mccoyed

Way late but this is really good. Pombe, you micromaster!

1. We are in the end of Book 2 which has lasted... four years? 2. Book 2 mostly revolved around a bunch of civil wars in each of the Guilds, culminating in a big succession war that itself ended with a new Queen on the throne of Cedrica, which is where the "provinces" (guilds) of Historica centralize power. 3. There are no current challenges. The most recent one was to explore "new lands" beyond Historica which hints that maybe Book 3, if it ever arrives, will include one or more new Guilds. In general, Guilds of Historica has declined dramatically from the activity it once had. This appears to be the only active thread now. I joined four years ago and there'd be several new posts per day, it was actually tough to keep up. Nowadays, the role-building games on EB have shifted to BBoS (pirates) and Brick Wars, which are both active in comparison to Andromeda's Gates (space) and GoH (medieval and light on "game" elements). I think the Star Wars one is still running strong and there are other RBGs out there like League of Heroes that seem active if my Flickr feed is anything to go by. I also pop in to Merlin's Beard where Lands of Roawia (very similar to GoH) is still going, but their activity levels have declined a lot as well.

Love this for obvious reasons!

Thanks! Learned that from Andromeda's Gates. Became kind of a common way to write out dialogue for characters. Don't know who originated it. Thanks. The whole thing is a bit studded, really. Oh well!

Above: Maps showing the location of One-Eye's prison and neighboring environs (click to enlarge). "Capt. One-Eye was taken back the way he'd come, to a little town called Yoku. They kept saying he was going to meet this "daimyo", a Yureishimese word for lord. Now, the Yureishimese clans are all run by lesser and greater lords, all with their own territory. Not that different from Avalonia, really. The main difference is the extent of the authority. The Yureishimese of the Red Lotus Clan believe even their very lives are owed to whichever lords are above them." -Artur Rimbyld, University of Petraea Geographical Society "Yureishimese are a coastal people, but not really a sea people. They don't seem very interested in making long voyages. Their ships are small and efficient, but can't handle the deeper waters and storms that they'd hit trying to head west to Historica. That said, extensive roads connect their towns and villages. They seem adept at road construction even in poor terrain. Because of their history of warfare, these roads are typically well-maintained and wide enough to accommodate legions of warriors." -General Marnix Hettle, formerly of Queenscross, in his paper 'On the Conquest of Foreign Regions' Wolf Island, Yureishima, Two Days after One-Eye was freed: The village of Yoku seemed like many others that One-Eye had seen, all around the world. The people seemed cheerful as they went about their work or leisure. Some looked curiously at him, but very little emotion was betrayed by their faces. When his eyes met theirs, they would smile and bow politely. As if he wasn't a prisoner, but a visiting dignitary. The official was always with him and seemed the only person he met who was permitted to show disrespect. This is my lord Kawashita Ieyasu's village. He lives here? No, fool. He lives north, in Okami City. But he is here now, so he will speak with you. Maybe he can tell me where my bricking crew is and how I can get them back. Show him any disrespect, Shujin, and your head will be removed from your body before you can blink. Uhhh. They passed a man placing fish in a fenced pond. He seemed real happy about it, too. The fish looked fat and delicious, but also beautiful. Their scales were a bright orange, iridescent in the sun. As they approached the largest, fanciest house in the village, One-Eye almost froze when he saw who stood on the stoop with a lord even fancier than his jailer-official. The official and his guard bowed immediately while One-Eye eyed the beautifully-crafted sword that this daimyo held naked in his hand. But it was the daimyo's companion that he really cared about. Timmermans! You're alive! Uh. Yes, Cap'n. I seem to be. Best news I've gotten in years. Where's everybody else!? That's when One-Eye noticed the wooden cage off to his left. He had to squint to recognize three of his crew: Big Bald Barrington, Legs Al-Bara, and the cabin boy Colin who had grown in their years of captivity. He wanted to run up to them immediately, but the voice of the fancy lord barking the Yureishima language stopped him. <Yureishimese> He says you're to stay where you are, please. Wait a minute. Timmermans, what are you doing up there with him anyway? Long story, Cap'n. Let's just say that we... we work for him now. I don't think I like where this is going. <Kanshu, thank you for bring me this... man. He almost looks like one of us in that garb.> <You're most welcome, my lord Kawashita.> The two Yureishimese conversed for a while, leaving One-Eye to stand there waiting. He saw a red-skinned man standing watch over his crew. The man looked sort of like a Yukari orc, but must have been some tribe or folk native to the islands. After a few minutes, One-Eye lost his patience. Hey Timmermans, what are they saying? Is it about the crew? <Go ahead and tell him, Timmerman-san.> No, it's about you. Looks like they want to travel north to the city and present you to the Red Lotus overlord. Kawashita Ieysau believes he can use you to gain great favor and prestige. Wow. Are these Lotus guys going to just pass me around like a mug of ale? They haven't even asked me for anything yet. They're not big on sharing, Cap'n. I'm supposed to tell you that all will be revealed in time and that this is the only chance you've got at getting the others freed. Whatever they want, it can't be good. Tell them I'll only help if I can speak to BB, Legs, and Colin. Right now. Timmermans translated while the official, left by the wayside, watched One-Eye warily. It seemed One-Eye had the answer to the mystery of how anyone here had learned the common tongue of Historica. Finally, the daimyo nodded. BB, Legs, Colin! <Hey, keep your distance.> He says not to get too close. By my beard, it's you, Captain! I'm glad you're alive! I'm glad to see you as well, my Captain. But perhaps you can talk to our... hosts... about doing something about my leg? They keep saying they'll fix your leg when you stop singing in the middle of the night. But that is the best time! Yay, the captain is alive. Woopee. I've still been stuck in cages the whole time I've been an adult. Colin! You've grown up! What's your sister going to say when she sees you? We'd have to find her first, One-Eye. That's the fun thing about being locked up for years. You don't know who's alive or dead! Oh, don't mind him. He's happy to see you, Cap'n. He just wants to know, we all want to know, what you're going to do to get us out of here. For now, I'm going to play along. They want something from me and I'm hoping I can gain some leverage. You all have to stay alive until I get back here, okay? Then we'll find us a boat and get the heck away from here! They ran out of time. The guard tapped his greatclub, motioning for One-Eye and Timmermans to return to the house where the daimyo waited. One-Eye did not know how long it would be until he saw his friends again, but he steeled his resolve to meet whatever challenges were to come, all so he could turn this unlucky situation into an opportunity. Builder's Notes:

