CARASTARIEL: From Builder’s Daughter to Legendary Designer To be honest, I was a little intimidated by the prospect of meeting Carastariel in person. It wasn’t just because she’s a creative genius, I’ve interviewed world-renowned architects for this publication before. But none of those other interviews were with a six-foot-three former fashion model with more years of life experience than my great-grandfather. But Cara, as she insisted I call her, was remarkably unpretentious and a gracious host. Carastariel’s eponymous design firm is housed in a spacious but modestly decorated loft in SoHo, where she leads a close-knit team of enthusiastic human and elven architects and designers. If not for a few scale models of her masterworks scattered around on shelves and tables, one could be forgiven for overlooking the fact that this is the epicenter of the Elvo-Human Fusionist design revolution. “Carastariel means ‘builder’s daughter,’ my mother has been a respected master builder among my people for centuries. She is the one who most inspired me to become an architect. I would have followed in her footsteps as a master mason and builder in the Forest Realm if the Great Revelation hadn’t happened.” Cara was 53 years old when the Queen of the Forest Realm decreed that her people would reveal their existence to the human world. In the elven life cycle, she was an adolescent. “Most of my people were apprehensive about visiting human cities, and many still are, which is something I’m trying to change. But my mother is unusually open-minded, and she believed in broadening my experiences and preparing me to live in our new reality of coexistence with humans. So we visited some of the great cities of your world, and I was awestruck by the buildings and structures that have been created by the combination of human science and artistry. I immediately fell in love with human architecture, from Ancient Greece and Rome all the way up to modern designs. But I particularly love the range of styles that can be found side by side here in New York, and I am inspired by the raw energy of city life. There are more people living within a few square miles here than there were elves living in the Forest.” Carastariel spent the remainder of her adolescence learning elven construction techniques as her mother’s apprentice, while teaching herself human engineering and architectural design through books and online courses. “Most Elves tend to be disdainful of human colleges. But I knew I wanted to work for a human firm and become a Registered Architect, and that would require a college degree.” Carastariel was admitted to NYU and graduated near the top of her class. But after graduation she found it difficult to break into the world of human architecture. “There were a lot of myths and misconceptions about the role of magic in elven design and construction among humans at the time, and as a result most firms didn’t take me seriously.” But being taller and thinner on average than humans, the women of the Forest were in high demand at some of the more progressive fashion modeling agencies, especially women as beautiful as Carastariel. “It wasn’t what I thought I’d be doing after college, but modeling was an amazing experience and a great opportunity to travel the world. But I never gave up on my dream of being an architect. And one day, my mother was contacted by a human architect who wanted to better understand the principles of elven building design. She put him in touch with me, and the rest is history. I worked with him on some amazing projects, and 20 years later I decided I was ready to branch out on my own. What’s next for Carastariel? “My design for the new US Embassy to the Court of the Forest Queen, which you saw earlier [pictured on cover], is scheduled to break ground in a few months. “I also have a new line of office wear for women coming out in the Spring. I’ve been working with some amazing up and coming fashion designers to realize my vision of combining Forest Realm aesthetics with practical human styling and manufacturing techniques, and we’ve come up with some stunning looks for the rising young female professional, human or elven.” --- This scene was partially inspired by some renders by pnn32 at dA (https://www.deviantart.com/pnn32) of scaled down architectural models and elves in contemporary clothing. The name Carastariel was obtained from Realelvish.net. In addition to my Daz Studio -> Iray -> Photoshop workflow, I also used Illustrator (for the magazine logo), InDesign (for the layout), and Flowscape (for the wall painting in the render).