Concept Art: Ardens Rest
Help me WorldAnvil! You're my only hope!
Welcome, Intrepid Reader! As part of WordiGirl's #UnofficialMapVember, I took a pause and decided to put together some concept art for one of the many locations of Gokrenxia. In an upcoming episode of Tales of the Inner Council, one of our heroes will be travelling to a small village tentatively called "Arden's Rest." The problem I've run into is I really like a number of these concepts, but all for different reasons!
Help me decide which concept art should be the basis for Arden's Rest!
About Arden's Rest
The village of Arden's Rest lies 293 miles West of House Dyber's mountainhold in the rain shadow of the Stormbreak Mountains, situated in the grasslands. The human town was founded in Eastern Rolighav many years ago. Before the Great War it was a small waypoint for North/South trade routes. After the Great War though, travelers looking headed into the Zuul’Hy Freelands waned, and so did the city's prosperity.
by Koragath via Wonderdraft
Concept Art
First up, we have a stark Gothic Arden's Rest:
Ardens 1 by dream by WOMBO
Ardens 2 was a low res daytime render with wagons. I love the layout of this one, but it really doesn't leave me with a sense of what's IN Arden's Rest:
Ardens 2 by dream by WOMBO
Wanting something higher res, but liking the small size and feel of 2, Ardens 3 was a remix of 2. It came in really sparse though, which feels more savanna vs grassland. This felt very old west, and the wagons don't seem to fit my mental picture:
Ardens 3 by dream by WOMBO
Next up, a completely different approach. I seeded this one with a photo from a recent vacation of sunrise over the mountains:
Ardens 4 by dream by WOMBO
I really like the feel and layout of the village in Arden's 5. The landscape feels a bit lush to me, and I hadn't really imagined it to be big enough to warrant the small manor in the background.
Ardens 5 by dream by WOMBO
Backtracking a bit and seeding off Arden's 2, I spun through another set of image that brought me to Arden's 6. Here we have grassland that's sparse, but not too barren, a number of small structures and the sloping hills climbing up toward the Stormbreak mountains in the background.
Ardens 6 by dream by WOMBO
And finally, going in a completely different direction, more true to the cartography/mapping challenge, I purchased and took a stab at creating a battle map using dungeondraft. I've never used the software until now, but just took a several hour spin through it to get a sense of how it works.
Ardens Dungeondraft by Koragath via DungeonDraft
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