EN World City Project: Geography

jdavis · Mar 28, 2003

most of the boats would be small so I have to agree with conail on the docks, fishing boats normally just slide up on the shore. There will be some bigger docks and landings for things such as the barges caravans are using to come from the Southwest. Oh and my navy got shot down a long time ago there are no military ships bigger than some rowboats. Now Lady Kelvin probably has a ship and I bet there are several Pleasure Barges for the nobles. There will be several trading ships that use the river but they would not be the big three mast ocean ships. Have docks in Port Jolita but have the other side be mostly for tying up to the shore or pulling up on a beach.

Because of the fact that we won't have any of the really big sailing ships in town I think Pilon island would work just fine, have it lopped off at the top where the two spans join, it is still wide enough for ships to get through and that is one of th widest spots for crossing the river. There would of been shallows or a ferry or something at one time to cross there but they could of been next to pilon island instead of going across it.

Conaill · Mar 28, 2003

Knightfall, here's my updated proposal for the Citadel, keeping into account the layout of the bridges and the scale.

The central keep is about 200 feet, which is quite substantial for a medieval castle (compare with size of the city blocks!). Walls are not to scale. It may even have a smaller donjon inside of it. I also sketched in some additional buildings which could be administration (city council?), library, stables, blacksmith, garrison, etc. (they're probably drawn a little too large, compared to the city blocks...)

fusangite · Mar 29, 2003

Please vote in the Lady Kelvin poll I posted. I'm having real trouble with hammering out who she is. Also, please check out the history thread if you haven't had a chance.

Knightfall · Mar 29, 2003

Conaill said:
Pilon Island: That doesn't seem like a great place to put a bridge. A rock of that size would be more of a hindrance than a help in building the bridge. Ships would have to stay *well* away from it, so the highest point of the bridge would have to be in between Pilon Island and the Mainland (or Pilon Island and Citadel Island), giving us an esthetically unpleasing asymmetrical arch. Two high arches is possible, but then we'd get get a big height difference across Citadel Island to link up with Highbridge.

It might be clearer if you draw the bridge in place as well, including the arches (for ship passage) and road surface. Even better: do it "backwards": draw the bridge first, then figure out where the presence of such a rock in the river might be of help.

I did that image in photoshop using the mouse. It's not suppose to be to scale or show exactly how Pilon Island is suppose to look. And jdavis has the right idea. The top would be sheared off. (I didn't feel like trying that in PS with only my mouse.)

Here's Citadel Island revised with your proposed changes.

Conaill · Mar 29, 2003

Citadel: cool!

Am I correct in assumming that CD2 doesn't do curved walls? I'm not sure we should have that many towers along the outer wall (ditto for the walls along the West Passage)

Knightfall · Mar 29, 2003

Conaill said:
Citadel: cool!

Am I correct in assumming that CD2 doesn't do curved walls? I'm not sure we should have that many towers along the outer wall (ditto for the walls along the West Passage)

Ok, I thought about this and I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be structurally sound. I asked my sister, who has a degree in interior design (including architectural knowledge), and she concurs. Curved outer walls, for a fortress, wouldn't be structurally sound. A castle's walls, in my mind, should be straight ending in towers.

Oh and yes, CD2 does does curved lines (walls).

{EDIT}

NOTE: I am going to do some more research. I've still have the old TSR Castle Guide as a Word Document (which TSR/WotC gave away on the website for free, at one point).

Knightfall · Mar 29, 2003

The Citadel: New Design with curtain wall

Ok, here's a concentric design for The Citadel. It's based on this image to a degree. Of course, I'd like to follow that design more closely but this is a fantasy castle after all.

Opinions?

KF72

Knightfall · Mar 29, 2003

Here's a bird's eye view of a concentric design

This is Beaumaris Castle in Britian. (The concentric design I did for The citadel would be designed like this a lower curtain wall surrounding the full keep.

Knightfall · Mar 29, 2003

Another design possiblity

It's important to note that Mor's End is supposed to be a frontier city. Thus, the Citadel might be non-descript like this image of Skenfrith Castle (also from the same site: Castles of Britian.

Note that this castle has a single tower in the center of the courtyard with four simple stone towers. Of course, the castle is depicted as a ruin in the picture so it's hard to judge what the castle looked like exactly.

What I'd like to do is find a nice medium between this and the last image. Perhaps a simple keep square or rectangular keep with a simple concentric wall.

Opinions?

Lalato · Mar 29, 2003

I much prefer the Skenfrith castle to the other one. Skenfrith looks older... and of about the right period of time... maybe only looks older because it's in ruins... I don't know.

One other thing to remember is that the people that originally settled Mor's End were barbarians and possibly slaves. There might have been a slave or two with some architectural knowledge... and I'm sure they received help from dwarves. Still... I doubt they would build really grandiose things.

I only say this because it falls into line with my theory that the walls were often hastily built. There might even be curved walls that they tried out as an experiment (probably on the safer north side).

The city is on the edge of the civilization... These walls weren't built by the medieval equivalent of Frank Lloyd Wright... they weren't even built by his apprentice.

--sam

EN World City Project: Geography

jdavis

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Conaill

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fusangite

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Knightfall

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Conaill

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Knightfall

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Lalato

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