Here are the Pilae Stacks using an outer glow instead of a wall shadow. As with the shadow, the stronger glow is just on the lowest of the three tiles in the stack -- putting it on all of them was just too strong. I set up enough sheets to have ten tiles stacked up for each, but it didn't really gain enough after the third tile to make the effort worthwhile.

Okay, I experimented by moving a few of the houses built with the Random Streets tool to a new "BUILDINGS - RANDOM STREETS" sheet. I was able to give these houses greater transparency than the buildings symbols to make them more similar. I also added a COLORIZE effect to make them a little grayer. But this threw off the look of the huts I tested with in the lower left corner that were also built with the Random Streets tool, so I moved those ones to a "BUILDINGS - RANDOM STREETS 2" sheet with a tan colorize effect.

The map is small enough that it's not too difficult to simply replace the random buildings with symbols, but it's an educational exercise to see if I can address it with special effects.

Here's how it turned out, starting with the full map and zooming in. Most of the test houses are in the block directly southwest of the circle part of the canal, with a few others elsewhere to see what they'd look like when the houses were on different terrain.

(Not sure why one of the huts turned browner than the others.)

I forgot that I wanted to have the feast happen at night. Just used the Solid 60 transparency rather than fussing with lighting effects. Went back and forth on whether the reflection from the stained glass windows should be above or below the trees. I guess it depends on how high the room is. Maybe it's on the second floor?

I've been experimenting with three different approaches for adding cliff shadows.

1. Wall Shadow on the sheets with Cliff Symbols: This is the most straightforward approach. However, the shadows render on both sides of the cliff, below it but also above. This can be mitigated by drawing in a terrain mask over the shadow above the cliff on a sheet that is lower in the list than the cliff symbols. In some cases, though, that terrain mask ended up covering up other things. I would have had to do a lot of reordering sheets, which I would have done if this was the nicest-looking approach, but there were other options.
2. Draw in Shadows: This approach is similar to how the shadows on the cliff/riverbanks in Forest Trails are done. There were two ways I could do it: have the shadow layer behind the cliffs, or in front. If they were behind, it covers up any messiness in drawing the shadow, but it also means that the rubble at the base of the cliffs built into the cliff symbols end up "popping" out of the shadow. I could draw it on top of the cliffs but that would require careful work so it's not too messy.
3. Wall Shadow on a Clifftop Terrain. This is the approach used with City Cliffs. That would still require either using a terrain mask, or having the terrain go all the way off the top part of the map, which would require putting those terrain sheets early in the rendering, with the cliffs themselves towards the end. But then I got the idea of trying a SOLID 10 fill instead of grass. Loved it! The Wall Shadow works on the terrain the same way whether it's a grassy fill or the SOLID 10. And the Wall Shadow still worked the same when I made the SOLID 10 only 5% opaque. But I ended up liking it without the transparency, because it made the valley seem more mysterious the higher you go in the mountains.

So here's a screengrab of the types of sheets I set up for each level of the cliffs going higher into the mountains:

There are Clouds sheets but I haven't started to experiment with Alyssa Faden's clouds yet.

Here's a screen grab of what it looks like in CC3, with all of the SOLID 10 layers running off the screen:

And here's how that looks as a JPG export:

The shadows off the cliffs are 35 map units. I could make them longer if you think that's better.

Okay, here it is again with the cliffs back in their original sheet order. I moved it because I wanted buildings to be potentially covered by a higher cliff's shadow -- but we saw above how some of those buildings end up being partially covered by the cliffs if they are too close. I thought about replacing the cliffs that have rubble with the plain ones, so that the houses can be closer without touching the cliff symbols. But in the end, I'm not so sure it's that noticeable that the buildings aren't in shadow.

Here it is with the SOLID 10 terrain.

And here it is with a SOLID 20, so that it's darker and more mysterious higher in the mountain. Not so sure, though -- might be a little too dark.

Also, there's a bit of an Easter Egg hidden in there.

