Book IV Prelude Challenge: Category A: the Great Hall of Rocca Velneria

[Velnerius]

The Great Hall of Rocca Velneria

 

Whereas the reign of his father Corrado had brought peace and prosperity to the town of Rocca Velneria, the halls of his home had been cold and gray. The old man didn't partake in the pleasures of life, preferring to read his endless manuscripts in his library, rather than enjoy the lively songs of a bard. 

 

When Corrado Velnerio had passed, his son and heir Federico took his place. Under his patronage, bards and minstrels were invited from all of Historica to sing their songs and play their instruments in his halls. The cold stone was warmed up with colorful banners and tapestries, the floors decorated with carpets and the windows replaced with glistering stained glass. 

 

Of all the bards, Asdrubale Silvestri had proved to be popular with Federico especially. After he had first appeared in Rocca Velneria, he had quickly become a recurring act. Soon after, he had acquired full patronage from Federico, who funded his travels far and wide, to learn more songs and stories, to perform when coming home again.

Each time Asdrubale would make it back home from his travels, Federico would organize a banquet in his great hall, where the whole town was invited to enjoy food and wine, while listening to the great sagas, legends and histories that Asdrubale had learned on his travels.

 

While everybody enjoyed the banquets, as well as Asdrubale's performances, some questioned his popularity with Federico. While he was undoubtedly a talented artist, both more attained, experienced bards, as well as younger, more promising minstrels had passed through these halls... 

 

Spoiler

This is my first build for Guilds of Historica, and I'd love to hear what you think! It's very exciting for me to finally be a part of this story, especially as I've been lurking the forum and enjoying the various builds for a long time now! I look forward to see what Book 4 has in store!

Build without minifigs:

 

 

 

[TalusMoonbreaker]

Excellent first build, Velnerius! I’m glad you decided to join. I love the liveliness of this castle great hall. The stain glass windows are very nice. How did you do the carpet? Are the tiles just not pushed down all the way? Also, where in Varlyrio is Rocca Velneria exactly? 

[Ben S]

Impressive build! The structure is great, really well done, with the contrast between the different elements. I love the chandelier. Also, great NPU in the wizard hat. And the slight gradient of the carpet is a really nice touch.

[Gideon]

Welcome to Historica!! 
Great scene, it has a very fitting splendour to the great hall of a major lord!
The hammerbeam ceiling, the details around the windows and the wooden chandelier are my favorite parts of this build, of course together with the fun minifig and "captured motion" in the front

As I've nitpicked a bit in some other builds already (and in the classic GoH spirit of trying to give constructive critizism), I think the focus of the photos are a tad off and that in the "overview" shot would have been nice to try to have most or all of the build in focus. (In closeup shots of a particular minifig, it is however a great way to emphasize the figure to have a short depth of field, but it requires the focus to be spot on in that case)

Looks like there is some nice vegetation detailing on the other side of the cuved wall too, but I would have loved to see more of that

[W Navarre]

Love the colourful windows and the way you notched the staircase in there between the lions. 

[LordDan]

Excellent first build! It’s a very lively and colorful scene, with some very nice details such as the slightly offset carpet and stained glass windows.

[Seagull King of Vaughan]

This connects well to your Category A build. I love that little alcove in the back for the lord, and the arch design for the roof. I considered a chandelier for my build, but it was too difficult to fit – happy to see yours worked out well.

[jtooker]

Awesome action shot!  The photography is great with the depth of field and the light coming in through the windows.  I like the decorative table-hanging edge.

[mrcp6d]

Great first build for the Guilds and welcome to the party here!  Good action with the minifig posing and photography and the tall windows frame everything beautifully.  The chandelier at the top is a great little sub-build, but I can't quite determine what the inner/higher ring is, can you share?

[Kai NRG]

The stained glass here is simply beautiful!  Very nice colors.  Nice choice to make one wall white as well, that really helps balance the scene.

