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The Story of Círdan Lantaél

The story of Círdan Lantaél, the one who fell from the stars

This is the story of Círdan. Nobody knows where he came from, not even himself. Círdan’s story begins in the in the barren lands of Gwarogorth in the center of a continent called Cernerias on the world of Terasvernia. One night, a bright flash of light illuminated the wasteland, and Círdan woke up in the middle of a burned piece of land.

All he remembered was his first name, and he was wearing only a simple tunic. Confused and frightened he instinctively looked around to find some cover. The land around him was barren and was only scarcely populated with dry bushes and dead trees. Smoke was pouring out of cracks in the ground and filled the air with a smell of rotten eggs and black powder.  

Círdan noticed that he couldn’t see a horizon towards the south, east and west. Instead, there were just mountains, reaching far, far into the clouds above. Following his inner voice, he headed towards the mountains. Círdan walked for days until he reached them, eating dry plants, and drinking from muddy water. When he arrived, he realized that these mountains weren’t formed naturally. He had reached the Peakless Mountains, a massive mountain-wall that separates Gwarogorth from the rest of Cernerias. No living being had ever passed through this wall before, as it was created by the gods to contain the evil being Dur’La’Goroth.

After walking up and down the mountains for another week, he was weakened by the lack of proper food and water, and ready to give up and die in those dead lands. Just when he thought he couldn’t go any further, Círdan suddenly heard the noise of an animal. It was the first time since he arrived that he heard or saw anything living, and curious he looked around. In some distance, he saw an owl sitting on a dead trunk. For reasons unknown to him, Círdan walked towards the owl, and when he came close, it flew a bit further away. They continued the game for a little while, until they reached a small wood of long dead trees covered in thorns which he had passed earlier that day. The owl flew into the wood, and when Círdan followed it until the foot of the mountain, it suddenly disappeared. Confused Círdan started searching the cliffs, until much to his surprise he found a small crevice in the otherwise almost unnaturally smooth surface. It was completely invisible until you stood right in front of it, no surprise he missed it when he came there first.

Círdan pushed himself inside, always following the quiet hooting of the owl. He had to turn sideways and push strongly to move deeper inside, and a part of him was afraid he might get stuck and die an unfortunate death after following some hallucination.

However, after what felt like an eternity, the crevice widened and opened into a small room. Shimmering crystals illuminated the walls around him and after his eyes had adjusted to the dim light, he saw an old stone table in the middle of the room, with the owl sitting on top of it next to what looked like fresh bread and a pot of mead. Círdan was so starved he entirely forgot to wonder about where food would come from in this place and immediately started eating and drinking. After his stomach was filled, he started looking around the cave and, in another room, he found a couple of beds which apparently hadn’t been used in ages. Tired as he was, he dropped down into one of them and immediately fell asleep.

That night he saw a strange dream. Círdan stood in the middle of a misty void, and a woman with green skin who was nearly fully enveloped by a wild tangle of hair, leaves and vines called his name. He said “yes, I’m here. Who are you? And where am I?”. The woman answered: “Fear not, Círdan. You are safe now, as I, Melora, am watching over you. I’ve called you to this world to be my champion and to help in defeating the rising darkness.” She paused for a moment, then continued. “I know you have questions, and you must be confused because you can’t remember anything of your past live. But do not worry, these memories will return eventually. It is merely a side effect of the realm-shift I had to do to get you to this place. Now, listen carefully. When you wake up, I need you to follow my owl deep into the mountain. Her name is Ainá, and she will follow and guide you through your upcoming journey. Do not hesitate, and do not doubt, and you will reach the other side”

With these words Círdan awoke from his dream. He felt refreshed, and while he still was confused about the whole situation, he knew inside of him that he should better trust that woman from his dream. When he returned to the main room, the owl Ainá was waiting for him again on the table, and it was again filled with fresh food.

The previous day, when he was looking around in the cave, Círdan discovered what seemed to be an armory in ancient past. Now, after eating a decent breakfast, he went back to that room and subjected the room to a closer inspection. Círdan found an olive linen shirt, a tunic composed of fabrics in various shades of green, some simple leather armor for his shoulders, forearms, shins and hips, a pair of simple linen trousers and a green cloak as well as boots, a belt, and a bag large enough for some rations. He also took a bow and a quiver with some arrows as well as a knife.

Feeling properly equipped for the journey ahead, he returned to the main room. Ainá was already sitting next to another small hole in the wall. She mustered Círdan for a moment, then gave an approving cry and flew onto his shoulder. “You think I look decent? Well, I guess that’s good enough for me.” Círdan said to the owl and started moving into the tunnel. It was again completely dark inside, but just when he prepared himself to walk completely blind for an unknown amount of time, he noticed a faint shimmer to his feet. There was a small crystal, probably broken off from some of the larger formations. He picked it up and attached it to a leather strap. He then put the improvised necklace around his head, and much to his surprise it started glowing stronger, lighting up the way ahead. Filled with a newfound courage, he stepped into the now not so black tunnel and started walking.

He walked and walked, and soon lost all sense of time and place. When he got tired, he rested, ate some of his rations, drank a bit of water, and continued walking. For some reason his water never seemed to run out, and neither did his rations. After what could have been days, or weeks, or only hours, Círdan felt like he could see a glimmer of light ahead of him. At first, he thought his eyes might deceive him, but with every step the light became brighter and brighter.

Not long after, he stepped into a large cavern. It reached up for at least fifty meters and had a diameter of 100 and more meters. In the center grew a tree, surrounded by a small patch of green grass, mossy rocks and with a fountain next to it. Surrounding this small piece of land was a cloud-filled void, and from exit of the tunnel where Círdan was standing, he could not see any solid ground at the bottom.

Ainá made a motivated hoot and flew from his shoulder over to the little island. Confused Círdan stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do next. Then he remembered what Melora said to him in his dream. “Do not hesitate, and do not doubt, and you will reach the other side”, he heard her voice in his head. Gathering all his courage, he took the first step into the misty void.

And his foot felt solid ground. Even though Círdan couldn’t see what was holding his feet, he took step after step towards the small island. One time he was overcome by doubt, and fear crept into his mind. He felt like he was sinking, like the ground below him was falling away. He grabbed the crystal around his neck and took another step forward, and it felt solid again.

