The Temple of Mondragon Printer Friendly Version   By TAR_ELENDIL - Dec. 31, 1969 BUILDING HISTORY At the core of the town of Mondragon, not far from the roc outcrop supporting the proud Castel-Dragon, mansion of the Lord of Mondragon, stands the Temple of Arïn. The elaborate building is one of the oldest of the region. It is even said that it predates the foundation of the town itself. Not surprisingly, its structure was often changed in the course of the years, the better to reflect the wealth and power of the local lords. But now even the most recent addition – the temple vestibule – is more than two centuries old. When nearby Achéron barony fell into the hands of the Undead, many people fled the mountains, and the power of the Lord of Mondragon waned. With the war approaching, religious practices have regained their former importance, and people do not hesitate to travel a dozen of leagues to pray under its sacred roofs. While insuring the safety of the pilgrims has stretched the military forces of Hugues of Mondragon, it has also provided him with new revenues that might be critical for him in the near future. As such, he has helped the local clergy to restore the appearance of the building, cleaning most of wild vines that covered its walls. DESCRIPTION The Temple has a roughly rectangular shape. The Eastern wall is made out of three semi-circular apses. It is covered by five domes, the largest of which culminates almost 100 ft above the dirt of the little plaza in front of the temple. Past the main doors, the incomer finds himself in the vestibule, paved with a black and white pattern. In this area, several merchants usually sell charms and pendants bringing good luck upon their bearers. Through the massive arch in front of him, which was ages ago the entrance to the temple, the visitor can behold the main nave of the Temple. Yet, he will most often begin by paying his respect to the numerous sacred paintings hung on the walls of the lateral corridors. He will then enter the central nave and pray in front of the iconostasis, getting a glimpse of the famed dome of the sanctum, painted to match the skies of forgotten ages. Only during the most sacred ceremonies is the iconostasis opened to let the faithful briefly contemplate the statue of Arïn, Father of Gods and Protector of the Kingdom. The priests and the nobles are the only ones allowed in the inner temple to marvel upon the exquisite craft of the golden statue and the richness of its marble pedestal. But the most extraordinary part of the building is in plain sight for everyone to behold. Even hundreds of leagues away, people have heard of the magical dome of the Temple. Nobody knows when it was realized or who painted the frescoes representing the four elements arising from the primordial light. Yet, the painting it as fresh as it was the day it was completed, and the silver dome outside shines as if time had no hold upon it. Magicians have come to contemplate the paintings, but when they departed, they wore the same puzzled look they had at their arrival. During the major ceremonies, the family of Hugues of Mondragon often gathers in the lateral chapel, dedicated to Elad, goddess of fertility. In the floor of the chapel lies a massive stone trap door. It is said that it is the entrance to the mausoleum where are buried the priests of the Temple, but not even Hughes has ever checked the truth of these tales. Far above the heads of those who pray in the chapel are hung the bells of the Temple. A priest apprentice usually makes chime the smaller ones to mark the hours. They are not used for the religious ceremonies, as the silence is deemed more pleasing to Arïn. The larger bells are never to be rung, except in case of emergencies or war. Only the older denizens of the town remember the last time they were heard, 45 years ago, when Ejhin de Vanth led a host of skeletons over the Pass of Ashes and down in the lands of Mondragon. The right nave of the inner temple is occupied by the vestry. Here are kept most of the cult implements. At the back of the vestry, a ladder leads to the attic, where the out-of-use statues and paintings are kept. It was originally planned to be a pulpit from which the priest would address the faithful, but it fell out of use after the visiting High Priest from Icquor almost broke his neck when the ladder failed to support his weight. Its was then reconverted as an attic and the High Priest thereafter avoided Mondragon in his annual tour (much to the pleasure of the local priests). CONSTRUCTION Dimensions: 15.25 x 10.5 x 14. Number of blocks: approximately 1910. Main material: Merlin’s Magic, tan color. The Temple is made of 18 main parts, namely: the floor, the four main wall parts, the back wall of the sanctum, the four turrets, the main dome, the six roofs and the statue of Arïn. To these elements, I have added a number of movable accessories: the two giant candles, the vestry ladder, a box and a (cardboard-based) painting