February 2026 Blog: BTS of "Blight" & Swedish Warmblood

"Blight" - Marchenghast Song

By Nomi (Senior 3D Artist & Animator)

✨The spark✨

It started with a small moment in the Star Stable office. I was talking to my art director, Björn, about the score music for Marchenghast. He said, “The music is really cool, you should listen to it and maybe talk to…”

But I had already vanished, running to the music studio.

“I heard you’ve made music for Marchenghast. Can I hear it?”
Axel and Daniel, our in-house music team, played their work for me and I dropped my jaw. It was so epic, dark and fitting for the new area.

While I was there, they asked to borrow my voice for some elven vocals for the magical Warden tree (The lonely beacon) that you can hear in the game. Then we said, wouldn’t it be cool to make another song for the game? Like a Fire 2.0 but something that really fits Marchenghast?

And so the passion project began.

The word “Blight”🪾

I felt euphoric about writing another Star Stable song. I wanted to create something that felt relatable, but also deeply rooted in the story you experience as a player. A darker and more mature mood is what we’ve been aiming for in the whole studio, something we’ve all been missing.

We’ve been waiting for this area to open for a long time. Many of us have grown up alongside the game. I wanted the song to reflect that feeling, of returning somewhere familiar, but seeing it through older eyes. The blight is the corruption of the forest around Marchenghast, and I wanted to write the song from the blight’s own perspective. The idea that maybe you are the blight. And by saving the forest, you also save yourself. We are all blighted in a way but I wanted this song to embrace that and own it.

“Turn my enemy to friend…”

Writing the song🖊️🎶
With the vision clear, I teamed up with songwriter Aleena Gibson, who has previously written music for Star Stable characters like Lisa Peterson.

And there we sat, in the meeting room of Hollow woods, diving deep into lyrics, poetry and Star Stable lore… and a bit of therapy like you do when writing songs.

Concept art of Blight corruption - Matilda

Concept art of the Warden Tree (The Lonely Beacon) by Matilda & Albin

The very next morning, I recorded the first version of the song together with Axel (Sound Director). It was raw and simple, but the feeling was there. From that foundation, the sound slowly grew with strings and atmosphere and we had our first demo that I presented to the studio during our passion week presentations.

Moonshine

When it was time to find a producer, I thought back to a songwriting camp I attended the summer before. There, I worked with the producer duo Moonshine, who usually create K-pop.

It might sound unexpected, but I felt their sense of melody and emotion could bring something special to this song. Despite the short deadline, they sent us a demo, and it immediately felt right.

A few weeks later, we gathered and recorded the final version.
The final song you now hear in connection to Marchenghast was born there.

Btw, they have such a cool studio!

THE ARTWORK & PROGRESS🎨

I usually create the artwork for my own songs, and for Blight I wanted the image to feel just as layered as Marchenghast itself.

The artwork brings together both lore and emotion, the blight corruption spreading through nature, the moths you see around the area. The green eye stands for survival, while the glowing particles are inspired by the wandering seeds from the Lonely Beacon, reminding us that even in darkness, there is still hope. The white eyeliner represents tears, but also new growth.

I worked on the cover art during late nights and quiet evenings, slowly refining it and checking in with one of our concept artists along the way. It started as a simple sketch on a post it note focused on mood and presence, then I made a 3D model of myself to get some of the shading for free and then it gradually grew into its final form through patience and experimentation.

Here are some work-in-progress images from the journey. I used zbrush and photoshop and combined digital painting with sculpting.

Fun fact - I used to have moths as pets!

Working as a game developer and music artist at Star Stable 🎮🐴

At Star Stable, I wear a few different hats (pun intended).

My main role is 3D art and animation – mostly pets, characters, and horses. For Marchenghast, I worked on the Lantern Beast and the Dragon pets you can meet in-game.

Music, however, is something I do on the side. It’s not part of my official role. It’s something extra I do because I love this world and the community around it.

That said… How cool would it be to perform in-game someday?
I’ve never done an IRL tour, but what about a digital one? Traveling between servers, performing as my digital self and meeting you in-game? 💫 We’ll see if that is ever made possible.

The butterfly effect

When the song was finished, I went back to Björn and asked:
“Do you remember that conversation we had in the office? About the music?”

He laughed and said “yes, it was surreal how you vanished and came back with a full song.”

It’s funny how something so small can light a spark and grow into something meaningful.
🦋

A few words to my fellow SSO lovers 💜

I hope you enjoy the song.
I hope you love exploring Marchenghast and all the upcoming questlines.
And I hope this little story inspires you to follow your intuition and start a project of your own.

<3 

/Nomi

Swedish Warmblood

By Alishia (3D Artist)

Hellooo Star Fam!
I’m back again, here to talk about the beautiful Swedish Warmblood ~

Ah… the Swedish warmblood, our very own galloping treasure. A companion you’ll find all around in Sweden. This breed is one of the world's oldest warmbloods, originating in the 1600’s-1700’s through the crossing of Swedish country horses, and other agile European breeds to meet the need for a swift and sturdy horse in the cavalry. Today, we still see the Swedish Warmblood as a big part of Swedish culture, as it parades through the streets of Stockholm, competes successfully in all Olympic disciplines, and is a sweet friend at home.

Before going into production, my team once again had the opportunity to meet the breed. Our wonderful Jess, who’s been working closely with us,  brought us to her stable to talk about the breed and get a proper feel for it.

At the stable, we got to meet beautiful Cadenza, also called Denza, who is Jess’s own Swedish Warmblood mare. She is tall and of quite a strong build, and we decided to make her our inspiration for this breed. She felt very fitting and helped us distinguish this warmblood from our others.

Aaand she has a sister who also inspired one of the coats! Her name is Dolcissimo, also called Dolly, although she lives in Norway with Ingvild from our team. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to meet her, but she is also a very beautiful Warmblood 🥰

" I was so excited when I saw that the community had voted for us to do the Swedish Warmblood in-game, and I was even happier when the team wanted to stop by for a visit. My family has been breeding SWBs on a small scale since the late 80's, and Cadenza and Dolly are the third generation of breeding from a mare that my grandparents bought.” - Jess

Another cool thing to mention, the animators got the opportunity to use Denza as a reference for this breed’s jumps, which was extremely helpful!

With this breed’s history in mind, we wanted to give it a nod to its traditional uses, such as the Royal Mounted Guards. You will see some mane styles, items, and moves inspired by that! I wanted to incorporate some of the flowy medium-length manes and short tails from the breed's earlier history, as well as a shorter, sportier mane that doesn’t lie completely flat, often seen on our current guard horses here in Sweden.

( Photo by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

( Items concept inspired by the Swedish Royal Mounted Guards by Meli, Item artist )

The items began by exploring an all-around direction, but we pivoted to align with the traditional vision for the horse.

( Early sketching of mane types and their silhouettes.)

Since we have some new systems in place now, getting into them is very interesting and sometimes results in some fun bugs like some haunting ghost horses, boots that seemed to have come in XXL, ( I seem to have ordered the wrong size, oops). 

“ The team has done such a wonderful job on this horse - both the animation team, who have created such lovely movements, and Alishia who has captured the horses so wonderfully. Having my dear Denza and her sister Dolly in game, along with the coat variation of my other horse Thea on the Hanoverian, is a privilege I am so grateful for! Thanks to the team for their wonderful job, and for letting me be a small part of this journey." - Jess

“ …With nobility comes great honor, so smile and wave as this horse takes a bow for the crowd. On the podium, the Swedish Warmblood reigns supreme, snatching medals in all Olympic disciplines. This is no exception on Jorvik, where this horse continues to be among the top rankers in the arena."