I am an unabashed fan the models and art assets of
World of Warcraft. Blizzard's genius art team has perfected an iconic
and action figure-like approach to their art direction that I find endlessly
appealing and fuels my imagination like nothing else.
Most of these models I present are from WOW's earlier days when
technological constraints required strict polygon budgeting and pushed
artists to the limit in creating distinctive designs that are "quick reads".
In the recent years technology is less of a constraint and the Blizzard art
team's recent offerings are (very similar to Games Workshop's modern
real-life models) too detailed, too high-res, too convoluted. Yet, there are
still some modern gems and you will find them here, especially in this
post.
Mechanicals
Blizzard has a thing for magic robots and clockwork machines. The
WOW universe has more mechanicals than any other setting outside of
Eberron. Incidentally, while preparing this post I was reminded I was
reminded of Clark Ashton Smith's story "The Maze of Maâl Dweb" which
contains one of the earliest mentions that I know of pertaining to an"arcane
construct":
"The causey and the stairs were guarded by the silent, colossal automatons of Maal Dweb, whose arms ended in long crescent blades of tempered steel which were raised in implacable scything against any who came thither without their master's permission."
Smith's crescent-bladed automatons would be right at home among the
following selection of my favorite mechanical models from World of
Warcraft:
Apexis Golems
These guys belong to the Arakkoa, WOW's resident birdmen, who's
excellent Skeksis-inspired model will get a writeup in a future post.
Speaking of which, these golem have a real Dark Crystal thing going
on, don't they? Ornate. Opulent. Spikey. The shoulder pauldrons look like
the heads of their birdmen masters. I really like the fierceness and
articulation of the taloned hands.
Arcane Golems
A solid, utilitarian design for these automations. You could easily
envision them constructing a fortress as much as doing battle against army
of undead. They were introduced in WOW's first expansion The Burning Crusade and, they've got BC fingerprints all over them: lots of
crystals, color, and particle effects. I consider BC to be the sweet
spot for model design—color and texture detail increased but polygons were
still heavily budgeted. I think the barely defined heads really sell them a
total wreaking unit.
Blood Golems
In the official lore Blood Golem aren't really powered by blood,
rather a convoluted substance referred to as "anima." However, in my mind,
Blood Golem are powered by the blood of sacrifice victims. You can tell that
that was probably the original concept Blizzard artists were working with,
but WOW is pretty PG-13, so an idea so grotesque probably got axed along the
way. The swirling blood effect is beautiful and the color palette
appropriately simplified. These are not far from how I pictured the
automatons from "The Maze of Maâl Dweb." Some nice little touches here,
particularly the little blood reservoirs on the shoulders of the larger
golem and the cork-like protuberance on the top of both gives the
golems the impression of being walking, blood-filled potion
flasks.
Alarm-o-bot
Not much to say here, this was too charming not to include. This little
fellow has a clever, Disney-esque design and proves even cute stuff can be
inspired.
Nightborne Construct
Possibly my favorite of the bunch. They belong to WOW's version of the dark
elves and you can't see it really well from the images I put together, but
their bodies have a centaur configuration, with a feline lower half instead
that of a horse. They look like aggression incarnate and I can easily
imagine them charging at the head of an army into a horde of naga. Check out
the "light blades" on the center construct. I just noticed this, but his
feet resemble traditional centaur hooves than the toes of the other two.
These are pretty recent models, but the limited palette helps improve the
"read" of their forms. Like most of the others in this post, the Nighborne
Constructs minimally defined heads helps to establish their robotic
nature.
Harvest Golem
Pure Halloween, these guys. To me, Harvest Golems are almost as iconic to
WOW as orcs and humans. I remember seeing them in a promotional
screenshot way back in 2003-2004 and thinking "This is the game for me." The
cookie-cutter scarecrow concept is accentuated by the long claws which hint
that the golem is also created for harvesting and threshing wheat. I also
like how you can see that it's body is made of a barrel in the stripped away
version. Great visual storytelling. In game, they can be found in the zone
Westfall, an autumnal farmland which contributes even more to the
Halloweenish feel of these guys.
Fel Reaver
Everybody who played WOW's first expansion has a Fel Reaver story.
Despite being few in number and, at the time, probably the game's largest
model, they still had a way of sneaking up on you, letting out that ungodly
noise and ending you in one hit. Of all the designs presented in this post,
this one looks the most traditionally mechanical. The venting on the front
of the torso and the exhaust pipes on the back call to mind an infernal
engine or furnace, while the tower-like extensions on the back remind
me of a walking fortress, not unlike Imperator-class Titans from 40K
All images produced by me using the excellent WOW Model viewer.