Right? I have something coming tomorrow.

Incredible work. Missed this when it was first posted. Just jaw-dropping. My favorite is the interior smithy cuz I think it's the best one I've ever seen on GoH.

Wow. First challenge win! Thanks everyone!

Can't believe I missed seeing this idea coming to fruition. This build is helping me get my butt in gear to finally finish a really large Yureishima build I started around Christmas. The Temple of Resurrection set also lent me some inspiration. Hope to see more of Orien soon.

I got this set on discount due to a pricing error at T'r'Us. Biggest set I've gotten in a while and holy crap is it a good one. Loved it.

This is probably my favorite so far. I like seeing the beard-hair technique I used for the kappa and oni in my Yureishima set. I really like the lore here and it's what gives it an edge for me.

YES! Japanese cyberpunk flavour! I love all of this for obvious reasons :P

Awesome micro. Very cool ship!

Yes I think you're right. They are killer for bamboo though. Should have just done a few copses of bamboo trees but I didn't want too much clutter (the irony!).

Thanks! I wish the Asian/Japanese themes weren't niche. They would be super popular if Lego found an entry point into a more medieval version, but they don't seem too interested. Ninjago is the closest we get but I drool when I think about what could be done with a more medieval series of Ninjago. They've explored a lot of subthemes as Ninjago has gone on, though, so I shouldn't complain. :P They've done cyberpunk, steampunk, ghosts, snake cults, and now something modern with the movie sets. Anyways, a stronger influence on this story is the novel Shogun by James Clavell. It's probably my favorite historical fiction novel. Silence has some stuff in common with it though. Yes, this is a much better roof. The bird is important so I don't know what to tell you about that. :P I am curious about what more could be added to the tree, though. What did you have in mind? I'll have to do more sakura trees, peach trees, etc as I go so I'm trying to figure out ways to make my limited white and pink pieces stretch. Those statue like things are a version of this. Thanks, I'm glad to be vindicated about the roof design! I sort of agree with you about the grass/weeds. Do you mean more the grass pieces, or the little bright green ones or both? Before I added foliage, the ground seemed too textured with the studs, but definitely seemed more neat and organized and felt a little closer to a Japanese "yard". Having the grass be completely overgrown felt like overkill but I did try a version of this build with that. Maybe a nice compromise would be to just use multiple colors of studded green plates, perhaps with a few of those brighter green "flower" pieces. And thank you for complimenting the maps. They are really fun and I plan to try and show a lot of Yureishima as a I go. The website I use doesn't let you duplicate maps easily so it's actually kind of hard to replicate a "zoomed in" area. I have to do it by hand and the one for Southern Okami Island in this build, for example, took several iterations. I will probably not zoom in this much from now on and chunk the maps to larger scales. I really, really wish Inkarnate had a "copy/paste" function for maps though. Jeez.

