Some extras

X helmet art by Vibina

Now that I completed the second arc of Relic from the Seas I think I'll share some information regarding the writing process of the Lumine arc.

*Some spoilers ahead*

I created Lumine's 8 Maverick generals trying to make them as different from the ones in the X games as possible. I tried not to repeat any animal, the exception being shark based Tsunami Mako. Designing the special weapons was also a little difficult, so I simply based them on the personalities of the individual maverick.

Something that ended up working in my favor was giving two mavericks to each of the four hunters featured in the arc (X, Zero, Axl and Vile), because this helped make those eight chapters more interesting and less repetitive.

Bringing back locations from previous games (Laguz Island from X-treme 2, for example) helped me set the story in the X timeline better, and it's a good way to connect it to events that happened before.

The Sigma-MK9, or Sigma copy, was actually an idea that I wanted to include even before I decided Lumine would be the main villain of the second arc. Hey, this is a Mega Man X story, of course Sigma had to show up at some point.

Another detail is that for each Maverick "stage" I used music from the games for inspiration when designing it, that was something new for me, but I think it helped make the chapters devoted to each Maverick General better.

There are many deleted scenes in this arc. Sadly, they are truly deleted and lost, but they were not that good in my opinion. Most of them involved the navigators doing things that, once I took a second look, were either stupid or too out of character.

One extra I want to share with you is the Maverick layout I used when planning which hunter would fight each one. You may find it interesting.

List of mavericks	Special Weapon	Weakness	Locations	Hunter
Tsunami Mako OST: Inami Temple (Rainy turtloid theme)	Tsunami Wave	X buster / Triple bomb	Deep Sea laboratory (sea)	X
Bomb Triceratopon OST: Metal Shark Player theme	Triple bomb	Ice Slither	Missile factory (City)	Vile
Thunderbolt Falcon OST: Destroy the time bombs (Skiver Theme)	Thunder Striker	Flash claw	Aeronautics research center (Mountain)	Axl
Claw Leoparder OST: Sting Chameleon theme.	Flash claw	Acid bubble	Archaeological Excavation camp  (grassland)	Vile
Flame Scorpion OST: Tunnel Rhino theme	Fire stinger	Tsunami wave	Military base (desert)	Axl
Acidflow Venus Trap OST: Toxic Seahorse theme	Acid bubble	Magnet barrier / Ice Slither (charged)	Abandoned weather tower (Jungle)	X
Magnetoid Mole OST: Morph Moth theme.	Magnet barrier	Thunder Striker	Geothermal plant (mine)	Zero
Frostbite Fox OST: Snow Base Area 2 (Frost Walrus)	Ice Slither	Fire stinger	Air purifier central (Frozen forest)	Zero.
Boss ambush All mavericks at once	removed	removed	removed	removed
Mandala Q-5 OST: Gate’s stage 1	Attack: Spinning lasers	Acid bubble	Secret factory first ring. Main warehouse	Axl. He gets hurt.
Sigma Body MK-9 OST: Doppler stage 3	Attacks: Ice axe & Flame axe.	Ice Spear Missile / Burning Riot Missile	Secret factory second ring.	Vile. He gets hurt
Lumine OST: Sigma battle 1, MMX1	Can use the eight special weapons.	Fire stinger / Thunder Striker	Secret factory third ring.	X, Zero
Emperor Lumine OST: Kaiser Sigma battle	Eight special weapons & Nightmare extinction attack.	Laser Trident, (charged)	Secret factory fourth ring.	X, Zero