Montravelle

The height of Opsidian power sits atop Mount Opsido—the empire's only free-standing mountain. Dark, angular, and breathtaking, the fortress bears the name Montravelle.

 

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First off, yes. This is a digital build. And huge, huge thanks to Renderbricks for helping me out with the gorgeous render! :D But don't express "Aw, if only it could be done with real bricks!" disappointment yet. All of these parts (excluding the guard's fancy dark orange scarf and his slightly modified head) exist in these colors. Although it is tempting to give in to infinite possibilities, establishing an "only what exists" limit—outside of minifigures—challenges me personally to work with what I have and gives me a nice warm feeling that this could actually be built physically.

 

Now here's the part where I tell you buying that amount of bright green off of BL is extremely difficult. But it's the principle of the thing that counts. ;)

 

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Regarding the build itself, my main goal since beginning the project has always been to take some of the famed "staleness" out of the castle genre. I incorporated a more unique style of architecture inspired by two builds of mine from five years ago. Very gothicky and mainly achieved thanks to those delectable pteranodon jaw parts. Also experimented with a more unique layout that flowed with the landscape instead of cutting through it. My favorite part overall, though, is the contrast in color and shape between building and mountain, which I think makes the MOC pop the most. So when all is said and done, I hope Montravelle at least qualifies as a fresh take on the old theme.

 

And that's about it.

 

Just one big fortress from a one-time imagined fantasy world once to be admired and never to be returned to again . . .

 

. . . unless this could also be the start of something bigger.

Done