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The city of Barqa is one of the most significant trade hubs in Historica. It is located where the mighty Arkbri river meets the sea, after providing an artery of trade from the mountains of Mitgardia through much of central Historica. Barqa sits in the middle of the southwest coast, also making it a great place for seaborne trade between Avalonia, Varlyrio, and the southern parts of Historica. Sometimes, traders from the eastern side of the continent or the islands in the Great Southern Ocean also bring their goods here. All this trade passing through the city gives Barqa's authorities a chance to collect a small portion of the wealth. They do this at the city's grand toll houses, designed to impress travelers used to more modest towns. This building was recently rebuilt and extended, as much of the city of Barqa has been in this current era of peace out of the ruins and neglect from the Elemental and Civil Wars. Every morning, merchants queue up, anticipating the bell that signals the beginning of the day's trade at sunrise. Before long, the initial toll of the day will be gathered, and the coastal breeze will carry the distinctive sound of gold, silver, and copper coins—the quintessential commodities of Kaliphlin. Lines of merchants in front of the toll booths. To be bestowed with the duty of tolling the commerce bell is a noble distinction for a junior guardsman of the City Watch. They reassured him that the hearing loss is typically temporary, for most guardsmen. In the bustling crowd waiting for the toll booths to open, some merchants, instead of holding their place in line, are drawn to the street musician's melodies, perhaps seizing a moment for flirtation. Chancellor Gideon, chairman of the City Council, halts during his morning stroll to exchange greetings with the toll master. The toll master, on the balcony outside of the fiscal hall. One of Barqa's numerous alchemists, deeply engrossed in his arcane pursuits, goes about his own business. As crucial as the City Watch for order in the city, the renowned black cats of Barqa play a vital role in keeping the rodent population in check. More pictures:
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Great Lighthouse of Barqa The Arkbri River has been a major trade route through the heart of Historica since ancient times. Where the great river meets the sea, the port city of Barqa is ideally positioned to connect the inland river shipping with the sea traders, making Barqa a major hub for trade between all corners of Historica. To ensure a safe haven for the valuable shipping, fortifications have been guarding the harbor of Barqa for centuries. Over time this has grown into a strong harbor citadel. To guide seafarers into the port, it has been a long tradition to keep a fire burning on the top of the citadel and this platform has been built higher and higher over the years, becoming one of Historica’s most prominent lighthouses. This lighthouse was however heavily damaged in the elemental attacks at the culmination of the Revolword war, and it also fell further into disrepair when the trade along the Arkbri river was disrupted by the Kaliphlin civil war. As the trade resumed when the hostilities ceased the prosperity returned to the city. The city council, led by chancellor Gideon, could therefore commission a major restoration and expansion of the lighthouse. Its peak now soars higher than ever before, dominating the Barqan skyline. In daytime, the new whitewashed upper section is the first thing seafarers spot sailing into the Arkbri estuary. When darkness falls, the fire - burning bright thanks to being fueled by Kaliphlin naphta - is now visible farther out to sea than ever before. Great Lighthouse of Barqa, as seen from the Arkbri estuary. Great Lighthouse of Barqa, as seen from inside the city. (To be continued...) The upper balcony of the lighthouse is an excellent platform to keep an eye on all maritime traffic passing in or out of the Arkbri estuary. The harbor side of the lighthouse, with some roofed stalls for storage or fishmongers, next to the docks. One of the main offices for the tax collectors of the port of Barqa is in this fortress, protecting the not insignificant share of the wealth passing through Barqa which is mandated to remain in the city. Chancellor Gideon, always in a hurry, has visited the fort. Probably for a meeting with some tax inspector manager or some other bureaucratic duties, quite far from the life of a wandering warrior he lived 10 years ago… As the citadel has been expanded over time, only some small portions of the original rock it is built on is still visible. Some persistent seagulls however still try to claim their ancestral home. This is a re-interpretation of the lighthouse I built for Challenge II of Book II: I also built the orginal lighthouse to display at Brickworld Chicago 2014, but since I had to dismantle it (to keep the bricks safe from losing clutch power in a hot parked car during our 2 week roadtrip following Brickworld ), it was one of my shortest-lived builds. However, that build is also one of the most special in my AFOL journey, since Brickworld 2014 was my first convention abroad and the first time I got to meet some other GoH builders in real life. Special thanks to @Rogue Angel who helped get my build a spot at the EB tables, where I had a great time haning out with the