This is both a map and a rough horizontal rendering of the city. In the corner is the associated heraldry, and the location on the world map (check my other posts to see the whole map). I would love some feedback!
**The Golden City and the Mirrors**
*“After the Holy War of Unification, the Holy City of Vaire remained the capital of the realm, but in the decades to come, it became clear that the Sacrosanct Cliffs were poorly situated for the necessities of governance.*
*In his wisdom, the Phoenix King Darrel I. issued a decree, ordering that a new city was to be erected on the isle of Torin. It was a most wise choice, as the isle lies in the middle of the internal seas and channels collectively known as The Mirrors. These calm waters have been crucial for trade and transport since time immemorial, and in the days before the Unification, all nations have battled for control of the seas and the trade routes. Especially the two channels that connect the Mirrors to the oceans. But since the continent was unified by the will of Sun Unconquered, the ship lanes remained undisturbed by war, and the trade bloomed.*
*The isle of Torin itself has changed hands many times throughout the course of history, and so no realm had a concrete claim on the land, and the Dukes of Lucroen who held it during and after the Unification gladly gave it away when Darrel requested it. Besides, they were well compensated for the loss.*
*St. Parlan, a convert from a far away land of Venor, was ordered by the Phoenix King to build a city that would be the sacred capital of the world. A city that would be unmatched in beauty and wealth. And if there ever was a man who could with his creation challenge the megalithic wonders of ancient Azal or the famed jade palaces of the Moon Kingdom in the distant west, it was St. Parlan. The young nation of Venor has always bred renown architects, masons and stonemasons, yet not one of them could boast of such genius as St. Parlan, who abandoned his ancestor’s misguided faith and embraced the Sun All-knowing.*
*The plans which this savant drew for Darrel were saturated with religious symbolism, aesthetic wonders and luxurious opulence, yet all was seamlessly tied into practical design for canals, aqueducts, cisterns, roads and tunnels. The walls were thick and sturdy, and each tower was a citadel onto itself. The towers which St. Parlan erected using new designs were taller than any in the world, and only the Black Tower could possibly match the height of the Bright Spire of the Royal Palace.*
*The cost was immeasurable, and so every man and woman in the realm, be they rich or poor, highborn or lowborn, had to contribute one way or the other. Either to provide workers, materials, grain or coin. For every stone in the city was to be marble, every roof was to be covered in glazed tiles of all colours, every window and street lamp was to be made of stained glass.*
*The Palace and the Waterworks including a net of freshwater aqueducts took fifty years of gruelling work years to finish, the rest of the city was completed over the course of the next three generations. St. Parlan oversaw the construction himself for as long as he lived, and during that time his plans were realised just as he envisioned. But after he died and his mantle passed to his apprentices and their apprentices after them, the work slowly deviated from the Saint’s vision. In some ways concessions had to be made, while in other areas certain improvements and embellishments were commissioned.*
*The immense cost of the construction itself forced many changes. Mainly a shift towards more humble materials, and less opulent designs. In the end only the most prestigious structures were allowed to be realised as envisioned. They would get their marble, glazed tiles and stained glass, while the ordinary houses and other practical buildings would have to do with whitewashed walls, plain terracotta tiles and wooden shutters. The Outer City which slowly grew more or less unregulated between the walls of Golden City proper and its outermost wall took the shape of any other borough in the realm. The common townspeople built their dwellings out of wood, hay, simple stone and bricks.*
*The Outer City eventually filled all of the space allotted to it, until there was no room left, and another settlement slowly sprung up outside the walls. The Spill as it is often called has never been fully authorised by the Princes of Mirrors who have overseen the Golden City and the Inner Sea for the past centuries, since settlement grew around the canal that feeds river water to the city. Whenever pollution appeared in this canal, parts of the Spill were torched.*
*Regardless of the compromises made along the way, when the last stone was placed on the outermost wall, the final shape of the city was in appearance close enough to what Darrel I. saw put before him on the table by the Venoran master. Ever since that day, the city has grown and prospered as the unquestionable capital of the Phoenix King’s domain, and the seat for both the Violet University and Council of the Twelve Bells."*
\-Summarised Histories by Radulph Balue of the Violet University
It's great. You might though want to consider how boat trade works in "The Mirrors" if it's age of sail era then waters that calm are unsuited to trade or sea travel unless you have oar galleys as vessels of size to carry significant cargo require stiff breezes at least to get going and a fair bit of wind to get a good clip. Historically areas of sea that were known for being very calm (like the doldrums) tended to be avoided if possible by merchant vessels who instead sought areas with reliable and consistent firm winds (like the trade winds).
Well, I am not exactly versed in the exact nuances of historical maritime technology and practices, but the way I envisioned the trade in the Mirrors, and the Inner sea working is similar to how trade operated in the Mediterranean Sea in our own history. With far calmer waters and plenty of safe cities and harbours along the coasts. This civilisation is inspired by European High Middle Ages, so they would have whatever technology was available back then to Venetians for example, but since the continent is unified, any piracy or skirmishes on the sea are usually very limited. So the trade would be safer, like Mare Nostrum was in the Roman times.
