Book IV Prelude Challenge: Category A: The Bridge Troupe

[TalusMoonbreaker]

The Merchants' Bridge - Il Ponte dei Mercanti -

The Merchants Bridge is an old bridge built centuries past along the Zaglio River near the center of Porto Caglaveri. The Zaglio River runs from the High Ridge Mountains and winds its way through the fertile hill country to the coast. Anzola Moccenigo, the grandmother of the famed architect Brabantio Moccenigo, designed the layout of the canals that flow out from the river. The Moccenigo family maintains the story that Anzola also constructed the bridge to replace the rickety old wooden bridge. The Ziccardi family maintains that this is all lies and that Bastian Ziccardi was the actual builder of the bridge. The denizens could care less because it is a nice bridge. In the years since the construction of the bridge, merchants have set up shops along the edge of the bridge, jutting out over the Zaglio River. Indeed, it has become the most popular shopping district in the town, a welcome place where coin is plentiful for the eager bard. In an unlikely collaboration, the rival Ziccardi and Moccenigo families designed the corridor that runs over the shops. Many of the denizens of Porto Caglaveri were surprised that the families were able to cooperate in its construction without any bloodshed. Their astonishment was diminished when they learned that the mayor ordered the project with the hope that it would help the families to put away their vendette permanently. The mayor was disappointed and the citizens baffled at the mayor’s silly - but noble - intentions. Regardless, the mayor and their staff appreciate the direct route to the town hall.

Shoppers among the Bridge of Merchants. A local construction worker peruses the selection at the bakery. 

A dapper, young noble inspects a golden rapier at Jacomo's Oddities. Quite useful for conducting political intrigue and revenge. A Varlyrian dwarf purchases a mace head from Dalyn the blacksmith.

With the new Rego’s economic policies and support for the arts, the bridge became a common spot for busking. Of these buskers, none were as popular as one trio of Varlyrians from all across the realm. On the lute and vocals, Zuan Aironetto, a local bard from Porto Cagliaveri. On the flute, Eydis Willowtongue, a traveling Kolgarí minstrel from the Sunken City. On the electric guitar, Gromli Ironlungs, member of the popular dwarven band DEEPAXE. And on vocals, a random guy on the balcony, who has joined the song. Collectively, they have been dubbed the Bridge Troupe, a name with little style or flourish, but great accuracy. 

A boatsman rows with his goods down the Zaglio River while keeping beet with the troupe's song.

The Bridge Troupe

Local gossip has it that Zuan met Eydis and Gromli on the bridge whilst stumbling home drunk one evening. He just so happened to have bumped into Gromli while he was getting his guitar fixed by the dwarven blacksmith, Daryn. Then Gromli, who was reportedly also drunk, decided to test his guitar and Zuan joined in the song. Eydis, who was shopping at Jacomo’s Oddities, heard their music and pulled out her flute. Thus, their trio was formed. Of course, that’s just hearsay. 

Eydis, Zuan, and Gromli performing one evening.

Before becoming the locally famous and respected bard, Trovatore del Ponte - Troubadour of the Bridge -, Zuan Aironetto was a fisherman. He gained his epithet Little Heron from his days spent among the fens at the delta of the Zaglio. Although he was a fisherman, he played songs for the merchants in a small tavern above a shop along the bridge. One day, he hoped to open a luthier shop. With the crowning of a new Rego - especially one who had gained power with the support of the masses and un po’ Varlyrian politics (i.e., backstabbing) - Zuan saw his opportunity to trade in his fishing net for the lute permanently. Thus, he journeyed to the capital, Illaryian, to seek an audience with the Rego. At this point, the Rego was well known for his generous patronage of the arts. Zuan made his case before the Rego, who generously promised his patronage. Beyond ecstatic, Zuan travelled back to Porto Caglaveri singing and playing his lute the whole way. This attracted quite the crowd of traveling folk, eager to forget their tired feet and happy to listen to Zuan’s songs. Legend has it that the crowd followed him into the town of Porto Caglaveri to the bridge. Whether this leading of the crowd led him to run into Gromli and Eydis by pure chance or not, no one can recall. Of course, no one is completely sure if this is the real tale of Zuan Aironetto because they were all too drunk to remember it in full. Regardless, he has become quite the popular musician with the bridge feeling quite empty without the echo of his voice underneath the portici of the corridor. 

