Justin Grindal's City of Urbs

[J.Edward]

Welcome, one and all, to this dramatic city. Envisioned by patron Justin Grindal, who commissioned this piece recently.
It it a meeting of several places pulled into one by strong forces of chaos.
It brings together the celestial, the fiendish, the feywild, and the human, as indicated by the roof colors [above].

In the further variants, I did change the roof color to a more standard look, as it played better with all of the color variations.
Once again, we have some nice elevation changes here in this city. In some versions there are floating islands.
All in all, a very winding, wandering city to explore and adventure in.

I'd like to give a hearty thanks to Justin for commissioning this, but also in being readily open to it being shared here with all of you.
I hope many encounters spin off from this one. This is a very big map, at 28.5 x 28.5 inches.
You can grab the free full size version over on patreon. There's also a pdf that has a bunch of low res samples of the other variants.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/justin-grindals-46182781

There are a lot of options with this one. Too many, probably.
But hey, they're fun to explore, so people get extra for their money.
I hope everyone had a good week. And have a great weekend. Cheers, J

City of Urbs 01 [2021 sample].jpg

Urbanis seasons.jpg - - Urbanis 5 - Flood 13 sample.jpg

Urbanis 3 - Autumn 19 sample.jpg - - Urbanis 1 - Spring 04 sample.jpg

134 variants.jpg

[- JO -]

Another absolute beauty, by J. Edward !

So many original elements, that gives an exceptionnal ambiance to this city !

The architecture, the "volacano", the houses on top of rocks... It's so beautiful and imaginative, that I really would like to have a side view for this one... this must be absolutely mind blowing !

Congratulations for this exceptionnal map, J. ! A few days earlier and I would have bet for an Atlas award !!!!

[mapmage]

Really awesome! The thing at the core is really cool as well, though I honestly have no idea what it is

[rdanhenry]

Could be an interesting campaign to set it entirely, or almost entirely, in this city, but use all the variants as parallel universe versions and have some (or several) ways of shifting between them.

[Greason Wolfe]

My thanks to Justin as well. Glad he let you share this wonderful piece with us. But I do have a question.....

Can you ever draw a map that is just average instead of all this killer pieces? I mean, you know, just once, as a way to prove that you are a mortal human instead of a god of cartography.

[Josiah VE]

Top notch stuff, as always!
And holy smokes that is way too many variations, I love it.
How long did it take to make all those different versions?

[J.Edward]

Another absolute beauty, by J. Edward !

So many original elements, that gives an exceptionnal ambiance to this city !

The architecture, the "volacano", the houses on top of rocks... It's so beautiful and imaginative, that I really would like to have a side view for this one... this must be absolutely mind blowing !

Congratulations for this exceptionnal map, J. ! A few days earlier and I would have bet for an Atlas award !!!!

Thanks so much, Joel
Doing a perspective view would be daunting.... but I may try a sketch... if I have time.

Really awesome! The thing at the core is really cool as well, though I honestly have no idea what it is

It was described to me as a chaotic ball of energy that was drawing all the buildings in toward itself, i believe, making the roads more chaotic as they got closer.
Various parts were described to me.

Could be an interesting campaign to set it entirely, or almost entirely, in this city, but use all the variants as parallel universe versions and have some (or several) ways of shifting between them.

That's a great idea, and would make for some cool plot twists.
I had a place in one world called Nexus house that was a partial interdimensional spot.
Had to do with the gate magic and portal energies of keys and doors and such. Too many ideas, not enough time.

My thanks to Justin as well. Glad he let you share this wonderful piece with us. But I do have a question.....

Can you ever draw a map that is just average instead of all this killer pieces? I mean, you know, just once, as a way to prove that you are a mortal human instead of a god of cartography.

I think Menzheim was pretty straight-forward

Top notch stuff, as always!
And holy smokes that is way too many variations, I love it.
How long did it take to make all those different versions?

That's hard to say. I do a lot of the prep work ahead of time, and then on one day I save out all of the versions.
It may take an additional day or two to get everything edited and ready for a patreon post though. The main map took about 3-4 weeks.

[AriochIV]

Yikes, looks like a ton of work!

[MistyBeee]

What to say, what to say... Look at this unique, intricate, detailed thing ! So many levels. Such great shading. So. Many. Details. Wow.

[J.Edward]

Yikes, looks like a ton of work!

It was

What to say, what to say... Look at this unique, intricate, detailed thing ! So many levels. Such great shading. So. Many. Details. Wow.

Horror vacui all over this map
And for all that, I still felt like the city was not quite big enough.