The Holy City of Soline

[- JO -]

Hello ... It's been a long time since I posted anything, but I did not stay without drawing (although I do not have enough time to draw maps the way I would like) !

I kept mapping the world of Nossym, for the story my wife is writing. As she takes part in the Nanowrimo this month, she urgently needed a map of the city of Soline. So I did it as quick as possible, and it lacks a lot of necessary details for a beautiful city map, but at least the city plan exists and she can tell stories about it.

Soline is a very special city in the kingdom: all religions have built there a temple or a religious building. All the religion differs and don't agree with one another, but under the authority of the king, they tolerate each other. Some are thriving, some are extinct, some are gaining or loosing ground, but so far, there's no war amongst them (for now...)

I got a little inspired by the topography of Rome and its hills for the base of Soline. Almost each hill is the seat of a religious building, the "valleys" shelter homes, squares and shops. The surroundings are occupied by farms and some villages which are almost part of the main town.

Here's what I coul achieve in the shortest time possible :

Soline02.jpg

I can try to translate the relgions title, but it won't sound nice :

1) The house of the 5
2) Tower of the mages
3) Center of knowledge
4) A kind of Pantheon
5) God of War
6) Re-incarnation
7) Another church of re-incarnation (schism from the previous one)
Religion about the end of the world
9) Eternal life
10) Pleasure and luxury
11) The one God
12) Elves worshiping nature
13) Necromancy
14) Ruins of an old cult
15) Ruins of an old cult

[Greason Wolfe]

Maybe not as detailed as you would like, but it still looks darn good to me. And who's to say you can't go back and add in the little details when you have a bit of time to do so.

[- JO -]

Maybe not as detailed as you would like, but it still looks darn good to me. And who's to say you can't go back and add in the little details when you have a bit of time to do so.

Thanks ! You're right : I still can come back later to add roofs, court, little streets, etc... But I'm not sure I will : other maps are waiting for my attention... So much maps and so little time...

[J.Edward]

Very nice work Joel
I think it conveys the info quite well.

[- JO -]

Very nice work Joel
I think it conveys the info quite well.

Thanks J. It really is the purpose of this map : it can be used as background to a story. I tried to make it look as complete and beautiful as possible in a short time, but basically, it's not the kind of map I would draw for myself. But I'm glad if it does the job !

[Kellerica]

I like it, even if I can kinda see what you said about having to finish it rather quickly. The hill shadows are a bit too blurry for my liking, but I'm assuming you didn't have the time to really dig into the shading. I really like the layout of this place!

[- JO -]

I like it, even if I can kinda see what you said about having to finish it rather quickly. The hill shadows are a bit too blurry for my liking, but I'm assuming you didn't have the time to really dig into the shading. I really like the layout of this place!

Thanks !
You're right about those shadows... I didn't spent too much time on making different opacities, regarding the angle with the sun... Some blocks are not very well drawn, you can't tell the difference between forest and parks, the roads and streets are not very well delimited, and so on... But I'm glad you liked the layout ! (and, again, congratulations on your compass ! Very well deserved !)

[MistyBeee]

I definitely love it : consistent, clean and interesting in many aspects. It would maybe need a couple of hours for a last polishing, but it works really well, congrats !!

[- JO -]

I definitely love it : consistent, clean and interesting in many aspects. It would maybe need a couple of hours for a last polishing, but it works really well, congrats !!

Thanks Misty ! I would love to take more hours to draw details, like the roofs, courtyards, etc... But I won't take that time for this map (at least, not in the next months...) I'd rather take time for another map I'm working on for months now... This map was just to support the writing of a story, so I hope it reached its goal...

[Ilanthar]

Excellent map Joel ! And we all know that cities takes time, anyway .
I really like the general feel about it and I especially love how you render the topography.