WHY DO WITCHERS WANT TO BUILD A STRONGHOLD?

Everyone likes a good story. No matter what it is, a movie, a book or a video game, if a story is nice and engaging, we get into the swing of it completely. Of course, everything is only our imagination. We perceive a book through our eyes only, skimming over the letters. A movie is experienced through our sight and hearing, just like a video game (although the vibrations of a controller can be a substitute for interacting with the world by touch). What if you could find yourself inside an interesting story with a possibility to witness and explore it through all your senses? What if we told you it could be done? That you can move into any universe, any story? Into forests full of orcs and elves, futuristic streets of cyberpunk cities, dark alleys and smoky bars straight from film noir, decks of spaceships, ballrooms from old times, pirate galleons, trenches of World War I or II, sunburnt Western towns and many, many more?

Welcome to the world of larps! What is a larp? Here is a brief explanation for those of you who haven’t come across this phenomenon yet. According to a dictionary definition, larp (live action role-playing) is an activity between art and play, during which participants create and experience a story together, portraying their characters like in improvised theatre. In fact, it is much more than that; it’s the possibility of being completely transferred to another reality, not only perceiving it with all five senses, but also influencing it and feeling the emotions associated with it. It is larps, among other things, that have been designed, created and run by the 5 Żywiołów Agency for more than 10 years now.

Larps are undeniably the activity in which 5 Żywiołów has the most experience. We have organized larps, city games and similar events for 15 years and we have great achievements in this field. “Battle Quest” was our creation. It was the largest Polish fantasy battle larp which, in 2019, gathered almost 1000 warriors on the battlefield that was designed by us. We have created “Witcher School”, one of the most recognizable and best rated larps in the world, which is attended in Poland by hundreds of participants from all over the world several times a year.

Over a dozen or so years of practice, we have learned, among other things, that in order to completely immerse yourself in a story, you need something called 360-degree illusion. What is 360-degree illusion? It is a postulate aiming at a situation where everything a player sees, hears, tastes and feels should be as close to the truth as possible. If a story we are taking you into is set in a village from one of the fantasy realms, you should see medieval-stylised huts there, hear the sounds (goose gaggling, rooster crowing, and so on) and sniff the aromas of the countryside. If you grab a slice of bread, it should taste and smell like bread. If you touch a wooden wall, you should feel wood under your fingers. The characters you encounter should wear medieval costumes and use stylised language. All these and many other little details allow you to immerse yourself in the story to the extent that you almost believe that the world you are in is reality. Larpers call it full immersion. Full immersion is a kind of holy grail in the larp society, which is sought, approached but never achieved completely. Such full immersion, fully diving in the story created, is precisely what we have always strived for in our games.

One of the most important elements that allow you to get closer to full immersion is scenography. If we want to feel like in a medieval city, we must be surrounded by buildings characteristic of such a location. If we want to believe that we are sitting in a New York restaurant of the Prohibition era, the room we are in must resemble such a restaurant. When a story takes place in the Wild West, it’s nice to have a view of a classic western town, with a sandy street and wooden buildings on both sides. One of the main goals of our project is to build a usable scenography in which our games could take place.

LET’S BUILD IT!

First of all, we’d like to build a stronghold that will be the centre of our location and the heart of the entire project. It is to be the cornerstone of the undertaking, which will allow us to expand our location by adding more scenography in the following years. Here (LINK) you can see the detailed architectural plan of this place. We hope that in reports from our larps you will notice how much attention and finesse we apply to details. Our goal is not to build another purely profit-oriented amusement park. We want to build a stronghold that will be harmoniously integrated with the surrounding environment. We want it to grow out of nature and remain in full symbiosis with it, just as it was achieved by the elven structures of the Tolkien’s world. That’s why we are going to use environmentally friendly materials wherever possible (wood, stone, clay, hemp, straw, etc.). Of course, our architects will make sure that this is not done at the cost of accommodation, sanitary or gastronomic standards.

Let us lift the veil of secrecy of what is not visible in the mock-up. The whole place will be full of secret corridors and chambers, interactive scenography responding to touch or magical words. Narrow streets of the estate will be crowded with fine stalls of craftsmen, booths of vendors from the borough or simply passers-by belonging to different social classes. You’ll find there an alchemist’s laboratory, an herbalist’s shop, a blacksmith’s workshop or a noisy inn where you’ll be able to find shelter at any time after a long journey. Our dream is to create a place that will surprise you every time; a place that you will discover over and over; a place that will help us transfer you from everyday life to the world of your favourite books and movies.

