Post-Apocalyptic Richmond

[euio]

Here's a map I've been working on over the past few days. It's the capital of Rishl'n from this map - Virginia about five centuries in the future. Tested out a font creator I just got by creating the script in the map. It is the Roman Alphabet, with all the same letters &c., just modified far enough to be unrecognisable.

Richmond has become a much lager port that it has been any time in our past due to the isolation of Virginia - to the north, it's blocked by the wastes of DC, and the desert of Carolina to the south. This leaves to ways to reach the area from the outside - through the Appalachians or up the James River. Being at the point where the river is no longer navigable from the sea, as well as passing through one of the busiest old interstate routes, makes Richmond the most important city in Virginia, controlling half of the trade with the outside world.

The ruler lives in the citadel on Shockoe Hill, known in the native language as "Shokfort". The old capitol inside the citadel forms the centre of a massive network of tunnels that can reach anywhere in the city. It is rumoured that all manner of treaure and Ancient artefacts are hidden somewhere in these passages.

The cartouche says "sity rishm'n: rishl'ns kapt'l" which would be "City of Richmond: the Capital of Rishlon". I'd be happy to translate any other parts of the map.

[mearrin69]

Very cool map - I love P-A stuff. Repped. Is there a story behind the evolution of that script? How did the locals come to abandon the alphabet?
M

[euio]

There wasn't really an "abandonment" - writing just evolved. Look at the difference between actual Roman writing and Carolingian Minuscule or Blackletter. Ancient Romans would have found Blackletter illegible. We can see the similarities becasue we're familiar with both.

It does seem rather drastic for just five centuries, and I probably did go a bit too far. But a society going from writing nothing by hand (the collapse is around 2100) to writing everything by hand can create some pretty drastic changes.