Attempt at the ICE Challenge - Inspiration needed!

[torstan]

Hi there. So I want to chuck my hat in the ring for the ICE challenge this month (deadline on the 31st of Jan). I need some inspiration to get something finished for this. I want to do a high fantasy map - some bizarre temple in an unusual place. Ideas:

1. A cloud temple on a mountain - part of the temple on the peak and other parts suspended on the cloud itself.

2. An ice temple (no pun intended for this competition!). A cavernous Ice vault with sharp icicles and crevasses. Not sure what interesting featuers this could have, though a fractured web of ice bridges on the approach over the crevasses would be quite nice.

3. A fire temple (okay, this is all get a little elementat focussed - not my original plan). A volcano lair with lava flows, pillars of flame and basalt altars.

Any other thoughts for nice high fantasy areas with interesting terrain? All inspiration gratefully received!

[Steel General]

You could look at the CWBP and see if any of the members of the pantheon give you a 'jump-start'.

Your ice temple would work great for the deity Bhoryal

[jfrazierjr]

I like the ice motif also. Given that your currently in winter in your current campaign, this also gives you sometime instantly usable also, which is always a plus.

[torstan]

Okay. Let's play with the ice temple idea a bit. Any thoughts on good features of an ice temple? Crevasses are a must. I'll also go for great icicles and ice pillars. An ice waterfall might make an appearance.

I'm starting to think about this as being a shrine at the end of an almost impossible hike through treacherous lands. So it is less a temple and more of a holy place.

What other icy fun can people think of? Also, how would a god of the bitter cold wish to be worshipped? A simple altar seems a bit bland and benign for such a being.

[Gamerprinter]

What other icy fun can people think of? Also, how would a god of the bitter cold wish to be worshipped? A simple altar seems a bit bland and benign for such a being.

Hey Torstan, how about a "crypt area" with corpses of holy men that are frozen in solid ice and viewable through the walls - the corpses could be standing or laying down as appropriate. Guardians could also be frozen in the walls near the entrance and would be magically thawed and reanimated to defend the holy site.

You could also create a the effect of a stained-glass image (in blues and whites) as sunlight pierces through the ice from above - I'd even place transparent shafts of light causing kaliedoscope effect on the floor coming from the direction of the sunlight.

Ice sculptures could serve as statuary - and if its an evil temple, frozen victims could serve as statuary...

Perhaps a cold fog could exist in a crevasse and seep out into the altar chamber, though that might obfuscate the floor too much.

If the Ice Temple was beneath a glacier accessable via a crevasse the entry tunnel to the altar could be misaligned along a "fault" or large crack in the ice since glaciers still move...

Thoughts?

GP

[Ascension]

I always think of ice gods as being stern, severe, and harsh thus demanding of worship that's more deed or performance based rather than outright fawning, bootlicking, or sacrifice based (as in animal or human sacrifice). I could see some value being placed upon gems and jewels, diamonds and sapphires rather than rubies and emeralds. Steel might be acceptable since it can be used to shape the ice and silver for its color. Of course wolves and bears would be totems or maybe go obscure and use walrus tusks and whale bones. It would almost have to be on a mountain to let the winds howl through and snow drifts to pile up...like an outdoor shrine with statues around some sort of courtyard with a raised dais at one end with an altar/throne on it or something like that (climb the mountain then climb some steps as symbology for climbing the mountain). Maybe have the dais on a cliffside so that the god could survey the world from atop his perch. I could ramble on with this some more but I just thought I'd pop out some brainstorming. Hope it helps ya some

[torstan]

Excellent thoughts there. I think the beings frozen in ice is a must. The light is going to be a very important factor in this as it will show the ice for what it is. Frozen blood should surround any sacrificial area. I like the idea of the howling winds as well - so possibly a shrine inside a mountain top glacier.

Frozen statuary sounds good too, and drifting mist and snow...

The more I think about this, the more I see that my standard approach of a black ink line followed by colour isn't going to work so well. An ice temple is going to look weird with strong black outlines. Perhaps I need to take a shot at a more painterly approach. Definitely something to investigate.

The concept of stained glass patterns from light thrown through a curtain of ice is lovely too. Well, this promises to be a challenge. Now if anyone has an ice temple coming up in their adventure, you can always slip in some requirements here and you might just get an ice temple to fit your needs!

Right, off to play with some sketches now in between figuring out dark matter annihilation in proto-halos.....

[Gamerprinter]

Perhaps start with a blue-ish gray background and draw with white lines instead of black, and work in your normal style that way...

GP

[Midgardsormr]

What if you put a large frozen creature under the floor, which is polished to a high degree of translucency? Ooh! And it's mortally wounded, but the god froze it there instantly to save its life and now it slumbers, awaiting some hero (or villain) to revive and heal it.

[RPMiller]

I'll just brainstorm some ideas here...

I can see a large ice window behind a great ice throne. The ice window being sort of like stained glass. The ice throne is suitably sized for a Titan. Along the walls are the bodies of those that attempted the journey but died. They serve as an honor to the ice god. Sort of a gallery of the devoted. Before the throne is a great crevasse that serves to keep the devoted back from actually getting too close to the ice god for fear that their body heat might warm him too much.

The throne itself is composed of ice sculptures. Great polar bears as the arm rests, and an whale fluke as the back rest with the symbol of the god carved into it.

There is a passage that leads around to the outside of the "window" that leads to a great ledge from which he can look to the south across the barren lands in search of the fire goddess whom he fell in love with as a youth and before they were forever separated when the curse of their domains were laid upon their shoulders.

There is a great ice sculpture of a fiery woman in the center of the hall that serves to remind him of her.

Bear and wolf pelts serve as the only other furnishing and as a place for the priests to sit while they worship.

In the far opposite corner of the temple are the actual living quarters for the few priests that were strong enough to make the journey and serve the god. Their rooms are kept at a comfortable 32 degrees so as to not melt the temple, but be warmer than the outside. The stay warm by wearing the furs of the animals whose meat the live off of, and have fashioned their religious symbols and weapons from the same animals' bones since wood is scarce.