Hello there! As you've noticed by the title of this article, we've got something a little different for you today. While I was surfing through our forums one day, I noticed something that caught my attention. We have plenty of competitive, flood, and minigame maps being discussed and critiqued, but the aesthetic maps seem to be glanced over quite frequently. This is actually made me a little more sad than it should have, mainly because we have some simply stunning aesthetic maps in our database! So, I've done what needed to be done. It's time to bring these beauties to the front page, so everyone can see just how far the forge boundaries have been pushed by our crazily talented aesthetic forgers.
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Arkesya
Forged by: Zaelkyria
First up on the list is this beautiful Forerunner-themed structure, Arkesya. If you've been keeping up with Zaelkyria's aesthetic forging, you'll know that this work of art comes as no surprise. His first map post here on HaloCustoms just happened to be an absolutely stunning recreation of a Covenant CRS Light Cruiser. Since then, he's focused on Forerunner-themed architecture, as evident in Arkesya. This map is truly gorgeous, with an incredible level of detail that is seldom seen in forge maps.
WingBlade
Forged by: rayner
Words can't begin to describe the incredible grandeur of this map. I'm sure many of you recognize this gigantic bird as the awe-inducing forerunner giant seen rising up from the desert sands in the recent Halo 5 trailer. Rayner has done such a great job recreating it - you might find that walking around on the map gives you even more goosebumps than the trailer did!
Helm's Deep
Forged by: Buddy
Last, but certainly not least, we have the famous fortress from the popular Lord of the Rings series. Although this map was created quite a while back, it's still more than worthy of the recognition it's receiving today. When compared to the original, it's almost scary how accurately Buddy was able to remake the fortress. But even if you haven't seen LotR, this is such a breath-taking sight that you'll still be blown away by it's sheer epicness.
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Well, that about wraps it up folks! Hope you enjoyed the read (and the pictures). Be sure to check all these maps out in forge mode to get an even better sense of just how incredible they really are. Also, let us know what you think about this article, and where we should take these map features in the future!
Download Arkesya
Download WingBlade
Download Helm's Deep