The Exetrius Saga (4): A legend subjects

[Exetrius]

Exetrius Saga

1: Fallen leaf

2: Message in Kyrrath

3: Equipment upgrade

Episode 4: Subjection of a legend

It was about a year ago, that the first signs of a stir in the land beyond the northern Mitgardian border appeared. It didn't take long before a wave of white-furred and -skinned creatures, the Algus, invaded Mitgardia and spread over the rest of Historica. At first, they appeared to be almost invincible; freezing everything in their path, invulnerable to fire magic and regular combat. But in the course of a few months, thanks to a whole array of different methods that were discovered to affect the Algus, most of them have been eliminated by now.

After hearing the first rumors of the Algus, Onicius was intrigued by them. Nobody seemed to know anything more than what could be directly observed from the invaders. How does their freezing ability and incredible toughness work? Who is their leader? Where exactly did they come from? Most important of all: why did they attack, what is their goal? These were a few of the questions that kept him busy. Therefor, - only just after the Algus had started their invasion of Mitgardia - Onicius ordered a small group of skilled spies and assassins to gather as much intelligence as possible about them in the North and capturing a specimen, if possible. None of them returned. Four weeks after departure of the group, one was confirmed dead; a frosted body with two limbs torn off...

It was decided that the Order of Zotharith would not meddle with any Algus business, unless absolutely necessary. Individual members taking action and rumors were the main sources of information for Onicius.

He documented everything; from the latest innovations in Algus warfare, estimations of average cooling capacity, speed and body size, to their moving patterns on the map. He hypothesized that their abilities are intrinsic to their nature, but they must be the result of magic. What bothered him the most, was the fact that they didn't move as an organized unity at all: no common strategy, target area or direction, but yet, they started their invasion all at the same time.

But then, after several months had passed, a member of the Order came with a piece of news that put the situation in a very different perspective... Apparently, a bloodthirsty dragon and it's wizard rider were terrorizing the Frozen Beyond, devouring hundreds of Algus. The creature, fearfully called "Nemesis of the Beyond", is growing in strength with every being it eats, some even claimed that it transforms when it does so.

(other side of the story)

With this information, Onicius immediately summoned the Zotharith elite. Plans were forged and a team was assembled, consisting of:

Onicius Centario: Leader of the Order of Zotharith, legendary soul magic wizard, master in crypto magic and alchemy. (forms of magic)

Zeruko Urima: Ranked #1 on the list of strongest wizards in the Order, crypto magic genius, master in high-energic alchemy. Expert in combat with katanas. Sometimes reffered to as 'The Darkitect'.

Deliora Asagrim: A highly skilled assassin and spy, powerful energy magic. She can fly, too.

Ryo Kokoro: Master in martial arts, is able to wield almost any weapon. Young thrill seeker, 'Rookie'.

The four of them (and some supply carriers) moved out, to the north of Mitgardia, where they set up a camp and refined their plan. Their main goal is to lure 'Nemesis' into an ambush, attacking it while its transformation is still in progress, assassinating the wizard rider (Garufust) immediately, and capture the dragon alive if possible. Finally, roles for the operation were assigned and a location was chosen. The roles:

Onicius: Casting his new spell, 'Soul Eclipse', which would alter character, behaviour and emotions of the subject it's been cast on. Capturing souls.

Zeruko: Building a place for the simulated offering ritual (a cover-up for the ambush), using his 'Architect Alchemy'. Writing a spell book which produces a offering goddess-like creature, which he calls 'Eye of Despair'.

Deliora: Supporting all spells with arcane energy, eliminating Garufust.

Ryo: Activating 'Eye of Despair', playing along as the leader of the ritual.

The operation succeeded. 'Soul Eclipse' worked out, with an unexpected side-effect... the creature transformed into fire dragon, or, more like a phoenix. Zotharith may have aquired it's most powerful ally yet. Garufust was defeated, his soul was captured successfully. Ryo was rewarded with the wizard's armour (it was useless to the others anyway...), in which he often seen nowadays:

To be continued.... in the next episode: Family Dinner!

