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Shaman Gul'dan

Hello all! Due in part to the positive reception and feedback to my Iron Grommash skin awhile back, Tauer and I have set up a little system where I will work on reskins and variants of some of his models as he makes them, and while I've been busy on a rather large pack of reskins which will be released in the future, here's one of the smaller variants I can share with you all.

This is meant to be a younger Gul'dan, prior to or just after he started the path of the warlock and while he is still recognized as a Shadowmoon apprentice to the Elder Shaman Ner'zhul.

I had to make a few minor model tweaks on this one, such as removing the eye glow and the back spines, switching the middle belt plate to the same geoset as the other ones so I could put TC on it, altering the particle effects to be less Fel-y, etc etc. Still, I hope you all enjoy!

You can find a Mag'har recoloring of this model here.
Contents

Shaman Gul'dan (Model)

Reviews
General Frank
Works in-game, performs appropriately and is a good addition to the model section.
This is rather nice. Though, following the concept and the period when he began a shaman, I don't think there were that kind of improved shoulder pads. I think this model would look better without them. Or maybe try editing them, make them look a bit rusty and old.
Yeah, I definitely did think about trying to do something with the shoulderpads and other armored bits, I just wasn't sure what exactly to do so I left them alone for the time being. I'll probably go back and play around with them later.
 
Level 5
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
115
Nice concept, love the skin, but it still feels a little too Warlock-esque for my tastes. The biggest issue is the skull on his staff, I feel like a shaman version of gul'dan would have just had a typical wooden staff maybe with a crystal on the top, maybe also have his outfit be more colorful and display the Shadowmoon clan logo (since in the continuity the Stormreaver clan hadn't formed yet). There are armorsets in Wow that depict Shaman gul'dan's outfit as having an earth molten texture, don't know if you want to go in that direction. Overall it's still a great skin, it just doesn't feel shamanistic enough.
 
Nice concept, love the skin, but it still feels a little too Warlock-esque for my tastes. The biggest issue is the skull on his staff, I feel like a shaman version of gul'dan would have just had a typical wooden staff maybe with a crystal on the top, maybe also have his outfit be more colorful and display the Shadowmoon clan logo (since in the continuity the Stormreaver clan hadn't formed yet). There are armorsets in Wow that depict Shaman gul'dan's outfit as having an earth molten texture, don't know if you want to go in that direction. Overall it's still a great skin, it just doesn't feel shamanistic enough.
Definitely not going for the WoW direction, thank you. XD I kept the skull because I felt it could be interpreted as a talbuk skull which is a perfectly fitting topper for a primitive orc shaman, but I'll experiment with other staff toppers if you really feel it to be unfitting.

The idea here was to go for something relatively plain and simple. Brown, fur-lined robes feel quite appropriate for a shaman, especially an apprentice shaman like Gul'dan would have been at this time. Ner'zhul would perhaps have more colorful robes emblazoned with symbols of his clan and status, but Gul'dan was merely a servant to the Elder Shaman. I'm going for the more old-school depiction of shamans as advisors and tribal wisemen as opposed to flashy warrior-hybrids or extreme high-fantasy concepts like robes made out of earthen magma or something equally crazy. If you take a close look at the Warcraft III Far Seers, their robes are quite similar, albeit with more markings and decal here and there which I chose to leave out as, again, Gul'dan was merely an apprentice at this point.

I'm also well aware of the continuity of the Stormreavers not being a thing yet, trust me. XD I almost made his robes black or grey to match the Shadowmoon clan colors, but it felt much too monotone with the armored pieces as they currently are, though I may revisit that color concept later when I experiment with replacing those armor pieces, as I've already mentioned planning on doing.
 
Last edited:
Level 5
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
115
Definitely not going for the WoW direction, thank you. XD I kept the skull because I felt it could be interpreted as a talbuk skull which is a perfectly fitting topper for a primitive orc shaman, but I'll experiment with other staff toppers if you really feel it to be unfitting.

The idea here was to go for something relatively plain and simple. Brown, fur-lined robes feel quite appropriate for a shaman, especially an apprentice shaman like Gul'dan would have been at this time. Ner'zhul would perhaps have more colorful robes emblazoned with symbols of his clan and status, but Gul'dan was merely a servant to the Elder Shaman. I'm going for the more old-school depiction of shamans as advisors and tribal wisemen as opposed to flashy warrior-hybrids or extreme high-fantasy concepts like robes made out of earthen magma or something equally crazy. If you take a close look at the Warcraft III Far Seers, their robes are quite similar, albeit with more markings and decal here and there which I chose to leave out as, again, Gul'dan was merely an apprentice at this point.

I'm also well aware of the continuity of the Stormreavers not being a thing yet, trust me. XD I almost made his robes black or grey to match the Shadowmoon clan colors, but it felt much too monotone with the armored pieces as they currently are, though I may revisit that color concept later when I experiment with replacing those armor pieces, as I've already mentioned planning on doing.


1. I bring up the skull especially since that is a trademark for the Warlock Gul'dan, whether it's the felfire skull projectiles he uses in the lore, as well as the skull of gul'dan is one of if not the most popular Warcraft mcguffin. In a nutshell, Warlock Gul'dan really loves skulls, which is why I feel strongly that a skull staff for Shaman Gul'dan does feel off.

