EN World City Project: Geography

[Conaill]

Here's my latest to-scale map of the area around Mor's End. I believe I've included all the landmarks and distances we've already decided on, plus a couple more:

- Pirate's Rest: a caravan serai one day's travel (by caravan, of course) from Mor's End along the road to Lalaton. Quite luxurious, first "real" civilization the caravans coming from the West will encounter.

- Trader's Roost: a heavily reinforced caravan serai one day's travel to the East. I'm working on a band of mercenaries / caravan guards that accompany caravans up to two days from Mor's End - that's the most dangerous part of the East-West trade route, due to the proximity of the swamp and the forest. Trader's Roost is their headquarters and a highly recommended stop-over point for caravans.

Comments? Changes? Requests?

I've got a big Gimp file (think Photoshop for Linux) at twice the resolution of this one, with layers for pretty much everything. I'll add in patterns for mountains, forest etc once we've nailed everything else down.

Grey is mountains, greyish green is hills, dark green is forest (need some more of that), olive green is swamp.

 

[Krug]

Wow nice maps. Not sure about the name 'Pirates rest'.
I like Gladius suggestion about the Silk Bridge.

 

[Conaill]

Not sure about the name 'Pirates rest'.

I was looking for something a little romantic, a little fancy. Think red velvet on the walls, dancing girls and "companions" for those caravan drivers that haven't seen a sophisticated women for weeks or months, all the best Mor's End has to offer, rooms overlooking the lake.

"Pirate's Rest" seemed kinda appropriate. It plays in to the legend of "Katze" Kulpin haunting the waters of the lake. No actual pirates involved, of course.

 

[jdavis]

Enoria Keep was on the other side of the swamp (close to the river opening.) There would be Ferry Landing where you have Enoria Keep. Ferry Landing was never fleshed out, it's where the ferry's are loaded and unloaded for those who bypass the swamp. I'll try a little write up on it this weekend.

 

[Conaill]

Hmm... that's not how I understood it:

"Enoria tower guards the river crossing for the southern caravan route as it heads for Southgate or y’s off to head for Tradegate. It sits on the southern bank of the river mouth. Enoria tower consists of a small watchtower and a ferry across the river."

On the old hexmap, that puts Enoria Keep on the far side of the swamp. With the much larger swamp, I don't think it makes sense to have an extra ferry from the Big Island south to hook up with the southern trade route. Caravans would probably take either the Jollita ferry, or cross via the bridges.

I don't mind putting Enoria Keep on the near side of the swamp, but it would no longer be a twin to Sparguard, and no longer have a ferry...

 

[jdavis]

Southgate is on the Big Island, that is where the caravan route comes in the gate at. The ferry there crosses the river not the lake. Enoria Keep defends the Big Island. I am not sure why the caravan route y's off there and goes back into the swamp but I was going by how it was drawn. If trade doesn't go through Southgate then it has to go through the swamp again to get to Trade gate from the southwest. The Jolita Ferry and the bridges are inside the city, this is at the mouth of the river leading into Southgate and guarding the big island. The ferry here isn't the barges that bypass the swamp and head south it crosses the mouth of the river to Southgate on the big island. That is why is unimportant and manned by trainees, the barges have killed caravan traffic off going into the swamp. Being at the far end of the swamp is much more dangerous as it's where the barges unload at and would be a prime place to raid. Enoria Keep and Sparguard Keep are sister towers in construction (they have the same floorplan) as most towers in the area would be to keep cost down.

 

[Lalato]

I guess this has been my point all along... Why would anyone take the southern route around the lake... ever... When they can take an extra half day or day and take the northern route around the lake.

That's why I was trying to block access to the northern route from the west so caravans would be forced into the southern route. Without anything blocking the northern route there is no need for ferries or paths through the swamp... because sane caravan masters would opt for an extra day around the northern side of the lake rather than deal with raiders from the swamps.

If, however, the northern route is an extra weeks journey because the path is blocked by mountains or some other obstacles, then it would make better sense that caravans would use the southern route around the lake... or even ferries.

--sam

 

[jdavis]

The big thing about the caravan routes is you don't know where they are going because this is made to plug into any world. Their desitnation and importance will change accordingly. We don't know whats ont he other side of the lake and we really don't need to know. The route on the North side of the lake should run North West not just west or there is no reason for the south west route, they should form a x in Mor's End so that the reason for both routes is in the destination and we can assume that there is something on the other side of the lake that keeps you from crossing on that side.

 

[Conaill]

Southgate is on the Big Island, that is where the caravan route comes in the gate at. The ferry there crosses the river not the lake. Enoria Keep defends the Big Island. I am not sure why the caravan route y's off there and goes back into the swamp but I was going by how it was drawn. If trade doesn't go through Southgate then it has to go through the swamp again to get to Trade gate from the southwest. The Jolita Ferry and the bridges are inside the city, this is at the mouth of the river leading into Southgate and guarding the big island. The ferry here isn't the barges that bypass the swamp and head south it crosses the mouth of the river to Southgate on the big island.

I'm not sure I follow you. I don't think we ever suggested serious caravan trade trafic coming out of Southgate. It's mainly a gate to give access to the rest of the big island.

Caravans heading SW would either board a ship in Mor's End, or go out Tradegate and cross the swamp. They don't even set foot on the Big Island.

Ther is a ferry crossing the river from the Big Island, but it's inside the walls, from Port Jollita to the part of the city South of the river. A ferry further towards the mouth of the river would be longer, more dangerous, and serve much less of a function.

The only maps I've been able to find that showed a ferry crossing the the river outside of the city walls are the old hexmaps. On those, the swamp was MUCH smaller than what we've decided on now, so the ferry could easily bypass the swamp altogether. With the much larger swamp, I don't really see a need for the second ferry that would land you right at the mouth of the swamp...

Another point of clarification: did you intend Enoria Keep to be on the Big Island? ("Enoria Keep defends the Big Island.")

 

[jdavis]

I'm not sure I follow you. I don't think we ever suggested serious caravan trade trafic coming out of Southgate. It's mainly a gate to give access to the rest of the big island.

Caravans heading SW would either board a ship in Mor's End, or go out Tradegate and cross the swamp. They don't even set foot on the Big Island.

Ther is a ferry crossing the river from the Big Island, but it's inside the walls, from Port Jollita to the part of the city South of the river. A ferry further towards the mouth of the river would be longer, more dangerous, and serve much less of a function.

The only maps I've been able to find that showed a ferry crossing the the river outside of the city walls are the old hexmaps. On those, the swamp was MUCH smaller than what we've decided on now, so the ferry could easily bypass the swamp altogether. With the much larger swamp, I don't really see a need for the second ferry that would land you right at the mouth of the swamp...

Another point of clarification: did you intend Enoria Keep to be on the Big Island? ("Enoria Keep defends the Big Island.")

All the maps I saw had the caravan route crossing over to the big island and going to Southgate, and also y'ing off to head towards tradegate, I went witht he newest map I saw at the time (almost a month ago). Enoria Keep was written to protect that crossing to the big island from orcs and goblins using the crossing there to raid north, it wasn't as important anymore because barges covered the important traffic going south now. The big island has shrunk and the swamp has moved south down the coast so the written discription for Enoria's keep is completly wrong for the last map presented. It was written for this map and needs to be changed. I will change it's write up to match the new map.