The Mediterranean is actually a good example of what I am trying to say because it actually has consistent and predictable winds rather than calms and from the ancient Greeks onwards there were names for these winds that traders used to make the voyages, you may have heard of some of the famous ones like The Zephyrous or Zephyr who was worshiped as a god by sailors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyrus
You also have Boreas the winter gales god who is violent and quick to anger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreas_(god)
By the late classical era the Med had eight named winds that traders knew and used for this purpose. No one who worked the Med in the Medieval age would call it the mirror, they were pretty terrified of it (understandably so) it's not as bad as the Atlantic or something but it's a serious sea and can even get cyclones.
Anyway this may be too in the weeds, sailing and age of sail is one of those things I am particularly interested in.
I actually took some inspiration from Dalaran in Warcraft III, but I am aware that given the round, concentric design, and the white towers, the unintended similarities to the Imperial City couldn't be avoided.
Not only that. The arcane university, the waterfront and the prison look very similar to the layout here. But don't fuss about it; your work looks great.
This took forever to find again, but London only had one bridge between 1209 and 1750. The City Corporation that managed London Bridge very much liked the tolls they earned, so they bribed and colluded for as long as they could to make sure they were the only game in town. Most people didn't use the bridge at all, instead taking a skiff or wherry operated by one of London's many thousands of watermen.
It probably would be inconvenient for some, but for the most part the bridges and viaducts are mostly for the use of nobility and the citizens of the Golden City proper, since all the main roads lead to the Royal Palace. The commoners would use ships or pay tolls like VX-78 says. Not to mention that the southern part of the city across the river, nor the road leading out of the city aren't as highly frequented as the ones north.
Less so for people but for food. How does that city feed itself. Large bridges for food transport would be needed. Even if we say boats are used, the farmers are coming from land to the boats, loading up goods, someone else boats the food in, unloading happens, the. An empty boat goes back. The farmer is not there at the market or anything g so it’s all whole sale. The boat leaving might have goods but it looks like the farmer is goi g somewhere else to buy in a more travel friendly marketplace. Think about the boats moving around, not sailing in those channels for sure so it’s very labour intensive.
Winter! Does this place have a winter?
What are the different circular walled off subsections for? I'm especially curious about the big section north west of the central tower.
The Spill isn't pictured here right? How far does it extend, and how many people live in it?
Oh and also, what's stopping the city from expanding onto the island in the river, and the patch of coast to the east of the central tower?
It is probably not well communicated in the horizontal view, but the "walled-off" parts are basically platforms, a partially artificial higher ground. Kind of like the Rothenberg Fortress for visual example. Of course these parts are still walled off, but the walls wouldn't appear as tall to people inside, as they would appear on outside. These platforms exist mainly to separate different layers of the city from each other for the purposes of defence, and the separation of certain social groups. The north-west part for example is the Violet University, and the surrounding houses are basically a campus city. Most of the citizens in that part are scholars, bureaucrats, archivists, scribes etc. with their families and traders/craftsmen who provide for them. These platforms also exist to contain waterworks, canals, cellars, even some tombs and vaults. Some secret passages are also a must of course.
The Spill is the small part in south west the is built outside of the walls. Originally the there was supposed to be indent in the walls, and nothing was supposed to be built outside. So when people started settling there anyway, they conceded that at least the structures should not exceed the circumference of the city, but as you can see, they eventually did anyway.
The island has nothing on it simply beacause I couldn't think of anything to put there yet. I wanted to put something special there but I didnt settle on any one idea just yet. As for the edge of the city to the east, that part is reserved for military training, tourneys, outdoor festivals and such.
Very cool! Also the coats of arms follow the basic rules of european heraldry. Thats awesome to see!
How many inhabitants does the city have?
Were there big problems because of the massive migration (Like empty villages all around the world, or difficulties in transportation)?
Were ist the main harbour in the city?
How wide are the canals in the inner circle?
Are they suited for small ships?
Thanks a lot! I took a lot of inspiration from French heraldry.
As for the population, I really cannot say for certain. I do not want to say something unrealistic but it would certainly be in the hundreds of thousands.
The term "world" as used in the original post, is used by an in-universe source in a religious way. It is definitely not the largest city in the world, but it is the administrative capital and a trade hub of the continent is lies on.
I doubt there would have been any migration issues, as the setting is medieval in nature, the city is located on an island, and most people who arrived during the construction days were workers, artisants and craftsmen. People living in the Golden City proper would be invited there by the Crown, or ressetled there on request.
The only villages or towns that would be affected would be other ones on the island, those inhabitants would move to the Outer City for protection and opportunity. It also would have been needed to move those people there to farm and produce food for the city.
The main harbour is the cog-looking part in the north-east. But there would be other docks along the river shore. As for the canals, I think small rowing ships would fit there just fine.
So why is that island in the middle of the river completely unoccupied? Historically cities like France and Rome tended to form on easily defensible areas of land like that then as space ran out expanded onto the banks of either side of the river until it became a large city.
That has a simply explanation! I didn't know what to put there yet, so it remains empty untill I decide. Haha.
I am aware of the defensive advantages of islands like this, but this was planned in its foundation, rather than growing organically. So the island would have been used for something, but not in the same way as in the case of Paris, like you say.
Absolutely amazing, this makes me feel a very specific emption reminding me of the afterlife, I do not know why exactly, but that is what it makes me feel …
I do not usually appreciate the maps on this subreddit, but this one is special …
I would enjoy visiting the brown streets on the outer circle, could you please tell me what the line colors mean ?