stored in the attic, the two lateral cardboard doors, the main door (two parts, cardboard also) and the cardboard iconostasis. The construction is pretty straightforward, once the plan is established. The main issue was to maintain straight walls everywhere, which was not easy, because they are widely apart one from the other. As a consequence, I had to trim some roof sections for them to fit neatly in place. The temple is built on a simple base of thick paper. I first draw the outline of the temple walls, and put them in place. After I had completed the first rows of the walls, I put the floor in place, beginning with the lower floor. The elevated part of the floor (under the inner temple) was assembled separately, before it was glued to the rest of the base. Therefore, it is not supported from beneath (that does not change its resistance, as I have tested). The trap door in the lateral chapel can actually move if somebody pulls on the brass ring in its middle. There is nothing beneath, but I use it to transition to my dungeon sets when a player opens it. Structurally speaking, the temple is extremely sturdy when everything is in place. However, it is better to place the large dome after the four turrets, as the walls help stabilize the main pillars. If the large dome was placed first, the lateral pressure it creates on the main pillar could weaken them after a while. All pieces are maintained in place by the complex geometry of the joints. There is only one exception: the curved back wall of the sanctum is not prevented from falling backwards. When the temple is horizontal, it stays in place because of gravitation forces (the dome above tends to make the wall fall toward the interior), but the temple should not be titled backward too much. Due to the shape of the different parts, there is a precise order to assemble or disassemble the lateral walls. There is not particular order regarding the turrets and roofs, except that the roofs should be assembled after the turrets. I have used cardboard doors rather than balsa or plaster, because there is less risk to break them when the temple is used as a gaming set and is under siege. However, I plan to replace the current iconostasis by its balsa equivalent, so I could have independent sections for each of the naves. In order to hide the joints between the various wall sections, I made them zigzag as much as possible. However, these joints are still visible along two of the tall windows above the entrances (main and right entrance). Whenever I come back home (5000 km from the place I am now), I will add some ivy to mask these joints. I should be noticed that the temple could be used in other settings. As the statue of Arïn is modular, it could be replaced by other implements (like an altar, a preaching chair, etc) and the temple used in different games. MOLDS USED #50 Wizard’s Tower Mold (rectangular and cubic blocs, arched windows) #52 Circular Tower Mold (circular blocs, connection blocs, floor blocs) #54 Church Mold (arches, base trim, window trim, decorative caps, etc) #55 Bell Tower (arches, recessed arches, round window, flat trim, etc) #56 Tomb Mold (all) #57 Prison Tower (decorative corner blocks, arches, decorative blocks) #61 Turret Mold (round blocks, floor blocs, windows, domed roof, decorative pieces) #63 Octagon Tower Mold (octagonal blocs, trim pieces, brick-edged windows) #65 Ruined Tower Mold (arch for 4” diameter circular wall) #164 Round Connector Mold (4” and 3” round connectors) #205 Gothic Floor Tiles (all, except the brick tiles) #235 Gothic Roof Mold (tile pieces, roof peaks, horizontal railing, decorative pieces) #250 Small Brick Mold (small bricks, arches) CUSTOMIZATION I had to trim several pieces forming the borders of the roofs. I also had to trim the angles of the arches forming the small central top dome in order to make them fit on the large dome. I had to cut four of the gothic floor blocks to form the borders of the lateral corridors, when they intersect with the path from the lateral doors. I a small number of cases, when I had to fill recessed openings with a complex shape, I used some kneadatite rather than trying to trim a bloc to the right shape. NON-HIRST ARTS ELEMENTS - Printed cardboard figuring the frescoes and icons of the temple. - Printed cardboard representing the wooden iconostasis separating the inner temple from the faithful. - Printed cardboard representing the temple doors. - Several accessories, boxes and pots (mostly by Fenryll and Mega Minis) found here and there in the temple. - Plastic custom-made ladder. - Plastic Playmobil candlesticks (2) representing the giant candles in front of the iconostasis. - Small plastic figures (2) representing the small statue in the lateral chapel and the one in the attic. - HäT miniatures (8) “Spanish Infantry” (ref. 8019), used for the four small statues in the niches on the exterior walls and for the four small statues in the niches above the sanctum. - Rackham