(WIP) Th'mecan - a fantasy troglodyte settlement

[- Max -]

Hey guys,

Some months ago, during the Challenge "Commission a guilder", I asked Djekspek to make a map for me. Unfortunately, due to personnal life stuff, he wasn't able to find time for it so I decided I could give it a try.

An animist tribe settled a very small village in a canyon. The inhabitants has a strong belief that everything in the nature is a living thing. Trees, wind, sun, earth, rocks and such are living beings and each of those living beings belong to some poweful natural spirits that once created the world and all its components. They heavily respect the Great Spirits and their creation. When they take something from it, they pay something in return, this is their law. When they settled in the canyon, the tribe had to dig the canyon rock and so they took something from the Great Spirit of Rock to make their life easier and safer. In return, they built some a temple to honor the Spirit, give him offerings and organize sacred rituals when comes the Month of Stone, dedicated to him.
The tribe members are rather pacific. The Shamans are obviously some leading people though the tribe is built in a system of equality where each one is an essential contributor of the collective life. The tribe also have some specific people like the Sacred Painters - who do some mystical paintings on rocks to summon the benevolence of the Spirits, the Windtalkers - who talk to the souls of the dead elders that are said to blow in the winds, or the Dreamwalkers - who focus on making divination by understanding their dreams, which they believe are nothing but some messages from the Great Spirits to help them in their life.

Ok, now on to the drawing board. a first outlining of a part of a canyon. This is rather and advanced sketching but I'll keep a rough linework styke for the map.

Canyon1.jpg

[- Max -]

Linework of the canyon done :

Canyon2.jpg

[Abu Lafia]

Wow! This Canyon seems to be a fitting place for a settlement of the group you described. Your text triggers my imagination... will there be caves or "huts" or actual (stone-)buildings in the name of the Great Spirit of Rock? Or is just the temple made of stone, as usual ^^? Looking forward to see the progress...

[arsheesh]

The line-work is fantastic! Very much looking forward to seeing this one develop.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Dain]

eager to see more indeed ^^
Nice start

[- Max -]

Thanks guys !

Wow! This Canyon seems to be a fitting place for a settlement of the group you described. Your text triggers my imagination... will there be caves or "huts" or actual (stone-)buildings in the name of the Great Spirit of Rock? Or is just the temple made of stone, as usual ^^? Looking forward to see the progress...

There will be mostly caves, and maybe a very few huts.

[- Max -]

And first shading stage :

Canyon3.jpg

[- Max -]

Going deeper on shades:

Canyon4.jpg

[Sapiento]

Beautiful map so far!

[- Max -]

Thank you Sapiento And more shadows again:

Canyon5.jpg