Some of the most compelling aspects of Tibia are its mysteries and its vast and interesting lore. I have always been fascinated by 469. I also really like the five volumes that contain all the secrets of Tibia. Since 469 is a language, I wondered why it didn’t have its own tome. This is how the concept of the Bonelord Tome arises. From the fusion of these two ideas, the 469 language and the tomes.
I have a special fondness for this item because it was one of my first ideas for Tibia, and in a way it represents all the evolution and growth that I have had as a pixelart artist. The concept evolved over the years, and I evolved with it too.
According to the creation date of the file, the Bonelord Tome was born on 10/13/2011. It was a time before the Mathmaster Shield (the first sprite I ever won a contest with) was incorporated into the game. This design was submitted for the fansite item contest of Guildstats.eu, but it didn’t win.
Later, in 2013, I modified the same sprite to create a similar item called “Zathroth’s Diary”. In this development stage, I came up with the idea of the evil eye that you can appreciate in the final animation of the Bonelord Tome. I was inspired by Sauron’s eye from Lord of The Rings. Also the “open book” animation starts to materialize by this time. The sprite was submitted to TibiaEvent’s fansite item contest. Didn’t won also.
In 2015, I decided to redesign the tome. I added the rest of the eyes and wanted to give a more “monsterish” look to it. You can appreciate the “eye moving” animations in this development stage. This redesign was submitted to TibiaTome’s fansite item contest, and guess what…it didn’t make it either.
In 2017, the “open book” animation was redesigned. These could be considered as alternative animations of the final Bonelord Tome.
The sprites just gathered dust on my hard drive until 2019, when the TibiaQA’s fansite item contest started. I thought that it would be a nice idea to submit the item for this fansite. With some modifications, the item received its final look. It got second place by then.
After so many “lost battles”, I finally gave up hope that it would be incorporated into the game. Almost a decade later, the miracle happened. Who would think that designing items for a video game would give you life lessons? … Well, it has been in this case. Never lose hope. Never abandon your dreams.
I will be eternally grateful to TibiaSecrets for giving the Bonelord Tome the opportunity to be officially part of the history of Tibia.
It was the story of an ancient artist who, controlled by the most powerful of the Bonelords, created the masterpiece of his life.
Let us all bow before his talent.
Long live Lupus Aurelius!
Grateful TibiaSecrets team
To the current day, Lupus Aurelius is the author of ten fansite items (one of them on its way to being implemented). You can check his Instagram profile to see more of his artworks.
I love how articles uncover more content in Tibia and help me understand Tibian universe better.