Block Change Request: Red and white "sand sets"

Azulejo

Bloodmage
Staff member
Request: Red and white "sand sets"

Request Type:
Unique Addition (specific to a build, region, or culture)

Describe the use of this block in said build, region, or culture. How is it unique? To the best of your knowledge how could it be used in a different context?
If you feel lazy/don't have the time to read you can scroll to the end of the post to look up a summary with the specific block requests.

Dorne is, excluding the mountain tops and the snowy North, the biggest region in Westeros where grass isn't the main cover/terrain block. This involves a series of challenges when creating the area. We can divide Dorne in 3 main areas: Red Mountains, West Dorne Proper and East Dorne Proper (at least this is how I divide it in my mind). West Dorne is the area where the true deserts are found, red and white sand deserts, along the many other types of desert enviroments one can imagine: rocky plains, exposed bedrock, moutain deserts, pebble deserts, salt pans... East Dorne, more or less located east of the mountains that feed the Greenblood river system, is mainly drylands.

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Both of these types of terrains are very variated and complex, and display lots of different rocks, soil types, formations, vegetation... To properly represent them, specially given the colours dominant in Dorne (red and pale/white), we'd need a series of blocks I've decided to call "sand sets".

A "sand set" would be all the blocks that on one way or the other derive from a type of sand block. We currently have one "sand set" that corresponds to our common sand block, which in Dorne (mushroom and desert biomes) has a golden/yellowish apperance.

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I will explain the DO NOT USE block later

As you can see, a "sand set" would be made by the sand block of choice with its layer variations, grassy sand and two types of soil that have similar tones to the former. These last two blocks (Dorne dusty dirt and Dorne dry soil) aren't sand derivates, but are made to match the current sant block, yellow. My proposal would be to add two new "sand sets", one that corresponds to the red sand and one for the pale/white sand.

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Regarding the first, we currently have 3 tonalities of red sand (terracotta, pink/orange and red). I don't think its necesary to make a "sand set" for the 3 types, that might be overkill. I would choose the lightest one, terracotta, as the base for the red "sand set". If anything having grassy sand for the middle tone (pink/orange) might be nice too, but far from a necessity. I feel like the red sand is a bit saturated/bright, it may need to be recoloured, but that's another conversation. With this sand set these are the types of landscapes we might be able to recreate:

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The white/pale "sand set" would be completely new, sice we don't have a pale sand block. I would like to point out that completely white is not the objetive. Instead a lighter and, more importantly, desaturated version of our current sand would be more appropiate. With the idea of blending the golden sand (current sand) with this new pale sand, we might need a middle tone, which would not need, most likely, a "sand set". Whith this "sand set" we could make landscapes like these:

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One last suggestion would be adding a new block that has variations for the 3 "sand sets" (current/regular/yellow, red and white). Cracked soil/dirt. You know, the iconic clay dry surface that forms crevises on its surface. Given the versatility of this texture, maybe a regular brown dirt would be nice to be used in other regions of Westeros. This block would be ideal for dry riverbeds and wadis.

Cracked-Desert-Soil.jpg

Types of evidence to support your request: Canon

Canonical Evidence
We have lots of references regarding the dornish landscape that suggest most of it is in some way red or reddish. On top of that there are many location specific descriptions that point the existance of both pale and red colored areas, sandy or not. Keep in mind there are more quotes regarding the landscape of Dorne, I've just selected those that metion its colour (and one mentioning cracked soil).​
  • The road from Sunspear to the Water Gardens ran beside the sea, so they had a cool fresh breeze to soothe them as they made their way across a sparse red-brown land of stone and sand and twisted stunted tree.​
  • They struck out north by northwest, across drylands and parched plains and pale sands toward Ghost Hill.​
  • They did not love this dry red land or its seven-faced god, so they clung to their old ways, hammered boats together from the hulks of the burned ships, and became the orphans of the Greenblood. Thankfully, they did not need to cross the deep sands but only a sliver of the drylands.​
  • Come break of day, they were off again. Elia Sand led the way, her black braid flying behind her as she raced across the dry, cracked plains and up into the hills .​
  • She flew above the pass, above the red sands and the white, and descended upon Vaith to demand its submission, only to find the castle empty and abandoned. In the town beneath its walls, only women and children and old men remained.​
  • But somewhere east of the Hellholt amidst the red sands, Tyrell and his entire army disappeared.​

TO SUM UP:
  • Adding a red sand version of the blocks stones sand layer, grassy sand, dorne dusty dirt and dorne dry soil in all their variants.
  • Adding white/pale sand with the corresponding desert sand layer, stones sand layer, grassy sand, dorne dusty dirt and dorne dry soil in all their variants.
  • Adding cracked soil/dirt with variants that match our current sand/dorne soils blocks, red sand/soil and white/pale sand/soil.
 
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