GoH Book III

[Exetrius]

@kahir88 @Grover

47 minutes ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

Definitely real world religions are off limits, though many churches and cemeteries in the guilds still feature crosses prominently without raising objections.

I think that's because crosses are also a mark of the deceased, or a mark in general. Crosses are so abstract that they are kind of inevitable. 
(I recently came up with a cool cross design that I want to put in a GoH build sometime, you're warned, lol ) 

Also, I enjoy building deities from time to time, but never post them in GoH because in my interpretation they conflict with the "too overpowered" guideline (IMO the whole purpose of a god is being ridiculously overpowered). However, now I we have come to discuss this I will not pass up the opportunity to plug my latest deity in here! 

 

[Aurore]

On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 3:55 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Make up some fantasy gods for your region, as many as you like!

Great news! I made a small build with a Valkyrie a while ago, that means she could find a place in Mitgardia…

 

@Exetrius That guy looks great! And Indeed rather overpowered - being a god of Vanity and Ambition suits him very well!

[soccerkid6]

Need some extra incentive to get back to building for the Guilds?
Then maybe the Summer Joust is just what you've been waiting for!

Quite a variety of categories this year

See all the details on flickr.

[jtooker]

On 6/1/2022 at 1:28 PM, soccerkid6 said:

Quite a variety of categories this year

I'm looking forward to it!  Thanks for running the contest again!

[Yzalirk]

I am thinking about joining a guild soon!  Or is it too late?

[LordDan]

5 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

I am thinking about joining a guild soon!  Or is it too late?

It is not too late! We are always happy to have new members! 

[Grover]

6 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

I am thinking about joining a guild soon!  Or is it too late?

 

47 minutes ago, LordDan said:

It is not too late! We are always happy to have new members! 

Of course!  It's kind of a rolling sign up, so jump in when you're ready, and if you have any questions, post here or in the new member guide and you should be answered shortly.  Welcome!

[Yzalirk]

4 hours ago, LordDan said:

It is not too late! We are always happy to have new members! 

 

3 hours ago, Grover said:

 

Of course!  It's kind of a rolling sign up, so jump in when you're ready, and if you have any questions, post here or in the new member guide and you should be answered shortly.  Welcome!

Wonderful!  Thank you both!  I just need to decide on which guild interests me the most and create a sig-fig.

I was here back in that day in Book II, it is unfortunate Nocturnus is not an available option this time around.  Can I still do Free Builds involving Nocturnus or is it off limits entirely?

[Grover]

7 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

 

Wonderful!  Thank you both!  I just need to decide on which guild interests me the most and create a sig-fig.

I was here back in that day in Book II, it is unfortunate Nocturnus is not an available option this time around.  Can I still do Free Builds involving Nocturnus or is it off limits entirely?

Things are a bit slow around here, probably because the summer joust just ended, the pandemic has made a mess of things, and people have been building for cons, so if you don't get immediate responses, just be patient and people will get back to you.  I just got done dealing with a move so have been absent a couple of months now myself.  That being said, there's a lot of posts both new and old for the various guilds, so have a look around!

You can absolutely do free builds or challenge builds set in Nocturnus.  Many of us, myself included, have.  It is my understanding that you can even have a sig fig in Nocturnus ( @Exetrius does, although he's somewhat grandfathered in), but you can't earn points for Nocty.  The points (i.e., 'gold') system is pretty much just guild bragging rights, and, if I understand it right, if you have a sig fig in Nocty, you have to choose which guild your builds earn gold for instead of Nocty for this book.  @Henjin_Quilones, please correct me if I'm wrong, since I think this was the way you explained it a while back when someone else asked, but I can't seem to find the thread.

Enjoy looking around at the various builds and guild info, and don't hesitate to ask more questions as you have them!

[Kai NRG]

Grover has it right--you can build for Nocty and even have a sig-fig with a Nocturnian background, but you need to declare current allegiance to one of the other guilds.  And yes, that is theoretically so that your free build points will go for that guild.

I have not thought about free build points in so long...  I hope no one's been holding their breath waiting for those. 

[Exetrius]

@Yzalirk Welcome back to the Guilds, and a warm welcome from Nocturnus! 

11 hours ago, Grover said:

It is my understanding that you can even have a sig fig in Nocturnus ( @Exetrius does, although he's somewhat grandfathered in)

That's right! I never left Nocturnus or declared allegiance to a different guild when Book III came around. (Nocty to the bone! ) If you're caught up with the Book III lore, there are two major pieces of Nocty story that I've created since then: one & two. A third is on the way, but it needs time to become epic.  