[Velnerius]

On 8/30/2025 at 4:00 PM, TalusMoonbreaker said:

Excellent first build, Velnerius! I’m glad you decided to join. I love the liveliness of this castle great hall. The stain glass windows are very nice. How did you do the carpet? Are the tiles just not pushed down all the way? Also, where in Varlyrio is Rocca Velneria exactly? 

Thank you so much @TalusMoonbreaker! The carpet was, in fact, done by not pushing the tiles all the way down. I considered going for an elaborate technique using brackets sideways in the floor, but as this build will fit into the rest of a massive build of Rocca Velneria in its entirety, I had to keep the bottom simple.

On 8/30/2025 at 7:38 PM, Ben S said:

Impressive build! The structure is great, really well done, with the contrast between the different elements. I love the chandelier. Also, great NPU in the wizard hat. And the slight gradient of the carpet is a really nice touch.

Thank you very much! I was quite proud of the chandelier, and the wizard hat is something I've seen before as a fountain, and I thought it would work well here!

 

On 8/31/2025 at 6:22 PM, Gideon said:

Welcome to Historica!! 
Great scene, it has a very fitting splendour to the great hall of a major lord!
The hammerbeam ceiling, the details around the windows and the wooden chandelier are my favorite parts of this build, of course together with the fun minifig and "captured motion" in the front

As I've nitpicked a bit in some other builds already (and in the classic GoH spirit of trying to give constructive critizism), I think the focus of the photos are a tad off and that in the "overview" shot would have been nice to try to have most or all of the build in focus. (In closeup shots of a particular minifig, it is however a great way to emphasize the figure to have a short depth of field, but it requires the focus to be spot on in that case)

Looks like there is some nice vegetation detailing on the other side of the cuved wall too, but I would have loved to see more of that

Thanks, @Gideon, for all your great comments, especially coming from a winner of the challenge! I'm really happy with the focus in the pictures, as I wanted to emphasize the characters, but I agree that another photo showing the whole scene a little clearer would've been a good idea. As for the vegetation, you'll eventually get to see the whole outside, as it will fit into a much bigger project!

On 9/1/2025 at 10:54 AM, W Navarre said:

Love the colourful windows and the way you notched the staircase in there between the lions. 

On 9/1/2025 at 1:55 PM, LordDan said:

Excellent first build! It’s a very lively and colorful scene, with some very nice details such as the slightly offset carpet and stained glass windows.

On 9/2/2025 at 4:42 PM, Seagull King of Vaughan said:

This connects well to your Category A build. I love that little alcove in the back for the lord, and the arch design for the roof. I considered a chandelier for my build, but it was too difficult to fit – happy to see yours worked out well.

Thank you all so much for your nice words, guys!

On 9/3/2025 at 2:01 AM, Kai NRG said:

The stained glass here is simply beautiful!  Very nice colors.  Nice choice to make one wall white as well, that really helps balance the scene.

Thank you, @Kai NRG! It means a lot to me, as I've been lurking at many of your awesome builds for a long time now! I agree, the white helps a lot in the balance, while also saving some precious grey bricks for the rest of my builds!

On 9/2/2025 at 9:10 PM, mrcp6d said:

Great first build for the Guilds and welcome to the party here!  Good action with the minifig posing and photography and the tall windows frame everything beautifully.  The chandelier at the top is a great little sub-build, but I can't quite determine what the inner/higher ring is, can you share?

Thank you, @mrcp6d. The higher ring in the chandelier is actually a smaller version of the same type of wheel I used for the bottom ring!

[Grover]

This build is a lot of fun. I love the all-Lego first shot. It has a great perspective at almost eye level, and there's a ton of detail here.  The stained glass, the wooden rafters, the minis having a great time... you can almost feel the music and excitement in the room.  The wagon wheel chandelier is very clever, and your half-stud inset stonework windows are very nice.  The floor tile color choice is festive, but works with the colorful environment and the culture of Varlyrio. Your story shows a good understanding of Varlyrio, and I like you tying it in to the bard's story and that of the lord of the manor.  Great job!  I look forward to more!