
Oathsworn Culture
The Oathsworn culture was inspired by east asian mythology, fantasies, and theater. Since Age of Wonders 4 is a fantasy 4X, historical accuracy is not the priority. It was important for us to be respectful of the real-life cultures and history that inspired us, while focusing on creating a fantasy that fit into the existing AOW4 universe. We started the Oathsworn culture exploration with sketches close to their real life inspirations:








Oathsworn City
No culture is complete without city assets! When researching east asian architecture we really fell in love with the roofs, so that was the primary element we wanted to highlight and exaggerate. The early concepts by Rich:











The Tomes
Luis has already given you the rundown on the 4 new tomes (technically 7) that come with Ways of War, but I wanted to cast an additional spotlight on the three ‘technically also tome books’; the culture tomes!



The Forms
You’ve seen glimpses of them already, but now formally introducing: The Simian and the Ogrekin, made by our 3D character art team Robin & Geertje as well as our intern Isa:



Wildlife
The process of creating a unit is never linear. In theory the pipeline should be design -> concept art -> 3D -> animation -> VFX -> done. But in each step we get informed and inspired by each others’ decisions, and the Accursed Ogre (from Tome of Calamity) was a great example of this.






Miscellaneous
I have spent entirely too much time talking but there’s still art left to show so I’ll just quickfire some last DLC content highlights for your enjoyment! A new blossom node + tactical combat map made by Tom with an accompanying event image (which also has some cool falling leaf FX by Ana):



Free Patch
You might notice some visual updates in the free patch as well, of which a lot have come from suggestions that you, the players, have made. If you ever have any art-related feedback or suggestions, please continue sharing them in the forums! We are watching you (ominous tone) and value your feedback! Here are some of the free patch visual update highlights: Robin, our lead 3D artist, updated the lighting in the front-end. We agreed with you that it was sometimes really hard to see your ruler and units with how dark this screen was.








