Category: Cities/Towns

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Brazenthrone – The Noble Quarter – Third Level

 

There will be one more floor to the Noble Quarter, which– I’m not going to lie– isn’t going to be super exciting unless your favorite part of these is the roofs. But it’ll only take a day or two and, afterwards, I’m finally going to put all of this together. All of Brazenthrone in one image. It’ll be way too big to serve any practical purpose, but I really want to see what that looks like.

What about after that? Well, I promised that once the core parts of Brazenthrone were done, we’d take on Mont-Saint-Michel. And we will.

Okay, here’s the non-annotated version. There are DM notes and a fully-annotated version of this map with all the rooms marked available to patrons.

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Brazenthrone – The Noble Quarter – Ground Level

Here’s the non-annotated version, just to get that out of the way.

The clanhalls are the family estates of Brazenthrone‘s high clans. High clans are basically the nobility of the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains. You can read more about them here, if you’re interested.

Clans are just extended families. Some clans only have a few members, while others have over a thousand. The clanhall is where the clan’s patriarch or matriarch lives with their immediate family. Some of these are grand manors, while a few are barely bigger than the average commoner’s home.

Regardless, the Noble Quarter is a pretty nice place to live. Unlike most of the city, it’s built in a large, beautiful, natural cavern. The waterfall on the north end makes the air a bit more humid than other parts of the city, allowing mushrooms to grow naturally on the ground.

Of course, it’s not all waterfalls and mushrooms. This was the epicenter of a major catastrophe not long ago. I’ll get into that in the DM notes and the next edition of History and Lore, both of which I’ll put out when the Noble Quarter is finished.

All right, next up is last month’s Cartographic Congress winner: a magical prison. Spellhold, Azkaban… something of that nature. Then we’re coming right back to Brazenthrone to knock out the rest of the Noble Quarter, which will be two more floors. Or maybe three. We’ll see.

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Brazenthrone – The Anvil Quarter- Second Level

 

With the second level done, the Anvil Quarter is now finished and Brazenthrone looks a lot less like The Dwarven City of 10,000 Desk Jobs. As I mentioned in the last post, the next Brazenthrone map is the Noble Quarter, which completes the core of the city (although there’s still a lot more to do). After that, I’m going to do something I’ve been waiting to do for a while: I’m connecting all the chambers of Brazenthrone and putting everything into a single image. Of course, I’ll have to shrink it way down to keep the file size from being absurdly huge, but I think it’ll be cool to step back and get a look at the whole thing.

So, I went to Spain earlier this month. And I learned a few things:

1)”España” is not Spanish for “Hot France.” I have it on very good authority.

2)Spain doesn’t know anything about October. Seriously, it was like 35°C (95°F). I don’t think October has even been invented there yet.

3)The Torre Del Oro is definitely going to be a map. Not soon, since there’s plenty of Great Vote maps to take care of first, but one day.

4)The Alhambra is unbelievable. It’s a giant castle with several palaces, a church, homes, workshops, gardens and about a billion fountains. These guys were really into fountains. Like, there are literally fountains surrounded by other, smaller fountains. Will this ever become a map? I don’t know. This place is absolutely enormous and it would easily be the biggest thing I’ve ever done aside from Brazenthrone. For now, let’s file it under “we’ll talk.”

5)Seville is kind of unreal. I’ve been to Spain before (I live in Ireland and Ryanair will fly you there for some loose change and a stale slice of leftover pizza). But before, I was in Barcelona. Barcelona is a great city with some impressive stuff, but… how do I put this? You can go to Barcelona and not realize that Spain was once the center of a massive empire that was swimming in gold. That is not the case with Seville. Seville slaps you in the face with that fact over and over again. In fact, I’m pretty sure the Plaza de España was built for that specific purpose.

Okay, here’s the non-annotated version. And, of course, there’s patron stuff for patrons. You know the drill.

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The Kothoa – The Dual Harbor of Carthage

 

The Carthaginian harbor is one of those things that has to have been imagined by a fantasy artist, except it wasn’t. It was real and this is, from what we know, what it looked like. On the left is the merchants’ harbor, built for trade, with a chain boom at the entrance that can be raised or lowered to block access. On the right, the war harbor, housing the mighty Carthaginian fleet. And in the center of the war harbor is the Admiralty Isle, a man-made island with more docking space, a naval shipyard and an observation room from which the fleet’s command can oversee everything.

The main departure from reality is the scale– the war harbor shown here has space for 34 ships, but the real harbor held around 220. Still, I think this gets the point across without the need for a map the size of a mattress.

Thanks to Anders, who proposed this idea to the Cartographic Congress. Some of my favorite CC maps are the ones where I started out thinking, “How the hell am I supposed to draw this?!” I definitely felt that way with this, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. Hopefully you like it too.

Next up is the second (and last) floor of Brazenthrone’s Anvil quarter. Then I’m going to do last month’s Cartographic Congress map, which will be inspired by the . Then I’m going to go straight into Brazenthrone’s Noble Quarter. I was thinking about trying to get one of the Great Vote maps done in between, but my thinking on that is this (and correct me if I’m mistaken): the Great Vote maps people are really champing at the bit for are the bigger ones, but I need to get the core of Brazenthrone (the Noble and Anvil Quarters) finished. Once I’ve got those two huge maps taken care of, I’ll be freed up to take on Mont-Saint-Michel, which, I suspect, is the map a lot of you are looking forward to the most. So, that’s the plan at the moment. We’re just gonna run past all the minions and rush down the big guys. Can I get a Leeroy Jenkins?

