Guilds of Historica New Member Guide

[Trooper919]

I wanted to do some stereotypical wood elves and some under a Norse influence.

It will probably be a while before I post a sig fig etc. Because I only have like three to five elves.

@Merc4Hire: I have seen a few MOCs on GoH with custom armor and weapons.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Trooper919

[Slegengr]

@Merc4Hire Custom pieces have definitely been used before.  It seems that custom parts are much more quickly accepted on sigfigs (or minifigures in general) than with the building pieces in MOCs.  This is all a matter of personal preference.  From my experience, though, my opinion is that part of what makes amazing MOCs amazing is the ways they incorporate purist solutions to overcome the limitations imposed by the constraints of pieces produced by TLG.  There is a lot of gray area, though, as many amazing MOCs utilize purist parts with illegal connections, which is not TLG-purist.

I do not mean to impose a view that custom parts are wrong, just that the general feeling of a LEGO-specific community seems to be towards purist solutions.

@Trooper919 Wood elves with Norse influence would probably fit best in either Avalonia or Mitgardia.  I am looking forward to your sigfig and your introduction into the coolest Guild of Mitgardia! 

[Merc4Hire]

@Slegengr Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated. So its up to preference. I also personally prefer using only TLG parts but I've been struggling to put a hood over a breastplate so I thought of resorting to a custom/modified TLG hood. 

[Trooper919]

7 minutes ago, Slegengr said:

@Merc4Hire Custom pieces have definitely been used before.  It seems that custom parts are much more quickly accepted on sigfigs (or minifigures in general) than with the building pieces in MOCs.  This is all a matter of personal preference.  From my experience, though, my opinion is that part of what makes amazing MOCs amazing is the ways they incorporate purist solutions to overcome the limitations imposed by the constraints of pieces produced by TLG.  There is a lot of gray area, though, as many amazing MOCs utilize purist parts with illegal connections, which is not TLG-purist.

I do not mean to impose a view that custom parts are wrong, just that the general feeling of a LEGO-specific community seems to be towards purist solutions.

@Trooper919 Wood elves with Norse influence would probably fit best in either Avalonia or Mitgardia.  I am looking forward to your sigfig and your introduction into the coolest Guild of Mitgardia! 

@Slegengr: Thanks but seriously you Mitgardians need to chill. Mitgardia may be nice but doesn't mean you guys have to say stuff about it.

(This is meant to be a way to reply to a pun and is in no way how I feel about this matter because puns are punny.)

[Slegengr]

@Merc4Hire A custom part for something like that is understandable.  TLG is unlikely to mold a hood to fit over armor, since this is a somewhat rare application.

@Trooper919  I'll chill then (which sure is not hard in Mitgardia!).  There'snow way of telling what guild you might choose if I do not influence you, though!  Norse there a way to inform you about the benefits of the coolest Guild without calling it as such!  Joining Mitgardia freeze up a lot of building possibilities. I cold quit this Mitgardian promotion since I told you I'd chill, but... frostly, I need to keep going to stay warm in Mitgardia and secondly, puns are just fun! (as long as our native language is the same, since puns sort of fall flat when translated ) 

[Jacob Nion]

27 minutes ago, Merc4Hire said:

@Slegengr Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated. So its up to preference. I also personally prefer using only TLG parts but I've been struggling to put a hood over a breastplate so I thought of resorting to a custom/modified TLG hood. 

That is an easy task; just put the head into the hood first and then put it on the torso with breastplate as far as it goes. You will have to use some force and the hood will tend a bit to one side, But it looks fine and good enough for pictures.

[Trooper919]

@Slegengr : I think I might join mitgardia fir the puns.

I could make two or tree puns about avalonia but I feel like they would drag-on a bit. Nocturnus puns aren't marsh fun, and Kaliphlin puns aren't that cool.

 

[Slegengr]

@Trooper919  My Mitgardian promotion is successful if you should join, and that would be just pine!

I will be looking forward to your contributions to the Guilds of Historica, no matter what guild you join!

[Trooper919]

@Slegengr : thanks for the warm welcome but I should probably leave and start get some elves and other figs from bricklink to make my sig fig and the other elves.

[kabel]

Steen Larsson might be back ...

 

[Slegengr]

@kabel That would be great if Steen Larsson is back!  I am looking forward to more builds from you!

[de Gothia]

Sounds great kabel! Albion is ready to go back to the north!:)

Edited December 27, 2016 by de Gothia

[soccerkid6]

6 hours ago, kabel said:

Steen Larsson might be back ...

 

Mitgardia would sure love to see you back!

