Submission Theme: Life and Death theme to match that of Wraeclast
You rapidly exit a giant Vaal pyramid as something seems to gone wrong while teleporting to Sarn. Barely grasping your surroundings, you stand up from the waypoint and stumble out of this giant structure. You find yourself surrounded by trees and vegetation...in an underground chamber:
As you wander along the forest trail you come across the watcher of the forest, who bids you welcome and encourages you to bless yourself at the well to protect yourself from what lies ahead:
Upon bathing yourself in the holy waters of the blessing font, you journey farther down the path. You now reach the shepherdess of the dead and she grants you the ability to stare into the well to see what destiny awaits you:
You finally come to the end of the trail and find yourself at the doorway of an ancient structure. Upon further investigation you are convinced that this is an ancient thaumaturgical lab due to the foul smell in the air:
You see a light to your nearest right an investigate further. A great cartographer remains at her desk vigorously scribbling notes while surrounded by map, alter, and book:
The shimmering red air around you makes you want to investigate further. As you wander down the stairs surrounded by the charcoal black walls you finally reach the bottom of the stairs where you find a great gladiator reading the last rite's to multiple prisoners:
You traverse the final amount of corridor and enter a room where the stench immediately offends your nostrils. Looking around you are stunned at the amount of lab tables with prisoners mounted on them. A master torturer stands nearby a generator and several electrical shocking devices. Off to your right a pile of rotting corpses remains from the experimentation in this room. In the center of the room you behold why all the sacrifices are being conducted. A red glow indicates that the device is powered on and enables opening of portals to other worlds:
Clarity of the situation hits you as you realize that Malachai has used the expertise of the cartographer to open portals to other worlds using the life force of the prisons being held in the earlier part of the lab. Using an empty chest nearby you decide to escape through the portal device by placing in a location known to you...
IceCrisis's Cryptic Sanctum
Theme: Path of Destruction
Boom Headshot
Leo and Vagan begin plotting in their encampmant
But first a selfie!
Their decisions lead to a trail of torture. Nothing pleasant comes from wanton destruction.
Zana and Elreon retreat to safety. Together they preserve the knowledge of our people behind an impenetrable barrier.
Without sanctuary exiles meet their inevitable end. Inside the belly of a beast their lives end.
Catarina nurtures the poor souls of the exiles whose lives were wasted along this path. Guiding the souls outward or toward her own prolific vengeance.
Suffering and strife are the threads that weave the tapestry of Wraeclast.
Brought forth from an endless stream of worlds and dimensions,
The exiles sacrifice blood and humanity in their fight for existence.
Heroes rise and fall through an endless dance of death and carnage,
Leaving behind only scars and memories upon the Earth.
In life, they were Kings and masters whom shaped the world to their will,
In death, they are a nothing more than a symbol of human mortality.
I present to you the Cathedral of Lost Hope:
A place where we may honor our lost brothers.
May they find the peace in death that they were denied in life.
Picture 1 + 2: The field of Lost Memories
Picture 3: The church. Elreon bestows his wisdom upon those left behind.
Picture 4: The chamber of history. Zana records the deeds of the fallen to honor their memories. It is through these books that the history of Wraeclast is preserved.
Picture 5: The guest room. Leo visits the Cathedral regularly to recite the stories of those whom have valiantly fought and died in the arena. Although the bodies will fade, their spirit will live on.
Picture 6: The tomb of the Forgotten King. Was he kind or cruel? Was he a conqueror or a scholar? Did he build empires or did he squander his potential? His memory is gone, but we honor him still.
Picture 7: The embalming chamber. Haku has spent his life gathering the souls of great heroes. Here, he prepares the bodies to be buried and places the necessary ceremonial runes that guide the spirits to the life beyond.
Picture 8: The portal room. From infinite worlds and universes, all exiles eventually find their way here. The map device guides them through the endless maze of portals.
Theme is loosely based on Catholic purgatory, but incorporates the Spanish train bringing the bodies/souls to purgatory as well as the river styx. There is an elevator to hell (map device), statues of false gods forever burning (Honestly don't know why they are all female) and more.
I have used decorations to the limit without limiting the area and making use of the decorations to draw attention to height and lighting effects.
As a matter of fact I have used ONLY free decorations to prove that a beautiful Hideout is possible without "pay to win"! (And I'm broke as hell)
Enter through a pretty glittering cross with a river in sight and churchbells in the backround...how bad can it be?!
River styx with wind blowing, seems like a lonely place to wait. (Hope you brought some silver!)
Statues of false gods with Catarina glow in backround, maybe she knows/waits for Phlegyas. (Burn the witch!)
Intersection of three areas (road to Catarina incl) used as a graveyard. (Because walking over graves all day is what we DO!) - Catarina crafting Stones found here incidentally.
Closeup of Spanish train / Ghost train with low tech braking / suspension solution. (Those bodies didn't make the cut or were leftovers I suppose.)
That cart was premarked for hell, don't worry, no elevator/judgement required.
Say hi to the camera boys, you're going down...
Vorici set up his shop next to the elevator powersource. (Don't follow these souls to hell unprepared!)
The league of Rationalists is a group of forsaken masters, who believe, that there is indeed a scientific explanation for everything we see.
The forsaken masters met each other while wandering in the dangerous lands of Wraeclast, which, in a way, connected them all. Yet not all agreed on one matter- the wonders of this strange land. Some said that the creatures that lurk about are a result of miracles (good or bad) that, simply, cannot be explained. Others, though, said it is all caused by mankind, or, of course, The Vaal. To them, The Vaal were responsable for the state of this land, but also the Oriathi. Experiments, construction, evolution in technology is what caused it.
The masters often argued about how this land came to be. One could only divide them into Two groups: Spiritualists and Rationalists. Every one of them had something to say. Everyone except Krillson. "How" and "Why" didn't bother the fisherman all too much. But the endless war between his comrades did, untill he decided to go his own way, never to be seen again.
After that faithful day, the exiled masters realised they simply can't see eye to eye, making it impossible for them to live together. They came to an agreement not to go in each other's way, never to cross paths again.
Elreon, the defender of all that is spiritual often called those who opposed his belief Heretics. His group of believers was small, composed only by a Huntress and a Karui Blacksmith.
The huntress, Tora, followed Mother Nature's ways- she did not care for science and development. All she needed was the warm deerhide to comfort her at night.
The Blacksmith, Haku, was a man of old belief. Him and Elreon did not believe in the same gods, but they got along nicely despite that.
The three found refugee wherever felt safe, they lived day to day. Sometimes it was a long forgotten temple they spent the night in, others in the wild, under the vast, beautiful sky of Wraeclast, unlike their ex-companions.
Vagan found Elreon's "talk of Ghosts" annoying and not fitting for a man his age. He was a fighter, who also loved exploring ruins, in hope of one day finding a good place for him and his fellow men and women to settle. And so he did- a Vaal Temple, or so it was, ages ago.
Vorici, a man of surgeon precision, had no time for bonfire ghost stories. His only god was science. The man loved reading books about the human body and how it works. He could kill someone in a thousand different ways.
Zana was a black sheep, a daydreamer. When the masters split into two groups, she was expected to be on the Spiritual side. But then she revealed to them her project. A Device that lets you travel to a different place, outside of Wreaclast, only, with one way out of it- Back to Wraeclast- almost like a dream. She often dissapeared in the middle of the day, but always came back with firewood, maybe a rabbit or two, so no one really cared about what she was doing.
Leo, the man who could best any single one of the exiles with only one hand (not that he could try using two, simply because he did not have as many). He could predict a man's movement before they decide to execute it. Elreon called him "one of God's finest and most gifted creations". He, although, wasn't much of a believer. The old man's spirit talk amused him, but he couldn't rely on spirits to help him in a tough situation, so he made his choice and took a side.
Catarina wasn't exactly fond of machines and experiments, but she knew she had no place with the spiritualists. They saw her as a threat, due to her belief in The God of Death and no others. She spent her free time constructing totems out of the body parts of dead people and animals, which creeped everyone out. When Vagan found the Vaal ruin, she descended into the deep dungeon below, in a small cave with a water pool. Outside her cave is where the construct ended, that is where they kept their riches and treasures...
The Base itself.
Spoiler
The Main Hall. This is where Vorici and Vagan spend most of their time. Long hard work has shown results in the creation of a teleportation device that lets them travel from certain locations they've connected, to the hideout's Main Hall (Also known and Waypoints). This assures a safe way of traveling without having to undo the barricade they've set to assure there will be no troubles at night.
Not bad, Vagan, not bad at all.
Vorici's Little Piece of Crafting Heaven.
A completely reconstructed replica of Old Elreon's Blessing font. This device is 100% Alchimy. They all decided to keep the name anyways.
The "Dream" Device: Zana's own personal creation. Reinvented to fit more than one exile into her dream-realms.
Leo guards the stash, filled with everything you need when going on a walk on one of Zana's "dreams". Need a hand mate?
Downstairs, we see a storage room. Everything that isnt of imediate need is kept here. Even a steam-based Armour bench. It is also the entrance to the "Loot Room"- a storage room for things of slightly higher value.
By things of higher value, gold is meant of course. Shiny, alluring treasures :O
And not to forget, Catarina's cozy cave (with a hint of decomposing corpse smell). Right, I'll leave you to whatever it is you're doing down here ma'am.
9 pictures instead of 8, sorry GGG, I've had more than enough limitation in 2 days (Yes, Decoration cap, I'm looking at you.) I really hope that you will one day be generous enough to highten that 750 cap, for realzies :D.
Here - take a look at my Infernal Dungeon ( in Standard )! It is the reason why Brutus is so angry all the time ... he wants one just like mine but he just can't afford it (the wages for the workers, the bills for the place, and of course the salary of the janitor is astronomical! ).
The entrance - made possible by ancient ( second hand ) magical swords; my chest and some of my riches; my doorman - Haku; and my notice board-stick ( Wraeclast Facebook ).
Spoiler
Elreon in front of the infernal sacrificial altar with the next sacrifice victim helplessly waiting her fate
Spoiler
A guy sitting on the floor in his cell... but who can blame him - that chair looks uncomfortable!
Spoiler
Ah yes - Leo ( next to the generator ), the guy who takes care of the power in the dungeon .
Spoiler
Zana next to her mini-map device. The device might be small but the amounts of blood that it requires in order to work are considerable.
Spoiler
Just a girl ... laying on a table ... let's move on nothing to see here!
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And last but not least - Vorici, making his famous stew!
This is my 'Temple of a Pagan God' submission for the contest (standard league).
The idea is that a temple was half constructed on small island east of the shore of Wraeclast. The Temple was built to worship an old god, but before it was finished, the builders were consumed by their god, hundreds of years ago.
From time to time, strange beasts and men find their way to the island, but the island must protect itself.
The Dark encampment
Four of the greatest masters of Wraeclast inhabit the island. Just outside the temple, they observe, unsure whether to protect, or destroy the structure.
