This is the script for another lore video animatic for Vexoria the Sun Eater. This was for a new version of her character – “The Frozen Empress” – and specifically evoked the themes of life and death, renewal and sleep, motherhood, loss of family, how determination, love and loss can shape a character into a villain to others while she remains the hero of her own story, and an emphasis on how quickly humanity can turn on the “other” the moment things go sour.
It depicted Vexoria as a “Witch of the Woods” style character – a sweet lamia woman who had power over the seasons themselves, and used these powers to give blessings for the townsfolk and countrymen, though good weather, tending to their crops, mild seasons, and creating potions and tinctures to heal the ailing and wounded. This eventually leads to the setup for her character change in the story; she falls in love with an adventurer, and the pair start a family together.
When a great plague sweeps across the nation, the people look to Vexoria for succor, an end to their suffering, but no matter what she does, her magic cannot heal them. This causes them to turn against her and her family, and eventually leads to her husband and children growing sick with the plague.
With no other recourse, she turns to her power over the seasons to put a stop to it. While spring brings growth and renewal, winter brings dormancy. Rest. A great pause to all things. To end the suffering of the people, and to preserve her dying family until she can find a cure, she encases them all in ice, and surrenders herself to the powers of winter. This ends in a climactic moment brought to life by Vexoria’s voice acting, bringing to life the very visceral moment where a mother has to choose to imprison her children and the love of her life in ice, so that she can spend the rest of her life trying to save them, and hope that they’ll be reunited. To make things even more poignant, we had her children record a few short voice lines, including her 8 year old son saying “I love you mommy”, which made for a moment so powerful that even I couldn’t stop myself from crying when I heard it and watched it for the first time. And then every time after. I’m getting teary-eyed just writing about it now, to be honest. The moment just hits hard.
What comes after establishes her transition from sweet creature of the forest who helps people, to the frigid ruler of a frozen dominion that adventurers and heros have devoted hundreds of years to trying to slay. In her sorrow, Vexoria freezes her entire land, draping it in an endless winter, and freezing every person in place. The story goes that she then spends hundreds of years capturing people and performing experiments on them, attempting to study this magical plague and find a cure. When each fails, they become a frozen statue in her domain, a constant reminder of her failures, right next to her husband and children. Every adventurer that comes for her head provides another opportunity to save everyone; maybe something in their blood might provide the key to saving all those frozen people. In her mind, she’s doing what is right, she’s trying to save them all, and they’re ungrateful, constantly coming to slay her, like she’s some trophy for their mantle. She resents them as greedy, shortsighted creatures, ones she once took care of, and even if they want to come to kill her, she’ll still be the one to save them.
But all she wants back are her husband and her kids. And nothing will stop her from saving them.
I like the story because it sets up a villain with an understandable backstory; in the simplest terms, you start with spring, happiness, growth and love, then twist it into pain, loss, and a monster of humanity’s own making. They turned on her and attack her, they made her family sick, and she uses this to justify capturing them and experimenting on them in order to save everyone.
It works so well, because in her, we see ourselves. Vex’s voice work brings to life the visceral pain of losing her family, losing her children. Hearing her sobbing, seeing the transition of the world from bright to dark, from alive to frozen, evokes a deep fear we all have of losing those that are precious to us. She becomes a monster in that moment, ready to do anything to save her family, but we all know that, given the same situation, we, too, would be right there beside her. This is how you create the most compelling villains, to watch their fall, to see them justify the things they do. Hundreds of years later, her family is still trapped, but as is she, trapped in repeating the same motions as always, capturing those who come from her, and trying to cure her family.
We never know if she’ll succeed, or if we need to be the ones to rise up, and strike her down, and in so doing, put an end to her suffering.
Below is the script itself! It’s written less in a formal format and more as a working document as the team had become quite familiar with working together, and a lot of extra details were handled in voice calls and on discord.
Script
Darkness, revealing Vex’s frozen eyes, icy flames flickering from them as she speaks.
