OpenGeofiction
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of detailed work in the center of
Musawir . I’ve been feeling OK about the detail work, but the geography of the surrounding cityscape has been a nagging problem. I don’t want to proceed with more detailing if the geographic foundation is too unrealistic.
I originally designed the city about 10-12 years ago and traced it into OGF. The initial concept had the Taswir River spelling the word “Musawir” in the Almukhtaran language as it passed through the city. The city would become a capitol and center of religious knowledge due it’s auspicious location. It’s extreme population density would be the result of people crowding to live near the sacred river and it’s surrounding lakes.
After doing some research, though, I realized that the water volume for the river wouldn’t be nearly enough to justify it’s width. It would need a much larger watershed, extending deep into neighboring territories. Also, I never liked how the river had to run north to go south to Ma’amil.
Eventually I changed to the river into a lake , hoping to solve the volume problem, but that created a new problem: I needed an impervious barrier to keep the water in the lake, so I envisioned the city having a ridge to the south that would be formed of solid granite. That’s fine, but then I needed to justify the shape of the lake, so I figured that the areas the lake filled in were made from weaker soils that over time eroded. But then I would have to construct massive levees to keep the rest of the city from flooding. it seems the more corrections I made, the more problems arose.
I’m hoping that someone can help me with the hydrological aspect of the cityscape so that it can be salvaged in a realistic way. Musawir plays a crucial role in the history of Unesia. If I move it or erase it, the whole country would be affected.
UN1TY
Discussion
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 22 June 2017 at 15:43
It looks pretty amazing, but I think it would be better as a river. After all, it has meanders etc. Can you make it narrower (by moving the southern part north perhaps)? Or could you work with some neighbouring territories, preferably with mountains, to work out where the Taswir river might rise?
Comment from Gubble on 22 June 2017 at 16:20
This is a lovely idea, and a beautiful city I haven’t seen before. You certainly don’t want to remove the city and making it a lake doesn’t make sense. Thinning the river would result in versimlitude problems- it could be thinned a bit but any more would be unrealistic. Honestly, I think your best option would be to move the entire city to somewhere in the soouth. You stated moving it would affect the whole country, but without the history already written up in the wiki (or at least I can’t find it), I don’t think it would be too hard to restructure the country for the change in position.
Of course, ideally, and firstly, you should try negotiating with the surrounding countries about the watershed.
Comment from UN1TY on 23 June 2017 at 03:18
Thanks for the compliments! It’s hard for me to objectively look at my own work, especially when there’s so much other good mapping out there.
@Ūdilugbulgidħū - I think you’re right. It started as a river and seems most logical I should change it back. The source for the river would most logically be in southern AR057, which is still unclaimed. Maybe I could coordinate with other territories and see if the river could be made into a border.
Another idea I just got was to dam the river downstream. Do you think that would be a good way to resolve the water volume problem?
@MrOobling - I didn’t know narrowing the river would be unrealistic, too. That’s good, as the overall shape of the river is something I’d like to preserve. Moving Musawir south toward the sea would have been an ideal solution to the water volume issue, but the shape of the city and the river’s necessary direction of flow there would be even more awkward.
I’m hoping to release the wiki page soon. I’ve been working on it offline and it’s 95% done, but have been delaying a bit :)
Comment from Cauldron on 23 June 2017 at 15:27
If you want to leave it as a lake, it could be an oxbow lake - a lake that forms when a river changes course and a portion of the river is left isolated from the rest. They often have meandering shapes. But that would also mean you’d have to have a similarly sized river running near to it and all the way down to the coast in some form, which would be a very substantial thing to put into your country.
Comment from Gubble on 23 June 2017 at 21:01
Another possibility is that there is bedrock very close to the surface where the river flows. This means the river is very shallow and hence, is wider so all the water volume is able to pass through. I’m not an expert in how rivers work though so this may be misleading and bedrock would make building near the river more expensive.