Post Apocalyptic Vehicle - High Concept Planning

After experimenting with photo bashing this term, we have been given our new project concept to design a terrestrial engine powered vehicle in a horde apocalypse situation within around 100 years either side, where we have been given complete free reign on the high concept other than those restricting factors. Before making head way into the actual vehicle itself, it is important to know *why* the vehicle exists and what challenges it must face for its users. 

To begin, I brainstormed a few ideas with friends on what kind of horde scenarios we could think of. We came up with these:

1. Plants overtaking world, 

1. lawn mower attachment

2. Facebook vaccine chip zombies (metaverse) - 

1. emp to disable the chip, 

2. Skynet

3. Boston dynamics robot takeover

4. Pacific Rim Kaiju

None of these concepts really stuck with me; The concept scenario felt surprisingly narrow, as it was hard to think of a post apocalyptic scenario that was not a cliché - so I took a slightly different angle. I thought back to last year where we had to consider a concept behind the future tribes character, and how that was somewhat related to an apocalypse survivor. My character was a survivor of Ragnarok, arguably now one of the more famous mythological doomsday stories, and I thought about what challenges would happen in that world post Ragnarok. 

Before that though, I needed a horde. I did some research and realised that in the newest (as of writing this) God of War game, set in a Norse setting, has zombies called Draugr, which are the ancient Norse equivalent of the undead. Draugr are seen as the living dead in a corporeal form (so not a ghost) that could be killed with a critical blow like decapitation or dismemberment, and had a likeness to vampires where instead of the garlic and sunlight hating traits, they could infect another person with a bite; This sounded like a pretty convincing zombie horde enemy for me.

Here is a link for the God of War Wiki page about the Draugr in game, also with concept art in its gallery: https://godofwar.fandom.com/wiki/Draugr

From this, I then followed a concept writing template and came up with this as a breakdown for the next project:

Chosen option: Draugr Post Ragnarok Apocalypse

• World Building:

• Apocalypse:

• Ragnarok causes the destruction of the world, leaving very small pockets of survivors in the world. All indication of human life is wiped from the planet, with the world becoming renewed and fertile in its place. The mass destruction leads to incredible amounts of mortalities, and the Draugr rise as Hel becomes full and they cannot pass into the world of the afterlife.

• Horde

• The Draugr are zombies that transmit similar to vampire bites, and can be destroyed by damaging crucial points at the chest and head. 

• Draugr are weather resistant and can function equally well in extreme and temperate climates

• Any dead humans can become Draugr automatically without a bite, so keeping away from dead bodies is very important.

• Vehicle

• Scandinavian vehicles and off road vehicles, armoured to keep the draugr away from humans.

• Survival - Threats in the world:

• Lack of infrastructure and lingering resources, must be made from the local environment and make use of natural resources in their place (eg. sunlight/solar power)

• Storms and snow, low temperatures of Scandinavia

• Large wildlife such as bears and deer

• Additional Points:

• Style:

• Naturalistic, camouflaged colour and pattern scheme

• Story:

• Who is driving?

• The survivors of Ragnarok, who formed a small clan to survive and to not go insane.

• What are they driving?

• A armoured rally vehicle with carrying capacity for a variety of materials, and with capability to tow a small trailer behind for even more capacity. The vehicle is equipped with some technical equipment such as solar panels and rainwater collection, and runs off of Solar fuel produced partly by these collection systems and also from a large array in the home camp. ( see this wiki article for Solar biofuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_fuel)

• Where in the world are they driving?

• In the forested areas of Scandinavia, primarily the mountains on the border of Sweden and Norway. The mountains were sparsely populated before Ragnarok, leaving them a lot more hospitable due to lack of Draugr.

• When are they driving?

• In the near future (2050/2060) where “artificial leaf” technology is accessible and the effects of climate change do show some of the steps of Ragnarok (rising sea levels etc)

• Why are they driving? Where are they going?

• using the vehicle to visit important landmarks and environments in the Scandinavian wilderness (eg. water sources, areas for chopping trees, hunting grounds, camps) and to remain safe in their travels from the Draugr. 

• Vulnerability:

• Consistent travel is difficult especially in the winter months as solar power becomes less consistent to create fuel, so in the summer months a lot more strenuous travel must be done to compensate.

• Draugr are resistant to weather, so the winter can become very dangerous if you are not prepared

• The lack of infrastructure results in a lot of uneven terrain, so the vehicle must be very resistant and be armoured underneath to prevent damage to the crucial parts of the car

• The fuel creation on board is made safer from converting the fuel to a less flammable substance like ammonia or hydrazine, however there is still the risk of explosions if enough damage is sustained.

• Parts to repair the car are scarce, so it must be serviced frequently and steps must be taken to make the terrain more car safe also (making trails, roads etc)

Once I have received critique on this brief, I will begin to make a series of mood board to visually pin down this concept further.