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City, Commercial Maps, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, Maps, OSR, River, RPG, Town, Urban, Waterfall
The settlement known as Jando’s Arch (Hejmarko in the local tongue, a contraction of “Home on the Arch”) presents one of the more memorable vistas of any city in the realm. Built on a stone arch jutting into the Egret Sea, the combination of the natural stone arch and the waterfall where the short-lived Feino River enters the Egret Sea present a sensory experience that few cities can compete with.
Hejmarko – Jando’s Arch
The biggest hindrance to the growth of Hejmarko is the very terrain that makes it so picturesque – the cliff faces make fishing a difficult endeavour, and the rocky terrain around the arch makes good crop-growing land a treasure in itself. The main dish of the Hejmarkans is lamb for the rich and mutton for the poor as their long-haired brown sheep work the scrub and short grasses of the area. Thus Hejmarko remains a small and very picturesque settlement with a few more inns than would be expected in a town of its size.
The main fortification at the tip of the arch is Jando’s Keep – an incomplete structure that was intended to have both an inner and outer bailey, but in the end is comprised of a single keep house and tower connected by a long hall. Protective fortifications at the edge of the settlement were deemed a higher priority than finishing the keep, and both the “Fall Keep” on the opposite side of the river and the city gates are better maintained than Jando’s Keep itself.
This map was drawn on a sheet of letter-sized paper with a pair of Sakura Micron pens – a 005 for most of the structures, roads and terrain, and a 03 for the terrain edge and fortifications. The sideview was sketched out quickly using a Sakura Micron 01 on the same page.
This map is made available to you under a free license for personal or commercial use thanks to the awesome supporters of my Patreon Campaign. Over 300 awesome patrons have come together to fund the site and these maps, making them free for your use.
Because of the incredible generosity of my patrons, I’m able to make this map free for commercial use also. Each month while funding is over the $300 mark, each map that achieves the $300+ funding level will be released under this free commercial license. You can use, reuse, remix and/or modify the maps that are being published under the commercial license on a royalty-free basis as long as they include attribution (“Cartography by Dyson Logos” or “Maps by Dyson Logos”). For those that want/need a Creative Commons license, it would look something like this:
Cartography by Dyson Logos is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Also, I need to apologize to my patrons at the $1 per map and up level – normally I post a monthly backstage pass of the upcoming maps for the month before posting the first map of the month, but I’m having some scanning issues so I expect the backstage pass (the last one of 2015!) will be out tomorrow or Thursday instead of today.
That’s a great map, I love the visuals! Have you given much thought to what would have prompted people to begin settling there? As you said, the terrain makes it unsuitable for fishing or farming. I wouldn’t want to mine into that arch either, so why did the first few people decide to live there?
Defense and beauty. The initial keep was a no-brainer – a place where some priest of storms who reached level 9 decided to build a fortress that would be memorable. Especially in the time leading up to the Great War, human settlements were often built in the hinterlands and areas between the ancient elven cities.
There were already sheep-herding settlements in the area (albeit much smaller, hamlets and thorps), so having a sturdy construction and defensive walls as well as a gorgeous view attracted a lot of the local herders and associated industries. Throw in a flour mill for the small amount of local rye and it starts to grow as much as it can without having good farmland around.
The most interesting and different fantasy city I’ve seen in a long time. You mentioned sheep as the major livestock type, so mountain goats would be another livestock type to add. I’d add an aviary and air cavalry barracks. Well, I say “aviary”, but it would be the stables for any mountable creature with wings, not necessarily giant eagles or rocs.
Gryphons, hippogriffs, any giant bird types, giant bats, winged lizards, pterodactyls, subdued dragons. Also kenku, aarocockra, or those silly winged elves from a first edition Dragon magazine article for allies.
Hrmmmm, the possibilities are just getting colorful.
Absolutely. If your fantasy setting includes flying bird mounts, they definitely belong in this city.
Amazing city. I can think of many things to do with that city.
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