Author: MattMilby

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Palladio’s Rialto Bridge (Work-in-Progress)

I’ve got the deck of the bridge finished, but I’m going to draw a roof level as well, along with a sideview of the exterior, which looks like this. It shouldn’t take too long, but I wanted to give you a look at where things are at so far.

In addition to being a passage across Venice’s Grand Canal, this bridge was designed to be a market, with lots of spaces for merchants and vendors to rent. It also has stairs and I’m going to be honest– I have no idea where they lead to. Up, down? Not a clue. I spent about three hours trying to figure it out, but I finally gave up and decided they lead to the roof.

I mean, they can’t lead down into the pylons of the bridge, right? I’m not an engineer, but that seems crazy. Anyway, I think being able to access the roof makes this place much more interesting, especially since the central part isn’t covered. So the party can come by for a little shopping and enjoy a lovely rooftop ambush at the same time. Or maybe they can be the ones doing the rooftop ambush. Possibilities abound.

Anyway, I’m gonna get back to it.

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Cave of the Sun

The Cave of the Sun is another map for Tir Thelandira. It’s an oracle and holy site where the elves gather to seek guidance from their goddess. The cave takes its name from a hole in the roof of the cavern, through which light beams down onto the pool within.

I’ll draw more of Tir Thelandira next month, but right now there’s something I have to draw. It’s Italian– Venetian, to be specific– and it’s glorious. It’s not a real place, but it could have been a real place. Unfortunately, somebody screwed up. Let me explain.

In Venice, there’s a famous landmark called the Rialto Bridge. Before it was built, proposals by several architects were considered and the one they went with was this. And, I mean, it’s fine. I don’t hate it. The problem is that a guy named Andrea Palladio proposed this. And they passed on that.

Was it because the guy who made the winning proposal was named Antonio Da Ponte and his last name is literally the Italian word for bridge? Was there a bribe involved? I don’t know. Maybe no one knows. But I do know this: I am going to make a map of Andrea Palladio’s objectively superior bridge. And I’m going to do it right now.

I want to thank Masque for telling me about Andrea Palladio’s design for the Rialto. I might never have found out about it otherwise. Just to let everyone know, I’m always open to suggestions and I’ve drawn a few of them. So don’t hold back on me. There’s no such thing as too many ideas.

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Palazzo di Nettuno – Not-Quite-As-Serene Version

So, Palazzo di Nettuno means “Palace of Neptune” (or at least Google Translate says it does), although that name is a bit more fitting for the other version of the map. Whatever, it’s fine. This one can be a reference to the planet.

Next, I’ll be drawing another map from the island of Tir Thelandira. This will be a sacred cave of the elven druids. I picture it like this: a cavern with an opening in the roof, through which light pours in.  In the center lies a mossy pool surrounded by intricate knotwork engravings. This pool is used as an oracle by the druids, who gather here to seek advice from their goddess.

There may be a bit more to it, but that’s what I’ve got for now. If anyone has any ideas that might make it a bit more interesting, by all means let me know!

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Palazzo di Nettuno

I think Venice is the kind of place a fantasy writer would come up with. “It’s this city in a harbor, you know? Trade port, super rich. Really beautiful. And get this: the streets? They’re made of water.” It’d be a really cool concept if it weren’t for the fact that it actually exists.

Of course, not everyone has a fantasy version of Venice in their game world, but I think this could be used as a palace with a moat as well. And I’m going to make a dry land version, which I should have up by tomorrow. Someone suggested turning the boathouse into a stables, which sounds good to me. I’ll draw in a few bushes, a happy little tree, it’ll be great.

By the way, I’m not sure if this map is supposed to be in daytime or a brightly moonlit night. I just started coloring without really thinking about it and this is what happened. Anyway, if you figure it out, let me know.

Okay, I’m gonna go draw some grass on this thing. Be back with that soon!

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Dark Fantasy Venetian Palace (Work-in-Progress)

Since this is supposed to be a Venetian palace, it’s going to be on a canal, but I’m going to make a version that’s on land, too. The thing is, there’s a boathouse on the left side and I’m not sure what to do with that. I mean, I’ll get rid of the boats, obviously, but then it’s an Italian palace with a monster truck garage. Il Palazzo di Truckasaurus Rex. Well, I can probably just call it a carriage house.

All right, time to color this thing.

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Tir Thelandira (Updated)

Also: unlabeled version.

Here’s the updated map of the island. We’ve got a few dots on the map now and I decided to make it a little bigger, so I doubled the scale from 10 miles to 20.

I also made a page to collect all the Tir Thelandira maps as I draw them. There isn’t much there yet, but that was once true of the Black Loch and Brazenthrone as well. Every insane megaproject starts somewhere.

Of course, Tir Thelandira will be smaller, with about 10-12 locations, but there will be other, neighboring islands to follow and this whole thing will get wildly out of control before you or I know it. Are you looking forward to that? I certainly am. I’d love to be able to refer to Brazenthrone as “the kind of thing I worked on in the past, when I did smaller, more reasonable projects.” It’s a completely ludicrous thing to say, but I do intend to make it true.