WHERE?

Our team has been looking for a suitable place for a long time and although we haven’t finished the search yet, it seems that we have found a perfect land for the kingdom of yours and ours. Over 120 hectares of beautiful hilly meadows, pastures, forests and marshes. There is a 15-hectare lake in the middle, with water as pure as a mountain stream. A glacier retreating from those lands left large boulders covered with soft moss. All around, you can see limitless dense forests, wavy meadows and countless lakes. We have no words to describe the undisturbed silence and beauty of unspoiled nature everyone experiences being in that place. The man who owns those lands at present, sees the depth of our vision. We’ve found common ground and friendly relationship with him, which means the possibility of wise cooperation. Anyway, a picture says more than a thousand words and we have a photo report of this extremely charming place for you. (PHOTOS)

WHAT ARE WE PLANNING IN A COUPLE OF YEARS?

The world we are going to create may occupy over 120 hectares of virgin land. Therefore, after the construction of a stronghold, we’d like to use funds earned from organized events for further expansion. We hope that the list of our ideas will be extended with your own ones in the future. For the time being, our plans are:

The Unfathomable Forest

Our land is covered with endless woods. In their thicket you can find soothing shadows, a spring of crystal water, tasty forest fruit or vast wetland. The forests also hide secrets. It’s always been like this. Woods are supposed to hide things, to separate one world from another. Therefore, by a covenant with the forest, we’ll give you a space that you’ll be able to discover, full of mystery, uncertainty, and sometimes a thrill of terror. The whole forest will become one big, living organism, harmoniously connected with our fancy scenography infrastructure. If you are brave enough, you’ll find there dark crypts covered with ivy, a hut of an unpredictable witch located in the middle of haunted swamps, ancient, mighty megaliths of ancestors, various traps and other obstacles.

We’ll use cutting-edge technology so that you can never predict what may open, fall or attack you. Some areas in the forest will be like escape rooms, rich in riddles and puzzles (escape rooms are one of our specialties). We’ll also prepare sound effects that will surely speed up your heartbeat, especially during night walks in the Unfathomable Forest.

We’re planning to develop this location with each year of our project’s implementation, successively improving it with new elements.

The Forest Hideout in the trees

The Forest Hideout will be located in the heart of the thicket of the oldest part of the forest. It will be supported by majestic, branchy trees that have lived through dozens of human generations. It’s supposed to be a place inspired by the residences of forest elves from various fantasy universes (mainly Tolkien’s Caras Galadhon of Lothlórien). Although our imagination is unrestricted, the actual appearance of this construction will partially depend on building regulations, safety standards or the height of trees, but we guarantee that when you see the view from up there, you’ll hold your breath for a few moments. The Forest Hideout will consist of several tree houses connected by a system of bridges and ropes. Hanging swings for several people, hammocks and rope slides won’t be missing.

After preliminary consultations with specialists on construction methods, we are going to use an innovative technique based on a system of bearing tapes by which the grips on trees can be regulated every year. Thanks to this, like in classic elven settlements, we’ll avoid hammering nails into living trees and won’t cause them any harm, which will surely please all the local Ents.

Spaceship

The conquest of space may become possible for humanity in the near future. Unfortunately, our generation (apart from a few wealthy men, perhaps) probably won’t be able to enjoy holiday trips to Mars yet. Instead, we can make sure that you experience the excitement and emotions of such a journey here on the Earth soon. Thus, one of the future locations in our estate will be a spaceship.

You’ll be able to feel like your favourite heroes from Star Wars, Star Trek or other space stories. The ship will be designed in such a way that, while playing a larp, you’ll be able to experience a simulated space flight, a difficult one due to turbulence, breakdowns or problems with on-board infrastructure. Some of our initial scenarios simulate a crew revolt or a failed landing on an unknown planet, after which the survivors have to cope with a completely unknown territory, without the part of technology destroyed in the accident.

