Exetrius

A Rockwailer guard gazes over the Boulder Bogs. Standing guard on the ancient city walls is a rather uneventful job. The Boulder Bogs are a damp, foggy, and thoroughly smelly place. Not much ever approaches the isolated city. The waters – or rather, the sizzling green soup surrounding Rockwail, are inhospitable to most life, though lizardfolk and other tough-skinned creatures are able to swim in them. As far as the eye can see (usually not far) there are boulders with varying degrees of vegetation on them, and more green soup. On the rare clear days of the year however, the view is not awful. But today it is. Today will be another boring day on the Walls where nothing happens... ... or will it? For a brief moment, the guard thought he heard a voice, far in the distance. Any activity above the water level, other than the moving of birds or other small creatures, is notable in this swamp. There are people going outside the walls to hunt and gather resources that are not found or grown inside the city, but those people can rarely be heard from afar. Did he imagine hearing it? Now with his full concentration, he looked and listened again. There it was! One voice, two, nay, three even... something was approaching! Travellers? Enemies? A handful of unusually loud citizens? The fog was thick as ever, so whoever these voices belonged to: once in sight it could be too late. The Rockwailer Guard had to identify them as soon as possible. Maybe today wasn't going to be as uneventful as usual! --- Thanks for reading, if you did! The lore is is new here, but the build is definitely not. Let's go back in time in time for a moment, see additional pics below. It's the beginning of 2019, I was creating builds to further illustrate what happened in the Nocty Civil War. I was gradually starting to think about how to move the overall Nocty story forward, by making builds of 'turning point' events. I decided I wanted to depict Rockwail, the forgotten stronghold city, silently taken over by Raavage's skeleton army that he was building, being stormed by the forces of the Resistance. I was going to call it "Liberation of Rockwail", and it was going to be both an awesome architectural-landscaping build and an epic battle scene. I went all in on complex and subtle angles for the wall to add a sense of realism, but it created a lot of problems that needed to be solved. And every other part of the build also took more time than I had hoped. I put the build aside several times and started/finished other builds (most notably "EVA 02 & Tokyo 3" and "Lego Universe: 10th Anniversary Tribute"). In May 2020 I finished the build as you see it here, but still intending to make a battle scene with boats and grappling hooks or something. In late 2020 I concluded that despite all effort that went into it, it wasn't the ideal build for the scene I had in my head. I photographed it so I could put it on my year 2020 build collage, and uploaded it to Flickr in January 2021, but still kinda wanted a Civil War scene with it. However, my motivation to do that decreased and I moved on, thus never posting it here in the Guilds. I also thought the photos I had didn't really do it justice, and same for the order in which I uploaded them. This was "confirmed" by the amount of faves/likes that was much lower than I was expecting (not a healthy mindset!). I couldn't help but feel that I wasted some of the build's potential. It didn't help that due to covid there were no expos to show off this build in real life. However, I've come to terms with all of that. I think it's a fantastic build, one of my finest works to date. Above all, I've learned that if you have an ambitious plan, you should expect it to take (much) longer than planned. I could have done it 'quick and dirty' and finish up the story of the Civil War sooner (which Nocturnus would have benefited from), but at the same time I can't. No halfhearted builds, sorry! I have more Rockwail in the pipeline, and this time there will be both important lore and an epic overall build. Oh, and I figured I'd enter it in the HSS. Why not, right? Hope to bring it to you soon!* Cheers! *I'm trying to live a social life and graduate and get a job and build other ideas too, cut me some slack!

Delightful light reading material and illustrative images! Those trees are really good, and I like the path and stream too.

Using all-green shades for an interior rather than, say, a forest, is definitely an unorthodox choice, but you completely nailed it! Dark green for the wall (didn't even know arches and masonry bricks are available in that colour) works out well, actually the whole scene checks all the boxes despite the tiny footprint. And I'm always a bit jealous of your special parts... @Kai NRG @Grover it's from this guy from Vidiyo Bandmates series 2... I swear I am NOT jealous!

Oh wow, I missed the octopus tentacles when you posted this! That's great, and they pair well with the other odd parts use: the dragon legs! Great job with the gradient, the dark red and white are particularly nice. The figure is... interesting. Perhaps I'd put the staff in the other hand, to not disappear in the red background. But it's a Nocty build pur sang, haha! Reminds of the Blood Sands, as mentioned in the intro of the Nestlands Clan Embassy. This would fit perfectly there!

