Hi all!

So here's my most recent map detailing part of my conworld for the upcoming fantasy cycle War of Blood and Darkness. Check out this map if you want to get an idea of what the world looks like. Ostwyc, the city depicted here, can be found in the eastern half of that regional map—it is the capital of the Princedom of Cilydd. It was done in a style similar to my earlier Ganador map.

Ostwyc is a really old city, one of the first there ever were actually. Villages were still a new and exciting concept in most of the world when the first stone was laid for Ostwyc's first citadel (now ruined, see #59 on the map). This seed of the city was planted in a narrow valley overlooking the East Cilydd plains, an easily defensible position. The city gradually overgrew its walls and spread out along both sides of a long, narrow lake. The entrance to the valley is guarded by a large hill, more like a granite fist pushing up from the valley floor. A fortress was built on top and two walls were strung between either side of the valley and the walls of the fortress, with massive fortifications ensuring the safety of the city. Over the centuries, Ostwyc has built and maintained a whole network of guard towers in the surrounding country side, both in the plains and the mountains that surround it. Each is fitted with a very well equipped garrison, excellently trained and always at the ready. Because of all these precautions, Cilydd has never had its walls broken during all the centuries of its existence, and it is probably the only city of respectable age that can claim so. 

Despite its forbidding appearance from the outside, Ostwyc is actually a very pleasant city to live in. Most houses are pastel coloured and have real glass windows, the streets are clean, beggars are few and most seem actually pretty well-fed. There are parks strewn throughout the city, statues of old heroes, libraries, museums and temples, and entertainment for all layers of society. Small ferries move across the lake continuously, and at night, the thousands of lights from the city and the bobbing lanterns of the ferries create a starscape with no equal on the glittering surface of the lake. 

I also created a separate map zooming in on the Lionburgh, the fortress set like a gem in Ostwycs outer wall.

— 27 June 2018 —