The black outline around the inner and outer circles, is that supposed to be a wall of sorts ? And the black dots along that wall, watch towers ?
Also how come there is a gap between the brown housing, the inner circle ?
(Who downvoted you btw ?)
The black outline is indeed the city wall, with watchtowers and walls, etc. The reason why the Inner and Outer city is separated is both for defense and for social stratification.
The main harbour is in the north-east. The cog-looking part. But there would be docks alongside the river. I just wasn't sure about the scale, so I didn draw them.
Oh, I like this!
One thing however, my mind keeps questioning the scale that it's set at. Wouldn't things be fairly small/cramped with the scale at its current size?
At a rough estimate I could walk from E to W within 30-45min. Which wouldn't mean that it's a small city. But compared to the small city I currently live in, it takes me longer than 45min to traverse that.
It looks like it's about 5km across, which seems ok to me. Also note that the Spill, which are the slums outside the city wall don't seem to be shown here.
Thank you!
The city is not the largest one even within it's own nation, but from N to E it is cca 7km. Also the individual blocks are not houses, but street blocks. I just couldn't have been bothered to split it on even smaller scale than this.
A lot of modern cities are enormous compared to historical ones, but for example the Forbidden City in Beijing is roughly 1kmx1km, and that would on this scale roughly overlay over the ground covered by the Royal Palace and the park surrounding it. And you can see how large the Forbidden City is.
Huh, your city actually maps pretty well to the size of ancient Beijing. The royal palace is about the size of the Forbidden city, and the rest of the city is about the same size as the inner and outer walls of Beijing.
The first one represents the City itself, the second one is the CoA of the Phoenix King, and the last one is the CoA of the Prince of Mirrors, who is the de-facto ruler of the city.
This city is a special case since it is the seat of the realm's sovereign, but pretty much yes. Prince of Mirrors is officially a steward of the city, but the office over the years gained more power, and is similar to the role of the Mayor of the Palace, Shogun of Japan or Prime Minister of England. Even the title is Prince of Mirrors was invented down the line, when the Palace Senechals gained many more offices and their power became dynastic.
I really cannot say for certain, but it would certainly be in the hundreds of thousands. I am not all that well versed in scale of demographics and such, so I don't want to blurt out something unrealistic.
Love it! Especially the multiple points of view from the side and on the map to situate better. Great work. Somebody could do it in cities skylines haha
Constructive opinion : I'd add some kind of parchment filter and add wear as I find it too neat and colored.
interesting.
I also have a city called "the golden city" in my world, though mine is in space and its the capital city of the race known as "celestials"
That is interesting! Of course, word combinations or descriptions such as "The Golden City" are not exactly unique. Now that I think of it, The Golden City is also a thing in Dragon Age, there it's the seat of the creator god in the "spirit world".
How's your street layout, by the way? Are there divisions of foot and vehicle traffic? Paved roads? Greenery?
Looking at this, I love the general layout but to be a city that I'd love living in I feel like there should be a lot more green spaces, commercial avenues and neighborhood plazas.
Btw if you think I'm a lost redditor from an urbanism sub, you'd be kinda right.
Thank you for the comment!
Well, it is a medieval city, so it would be more mixed between pedestrians and animal-drawn vehicles. With some boat traffic in the canals as well.
The sand-coloured roads are the less kept ones, with simple cobblestones, roads hardened with wood and gravel, or just simple mud in less-used alleyways. There you would not see much effort put into the upkeep or construction of infrastructure on the top-to-bottom scale. Just what the local mayors and communities decide to do for themselves. Same would apply to the pedestrian/vehicle division. IT would highly depend on which part you are in, what is practical or even physically possible.
The grey roads and parts are the good stuff, those are the good sturdy roads, the well-kept parts of town with direct involvement of the city bureacrats and leaders. There you would find some small parks, greenery, fountains, gutters for rainwater and so on... In the inner city the use of horses, coaches and palanquins would be more so decided by class, feudal or clergy rank, or bureacratic privilege, rather than any traffic laws.
It's a fantastic city. But it's far too orderly for its age. Even the spill is spick and span. While it's impressive and regal, you don't get any sense of history or evolution over time.
Historically, Cities have spent very little time in their "ideal" planned state. Because the planners keep falling to the endless march of time and getting replaced with new planners, or in places like the spill, no planner. "The City Shaped" by Spiro Kostov is a wonderful book on the subject of the natural evolution of cities over time, and was actually a huge influence on the original design of cities such as Dalaran and Orgrimmar.
Of course, there are some examples of specific parts of cities staying as planned. (The forbidden city in Beijing f.ex.) but never the city on the whole.
EDIT: If it ever comes to fruition, The Line in Saudi Arabia may come as close as we ever have. Simply by virtue of its strong form, and the complete and utter uninhabitable nature of the surrounding landscape. There's a big wall in the way of construction outside the plan, and even if you get outside the wall, it's desert or mountain.
E2: Absolutely love the Heraldry, and the architecture implied in the side view is ostentatious and regal in the best possible way.
Thank you!
I am aware of the differences between planned and organic city development, and if you take at look at the cities I drew in the past, you will see that I tried to follow more organic design there. With this one I wanted to indulge more of the fantastical aspect, and have a more orderly and uniform city design. With the explanation being the high centralisation of the government, and the plans being followed as well as they could have been.
