial origin, and that the various decorations (golden doors, wall decorations, carpeting) were added after the fact.

Kain would have presumably entered through the door at the top of the steps. On the left of the hallway there is an unseen area, which if we consider the impending boss battle, may have contained a save point and a place in which Kain can recharge his blood and magic levels. It seems very likely that he would have then have passed through the door on the right of the Red Carpet Hall, and entered the Boss Arena.

Malek's chamber in the original Blood Omen

Speculative Map

Speculative arrangement of this area in relation to others

Speculative progression through the game world

Source

These screenshots were discovered in the online portfolio of Jason Muck in November 2008.

Jason is a former Ritual Entertainment staff member, and was employed as an Environment Artist between January 2004 and September 2005. Jason has recently worked on Red Dead Redemption and its expansions, and now works as a Senior Environment Artist at Big Huge Games. His portfolio is available to view online (as of February, 2012), and relevant screenshots are preserved here for historical reference:

Jason Muck's Portfolio [1/2]

Jason Muck's Portfolio [2/2]

It is worth noting that over a year ago, Jason's website was redesigned and one of the released images was removed for reasons unknown. This image was however saved before the redesign and is included in the above screenshots.

Elsewhere on the site, Jason provides us with some insight into his role on The Dark Prophecy and its development timeline:

Environment Artist on Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy - PS2, Xbox, PC CANCELLED

Ritual Entertainment - Jan 2004 - April 2004

Responsible for modeling, texture mapping, and lighting in-game environments while following art direction and maximizing target platform memory limitations.

...

Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy: Xbox, PS2 CANCELLED

These are screen shots from the playstation 2 version of Legacy of Kain : The Dark Prophecy. It was canceled after about 3 months of production work. These are the levels I worked on including modeling, texture mapping, and lighting. On this project I was not responsible for actual texture creation but working from a library provided by our texture artists. I would then model out the level, create props, map textures, and apply the lighting. All lighting was vertex based and applied in Max.

...

LEGACY OF KAIN THE DARK PROPHECY: Environment Artist, Texture UVs, Lighting, 2004, CANCELLED

— JasonMuck.com

The name "Red Carpet Hall" has been used based on the features shown in the screenshots. No official name for this area has been revealed.

Links