Soon after he reached the island, and Ainá flew back on his shoulder and rubbed her head against his as if to say, “good job, I knew you could do it”. Now, being on the island, he could see that the fountain was indeed partially woven into the tree and was shaped as a young girl with long hair, while the tree’s shape reminded Círdan of Melora when she appeared in his dream. Between the fountain and the tree, hold by what looked like an arm from the tree and an arm from the fountain, was a longsword. Its silver blade was covered with lines of faintly blue shimmering light, and in the middle of the cross guard sat a light blue crystal. Instinctively Círdan grabbed the sword, and immediately felt its power running through him. He looked around and noticed that the mist was gone, and that the ground of the cave was only one meter below him. His own doubt and fear in combination with the mist had mad him feel like he was crossing a bottomless pit. When he looked up, he saw now crystals glowing on the ceiling, looking like the night sky, with one particularly big and bright crystal looking like the moon.

Suddenly he heard two voices, one was Melora, the other one he didn’t know. Together they said:

“Welcome, champion of Melora, to the Shrine of Eternal Night. You are holding our weapon, Dwueth’Var, the Star Razor. It contains Sehanine’s Light, and Melora’s Might. Treat it well, and it will serve you well. Betray us, and it will be your doom.” In awe Círdan sank down on his knees and said: “I, Círdan, swear hereby to honor your ways and dedicate my life to fulfill the destiny you have placed on me.” The owl hooted agreeingly and after a short rest at the shrine, Círdan continued his way, down another tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern.

He walked for what felt like another week until he once more started to see light down the tunnel.

A while later Círdan reached the end of the tunnel. Blinded by the light he had to cover his eyes for a moment to give them time to adjust. When he could see again, he saw that he was indeed on the other side of the Peakless Mountains, on top a small cliff with a lush and green forest stretching below him as far the eye could see. The sun was high, it was probably around noon.

Carefully not to trip Círdan made his way down the mountainside and down to the forest.

He found a narrow path which was probably created by some animals and followed it into the woods. Círdan walked for a while, enjoying the sounds of nature he hadn’t heard in a while. Strangely, even though he still couldn’t remember anything, he knew that he was in forests before, and he knew how to navigate them safely.  

Suddenly he noticed a flock of birds flying up at once, and shortly after he heard the sound of hooves on forest floor moving fast towards his general direction. He quickly moved towards a large tree and climbed onto the lower branches which still were covered by leaves. Ainá, who still had been on his shoulder all the time, flew up and into the canopy of the tree above. Through the leaves Círdan could see a wider path that led to a small clearance at the foot of a cliff. On that clearance stood two beautiful brown horses. One had a man sitting on it in light chainmail and scale-armor, wearing a blue cape and surcoat with gold markings. He had a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. On the shield was a yellow star on a blue background. On the other horse, a similar dressed man was curled up, and blood seemed to run down his silver armor. Círdan had just finished processing the view, when four more horses came onto the clearing. These horses where black and looked worn down and mal-nourished, and riding them where four orcs in dirty and cobbled together armor and with rough looking bows and swords. They had obviously hunted the two riders and had now successfully cornered them.

Before Círdan even noticed what he was doing, he had his bow in his hand, an arrow already nocked and ready to shoot. It felt as natural as something he had done since his youth. He aimed at the first orc, and while the arrow was still flying, he had already prepared the second arrow and shot it at the second orc. The cornered rider opened his eyes in surprise for a moment, then used the confusion of the orcs to attack himself. He drove his horse towards one of the orcs and with a swift strike cut his head from his shoulders. In the meantime, Círdan had already prepared and shot a third arrow, killing the remaining orc by piercing his neck right between the helmet and the torso-armor.

The whole fight took not even a minute, and when it was over the rider looked around with a worried look on his face and shouted “Who are you? Show yourself! I am on official duty for King Erenvell of Dras’Naria!”

“Don’t worry, I mean you no harm!” answered Círdan and climbed down from his tree. Still with his bow in his hand he stepped onto the clearing. “My name is Círdan, what is your name? Also, what has happened to him?” he continued and pointed towards the other rider, still curled up and not moving. “Did the orcs get him?”

“My name is Duncan Avari, I’m a messenger of the King on an important mission to Elvenwood. Help me get my friend down!” He got of his horse and together with Círdan they lifted the other one from his horse, but even before the body reached the ground both knew that he had already passed away. Duncan face went stiff, and Círdan stepped back to give the other one some space to grief. In the meantime he retrieved his arrows from the dead orcs and made sure they were indeed gone for good. He then cleaned the blood of the second horse and brought both horses to a small creek next to the clearing to drink. Ainá, who had flown off before the fight, returned to his shoulder and rubbed her head against his.

When he returned to the clearing Duncan had already emptied the dead knight’s pouches and cleaned his armor as much as possible. They agreed to bury the body and quietly began digging. The ground was hard, but eventually they made a hole big enough to fit the body inside. At the bottom of the cliff, they found enough rocks to cover the entire hole and thus prevent any animals from looting the corpse.

While Duncan said his final farewell to his colleague Círdan collected wood for a small fire, as the sun was already nearing the horizon and warm, orange light fell through the leaves of the trees.

A few dozen meters into the forest Círdan found a small indent in the cliff, perfect for a camp. He brought both horses there and then, after Duncan had come as well, erased all their tracks that could lead someone to the camp. He didn’t remember where he learned to do that, and the same was true for setting up a covered campfire that would not be seen from outside the camp. He just knew how to do it. That evening, while eating a rabbit Duncan caught, both men finally talked a bit to get to know each other.

As Duncan had said before, he and his friend were on a mission to deliver a message to the Kingdom of Elvenwood in the east of the continent when they were ambushed by orcs. They managed to slay a few of them but eventually had to run to not get overwhelmed. The other man got hit by an arrow in the shoulder, and while at first it seemed like just a flesh wound, it must have hit something critical, and he silently bled to death. When Duncan asked Círdan for his story, he gave him a brief rundown of what had happened since he arrived in this world, leaving out the bits where he saw Melora in his dream and the details of his trip through the mountains. It was obvious that Duncan didn’t believe him at all, after all nobody had ever crossed the mountains in the centuries since they had been erected. But he accepted that it was all he would get from Círdan, and they changed the topic. Círdan offered to join Duncan on his mission to Elvenwood, since he didn’t believe their meeting was a coincidence. Duncan, who wasn’t too excited to travel the whole way alone, agreed and, after dividing up watches, went to rest for the night.

