Pictures of Revelstone

Post by **Warmark** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 4:57 pm

you see a link? i see it as i posted a actual pic...

anyway you can see it on the SRD web page. under book covers i think.

Post by **matrixman** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 5:56 pm

I checked out Mystikan's website. His rendition of Melenkurion Skyweir is FANTASTIC! I'm using it as my desktop background.

Post by **Edge** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:42 pm

Warmark wrote:you see a link? i see it as i posted a actual pic...
anyway you can see it on the SRD web page. under book covers i think.

Or you could click on the 'TCOTC covers' link in my sig...

Post by **Warmark** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 7:09 pm

Yes, you can also do that aswell!

I really like that version of Revelstone actually.

Post by **CovenantJr** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:05 pm

Aha! That's very much like my vague mental image of Revelstone, with the detail filled in. But I picture it grey.

Post by **Warmark** » Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:59 pm

CovenantJr wrote: But I picture it grey.

Me too, granite is grey isnt it?

Post by **Po77InAtOr** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:26 am

This is the style of how I imagine Revelstone. Don't get me wrong, this isn't how it actually LOOKS, and Revelstone is a LOT larger, but this is kind of the STYLE I think it should be.

BTW---This is carved directly into the mountain

Post by **Mark** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:57 am

There is a good image of Revelstone on the front cover of the edition of Gildenfire that i have, not sure if it is on all editions as its the only copy i've ever seen of it.

Website · Post by **The Somberlain** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:03 pm

I always had the impression that it looked very natural... and the ornamentations described in the books, although visible, looked more... eh, organic, if that makes sense. That is, there'd be windows and pillars and buttresses, but it would look like they'd somehow grown there, over time. On that link to the various covers, I kind of imagined something like the top right one of Lord Foul's Bane.

I have a really clear picture in my head, but sadly I'm an appalling artist. I did draw a sketch one a small post-it note, once, but I've since lost it. Plus it didn't look very good, and wasn't at all detailed.

However, I also have lots of time to waste, so maybe I'll have some luck with those programs.

And the person who said that the tower was something like Kevin's Watch:
Surely it can't be?
I might have misunderstood you, and I'm going to find it hard to describe what I mean... But if the only way into Revelstone is through (and thus under) the tower, it can't be separate to the main body of the cliff.
The cliffs themselves, as I understood the description, form a point, at the apex of which lies Revelstone. The balconies go a little way along the sides, and then it just gradually slopes down and back into the Westron Mountains.

In fact, I'm drawing a diagram. Obviously there's no detail, and the shapes have been drastically simplified and exaggerated, and the plain on the top of Revelstone isn't so flat, but this is the general way I thought it must have been designed. Did I miss something in the book?

On the subject of the colour, in the diagram it's grey, but I pictured a slightly sandier colour. Not quite as much as in Po77inator's photo, but not just plain grey.

Post by **Warmark** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:27 pm

Very good, makes it much easier to visualise, thanks.

Post by **KAY1** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 10:35 am

On one of the more recent covers for the 1st Chronicles ( I think LFB ) where there are various scenes fro mthe Land pictured on a pyramid, there is an artists rendering on one of the faces of the pyramid.

Website · Post by **The Somberlain** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 8:51 am

Ahem. Well... after reading this topic a few days ago, I went off and downloaded Terragen and World-Machine... and had a play around...
And so far my Revelstone (I think on its third attempt now) looks kind of like this.

It's nowhere near finished, of course. For a start there's no actual city, yet. I may need more software for that. Plus, the grass seems to have gone turquoise in the background, and there's this irritating mossing effect on the lower cliffs. And there's no real detail at all.
But.
Even looking at the two pictures posted here, not to mention the various covers, it seems like people's images of the cliff itself seem to vary. I always pictured that absolutely everything; the city, the tower, the walls to the tower, were modelled out of the cliff with minimum alteration to its general shape- I don't see myself doing much more than adding windows, doors and balconies to this.
Though admittedly mine wasn't even quite like this at first; I'd never realised the tower was much shorter than the plateau until the other day (hence the error in my earlier diagram).

Did anyone else see it looking vaguely like this?
The tower and walls do seem quite elongated, I guess, but if you could look over the top, the courtyard is pretty big (it's also a perfect square and looks kind of silly), and LFB does say that the main city is "a surprising distance from the tower".

Anyway... thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions?
I thought Furl Falls would maybe go on the right of the tower, where there's those three indents on the clifftop... or right over to the left where the whole cliff-face falls into shadow. As soon as I can figure out how to get a waterfall in the first place, that is.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:18 am

Apart from one thing I'd say that looks pretty much how I'd imagined it.
The one thing is, I think it was mean to be in an angle of the large cliff; that is, the cliff comes down from the north to where the tower and that are, then heads of in an almost easterly direction, with the tower bit on the point (so basically, I'd have had the left hand part of the cliff stretching away from the rest at an angle).

