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<blockquote data-quote="Amal Shukup" data-source="post: 2138235" data-attributes="member: 6291">Interesting.Major seaports share a number of defining characteristics (deep water sheltered by land, convenient trade winds/tides, access to 'upstream' transportation infrastructure like canals, rivers, rail termini etc.). The physical structure of ports are determined by these characteristics: dedicated right of ways for rail, shipping infrastructure, defensive emplacements etc. Part of your challenge is to determine the physical (magical?) characterstics required to be a good 'river of worlds' port and how the city would 'grow up' around that physicality (even if that physicality is radically different). Major ports are also a 'big deal' economically, militarily and politically, which drives the development of those infrastructures as well. Even artistically - think the Statue of Liberty, the Collosus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria... In terms of other cities, your transportation metaphor could be taken further: smaller towns often appear along rivers when the landscape changes - requiring locks to facilitate the moving of shipping up or down a rise; and drives the development of the required infrastructure, personel and opportunities for commerce. Another driver of development is access to resources: a town straddling a 'gateway' to a newly discovered source of Adamant might share some characteristics with old west boom towns. A gate located in an inhospitable waste might resemble the 'company towns' located near Northern Canadian oil fields - or even North Sea Oil platforms...A'Mal</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Amal Shukup, post: 2138235, member: 6291"] Interesting. Major seaports share a number of defining characteristics (deep water sheltered by land, convenient trade winds/tides, access to 'upstream' transportation infrastructure like canals, rivers, rail termini etc.). The physical structure of ports are determined by these characteristics: dedicated right of ways for rail, shipping infrastructure, defensive emplacements etc. Part of your challenge is to determine the physical (magical?) characterstics required to be a good 'river of worlds' port and how the city would 'grow up' around that physicality (even if that physicality is radically different). Major ports are also a 'big deal' economically, militarily and politically, which drives the development of those infrastructures as well. Even artistically - think the Statue of Liberty, the Collosus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria... In terms of other cities, your transportation metaphor could be taken further: smaller towns often appear along rivers when the landscape changes - requiring locks to facilitate the moving of shipping up or down a rise; and drives the development of the required infrastructure, personel and opportunities for commerce. Another driver of development is access to resources: a town straddling a 'gateway' to a newly discovered source of Adamant might share some characteristics with old west boom towns. A gate located in an inhospitable waste might resemble the 'company towns' located near Northern Canadian oil fields - or even North Sea Oil platforms... A'Mal [/QUOTE]

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