That night, Círdan had another strange dream. The sounds and smells of the forest seemed to have triggered some memories, and he saw a younger version of himself, not older than ten years old, running and jumping through somehow familiar looking woods, apparently racing another person whose face he couldn’t remember. Suddenly he slipped and fell into a dark hole. Unable to move, the last thing he remembered before waking up was the feeling of hundreds of little legs crawling all over his body.

He startled up, and it took a moment for him to realize where he was. Duncan was still sitting next to the still slightly glowing fireplace, looking into the dark around them. It was still a bit early for Círdan’s shift, but he wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore anyway, and so he told Duncan to go to bed. The rest of the night passed almost without any events, only once Círdan saw the faint glow of torches through the woods, and judging by the reaction of the horses, it must have been a group of orcs walking down the main road. He was sure they wouldn’t be spotted, but just in case he readied an arrow. But the orcs passed, and soon the forest was quiet again, except for the usual noises of the night. Ainá had flown away, probably on the hunt for food. The night was clear, and the moon was shining bright in the night sky. Círdan noticed that his sword seemed to almost soak in the moonlight, and the gemstones in the hilt seemed to glow a faint, cold light.

The morning eventually came, and both Duncan and Círdan prepared to continue the journey. At first the horse of Duncan’s former companion didn’t seem to be too happy to carry another person, but Círdan slowly approached it, carefully touched its face, and after a few moments it allowed him to get into the saddle. They returned to the main road that led through the forest, and after a short while they had left the woods. In front of them lay wide open fields of green, with small groups of trees scattered around. The sun had just come up over the hills in the far distance, and the morning mist covered the landscape. According to Duncan it would take another week to arrive at the border to Elvenwood, and so they only paused for a brief moment to soak in the beautiful view ahead of them before continuing ahead.

The rest of the journey was mostly peaceful, only twice Círdan’s instinct prevented them from running straight into an ambush. Instead, they got off their horses and sneaked around, thus avoiding any potentially life-threatening situation. At night they usually slept in taverns or guesthouses along the road. Círdan had found a small stash of coin in the armory in the mountains, and now he was happy he ignored his feeling of guild and took it back then. This way Duncan didn’t have to cover both their expenses. At first both men rode silently next to each other, but after the second day Círdan couldn’t contain his curiosity anymore and started asking Duncan all sorts of things regarding this world. In the beginning, Duncan thought Círdan was making fun of him, but as time went by, he realized that Círdan was indeed telling the truth and was not from this realm. So he happily answered all of Círdan’s questions as good as possible.

On the sixth day, they reached a hilltop, overlooking a wide marsh, with only few trees scattered around, and clouds of mist wavering around everywhere. “These are the Weeping Plains”, Duncan said. “They are called this way because it is said that the wind makes a weeping noise when it brushes through the fields, almost as all the lost souls are mourning their death. It’s a god-forsaken place, filled with ruins and all sorts of outlaws. But once we’ve crossed it, we will reach the city Norvende and the river Sein. And beyond that lies the Kingdom of Elvenwood.”

The trip through the Weeping Plains took almost the entire day since they had to ride slowly to avoid accidentally missing the barely visible path and ending up lost in the swamps. Círdan learned soon that the area had its name for a reason, as the wind constantly made a mourning noise, and more than once he swung his head around, sure to see someone standing behind them on the path.

Duncan and the horses seemed to feel the same, the latter ones nervously shifting their head from left to right and back. Ainá was curled up in Círdan’s lap, seeming not too happy about the location as well. The sun was starting to set when they reached Norvende. The men rode into town a short moment before the gates were closed for the night, and tired from the trip they settled down in the first Inn they found.

Círdan hadn’t had any further memories resurfacing in dreams over the past week, but this night we once more felt himself stuck in that dark place, covered by what turned out to be hundreds of spiders. He tried to scream but that would only cause some of them to climb into his mouth, so he constantly had to fight to keep them out. After what felt like an eternity, he was eventually found and rescued by a strong man in a green tunic, who introduced himself to be Caleb Greencloak, the local ranger guarding the forests. The last thing Círdan remembered before waking up was that he had great admiration for this person, and the feeling that he had learned most of his skills from him.

As soon as the gates were opened early in the morning, Círdan and Duncan where on their way. They crossed the river Sein and entered Elvenwood. At first, they were only surrounded by wide fields of grain, shimmering golden in the morning sun. According to Duncan, this area was called The Golden Fields, and the name was pretty fitting thought Círdan. But on the horizon he could already see the beginnings of a wide forest, and far of in the distance, he could see snowcapped mountains as well. Soon they reached the forest, and once they entered it, Círdan immediately spotted well-hidden elves, keeping track of who entered their kingdom and who left. He mentioned it to Duncan, but he just shrugged and said “It’s their way of border-patrol. Easier then to check every incoming traveler, and usually nobody notices them anyways. Your senses must be very keen to find them, they are masters of hiding in the woods.”

 It took Círdan and Duncan until shortly after noon to finally spot the blue shimmering roofs and white walls of Anthront’el, the capital of the Kingdom of Elvenwood. They rode through the large metal gates, and when the guards saw the insignia on Duncan’s shield and tunic, they were allowed to continue riding their horses straight through the inner city, the District of the Mind, and into straight into the center of power, where the Blue Palace sat next to the magnificent cathedral. Both men handed their horses off to a squire and made their way towards the palace, Ainá now sitting on Círdan’s shoulder. The guards mustered both for a moment, especially Círdan in his green tunic, then allowed them in and guided them to the throne room. There they were greeted by High-King Thronviel Tel’durin. First, he waved Duncan forward. The knight pulled a sealed scroll from his bag and handed it off to the king. The ruler of Elvenwood opened it and read It carefully. He then waved one of his servants, whispered something in his ear, and sent him of with the scroll. He then looked back at Duncan and Círdan and asked: “Do you know what was written in this scroll?”

