While working on a map of Haldane for Iridia Zine, I started experimenting with various city mapping techniques. This is the first time I’ve tried mapping a city with all the buildings in it (well, at least since I was 15). The style owes to the old maps from Cities of Harn.

I’m pretty taken by the end result of this map. It’s not as functional as the city districts map I did for Cruar’s Cove, but it is a lot sexier.

The city itself is made up of four primary areas. On Esran’s Isle itself we have the fortified and walled original city. On the North Shore we have another walled city built up around the docks. Further to the North East is Melaran’s Citadel, a small castle built by the original founder’s great nephew when he was the Defender of Esran’s Isle. On the South Shore is an unwalled section of the city, built up around the newer docks there where the fishing fleets would set up outside of the city docks. There is a massive gatehouse defending the bridge from the South Shore to the Isle of Spring and then to fortress city of Esran’s Isle itself.

There are also some scattered farms around the city, a small woods to the North and another to the South West (where a small village has sprung up). Between the North Shore of the city and Melaran’s Citadel is an area of wetlands where Hypogriffs have been known to nest (they used to nest on the raised hill of the Citadel and the Isle of Spring, but now that those are both urbanized, the wetlands have been made to suit). The hypogriffs are considered a State treasure, and appear on the coat of arms of the city as well as most of it’s important families. When pairs do nest here, they are not harrassed, and instead often have older livestock sent into the wetlands by the locals (paid for by the city) for them to feed on.

You can click on the map below to see a higher resolution version.