Level 12

The Temple of Fah is also a repository for a great number of religious and government documents. Many of them are mundane and boring: records of flood patterns and agricultural yields, of famine and other disasters. Vital records for the population: records of live births, marriages, and deaths. Historical accounts of the pharaohs and their accomplishments, and of great wars and battles. Bestiaries, zoological treatises, and other studies of the natural world. Transcriptions of religious documents. Every official government and religious document is stored in the temple, along with a great many other written works.

On Level 12, the senior scribes have private offices to do their work and manage the work of junior scribes in the levels below.

Level 11

On this level, there are six libraries, each equipped with rows of bookcases and numerous desks for junior scribes to maintain records and transcriptions.

Level 10

Level 10 has three shrines to different gods of the pantheon. These shrines may be visited by the pharaohs, top nobles, and senior government officials, but not the general public.

Level 9

Level 9 has two shrines to different gods, and a small room for priests to get ready. Most of the level, however, is occupied by the top third of a massive circular room dedicated to semi-private religious ceremonies such as coronations and royal weddings. At the cardinal points of that chamber, this level has 10-foot wide balconies (with railings) to look down upon the religious practices below.

Level 8

This level has five shrines to the gods. Although the great religious hall described above cuts through this level, there is no access to it from Level 8.

Level 7

This is the main level that non-priests are allowed to enter. It has four entrances from the first landing of the ziggurat (where, outside, there are also four more entrances that descend to Level 6). The central chamber is the 28-foot-high chapel where coronations, royal weddings, state funerals, and other religious ceremonies for the powerful elite are held. Three connected chambers are shrines to the three-part triplet god, with a fourth unconnected shrine dedicated to their mother, the feline-faced cat goddess. Two other chambers are used for the priests to dress or prepare for religious services, or for elite guests like the pharaoh to wait in privacy.

From here we can descend to the tombs in the lowest third of the temple.

A few months ago, I posted the Temple of Fah, a ziggurat I created to play with the CA209 Stairs and Steps annual. At long last, I have finally designed the interior.

I know this map is ridiculous. Egyptian pyramids only had a handful of rooms for the tombs of a pharaoh and their treasure. Sumerian ziggurats also only had a handful of interior chambers. But I decided to go whole hog and create a sprawling interior complex reminiscent of the classic dungeon crawls I first experienced with D&D in the early 80s. (My first introduction to the game was December of 1979.)

Here’s a side view of the exterior to give you a sense of the entrances:

There are two landings before reaching the very top of the ziggurat. The first is on level 7, standing on the roof of level 6, and the second is on level 13, on the roof of level 12. The entrances on each landing are to the left and right of the exterior stairs continuing up. The 10 feet wide doors are designed to be concealed for aesthetic purposes, blending in with the side of the ziggurat when shut, but they aren’t exactly hidden or secret.

The landings divide the ziggurat into three sections. The top-most section is primarily used by priests and religious leaders. The middle section has chapels and shrines that the royal family, wealthy nobles, and elite government workers are invited to for private religious celebrations, including weddings and coronations. The general public is never invited inside. Instead, religious leaders stand on the first landing of the temple to lead the masses gathered before the temple in their religious ceremonies. The lowest section contains the tombs of great pharaohs and powerful religious leaders.

I decided to design the interior rooms and passageways using the color key knockout effect that @amerigoV describes in this thread. The walls are granite from the CA149 Beaumaris Castle annual. Most of the other fills and symbols come from the CA150 Ancient Tombs annual.

Here’s an example of a level with the effects turned off:

Each level of the ziggurat is 10 feet above the level below. The rooms and passageways inside are mostly 8 feet high, leaving two feet of stone for the ceiling (or the floor for the level above).

Let’s go inside!

Here's a version with a darker red:

And here's a version where I tried lighter text on a darker background. (The white ones at the end are the only ones that really work.) For this one, I moved the text to a different sheet so I could turn off the white glow that just made it look bolded in a way that made it harder to read.

