[Nocturnus Civil War] Zotharians in the Underworld

[Exetrius]

Zotharians in the Underworld

[Nocturnus Civil War] Ambush in the Rakath
[Nocturnus Civil War] Onwards, to the Moruth Highlands!
[Nocturnus Civil War] Turmoil in Camp Carakath

Lord Raavage had been turned to dust at the hands of the 1st Corps of Zotharith, somewhere deep beneath the Rakath Mountains. While the Nocturnian civil war was still raging on in the Moruth Higlands and several other places on the surface, the 1st Corps was finally enjoying a day of relative peace, perhaps the first in weeks. Even though the Underworld was clearly a hostile place; lava lakes, blazing heat, razor sharp rocks, toxic gasses, and the ever-present chance of running into the Drow and other monsters; Exetrius could not help wondering at the eerie beauty that the place had. Also, the fact that it harboured villages and citizens, not much unlike the world above, fascinated him.

 

Aestelle, a Hesperian elf who had who had been tasked with guiding the Zotharians through the underworld and who had studied its pathways like few other surface dweller, called him out of his thoughts. 

 

Aestelle
"So.. do you look forward to meeting the Queen?" 

Exetrius
"The.. Queen? How do you mean?"

Aestelle
"It hasn't really landed yet, has it? You defeated Raavage; of course you are going to meet Queen Ylspeth! What did you expect?"

Exetrius
"Oh, well eh... I suppose I didn't think that far ahead..."

Aestelle
"I hope your father has gifted you more than just white hair and a talent for magic, something like farsightedness could be helpful when being the future ruler of Zotharith.

Exetrius
"Ho, hang on.. I'm not --"

 

A sudden scream from the back of troops stopped their conversation. A wave of panic broke out among the soldiers, who had started to rush to the front of the convoy. "Demon attack!!!" Exetrius turned around and saw a huge devil heading for them a high speed. Where did it come from? Was it a survivor of Raavage's battalion they fought earlier, or had the Drow of the Underworld taken notice of them? It didn't matter; the only thing that mattered was to find its weaknesses and to kill it. They would return to the surface, to Zotharith... all of them! 

 

 

--
A sign of life from Nocturnus! Feels good to be back, I hope it was worth the wait.  C&C appreciated!  

[Eoin Wallace]

The build is very detailed and i like the colours used on the rocks and the edited photo looks great! The story is also very good and it is interesting to see a different part of historica. 

[Exetrius]

9 hours ago, Eoin Wallace said:

The build is very detailed and i like the colours used on the rocks and the edited photo looks great! The story is also very good and it is interesting to see a different part of historica. 

Thanks, Eoin! Pretty much all the (Nocty) underworld builds I have seen used shades of grey with shades of red/orange, so I thought I'd shake things up a bit with dark blue and turquoise.  Btw, Nocty is full of great places like this, so come and visit!  

[W Navarre]

I love how unique this is!

[Exetrius]

10 hours ago, W Navarre said:

I love how unique this is!

I've already thanked you on Flickr, but thanks again! 

[Grover]

Awesome build!  I love the contrast of the turquoise and the darker black/grey combo.  One of the things that I really like about Nocturnus is that you can get more of the true fantasy character of the builds.  Avalonia is great with its grey castles and green forests, but it's a lot more constrained to more realistic settings/colors.  Same with Mitgardia and Kaliphlin, but in different climates.  Varlyrio's underworld is really the only other place besides Nocturnus that you can really let loose with the crazy colors.  The dark blue rockwork really looks fantastic, too.  Nice story.  I can't wait to see where it goes!

[Exetrius]

21 hours ago, Grover said:

Awesome build!  I love the contrast of the turquoise and the darker black/grey combo.  One of the things that I really like about Nocturnus is that you can get more of the true fantasy character of the builds.  Avalonia is great with its grey castles and green forests, but it's a lot more constrained to more realistic settings/colors.  Same with Mitgardia and Kaliphlin, but in different climates.  Varlyrio's underworld is really the only other place besides Nocturnus that you can really let loose with the crazy colors.  The dark blue rockwork really looks fantastic, too.  Nice story.  I can't wait to see where it goes!

