Wednesday 31 July 2013

Operation: Steam Knights - Heroes

The other day someone asked if there is a story behind Operation: Steam Knights.

Beyond the basic character biographies, no there isn't really. But I did say that the biographies were linked, which got me thinking - who are the Steam Knights?

So this MOC is basically to bring all the stuff together relating specifically to the "good guys".




Basically the "heroes" are the human knights, wizards and warriors that serve Emperor Rex.  Rex rules the human occupied kingdom of the Medieval Universe.

Shown above from left to right:

 http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/364071Lady Hawk (far left back row) 
http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/14643 Sir Centrix (left middle row)*  

http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/38506  Lady Gladiator (centre middle row)
 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/29063  Wise Man (left front row)
 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/29361  Wizard of the Green (right front row)
 http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/37662 Lady Kay (right middle row)
 http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/364605  Sir Benedict (far right back row)

As part of the Medieval Universe theme I've created other heroic allies of the Emperor, but these seven constitute all the "official" Operation: Steam Knight members on the side of humanity - so far.

*Note: On MOCpages this character was originally Sagitarix, but I changed the name on Cuusoo as I prefer the name Centrix.  The original Centrix character is now of ambiguous canon. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/319569 Despite his black armour, this alternate Centrix is actually a good guy.  I haven't included him in the picture above as, at the moment, this character is not on Cuusoo.

I haven't included any non-human heroic characters in this first list, so far that would include any Dwarfs, Minotaurs or Elves.  http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/29365 I've also neglected to include the thief character, who while human is a criminal. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/342327 Similarly, the Wyvern Sect, though human, are technically villains.

One thing this exercise has proved is that I'm tending to favour the colours white, gold and blue for the heroic characters.  I need to start introducing other colours I think.

Known details:

Rex is the emperor of the Medieval Universe.  He is a widow, his late wife is called Marissa and she leaves behind a scheming sister Maud who is a witch planning to take the throne.  Rex has one child, a daughter called Karolyn (also known as Lady Kay) who has made it her life's work to oppose her aunt and defend the kingdom.

Rex also has a love interest in the form of Lady Elizabeth Hawk, an apprentice to Maud who also seeks to take the throne, but via marriage.  However as she truly loves the emperor, her ambitions are kept in check (mostly).

Rex surrounds himself with knights and advisers, amongst the most famous and loyal are, Centrix, who's armour is a centaur, Sir Benedict, head of the royal guard and love interest for Lady Kay, The Wise Man, a hermit who advises the emperor on magical matters and The Wizard of the Green, a magician who comes to the aid of the palace in times of darkest emergency.

The greatest enemy of Rex is the necromancer, Mortillus.  Kept alive only by his own evil will, this creature has escaped the underworld via a weakness between the worlds close to the lake city which lies at the heart of the kingdom.  Mortillus seeks to take the castle and rule as the new emperor, and has raised an army of skeletal warriors for this task. 

Other enemies include the Dark Elves of the north.  Once all humans and elves lived in peace under an ancient treaty, but the madness brought on by dark magic, lead to a faction of mountain dwelling elves to rebel.  The wood elves of the forests still uphold the treaty and frequently ally with Rex against their insane cousins.
Welcome to Operation: Steam Knights.

Hi, I'm Steven (aka Pittstop & Andros Tempest) the creator of Operation: Steam Knight.  What I aim to do with this blog is provide extra detail and previews of the future of this theme and answer questions (if possible) about the universe I've created.

Question: "What is Operation: Steam Knights?".

Answer: "Operation: Steam Knights, is a proposed new Lego theme set in an alternate universe where steam technology and magic coexisted in Medieval times.  Image a fusion of the legend of Camelot combined with Steam Punk.  The theme grew out of ideas I had for the existing Castle and Knights themes which Lego have been running for years.  My original idea was for knights in magical suits of armour that functioned like Mecha, but as I developed new designs, I realised that a combination of mechanical components and stylised engine parts, made the armour designs more "believable" and just looked cool."

Question: "How do I get hold of a set?"

Answer: "At the moment the designs only exist virtually, the LDD files (for some of the designs) can be downloaded from my MOCpages account   http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/40649 However the dream is that Lego will produce the concept as a new theme and (possibly) utilise my designs as the basis.  For this to happen my projects on Cuusoo would require support from fans and admirers, so [blatant plug] http://lego.cuusoo.com/profile/pittstop

Question: "Why do you post each design as a new project? surely you would get more support if you just had one?"

Answer: "My early designs only seemed to get noticed when they were listed in the NEW projects list.  Once they fell off the front page interest died and as a result I found posting the next design as a separate project but with links to the original, interest could be revived.  Plus you only get a limited number of images you can use to promote your idea, with so many designs already created, that was fairly limiting.  If this blog takes off I may just post the images elsewhere and create links on Cuusoo for future designs.  It depends."

Question: "When can we see your designs?"

Answer: "I'm planning on using this blog over the next few weeks to post details and information about each EXISTING design and then use it in future to promote new ideas and (hopefully) get some feedback.  But how long is a piece of string? it depends a lot on time constraints and work load."

If you have a question for me to answer in a future blog, just post it in the comments below.