The Birth of a Dragon
The Birth of a Dragon: A Behind the Scenes Look At the Creation of Azhdaha
Etched forever in stone, the mountains bear witness to his power. Of all the adversaries the Traveler has faced, Azhdaha has remained one of the most memorable. Let's take a look at how the Genshin Impact team brought this majestic creation to life!
Core: Azhdaha's Initial Design
Nao Zhong, Combat Design: We actually planned to create Azhdaha long before the official launch. The actual production started around Version 1.1 where we first took some keywords and began conceptual designs for this World Boss. We wanted to make a large quadruped, something that identified with Genshin Impact's fantasy style and for it to also be a Geo elemental being.
Another core design concept of the boss is the role it plays in the story. Our original intention was to integrate the World Bosses into the story. This way, not only will it further enhance the player's gaming experience, the bosses' behavior will also be affected due to the role they play in the story. Let's take this battle scene for example. There are the Stone Steles that Zhongli created. According to the story, the entry and defeat of Azhdaha revolves around a seal. Regarding this, our colleagues from the Creative Concept and Writing Team will dive deeper into the thought process of these designs.
Manny Calavera, Creative Concept and Writing Team: When we first began designing Azhdaha. we started with the backstory of Liyue. That is to say, during the Archon War, countless enormously powerful ancient being dwelled in the world that were later defeated and Azhdaha is one of them. His name derived from Aži Dahāka which means "Dragon" in Old Persian. Azhdaha is an enormous, terrible creature in Iranian mythology and in Iranian culture means "something sinister that is hidden for a long time but will one day emerge. The reason for selecting this name is to imply that in the game — this huge, hidden danger will one day reveal itself suddenly. This name was the initial inspiration for his entire design and many subsequent design details revolved around the meaning of this name.
Xiao Luohao, Creative Concept and Writing Team: As for the story, we have three major points: first, after comprehensive discussions among many parties, we've decided to tell the story through Zhongli's Story Quest, "No Mere Stone." Both Zhongli and Azhdaha take on key roles in this story as it revolves around the clashes between the two. The core element of the story is about erosion and on the conflict between ordinary people and nature. As a Geo elemental being in his design, Azhdaha can be deemed as a representation of nature whereas humans represent the spirit of expansion and development. So, what kind of damage will be done to nature in the process of mankind's continuous exploration and usage of nature? We though that this was one of the vantage points we could use in the designing of Azhdaha.
Second, we noticed that not many people take interest in the feeling of inorganic substances in their lives due to Genshin Impact's nature of being a fantasy genre game. There are far more possibilities than there are in reality. We began dwelling on this concept in the process of designing Azhdaha and tried to make it one of the foundations of the entire story. We wanted to express the contradicting and symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. This is how the experiences of Azhdaha became unique in the final script: he, as a representation of nature, integrated himself into human society. After spending some time living amongst humans, this symbiotic way once again led to conflicts between Azhdaha and mankind.
The last key point is the role that Azhdaha plays in Zhongli's story. "No Mere Stone" is the second act of Zhongli's Story Quest. The core character in this story is no other than Zhongli himself. We wanted to flesh out Zhongli's character and to tell more of his story through the appearance of Azhdaha. Zhongli took more of a stance of a god in the previous Liyue main storyline and Story Quest. The story of him making a resolution on behalf of the beings in the world but in reality beneath his stoic demeanor when it comes to duty, Zhongli also has a sentimental side. We wish to deliver a message through the story and the message is that Zhongli, or Morax, also faces challenges on his own due to his longevity and responsibilities. He too is in never-ending cycle of loss and erosion. The Geo Archon Morax usually faces his challenges alone. For instance, the turning points of history and his victories and defeats. Morax defeated Azhdaha in order to protect the people of Liyue. Although his victory was unquestionable, he lost many things on the way of saving his friend. In a way, he also failed. As for Azhdaha, he first lived in peace with the people of Liyue but over the years of erosion, he found himself in conflict with them. Eventually, he was forced to fight his former companion. This is a hint of the dangers of erosion as well as the possible outcome if Zhongli does not choose to step down from being the Geo Archon.
