Blackwater (with Islas Gemas)

[NikNik]

Hey Emil,

I have not been around a lot of late as I suffer from severe RL-syndrome. Now the holiday is almost in sight and I finally have some time to have a look again at your marvelous MD. You've come a long way since my last reply 9a dozen or so pages ago). Brilliant those little towns and the resorts are stunning too. Great work on the beaches.
I also like the terraforming and terrain work of the last pages. Very well done. Great that story of the old cartographers. I wonder why they haven't named the isle with El Perro y el Remiendo after a lizard. f you look at the small pieces of land sticking out into the sea, they resemble toes and the mountainous outcropings resemble legs. Well I guess my RL-syndrom is getting to my head.

take care and see you in a couple of weeks when I am back from France.

Nik-Nik

[bat]

There are very great pictures, emilin! The islands are looking wonderful! Great work!

Thanks for the Hounoring!

[rooker1]

Awesome update.  The island looks fantastic and the way the city is in the valley looks very realistic.  I also wander if you have considered using the NAM curved road pieces, it my add a touch of class to those windy roads.



Robin   

[thundercrack83]

Another fantastic update here, as always, emilin! And congratulations to bat, kwakelaar, and David (dedgren) for being honored here at such a great place!

My favorite picture in this update has got to be the close up shot of Remiendo--that ridge is absolutely beautiful! I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your work, my friend!

[Pat]

Emilin i love your countryside its very peacefull and i hope you have a great time on your vaction... Take care and see you next time around - pat

[Schulmanator]

You have a delightful region under development here. I miss seeing you around. Have a great vacation!

[emilin]

Personal replies:

kimcar: Thanks! I can't take credit for the terraforming though. Most of it is HabLeUrg's work (though I have done the finetuning myself).

Shadow Assassin: Thank you! As you will notice I have actually started mapping the region, but that takes some time. Or did you mean a "census region shot"? That can be arranged, but I would rather wait for some more development first.

BossOx: Thanks! I agree about the third shot (it looks a bit odd from that angle). But the area is still under development so there is still time to fix that bit. And no, I don't use the curved road pieces, for exactly the reasons you mention. Also, the fact that the terrain is so hilly makes the road curve in more natural look ways without them. But, I would certainly use them if they were euro textures.

NikNik: Good to see you around again, NikNik! And thank you for that very nice comment, of course! I guess all the islands are named after precious stones so it would be kind of odd to name one of them "Varana" or something, but I do see what you're getting at.

bat: Thank you, thank you! And you earned it – by being a faithful supporter of Islas Gemas.

rooker1: Thank you very much! And about the curved roads: as I answered BossOx I would probably use them if they were euro textured.

thundercrack83: Thank you so much! I hope you like the next one too.

patfirefghtr: Thanks! It was all very peaceful, besides for the dog barking at everything at night and the cat refusing to leave the bed room for the entire time (city animals, you know...)

Schulmanator: How nice to see you around! I do lurk around your journal from time to time over at ST, though not as often as I used to. I promise to try to stop by for a comment every now and then too, but the server lag is bothersome. And I have to say I appreciate you starting a journal over here too.


Honouring Sebes, Yoman and Shadow Assassin

Alright, time to get this journal up and running again. I plan to go through most of the reaming honourable mentions this week, and then get back to the development on the south coast of Zafiro as soon as possible.

This update will be a revisit to the desert island of Topaz, and I have also taken the time to revamp the oasis (it looked much too busy) and increase the size of the main town Arrakesch (some pictures of that at the end of the update).

I will also try to get some more entries into the dictionary at the end of the week, and make some sort of table of contents for the first page of the journal (it's getting rather hard to find what you are looking for around here by now).


Lago Sebes

Just half way in between Pinje and the small fishing village of Leandra lies a small lake, in an oasis, called Lago Sebes. The lake varies considerably in size during the season shifts on Topaz. In the middle of the dry summer it almost disappears.

