Ancient Ruins?
During the creation of the Madani Chronicles, creator Kelvin Ali had the opportunity to visit, learn, and conduct research, as well as source artistic references from many locations around the Islamic world and the Middle East.
The unification of tribal civilizations in ancient Arabia led to the foundation and formation of early Islamic civilization. As issues of the day arose for Prophet Muhammad (saw), consultation with the Sahabah (RA) was often needed as leaders of all ages were given tasks, problems, and faced challenges and threats well beyond the chronological age at times.
As cultural influences were incorporated into lifestyle, trade routes expanded, communication became standardized, and security was established. The period of time that we’ve covered during this incredible and epic production uncovered gems of wisdom as revelation was also revealed in real-time to deal with the circumstances that required divine intervention.
While there was just an 8-year span of history that we managed to authentically research and create art references for based on Quranic tafsir (reason for revelation) and also authenticated hadith, it was often hard to nail the specific date and time as there was no real method of recording. The tribes of the peninsula relied on brilliant memory and were known to have great orators. Much of what we created was absolutely new and fresh knowledge to our creators and many of us being history fans, appreciated the perspective and wisdom that were passed on week after week and production after production.
Creating a series based on the final years of the life of Prophet Muhammad (saw) opened up understanding and perspective of what was a very ambiguous and misunderstood topic. As we discovered and learned about many amazing places, and actual events through Quranic revelation and authentic Islamic hadith, our respect for the wisdom that presented itself to us also deepened. Having a diverse production team of various faiths challenged us to think about our own respective beliefs and values and how we can all live, work, and thrive together in western lands today.
Many of the references we researched still have not made it to asset production, but we do hope to enhance and beautify our productions in the days to come with these gems of history. There were a lot of very interesting places that we portrayed in the comics and several geographical, historical, and terrain references were used at times to reflect snapshots of history to our dev teams. 3D environmental assets and textures were created and each issue we’ve created is jam-packed with an appreciation for the subject and narrative we needed to portray.
Oftentimes, we had to rely on the wit and wisdom of our subject matter experts and we can say to you that we worked very hard to apply what we were consulted on to make it to each panel. Our production budgets were stable, but like any project or a team event, we had to trim or cut out portions of production to fit our technical specifications for asset needs and requirements. Making a comic involves an incredible amount of coordination and we learned a lot about the 2D world, with many of us coming from 3D digital backgrounds.
The content we acquired from Kelvin’s expeditions placed an evolutionary progression of events that occurred as Islam grew to great heights and then declined, but it all had to originate from a core belief of faith, creation of political, societal, financial, and civil defense, pacts and treaties, and alliances. Leadership at the height of tension, turmoil, and division. Much of what is needed today.
Around the world, there are remnants of ancient times and civilizations of periods we can only imagine. Many of us are fascinated about these periods of history that seem to have been lost to time as we can only interpret the times, issues, and challenges of the day. The days of having to write on animal hides have evolved, but had it not been for these very early sacrifices for future generations, there would be no Islamic history for us to know of and we are grateful to have been brought to this wisdom.
Our team members were always enlightened when the narratives were given to us to conceptualize for each issue that came up. The narrative of this period of history is as compelling as anything we could have imagined it to be and it was certainly fun to think about all of the miraculous events and circumstances from a period of time so many of us had no actual knowledge of.
Just as we have learned a lot during the creation of this comic production, we are sure that our fans, readers, and any history buff will certainly appreciate the time and effort we’ve painstaking put in for the entire world. The level of authenticity we were asked to adhere to as per hadith and Quranic explanations to us was enlightening during pre and post-production efforts. As we round up this 2D initiative we will begin to celebrate our journey and move on to additional transmedia roles.
Our teams are gearing up for special edition and hardcover alternative offerings and we truly hope that one, several, or all of these comics and various editions will give you a dose of intrinsic blessing every time you have a read. If you are a first-time seeker of Islamic history and knowledge, we hope that the path to wisdom is now much clearer, easier, and very accessible for you, your friends, your family, and your Islamic community neighbours. The Madani Chronicles would make an awesome Halal gift for any Muslim, so keep us in mind if you need that unique one-of-a-kind gift for that special day or occasion.
Our team truly hopes that we will evoke your emotions as ours have been evoked during this production and if we do so, then we can say to ourselves, job well done, but we’d love it for you to leave us a review, comment, or send us some feedback. We appreciate it and we can say we worked incredibly hard to make this happen. Beyond Badr, The Madani Chronicles narratives are completed and we are finishing up very strong, this was certainly a project that our dev team was very fortunate to be a part of. We never expected legacy rewards when we started on this assignment, but it has been a gratifying and humbling experience to know that we are also rewarded divinely for doing our jobs based on authentic hadith that we had no idea of or even knew existed. Many of us truly moved from darkness into light and we hope that this product will serve you as well.
Being video game creators and enthusiasts, we can assure you that a great narrative can always lead to a much more fulfilling and well-rounded experience on any medium and we will continue to reach for greater goals and bigger project opportunities.
As we’ve enjoyed the comic journey of The Madani Chronicles, we hope that you take us up on our offers to join our clan, check out our comics, we promise that every episode is filled with gems of wisdom and knowledge from the Quran and Hadith in a chronological manner from 624 to 632 AD and it is an incredible narrative that was truly divinely inspired.
As we presented the last years of the life of Prophet Muhammad (saw) and the establishment of the religion of Islam, we encourage you to learn as well about how and why the people of the earth at the time formed a civilization within the Arabian Peninsula region that was acknowledged by the greatest powers of the world at the time.
Our last issue, ‘The Death of a Prophet (saw)’ is dropping soon and we encourage you to begin your journey today.
We are grateful that you’ve decided to visit our community and we hope that you will become a member of our social media tribe and accept some free digital gifts for trusting in us.
We invite you to become a member of our clan by visiting:
https://www.beyondbadr.com/clan
Your friends,
Beyond Badr Dev Team!