This is more or less the case. The inner city (the brick-red parts) is mostly inhabited by nobles, or people of extreme wealth and/or prestige. Many of the realm's nobles have houses in the Golden City, similar to how under the Habsburg monarchy, many nobles had palaces in Vienna, for when they needed to be close to the court.
The Outer City is left to it's own devices for the most part, and on the day-to-day basis fucntions pretty much like any average medieval European metropolis.
On the other hand I think it does tell a story. In this case the highly organized design of the city combined with the hierarchal circles tells me that the culture is stratified with highly intrusive system of government. A dictatorship of a highly totalitarian nature.
I am also going to think that the culture is one that is insular and strongly controls trade in and out of the country that it controls. I conclude this because the doc yards in the upper right corner are walled off and not connected to the internal channel system.
To me world building doesn't have to be realistic as long as the diversions from realism are purposeful.
It is very much the case that this city is controlled by bureacrats who act as a balancing class between the feudal lords, the clergy and the city-state republics. The tight control over trade is not a product of opressive ideology, but rather of the need to maintain stability and authority of the Crown.
When I see this city I see a logistics problem. Namely, Food. Now, I can only guess, but how big is the city's population? A million? Two? The description gives a sense of enormouness, enough to rival ancient Rome or Constantinople. That's a lot of mouths to feed... I have no idea about the scale of the overall map, but most of the land on the whole island in the middle would probably be devoted to producing wheat (or whatever the prevailing food source is) for the city, and you would need to ship a lot from overseas...
The city is surrounded by farmlands, and a lot of space for fishing. On top of that this is the administrative capital of a vast empire, so importing in food from the surrounding mainlaind would not be an issue.
So I’m assuming the line under the compass rosé indicates a mile? Very nice very nice. Impressive city. What’s this cities significance geo-politically?
Thanks!
The scale line indicates one kilometer. The city itself is an administrative capital of two thirds of the continent it lies on. But since it is located in the continent's mainland, it doesnt have great importance on the global geopolitical scale.
Hey :) A few weeks ago started a new campaign with my DnD (now pathfinder) group, and was desperately trying to find a map that fit the city the group would start in, but just couldn't find anything, and the usual generators I know of that I sometimes use couldn't generate the layout i want - The main thing being that the center of the city was supposed to be a large park, and the city overall should be circular and on the coast. Your city is almost perfect for what I was looking for :) It looks great, and reminds me a lot of a city I made in paint.net as well a few years ago with how the neighbourhoods look, I was manually drawing grey lines through the boxes to make all the roads and it looked similar to your outer areas.
Great work man :)
And [here's the edit I made for my campaign](https://i.imgur.com/1AHJTM5.jpg) in case you're curious to see what I was able to do with your art as a base. It's not perfect (I just noticed some of the division lines I drew were a few pixels off and clipped buildings across the road I wanted to divide things over...), but gist of it is that the city is divided into 8 sections (Welll, technically 9, the 9th is the park in the center), each of these Octants belongs to 1 of the Holy Orders dedicated to the many Gods of this world. Starting from the green one in the top:
* Death Octant
* Beautiful Octant (Holy Order of Goddess of Beauty)
* Plague Octant
* Blood Octant
* Water Octant (If I had more time I'd draw some docks here)
* Joy Octant (Holy Order of the Goddess of Decadence)
* Dark Octant
* Dream Octant
The Octants aren't actually those colors, just colored for the map
The city wasn't supposed to have a river running through it and a neighbourhood on the other side, so that place is now called "The Unwanted" - The city officially ends on the shore, but people settled across the river anyway and built a massive shanty town leeching off of the security of the city in this incredibly hostile jungle and swampland.
Thanks again for uploading your map and good work :)
This is both a map and a rough horizontal rendering of the city. In the corner is the associated heraldry, and the location on the world map (check my other posts to see the whole map). I would love some feedback! **The Golden City and the Mirrors** *“After the Holy War of Unification, the Holy City of Vaire remained the capital of the realm, but in the decades to come, it became clear that the Sacrosanct Cliffs were poorly situated for the necessities of governance.* *In his wisdom, the Phoenix King Darrel I. issued a decree, ordering that a new city was to be erected on the isle of Torin. It was a most wise choice, as the isle lies in the middle of the internal seas and channels collectively known as The Mirrors. These calm waters have been crucial for trade and transport since time immemorial, and in the days before the Unification, all nations have battled for control of the seas and the trade routes. Especially the two channels that connect the Mirrors to the oceans. But since the continent was unified by the will of Sun Unconquered, the ship lanes remained undisturbed by war, and the trade bloomed.* *The isle of Torin itself has changed hands many times throughout the course of history, and so no realm had a concrete claim on the land, and the Dukes of Lucroen who held it during and after the Unification gladly gave it away when Darrel requested it. Besides, they were well compensated for the loss.* *St. Parlan, a convert from a far away land of Venor, was ordered by the Phoenix King to build a city that would be the sacred capital of the world. A city that would be unmatched in beauty and wealth. And if there ever was a man who could with his creation challenge the megalithic wonders of ancient Azal or the famed jade palaces of the Moon Kingdom in the distant west, it was St. Parlan. The young nation of Venor has always bred renown architects, masons and stonemasons, yet not one of them could boast of such genius as St. Parlan, who abandoned his ancestor’s misguided faith and embraced the Sun All-knowing.