[Yzalirk]

@LordDan @Grover @Kai NRG @Exetrius

Thank you all again for the warm and insightful responses!  I have many ideas in mind for what I want to focus.  Specifically being around reptillians of Nocturnus and expanding their lore after the catastrophe at Abyssian.  But of course I would like permission to so I do not step on anyone's toes.

I also do have an interest in Kaliphlin again or Mitgardia!  That is why I am undecided if I should do the Nocturnus related stuff as separate free builds or not.

[jtooker]

13 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

Specifically being around reptillians

Kaliphlin is a nice warm place for reptillians - and not so far away from Nocturnus.

[Kai NRG]

20 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

Specifically being around reptillians of Nocturnus and expanding their lore after the catastrophe at Abyssian.  But of course I would like permission to so I do not step on anyone's toes.

This is really far away from my toes so I hesitate to say go ahead and do whatever you like, but I don't believe anyone is doing much with the reptillians these days, so you probably do have free rein.  At least as long as you start a bit open ended you'll be fine--"some of" the reptilians went here or did this after the catastrophe, or something like that, that leaves opportunities for ISC or any one else who was originally behind the reptillians to expand in a different direction with a different group if they'd like to in the future.

[Exetrius]

On 8/19/2022 at 1:47 AM, Yzalirk said:

@LordDan @Grover @Kai NRG @Exetrius

Thank you all again for the warm and insightful responses!  I have many ideas in mind for what I want to focus.  Specifically being around reptillians of Nocturnus and expanding their lore after the catastrophe at Abyssian.  But of course I would like permission to so I do not step on anyone's toes.

I also do have an interest in Kaliphlin again or Mitgardia!  That is why I am undecided if I should do the Nocturnus related stuff as separate free builds or not.

 

And when it comes to freebuilds or personal story builds: if you want to put your sigfig in builds that are geographically far apart, you may want to come up with a reason how your character can travel those distances... or you don't, and then just don't specify how long it took to get from place A to B!  Or don't have them appear in those builds at all, and just introduce new characters for the sake of your build or your own entertainment! 

[LordDan]

On 8/20/2022 at 9:09 AM, Exetrius said:

 

And when it comes to freebuilds or personal story builds: if you want to put your sigfig in builds that are geographically far apart, you may want to come up with a reason how your character can travel those distances... or you don't, and then just don't specify how long it took to get from place A to B!  Or don't have them appear in those builds at all, and just introduce new characters for the sake of your build or your own entertainment! 

Or just say your sigifig is an adventurer and have them pop up in a different guild every build 

[Grover]

A grand Hello to all of our current Historica guild members!  I am honored to announce that I am the new guild leader of Avalonia.  Currently, we are looking at starting Book IV, as we have some new members and current member activity is somewhat slow.  We are planning on offering a number of traditional activities (challenges, etc.), but also would like to take this opportunity to hear from all of you, old and new members alike, as to what you would like to see in Book IV. 

For those of you who are newer, I would like to ask some questions:

• What drew you to Eurobricks and the Guilds of Historica?  Did you want to have a place to post awesome builds?  Were you hoping to get feedback and grow as a builder?  Did you like the cohesive storyline? 

• What aspect of the Guilds here do you like the most?  The least?

• What questions do you have about the Guilds that might help you understand the activities here better?  Technical questions about the various ongoing challenges (age of Mitgardia, University of Petrea, etc.)?  Short synopsis of the history of the various books? 

• Although you have likely chosen a guild already, how would you rank the guilds in your level of interest and why did you rank them this way?

Any other thoughts or questions are welcome.  We are taking a look back at what has worked well in the past and what is no longer relevant to make everyone's time more enjoyable.  We all build for fun, and our time is precious, so we aim to make this an enjoyable and fulfilling experience for everyone.

For our veteran builders:

• What of our ongoing challenges (settlements, age of Mitgardia, Avalonian tasks etc.) do you like the most and least?

• Which challenges did you like the best and least?

 

For example, I joined some years ago when I returned from my dark ages and was looking for a place that had experienced, high quality builders who were willing to critique my castle builds and help me get better.  To this end, I found the Guilds, which is filled with some really amazing builders, and joined up.  As a mostly castle builder, this was a natural place, and I loved the story aspect to the Guilds that provided a cohesive theme for everyone's build, and a collective narrative.  It struck me more as a collaborative story than a role playing game, and as such, no one was stuck waiting for you to 'take a turn' and you could contribute as much or as little as you had time for, making for a more relaxed pace that I could sustain for a long time.

Those builders who have critiqued my builds have helped me the most, and I love when builders will show the techniques for their various builds.  @soccerkid6 and @LittleJohn have done a great job with some tutorial builds in the Historic forum, and comments from them and others on my specific builds have been incredibly valuable to me as learning tools.

