Vulantis - Vulcanate Imperium (The Forged Empire)

[NoneTheWiser]

Here is the map that snagged me my first Silver Compass Award:



I had been developing a collection of 3D map assets using SketchUp in my spare time for almost 2 years before I unleashed them on this two-month-long Lite Challenge map. I also experimented with various color schemes involving paper textures and Photoshop layer effects in order to hopefully find a balanced look between hand-drawn and computer-generated art styles. I plan to make several more maps using these techniques in the near future.

Part of the Lite Challenge was to create a solid backstory for a city of our own design. I tried to imagine what sort of origin story someone like Julius Caesar would come up with to explain the founding of Rome if he wanted to cast himself in the role of a founding father. So my origin story for Vulantis is based loosely on a part of Julius Caesar's own biography when he was briefly kidnapped by pirates:

[QED42]

Great map and a worthy challenge winner.

[Ilanthar]

Great map, and congratulations for the win!