Merelan City

[Mouse]

Merelan City is situated on a precipitous island attached to the mainland by a stretch of sand known as ‘The Flats’. Once the throne of the king of the seafaring Merles, the island was invaded 500 years ago by the crusading Blucrans, who claimed the island as an important holy site, and subdued the natives to serve their Empire.

The Blucrans largely rebuilt the city with their trademark stone houses, and pushed the Merles with their traditional thatched wattle and daub dwellings to the north facing slopes and the less accessible fringes of the island, from where they serve as labourers in the vineyards, and fish the local waters to feed the island.

In the last 20 years there has been a deepening drought. Merelan City is one of the last few places where fresh water is still readily available. Windmills pump water from the deeper caverns to a natural reservoir that lies beneath the Temple of Rusaar – that large pentagonal building on top of the island. From there it is syphoned away as a domestic supply, though much of it seeps back down through the strata and provides sufficient moisture levels to keep the island considerably more green than the mainland.



This map was created using Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer 3+, with the City Designer 3 add on, and a selection of my home made fills and symbols. Also woven into its matrix (and quite invisible to the human eye) are all the modifications and alterations I made as a result of all the many helpful comments and criticisms that were offered to me on the WIP thread. Thank you – all of you 

The WIP thread itself is 33 pages long and contains 53 versions of the map along with numerous part extracts. That means there are well over 330 comments to wade through if you are looking for something in particular, so if you have any questions about how this map was created please feel free to ask them right here on the Finished Maps thread, where I can illustrate my answers with selected extracts of the map, showing the stage(s) of development in question.

PLEASE NOTE:

This is the setting for the opening of an unpublished novel, and will eventually appear on my author’s webpage. In the meantime, however, please do not take copies, share, or pin this map without my permission.

Permissions currently granted for display to:

Cartographer’s Guild and Profantasy.

Thank you

[Wired]

It's a beautiful map with a great layout, and I practically adore your water. The only thing that slightly bugs me is that the city would work better, visually, if you had used terracotta tiles or flat north african roofs. The grey roofs make the houses somewhat hard to spot.

[Mouse]

Thank you Wired

I originally decided to go with grey roof tiles, to match the local rock.

I haven't, however, written off the possibility of adding different versions to the collection, and I have already considered terracotta textures a bit like these I made with Genetica...



The first one of which is already used as the roof of the temple.

I'll have a think about it - since replacing the standard symbols you see there in the map with home made ones of similar shape and form would take quite a lot of hard work.

[Josiah VE]

Wow......... Wow!
This must be my favorite CC3 map! You push the boundaries in amazing ways. This map reminds me of J Edward's "Haerlech."
I can only imagine how satisfying it must feel to finish this masterpiece.
No critiques from me! Incredible job!!

[Tonnichiwa]

Fantastic job Mouse! I'm glad to see this is finally finished. And near the years end too! I think you should get the cartographer's award for best map of the year as the map is gorgeous and made with cc3+ so it shows what is actually possible with that program if you are willing to learn the software. Stunning work really!

[AzurePlanet]

Wow, you've made a masterpiece here!
Have some rep!

[Greg]

Gorgeous gorgeous work on this Mouse and great to see it finally finished! That was one massive WIP thread but all the hard work has more than paid off!
Definitely your best piece and one to be proud of!
Rep is coming your way.

[Mouse]

Wow......... Wow!
This must be my favorite CC3 map! You push the boundaries in amazing ways. This map reminds me of J Edward's "Haerlech."
I can only imagine how satisfying it must feel to finish this masterpiece.
No critiques from me! Incredible job!!

Aw Josiah!

Thank you. I have mixed feelings about the completion of the city map. Now, of course, I have to think of something else to draw! LOL!

Fantastic job Mouse! I'm glad to see this is finally finished. And near the years end too! I think you should get the cartographer's award for best map of the year as the map is gorgeous and made with cc3+ so it shows what is actually possible with that program if you are willing to learn the software. Stunning work really!

If its possible to blush on top of a blush, then I'm doing it!

Thank you Tonnichiwa

Wow, you've made a masterpiece here!
Have some rep!

Thank you, AzurePlanet

Gorgeous gorgeous work on this Mouse and great to see it finally finished! That was one massive WIP thread but all the hard work has more than paid off!
Definitely your best piece and one to be proud of!
Rep is coming your way.

Thank you GLS

Yes, the WIP was a bit of a monster wasn't it! That's why I decided not to inflict it on anyone who hasn't been following it through anyway - LOL!

[Straf]

Well done Mouse. You have created something to be proud of BTW are the brightness differences of the labels in the northern and western areas intentional?

Excellent work on the rooftops, even though the guide book needs to be amended now And you've got the structures in the salt marshes spot on in my opinion. I bet the folk in there pick all the best samphire and sell it to the toffs up the top for a small fortune as sea asparagus. I could write some great stories based in this city

Oh and I can rep you again so have some rep

[Mouse]

Thanks Straf. I couldn't have the city folk getting a bad reputation for failing to look after their properties properly

As for the labels? You are absolutely right - its a mistake.

The text sheet the labels are on ended up in the wrong order on a list of sheets (equivalent to layers) 135 sheets long. Its underneath the relief shading sheets, and the labels that are on it are being shaded as if they were part of the land.



(In CC3 the sheets are rendered in the order in which they are listed, so the text is rendered before the relief shading sheets, even though it appears above them on the list)

I can see I need to start running things past you before I declare them finished in the future. Thanks for catching that one. I wouldn't have seen it without you

I will re-render the map and replace the one on display in the first comment.