The Hist Temple and Beyond

[sHAdowgAme]

Hey all, Here are a few sketches of my take take on the Hist temple. I'm trying to give it a Aztec meets Ankor Wat meets black marsh feel. I read that Argonians worship Sithis, so I want to include statues of him, but I was wondering if we have a set design for the Hist Tree. I want to make the tree the centerpiece of the temple grounds.
I want to continue to develop this before I start modeling, so any suggestions you all have are welcome.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Outstanding work! :bananarock:

If you can make some of the pieces detachable so that they can be used for multiple purposes then that would be awesome because I can then modify the SI ruins with them, particularly stuff like the lizard totems.

Your two modelling queries are two of the most contentious issues I've come across in terms of lore. As Xaeaix knows, the Dark Brotherhood: Chronicles team (of which he is a member) have debated what Sithis looks like endlessly and it's ranged from being the original Deepscorn Hollow model: http://oblivion.wikia.com/wiki/Sithis_(god) (see pic further down) or variations on the theme of the 'void'. On the forums, I suggested "...a dark cloud that hovers over the landscape which, at its thinnest points reveals the subtle intimation of vaguely human forms..." but this would prove extremely hard to accomplish, I think (and certainly is not effective as a statue). I wonder what the SI effects could conjure though, perhaps by using some swirling cloud that sucks inward from some central dark panel design. I can certainly add atmospheric sound...

The Hist tree, however, is something that this team have debated quite a lot. Senten made a really nice model here: Hist Saplings but much of the earlier debate centred around this thread: Hist tree concepts . Our conclusion was nothing more than to not rush into creating a model we're not happy with considering the fact that the Hist are probably going to be the most important model of the whole mod...here are my own thoughts and concepts regarding the matter when I updated the above thread with a new post: Hist tree concepts .

[Deeza]

Hi, lore monkey here to answer your questions (hopefully)!

First of all, the Argonians don't worship Sithis directly, they worship the Hist, who have dealings with Sithis, and probably everything else under the sun. He'd probably still be represented at the Hist shrines, but not prayed to. His opposite Anu would probably be represented as well (this is because the Hist draw power from both Oblivion, which is related to Sithis, and Aetherius, which is related to Anu).

Second, Sithis is kind of a force of nature, like gravity or radiation, so he doesn't really have a personality or physical form the way the Divines and Daedra do. I suggest a sort of abstract representation in the statue, something that seems "chaotic" while still having some kind of overall structure.

[DoZeNt]

Wow, this sure looks great!

[Koniption]

@ Deeza: in regards to a statue for sithis (to reveal his chaotic side), what about a statue that looks sort of like what that one famous painter does with his paintings, when he puts the different body parts in the wrong places - like eyes where the mouth is and nose where the ears are, etc? You could do that with an Argonian statue or other figure/object.

I can't remember the painter's name off the top of my head right now though, but he's long dead.

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

....or I'm sure I can reshuffle and redo some of the SI FX to make a cool rendition of 'Sithis-ness'....a combination of a retextured swirling pool and other lighting FX, perhaps...?

I agree with DoZeNt....it all looks very enticing! =)

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Koniption
I can't remember the painter's name off the top of my head right now though, but he's long dead.

Picasso?

[Koniption]

Originally posted by nick_op

Originally posted by Koniption
I can't remember the painter's name off the top of my head right now though, but he's long dead.

Picasso?

Yeah - that's him.

@ Ibsen: you know that dark swirling cloud effect you mentioned (like what I tweaked for you)? What if you add a dark/black ball shape of some sort to the middle of it, with lightning that sparks and swirls around the ball, while those dark clouds are swirling around the ball/lightning??

Problem is, I think the lightening will have to be a particle effect, and I can't do particle effects. But maybe one of the preexisting Oblivion magic or FX effects can be used, if it exists.

Koniption

[Deeza]

You could try the stock lightening spell effect, perhaps with a recolour. Or the one around the Oblivion gates.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Sounds good. I'd have to experiment. :yes: