Azulejo's Dorne Repository

[Azulejo]

Azulejo's Dorne Repository​

Welcome everyone!

As many of you already know, I have quite a soft spot for Dorne. Thus, many of the ideas and propositons I make tend to be about this single region of Westeros. That's why I decided to create this thread: here I will be posting any inspiration or suggestions I find interesitg for the Undefeated Kingdom™, keeping them ordered under one spot, instead of flooding the Inspiration and Worldbuilding forum with lots of individual threads. This is not an individual effort, everyone is encouraged to interact, react and post here whatever they feel like, as feedback is the best way to create awesome projects. Hope this becomes an active and beloved part of Westeroscraft!​

Azulejo
​

Post index
ADR 1: Glazed tiles and colored roofing in al-Ándalus and the Maghreb

Azulejo's Dorne Repository

Azulejo's Dorne Repository Welcome everyone! As many of you already know, I have quite a soft spot for Dorne. Thus, many of the ideas and propositons I make tend to be about this single region of Westeros. That's why I decided to create this thread: here I will be posting any inspiration or...

forum.westeroscraft.com

ADR 2: Flooring options for Dornish buildings

Azulejo's Dorne Repository

Azulejo's Dorne Repository Welcome everyone! As many of you already know, I have quite a soft spot for Dorne. Thus, many of the ideas and propositons I make tend to be about this single region of Westeros. That's why I decided to create this thread: here I will be posting any inspiration or...

forum.westeroscraft.com

ADR 3: Sunken courtyards

Azulejo's Dorne Repository

Azulejo's Dorne Repository Welcome everyone! As many of you already know, I have quite a soft spot for Dorne. Thus, many of the ideas and propositons I make tend to be about this single region of Westeros. That's why I decided to create this thread: here I will be posting any inspiration or...

forum.westeroscraft.com

ADR 4: Video. Madinat al-Zahra, a palace-city at the outskirts of Qurtuba

Azulejo's Dorne Repository

Azulejo's Dorne Repository Welcome everyone! As many of you already know, I have quite a soft spot for Dorne. Thus, many of the ideas and propositons I make tend to be about this single region of Westeros. That's why I decided to create this thread: here I will be posting any inspiration or...

forum.westeroscraft.com

ADR 5: Anafres, braseros and portable stoves

https://forum.westeroscraft.com/threads/azulejos-dorne-repository.2664/#post-24566

Link to spanish castles post, useful as well.

 

[Azulejo]

ADR 1: Glazed tiles and colored roofing in al-Ándalus and the Maghreb
Tiles (tejas) were one of the most used roofing options in Moorish Iberia. The most common was the Monk and Nun style (known as teja árabe in Spanish, I know, shocking), which can be traced back before Romans expanded its use. Of course you won't spect a wealthy merchant, a high administration employee or a prestigious mosque to use the same tiles as a humble artisan or a peasant. That's where glazed roof tiles appear.

More prestigious buildings in al-Andalus tend to use glazed tiles to trim the angles of their roofs. The most common combination by far was an alternating design of white and green tiles.



Green and white glazed roof tiles in the Alhambra of Granada

The tradition continued way after the Christian kingdoms conquered all of the Muslim territories, carried on by muslims living under their rule (mudéjares).


Roofs of the Palacio del Rey Don Pedro in the Reales Alcazáres of Seville


Various buidings in the Albayzín neighborhood in Granada

Not only the angles of the roofs where decorated with glazed tiles, some used them for bigger sections.


Chruch in Granada.


Section of the roof of Casa de Pilatos, a palace in Seville from the XVI century that fuses mudéjar style with the Italian Renaissance

Continues on the next post...

 

[Azulejo]

Continues on the next post...

In the Maghreb glazed tiles were used to cover the whole of the roof, specially in green


Various mosques in Fez and nearby towns

In game this style could be translated easily. Green and white trimmining, however, can look chunky. This is why it should be reserved to bigger buildings, so it doesn't overpower the rest of the roof. It shouldn't be hard, as is a style reserved preferably for important and grand buildings. I tried it in Vanilla MC, using quartz and dark prismarine.