“Your hearts are so clouded by hatred, all you see is the monster. Your kind are such… simple minded creatures… but I, I was like you, once…”
Cut to view of an idyllic sort of countryside, as if seen from a mountain. You can see plains, farmlands, a forest, a village, maybe a city in the distance, and a beautiful looking manor atop a mountain with a winding path leading to it. Lots of green, lots of warmth.
“I had a home. I had a life. I had warmth. I…. had a family.”
Cut to picture of Vex, warm, maybe human skin tone, maybe different outfit/hair, something more casual-spellcastery. She’s there smiling with Zolon and our two kids. As if they were playing in a beautiful garden. They’re happy. Together. You can feel the warmth from them.
“Long, long ago, before this land fell into eternal slumber, I lived in a place full of beauty and warmth. With a home I had built for myself, far from the reaches of mankind.”
Switch to a picture of a younger Vex, working in her garden, happy. Maybe a blue rose in her fingertips?
“I made potions and tinctures. I healed the sick and mended the wounded. I cast spells and used magic that controlled nature itself! I’d grow all kinds of magical herbs and flowers in my garden. People would journey from far and wide to beseech my aid. I concocted spells to cure the ill and salves to heal the hurt. I used my power over the seasons to bless the bounties of the local farms and villages. The people were kind, thankful. They knew I would always watch over them.”
Vex looks up, and then shadows of people arrive. She smiles warmly.
“One day, a man found his way to my garden, injured from protecting a family who was attacked by bandits. I cared for him, and nursed him back to health.”
Picture of Zolon laying in a bed while Vex tends to his wounds. He then opens his eyes, and smiles at her. She smiles back. He offers her a blue rose, and she blushes and looks away.
“That man became my husband. A human who could truly love a creature like me was a rare thing indeed, and so I cherished him deeply. With every passing day, our love grew and bloomed like the beautiful roses in my garden. We had two children together – a fierce and beautiful daughter, and a kind and energetic son.”
Picture of their family in the garden, starting with just Zolon and Vex, but then adding Ello, and then adding Screm.
“For years, we had an idyllic little life. They would help me tend to the garden, then Zolon and the kids would take my potions and cures to the village. We were happy. We were safe. Everything was… so warm.”
Picture of Zolon waving to Vex with a wagon behind him. Then cut to scene of a village with happy people.
“But then it began, slowly at first. A cold here, an unexplained death there. Before anyone could stop it, a plague washed over the land.”
Village colors begin to fade, a few of the happy people now look sick or covered up.
“The people grew sick, food grew scarce, commerce grinded to a halt. Worse yet, my medicines and cures had no effect. I could not cure you of this horrible disease. Then, when supplies dwindled, the loving, caring people of this land turned on eachother.”
Same village, but now there’s a man with a dagger threatening a woman and child.
“You killed eachother over scraps to survive. The festering corpses of those you lived littered the street, the dead offered no ceremony, no proper burial or send off. You fled your cities and brought your plague to the farms, and the countryside.”
Cut to Vex desperately working on a potion with herbs around her.
“And yet I continued to try to help. I couldn’t merely sit back and watch you suffer. I wanted to find a way to aid you, to cure you of this horrible affliction. I wanted so badly to be the succor you all needed..”
Herbs fade or disappear, potions turn empty, Vex looks frustrated.
“But no matter what I did, nothing seemed to help. I’d send Zolon to the village with cures, but you turned him back – attacked him, blamed him for your illness, for your suffering. You blamed me for your suffering. And yet, despite the hate we received, we did everything we could to save you, until…”
Zolon by cart again, but looking exhausted, downtrodden.
“The worst happened. The plague followed him home. In our generosity, and no matter the precautions we took, my family all soon fell ill.”
“All, but me..”
Cut to black.
“I couldn’t cure you. I couldn’t cure THEM. All I could do was to watch them waste away. No more playing. No more warmth. I was forced to watch as everything I knew… the villages, the countryside, the farms, my husband, my CHILDREN were taken from me.”
Cut to Vex’s hand/claw, as icy crystals begin to creep upwards and her skin begins to turn slightly blue.