The Traveler's life span is by no means short either. Players at times may also feel the slow passage of time while on the quest to search for their kin. Through this story, we hope that players will begin to relate to Zhongli as they realize that they are walking on a path that predecessors have taken. What Zhongli says to the Traveler later also coincides with this relatability. As the Geo Archon, and as himself, Zhongli genuinely wishes the best for the Traveler.
Formation: Azhdaha's Appearance Design
Manny Calavera, Creative Concept and Writing Team: When we first started designing Azhdaha's appearance, we didn't look for anything that resembled classic dragons of the west or east. Instead, what we chose is the crocodile-like dragon as you see in the game. In our designing process, we have always wanted to convey a concept that is: Azhdaha represents a cultural element that has been forgotten by the primary civilizations but continues to exist and influence the civilizations of the land. That is why we tried to find something with more of an ancient resemblance, as well as avoiding mainstream archetypes.
The one that stood out the most was the crocodile. It is well known during the long period between the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and all the way to the Han dynasty. The Chinese did not have a fixed image of what a dragon should look like. For example, we see the crocodile-shaped jade objects in the Tomb of Fu Hao and imagery of crocodile-like Dragons in Han dynasty pictorial bricks. Even in ancient times, we would see the image of a quadruped toad-like dragon — that is where the quadruped design of Azhdaha originates.
Suisu, Monster Design: In earlier stages of its design after numerous discussions with many groups of people, the team decided on two primary directions: first, Azhdaha must look vastly different from both Dvalin and Zhongli's dragon form. The tree must have their differences and uniqueness in appearance. The second is that it must hold a theme that portrays Liyue's Geo element. So in the end, we decided to create an enormous Earth Dragon that could shake heaven and earth. Although the monsters in our game follow more of a fantasy style, everything is still designed based upon the structure and behavior of an animal. This way, we can develop a more logical form of its muscular structure and movement in later developments. That is why we put our primary focus on Azhdaha's animalistic attributes when we were designing his appearance.
It was a lot of work searching for references. For instance, we referenced the alligator snapping turtle for its outline and unique features and the komodo dragon for the way its limbs would move. At the same time, for better combat feedback and experience, we couldn't leave too much space below his torso. Thus, we shortened Azhdaha's limbs and brought him closer to the ground. We weren't able to have his tail curve downwards due to issues with the hitbox. So instead, it had to be curving upwards, but this actually goes against the unique behaviors of the alligator snapping turtle and komodo dragon as mentioned earlier. After searching through a series of contemporaneous creatures, we found another concept reference for him: the Stegosaurus. The Stegosaurus is more in line with Azdaha's design concept as it has more of a heavy set. Its tail curves upwards and it has a more round-shaped body with thick limbs.
In terms of the details as Geovishap Hatchlings, Geovishaps, the Primo Geovishap, and Azhdaha belong to the same species and have a developmental relationship, there are similarities in their unique structure, gameplay, and detail elements. Besides the color scheme, Geovishaps, the Primo Geovishap, and Azhdaha all have Geo Crystals and entangled plants on their body as well as a pattern derived from the Liyue Geo elements on their backs. Azhdaha's tail is actually a huge tree at Nantianmen. We initially checked this design with the Creative Concept and Writing Team. And in later stages of designs, we not only made the tail into a combination of a tree trunk, tree branches, and leaves but also extended the plant element to Azhdaha's entire body. The plant element is used on the back, the head, and all four of Azhdaha's limbs to create a full on effect. Azhdaha's horns are polished like teak wood and his leg armor is designed to have a thick bard texture. We believe that these designs coincide with Azhdaha's design of being sealed for an extended amount of time.
TT, 3D Character Design: Azhdaha is designed to be a boss that is large in size and a well-rounded melee fighter. What that means is that from a production point of view, we need to make sure that the level of design and detail is in-depth and up to par so we can avoid any areas that would come off as low poly. In Azhdaha's concept art, his design is composed of a complex combination of layers of wood, muscle, and crystals. At the same time, there are multiple interchanging elements that need to be displayed. This was a big challenge for a game that is being developed for multiple platforms simultaneously. Different platforms have different capabilities and limitations in terms of performance and rendering. We also needed to take into account controlling of the development time and cost at the same time. There was extensive communication between the departments in the earlier brainstorming sessions and we performed a lot of testing.
Cel shading looked easier to do but it actually has a pretty high-performance demand on the device. In the end, to ensure the quality and details of Azhdaha, we set the modeling limit to be within 60,000 surfaces and split the textures into five different mappings. However, due to the cel shading rendering style, we weren't able to fill the mappings with too many things, so we tried our best to create most of the details such as muscular and other complex structures through modeling and later repeatedly adjusted the normal mappings to create rich details that can be seen just by looking at the shadows cast by the model. We used a weaker style of dealing with lighting in our mapping to ensure that there are still enough visible details even when Azhdaha is completely covered in shadows. For a more ideal final effect, at the skinning stage we made numerous adjustments to the model mesh. Later, we had to readjust Azhdaha's mapping several times to get the lighting, animations, and environment just right.
It was a painstaking process but the end results were good and everyone felt that it was worth the effort. I believe that it's a form of respect to the designers and to the player base for an anime-themed 3D modeler to recreate something that is identical to its original design and to continuously search for better ways to deliver the design. The recognition and passion of the players is the greatest encouragement we could ever ask for.
Quake: Azhdaha's Boss Fight Design
Nao Zhong, Combat Design: We decided on two main themes for the concepts behind the boss fight: first, with Geo being the main elemental [sic] of Liyue, the boss has to have some sort of shield mechanic and the second revolves around the Geo Crystal reactions. Azhdaha will gain two additional elemental powers in the entire battle and this process is dynamic, making it different from other boss battles. We hoped to see different strategies in dealing with Azhdaha every week in the first few weeks of launch. Initially, we planned to use Hydro, Pyro, Cryo, and Electro to create twelve different combinations. However, this posed as a great challenge for production as it was overly demanding in terms of the color schemes, special effects, and processing power. So in the end, we decided on the four current elemental combinations.
Players may have noticed the two signs on the seal outside the Domain entrance. The two signs correspond to the element of Azhdaha's tail and limbs. After confirming the theme of the boss battle, we designed the complete series of Vishap behavior. This type of monsters all have interactions with shields during combat and can gain additional elemental abilities. A battle with them is one that grows to become more intense and difficult. We also made unique designs for all of Azhdaha's elemental abilities: the Pyro element will enhance the attack radius and demand better positioning; the Hydro element will unleash projectiles and is more focused on attack range, deeming melee attacks to be more advantageous; the Cryo element launches multiple attacks, increasing the chance of elemental reactions to take place; the Electro element is more oriented around evasion and precision.
Suisu, Monster Design: Azhdaha himself carries the Geo element and his attacks will change as he switches to the four elements of Hydro, Pyro, Cryo, and Electro. In order for the player to see the change in element of the boss during the battle, we had to design a monster that can satisfy all five elements. This posed as a big balancing act even at the conceptual art design phase. If the color of the element wasn't obvious enough, players would have a hard time reacting to the different elemental skills and attacks of the monster, and that would be a terrible combat experience. However, if the element colors were too obvious, Azhdaha might seem too colorful and overly fancy. Also, Azhdaha is a massive boss, meaning that the element colors had to be placed in a location where players can clearly see them. This also posed as a challenge and that is why we spent countless hours adjusting Azhdaha's colors alone.
Nao Zhong, Combat Design: After Azhdaha's elemental attacks land, players will suffer continuous damage. Other than using shields, players can also cast characters' skills and use elemental reactions to deal with this mechanic or they can use Artifacts and party Elemental Resonance to decrease the duration of damage. We've also provided players with many other ways of dealing with Azhdaha; most of Azhdaha's skills can be countered by dodging and positioning. We've also added a height indicator to the skills, meaning that players can fly or climb to avoid the skills. We've also designed a variety of AI behaviors that can interact with player actions. For example, players can stand in different spots beneath Azhdaha to bait him into using different skills.
YIN, In-Game Animation: When the animation team saw the designs for Azhdaha, we knew we were in for a challenge. Many of the concepts seem to be contradicting. For example, from his appearance alone, Azhdaha looks like a champsosaurus with strong physical attacks. However, elemental attacks took on a more primary role in his character design. In terms of heritage, it needs to inherit the traits of the Vishaps, but as a boss, it needs to be unique and differentiated from the other Vishaps. It needs to look powerful and intimidating yet the battle experience is divided into phases that progressively become more and more intense. It's a massive being yet all details need to be made to be the highest of qualities.
To overcome these challenges, we gathered a large amount of information on reptilian and amphibian animals in real life as a reference for Azhdaha's movement patterns. We designed an animation where his body would submerge underground and his tail would be all that remains visible. In combination with the scene, background, and special effects, we were able to enhance Azhdaha's Elemental Type. As for the intimidating atmosphere, I have Yu-Peng Chen to thank as Azhdaha's battle music gave us a lot of inspiration. Azhdaha is massive, and to ensure the animation details, the Technical Artist team developed a series of tools and controllers for us — tools such as automatic secondary controls, automatic deformation retention, free joint proportional controller, and others. These tools not only ensured the quality of the animation, but also shortened the production period.
Pai Daxing, 3D Effects: I'm sure players who have fought Azhdaha have experienced his Vishap nature and the progressing intensity of the fight. The special effects team realized after receiving Azhdaha's skill designs that his skills don't just cover a large area, but also include a variety of elements that take various shapes and forms. For a special effects animator, this is an unprecedented challenge, in terms of the design difficulty, workload, or performance capacity. Azhdaha's entrance was the first difficulty we faced — we had to show the state of Azhdaha that was sealed away for a long time by the Geo Archon: the immense force and intensity of the moment when he broke out of the seal as well as the control the duration of the battle scene, combat camera angle, and the relatively empty battle scene. After trying out many sets, in the end, we decided to use the Stone Stele in combination with magical runes to create special effects for the seal as it is more fitting with Azhdaha and Zhongli's backstory.
We used Geo element special effects as the foundation of each skill animation as individual skill animations of Azhdaha will correspond to special effects of multiple elements. We then combine it with the boss's movements, attack range, and environmental interactions for the presentation of each skill where the element is then gradually substituted by other elements. To make the combat display more fulfilling, we differentiated the special effects of skill effects for different elements quite a bit. For example, we would increase the area of effect for skills, increase the attack frequency, or add elemental runes to different skills. We try our best to design a different form and dynamics for the attacks of different elements such as a meteor that arcs down towards the player, a wave that attacks in a straight line, Electro spheres that float in the air, or Cryo bombs with a delayed blast. These not only make the art effects of skills richer, it also amplifies the player's combat experience.
Azhdaha unleashes a major attack during Electro phase, which is a full screen thunderstorm. If we wanted to maintain our art quality while working with the capacity within the hardware performance, the special effects wouldn't have satisfied the request of the game designers. If we wanted to ensure the number of lightning strikes, we would have to significantly simplify the special effects of each lightning. While we weren't willing to sacrifice either the art quality nor the gameplay design, we dove into Unity's Particle System and looked at each parameter to find a way. After numerous attempts, we successfully developed a new technology and were able to decrease the performance consumption to 1/10 of what it originally was. This retained the gameplay designs of our colleagues in the planning department as well as the details and qualities of our art effects.
One of the highlights of the Azhdaha boss battle are the phase changes. In the second phase, when Azhdaha absorbs energy from Ley Lines through his limbs, the special effects will focus on the interactions between his limbs and the ground and the camera will take a more top-down angle. In the third phase, when Azhdaha starts to absorb surrounding Elemental Energy through his tail, the camera and special effects will be focused on his tail. Players that pay close attention might have already noticed that the color of various parts of Azhdaha's body, elemental crystals, atmosphere, and lighting of the scene all change along with the phase change. Even the microparticles that float around in the scene change as well. These spectacular results are the hard work of the close cooperation and repeated adjustments by our lighting engineers, animation specialists, and visual effect artists.
Manny Calavera, Creative Concept and Writing Team: The BGM of the Azhdaha boss fight is the first Genshin Impact soundtrack with Chinese lyrics. The lyrics creation of the song also follows the same concept as Azhdaha's appearance, encompassing both familiarity and detachment. What we mean by familiarity is that players will not only know that the lyrics are in Chinese the second they hear it but they will also feel the ancient and mythical elements of the song. As for the detached aspect, the song has an ancient, regional style that is strong and unique. The verses talk about things that aren't relatable or easy to understand. The combination of the two is a representation of the relationship between Azhdaha and Zhongli. We referenced Chu Chi (Verses of Chu) when writing the song's lyrics. We wanted to emphasize the vibe and emotions of the song using this ancient form of literature and writing, and to also differentiate it from more mainstream traditional cultures.
What the song is trying to express, at least in my opinion is the manifested hatred and grudge of Azhdaha after being sealed underground for thousands of years. It's not just the hatred of having lost previously or hatred for Morax but the deep hatred of being sealed alive and watching as he is forgotten and alienated by the world. These overwhelming emotions are written into the powerful lyrics combined with Yu-Peng Chen's majestic orchestral music, electric guitar, and erhu. We were successful in presenting this impactful combat BGM.
Official English lyrics:
(Long ago) In the field of the stars, expelling the dark shadows
(Now) Lost in the mountains and the wilderness, with no way to go
Show yourself!
Since you left, this country has fallen into a terrible state
Hatred, sorrow, and grief accumulate day after day
Panicking and not knowing where to go, I embark on the treacherous journey ahead
It's time to return
The steep rocks and mountains withstood the test of time
Thousands of rivers rush rapidly, seemingly swallowing the sky
(But even if) Mountains fall and the earth tremors
How can the evil (which caused all this) be eradicated?
(Fate) Lonely and wandering, trapped in such a harsh place
There is no way out of this miserable generation
The mountains are precipitous and lush, hiding the path that diverged (between you and me)
Recounting how I lost my way and wandered away from you, engulfed by the shadow of a mountain ridge
Xiao Luohao, Creative Concept and Writing Team: Genshin Impact's world structure is rich and dynamic. We will continue to design and add to it with concepts from different cultures of different regions. The complete design process of Azhdaha used the culture of Chinese civilization as a foundation and introduced other cultural symbols with the same meaning that coincides with the overall concept to enrich the design. This not only portrays the character's image but also fleshes out the plot whether it be the origin of Azhdaha's name, the inspirations for his appearance and design, the classical allusion "Through the Eyes of a Dragon" that resonates with Chinese culture, or the easter egg of "the world is ever-changing, but the rock is unwavering." As Chinese game developers, all these details are the team's interpretations, derived from our unique cultural perspective.
From the very beginning of the conceptual stage, Azhdaha was recognized by the developers as a majestic and distant being. However, after the official launch, we were astonished by the different directions that players took with their artworks of Azhdaha, but it was a pleasant surprise. We'd like to express our appreciation for the support of all our players. We are lucky to have this opportunity to be able to collect the feedback and comments for Genshin Impact from all over the world, allowing us to continue to optimize and improve our game. Our players' support is what motivates us to press on and thrive.