Anyway, if you’re a patron, the DM notes for Oakenhold are up as well. You can find them here. Okay, that’s it for now!
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The Elven Tree Fortress of Oakenhold

After an absolutely enormous amount of work, the new and highly improved Oakenhold is finished. Moreover, I’ve written the history and lore of the island of Tir Thelandira. The TL;DR is this:

The elves of Tir Thelandira were nomadic tribes, but giant bears appeared and a lady killed them, unifying the tribes and becoming the queen. Then, humans showed up to mine gold, which was fine because the elves were pretty cool people. But the humans started logging the forest and the elves killed them all because they’re not actually all that cool. Later, the humans came back. People are probably going to die soon.

That’s the gist of it, anyway. I like settings where there isn’t a clear bad guy and I tried to write it that way. I mean, the Dhasrans did intrude on the elves’ land, but they weren’t there for conquest. They just wanted gold, which the elves didn’t really care about. And yeah, they shouldn’t have logged the elves’ forest, but the when the elves responded by going full-on North Sentinel Island on them, that may have been a slight overreaction.

There are a lot of angles to see things from and different kinds of adventures to run here depending on how you want to present the situation. Or you could just ignore my story and do something else entirely. That’s frequently the best option.

Anyway, I’ll have an updated map of Tir Thelandira for everybody tomorrow, as well as DM notes for Oakenhold for patrons. After that, I’ll be working on the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress. This will be a palace in a Venetian-style canal city, drawn in a gothic/dark fantasy style. Prepare your eyeliner.

So, what do you all think of the new Oakenhold? I certainly think it turned out better than the original version and I hope you agree (I mean, I really do. That’s not a high bar to jump over). Anyway, let me know what you think!

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The Elven Citadel of Oakenhold (Work-in-Progress)

Whew, okay. This is all seven floors of Oakenhold. I wasn’t initially planning to make it bigger than the original version, but, well… that happened.

First, let me say a quick word about beds. So, elves in D&D settings meditate rather than sleep and don’t need beds (not for sleeping, anyway). But I want this map to work for other races as well, so I’m drawing the beds in a way that they can be called “meditation mats” for elves or “beds” for other races. Hopefully, that works for most people, but I know it doesn’t for everyone, so I’m going to make a version without the beds as well. Just wanted to let everyone know that up front.

This map is a part of the island of Tir Thelandira and I’ve been thinking about the lore of the place as I’ve been drawing all this. The queen of the wild elves is a ranger and a famous huntress who unified the tribes of the island. Not many elven queens can kill, skin and butcher a deer, but Queen Niamh is a little different. She’s fierce, pragmatic and leads from the front. And when the Dhasrans built their colony on her island and began logging her forest, she fired the first arrow in response.

There’s still plenty more to figure out, but I’ll have the basic lore of the island for you when the map is done.

Okay, I’m gonna start coloring this beast. Wish me luck.

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The Green Eye Oasis

The Green Eye is a village and caravanserai built around a small oasis in a sinkhole. The place has everything a traveling merchant needs: camel parking, a room for the night, baths, a tavern and a provisioner. Oh, and water. Merchants need that to live. I mean, everybody does, but merchants do too.

I think this would be a really great place for a battle, especially if the party was inside the village while getting attacked by archers around the edges of the sinkhole. That’d create a really nasty situation, since the place is kind of… what’s the word? The opposite of defensible. It’s an easy place to attack. Making the party fight their way out of here could be an interesting challenge.

Next, I’ll be getting to work on the second map for Tir Thelandira. I’ve got a few different maps planned for the island, but I really want to draw Oakenhold next. Oakenhold is a giant tree fortress which serves as the wild elves’ capital. This will be the first time I’ve ever redrawn a map. If you want to get an idea of what it’ll look like, here’s the original. I’m fairly confident that the new version will be better than that. It certainly won’t be in black and white, anyway. I’ll also write some lore for Tir Thelandira to go along with it and I’ll make some more concrete plans for the rest of the island as well.

All right, hope that sounds good to you! Let me know what you think of the oasis!

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Desert Sinkhole Village (Work-in-Progress)

This is a desert village with a small oasis and a caravanserai, built into the sides of a sinkhole. The drawing on the top left shows it from the outside and the other two levels are below.

This place is inspired by the cave houses of Cappadocia in Türkiye (I like the new spelling, by the way), which are an idea I’d like to do more with at some point. For example, this is a castle in Cappadocia. I don’t know about you, but I would describe myself as highly into that. God, I have to stop looking at that picture or I’m going to just drop everything and draw a map of it right now.

Okay, one thing at a time. I’m gonna finish my coffee and start coloring this sinkhole. Let me know what you think so far!

I’ll be back for you, insane Turkish rock castle. This I swear.