Gideon

Very nice design of those trees! I also like the clever design of the fire

Sounds like we are ironing out a vital part of Barqan life here! I will try to create the minifigs for His Excellency Bishop Sheyer and the His Excellency First Knight Bahadur (means "warrior"), and maybe some other members of the City Council in the future. I'm also happy that I might get some use for my Kingdoms lions knight parts for regular knights of Aslan I have thought of Barqa as something similar to Byzantine Constantinople or somewhat smaller. This means that the city would be at least 3-4 km to walk across, maybe more, translating to at minimum 30 min or up to an hour to get from one end of the city to the other (especially if there are a lot of people on the move). If the Aslanic faith is a major faith among the people of Barqa I would assume that most of the regular people would attend services at local temples/shrines and that at only very important occasions they would go to the main temple. Compare to a larger medieval city which typically had dozens of churches in addition to the main cathedral. In many cases the cathedral was not regularly visited by the regular people, even the people living close to the cathedral might instead normally attend the services in a smaller parish church very close to the cathedral except for very important occasions in the cathedral. If the Order has smaller temples closer to the people, that also means that each priest may have better possibilities at getting to know his local followers.

So there are no non-knighted brothers/soldiers of the armed branch (unlike historical crusader orders), are all recruits able to be knighted regardless of birth? Sir Gideon knows Bishop Sheyer (persian word for lion) very well, as he represents the Aslanic Order in the Barqa City Council. I added a grey and a dark red 64797 to a BL order a while ago, wouldn't that headgear be very suitable as the Mitre of a bishop? What is the rank of the commander of their military branch in the garrison called btw? He is also a member of the City Council. The head of the Inquisitors is however not a member of the City Council. (This reminds me that I really should build the City Council some time ) Isn't there also a number of smaller temples in various districts of the city where the Order has followers? (If you don't have bricks/time to build the main temple and want to build something similar to these temples)

I like the Kaliphlin influence

I think there might be a special tag

Great! I seem to recall that the Aslanic Order has had an important presence in Barqa for a very long time and that the City Council mostly has had very good relations with the Order. Does a force of a couple of hundred knights and maybe three times as many squires and sergeants (or what else the non-knighted brothers are called?) sound like a reasonable garrison? This would be a very formidable force even against a thousand or more dismounted enemies. They also have many followers among the general population However, inside the walls of Barqa no armed forces other than from City Guard are allowed to be assembled with more than four soldiers, which also applies to the Aslanic Order. An exception is within in their own fortress of course or if they have approval from the Council. An example of this is the annual Parade of Aslan when the Order parades the streets showing their might and splendour (and gain a sizeable number of followers and prospective recruits ). (I can delete the last if it is not true, I just liked the idea ).

Why have fantasy-ish explanations when real world physics are perfectly adequate?

GIMP is free and powerful, but not very user-friendly. I don't know what paint.net can do but if it can do the basic editing you need for a clean presentation of the build then by all means continue to use what you are used to, there's no need to switch unless it is for new functions

It sounds like the Aslanic Knights still are an important part of Barqa's forces then? Maybe even the main force of heavy cavalry? (Even a relatively small number of such knights would be a feared iron fist) Anyway, I suppose a king torso from Kingdoms, a red cape and maybe a red hood or a bald head (CMF Shakespeare or grandpa) would work for a priest walking down the street then?

One of the most colorful MOCs I've seen in GoH! Ruadh is truly sparking creativity in the community

Another nice religous building in Historica! I like the roofs a lot, and without it you could make this into a lovely ruin before you tear the whole MOC apart

Another lovely temple! Although I miss the boat hull roof, the shape given by the SNOT curved slopes gives somewhat of the same overall feeling, and the tower is of course instantly recognizable What is the state of the Aslanic Order in Barqa nowadays btw? If I were to include one of their priests in an upcoming build, are there any suggestions on how to make him look (can't replicate that one exactly...)?

Suitable build for phase 1! Looking forward to the coming phases! I would advice you to turn off the flash and use some other source of light (preferrable dim natural light, like a cloudy day or in the shade).

Very nice build! My favorite part is the road with some grass growing in it. Great that you are post-processing the pics, a top-notch presentation can do a lot for a MOC

From various builds and the discussions in the Grand Griffon there seems to be quite a few religions in Historica and so far it seems to be free for everyone to come up with their own. What are those five aspects of the Faith? I think it would be probable that many people (at least outside the Faith) mistake it for five distinct gods?

I think there are tropical forests in the valleys on the eastern side of the Rakath mountains. Those mountains seem to be an important reason for the lack of rain in most of Kaliphlin as the prevailing direction for the weather systems in southern Historica is eastwards. This means that most has fallen as rain in the swamplands of Nocturnus (where not vaporized again by the volcanoes), on the east side of the Rakath range or as snow in the mountains before the clouds reach the Siccus badlands. This is a phenomenon called rain shadow. Fortunately, at least some of the melting snow feeds westward rivers, most notably the Qar-Akhen river. I assume that Mpya Stedor is affected by the rain shadow as well? In the west, this rain shadow effect is less pronounced as there can be rain clouds coming in from the west in some parts of the year enabling the tropical forests on the west coast and on Gorr.

Even more beautiful than the previous one! I love how you are establishing an architectural style for the Aslanic temples, it makes sense that they want to build in a similar style (much like the way you typically can spot a church or a mosque on the architecture irl). Normally, I would have thought these walls a bit too plain and suggested some texture or color variation...but for a newly constructed temple it works very well to convey a feeling of that the builders took the time to make a very smooth whitewashed surface that has yet not been too worn for it to show. Another color for the steps and the floors might be an idea though.

Great MOC, I love how you've managed to do all that with mostly plates and all the action in such a confined space! Other than all the obvious, I also like the "rope" on the middle of the sail.

Nice interior scene with some neat details, looking forward to the coming part(s)!

You are very welcome to build in Barqa! I am myself working on a 60x68 diorama (a very standardized size...or not) of a part of the city to display at the Lego Fan Weekend next month Please check out the Historican Settlements task if you find any category there which you might incorporate into your build! I'd be happy to include a link to your build in my Barqa registry post if it fulfills Rouge Angel's requirements for that category and thereby hasten the recognition of Barqa as the great city it is! There are already a few Barqan builds linked there, I would especially recommend checking out de Gothia in Barqa as it conveys pretty much exactly the feeling of the city I'm looking for in my own upcoming build.

Good job with the story and the "illustrations"! Looking forward to reading more

No fighting? War crimes is what I call it!!

Very clever design of those tree branches, and the whole tree looks great! I hope you can find loads of time and inspiration to build for GoH in the future

Funny idea and nice viewpoints! It wouldn't hurt your photos if you improved the lighting though.

Historican Settlements