“I would not stand by and watch as all I love rotted and died. The world must go through cycles – sleep, renewal, warmth, decay, and then sleep once more. The cold preserves and gives way to new life. If I could not cure this disease, not yet, then perhaps, just perhaps, I could freeze it in time.”
Zolon and the children, out in the garden. They’re both turned away, but Zolon stares. Vex’s shadow closes in.
“Just as I had given life all those years, so too, must I bring a close, a deep sleep. If I could be spring, then I must be winter, too. Yes. That was the answer. To preserve them in ice. I could protect them. I could save them. All I’d need is more time, just… a little more time…”
Zolon: “Are you… sure about this?”
Vexoria: “Yes. This is the only way. You’ll wake up and all will be well again, I promise my loves..”
Ello turns around. Zolon closes his eyes.
“Mom? What’s going on? What are you doing?”
Screm turns around. Zolon begins to cry.
Screm: “Mommy? Why are you crying?”
The screen goes white, then fades to Vex’s face, her skin now blue, her hair white, now looking more like her frozen empress form. She stares, eyes wide.
“I’m… sorry…”
She closes her eyes tightly as she hears both kids say “I love you mom.”. Then tears stream down her face as they go silent.
“I love you, too..”
Everything goes silent.
Cut to shot from above, as Vex screams to the heavens in anguish, having frozen her family and children not knowing if she’d ever get them back. The green grass and her garden is about her, as tears stream down her face.
Then ice forms at her feet.
As her screams and cries continue, the ice spreads. Further around her, then her whole garden.
Cut to the countryside from before.
As Vex cries for her children, the ice and snow overtakes her whole mountain. Then the farmland. Then the villages. Then everything else.
Cut to scene of Vex holding her frozen family and sobbing quietly.
“I did what I had to do. I preserved my family, my heart, my whole world, in ice. There was no more plague. No more pain. No more suffering. At least, not for any of you. I would be the one who remained. I would be the one to shoulder that burden.”
Transition to Vex in her manor, sitting in an icy throne. Now she wears her frozen empress garb, as the statues of her family rest beside or behind her. As she speaks, one by one, more frozen people are added to the hall. First villagers, then mercenaries and soldiers.
“I toiled for centuries on a cure. Nothing ever came. I found the sick and weary, and I collected them, statues in my garden, memories of what once was. I never found a cure. In time, you grew to hate me. Called me a witch. The Frozen Empress. You feared me. Called me a monster.”
Add adventurers facing Vexoria now as she stares down at them from her throne.
“One by one, I’ve added your kind to my collection, over and over again, in hopes that one day, one of you short-lived, hateful little creatures brings me something that might cure my disease. Something that brings my family back to me.”
Vexoria sits up, frozen energy glowing in her hands as she prepares to face the adventurers.
“So come then, little humans. If you think you can face me? Then do it. Kill me. Claim my head for your glory. I dare you. Nothing you could possibly do to me could outweigh the suffering I have endured. You can’t hurt me more than I have hurt myself.”
Shift to picture of Vexoria lunging forth, blasting ice magic from her palms, as the adventurers also raise their arms to attack.
Shadows dance around as sounds of combat continue. The shadows grow and dance over the statues of Zolon and the kids. Vexoria’s monologue continues.
“I am the Frozen Empress. The one who remains. She who brings eternal slumber, she who bathes the world in white and cold. Will you be the one to finally bring warmth to my lair? Or will you be yet another statue to decorate my garden?”
View fades to white, and then Vexoria is seen with her claws under the chin of one of the frozen adventurers.
“So if you believe yourself brave enough to dare the frozen winds and the frigid journey, then come. I’ll be waiting. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one I need to free them. To free all of them – even myself. If not? I hope you’ll at least be pretty to look at.”
Vex turns her face towards the camera as it fades to black until only her glowing eyes remain.
“Don’t keep me waiting. It gets so cold and lonely up here alone..”
Fading to black while Vex evil laughs, a snowy transition happens.
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