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Thread: WIP Korokno

  1. #1

    Wip WIP Korokno

    Hi guys,

    I'm new on this forum and I am hoping for some advice! I have seen a LOT of really pretty maps around here and I am hoping you guys can help me make my map better as well. The city is called Korokno and I am running a D&D campaign in this city.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    The river is a flooding river (similar to the Nile). During the dry season only the river consists solely of the dark part of the water. During the wet season the river floods resulting in more or less the river as you see it on the map. The population should be around 20.000.

    I do have 2 questions:
    1) Did people built houses into walls? In Korokno they do and I am not sure if it is accurate. There is little chance I will change it but I would like to know either way.
    2) The outer wall is not too big/high but would any city have open areas within the city walls? The open area here is the slope of the hill on which the fort/castle is built.

    I hope you guys can help me. Any and all advice is appreciated!

    Cheers,
    ArmoredSandwich

    Known TODOS:
    • Detail surrounding farm land
    • Detail known/major structures
    • Edit roads in the city
    • Rework fort/castle
    • Add compass/rose and city name
    • Label all buildings (blacksmiths, bakeries, tanneries etc)



    A little bit of background. During a terrible drought about 150 years ago the whole region/known world perished. A deity swept down from the sky and created an island with a large patch of fertile ground around it. The whole region, dying of hunger, came to the area and founded the city. In no time the three hamlets already there grew to a massive city. The folks who lived there attempted to put things into order but only succeeded in the parts that are now the two city centres. This explains the random placement of houses in the more northern part of the city.

    The island itself is only an island during the dry season, in the wet season everything (and especially the temple) floods. The buildings there are built on poles.

    The black scorch marks are warehouses that were recently burned down.

  2. #2
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Hi Sammidge, this isn't half bad actually, especially for a novice! I like the concept behind your map, and it look great too. One remark I'd like to make, even though it's far too late to correct that now, is the fact that rivers seldom flow the way yours does on the map. Rivers would only show this odd bump if topography forced them to flow like this. If it flowed over reasonably flat terrain and encountered a hill, it would flow around that hill with a far gentler curve. But don't worry, rivers seem to be one of the most difficult things to get right, both on regional and local maps. There's tons of articles on where to put then and how they work here on the CG, if you're interested.

    Quote Originally Posted by ArmoredSandwich View Post
    I do have 2 questions:

    1. Did people built houses into walls? In Korokno they do and I am not sure if it is accurate. There is little chance I will change it but I would like to know either way.
    2. The outer wall is not too big/high but would any city have open areas within the city walls? The open area here is the slope of the hill on which the fort/castle is built.
    About your questions:

    1. I don't think people actually built houses inside city walls. Any open space in a wall (such as a room) weakens the structure. But I know for a fact that in medieval cities many houses were buil against the walls (and churches, bridge pillars etc etc). Any vertical structure could be used (and was used) to support a house.
    2. Sure, that happened quite a lot. Not in the oldest walls, since those were usually erected with the shortest circumference possible (less wall to defend for the same amount of houses), but when a city started growing outside of its old walls, it happened that they constructed a second line of defence around the city, keeping some room for houses to come. The city of Cologne was one of those examples: check out this map for example.
    Caenwyr Cartography


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  3. #3

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    Hi Caenwyr,

    Thank you for your compliment. Now that you mention it, the river does indeed look a bit strange. Maybe I can make the river a bit less edgy. The idea is that this is a very broad part of the river as it turns. A sketch of the larger area looks something like this (ignore everything not colored):

    Click image for larger version. 

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    You mention articles regarding the placement of rivers. Are there any that deal more specifically with this situation? Any real world examples would be cool too!

    Maybe I should make it more a bit of a small lake ... What do you think if the river would flow more like this:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Thank you for the answers to my questions, I meant building against the walls and not into the walls. So I guess I did not screw up too much on those accounts!

    Cheers,
    ArmoredSandwich
    Last edited by ArmoredSandwich; 12-13-2013 at 05:58 AM. Reason: wrong image

  4. #4
    Guild Expert Facebook Connected Caenwyr's Avatar
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    Hi ArmoredSandwich,

    I'm not sure if the change you did to the course of the river is much of an improvement. If anything, it actually makes the bend in the river even more acute, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for that, unless there's some forbidding wall of rock just outside the northwest corner of the map (which doesn't seem to be the case when I look at your regional map).

    The only possible scenario where I can see a river to show such a strong bend in a relatively even topography is when it's meandering. In that case the bend would only be one of many in the river, and the deepest part wouldn't be in the middle, but near the outside of each curve. This in turn would actually make the island more likely than it is now! So I guess that's a good thing. You would have to elongate the island a little, I guess, but the idea of it appearing and disappearing with the flow of the seasons would be quite possible, especially if the flow rate of the river drastically changes throughout the year.

    By the way, ArmoredSandwich, are you by any chance Dutch? In that case we would be neighbours - and speaking the same language ;-).
    Caenwyr Cartography


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