 

[AerioOndos]

This is looking brilliant, Azulejo. I was wondering myself about different tiles and possible painted bricks to distinguish Dornish builds from the Westerlands just this morning and this is exactly it. Are you telepathic?

I do believe that image is of a Dornish army on the Dornish Marches, rather than in Dorne itself, if a caption on the wiki of ice and fire is correct. Still a relevant image, just making a note.

This is great stuff, thank you and if you need my post deleted for coherency of the thread, go for it

 

[Azulejo]

Azulejo. I was wondering myself about different tiles and possible painted bricks to distinguish Dornish builds from the Westerlands just this morning and this is exactly it. Are you telepathic?

Great minds think alike . One of the posts I'm plannig to make will feature two alternative palettes for Dorne aside the one we already have. I was thinking red sandstone/tapial and brick. I'll go deeper on this later, but red i think would be cool for southern Dorne, specially in the red sand deserts, while brick would be good for the rivers (Greenblood, Vaith and Scourge). In any case this regions would not affect finished projects, as to not outdate them. If you are looking for colored bricks as decoration, I suggest checking mudéjar art, as it features glazed bicks quite frequently.

Spoiler: Brick architecture

Riverside cities like Toledo or Zaragoza feature many buildings made with bricks

Spoiler: Red palette

Tapial is a construction technique that uses compacted clay soil for building up walls. Red sandstone would be abundant in regions where this rock dominates

My aproach to this two alterntive styles was quite similar to the one you pointed out: finding unique features for the region that could differentiate Dorne from the rest of Westeros, specially the Westerlands (which already has colored plasters, red brick, brick and wattle and daub and wattle).

I do believe that image is of a Dornish army on the Dornish Marches, rather than in Dorne itself, if a caption on the wiki of ice and fire is correct. Still a relevant image, just making a note.

It is, indeed. I used it because I really like it, and although it represents the Marches, it does resemble quite well what I image Eastern Dorne would look like (less grassy though), which is said to be dry and with stony soil ill-suited for ariculture.

Most of Dorne south of the Red Mountains is an arid wasteland. Eastern Dorne largely consists of dry, stony soil ill-suited for agriculture, while western Dorne contains deserts of red and white sand.

World of Ice and Fire via AWOIAF​

​

if you need my post deleted for coherency of the thread, go for it

There's not need to! Comments and feedback, as I said before, is encouraged and well received. I link the posts in the first one so people can navigate easily, and discussion can take place without fear of burying the info I/other people post.

 

[Jakethesnake8_8]

good god you did ur research! amazing stuff

 

[Azulejo]

Thank you! I'm glad it shows! To be fair this isn't super hard for me, as al-Ándalus is what as an Historian I would like to study/investgate/teach in the future, and I have many sources accumulated over the years. It also helps a lot that this is part of my culture, even though I'm from the region that traditionally wans't conquered *coughs*, and far away from any remarkable remains from Muslim Iberia, excluding defense systems and such. Put me in Northern Europe and I will strugle XD. Until I started studiying more deeply European history, complex wattle and daub was almost fantasy to me.

 

[Jakethesnake8_8]

Thought I'd give some of ur inspirations a try, as yet un-gradiented, but here ya go

 

[Azulejo]

ADR 2: Flooring options for Dornish buildings
boy it took a long time for another one of this

Floors are often an overlooked part of a project, a mistake I make too. It is very easy to focus your creative effort on the walls and realize that you have not thought anything for the floor, so you put any stone slab that "matches" the walls and call it a day. I'm here to show you the wide variety of designs that one could choose.

In Iberia and the Maghreb most houses would probably have a rammed earth floor. Usually clay is mixed in with the regular soil, adding hydrophobic and hygenic properties, giving it a reddish hue.This technique has been use way before the Roman conquest, showing how the commoner's house doesn't change that much in long periods of time.


