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Haltiamieli

A tower of the Great Elk Clan in the Northern Mitgardia

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I'm not sure whether the challenge is ending at the start or end of the 15th day, so I play safe and start a topic even with somewhat preliminary and scarce pictures. I hope to take better ones in the morning, and if I do I update this post. Also, the tower has still underwent some changes after I took this pictures, but they don't change the outlook that much. I just added another pair of flags hanging under the sole window and added two plates of height to the tower so that the upper half of the it can be lifted off for better access to the interior. [uPDATE! Good news: new pictures added. Bad news: the picture quality is not much better.]

The north – true north, the north of the north – is a really harsh and merciless environment, but nonetheless it does sustain many small clans of primitive hunters, fishers and herdsmen. Some have probably been there for thousands of years, indigenous, while some have been pushed there only recently (in the big scheme of things) by the slow advancement of southern settlers to the more temperate parts of Mitgardia. The northeners have traditionally minded their own business only and even fought wars against any endeavours to bring the tundra people under the rule of any king or ruler, or guild for that matter. But during the last hundred years or so this has started to change, with one clan after another having acknowledged the rule of the Mitgardia Guild and yielded. The Clan of the Great Elk was one of the first to pledge their loyalty to the Guild, many long years back when the Clan was lead by young Meeko son of Kuonjar. He was the father of the current leader, now an exceptionally old man by the standards of his people.

The oath of allegiance happened on the border of the Great Elk lands, by an old watchtower which has thereafter been known as the Oath Tower. While the clan lives inlands in the far north, they have not had much to fear from the faraway lands and peoples of the other guilds, but from time to time there arises some... disputes among the local clans (some of them still do not acknowledge the rule of the Guild), or some wild orcs might come raiding into the region, and at those times the towers are needed as defenses and also as safehouses, because many of them connect to underground caverns with more room and some emergency supplies. This is also true of the Oath Tower.

Here it is!

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There is a small stream going by the tower that has been frozen and mostly covered in snow like everything else. Not much growing here. Halti son of Halti, my character and the younger son of the leader of the clan, is standing on the top of the tower and looking at the envoy that is approaching. Apparently a captain from the Mitgardia Guild is just arriving to inspect the defences. The guy sweeping snow down below is Halti's brother Peera.

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A narrow path leads to the tower between the cliffs.

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Here is a view from the top of the tower, with the hatch to the stairs below open...

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...and closed.

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Pictures of the tower interior with parts of the tower lifted off. Not much to see here, except the stairs and a small platform by the window.

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And as you may remember, there was a cave under the tower. The thing in the upper part of the picture is my attempt to make a turnable bolt to seal/open the hatch. It works quite well, but the structure is somewhat huge-ish and not very minifig-operable or compatible. Don't pay attention to it.

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Brickshelf gallery (if you are interested, three pics from before the last few changes can still be found here)

This has been by far the biggest single building project of my still quite short AFOL career, with some landscaping and such that I hadn't really tried before. The creation used more or less all of my white plates and brown palisade bricks (not counting the ones that are used in my other MOCs). I hope you like it. :classic:

Edited by Haltiamieli

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Nice tower. I love the story, it's excellent. It definitely adds character to the tower. I can totally see this on the Northern borders of Mitgardia.

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It has that "song of fire and ice" sound in it, doesn't it? :)

nice ;)

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Great job, the frozen stream is fantastic, and the rockwork is perfect. Not the ideal tower to be cooped up in! Where's the fire? BRRR!!! Looks good though. :thumbup:

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This is a nice tower, the woodwork and the snowy landscape really stands out for me. :thumbup:

Although the Avalonia Trading Company might find it hard to pass by with the merchant carts, as there is a lot of snow! :laugh:

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First post has been updated with slightly better pictures, and certainly more of them. Thanks for your kind comments, everyone. :classic:

It has that "song of fire and ice" sound in it, doesn't it? :)

Yeah, A Song of Ice and Fire may have given some inspiration for my building. I suppose wildlings or lesser vassals of the House Stark could have towers like mine. Remember, winter is coming.

Not the ideal tower to be cooped up in! Where's the fire? BRRR!!! Looks good though. :thumbup:

That's why you have to wear warm clothes... fire is a luxury not to be wantonly wasted!

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Its nice to see our Barbarian allies make it into round 1. The construction is sturdy but simple as you would expect from tribesmen and the landscaping and cave is well done too. I think the top of the tower could be improved slightly by adding a few tiles but if you're sticking with studs up I can respect that.

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I think the top of the tower could be improved slightly by adding a few tiles but if you're sticking with studs up I can respect that.

I'm not sure if it would look better really, considering that the snowy landscape would still be studdy as hell (actually I would have liked to make the snow with tiles and horizontal building, there has been some great examples how awesome that can look, but I lacked parts for that). I don't want the tower to look more polished than the landscape.

Admittedly I'm not much into tiling anyway (maybe it's because I'm still somewhat in the childhood-nostalgy stage of AFOLhood and often prefer traditional/simple building techniques and styles, or maybe I just don't tick that way), so that may influence my opinion. :classic:

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I'm not sure if it would look better really, considering that the snowy landscape would still be studdy as hell (actually I would have liked to make the snow with tiles and horizontal building, there has been some great examples how awesome that can look, but I lacked parts for that). I don't want the tower to look more polished than the landscape.

Admittedly I'm not much into tiling anyway (maybe it's because I'm still somewhat in the childhood-nostalgy stage of AFOLhood and often prefer traditional/simple building techniques and styles, or maybe I just don't tick that way), so that may influence my opinion. :classic:

I like to mix the two styles together, studs for rough surfaces and tiles for smooth surfaces. Everyone has their preferences though and I understand where you are coming from. :thumbup:

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