Western town

We hope that some of you are fans of Western classics; there are a lot of them among us. For such people we will design a small, one-street town in which you will feel like the characters played by John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. It will include a notorious saloon, a shabby gaming house, a well-guarded bank or an overzealous sheriff’s office. Of course, you’ll also find an Native American village nearby. All these will let you feel the emotions associated with an attempted bank robbery, negotiations with the Native chiefs or fighting in one of the Civil War skirmishes.

Pirate ship

There is also a large lake with crystal clear water within our grounds. We want to use it in the future as an arena for playing out scenarios from your and our favourite pirate or adventure movies. To do this, we want to construct a ship stranded on the shallows of an unknown island. Thanks to this, we’ll be able to create games where you can feel like Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew on an island full of pirate treasures and, of course, inhospitable headhunters!

We also hope that someday, in a distant future, our lake will see a second ship; a fully operational, pirate-style one that will be seaworthy. However, this is still a song of a faraway future as the costs of constructing such a ship mean that the implementation of this project will have to wait.

Underwater hideout

Imagine a small lake hidden deep in an old forest. You notice a point, intense, warm light emerging from its depths. If you dive towards the light, you’ll swim underneath a glass dome where you can breathe air, stand on a dry surface and look around an intriguing interior. Do you think it’s a crazy idea? Not for our befriended architects who know how to make it properly and, above all, safely.

Village (new housing estate)

This part of our world will be inspired by natural architecture, Tolkien’s Hobbiton, some fairy tales and cohabitation. Unlike the rest of the scenography complex, this place is meant to have a separate function. It will be the heart of our far-reaching vision of creating a kind of “housing estate”. Willing members of our team and their families would be the first to live there, but in a distant future we’d like to welcome there, under certain conditions, people not belonging to our regular crew. We’d like the members of the community to be independent in terms of finances and run their privately owned businesses, including those that can be remotely managed. That’s why broadband Internet will be available throughout the estate. We hope that in the long term, even several hundred people will live in our settlement. Here you can see our initial vision of this place. LINK

Other ideas

We’ve got many more ideas. The most important ones are listed above. We also hope that you will share your own ideas, projects and visions with us, so that we can develop the best concepts. If you have any suggestions, send them to ([email protected]). We’ll definitely consider them!

KIEDY?

Not immediately, of course. Below, we present a realistic, in terms of time, construction plan of the settlement, prepared according to our calculations and forecasts.

	2022 to 2024	Building the stronghold in its basic form.
	2022 to 2024	Establishing the basic infrastructure of the back office.
	2024 to 2025	Building accommodation facilities.
	2024 to 2025	Developing the stronghold, including additional buildings and improvements.
	2025 do 2026	Constructing The Unfathomable Forest, external location full of interesting places inside woods and the forest houses in the trees.
	2025 to 2026	Developing accommodation facilities including a restaurant and feast halls.
	2027 to 2028	Building the housing estate which is to be a year-round housing base for the staff and other guests on its grounds.
	2026 to 2030	Constructing other locations: grounded spaceship, pirate galleon, Western town, underwater hideout.

 

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

crowdfunding action

WHAT’S NEXT?

When the first location is created, i.e. the stronghold along with accommodation, we will start organizing not only larps but also other types of events there: feasts, tournaments, meetings and integration games. Of course, we’ll invite all of you to participate, but not only that. We can also organize something designed exclusively for you: from a custom made larp, through a corporate event to a crazy hen or stag party, or even an amazing, stylised wedding. You may have an idea for a larp but no place to organize it. No problem at all! You’ll be able to rent the stronghold with the entire infrastructure and our professional help for this purpose, all at a reasonable price.

Next, as the development of our settlement continues, we’ll start operating all year round. It will be possible to come to a specific event or use the place as a kind of agritourism base and simply visit us to take a rest from everyday life for a few days. We’re going to offer not only accommodation and all locations for your use, but also a variety of attractions such as an every-day open, atmospheric inn serving meals prepared from on-site sourced, fully organic ingredients; a bathhouse with a sauna; and many, many others.

Help make this vision come true and feel free to support us!

