The Arbor: Applications thread

[lemonbear]

Mermaid's Palace
by lemonbear & iMajic

Resume (lemonbear):
Cairns
KHHF2
Arbor Isles (1st go-around: Mermaid's Palace, Stonecrab Cay, Isle of Pigs, Bastard's Cradle, Horseshoe Rock)
Turnberry
Yronwood
Hawthorne
Central Westerlands Megabuild (WIP: Tarbeck Hall, Sarsfield, Oxcross, Hornvale)

Resume (iMajic):
House Erenford
WhiteHarbour Tanner District, and North Western Sprawl
The Shadow Tower on the wall [coop]
Wyl Cadet Branch / Vally [coop]
Redlake – Cranes Hunting Manor Estate
• Mini Projects:
8 Holdfasts in different projects
9 Hamlets In different projects
3 farmsteds
2 winery complexes​

Canon:
"These are no mere reavers. The ironmen have always raided where they could. They would strike sudden from the sea, carry off some gold and girls, and sail away, but there were seldom more than one or two longships, and never more than half a dozen. Hundreds of their ships afflict us now, sailing out of the Shield Islands and some of the rocks around the Arbor. They have taken Stonecrab Cay, the Isle of Pigs, and the Mermaid's Palace, and there are other nests on Horseshoe Rock and Bastard's Cradle. Without Lord Redwyne's fleet, we lack the ships to come to grips with them." - AFFC, Samwell V

Original Wiki:
https://westeroscraft.fandom.com/wiki/Mermaid's_Palace

Inspiration:
We know very little about the Mermaid's Palace, except that it was raided by reavers in A Feast for Crows. Since I first built the island in 2013, my interpretation was that it received its name from the sea cave situated in the rocky base of the island (similar to the Blue Grotto on Capri). For this version of the island, I was also inspired by the sunken ruin at St. Thomas Island and the Benedictine Monastery on Lokrum Island, near Dubrovnik.

Inspiration folder:

https://imgur.com/a/wzl3N46

Overview:
The island has a septry and serves as a pilgrimage location for the devout. I believe sailors pray to the Crone for guidance on the sea, so the septry likely honors her. The septry is rather robust, and there are wings for both pilgrims/lay septons and religious leaders. In addition to the septry, there will be a sunken ruin in the shallower area between the island and the Arbor from a time before the island was separated from the Arbor. There will be a dock for small boats, and some other boats could be docked by the beach.

Agriculture:
The island is rather rocky with limestone soil, and the air is very salty, which would restrict plant growth. Most native plants are shrubs or grasses. Within the septry walls, the septons will have a respectable herb and veggie garden, although they still need to send the cellarer out to Ryamsport to purchase most of their food items. Outside of the septry, I was thinking a small grove of olive trees, or another similar hardy warm-weather fruit.

Economy:
The septry is largely dependent on donations from pilgrims. Other industry TBD, but it could be related to olive oil or scribes.

Tests:
Tests for the island can be found at /warp mermaidspalacetest.

 

[Vinnie]

Hey Lem! So awesome to see this long-awaited build being applied for!

Just a thought. What if the septry were devoted to all the female aspects of the seven and not just the Crone? Based on the name "mermaid's palace" I think it would be cool to have an emphasized female-centric theme going. As a pilgrimage location, I think it would also help to capitalize on visitor traffic. I could easily see this being not only a place for sailors and the like to come worship but also a place for women to pray for the safe return of husbands (Crone), be blessed with fruitful conception (Mother), or plea for the love of a handsome seafarer (Maiden).
Just throwing stuff out there. Either way, I'm sure the island will be sick! I cant wait to see it!

 

[Elduwin]

Hey,
Just realized I never answered/approved the app!
I've been following the work you two made for the Mermaid's Palace island, so happy to approve.

I was just wondering, it might be good to test a Reach/OT blocks version (more white-gray colors) maybe? Let me know when you've made a copy with that palette to check out.

 

[JJLyric]

just saying i dont have time to do practicaly anything on the server so im giving up bastards cradle i thinlk it was

 

[lemonbear]

Hey,
Just realized I never answered/approved the app!
I've been following the work you two made for the Mermaid's Palace island, so happy to approve.

I was just wondering, it might be good to test a Reach/OT blocks version (more white-gray colors) maybe? Let me know when you've made a copy with that palette to check out.

Can do! Would you like us to keep the red accents or try something different?

 

[Elduwin]

Can do! Would you like us to keep the red accents or try something different?