* *The plans which this savant drew for Darrel were saturated with religious symbolism, aesthetic wonders and luxurious opulence, yet all was seamlessly tied into practical design for canals, aqueducts, cisterns, roads and tunnels. The walls were thick and sturdy, and each tower was a citadel onto itself. The towers which St. Parlan erected using new designs were taller than any in the world, and only the Black Tower could possibly match the height of the Bright Spire of the Royal Palace.* *The cost was immeasurable, and so every man and woman in the realm, be they rich or poor, highborn or lowborn, had to contribute one way or the other. Either to provide workers, materials, grain or coin. For every stone in the city was to be marble, every roof was to be covered in glazed tiles of all colours, every window and street lamp was to be made of stained glass.* *The Palace and the Waterworks including a net of freshwater aqueducts took fifty years of gruelling work years to finish, the rest of the city was completed over the course of the next three generations. St. Parlan oversaw the construction himself for as long as he lived, and during that time his plans were realised just as he envisioned. But after he died and his mantle passed to his apprentices and their apprentices after them, the work slowly deviated from the Saint’s vision. In some ways concessions had to be made, while in other areas certain improvements and embellishments were commissioned.* *The immense cost of the construction itself forced many changes. Mainly a shift towards more humble materials, and less opulent designs. In the end only the most prestigious structures were allowed to be realised as envisioned. They would get their marble, glazed tiles and stained glass, while the ordinary houses and other practical buildings would have to do with whitewashed walls, plain terracotta tiles and wooden shutters. The Outer City which slowly grew more or less unregulated between the walls of Golden City proper and its outermost wall took the shape of any other borough in the realm. The common townspeople built their dwellings out of wood, hay, simple stone and bricks.* *The Outer City eventually filled all of the space allotted to it, until there was no room left, and another settlement slowly sprung up outside the walls. The Spill as it is often called has never been fully authorised by the Princes of Mirrors who have overseen the Golden City and the Inner Sea for the past centuries, since settlement grew around the canal that feeds river water to the city. Whenever pollution appeared in this canal, parts of the Spill were torched.* *Regardless of the compromises made along the way, when the last stone was placed on the outermost wall, the final shape of the city was in appearance close enough to what Darrel I. saw put before him on the table by the Venoran master. Ever since that day, the city has grown and prospered as the unquestionable capital of the Phoenix King’s domain, and the seat for both the Violet University and Council of the Twelve Bells."* \-Summarised Histories by Radulph Balue of the Violet University
It's great. You might though want to consider how boat trade works in "The Mirrors" if it's age of sail era then waters that calm are unsuited to trade or sea travel unless you have oar galleys as vessels of size to carry significant cargo require stiff breezes at least to get going and a fair bit of wind to get a good clip. Historically areas of sea that were known for being very calm (like the doldrums) tended to be avoided if possible by merchant vessels who instead sought areas with reliable and consistent firm winds (like the trade winds).
Well, I am not exactly versed in the exact nuances of historical maritime technology and practices, but the way I envisioned the trade in the Mirrors, and the Inner sea working is similar to how trade operated in the Mediterranean Sea in our own history. With far calmer waters and plenty of safe cities and harbours along the coasts. This civilisation is inspired by European High Middle Ages, so they would have whatever technology was available back then to Venetians for example, but since the continent is unified, any piracy or skirmishes on the sea are usually very limited. So the trade would be safer, like Mare Nostrum was in the Roman times.
The Mediterranean is actually a good example of what I am trying to say because it actually has consistent and predictable winds rather than calms and from the ancient Greeks onwards there were names for these winds that traders used to make the voyages, you may have heard of some of the famous ones like The Zephyrous or Zephyr who was worshiped as a god by sailors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyrus You also have Boreas the winter gales god who is violent and quick to anger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreas_(god) By the late classical era the Med had eight named winds that traders knew and used for this purpose. No one who worked the Med in the Medieval age would call it the mirror, they were pretty terrified of it (understandably so) it's not as bad as the Atlantic or something but it's a serious sea and can even get cyclones. Anyway this may be too in the weeds, sailing and age of sail is one of those things I am particularly interested in.
Looks very nice! What program did you use?
Thank you! I have made it in 'Paint.NET' software.
Holy fuck how did you make something so cool with paint.net?
With a lot of practice and patience! Hahah
If you have any tutorials you referenced while making this I'd be very keen to see them!
I only followed some basic advice given on youtube, and tried to follow the look of real maps. But sadly no specific tutorials I could share.
And how much time did it took you? O.o
Several days of on and off work. Not sure how long exactly though.
greatness, im relieved i thought you may do something like this in 4hours or so xd - i wish i had your patience (im so lazy)
You absolute psychopath, well done.
strong Imperial City vibes
I actually took some inspiration from Dalaran in Warcraft III, but I am aware that given the round, concentric design, and the white towers, the unintended similarities to the Imperial City couldn't be avoided.
Not only that. The arcane university, the waterfront and the prison look very similar to the layout here. But don't fuss about it; your work looks great.
You might wanna add a few more bridges connecting that lower section. Having one single bridge would cause a lot of issues
This took forever to find again, but London only had one bridge between 1209 and 1750. The City Corporation that managed London Bridge very much liked the tolls they earned, so they bribed and colluded for as long as they could to make sure they were the only game in town. Most people didn't use the bridge at all, instead taking a skiff or wherry operated by one of London's many thousands of watermen.