PRESENT-DAY EDUCATION FACTORY

Look at the world in which you will soon compete with artificial intelligence and other technologies meant to make your work easier. You may hear: “Don’t worry. You will handle this challenge.” Oh, right, you’re part of industrialised education, after all… You act almost like a machine. You can think schematically in a unified system. Nothing can surprise you, but also you can surprise nobody. You know some ready-made solutions. You don’t judge them. You don’t judge yourself. You don’t search for yourself. At school you were taught how to function properly. You follow instructions. You solve the same tasks as everybody else, according to the same key. You don’t get lost, you don’t discover anything, you don’t ask questions and you don’t risk anything. You imitate blindly, even if you don’t feel comfortable with it.

The present-day formal schooling, or rather modern education system, is a huge factory producing future employees blindly, separately from their interests, talents and market needs. Today’s institutionalized education isn’t focused on independence, inquisitiveness, building relationships, discovering talents or matching career paths with the individual character of a student. It doesn’t provide any tools that could make it possible to notice and work on individual talents and abilities or to identify the weaknesses and strengths of a student. It doesn’t outline various horizons of what they can do in adult life.

What’s worse, even if you are lucky enough to find some extraordinary educators trying to broaden your horizons throughout your schooling, they very often get suppressed and restrained by the system. This is perfectly portrayed in Peter Weir’s “Dead Poets Society” starring Robin Williams in his brilliant role. Time for individuality and working on oneself comes later, often not until university studies. For many of us, who are already formed and shaped, it is too late, unfortunately.

A WISE PROFESSOR

There once was a professor who wrote number 1 on a blackboard, looked at his students and explained: “This is your humanity, the most important value in life.” Then, he added 0 after 1 and said: “And these are your achievements which, combined with your humanity, increase your value 10 times. One more 0 – experience, which is already 100.” And so he subsequently added success, home, career, etc. “Every added 0 ennobles a person 10 times.”, said the professor. Suddenly, he erased 1 which stood at the beginning and thus only the meaningless zeros were left on the blackboard. The professor said: “If you don’t behave like humans, whatever you do will be nothing at all.”

THE FIRST PREMISE – PAVLOVIAN RESPONSE IS NOT DEVELOPMENT

In fact, what was presented by the wise professor relates to inner self-development. Many of us develop certain reflexes at an early stage of growing up. These reflexes automatically and invariably determine some of our functions for the rest of our life. However, humans are, in fact, complicated creatures who, from a certain point of their life, develop and grow up practically on their own. No one will do it for us. You need to be aware that this should be done every day throughout your life. We’d like to propose some methods and techniques that can support your will and help you change your habits, deal with stress, develop empathy, resolve conflicts, have discussions, control emotions and enhance virtues. We want to help you explore yourself in relation to yourself and in relation to other people. We want to help you learn to think in the long term because it is only after our internal affairs have been somehow sorted out that we can start conquering space or doing anything else.

THE SECOND PREMISE – DIRECTION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED

If we don’t know where we want to go, we will definitely not get there. In our centre, we’re going to act very precisely, through a psychological interview, and use tailored methods to help you discover your individual talents, profile your character and answer the question about what you could do professionally to achieve mental and material satisfaction, without disturbing your inner peace of mind. After all, there are so many different professions that you have no idea about, and which may turn out to be an ideal occupation giving you enormous satisfaction.

THE THIRD PREMISE – BEFORE YOU START A JOURNEY, PREPARE FOR IT

If we perceive exploring knowledge, developing professional qualifications and enhancing one’s talents and skills as a journey, it’s good to be prepared for such a journey so that we can achieve our goals faster, more efficiently and more accurately. Walking barefoot will take you longer, especially if the road is covered with sharp stones. Before you start learning, we’ll show you the techniques of doing it quickly and efficiently. We’ll teach you how to plan and manage the space around you and, above all, your priceless time.

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

As you probably know, larps are our great passion. But not the only one as we’ve been thinking about creating our own education and development centre for many years. We’d like it to be an extraordinary place where you could feel like in Hogwarts or Rivendell, but at the same time engage in fully effective learning, working on yourself and your personal development – all that in a fantastic environment. We’d like it to be a place where you could feel the bond with surrounding nature like nowhere else; which will slow down the pace of your life; a place where you, experiencing peace and harmony, will be able to fully immerse yourself in reflection and learning.