It's always nice to see builds that portray daily life of citizens of Historica. I like the size you chose for this build: large enough to convey the openness and flatness of the salt plains. I like the merchants at the side, and I think the high flagpole is a logical inclusion to locate this salt mine from a distance. I'm going to agree with Grover on the lack of contrast with the background, I don't think I wouldn't minded a white background, actually. Nice build!

An Avalonian has entered Nocturnus, in Guilds of Historica! Hey! Quick, build the vampires! Suck the intruder's blood! And off to sleep again! Memes aside, great to see some classic vampire activity in Nocturnus! The curtains work well indeed, nice use of teeth as well. I also like the figures, icy blue lanterns and different bat motifs, nicely done! My biggest criticism: not a fan of the technique used on the pillars, I think it makes them look too segmented, but that's personal preference. Nitpick: I think turning the lady vampire so she charges towards Trevor would strengthen the scene a bit more, but I imagine her face and torso prints would then be obscured to the viewer.

Right? xD It's been so long that I don't even have a mental list of parts to check anymore, but one of the first things I'll surely check are the viking parts. Fingers crossed...

No, it's out of production. On B&P, a part can only be available if it's in production, I believe. Sometimes you'd see an older part coming back in stock/production, which would be a sign that a part would soon appear in an upcoming set. Btw, if you want to know more about B&P, there's a dedicated thread (don't mind the 'licensed' part in the title):

Not BAM, but it has been available on Bricks & Pieces (now merged with Pick a Brick).

And when it comes to freebuilds or personal story builds: if you want to put your sigfig in builds that are geographically far apart, you may want to come up with a reason how your character can travel those distances... or you don't, and then just don't specify how long it took to get from place A to B! Or don't have them appear in those builds at all, and just introduce new characters for the sake of your build or your own entertainment!

@Yzalirk Welcome back to the Guilds, and a warm welcome from Nocturnus! That's right! I never left Nocturnus or declared allegiance to a different guild when Book III came around. (Nocty to the bone! ) If you're caught up with the Book III lore, there are two major pieces of Nocty story that I've created since then: one & two. A third is on the way, but it needs time to become epic.

Thanks, man!

Haha, catching up is something I should do too... Thanks mate, glad you like them! Yes, I like the visor too, although closed it feels rather bulky. I spent a lot of time in colour coordination indeed, great to hear that paid off.

@MAB Same! Those look far better to me, with their less flashy colours and less cartoony style.

@Killian Nice mod, looks better than the original imo.

It's dark bluish grey. Yay, that's a relief! I was fearing the worst for our beloved service!

I know right?! The team really poured everything into it! This is what peak performance looks like I made a vow to myself that I would get every anniversary suit over time, and that's almost done. Now, I think I'm going to do the same for the whole summer wave! This seems to me like the final climax, and I don't want to miss it.

Seems light bluish grey to me. I'm very excited about that new Black Falcons torso! Ever since they introduced that BAM exclusive blue and red shield (with the keys on it), I've been thing "come on, now some new medieval legs and torsos". 3rd party sellers and clone companies have been doing it for years now, glad TLG is catching up a bit now.

Same here. Though I have used it to complete MOCs, the new parts were always the incentive to make an order. Edit: maybe it's time they bring back service packs. Just bags with cool parts, sorted by theme or something.

Enjoyable read! I've been following your amazing project in the background and find especially some of your fantasy characters breathtaking! I don't know your whole motivation, but I'll make this a general advice (and not just to you): if the "other people are more qualified" argument is stopping you, know this: what other people can or may do is irrelevant! Stand for what YOU want to do, and grab your OWN opportunities! True, businesses will look at your qualifications, but creative businesses also look at portfolios. Their job is to get talented people on their team, just saying! Cheers!

I'd love to see TLG get some more use out of the (2011-inspired) head moulds for Kai's Fire dragon, from last year. Imagine a modern Jay's lightning dragon, which original counterpart was a store exclusive and now hard to obtain...

Hey, thanks mate!

Sorry, but I'm not one for impressionism and abstract art... wake me up when there's more pixels, okay?

A sci-fi figbarf! Musical artists James J. Rockmore || Blot Type A || Gridney Gears || Dancebot XE3-us || REDplague & Bluebug || Ramdroid 696 Cheers!

@Grover Hey, good to know you're still around! Hope your situation will work out for you soon!