Were I to rank my interest in the guilds, it would probably be Avalonia (duh!) > Mitgardia > Nocturnus > Varlyrio ~~ Kaliphlin.  That's not to say I dislike any of the guilds at all, and I plan to build in all of them (I think I need to build in Mitgardia and Kali still...), but I have always loved the traditional castle setting, and have a love of the viking scene.  Nocturnus I found fun, open to about anything, and almost whimsical at times.  Valyrio is very interesting to build in and allows some more modern techniques, and Kali has some cool desert aspects that don't appear anywhere else.  For my character's story, I wanted to work on my traditional castles, as I love that genre, so that made my decision.

Don't worry, we have plenty of fun too.  I try to do a joke build for each challenge with my alter ego, Bob (search for Bob the Unemployed Avalonian Plumber if you want to see ridiculous builds), and you are free to have a blast.

Thanks for all your input, and I am excited for the upcoming Book IV!

[Kai NRG]

I'll jump in here and show my face.  First off, welcome to Grover as a new member of the leadership team, it's great to have your enthusiasm and love for the guilds!  For myself, I have not been able to take a leading role as a guild leader in the past year, but I'm definitely here to support Book IV.  I joined the guilds about 14 years ago (  ) for the challenges, stayed for the great constructive criticism, and have been trying to give back as a guild leader for probably 3 or so years now.  Eager to hear everyone's thoughts so we can make more informed choices moving forward.

[MKJoshA]

A well earned posting to the leadership team Grover! Glad to have you adding energy and drive to GoH.

[SimWies]

As I mentioned in the Avalonia thread, it's great to hear that @Grover is taking on the role of the guild leader for Avalonia. It's a great choice!

Now to aswering your questions @Grover :
I joined the guild just over a year ago, but I have been following GoH on here for at least eight years. I was initially drawn to the guild by all the great builds and the cohesive stories accompanying them. When I finally had enough free time to join, I was especially looking forward to receiving the kind of feedback that you tend to give to builds posted on here. You delivered — I've already received some great feedback and advice. Furthermore, I appreciate not being obligated to post according to a predefined timeline (exceptions would be challenges, of course). I can build when I feel creative and develop my story for my city and sigfig at my own pace. Since I joined just over a year ago I have not yet participated in a challange, but am looking forward to it!

For me, of cource, Avalonia tops the ranking of the guilds, followed by  > Mitgardia > Kaliphlin > Varlyrio > Nocturnus. I just alwaya had a great love for all things castles and I feel at home with the forests, meadows, sea of Avalonia. Mitgardia is a close second with its viking vibe and mountains. Kaliphlin is also very interesting, I really love the architectural and art style that developed for the builds in this guild and I would love to one day also build something for Kaliphlin.

In terms of questions about the ins and outs of the guilds, I have more or less read up on them in the forum posts, so I am more or less all set but would for sure appreciate a shortened up version in one single thread. 

[Grover]

On 6/19/2025 at 10:12 AM, Kai NRG said:

I'll jump in here and show my face.  First off, welcome to Grover as a new member of the leadership team, it's great to have your enthusiasm and love for the guilds!  For myself, I have not been able to take a leading role as a guild leader in the past year, but I'm definitely here to support Book IV.  I joined the guilds about 14 years ago (  ) for the challenges, stayed for the great constructive criticism, and have been trying to give back as a guild leader for probably 3 or so years now.  Eager to hear everyone's thoughts so we can make more informed choices moving forward.

We have enjoyed having you as a guild leader!  Thanks for all your help and we look forward to Book IV!

On 6/21/2025 at 6:30 AM, MKJoshA said:

A well earned posting to the leadership team Grover! Glad to have you adding energy and drive to GoH.

Thank you!  Book IV here we come!

On 6/21/2025 at 12:05 PM, SimWies said:

As I mentioned in the Avalonia thread, it's great to hear that @Grover is taking on the role of the guild leader for Avalonia. It's a great choice!

Now to aswering your questions @Grover :
I joined the guild just over a year ago, but I have been following GoH on here for at least eight years. I was initially drawn to the guild by all the great builds and the cohesive stories accompanying them. When I finally had enough free time to join, I was especially looking forward to receiving the kind of feedback that you tend to give to builds posted on here. You delivered — I've already received some great feedback and advice. Furthermore, I appreciate not being obligated to post according to a predefined timeline (exceptions would be challenges, of course). I can build when I feel creative and develop my story for my city and sigfig at my own pace. Since I joined just over a year ago I have not yet participated in a challange, but am looking forward to it!