Our centre will initially be dedicated to adults, but in the long term also to children and the youth. In the first years of operation, we’ll concentrate on organizing session activities and we’ll focus on developing interpersonal skills by participants, helping them profile their professional goals (strictly based on character traits and talents) and find their place in the job market; and on teaching them how to manage time and personal space.

OUR METHODS

Over the years, a lot of exceptionally valuable educational trends have emerged, which complement many imperfections of the public system. Of course, a number of shallow initiatives have also appeared, usually under flashy slogans such as: “You can do anything, just believe in yourself”, “how to become a millionaire in a month”, etc. We’ve observed it all and we know where to look for inspiration and where not. Among our main sources of inspiration we can mention, for example, prevention methods, the Montessori method of education, and the psychology of Carl Jung. Yet, these inspirations don’t completely reflect the uniqueness of our method. That’s why we are presenting some of our original solutions below:

A) Learning from mistakes

We want to give you the fishing rod, not the fish. Our method of educating and supporting development won’t be based on the use of external compulsion. It will use the potential of the good and reason everyone has inside, in order to build self-discipline and inner conviction of the need to learn and self-improve. We believe that it’s good to leave some safe space for the possibility of making mistakes as it’s thanks to analysing one’s mistakes that a person learns most effectively and draws the most valuable conclusions. For example: in one of our classes students will receive bags with various elements and tools to build a small, one-meter-long bridge. Every student will make it differently. Whether it’s done better or worse – this will be demonstrated by a simulation of a mini-car crossing the bridge. After the simulation, there will be time to discuss all creative processes (from planning to implementation)..

B) Contact with nature

Nowadays, people are losing touch with wild nature. To understand our own nature, we need to confront it with the different nature of natural environment. Only then we can fully understand harmony; our unique role and power as well as the resultant responsibility for the planet, which we have as humanity. Contact with nature naturally calms us down, making meditation and reflection easier. That’s why our classes will take place mainly in close contact with nature: in a forest, on a meadow, by a fire.

C) Unlocking Method

The Unlocking Method is our original technique developed as a result of many years of involvement in larps. It’s meant to enable deep immersion in reflection on one’s character traits, goals and fears. We’re going to use tailored larp scenarios written in cooperation with psychologists to fit the needs of a given person. After a larp, a psychologist will carry on a conversation about the experiences arranged in the scenario to find out what is worth changing for the better in one’s life.

WHAT ARE WE PLANNING FOR THE BEGGINING?

A) The School of General Development

We expect that our first guests will be those who are looking for something new in life – a new path, a new purpose, a new approach towards the world. Adults who realise that their education hasn’t given them everything they expected from school and teachers; that they still need a little help, guidance, the right direction. People who wish to and are ready to improve themselves. It’s them for whom the classes of the School of General Development are planned: workshops that will last from a few to several days, themed classes concerning various issues including self-management (the ability to organize time, structures and space), creative thinking (discovering your talents, passions and creativity), self-shaping your character (dealing with stress, shyness and other problems; the ability to calm down internally, self-reflection), building relationships with your social environment (empathy and emotional intelligence, constructive criticism of yourself and the world, the art of dialogue). All classes will be conducted by qualified and experienced instructors, basing on the infrastructure built during the undertaking.

B) The School of External Relations

We’re also planning to organise several-day classes and workshops for couples and families undergoing problems, meant to define the problems and work out solutions. We’d also like to have classes targeted at individual people or groups, intended to define and solve specific issues that bother them.

C) The School of Self Relations

This programme will be designed for people who live in a hurry, don’t have time for reflection, are lost, tired, and overwhelmed with everyday life. We’ll help them find the problem, solution and purpose during their holiday time spent on calming down and reflection. This is going to be an individual course focusing on a specific problem and solution, in a “fast” mode unlike the classes of The School of General Development, oriented towards a wider range of knowledge or skills.

FURTHER PLANS

A) Groves of Academus

At further stages, we’re planning to create a friendly workplace for academia, both students and teachers, eager to help us. In our forest, we’d like them to find a place for unfettered discussion and exchange of opinions, just like in the Groves of Academus; a place where they could form a kind of think tank, an independent research group focusing on a specific socially useful issue, every time on a different one, at a month-long session. This could include, for example, developing a reasonable method of managing illegal landfills or organising a lobby campaign to change laws in favour of private electricity production, etc.