What I would have done different is use hair-pieces that don't show ears and just let us assume the ears are covered. Or use headgear. I would not have repeated the same hairpiece. I do understand parts limits, but that's the challenge of doing a CMF.

Well sure. But I managed to expand on the very light Japanese flavour that was introduced in earlier GoH. I'm kind of a Feudal Japan nerd but I think you need to take a pretty deep dive to find something new for Historica, or at least a fresh take on something already there. I definitely understand the limitations of parts available, but don't think that creativity is inextricably linked to "diversity fig parts" (as you call them). Tan or brown-skinned fleshies are not required. I am running up against my own parts limits with Asian-themed stuff, especially appropriate torsos. It's a massive part of the challenge of doing a home-brew CMF.

Thanks. I actually think studs up works pretty well to suggest the overlapping bumpy tiles from classic Japanese architecture. I know what you mean, though, because studs are difficult to employ effectively. One of the reasons I took kit easy on using wing pieces and the like on the grass was so that it would balance out the studded roof, showing that this is one of those Lego builds with a lot of exposed studs. I'll be trying something different with the roofs next time, I think, though I was pretty satisfied with this one. Thanks. The edges are my favorite part. The way it sits on the spine of the house didn't really come together until I added those 1x1 studs and the red border. I think I can improve the sliding door when I get into more interior-heavy builds.

Above: Maps showing the location of One-Eye's prison and neighboring environs. "It seems that for most of the three years he spent confined to a hut, Capt. One-Eye was treated in a manner one might expect a prisoner to be treated anywhere in Historica. However, once the local lord decided what to do with him, there was a major change in the demeanor of his captivity if not of his captors. Never again would One-Eye's prison be one of squalor and isolation. The more he penetrated Yureishimese society, the more gilded his cage became." -Professor Artur Rimbyld, University of Petraea Geographical Society "We can no doubt learn something from Yureishimese grooming standards. Accounts vary based on social rank, but it seems that their society generally prizes a clean and ordered appearance at all times. Who knows what reason they'd give for their bathing and grooming practices, but hygiene seems twice as important to even the commonest Yureishimese than it would be in, say, Mitgardia where many of the clansfolk believe (with some empirical evidence) that spending time wet is an invitation for illness. I would be interested in comparing the rates of illness among Yureishimese directly with that of comparable populations in Historica. If only it were possible!" -Professor Nora Furnasdottir, University of Petraea Physicians' College Wolf Island, Yureishima, Date Unknown: One-Eye was led some miles away, on foot, to an isolated but well-appointed complex of buildings. Outside, a man who appeared to be a gardener seemed to be raking... sand? He created swoops and whorls in the fine gray sand, seeming to be focused around a dark gray boulder that was placed just so in the sandy area. One-Eye had no idea what that was about and decided he didn't want to know. Once he got inside, he changed his mind. As they shoved him into a wooden tub as if he was laundry, One-Eye very much would have preferred to be raking sand with the old man. Noooo! What are you doing to me!? Stop your whining, Shujin! Can't you see I am trying to enjoy my lunch? <How hairy he is! Wow!> <Ehhhhh. I have seen much hairier.> What are you saying? What is that claw thing for? Get it away from me!!! <Hold still, Shujin. Your hair and beard are so thick you're forcing us to break out the heavy duty gear.> <I am glad it is not me who has to clean this barbarian!> <It's not so bad, eh? He's so smelly and big! This is more interesting than our usual bathing jobs.> <Shhh! You'll get us into trouble being so informal.> <But look at his tooth! It is made of gold! Kawaii!> I hate this so much. <Everyone shut up while I'm eating!> Eventually, the women finished up with One-Eye and he realized he was no worse for wear. What was more, he felt kind of... good? Refreshed! The women had fixed his hair and beard and given him fresh clothes. Now he was starting to feel like a human being again. His irritation and fear subsided. He couldn't think of a reason why they'd bathe him if they were just going to kill him. He was starting to notice the details of this strange land. Its beauty, which was not rustic and wild like his homeland. Everything he had seen was cultivated, ordered. He wondered if the land was naturally like that or if its occupants were responsible. There, Shujin. Now you are staring to look like a human being again. I was just thinking that. I could use some food though. Something red and bloody! All you people feed me is fish and those little white grains. You don't like gohan? You do not have it... where you are from? Something like it but it's brown. I think they eat it in Kaliphlin. Kaliphlin? Never mind. It's just some desert back home. Look, you got me all cleaned up and pretty. What the deuce are you planning to do with me now? His jailer, this official, whoever he was, seemed to be treating him far more civilly than before. Had the bath or the lunch improved his mood? One-Eye would have believed either at this point. You will be escorted to Yoku Village where the daimyo is waiting. These lands are Akahasu 赤蓮 and what happens to you will be for the good of the clan. Aka-whatsu? You would say 'Red Lotus'. It is the name of the clan to whom your life now belongs, Shujin. Hey! My life belongs to just me. I don't care if you Aka-whatevers are the most powerful clan in wherever-this-is, you'd better not forget that. Respect, Shujin. It is what binds these lands together and you will learn to show it to your betters or it will prove costly. Ha! I've got nothing to lose and thanks to you I'll leave a pretty corpse. Better to die free anyway. Who said it would cost you? Perhaps if you keep up this insolence, the price will be paid by your men. Think on that. The official walked away, leaving him with the soldier and the gardener who seemed preoccupied with a bird in a tree. He'd provoked the official into dropping his friendly facade. Good, One-Eye thought, he hated playing pretend anyway. And now he had learned that they did know something about his men. Besides, he was starting to understand this guy was just a flunky. He was going to meet someone with power, this "daimyo" character. Then he'd have some answers! Builder's Notes: Bonus Shots:

