I'm occasionally working on a Google Sketchup model of the city of Karse, based on medieval Caernarfon for keep and city center, the Holm in Schleswig for the independent fisherfolk village next to the city, and reconstructions of the Bergen Bryggen for the wooden boomtown at the external port facilities since the Opening. Some of the export formats of the pro version of that program (which I haven't got yet) would allow an architect's 3D plotter to produce a model...
As long as one only designs the exterior of the houses from a 2D map and holds back with details, construction of houses can go really fast. What takes time is getting the terrain contours right, and what won't happen soon are things like plant cover. I plan to be able to show my character's rooftop expeditions across the city, though.
Which reminds me:
I estimate the height of the cliffs of Heortland as about 300 meters (900 foot) as average, with terraces and occasional gaps pretty much like the Channel coast near Dover.
The Shadow Plateau on the opposite site is said to be a kilometer (300 foot) high, and according to its myth of origin is the remains of a higher volcano of Lodril aka Veskarthen (producing obsidian) that was shorn off by Argan Argar's spear. This makes its cliff sides steep, but not vertical, unless the erupting volcano god was frozen as a column (and Cold is not Argan Argar's power).
The Marzeel river flows through a wide valley that used to be the river bed of the Creekstream River. There will be a terrace to either side of the former river bed which was the original shoreline. Given the enormous amount of water flowing down the Skyfall, I expect the old river bed to be about 2 km wide and the former shoreline maybe up to 2 meters above modern river levels. Basically, not unlike the glacial washouts that formed along the glacier fronts in the ice ages.
Do these terrain estimates sound right to you?
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