---
title: "Concept paintings"
summary: "The paintings of Road to Redemption's new registers, the reference for anyone painting or modelling next. Where the fallen wake, heaven drawn white in ink, the three factions in heaven, their angels' true forms in the world, and Sereth head to toe. All concept."
status: concept  # A proposal: the story, world and art direction, invented for Alex to keep, change or cut
section: "Art Direction"
html: concept-paintings.html
source: www/content/art/concept-paintings.md
---

# Concept paintings

*The paintings of Road to Redemption's new registers, the reference for anyone painting or modelling next. Where the fallen wake, heaven drawn white in ink, the three factions in heaven, their angels' true forms in the world, and Sereth head to toe. All concept.*

> Heaven is drawn in ink, like the deep.

These paintings came with the new vision of 25 October 2026, when the climb's end became heaven (see the [overview](../world/overview.md)). They are the reference for the registers the climb adds: heaven's white ink, the factions, and heaven's white on the world. Every one is a concept painting, made with `design/tools/imagegen.py` and kept by Alex as the look to aim for, not a render of the game. What they show is decided only where the [overview](../world/overview.md) says so; the rest is a proposal. What they mean for the look is on the [visual identity](../art/visual-identity.md).

They were painted before the house style and repainted in it on 26 October 2026: every painting is now in one style, the engraving, chosen in the [style study](../art/style-study.md), keeping its composition and content (what heaven, the factions and the fallen look like). How new ones are made is on the [painting guide](../art/painting-guide.md).

## Where you wake

The bottom of the world, where every fallen lands. The deep register: ember-noir, the ember the only warm light.

![Concept. Where you wake: a hooded fallen sits alone on a cave floor of grey feathers, a coal glowing at its chest, cold embers of those who fell before scattered around it, one grey shaft of light from a crack far above.](../art/paintings/zones/where-you-wake.jpg)

Concept. Where you wake: a hooded fallen sits alone on a cave floor of grey feathers, a coal glowing at its chest, cold embers of those who fell before scattered around it, one grey shaft of light from a crack far above.

## Heaven

Heaven's look was decided by Alex on 25 October 2026: a medieval gothic castle-city over a sea of cloud, white and without colour, drawn in black ink, with the House at its centre. These three paintings are the first he kept.

![Concept. The party crosses into heaven: four hooded fallen on a crenellated bridge, embers at their chests, white walls rising like cliffs from the cloud sea, still angels on the parapets all facing the gate](../art/paintings/heaven/arrival-bridge-side.jpg)

Concept. The party crosses into heaven: four hooded fallen on a crenellated bridge, embers at their chests, white walls rising like cliffs from the cloud sea, still angels on the parapets all facing the gate

![Concept. The gate of heaven seen from the bridge: pointed arches nested inside pointed arches, receding into white, rows of still angels on both sides, the four embers the only colour](../art/paintings/heaven/arrival-bridge-front.jpg)

Concept. The gate of heaven seen from the bridge: pointed arches nested inside pointed arches, receding into white, rows of still angels on both sides, the four embers the only colour

![Concept. A memory of the City from a high balcony: ring after ring of walls, processions of angels stopping at the edge of an empty court, and at its centre the House, a plain round domed house, shut](../art/paintings/heaven/memory-castle-city.jpg)

Concept. A memory of the City from a high balcony: ring after ring of walls, processions of angels stopping at the edge of an empty court, and at its centre the House, a plain round domed house, shut

## The factions in heaven

The Wardens, the Heirs and the Apostates, each in its place in heaven (decided). How each is posed, armed and dressed here is a proposal.

![Concept. The Wardens' City from its outer walls: far too big for its keepers, shut wings, a few armoured Wardens with folded wings and tower shields among thousands of still angels, the House small and far at its heart](../art/paintings/factions/wardens-the-city.jpg)

Concept. The Wardens' City from its outer walls: far too big for its keepers, shut wings, a few armoured Wardens with folded wings and tower shields among thousands of still angels, the House small and far at its heart

![Concept. A Warden at the House's door, his back to it: crowned helm, folded wings, a tower shield carved with the City, the doors behind him chained and padlocked, angels kneeling far off](../art/paintings/factions/wardens-the-doorward.jpg)

Concept. A Warden at the House's door, his back to it: crowned helm, folded wings, a tower shield carved with the City, the doors behind him chained and padlocked, angels kneeling far off

![Concept. The Heirs' host on a siege bridge over the cloud sea: tall angels with raised wings in ordered lines under banners written edge to edge, the gaunt Prophet at its head, the Wardens' shield wall across the gap](../art/paintings/factions/heirs-siege-bridge.jpg)

Concept. The Heirs' host on a siege bridge over the cloud sea: tall angels with raised wings in ordered lines under banners written edge to edge, the gaunt Prophet at its head, the Wardens' shield wall across the gap