Great figs, especially love the Fire Elemental. If I can make one criticism, it's that Drakkenheim folk don't seem significantly diverse compared to what we've already seen in Historica. This could be a Mitgardia CMF and I don't think anyone would really be able to tell the difference.

I really like the idea of an equatorial region with lots of PoC representation. Some people are going to grumble, as always, that Lego isn't meant to have racial representation but that cat got out of the bag when they started making flesh-tone heads as part of their licensed series. Lego is working on doing better with that stuff, but it is still severely limited so you've done really well and managed a pretty wide range of characters. That said, the one criticism I have is that there's still a lot of repetition (in the hairstyles especially) which makes it more difficult for individual figs to stand out (which they should in a CMF). In addition, I think you might have tried to include more unique types of craft or trade and gone a bit further with the aesthetics and gear of the warrior figs. Kafunzi is a great example of an exception since his weapon is unique. As they are, there's a maybe just a bit too much "reskinned European Fantasy" going on. I think you could have committed to a more extensive distinction between the aesthetics of the (mostly) Eurocentric Historica and wherever you're drawing influence from for Mwamba. That's the thing, right? The names sound like a mix of Sub-Suharan Africa and Indian Subcontinent but the "trappings" of the figs feel kind of vague, as if they'd fit in just fine with the more dramatic diversity of Kaliphlin or Nocturnus. Now all that being said, I think Panga is one of the coolest figs I've ever seen on GoH. I really dig how you've used the Thor: Ragnarok parts here. I have a feeling your brick-built baby dragon, which is brilliant, is going to be very influential and borrowed a lot by other builders. Probably the star of the set. Hamisha looks awesome and really stands out from the crowd, which makes her another exception (like Kafunzi's weapon) that proves the rule with regard to my criticisms about repetition in this series. I also like the Gnomish tinkerer and the brace of rats you did for Anyo the Hunter. We've seen countless hunters in CMFs and I think the main thing that differentiates yours is the rats (the gear is similar to others) and of course that the character is using one of Lego's PoC heads.

Thanks DG. The map-making software is great but it doesn't have some basic QoL features it REALLY needs. Can't duplicate maps, for example. So it's really hard to go in to a specific island and map it in more detail due to the difficulty in recreating its shape with, basically, drawing software. :P

Agree with everyone about this. Great build and definitely one of your best.

Really cool map and figs. I didn't see this before I posted my latest Yureishima build and they're obviously similar in some ways so that's cool. I love the idea of Historica expanding!

That elephant is awesome. I usually think brick-built animals look pretty terrible, especially the Lego ones (like the Fenris wolf from Thor: Ragnarok), but this is one of the best I've seen especially at this scale. Hat's off.