They Live in the Sky

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While the art is being generated for "On Wings of Darkness" and the core book undergoes text editing, I am finishing floor plan details. When the Kickstarter came up, last October, I'd left the sideview for the City of Arcanial's upper district in line art stage, without its color or texture. I finally completed this part yesterday. The wizards' capital city is a flying structure made of three levitating districts, one on top of the other and rotating in opposite directions. The ruling class along with the rich and famous live in the upper district (shown above). The upper middle class resides in the middle district, and the more modest lower middle class hails from the lower district (all things being relative, since Arcanial is an expensive place to live, compared with most other towns). The lower class and those people on a waiting list to obtain living quarters aloft reside in the far less attractive Port Arcana, which lies on the ground surface, directly below Arcanial. A view of the skyport located on the ground close to the river harbor appears in my previous blog article.

The upper district is tall enough for the main structure to house 14 floors, plus free-standing buildings on the terraces. The lord high's palace is the cylindrical bit at the center, surmounted by a lighthouse. The bottom features a huge illusion of a sun (or a moon, depending on the time of the day.) Colossal chains anchor the upper district's various sections in place.  The view above is a cross section, except for the palace, which I've not cut through. Internal ceilings are 9-10' high for most places. A short entry about each floor in the palace (matching the story at the beginning of the book), a general "street" diagram of the levels inside the surrounding sections, and the location of important features listed in the book give an idea of how the district is put together. Specific layout details are left to the referee (like any other fantasy city). Even more details on encounters, personalities, monsters, and specific locations follow in the book about the other two districts: plenty to start writing adventures!