Valdin, Capitol of the Valiero'vi

[Rhotherian]

If you like this, PLEASE consider helping me with the world Valdin is set in!



EDIT: Since last I payed attention to this thread, a lot has changed regarding Valdin and the world it exists in. For one, the Valiero'vi have been renamed "Valiero'ji" and the Xen'vi have been renamed "Zen'ji". There have also been other changes, but I am presently too lazy to apply them to what is written in this post.



I finished this map earlier today. It shows the city of Valdin, capitol of the Valiero'vi nation on the world of Novusvita.

The Valiero'vi are one of the nine nations of the native Xen'vi race (which are essentially aliens at a Medieval/Roman level) and also one of the most prominent and advanced.

This forms part of my NewLife Project, which is basically a world building project for my novel series, The Peoples of Algol.

This is just a rough second go at the map (the first was when I drew it). I eventually want it to look something like one of Iparcos' maps.



This is Valdin, capitol city of the Valiero'vi nation. Located on the southern shore of Cyro'bar, on the northern shores of the Eljo'k Sea, Valdin is very close to the south most point of Valiero'vi territory. It lies south of the large Oss Lake and is connected to it via the Road of Oss that follows the Ryan River through the Valley of Oss. Two rivers flow into the sea on either side of Valdin: the aforementioned Ryan River and the considerably smaller River Shin.

The city was chosen as the capitol of Valdin because, for centuries, it was already the economic capitol of the Valiero'vi kingdom. The city essentially controlled trade through the Eljok'sea (a stretch of water connecting two of the planet's great oceans) and became quite wealthy through trade with and between the nations beyond the Gap of Torin and the Gap of Glyphs.

During the third age of Valiero's existence as a nation [will explain the ages thing later], the king moved to Valdin from the nation's previous capitol of Tel'nir, on the shores of the Shien Gap. As the two cities were literally on opposite sides of the already vast kingdom, the move was a huge effort - virtually all contents of the palace, high temple and university of Tel'nir had to be moved a quarter of the way across the planet. The task was achieved by sea and with the aid of the recently invented kite-sails.

When Valdin was established as the new capitol of Valiero'vi, the messy merchant’s harbour was rebuilt, almost entirely from scratch, and was made to be quite larger.

The land on which Valdin is and was built was once a meteor impact crater, about 700m in diameter, now eroded to be much shallower than it once was, the rim being about twenty meters above sea level at its highest. The crater is directly on the shore, and its southern rim folds around a bay within the crater to form two small peninsulas. The River Ryan flows just west of the crater and the River Shin just east.

At the time when the city was about to be rebuilt, Valdin's only buildings were around the shores of the bay, Valdin Bay, and the mouths of the two rivers. The first thing to be constructed anew was the palace, which was built in the centre of the crater, on the shore of the bay. To construct the palace, two canals connected to the rivers were dug through the area of the city as to allow building materials from quarries upstream to be floated directly to where the palace was being built. Next came the reconstruction of the street layout, buildings and finally, on the rim of the crater, the city wall. The only parts of the city that remained virtually untouched was the area outside the crater and the peninsulas on either side of the bay.

Two canals were also constructed, both connected to either of the two rivers, that cut through the city, allowing easy access to the streets for merchants coming from the inner water ways of the kingdom via the River Ryan.

Today, half a century later, the population of the city has come to be around 300 thousand and over half don't even live within the city walls. Outside the walls is the Managar Forrest, a thick tropical jungle that gives evidence of Valdin's proximity to the Equator of Novusvita. Between the vegetation close to the city are the Outskirts. Four independent districts make up this part of the city: Ryan South, Vanadash, River Town and South Bank.



Sectors and Districts of the City

-West Sector: Northwest Triangle (Formal); Valdin Bay West (Commercial); Ryan South (Rural/Informal); Valley of Oss (Rural).

-Northeast Sector: North Triangle (Formal); Northeast Triangle (Formal); Varadash (Informal); River Town (Informal).

-Southeast Sector: Southeast Triangle (Formal); Valdin Bay East (Commercial); South Bank (Rural/Informal); Valdin University (Formal).


