What is the setting of the Hellish Quart? What can we expect in terms of weapons and selectable characters?
The game is set in 17th century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From what Kubold send in a PM to one of the Discord members it seems the game will be set in Red Ruthenia, specifically between Przemyśl and Lviv . The game aims to be historically plausible which limits fencing styles encountered in the game. Kubold (main developer) stated that he wants the game to popularize HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) and Polish culture.
This also means that a majority of characters in the game will probably use sabres — as to Polish/Commonwealth people sabre is similar to what katana is to Japanese. In the 17th century Commonwealth, the sabre was by far the most often carried weapon for defence, as a status symbol, and for duelling and ceremonies. It was significant enough that many Polish idioms refer to sabre — it shows how popular it was, ex. “kord do boju, szabla do stroju” “a kord (heavy sabre in this context) for a battle, a sabre for an outfit” — which means that when selecting wife you shouldn’t judge her by her looks — it’s wife-related “don’t judge a book by its cover”. There are many more.
As HQ portrays the duel/quarrel battles in Commonwealth, polearms and war weapons won’t be represented as often as side weapons and duelling weapons — meaning that the majority of battles will feature fights with single weapons, most likely a sabre or a sword, most likely without any shields. This is likely to also have a semblance of video game balance. Also, samurai/viking/chinese warrior are highly implausible to be found in the 17th-century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. But Kubold expressed that he is willing to add those characters as DLC (Downloadable Content) after the game release — I’d advise to expect them as the 25th character at earliest.
Relevant Steam topic in which Kubold participated: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1000360/discussions/0/2792745783005036526/#c3937786805176368211
Kubold:
Vikings will not be in the base game, a Swedish Reiter fits better from that part of the world.Although a samurai doesn't fit the setting, let's be honest. We all want to see the katana cutting a winged hussar and his horse in half ;D No, but really, if MK can have Robocop, I think there might be a room for a "guest appearance" samurai at some point.
But a Spanish pirate with some sort of a hanger - yes, totally, awesome idea!
In fact again, the original author for this article is not me, Picado, but Ilxuss, who is the Champion of Gedeon in the Hellish Quart Community Discord. He wrote a useful article within the Discord in the Frequently Asked Question section. I had intended to spread his work and accessible through Google SEO so I copypasta his article into medium under his generous permission. Thank you for good writing, Ilxuss!