First image is a reconstruction of an Iberian house, dating around III b.C. As you can see, is quite similar to the medieval examples to the right (also look at that GOURGEOS red patterned plint. Red stripes alongside the bottom of walls are also a recurring theme. They are painted with almagra, a reddish clay based pigment with high concentrations of iron)

Another option for all kinds of spaces are pebbles. Known as guijarros or chinas in Spanish, they are a cheap and multifunctional option that can be used in streets, courtyards, stables and utilitarian spaces. Pebble floring doesn´t create ponds, as the nooks and cranies between the stones act as little drainage canals. Also, if water pools on them, evaporation can help reduce the temperature of the area, thus making this flooring ideal in hot climates. This style is mostly used on the outside, as pebbles are too bumpy for room flooring.


As you can see, pebble flooring was used widely: if a street was paved, most likely it would've been with this. Peebles weren't just thrown in any manner. At least they were arranged on lines, and in fancier spaces desings where created anternating direction and color

Brick floring is a little bit upscale, but still very common. A spin on the rammed earth, brick floors can be used on both the inside and the outside. It's usually placed diagonally to the walls (either in a romboid pattern if square or fishtail), with a trim in brick or tile if necessary. Fancier houses and buildings add tile desings inbetween the bricks.


Brick floors are quite common in city houses, I would say medium class and upwards

Stone slabs are also an option. In more humble houses they are usually reserved for the perimeter of the courtyard, wich is usually raised (or rather the courtyard is sunken, I would expand on that in the future), at the openings of the doors, the entrance (the zaguhán), the latrine and/or the sleeping quarters.


In case someone is interested in the floorplan of the house, from bottom to top and from left to right the rooms are entrance (it says façade, but the room itself is the "lobby", used as workspace too), kitchen, latrine, courtyard, sleeping quarters and living spaces). This would be a medium house at the outskirts of the city. Keep in mind Islamic families are extended, thus more people are iving together and birnging income, allowing such commodities.

Mansions, palaces and public buildings display a wide arrange of stone floors, going from wonderfully polished marbles to limestone, granites and such. It should be noted that even in this cases the slabs are rarelly regular, most of the time the pieces are of different sizes and shapes.


They look nice huh? The ones at the left are new, but you get the idea.

Despite the common use on walls, full tile flooring is not very common. In al-Andalus only regular reddish tile, unglazed, was used widely as a full floor option. There are some examples of rooms with tile floors in some Late Middle Ages palaces, like the Alhambra and the Reales Alcazares. It seems like the use of tiles as floors appeared massively in the Modern Age, from the 1400s or 1500s onwards. Thus why this style can be seem mostly on Morrocco, Algeria, Tunis and the mudéjar style in Spain and Portugal, developed under Christian control. Despite this I personally think is still usable, since it doesn't go way over our main time period inspiration.


I don't think I need to mention the cooling propieties of full tiled rooms, but on hot summer nights the are a life savior. Blue, green, ocher, red, black and yellow are the most common colours

If needed I would add a zoom in version of all this variants, so it would be easier to create a texture based on them if desired or look for "dupes" that already exist in the launcher.​

 

[Azulejo]

ADR 3: Sunken courtyards
Imagine this: you are a wealthy merchant or nobleman in the outskirts of Sunspear, walking down the beautiful gardens of your estate. Hunger gets you, so you decide to take one of those juicy oranges growing on the middle of the courtyard. But wait, it's quite high, you don't get to reach it. There's two options: streching your arm trying to pick it like an ABSOLUTE BARBARIAN, or the more civilized aproach: lowering the garden soil beneath the corridor level, positioning the orange tree at perfect hand height (so much simpler, I know).

