Nut: A Closer Look

By: TitanLermy | 2024/2/12

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WHO IS NUT?

“O my Mother Nut, stretch Yourself over me, that I may be placed among the imperishable stars which are in You, and that I may not die.”

“I am Nut, and I have come so that I may enfold and protect you from all things evil.”

– Osiris & Nut, Papyrus of Ani, c. 1250 BCE

The sky is a universal wonder across many mythos, with its seemingly boundless presence surrounding the entirety of the earth in a gentle blue hue. Within Egyptian legend, this protective barrier, filled with shimmering starlight, is Nut, the mother to all souls and their guide to a peaceful afterlife.

The Goddess of the Sky stretches across the earth from end to end, separating the world of man from the dark depths of the cosmos, in which chaos reigns. Her duty to mankind is to protect the souls of the recently departed and to be the basin within which the sun may travel, allowing humanity to experience day and night. She is the coverer of the sky, the holder of a thousand souls, and the bearer of gods.

Despite the arduous tasks Nut performs, she does them with grace and unconditional love for her creations, for she is all too familiar with the pain of heartbreak and loss. When the universe was still young, Nut was forcefully separated from her husband, Geb, for all of eternity by Ra. She had to put her own inner turmoil aside for the sake of others, dutifully observing humanity from afar… until now.

Throughout SMITE’s tenured history, there has always been an omnipresent watcher, instructing the mortals who dare to play god about the sagas and tales of the mythologies they represent. This figure has been known to our community as the Lore Lady, but now, in SMITE’s eleventh year, she is revealed to be Nut – as she has been all along! Soon, Nut will finally be amongst the gods she has only ever known about through fables passed from generation to generation.

OUR VISION

In many traditional depictions, Nut is pictured as a blue-skinned woman who is speckled with stars. She also is accompanied by a water pot, which is most often used as a symbolic representation of the womb or motherhood.

When we first pictured Nut in SMITE, these key features aligned nearly perfectly with our depictions of the Lore Lady – a celestial, graceful, and motherly goddess, whose voice and presence is simply iconic amongst the community. We couldn’t picture a better fit, and so we excitedly got to work crafting the shining star of SMITE’s eleventh year!

CORE THEMES

• Theme – Omniscient Protector – As the sky itself, Nut sees all that happens in the world below, watching her children carefully to ensure they do not fall into the depths of chaos. She will protect order at any cost.
• Visuals - Celestial Starry Goddess – Aligning closely to our depictions of the Lore Lady, we pushed what was visually possible within SMITE, giving Nut flowing galaxies for hair and tying in all kinds of gorgeous space-y visuals.
• Personality - Motherly Tough Love – Nut loves all her creations, and though she doesn’t want to fight, she will if it means protecting those important to her.
• Perspective - The Lore Lady – An iconic SMITE figure brought to life, Nut is finally able to join her fellow gods and goddesses on the battleground, using her immense knowledge of their strengths to her advantage.

ARTISTIC PROCESS

As soon as we confirmed that Nut would be one and the same with the Lore Lady, we got to work brainstorming on how to translate this mystical and mysterious icon into 3D space. There have been many depictions of the Lore Lady throughout the years, but at her core, she has always been a beautiful celestial woman with stars dotting her skin and flowing, space-like hair




We wanted to make sure she felt unique amongst hunters, especially others of similar geographical origins like Neith and Ishtar. The first direction we pushed that idea was her body type, making her very tall and upright compared to her peers, especially accentuated by the cow horns that crown her – another sly reference to her lore. Speaking of lore, Nut also walks along a sparkling plane slightly above the ground, signifying the permanence of her forced separation from her husband, Geb, despite her wishes. They can be so close, yet so far.

For her attire, we opted for light, flowing cloth adorned with gold to exemplify her regal nature, being the mother of all. Animating cloth can be very tricky, as it requires a lot of technical know-how to make stiff planes turn into soft, rippling fabric. With some brand new tech, we were able to craft a system that uses information from the player’s directional inputs to better blend the cloth between animations and really sell that layer of immersion.





The team also spent a lot of time debating if it was even possible to achieve the flowy, galaxy-like hair portrayed in the beautiful 2D art that the Lore Lady has been featured in throughout the years. With a combination of some clever techniques, we were able to use layers of semi-transparent meshes with mesmerizing moving textures alongside some small animation tweaks to get the desired effect, which looks incredible in game.





Finally, Nut needed a weapon! As a hunter, she would need to throw some type of projectile, so we tried all kinds of different weapons from spears to wands, but none of these felt quite right – especially with her being a physical character. Finally, it clicked; we could use a water pot, the main iconography associated with Nut.

After a bit of iteration, we decided that Nut would use the pot as a portal to the heavens, plucking her starry projectiles out of it one-by-one to fire at her foes. It would always float alongside her, which allowed her to really emphasize her orderly and regal personality through her animations.

GAMEPLAY

Nut is a hunter intended to be played as a Carry in the duo lane, but is able to flex amongst a variety of build styles due to the spread of damage in her kit. Her abilities are best utilized alongside her allies, especially surrounding objectives and full team fights. Her duty is to protect others and will often do so wholeheartedly, meaning that positioning carefully with her will be essential to maximize her strengths.

As the Goddess of the Sky, Nut will be able to soar into the air and impact the battle from above, though not without careful planning and forethought. The sky will darken to a starry night, meaning her enemies will have a clear telegraph of the destruction to come.

UNIQUE GAMEPLAY FEATURES

• An ability that enhances her basic attacks to form a unique shape with a special combination of damage types depending on how accurately it is hit
• A low cooldown movement ability that is designed for juking rather than escaping
• An ability that resets the cooldown of another, that when used in a skillful manner, can allow Nut to quickly cycle through her abilities
• A semi-global ability that provides a significant opportunity for team play

Gods and goddesses, after millennia of observation from afar, it is time for Nut to descend from amongst the stars and protect the world she loves!


Source: https://www.smitegame.com/news/nut-a-closer-look/

No nut November is over now that she is in the game xd

Hey everyone,

Sorry Nut isn't in the database yet. I don't have all the info I need to put her in the system yet. It'll probably be tomorrow. Hold tight and hope we can get some good builds up at that point!

Somehow based on this god's pronunciation, it doesn't really give the same tone...

Nut is now available for building!