For me, of cource, Avalonia tops the ranking of the guilds, followed by  > Mitgardia > Kaliphlin > Varlyrio > Nocturnus. I just alwaya had a great love for all things castles and I feel at home with the forests, meadows, sea of Avalonia. Mitgardia is a close second with its viking vibe and mountains. Kaliphlin is also very interesting, I really love the architectural and art style that developed for the builds in this guild and I would love to one day also build something for Kaliphlin.

In terms of questions about the ins and outs of the guilds, I have more or less read up on them in the forum posts, so I am more or less all set but would for sure appreciate a shortened up version in one single thread. 

Great feedback!  It seems we have a common theme from most everyone: I think almost all of us here came to learn by getting feedback on our builds, which is great.  We as guild leaders are discussing how we can best incorporate that into Book IV, since this is a true strength of the Guilds.

I'm glad that you mention the timing and expectations/pressure.  We aim to have this be a low pressure setting for builders to build as much or as little as they want or have time for. I have had many times in the past where life has prevented a lot of building.  We would much rather have you build your own sigfig and story with the quality you want rather than rush a small build out to meet some arbitrary deadline or the feeling that you have to respond or the story dies.  My own story was conceived around the construction of a castle and town from start to finish, so I have been slow to establish my town on HSS since I am not building random structures to meet requirements, but rather as the story unfolds. The pace of the Guilds has allowed me to do that, which I have really appreciated.

As for the challenges, they will of course have deadlines, but you haven't missed out on a lot... we haven't had much going on in the last year, which we hope to change, so look forward to that!

I will be cleaning up the major threads here over the coming weeks (or maybe months in the case of some of the huge multi book threads) to include some synopsis parts for broad overviews. 

One of my goals is to build in every guild. I think it will not only be a challenge, but fun, and I am looking forward to seeing all the new builds we will have!

[Exetrius]

What wonderful news, @Grover! I am confident that through your drive, energy and love for the Guilds, leadership over Avalonia is in the right hands! 

On the topic of what drew me to the Guilds, first of all was that so many of the best and most inspiring fantasy builds pointed this way. Then I found a rich world in which I could completely immerse myself, through staring at the maps, reading about the big events that shake this world and smaller individual stories and sagas. And, what I wasn't so conscious of back then as I am today: the community. A mix of people you admire, people that admire you, mates, rivals, etc. that are always there. And the sigfig profile pictures and banners add to the immersive experience.

Reflecting back on it, I was an 18-year-old looking for a place, a stage, a playground, to show friends my creations, to fantasize about characters and tell stories. An outlet for inspirations like anime and story themes like Ninjago and LEGO Universe. That Guilds of Historica was such a good fit for me was because it leaves much freedom to do your own thing, create your own city, and you're not bound by any game mechanics such as points, turns, dice rolls, grids, etc. (I'm not a board game person). However, to occasionally get competitive so you can see how you measure up to the builders you admire is a thrill! 

As far as my involvement in Guilds of Historica towards Book IV is concerned, you may have noticed I'm barely active on Eurobricks right now. To be honest, I am not in Guilds of Historica mode at all currently, or haven't been for a while. Finishing my ambitious multi-year Rockwail passion project build has turned into more of a burden than a real joy. That's a normal phase in any build, but because it's so big that phase is much longer. In the meantime other (non-GoH) ideas are stacking up and partly developing. But in general, I go from one builder's block to the next. My head is mostly at advancing the main quests in life (career, love, purpose), but those haven't been giving me more energy than they have taken, either. So for those reasons, I will refrain from taking on any active duties for Book IV at this point. 

[Grover]

On 6/23/2025 at 6:21 PM, Exetrius said:

What wonderful news, @Grover! I am confident that through your drive, energy and love for the Guilds, leadership over Avalonia is in the right hands! 

Thank you!  I am honored and excited for the next Book!

On 6/23/2025 at 6:21 PM, Exetrius said:

On the topic of what drew me to the Guilds, first of all was that so many of the best and most inspiring fantasy builds pointed this way. Then I found a rich world in which I could completely immerse myself, through staring at the maps, reading about the big events that shake this world and smaller individual stories and sagas. And, what I wasn't so conscious of back then as I am today: the community. A mix of people you admire, people that admire you, mates, rivals, etc. that are always there. And the sigfig profile pictures and banners add to the immersive experience.

Although I am biased, I agree with you: I think we have some of the best fantasy builders out there.  It's a lot of fun to be in the midst of such great talent!

The story is great, although the collaborative storytelling aspect is what keeps me hooked!

