MKJoshA

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest! The deadline has past so we will be getting a voting thread up soon!

We can allow brick-built backgrounds for Cat B, but they can only be in 1 shot. The rest of the pictures need to be of only the ship. Judging will be based on the ship, not the background. Though having a background will certainly add to the "wow" factor. Yes.

No, that sounds fine!

Cat. A and Cat. B

Over thirty years ago a Leander woman had fallen in love with an Avalonian Elf. They were married and had a son. The other elves disapproved of the marriage and looked on the baby with scorn. When the baby was still a child, the father met an untimely end in the Mystic Isles. A few months later the mother died of grief, having been cast out of society after her husband died. She was buried in a pauper’s grave with nothing but a small bouquet of scarlet magnolias to mark her resting. The child was taken in by a peasant family and raised as one of their own. They were kind, but the child still felt the cruelty of the Avalonians around him who did not approve of his parent’s union. This child was Charlemagne. When he was old enough to travel on his own, Charlemagne left Avalonia and headed for Kaliphlin. He ended up in Budd-apest without a penny in his pocket. The monks of the Red Guard took him in and gave him a home in their compound. He grew up learning chivalry and how to fight from the knights of the Red Guard and he learned to love the God of The Way from the monks. During all these years he learned to forgive the elves of Avalonia who had treated he and his family so poorly. He had moved on and had built a new life for himself and in so doing he removed himself from both Elvish and Leander cultures. He wanted nothing to do with either of them. When reports started coming in of the coming war, Charlemagne assumed he would remain uninvolved. He heard about the unrest within the High Council, of the rise of the Desert King, and of the strange Ulandians. When reports came through Budd-apest about how the First Centurion kept Leanders as slaves, servants, and warriors, Charlemagne tried to ignore them. “What does that have to do with me?” He would ask himself. But each night as war drew ever closer Charlemagne could not get the thought of his people being subjugated by the cruel Ulandians. He talked about his concerns with one of the monks who had been his friend for many years. “Methuselah, I have had nothing to do with the Leanders since my mother died, why would I trouble myself about the fate of one group of them now?” Charlemagne asked. “Perhaps you were born for a greater purpose than you think” Methuselah replied. “Maybe you are supposed to free those of your people who are in bondage.” “I know how to fight, and I know how to behave at dinner parties, but how does that help me do anything to help the Leanders of Ulandus?” Charlemagne continued, “I would have to take on the entire empire!” “There is an ancient proverb that says, ‘The most impressive stain glass window can still be broken by a single stone.’” Methuselah stated. “Be that stone.” Charlemagne still wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t stop thinking about his brothers and sisters in Ulandus. He had started to change and hadn’t even realized it and his actions started to show the change. He went to the Masketeers and asked them for a rapier because he needed a less conspicuous weapon. He began to gather information about Ulandus and the First Centurion. He followed the unrest in the High Council at the death of Flagg. He listened as the Sultan of Budd-apest asked the Masketeers and then the Red Guard to fight on behalf of the city if the Desert King called on them. He then asked to see the Sultan himself. “I’d like to be involved in the war” began Charlemagne. “That’s a little preemptive since the Desert King hasn’t officially declared war, but I appreciate your desire to serve” answered the Sultan. “The Red Guard has had only good things to say about you. I know you will bring honor to the city.” The next day the emissaries from the Desert King showed up and Charlemagne took his place alongside the Red Guard outside the city gates. After the skirmish against the attacking army, the Sultan asked Charlemagne to go on a mission to the Dune Sea. After he returned from the Dune Sea, Charlemagne found himself back in the library reflecting on how far he had come since his mother’s death in Avalonia. He thought about his mother’s unassuming grave, his new life in Kaliphlin, the words of Methuselah, and the suffering Leanders in Ulandus. He had fought on behalf of the Desert King, but he knew now that he needed to do more. He made up his mind at that point that he would go to Ulandus and would do everything he could to be that stone that broke the window. Charlemagne knew he couldn’t just walk into Ulandus so he devised a plan to go as a supposed emissary from Budd-apest, seeking to change the city’s alliance with the Desert King to Ulandus. Once he got into the country he would then stage his attacks and claim they were the work of a terrorist known as the Scarlett Magnolia. In this way he would protect his identity and with some irony, honor his mother. There was no denying it, war had changed Charlemagne. OoC: This will make much more sense if you read my minichallenge entry as well as my Cat. B entry. Lots more pictures on my flickr!

