Sihedron Circle

[TomParker]

I don't think there are any real spoilers here but I'll put this all in a tag anyway.

Sihedron Circle:

So I'm thinking of making the Sihedron Circle. I have my own ideas but I'm curious how others have seen the Circle in their minds' eyes.

We know the stone heads are preserved with Thassilonian magic. Paizo has published images of the Runelords. They're described as heads, so I see them as having no neck as part of the statue.

I also see them all as looking okay--nobody sculpts the Runelord as an ugly statue if they want to stay alive. So even Zutha looks okay, less drooly and less slimy than his depiction in The Dead Heart of Xin.

So did you all imagine them as smooth like a marble sculpture, rough like the Easter Island heads, or somewhere in between? How do they stay upright? Do they have a small base, or do they rest chin on the ground like the Olmec heads?

What do you all think?

[TomParker]

No one has ever considered what these would look like as miniatures?

[Misroi]

As it happens, you're not the first.

[TomParker]

Misroi wrote:

As it happens, you're not the first.

Thanks, yes I'd seen that thread. He did a great job. But the heads were store bought (for fish tanks, I think he'd said) and don't reflect the actual Runelords. I think those heads are too rough hewn and show too much age.

I'm looking at creating actual sculptures of the heads. That's where my question is going.

I'm thinking I'm going to make them with a slight texture. With all that Thassilonian magic, I figure these were magically formed with something like a more finely detailed version of stone shape. I'm going to avoid an obvious base and try to have them just widen a bit where the neck would start so they can stand on their own. The preservation magic would keep them pretty much as they were originally left there, so I don't think they'll have any cracks or chips.

Just curious if anyone imagined them differently.

cheers,
tom

[TomParker]

Resurrecting my own thread but I wanted to share how this project is going. Here's are some renders of the 3D models for a few of the Sihedron Circle statue miniatures.

Sihedron Circle

They're scaled as 2" tall. I'll be 3D printing these next and seeing how they look.

[Bellona]

They look great! But aren't the mouths supposed to be "agape", with cavities (not in the dentistry sense!) in which the party can find the keys once they fulfill the necessary conditions? Or will you just describe the mouths as magically opening at the correct moment?

[TomParker]

The mouths are slightly open. But yeah, not agape. My 3D guy tells me he has concerns about thickness at the lips for printing. They're still a work in progress. I'm going to see how one or two print and then see if I want further changes.

I'll upload some others in a bit.

[Bellona]

Do you intend to share the files on the "Community Created Stuff" thread? There might be others who are interested in doing the same thing.

[TomParker]

I'm checking with Paizo on what I can do with them. It's just really expensive to produce a set from these models. I'd rather produce some resin cast versions for people if I could.

[TomParker]

I added some photos of my first test print of Zutha. I love how this turned out; that's the raw material, before any painting. But yeah, in the final print the mouth is more closed than I think it should be based on the description in the AP.

Sihedron Circle

[Arthur G]

Open gob or not, these look absolutely fantastic. I'm especially impressed by the seemingly effortless transition from 2d artwork to 3d print. The models are easily recognizable as individual runelords and I can only imagine that a fair few hours of scrutinizing official portraits went into that. Great stuff.

And to answer the actual question: I always imagined the heads as being more stylized, yeah. Almost caricatures, with the exaggerated features that we know from political cartoons, except that the effect here was not to amuse but rather to frighten.

[TomParker]

Thanks, Arthur! I went back and forth on how to approach these. As I mentioned, I looked at the Olmec heads a lot. But I ultimately decided to have these done as more realistic, like the Classical Greek stuff. That's what I decided Thassilon was to me; a sophisticated fallen civilization. They weren't carving out bogeymen to scare their people; the actual rulers were scary enough.

All seven are just about done digitally. I'll post more pictures as they're finalized.

[TomParker]

Opened up the mouth some more. I think this is what I'm going with as "agape."

[TomParker]

All seven completed and printed. Really happy with how these turned out.