A Castle is Born: The Great Hall of Embervale
/The greatness of a castle doesn’t necessarily need to be shown by building a huge layout. Just a part of it can be enough. Like this perfect example of Embervale Castle. LEGO builder Aurore only shows us the castle’s Great Hall and leaves the rest of the structure to our imagination. But seeing all the wonderful details, I can only imagine it must be part of something truly great, especially when it’s inhabited by elves!
The use of dark blue and medium blue work perfectly as the choice for house colors and make it pop nicely with all that light bluish grey—especially using the blues as gentle highlights on the floor and even in a better way for the large banners (which are made of the large rotor blades and show that brick-built flags can look very appealing). One of the things that also catches the eye is the use of a Nexo Knight shield as a Sigil. Often those are too bright or have a print that’s too much sci-fi to fit regular Castle themes, but in this case it matches perfectly! So a very nice addition to the scene.
Furniture-wise the hall has plenty to offer as well. The benches look really sleek and look quite comfortable. It’s also a nice touch that instead of building all the benches the same way, each one is tweaked a bit. Furthermore, the large cabinets are nicely integrated into the wall and are showcasing items that are obtained in previous adventures. There are also plenty of books—the use of the ingot works very well for that. And as a nice extra detail, and almost Elven-unworthy, one of the books has fallen over. You can even see the plant has a good amount of dirt to grow, and it’s a fun way to approach this indoor scene by cutting it in half. It’s those little details that make this scene so much fun to look at.
Like many great halls, this one also has high windows and large columns. Those are nicely detailed by using tiles around it—the element that especially pops throughout the build is the quarter tile. She finishes the arches above the windows and uses them as a texture on the wall. Those larges windows are also perfect to play with a bit with lighting as the mesmerizing shot below shows.
And last but not least, don’t forget to have a look outside! Where most builders would ignore the details behind the walls by focusing on the indoors, Aurore has even given the windows the same style as on the inside. And again to complete the bley (blueish-grey) walls, she covered them with colorful vines. Seeing it from this side makes you almost wonder if it could be part of something larger. Feels almost as if it’s a small part taken out of a castle dollhouse. We can expect more from her though because this is just a prologue of the Chronicles of Embervale, so make sure to head over and read the whole tale!
What do you like more? Seeing castles from the inside or the outside? Let us know in the comment section below.
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