If you look at the top-center of this map, you’ll notice a large chair. That is the city’s titular Brazen Throne. It’s a large, tarnished hunk of brass that has been the Brasshand clan’s royal seat for several thousand years. In case you’re unaware, a lesser-used meaning of the word ‘brazen’ is “made of brass.” It didn’t get its name for being cheeky.
I’ll release the rest of the palace next, including the High King’s treasure vault, which is a gigantic, Scrooge McDuck-style landfill of money. I’ve been looking forward to drawing it and I hope you’ll dig it.
This is the first of four floors of the High King’s palace. This took a while longer than usual because I laid out all four levels before finishing this one. But with that out of the way, the next three should come pretty quickly. Look for the second floor in around three or four days.
Well, like (I suspect) a lot of you, I recently got off the emotional rollercoaster that was the last episode of Game of Thrones, and… I really need to lie down. Jesus.
No labels here. There’s an annotated version blah blah blah patreon.
This is the map chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress, based on the proposal by Senator Ross. It’s designed to be a haunted house with a number of secret chambers, although I can imagine a few other uses for it. The largest of the secret rooms in the cellar were left unfurnished to make the map more flexible, allowing different DMs to imagine different dark secrets inside.
Next up is Brazenthrone‘s High King’s Palace, then a guarded bridge. There’s an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons, if you’re interested.
Well, I’m off to go see an actual castle today: the Rock of Cashel. It may not be the largest castle, but it’s definitely a contender for Most Badass Name. It’s mostly unroofed, so let’s hope the weather doesn’t get too Irish. We’ll see.
I was going to explain all the things that aren’t accurate about this map, but it’d take forever and it doesn’t matter anyway, so let me just give you the short version:
Only the bottom and upper two floors of the keep were finished and the unfinished floors currently contain a gift shop and a cafeteria. Since I thought that might spoil the mood a bit, I took some liberties and drew in what was intended to be there: servants’ quarters, guest rooms and a “Moorish hall.”
The cellar is in the right place, but I couldn’t find a floor plan, so I made some stuff up. I was tempted to draw a dungeon, but there is no way there’s a dungeon in there.
Nothing about this map conveys the ludicrous degree of splendor in the finished parts of this castle. It really is jaw-dropping. Have a look.
Anyway, I hope you like it. There’s an annotated version of this map with 83 rooms numbered and labeled, as well as all the usual stuff, available to patrons.
This is the first map I’ve ever made of a real place. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who was known as “the Mad King.” He was born in the 1800s and was really into Middle Ages architecture, so he had this built as a sort of idealized fantasy castle. I’ll be honest, I can relate to this guy. Except I’m not the king of Bavaria and I can’t afford to build these things for real.
My understanding is that most of the rooms of this place are empty and I wasn’t able to find information on what a lot of them were actually meant to be, but since most people won’t be using this map as Actual Neuschwanstein Castle, I figured I’d come up things to fill them with.
Also, the cellar is completely made-up. There is a door there, which is visible in photos and the place does have a cellar, but I wasn’t able to find any information or floor plans to indicate what it looks like, so I just made it up. Everything else is drawn from various floor plans I found.
I’ll draw the rest of it next, but I thought I’d drop this off for now.
Here’s the final floor of the Great Hall, the Promontories. This is the area where the city’s wealthy commoner families live.
Here’s the non-annotated version. There’s also DM notes and a Patrons’ Edition of this map with all the rooms marked and labeled available on the patreon.
Last time, I said I’d be doing a map of something historical, based on the floor plans. If you guessed Neuschwanstein Castle, you are damn right it is.
This is the map selected by the Cartographic Congress last month: a large millers’ homestead with three watermills, a granary, workers’ cottages and a nearby inn. Feel free to attack it with the greenskins of your choice. Or whatever other purpose strikes you. What would I do with this map? I’m not sure, but I can tell you there would be a fight on that little island with the firepit, no question about that.
I have a slightly different version of the map here. The brightness is toned down just a bit. I couldn’t decide which one I liked better, so I just made both. If you play Ravenloft or you’re just super goth, that might be the one you want. It’s honestly not that different.
You know, it’s funny. When I started making maps, I told myself, “Waterfalls are cool and all, but I’m not going to overdo it. I’ll use waterfalls sparingly. I’m not gonna go crazy with it.” Now, here I am, six months and 48 maps later, drawing my first waterfalls. Well, that’s not entirely true, but they’re the first waterfalls bigger than half a centimeter.
Next up is The Promontories, the final floor of the Great Hall of Brazenthrone. Then, I’m going to draw something historical, based on some floor plans I found. I’m not going to tell you what, but I think it’s the coolest building in the world. Feel free to guess in the comments. I’ll tell you if you’re right.
An annotated version of this map and DM notes are available to supporters on the patreon.
I’ve been sitting here for a few minutes thinking about what to say here. Finally, I decided that I don’t really need to have anything to say about it. It’s the fourth floor. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot there. And you know what? The next floor is going to be even more boring. Nothing but roofs. But the floor after that will be pretty cool, so let’s take our medicine and wait for it to get good again.
The fifth floor will be up in two days. After that, the map chosen by the Cartographic Congress: a watermill homestead by the river. I don’t know exactly how long that’ll take, since I have some fairly grand plans for it and I do historically tend to go overboard on the Cartographic Congress maps.
Anyway, here’s the non-annotated version. And, as usual, there’s also a Patrons’ Edition of this map with all the rooms of the numbered buildings marked and labeled available on Das Patreon. There will be DM notes, too, once the Great Hall is finished.
Here’s an alternative to the typical ranger’s cabin. The rangers living here can look out over the forest like Medieval Hippie Batman and protect the land from orcs, monsters and illegal dumping.
Next up are the fourth and fifth levels of Brazenthrone. It’ll be quicker to do them both at the same time, since only three buildings have a fourth level and the fifth is just roofs. There will be a sixth level as well– the Promontories– but that’ll be more complicated, so I won’t include it this week.
There are DM notes and an annotated version of this map available to supporters on the patreon.
Higher and higher we go! There are three more levels left, but before that, I’ll be drawing a ranger outpost for you. Anyway, I’ve been drawing all day, I’m really tired, my wife has a bottle of rum and I could use a drink. So, until next time!
Here’s the non-annotated version. There’s also a Patrons’ Edition of this map with all the rooms of the numbered buildings marked and labeled available on Ye Olde Patreon.