EB people there over the weekend! One of the reasons I chose to revisit this build was that I wanted to improve on the blocky “brick” arches over the windows. I also really wanted to try my hand at more advanced water building at a large scale, which I hope is an improvement over the original build’s poured round plate technique. The water in the new build is based on a 3-layered technique, with different shades of blue in the bottom layer, trans-dark blue/trans-light blue/trans-clear in a middle layer and finally trans-light blue on top. This enables both a better sense of depth of the water and mixing “new” colors, to achieve a better gradient. I also added some waves at the end, with trans-clear plates as foaming water next to the shore and a pattern of waves out on the open water, at an angle against the “grid”. Building several layers of small pieces creates quite a lot of stress on the plate, so as only building it on a baseplate creates a quite substantial “banana effect”. This was counteracted by having a full Moduverse plate underneath the water to provide additional rigidity to keep the water flat. The corner turrets were a particularly challenging part of this build, especially the domes. I borrowed the concept of using the dinosaur tails for a dome from @adde51, but figured out myself that if I staggered their mounting points it was possible to create such a dome with only 8 studs diameter. Thanks to the tile revolution in recent years (particularly the 3x3 curved tile finally filling the gap in the rounded tile lineup!) I also managed to completely tile the interior. Not that anyone will notice when exhibiting the build, but I know that it is there Interior of one of the corner turrets. This is also intended to be the first section of a long-term project with more parts of the maritime side of Barqa being built - and hopefully also being able to be integrated with some of my older builds for future exhibitions. While the original lighthouse basically exhausted my supply of tan and medium nougat, this only scratched the top of the tan bins in 2023… Lighting by LifeLites, “candle flicker” diodes by the entrance and a eLite Advanced kit (the size of a 2x4 brick) controlling 8 individual diodes in a fire pattern at the top. Film of the fire at the top of the lighthouse. The battery box is hidden inside the city wall for ease of access:
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CHALLENGE I: Aslanic Temple in Barqa The Order of Aslan has a strong presence in Barqa, with both it’s clerical and military wings having numerous members in the city. The Aslanic faith is therefore one of the most widespread among the inhabitants of Barqa. Particularly in the growing community of migrants from Nocturnus, the faith in the Lion God seems to be spreading quickly. Towering over the New Aden district, located within the outer wall of Barqa, the bell tower of the Aslanic Temple is one of the most recognizeable landmarks of the Barqa skyline and the tones of its bells are a familiar sound calling to prayer daily and sometimes to alert of fire or foes. Aslanic temple in Barqa, next to a busy street in the New Aden district Altar with the idol of Aslan In the parched deserts of Kaliphlin and the fetid swamps of Nocturnus clean and fresh water is a well-known symbol of life, both literally and in a spiritual meaning. Barqa is fed by several aqueducts providing the city with fresh mountain water from the Zumrut Bluffs. The Aslanic Order has made sure to connect the temple the water supply and have built a fountain where the depiction of Aslan is literally providing the inhabitants of Barqa with abundant life flowing from the mouth of the Lion God. Especially the majority of the city’s inhabitants who cannot afford to live in a house connected by its own pipes greatly appreciate this service, regardless of if they chose to put any religious interpretation in the water or not. Contrary to widespread prejudice against “filthy orcs”, most are actually quite cleanly if given the chance. One might wonder if this is one of the explanations for the revival in the orcish population of the city. An orcish child and his mother are fetching water from the temple’s fountain. Bishop Sheyer, the highest spiritual leader of the Order in Barqa is briefing Lord Gideon about the progress of the repair works Aslanic priest explaining to some of the cityfolk how the quite theoretical sermon preached by the bishop should be interpreted A knight and a sergeant of the military wing of the Order Lord Kfir, leader of the military wing of the Aslanic Order in Barqa During the numerous recent conflicts in recent years the Order has not prioritized to maintain the temple. During the time when much of the Barqan City Guard along with almost all of the Order’s forces were in the field against Raavage, the temple has even been subject to theft of the copper roof which now has to be repaired. One by one the domes are now being repaired and one by one the walls are getting new plaster. Workers are repairing the roofs and walls of the temple Metalworker starting to repair the last of the damaged domes Plasterer repairing the temple walls The streets of the newer parts of Barqa are in most places depressed a bit to be able to collect the everyday filth and handle torrents of water from the infrequent but heavy rains, before being passed on to the extensive sewer system of the