Before joining the troupe, Eydis Víðitunga was a member of the Musician's College in the Sunken City of the Kolgarí. She set out on a journey to learn about the local stories and songs in other parts of Varlyrio. Near the end of her journey, she has decided to stay in town for a while before returning to the Sunken City. The people of Porto Caglaveri will miss her song when she departs. 

Gromli Ironlungs is already famous among the dwarven clans of the High Ridge Mountains and even those of the mainland as the lead guitarist for the band DEEPAXE. He is currently taking a vacation along the coastal regions after their last tour to Mitgardia and Avalonia. Unfortunately, during a tour of Illaryian by gondola, the boat flipped and his precious guitar fell into the canal. Thankfully, he was able to get it repaired by Daryn, a local blacksmith who owns a shop on the Merchant’s Bridge. 

The evening is young. The bridge is still crowded with shoppers making their last purchases before the stores close. And the minstrels begin to sing and play their instruments.

Spoiler

Great to build for the guilds again! Hopefully, not my only contribution for the year, unlike the past two. While definitely not my best build by far, this was definitely a fairly challenging one. I only had a few dark grey arches, so I had to brick build the inside of the arches, which wasn't easy. I also apologize for the terrible photos and lack of a proper setup. I had to rush them due to a lack of time with the start of a new uni semester. 

Initially, I planned on building a tavern with a wine cellar for the troupe, but decided to build a medieval bridge, complete with shops, because it seemed like a cool idea. 

I was predominantly inspired by Il Ponte Vecchio in Florence, but also took some inspiration from the Old London Bridge (rip :( ), Pont des Marchands in Narbonne/Narbona, France (in

Occitània/Occitanie/Occitania, where the troubadours/ trobador and trobairitz originated), and the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt, Germany (Predominantly Ponte Vecchio and Pont des Marchands). The corridor takes its design heavily from the Vasari corridor, built by Giorgio Vasari in 1565, which connects the Pitti Palace to the town hall of Florence (Il Palazzo Vecchio). The major difference is the radius of the arches (mine are more akin to horseshoe arches but without the bottom flairs, such as those in the prayer hall at the Mosque of Tinmal (Masjed Tanmul in Morocco) and the style of the main window on the back. Also, the arcades should only be in the centre of the bridge, but I had to extend them because of the width of my bridge (this did create an issue, as I had to redesign the arches to create a cohesive look while having a limited amount of arch pieces)

There are two really good builds of Il Ponte Vecchio that recreate them completely (and accurately) out of Lego:

Lorenzo Vezzi: https://corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/notizie/cultura-e-tempo-libero/24_gennaio_28/lorenzo-vezzi-e-il-suo-ponte-vecchio-con-i-lego-l-opera-realizzata-con-35mila-mattoncini-in-12-mesi-5f2a4806-8ac1-451f-b995-356bd592axlk.shtml

Deborah Hidgon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/buildingsblockd/52151872830/in/album-72177720299852634

I utilized Juliana de Luna's Names from 16th Century Venice when deciding on some of the characters' names. I highly recommend it for any Varlyrians. https://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/16thcvenice.html

Here's a better look at the underside of the bridge (featuring Captain Cockatrice and a random pirate)

And here's a photo of the trio:

 

 

[T-86(swebrickLUG)]

Digging the Ponte Vecchio-feel! My favourite details are the protective bars on the windows and the overall composition with sort of hanging houses on the supportive pillars! Nice job @TalusMoonbreaker

[TalusMoonbreaker]

@T-86(swebrickLUG)Thank you! The horizontal bar design was inspired by Lorenzo Vezzi's moc. And the nobles need to protect themselves from assassins breaking in through the windows! I'm glad you like the hanging houses, they repeatedly fell off during construction. The pillars were a bit tricky to figure out how to attach to the rest of the build, but I found a simple solution of attach it to 1x1 clear tile in the water layer. 