Duncan shook his head, and thus king Tel’durin continued. “Your king Erenvell informs me that apparently orcs have been increasing their activities around the Peakless Mountains, and that it seems like they are called ‘home’, whatever that means for them. For now they don’t seem to find a way into Gwarogorth though. After all, how would they. The mountains were created to keep anyone and anything from going in or out of that cursed place.”

His gaze fell on Círdan next. “And who do we have here? You are not dressed in the colors of Dras’Naria. You look more like one of our rangers from centuries ago. Also, I can see you are wielding a magical sword, that is a rare thing for a commoner. Now, tell me your story, I am very curious.”

With that, Círdan told his story once more. The king however immediately interrupted him, asking when exactly he had arrived in this world. Círdan couldn’t answer this question since the time he spent underground felt like an eternity and the blink of an eye at the same time.

King Tel’durin thought for a moment, then said “about three and a half weeks ago, our astronomers spotted a bright shooting star, coming down somewhere near the Peakless Mountains. We assumed it must have crashed into the cliffs, but if what you say is true, this might have been your arrival.” He then signaled Círdan to continue his story. This time Círdan mentioned his dream of Melora, and how he found Dwueth’Var. Duncan gave him a slightly disappointed look, after learning that Círdan had kept this a secret from him, but that look vanished immediately after he remembered that they had just met, two strangers on the road.

The High-King carefully listened to Círdan’s story, asking about specifics here and there, and, after Círdan had finished, waved over an elf in a long blue and emerald robe. He was introduced as Tinuviél Samaris, the lead historian of the palace, who had been equally carefully listening to the story. Samaris came over to the king, and after a signal, spoke:

“The place you found in the mountains with the help of your little friend on your shoulder seems to be one of the old guard posts, that were carved into the mountains during the Great Suffering almost a millennium ago, where the joined forces of men, dwarf and elves fought Dur’La’Goroth’s forces of darkness. Eventually the conflict ended when the gods themselves intervened, banned him to his country, and raised the Peakless Mountains so high nobody would be able to cross them.

We always assumed that all the outposts had been lost when that happened, but it seems you have found one still intact. The clothes you are wearing now are in fact what the elves back then were wearing.” When Círdan made an apologizing gesture and offered to take the clothes off at the next possible time, King Tel’durin made a denying gesture. “Keep it. As it seems it was the will of the gods that you find this outpost, and everything within it. It suits you, so don’t worry about taking what might not have been yours.” Círdan felt relieved and his stance relaxed a bit again. Samaris continued: “What Círdan has told us sounds like a complicated journey he was only able to master with the help of the Wildmother, but what it also teaches us is, that it is not impossible anymore to cross the border to Gwarogorth. And if we combine that with the message from King Erenvell and the message Melora gave to Círdan, I am afraid we might indeed face dark times ahead.” The king nodded agreeingly and then looked to Círdan and Duncan again.

“Duncan Avari, I ask you to stay in our city a while longer, so I have time to think about a strategy how to treat this new situation.” Duncan nodded. His king didn’t expect an immediate answer anyway, it was more an ‘information’ for the other monarch.

“And Círdan, ehm, do you have a last name?” Círdan shook his head and told the king that he didn’t remember. “Fine. Then I will call you ‘Círdan Lantaél’, which means ‘fallen star’, from now on, since it seems to me that you fell from a star. I would like to ask you to stay here as well for now. There are people you should meet. I will see that you get a room in the royal guesthouse, as will Mr. Avari.”

Both men bowed and left the room. At the door, a servant awaited them and led them into their quarters. They were next to each other, both wide and luxurious. Círdan immediately went to take a bath to get rid of all the dirt and pain from the journey. They enjoyed a rich dinner and fell asleep in comfy beds for the first time in what felt like forever.

The next morning after breakfast, Círdan got a message that he should meet a certain Randulf Tinkerbottom in the afternoon. He was the head of the Academy of mages and apparently something important to discuss with Círdan. Since it was still a lot of time until the scheduled meeting, and Duncan was off doing some business in the palace, Círdan decided to explore the city by himself. He marveled at the beauty of the buildings in the District of the Mind with its Swimming Gardens, the Opera House, the Adventurer’s Guild and of course the large Academy-Building. Behind the palace he found a large garden with a beautiful lake, many perfectly cut trees, and flowers everywhere. Happy to have found such a calm place he wandered around a bit.

In the rear part of the garden, he suddenly heard the sound of arrows being shot, followed by the dumb thud of hitting a probably wooden target. Curious he followed the sound and soon he saw a beautiful elven woman shooting a beautiful carved bow at targets in the distance. When he approached the woman turned around and mustered him.

“You must be Círdan Lantaél, the mysterious traveler from another realm. The rumors have already spread in the palace. I am Aika, niece of High-King Tel’durin. Nice to meet you. Here, come and shoot. It’s fun and I’m curious.”

Círdan was surprised and a bit overwhelmed by her livelihood and her beauty, but he went to her, took the bow, and after feeling it rest in his hand, he took an arrow, aimed, and shot. The arrow went far over the target, and Aika suppressed a laughter. He took another arrow, concentrated, and shot again. This time he hit bullseye. Aika clapped happily. “Nice job! Let’s see if you can repeat that!”

And thus, Círdan spent the entire remaining time until his meeting with Randulf shooting arrows with Aika, who used that time to ask him about all the possible details of his journey. He had great fun and the time went by in an instant. It was easy to talk to Aika, and even after he had told her anything he knew, the conversation just kept going. By the time he had to leave for the Academy Círdan felt like he knew Aika since years, and not merely hours.

