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The Village of Spyr-Anaisz - Patrons' Edition
🕑 Added 2022-06-13 00:12:49 +0000 UTCSpyr-Anaisz is a small drow village in the Black Loch. The residents here aren't big city drow, they're rural drow. Drow hillbillies, if you will.
I don't picture them chewing tobacco or wearing cowboy hats, but I imagine there's a different sort of culture here. A bit less backstabbing and cutting throats to get ahead. Not much infighting among the nobility, since there's only one noble house. And I think the city drow would probably look down on them, as inferior drow from an inferior place.
With an economy based around fishing and mushroom farming, Spyr-Anaisz isn't a particularly wealthy community, but they are a fairly safe one. Built in and around a cluster of giant stalactites, the village hangs 80' (25m) above the ground, making the list of dangerous creatures the people of Spyr-Anaisz have to worry about quite a bit shorter than it would be if they lived down below with everyone else. It isn't the most convenient living arrangement, but sometimes convenience has to come second to security. Especially in the Underdark.
Next up, I'll be drawing last month's Cartographic Congress winner. This will be a multi-level village built in and around the branches and trunk of a giant tree, with bridges running between the buildings. I haven't drawn a map like this in ages and I'm really glad to get another chance.
It's not the first map of a tree village anyone's ever made, but I think it'll be a pretty unique take on the idea. I've got a lot of ideas about it swimming around in my head right now and I really want to start sketching things out and see how they look on paper. I think I'm gonna get started on that now.
Well, I hope you like Spyr-Anaisz. Let me know what you think!
Download from Google Drive here (under NEWEST PATRON CONTENT).
Comments
Milby's Maps
I thought the idea of rural drow was pretty interesting, especially since all the lore is so focused on the cities, like Menzoberranzan, Ched Nasad and so on. It seemed to me like they'd end up being more of a close-knit community than most drow settlements, especially with everyone living right on top of each other. That's not to say that they're necessarily wonderful people, though. I think they'd probably kill anyone that was widely considered annoying or useless, especially since the closeness here would make it hard to avoid people you don't like.
AN7
Wow. This is sparking so much to play with. Really really amazing one. First, the whole close in way of life and different pace of Drow living is outstanding. I love what you did with the “drow hillbilly” idea here, it took a loose concept and really gave it teeth. The notes interplay between here and the Big City is fascinating. Already you have to imagine the schools being unkind places, but the added dimension of them having these outsiders also there is great. Alternative use for the map, this could also easily be an estate of a large noble family instead of a city, depending how things look in a given setting. But now I feel kinda bad for the residents here because “spooky out of the way farming community falls silent, the party is sent to investigate” is already a plot hook waiting for my current players, and looking at this map and reading the description…….I think an Elder Oblex is right about the right level for the party and if we are going with a creepy vibe why not lean into it? Might let them explore the town, get treated like the outsiders they are by the real residents only to go back in a bit and try to sort out that there is an entirely new reason for this small insular community to behave as it does.
