This temple of Sa'bak hides an ancient Nerubian palace

I never travelled the deserts of Uldum - it's far too arid for me - but adventurers who pass by the local tarvern have told me of Sa'bak. It's a name that sat in the back of my mind but I've not given it much thought.

Until I saw photos of the Temple of Sa'bak built by @... (AKA Allifeur). I knew I had to pay a visit straight away.

The entrance to this very humid temple

I met Allifeur just outside his house (which itself was well disguised as a cave entrance for a previous build) and he quickly took me inside.

The entrance certainly sets the mood, it's much less like a house and it feels like a dungeon entrance - reminded me a little of Blackfathom Deeps due to all the water features and the moody mysterious fog, but instead of the elven theme, this looks vaguely Tol'vir.

A main chamber to impress

Moving further into the temple, we reach the main chamber, featuring a giant crocolisk-like skull depicting Sa'bak. It almost looks alive: the eyes are balls of fire and its nose is fuming.

There are scratches on the walls and the ground - perhaps this was a real skull of a real creature, or perhaps Sa'bak does manifest himself through these bones to protect his worshippers. My host explains that he clipped … to the walls and the ground to create the scratch effect.

Sa'bak is the protector god of Uldum waterways, a titantic guard to repell the corruptions of the depths, so he makes sure nothing comes out into the waters.

He purifies it from corruption, making crops prosperous!

-Allifeur

The skull definitely captures your attention, but to the left, the platforms guide you towards a small altar where Allifeur's Nightborne - Astrille - and her group left some offerings to the god of the waterways.

To the right, there's a chest where Sa'bak himself can provide his own gifts.

As Allifeur gives me a tour of the main chamber, I find myself saying "Wow!" at every detail.

Looking around, I can see that the water is real, by using clever placement of fountains. Allifeur says that he tries to avoid the famous … to create the illusion of water, and instead prefers to use elements that contain water. To further add to the mood, the … is set to Midnight to convey the ominous feel and manifest the myst which makes temple feel more humid.

My guide swaps the lighting and the atmosphere changes instantly - it's no longer a hidden mysterious temple. It's just an assortment of objects clipped together.

Lighting is everything - I realise when the Armillary is swapped back.

Deeper, into the Nerubian Palace

Allifeur jumps into the skull's mouth and beckons me. I follow my host through the claustrophobic tunnels that are leading us further underwater (almost like we're being swallowed by Sa'bak) and we soon reach an imposing entrance - it definitelly looks Nerubian.

I start to wonder where the hell am I being taken to - and whether this reporter is in over his head: my experience with Nerubians has not often been very amicable. It's easy to forget that I'm in someone's House and not a Dungeon!

Allifeur gives me a little more insight into what he wanted with this section:

[This area] leads deep underground, to the first settlement of the first defeated Aqir who fled deep underground to avoid the titans wrath.

Ending up isolated for a while, and evolving into proto-nerubians!

So I tried my best to try to create my own nerubian structures with what we have.

It's a bit hard to see but you can see web fences for instance.

-Allifeur

It's incredible how he captured the Nerubian architecture without having access to any Nerubian decoration. Allifeur tells me he used:

• Web decor: …, …, etc
• Elven items such as … and …
• Draconic style decor: …, … and …
• Arakkoan items like ….

Moving a little further, I'm told to look up at this ominous nerubian queen statue - I feel judged.

Allifeur explains:

This is meant to be Anub'izek, the first "true" queen of the nerubians, a monstrosity which had both the strenght of a scarab lord, and the intelligence of a vizier. And the bodies too!

She's a parallel to Sa'bak. One is the sunken sun, and this one more of a dark moon!

-Allifeur

This is where the paths diverge, one leads up via what looks like a series of … - I can't believe I'm not falling through them! I'm told that this was achieved using some hidden objects that have a larger collision box (like … and …).

Up the ramp

Allifeur draws my attention to the lunar depictions, which is, apparently, Nerubian symbolism that is never really explained - if only Archeologists dug around a bit more.

