Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

Long ago, Archon was a Velothi city built by Dunmer refugees who fled Morrowind in protest at the Tribunal declaring themselves living gods. They still practised fundamentalist ancestor worship, and fought many wars with the coastal Argonian tribes to carve out a place for themselves in the Marsh. Later, relations became more cordial, as their self-interest aligned them with the Argonians against Tribunal-worshipping Dres incursions from the north. However, they were all but wiped out by the Khanaten flu, and their magnificent buildings lay empty for centuries.

In time, a small number of the descendents of Velothi survivors returned to partially rebuild the ancient Temple in the centre of the city. But it was only truly revived after Tiber Septim's conquest of the Marsh, when Archon was made a port for the Imperial Navy due to its strategic location. Many new buildings were constructed, and the old Velothi Quarter was restored to habitability.

The city is today divided into three parts. High Fane is the uppermost district, formerly the Temple compound, and surrounded by Velothi walls. It's the administrative centre and upper class district, where the garrison also lives in a Velothi tower. The Velothi Quarter is the old Dunmer city, built out of Velothi architecture. A few Dunmer still live here, but it's mostly colonists and Argonians. It's also very run down and partially ruined, so it's a poor district of the city. Branchgrove is the modern Imperial section that was built on the orders of Tiber Septim. Most middle-class people live here.

I guess it would be good to announce here that, with the alpha release of Phitt's Sheogorad mod here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37329 , we are now looking increasingly in a position to work on Archon. The East Coast will be worked on in patches although the main focus now is going to be dungeons and quests.

@ Deeza - As I'm currently height-mapping the area, I would appreciate your opinion on how the foundations of the city can be laid in order to get the correct 'look'. At the moment, I'm thinking that very small boats would form a kind of harbour at the Western entrance, much like the ones you see at the Stonewastes dock in our esm. It would, however, be more sprawling but still quite run-down, thus forming the largest mini-dock for fishing vessels on the map. This means that, rather than have a stables, Archon has a little docklands.

We could have a channel running through it that resembles the pathway that splits up Skingrad but filled with water. On the Eastern side, larger vessels can be stationed.

I think I will, for the time being, just set up the area similar to its surroundings as very low-lying marshland with patches of land. We can then decide if areas of the city such as High Fane and the Velothi Quarter warrant a slightly more raised patch of land.

I think that your idea with the channel and the boat dock sounds perfect. I think that High Fane (which will be a single massive building) should be on a raised area, with the rest of the Velothi Quarter arranged around it.

Okay, the height map's pretty much sorted now then. I still need some time to do some final sculpting though.