Location Artwork - The Salt Basins (Patreon)

'No way in Tartaris that we go toward the damned Vortex. Not a year has passed since a small part of it broke off and eradicated half the camp. No, we take a different route. Over the flats. Wait. Wait! Listen! I know what you have heard but it's all lies to keep us from going that way. Think about it. From a distance, we'll look to patrols as any other slave miner brigade. And once we make it over to the other basin, we're free! The Dragons are the key to our liberation. It's just a few days over the salt, boys.'

- Kaluhr, an escaped slave, detailing his plan of action to his fellow runaways a day before their demise in Alkalis Basin

We looked at several real world locations as references for the twin salt basins of Brine Mere and Alkalis Basin, the idea being that nothing grows and lives on these terraced salt flats; it's like a distant, dead planet's surface. Péter (Kovács) who created this amazing artwork took a fair amount of inspiration from such real world locales but also managed to put his own signature style on it with the thick atmosphere: you can feel how vast this expanse is, how hot it could be under the gaze of the scorching sun, how tiny you are compared to the ever looming mass of the Vortex over the horizon. From a wide selection of amazing location artwork for Vagrus, this one has to be one of our favorite. It captures the imagination and is both promising and foreboding at the same time.