Blackwater/Eaux Noires City Map
This is the city of Blackwater/Eaux Noires (from the world of Bicolline) that appears at the top of the regional map of the eponymous province within Carcosa.
This is a late draft, with the district names and details still under revision (and will be updated with the final version when it's done). NOTE: The final version is seen here in sepia, this description is yet to be updated.
The city is drawn to appear not as a fantasy location, but as somewhere that might exist in our world. For research I looked at dozens of old city maps for similar sized cities, especially Constantinople, Venice, Medieval London, 18th Century London, Alexandria.
I determined the scale for the city based on unofficial role-play information for the game, which determined that the city was comparable to ancient Alexandria in population size (300,000 people at its peak).
I created an older culture for the city, who would have built edifices such as the Dark Tower and many buildings in the Government district, possibly also the canals. I also created waves of growth that can be seen by the double layers of city walls that start enclosing a smaller area but are upgraded over time as the city grew. There are also several satellite towns which would engage with the city economically, and an extensive farming district on the floodplain immediately south of the walls. Canals can connect river traders as far as the central market (the Grand Plaza).
Further upriver is another town built around the timber industry, which connects with the city via the main river.
The final draft. There is work still needed on some city location details, to be collaborated with other players. The land around the compass of the map is overlaid with the symbol of the Morningstar, the ship that my character owns in the game.
To create the city, I took the section of the larger regional map and divided it with rings of 4 and 8 km diameters. I reasoned that population spread would be limited to those ranges, which would connect so that the city covers the described vast area.
I patterned roads along the routes that I imagined population to grow, which largely followed the rivers and coast. Knowing the watercourses determined the elevation as well, which influences how close or far away from one other people live.
Once the proposed roads were mapped out, I ringed the central part of the settlement with a wall, and then a second wall to form a large citadel, to show the older areas. Then I rotated the image so that north is now at 1 o'clock.
I didn't plan to draw every building in the city but did locate buildings in the government district. The dot is a great tower that can be seen many miles away. To determine its scale I looked at ancient towers, especially the lighthouse of Alexandria.
I extended the walls and began the extensive canal network, connecting all of the city to the river and harbour and parts inland. Canals were chosen to lift the city from potential sprawling slum into an obvious marvel of architectural sophistication.
A change in palate and tone made the whole thing easier on the eyes.
An early test in sepia to see what pops out visually and what gets lost in greyscale. The tiny lozange/dot beside the docks in the main harbour represents a 50m long wooden ship, the map's only visual scale reference.
The regional map at increasing complexity. Many of the draft roads have been removed since they indicated settlement over a much larger sprawl than I think would be natural. The river lines have been reworked and there are docks and buildings.
The last image of the city taken after an intense 15 hour drawing session that determined the layout of 95% of the roads and buildings. After this, I needed a break for three days and it was almost physically painful to come back to. But I did!
Another sepia test, which showed that the canals needed to be a different colour otherwise they would be lost visually amongst the knotted matrix of roads.
A good example of how the city might have looked without canals.
I overlaid a fun set of textures on the map, and placed it beside the regional map to see if they would work together, and also to regain some context and perspective.
The layer of bridges. I haven't counted them (and added more after this shot was taken!).
A close-up view of the most populous parts of the city. Work is still needed on city location names (and a few other minute details changed around).