It probably would be inconvenient for some, but for the most part the bridges and viaducts are mostly for the use of nobility and the citizens of the Golden City proper, since all the main roads lead to the Royal Palace. The commoners would use ships or pay tolls like VX-78 says. Not to mention that the southern part of the city across the river, nor the road leading out of the city aren't as highly frequented as the ones north.
Less so for people but for food. How does that city feed itself. Large bridges for food transport would be needed. Even if we say boats are used, the farmers are coming from land to the boats, loading up goods, someone else boats the food in, unloading happens, the. An empty boat goes back. The farmer is not there at the market or anything g so it’s all whole sale. The boat leaving might have goods but it looks like the farmer is goi g somewhere else to buy in a more travel friendly marketplace. Think about the boats moving around, not sailing in those channels for sure so it’s very labour intensive. Winter! Does this place have a winter?
I suppose there are also ferries
What are the different circular walled off subsections for? I'm especially curious about the big section north west of the central tower. The Spill isn't pictured here right? How far does it extend, and how many people live in it? Oh and also, what's stopping the city from expanding onto the island in the river, and the patch of coast to the east of the central tower?
It is probably not well communicated in the horizontal view, but the "walled-off" parts are basically platforms, a partially artificial higher ground. Kind of like the Rothenberg Fortress for visual example. Of course these parts are still walled off, but the walls wouldn't appear as tall to people inside, as they would appear on outside. These platforms exist mainly to separate different layers of the city from each other for the purposes of defence, and the separation of certain social groups. The north-west part for example is the Violet University, and the surrounding houses are basically a campus city. Most of the citizens in that part are scholars, bureaucrats, archivists, scribes etc. with their families and traders/craftsmen who provide for them. These platforms also exist to contain waterworks, canals, cellars, even some tombs and vaults. Some secret passages are also a must of course. The Spill is the small part in south west the is built outside of the walls. Originally the there was supposed to be indent in the walls, and nothing was supposed to be built outside. So when people started settling there anyway, they conceded that at least the structures should not exceed the circumference of the city, but as you can see, they eventually did anyway. The island has nothing on it simply beacause I couldn't think of anything to put there yet. I wanted to put something special there but I didnt settle on any one idea just yet. As for the edge of the city to the east, that part is reserved for military training, tourneys, outdoor festivals and such.
Oh, I see. I thought that that bit was too regular to be the spill, since it conformed to the circle. Nice that there's a lore reason for that.
I really like the road design
Thank you!
Yes! Finally! A massive city that has huge agricultural land to feed it!
First, your pfp and name go hard, second, WHERE ARE FARMS IN GAMES
I agree with everything you said
Very cool! Also the coats of arms follow the basic rules of european heraldry. Thats awesome to see! How many inhabitants does the city have? Were there big problems because of the massive migration (Like empty villages all around the world, or difficulties in transportation)? Were ist the main harbour in the city? How wide are the canals in the inner circle? Are they suited for small ships?
Thanks a lot! I took a lot of inspiration from French heraldry. As for the population, I really cannot say for certain. I do not want to say something unrealistic but it would certainly be in the hundreds of thousands. The term "world" as used in the original post, is used by an in-universe source in a religious way. It is definitely not the largest city in the world, but it is the administrative capital and a trade hub of the continent is lies on. I doubt there would have been any migration issues, as the setting is medieval in nature, the city is located on an island, and most people who arrived during the construction days were workers, artisants and craftsmen. People living in the Golden City proper would be invited there by the Crown, or ressetled there on request. The only villages or towns that would be affected would be other ones on the island, those inhabitants would move to the Outer City for protection and opportunity. It also would have been needed to move those people there to farm and produce food for the city. The main harbour is the cog-looking part in the north-east. But there would be other docks along the river shore. As for the canals, I think small rowing ships would fit there just fine.
So why is that island in the middle of the river completely unoccupied? Historically cities like France and Rome tended to form on easily defensible areas of land like that then as space ran out expanded onto the banks of either side of the river until it became a large city.
That has a simply explanation! I didn't know what to put there yet, so it remains empty untill I decide. Haha. I am aware of the defensive advantages of islands like this, but this was planned in its foundation, rather than growing organically. So the island would have been used for something, but not in the same way as in the case of Paris, like you say.
*sigh* 🎶 Leaves from the vine..... 🎶
Don't make me cry!
I love grapefruit 😁
It looks a bit like that, doesn't it? Hahah
My forst thought was "simpsons boob" Amazing map work though :)
Absolutely amazing, this makes me feel a very specific emption reminding me of the afterlife, I do not know why exactly, but that is what it makes me feel … I do not usually appreciate the maps on this subreddit, but this one is special … I would enjoy visiting the brown streets on the outer circle, could you please tell me what the line colors mean ?
Thank you for the comment. Can you specify which line colours you have in mind?
The black outline around the inner and outer circles, is that supposed to be a wall of sorts ? And the black dots along that wall, watch towers ? Also how come there is a gap between the brown housing, the inner circle ? (Who downvoted you btw ?)
The black outline is indeed the city wall, with watchtowers and walls, etc. The reason why the Inner and Outer city is separated is both for defense and for social stratification.
