Castle Contest: Royal Guard

Deadline: April 9, 2005

Now Voting!

I've decided that it's time to add a new twist to my contests. The contest you're looking at now is the first in a series of fantasy themes, all revolving around people you might find in a medieval castle. (Thus, they're Castle Contests. For now, it's the Royal Guard - other contests may tackle rulers and nobles, mages and astrologers, servants, soldiers... each will be a specific type, and probably require a bit of character development or design. The top dolls in each contest will go on to a final round of judging, with it's own awards and prizes.

Although most contests in this series will feature characters, the first thing I'd like you to tackle is the design for a particular group. The doll doesn't even have to be a character - but you will need to know something about her kingdom.

Your mission: design and make a doll of a royal guardsman in uniform from an original fantasy kingdom. (Yes, that means you can't take a kingdom from fiction, you have to create your own, even if all you know about is what color it's soldiers wear.) Your guard may be male or female, young or old, though he or she should certainly be a professional soldier, and should be dressed accordingly.

I'm not requiring names, since your doll could be an example rather than a character, but I do want to know the name of the kingdom you are representing. If you need help thinking of a kingdom name, why not ask friends or friendly forum members? (I'll help only if you ask nicely and have no other way of entering the contest. It's your kingdom, you need to figure it out yourself, if possible.)

Contest Rules

1. All standard contest rules apply here. Read them. Also follow the guidelines listed above.
2. One entry per contestant, up to three dolls per entry if they're displaying different variations of the uniform.
3. Your doll should have as little excess background as possible. If it has excess background, I may remove it. In such a case, I take no responsibility if quality decreases, and I'm going to deduct points.
4. Your doll should be no larger than 300x300 pixels and 30 KB.

Send me your entry as an attachment with "Royal Guard" in the subject line. Copy this form, and be sure to include all necessary information.

Your name/nickname:
Doll's name*:
Kingdom:
Your email:
Your site**:
Base URL:

Also include a brief explanation of your design. It's only for me, not for wider publication, but running spell check and using punctuation and capital letters would be nice.

I can't accept entries without base credits, really I can't. I also need an actual web address, not just the site name.

*If your doll does not have a name, I may invent one for him or her to facilitate judging. For this contest, the kingdom may be enough.

**If you don't have a site, do I have permission to link to your email address? I like to credit you somehow, but if you'd rather not display your email, just say so and I won't. (I can also link to forum profiles, if you give me a working URL.)

Ice Shadow Dolls Privacy Policy

Examples

base

Awards and Judging

I'll be doing the judging, according to my system. (With possible advice from a judging group or panel.) There will be a poll for voters' choice.

Awards: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places; Voters' Choice; Salli's Choice; Best Concept; Possible: Best Uniform, Best Use of Color
Prizes: Banners and links for all (personalized awards guaranteed up to 15 entries), a request for the winner

Entries

These dolls are the property of their creators. If you'd like to adopt one, please visit the site of the creator and do it from there.

Entries for this contest are displayed by order of entry and, as necessary, by size. Entry numbers are subject to change until the contest starts voting. Names in italics were provided by me, so please don't hold them against contestants.

1. Zeiina Kingdom of Zorratia base	2. Raphcellie Kingdom of Tantar base	3. Lance Kingdom of Dunsburg base	4. Rosetta Kingdom of Gwir base	5. Sammy Kingdom of Kiddome base
6. Sana Kingdom of Verdina base	7. Tutela Kingdom of Ishtaria base	8. Edonil Kingdom of D'oldaar base
9. Leenda Kingdom of Noseera base	10. Kingdom of Gilead base		11. Maedwen and Ladrein Kingdom of Nethilwien base
12. Raheefa Kingdom of Seraph base	13. Phaedra Kingdom of Reginant own base	14. Eavan Kingdom of Navarrae own base	15. Rasden and Sadaya Kingdom of Cividina base
16.Toren, General Dione, Vyper Kingdom of Septerum base

Please vote for whichever entry you think is best. Mass voting or blatantly biased voting will disqualify an entry. You are hurting your friend's chances if you don't vote honestly. The winner of this vote will win Voters' Choice. Poll results are only a small part of overall judging.

Voting will end around April 20.

Entries are listed by number and kingdom.

Royal Guard
Which entry is your favorite?	1. Zorratia 2. Tantar 3. Dunsburg 4. Gwir 5. Kiddome 6. Verdina 7. Ishtaria 8. D'oldaar 9. Noseera 10. Gilead 11. Nethilwien 12. Seraph 13. Reginant 14. Navarrae 15. Cividina 16. Septerum
	Current Results

The Fine Print on Fair Voting

If you're voting honestly, and you're pretty sure the poll is fair, there is nothing here you need to know. But someone always asks, so...

This poll determines Voters' Choice. The results of the poll are only a small portion of the overall judging, and placing or even winning does not guarantee an entry will place in the contest. If I'm suspicious but can't prove anything, I might not count these results into overall judging at all. Don't panic if you think someone is cheating - I watch these things closely, and I try to keep them as fair as possible.

Contestants are permitted - event encouraged - to invite others to vote. However, these invitations should specifically ask the voter to pick their favorite entry, reguardless of who made it. "I'm in this contest, please vote for your favorite," is great. "Vote for me in this contest" is not appropriate, and will disqualify the entry for Voters' Choice and possibly the entire contest, depending if it seems to be accidental or intentional, and how generous I'm feeling.

If you post a link in a forum I can't view if I'm not a member, it would be prudent to let me know. I will get referrals from your link, and when I can't see things, I get nervous.

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