I was going to render a part of my Fractal Terrains campaign world in the new Sarah Wroot Revisited style, just to play around with the new style, but I decided to wait until Ralf has a chance to do a tutorial first. In the meantime, I went back to the January 2024 annual that I never really played with, Fantasy Realms Reimagined, to try it with that.

I was going to render the Republic of Lumadair area of my map that I have done before in the Parchment Worlds, Jerion Shading, and Mike Shley styles, but I decided that it was too massively oversized for this style. Those maps are 6,109 by 2,445 miles! (I think we calculated that Lumadair is slightly smaller than Australia, and the map includes part of the mainland continent of Lenoch, which I wanted to include to be able to do more mountains and rivers.)

So I picked a prominent river in the main kingdom I am developing, the Achalus River, and decided that it would run through a duchy named after the river. This is a much smaller map than Lumadair, but it is still 1,343 by 537 miles.

Anyway, here is the Fractal Terrains output in both the Jerion and Schley styles, just for frame of reference:

And here is what I did in Fantasy Realms Reimagined:

I copied over a mid-level elevation contour from the Jerion export to serve as a temporary drawing guide for the hills, and then another higher elevation as a temporary guide for the mountains. This style doesn't actually have a hills or mountains background the way the Schley style does (I mean, it does, but just for the individual hill or mountain itself: it renders onto a layer for the hill or mountain itself, with the ridge lines going on another layer). But I decided it was helpful as more than just a drawing guide, so I changed the hill background to brown and the mountain one to gray, put them on separate sheets, and added Edge Fade and Blur effects.

The coast looks blurry, but that's just because the map is so large. Here's how it looks zoomed in (it has a bevel effect on the LAND sheet instead of having a separate outline on a Coast sheet):

Even though I labeled this post as a Work in Progress, I probably won't do much more on this particular map. We'll see how much more I do when I have a chance to revisit it with the Sarah Wroot Revisited style. I may end up adding all the extra stuff when I flesh out the entire kingdom, which I suspect I will do in the Mike Schley style. This was just for fun and practice -- and it gave me a chance to use a style from this year's annual that I haven't really worked with before (other than using the hills in a back-burnered rendering of the Wizard of Oz map that I'm working on).

Tyr Alomere Township

Tyr Alomere Township

Population: 1,259

Nestled in the foothills of Mt. Alomere, the sleepy village of Alomere was primarily notable for being a local lord’s vacation villa. Generations ago, it grew to become a prosperous, bustling town when the powerful wizard Marius built a mighty tower there for his retirement.

The wizard, now known as Marius of Alomere, quickly developed a prosperous business. Adventurers flocked to his tower to seek his counsel about their quests, and to purchase scrolls and potions that Marius and his apprentices created. The adventurers then returned after their quests to have curses removed and magical items identified.

Tyr Alomere Tower was later inherited by Marius’ daughter, a powerful wizard in her own right. She bypassed her own children to leave the tower to her most powerful apprentice, and thus began the tradition of keeping the tower in the hands of a mage. 

The town grew to support the influx of visitors, with local retailers well-stocked in the supplies that many adventurers need.

1. Tyr Alomere Tower: The tower is the present home of Madeleine Eyraux, a mighty enchantress, and her husband. The grounds include a cottage where the staff live, and a barn where visitors can stable their mounts.

2. Villa Citri: The vacation villa for the Earls of Westford, Villa Citri is currently occupied by Lady Amfiri Prelcort, Dowager Countess of Westford, widow of the seventh Earl of Westford and mother of the eighth. The villa is known for its orchards of orange trees and its vineyards of wine grapes. 

3. Town Hall: Virtually all government functions operate from the Town Hall, including registering businesses, paying taxes, and registering records of births, weddings, and deaths. Two courtrooms are also in the Town Hall, with one generally dedicated to criminal proceedings and the other for civil lawsuits.

4. Market Square: Local farmers and traveling merchants set up carts and stalls in the Market Square three days a week. 

5. Merry Sprite’s Tavern: The tavern does a bustling business every night of the week, catering to travelers and locals alike. On many nights, minstrels and bards passing through may be found performing for a few extra coins.

