Gideon

Nice landscaping and fig posing

Nice to see a build inspired by one of the main factions of my childhood castle Lego, but not very frequently seen today Great build overall and as usual very nice details

Thanks for the effort cataloguing an important part of the Guilds of Historica history and lore

Thanks! Good to know that Kaliphlin is still the hotbed of backalley plotting and intrigue, despite those backstabbing Varlyrian upstarts

Lovely walls and overall great woodwork! The all-lego shots are top notch (What I however didn't like as much was the (custom?) cloth pieces, with closeups like these they unfortunately lowered the impression of the figs for me. )

Fantastic scene and masterfully photographed Some really good details you've put together there (I don't know how I missed commenting on this before?)

Thanks! Yes, I think the helmet came in white in some SW Advent calendar.

Which program are you using for the editing? In Lightroom at least a very good tool to get a hunch about the brightness is to look at the histogram and see that it isn't too far to the dark or bright side. The white balance is normally adjusted in warm ("yellowish") - cold ("blue"), but depending on the light source there can also be some need to adjust on the greenish-magenta scale too. In at least both Lightroom and Picasa you can "pick" a white area to adjust the white balance automatically. My trick for that is to wrap a brick in PTFE tape (used for plumbing, costs about €1 for a whole roll), that is 99,9 % white I then either put it in a corner of the frame, adjust the white balance and then crop it away. Or these days, simply take a separate shot to adjust the white balance with and then reuse on the other photos.

Maybe heir to some grove of trees in the Mystic Isles at least...?

Thanks for the comments! Yes, it's sand red. I bought a big lot "used once in an AFOL project" from USA a couple of years ago, but have not really made enough use of it. A bit challenging to build with almost only 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 and 1x6 bricks. The only plate I have is 2x6... The jars are salmon 33008 and 6995 from Scala. Thanks! I tried out the technique for the first time when I built a granary in Barqa for the Book II challenge IV prelude series, and liked the technique well enough to invest in 1,5 litres of dark orange 2x1 slopes A Bricklink store in the USA had a fairly big lot as I wrote above. Streets of Barqa is still intact (when will I ever dare to sort that??) Will you come to Borlänge in May if I promise to put them next to each other? Otherwise, I'm going to at least put this build next to the Aslanic temple.

Great to see more half-elves in GoH My take on the skin colors when I joined GoH (6 years ago) was that yellow was normal humans and flesh elves (mainly because of that almost all elven hair pieces had flesh ears), but that the CMF elf hair I used was a half-elf. I even made a small build for my sigfig intro to explain the skin color of my sigfig Love in Avalonia by Jonas Wide, on Flickr

Thanks for the comments! And the build is about the orcs and not about showing off the collection of goats (in that case I would have opened the last MVR too ) I think it's from the "Frankenstein" monster in Monster Fighters (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=mof017). The torso ended up on the male orc.

The finished build turned out very well! A fitting place to govern the fast growing city from

Humming "You can't take the sky from me..." This is such a great build, and it's been a pleasure to follow it's progress and see it live a couple of times Welcome to Borlänge!

Nice all-Lego shots you managed there, I was sure I was looking at (at least) a 32x32 build until I scrolled down to the last picture Kaliphlin and Nocturnus may have had their differences over the years, but the people of Nocturnus are human(oid)s too!

Lovely festivities, I really like the variety of figures you've put in there Great Midsummer feeling you’ve managed to capture, seems like an occasion when people have laid down their daily toils just to enjoy themselves for a while? I assume that these kind of occasions is what's keeping the Avalonian population growth going?

My entries to challenge II. Unfortunately, real life obligations caused the Amphitheater of Barqa to never materialize past experimenting with the geometry. Looking back on it I would have had to plunder a lot of old builds for figs to populate it... But maybe the idea can be reused some other challenge

