I found a REAL Sarafan temple!

[Ber]

Guys, some news around here!

I was surfing across the web and found this:



Familiar?? hehe

It's the Niagara Mohawk Building, Syracuse... and it looks very similar to the Sarafan Brotherhood symbol used in SR2 and Defiance!



Finally we come to know what inspired them to create such a neat symbol! I'm a leaving a couple of pictures here:







It looks like some sort of ornamental angel (EDIT: it actually represents the spirit of electricity), and there's some other ornamental statues across the building:



What do you think? Is this definitely where the Sarafan symbol came?

Regards

[Paradoks]

Great find. I'm surprised no one found this yet (at least I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere).
Actually there are many more real life examples like this. I've been doing some research for some time and I hope to present a full list soon (like for example the Dragon wall I mentioned here). Stay tuned . But I admit that this building was not on my list.

[The Hylden]

Wow, it's the symbol almost exactly.



Amazing find. I am also shocked that I've never seen anyone else show this in all of these years! Man, it's like every other day people are still finding new things. Incredible

lol, the spirit of electricity, eh? I do think it looks more right somehow as an art deco-like piece commemorating industry, rather than being a truly old world angelic symbol. It definitely is making me think of Metropolis, as it's depicted there.

[Raina Audron]

Awesome stuff, Ber. Can´t believe nobody seen the symbol before, but I guess the building is so tall, that you don´t really see it when you are in NY.

[Ardeth Silvereni]

I've seen this once before: there's a Legacy of Kain community LiveJournal and someone mentioned it on there a couple of years ago with some pictures. The poster commented that: '"Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources", indeed.'

It had slipped my mind completely. Thanks for sharing it, Ber.

[Bazielim]

Very interesting...
I'm getting 'Spirit of Light' as the name of that particular sculpture - maybe it's related to the 'Angels of Light' tag of the Sarafan?

[majinkura]

awesome find Ber!!
i'm gonna have to take some real pics of this place if i ever go back to NY sometime!!

[lucinvampire]

Ber wow that's a brilliant discovery and way cool!

[Strands Of Night]

!!! Thats pretty cool! Wowed me!
Remids me of my dnd game (im such a nerd). But my motto as gm/dm is: Steal from everywhere, but dont reveal it unless the players find out on their own. I currently have a boss named Marlek, exactly like Malek from Bo1, and my players have no idea even tho more than one has played it.

[swordsicle]

This reminded me of the interior of the Sarafan tomb

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ember_2005.JPG

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/...7c846ab0_o.jpg

[Guardian of Spirit]

Wow! Cool! nice found! it's IDENTICAL! =D where is that building?

[TheSquid]

Originally Posted by Ber

Guys, some news around here!
It's the Niagara Mohawk Building, Syracuse

That's new york state, if we're talking about the 'main' syracuse (everybody sadly uses the same town and street names over and over mostly because people move and then wish they hadn't).

[ghostlion88]

The Legacy of Kain series is easily one of the richest game franchises (or fantasy stories in general), in its depth of aesthetic and artistic quality. Even with all the current-gen graphics you see in games like Assassin's Creed, Skyrim, and the Fable series, nothing ever seems to compare to that authentic and lush atmosphere and architecture seen throughout Nosgoth. I believe it has a lot to do with Amy Hennig and the Soul Reaver team's research into so much of history and mythology; they got in touch with the dream like energies deep in the collective unconscious in a way that very few others have even come close...or maybe I'm just an obsessed fan full of Nostalgia. :/ Anyway Allegory made a huge post filled with references and LOK inspirations. I'm still reading through that one when I get the chance.

I'm hoping if Hennig and her crew ever get around to making a sequel or whatever, they are sure to go as in depth into their research as they did before. I suppose travelling around and witnessing aspects of culture and the world is also very important.

[The Hylden]

Originally Posted by ghostlion88

I'm hoping if Hennig and her crew ever get around to making a sequel or whatever, they are sure to go as in depth into their research as they did before. I suppose travelling around and witnessing aspects of culture and the world is also very important.

Amy Hennig is at Naughty Dog. Most of the crew are no longer with Crystal Dynamics, either. The only way Miss Hennig would be able to work on another LoK game is if she were to quit Naughty Dog and come work for CD, or another studio house under Eidos'/Square Enix's umbrella. That's highly unlikely.

[Inquisitor Lexy]

Art Deco, very nice...

That is pret-ty similar. On a building like that, someone would spot it sooner or later. I'd love to have spotted it myself, if I were that side of the Pond. I love noticing geeky/nerdy stuff... being one.

You get a lot of textures and things in games scanned from reality, cropping up only once they've been noticed by someone literally scouring the textures of doors or walls or whatever. I recently read about people noticing 'famous doors' or 'religious doors' have been ripped for game doors, etc. Until then I just assumed a lot of textures were created by some poor soul chained to a desk in a dungeon somewhere... but a lot of it literally gets photographed it seems, and adapted for use in games.

OT: Pretty cool.