Well that’s not been designed specially for this challenge but is an installation of byproducts of my big project. However, as soon as it fits the topic - why not, thought I 
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This is the potentially-final rendition of my El Dorado. Advice or critiques welcome where they exist. I decided to refrain from the “hanging vines framing” idea so as to not overcrowd the scene.
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My entry is inspired by the Witcher books. There is a creature called “rusałka” that particularly caught my attention. In Slavic folklore, it’s a malevolent spirit in a form of a lake nymph. They are essentially lake dwellers who drown people. A woman can be turned into it if she meets a tragic death in the lake normally associated with unfortunate love affairs (drowned by her lover/took her own life because of the broken heart etc). Their whole being is centred around hatred and scorn towards the living. It’s curious how often folklore legends have truly sinister and dark creatures.
The appearance that I created is a combination of the Witcher books, internet research, and my interpretation. Since it’s a fictional creature I did not exactly try to achieve realism, so I gave her exaggerated bone structure, rough skin texture and veins that stick out in certain areas. As for the end result, this is as good as it can get at this point in time… lol I am still learning. I found it hard to make realistic wet hair and realistic water movement, although I had a blast with liquid simulation! I don’t think I’ll make any further adjustments because I would rather move on to the next project and try to improve the areas where I lack knowledge.
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The Sword in the Stone:
Summary
Since I was working on this prior to the challenge, the materials and some assets were made prior to the week. Software used: Substance Designer, Substance Painter, ZBrush, and obviously Blender
There was a lot more I wanted to do and may still, since the goal is to actually have this in UE4. But I wanted to share something for the collab
Partially inspired by the amazing environments in Elden Ring.
A lot of focus on modular assets, UV’s using trim textures (a new workflow for me!) and mood setting.
What more could be added/changed for the final environment in Unreal?
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I wanted to make this scene so much better. the water ended up looking flat, but I did not consider the camera angle before making it, I also wanted to add more detail to the “leviathan”, like big pincers but I completely forgot about the collab since I was working on a small game. I’m comfortable enough to post this, but I’m not even remotely satisfied.
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Well, everything looks a tad too clean and regular for something that looks like ancient ruins that are bathed in sunlight and even have water pools. I’d expect more jagged edges and cracks in the building, as well as moss and plants here and there as Nature finds its way into them. At least from a point of view of realism.
Just out of curiosity, why are you taking this project to UE4 and not 5 now it’s officially released?
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Oo yes it could really use some moss and plants. 
Well I downloaded UE5 and loaded it up, only to find my computer kick into overdrive just in the basic scene doing nothing. It seemed to have Lumen enabled or something and I’m such a noob that I couldn’t immediately figure out how to turn it off. I hate having my computer too hot so I went back to UE4 for now.
You can disable Lumen in your project settings, under Rendering. Using regular Shadow Maps instead of Virtual ones helps, too. Here’s a hint:
It’s true that UE5 is more demanding than UE4, though.
I also have my doubts because of that.
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My 1-year old project… that fits thematically better here compared to the subject it was made for… Excalibur:
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Should be a hand coming out of the lake catching it!
There is! Just after I took the picture
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This is a witch from Pendle Hill in Lancashire. I only lived there until I was about 5yo, but I remember the stories of the witches that drank red ink and flew around at night. I think it was used as incentive to keep us kids in bed at night. I used to wonder why drinking red ink was supposed to be scary.
Anyway, I tried a bunch of different things to get this witch done - started late because I had no ideas - and then rushed through everything so it’s once again something I might fish back out in the future to make it better. I’m pretty sure I did the grease pencil stuff all wrong, so cannot move the camera. The lighting was very time-consuming as I was trying to get the cat to look less like a collection of mechanical parts. I thoroughly enjoyed the process. Blender is a great adventure.
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I really like the atmosphere of this. The sun is a really great connection to the pyramids. The only comment I would have is the greenery in the background. It makes me wonder if the pyramids are small, and the vegetation is grass or are the pyramids large and the vegetation is huge. My brain seems to go to the former. Love the colour scheme.
Submission this week along with a little background info.
First vision
was to do a depiction of „The Rat Catcher of Hamelin“, a German folklore which goes back to a real event in around 1280. Tried this and that to create a telling scene, but I got overwhelmed by the. Process. The Project exceeded my capabilities and free-time by far. Had a pretty stressful week and couldn’t afford to put much more hours in the project than I already spent creating a single rat as time flew away. (If anyone wants to create a render with that project, i would love to see that! It’s a really interesting story (Very weird and dark af!), it would be a great concept if someone needs an idea to start a new project - link to the lore attached) (Somehow some „facts“ on wikipedia differ from German to English language)
Second thought
„Sword in the stone! - Yes, I can definitely do this in low-poly!“ Threw away the idea when I saw the WIP by ZachDude - which already is such a great submission. Had a „dammit!“-moment^^
Final
Finally came up with something else nice and short, which goes into a completely different direction. But I don’t know if it works as „myth or legend“ for people from other countries. And I definitely could’ve done better from the technical aspect.
But I’m relatively new to blender and making gifs. But i´m still proud i produced “something”, instead of just letting it slide.
Note to myself: When making a looped gif, i need to work with reduced but harmonic colours from the start. Having a fine, clear render and then compressing it to 4MB really hurts to see afterwards!
Honestly, every submission and WIP I’ve seen so far this week is so awesome, that I can just humbly raise my hat. Yet I hope my little gif can at least produce a few smiles. I wonder if someone can relate to it. Sorry for the flickering background …
Have a great weekend!
Kasimir
It has been told …
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Haha there’s nothing wrong with two interpretations of the same subject! 
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Definetely not. But for me it is very hard to start when i know there already is another version which is and will be much prettier than my own. I know in reality that´s a really bad habit. I needed years for acknowledging that creating graphics/art with the use of references is simply the best way (most of the time). Some little dictator in my head always whispers “If someone else has done it, yours won´t be original! So it´s not worth it!”
Thanks for helping me to stand up against him
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I have struggled with that a lot too, so I always try to remind myself of this quote “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
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