[COR - Era II - Challenge 1 - Cat. C] An orchid and a departure (warning: many pictures)

[Darnok]

617, Day 21 of the 12th month, In the jungles of Celestia,

Day of the Winter Solstice

The sun is down as I am writing this by the light of our campfire. Today has been a gift from the gods, with wonders shown to me I did not dare to dream of. There is much to tell, starting a few days ago.

 

Moving on from the riverside pond, we soon realised that the terrain ahead was impassable: swampy in most places, with the many ponds and the jungle vegetation obstructing our way forwards. Luckily Jewel discovered an easily passable rivercrossing nearby, which took us on the other other side of the river for the first time in our journey. The jungle was as dense as before, but apart from that there were no additional obstacles. We moved on, staying close to the river where the vegetation was a bit lighter. The terrain kept rising slowly over the next days, but there was nothing else worth mentioning.

 

Until today of course. Shortly after sunrise we came across a few ruined pillars that were brickbuilt - a definite sign of civilisation, even though we had not seen a single minifig since the start of our expedition. Finally, a few hours further down the river we found an ancient temple, or what was left of it.

 

I only assume it was a temple once, for there were paintings on the wall of a small tower on our side of the river, as well as crytal-topped structures on the bigger building on the other side. While the jungle had overgrown the site, we were able to find a little path through it. With the temple entrance in clear sight, one challenge was still ahead of us. A long time ago the big temple had a bridge crossing the river, but it was in ruins now, only overgrown remains still standing.

 

The solution to our dilemma had quite some irony in it: for all the trouble the jungle had given us in the last weeks, now for once it paved the way for us. One of the huge trees nearby had lianas hanging from its branches, and we were able to swing across the river on one of them! Now all that was left was to climb the overgrown cliffs on which the temple was built...

 

It was past midday when we reached the top of the cliffs, but the temple ruins were now right in front of us. I felt like a young boy again, eager with anticipation for what we would find!

 

My feelings were justified, for inside the temple we found not only an ancient place of worship, indicated by statues of what were most likely gods or holy ancestors in the archway and mythical paintings on the walls. In one corner of the hall there was a giant orchid sitting in hte sunlight coming through a window nearby. I do not know if it was the most beautiful one in the whole world, but both me and Jewel were sure it was the most beautiful orchid we had ever seen in our life.

 

 

I took my time to study this magnificent orchid - naming it Orchidacea Maxima, or "Supreme Orchid" - in more detail.

I even did some paintings, to tell the rest of the world of its beauty.

 

 

By the time I was done, the sun was already close to the skyline...

 

But the temple had one more wonder to share, as I found when I stepped out of the hall onto the ruins of what must have once been a balcony for observations of the sky. As I looked at the small tower we had come across in the morning, I noticed that the sun was exactly between its ornamented structures as it touched the horizon.

 

As I only noticed then, today was indeed the day of the winter solstice. This was no coincidence! Obviously these structures were lined up perfectly for this event, for this could not be an accident. So whoever had built this place must have had excellent knowledge of the suns movement - an advanced civilisation for sure! I shudder at the thought of what might have happened here. Whatever it was, there are only ruins left to tell about it. Who knew what else was around here?

 

I had already decided what to do next, and told Jewel after nightfall. I wanted to move on, explore more of this area and the island around it, but felt I could only ask this of myself. Giving my letters to the Royal Society and the map I had done to her, I asked Jewel to leave me the next morning, and return to Jameston on the same route we had used to come here - we had no mayor trouble so far, so I assumed it would be safe for her to do the journe back alone. To me great relief, she agreed. We would part ways tomorrow.

===============================================================================

 

This post is my entry for Category C of the Superb Orchid Challenge.

If you want to follow the surrounding story of Reinhards expedition on Celestia, have a look at this thread.

 

This build was without doubt my biggest challenge so far. I consists of two modules, combining to one scene. Here are some more selected pictures, and even more in the spoiler tag:

 

Here are some detailed pictures of both modules seperately, from eight angles and from above.

The one on the low ground with the tower:

Spoiler

 

The one with the high ground and the main temple:

Spoiler

 

Finally, more pictures of the orchids macro build, including a "disassembled" view on the lower half:

Spoiler

 

Building the macro orchid was fun, and finding a solution to build it in minifig scale was interesting too (and not as difficult as I had feared). Before somebody is asking: yes, that map at the hand is handdrawn, with all the small mistakes that come with it.

 

I plan to continue Reinhards adventures on Celestia, but for now I need a break from the jungle!

 

I hope you enjoyed this, C&C are welcome.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Drunknok

[Professor Thaum]

A very very nice and complete entry... full of stuff... good work !

[Mesabi]

Absolutely fantastic end to your story @Drunknok. The minifig scale build is very well done, and uses great foliage and water techniques. The temple is well done as well, and it is well illustrated by the use of the miniature sun. But the Orchid is what really sells the build, as it's unlike any of the other ones done. It uses multiple techniques to make it look fantastic. Fantastic job man!

 

[Roadmonkeytj]

Im really impressed by the macro ... The zoomed in version of the flower it truely is great ... The ruins turned out well ... I like how you tied in the sun tower ... And the map ... I only wish I had handwriting like that lol ... To much time in mechanical drawings im afraid

[Ayrlego]

Another great entry Drunknok. The ruins blend into the vegetation really well and the river through the middle is a great detail, as is the tree with the olive green stalks and all the little brick-built flowers. As usual your macro flower is fantastic. The brick build skyline is good, if you could play with the depth of field in the photo a bit more I think it could probably benefit from being a little more out-of-focus (especially the second image), but that I know that is really tricky to do (having failed myself many times ). I love the story of the sun setting between the two pillars, very nice addition, although I'm not sold on the blue jewels on top of them. All up yet another fantastic entry from you, you're really on fire this challenge - great work!