This is my entry to Challenge II: Bread and Circuses, category C. The lore in this entry is also intended to summarize the status of Barqa “today” as a general canonized backdrop if someone else wants to build in or related to the city, which you are very welcome to do! Houses and street life in Barqa Houses and street life in Barqa Houses and street life in Barqa Barqa was never conquered by the Desert King but suffered heavily from being on the losing side of the civil war. The number of Barqan lives lost fighting for the High Council and later fighting Raavage and his allies, number in the tens of thousands. The trade which is the lifeblood of the city also suffered heavily due to the disruptions caused by the widespread turmoil. Different sides controlled different stretches of the Arkbri river’s banks. This almost completely strangled the prosperous river trade through central Historica, normally flowing to Barqa via Cedrica all the way from the river’s tributaries in southern Mitgardia. At the same time most of the sea trade southwards was blocked by the Ulandus navy from it's stronghold on the island of Gorr. Only the sea trade towards Varlyrio in the west and Avalonia and Mitgardia in the north was flowing more or less unhindered, but when supply dried up of many of the Kaliphlinite products normally shipped in these directions this trade also suffered a sharp decline. After the cessation of hostilities the maritime trade has opened again more or less unhindered. The Desert King is also allowing traffic along the Arkbri river again, but it has come at a price. The forces of the Desert King are demanding high tolls from all the passing river boats and thereby thinning out the profits of the Barqan merchants. The merchants are growing ever more restless, and an increasing opinion is advocating giving in to any demand from the Desert King as long as he lifts the tariffs. Is the City Council opening the city’s granaries and so generously distributing grain to the people only an innocent expression of Kaliphlinite charity, or is the council buying the support of the people before submitting to the Desert King? After all, despite not being allied the forces of Barqa fought side by side with the forces of the Desert King against Lord Ravaage and his Black Spire. A small street in Barqa. A constant in the city is the black cats, ever roaming the city living well off the hundreds of thousands of rats inhabiting the darker corners of the city. Many of the city’s small shops still remain closed, a stark reminder that times are still not back to the good old prosperous days. Enough Black Oil still finds its way to Barqa to chase away some of the shadows also at night Fresh produce are not in short supply, as the fertile floodplains of the lower Arkbri valley are once again at peace. Uruk fruit merchant One of Barqa's many small rooftop gardens A small shrine, dedicated to some minor deities venerated by the owners of the house On one of the city’s countless rooftop terraces, councilman Mordoch, a wealthy merchant, is meeting what seems to be an emissary from Sultan’s Gate and the court of the Desert King. They think they are having this meeting in secret, but in Barqa eyes are everywhere... Later that day, a pigeon is flying towards the Queen’s court in Cedrica. In the encoded message strapped to the leg of the pigeon, the Queen is informed that leaders of Barqa are negotiating with the Desert King! Will Barqa soon openly declare fealty to the Pharao? Or is the City Council divided into different factions and is this only the actions of a splinter group of influential merchants? Was this meeting held outside with the intention to be seen? What is the true position of Lord Gideon on siding with the Desert King? One thing is certain, if Barqa joins with the Desert King he will control lands all the way from the sea to the Rakath mountains. What would that mean for the Queen's prospects to consolidate her reign over Kaliphlin...? More inhabitants of the city and angles of the build:

My entry for category A: My entry for category C: (Unfortunately, real life obligations caused the Amphitheater of Barqa to never materialize past experimenting with the geometry. Looking back on it I would have had to plunder a lot of old builds for figs to populate it... But maybe the idea can be reused some other challenge )

The wars of Revolword and Raavage were by no means the first time scores of refugees from Nocturnus have found relative safety in the open-minded Kaliphlin. In the barren fringes of the lower Arkbri river valley, where the desert is about to take over beyond the vast irrigation networks, a tribe of orcs have lived for generations. They are making a living out of goat farming, where these hardy animals happily feed of vegetation that most other herbivores would decline. The goats provide the Arkbri orcs with meat and milk as well as fibre for the textile works of Barqa and goat skin which is popular among the scholars of Kaliphlin processed into top quality parchment. So despite living on the outskirts of Kaliphlin society, the Arkbri orcs are still very much part of the diverse mosaic of Kaliphlin. A family of Arkbri Orcs Hearing of Queen Ylspeth’s generousity, the council of Barqa chaired by Lord Gideon definitely did not want to have their traditionally renown generosity to the poor outdone by some young girl from the north! They have therefore decided to open the granaries of Barqa and provide for the poor in the surrounding lands. Now the Arkbri orcs aren’t really are in need, they are carrying along just fine and their simple living has been spared the destruction of all the recent wars. At most they’ve seen a bit of a decline in the demand for good goatskins for parchment. But who says no a free handout of grain? Especially when it’s grain grown on the irrigated floodplains of the Arkbri river, which fed by nutrients from the mountains of Mitgardia produce among the best grain in all of Historica.

Really stunning entry all-round! I love when minifig posing is in the center of a build of such proportions The various plants are also enhancing the scene quite a lot. One comment is however that I think you've overused 1x1 round plates a bit for the walls, an idea to get a slightly more subtle texture is to mix them with 1x1 round tiles/1x1 "stadium tiles". Not as strong but gives less of a symmetric dent in the walls. A minor nitpick is also that I think the photos are a bit greenish. Calibrating the white balance would correct that.

Great that there are both plots against and in favor of the Desert King in Barqa, makes for an interesting Book III Subtle turning of the minfig heads is imho a great way to create a much more beliveable connection between the characters

Great to see that the Prostental cheese soon once again will be on the tables of the Barqan patricians In the build I particularly like the upper wooden part (except maybe for the loose pieces). Nice clean photography and I love the "minifig level" shot. I would however have preferred the overall shot taken a bit further away to avoid the strong perspective distortion.

Great concept and execution, fits spot on in Barqa (which is the correct spelling ) I've actually had a similar idea for a long time too, and now I got a renewed urge to build another build on my "to-do" list showing one of the aqueducts supplying the great city with fresh water from the Zumrut Bluffs. Maybe it's me being a non-native English speaker missing something, but even after a couple of readings I'm still not sure where the plot is pointing? I'm asking as I'm almost done with a Barqa build myself and don't want to accidentally contradict your story (*hint* mine will be about the relations between Barqa and the Desert King) So could you (or someone else) give a TL;DR explanation of what this plot is suggesting...?

Nice colorful scene with great action Despite the interesting transportation animals, I actually like the scene even better without the streets as I think they distract a bit from the centerpiece and somehow makes the racetrack seem smaller. (It's also probably that in my mind these fairly smooth lbg streets seem a bit too clean in a dusty oasis city, I like the more uneven look in some of your previous builds with sparser paving like the watchtower build)) Great work with the photography, as usual