Free City of Alexia - advice on city size?

[aeshnidae]

Working on a map of the elven city of Alexia. It's located in human lands but is a free city not really subject to human rule (sort of like Vatican City - not exactly sovereign but close). Still a WIP; I need to add in all of the trees that surround Alexia, plus a compass rose and a legend with scale. There are additional elves living in tree houses around Alexia.

I was originally thinking the main walled city is 1800 feet in diameter but would love to get some input. It's not supposed to be a large city but after doing some comparisons to Vatican City and downtown Baltimore (which I've walked numerous times), I think I need to increase the diameter to more like 2500 ft/approx. 0.5 miles.

Alexia (additional shading).jpg

I'm also including info on the city districts and some of the buildings. This is very much a WIP. I just wanted to get the info out of my brain and onto paper. I will change the font and possibly number the buildings and include small legends for each district.

Alexia Districts.jpg

All input is welcome and greatly appreciated.

[Meshon]

I my first instinct is to say keep it samller, but it's an elven city so the designers might have wanted it to be spacious and expansive. I think expanding it to Baltimore proportions is a good plan.

[aeshnidae]

I my first instinct is to say keep it samller, but it's an elven city so the designers might have wanted it to be spacious and expansive. I think expanding it to Baltimore proportions is a good plan.

Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback. I don't want the buildings to seem humongous if I expand the diameter (they're supposed to be big but not, say, 500 feet long) but I think I can increase to nearly Baltimore proportions will work.

[aeshnidae]

I added trees to Alexia. They are purposefully large; the really big ones house several families of elves inside the trunks and the others contain external tree houses (think Swiss Family Robinson). I'm going to resize the compass rose and still need to add a legend.

How do you (the general you) prefer to include distance on your maps? On paper, it's easy to say 1 inch = x feet/miles/etc. For those of you working on paper and then switching to digital, do you simply draw a one inch line on your paper and then use that as a reference once you've scanned your map?

Alexia with trees (ink).jpg

[aeshnidae]

Lots of updates!

Alexia FINAL (cr).jpg

[rdanhenry]

This is quite lovely. I am really liking the use of color. The layout is both clearly a town/city and yet usual enough to immediately suggest that it is not of human origin.

A manor is a country house, but #7 is part of the city, so you might want to consider calling it the Governor's Mansion instead, unless it predates the city becoming something more than a village (which it might well do, which would explain why it is in a partly-detached section of its own.
"Headmster's Tower" should probably be "Headmaster's Tower"
"Gatherig Pavilion" should probably be "Gathering Pavilion"

Will the Garden Tower get attached to the main city?

[aeshnidae]

This is quite lovely. I am really liking the use of color. The layout is both clearly a town/city and yet usual enough to immediately suggest that it is not of human origin.

A manor is a country house, but #7 is part of the city, so you might want to consider calling it the Governor's Mansion instead, unless it predates the city becoming something more than a village (which it might well do, which would explain why it is in a partly-detached section of its own.
"Headmster's Tower" should probably be "Headmaster's Tower"
"Gatherig Pavilion" should probably be "Gathering Pavilion"

Will the Garden Tower get attached to the main city?

Thanks! Ah yes, all of the typos that I noticed after posting...thanks for flagging the Gathering Pavilion, I hadn't noticed that one yet. The manor did predate the city but I may change the name anyway. I wasn't planning to attach the Garden Tower to the city; it's supposed to be a stand-alone tower where food is grown on various levels. It does connect via underground tunnel, which of course isn't visible on this map. I have a separate map with all of the underground tunnels, since those will factor into an upcoming D&D session.

[aeshnidae]

Thank you, rdanhenry! Typos fixed (I think):

Alexia WIP 5 (sm cr).jpg