CDC2 Ancient Wonders: S'äkbri Temple

[W Navarre]

Far out in the Siccus Badlands lies an ancient, magnificent temple, which has withstood the passage of time and the weary beating of the sands for more years than any human has been alive. 

S'äkbri Temple was constructed as a refuge, far from the conventional trade routes and the busy cities, by a large group of devoted hermits who claimed to have been sent by the king on a special mission, determined to find peace in spite of the stormy world and lives around them. On the twin pillars that stand at the very entrance of the complex is inscribed in the in the ancient Kalaphlinian tongue, "Peace to the weary traveler, hope to the desperate searcher, life to the dying desert, by the edict of Dextrus Flagg."

Now, for anyone who will go so far out of the way to see it, S'äkbri Temple stands tall and proud, an elegant monument to the past. 

Hope you like it! It was built for the Summer Joust as well, but inspired in part by all the awesome pictures in the Kalaphlin thread, which I always wanted to emulate. Let me know what you think! 

Edited August 3, 2021 by W Navarre

[kahir88]

That's a beautiful build! Awesome! 

I always adored the far-east architecture, I always looked at them with envy, cause I can't find out how to build them. :D

One thing is for sure. Now I don't need to show my entry. :D 

[jtooker]

Wow!  Incredible entry.  The scale and detail are terrific!

[Aurore]

This is as impressive as it is intricate. So many details, so many delicate ornaments, so many diverse inspirations and yet such a consistent and harmonious build! Absolutely wonderful!

[BrokenEye]

Gorgeous

[Henjin_Quilones]

This would be really cool if it were an Asian setting, rather than a monastery. Just sayin'. 

But it has so many awesome details, so many colors, so many textures, it is truly a feast for the eyes. I think all the gold bits up at the top of the central temple are my favorite, it's greebly like a spaceship but better. And it fits perfectly in Kali. Of course, my own will be posted here too, in good time. Maybe we can get Joe to join and post his here, as well. 

[zoth33]

What a massive and wonderful build.  I think the color choices are fine and don't go into the realm of gaudy.  I know you said on flickr you took some liberties with the colors but it looks good.  Wonderfully detailed and some nice techniques used throughout the build.  

[blackdeathgr]

OMG! Such a beauty! Congratulations on this wonder!

[W Navarre]

On 8/3/2021 at 10:40 AM, kahir88 said:

That's a beautiful build! Awesome! 

I always adored the far-east architecture, I always looked at them with envy, cause I can't find out how to build them. :D

One thing is for sure. Now I don't need to show my entry. :D 

Thank you, mate! You should give far Eastern Architecture a try! 

Aw, no! That's not the idea! I want my build to inspire you to want to make something for yourself that you can be happy with, it's not the same when someone else builds something good and when you build something good for yourself  . I look forward to your entry  !

22 hours ago, jtooker said:

Wow!  Incredible entry.  The scale and detail are terrific!

Thank you man! Glad you enjoy it! 

19 hours ago, Aurore said:

This is as impressive as it is intricate. So many details, so many delicate ornaments, so many diverse inspirations and yet such a consistent and harmonious build! Absolutely wonderful!

Thanks, I think intricate is a nice word for it. I took lots of time putting every single part together! Glad that it ended up harmonious in the end, that was possibly the most challenging aspect of creating it! 

16 hours ago, BrokenEye said:

Gorgeous

Thank you  !

13 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

This would be really cool if it were an Asian setting, rather than a monastery. Just sayin'. 

But it has so many awesome details, so many colors, so many textures, it is truly a feast for the eyes. I think all the gold bits up at the top of the central temple are my favorite, it's greebly like a spaceship but better. And it fits perfectly in Kali. Of course, my own will be posted here too, in good time. Maybe we can get Joe to join and post his here, as well. 

Hahaha! I could say the same about yours, you aren't the only one who's very nervious! I like greebles, hehe, and castle is almost always better than space, right  . Go ahead, Joe should join GoH! but how about let's wait till after this contest is over to invite him, maybe  ?

11 hours ago, zoth33 said:

What a massive and wonderful build.  I think the color choices are fine and don't go into the realm of gaudy.  I know you said on flickr you took some liberties with the colors but it looks good.  Wonderfully detailed and some nice techniques used throughout the build.  

Good to hear that! Thank you very much! 

5 hours ago, blackdeathgr said:

OMG! Such a beauty! Congratulations on this wonder!

Thank you! Glad it stands out as a wonder, I think this is a pretty cool category and hope to see a build for it from you as well! 

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Amazing build with great building techniques, especially for the walls.

Is this a digital MOC? 