How gardening and the enjoyment of flowers, trees and bushes was concived in the Islamic World differs quite a bit from the aproach Christian Europe had at the time. Gardens, in some cases, were designed to be looked at, so you never entered the proper garden space, staying on the walkways or the porticos. A slightly upward angle was considered beautiful for plant seeing, so sunken flowerbeds became widly common (among other reasons).​

Patio de las Doncellas, Real Alcázar de Sevilla, XIII century. After some excavations at the courtyard remains of the old sunken flowerbeds were found. Later it was decided to reconstruct the former structure. Also, my attempt at building it in vanilla Minecraft, before diorite walls


Patio de la Casa de Contrataciones, Real Alcázar de Sevilla. XII-XIII century. One of the few untouched sunken courtyards remaining in Spain


Patio de los Leones, Alhambra, Granada. XVI century. It's quite likely that this famous courtyard was sunked too, leaving just the canals and the central fountain raised. Nowadays it's covered in marble, allowing the high number of tourists to walk over it


El Badi Palace, Marrakesh. Built late XVI century, its gardens were quite low in comparison with the surrouding walkways


Patio del Crucero, Real Alcázar de Sevilla, XII-XIII centuries. At the top left you can see the aspect of the palace under muslim (almohad) rule. The 3 other images show the reforms undertaken during christian times, were a new, gothic-style palace was added, and several walkways were raised at the level of the structure


Top left is another view of the muslim phase of the Patio del Crucero. As you can see on the top right, the walkways built during christian rule covered the pools of the old garden, but thet still existed. Due to an earthquake, a new baroque façade was constructed in place of the former ones. The patio was raised to building level. The walkways are below, now known as Baños de Doña María de Padilla. At the bottom right image you can see the vents that communicate with them


Vivienda de la Alberca, Madinat al-Zahra. X century. A high ranking nobleman residence inside the Caliph's palace complex, it features a sunken courtyard with a small pool (alberca)​

 

[Thamus_Knoward]

Azulejo this is a treasure trove for future texture work!

 

[Azulejo]

ADR 4: Video. Madinat al-Zahra, a palace-city at the outskirts of Qurtuba
Some may alredy now I have kind of an obssesion with Medina Azahara/Madinat al-Zahra, mainly because I talk about it every time I have a chance. In the Islamic World, specially on the High Middle Ages, the so called "Islamic Golden Age", founding a new capital when a ruler wanted to give himself prestige both inside and outside of his realm was quite common. It also helped that during this time the mudun (plural of madina) grew fast and became overcrowded faster. Many choose to move the palace and all the goverment outside of the former city searching space, tranquility and a new start. Cairo, Baghdad and Córdoba where some of the cities where this phenomenon took place.


Madinat al-Zahra wasn't just a palace: a whole city grew surrounding the complex, as a way to supply it with various goods and services.

Madinat al-Zahra was founded in 936 by Abd al-Rahman III (Abderramán III in Spanish), approximately 8 km/4,9 mi West Qurtuba/Córdoba, the capital. Abderramán proclaimed himself Caliph (lider of al the muslims) in 929. This was a very important move, with heavy political consequences, and it was followed by an equivalent move, the founding of the "Shining City" (that's what Madinat al-Zahra means).


Floorplan of the excavated area of the palace. I know, is chaotic, but trust me there's logic on it. You have to think inside this complex there are houses, service areas and public spaces (as public as a palace could be). Very smart conexions and dividers are used to keep both sides separeted. Roughly the East side is the public side and the West side is the more private one. The offset building is a mosque, outside of the palace.

The city became the center of the court and all the political life of the realm. Embassies from all over the known world went here, a city desinged to impress the foreign. This didn't last long, however. After the death of the son of Abderramán III, al-Hakan II/Alhaquén II, the Caliphate of Córdoba quickly deflated in power. The throne was taken de facto by a man outside of the royal family, al-Mansur/Almanzor, who ruled until 1002. Trying to be equated to Abderramán, Almanzor also founded a new capital city at the other side of Córdoba, Madinat al-Zahira. From then on the Caliphate was ruled by a succession of weak caliphs, while the provinces became independent one after the other, forming the small kingdoms we now today as taifas. This period of civil war is know as the Fitna, and lasted until 1031.