6. Draper/Mercer: Customers can buy bolts of fabric as well as items of clothing here.

7. General Store: In addition to selling foodstuff, the store is unusually well stocked for the typical items needed by adventurers, including torches, lamp oil, and simple tools. 

8. Butcher/Fishmonger: In addition to selling fresh meat, jerked meat preserved with salt is available for sale to adventurers.

9. Apothecary: Herbalism and medicine kits are available here, as well as basic ingredients for simple potions. For more exotic ingredients, adventurers will probably have to find a larger city or perhaps go on a quest to find them. The apothecary may have simple, common potions for sale, but the availability is erratic based on what they have been able to purchase from adventurers passing through.

10. Tailor: For the mending and sale of clothing.

11. Cobbler: For the mending and sale of shoes and boots.

12. Jeweler: The jeweler buys and sells both jewelry and individual gemstones. A town this size normally would not be able to sustain a business of this nature, but the wizard’s presence has brought in a lot of travelers with loot to sell, as well as spellcasters who need specialty items for their more complex rituals.

13. Bakery: For the sale of fresh bread, pastries, cakes, and pies.

14. Scrivener: This is another business that is unexpected in a town of this size. In addition to being able to transcribe and notarize documents, the clerks who work here can sell parchment, ink, and books with blank pages suitable for use as a spellbook.

15. Blacksmith: Like most village blacksmiths, the smiths here spend a fair amount of time making horseshoes and making and repairing farm tools. Although they tend not to make arms and armor, they are trained in repairing them. From time to time, they may have armaments for sale that have been purchased from adventurers who have upgraded their equipment.

16. Kotaran Monastery: The Kotaran faith is as much a philosophy as it is a religion. Followers believe that there is strength and power when the universe is balanced, and that that most things in nature are symmetrical for a reason. Kotaran Monasteries are famous for providing support for travelers. Its knights help keep the roads safe from bandits, its priests tend to the injured and sick, and its temples serve as moneylenders and banks in many communities. Adventurers will be able to exchange exotic coins here, and may be able to deposit their excess gold for safekeeping.

17. The Golden Griffon Inn: The inn does a brisk business catering to travelers who seek an audience with the mage. Like at the Merry Sprite’s Tavern, traveling minstrels and bards will often be found performing here in the evenings.

18. Guildhouse: The various merchant guilds share this space for their meetings.

19. Community Baths: Free restrooms and bathing facilities are available for all as a means of controlling the spread of diseases. For those willing to spend a little coin, more luxurious bathing options are available.

20. Public School: The school provides basic reading, writing, and arithmetic instruction for the children of the town and nearby farms. Some will also attend classes at one of the local temples for religious instruction.

21. Tanner: Leathergoods are made, mended, and sold here.

22. Watermill: Locals will bring their own grain here to grind for a small fee, or may purchase ground grain from the miller.

23. Theosi Temple: This Greco-Roman style temple is for the worship of the eight greater gods and twelve lesser gods of the Theosi faith. As with the Kotaran Monastery, the temple has a small medical facility to tend to the injured and the sick,

24. Áes Camáir Temple: For the worship of the five primary gods, the Children of Dawn, and their descendants. Like the Kotaran and Theosi temples, the church has a small medical facility.

25. Town Watch & Jail: The town watch is headquartered here. A basic jail is used to hold prisoners awaiting trial in the courthouse. Those sentenced to longer incarcerations are generally transported to a bigger city to serve their sentence.  

26. Summit Stairs: This tower is home to a spiral staircase that allows ascent to the top of the cliffs, and to the observatory housed there.

27. Observatory: Scholars visit from far and wide for the opportunity to study the heavens through the observatory’s rare and valuable lens.

28. Waste Management: The town’s complex sewer systems converge here, where a giant pit allows for the disposal of other forms of rubbish. Captured gelatinous cubes and black puddings are used to dispose of the town’s waste.