city ultimately washing everything out into the Arkbri river and the sea. To avoid having pedestrians setting foot in the streets they are equipped at regular intervals with stepping stones, with standardized spacing so that carriage wheels can pass unhindered. Oxcart. Is the driver getting drunk on his own supply? A veteran from some war long ago, somewhere in Historica, now calls Barqa his home. The city also teems with other smaller creatures. Barqa is particularly well known for its numerous black cats, well liked by most people in the city since the cats are at least to some extent limiting the rodent problem. Black cats of Barqa The arborists of the city have been busy aiding the siege workshops for a few years... The Temple Square is centrally located in the district and is always a busy place More inhabitants of the city: More pictures: The ambition with this build was to continue building in the style of my old Streets of Barqa build, while still carefully updating the style with some of the new pieces which has been added to my collection. I also adapted the base to a Moduverse compatible standard to facilitate possible future collabs with my local LUG friends who are joining Kaliphlin too. The road is made up of two 16x32 modules which could serve as a standard for future Barqan road networks on some exhibition in Scandinavia. I also wanted to give proper homage to @Mike S's original lore about Barqa and the Order of Aslan, from what I could find on the GoH wiki and in some old threads. If there are any contradictions in what I’ve written I would of course be more than happy to update it! Many thanks to @adde51, @Wineyard, @Zilmrud, @Peter S and @dalle for all the great feedback during the build process! It's been one of the most fun builds ever thanks to the collaborative process we've had
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In Kaliphlin, glass making is a significant industry and throughout Historica Barqan glass is a synonym for glass of the highest quality. The making of raw glass is concentrated to some larger furnaces, several of which exists in Barqa fueled by the intense flames of Black Oil and where tons of raw glass is produced. In small workshops such as this one, at lower temperatures the raw glass is then together with recycled glass used to produce the finished glass products. The ingredients of the Barqan glass are: Former - The major component of glass is silica. The best sand in Historica for this is sand from the Kaliphlin deserts, where the softer components of the sand has been ground down and blown away by the relentless winds over the wasteland only leaving the hard quartz. Flux - To lower the melting point of the silica to form glass, soda is added. The source of this is natron from the shores of the Lick of Salt river and the Salt Lake it feeds. Stabiliser - Glasses formed of silica and soda are naturally soluble, and require the addition of a stabiliser such as lime. While glass makers using beach sand get this for free through the calcareous particles in the beach sand (fragments of shells) mixed in the sand, in the best Barqan glass made from mature desert sand lime made from limestone needs to be added separately. Different crop for closeup. Built for the Kaliphlin at Work collab. Photography notes: Lit by 4 x LifeLites inside the furnace and one in the lantern, plus a LED panel behind the wall.
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Throughout Barqa the wealthy merchants and craftsmen of the city like to have a small walled garden on their property. The climate here where the Arkbri river meets the sea is favorable for the cultivation of many kinds of flowers, and many merchants take pride in their collection of exotic plants. Walled garden of Barqa Barqa is known for its black cats, and those who like the cats (or dislike rats?) make sure to have small doors for the cats to pass unhindered. Barqan cat door Additional images: My entry for Guilds of Historica Book III Challenge IV, Category B.
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Kaliphlin is known for its abundance of oil, and in Barqa the alchemists and craftsmen joined forces long ago to make this into the fearsome weapon known as "Barqan Fire". It is most commonly used on board warships, but smaller horse-drawn war machines have also started to be made for use in land combat. Unfortunately they are not very reliable yet and are not without reason feared almost as much among the Kaliphlinites themselves as by their foes. In this siege workshop in Barqa, a completed fire wagon is ready for transport to support the war against the Spire. The soldier doing the final adjustments to the pumping mechanism has however unknowingly built up way too much pressure in the cylinder... Siege workshop in Barqa Accidental release of the Barqan Fire... Accidental release of the Barqan Fire... Closeup of a Barqan Fire Wagon Closeup of the fire pumping mechanisms ready to be mounted on new wagons Siege workshop in Barqa Fire! (Photographed with only the blacklight) It was a challenge to get the lighting good for this build, getting enough blacklight to give a good fluorescent glow but not too much so that the rest of the build turned all blue... Here is the photo setup, where the speedlight was fired at maximum power and mix of light was regulated by how long the exposure time was after the flash. Typically I used 10-30 s.