Thanks, Grover! I don't know if I agree with you on that, to be honest. By definition, the four original guilds have a fairly equal distribution of fantasy: Mitgardia - the Frozen Beyond, dwarves; Avalonia - Enchanted Forest, Mystic Isles, elves; Kaliphlin - Siccus Badlands, desert orcs; Nocturnus - Moruth Swamplands, vampires, orcs, skeletons. It's just that Nocty members have embraced and developed their fantasy features more than members of the other guilds. You can go crazy in every guild!

 

Although I've made my point already, I did some digging to verify this claim, and it would be a shame to let the info I found slip away again. For every guild there are builders that really went the 'true fantasy' route:

Mitgardia: Zilmrund, Ecclesiastes

Nocturnus: well, basically all of them.  Angeli, ZCerberus, Lord Vladivus, jaapxaap, lisqr, dubbadgrim, I Scream Clone

Kaliphlin: robuko, Gabe (to avoid confusion, Flickr name: Gabriel Thomson)

Avalonia: Derfel Cadarn, Legonardo, cesbrick, Henjin Quilones.

 

[Grover]

@Exetrius, I guess I was not very clear.  When I think of Avalonia, I think of castles and forests.  When I think of Mitgardia, it's mountains and snow.  Kaliphlin, deserts and middle eastern architecture.  Nocturnus?  Black buildings, orange snow, purple trees, dark blue rocks.... it seems anything goes.  I am not trying to say that you cannot build with these sorts of things in the other guilds--the builders you mentioned, and I'm sure more, have some really excellent builds that use these colors.  I guess my thought of Nocturnus is that there doesn't seem to be a particular real-world style that is mimicked or stereotyped as a style.  Maybe people feel that there is some real-world place that Nocturnus was modeled after, but I am unaware of it.  Hopefully this makes more sense, as I agree, there are some incredible builds using some really fantastic colors, and there is definitely a fantasy element to all of the guilds.

[Exetrius]

5 minutes ago, Grover said:

Nocturnus?  Black buildings, orange snow, purple trees, dark blue rocks.... it seems anything goes.  [...]  I guess my thought of Nocturnus is that there doesn't seem to be a particular real-world style that is mimicked or stereotyped as a style.  

When I think of Nocturnus, I do see the black buildings as well, but predominantly I see the Moruth swamps overshadowed by dark and ancient trees, and the Rakath mountains, with their ever-autumnal forests. But I understand where you're coming from. 

Well, having studied every Nocty settlement, I can say you are right about this: I can't name a single one that is anything more than vaguely linked to a real-world type of architecture. Some towns are less strange/twisted than others, but those haven't been fleshed out as properly as the strange ones. 

[(Luc)ky Luke]

Very nice architecture for the tower. I also like the blue colored rocks and the small detail of the spikey plants, NPU! 

[Basiliscus]

Really nice architecture on the tower, and love the colour contrast between the black and turquoise.

[Exetrius]

On 11/10/2019 at 6:16 PM, (Luc)ky Luke said:

Very nice architecture for the tower. I also like the blue colored rocks and the small detail of the spikey plants, NPU! 

21 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Really nice architecture on the tower, and love the colour contrast between the black and turquoise.

Thanks, guys! 

[soccerkid6]

Easily my favorite build of yours. So much like from the colors, architecture, and landscape style

Absolutely nailed the underworld aesthetic, and the dark blue pairs so well with turquoise!

Next time I feel like doing some dark fantasy I'll come back to this for inspiration

[Exetrius]

6 hours ago, soccerkid6 said:

Easily my favorite build of yours. So much like from the colors, architecture, and landscape style

Absolutely nailed the underworld aesthetic, and the dark blue pairs so well with turquoise!

Next time I feel like doing some dark fantasy I'll come back to this for inspiration

I'm both surprised and thankful for your flattery this late in the game, SK!   

I'm not sure it's my favorite GoH build, but it's definitely my most artistic endeavour thus far. I hope to do more of that in the future!