Broken Weave Dev Dairy 8: The Speaker

Welcome back to our ongoing series of developer diaries for Broken Weave, the post-apocalyptic tragic fantasy setting. Today, we continue our look at some of the character classes you will get to play as during your adventures in the Broken World with the Speaker.

Broken Weave comes to Kickstarter in early February, so don’t forget to head to the Kickstarter page and sign up to be notified when it launches! 

The diplomats, musicians, talespinners, and spymasters of the Broken World, Speakers are as beloved as they are feared. Using the power of their Voice, they spin fantastical tales of legends that come true through the power of belief. Though they call their abilities their Voice, Speakers may use their abilities through dance, fashion, music, visual art, sign language, the written word, or any other form of expression. The Broken World yearns for connection and memory, and Speakers are happy to provide both.


The idea here was to create a character that players could easily recognize as  an “artist”, that’s why the outfit is more fashionable than the other classes. I wanted to play with Norse shaman cliché and various elements from Nordic and Celtic culture to create these more refined outfits. I also  took some inspiration from Maria Franz, lead singer of Heilung, for the general mysticism of her clothing, feeling that I wanted to convey in those designs.”

— Clara-Marie Morin, Broken Weave Artist

No musician would be complete without their instrument. We were able to experiment with the different types of music that people of the Broken World could expect to make, and most importantly, travel with. 

As a flute and piano player, creating those instruments was very interesting for me and I wanted them as realistic as they can be, that’s why most of them are inspired by real instruments. The point was to create “primitive” shapes (except for the hurdy gurdy) that could easily fit the post-apocalyptic setting of Broken Weave. People don’t have the time nor the space to use large instruments like a piano or a classical harp because of the world’s instability. The ocarina-based instruments were a way to use strange creatures’ shapes that could help players to imagine wandering in this broken world and add some mystery to the musicians who would use them. The flute-based and harp-based are the kind of instruments you can easily craft but with more octaves than the ocarinas, which are closer to a whistle when I imagined them. At some point I wanted to create a vielle, but I chose the hurdy gurdy because I love the strangeness, the sound, and the shape of this instrument.

— Clara-Marie Morin, Broken Weave Artist

And with that, we had our speaker, ready to take to the twisting wilderness and talk the party into and out of all manner of trouble with whoever they meet.

Join us in our next dev blog, where we’ll show off the Maker — the alchemists and tinkerers of the Broken World.

If you have any questions about Broken Weave, leave them in the comments, and we’ll do our best to answer them in a future community FAQ article.

Broken Weave comes to Kickstarter in early February, so don’t forget to head to the Kickstarter page and sign up to be notified when it launches!