Two level watercolor city map of Nesigurna

[WaterWitchRPG]

An unusual commission - a map for a two leveled fantasy city. It has quite an interesting history, you can find it on World Anvil if you are curious.

The top level is the rich district. I used different colored sections for military, merchants, entertainment, nobility, and magical university.


The bottom level is sort of catacombs of the poor district. The streets have a more confusing layout, and everything is the same color. An interesting part of this level is the waterways inside the city, which are used for transportation and are separated from the main river by canal locks.

[Adfor]

I'd love to see a WIP thread of your process.

Really cool idea, though I'm wracking my brain trying to imagine how a dual-layered city would work, especially with the one dock area on south-east that appears to be on river-level on both levels.

Regardless, take my rep, great work.

IR

[WaterWitchRPG]

Really cool idea, though I'm wracking my brain trying to imagine how a dual-layered city would work, especially with the one dock area on south-east that appears to be on river-level on both levels.IR

Oh yes, that was quite curious! Here is what the client had told me:

"The lower level is at ground level, a little above sea level. You're correct with the assumption that the upper level is close to skyscraper tops, yes. Most buildings on major roads span both layers and the main upper roads are suspended above the lower ones (which have the canals). The lower level is entirely covered by the upper layer. The majority of the docks are on the lower layer, with the exception of the Navy dock which serves ships so large they cannot fit beneath the layer division. The river should be present on both layers of the map, but the bridges are all on the upper layer - on the lower layer the canal locks should be visible in line with the ends of the bridges above."

And in case you are wondering why the roads on the outside of the city are visible only on the top layer, that is also an interesting idea of the city creator: "...the roads leading into the city are likely to be raised bridges given that the land beneath is floodplain, so they may only be visible on the upper layer map."

I really enjoyed the process of trying to wrap my mind around it! Never knew one day I'll be reading wikipedia about canal locks and lifts, but here we are, so cool

For the WIP thread, I will see if I have some good pictures that I could share if you'd like.

[Arimel]

Very neat and well orchastrated concept!