[Lord Vladivus]

Sweet! Welcome back kabel!

[Merc4Hire]

@Jacob Nion Thanks for the advice  I managed to fit the hood piece over the breastplate. 

[TitusV]

Happy new year guys! I wish you a lot of MOCing pleasure and a lot of other cool things in 2017!

[Jacob Nion]

I have a grammatical question and hope some native english speakers (ideally british, by reason of the cause) can help me:

I recognised that often people pass on using 'an' before a noun beginning with a vowel in their stories. In my ignorance I first thought of laziness, but it happens too often and consistently. 

So is it just dialect, modern common practice or (what I'm hoping for) a way to make the language sound medieval? If so, I would adapt it. Thanks in advance!

Edited January 3, 2017 by Jacob Nion

[mccoyed]

Can you give an example because I think it is just a common mistake made even by native speakers. A lot of people will say/write "a asteroid" when they should say "an asteroid". 

Just one of those smaller grammar things that gets overlooked. Like "their" vs. "they're" or even the spelling of "rogue" as "rouge".

[Jacob Nion]

1 minute ago, mccoyed said:

Can you give an example because I think it is just a common mistake made even by native speakers. A lot of people will say/write "a asteroid" when they should say "an asteroid". 

Just one of those smaller grammar things that gets overlooked. Like "their" vs. "they're" or even the spelling of "rogue" as "rouge".

Well if it's really just that and not a matter of linguistic style I rather not link to an example. I don't want to pillary somebody by accident. If you say it's just a mistake then I keep going with what I learned in school. 

[Slegengr]

36 minutes ago, Jacob Nion said:

Well if it's really just that and not a matter of linguistic style I rather not link to an example. I don't want to pillary somebody by accident. If you say it's just a mistake then I keep going with what I learned in school. 

According to what I learned (American schooling for proper English), using the article 'a' before a noun is proper with a noun starting with a consonant.  The article 'a' becomes 'an' when the noun starts with a vowel.  This, I believe, is to avoid doubling up on vowel sounds such as 'a apple' versus 'an apple'.  The 'an' makes a sounded distinction in the spoken language.  The distinction is not really necessary in the written form but is necessary/helpful in the spoken language (therefore 'an' is still proper in written form for nouns starting with a vowel).  This is easily lost in translation from another language, since it is not necessarily common to other languages.

I am not an English professional, but my family particularly loves messing with language at home with the intent of better learning the proper uses of words (especially since my father teaches English and my mother used to teach English as a second language).  Sorry I am not British...

[Umbra-Manis]

I'm American, but I believe It's just a common mistake. There are a few words such as hour that ignore the rule and use an due to the silent consonant.

If you were going for a more medieval (and derived from latin in particular) sound you could omit the articles (a, an, and the) altogether. Based on the fact that the latin language doesn't have words for any of them.

 

[Jacob Nion]

1 hour ago, Umbra-Manis said:

I'm American, but I believe It's just a common mistake. There are a few words such as hour that ignore the rule and use an due to the silent consonant.

If you were going for a more medieval (and derived from latin in particular) sound you could omit the articles (a, an, and the) altogether. Based on the fact that the latin language doesn't have words for any of them.

 

While you are right about the classic latin language I have to argue that those indefinite articles derive from the old germanic languages. I haven't read any medieval german text without those so far. 

Also, the common latin during the middleages wasn't the pure classic latin language anymore we know from Seneca and Pliny. It was in fact a variety of distorted forms we rever to as medieval latin.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Jacob Nion

[gedren_y]

English is such a polyglot language, its rules make it one of the most difficult to learn as a second language. Add to that the places where the language has been transplanted, over many different eras. Even different parts of England have regional dialects, and slang. Add to that the difficulty of some keyboards for typing, as well as the need for expediency that keeps some from proofreading, and you'll see plenty of grammatical inconsistencies.

[Kai NRG]

To fail to use an in front of a word starting with a vowel is certainly an erroneous construction, whether you're writing medieval or modern.  Formally (and probably more so in earlier times) an is often used before h also (an history, an hour).

In front of acronyms it's a little more complicated.  My gut says that if the acronyms starts with a vowel sound (eg. MOC; em-o -cee, FOL; ef-o-el), you should probably use an an.  (Note: Google confirms my gut.  )  Edit: Some people pronounce MOC as mock, in which case using an a would be fine.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Kai NRG

[Lord Vladivus]

As my mother is an English teacher, and as I'm somewhat of a grammar pedant myself, I'm going to chime in and say everyone's covered the an/a debate pretty well. "H" is the only consonant that consistently causes confusion.