Because he went exploring in the morning, he found the way to the Academy without any problems. Círdan entered the magnificent building through a large door with intricate carvings. Beyond the door lay a large atrium, where wizards of all races moved around following whatever business they had at that time. The walls were lined with statues of wizards from ancient times, and between them golden pillars in the shape of trees reached up to the ceiling, where their branches seemed to carry the ceiling. Right in the middle of the dome floated a large crystal, which was pouring warm, golden light into the room. In front of Círdan was a wooden desk, decorated with drawings of small trees and all kinds of animals. Beyond the desk, a small halfling woman looked up to him and harshly asked him about his business. Círdan introduced himself and the woman waved for an apprentice who took Círdan through the long halls of the Academy to a simple looking office-door. Before the apprentice could even knock a voice told them to come in. The voice was rough, but for some reason Círdan felt a certain warmth within it.

In the office he saw an old looking gnome. He had no hair besides a white rim around his head, and a full and very well-kept beard in equally white color. The gnome was missing one eye, and with the other he mustered Círdan carefully. “I am Randulf Tinkerbottom, resident head of the Academy. You must be the new arrival. I heard your story might be similar to mine.”, he said while signaling Círdan to take a seat in front of this desk. The apprentice left, and Randulf asked Círdan to tell his story. And so he did, for the second time in two days. Randulf took a few notes here and there but didn’t interrupt Círdan. When he had finished, Randulf told him that he had experienced something similar. He too was ripped from his world, not by Melora, but some other deity, and it happened already many years ago. By now he had regained all his memories, which allowed him to rise through the ranks of the Academy. He had also heard rumors about similar incidents all over the world, and he and the other members of the Academy-council agreed that it must be the gods preparing for something big to come. For the time being there was not much more he could do, but he told Círdan to wait a little longer until he could gather enough information to maybe request an expedition to investigate the rumors about the other realm-travelers.

And so Círdan waited. Duncan had to leave after a few days with the answer of King Tel’durin, but he told Círdan that he would request an indefinite leave from the services of his king to aid Círdan in the probably soon happening expedition. He would likely return in a few weeks, and that left Círdan with plenty of time to explore the city and the surrounding woods. Since he was new in this world, the King requested that he should never leave the city alone, so most of the times he was accompanied by Aika, who seemed to enjoy his company as much as he enjoyed hers. He also visited the adventurer’s guild and made the acquaintance of the head of the local branch, Andevir Luccath.

Every few nights new memories surfaced in his dreams, about how he grew up as a foundling adopted by a family of elves, how he enjoyed playing in the woods with his older sister and younger brother, how he and his sister began an apprenticeship with the rangers, and how the family received a message that his older brother had died in an attack by goblins and orcs. He was still far away from remembering everything, but bit by bit the puzzle grew more and more complete.

Aika was nearly as skilled as him in moving in the wild, and regularly beat him when they competed in archery. Where she was faster in movement, he was stronger. They also spent hours just talking or walking around the lush forests or at the beaches of the lake next to the city. While neither of them admitted it, or told the other one, both felt the beginnings of a romantic relationship on the horizon.

After a few weeks Duncan returned to Elvenwood, and Círdan’s days were now also filled with practice-fights with Duncan. After a while the King felt that Círdan had learned enough about this world that he allowed him to leave the immediate vicinity of the city, as long as he would stay in the Kingdom. The preparations for the expedition made good progress and it wouldn’t take much longer before they could leave.

Círdan and Duncan and sometimes Aika did a few missions for the adventurer’s guild to build up a bit of a financial buffer, and waited for signal that their expedition could start…

 And this is where our story ends for now, what lies ahead is only known by the time and the gods themselves.

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PRD-23 Hayabusa Build

Hey everybody, how are you doing? I just finished building this little custom creation, the Personal Reconnaissance Drone PRD-23 Hayabusa! It’s nothing super detailed and nothing super special, but I wanted to try some things out and also wanted a nice companion for my Scout :) 

The whole model is made from Balsawood, which made it really easy to cut and also reduced the weight quite a lot. However due to it softness it came with its own bunch of difficulties.

I tried to do various designs for the wings, and I’m quite happy with the result.

Due to its usage as Recon-Tool the drone is equipped with a front camera, a scanner beneath and an Sonar/Radar-Sensor-Dome for mapping areas

Here you’ve got a nice view on the belly with the scanner. The PRD-23 was originally used by Kizaki Space Industries for surveillance of their facilities, but they were eventually replaced with a different model. My Scout-Character Dak prevented this one from disassembly, equipped it with a simple AI and advanced scanners. However he kept the original painting in Grey/Yellow

This is what is meant to be the purpose of the drone, scouting ahead in Ruins and caves, mapping them and report possible threats 

As always, thanks for reading and if you like, go check out my Facebook-Page, https://www.facebook.com/chrisselprops/

See you soon!

[cc-props]

Scout/Smuggler-Jacket

Last but not least for today, my most recent build. A new jacket for my Scout! I figured rather than modifying an existing jacket, it would be easier to make a completely new one. 

As always, I started with a draft. This time I even almost completely followed my first idea.

Here’s a view of the final project. I’m super satisfied with the result, the only thing that’s bothering me is that somehow I messed up some measuring and thus one of the pockets ended up being too high (Actually I still don’t really know where exactly I messed up, but something is clearly wrong ;) )

Also a view from the back. Here everything is just as it’s supposed to be. 

Moving on to the details. On the right, I have some technic-style-part, I like to think it’s to regulate the included A/C.

The left side holds up to 5 emergency-flares. Those are identical to the ones I use on my X-Wing-Pilot, so I can exchange them if necessary.

The left sleeve holds some code-cylinders. These are made from parts I had lying around, but the classic X-Wing-Pilot-Ones also fit.

I’ve also included a compad on the lower right sleeve

And of course the antenna for the compad. This yellow piece came to me after watching the Rogue One-Trailer, I just loved seeing it on Cassian’s Jacket ^^

And finally, both pockets hold a multipurpose-scanner with working lights in the display and above.

That’s all for today, thanks for reading!

As mentioned in my first post today, I’ll continue sharing finished projects here, so if you like, follow me :) Also if you are interested in WIP-Pictures of my projects, please like my Facebook-Page!

I hope to see you all again soon,

Chris

[cc-props]

Arm-mounted Blaster

Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog!

And here’s already my next project I finished a while ago!

