Monday, September 21, 2020

Urban Sprawl of the Magnificent Patriarch



This is Casale Monferrato, a walled city of the seventeenth century. On the left is a citadel, shaped like a lotus flower. Each of the small blocky squiggles inside the wall is a city block. Great example of a 'fantasy city'. You could just print this out and run it as-is if you need a City-State of the Invincible Overlord. 


Here's another view. Same city, same century, different angle. Doesn't it seem like there could be band of armed mutants with drays pulled by brontosaurs just beyonde that vista?



I think I prefer the proportions of the first pictures, where the citadel is imagined to be nearly equal in size to the city itself. Gives rise to views of an impossibly pompous overlord, clad in glit, his yellow marble citadel swooping a half-mile above, purple and maroon pennants whipping in the cool breeze from over the river.