10369 réponses à ce sujet

[Corker]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...
Plus the Tower wasn't built by the Chantry or even Tevinter. It was originally Avvar.

The only barbarians to have mastered, and then lost, the secrets of steel-reinforced concrete, apparently.



Eh.  I suppose maybe magic holds it up, but you'd think somebody would mention that.  (And where's it drawing energy from?)

Or maybe it's only four stories tall after all, and what we see on the shores of Lake Calenhad is really just a magical or optical illusion.

[Creature 1]

DreGregoire wrote...

Sialater wrote...

I believe the fan thread came to the conclusion that was his most recent escape.  He fled before Surana/Amell's Harrowing and because of the Blight and Uldred's mess was on the lam for quite some time.

That would make sense because he never mentions the horror's of the tower at that time. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't somewhere else he might have been locked up, other than in those empty cells below the tower, because he definately wasn't there when I went through. LOL. I'm still not sure that there isn't a mage type prison in Denerim. He doesn't mention fighting darkspawn at all so either he was locked up and unable to fight them or he was somewhere else. Grrrrr! It's frusterating all the little details that video games leave to speculation. *sighs*

I think I'll start reading codexes for a while from both Dragon Ages

I've always figured the Templars had somewhere more convenient to keep prisoners short-term, like cells on their floor.  Makes more sense than hiking downstairs several flights to interrogate a suspected blood mage (especially since the game's tower design is bass ackwards, with mages at the bottom floors near the front gates, and Templars on the upper floors where they have to fight through a horde of abominations in case of a revolution). 

[mousestalker]

In game the templars, being higher physically, are closer to the high status areas like the handball court and the zoo.

Maybe that's the real reason why Greagoir is so cranky early on. Uldred's rebellion has left him bereft of clean underwear.

[DreGregoire]

Corker wrote...

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...
Plus the Tower wasn't built by the Chantry or even Tevinter. It was originally Avvar.

The only barbarians to have mastered, and then lost, the secrets of steel-reinforced concrete, apparently.



Eh.  I suppose maybe magic holds it up, but you'd think somebody would mention that.  (And where's it drawing energy from?)

Or maybe it's only four stories tall after all, and what we see on the shores of Lake Calenhad is really just a magical or optical illusion.

People have known how to build tall buildings and support them well long before steel-reinforced concrete.

[Creature 1]

The Circle Tower according to the pictures is IMO unrealistically tall without modern building methods. In game it is only 5 stories, which could be doable, but I always figured it was meant to be bigger and this was game mechanics to keep that part of the game from being unbearably long.

Historically most very large buildings have had supports like flying buttresses, or otherwise been broad-based (pyramids).

[Sialater]

Creature 1 wrote...

The Circle Tower according to the pictures is IMO unrealistically tall without modern building methods. In game it is only 5 stories, which could be doable, but I always figured it was meant to be bigger and this was game mechanics to keep that part of the game from being unbearably long.

Historically most very large buildings have had supports like flying buttresses, or otherwise been broad-based (pyramids).

I'd like to point out that with magic, all things are possible.

[maxernst]

Creature 1 wrote...

The Circle Tower according to the pictures is IMO unrealistically tall without modern building methods. In game it is only 5 stories, which could be doable, but I always figured it was meant to be bigger and this was game mechanics to keep that part of the game from being unbearably long.

Historically most very large buildings have had supports like flying buttresses, or otherwise been broad-based (pyramids).

It appears to me that the circle tower has some sort of buttressing, if you look closely at its base.  Besides, there are free-standing bell towers exceeding 100m in height--La Giralda in Seville, for one.

[Creature 1]

The Circle Tower isn't a bell tower, though, it's got a considerable cross-section. Most historical towers were essentially spires with a staircase in the middle, no rooms. The pre-18th century residential towers I've read about were little more, mostly having a staircase running up the tower with a couple rooms on each floor. The Tower has a large central chamber with multiple dormitories or libraries on the outer walls on each floor, and the top floor is the Harrowing Chamber, which is also very large.

Sialater wrote...

Creature 1 wrote...

The Circle Tower according to the pictures is IMO unrealistically tall without modern building methods. In game it is only 5 stories, which could be doable, but I always figured it was meant to be bigger and thiswas game mechanics to keep that part of the game from being unbearably long.

Historically most very large buildings have had supports like flying buttresses, or otherwise been broad-based (pyramids).

I'd like to point out that with magic, all things are possible.

