July/August 2024 Challenge: Velysia upon Vhohilthkre

[Ifrix]

“Velysia. Their promised land. That ever constant blight of light and sound that parades itself across the broken husk that they left behind.

They worshipped it once. Vhohilthkrë. The relentless, the unyielding. They brought forth offerings and venerated the land it carried. Ancient tablets show them supplicating themselves before it in prayer. But as they say: “pointed ears, pointed hearts”. They used it to their advantage, turned that great beast into their monster. And when it had served its purpose and their means surpassed its power? They chained it, brought it low, blinded it, and supplicated it before them to serve their needs.

Now it carries their ‘great city’ across the land we scarred with our wars. Now it bleeds the fuel they use to power their war-machines. Now it screams out its pain as they drive it mercilessly over ruin after ruin after ruin of the old world.
So us? We’re practically heroes, putting a poor wounded creature out of its misery. Can a god truly die? I say there’s only one way to find out…”

- transcript of a recording of noted rebel and terrorist Lexia Ahn

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So I wasn't going to enter this but I did decide to take a random spin myself and couldn't help my brain coming with ideas that I just had to draw.

I picked Cyberpunk as the theme as I've been in that kinda mood recently and also it's something I've not mapped before. I rolled the wheel five times and got the following:

• Floating Islands
• Factory
• Wasteland
• Elven Settlement
• Settlement/Landmass on a Giant Creature

Went for the last two, but if I get time I might try and depict the wasteland and maybe one of the factories upon the creature's back.

As for the creature in question, I wanted something a little different. I feel like turtle/tortoise or whale are the two tropes my mind would go to for this, but the idea I settled on was that its a city upon the back of a giant slug.
The current running story I have surrounding it is that there is a settlement of cyberpunk elves who live on the back of a giant immortal slug that they once revered as a god. They cut off its eye-stalks and use giant arcs of plasma to control its movements, which have left great scars in its sides over the many years. They collect the slime it leaves and the blood it bleeds as it has many sttrange properties that they use for bio-engineering and fuel. Because of the value of the slime, there are many scavengers that follow in its wake and try and grab it up before the Velysian drones descend. There are also those who seek to bring down Velysia and the plan for this map is to ideally have it be visualised as a scan of the city and creature with annotated notes of various areas, made by one of these rebels planning to break aboard.

Here was my initial sketch:
VelysiaSketch.jpg

And what I have so far:
### Latest WIP ###
Velysia1.jpg

Not sure how far I'll get with the month slipping away and a lot of things on but wanted to make an initail thread at least

[Turambar]

---

So I wasn't going to enter this but I did decide to take a random spin myself and couldn't help my brain coming with ideas that I just had to draw.

I picked Cyberpunk as the theme as I've been in that kinda mood recently and also it's something I've not mapped before. I rolled the wheel five times and got the following:


Went for the last two, but if I get time I might try and depict the wasteland and maybe one of the factories upon the creature's back.

As for the creature in question, I wanted something a little different. I feel like turtle/tortoise or whale are the two tropes my mind would go to for this, but the idea I settled on was that its a city upon the back of a giant slug.
The current running story I have surrounding it is that there is a settlement of cyberpunk elves who live on the back of a giant immortal slug that they once revered as a god. They cut off its eye-stalks and use giant arcs of plasma to control its movements, which have left great scars in its sides over the many years. They collect the slime it leaves and the blood it bleeds as it has many sttrange properties that they use for bio-engineering and fuel. Because of the value of the slime, there are many scavengers that follow in its wake and try and grab it up before the Velysian drones descend. There are also those who seek to bring down Velysia and the plan for this map is to ideally have it be visualised as a scan of the city and creature with annotated notes of various areas, made by one of these rebels planning to break aboard.

Here was my initial sketch:
VelysiaSketch.jpg

And what I have so far:
### Latest WIP ###
Velysia1.jpg

Not sure how far I'll get with the month slipping away and a lot of things on but wanted to make an initail thread at least

Awesome start! Looking forward to seeing the final map.

[Ifrix]

So life did end up getting in the way. Got the Nav quarter done and settled on a style but won't get any more done before the end of the challenge
### Latest WIP ###

Nav.jpg