Council of Five - Floating Castle

[Rovingjack]

I'm thinking that it looks a bit like an island in water, but if you wanted to make it seem to be flying that putting a seperate terrain map (or even a partly obscured town or city) under it and blend it so that it looses the focus due to how far away it is...

At least that is what I want to do now that you got me thinking about this.

oh and a shadow cast on the ground off to the side.

[Ascension]

I'm not familiar with the story so if there are reasons to do it that way then do so. My own thoughts (not following ANY story) would be to do them with an elemental tie-in to the animal avatars...like red/fire with the scorpion, green/nature for the bear, etc. But not a bright red that sticks out like a sore thumb but a dark and muted red like the color of bricks and a green that's more mossy/leafy. Of course you could do the hieroglyphics with color and keep the buildings stone and chop up the land to reflect the elements (desert, woods, lakes, etc).

My 2 bits.