[SimWies]

Love it @TalusMoonbreaker! The Ponte Vecchio vibes are strong with this one  I especially love the color scheme making the scene feel alive and fibrant with the different colors of the houses "clinging" to the bridge. The water is also nicely done!

Edited August 24 by SimWies

[Khorne]

Instantly recognizable as being inspired by the bridge in Florence. Cool to see a built-over medieval bridge with shops and the likes. The colors of the houses pop and contrast nicely with the natural hues of the bridge itself.

[Seagull King of Vaughan]

Love it! Always a fan of bridges with housing.

The underside looks really interesting. I am so curious to know how you managed to get it to curve like that with regular bricks. I tried something similar for an arch one time and it ended up falling apart.

As for the rush for uni – I feel it too! My own build is going to be cutting it close…

[TalusMoonbreaker]

@SimWiesThank you! I was afraid that I wouldn't have enough pieces to complete the water. Thankfully, I did just barely, but only because there are holes underneath the boats. 

@KhorneThank you! I also love medieval bridges! There's also one in Vietnam that features a temple on top, which is really cool. I'm glad the color scheme worked! I was afraid that orange and pink might be a little much. 

@Seagull King of VaughanThank you! Me too! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture. For the sides, I had one row of plates, then a row of brick with at least two snot studs, and then a row of tiles. There are three sections. I connected the sections together with 1x2 clip pieces with 1x2 plate in between the curve section and the clips. The clips were attached to the base. For the long middle section, it's connection to the two arch sections on either side. I'll try to get a photo when I can. I could also draw a diagram if that helps? Hopefully, you're able to finish! I was going to make an entry for cat B - I had the story partially written, which would've furthered my character's story - but alas. I hope your semester goes well!

[W Navarre]

Life in Varlyrio! I like best the way the angled pillars in the structure match each other. Also great water below! 

[LordDan]

Very cool! I was not familiar with Ponte Vecchio so I just looked it up and the inspiration is clear. The build feels perfectly Varlyrian and I like all the little shops! My only critique is that I wish the bridge was a bit wider so that you could get a better view down the center.

[Seagull King of Vaughan]

@TalusMoonbreaker I think that bridge design makes sense, thank you! I will probably try it at some point. I’m also all good for studies, and I hope to fit a couple freebuilds this fall between them!

[jtooker]

I like the bridge idea!  The angled piers are done well and the column technique provide interesting shapes to the build.  The colorful buildings on either side work well with the more muted stone and tan.  It is too bad the shadows are so harsh on the troupe under the covered bridge in the main picture, but all the other supporting pictures show those details well.

[mrcp6d]

You packed a bunch of content into this MOC and I love it!

[Kai NRG]

I love the whimsical feel of those houses perched atop the bridge and then the walkway over it all.  Feels very lively and very Varlyrian.

[MKJoshA]

I really like the sharp corners at the front of the bridge pillars. And your historical undertones inspiring your MOC are great. One thing I'm not a fan of is the Electric Guitar. I know that medieval instruments are few and far between, but having something so out of sync with the rest of the story is a detractor. 

[Ben S]

I really like the sharp corners of the bridge too! It's a very nice touch. I also found the crowd and activity you have managed to fit inside the bridge with so little space haha, really gives off busy market vibes!

[TalusMoonbreaker]

On 9/1/2025 at 3:49 AM, W Navarre said:

Life in Varlyrio! I like best the way the angled pillars in the structure match each other. Also great water below! 

