Alberich of the Thousand Doors

[Bruno Müller]

Hi everyone,

I'm in a constant behavior of "long time no see, here's what I've been doing in the past few months" , but this time I'll blame the quarantine and the whole Covid-19 situation. It's pretty bad here in my country right now and I'm super anxious with the whole thing... Anyway, I've been working on a huge city map lately and completely forgot to post it on the WIP section! So here it is!

Skyfall-2020-Mapa-de-Alberich-Bruno-Muller.png

I can't share the full resolution map, since it's restricted to the original crowdfunding project supporters, but here's a couple detailed shots:

Alberich Centro Bruno Muller.png

Alberich Sudeste Bruno Muller.png

The city of Alberich is the main capital of Opath. I've done the regional map where it was first mentioned, and posted it here one year ago.

Layout, walls and city streets were all drawn in Illustrator, imported and treated on Photoshop, where I did the illustration, color and final touches. I used InDesign for typography.

I hope y'all enjoy it!

[Dimension Door]

That’s a great geometrical city! I love the subtle use of the hexagon grid. And the little magic sparks make it look a bit mysterious too.


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[Coggleton]

The colors are really what hooks me on this- it's like a stained glass painting.

Is there a story behind the city, and why it's called "of a thousand doors"?

[Josiah VE]

Gorgeous work! I absolutely love the forest!

[Kellerica]

Mesmerizing design, and beautiful in how clear and readable it is. Really lands in that sweet spot of being relatively modernd looking, but has just little texture to it to give it character. I adore the little spark effects around some parts there, immediately make the place seem all magical. This is going to the good ol' inspiration folder for sure!

[MistyBeee]

An unusual style, but very, very interesting. I'm totally fond of how 'dreamy' is your color scheme, if it makes sense. Modern, mysterious, really eye catching. Well done !!

[Bretton]

Hi Bruno, great map! Could you give us some lore? I think the piece deserves it, at least it got me curious.
I see you're from Brazil, hope this whole virus thing wil be getting better in short time there, too; at least it has here in Spain, though we had two really bad weeks a month ago or so. Take care dude

[Ilanthar]

Nice map, especially with the color palette, which gives an entire different & original feeling to the map.
And that's also a welcome change of the usual cirular form for a geometric city, btw.

[Bruno Müller]

That’s a great geometrical city! I love the subtle use of the hexagon grid. And the little magic sparks make it look a bit mysterious too.

Thanks, Dimension Door! The hex grid is there both for scale and for planning purposes. I used S. John Ross' Medieval Demographics Made Easy to populate the city, so the hexes helped a lot to know the proper size of things.

The colors are really what hooks me on this- it's like a stained glass painting.

Is there a story behind the city, and why it's called "of a thousand doors"?

Thanks, Coggleton! I didn't think of a stained glass, but sure is a great reference to think about... It's super colorful because there are so many neighbourhoods in there that I had to use almost the entire rainbow spectrum! haha
Alberich is called "of a Thousand Doors" because one of it's main features is a huge amount of magical portals and gateways — in fact the Portal Square (labeled "Praça Portal" in Portuguese) is one of it's main locations, surrounded by portals to and from elsewhere.

Mesmerizing design, and beautiful in how clear and readable it is. Really lands in that sweet spot of being relatively modernd looking, but has just little texture to it to give it character. I adore the little spark effects around some parts there, immediately make the place seem all magical. This is going to the good ol' inspiration folder for sure!

Thanks, Kel! One of my major concerns was the modern-ish look. My idea was to create something super symmetrical and precise, but taking the best part of computer graphics, without it being too... computer-ish? I like the blend between colors, texture and handdrawn elements and know it's hard to do that without being too messy, but I'm really happy with the final result!

By the way, the spark effects are a real element of the city — they're about 15-meters-long floating magical dodecahedrons that protect the city! They sure look good from afar!

An unusual style, but very, very interesting. I'm totally fond of how 'dreamy' is your color scheme, if it makes sense. Modern, mysterious, really eye catching. Well done !!

Thanks, Bee!! <3

Hi Bruno, great map! Could you give us some lore? I think the piece deserves it, at least it got me curious.
I see you're from Brazil, hope this whole virus thing wil be getting better in short time there, too; at least it has here in Spain, though we had two really bad weeks a month ago or so. Take care dude

Hi, Bretton, thanks! I don't think I can tell too much about the city since it's going to be published yet and I don't know the setting that well, but: the lore says it's almost 3000 years. It was created a long time ago by a race of elephant-looking people called Elephus. They build the central heptagon, which was their main citadel. As the millennia passed, several wars, different peoples and even gods descended upon the metropolis and it expanded a lot until the elephus were wiped out. Today the city is inhabited by peoples from all over the world and only recently they've built the external heptagon to match the internal one.

Taking about real life... Things are super dire over here — the government isn't taking care of anyone and people have to work as usual, otherwise they'll starve. I'm lucky to work on a place that allow us to work remotely... I'm stuck home since March 16th! It's super harsh, but I'm doing well... Thanks for your concern!

Nice map, especially with the color palette, which gives an entire different & original feeling to the map.
And that's also a welcome change of the usual cirular form for a geometric city, btw.

Thanks, Ilanthar! I studied some principles of Giorgio Vasari on ancient and medieval cities; he says that the optimal city plan is actually an octagon! Alberich is seven-sided because it was commissioned this way, but I suppose the number 7 is there for magical rather than architectural purposes, haha.

[Edward II of Kenland]

Wow! I can only imagine the amount of effort that went into this! Great contrast between the city and the countryside! You've done a great job!