June 2021 Challenge: The Eshan Gate
It's been way too long since I last jumped in a Guild Challenge ! Not sure if it's reasonable to start this one as I'm having a terribly busy Summer, but this map needs to be done and there's something I need to learn while drawing it
The Eshan Gate is one of the magic wonders in my own fantasy world. I already mapped some parts of it here and there on the Guild, and of course, the amazing J.Edward mapped the whole continent for me here.
We're here in the realm of Ar'Thard, and most precisely in its capital, Danedir. Thard is the seat of a very specific magic based on the Darkness. Don't get me wrong : there's noting bleak, mean or dangerous here. Darkness often has a bad reputation for us, but it's not how it's considered in Thard. Darkness is only the lack of senses : without seeing, smelling, earing, in pure Darkness, you can sense the reality beyond the world, and touch the Gods' essense. Darkness is an old, old thardian philosophy, which became more over centuries, mostly thanks to a genius scholar named Eshkor. By learning things beyond the physical reality of the actual world, the Darkness priests, with Eshkor as a leader, discovered the geography is not exactly what you can think, and (among other things), they could use the Darkness rules to 'fold' the universe and connect two distant points. Don't push me to go in the details : Eshkor mathematics are a nightmare and I'm a map maker, not a mathematician. All what I know is if you pass through the Darkness veil of an Eshkor gate, you exit in a distant point. Enter in the ground floor, and exit in the highest room of the highest tower. Easy, and very useful ! Well... of course, there's painful rules : the biggest is the distance between the two gates, the taller the gates have to be. That's why you'll often find Eshkor gates within an unique building.
Thardians are well-known in Oneira for their architecture : the tallest, the most impressive, all done with their sacred black stone, the kahrok, which is the most solid and stable when it's about linking it to Magic or Darkness.
Now, to help you have the complete context, we'll have to talk about something which happened 9000 years ago, while the terrible War of the Keepers teared the world in two parts : the realm of Luvao, in North, and the realm of Thard, in South. Needing to federate his huge empire, Dar, King of Thard, who also was the disciple of Eshkor, proceeded to a magic miracle, catching the attention of everyone, instilling fear in his ennemies' heart. He basically... wrenched half of its capital to the ground, and made it fly in the sky, showing he was the most powerful king among all, etc. Yeah, yeah. Subtle.
Long story made short, Thard survived the war. We can't say it actually won it, but well, survived, with most of its lands, half of its people, and this damn flying city. Classy, but also... do you know what's annoying with a flying city ? Go to the market in the low city if your in the flying one. Or visit your old mother in the flying one when you're on the ground. Do you have your personal dragon ? I don't.
So. The new king asked the dear old Eshkor to solve this problem, and Eshkor created... this monster : the Eshan Gate (Isekën Eshan in old Thardian). The biggest, tallest Darkness gate ever. Remember ? The further is the destination, the taller is the Gate. It needed 8 years for the masonry, and 383 priests to create the Darkness veil, but the Eshan Gate now safely carries thardians from the low Danedir to the high Thardälm every day since the end of the War of the Keepers, and probably will continue until the end of times.
The upcoming map is new for me but an old one for Thard, drawn centuries ago, as you can see from the primitive perspective (and that is what I need to practice : imperfect things -_-).
Just a warning : the flying city on top is from an unreleased project I made a few years ago, but is just here for the sketch, I'll redraw it completely from a different angle probably, to fit the challenge rules ^^). As always, blue lines are the sketch and will be redrawn of course
Hope you'll enjoy !
### Latest WIP ###