It’s another upgrade to my Scout, this time I redid the arm-mounted blaster. The old one was super simple, with no details, bad weathering and a pretty boring shape. So I did a quick draft and rebuild it completely. It took me about 3 days to make it, most of it was waiting for paint to dry ^^

Let’s start this off with three WIP-Pictures:

Here’s the draft I made, mostly as visualization for my idea, so it’s not 100% accurate. But that’s what I like about custom creations, you can change things in the process.

As you can see, it’s made from plywood, PVC-Foam and two aluminium-pipes

Assembling and sanding went pretty quick and I could paint it in a grey color. The other colors where painted by hand.

As always, I forgot to take more WIP-pictures so without further ado, here’s the finished prop:

Just as all the other equipment for my Scout, this one is also heavily weathered.

Using the small switch, you can light-up the display and some lights on top, and if you press the red button, there’s a firing-effect (without sound, unfortunately)

Here’s a view on the other side, nothing special to see here though

And finally, a comparison with my old one. As you can see, it’s a huge improvement xD 

That’s it for this post, I’ve got one more coming soon, so stay tuned!

Hope to see you guys around!

Greetings,

Chris

[cc-props]

Scout/Smuggler-Belt

Hey guys, sorry for being so quiet recently. I’m mostly posting updates on my projects on my Facebook-Page and kinda forgot about this page ^^;

However, I’m currently planning to use this blog to present finished props, while I’ll be posting WIP-Updates on my FB-Page. So make sure to like that too so you get all the updates immediately!

https://www.facebook.com/chrisselprops/

But anyways, it’s time to catch up with some recent (and not so recent) projects I finished. First is a belt for my Scout/Smuggler-Costume. I finally decided to make my own one instead of using a bought military-belt.

The first part I made was a Datapad. It’s much thicker than my previous ones, but this one has working lights and a display with background-lighting. 

I made a special platform to attach it to my belt. It’s hold in place by magnets and those straps. At the side there’s also a comlink attached via magnets.

That’s the full belt. It’s made from leather-straps and metal. It was quite a pain in the ass to cut out all these pieces, but in the end it worked pretty well. 

As you can see, I attached various things to the belt. Of course there is the holster for the blaster and the datapad-mount. Then I have a first-aid-pouch, two utility-pouches. a shield-generator and three shield-projectors.

These are the utility-pouches. They are made from 4mm-plywood and fabric.

The first-aid-pouch shares the same design as the other two, and is almost entirely copied from the first-aid-pouch from Battlefield 2142, just smaller. 

Here’s the shield-generator. It’s also made from plywood and includes a working fan and a light-up-display. In my mind, this thing generates a shield to protect me from immediate threats, however it’s not strong enough to provide a full-time-cover. More like stopping the first 4-5 shots from a blaster or sudden high/low temperatures or radiation. 

The holster was actually already used on my old belt, I just attached it with hooks to the new belt, so I can actually take it off.

Here’s the buckle. I actually used a video by PunishedProps (again) to learn how to make it. As mentioned before, cutting these parts out by hand was really difficult, but in the end it worked perfectly.

And that’s it for this project! Make sure to stay tuned, I’ll be posting more updates within the next days. And in the meanwhile go and check out my Facebook-Page.

Regards, 

Chris

[cc-props]

Star Wars Rebel Pilot Helmet Build

Hey Guys, Chris here! This time I want to show you my probably most difficult build so far. A Pilot-Helmet from the Original Trilogy of Star Wars!! 

To be honest, this project took like forever. The first picture I took dates back to Fall 2014, since then I’ve been procrastinating A LOT. A bit work here, then months break, then again a little bit of work. It was particularly difficult since it contains many techniques I never used before as well as the difficulties I had finding good resource material (I still don’t know for sure if the size is 100% accurate). But enough talking, lets start with the WIP:

First I had to make a master. I started of with a Polystyrene-Block, onto which I drew the outline of the helmet based on a roughly scaled printout. Then I formed it and sanded it to a mostly accurate shape. This happened during Fall 2014

Next I added many, many layers of filler and sanded them down again. I didn’t count how often I did this, but it was quite a lot. Luckily it was already April again so I could do this outside. When I was satisfied with the master, I painted one layer of white paint on it, added some oily paste and made the mold out of another huge bunch of cement. 

That’s what I got as result. I had to do some extra work on the mold since the master didn’t come out nicely, but in the end I had a nice peace and started to lay mats of fiberglass inside. Here I got help from my dad since he has at least some experience with this kind of material, while I don’t have any. The version above turned out to be a failure since I used not enough hardener and thus it wouldn’t cure completely. So I had to take everything out again and start again.

This time it worked perfectly (notice the much stronger red color caused by the hardener). Above you see the fresh-from-the-mold-one, the cleaned one, the one after many layers of filling and sanding, and both parts assembled and ready for painting. I connected both pieces with 1mm thick plywood. I modeled also the end-cap from wood and glued it to the form. 

Next up was the painting. I decided on a little bit unconditional design with a grey base instead of the usual white one. I added a couple layers of grey and clear-coat. Then I masked of all the grey areas and sprayed red onto it. After adding more details like some white text and the markings on the side I added more layers of clear-coat and then weathered the whole thing quite a lot. One more layer of clear-coat and then it was done!  

That’s how the helmet looks on the inside. I sewed these ear-pieces from some leather I had from an old project and the rest are basically foam-mats. The microphone is made out of wood and a plastic tube I found lying around. The glasses are ones I ordered on the internet, I had to cut them a little bit to fit, maybe my helmet is a little bit too small. Also you can’t quite see through them, so I want to replace them later. The chin-cup is taken from an old military helmet I had lying around.

And here you have the final product. It took almost 2 years but I’m super satisfied with it! It’s not 100% symmetric, but for not having any 3D-Reference, it turned out pretty nice, right? 

That’s all for this build, thanks for reading! I’ve also nearly completely finished the whole Pilot-Costume, so stay tuned for another post soon! 

Also don’t forget to visit my Facebook-Page, I’m posting more updates on my builds there, and also pictures from Photoshootings:

https://www.facebook.com/chrisselprops/

[cc-props]

Borderlands CL4P-TP “Claptrap” Build

Hey Guys, Chris here! The project I want to show you today is something I wanted to build for a long time and now I’ve finally done it!

