Book IV - Chapter 1, Prelude 1: Albion

[Grover]

Book IV - Chapter 1, Prelude 1: Albion

Previously: Prelude 3: Unjust Deserts

The first new satellite campus of the University of Petrea was set to open in Avalonia. A few derelict buildings and empty lots had been reclaimed by the Avalonian crown and donated to the University for their new campus. The city was already buzzing with excitement of a new campus when the news was relayed by town crier that Queen Ylspeth herself was visiting Albion to see where the new campus would be located and attend the first guest lecture of experts.

The city had been cleaned and decorated in not only the Avalonian colors, but the royal dark red and white as well.

Guards polished their gear and wore full dress uniforms.

Finally, the day had come, and the populace was not disappointed to see the royal carriage cross Greffon Bridge and enter the Great Gate at Albion.

After spending well over an hour greeting the massive crowd personally, the Queen retreated to a space reserved for her inside the gate where she was able to meet with the Avalonian nobility.  King DeGothia of course was there, as were Henjin Quilones and Lady Galaria, the mistress of Dragons.  Lady Gwenllian had travelled in from Prenmor, and Alrune d'Embervale was excited to shake hands with the queen.

One by one, the Avalonians met with the queen, Sam Weatherstone, Lord Edrin Stoneharbour, Erdil, Ethelfieda, Gyrdher, Conrad the Sly, Count Julian Arfelan, Princess Rhiannon, Robert Sigurd, any many more. 

The day had worn to evening, and they enjoyed a meal with the queen before retiring for the night in preparation for the lecture the next morning.

Next: Prelude 2: A Kind Stranger

Spoiler

I am glad to have this finally posted, but I am unhappy with the way the photography turned out. This is one of those times where I had to give up and say 'good enough'.  I have always loved @ZCerberus' Great Gatehouse of Albion build and wanted to recreate it so we could have a consistent and iconic place for photographs through the ages in Avalonia. I jumped right into it without a ton of planning, not realizing how huge and heavy it was, and once finished, it was too big to move. It's not in a great place for light right now, and when I tried to move it, I broke one of the towers at the base, so I had to delicately spend a lot of time fixing it.  I decided I'd have to get pictures where it was or risk having to rebuild the whole thing, so I threw a light blue background behind it and began to take pictures. The colors are bad because I don't have enough light where it is and despite bringing all the portable light I had over, it doesn't compare to my lightbox or being outside, so I did my best, but the colors aren't very exciting in my opinion. I will be fixing this build so we can continue to have it in Avalonia as part of canon, but I wanted to get these pictures out first so we didn't hold up the story further. Hopefully the pictures don't detract from the story!

 

[Frike]

I'm not even part of any guild (I'd love to in the future!), but I very much enjoy following the Guilds of Historica anyway. Seeing this many sigfigs, that I also recognize, gathered in a common place is super cool!

Makes me super excited to follow, and I can't wait to see what each of them will experience in the future.

[SimWies]

Great to see so many Avalonians coming together and the story unfolding! A huge 'thank you' to you @Grover for your work. I migth have to build something small to show how Sam Weatherstone got the call to Albion to meet the Queen  ... already feeling inspired...

[Henjin_Quilones]

It’s fun trying to find the differences between this and the original. Like, there are three courses of shingles on the front timber-framed overhang in yours, but only two in ZC’s, probably because he did not have the rear dark brown tile, but you do. And that small gargoyle thing above the gate, too, is a nice touch. And an updated tree inside, and all the vegetation, really. And the curly corbels under the half-arch supports.  Subtle things, but it looks nice. 

Edited February 17 by Henjin_Quilones

[socalbricks]

Both of gates look absolutely epic! It's great that Queen Ylspeth is actively engaging with her subjects.

For what it's worth, I didn't know you had any Lightbox issues until I read your "hidden contents" passage. Your improvisation paid off!

[Grover]

On 2/16/2026 at 5:11 AM, Frike said:

I'm not even part of any guild (I'd love to in the future!), but I very much enjoy following the Guilds of Historica anyway. Seeing this many sigfigs, that I also recognize, gathered in a common place is super cool!

Makes me super excited to follow, and I can't wait to see what each of them will experience in the future.

Thank you!  You are welcome to join up with the Guilds at any time. We have a lot of fun here!

On 2/16/2026 at 3:09 PM, SimWies said:

Great to see so many Avalonians coming together and the story unfolding! A huge 'thank you' to you @Grover for your work. I migth have to build something small to show how Sam Weatherstone got the call to Albion to meet the Queen  ... already feeling inspired...

Thanks!  I've been trying to build as many sigfigs as I can over the years. Unless a particular sigfig has a story that doesn't fit well at the moment (e.g., @Zilmrud's Parzival, who is off in Kali at present guild time), I try to incorporate them as much as I can if I have parts.  It's been a lot of work to get these prelude builds going, but also a lot of fun, and I am hopeful this will ignite some creativity in the guilds once again!  I'd be very interested to see how Sam got the call to Albion! 

On 2/17/2026 at 9:07 AM, Henjin_Quilones said:

It’s fun trying to find the differences between this and the original. Like, there are three courses of shingles on the front timber-framed overhang in yours, but only two in ZC’s, probably because he did not have the rear dark brown tile, but you do. And that small gargoyle thing above the gate, too, is a nice touch. And an updated tree inside, and all the vegetation, really. And the curly corbels under the half-arch supports.  Subtle things, but it looks nice. 

Thank you!  I'm glad you enjoyed the 'what's the diff?' game!    I did my best to recreate the original, but there were some parts I didn't have (the old large arches allowed studs to be placed inside for instance), and there were a few things new such as that gargoyle that I thought would be fun to add, so I made a few subtle changes. Overall, I thought it was a fairly accurate homage and certainly recognizable, which was my main goal. I figured as long as the main part was close enough, there would probably be some minor rebuilding over the years due to wear and tear and battles and what not.

On 2/27/2026 at 12:20 AM, socalbricks said:

Both of gates look absolutely epic! It's great that Queen Ylspeth is actively engaging with her subjects.

For what it's worth, I didn't know you had any Lightbox issues until I read your "hidden contents" passage. Your improvisation paid off!

Thanks!  I enjoy keeping a consistent canon with minis and locations if I can.  Glad you didn't see any issues with the lighting!  It was a lot of improvisation and post editing, but I guess it worked out!