[NCW] Skeleton raid on Merodaquinas

[Exetrius]

It is said that war knows no winners, only losers. That everyone loses something, but some lose more than others. But there are fruits that grow from a bloodstained soil, though rotten and bitter they may be. Merodaquinas was a town that lost less in the war than most of Nocturnian towns and cities. Before the war, the affairs of the interior of Nocturnus would rarely affect the town much, being located far away and on the outside of the Rakath mountain range. It didn't have particularly strong connections with the outside world, though it served as a resting stop for people traversing the mountains or the nearby Kelra Labyrinth. To Ravaage, conquering Merodaquinas would have had little strategic benefits. So instead, he sent a raiding unit to pillage whatever there was to be pillaged, and maybe turn some of the wretched souls in the town to his side. And burn the rest.
 

And so Merodaquinas was shaken up by a raid and fires. The local lord's troops couldn't stop the raiders from pillaging parts of the south and east of the city. However, unexpected help arrived! A witch from the nearby witch village, which had not always been on the best of terms with Merodaquinas and its lord, had seen the skeletons approach. Soon, and without much hesitation, the whole witch village rushed to town. With the aid of the witches, the pillaging and plunder ended and the town was purged of Ravaage's raiders. The leader of the raid and a few scummy turncoats managed to escape, but the town was spared a much worse fate.

It is said that war knows no winners, only losers. However, the fruits of the terrible Civil War tasted rather sweet for Merodaquinas: it had rekindled the relationship with the witches, united the town, and partly purged the shady individuals and their businesses from it. In a later stage of the war, unseen numbers of Mitguardians and Avalonians passed through on their way to reinforce the Resistance armies in the Rakath.

These days, the sun seems to shine just a bit brighter in Merodaquinas than it did before!

  
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Here's another build that I should have posted a long time ago! Initial plan was a raid scene with bloodshed and burning houses, but when I built regular houses instead everything started looking more quaint and peaceful than I had foreseen. So to not ruin the vibe (and avoiding the extra work) I posted the peaceful build "Merodaquinas - Trout's Crossing" in 2020. However, the idea of a raid scene was still kicking around and I wasn't completely happy with the photos, so I set out to finish what I started. I finally created a scene and took some additional pictures! Not only for this build.  I hope you like them!

More pictures:

Spoiler

 

Credit to Felipe Avelar for establishing Merodaquinas.

 

[W Navarre]

Great MOC, I like the angles in the base! 

[Kai NRG]

The water looks really nice on this build, I also love the dark green on the stone, makes for a very nice transition.  Great interiors too, I love how there's even a cobweb in that tiny roof!

[Simon_S]

I've seen this some time ago on flickr and I like the "classic fantasy feeling" of this build. I mean you have a witch fighting against skeletons. The combination of action and a peacful looking town make a great combination. I also like that you angled the buildings. Nice job!

[Exetrius]

On 10/17/2022 at 4:17 PM, W Navarre said:

Great MOC, I like the angles in the base! 

On 10/18/2022 at 7:41 PM, Kai NRG said:

The water looks really nice on this build, I also love the dark green on the stone, makes for a very nice transition.  Great interiors too, I love how there's even a cobweb in that tiny roof!

On 10/22/2022 at 10:38 AM, Simon_S said:

I've seen this some time ago on flickr and I like the "classic fantasy feeling" of this build. I mean you have a witch fighting against skeletons. The combination of action and a peacful looking town make a great combination. I also like that you angled the buildings. Nice job!

Thanks guys, glad you like it! 

 

 

[Grover]

Very nice!  As others have mentioned, the angles are really great.  They are subtle, so they don't dominate the build, but they are just enough to make the build feel more organic.  I get a "Ninjago City" with a Nocturnus feel to it, which is great.  Your choice of colors here, particularly the yellow, gives the build an old school vibe, which is fun.  I like the complicated roof on the right, and love that you have some nice interior detail.  Really well done.  I also like that you are building Nocturnus with 'normal' colors, since it reminds us that Nocturnus is not all crazy things.  I remember looking at a lot of the old Nocty builds and they were more 'normal' colors than outlandish most of the time.  Thanks for sharing!

[LordDan]

I really like the cozy feel of the houses and village, which kinds of contrasts with the epic battle going on 😆. As others mentioned, the angled base is super well done (I didn’t even notice at first glance), and the interiors are great too!

[Exetrius]

On 10/25/2022 at 3:04 PM, Grover said:

Very nice!  As others have mentioned, the angles are really great.  They are subtle, so they don't dominate the build, but they are just enough to make the build feel more organic.  I get a "Ninjago City" with a Nocturnus feel to it, which is great.  Your choice of colors here, particularly the yellow, gives the build an old school vibe, which is fun.  I like the complicated roof on the right, and love that you have some nice interior detail.  Really well done.  I also like that you are building Nocturnus with 'normal' colors, since it reminds us that Nocturnus is not all crazy things.  I remember looking at a lot of the old Nocty builds and they were more 'normal' colors than outlandish most of the time.  Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for your elaborate comment!  Yeah Merodaquinas shows that you don't have to be bizarre in Nocturnus!  I really wanted to build here because of the canals, but I thought I might as well add a good splash of yellow, which I probably wouldn't use in most other Nocty settlements. Glad you like it! 

On 10/28/2022 at 4:44 PM, LordDan said:

I really like the cozy feel of the houses and village, which kinds of contrasts with the epic battle going on 😆. As others mentioned, the angled base is super well done (I didn’t even notice at first glance), and the interiors are great too!

Thanks, Dan! 

[soccerkid6]

Another super strong build, Exetrius! Very pretty composition with the two buildings and bridge in the foreground plus tower rising up in the back.

Speaking of the tower, I really like the texture you achieved around the windows there using clips and round elements.

The layered curved slope roof of the right building is another excellent design that really gives the feel of rough shingles

[Exetrius]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:15 PM, soccerkid6 said:

Another super strong build, Exetrius! Very pretty composition with the two buildings and bridge in the foreground plus tower rising up in the back.

Speaking of the tower, I really like the texture you achieved around the windows there using clips and round elements.

The layered curved slope roof of the right building is another excellent design that really gives the feel of rough shingles

Thank you! Nice that you mention the windows! The fun thing about them is that they are even number width while tower itself has odd number dimensions, and they're mounted with clips, nipple studs and 1x2 modified plates with bar sticking up. (Somehow that is quite satisfying to me) And glad to hear about the roof too!