The Imbued City of Baile Arainn

[Sinnyo]

It's been a long time since my last post here, for which I am somewhat embarrassed — but so too had it been a while since I last made a map! However, I recently began work on a solo video game project in which I'm inviting the player to explore rituals and 'sense of place', in a literal urban fantasy world with an occult tinge. In October 2018 I began to draw a map which would help me contextualise the game's narrative and levels. It did that, but it also became a thing into which I could dip in and out — even if only for half an hour at a time — from then until now. Cartography as meditation, if you will; hence the rather fanciful geography at play.

As it is now finished, I thought I might share — and in so doing, urge myself to rejoin this fine community.

Inside of its fiction: the 'imbued city' of Baile Arainn is one which was designed within a certain discipline of chaos magic, from its street furniture up to its railway network. Every aspect of it is intended to empower the people within, and to bring prosperity to the city as a whole. Such techniques have already been used to enhance existing cities in the wider world, but here on an abandoned stretch of coastline is an experiment in action, limited to- and protected by an immense wall between peninsula and mainland.

Baile Arainn road & rail map [mid-scale].png

The full map is pretty large (best read at 8000px), and so I may create smaller-scale versions of it — particularly if I see cause to include it as a game asset. It's also fairly basic in its layout, but I've sought to create something which highlights transportation in the city (a major theme in the project) and echoes contemporary, real-world maps. That also informed my decision to draw it in Illustrator, rather than hand-drawing as before. I should also note that the project as a whole is also a bit of a study for me in Scots Gaelic, and so gàidhlig place names do feature within this bi-lingual city. That said, it's entirely probable that I've made mistakes, particularly in the map legend — I'm far from a competent speaker.

The map is accompanied by another, definite game asset: a transit map, which also clarifies some of the sigil forms used in the game's rituals.

Baile Arainn transit map v2.png

[Diamond]

That is impressive. I really like the transit map, which through experience I've found is actually harder to do right than the city map itself sometimes!

And welcome back!

[Sinnyo]

Thank you! I've ended up mostly working on transit maps in the interim — even got myself stuck into making a nationwide railway map of the UK, which turned out to be a 'learn fast!' means of encountering many possible problems/design solutions one needs for a given style. I enjoy drawing them as a sort of different approach 'refresher', but they can indeed be a struggle. I think rectifying that tram link across the Old Town station was my biggest headache there!

[Jaxilon]

Nice work. I've NOT done a transit map but they look like drawing out a ball of yarn which seems like a nice relaxing thing to take on....NOT!

[Sinnyo]

At this rate I'm going to be tempted to try and make a transit mapping tutorial of some kind, as for various reasons I actually find it enjoyable — but fair enough, it did take some getting my head around. Maybe I can help dissuade that somehow.

(Yay, already getting much more inspired now that I'm no longer simply lurking/watching the Guild's Twitter account!)

[- JO -]

It's really great work... I really like the story the map is telling, especially because of the wall... and of course what you imagine is behind it!
I like to "walk" in a city with this kind of map, but what I often miss is the complement provided by the relief information. I like to know if the city is perched high up, if the old city is on top of a hill....
Obviously, I understand that this is not easy to add, on a plan like this