SUMMARY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Soul Atlas is a new fantasy universe that a team of over 150 members has been working on for over 3 years. We are currently developing our first films, video games, comics, and more.

This fantasy world, which is comparable to our world, could be considered to be in an advanced medieval era. However, we have a special twist: If you die here, your soul will rise above your body for everyone to see. But not everyone is granted a soul. It is theorized that only those who have used their life to the best of their knowledge and conscience will join their ancestors as a “Radiant Soul”. But what makes a good life, and how can you balance it when you're haunted by dragons, golems, ghosts, and vengeful men?

Currently, we are a team of sound engineers, filmmakers, writers, entrepreneurs, illustrators, designers, composers, and more. Following the example of large franchises such as “Star Wars” and the Lord of the Rings “Middle-earth”, we are currently working on creating a world specifically designed for play and story. We are currently “bootstrapping,” which means that all team members work on the project on a voluntary basis until it begins to pay off financially, in which case the project issues a fee for everyone involved.

CASTODIA & THE HONORDOM EMPIRE

THOUGHTS BY THE CREATOR

I want to recapture the deep excitement I felt when I was younger and I saw LOTR & SW movies and played these games. I couldn’t wait for more, to feel the excitement of the space battles and army charges and sword duals. Furthermore, their mythology and the existential struggle of these characters were deeply meaningful to me. Today, I find it hard to recapture the same awe that I felt then – I know more than I did then – can I capture this excitement for cynics like me?

I have grown the conviction of late that Dostoevsky was right about “beauty will save the world” because it is we who shape it. At its core, the Soul Atlas is not just a mythology (soul of mankind) but one about meaning in life. There is nothing more rewarding than the display of struggle and hardship that people can empathize with, so that it can be transcended, and show that it can be a beautiful life. It is not escapism, it can be true – the humanity of it. I have recently thought a lot about what it all means and have come to the conclusion that I need to make something that survives me, that means something. Soul Atlas is that thing.

ART SNEAKPEEK

LEILANI

Functioning as a proof of concept for the next two short-films we want to make (”Shadow” and “Anomaly”) we developed the soon-to-be-released film LEILANI. It sits in a very similar budget range and helped us learn a lot about how to make things happen with this team constellation and these budget constraints.

Story

"One day, a stranger arrived at the Mage Order of the Blossom Compass.
No one at the Order or in all the land knew her. She had come from the faraway Castodia, and however she had managed to flee from such a place, she kept close to her heart. Upon reaching the order, she underwent a trial set forth by the Mage Masters. Seeing that she was good of heart, they made her an apprentice and entrusted her with the safekeeping of an ancestral Soul, sheltered within a lantern made for this purpose. The Mages were delighted by her ambition to make progress and become a Mage Master. Only Makhon Albert, her Master, had doubts about her. Doubts he chose not to reveal."

Key Points

Genre: Fantasy, Coming-of-Age, Adventure
Runtime: 25 min (without credits)
Principle Photography: November 2023
Additional Photography: April 2024
Budget: roughly 25.000€
Shot in: Cologne, Germany
Language: English + Subtitles (German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese)
Stars: Andrea Guo (Maxton Hall), Adrian Topol, introducing Lucas Fenton
Planned Release: 2026 world premiere & online premiere 

Framegrabs [Rec 709, Pre-grade, Pre-VFX]

Setfotos [Principle and Additional Photography]

TTRPG ONE SHOT

To be released: 2026
As we will do for “Shadow”, we created a TTRPG Oneshot for “Leilani” to engage with the Fantasy community. Featuring one game master and four players, including Diogo Morgado (Son of God, The Killer), we are connecting the storyline of the movie to the one in the game. There will be a total of 3 oneshots (1x adventure, 1x magic school teen mystery, 1x survival - each about 5 hours of playtime) and a free rulebook with the launch of Leilani. Each will be carefully laid out and illustrated, and available entirely for free. Our games department is led by Alexandre Sousa (Head of Games) and Maria Glowacka (Producer).

ORIGINS OF LIGHT

Released: Juli, 2024
Announcing Season 1 of Soul Atlas, the "Origins of Light" Trailer forms the introductory piece to the upcoming films, games, music and more. 

Runtime: 3 min
Animation Type: UE5 3D

JOURNEY TO AGAIATAR

Released: August, 2024
Set on the Atlas in between the “Shadow” and “Leilani” short films, this story, captured in the form of an audiobook, music album and animatic, details the story of a soldier called “Cassius”. During his first battle for the Agaiatar Legions, he gets mortally wounded. With the help of his best friend, Amity, they desert the Legion to make their way back to their hometown and Holy City of the Edany Creed “Agaiatar”. But on their way, they do not just face the danger of “The Dukedoms”, the lawless land they have to cross, but also the increasingly dark ruminations of a hero as he inches ever closer to the final test.

Runtime: 4 min
Animation Type: Plate Animation

ANOMALY

The third film of the "Magician Trilogy" called "Anomaly" (WT), already has a written Symphony that was performed by the HKO Orchestra in Germany. An album with the recording, a multicam edit, a two-part short documentary and other assets will be launched this year (2025). 

SHADOW TIE-INS

For Shadow, we have planned some direct Tie-Ins (stories with some of the same characters) including:

- 1) A Short Story (8000 words) written by David Gill with audiobook production, cover illustration and soundtrack. It connects to the event of the film.
- 2) Three TTPRG Oneshot that introduces Castodia and connects to the event of the film. We are planning on yet again recording a 5-6 actor, 4-5 hour session. We already have some actors on LOI with a combined 200k reach. This launch will also synchronize with the official Castodia region expansion.
- 3) We are considering a detective game. We would scan the sets with photogrammetry and pull them into UE5 to create a cross-platform detective game following or leading up to the movie. We might be able to establish some ties with Apple concerning their Vision Pro. We are in touch with a company that offers brick-and-mortar VR experiences (games) with 1-3M in annual customers. They are looking for new games, and we may be able to step in.

