tC|RUIN, an artist who worked on visuals for the Insectoid mod, has done a very nice visual for the Shadow Realm campaign banner, on the campaign selection screen:
This thread will list indications for him to try to draw images for the other campaign screens. No result guaranteed on his side, but as he said: "expect nothing but hope for everything".
So...
Technical specifications
Images need to be 2400x1500 .png files.
Examples are here: [folder where you set up AoW3]\Age of Wonders III\Content\Title\Campaign\Campaign Images. For instance CW-01-I-1.png
Images we need
There are 3 levels in the campaign and the third level has 3 possible options, so we have map 1, 2, 3A, 3B and 3C. For each map, we ideally need 1 starting screen and 1 ending screen. That means 10 images in total (or a minimum of 5 if we go only for starting screen).
Scenario 1 -Through the Shadow Gate
Werlac crosses the Shadow Gate and the player is Grevara, a Draconian Dreadnought, a Torchbearer of Commonwealth origin who is tasked with following Werlac.
Grevara is the Draconian on the left here (the characters, from left to right: Grevara, Sundren, Sydran, Werlac, Meandor):
For the starting screen, I'd suggest making a picture which illustrates the sentence I put in bold and underlined below, i.e. Grevara hearing Bormac mumbling about Orcs, but I kept other interesting options in the text below (taken from the campaign introductory screens):
Here are images of Grevara:
And Bormac:
For the ending screen, the player has basically vainquished the Shadowborn sbires and gone through a Shadow Gate located underground, in Melenis' old city where he has met Sydran and seen Werlac flee further in the Shadow Realm. He is entering Sydran's, the main Shadow Elf protagonist, seen in the screenshot above, city. I suggest to either represent Dreadnought troops entering the city populated with suspicious Shadow Elves (first sentence in bold and underline below), or the discussion between Grevara and Sydran (second sentence in bold and underline below).
See Shadow Elves here:
Their story: https://age-of-wonders-3.fandom.com...Shadow_Realm_Community_Expansion#Shadow_Elves
Their skin is pale, kind of blue-ish. They descend from Wood Elves and Dark Elves.
This thread will list indications for him to try to draw images for the other campaign screens. No result guaranteed on his side, but as he said: "expect nothing but hope for everything".
So...
Technical specifications
Images need to be 2400x1500 .png files.
Examples are here: [folder where you set up AoW3]\Age of Wonders III\Content\Title\Campaign\Campaign Images. For instance CW-01-I-1.png
Images we need
There are 3 levels in the campaign and the third level has 3 possible options, so we have map 1, 2, 3A, 3B and 3C. For each map, we ideally need 1 starting screen and 1 ending screen. That means 10 images in total (or a minimum of 5 if we go only for starting screen).
Scenario 1 -Through the Shadow Gate
Werlac crosses the Shadow Gate and the player is Grevara, a Draconian Dreadnought, a Torchbearer of Commonwealth origin who is tasked with following Werlac.
Grevara is the Draconian on the left here (the characters, from left to right: Grevara, Sundren, Sydran, Werlac, Meandor):
For the starting screen, I'd suggest making a picture which illustrates the sentence I put in bold and underlined below, i.e. Grevara hearing Bormac mumbling about Orcs, but I kept other interesting options in the text below (taken from the campaign introductory screens):
It was common knowledge that Draconians do not become graduates of the Imperial Dreadnought Academies.
The official line is that Draconians simply do not have the interest or the aptitude for technology to become a full Dreadnought, and there is a spark of truth in that. My people have always preferred to make use of our natural strength and affinity for draconic flame over imitations comprised of chemicals and steel. But the truth was that we knew that there was no point in even trying.
For all the Commonwealth’s lip service towards equality between the races, it was one of the empire’s worst-kept secrets that some were certainly more equal than others. [...] It was well known that no Draconian would ever be accepted as a full Dreadnought. Some might be allowed to learn the basic skills of an engineer, in order to work in situations that were considered too unsafe to risk human or dwarf engineers, but we would never be allowed to join the ranks of the captains of the Commonwealth’s industries and armies.