These days it is mostly known as a beautiful place to visit, but in earlier times it was the only sure place to find fresh water on Topaz, making it priceless for survival in this harsh environment.

Nobody is really sure what "Sebes" means. As with many of the places on Topaz the name is a mix of Spanish and some North African language (which one has never been clearly established).






Puerto Jumanji

The port of Topaz is known as Puerto Jumanji. The name is a Spanish sounding translation of Yoman, referring to a Turkish trader that established the first anchor place here in 1672, and also set up a trading post for exporting fish.

The port is still today the only connection to the rest of the Islas Gemas, since there is no airport (or even a helicopter landing spot) on the island. Ferries for Rubí and Zafiro leaves twice a week, and the port also handles export and import of goods.






Cantina Assassina

Topaz is perhaps not the island of choice for most tourists. The few travellers that do pass through here can chose to stay at the town hotel in Arrakesch, or at the Cantina Assassina – located conveniently in the middle of Puerto Jumanji.

Most sailors that stay over night in the port come here for cheap beer and food. When several trade ships call at the port at the same time it can be quite lively around the bar and restaurant area.






Some more stuff

Here are the pictures of the further development of Arrakesh:







And here's a region shot of the island:



Oh, and I made a map too:

[Eddie]

Simply amazing. The topography is excellent. 

The volcano was wonderfully terraformed and that rock mod is gorgeous. Pais Palo is beautifully sculpted and the placing and variety of trees is 

My favorite is the winding roads between in the trees in this pic:

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n65/emilin_2006/cel2805.jpg

Bye for now.

[thundercrack83]

I have to wipe my eyes for a second...

WOW! The Island of Topaz is amazing, and I can't believe how fantastic that map is! Great work, emilin! And congratulations to sebes, Yoman, and SA!

[Pat]

WoW Emilin im totaly drolling over that port and the map...... Verrry very good job 

[Shadow Assassin]

Wow, thanks for the honours.

I assume I'm the owner of the cantina. Happy Hour's on Fridays at 7pm. And bar fight tournaments will be held every Saturday night.

Very nice map, by the way.

[bat]

Congrats to Sebes, Yoman and Shadow Assassin!

These are wonderful places, emilin! Also wonderful map of that small island!

[nova vesfalo]

wonderful lil'island , the seaport is stuning as the little "north african" village ! The roads are really great ; and your map is so "Lonely planet " love it !


as always

[sebes]

Thanks Emil - it's great to have a size-instable lake named after me  The tourist description that goes with it is very much appreciated - I'll be sure to visit the island of Topaz and Lago Sebes during my next trip to Islas Gemas !

And you're actual very close: the original meaning of the name Sebes is thought to be 'quick running water' ...

[Air6]

As always excellent update. The first pic is my favourite... the dirty road, the shadow's palm on the water... Very nice my friend.

[Schulmanator]

A fine update. I love the look of the island. You are true to its character throughout. Very nice! 

[BossOx]

I really like your layout of buildings in the port, its one thing to find/make good custom content its another to put it in the right place.  I don't know whether it is my screen, but such a clear water mod makes the artificial breakwater look like it is just a wall and the boats are simply floating in thin air, made my double take 

Nonetheless the village is faultless, but maybe your oasis needs a little more green.

[bother_me]

Fantastiskt... Allting!  Man vill nästan bosätta sig där, om det hade funnits på riktigt. Du har allt på dina tropiska öar Från små byar och natur till civilisation och hamnar. Återigen fantastiskt, 

Fantastic... Everything! I would have liked to live there, if it was real. You've got everything on your tropical islands Tiny villages, nature, big cities and ports. Once again, fantastic 

[emilin]

Personal replies:

Eddie: Thank you so much!

thundercrack83: Thanks! I'm glad you liked the map too. I'm trying to get better at making those.

patfirefghtr: Thank you! I hope you like the next one too. The "Bombero" is for you.