Website · Post by **The Somberlain** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:29 am

Hmm... I know what you're saying. I always viewed the "wedge-shaped promontory" as being fairly understated, and not at a very sharp angle, but my mental picture was more angled than the one I arrived at there.
However, I have no idea of how to exercise any fine control over the cliff shape, while keeping it looking natural. To get the main features in World Machine I'm just changing various settings randomly and seeing if they look okay or not... and altering something like that - even if I do work out how - would mean starting all over again. And I just can't face that

I tried to angle the "photo" so that it wasn't quite so clear where the cliff went, so it might look like it was sloping off, and maybe I'll have more luck with that when the product's finished. But otherwise, I'm afraid you'll just have to pretend.

Post by **mickwalker** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:03 pm

Gildem fire is illistrated in my copy, one of the illistrations is revelstone veiwed by the hurichi, if you check out cover illistrations on this site I think it their

Post by **wayfriend** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:14 pm

The Somberlain wrote:Anyway... thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions?

Remember, that behind Revelstone proper is a valley with farms and things. That seems impossible in this picture. I would suggest the backdrop cliff dipping down to match the top of the Revelstone wedge. And I would make it so that the wedge was more as if the range juts forward at this point, rather than like a seperate piece jammed into it.

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:20 pm

The hills and fields were on top of the plateau, weren't they?

Post by **Cail** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:27 pm

That was my impression.

Website · Post by **The Somberlain** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 5:39 pm

Wayfriend wrote:
The Somberlain wrote:Anyway... thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions?
Remember, that behind Revelstone proper is a valley with farms and things. That seems impossible in this picture. I would suggest the backdrop cliff dipping down to match the top of the Revelstone wedge. And I would make it so that the wedge was more as if the range juts forward at this point, rather than like a seperate piece jammed into it.

I think you've mistaken the scale of the picture... that wedge jutting out is actually just the tower. Which we're told is half as high as the plateau itself. The flat cliff in the background houses the city... which might be more evident once it's finished. Plus, I've managed to make the whole cliff a little more wedge-shaped since that, with those flat walls curving away, which makes the tower look a little less unnatural (though I get the impression that the cliff around the tower and its walls was considerably re-shaped by the giants).

And on the subject of the fields... I also got the impression that they were right on the top of the cliff-plateau. The idea is that that plateau gradually slopes downwards in the background, so you can only see the lip here.

Post by **wayfriend** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:20 pm

The Somberlain wrote: And on the subject of the fields... I also got the impression that they were right on the top of the cliff-plateau. The idea is that that plateau gradually slopes downwards in the background, so you can only see the lip here.

I do not doubt that there are. But these fields go back into a valley. Glimmermere is in this valley, and the stream from it which becomes Furl's Falls. This is the valley where the interpreter of dreams dwells.

In [u]The Illearth War[/u] was wrote:A cool breeze hinting a fall crispness touched him through the late morning sunlight - a low blowing as full of ripe earth and harvests as if it were clairvoyant, foretelling bundled crops and full fruit and seeds ready for rest. But the trees on the plateau and the upland hills were predominantly evergreens, feathery mimosas and tall pines and wide cedars with no turning of leaves. And the hardy grass made no concessions to the changing season.

The hills of the upland were Revelstone's secret strength. They were protected by sheer cliffs on the east and south, by mountains on the north and west; and so they were virtually inaccessible except through Lord's Keep itself. Here the people of the city could get food and water to withstand a siege. Therefore Revelstone could endure as long as its walls and gates remained impregnable.

[...]

Her tone was grateful, but her mention of the Giants cast a gloom over her and Covenant. She turned away from it, and led him northward along the curve of the upland.

In this direction, the plateau rose into rumpled hills; and soon, on their left, away from the cliff, they began to pass herds of grazing cattle. Cattleherds saluted the High Lord ceremoniously, and she responded with quiet bows. Later, she and Covenant crossed a hilltop from which they could see westward across the width of the upland. There, beyond the swift river that ran south toward the bead of Furl Falls, were fields where crops of wheat and maize rippled in the breeze. And a league behind the grazeland and the river and the fields stood the mountains, rising rugged and grand out of the hills. The peaks were snow-clad, and their white bemantling made them look hoary and aloof-sheer, wild, and irreproachable. The Haruchai lived west and south in this same range.

Hence, we can see that the plateau continues into a hilly "upland". (Notably not mountains.) It is surrounded by mountains and cliffs, hence it is a valley by some measure. Here in the hilly uplands are the principal grazing lands. It is a somewhat large area, as it's dimensions are measured in leagues.

I'm not sure if Revelstone faces west or south. If west, then the quotes above seem to indicate that the upland pass turns northward once beyond the plateau. If south, then the uplands are heading straight back from Revelstone into the mountains.

Glimmermere lies among these hills, and the uplands continue northward beyond it.

In my mind, these hilly uplands cannot be part of the plateau - you cannot be surrounded by cliffs and mountains on a plateau.

Pictures of Revelstone

Revelstone

What does Revelstone look like?