![Concept. An Apostate cell in the undercrofts beneath the City: hooded angels with hammers in a ring under gothic vaults, a shaft of light from a crack above, heaven's dark that is still without colour](../art/paintings/factions/apostates-undercroft.jpg)

Concept. An Apostate cell in the undercrofts beneath the City: hooded angels with hammers in a ring under gothic vaults, a shaft of light from a crack above, heaven's dark that is still without colour

![Concept. A postern of the City unbarred at night: a hooded Apostate with a hammer lifts the bar, Wardens on the wall above facing outward, the City's cliffs falling into cloud](../art/paintings/factions/apostates-gate-unbarred.jpg)

Concept. A postern of the City unbarred at night: a hooded Apostate with a hammer lifts the bar, Wardens on the wall above facing outward, the City's cliffs falling into cloud

## The angels in the world

Decided by Alex on 25 October 2026: in the world, angels exist in their true forms, white and worse than heaven's glamour. The Wardens are lifeless, the Heirs godlike, the Apostates human. The world around them keeps its colour, inked; heaven's white is on what they play.

![Concept. A Warden champion at a town gate: a porcelain automaton with a blank mask, a cage of ribs with a keyhole and keys turning inside, wings of hinged white slats, white puppets, sentinels and masked beasts around it, townsfolk in earthy colours passing below with heads bowed](../art/paintings/champions/wardens-puppet-saint.jpg)

Concept. A Warden champion at a town gate: a porcelain automaton with a blank mask, a cage of ribs with a keyhole and keys turning inside, wings of hinged white slats, white puppets, sentinels and masked beasts around it, townsfolk in earthy colours passing below with heads bowed

![Concept. An Heir champion over a crusade: a colossal radiant figure with six wings and burning wheels for a halo, robed in script, a white banner and a sword of light, zealots in white marching under white banners toward a burning town, peasants kneeling](../art/paintings/champions/heirs-seraph.jpg)

Concept. An Heir champion over a crusade: a colossal radiant figure with six wings and burning wheels for a halo, robed in script, a white banner and a sword of light, zealots in white marching under white banners toward a burning town, peasants kneeling

![Concept. An Apostate champion among rebels: a plain hooded man with a sledgehammer, his shadow on the white wall behind him with great broken wings, peasants breaking white chains off freed beasts while a Warden outpost burns](../art/paintings/champions/apostates-rebel.jpg)

Concept. An Apostate champion among rebels: a plain hooded man with a sledgehammer, his shadow on the white wall behind him with great broken wings, peasants breaking white chains off freed beasts while a Warden outpost burns

## The fallen

![Concept. Sereth the Ashen head to toe, in a neutral pose on flat grey, painted from his portrait as the reference for his 3D model: ash-cracked skin, a hood and a cloak burnt at the edges, a dead grey cinder behind a cracked breastplate.](../art/paintings/characters/sereth-full-body.jpg)

Concept. Sereth the Ashen head to toe, in a neutral pose on flat grey, painted from his portrait as the reference for his 3D model: ash-cracked skin, a hood and a cloak burnt at the edges, a dead grey cinder behind a cracked breastplate.

His model, made from this painting, is in the [asset explorer](../art/assets.md) under Models › Concept; how a reference like this is painted is in `docs/art.md` ("Characters from image-to-3D").

## Proposed: a target shot for heaven

![Concept, painted for the proposal. The keeper of the gate: four fallen hold a small warm pool on the white court before heaven's gate, the keeper's red coal facing them, his white dead pressing in from every side, still angels watching from the walls.](../art/paintings/heaven/keeper-of-the-gate.jpg)

Concept, painted for the proposal. The keeper of the gate: four fallen hold a small warm pool on the white court before heaven's gate, the keeper's red coal facing them, his white dead pressing in from every side, still angels watching from the walls.

The painting for a proposed third target shot, seen from the game's own camera: what heaven would have to look like in the engine. Its spec is [on its own page](../art/keeper-of-the-gate.md).

## The references they replace

The two paintings the earlier direction was built on still hold for their registers: the deep and the daylit world. The second is to be redone, since it shows a party heading down.

![The deep: a party of four holding a pool of ember light while the horde closes in from the dark. Still the reference for the deep](../art/paintings/key-art.jpg)

The deep: a party of four holding a pool of ember light while the horde closes in from the dark. Still the reference for the deep

![The daylit world: golden hour, a huge sky, the Tide's fog wall, a tiny party with embers at their chests. Still the reference for the landscape, to be repainted as a climb](../art/paintings/key-art-journey.jpg)

The daylit world: golden hour, a huge sky, the Tide's fog wall, a tiny party with embers at their chests. Still the reference for the landscape, to be repainted as a climb