The_astute_penguin’s Chants of Sennaar video game is exactly the kind of microscale subject that makes me happy someone looked beyond the usual pop-culture suspects. Chants of Sennaar is a game about language, symbols, architecture, and slowly learning how different people understand the world, which makes it a surprisingly good fit for LEGO. At microscale, you do not need to spell everything out. You just need enough shape and mood to suggest a strange tower full of meanings waiting to be decoded.
What I like here is the restraint implied by the scale. A big version could drown itself in decorative detail, but a tiny one has to focus on the essentials: silhouette, verticality, and atmosphere. That actually suits the source material beautifully. The game is all about reading clues from fragments, and microscale building works the same way. A few well-placed parts can become stairs, walls, culture, mystery, and story. Quiet little tribute, very good choice.
Build by The_astute_penguin on Flickr.