Circles of the City

-The Inner Circle:
The Inner Circle is at the heart of the city. At its centre is the palace complex and around it are the homes of the rich - people who can afford to live here (such as people in politics, people in law, scholars, powerful businessmen and the otherwise famous). The circle can be roughly divided into five parts: four housing segments, the Palace Bay area and the palace itself. The grand buildings in each of the four housing segments are built around large garden parks, forming four large courtyards in the Inner Circle. These courtyards each only have two entrances, apart from the doors of the houses, making the homes in the Inner Circle quite private. Normally, an entire housing segment in the Inner Circle, or at least most of it, belongs to a single family.

-The Middle Circle:
In the mid-radius of the city is the Middle Circle. This ring is reserved for the middle-class citizens of Valdin: doctors, enforcers, not as powerful businessmen and the like. Here, the courtyards are smaller and the houses more. The Middle Circle is separated from the Inner and Outer Circles via streets on either side that go in concentric rings around the city. Another "street", that runs concentric to the aforementioned two, essentially further divides the Middle Circle into two separate rings. The only difference between these two rings is the shape and size of the courtyards. Like the Inner Circle, there are multiple groups of houses that share single garden parks. The main differences are that both the houses and the garden parks are smaller and less lavish and normally not populated by single families.

-The Outer Circle:
The Outer Circle is nestled between the city wall and the Middle Circle and accommodates the lower class working citizens: merchants, sailors, carpenters, smiths, tailors, labourers, house workers and such. In the outer circle, the houses are tiny, at most about three small rooms. The courtyards are about the same size as those of the Middle Circle, but often even less lavish. The Outer Circle also contains the market plazas and, in the Southeast Triangle, Valdin's barracks and armed service academy. The Outer Circle includes the Valdin Bay peninsulas, where the majority of the original city's still-standing buildings can be found. This is also where the majority of the harbour can be found. On the edge of the outer circle, along the city wall, these is another concentric "street". There are also staircases that connect the street level of Valdin to the city wall.

-The Outskirts: (Misspelled on map)
Outside the city walls, Valdin seems to loose its charm. The geometrical order of the circular street layout within the city walls disappears, as does the many garden parks and courtyards and plazas are replaced by wild jungle. Instead of a street layout of concentric rings and perfectly divided segments, the streets of the Outskirts are irregular and often nothing more than dirt paths. The buildings themselves seem to have been built out of what the Inner City, has thrown out. This is the home of the poor. Bottom class citizens that often have no jobs and sometimes struggle to survive find their homes here. There is some diversity, however. The further away from the city you go, the more rural it becomes. Homes are buildings are further way from one another and citizens generally lead healthier lives. Closer to the city, the houses are more dense and the environment becomes more slum-like. Here, crime is highest in the city and disease is common. A far cry from the lavishness of the Inner Circles.


Infrastructure

-Water (Pipeline and aqueduct not shown on the map. Pumping stations are shown, but not labelled, as circular buildings along the shores of the rivers):
All of Valdin's running water has its origin in either the Valdin Peaks or the two rivers of Valdin. With the former, reservoirs in the mountains channel the water of rain and snowmelt into large pipes/tunnels that have been cut into the rock. These pipes eventually congregate as a single pipeline that follows the path of the Pass of Ungush. When the slope of the mountain evens out, the water in the pipeline feeds into an underground reservoir (originally a closed cave) and then out of the mountains via a raised aqueduct and into the city wall. The water is made to spread and flow the entire lengths of the city wall, the down to street level, where, thanks to the slope created by the impact crater, the water spreads through the city below the streets. This entire system works with gravity alone. With the latter, special water powered pumping stations along the rivers pumps water up into the city walls, where gravity once more does its duty.

-Streets:
The "official" streets of Valdin, in the Inner City mainly follows a geometrical circular pattern. There are three concentric rings of these streets that encircle the city, only interrupted by the bay, and nineteen streets that go at right angles to the ring-streets from the city wall (sometimes called the "Outer Wall") in the direction of the city centre, though only three reach the palace. Where they reach the palace, they become staircases up to the palace plaza, where they pass through large gates in the palace wall (sometimes called the "Inner Wall"). Where they reach the city wall, they also become staircases, in this case ascending to the top of the wall. The top of the city wall is often also considered to be a "street", of sorts, as citizens often use it to get to places quickly. There are also two "unofficial" ring-streets in the city. One passes through the Middle Circle, the other on the rim of the Outer Circle. Where the latter meets the staircases up to the city wall, the staircases essentially become bridges, allowing the "street" to pass underneath. The main differences between these streets and the "official" streets are that they do not pass over the city canals as bridges and they are paved as the city plazas and aren't cobbled like the "official" streets. Outside the city wall, the roads out of Valdin continue as roads normally do, following the landscape to their destinations, no longer according to the city's geometry. Aside from these roads, the streets in the Outskirts are unpaved and often nothing but dirt and mud. They seem to simply fill the spaces between the buildings where there would otherwise be jungle and are completely irregular, even random, following no particular pattern at all.