If you want a suggestion for an ideal staff design, there's a video about Gul'dan's origins. I know it's from a different timeline but I don't think it's a huge stretch if he got this staff specifically. Which has a rounded stoney top.

https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpedia/e/e3/Harbingers_Gul'dan_6.jpg

2. Your logic behind the simplicity of the design sounds fine to me, I just get mixed messages from the model we got, because Gul'dan looks more older and experienced with the model we got, even though he's supposed to be an apprentice at the time. I would have imagined he wouldn't have a hood, maybe have his black hair exposed and resemble something more like the young Gul'dan we see in the animated Legion promos. Maybe I am just overthinking it, but I can say I thought you were going for a Gul'dan that was older and more experienced. Granted Orcs in the Warcraft universe tend to age faster than humans, anyways its a good design overall.
 
1. I bring up the skull especially since that is a trademark for the Warlock Gul'dan, whether it's the felfire skull projectiles he uses in the lore, as well as the skull of gul'dan is one of if not the most popular Warcraft mcguffin. In a nutshell, Warlock Gul'dan really loves skulls, which is why I feel strongly that a skull staff for Shaman Gul'dan does feel off.

If you want a suggestion for an ideal staff design, there's a video about Gul'dan's origins. I know it's from a different timeline but I don't think it's a huge stretch if he got this staff specifically. Which has a rounded stoney top.

https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpedia/e/e3/Harbingers_Gul'dan_6.jpg

2. Your logic behind the simplicity of the design sounds fine to me, I just get mixed messages from the model we got, because Gul'dan looks more older and experienced with the model we got, even though he's supposed to be an apprentice at the time. I would have imagined he wouldn't have a hood, maybe have his black hair exposed and resemble something more like the young Gul'dan we see in the animated Legion promos. Maybe I am just overthinking it, but I can say I thought you were going for a Gul'dan that was older and more experienced. Granted Orcs in the Warcraft universe tend to age faster than humans, anyways its a good design overall.

I am aware of the Harbingers video and his design there, but I was not necessarily trying to replicate that design as I'm not really a fan of it. The age of Gul'dan has always been a bit of an oddity, as he appears veritably ancient in his concept art for Warcraft II despite having it established in his backstory that he is still fresh out of his apprenticeship with Ner'zhul. This implied, to me, that he just started his apprenticeship at an age a bit older than it was shown in the Harbingers video. While Blizzard has retconned Gul'dan's original backstory into the new one they came up with in the Harbingers video, I made this more with the original lore in mind, as both Tauer and I tend to favor pre-WoW lore, despite the fact I am also a fan of WoW.

If you look at Tauer's original model and compare it to this one, you will see that I made an effort to make him look considerably younger than his warlock self, as taking the Fel into himself fully obviously had adverse effects on his body and I imagine it took at least a few years for him to master the magic properly between the events of Rise of the Horde and Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Be that as it may, it still wasn't THAT much time so I felt I couldn't make him appear that much younger.

I'll play around with the idea of changing up his staff and maybe making his robes indicate a slightly higher status as a shaman, but we'll see where that goes. Regardless, I thank you for showing such a vested interest in the design of this model and for giving me some interesting feedback to at least consider. XP
 
Level 5
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
115
I am aware of the Harbingers video and his design there, but I was not necessarily trying to replicate that design as I'm not really a fan of it. The age of Gul'dan has always been a bit of an oddity, as he appears veritably ancient in his concept art for Warcraft II despite having it established in his backstory that he is still fresh out of his apprenticeship with Ner'zhul. This implied, to me, that he just started his apprenticeship at an age a bit older than it was shown in the Harbingers video. While Blizzard has retconned Gul'dan's original backstory into the new one they came up with in the Harbingers video, I made this more with the original lore in mind, as both Tauer and I tend to favor pre-WoW lore, despite the fact I am also a fan of WoW.

If you look at Tauer's original model and compare it to this one, you will see that I made an effort to make him look considerably younger than his warlock self, as taking the Fel into himself fully obviously had adverse effects on his body and I imagine it took at least a few years for him to master the magic properly between the events of Rise of the Horde and Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Be that as it may, it still wasn't THAT much time so I felt I couldn't make him appear that much younger.

I'll play around with the idea of changing up his staff and maybe making his robes indicate a slightly higher status as a shaman, but we'll see where that goes. Regardless, I thank you for showing such a vested interest in the design of this model and for giving me some interesting feedback to at least consider. XP


I am glad to give feedback on models like these, one of the reasons why I was interested in the model is because Gul'dan is one of my favorite characters in the Warcraft universe. I know he's a one note villain, and a complete monster, but I always found it somewhat compelling how devoted both his prime timeline and alternate timeline counterparts were at accomplishing their evil schemes. Even though his alternate timeline self learned how his scheme backfired he still dedicated to completing the Legion's endgame.
There's something commendable about it, and i've always been interested in learning more about his backstory, retcons or not. Regardless, Gul'dan's story is over and it's very unlikely we'll see any new development on the character anytime soon. So it's up to fan interpretation and what little canon material we have to fill in the pieces of his past life.
 
Level 4
Joined
Apr 1, 2020
Messages
73
I know this is a specific character but it would be great as a blackrock spellcaster hero. DO you mind if someone does a grey-ish recolor of the orc's skin?
 
Level 7
Joined
Mar 22, 2021
Messages
59
I know this is a specific character but it would be great as a blackrock spellcaster hero. DO you mind if someone does a grey-ish recolor of the orc's skin?
Did you do the blackrock version? I need it so if you didn't i will do it maybe.

As I say in my signature, you are free to edit any of my resources. XP Tauer has a similar stance, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind either.
If I do the blackrock version do you want the files or do i upload them in my account?
 
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