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Fantastic map! Those advertisements are hilarious! "Toilet vinegar". Lovely.
The map itself is interesting as well. Certainly in keeping with the steampunk aesthetic. Nicely done.
Beyän, the Vertical City
This is the city of Beyän (pronounced bay-AAAHN) in my World of Helevos, a vertical city of caves and tunnels built into the cone of a long-extinct volcano. It has steampunk elements since the city is powered by steam from the magma rocks, while the peak bristles with windmills and chimneys belching smoke and steam from the city below.
It's ruled by an aristocracy of merchant princes called the Heinars, who live in splendour amongst the gardens on the mountain top. They elect a single leader, the Lord Hedrist, who rules from a tower which forms the highest point of the city.
I was inspired by tourist maps you find in small towns, covered in odd adverts for local businesses; and Victorian newspaper advertising.
Rendered in Photoshop from a hand drawn original I made long long ago. Hope you enjoy!
From WIP here
Fantastic map! Those advertisements are hilarious! "Toilet vinegar". Lovely.
The map itself is interesting as well. Certainly in keeping with the steampunk aesthetic. Nicely done.
This reminds me of the hometown in the backstory of an RPG character of mine. She accidentally blew up a bunch of caverns on the lower levels and fled the city in order to escape the aftermath. Good times.
But I digress. Great map, with a nice faded color scheme and a well thought out layout. I like the noise effect on the stone structures on the map - I think some of the labels look maybe a little too neat and crisp in comparison, they could maybe benefit from a bit noise as well? It's really a minor nitpick though. I really like to concept of this place.
I also just misread 'exotic flora' as 'erotic flora' on the label for Stellanium Gardens and had a good laugh.
Those ads are fantastic! What a fun map!
I love it. I think the best maps are those that tell stories by themselves, and yours nails it! The ads makes my eyes dance around the page and instill me to learn more about the setting. It's amazing as it is, yet I would just put a little more details on the city itself - Beyän looks amazing, but I'm curious about how the buildings look like - are they all underground? Is there openings to let the sunlight shine around?
Anyway, congrats! It's really fun and well done!
Cool and fun concept (no surprise here) for a very nice map
Last edited by Ilanthar; 12-21-2018 at 12:35 PM.
Originally Posted by Kellerica
You're right I thought the same, I played around but nothing looked quite right.
Lol, I love the idea of erotic flora! You may need to go to Baima Place and ask for "Sally"!
So, each of the big "halls" are caverns which open to the outside air. They have light wells in the middle that direct light and air down to lower levels, and there's also many ventilation shafts and light wells. I thought of putting it in the map but looked cluttered, but your right it might tell more of a story.
There's no freestanding buildings in the city, all the homes are cut out of the rock, or made from brick or stone partition walls and columns. Even most of the Heinars live in cave houses cut out of the rocky slopes. The only genuine buildings are the Stellarium, the observatory, and the Hedrist's Tower, a grand but rather chilly edifice on the city's peak.
"Toilet vinegar" was an actual thing! The Victorians seemed to love products with multiple uses but yes, I thought it sounded funny!
Thanks to everyone who contributed! I had fun making this map.
I haven't seen very many vertical maps like this, so the perspective is a refreshing one. It gives me a bunch of ideas about how I could structure cities in future DnD campaigns! Very well done.
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