I've plotted out this city with an elaborate road network. The city is build on an island that is essentially one large hill that rises from the sea, at the top of which will be a site of great cultural importance. I've used colour and contour shadow to try and give a sense of the sloping topography, but am not quite satisfied with it, and would love some pointers on that.

So far I'm planning on moving shadowed roads under the contour shadow so they appear shaded, rather than shining in shadowed terrain, and tweaking the shapes of the contours and attendant shadows to be more consistent with the envisioned shape of the land. Also to modify the paths of roads to be more consistent with going down or uphill--the reason I added the roads first is that I'm building this off an old pen and paper map. Any other advice would be very much welcomed.

@jslayton @Loopysue @Royal Scribe

Ok, so the dragon didn't work the way I thought it would, but learning to explode symbols and play with them was a game-changer. I was able to replace the trees (I wasn't thrilled with the originals, but I didn't think there was an option). So here's the cosmological diagram now. Still thinking about symbols for the Wanderers (planets) and have some more labelling to do, but I'm more enthused about how it's currently looking. Thanks everyone for your advice!

All of this is excellent advice, and Ctrl+F did the trick! Thank you kindly. I'm incorporate your advice and play with the fill scaling on the forests. This is exactly the kind of info I was hoping for!

I'm back after years and trying to figure out nav lines!

Thank you, everyone! This forum is filled with such amazing people. I appreciate all of you!

You've made a stellar site! You and the others who posted theirs too. It inspires me to make an actual site rather than rely on Fandom. com!

Looking at your site--it's a magnificent piece of work! The menus are elegant and the art is incredible! Do you source it somewhere, or make it? The temple on the landing page for instance, and the picture of Hamara Bay! Lord, this is the type of site I'd like to set up myself! I'm not much of an artist, but have used an AI app to generate original art for characters and cities for my own wiki site. One great use has been improving the heraldric images I've made in CC3--I've attached one from CC3 and the result.

Thanks! I used an AI program to make them based on rough sketches I made in the program, with a prompt added. Little fiddling here and there to get each one right. Here's a page that shows all the shields for this kingdom so far.

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/aralath-jsberry/a/a-list-of-noble-houses-of-keledon-article

I usually give bonus XP for players who ask for, and use, a few phrases, from the setting. Just simple stuff, like greetings, and so on.

Nothing gives one as much pride as being completely stymied and frustrated, and then figuring it out!