I follow my guide through an elaborate and richly decorated corridor. The corridor features a number of columns made with what seems to be:

• a … as the base
• a redish-dyed … clipped with a couple of …
• a … topping it all

There are plants on either side - surely a display of wealth and power - how did they grow so well down here? And how are they so well kept?

At the end of the corridor I find myself in a chamber with another depiction of Sa'bak, this time standing guard over a dome. Opposite, there's an iridescent painting (again using …).

A... black hole?

Allifeur quickly tells me not to get any closer. I look at the thing and decide to follow his advice. We quickly get out of there, and make our way back.

Back down, to the lab

Allifeur tells me this was filled with cultists when his Nightborne and her group arrived, they were experimenting with crocolisk eggs (maybe even Sa'bak-related!). It's impossible to miss the many … filled with who knows what - and I don't ask.

Apparently they dispatched the cultists and their leader was caught - phew!

The economics of it all

Allifeur leads me back to the split path and we chat for a while.

Dosaki: How much time and gold do you think you spent on this build?

Allifeur: Hmm. I would say I did it over 2 months, and I added more stuff as RP sessions progressed. Some stuff did evolve over time. For instance I added much more trees in Sa'bak temple after my guild botanists planted trees there.

Dosaki: It must be really useful to have RP guiding your build as it evolves

Allifeur: It's more of a constraint than anything useful, but it's a fun part of it.

Dosaki: Creativity works best with constraints!

Allifeur: In terms of items that cost pure raw gold, I am at 189,050 spent.

Allifeur carries on explaining that many items were crafted to save on costs - checking their value on the Auction House, he estimates that the build must be worth around 1,245,030 !

He lists out the other currencies that he spent (aproximately):

• 469 coupons
• 47,500 apexis crystals
• 219,200 order hall ressources
• 2,000 war ressources
• 5,610 dragonflight resources
• 5,000 resonance cristals
• 25,500 kej
• 11,050 voidlight marl

I can't really work out the gold exchange rate - I don't think I've even heard of some of those coins - but it doesn't sound cheap!

Inspiration

Dosaki: So you started with Sa'bak as the inspiration and then the rest happened organically? Or did you already have plans to connect it to Nerubians?

Allifeur: I did wanted to go toward nerubians. This was the main focus of our RP plot.

Allifeur: Our antagonist was a nightborne deeply in love with a woman who turned into a Fal'dorei, so he was deeply interested in the nerubians alchemist prowesses. It failed in Azj'kahet as the sureki lost. So his second best solution was to go for where it all started, in this lost palace of Anub'izek.

Dosaki: Is your RP storyline finished then? Did you catch your antagonist?

Allifeur: We did! There are few things that changed with the decors as a result too.

Dosaki: I just love that - the story influencing the decor. It must be great for the players to see it evolve.

Allifeur: Yeah, so if they grab something I can remove the item. (To a reasonnable degree of course: if they cause an explosion I won't be able to act unless I prepared it haha).

Dosaki: I haven't tried roleplaying in the houses yet, but it looks like you can add a whole new level of immersion like this.

Allifeur: It does, but it is also harder and a bit clunky if you try to do complex stuff, but I really wanted to explore the possibilities

Allifeur's advice

With such an impressive build, I ask Alliffeur whether he can share some wisdom with the rest of us:

Don't think any concept is impossible just because there are no decors for it. You can always make something new from what already exists if you are crafty enough.

But know it will require a lot of time and ingame gold

-Allifeur

He also mentions that complex builds take a long time to complete - one should pace themselves and not try to do it all in one go.

Wrapping up

This was one of the most impressive houses I've seen so far - I mentioned it many times, but it really did feel like I was in a delve or a dungeon.

Allifeur says he's not going to do a build this elaborate so soon - at least, not until Blizzard implements import/export.

That's if for today, dear readers. I hope this amazing temple inspires you - it certainly pushed my notions of what I thought was possible.

I'll see you on the next house!