Tever's Fort (Patreon)

The fortifications of Tever’s Fort were erected quite recently along the Dragonfly Channel and local farmers and tradesmen quickly moved into and around the fort. The region south of the Dragonfly are wild and dangerous lands officially under the massive land claims of the Satrapy, but uncontested, unmonitored, and unprotected.

 Erozel Tever built the fortification as she retired from adventuring. A woman of late middle age, she’s still skilled with the blade, but spends more of her time maintaining her household than adventuring. Her goal was to pacify the lands south of the Dragonfly, but underestimated the amount of time required to build and maintain the fort that bears her name. Now she only sends out teams to deal with incursions and immediate threats instead of proactively working to pacify the region. 

The main fortress on the north side of the enclave houses Tever, her family, and her military forces. Opposite the fortress is the church of the Binder who “help” maintain order within the town, providing help to worshipers and keeping an eye on everyone else.

Unlike most of my maps, I took the time to take snapshots of my work as it progressed on this settlement.  Since this particular map is based mostly on water terrain instead of hills, I started by penciling in the river (and dug out moat on the northwest), as well as the major roads within the walls.

Then the important buildings get added – the main church or temple in town, some structures within the fortress proper, some warehousing, a major tavern or two…

And then the in-fill begins – erasing the road markers and replacing them with drawn roads, filling in the empty spaces with more buildings, and generally filling in the town.

Finally I head outside the walls and add a bit more detail – the orchard north of the fortress, the roads, river docks, fields, farms, and a few people who have homes and businesses outside the walls either because they can’t cope with the church of the Binder, their businesses are particularly smelly, or just a dislike of living within the walls while understanding the importance of having them near for safety.