Yes, you’re right, I voluntarily built the most annoying robot in the universe xD

Like my last build, I got the inspiration by a video from Punished Props:

In the description of the video you can find instructions and blueprints which I also used for making my model (I modified it a bit tho)

As always, first some WIP-Pictures:

First I printed the blueprints on 50% size, because I currently don’t have the space for a full-scale Claptrap. Then I cut them out and draw them onto some 4mm Plywood.

 These are more or less all the parts after cutting them out, you see it’s not the most difficult build I did so far ;)

I put the pieces together with some tape to see if it fits, somehow the sides were a bit too long, I’m not sure if it was my fault or an error in the blueprints.

That’s shortly before painting, as you can see, I used 2 wheels because I couldn’t find a single, wide one in the size I needed.

So that’s it from the WIP, now to the finished product!

R2-T6 also met Claptrap today, they got along pretty well. I’m afraid they’ll team up to annoy me now...

This was my first try on a Claptrap, to see how difficult it is to make. I plan to make another, full-size one in the future, with some electronics like sound and arm-movement. But that’s quite at the end of my to-do-list. But I’ve got a couple more projects coming up soon so stay tuned!

[cc-props]

DL-44 Blaster Repaint

Hey Guys, I’m back with a new model! This time instead of building a blaster from scratch, I repainted a toy-gun. 

Actually I got the idea from Punished Props, and I used his video as tutorial. So go check it out!

Except for the painting, I modified it the same way as in the video, so I didn’t take any WIP-Shots. Below you can see the original toy gun, I grabbed it from Amazon for about 20€

Anyways, here are pictures of the final version! I made a slightly modified version, for my own character. It’s a bit more used than Han’s ^^

[cc-props]

Finally completely finished my Battlefield 2142-Cosplay! Can’t wait for next winter to take some nice pictures :D

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Yuudachi Baseplate Build

Hey Guys, it’s been a while but I’ve not stopped making Props and Models ;) 

I went to Japan last month and there I got this lovely Figure of Yuudachi from the online-game “Kantai Collection”, or short “KanColle”. I love how the figure looks but somehow the baseplate is pretty plain. So I decided to make a new one, I always wanted to make an ocean-diorama. 

This build was done pretty fast, I started on Monday and finished it today. It’s my first try on an Ocean-Diorama but I’m super satisfied with the outcome, it’s exactly as I imagined!

So this is the the standard baseplate. As you can see, pretty boring. I copied the holes for the figure to plywood so in the finished model, the figure has a save stand. 

Next I could two plates from balsa-wood. I chose this because it’s so easy to cut and I don’t need a super stable plate. (You’ll see why in the next steps).

The first, 1cm thick plate was used to create a “box”, which will later be the frame for the diorama. The sides are made from 4mm plywood and thus the box is pretty stable, despite the balsa-wood-plate.

On the 2nd, 6mm plate I glued the plywood-plates from the first step. This will be the base for the Diorama. Since it will be covered in cement later, this also doesn’t need to be super stable. The reason why I made two separate pieces is that I can paint both of them separately and work on one while the other one dries.

This is the box, after sanding I sprayed on a couple layer of filler, then painted it with Revell-Iron-Paint and weathered it with black, orange and a little bit of green.

As for the Diorama, I modeled the sea out of cement, which was surprisingly easy. The rock is some debris from the last renovation of hour house which I kept (It looks awesome, right?) After the cement dried I painted it dark grey first and then added details in dark blue and black. In the final step I used white paint to draw the foam on top of the waves and on the rock.

And that’s all for this build! As you see, pretty easy and fast.

Here are some more pictures of the finished piece:

Thanks for reading and stay tuned, I have a bunch of projects coming up! You can also visit my facebook-page for more info: 

https://www.facebook.com/chrisselprops

[cc-props]

INFORMATION

I launched a Facebook-Page, so feel free to like and share it!

https://www.facebook.com/chrisselprops/

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Battlefield 2142 EU-Trooper Cosplay Build

Hey there, it’s been a while! I didn’t do much during Winter-holidays, but recently I started working on my projects again. First on my List was my Battlefield 2142 Cosplay. I love this game and wanted to have such a costume for a very long time. I started working on it somewhere last summer, and now it’s mostly finished (at least for now. Of course there’s always something to improve ^^)

So let’s go, here are the WIP-Pictures I took (sorry there are not many)

The Armour

This was the first part I was working on, and actually the reason why I started building this cosplay, I simply wanted to build something with Armor-plates again.

As always I made them from PVC-Plates. I cut them out and painted them, not much magic here.

Then I had to make the platforms to attach them on my body. They are made from simple black fabric and some filling material:

I used velcro to connect the platforms to the plates, it’s easy and holds good enough for these lightweight plates.

Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the Body-Armour, but it’s more or less the same. Cutting, painting, weathering. 

The Helmet

The Helmet was really fun to build. I used a Military Helmet Replica for 15€, cut it in shape and then used a Dremel to cut holes for the lamps and batterie-pack.

After gluing PVC-Tubes into the holes sanded the whole thing and painted it with various layers of different colors, I tried to resemble the color-pattern from the game as much as possible and it worked quite well. In the end I did some weathering, which made the white much less bright.

The markings on the helmet. They are not perfect, but I’m surprisingly satisfied with the result.

At last I added the lights to the helmet. They are incredibly bright, I might dim them later.

Other Stuff

The rest of the costume was pretty easy to make. For the clothes I took a normal Urban Camo BDU-Uniform and only sewed a black vest to go over it. 

The Belt is also a normal military belt, but for the belt-pouches I used a different technique this time. The good old Papier-mâché. First I made the pouches from carton, then I reinforced them with paper and glue.

The Result was surprisingly good, and currently I’m working on a backpack made the same way.

Of course the costume contains also a gun, for my Trooper I used the SCAR-11 Assault Rifle. I made an extra post about that, you can find it here: http://cc-props.tumblr.com/post/134059415701/battlefield-2142-scar-11-build

That’s all for the WIP, so here’s a picture of the finished costume:

That’s the only picture I have so far, I have to wait until we get snow again, then I will take some more pictures.

As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned!

