WIP : Town of Fière-Muraille

[Narolas]

Hey there, for a homebrew campaign happening in the Rostland plains of Brevoy (Pathfinder setting), i'm making a relatively small town (about 1000 population) in the middle of the plains, calm, quiet and surrounded by fertile plains, farms and fields.
The town itself is fortified and at the center of a long line of fortifications, old ruined walls and watchtowers. These stretch west to east and cut the plains in two, dating way back from when Rostland was a small Taldan settlement focused around Restov and the Shrike river (before the expansion north and west), and was often the prey of barbarian tribes, bandits and their rough northern neighbors in Issia.

I've quickly sketched the layout of things, the terrain elevation (in shades of red) and the wealth (in shades of green), although that will likely change.

I'll be making two versions, a focus on the town itself (zoomed in) and a slightly zoomed out map (like this WIP) for the purposes of my campaign.

The area itelf is pretty good for me, i'll be tweaking the farms and small paths criss-crossing them, the one thing that's nowhere near final is the town itself (its shape, layout, content, etc..), its all very vague at the moment and will probably change quite a lot as i'm figuring out exactly what to do with it.

WIP_1.jpg

A bit vague for now, but i'm open to early criticism and guidance in making an interesting and realistic city layout (right now it's too straight, I prefer the "by accretion" type of streets and density, and given the age of the place it would fit).

[Larb]

I like the idea of tying the settlement into much older fortifications. It is possible some of the more intact towers along the old line of defence might be repurposed into watch towers or farmsteads while the rest of it has probably been recycled to use the stone to build the town and it's walls.

Where is your water source though? That is pretty important.

Also I forgot to add. If your settlement is built on the site of a big major fort or similar along the wall (a bit like the ones along Hadrian's wall) then your settlement might mildly conform to whatever plan the fort had with a bunch of changes to account for the new culture/people. It might also include reused structures in the plan. So I think it might be worth considering what did the site look like BEFORE this town appeared. The elevation suggests this is a good spot for just such a previous site.

[Narolas]

Thanks, I was getting annoyed at the official map sources because no river seems to be going through the plains. I'll be putting little streams going through and eventually joining back to the main rivers, or maybe just have wells ?
The re-usability of old structures is definitely a cool thing, i'll be using that.
The big question that remains for me is, did the settlement exist before or after the fortifications ? Its spot suggest the fort existed first, while I originally thought of the village being there first then reinforced to respond to the constant threats. I like the first idea better though, I can have a more interesting shape for the town and cooler locations if it's re-using the old fort's stuff. The problem is, the town is much larger than the fort would have been (Unless it was a massive fort, which i'm not too keen on doing at this spot), so I'm now thinking of having the town forming around the fort in the center, by accretion around the roads and ruins of the wall, which would be a much more interesting landscape.

Thanks ! That gave me some really good ideas to make this place original.

[Larb]

Well the original fort may have had it's own settlement next to it. That was the case with the major ones on Hadrian's wall - Vindolanda was a big fort with a big settlement beside it to provide additional services. Not saying you need to follow the roman model just that they are good examples of how settlements pop up alongside big defensive infrastructure like that. Perhaps a few streets or something may have survived from any settlement that may have existed by the fort even if it is just the "high street".

For water sources you could just have springs coming out of the nearby hills or some small brooks or if this whole area is in a much bigger valley, lots of deep wells. Or an Aqueduct (that might run mostly underground like a qanat.) You can make pretty much anything fit I just thought it was an important consideration.

[foremost]

The sketch you've provided and the background you seem to be working on are quite interesting. I agree wholeheartedly with the point Larb made (about taking into consideration the land before the town). A town of 1000, though, might be bigger than you think; you should certainly take into consideration what the population might need in terms of local resources.

I'll be following this as you make progress. Good luck!

[Narolas]

Here's what i've got so far :

WIP_2.jpg

So, small streams running around the plains, but not too many, this one happens to have shaped the surrounding land into this hill the fort was built on. the rest of the plains has similar small streams joining the larger rivers to the north and south, but also many wells (some of which are on the hill) (i'm assuming the fertility of the region would come from underground water sources).

The fort was built first as a defensive position, along with a small settlement at the bottom of its path, the wall came soon after (and yes, hadrian's wall is a perfect example to what it would look like now, most of it being ruined or its stones repurposed). Along the years, the northern part of the plains grew powerful, the region became safer and trade more important (especially after the founding of Stetven, a city on the shores a large lake, to the north-west), so the village that had grown south of the hill and nesting against the wall started to develop more along the main road connecting to the north, which gives the town its modern layout. the "old town" is still there, to the east at the bottom of the hill, although didn't grow nearly as much as the new town center.

After centuries and centuries, the wall became a shadow of what it once was, its stones re-used and its towers falling apart. The streams themselves, once easily tamed and going through small gates under the wall, have now carved large holes through the mostly destroyed structures.

Rostland now mostly being the breadbasket of Brevoy, the landscape has changed radically from what it used to be, once a barren defensive position in dangerous wilderness, now safe, quiet and fertile, a simple life for simple people.

[Narolas]

Some progress !

WIP_3.jpg

I started lining the slopes of the hill, I'm pretty happy with the result so far.
I really love how people like J. Edward do those cliffs, so I tried something similar. It's my first time figuring out how to line specific elements, so i'm not quite sure what's good or not for now and hopefully I can find my own style after a few tries.

Tell me what you think !

[Larb]

Looks like a good start. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

[Narolas]

The cliff lines are done, the rivers are placed and I've started working on the grass shading.
I tried a bunch of different techniques for the shading, all with various advantages, and this one I quite like.
Now to add a darker/lighter shading around the rivers and curves of hills to make them pop out, colour the cliffs, then the city planning finally starts.

WIP_4.jpg

Thanks for the people following this, I keep thinking my stuff is mediocre but it looks like people like it.

[Narolas]

Had some more free time and made a bunch of progress.
Cliffs and rocks finished with colour and shading, grass done for now (might work a bit on the shading later) and rivers coloured and textured.

WIP_5.jpg

Now to start the city planning, that's going to be a lot harder !