Worldbuilding June Day 2: Geography
Jun. 6th, 2017 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aldersprig2. Geography
Desmond’s World
Oops, I already covered a bunch of this in the first post.
The City Desmond lives in (100 words to anyone who names it something that fits with the names that I like and another 100 to someone to name the nation) straddles the river leading to the ocean.
It’s definitely got high ground (High Street), mostly to the north of the river, and lower ground, which sometimes floods, to the south of the river. The river directly to the south is all parkland, designated so 100 years ago when a leader ordered the slums torn down so that the houses on the north side did not have to look at them.
This, of course, just moved the slums a bit more inland, but there’s a nice wall of trees now, and the houses bordering that parkland are high-rent for the area.
The City office and school are on the north side of the river. Desmond grew up on the south side.
Portal Bound
There is already a map for Portal Bound, here.
The main city of needing-a-name is settled into an oxbow in the river of also-needs-a-name. Inspired by the Mississippi, the river has moved several notable times over the centuries since the first buildings were hewn from the forest all around.
(The capital we’re discussing is just on and around about where the left end of the upper wild-rice roads are on the above-linked map.)
The river runs through a flattish forest area, making its way towards the sea. Much of the land in the area is still forested, with small townships growing up among the trees.
Desmond’s World
Oops, I already covered a bunch of this in the first post.
The City Desmond lives in (100 words to anyone who names it something that fits with the names that I like and another 100 to someone to name the nation) straddles the river leading to the ocean.
It’s definitely got high ground (High Street), mostly to the north of the river, and lower ground, which sometimes floods, to the south of the river. The river directly to the south is all parkland, designated so 100 years ago when a leader ordered the slums torn down so that the houses on the north side did not have to look at them.
This, of course, just moved the slums a bit more inland, but there’s a nice wall of trees now, and the houses bordering that parkland are high-rent for the area.
The City office and school are on the north side of the river. Desmond grew up on the south side.
Portal Bound
There is already a map for Portal Bound, here.
The main city of needing-a-name is settled into an oxbow in the river of also-needs-a-name. Inspired by the Mississippi, the river has moved several notable times over the centuries since the first buildings were hewn from the forest all around.
(The capital we’re discussing is just on and around about where the left end of the upper wild-rice roads are on the above-linked map.)
The river runs through a flattish forest area, making its way towards the sea. Much of the land in the area is still forested, with small townships growing up among the trees.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 11:54 am (UTC)So, what's it's history? Is there an old, old bridge or ford that would gift the rivers name to the city?
no subject
Date: 2017-06-08 02:03 pm (UTC)You can also get place names that go sufficiently far back, adopting from one language to another, that the origin is incongruous, or nobody knows what the origin is. One of my favorite examples of incongruous is Boston. The settlers wanted a non-religious name for their new settlement, so they borrowed the name Boston from the town in the UK. At the time, apparently nobody realized that that Boston is long-time transmogrification of St. Botolph's Town.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-12 01:24 pm (UTC)Well, let’s see.
There’s the guy that started it, it could be his ford.
(There are SO many fords and ports where I came from - and Basins - in the Erie Canal area)
There’s the bridge that made it …
Hey, wonder if a city’s ever been named for a flood
Or, in this case, a door, since the portal made the city happen.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-13 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-09 08:01 am (UTC)I imagine the collared folks are mostly used as a power base for the leadership ... but they're mostly drawn from the poor side of town. The collars can keep them from burning down the city, but how about leading a revolution?
no subject
Date: 2017-06-12 01:25 pm (UTC)The collars probably would keep them from leading a revolution, too, sadly.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-12 06:17 pm (UTC)Well, perhaps programming details will turn up and they can look for loopholes. Or not.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-11 03:53 am (UTC)Cities tend to grow where two or more incompatible forms of transportation come together: that becomes a transfer point, and a fine place to spend the night, eat, or sell what you're carrying.
In both cases you have a river. The city in Desmond's World may well be sitting as far upriver as an ocean-going ship can sail. This could lead to a name as simple as Rapid City or a more complex one such as Catalpa Falls (the latter taking both a tree and terrain as a name). Naming them after living people -- some of whom may never have lived there, see Denver -- also works.
As for the city in Portal Bound, the Mississippi has -- or at least had -- many places that need local pilots for navigation, which involve a stop to pick up a suitable pilot. Or have another river coming in (St. Louis, though that doesn't always work: see the sad remnants of Cairo, IL, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers).