Hel Remodel Fanart

This is a fan made remodel for the Smite deity Hel. It was a very personal project, because I main her since 2013! Hope you find some time to read my thoughts on this project, as an artist and as a big! [VVGT, VVGF]! Hel - Queen of the Underworld Nordic Mage - Magical Damage Fan Concept for SMITE - Battleground of the Gods [Hirez Studios] 🎇 Theme – She Who Offers Sorrow Being ruler of the Underworld, Hel will try to bring down enemies to build her army of the dead, while at the same time will heal and protect her allies. 🎇 Visuals – Neither dead nor alive Hel may appear as a living body, but do not get it twisted: she is rotten inside and will show it in the battleground. 🎇 Personality – Serious, harsh, and cruel Hel has a personality disorder (a second voice that speaks in her mind), where one prefers to be on top of the other, in control of the situation. None of the voices will be willing to do good, only if she gets a benefit from the situation. 🎇 Perspective – To build and to destroy During the battles, if you are one of Hel's allies be sure to stick with her to get healed, but if you are on the other side of the team, you better start running. This project was done with a lot of thought, because Hel has been my favorite character in the Smite game for almost 10 years. There was a lot of internal debate about how I would move forward with this remodel being such a personal project: Would I execute a new idea, or would it move forward as a true remodel that Titan Forge gets to release? A lot of the first sketches ended up looking like very cool skins since it ended losing the essence of the character that I already like in game. As a whole, I wanted Hel to feel more Nordic, like her pantheon companions already introduced in the game: Skadi, Heimdallr, Freya, etc. Heavier clothes, more fur to protect her from the Helheim cold. The visual representation of her two stances should make it clearer that Hel is the same person - and not two different beings that change control: That’s why I’ve shown a little of rotten skin on her light stance and vice versa. I also imagine the clothing for a base model (and not a skin) to remain the same in both instances, with the difference being the color and the damage of the cloth and fur to reinforce this idea (and even to help with readability during team fights). Finally, after researching and pondering what to keep from the original Hel, I think that her healing instance could be presented in a more serious way, because Hel, being the daughter of a giantess (jötunn) and Loki, does not make much sense for some voicelines that sound almost like an insecure and confused child. I still think it's cool that she keeps her personality disorder (as said before). I thought that for her damage instance, it should be something more decadent, reminiscent of hunger, disease, rot. Dirt and the roots of Yggdrasil would be much more apparent. Unlike healing, where she fights to keep her allies out of Helheim, in her damage instance her only goal is to take her enemies to the most unfortunate place in existence.