Could be nice to test with that red base on the outside, really liked it on the OT contest tests (and if it's incorporated into OT style, could be a nice reminder of that style, considering Mermaid's Palace is the closest to OT)

Also, after considering what to put on the other islands, especially Bastard's Cradle, I'd like to move the Maiden's dedicated faith to Mermaid's Palace, and have a perfume industry there (like was planned for BC at first, but it would have risked to be a bit redundant with Mermaid's Palace, so it'll be some other stuff). What do you think? I feel there's enough space in the buildings for a small industry, and there could be flower fields around the septry and more on the mainlands if necessary.

 

[lemonbear]

Could be nice to test with that red base on the outside, really liked it on the OT contest tests (and if it's incorporated into OT style, could be a nice reminder of that style, considering Mermaid's Palace is the closest to OT)

Also, after considering what to put on the other islands, especially Bastard's Cradle, I'd like to move the Maiden's dedicated faith to Mermaid's Palace, and have a perfume industry there (like was planned for BC at first, but it would have risked to be a bit redundant with Mermaid's Palace, so it'll be some other stuff). What do you think? I feel there's enough space in the buildings for a small industry, and there could be flower fields around the septry and more on the mainlands if necessary.

That works for me! Maj and I will do some research into what that could look like.

 

[ChewyMan125]

Hi there!

Finn and I would like to apply for the vineyard estate, overlooking the coastal cliffs of Ryamsport's lands. You can find our test at /warp Chewy all the way towards the top of the plot

 

[IMajic]

UPDATE on the Mermaids palace,

me and lemonbear are slowly grinding through parts of the septry, its a lot of work but parts are coming together nicely.

• We are testing different interiors and designs.
  
  
• Chewy has done a lovely Sept, So big <3 and thanks to him, as it turned out well.
  
  I will hopefully be on the server a bit more over next few weeks.
  
  We as in lemonbear and myself try todo the work on the septry together, so we get both opinions.
  Which seems to be working out nicely. Maybe a bit slow
  [maybe on my part, as I am not online due to IRL, so I am sorry to lemonbear]
  
  Anyway you can check the place out at
  /warp mermaidspalace
  
  Thanks from
  Majic and Lemonbear

 

[ChewyMan125]

UPDATE on the Mermaids palace,

me and lemonbear are slowly grinding through parts of the septry, its a lot of work but parts are coming together nicely.

• We are testing different interiors and designs.
  
  
• Chewy has done a lovely Sept, So big <3 and thanks to him, as it turned out well.
  
  I will hopefully be on the server a bit more over next few weeks.
  
  We as in lemonbear and myself try todo the work on the sentry together, so we get both opinions.
  Which seems to be working out nicely. Maybe a bit slow
  [maybe on my part, as I am not online due to IRL, so I am sorry to lemonbear]
  
  Anyway you can check the place out at
  /warp mermaidspalace
  
  Thanks from
  Majic and Lemonbear

<3

 

[Elduwin]

Hi there!

Finn and I would like to apply for the vineyard estate, overlooking the coastal cliffs of Ryamsport's lands. You can find our test at /warp Chewy all the way towards the top of the plot

Hey Finn & Chewy
I saw the test, it looks great, I went through it with Finn couple days ago so when the small changes are made I'll be happy to approve!
I'll try to visit in the next few days

 

[Elduwin]

UPDATE on the Mermaids palace,

me and lemonbear are slowly grinding through parts of the septry, its a lot of work but parts are coming together nicely.

• We are testing different interiors and designs.
  
  
• Chewy has done a lovely Sept, So big <3 and thanks to him, as it turned out well.
  
  I will hopefully be on the server a bit more over next few weeks.
  
  We as in lemonbear and myself try todo the work on the sentry together, so we get both opinions.
  Which seems to be working out nicely. Maybe a bit slow
  [maybe on my part, as I am not online due to IRL, so I am sorry to lemonbear]
  
  Anyway you can check the place out at
  /warp mermaidspalace
  
  Thanks from
  Majic and Lemonbear

Thanks for the update, I visit it every now and then and am pretty happy with all of it so far! Keep the good work

 

[Elduwin]

Hi there!

Finn and I would like to apply for the vineyard estate, overlooking the coastal cliffs of Ryamsport's lands. You can find our test at /warp Chewy all the way towards the top of the plot

This is approved! (and pasted a couple weeks ago lol)
I'll just go through it for minor details with you, but looks great otherwise, nice work!

 

[IMajic]

Mermaid's Palace
by lemonbear & iMajic

Project is now COMPLETED!


The island project includes

Mermaids Sept.
[Thank you to Chewy for his sept, we both worked on the ints and chewy did the exterior] thx chewy!

