A rough rendition

So here’s the rough rendition of the city I put together last night. Here is some descriptive text:

City is oval. Temple compound’s back is on the mountains, as is much of the city’s western wall. The rest of the city is circled by a fifteen foot wall built of large, hand-hewn stones. The wall is four feet thick. Men patrol the top of the wall. The North gate is the main gate used by merchants, the South gate is mostly used by travelers, but they don’t really matter. The East entrance faces the bay on which Lemalihah is situated. Each entrance has two long soldier barracks right in front of it. Soldiers’ families live in the blocks nearest the barracks.

A large river flows into the mountains on the west of the city. The river has been tapped and multiple canals are built into the city- these are designated by the lines that go from the east end of the city through to the west. These act as sources of fresh water. There are multiple small bridges over many parts of the canals, mostly made of wood. Some underground canals exist as well, which act as sewers. Residents are severely punished if they contaminate the fresh water. There is a wide canal in Victor Plaza and large main canal in the temple compound. Some fish inhabit the fresh water: troutlike, codlike, mostly basslike. All with teeth.

The ovals in the city are essentially huge city blocks. Buildings tend to be two to three stories, with one family per level and exterior and interior ladders. Extended families take up all three levels. The houses are often so close that a ladder can be slung across roofs, and in some cases, a person can jump from one to another. Each city block has about 2-3000 people living in it. The blocks in the southwest are called the flovils. These are where abjectly poor people live. Usually 5-6000 people per block, depending on the size of the block.

There are seemingly random series of alleys between the buildings on each block, but each block is clearly delineated by a road. There are large intersections, which tend to serve as local bazaars and market places. Inns and bars tend to be at the intersections and are more dense on the edges facing Victor Plaza.

The city has more than 100,000 people living in it.

Trade ships find port on the east side of the city. The wharfs are not going to be much explored in this story, although Lakhoni will see them a little. They are very, very busy.

The temple compound walls are forty feet high, with the top level of the compound over sixty feet high. You must pass through guard stations at the compound entrance to come and go from the compound. Servants have tattoos on the inside of their left wrist. Banished or ex-servants have scar tissue where the tattoo has been burned over. Soldiers who belong in the compound have a certain pale blue stone in their shoulder harness.

There are four towers: northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast. These are sixty+ feet high.

There is a walkway around much of the top of the city’s wall, accessed by stairs which are indicated by the zigzag lines near gates. The wall ends two to three hundred feet from each side of the compound. The city is about 1.5 miles long and 1 mile across. Soldiers constantly patrol the top of the city walls. They make a game of running fast across the more narrow parts of the walls.

Industries include seafood, especially exotic stuff; building maintenance and extensions; weaving; steel working and weapon making; fabrication of fine jewelry from the precious metals and gems found in the nearby mountains; clothes making; cheese making; and basic agriculture.

Good times, no.