Not all the city is excavated to this day. Just the eastern side of the alcázar (palace complex) and the mosque district are well known

Madinat al-Zahra was abandoned during this time, as it no longer served its main purpose: impress. Luckily, despite been pillaged after the Fitna, most of the city remained untouched, givin us today a marvellous snapshot of the life in al-Ándalus at the X century.

The city was built at the foothills of Sierra Morena, a mountain range that separates the inner Meseta (plateau) from the valley of the river Guadalquivir. This made necessary the construction of terraces that descended from the highest point to the walls of the madina. Obiously the palace was located at the prime spot overlooking the whole countryside.


View of the so called "Salón Rico". It acted as the throne room and the place of reception of the most important embassies. It's easily recognizable in the aerial shots, as is the only building with a roof (it was reconstructed from parcial ruin).
​

Now Azulejo, where the **** you want to go with this?

I know I know. Well, from my point of view Madinat al-Zahra shares many characteristics with what we know for the Water Gardens: both are a palace complex outisde of the crowded seat of goverment dedicated to impress embassies and for the pleasure of its builders,, built on terraces with pools and gardens overlooked by the palace buildings. And, best of all, both feature pale pink stone as flooring. And I also like the horizontal-ness of the building, that if applied to the Water Gardens could create a nice contrast between them and Sunspear (horizontal: pleasure, no need to defend; vertical: goverment, defend from outsiders, enforce).

So well, there's that. And yeah, if you're asking about the video I talked about at the beginning, here it is hahahah. It's a reconstruction of the complex that shows the a day in the life of the palace, following a comitive of foreign dignitaries. It's awesome, and is subbed in english! I linked two versions: both are the same, one with higher quality but with some corrupted parts (not that many, is perfectly watchable) and the other without those, but with lower definition.

High quality video

Low quality video

 

[Azulejo]

ADR 5: Anafres, braseros and portable stoves

Not all houses have a fireplace. In al-Ándalus smaller or more modest houses didn't. This isn't just due to a milder climate, since both during the night and in the winter it can get quite cold in many areas of Spain. It's more of a cultural practise. When the christian kingdoms of the north conquered the muslim cities, they added fireplaces and chimneys to the houses they occupied. So where did people cook, and how did they kept themselves warm during the cold hours and days? Well, they had portable stoves.


At the left, detail on Vendedoras de rosquillas en una calle de Sevilla (Donut sellers on a street in Seville), by Manuel Ussel de Guimbarda (1881). A big anafre can be seen with a paella (a type of pan). At the right, Vieja friendo huevos (Old woman frying eggs), by Velázquez (1618). Part of the anafre where the eggs are being cooked can be seen.

Depending on their use this devices received two different names: anafre or brasero. Anafres were made out of clay or metal, and were used to cook, heat or maintaing food warm. Due to this two last functions houses with a fireplace sometimes also had this device to transport the prepared dishes to the "dining hall". They were made of two parts: the area where the embers were kept and the surface on top, where pots and pans were placed.


The top row is made of medieval anafres from al-Ándalus. Bottom row contains a Ancient Greece anafre and some modern ones.

Braseros (braziers) are more versatile. They could be also used to cook, but more often they were simple heating devices. They were made of clay or metal as well. As you can imagine braseros could be a important fire hazard, and they could cause carbon monoxide poisoning, if used on a badly ventilated room.


Several braziers. To the left a roman brazier found in Pompeii. To the right braziers from al-Ándalus, 4 made out of stone and another one made out of metal.

Braziers and anafres (or similar looking devices) weren't only used in al-Ándalus, of course! Ancient egyptians, greeks, romans, japanese, mesoamericans... all had similar objects that worked for heating and cooking. In fact braziers were in many cases the cause of fires in the insulae, the roman apartment buildings, since poor people used them to kept themselves warm and cook. I think that now that Oldtown and Vinetown are close to be open for building we could implement the use of braziers at multi tenants and apartment complexes, since their use in this types of homes was quite extended (even if prohibited many many times).