If not, the amount of bricks going into this thing must be enormous!

[Niku]

As said before, truly remarkable, after a second watch it really hits me the dimensions, I wonder how much it weights and how long it took you to build it?
Excellent job.

[Kai NRG]

A magnificent addition to the Kaliphlinian landscape, beautiful colors and details!  The more I look at it, the more I like the lower half--the brown, white, and tan are very visually pleasing as a background to the more extravagant colors.  Speaking of extravagant colors, impressive job getting so many of those to work!

[Spader]

the scale and detail here are truly impressive. A wonder indeed. 

[W Navarre]

20 hours ago, Captain Braunsfeld said:

Amazing build with great building techniques, especially for the walls.

Is this a digital MOC? 

If not, the amount of bricks going into this thing must be enormous!

Thank you! Nope! It's all real, and all the pieces that are unconnected are held there just by gravity! It was a great fear of mine lest they would fall between the walls and be lost to me until the build was wrecked up! Some of them are crazy hard to actually put in their places. 

17 hours ago, Niku said:

As said before, truly remarkable, after a second watch it really hits me the dimensions, I wonder how much it weights and how long it took you to build it?
Excellent job.

It's 84x60 studs, but I don't know how much it weighs, just that it's a lot, hehe! It took me two weeks to build, and I build almost all day on occasions, and some of the night as well  . It certainly took longer than I had anticipated, and has been one of my longer projects. 

17 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

A magnificent addition to the Kaliphlinian landscape, beautiful colors and details!  The more I look at it, the more I like the lower half--the brown, white, and tan are very visually pleasing as a background to the more extravagant colors.  Speaking of extravagant colors, impressive job getting so many of those to work!

Thank you, Kai! Glad you liked that, it was of course, much inspired by like buildings in real life with regards to those choices! I just added the tan and tried to tie it in with the white and brown! 

7 minutes ago, Spader said:

the scale and detail here are truly impressive. A wonder indeed. 

Thank you, very glad to hear that  .

Edited August 5, 2021 by W Navarre

[Servertijd]

This one is so great, it has so many details, imagine being a lego minifigure and see this building standing in the distant horizon, absolutely amazing!

[Garmadon]

That is so insanely massive! - even for you, and you usually build big!    Beautiful work getting all the sloped and angled walls to match perfectly, and great use of color throughout!  The aqua and the gold/dark green section at the top are my favorite parts, probably - along with that chequered border - but you really did an amazing job over all!  

[Captain Braunsfeld]

On 8/5/2021 at 5:35 PM, W Navarre said:

Thank you! Nope! It's all real, and all the pieces that are unconnected are held there just by gravity! It was a great fear of mine lest they would fall between the walls and be lost to me until the build was wrecked up! Some of them are crazy hard to actually put in their places. 

That is quite amazing - and was obviously also a building challenge  

[Exetrius]

I've already told you twice about how much I like it, but I haven't told you exactly what I like about it.  Well, it's hard to break down because the whole architecture is so detailed and massive and fascinating, but I will try. One thing that definitely sets it apart from the 'typical east asian' creations is the array of colours used. Not only red-black-white-gold, but also green tones, yellow tones, tan, blue tones, even pink! And yet it feels so natural. I love the Tibetan flair, with the brown and white horizontal bands and the heavy gate with the sloping walls, and the colourful mosaic going all around the base is brilliant! And lastly: somewhere between microscale and nanofig scale; awesome! 

There you have it, mate! Keep rocking! 

(Also, there are indeed great pictures in the Kali thread )

[Raegon]

Wow, where do I look first, my eyes are just running all over the place, but are drawn to the golden roof furnishings. A really good build, especially like the angled walls. I'm just not sure what the wrap of cloth is?

[Louis of Nutwood]

I said it on Flickr, and I'll say it again. This is incredible!
It's micro, but massive! Impressive scale, and the amount of detail is off the charts. Lovely work with the pillars and the engraved Kali writings to receive tired travelers looking for some hope beyond (what I imagine to be) the hot days of wandering in the desert. Amazing colorful pattern on the base. The white textures are subtle, but fitting. The tan columns are mind-blowing with the little sphinx on top, and a very impressive technique for the rounded roof. BTW, those viking horn pieces all lined up are awesome! On our way to the top, those weary roof parts are a very bold move, and I really appreciate the 'old' touch. And all those shiny golden mixtures of texture and drawing and painting... just marvelous!
I'm completely amazed by all the tiny details that never stop to show up. 
Truly inspiring work.

[Grover]

Nice work.  Very colorful, and seems accurate to some of the original temples.