Grazie mille il mio compagno! I'm glad that you like the water technique. It was exciting to build for Varlyrio again, and I'm interested to see how things shape up for Book IV with @Velnerius character getting involved in the intrigue. 

On 9/1/2025 at 12:01 PM, LordDan said:

Very cool! I was not familiar with Ponte Vecchio so I just looked it up and the inspiration is clear. The build feels perfectly Varlyrian and I like all the little shops! My only critique is that I wish the bridge was a bit wider so that you could get a better view down the center.

Thank you for kind feedback @LordDan! I really appreciate it. Ideally, I would've expanded the width of the bridge by eight studs. This would allow for the buildings to have a façade of 1 stud and a street of 7 studs, it would bring it more in line with the actual design of Ponte Vecchio and probably look better. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have had enough water pieces if I'd done that and my olive green supplies were rather depleted as a few are trapped in this build: 

Spoiler

I took partially apart the tower and background building to build the bridge. I still have the double-decker house, smaller house, and tree. Simulterious helped immensely with the photography and also edited it. I'm very grateful to him.  

I'll keep it in mind for next time to have better composition for photography. 

On 9/2/2025 at 9:48 AM, Seagull King of Vaughan said:

@TalusMoonbreaker I think that bridge design makes sense, thank you! I will probably try it at some point. I’m also all good for studies, and I hope to fit a couple freebuilds this fall between them!

Nice! I probably won't be able to build until a big break, but I'm excited to see what you make!

On 9/2/2025 at 10:10 AM, jtooker said:

I like the bridge idea!  The angled piers are done well and the column technique provide interesting shapes to the build.  The colorful buildings on either side work well with the more muted stone and tan.  It is too bad the shadows are so harsh on the troupe under the covered bridge in the main picture, but all the other supporting pictures show those details well.

Thank you for your feedback @jtooker! Unfortunately, I only had like twenty minutes to take the photos. Otherwise, I'd probably look into getting feedback to make sure they are good since I'm not a great photographer. 

On 9/2/2025 at 2:46 PM, mrcp6d said:

You packed a bunch of content into this MOC and I love it!

Thank you @mrcp6d! I love shoving in as much to as little space as physical possible so I'm glad it worked! There's a youtuber named RobinHoodBricks who likes to say "Stacked and Packed," which I think is a great philosophy! Sometimes at least.

On 9/2/2025 at 5:46 PM, Kai NRG said:

I love the whimsical feel of those houses perched atop the bridge and then the walkway over it all.  Feels very lively and very Varlyrian.

Thank you @Kai NRG! The houses fell a lot when I was building this. 

On 9/3/2025 at 1:26 PM, MKJoshA said:

I really like the sharp corners at the front of the bridge pillars. And your historical undertones inspiring your MOC are great. One thing I'm not a fan of is the Electric Guitar. I know that medieval instruments are few and far between, but having something so out of sync with the rest of the story is a detractor. 

Thank you for your feedback @MKJoshA! I had fun doing the research on the historical bits. I understand what you mean on the electric guitar. I was pressed for time and the minifig already had it in his hand. Part of me also thought it'd be funny since dwarves like to carve their homes out of stone (also there's real life metal bands that dress up as dwarves) and I wanted to represent musicians from across Varlyrio. It probably would've been better to stick with historical instrumentation (ie, give him a drum or sackbut instead), like you suggested, or go full anachronistic like @Grover Highway to Hell build or like the film A Knight's Tale , which has a rock soundtrack.  I'll keep that in mind for next time. In hindsight, I probably should have put Zuan (lute guy) in the forefront of the troupe since he is the local musician. 

4 hours ago, Ben S said:

I really like the sharp corners of the bridge too! It's a very nice touch. I also found the crowd and activity you have managed to fit inside the bridge with so little space haha, really gives off busy market vibes!

Thank you for your feedback @Ben S! I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, it was a bit tricky to place the figs. Thankfully, I designed the walkway and buildings to be separable from the bridge, which made it a tad easier - but it weakened the structural stability. 