[Flavius Gratian]

You've really out-done yourself this time! I can but echo the (well earned) praise of previous comments! All those plant-pieces make it look just like a thick jungle, and all those flowery details. I'd also like that you've made the temple look much larger in the story pictures (when they're entering) that it actually is. It took me some time to realise it, good work!

[Mike S]

A great job with this entry! You really put a lot of work into this one, with both the build and the story. The most eye catching thing about this build is the meandering river. Beautiful!

[blackdeathgr]

Nicely done! I can see you put a lot of effort on this so hats off! I also like the enlarged version of your Orchid and the lore you put in there with the story and the map 

[Elostirion]

So much story, and so many aspects and details in this scene. And many, many beautiful detials.

A very interesting take on the orchid. Not really resembling any orchid I have ever seen, but we are talking about the supreme orchid in the Brick Seas, after all, so why not?

Those pillars give the whole thing a somewhat fantasy-alien-conspiracy-appearance, without making it unrealistic. I like!

Great work on the dense foliage (the red flowers are great!), and especially the curving of the river is amazing. Wonderful work overall!

[Sir Stig]

Wonderful scenes.  One more thing about the river is the sandbanks that show through the transparent water tiles. Are those baseplates or have you made your own custom curves?

[Darnok]

On 30.1.2018 at 5:24 PM, Professor Thaum said:

A very very nice and complete entry... full of stuff... good work !

Thank you!

On 30.1.2018 at 8:17 PM, Mesabi said:

Absolutely fantastic end to your story @Drunknok. The minifig scale build is very well done, and uses great foliage and water techniques. The temple is well done as well, and it is well illustrated by the use of the miniature sun. But the Orchid is what really sells the build, as it's unlike any of the other ones done. It uses multiple techniques to make it look fantastic. Fantastic job man!

Thank you for the kind words, I am glad you enjoyed it.

On 1.2.2018 at 7:39 AM, Roadmonkeytj said:

Im really impressed by the macro ... The zoomed in version of the flower it truely is great ... The ruins turned out well ... I like how you tied in the sun tower ... And the map ... I only wish I had handwriting like that lol ... To much time in mechanical drawings im afraid

Thanks! You have no idea of my real handwriting though - getting this map done took quite some time!

On 1.2.2018 at 11:29 AM, Ayrlego said:

Another great entry Drunknok. The ruins blend into the vegetation really well and the river through the middle is a great detail, as is the tree with the olive green stalks and all the little brick-built flowers. As usual your macro flower is fantastic. The brick build skyline is good, if you could play with the depth of field in the photo a bit more I think it could probably benefit from being a little more out-of-focus (especially the second image), but that I know that is really tricky to do (having failed myself many times ). I love the story of the sun setting between the two pillars, very nice addition, although I'm not sold on the blue jewels on top of them. All up yet another fantastic entry from you, you're really on fire this challenge - great work!

Thank you! The varied vegetation is something I wanted to get done "right", I think I succeeded going by your reaction.

My photo skills still have a lot to be desired, I am painfully aware of that.

The blue jewels are meant to give a visual contrast while not distracting from the overall scene too much - sorry that it did not fit your taste.

On 2.2.2018 at 2:37 PM, Flavius Gratian said:

You've really out-done yourself this time! I can but echo the (well earned) praise of previous comments! All those plant-pieces make it look just like a thick jungle, and all those flowery details. I'd also like that you've made the temple look much larger in the story pictures (when they're entering) that it actually is. It took me some time to realise it, good work!

Thanks! "Enlarging" the temple in the pictures was completely unintentional, but now that you mentioned it: indeed, quite a nice (if unplanned) effect.

On 2.2.2018 at 4:04 PM, Mike S said:

A great job with this entry! You really put a lot of work into this one, with both the build and the story. The most eye catching thing about this build is the meandering river. Beautiful!

Thank you, I am glad with the results, as well as that others enjoy it too.

9 hours ago, Elostirion said:

So much story, and so many aspects and details in this scene. And many, many beautiful detials.

A very interesting take on the orchid. Not really resembling any orchid I have ever seen, but we are talking about the supreme orchid in the Brick Seas, after all, so why not?

Those pillars give the whole thing a somewhat fantasy-alien-conspiracy-appearance, without making it unrealistic. I like!

Great work on the dense foliage (the red flowers are great!), and especially the curving of the river is amazing. Wonderful work overall!

Thanks! The macro build for the orchid was the first element I finished, and it kind of just happened. There was no real counterpart, I simply started building and ended up with this.

On 4.2.2018 at 12:15 AM, blackdeathgr said:

Nicely done! I can see you put a lot of effort on this so hats off! I also like the enlarged version of your Orchid and the lore you put in there with the story and the map 

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.

1 hour ago, Sir Stig said:

Wonderful scenes.  One more thing about the river is the sandbanks that show through the transparent water tiles. Are those baseplates or have you made your own custom curves?

Thanks. Yes, having the sandbanks shining through was one thing I wanted to achieve, good that it got noticed! The baseplates used come from the Enchanted Island set.