I love, love, love Mike Schley's new throne symbols! Had to design a little throne room to show them off.

Most of my time was spent on the grand staircase on the western side. There were several possible approaches to getting it to flare out, and also have a carpet runner. Not sure if the approach I took (with heavy use of the Color Key cutout effect) was the best, but it works.

When the King is receiving petitioners, the room is mostly empty of furniture, as courtiers and petitioners are expected to stand. The king is flanked by two smaller thrones for his Queen and Heir Apparent. The Lord Chamberlain and Minister of Protocol are seated on the northern side of the dais, with the Lord Chancellor on the south side near a desk for the Royal Scribe to transcribe proceedings and draft writs and edicts as needed.

Another throne on a small dais is on the south side. This is called the Sedd Peryglus or Siege Perilous. In Arthurian legends, the Siege Perilous was a seat at King Arthur's Round Table that was left vacant for the knight destined to recover the Holy Grail. Here, it is enchanted with a permanent Zone of Truth spell that prevents anyone seated on it from knowingly lying. It is rarely used, for to be asked to sit there is tantamount to being declared a dishonorable oath breaker: swearing an oath to tell the truth should be sufficient for anyone of honor.

In the evening, tables will be brought in for a great feast. But alas! A great calamity is about to befell the kingdom.

A few quick sequel maps to come...

I love it. And I personally never get sick of seeing iterations of the same map. I love seeing how they evolve.

Can confirm that all four of the Forest tools now work properly. It was easier to delete the mysterious lines than to redraw the forests, but at least future maps won't have that issue.

When I brought the land over from the Fractal Terrains export, they were all locked together as a multipoly. I decided to explode them so that I could use the "Change Like Draw Tool" function with the green land for Lumadair and the default brown for the other continents.

Also, the multipoly sea contours from Fractal Terrains have the darker sea as the base with lighter contours on top. When I copied over the sea contours, I just copied a light one and then used the "Change Like Draw Tool" to change it to the lighter contour of the Hand-Drawn Fantasy style, and then manually drew in the darker contours. Not bad for a map that took me less than an hour for the initial map.

Usually I wait until Ralf has had a chance to demo new annuals in the Live sessions, but since there was no Live today because of the May Day holiday, I decided to dive in anyway. Here's my tried-and-true, oft-mapped Republic of Lumadair in the new "Hand-Drawn Fantasy" style.

I used the cutout approach for the rivers. But rather than drawing the swamp terrain around the rivers, I added the Color Key effect to the Swamp Terrain sheet and then copied my magenta rivers to that sheet as well.

It's funny how much I've mapped Lumadair, given that it isn't even intended to be the main location for my campaign world. But it is a conveniently-sized area, and once I did one map of it, I found it useful to do other styles for the same location as a convenient way of comparing them.

The basement of the villa.

Toggles

FURNACE ROOF layer to hide/display the roof over the furnace

FLOW ARROWS layer to hide/display arrows showing direction of hot water, cold water, and warm air

PARCHMENT layer to hide/reveal the layer of parchment that provides a sort of sepia filter over the outdoor areas.

TEXT LABELS (NUMBERS) layer to hide/display the numbered labels.

TEXT LABELS layer to hide/display the legends describing the labeled numbers. 

Files

Description

The basement of the Villa Citri and its estate.

Villa Basement

1. Villa Fountain

The base of the fountain in the villa’s peristylium courtyard, with water pipes to keep it filled even in the dry months, and a drain valve to empty the fountain for maintenance.

2. Villa Impluvium

The base of the villa’s impluvium.

3. Heating Caliduct

Heat vent brings hot air from the hypocaust to the upper levels of the villa.

4. WC Shaft

Shaft brings waste from the lavatories to the sewers.

5. Water Well Shaft

Pipes bring river water to the upper floors of the villa.

6. Cella Vinaria

The villa’s wine cellar.

7. Horreum

A storage room.

Balneae Basement

8. Frigidarium

The lower portion of the cold-water pool, with the pipes to bring water in and the release valves to drain it when necessary.

9. Caldarium

The lower portion of the hot-water pool, with the pipes to bring water in and the release valves to drain it when necessary.

10. Tepidarium

The lower portion of the warm-water pool, with the pipes to bring water in and the release valves to drain it when necessary.

11. River Water Pipe

Water piped in from the river.

12. Cold Water Tank

River water is piped to this massive tank to provide water for all of the villa’s operations.

13. Hot Water Tank

River water heated by the hypocaust is stored here to provide the villa and bathhouse’s hot water needs.

14. Sudatorium Steam Vent

This vent provides hot steam to the steam sauna above.

Hypocaust

15. Praefurnium

The wood-burning furnace used to provide hot air and water for the villa and the bathhouse.

16. Furnace Chimney

The chimney to vent the hypocaust’s smoke.

17. Firewood

The hypocaust naturally needs an endless supply of firewood to keep air and water hot.

18. Alveus

The hollow space beneath the building's floor, where hot air from the hypocaust circulates.

19. Pilae Stacks

These are the small pillars of tiles that support the raised floor above the hypocaust, creating the space for hot air to circulate.

20. Cold Water Pipe

Pipes bring cold water throughout the bathhouse and villa.

21. Hot Water Pipe

Water heated by the hypocaust. 

22. Hot Air Pipe

Hot air from the hypocaust used to heat the bathhouse and the villa. 

23. Hypocaust Controls

A complex series of controls allows water pipes and heating caliducts to be opened or shut as needed, either for maintenance or when warmer weather precludes the need for heated floors.

24. Drain Valve

Used to drain water from pools directly into the sewers.

25. Sewers

Stairs that descend into the portion of the municipal sewers that services the villa.