WIP Capitoleum

[Leord]

This city belong to the world of which I posted on in the other forum, awaiting moderator aproval (I'm guessing that will stop after a number of approved posts?).

It's a city of 180000 people, and is the sociopolitical centre of a world that is pretty rife with conflict and intrigue. It's sort of independent, though led by a coalition of the 5 most powerful noble houses (eah of which has a kingdom elsewhere).

The city itself is very old. Started out as two small villages hundreds of years ago, and later a famous conquer created a vast empire and built his capital here. Within a couple of generations, incompetence in the family ruined it, but his legacy remains, even if the entire noble house of his descendants was erradicated.

The city is sloping downwards to the water, but is also built behind two protruding large cliffs, so it enjoys protection from the weathers and possible attackers. The defences themselves, however, are not as up to scratch as one would think because nobody can even concieve the idea of attacking the city (especially since they have the only mage guild on the northern continent). Even so it would take a significant endeavour to try to attack.

There will be more information available on my campaign page for this setting here:

Hökaland Wiki

It's drawn in pencil and almost to scale as roads and walls are as thin as I could draw them, physically. Hoping to scan properly and make a version in Illustrator in the future, but other work is prioritised.

Edit:
Added a scanned version of the map and you can see my other thread with the world/kingdomw maps here.

[Falconius]

That's pretty damn good.

I like the sewage exit idea a lot. Although I have a feeling that in general, up until like the 1800's period they would've just poured straight into the bay or moats as they would've been mostly for rain runoff. Sewage would've likely been collected into pits and then carted out. Or so I imagine. Part of the difficulty would be that the natural flow of the blocked river would be fighting redirection of water, trying to get water to flow against it's natural ways almost always leads to issues especially in an environment that looks as wet as that one does.

Also I would imagine the islands in the mouth of the bay would be extremely hazardous to shipping in general and would almost certainly cause daily accidents in a port as busy as this one looks to be.

[Leord]

Thanks!

There is a whole story about the sewage exits. The city was unwittingly built on an old artificial cavern system made by dwarves, though made to look natural. Some of the tunnels have been closed off and some used for fresh and sewage waters.

[Falconius]

Thanks!

There is a whole story about the sewage exits. The city was unwittingly built on an old artificial cavern system made by dwarves, though made to look natural. Some of the tunnels have been closed off and some used for fresh and sewage waters.

Maps are pictures worth a thousand stories

[Leord]

Updated the original post with a scanned version of the same city map pic and added a link to the rest of the world maps posted here on Cartographers' Guild.

[feanaaro]

Very very good. I'd love to see a digitalised version of this.

[vorropohaiah]

very cool - though i notice the river forks very sharply just outside the city walls. is this the natural path of the river or was it rerouted following the construction of the walls?

either way, thats a pretty cool map

[Leord]

I haven't had time to even look at my Hokaland stuff since September. I am very happy about the replies!

very cool - though i notice the river forks very sharply just outside the city walls. is this the natural path of the river or was it rerouted following the construction of the walls?

either way, thats a pretty cool map

Nice that you noticed! It is most certainly not natural. It is split into two minor floods. Originally they were way outside of what would be the city, but it was a very well planned. Originally two smaller walled cities that have less internal planning.

The river is directed under and in to the city as well. Most of the water disappears in what used to be the cavernous dwarven tunnel system, and a small portion is used as internal moats that double as canal for the inner city, which I can't remember the name of any more because I haven't had any time since I posted this to work on it

Not everything is visible, because the original is only about 12cm wide. The roads are less than 2mm wide on the original.

Same as everyone, much owe for your work dude !

I may seem very confident in my drawings, but I am not, and I appreciate the comment a lot!

I imagine the fortified area in the center is the kings keep or what not. What are the other two walled and fortified areas? And I guess the eight pointed building as well?

As briefly explained above, the others were two cities that had been located here for between 150 to 300 years. They are a little bit like the City of London in this regard. After the construction of the inner city, indeed as a King's keep, these have had more emphasis on defence and the homes of some noble houses. They have a bit special view of themselves; not necessarily better, but feels like they have heritage and feels a little bit apart from the rest of the city. The roads are very different here as well. Basically the mappng of those roads are not as representative as the rest: they evolved naturally.

The octagon (the main one) is the mage guild's building. I couldn't make the details with pencil, so it's just coloured grey, but it is the compound including the mandatory tower. Only a minuscule percentage of the population have any magic spark (something like a hundred per millions people) and some are born as peasants and either dies from it or never really notices, or just hides it because there is almost the same sentiment against magic as in medieval Europe. The point is that though a single wizard can kill thousands of people (and a group of them can kill even more) they will run out of mana (or spells, if DnD) and then they die. Appearane then become very important and a massive tower keeps people from following their fears. The compound also contain a small army of well paid and well trained soldiers.

Since magic is such a commodity, it is very expensive which creates a large profit margin for the wizards; though they also need to spend a lot for their safety.

They also have a smaller tower inside the inner city for status.

The other buildings include the cathedral of Rahn, the Inner Garrison, Capitoleum University, the ACTUAL keep (which is pretty big by any standards), the park and two ginormous silos of grain. There is also an inner harbour primarily for military vessles, but also connecting to the canals for easy access trade.

There are some wells (drilled magically), but the biggest weakness for Capitoleum is its fresh water supply. If the river is poisoned or polluted, it would be davastating. Of course the amount of water that needs to be compromised is enormous, so this isn't a massive issue, and the main forces use other water sources (or beer, which has been heated, so is free of most pathogens). The biggest effect of a siege will be the death of many thousands of civilians. Civilians of course know what will happen during a siege, and will likely rise up themselves for their families.

Politics is a more likely way to conquer Capitoleum.

[athelu]

Any intention of getting this done in Campaign Cartographer?

[AMXPariah]

Wow. I think I may love you for this O.o