-Facilities:
Baths, clinics and shops form part of the building layout along with the houses in the Inner City and is amongst the best standards on the planet, aside, of course, from those of the Jawheads. There are three official markets in Valdin, on three opposite sides of the Inner City, Harbour Market, Gate Market and Soldier's Market, each supplying the citizens and businesses of the city with a menagerie of different goods and services. The city also has its own cab service which traverses the entirety of the city and, for the right price, may even take travellers to neighbouring settlements. A ferry service also allows travel to certain islands near Valdin, such as the Rocks of Sodam. A Certain ferry also regularly takes citizens from their homes in South Bank to their work places in Valdin Bay East. One of the main universities of the kingdom is also located in Valdin. Normally, children are sent to their future workplace and learn on the job, only ever being in a school-like environment if and when they learn to write or do calculations. Normally, a tutor is hired to come to the home of the child on a regular basis, but at universities in the kingdom, students go to the tutors. Valdin University teaches many fields of science, literature and other studies for certain prices for certain courses. It also holds the largest store of knowledge in the kingdom: The Valdin Library. Then there's the High Temple. Every large city in the kingdom has a temple and most settlements at least have a shrine. The High Temple is the religious centre of the Valiero'vi. On the outside, its appearance is that of a tower, but most of its treasure is below ground. Every artefact that used to be in the temple of the Spire of Tel'nir has been moved to the underground of the High Temple. Citizens of Valdin enter the temple on a monthly basis to practice their faith. There are also many bounty boards throughout the city where travellers or citizens can do jobs for others and earn a reward or some extra money. Some individuals make a living by only completing bounties.


Places of Interest

To add or not to add?

[Ascension]

It's pretty cool, man. The only thing I'd suggest is making the roads not blue. I know the rivers are there very plainly but I was first thinking that the roads were rivers - I always default to seeing things that way when I see this sort of style. It looks well laid out and interesting; you could really do up some magic on this if you ever wanted but as is it's got all the info needed.

[Rhotherian]

Thanks.

I'll eventually get to making the colours and textures realistic and all. At first the roads and such were just me highlighting them on the hand drawn version. I suppose I wasn't really thinking then... ^^'

Say,do you know of any good Iparcos-style tutorials out there?

[Ascension]

I think he outlined his process on his blog (French, I think, maybe Italian) but I don't remember if it was step-by-step or just outline - I think he mentioned it in a post somewhere and I had looked at it way back when. You might want to check his profile then click on the "find all posts by" thing and click that...it should bring up a list of all his posts and you can rummage through them.

[Rhotherian]

Okay...


Here's what the map used to look like, if you're wondering:
Valdin.jpg


Here's the edit:
Valdin - Realistic.png


What's immediately apparent, I think, is that the roads no longer stand out. Is that a good thing?

[mearrin69]

I don't have time to read the whole post unfortunately (will come back to it for sure) but I just wanted to say that you've got a very nice layout there. It's very pleasing on the whole. The rivers, coastline, city layout, and so forth are very nice. Looking forward to seeing you render this in full! Have some rep for it.
M

[Rhotherian]

Thanks! ^^

[Rhotherian]

I've changed the jungle and water textures in this next pic. I don't like the result that much, due to it not fitting with the rest of the image, though I think it will once I also add real-world or, atleast, realistic looking textures to the remaining layers:

Valdin - Realistic 2.png

However, I really don't know how to do the rest, because they are directional (slope direction, street direction, building orientation, etc.).

[Rhotherian]

Wow, now THIS I've sorely neglected.

Months ago I actually made some progress with the map. I've attached four files, showing an altered street layout of Valdin's Inner City with buildings, concept art for the White Tower in the centre of the city (as well as what its three main street-width gates look like), a map of the larger Valdin district, and maps of a few smaller towns in the area, respectively. With the district map, darker shaded land represents hilly/mountainous area, red lines represent roads (streets included), yellow areas represent settlements and built up areas, and the green line and purple lines represent two respective highways.

[arsheesh]

Ooh, I like the layout of this city. I hope you continue to work on it because I'd like to see how it develops.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh