City of Menzheim

[Chris]

Introduction/background
Dear Cartographers,
after a great experience with J. Edward who made the oasis Suruq for me, I am now looking again for a cartographer who could make a map for a friend of mine. We are playing “The Dark Eye”, a tabletop role play game in which he was appointed baron of Menzheim. The barony with the major city of the same name “Menzheim” and two small towns (Orkenwacht and Biberstein) are located in the north of the continent.
Project Scope:
I would love to have a detailed map of the city of Menzheim in the medieval setting of the dark eye. We will use this map mainly for our own role-play group as a digital version on a password protected homepage and as a printout. I won’t use it commercially, but would like to share it with other interested Dark Eye players. The artist will retain copyright of the map and will have the right to use the map to exhibit and for commercial purposes.

Description of Map
The layout of the city is free for creativity but the following setting should be considered and included.
Menzheim is located in a scenic region with a mix of big forests and grassland with gently sloping hills sometimes with small brooks or creeks and little ponds. The city of Menzheim is surrounded by cattle ranches and in close proximity to the forest “Menzheimer Au” (west and south) and has a good connection to other citys by a big road paved with cobblestone that runs more or less from south to north (similar to roman roads - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads).
Menzheim is inhabited by approx. 900 people. Those are mainly farmers, wranglers, cattle drovers and wagoners who live mostly in small cottages in the city. There are numerous taverns, a central market place, temples for different gods as well as some other distinctive buildings. The city is surrounded by a stone wall which has three guard/watch towers.
Important infrastructure:
- Major road from south to north
- City wall with three guard towers of which one is bigger/stronger than the others (maybe also home for city guard?)
- Taverns / guest houses of different size and quality (5-6)
- 3 temples for different gods: Rondra (aspects: honor, fight; symbols: sword, lion), Firun (aspects: winter, hunt; symbols: bear, bow and arrow), Peraine (aspects: farming, fertility; symbols: spica, stork)
- Market place with a stature of a former emperor
- Town hall
- House of city guard
- Wheelwright (famous for droshkys (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droshky)
- Blacksmith
- Beer brewery (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewer...by_J_Amman.png)
Outside the city wall there are several cattle ranches, woods and some Umber mines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umber)

Style
All of you are doing great things here and some are really exceptional in different ways! I really love the great work from TheHorseWhisperer on Pyrus (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29773), Blaidd Drwg on Galastanen (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ht=Blaidd+Drwg), Schleys work on Diyun (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ighlight=Diyun) and Neverwinter (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ht=Neverwinter) and of course the work of J.Edwards on Frosthaven and Bourmout (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...light=Bourmout) and on my last request: oasis Suruq (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ighlight=suruq)

Technical
The map should be large enough for a bigger printout and usage as digital version. The last one I made was 2276x1610 pixels (which was fine) but I am no expert here.
Format: Jpeg? Png? Tiff? Pdf? I leave it to your expertise on which format to use. Basically, whichever one retains the highest image quality upon saving.

Time Constraints
End of September 2015 would be great.

Copyright
Remains with cartographer
As said above, this map will not be published or reproduced for commercial gain by me. It is mainly for our personal use. It would be great if I could add in a name and building key as needed.

Design Process
I would suggest a stepwise process
Step 1 – initial concept sketch for discussion of the layout and map elements, maybe with an example of a finished map in case I’m not familiar with the cartographers work so far
Step 2 – a 50%-80% submittal for last changes
Step 3 – a 95% map for finalization
Step 4 – Final Map

Payment
I would be happy to pay you a compensation for your work. Depending on the style and your workload the amount is negotiable. It would be great if you could suggest an amount when you contact me. I would suggest that half of the compensation is paid after a 50%-80% map is delivered. PayPal would also be the easiest way for me.

Contact
Please contact me if you have any questions!
You may use this thread or the Cartographer’s Guild messenger
You can also contact me via email: C.Schlude—at—gmail.com or Ch.Schlude-at-gmx.de

Thank you very much for reading!

Best regards
Chris