The Semi-random City Expiriment
Some people may remember my previous posts about ContextFree. I have found yet another way to have fun with it.
I was just messing around making pretty pictures when I realized that some of the pictures vaguely resembled city maps.
Full size here.
So I moved one (this one, in fact) to GIMP and edited it a bit. I cleared up the lines and added a lake in a logical place.
Full size here.
At this point, it made sense to just see what would happen if I took this to its logical conclusion and figured out everything about this city. Other than a map, I didn't have much of a starting point, so I also used this chart to add some more context.
I used categories 6-13. The results were:
General Aesthetic: Age of Exploration
Dominant Race: Divine
Primary Value: Truth
Economy: Weapons/Arms
Government: Theocracy
Philosophy: Natural Monotheism
Defining Feature: Trade Partner AND Hero/Heroine
Supernatural Elements: Rare, Strong
I'm not quite sure about the difference between natural and cosmic monotheism, but that's okay. I'm using this for a guideline anyway.
So, the preliminary world-building, based off of this information:
This city is part of a larger theocratic nation. The existence of divine ancestors is a large part of the national mythos, and generally assumed to be true by most of the citizens. The few people who have supernatural abilities are assumed to have them due to especially strong divinity in their bloodline. This gives them lots of societal advantages.
The nation at large is currently trying their hand at imperialism, largely justified (in their minds) by their mythos-based assumption of moral superiority. This puts them in conflict with many other nations, including some of their neighbors. This city in particular is the center of weapons manufacturing for those conflicts. They make weapons, --swords, muskets, explosives-- and ship them down the river. The river itself is regulated with a dam, which is what causes the lake; if it weren't dammed, the river would be too fast to navigate safely in the spring, and only a trickle of water in the fall and winter.
I also labelled several promising points on the map. I plan to make each one relevant somehow. (Number 8 is the previously mentioned dam.)
Full size here.
My current goal is have created some new information about this city each day. It can be as small as one of the streets or buildings, or some general information about the history/government.
Location 1 [Written on Day 3]: Location 1 on the map is the primary temple of the city. Although there are places of worship throughout the city (there have to be), this is the main one.
The building itself is very old, and considered an excellent example of 8th century architecture. (The nation is currently in its 11th century, as it measures time. They date back to the first documented emergence of supernatural abilities among humans.) It was designed by Bartolomeu sem Gama, a renowned architect of the time. This city was his birthplace, which it takes great pride in, and this temple in particular is considered to be one of the architectual marvels of the nation.
It is built out of carved blocks of marble. The blocks start off as black at the base of the temple; as they get higher they go through a series of grays, creating a gradient effect until it reaches a bright white.
Location 5
If anyone wants to join me in my gleeful city-making, I'll be happy to generate some maps for you. (I'm considering making the program generate water itself, rather than adding it afterwards, but I'm not sure.)
I need to stop finding new projects.
I was just messing around making pretty pictures when I realized that some of the pictures vaguely resembled city maps.
Full size here.
So I moved one (this one, in fact) to GIMP and edited it a bit. I cleared up the lines and added a lake in a logical place.
Full size here.
At this point, it made sense to just see what would happen if I took this to its logical conclusion and figured out everything about this city. Other than a map, I didn't have much of a starting point, so I also used this chart to add some more context.
I used categories 6-13. The results were:
General Aesthetic: Age of Exploration
Dominant Race: Divine
Primary Value: Truth
Economy: Weapons/Arms
Government: Theocracy
Philosophy: Natural Monotheism
Defining Feature: Trade Partner AND Hero/Heroine
Supernatural Elements: Rare, Strong
I'm not quite sure about the difference between natural and cosmic monotheism, but that's okay. I'm using this for a guideline anyway.
So, the preliminary world-building, based off of this information:
This city is part of a larger theocratic nation. The existence of divine ancestors is a large part of the national mythos, and generally assumed to be true by most of the citizens. The few people who have supernatural abilities are assumed to have them due to especially strong divinity in their bloodline. This gives them lots of societal advantages.
The nation at large is currently trying their hand at imperialism, largely justified (in their minds) by their mythos-based assumption of moral superiority. This puts them in conflict with many other nations, including some of their neighbors. This city in particular is the center of weapons manufacturing for those conflicts. They make weapons, --swords, muskets, explosives-- and ship them down the river. The river itself is regulated with a dam, which is what causes the lake; if it weren't dammed, the river would be too fast to navigate safely in the spring, and only a trickle of water in the fall and winter.
I also labelled several promising points on the map. I plan to make each one relevant somehow. (Number 8 is the previously mentioned dam.)
Full size here.
My current goal is have created some new information about this city each day. It can be as small as one of the streets or buildings, or some general information about the history/government.
Location 1 [Written on Day 3]: Location 1 on the map is the primary temple of the city. Although there are places of worship throughout the city (there have to be), this is the main one.
The building itself is very old, and considered an excellent example of 8th century architecture. (The nation is currently in its 11th century, as it measures time. They date back to the first documented emergence of supernatural abilities among humans.) It was designed by Bartolomeu sem Gama, a renowned architect of the time. This city was his birthplace, which it takes great pride in, and this temple in particular is considered to be one of the architectual marvels of the nation.
It is built out of carved blocks of marble. The blocks start off as black at the base of the temple; as they get higher they go through a series of grays, creating a gradient effect until it reaches a bright white.
Location 5
If anyone wants to join me in my gleeful city-making, I'll be happy to generate some maps for you. (I'm considering making the program generate water itself, rather than adding it afterwards, but I'm not sure.)
I need to stop finding new projects.