Entry 11: Schattenfels
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Replies:
@TheMurderousCricket: Thank you very much! Yes, it has been very much work. This time, fortunately, rewarding, it's a bit more difficult with streams and creeks because of space constraints, so I can't promise that I'll keep it up.
@RobertLM78, @Bobelboy: Thank you very much, too!
@mitsos: Thank you very much, too, it's an honor to hear from you since I've always considered your MMP and city-building work to be very detailed and inspiring.
Contents:
Since I'm out of ideas of what to do next, and I still want to release some entries here, this entry will now deal with an area a bit further away from all the previous entries: We are seeing some pictures from the village of Schattenfels (lit. shadow rock), located in a remote area, close to a swamp and in somewhat close proximity to the city of Eichenwald at the Eichhörnchensee. This picture shall illustrate its location, in comparison with all other areas featured in this CJ so far; all villages and cities I've showed off so far are outlined in red colors, all others in grey.
A good while ago, I already shared some pictures of this area, so you might already recognize some content here; but I want to have this area in my CJ, anyway, and I made some slight improvements. I should mention that many pictures are WIP content - it's not easy to plan a swamp made from MMP's covering an area of half a large city tile, so there's a lot missing. I can only hope I can deal with this somehow... Also, I made this village by literally just wiping out its previous incarnation and rebuilding it. I only made minor changes there, and the only reason for wiping it out was to make sure everything works well gameplay-wise.
But first, my usual history blabbering. In the 5th century AD, after the collapse of the first Maxiland Empire, Germanic tribes moved into this area, taking over the structures there and founding new villages. Much of this time remains a mystery, and of course, is part of various urban legends. One of these legends deals with Simhîlt, a warlady whose tribe has settled in the swamp area to the west of Eichenwald. Some legends are praising her for taming this hostile environment, some others accused her of committing crimes against people of other tribes (up to the point where they accused her of killing her husband), which resulted in her being banished into this area.
Whatever may be true, a woman named Simhîlt (living app. 446-522 AD) really existed, her husband really met with an untimely death, and her tribe founded the village of Schattenfels at such a hostile location. Despite horribly high rainfall and soil humidity values, as well as rather hilly terrain, it was possible to at least maintain some farming along the most important traffic route into this area, the modern-day federal route B8.
Schattenfels is most famous for its vast fields of pumpkins, which are being processed to soup, roasted seeds, pumpkin seed oil (a horribly expensive oil, usually used in Austrian cuisine in lettuce salad, pumpkin soup, and sometimes sweet dishes or vanilla ice cream), and eerie festival decorations.
A close-up of the bridge here, as well as the small oil refinery producing aforementioned pumpkin seed oil.
Among Schattenfels' many old and famous landmarks is the Black Tower, a location really living up to its namesake, actually having been constructed by the Empire of Maxiland in 1156 AD to house the Empire's worst criminals. It has survived until now and can be visited by tourists.
And we arrive in the village. Schattenfels has been founded in 470 AD, and while the buildings from this time surely haven't survived, several insanely old houses still exist (or at least been rebuilt). These are the oldest village parts, along with the Katharinenkirche (church of Catherine).
Until about the 18th century AD, Schattenfels was located at a dead-end route, being only connected to Eichenwald. This changed after a new traffic connection to the Empire to the west of Maxiland (Schattenfels is located at the border) had to be established, leading right through Schattenfels. This resulted in a lot of buildings being constructed at this location - interestingly, therefore Schattenfels has two old village cores, which are separated by small farm fields.
And a picture of the lower parts of the village (regarding altitude above sea level). It should be noted that due to its rather remote location (the aforementioned trade route wasn't that big of a deal), Schattenfels remained rather underdeveloped, and there are still some farm fields scattered around the village. Also, large parts of this village consist of buildings with dark tones, giving it a rather gloomy appearance. Among the farm fields are some fruit tree plantations, especially cherry and plum trees, which are processed into various products.
The upper parts of the village. Not so old like the lower parts, but some buildings there still have an age of centuries. Interestingly, a lot of rich people live in Schattenfels - they enjoy the calmness and remoteness while Eichenwald, the next large city (app. 100,000 inhabitants) is still somewhat nearby.
There's also a small spring in the forest with one of four creeks flowing into the swamp to the north of Schattenfels. Some people have set up houses there, and it is a popular vacation spot.
And a close-up of another creek with two waterfalls, further illustrating the really low-density residential development of Schattenfels.
Schattenfels also has some old landmarks, such as this very old house considered to be the home of Simhîlt herself. In fact, it is really the oldest house in this village, but it is unlikely that it has seen Simhîlt herself (this is most likely a rumor set up by the inhabitants of Schattenfels to attract tourists). Nevertheless, it houses a small museum showing off the history of Schattenfels.
This picture shows the marketplace of Schattenfels, as well as its village hall and the former elementary school (to the top left). Also, in the upper center of the picture, the Golden Pumpkin restaurant, serving traditional local food such as pumpkin soup, various dishes with goat cheese, lettuce and pumpkin seed oil, as well as other plants which can grow in this rather difficult environment. In fact, it has been awarded with the golden medal in the category "Best restaurants producing food from local products", thus helping the local economy and actually really reducing the environmental impact by reducing transport time.
And the last important landmark, the Pension Sigmunt, (supposedly) named after Simhîlt's husband (whose name is actually unknown).
At the western outskirts of the village, there are also some traditional farmers living from breeding pigs and chickens.
Some farmers also live from growing spices (such as parsley, mustard, and anis) and berries. In fact, Schattenfels' "berryland" attracts a lot of customers from Eichenwald. Schattenfels also has a few industrial buildings: a distillery, where a good amount of harvested cherries and plums end up, a mustard grinding factory, and a pottery. This picture shows a bit of an overview of all these locations.
I shall now end my eternal blabbering with an overview over the entire village. I have blackened out parts of the picture as a bit of a surprise for you (aka it looks horrible now).
Next up - who knows. There's another city tile (Sebastianskirch) that requires a wipeout and won't see much change, most likely. Furthermore, I'm considering to start developing parts of the Seeviertel (the southeast of Maxiland), which will have a bit of a mediterranean theme. Also, an entire swamp has to be made in Schattenfels, as well as a few loose ends being tied up. And last but not least, I'm already having ideas of how to make the hillside villages close to Erlbronn. Speaking of which, one last picture, the picture of the village square, the center of festival activity of Erlbronn, as sort of a supplement to my last entry. I already showed it off in the "Show us what you're working on" thread, but I want to have it in my CJ as well. Hope you liked this entry.
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