Shadow Assassin: Thanks! And yes, the Cantina is yours, though I think I'll stay out of it on Saturday night from now on, hehe...

bat: Thank you, as always, bat!

nova vesfalo: Thanks! Lonely Planet is a nice reference, I think. I do enjoy making maps, but it takes terrible amounts of time.

sebes: Thank you! What an interesting coincidence with the name. I had absoulutly no idea what it meant.

Air6: Thank you so much! I hope you like the next one too. The "Ancla del Aero" is for you.

Schulmanator: Thank you! Thank you! I'm glad I didn't try to build a bigger city in that style though, since there are basically only two sets of North African buildings that I have been able to find at all.

BossOx: Thanks a bunch! You might have noticed, that ports are my favourite thing to build so it's always good to hear that they are appriciated. About the water: I think it's probably the terrain mod I'm using for this island that is the problem and not the water itself. It has no "beaches". It might be possible to add beaches and ocean floors to it though. I'll look into that.

bother_me: Tackar, tackar! Another Swede showing up in Islas Gemas. How very nice of you! Välkommen tillbaka när som helst!


Honouring HabLeUrG, patfirefighter, Cali and Air6

For the new visitors a quick reminder of what we're doing right now: everyone who was noted for 10 or more comments when Developing Islas Gemas reached 500 comments was promised something named after them on the islands. After this update I am almost halfway through these honourable mentions. I'm hoping to be finished with them by the end of this week.

This update will honour HabLeUrg (who not only reached more than ten comments, he also made the map of the region), Patfirefighter, Cali (one of the first friends of Islas Gemas, but I haven't seen him around in quite a while) and Air6.

I have also finished off the island of Ópalo. Some of you may remember it from earlier updates as "the Japanese island" so I will also show you pictures from that and a new map in the same scale as the map of Topaz.


Habelurgian Strait

The Habelurgian Strait goes in between Topaz and Zafiro on one hand and the other islands on the other. It is – and always has been – the natural route for ships passing through the area. It's no coincidence that the only bigger cities on the Islas Gemas are located in direct connection to the strait.

The strait was named after an explorer serving the Roman Empire in the 1st Century AD. Habelurgius Mexicanus was the first European to go through these waters and survive. According to myth he was, however, not able to find a landing spot for his galley and the Islas Gemas remained untouched by European hands for several hundred more years.



Two ships meeting in the Habelurgian Strait:






Bombero

The monks of the San David monastery in Juaníta started distilling the leaves of the Eucalyptus tree way back in the 1600s. The liceur was inappropriately named Bombero, meaning firefighter in Spanish. It is, in fact, so strong it burns instantly if inflamed.

Bombero is – as they say – an acquired taste. While the locals love it – and claims that it has all sorts of healthy side effects – most people trying it for the first time thinks it tastes like someone made booze out of toothpaste.






Corriente California

The island of Ópalo is very moist, with streams and waterfalls cascading down the mountain sides. Corriente California was long known as just Corriente del Norte (Stream of the North), but when the Asian population of Ópalo migrated here in the 19th Century they used recently invented irrigation methods imported from California to grow rice fields on the north eastern shores of the island. Thus the name of the stream was changed.










Ancla del Aero

Besides from the main town of Ópalo, Puerto Azul, the waters around the island are rather shallow and hard to travel for larger ships. As the population grew another anchor place was needed, and Ancla del Aero was built. The name means "anchor place of the wind" suggesting that it was so hard to land a ship at the port that you had to "sail on the wind" to be able to do it. A small town has grown up around the port, but the terrain made further development impossible.












Finishing Ópalo

Beside Ancla del Aero I also added an even smaller village called Mata Ashita. The name is Japanese for "See you tomorrow" and was originally the product of a misunderstanding caused by language confusion between the Spanish speaking and Japanese speaking population of Ópalo. I think you can guess how that happened... 







And here's the region shot and the map:

[kimcar]

A glass or two of Bombero please    I have to drink for your nice work . the first word who come in my head , ( if i still have one after drink these glasses ) is very typical . I don`t know if is the right term but it`s feel like we are somewhere else . Do i have to stop drinking Bombero ?  Anyway nice update