The Spear - WIP

[Dion]

Hey ^.^

I’ve decided to throw myself into the deep end and try my hand at a city design.
About a year ago I created a regional map for a creative writing exercise – the map isn’t great and lacks a fair bit of the detail needed for anything else but had enough in it for me to use as a reference.
Having dredged up the map I’m going to have a stab at designing ‘The Spear’.

Commonwealth.png

Background:
The setting and theme of the world is early steampunk/shamanistic. The nation of Navar of which this city is capital is part of a much larger federated political entity called ‘The Commonwealth’. The Commonwealth itself is an aristocratic oligarchy and has an established religion that thrives independently of the current political structure.

The Spear is located on opposite sides of two narrow shelves above a steep-sided canyon that divides a large desert region. The canyon was created as a result of a cataclysmic event that split the desert in two. A subterranean river was diverted and forms a slow moving stream that now runs its full length from mountain range in the north to the southern sea.

The centre of the city is dominated by a pillar of sandstone which has given the city its name – the pillar is the home to a monument that is held sacred by the religious establishment and is also the main thoroughfare between the eastern and western shelves. As a result of its religious significance, the Spear prospers from a constant influx of pilgrims and is often an epicenter of devotional festivals.

The shelves forming the city are set below the flat surface of the desert, the city itself is mostly protected by a sandstone cliff/escarpment that forms a sheer wall to the back.


I’ve made a very basic model to plan with before I start sweating it out in photoshop ^.^ / All ideas and advice greatfully received!

TheSpear_BirdsEye.jpg

TheSpear_lookingnorth.jpg

TheSpear_northfromabove.jpg

TheSpear_southfrombelow.jpg

[Steel General]

Looks like you're off to a good start. Sounds like a neat idea, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[jtougas]

What a neat Idea.

[anstett]

Very fun, looking forward to seeing this progress.

BOB

[tilt]

looks very cool... great idea with the pillar - looking forward to seing it progress

[Dion]

Progress thus far ^.^

TheSpear_halfway.jpg

Spent a fair amount of time trying to kill triangles, for some bizarre reason they just kept popping up when I wasn’t paying attention.

The extra-wide streets that loop together are large processional routes for pilgrims and festivals; each reddish building represents a temple of the five main deities with the Spear temple as the focal point in that loop.

As the district representing power and wealth, the western side of the city is more spacious than the east, which is very cramped and built up. Green spaces are also considered to be a luxury in this arid setting and therefore feature more in the west than east.

The funny cog-wheel thingy’s at the northern point are the ‘water mills’ which pull water up from the canyon river.

Texturing the canyons and cliffs is the next big challenge!

[tilt]

it looks really good - a nice depth to your map. One thing that I'd work on is the shape of the houses, being "crooked" to follow the streets, where normally the street would follow the houses, or at least the houses would be rectangular and parallel to the street
And have some rep for your first uploads, a cool idea and a beautiful look ... SLAM!

[Dion]

Thanks for that tilt ^.^
I think you've articulated something that was bugging me about the layout, and now I realise it was because I allowed the streets to dictate the flow of the build instead of the reverse.

[Fransie]

It reminds me of Tar Valon (Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time series). A very feminine shape with a rather suggestive title...

Nice work!

[Dion]

It reminds me of Tar Valon (Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time series). A very feminine shape with a rather suggestive title... !

lol!
Now that was totally unintentional