NARESH'S ADVENTURE

Naresh's Adventure will be a 9-book comic series (45 pages/book) telling the story of Naresh Yatlow, an explorer indentured with the Guild of Explorers. We follow the Almajiris (apprentices) as they get to know him, start wondering about his past, and why the mysterious organisation called "The Circle" wants to get in touch with him. Mixing our love for Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones, this series will be released throughout Season 1. Rather than creating it the usual way and bringing a 4-5 person team to each book, we will be treating these books like a TV show with a full writersroom, worldbuilding team, concept art team with art directors and producers, as well as differentiated production processes and advanced post-processing. This storyline will tie in with "Shadow" due to the Honordom Empire attacking Norus and Honordom Knights & Inquisitors appearing as villains. We are currently even considering bringing a character from Shadow into 108 and 109.

Current progress: Issue 101 is written, worldbuilt, 50% through concept, 75% through thumbnailing, Issues 103, 104, 105, and 107 are written, Issue 102 and 106 are currently being written, Issue 108 and 109 are currently being outlined.

Below: Some concept art for 101

BOARD

Below you can see an extract from our first Cinematography Collection we built on Shotdeck. Focusing on hard lines, strong shadows, and strong contrasts, we are hoping to evoke a strong, trapping atmosphere. Paired with precise camera motion and longer shots with multiple blocking changes before cuts we think that we can create a cinematographic experience that will put the viewer on the edge of their seats.

MOOD TRACKLISTS

Below you find three playlists each showcasing one of the three core modalities: Empire, Hope, and Darkness.

EMPIRE: Power built on trust in the Imperial Truth, on unshakable loyalty to a cause that serves the faithful and condemns the heretics. Long live the sons of Shadowmaster Alterbrecht.

HOPE: She hoped that she could save more than just herself. In the face of the most difficult of odds hope is an act of bravery. We are wishing all the best of luck to this good heart.

DARKNESS: Together with our Mina we observe the evolving drama, fearing for what is to come as the Shadows close in the mind.

BY SOUL ATLAS: We have collected some more tracks we believe fit with this movie. But this time they are all made by our Soul Atlas Composers.

The script was conceptualized as a part of the "Magician Trilogy" but when one of our writers attempted the project, it soon became clear that it had to justify itself for its own sake as opposed to as an entry into the series alone.

The project lay dormant for a while until I had a conversation with someone close to me in which we discussed gaslighting, narcissistic relationships, and how she had not been able to remove herself from the relationship for years, causing her long-lasting issues. I soon found parallels between gaslighting and propaganda, and the idea started to take shape. Until today, many iterations of the script later and after the amazing Cinthia Varela joined the writing effort, the core idea is still the same: Is it your fault? And if it's not, should you stay?

I'm a big believer in McKey's idea that stories are equipment for living. Usually, I love to express them more mythologically - and this is not to say this isn't a mythological script. But there certainly is a more cautionary "Eye of Horus" element to this story, which - I hope - will not just lead to much suspense but also food for thought. Note that I have absolutely all intentions to stay in the realm of the archetypical and not slip into any modern-day political topics.

Furthermore, I became enamored with complex relational stories that follow a set of characters that are a small leap away from being the heroes or anti-heroes of this telling. This fits very well with Mina's perceptive nature: We will find that her inability to see the dynamics of her relationship is not necessarily a lack of information (although dramatic irony is used to effect during the 2nd Act) but an insufficiency in her relevance realization.

BUDGET

Our first draft of the budget which is linked below estimates the total spend at around 26k€. This will likely not be enough as we have recently discussed at some length the actual production period. In addition, we are currently considering approaching a more well-known cast with this project which would make it difficult to stay within budget due to travel arrangements. The entire project is - like "Leilani" mentioned above - a low/no budget project with financing going straight below the line to equipment rental, logistic costs, crafting materials, etc. Within the crowdfunding that will tie in with the Leilani launch comes the obligation to redo this budget with more fixed numbers. But the document below should serve as an orientation nonetheless:

TIMELINE

The current timeline foresees the development phase to transition into pre-production around mid-May 2026, granting a total of 5 months to prepare for an early October shoot. Currently calculated are 7 shooting days of principal photography but with new adjustments on the script and renewed calculations, we might push more towards 9-10 days. There will also be a requirement for a 5-day set construction phase ahead of the shoot, some fight choreography training days, plus we are considering shooting the TTRPG Oneshot that ties in with the movie at the same location before we bring down the set adding more time to the total. We will then transition into roughly 8-9 months of post-production and follow up with a 3-4 month launch preparation for a late summer/early autumn release in 2027. Various direct tie-in projects will be published around the same month and indirect projects like Naresh's Adventure will be leading up to the release.

DEALSTRUCTURE

At the moment, we are looking to fund the film entirely through crowdfunding, using "LEILANI" as proof and leverage. However, we can still be in touch about investment offers, but we will, of course, need to discuss the structure. We'd likely prefer a cost-plus for the entire trilogy, but understand that the windows are disorganized because of our release strategy. If you want to see what is possible, talk to us.

contact@soul-atlas.com
or reach out to Jonas via +49 179 2409122