[...]
During the latter stages of the war, a number of territories were claimed by the Torchbearers away from the regions where the main fighting was happening, which they used to set up havens for refugees fleeing the conflict. One of these was a mountainous region on the northern coast of Athla known as Rockholme, from which armies of the Shadowborn and the Elven Court had been driven out by Torchbearer armies led by Bormac, an ancient and apparently ageless dwarf who was quite likely the oldest Dreadnought in the world. After the negotiation of the truce between the two empires, Bormac returned to Rockholme to found a new academy – one which, true to the Torchbearer creed, would genuinely be open to all.
Although I’m sure I heard him muttering under his breath a few times about whether the Torchbearer creed was truly supposed to include Orcs when he didn’t think there were any students close enough to listen. But I wasn’t going to allow whatever ancient grudge Bormac was nursing to deny me my own opportunity. A fortunate thing, too, as it was only a few scant months after I’d completed my dissertation (a study on how Draconian engineers might be able to use their ability to influence flame to safely make use of more potent incendiaries than engineers of other races) before the fragile peace was shattered by the exposure of Merlin’s seals in Rockholme.
The first wave of attackers were the usual suspects – Shadowborn seeking to weaken Merlin’s warding by breaking the seals. With Bormac’s leadership, we beat them off with little difficulty, but worse was yet to come. While we had been occupied defending Rockholme, a Necromancer loyal to the revenant of Melenis, one of Meandor’s wives during the time when the Keepers and the Cult of Storms fought over the Valley of Wonders, had rampaged through the lands to the south, using the power of the seals he cracked open to fuel the creation of an ever-increasing horde of undead. Faced with the prospect of sharing the fate of our neighbours, Bormac made the decision that it was better to break the seals ourselves than to allow Melenis’ flunkies to claim their power and add us to their armies, waiting until the enemy had committed their full force before unleashing the power of the seals to cleanse them from Athla.
With the Rockholme seals destroyed, the enemy lost interest in us. Word from the Torchbearer spy network indicated that the forces of Melenis and the Shadowborn alike were converging on Sunbirth Citadel, so that’s where we, too, would march.
Here are images of Grevara:
And Bormac:
For the ending screen, the player has basically vainquished the Shadowborn sbires and gone through a Shadow Gate located underground, in Melenis' old city where he has met Sydran and seen Werlac flee further in the Shadow Realm. He is entering Sydran's, the main Shadow Elf protagonist, seen in the screenshot above, city. I suggest to either represent Dreadnought troops entering the city populated with suspicious Shadow Elves (first sentence in bold and underline below), or the discussion between Grevara and Sydran (second sentence in bold and underline below).
For the soldiers under my command, entering the walls of the strange elven city represented a welcome relief from the fighting it had taken to make it this far. It was clear that they still did not entirely trust us, but were willing to put aside their suspicion to welcome those who had broken the siege.
As promised, I spent many hours in discussion with the commander of these Shadow Elves. He informed me that he was in fact one of the generals of Meandor’s army, and that this fortress was one of a ring of fortresses that was intended to protect Athla from the dangers deeper in the Shadow Realm – and also, as happened today, to prevent conspirators from within Athla from making contact with those dangers. He also told me of how his kind had been changed by their time in the Shadow Realm, adjusting to the conditions here and becoming one with the Shadows.
[...]
Over all our discussions, one question hung over our heads: where had Werlac escaped to.
We were just about to turn in for… whatever it was that passed for night in this realm when a messenger that Sydran had sent to a neighbouring fortress to ask for assistance against the siege arrived. The messenger reported that he had found the fortress abandoned – but strangely, there was no sign of a battle. Was this some new trick of Werlac’s, or had the entire garrison defected to the Shadowborn?
See Shadow Elves here:
Their story: https://age-of-wonders-3.fandom.com...Shadow_Realm_Community_Expansion#Shadow_Elves
Their skin is pale, kind of blue-ish. They descend from Wood Elves and Dark Elves.