November 2017 Challenge: The Glyphs of Kaylaric

[Mouse]

This isn't the look I'm going for. Its just a very crude layout plan - blocking in the girders so I know where to draw stuff.

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[rdanhenry]

Maybe cover up some of the girders with something easier, like a blanket or sheet to conceal people behind, or some wooden wall if that would be easier for you. Assuming the zombies cannot read, then maybe a "GREAR FORT" banner to help identify it as a shelter for surviving humans?

[Mouse]

The banner is a great idea. Thanks!

I've been working on a sort of hut built in the middle of the pylon, but the scale of the structure means the floor area would only be about 24x24 ft on each level, and I have to think of the stresses involved. Pylons are strong and they only rarely come down, but if I add a hut - even one that's built of wood so that it can flex with the pylon, its a bit like putting up a sail on a boat. I might have to add extra tensioning wires to the pylon (anchoring the levels to the ground around it), to make it more secure.

I might assume that since there won't be any power being generated any more and the cables will be useless, other than as a means to get between pylons, it would be safer to cut them to take the weight off the top part of the structure. Having done that, of course, they will need power, but by cutting the wires away they could always salvage the unnecessary arms of the structure and make a pivoting windmill instead - have the topmost level dedicated to a wind powered turbine. I'm just baulking at the idea of having to draw all that technical stuff! LOL!

Still thinking...

[QED42]

I went past a bunch of pylons today and it made me think of this map! Looking forward to seeing what the structure on top ends up looking like.

[ladiestorm]

wow! This is looking great! I'm curious to see where it goes

[Mouse]

Oh dear!

Thank you both, but I've fallen out with this map.

I'm going to start again in the morning

[Mouse]

Ok.

I fell out of love with the pylon idea, and I've started again.

I've done the background to a new map, but I'm far too tired to give you the backstory just now. Just please can you tell me if I've got any of the shading a bit wrong?

Thanks

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[Mouse]

These are the Glyphs of Kaylaric.

The world is full of magic. There's the good kind of magic that heals and protects, and there's the bad kind of magic that attacks and destroys. As with most things good and evil the good is associated with the daylight, and the bad is associated with the dark - coming out of that darkness and materialising as dangerous and practically indestructible beasts of many different sizes and descriptions - all of which seem intent on extinguishing human existence... except where people have devised and used the glyphs of power to repel the night beasts, and so survive through the hours of darkness.

Most villages are familiar with using these symbols as painted glyphs on the walls of their individual houses, or set as large carved stones around private perimeters, but the power of the night beasts has been gaining for some time since something changed in them and they learned how to use rocks and tree branches to damage or destroy the symbols on the houses that they cannot themselves touch. As a result of this change whole villages have been wiped out by the beasts.

The elders of Kaylaric, however, struck upon the idea of making the protective symbols so large and so permanent that even if tiny parts of them were damaged by the nightly onslaught, the defences would hold long enough to be repaired in the following day.

And so the six glyphs of Kaylaric were built - a series of six new road systems, each built in the shape of the protective glyphs, and linked as a ring around the old heart of their village.

Building the new glyphs also allowed the people of Kaylaric to take in numerous survivors from neighbouring villages, so after a year of testing and finding the technique to be both powerful and lasting, they are starting to send out parties of survivors to seek others, and to find new sites to build new glyph villages.

Each of these parties carries the same map of Kaylaric to use as a teaching aid for any who haven't yet heard about Kaylaric, and as a vital plan to build new wards around every village they find where there are survivors still hanging on by the old methods.

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Its a bit like outdoor feng shui taken to a fantasy extreme - 'Rebuild your own village in this shape to be safe!'

...

Diamond - Please can you change the title of my thread to "November 2017 Challenge: The Glyphs of Kaylaric"?

Thank you

[XCali]

These are the Glyphs of Kaylaric.

The world is full of magic. There's the good kind of magic that heals and protects, and there's the bad kind of magic that attacks and destroys. As with most things good and evil the good is associated with the daylight, and the bad is associated with the dark - coming out of that darkness and materialising as dangerous and practically indestructible beasts of many different sizes and descriptions - all of which seem intent on extinguishing human existence... except where people have devised and used the glyphs of power to repel the night beasts, and so survive through the hours of darkness.

Most villages are familiar with using these symbols as painted glyphs on the walls of their individual houses, or set as large carved stones around private perimeters, but the power of the night beasts has been gaining for some time since something changed in them and they learned how to use rocks and tree branches to damage or destroy the symbols on the houses that they cannot themselves touch. As a result of this change whole villages have been wiped out by the beasts.

The elders of Kaylaric, however, struck upon the idea of making the protective symbols so large and so permanent that even if tiny parts of them were damaged by the nightly onslaught, the defences would hold long enough to be repaired in the following day.

And so the six glyphs of Kaylaric were built - a series of six new road systems, each built in the shape of the protective glyphs, and linked as a ring around the old heart of their village.

Building the new glyphs also allowed the people of Kaylaric to take in numerous survivors from neighbouring villages, so after a year of testing and finding the technique to be both powerful and lasting, they are starting to send out parties of survivors to seek others, and to find new sites to build new glyph villages.

Each of these parties carries the same map of Kaylaric to use as a teaching aid for any who haven't yet heard about Kaylaric, and as a vital plan to build new wards around every village they find where there are survivors still hanging on by the old methods.

### Latest WIP ###


Its a bit like outdoor feng shui taken to a fantasy extreme - 'Rebuild your own village in this shape to be safe!'

...

Diamond - Please can you change the title of my thread to "November 2017 Challenge: The Glyphs of Kaylaric"?

Thank you

Nice! This is a very good idea. I can envision the story.

Also, lovely job with the scroll and the layout of the town. *Thumbs up* Is the roads a brush? It works quite well.

[Mouse]

Thanks Omri

I used one of my own parchments to create the scroll, and one of my rock textures for the background. The two stones are from photographs I took a long while back on a local beach.

All of that was arranged and shaded in GIMP.

I've now moved over to Campaign Cartographer 3 to draw the map. CC3+ is a vector drawing app, and doesn't have brushes at all. The road is just a line drawn in a set colour at a set width on the Road sheet (a sheet is the CC3+ equivalent to a GIMP or PS layer). There are sheet effects on the road sheet that blend it with the image below in overlay mode, and which give it a dark glow to better define it.

So this is one of my GIMP/CC3 maps