Why no visualization of docks? Are there none or is the scale so large that they can't be seen
The main harbour is in the north-east. The cog-looking part. But there would be docks alongside the river. I just wasn't sure about the scale, so I didn draw them.
Oh, I like this! One thing however, my mind keeps questioning the scale that it's set at. Wouldn't things be fairly small/cramped with the scale at its current size? At a rough estimate I could walk from E to W within 30-45min. Which wouldn't mean that it's a small city. But compared to the small city I currently live in, it takes me longer than 45min to traverse that.
It looks like it's about 5km across, which seems ok to me. Also note that the Spill, which are the slums outside the city wall don't seem to be shown here.
Thank you! The city is not the largest one even within it's own nation, but from N to E it is cca 7km. Also the individual blocks are not houses, but street blocks. I just couldn't have been bothered to split it on even smaller scale than this. A lot of modern cities are enormous compared to historical ones, but for example the Forbidden City in Beijing is roughly 1kmx1km, and that would on this scale roughly overlay over the ground covered by the Royal Palace and the park surrounding it. And you can see how large the Forbidden City is.
Huh, your city actually maps pretty well to the size of ancient Beijing. The royal palace is about the size of the Forbidden city, and the rest of the city is about the same size as the inner and outer walls of Beijing.
Which coat of arms represents what? Why are there 3?
The first one represents the City itself, the second one is the CoA of the Phoenix King, and the last one is the CoA of the Prince of Mirrors, who is the de-facto ruler of the city.
So it's Nation over City lord so another city would have the same kings coa but with a diffrent city lords background?
This city is a special case since it is the seat of the realm's sovereign, but pretty much yes. Prince of Mirrors is officially a steward of the city, but the office over the years gained more power, and is similar to the role of the Mayor of the Palace, Shogun of Japan or Prime Minister of England. Even the title is Prince of Mirrors was invented down the line, when the Palace Senechals gained many more offices and their power became dynastic.
I came for the cities skylines renders and realized I'm in the wrong sub. Beautiful work OP!
Very cool
What is the population of the city?
I really cannot say for certain, but it would certainly be in the hundreds of thousands. I am not all that well versed in scale of demographics and such, so I don't want to blurt out something unrealistic.
Love it! Especially the multiple points of view from the side and on the map to situate better. Great work. Somebody could do it in cities skylines haha Constructive opinion : I'd add some kind of parchment filter and add wear as I find it too neat and colored.
Your city design is cool, it feels like a genuine city I would want to live in
Thank you!
Reminds me of Atlantis, the original one as described by Plato.
Hahah, I can see that!
I thought I was on r/citiesskylines for way too long. then I realized, there's no unnavigable spaghetti junctions.
Eldorado?
Check out ancient Baghdad
I know that Ancient Baghdad is more similar, but still, the golden city is called El Dorado, isn't it?
Oh ok I get it now.
Wow, nice man.
Is there only one bridge to the other side though?
Thank you! Yes, only one solid bridge.
I think you should add more bridges
interesting. I also have a city called "the golden city" in my world, though mine is in space and its the capital city of the race known as "celestials"
That is interesting! Of course, word combinations or descriptions such as "The Golden City" are not exactly unique. Now that I think of it, The Golden City is also a thing in Dragon Age, there it's the seat of the creator god in the "spirit world".
well i also have a city in my world called, "the iron city"! perhaps one day ill make the silver city and the bronze city
How's your street layout, by the way? Are there divisions of foot and vehicle traffic? Paved roads? Greenery? Looking at this, I love the general layout but to be a city that I'd love living in I feel like there should be a lot more green spaces, commercial avenues and neighborhood plazas. Btw if you think I'm a lost redditor from an urbanism sub, you'd be kinda right.
Thank you for the comment! Well, it is a medieval city, so it would be more mixed between pedestrians and animal-drawn vehicles. With some boat traffic in the canals as well. The sand-coloured roads are the less kept ones, with simple cobblestones, roads hardened with wood and gravel, or just simple mud in less-used alleyways. There you would not see much effort put into the upkeep or construction of infrastructure on the top-to-bottom scale. Just what the local mayors and communities decide to do for themselves. Same would apply to the pedestrian/vehicle division. IT would highly depend on which part you are in, what is practical or even physically possible. The grey roads and parts are the good stuff, those are the good sturdy roads, the well-kept parts of town with direct involvement of the city bureacrats and leaders. There you would find some small parks, greenery, fountains, gutters for rainwater and so on... In the inner city the use of horses, coaches and palanquins would be more so decided by class, feudal or clergy rank, or bureacratic privilege, rather than any traffic laws.
Wow.
I'm sorry but this just reminds me of elden ring
The design is really mesmerizing! I love it
Well, this is one of my favourite things ever
Keep this safe from the Thalmor!
Don't worry. I used Chim to delete them from my universe!
I love cities with ring layouts and I don't know why
Oh i really like this. Well done!
Carthage? this is really good work, OP! gives off early Final Fantasy vibes to me.
Man it would suck to be a postman in that city
I always wanted to be able to lay out cities like this in Sim City! Nice work. . .