We already have braziers, although we dont have any block similar enough to a anafre. A dornish mud oven with a pan on top might do the trick, but it can look a bit chunky. You can also use pots without a cork, the hole being the opening from where the heat reaches the pan. Cork them and put a pan over it, that may also work! I think we can play around with the blocks we currently have.

​

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Very interesting materials in themselfs, even not concerning their application for the server! This portable stoves are especially interesting for me, as a thing of everyday life in corresponding enviroment of warm climate. Such a contrast to Russia, where traditional houses used to have ovens that occupied 1/4 or even 2/5 of house area - just to give enough warmth to survive winters.
P.S. You made a very good form of publishing material!
P.P.S. The rider in the image on the opening post looks like he is from Aragon)

 

[Azulejo]

Thank you Nikas! I'm glad you like them! Yes, it seems like the artist who made that image took inspiration from Aragón's flag (one of my favourite flags by the way).

 

[Margaery_Tyrell]

ADR 5: Anafres, braseros and portable stoves

Not all houses have a fireplace. In al-Ándalus smaller or more modest houses didn't. This isn't just due to a milder climate, since both during the night and in the winter it can get quite cold in many areas of Spain. It's more of a cultural practise. When the christian kingdoms of the north conquered the muslim cities, they added fireplaces and chimneys to the houses they occupied. So where did people cook, and how did they kept themselves warm during the cold hours and days? Well, they had portable stoves.

View attachment 11110
At the left, detail on Vendedoras de rosquillas en una calle de Sevilla (Donut sellers on a street in Seville), by Manuel Ussel de Guimbarda (1881). A big anafre can be seen with a paella (a type of pan). At the right, Vieja friendo huevos (Old woman frying eggs), by Velázquez (1618). Part of the anafre where the eggs are being cooked can be seen.

Depending on their use this devices received two different names: anafre or brasero. Anafres were made out of clay or metal, and were used to cook, heat or maintaing food warm. Due to this two last functions houses with a fireplace sometimes also had this device to transport the prepared dishes to the "dining hall". They were made of two parts: the area where the embers were kept and the surface on top, where pots and pans were placed.

View attachment 11111
The top row is made of medieval anafres from al-Ándalus. Bottom row contains a Ancient Greece anafre and some modern ones.

Braseros (braziers) are more versatile. They could be also used to cook, but more often they were simple heating devices. They were made of clay or metal as well. As you can imagine braseros could be a important fire hazard, and they could cause carbon monoxide poisoning, if used on a badly ventilated room.

View attachment 11112
Several braziers. To the left a roman brazier found in Pompeii. To the right braziers from al-Ándalus, 4 made out of stone and another one made out of metal.

Braziers and anafres (or similar looking devices) weren't only used in al-Ándalus, of course! Ancient egyptians, greeks, romans, japanese, mesoamericans... all had similar objects that worked for heating and cooking. In fact braziers were in many cases the cause of fires in the insulae, the roman apartment buildings, since poor people used them to kept themselves warm and cook. I think that now that Oldtown and Vinetown are close to be open for building we could implement the use of braziers at multi tenants and apartment complexes, since their use in this types of homes was quite extended (even if prohibited many many times).

We already have braziers, although we dont have any block similar enough to a anafre. A dornish mud oven with a pan on top might do the trick, but it can look a bit chunky. You can also use pots without a cork, the hole being the opening from where the heat reaches the pan. Cork them and put a pan over it, that may also work! I think we can play around with the blocks we currently have.

View attachment 11109​

Gonna retrofit a few more houses to depict this, I have a couple already but itd be more handy if a few more houses did to show more variety of life in Dorne

 

[Thamus_Knoward]

Gonna retrofit a few more houses to depict this, I have a couple already but itd be more handy if a few more houses did to show more variety of life in Dorne

How about making a texture/block request for this instead? I definitely see a regional requirement for them, especially if made from clay.

 

[Azulejo]

I have no problem in making it. Hopefully it would be up this week, the research is already done.