Hello there, thanks for checking this out. I know it's a lot of reading, sorry for that ! I really enjoyed all the separate builds on this one (a couple of them could not be fitted in this build in the end, so maybe in later builds), the whole process took WAY more time than I had planned! Photographing and editing alone have taken me about 10 full hours... As always, you can check out my Flickr for additional shots.

I hope you enjoyed the story, I did it a little differently compared to with my previous big magic battle build. C&C very much appreciated!

Edited May 27, 2016 by Exetrius

[Shroffy123]

Wow these look great !

[halixon]

I love those minifigs! The story is awesome!

[Jacob Nion]

Awesome temple! I love all the magic effects. Especially that creepy eye is impressing. And great new characters aswell!

[Dubbadgrim]

Neat lore and builds. Will be checking out your older stories

[TitusV]

Cool figs! That temple is quite nice as well, keep it up!

[Blufiji]

Excellent lore and a vast improvement on photography, posing and technique!

[soccerkid6]

The crypt entrance is really well done, as is all the action Great fig designs as well, I like how you combined several themes' parts

[Gideon]

Excellent building and great magic effects!

Regarding the photo edit, the lighting and backdrop of the minifigs worked out great!

I however recommend shooting white objects in front of a darker background, and when editing away a background to make it white it's good if the actual background used is also bright to avoid dark "halos" around the bricks. (the same of course goes for editing to a darker background). Generally, investing time in making the backdrop setup good saves A LOT of time in post-processing

For the trans-neon colored magic effects it would have been interesting to see how these would have looked if illuminated with blacklight

Edited April 5, 2016 by Gideon

[Exetrius]

Wow these look great !

I love those minifigs! The story is awesome!

Glad you are enjoying it!

Awesome temple! I love all the magic effects. Especially that creepy eye is impressing. And great new characters aswell!

Thanks guys! The eye was a fun build to do. The characters I had sitting around for quite a few months now (here are early teasers), so I'm glad I can finally introduce them.

Neat lore and builds. Will be checking out your older stories

Cool figs! That temple is quite nice as well, keep it up!

Excellent lore and a vast improvement on photography, posing and technique!

Thanks, that means a lot to me!

The crypt entrance is really well done, as is all the action Great fig designs as well, I like how you combined several themes' parts

Excellent building and great magic effects!

Regarding the photo edit, the lighting and backdrop of the minifigs worked out great!

I however recommend shooting white objects in front of a darker background, and when editing away a background to make it white it's good if the actual background used is also bright to avoid dark "halos" around the bricks. (the same of course goes for editing to a darker background). Generally, investing time in making the backdrop setup good saves A LOT of time in post-processing

For the trans-neon colored magic effects it would have been interesting to see how these would have looked if illuminated with blacklight

Many thanks for your suggestions, Gideon! I am aware that infinity backdrops would make this a lot less time-consuming and make it look more professional too. Right now, I have to take pictures of a build of this size in sunlight, since I don't have lamps that emit a sufficient amount of bright, white light. (I'd love to have a blacklight too... ) Sunlight does have the advantage of getting sharp, natural shadows for landscape builds, though. It also produces the blue halos, which I have chosen to keep in a few places, for -what you mentioned- contrast with the white background. I have had both a dark and light backgrounds for the dragon, but both are not ideal, as you can see here.

For the minifigs (and small builds), I use my desk and white wall as background, and I hold my desk lamp really close to get enough light and that fading shadow horizon effect.

Anyway, thanks again for your suggestions, I will certainly try to improve my setup somewhere in the future!

[bricklover]

Cool figs and builds!

[Mengish]

An intriguing story accompanying a well-crafted design! Congratulations!

Edited April 6, 2016 by Mengish

[Exetrius]

Cool figs and builds!

An intriguing story accompanying a well-crafted design! Congratulations!

Thanks!

[Full Plate]

Very interesting! I really like the run-down architecture, and those are some cool magical effects and minifigs

Edited April 19, 2016 by Full Plate

[LittleJohn]

Excellent build, Exetrius! The temple is superb and I like the bits of dark green in the landscape