Play time was over now. I had a nifty train depot build and my recreation of Hyrule Castle's main floors, dungeon and throne room completed. Next step was to move on and build Agahnim's Tower, all eight floors of it.
I knew going into this phase of the build that I would be pushing the limits of the world height with the build. I created a dirt tower to max height to get my count and decided that I would need each floor to be 4 high, with a double layered floor to allow the flooring of one level to not show on the ceiling of the level underneath. That meant each level was technically 6 high. 8 X 6 = 48 layers. Sea level, the base of my castle, is 65 and my castle was already 10 above that. With a max eight of 128, that left 5 blocks of wiggle room. (128 - 65sea level - 10castle - 48tower). Very close, but it would fit and that is what was important.
With strategy guide in hand, I began the build. I kept the footprint of the tower the same size as the main room of the castle which set my scale. For an added touch, I "rounded" the four corners to give it a bit of artistic flair and make it look a bit less box-like. I first laid out a single row of cobblestone arround the perimeter to get my outline. From here, I found the center-point of my tower for reference and built a dirt tower and small platform to mark the height of my room. The wall running from front to back only needed to be 1 block wide, but the wall running from side to side needed to be 4 blocks wide. This would allow me the room to create the staircases in each level to the next floor above. It required a little extra work, but turned out okay in the end.
I repeated this process for the first 5 levels. On level 6, I began to "shrink" the size of the floor to try and give it more of a spire look. It works from some angles, but looks funny from others. I knew my top two floors were only going to be a single room wide which was also why I began the shrinking process.
In the game, there are technically only 7 levels, but that shows off even more where the artistic liberties come into play and how game design can play with spaces more than 3D games can. From floor 6, the last staircase up to the chamber where Agahnim sends Zelda off to the Dark World is straight up. It doesn't curve around like the other staircases do. That would mean that room would be hanging out over where the throne room would be. On top of that, the windowed room where you actually fight him is straight back behind that meaning it would be sticking out even farther. Seeing how this was lining up, I had two options. I could make my throne room a whole heck of a lot taller to meet the bottom of this room, or I could curve them back and forth, changing the straight-up staircase to a curved one, and put the battle room on top of Agahnim's room creating an 8th level. This is the route I took and it turned out just fine.
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My house and Observation Tower as seen from the
top of Agahnim's Tower. |
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I also changed the 8th level quite a bit and made it a glass-domed room instead. It doesn't fit the game, but looks neat. Plus, the view from the top is spectacular.
At this point, the tower was completed in structure. I didn't really do much decorating at the time thinking I would come back to it later. Well, "later" turned out to be this past weekend. The photos in the Photo Tour below were taken on Saturday after a long session of finishing up with as many of the "little details" as I could.
After completing the tower, I started "playing" down in my cave system, enlarging the main corridors and marking paths through it to help stop me from always getting lost. I basically piddled around at this point without really doing a whole lot.
That changed when the last game update came out and Pistons were introduced. I would next return to the castle and complete the hidden exit out of the throne room into the sewers and Sanctuary. But that's next time.
Photo Tour
We begin our tour outside the entrance to the tower. Since this was supposed to be more ominous than the rest of the castle, the Glowstone block above the door is the last one you'll encounter in the tower. The rest of the lighting comes from flaming Netherrack or torches. I even used Redstone Torches in some rooms to light it up, yet keep it darker and creepier.
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| The Front Entrance. |
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The guardian statues inside the first room. Okay, so they're wool blocks.
You can't get everything exact on the Xbox... |
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| The second room with the "face". |
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The room with the fences. The top part of the room is fairly accurate, but
I got a little off at the bottom. Still looks good enough to me. |
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Looking forward from the back corner of one of the front right
rooms. Just showing off a little more detail. |
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| More of my "guardians". |
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This is the first of two "dark" rooms. I used the Restone Torches to give
it a nice dark glow. The holes in the floor are supposed to be bottomless,
but "darker" will have to suffice for this space. |
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| More architectural details. I worked hard to capture some of the little things. |
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| Just imagine each half slab as a pot... |
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| We're nearing the top of the tower now. |
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| The final room before Agahnim's Room. Another darker one. |
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| Entering the final floor. |
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| The alter at the top. |
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| What's this? A secret room (ladder)? |
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| The final floor. |
That's it. So, what do you think?
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