The half-Leander Charlemagne, a soldier for the Desert King, began his soldier’s journey in Budd-apest. He was born in Avalonia, but after his father and mother died, moved to Kaliphlin and took up residence among the Red Guard of Budd-apest. There he learned the basics of chivalry and fighting. As the certainty of war grew, Charlemagne started preparing. He first went to the Red Guard’s rivals, the Masketeers for a sword. The Masketeers favored the rapier and Charlemagne thought he might be better equipped for the coming battles by having a lighter, quicker blade than the Red Guard were want to use. As the war began, he took on the name of the Scarlet Magnolia to honor the memory of his mother. He became more and more determined to help his fellow countrymen, enslaved in Ulandus. He hired the services of Uriako who was able to sail him through the Serpant’s Crawl to Ulandus. Once he arrived he was able to enter Ulandian society by posing as an ambassador from Budd-apest to Ulandus. He claimed the city wanted to be free of the Desert King’s clutches. This caused him to be well received in high Ulandian society. He was able to use this as a cover for his true purpose, the liberty of the Leanders. He began by providing bread to the starving Leanders. When war began, resources grew scarce on Ulandus. What resources there were never found their way to Leanders who were more slaves than citizens. His next mission was to help free some of the key, Leander leaders who had been imprisoned for talking against the government. The Scarlet Magnolia had struck again! The city was abuzz with the talk of the Scarlet Magnolia, high society included. As Charlemagne talked to the other Ulandians they asked him, “Who could this Scarlet Magnolia be?” Charlemagne responded with, “Whoever he is, he’s making life nearly impossible for all of us who aren’t Ulandian! I can’t go anywhere without being quizzed on my identity for fear that I may be the Scarlet Magnolia. In fact, I’ve written a poem for the occasion, They seek him here, they seek him there. The Ulandians seek him everywhere. Is he from Mitgardia, or is he from Avalonia? That darned, elusive, Scarlet Magnolia.” He continued his subversive activities and continued to help Leanders throughout Ulandus. He was a soldier for the Desert King, but a secret one. After a couple weeks he heard about the orders of execution for some of the Leanders he had personally helped as the Scarlet Magnolia. It seemed that the Ulandians where trying to flush him out. He took the bait and went to the wilderness where the Leanders where sentenced to die. He found them guarded, chained to rocks, and waiting for their death. Charlemagne didn’t know how they were going to be killed, but he knew he needed to save them. He charged the guards, and made it through their defenses to race to the prisoners to break their chains. As he ran he saw a large shadow pass overhead. He freed the first Leander and shouted at him to dive to the ground. Charlemagne heard a commotion behind him, but he focused on freeing the Leander’s first. All of a sudden, two more beasts landed, and Charlemagne saw that the beasts were wyverns. All three prisoners were now free and laying still on the ground. Charlemagne looked around and saw that all the Ulandian guards had been consumed. The wyverns seemed pacified for now. He urged the Leanders up and one of them said to him, “Please, I’ve worked with dragons for my whole life. These are a loyal breed. It is most likely that they see you as having fed them. They can be ridden if they are willing to take you, and I can think of no better way to get out of here!” Charlemagne trusted the Leander and approached one of the wyverns. The wyvern were seemingly passive now that their bellies were full and Charlemagne was able to mount it easily. The other Leanders mounted up as well and they flew off to safety. Charlemagne continued to harass the Ulandian army, using the wyvern whose trust he had earned all the while furthering the Desert King’s cause. OoC: This will make much more sense if you read my minichallenge entry as well as my Cat. A entry. Lots more pictures on my flickr!

Keep the entries coming guys! You have 1 more day!

I just want to say here (since so much conversation happens on the back end that not everyone gets to see) that this is an amazing game and Kawashita is an amazing team! Consider joining us for Honor and Glory. Oh, and please transfer 33 credits to Narbilu.

That is one sweet looking tag! Thanks!

You can use photo editing to remove the support that is holding something up, in one photo. You would need to show actual bricks holding up whatever you want flying in the other photos. You can't photoshop something into a picture to make it look like it's flying.

Sorry Artizan! At least you won the last contest... Yes, it has to be found (even if only mentioned) in the books from the list.

Yes, there are no size restrictions.

Only 1 photo is allowed to have photo editing beyond fixing lighting and other minor flaws. So it would not be allowed to have your example photo as well as a title photo, you should leave the words in the quote box as text under your picture instead.

Due to the fact that we still don't know whether TLG is going to help with the prizes or not, we have extended the deadline of the contest to Aug 1st. I'm sorry for all of you who have rushed to get an entry in. If you feel like having more time means you would submit a different entry, PM me and we can talk about allowing you to change an existing entry. We want this contest to have prizes so please be patient with us while we get the details hammered out!

It is most certainly still happening! There may, or may not, be an extension...

I think everyone will agree that there were some awesome entries for this contest and that it was hard to pick a winner. But the people have spoken and the votes have been tallied. Congratulations to the winners! 17. Artizan - Rebel Special Forces Battlepack and 2. jansued - Alliance Anti Boarding Crew Winners, please PM me your address (complete with country if outside the USA) to receive your prizes!

How's that?

Done

Your builds keep getting better and better! I love the clean, Star Warsy feel to this. And your drop ship is great!

Location: A06 - Guinevere Tags: Vehicle, Civil Ender and his sister Valentine landed on Guinevere, a desolate planet that wouldn't be worth visiting if it weren't for the huge veins of gold running through its crust. Valentine was a Kawashita scientist so when she told Ender they needed to dig directly under a live lava flow to find the purest vein of gold, he didn't doubt her for a second. He did doubt, however, whether the roof would melt through before they were able to get out of there though. OoC: As this is my first AG build, comments are even more welcome than usual!

Incredible set re-do! That was one of the best sets created for the Old West theme and your creation is instantly recognizable as a space version!

Oh yes, just wait till you read the names for the rest of my characters. I'm using AG as a complete my-favorite-sci-fi-themes-mash-up. And since the Ender quartet was what first opened my eyes to sci-fi outside of Star Wars and Star Trek, I thought it fitting that my main character be named after him.

Thank you SK! The AoM challenge kept me building at times when maybe I would have been in a slump. It also pushed me to get better and better. Thank you to you and the other guild leaders for hosting it! I am a better builder today because of AoM. Now to see how I can incorporate those titles into my signature and get it to fit on one page...

I have introduced myself in the Intro thread, but thought I should also post here. Driver for Kawashita, Ender is reporting in for duty. Born Andrew Wiggin, he earned the nickname "Ender" (for reasons...) early on and has gone by that name for most of his life

I would like to formally introduce my AG character, Ender. Born Andrew Wiggin, he earned the nickname "Ender" early on and has gone by that name for most of his life. He is a driver for Kawashita. Story and builds to soon follow. *Please note that I want the name in the index to show up as Ender*