On 6/23/2025 at 6:21 PM, Exetrius said:

Reflecting back on it, I was an 18-year-old looking for a place, a stage, a playground, to show friends my creations, to fantasize about characters and tell stories. An outlet for inspirations like anime and story themes like Ninjago and LEGO Universe. That Guilds of Historica was such a good fit for me was because it leaves much freedom to do your own thing, create your own city, and you're not bound by any game mechanics such as points, turns, dice rolls, grids, etc. (I'm not a board game person). However, to occasionally get competitive so you can see how you measure up to the builders you admire is a thrill! 

I really agree with the not being bound by turns, points, etc. I think a lot of us here feel the same.  We all have busy lives and I'd rather turn ins something good than something rushed.

On 6/23/2025 at 6:21 PM, Exetrius said:

As far as my involvement in Guilds of Historica towards Book IV is concerned, you may have noticed I'm barely active on Eurobricks right now. To be honest, I am not in Guilds of Historica mode at all currently, or haven't been for a while. Finishing my ambitious multi-year Rockwail passion project build has turned into more of a burden than a real joy.

Sorry you don't have the time right now, but we'd love to have you back when you do, everything will be here!

[Gideon]

Great news to hear that the GoH story is progressing to another book! (Still turning the pages way faster than A Song of Ice and Fire  )

I actually really love the smaller challenges and other initiatives like AoM, where we get to do some world building and flesh out the settings of Historica. The minifig challenges have been particularly good in this sense.
Challenges emphasizing the everyday nature of Historica, such as trade or the life/backstory of a character is particularly suited for this type of world building.
It was also very nice to revisit an old build with the new skills and bricks accumulated over the years. Of course, I also love the big storytelling challenges 🙂

My least favorite challenge over the years was actually the Kaliphlin civil war, where quantity ended up being prioritized over quality.

A good mix of challenges probably would contain at least a couple or perhaps more of smaller challenges in between every big challenge, especially in order to not overburden the leadership so the challenges end up being too far apart. Generous time slots for the challenges are however appreciated by those of us who are otherwise very busy with real life challenges... But that also means that challenges are a great way to actually get around to producing some builds!

I overall like the freeform RPG nature of GoH, with limited or even no formal gameplay mechanics - just building and telling stories, and sometimes being able to compete for influencing the overall direction of the world by excelling in those skills.

Regarding the setting, I think the high medieval/high fantasy with some but not too powerful technology (siege engines are ok, but no reliable cannons for example) has been successful and fits very well to build high and beautiful fortifications (rather than the squat walls of early modern/age of sail fortifications). Similarly, I'm ok with fairly ubiquitous magic, but prefer if the magic elements is not overpowering compared to traditional medieval warfare.

Great that we can have different preferences on which settings we want to build in, I have actually always found it harder to be innovative in the classic "green and gray" Avalonian settings (so many other great builders already building in those settings). I would therefore love to return to Kaliphlin - both building in the Mediterranean-ish setting of Barqa and would also love to build a bit more Oriental/Egyptian builds further south or deeper in the desert.
Not great myself at the more Far East settings, but the Rakath mountains and especially their eastern side have as far as I remember been established over the years as a suitable place for those who want to build in that style in Historica and that could probably be better emphasized in the future.

Of course, incentives to "visit" other guilds are nice so one can get to build in other settings than just the home guild. (I'm particularly drawn to build some more Varlyrian builds again)
Maybe a new "embassy/trading post in another guild" type of challenge or some (other reason to visit that setting) can make some of us better at doing those kind of excursions from our home setting.

Long live Historica!

[jtooker]

First, I'm excited about book IV.  I've been meaning to finish an updated map of Kaliphlin and have been ignoring it partially since there isn't a real need/deadline; but I'd like it accurate for the beginning of book IV.

* What drew you to Eurobricks and the Guilds of Historica?  Seeing other builders I admire participate
* What aspect of the Guilds here do you like the most/least? I like the slow pace of it and the fact it is always here (vs. some other online LEGO role playing that have come and gone quickly).  Getting feedback and inspiration to build is equally important, but that can be got from other places in shorter spurts (e.g. the annual contests).
* What questions do you have about the Guilds that might help you understand the activities here better?  A more succinct onboarding process would be good.  There is a lot of information in various places; having everything in the "Guilds of Historica New Member Guide" would have been nice.  At this point, I feel I understand everything well enough.
* What of our ongoing challenges do you like the most and least?  I think the settlements one is best.  I'm the only one doing the Kaliphlin University one, but I think that one is a nice go-at-your-own-pace one too.  Having the overall scores of each guild updated more often would be nice, but not critical
* Which challenges did you like the best and least?  I haven't been around long enough to really say, other than the variety of the ones I've been here for have been great