B) A full-time school

The final stage of our project will include building a fully-operational primary school inside our settlement or within its close surroundings, as well as a high school or a technical school. However, this will require not only gathering excellent teaching staff, but also building appropriate infrastructure.

C) Independent Cultural Centre

We’ve experienced many times how difficult it is to present one’s creative work without enough capital and media support. That’s why we really care about supporting independent, talented artists through the activities of our centre. Having the essential backup facilities and the necessary infrastructure, we can think about creating the Independent Cultural Centre. Within its activities, we’d like to engage not only in animation and enriching local cultural communities, but also invite guests from all over Poland and even the world. We’d like to make our settlement a kind of creative work centre for independent artists. Also, we want to organize various cultural and artistic events: concerts, vernissages, land-art and site-specific projects. We’re also thinking about creating a fully equipped recording studio and editing room in the future, which could be used by musicians and filmmakers.

D) Classes on various subjects

In addition to the previously described classes, we’d like to organise a number of courses related to running an organic farm, ecological methods of land cultivation and animal husbandry; culinary workshops and classes concerning herbalism and food processing. In our village, willing participants will be able to find instructors able to teach the basics of fencing, archery, calligraphy or handcraft such as leathercraft or blacksmithing. Of course, you’ll also find there some on-site guides happy to take you on an educational trip around the area.

If any guest or resident is willing to share knowledge and skills, we’ll be very happy to organise activities covering their profession. Do you have any idea what could be learnt from us or what you can teach others? Write to us at: [email protected]

WHEN?

	2024	Launching first workshops and courses at the School of General Development: classes for adults on self-management, creative thinking, shaping character and relations with one’s environment.
	2024	Launching first workshops and courses at the School of External Relations: classes for couples and marriages.
	2024	Launching first workshops and courses at the School of Self Relations.
	2025	Launching the Independent Cultural Centre.
	2026	First edition of the Groves of Academus, which is to be a kind of think tank for students and academic teachers.
	2027	Recruiting first applicants to our primary school and high school / technical school.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

WHAT’S NEXT?

We’d like to invite the first guests to participate in our project already in 2024. If you decide to visit us, you’ll be able to experience not only innovative classes and experienced, competent instructors, but also contact with nature, learning and resting among an unusual environment, and the opportunity to take part in a wide range of attractions related to the other two pillars of our project – larps and ecology. When staying with us, you’ll certainly never get bored during classes or out of them.

Help make this vision come true and feel free to support us!

THE MARRIAGE OF NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY

This pillar of our project is the fruit of our reflections on the condition of the present-day world. Will we live to see the times when humans come to understand that the power over nature is inseparably linked with the responsibility for nature? Will we ever learn to respectfully make use of what nature gives us, and not to take it away by force? Is harmonious coexistence of nature and modern technologies possible? We are convinced it is! We’d like to live this way, just like many other people in today’s world. What’s more, we’d like to share this lifestyle with others.

WHAT ARE WE PLANNING?

The place we’re going to create will be out of this world. Unlike amusement parks, it will be neither mass-oriented nor focused solely on profit. Rather than that, it will be a peaceful haven where time flows slowly and calmly. You’ll enjoy a homely, friendly atmosphere with us, like Gandalf did while visiting Hobbiton. To create such an atmosphere, we’re planning to literally and figuratively put down roots in the ground from which our entire complex will grow. Our estate will occupy the area of over 120 hectares and we’re going to take care of every burrow, every tree and every animal. We’ve been thinking how to do it best for years.

An organic farm

Before we tell you about further plans, let’s start with the most pleasant one – our tasty harvests. We’re going to create an organic farm with the entire processing infrastructure to not only fully use the produced food, but also be able to share with you both our goods and knowledge about the methods of their production.

According to the plan, our estate will be mostly self-sufficient when it comes to food products. We’d like to set up not only backyard beds and gardens, but also larger, fully organic farm fields. Next, we’ll start free livestock farming and in the long term there may also be fruit orchards, an apiary and fish ponds. We’d like our organic farm to be technologically advanced to ensure optimal input of time and labour. At the same time, we’d like the land and animals to be treated with due respect. We know that this is both possible and fully feasible as long as one doesn’t think about profit maximization only.