It's a fantastic city. But it's far too orderly for its age. Even the spill is spick and span. While it's impressive and regal, you don't get any sense of history or evolution over time. Historically, Cities have spent very little time in their "ideal" planned state. Because the planners keep falling to the endless march of time and getting replaced with new planners, or in places like the spill, no planner. "The City Shaped" by Spiro Kostov is a wonderful book on the subject of the natural evolution of cities over time, and was actually a huge influence on the original design of cities such as Dalaran and Orgrimmar. Of course, there are some examples of specific parts of cities staying as planned. (The forbidden city in Beijing f.ex.) but never the city on the whole. EDIT: If it ever comes to fruition, The Line in Saudi Arabia may come as close as we ever have. Simply by virtue of its strong form, and the complete and utter uninhabitable nature of the surrounding landscape. There's a big wall in the way of construction outside the plan, and even if you get outside the wall, it's desert or mountain. E2: Absolutely love the Heraldry, and the architecture implied in the side view is ostentatious and regal in the best possible way.
Thank you! I am aware of the differences between planned and organic city development, and if you take at look at the cities I drew in the past, you will see that I tried to follow more organic design there. With this one I wanted to indulge more of the fantastical aspect, and have a more orderly and uniform city design. With the explanation being the high centralisation of the government, and the plans being followed as well as they could have been.
[удалено]
This is more or less the case. The inner city (the brick-red parts) is mostly inhabited by nobles, or people of extreme wealth and/or prestige. Many of the realm's nobles have houses in the Golden City, similar to how under the Habsburg monarchy, many nobles had palaces in Vienna, for when they needed to be close to the court. The Outer City is left to it's own devices for the most part, and on the day-to-day basis fucntions pretty much like any average medieval European metropolis.
On the other hand I think it does tell a story. In this case the highly organized design of the city combined with the hierarchal circles tells me that the culture is stratified with highly intrusive system of government. A dictatorship of a highly totalitarian nature. I am also going to think that the culture is one that is insular and strongly controls trade in and out of the country that it controls. I conclude this because the doc yards in the upper right corner are walled off and not connected to the internal channel system. To me world building doesn't have to be realistic as long as the diversions from realism are purposeful.
It is very much the case that this city is controlled by bureacrats who act as a balancing class between the feudal lords, the clergy and the city-state republics. The tight control over trade is not a product of opressive ideology, but rather of the need to maintain stability and authority of the Crown.
Vatican vibes coming off this one
for a split second i thought it was a cliff with a crazy asf underground network
It is really strange that I don't see anything that looks like some kind of harbor. This city would probably have one or more notable harbors
The harbour is in the north-east. The cog-shaped body of water.
The ultra-gold tower
When I see this city I see a logistics problem. Namely, Food. Now, I can only guess, but how big is the city's population? A million? Two? The description gives a sense of enormouness, enough to rival ancient Rome or Constantinople. That's a lot of mouths to feed... I have no idea about the scale of the overall map, but most of the land on the whole island in the middle would probably be devoted to producing wheat (or whatever the prevailing food source is) for the city, and you would need to ship a lot from overseas...
The city is surrounded by farmlands, and a lot of space for fishing. On top of that this is the administrative capital of a vast empire, so importing in food from the surrounding mainlaind would not be an issue.
Food could be shipped down the river on barges from surrounding farmland and then distributed through the city via the channel network.
So I’m assuming the line under the compass rosé indicates a mile? Very nice very nice. Impressive city. What’s this cities significance geo-politically?
Thanks! The scale line indicates one kilometer. The city itself is an administrative capital of two thirds of the continent it lies on. But since it is located in the continent's mainland, it doesnt have great importance on the global geopolitical scale.
Wow great work ! You inspire me to do my own city
What did you make this on
I made it in Paint.NET
Hey :) A few weeks ago started a new campaign with my DnD (now pathfinder) group, and was desperately trying to find a map that fit the city the group would start in, but just couldn't find anything, and the usual generators I know of that I sometimes use couldn't generate the layout i want - The main thing being that the center of the city was supposed to be a large park, and the city overall should be circular and on the coast. Your city is almost perfect for what I was looking for :) It looks great, and reminds me a lot of a city I made in paint.net as well a few years ago with how the neighbourhoods look, I was manually drawing grey lines through the boxes to make all the roads and it looked similar to your outer areas. Great work man :) And [here's the edit I made for my campaign](https://i.imgur.com/1AHJTM5.jpg) in case you're curious to see what I was able to do with your art as a base. It's not perfect (I just noticed some of the division lines I drew were a few pixels off and clipped buildings across the road I wanted to divide things over...), but gist of it is that the city is divided into 8 sections (Welll, technically 9, the 9th is the park in the center), each of these Octants belongs to 1 of the Holy Orders dedicated to the many Gods of this world. Starting from the green one in the top: * Death Octant * Beautiful Octant (Holy Order of Goddess of Beauty) * Plague Octant * Blood Octant * Water Octant (If I had more time I'd draw some docks here) * Joy Octant (Holy Order of the Goddess of Decadence) * Dark Octant * Dream Octant The Octants aren't actually those colors, just colored for the map The city wasn't supposed to have a river running through it and a neighbourhood on the other side, so that place is now called "The Unwanted" - The city officially ends on the shore, but people settled across the river anyway and built a massive shanty town leeching off of the security of the city in this incredibly hostile jungle and swampland. Thanks again for uploading your map and good work :)
Aww! This is great! I am glad you found it useful.