If you need it, here’s a version without the ships. There’s also an annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.
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Brazenthrone – The Anvil Quarter – Ground Level

 

The Anvil Quarter is Brazenthrone‘s center of industry. Here, dwarves can be found making things from steel, stone, gold, glass, ceramics and more.

One of the quarter’s more notable landmarks is the massive, communal Freehammer Forge, built to ensure that no dwarven smith is unable to practice his or her craft on account of being unable to afford a smithy of their own. Waterwheels power the Freehammer’s giant bellows, as well as two hammermills, a grinding mill and a rolling mill. The jewelers, smiths and engineers all have their guildhalls in the Anvil Quarter and the Royal Mint can be found here as well.

So, on Monday, I’m taking my first vacation since I started this. I’ll be going to Spain to attend a friend’s wedding on Monday and I’ll be gone for six days. That’s going to be pretty weird for me, since I’ve hardly even taken a day off in the last year and not drawing for six days seems like a totally alien concept right now. Luckily, my friends are getting married near the Alhambra and there is no version of reality in which I don’t take the chance to see that. It might end up becoming a map, who knows? I mean, not soon, but someday.

Next up is the harbor of Carthage, last month’s Cartographic Congress winner. I’m going to try to get it to you before I leave, but it’ll probably be pretty big, so I don’t want to make any promises.

And finally, this month’s Cartographic Congress has chosen Senator Williams’ proposal of a cathedral fortress. As it happens, I went to see a cathedral fortress several months ago and I was tossing around the idea of making a map inspired by it. Well, now it’s happening. If you’ve never heard of it, behold the .

Here’s the non-annotated version. There’s an expanded annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.

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Anchorage Isle

In honor of my wife’s birthday and the 1-year anniversary of the site, I’ve decided to give away everything for this map. All the patron content is free for everyone:

  • DM notes
  • VTT versions (includes Roll20 and FantasyGrounds sizes)
  • Print versions (in PDF)
  • You can download the 1-inch grid print version and a complete zip with everything in it from the patreon (they’re big files and patreon’s servers are much faster than mine).

Be sure to check out the DM notes if nothing else. There’s lore about the distillery, which makes the world’s most godawful hooch, the mysterious guy who lives in the manor house, and the island’s only tree. There’s also an idea for an adventure that’s inspired by a Clint Eastwood movie. Anyway, I hope it helps!

In the past, I normally haven’t done two really big maps in a row, but I’m starting to realize that’s coward talk. Next up is the most dwarven area of the dwarven city of Brazenthrone: the Anvil Quarter. Prepare your beard.

EDIT: I think this is my 72nd map. 72 in a year seems like a decent start.

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Brazenthrone – The Common Quarter – Third Level

Here’s the non-annotated version.

This is the final floor of Brazenthrone’s common quarter, capping off the local shopping center arcade market and the presumably-expensive apartments to the north. Speaking of which, I don’t add a compass to my maps, but if you ever want to know which direction a map is facing, there are always two possible answers. Choose the one that satisfies you the most:

  1. Whichever way is most convenient for you to use it in your setting.
  2. The top of the map is north.

Another thing I want to mention, which also applies to all my maps (aside from region maps): the scale is always 5 feet. I don’t always include a scale, but it’s the same for all of them. I’ve had people tell me they use certain maps at a 10′ scale (particularly Brazenthrone and Finbarr’s Marsh) because they like a little more room, which I can understand, especially if you have a big party and you need to fit 8 or 10 players into one place for a fight. But, since 5′ is pretty much the “standard” and because so many people have a strong preference for it, I won’t be drawing maps at any other scale.

Alright, next up is the Assassins’ Keep, chosen by last month’s Cartographic Congress. Then I’m thinking I’ll knock out one of the residential districts of Brazenthrone, which will give me time to take on one of the bigger maps chosen in the Great Vote.

There’s DM notes for this map, VTT versions and all the usual stuff available to patrons. The annotated version is the same.

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Brazenthrone – The Common Quarter – Second Level

Here’s the non-annotated version. Also, let me save you a google search: a luthier is a person who makes stringed musical instruments. Like lutes.

There will be one more level of Brazenthrone‘s Common Quarter, then it’s on to the next chamber. I originally planned for this to be three levels and it looks like I managed not to go crazy and make it into some 800-floor monstrosity. Which leaves me feeling strangely both proud of myself and disappointed. Hmm.

So, in news you don’t care about, I just bought new paper. AMAZING paper. If you’re someone who makes fantasy maps that are so large you need huge-sized graph paper, this is what you’re looking for: Rhodia. This one. I haven’t drawn a map on it yet, but I’ve tested my pens on it and it is GLORIOUS. We’ll see how much of a difference it makes in the end next time. Until then, back to work.

There’s an expanded annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.

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Brazenthrone – The Common Quarter – Ground Level

This is the first of three levels of Brazenthrone’s common quarter. This is the central hub of most of the city’s residential areas. The Amethyst Arcade in the lower right is a large arcade market with all kinds of shops and vendors’ stalls, built to keep the Quarter’s merchants in one place (and off the streets). There’s also a theater, a park, two fountains and a variety of bars for all your drinking needs.

There will be two more floors for this map, but it’s pretty big, so I’m going to do them separately. Next up will be the Airship of the Line, chosen by you in the Great Vote. After that, we’ll come back to the Common Quarter with the second (and maybe third) levels. Then it’s last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, the Library of Alexandria.

Here’s a version of this map without annotations. There’s an expanded annotated version of this map and DM notes available to patrons.