[W Navarre]

On 8/6/2021 at 2:42 AM, Servertijd said:

This one is so great, it has so many details, imagine being a lego minifigure and see this building standing in the distant horizon, absolutely amazing!

Oh, that's a cool thought! I wish I could make a tour business, complete with shrinking and then returning to normal size  . There would have to be an interior, tho, in that case  . Thank you very much! 

On 8/6/2021 at 3:00 PM, Garmadon said:

That is so insanely massive! - even for you, and you usually build big!    Beautiful work getting all the sloped and angled walls to match perfectly, and great use of color throughout!  The aqua and the gold/dark green section at the top are my favorite parts, probably - along with that chequered border - but you really did an amazing job over all!  

Thank you! Glad you liked it, the border was an idea that I thought would be nice without being over intense. 

On 8/6/2021 at 3:24 PM, Captain Braunsfeld said:

That is quite amazing - and was obviously also a building challenge  

Yeah, thank you again  .

On 8/8/2021 at 12:04 PM, Exetrius said:

I've already told you twice about how much I like it, but I haven't told you exactly what I like about it.  Well, it's hard to break down because the whole architecture is so detailed and massive and fascinating, but I will try. One thing that definitely sets it apart from the 'typical east asian' creations is the array of colours used. Not only red-black-white-gold, but also green tones, yellow tones, tan, blue tones, even pink! And yet it feels so natural. I love the Tibetan flair, with the brown and white horizontal bands and the heavy gate with the sloping walls, and the colourful mosaic going all around the base is brilliant! And lastly: somewhere between microscale and nanofig scale; awesome! 

There you have it, mate! Keep rocking! 

(Also, there are indeed great pictures in the Kali thread )

Thank you! That was something I decided going in, and I may even regret not using more colors  . Yep, the scale kind of just worked itself out. So excited that you like it, thank you for sure, mate  !

On 8/12/2021 at 6:19 AM, Raegon said:

Wow, where do I look first, my eyes are just running all over the place, but are drawn to the golden roof furnishings. A really good build, especially like the angled walls. I'm just not sure what the wrap of cloth is?

Thank you! I'm not either! Haha! Check out this picture of Samye Monastery, the main inspiration for my build:

It has that sort of thing near the entrance to the Monastery. I just think it must be decoration? 

On 8/18/2021 at 12:37 PM, Louis of Nutwood said:

I said it on Flickr, and I'll say it again. This is incredible!
It's micro, but massive! Impressive scale, and the amount of detail is off the charts. Lovely work with the pillars and the engraved Kali writings to receive tired travelers looking for some hope beyond (what I imagine to be) the hot days of wandering in the desert. Amazing colorful pattern on the base. The white textures are subtle, but fitting. The tan columns are mind-blowing with the little sphinx on top, and a very impressive technique for the rounded roof. BTW, those viking horn pieces all lined up are awesome! On our way to the top, those weary roof parts are a very bold move, and I really appreciate the 'old' touch. And all those shiny golden mixtures of texture and drawing and painting... just marvelous!
I'm completely amazed by all the tiny details that never stop to show up. 
Truly inspiring work.

 Thank you, sire, thank you very much! I love that you mention those things, the pillars were constantly changing height to satisfy me, haha. Those domes, they seemed so delicate ... until I got to the point of just leaving little pieces attached with gravity all over, and suddenly the domes didn't seem so delicate any more  . Glad you liked the horns, I felt they nailed a very Tibetan flair! I thought about the different ways of putting them, looking up, or down, and settled on this way so that you could see better than they were horns, even though the bit of red (the clips holding them) doesn't stand out very much now. Thank you again, Sir Louis, I appreciate it! 

On 8/21/2021 at 5:15 PM, Grover said:

Nice work.  Very colorful, and seems accurate to some of the original temples.

Thank you, I thought it was nice! It's inspired a lot by Samye Monastery. Those buildings are real masterpieces in style and detail and architecture! 

[Umbra-Manis]

The scale here is damn impressive, and you nailed a Kali setting!

[Eyrezer]

A magnificent temple indeed! Wow, how cool is this? Love to hear that the tried and true “gravity technique” played a key role. 😁

So many small details to soak up. Two I appreciated are the NPU of the sailor’s hat and Ninjago ‘snake skull helmet’ used for the small door archways on the far left and far right. 👌

Congratulations on this epic build.

[mrcp6d]

Beautiful MOC.  Really, simply beautiful.  I'm also going to have to steal that "slant the whole wall section" technique for some Egyptian/Adventurers builds to deal with the fact tan Slope 75 2 x 2 x 3 Double Convex parts are apparently more rare than Lego goats in the world!