City of Havenport

[Imahilus]

Figured I'd offer it up here, after reading a post by Ascension I figured people might actually enjoy making a map for somebody else. And as such I'm hoping someone is willing to do just that, I know I'd be very grateful =)
I've designed a city, called Havenport, for my D&D campaign.
Now I allready have a map of it at this point.. but to be quite honest (and I know the person who made it would agree), the stuff I've seen here is many times better, and I'd like it if places of interest could be added to it (which is very hard to do with the map I have)
Now before I go into the details about the city, I'll make a short list of what I'd like to get out of the map:
- colour; I can't help it, I like colour =)
- infratructure&housing; I'd prefer it if the houses were visible, aswell as roads.
- elevation; the height of the terrain plays an integral part in this city, it is pretty much surrounded by cliffs of varying heights (since the city is on a slope), it'd probably be tricky to get this to look right, I hope this is a fun challenge?
- no real timeframe, within a month would be appreciated though
- the artist retains full rights, but extends the right to me to use it for private purposes

Still interested? I appreciate it =)
Now to 'bore' you with the details!
The city of havenport is a city built in a unique geographical location.
Situated in the only bay that has (easy) access to the inlands this side of the continent, it is a prime trading community.
Built on top of a slope comming down from the jagged cliffs that stretch almost the entire coastline of the continent.
The city is divided up into several districts, which in turn are seperated by fortified walls.
A rule of thumb is, the higher up you are, the more wealthy you are.
This is not without reason, as the 'slums' as the locals call it, flood once every several years. Needless to say, the poorest of the inhabitants live there.
While it is a prominent trading community, it is ruled by a warrior of great reknown, Elkas Swordhand. Having killed off the previous leader of the city, he has declared the city an independent city state, severing its allegiance with the kingdom of Abria. He rules the city with a iron fist, imposing heavy taxes on the inhabitants, and punishing crimes in a near inhumane manner. The kingdom of Abria hasn't taken it back by force because there is no denying the results. The rulership of the city has become stable, the merchant roads around the city have never been safer, trade is booming and not to be forgotten, it has some of the best defenses around. Despite the lack of action by the kingdom of Abria, some of the inhabitants have chosen to rebel against Elkas's rulership. This group, known as the Shining Blade, tries to sabotage the guards in their efforts to extract every last copper from the inhabitants, even if they can't afford it. They stop unjust executions and on occassion raid supply carts for the garrisons.
They also oppose the mages guild of the city, called the Shrouded Moon.
This guild specialises in necromancy, and are the only ones allowed to conduct magic inside the city perimiter. As such they pre-emptively prevent anybody from selling any items that have a enchantment anymore powerful than minor tricks. Which makes wannabee adventures prime targets for suprise interrogations.
It is said the Shrouded Moon is conducting experiments on such people, trying to turn them into half-undead golems made from flesh.
Needless to say, the shining blade tries their best to prevent them from carrying out any sort of experiments, but little is known about these endaevors, as they're solely being carried out by the most trusted of members of the blade.

Legend has it a large labyrinth of tunnels, corridors and great halls lies beneath the city, which has been named the Undercity by the locals. Rumour has it, that it isn't a normal labyrinth, but something of another world. Even more far-fetched rumours say that the shining blade might be using it as a base of operations. Needless to say, a variant upon that rumour is that the Shrouded Moon uses it to conduct their experiments in.
Sometimes when someone opens a particular door, they see a long staircase down.
This usually happens with children, most who go down the stairs are never to be seen again. The few that do return usually claim to have gone down the stairs for an hour or so before reaching the great halls, with howls from unknown beasts echoing through it. It is no wonder it has become a fairy tale that parents use to get their children to listen to them.

Below I have attached the map currently being used for the city.
Obviously, the places of interest aren't on this map.. which I'd very much would like to have on there, as such, I posted this request.
I won't go through the trouble of posting these places of interest in this allready substantial post, if you are interested in making this city truely come to life, please send me a private message and I will provide the places of interest in this city that I'd like to see on the map.



Thank you for reading through this post, and for whoever might offer their help, THANKS!

[Korash]

I was looking at it last night and putted around a bit, just to try it out. I am a beginner with the whole computer mapping thing so I might be able to do something in a month, but I make no promises. I would like to give it a wack though.

I do have a few questions though:

1 - What is the scale?
2 - Rough guestimate on population?
3 - Rough guestimate on elevations (+# feet above water) for the various districts
4 - Type of ground on the highlands.

[Gandwarf]

I just wanted to say I kinda like the map you made yourself. I can see why you want another version, but still.. this one is nice as well!

[Imahilus]

It is not that I dislike the map, gandwarf, but a better one would be nice =)
I didn't make it myself, as I'm not artisticly adept, but I like the map for its simplicity.

Korash:
Are you certain enough of yourself that I can mark the project as taken?
I don't mind that you're still learning map making, particularly since I'm sure you could ask the local 'gurus' here for help if you'd need it =)
As to answer your questions:
1. not exactly sure to be honest, I haven't actually bothered with that part as it didn't affect gameplay at all. All I can say about this is the scale of houses I had in mind.. which is that the slums would have simple one room homes, the high slums three rooms (2 stories in total), whereas the cliffview and high districts would have more luxurious homes in the sense of 4+ rooms.
2. The city has ~10.000 inhabitants in total
3. Hard to say, I suppose it is something you could toy with to an extent. The slums are quite low, as they sometimes get flooded. The cemetary is just out of this danger, so I reckon that is around 30 or 50' up?. That'd put the cliffview district at around 100' at the cliff, so a bit higher around the opposite edge. I reckon the land is at least 200', but as said, these figures aren't set in stone and can be tweaked to make the map look better. It is primarily the proportions that matter.
4. grasslands

[Korash]

I am still up for doing this if no-one else offers. Like I said, I might be able to finish it in a month, but it depends on the availability of time. I should at the very least make a good dent on it by then. First I want to have a decent layout of the different heights. I will post in the WIP forum (linky will be posted here) once I have something along those lines for you to give comments and direction. Assuming no one else jumps in. No hard feelings if someone does either

[Korash]

Well, Here is the first post in the WIP thread. Let me know if the elevations are anywhere near what you want.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...7911#post77911

Edit: helps If I add the link

[Imahilus]

I haven't disappeared, and figured I'd make a note since its been nearly a month.
That it is 'running late' isn't a problem at all, for all I care it'd take another month to complete.
Life has been popping up for myself aswell, and as such haven't even been able to compile a useful list of important locations =X

Though I wonder, how are you doing korash? still around I hope?
Don't take this as pressure, I'm just intrigued on how you are doing, as I'm struggling to find time to map out the region for this city by using RobA's tutorial (which should deserve a annotion along the lines of 'even for the artisticly inept').