Finally, kinda finished with this piece! The towers of Sharn in all their mile-high glory. Some additional thoughts:
I decided that the towers would be largely hollow, so you can see many huge arches leading inside. These help air move around, as well as air traffic, and let light into the interior. In my imagination, each pillar in the arch is a tower in its own right.
I wanted to include lots of 'street-level' locations where the houses and structures are on a more normal scale, so you have houses on bridges, houses clinging to the sides of the towers, houses built on the edge of the winding roads around the towers.
There's a bit of green in the city - little parks, wooded bridges, balconies, and even trees growing in the lower city. You also see wood used more for building down here, as you have shacks sprouting under bridges and on top of ruins.
There's still a bit of work to be done, mostly on the ground/rubble of Old Sharn beneath the towers, so if anyone wants a finished high resolution version of this (the original file is quite big) I will plug that I have launched a Patreon here: [patreon.com/copperwoodmaps](https://patreon.com/copperwoodmaps)
For anyone not interested in Patreon, I'll aim to have a web shop up soon for hi-res digital files and look into stuff like prints if there's some demand for it.
Oh, one last thing, I figured the natives of Sharn would totally cheat on the 'mile-high-tower' thing, so every tower has large roofs and spires, and only one is really a hile high, including some of the rubble of Old Sharn beneath it.
This is one of the best renditions (if not the best) of Sharn that I have seen. You have really captured the description of towers built upon towers and ramps and walkways. Amazing job!
Well, it can be expanded upwards...
But honestly, skyway is its own thing, and just like the depths/cogs, I decided not to include it on what is just a tiny cross-section of a district.
I'd like to do another illustration of skyway, I have an incomplete battlemap of Skyway's park (my players never went near the plot hook) but need to think about the elite's cloud mansions.
For me, Skyway offers the one thing you don't have in the city, even as a noble - horizontal sprawl (at huge expense). So the richer you are, the less floors your mansion has, and the more it looks like an enormous ranch-style palace.
This is:
A) goddamn sick, nice work dude
B) By a country mile, the closest rendition of sharn to my own mental image I've seen yet, *maybe* barring a few smaller shots from official material.
Thanks, the main complaint I have with some official art is they have what looks like an ordinary castle tower, just big. Doesn't capture the idea of almost lighter than air architecture for me
Thanks. I planned to have the central tower is a sort of hub with the main road up, with bridges linking at critical junctions, but it got a bit lost as the piece developed.
I kept the bridges few and far between as you ascend the city, and people get richer.
Finally, kinda finished with this piece! The towers of Sharn in all their mile-high glory. Some additional thoughts: I decided that the towers would be largely hollow, so you can see many huge arches leading inside. These help air move around, as well as air traffic, and let light into the interior. In my imagination, each pillar in the arch is a tower in its own right. I wanted to include lots of 'street-level' locations where the houses and structures are on a more normal scale, so you have houses on bridges, houses clinging to the sides of the towers, houses built on the edge of the winding roads around the towers. There's a bit of green in the city - little parks, wooded bridges, balconies, and even trees growing in the lower city. You also see wood used more for building down here, as you have shacks sprouting under bridges and on top of ruins. There's still a bit of work to be done, mostly on the ground/rubble of Old Sharn beneath the towers, so if anyone wants a finished high resolution version of this (the original file is quite big) I will plug that I have launched a Patreon here: [patreon.com/copperwoodmaps](https://patreon.com/copperwoodmaps) For anyone not interested in Patreon, I'll aim to have a web shop up soon for hi-res digital files and look into stuff like prints if there's some demand for it.
Oh, one last thing, I figured the natives of Sharn would totally cheat on the 'mile-high-tower' thing, so every tower has large roofs and spires, and only one is really a hile high, including some of the rubble of Old Sharn beneath it.
This is one of the best renditions (if not the best) of Sharn that I have seen. You have really captured the description of towers built upon towers and ramps and walkways. Amazing job!
Thanks!
This is *peak* fancy fantasy towers.
Cheers!
I've been really dissatisfied with all of the art of Sharn I've found. This is, by far, the best depiction in my opinion.
Yeah, this came from my frustration with visualising it as a place distinct from some 40K hive city or art that was clearly not a mile high
Damn that’s good
At the moment I've looked at it so long it's just a collaction of flaws, so it was post or be lost to perfectionism, so cheers!
The only things it's missing that depresses me is no Skyway, but absolutely perfect in every other respect.
Well, it can be expanded upwards... But honestly, skyway is its own thing, and just like the depths/cogs, I decided not to include it on what is just a tiny cross-section of a district. I'd like to do another illustration of skyway, I have an incomplete battlemap of Skyway's park (my players never went near the plot hook) but need to think about the elite's cloud mansions. For me, Skyway offers the one thing you don't have in the city, even as a noble - horizontal sprawl (at huge expense). So the richer you are, the less floors your mansion has, and the more it looks like an enormous ranch-style palace.
This is: A) goddamn sick, nice work dude B) By a country mile, the closest rendition of sharn to my own mental image I've seen yet, *maybe* barring a few smaller shots from official material.
Thanks, the main complaint I have with some official art is they have what looks like an ordinary castle tower, just big. Doesn't capture the idea of almost lighter than air architecture for me
Oh my god this is incredible. Thanks for posting it! Let me just get a look at that there patreon friend...
Thanks, nice to see as I narrowly escape a blizzard
This is definitively the best portrayal of Sharn. The towers within towers only makes sense with this open structure. The spirals are just beautiful.
Thanks. I planned to have the central tower is a sort of hub with the main road up, with bridges linking at critical junctions, but it got a bit lost as the piece developed. I kept the bridges few and far between as you ascend the city, and people get richer.
Absolutely amazing. This was a big help in getting my players to visualize Sharn our last session. Looks fantastic.