Edited September 7 by TalusMoonbreaker

[Grover]

I really like the concept of this build: the various blocked elevations from the water up is great, and with the various stories going on, it makes a lot of sense. I also love the creativity in the 'pick up band' of the bridge troupe, I think you nailed it here!  You fell into the trap that most of us have fallen into at one point, I think, which is you have so many good ideas in one build, it becomes difficult to fit them all in.  Since viewing angles are single perspective each, it is better to look at a 45 degree angle into a room corner and only have 2 sides as opposed to straight on with 3 walls for two reasons: 1. You have a wider viewing angle when looking at the corner and 2. You usually get better light.  I think that your build would have benefitted from a little more light and some more space between figures.  It's odd, because you can still make a scene feel crowded (as I think was your intent with the marketplace) with space by doing exactly what you did with the close up shot.  That shot is an excellent perspective, since it draws the viewer in and narrows the focus to the scene at hand.  On the technical side, you have a nice use of the 45 degree square columns supporting the bridge down by the water and the similar columns with tiles above.  The bold but well chosen color choices for the houses work, and the brick built one shutter windows on the top are very clever!  The birds and statue details are great, and I love the boat of people going under the bridge.

As for photography, @Gideon taught me to hold the camera further back and zoom in to give a wider focal plane, which means you can get more things in focus in a close up shot, so you could have that fig in the purple dress in focus as well as more of the background too.  Light, but not flash, would have helped here. I built my own light box out of cardboard, staples, a couple of cheap LED desk lights and some white cloth initially, before I could afford a real one, or you can find a good day with natural lighting outside or through a window. 

As for the anachronisms.... I use them for humor in some of my builds, but they are definitely a difficult thing to use in a medieval setting without crossing a line. I don't want to derail your thread here, but I wanted to point out a few details of anachronistic use that can work in a medieval setting, particularly in a fantasy medieval setting that allows more leeway. 

1. You can use them in joke builds, where the builds are obviously not serious and not really part of the world. They are 'meta', that is, they break the 4th wall, aren't part of the setting, and are there to give fellow builders a laugh. You can get away with things like beer cans and radios, but these builds are one-offs and not serious.

2. You can use anachronistic items if they are not declared as such, are explained away by magic or other supernatural means, and are only recognized by the reader as something other than described.  In your case, describing the electric guitar as an electric guitar broke this model. If you had described the guitar as a magical dwarven instrument, or an amazing lute strangely carved by elves and enchanted by a crazy wizard, and that it sounded loud and harsh to everyone, but one person loved to play it... then it would be left to the reader to recognize it as an electric guitar and would still be within the bounds of the world, however funny.  Similarly, in the Highway to Hell build, the undead and magic explained the music, which was obviously meant to allude to a modern rock concert without being such (much like @LordDan's amphitheater build for this challenge).

3. You can, if you are careful, add a character from another time or universe, but you then need to really sell the entrance of the character to the Guilds and minimize the technology brought in.  After my joke build with Bob, people really liked him, so I introduced him to the world.  He had his tools, clothing, and even a cell phone, but the phone didn't work and the batteries died quickly, and the tools were a small, low tech item.  Similarly, @Henjin_Quilones's sigfig is actually a jedi who crash landed in an Avalonian Druid circle.  Can these work? Yes, but you need to be careful with them, and you can't bring in technology that would create huge imbalances of power (firearms, explosives, light sabers, faster than light travel, etc.).  Can Bob wear his trucker hat? Sure, it's funny and doesn't imbalance the game. Can he drive a jacked up 4WD around Historica? No.

So can you use them? Yes, but it can be subtle and tricky. Feel free to ask questions or PM some of us who will post anachronisms from time to time if you have questions and we can help bounce ideas back and forth to make them humorous and yet still fit the world.

In any case, you have a very nice build here, and I really love the bridge idea.  It and the story were very creative, and you did a great job.  Keep up the good work!