Mermaids Palace
[which had a few people do some interiors of some of the rooms including Awb doing the Septoms rooms and the donations rooms] thx Awb!

Perfume Terraces
This includes a lot of flower grown on terraces on the west side of the island.

Sept on the rock.
Small silent sister house in the north east of the Septry grounds dedicated to the a small group of silent sisters inside the grounds.

Large Underground Crypts underneath the Sept and Septry.
Large Underground water capacity for sewers and cisterns and fresh water tanks.

Olive orchard.
On the east side of the island that also has water management to supply the orchard during the summer.

Olive Tennant Farm.
A small farm of a few houses on the east side of the island that tend to the orchard. they do not own the orchard but work it.

Glass Maker manufactory.
On the north east end of the island there is a small glass makers workshops that some of the septoms work and produce glass pots locally for the perfume workshop inside the grounds. also thx Wurst for the ints of the glass makers!

Small Woods
On the south side of the island there is a small wooded area that also has a few ruins and a larger ruin of an old sept building on the cliff edge, this overlooks the sea.

Underwater Ancient sunken town ruins
To the south of the island there is an underwater sunken ruins of an ancient arbor town that was lost and fell into the sea 1000s of years ago that now produces seaweed and seagrass for aquatic life and maybe fishermen also can fish the seaweed.

A small jetty
Boats to dock on the island to bring pilgrims and bring supplies from the mainland.

Natural Caves and cliffs
A grotto/cave on the north east side of the island and small caves on the west side of the island.

Thanks Eld for letting us do the island and we both hope you are happy with the project

The underwater ruins will include more plants once we get the 1.18 update to get the water plants, see what can be water logged and what can't be, I will also let you do the water one the coast of the main arbor island is done

 

[IronGentleGiant]

So I don't know where to drop this, but I found this nicely detailed treatise from the 1400s on shipbuilding in the Venetian Arsenal by Michael of Rhodes who worked there, oversaw shipbuilding, and served in the Venetian Guard.

Michael of Rhodes | Ships and Shipbuilding

 

[Deiniol]

Hey!

Here's my application for the vassal chambers within Vinetown's Admiralty.

My test can be found at /warp Deiniol.

https://imgur.com/a/Fw1VcDf

 

[Margaery_Tyrell]

I think some examples of terra would be necessary for one of the islands of The Arbor, along with some more extensive tests of architecture, along with info about population size, details about the economic activity and local professions, who controls the island, more detailed maps…this is an app size more suited to a farmstead than an entire island.

 

[Azulejo]

Due to its extreme western position relative to the Arbor, and the rest of Westeros we can assume that Horseshoe Rock is isolated, and probably of a subtropical oceanic climate. The Arbor itself is verdant and green in description, so a smaller island even further south would be warmer and a bit more humid due to the ocean air. My inspiration for the island is taken from the climate of the Azores, as isolated but wet/humid islands.​

The Arbor isn't described as verdant nor green. The one vague description given about the island is it being "golden", which can be interpreted in many ways, more or less literally. I personally don't think the Azores are a great fit for the island. They are, as you said, quite wet as well as cool in general, enjoying a oceanic-subtropical climate. They are more similar to stuff we can find currently in our southern Stormlands.

It is not far-fetched to think that Horseshoe Rock, given its position relative to the main island, has some kind of microclimate. Having said that, it is unlikely to be wetter and definetly not cooler than the Arbor, which the Azores are.

I'm not sure any of the Macaronesian islands (Azores, Madeira, Canarias, Cabo Verde) are a good fit for this, not at least withouth been very selective of what is chosen as well as adding elements that would ground the island closer to the overall Mediterranean inspiration of the Arbor. These archipelagos share a unique geography that has made possible the appearance of many different climatic zones that house biomes found nowhere else in the world, some of which are the remnants of the ones that covered big chunks of the mainland thousands of years before.

I think that you need to play more with your ideas. This is going to be a project with a heavy emphasis on terra, and I currently don't see that in your rough app. Test for the terrain and the volcanic features of the island, its vegetation and unique quirks. As you have seen, I'm skeptical about your inspiration. Prove me wrong, show me some tests that blend the Azores with the Arbor, or maybe try a new approach, you decide, but show something that can give us an idea of what you have in mind, and also guarantee that you will be able to take the challenge.​

 

[Frenci_George]

Hey!

Here's my application for the Admiralty garden.
I was inspired by the French gardens in the upper part and the Italian gardens in the lower part.

My test is located at /warp Frenci, in the southeastern part