We’re going to process the produced food on our own, without using any kind of enhancers, boosters or any other chemical additives commonly found in food products today. We definitely won’t forget about the meadows and forests surrounding our settlement. Mushrooms, blueberries, blackberries, wild herbs – all these and more will surely be included in our (and our guests’) menu. You’ll also find such activities as picking mushrooms, herbs or berries in the catalogue of our suggestions for your leisure time at the estate.

Natural architecture – the craftsmanship of elves and dwarves

As you can read in the larp section of our site, our architectural plans are very ambitious and unique. The buildings we‘re going to have constructed will grow out of nature with such artistry and symbiosis with surrounding environment as it was achieved by the elven civilization of Tolkien’s world. That’s why we’re going to use environmentally friendly materials wherever possible (wood, stone, clay, hemp, straw, etc.). Our architects will make sure that this isn’t done at the cost of the high standards of accommodation, sanitary or gastronomic facilities.

Biodegradability

We’re going to maximally reduce the production of rubbish and any kind of waste everywhere in the estate. All our packaging will be biodegradable. We don’t want to use any single-use plastic cutlery, dishes or straws. We’ll use effective, eco-friendly products instead of chemical ones, both for personal hygiene and cleaning the premises. Complete segregation of waste is obvious; thankfully, that has become the order of the day nowadays. We’re also planning to fully reuse all organic waste. It will certainly go straight to composters and later become a natural fertilizer for our crops.

Energy self-sufficiency

Our goal is to ensure the highest possible degree of energy self-sufficiency in our estate. We’re aware that achieving a hundred percent independence of external electricity will be very difficult, but we assume that over 50% (ultimately even much more) of energy may come from renewable sources, primarily solar panels. What’s more, we’d like to reduce the overall demand for electricity in our estate as much as possible by using modern technologies such as heat pumps or photovoltaics.

Green Think Tank

With our project, we’d like to join the emerging group of civic organizations that promote greening cities, modern home gardening (including urban and balcony gardening), household methods of saving water and energy, and reusing all kinds of waste. That’s why we’re planning to share our future solutions with others by conducting webinars, publishing tutorials, organizing training courses and issuing publications. We also wish to support initiatives that promote purchasing healthy and verified food coming directly from local farmers (such as www.rolnikhandluje.pl or www.myzbieramy.pl).

Housing estate

This part of our world will be inspired by natural architecture, Tolkien’s Hobbiton, some fairy tales and cohabitation. Unlike the rest of the scenography complex, this place is meant to have a separate function. It will be the heart of our far-reaching vision of creating a kind of “housing estate”. Willing members of our team and their families would be the first to live there, but further in the future we’d like to welcome there, under specific conditions, people not belonging to our regular crew. We’d like the members of the community to be independent in terms of finances and run their privately owned businesses, including those that can be remotely managed. That’s why broadband Internet will be available throughout the estate. We hope that in the long term, even several hundred people will live in our settlement. Here you can see our initial vision of this place. LINK

WHEN?

	2024	Starting the organic farm.
	2025	Registering the “Green Think Tank” Association.
	2026	Developing the organic farm.
	2027 do 2028	Building the housing estate which is to be a year-round housing base for the staff and other guests on its grounds.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

crowdfunding action

WHAT’S NEXT?

We’re going to invite you to visit our settlement as soon as the first stage of the project is finished. The visitors will be welcomed with meals prepared from our ecological products, accompanied with stories about all the “secrets” of our ecological settlement – how it’s been created, how it’s supplied with heating and electricity, how we manage waste and generally how to live in harmony with nature nowadays. Once the infrastructure of our project is sufficiently developed, we’ll start inviting you to various types of shows and workshops – from culinary workshops, through herbalism and food processing, to comprehensive courses on organic farming.

Children that grow up in the city will have the opportunity to see living farm animals up close, to feel the charms of gardening or work in the field, and to go on an excursion through forests and meadows with a professional guide, where they will surely enjoy the magic of wild nature.

We’ll certainly prepare a full report on the construction process of our eco-housing estate. More than that, we’ll share with all willing people, free of charge, the knowledge and skills gained from building the estate, so that everyone interested could benefit from our experience when designing and building their own ecological houses, starting backyard or allotment gardens and individual farms.

Help make this vision come true and feel free to support us!