God of War, the story of the Suicide Tree

While doing research for my God of War series I had a little bit of extra material that didn’t quite fit in with the other chapters. I’d like to share this little bit of concept work that never made it into the game, and perhaps give it some context. The first is actually a grotesque monster whose origins may be the most disturbing in the franchise’s history. In the early drafts of the game there was a proposed location, that evolved into a monster. Let’s take a look at the literal roots of this creature. Kratos is pulled into Hades during the events of the Chains of Olympus. He is trying to figure out where Helios, the god of the sun, has disappeared to. The team at Ready at Dawn Studios wanted to make the realm of Hades, and the pits of Tartarus look truly unique. They wanted the landscape to appear as dangerous as the monsters lurking within. They proposed a sort of mini boss that grew from a tree. You could see it in the concept art. The tree was covered with bodies hanging by their necks. It was also known as the Tartarus Suicide Creature.

The studio went so far as to create a portion of a level around this beast. In at least one rare screenshot you could see where this encounter would take place. I’m not for certain if this was meant to be in Hades, in Tartarus, or in the mist created by Morpheus in the city of Marathon. There were no buildings, or other signs of life in this location. We could see a curtain of fog hung in the distance. There were gentle rolling hills with waist high fields of grain. There was nothing else on the stage except for a tree with a thick trunk, and exposed gnarled roots. Ropes with multiple skulls hung from the short branches. You could almost imagine Kratos coming up to the tree when it suddenly started rising from the ground. I’m betting that it would have been hiding, or protecting the entrance to the deepest bowels of Hades. It would have been a scary sight.

There was something about the tree, and environment that was unnerving. The collection of skulls was of course a huge warning sign, but that was only part of the draw. How did they get there? How long has this tree been used to hang the dead? Were they there by choice, or punishment? Spooky forests are nothing new in classical literature. We can all think of a fairy tale that takes place in some creepy woods. Hansel & Gretel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty are all stories that share pivotal scenes where the protagonists are lost in the woods. There was one forest that itself became a character in a story. The forest of the suicides was detailed by the Italian author Dante Alighieri in his poem known as Inferno. The forest was made of living trees, which were actually the souls of people that had killed themselves. The spirits could only speak if their limbs were broken. They were tortured by harpies that would break their limbs just to hear them wail in pain.

There was a game based on Dante’s Inferno. It was developed by Visceral Games, and published by Electronic Arts in 2010. In it a templar knight named Dante visited the nine levels of hell written about in the poem. He was trying to save his love Beatrice from Lucifer, who we might think of as Satan. It wasn’t hard to see how the dark origin of Kratos, and his adventures didn’t help inspirit the creation of this title. Many publishers were eager to recreate the success that Sony had with the God of War franchise. Unfortunately no amount of sex, violence, or eerily-similar puzzles, encounters, and music was enough to get audiences to switch titles. Of course game play also had a lot to do with the success of GoW. Sony Santa Monica had given us a dark, and twisted forest previously. The Bog of the Forgotten was the early portion of the Island of Creation. In it we could clearly see bodies hanging from the trees. It gave the swamp an ominous feeling. Ready at Dawn wanted to see if they could turn that location into a character.

Illustrator Justin Murray sketched out his idea for the Suicide Tree. He was responsible for a lot of the character designs in the Ghost of Sparta. His tree was oozing with personality. It could have been one of the rare places in the franchise where the terrain evolved into a living monster. Sadly many great ideas have to be cut due to time, and money. This would become one of them. Since the studio had already gone to the trouble of creating a model for it they found a way to incorporate it into the finished game. When Kratos reaches the Gates of Hades we see the tree at the edge of a cliff. Still as ominous as ever, even without any additional context. I’m glad that the studio found a way to use this set piece. I’m grateful that the artists shared their work online, and that Sony also posted additional content. So many game studios never publish art books, or share their concept work. It will hopefully inspire future designers to push the boundaries of their own art. I’d like to know if there was a concept character, or stage from God of War, or any other game that you wish had made it into production. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!