[cc-props]

First look on my finished Battlefield 2142-Cosplay. I finished it today, but since the snow is already melting, I’ll have to wait a while until I can take some good pictures. But I’ll post a full WIP next week, so stay tuned!

[cc-props]

Battlefield 2142 SCAR-11 Build

Hey guys, I’m back with another build! 

Actually I’ve been working on this since quite a long time, but I took many breaks for other props. But now it’s finished and I proudly present the SCAR-11 Assault Rifle from Battlefield 2142! It was my first prop based on an existing model, so I had some difficulties to solve, but I somehow did it!

I REALLY like how it turned out, as always I wasn’t sure about the outcome until the finals steps ^^

So, as usual here you got some WIP-Pics first before more finished pictures. Towards the end I got really lazy in taking pictures, mostly because I wanted to finish it while I had motivation left. But anyways, here you go!

I used my standard-technique with multiple layers of wood. It was a bit tricky because of the size, but in the end it worked quite well.

This is how the lower part looked after gluing together, after that I had to do lots of sanding and of course there are no details added yet. Actually I didn’t add any details such as the display until the very end, I don’t know why tbh.

After painting the lower part, I started working on the upper part. Here I used a different method and made it completely hollow. So I can add electronics later without problems. It was quite difficult to make this, looking back now there are probably much more easy ways to accomplish it.

However, as you can see it worked out great! 

This was the last WIP-Picture I took, after that I made the Visor from ABS and attached it, added details, sanded and primed it and then painted it. Then I connected upper and lower part (they are still removable) and weathered it all together. 

That’s all for the build, nothing really new, just slightly larger than my previous blasters. And now some finished pictures!!

 Details of the side. The screen isn’t 100% accurate, I made my own design. Later I plan to replace it with an actual working screen.

Front view. From the game I guess the lower barrel shoots the bullets, while the upper, large one is used when having the Shotgun/Mini-Rockets-Perk equipped. So I will also place the LED in the lower one and probably add a fake Rocket in the upper one.

I love weathering white colors, they get dirty wonderful easy!

I’m glad I found this shell-cases on New Year, they add up wonderful to the scenery!

Thanks for reading and please share, like or comment!

[cc-props]

R2-Series Astromech Build

Hey everyone, this is my first post in this blog!

This time I made a R2-Series Astromech Droid out of a trash-can.  Before my mother saw a picture of a public trash can painted as R2-D2, so I made her one from a bin for Christmas:

After that I really wanted to have one too, with more details and not usable as trash-can. A full-size Astromech would be too big for my place, and also too expensive, so I went with this again, it’s roughly 40cm high. I used a custom design to suit my taste and thus this isn’t R2-D2, but R2-T6, nickname “Nakama”, which is “friend” or “comrade” in Japanese.

I love how the colors turned out. But before talking to long, I’ll show you some pictures from the build-process:

First I started with a 3D-Model of an R2-Unit I found on the web and re-colored it. Then I scaled it down to the size I wanted so I could take all measurements from the model.

Then the real work started. The legs consist of more than 100 parts I cut out from wood.

This is how the unpainted, unglued and not sanded result looked like.

And this after painting ;)

After finishing the legs, I painted the body, and added the details. 

This is how the legs are attached. The round plates make sure the legs can only move in a 50°-Angle.

The head was made the same way, painting, cutting and adding some minor electronics I took from a papercraft-R2 I own. Now my droid has two LEDs and 3 random sounds from R2.

And here you have the final result!

Thanks for reading and I hope you like it!

[cc-props]

Reblogging because I started a new Blog for Props

EDIT: Photo taken by my friend after weathering:

X-42 Rhino SciFi-Blaster Build

Here’s already my next build ;)

This one (or better these two) were build for the costume of a friend, so I don’t have many pictures of the finished prop. That’s why this post will focus more on the build-process this time. So here you go!

My friend wanted something that is inspired by the blasters of Nico Okarr, a smuggler from Star Wars The Old Republic (check out the “Return” Cinematic Trailer if you want to see him in action). That and the fact that I was playing Borderlands at that time inspired me to this Revolver-like design.

These are all parts for one blaster, obviously I had to do everything twice.

Simply placed all parts above each other so I could try how it fits to the hand.

Here you can see the reason for the strange shape, which doesn’t look like the initial design at all. I had to drill holes through the whole blaster, which is much easier this way. Also I could fix the layers without gluing them together.

Next step was drilling the holes, and what do you do when you don’t have enough hands? You improvise :)

When I finished drilling the holes, I could cut the final shape (I know it looks strange without the barrels, at this time I wasn’t sure how it would turn out to be honest).

Next step was installing the electrics. It took me a while to figure out what to do with the battery, since this design doesn’t have a magazine, where I usually place it. So I ended up putting it in the handle.

From this point I was pretty sure about the design again, it finally looked the way I wanted it to look. 

After sanding and preparing I painted them, added the markings at the frond and sent it to my friend this way. I didn’t weather it because I think this is something everyone has to decide for oneself, since it tells the story of a gun. I shipped them “straight-from-the-factory”.

This is the final result, I like how they look with weathering and I’m excited to see them in real soon!

[cc-props]

Reblogging because I started a new Blog for Props

DL-7 Blaster Build

Hi everyone, 

here’s my next build :)

This time I made a new blaster for my Scout-Cosplay (or Smuggler, if you want ;)). 

I didn’t take many WIP-Pictures for this one, since it’s 100% the same technique I used for my Heavy Blaster Mk2. But anyway, here you go!

First I cut out all parts, like always. I didn’t break a single saw blade this time, so I guess I’m making progress ^^

Next up followed the usual steps of gluing together, sanding, putting the electrics in and then it was already ready for painting.

First layer was black, and next were just some minor other paints. So it was done quite fast.

That’s all I have for the build, so I don’t want to wait any longer and here you have the pictures of the finished prop!

I added a small lamp underneath the barrel, and even though it’s just a single LED, it’s already quite bright.

Details on the grip, I used some old fabric that was left over from my last Jedi-Tunic. Note also the Serial Number above. I also gave the grip some texture with Sawdust like on my previous blaster. 

Again, thanks for reading and stay tuned, there’s more to come!