Yes, perhaps an hour of each students' day is spent casting the spells to keep the Tower up! 

Modifié par Creature 1, 23 août 2011 - 08:11 .

[mousestalker]

I haven't looked at it recently, but could there be a false extension above the Harrowing Chamber?

[Creature 1]

Here's a pic of the Tower in game.

It looks a little different from the concept art, the bottom fortified portion is shorter and narrower, and there is a tall spire topping the Harrowing Chamber. 

Modifié par Creature 1, 23 août 2011 - 08:15 .

[Sialater]

I doubt the spire is inhabited.

[mousestalker]

That looks at least semi-practical. There are buttresses of a sort and it gets markedly narrower as it goes up.

Addendum: Is that a sort of crow's nest near the top?

Modifié par mousestalker, 23 août 2011 - 08:25 .

[Creature 1]

I think the crow's nest thingie is just decorative. I wouldn't think there are even stairs in the spire.

It still doesn't seem practical to me. I assume that top bit where it gets narrower and then widens again before the spire comes out is the Harrowing Chamber, and we know that's large enough to have a high domed ceiling and allow a pride demon (18 ft?) to stomp around comfortably without being anywhere near to bumping his head. I'd say it's 40-50 ft to the top of the dome? I'm guesstimating the entire thing is near 350 ft ground to the roof of the Harrowing Chamber.

But I think this came up before and someone had a semi-canonical height from the book on Thedas that they published?

[maxernst]

Creature 1 wrote...

Here's a pic of the Tower in game.

It looks a little different from the concept art, the bottom fortified portion is shorter and narrower, and there is a tall spire topping the Harrowing Chamber. 

To me that doesn't look that unreasonable.  The actual living quarters where the cross-section is large would be toward the base of the tower, and then the rest of it is mostly hollow with a big long staircase up to the Harrowing Chamber. Plus, at least some of the weight of the spire would be supported by the side buttresses.

[Maria13]

I KNEW we would end up discussing architecture!

[inquartata02]

I'm now remembering all the architecture stuff from The Pillars of the Earth. (Book version, not miniseries version.)

[Corker]

If it's only the height of a bell tower, I'll stand corrected. My impression is something in the Eiffel Tower/Empire State building range, though. Possibly because it looks so much like the Eiffel Tower? And the section of Imperial Highway in the foreground (but who knows what the distance to the Tower is?)

[DreGregoire]

That pic of the tower is at a really bad angle and it's way in the distance so it's hard to determine anything from what you have shown us.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Corker wrote...

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...
Plus the Tower wasn't built by the Chantry or even Tevinter. It was originally Avvar.

The only barbarians to have mastered, and then lost, the secrets of steel-reinforced concrete, apparently.

What about the Dalish?

Eh.  I suppose maybe magic holds it up, but you'd think somebody would mention that.  (And where's it drawing energy from?)

Or maybe it's only four stories tall after all, and what we see on the shores of Lake Calenhad is really just a magical or optical illusion.

Sounds like something the wizards of Unseen University would do to impress visitors...

But do the libraries of Thedas mages have L-space?

[Corker]

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...

But do the libraries of Thedas mages have L-space?

If L-space joins all libraries together, then naturally, that must include those on Thedas.

Ook.

[Sialater]

LOL.

We can't know how high the tower is because there's nothing nearby for scale, it's not mentioned anywhere and it's always shown from the PC's POV.

[erynnar]

DreGregoire wrote...

Corker wrote...

Shadow of Light Dragon wrote...
Plus the Tower wasn't built by the Chantry or even Tevinter. It was originally Avvar.

The only barbarians to have mastered, and then lost, the secrets of steel-reinforced concrete, apparently.



Eh.  I suppose maybe magic holds it up, but you'd think somebody would mention that.  (And where's it drawing energy from?)

Or maybe it's only four stories tall after all, and what we see on the shores of Lake Calenhad is really just a magical or optical illusion.

Here in the US the first five story buiding was built by the Ancient Puebloans in Chaco Canyon.


People have known how to build tall buildings and support them well long before steel-reinforced concrete.

[Merilsell]

Maria13 wrote...

I KNEW we would end up discussing architecture!

Smartass

[mousestalker]

My own personal theory is that the appearance of Kinloch Hold has been determined by generations of mages hellbent on having their own bit of revenge against the rest of Thedas. It is expressly made to cause any builder, architect of engineer going past to break down in tears and cry.

[Maria13]

... Plus giving them the finger, of course. Or being really, really rude (Morrie's observation).