miniature “Sardar le Pur” (ref. FRLIMA01) figuring the large statue in the sanctum. - Modelism bells (4) representing the bells in the small dome above the lateral chapel. - Copper wire, used for the rods supporting the bells and for the ring of the trap door in the lateral chapel. - Lid of a plastic box used for the golden dome of the sanctum. The decorative pieces were made out of rope. - Metal bowl with a hole in its center used for the silver large dome. - Shell of a sea urchin used for the small golden dome on top of the large silver one. PAINTING I first painted everything with a GW ‘Chaos Black’ base. All paints subsequently used are Prince August paints. For the wall stone blocks, I first painted them with ‘Basalt Grey’, dry brushed them with the ‘Sky Grey’ color, and used a diluted ‘Saddle Brown’ for finishing. I also painted the edges of the building with ‘Sky Grey’. The exterior sides of the oxidized (copper) roofs were first painted with a ‘Bronze’ color. Then, I dry brushed them with an ‘Old Gold’ color to stress the relief. After that, I applied a diluted ‘Intermediate Green’ to represent oxidation. I applied the same type of painting to the metal statues in the outside niches. The discarded statue in the attic was also painted in the same way. The interior sides of the flat roofs are first painted in ‘Saddle Brown’ and dry brushed in the ‘Yellow Ochre’ color, in order to figure old stucco. The interior sides of the turrets are painted ‘Bronze’ and dry brushed in ‘Old Gold’. The small golden roof on top of the large dome and the crosses above the entrances were first painted ‘Bronze’ and then were heavily dry brushed with ‘Old Gold’ painting. I applied the same painting to the exterior of the golden dome above the sanctum. The interior of this dome, figuring the starlit sky, was simply painted with the ‘Grey Blue’ paint. I represented the stars by small dots of ‘Gloss White’. The interior of the large dome first received the ‘Chaos Black’ base. Then, I directly painted the representations of the four elements. I delineated their shapes with ‘Sky Grey’, and I then applied the adequate colors for each element (Earth: ‘Basalt Grey’, ‘Flat Earth’, ‘Yellow Ochre’, ‘Red’, ‘Light Orange’, ‘Copper’ and ‘White’; Water: ‘Grey Blue’, ‘Deep Sky Blue’ and ‘White’; Air: ‘Sky Grey’ and ‘Gloss White’; Fire: ‘Red’, ‘Scarlet’, ‘Light Orange’, ‘Lemon Yellow’ and ‘Gloss White’). A large part of the floor was painted in the same manner as the walls. I also used ‘Red’ and ‘Deep Yellow’ to figure the mosaic pavement decorating the main nave. I used a very diluted glaze of ‘Basalt Grey’ for finishing, in order to get a dusty look to the nave floor. The floor of the vestibule and of the lateral corridors was painted in a black and white pattern. I first applied a ‘Basalt Grey’ coating to obtain a neutral base. Then I painted the blocks alternately with ‘Black’ and ‘White’ paints, after diluting both painting so the grey would still be visible by transparency. Thus, it gave them this worn look that is expected in a much-trodden area. The interior niche statues first received a ‘Bronze’ painting. I dry brushed them with an ‘Old Gold’ painting afterwards. The robe of the statue of Elad in the lateral chapel was painted in two shades of blue (Elad is supposed to be the goddess of the waters). The robe decorations were painted ‘White’ and ‘Old Gold’, and the head of the statue was painted as a regular human miniature. The large statue of Arïn in the sanctum was first painted in ‘Bronze’, then heavily dry brushed in ‘Old Gold’, and more lightly dry brushed with ‘Silver’ to enhance the brilliance of the Sun-god representation. For the base of the statue, I first painted it with diluted ‘Red’, and I represented the marble by broken and irregular lines of ‘Basalt Grey’, ‘Intermediate Green’ and ‘Gloss White’. The wooden trim above the frescoes in the lateral corridor was first painted ‘Red’. The old varnish finish was achieved by dry brushing them with the ‘Copper’ paint. The bells were first painted ‘Bronze’. Rather than dry brushing them gold afterwards, I diluted my ‘Old Gold’ paint to have a more natural effect of burnished bronze. I treated similarly the small implements here and there in the temple, as well as the candlesticks of the giant candles in front of the iconostasis. The candles themselves were painted with ‘Ivory’, and I used ‘Lemon Yellow’ and ‘Gloss White’ to figure their flames. The pedestals upon which the candles stand are first painted in ‘Gloss Black’. I represented the marble irregularities by broken and irregular lines of ‘Basalt Grey’, ‘Sky Grey’ and ‘Gloss White’. The stand behind the statue of Elad is painted in the same way, and its borders are decorated with the ‘Old Gold’ painting.   0 Ratings     12345      Public Comments Please log in to post a comment    You must be a registered member to post comments. You may sign-in Here.

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