Replies:M4346: Dankie! I consider the flatness a curse sometimes as well, The Netherlands isn't one of the prettiest countries in the world

Thanks for your kind words about my picture, much appreciated!
paroch: I can only hope that my Dutch buildings will grow into something looking as good as your MD, I wouldn't mind living in that Amstel corner you created. I hope that (in the modern version of this City) you will also find a good spot to reside!
threestooges: Those are some handy tips! I wasn't aware of the ctrl option to change brush size actually so big thanks to you! That tutorial section is a good idea, I'll have a look there first to see if there's such a tutorial already there
tkirch Thanks for dropping by, I hope the answers I posted to your questions helped you out some.
jmyers2043: Thanks for your visit, expect some familiar material for you in future updates of this region, as I mentioned earlier..I'm a big fan of your work
Part 2: The (fictional)city of Biroud, the Evergem Region:Important mods / props:
* Watermod: PEG's
Brigantine* CP's Terrainmod:
Meadowshire* CP's ploppable rocks
Brown ;
Grey ;
White* JRJ's
Slope and Tunnel Mod* JRJ's Tree proppacks :
number 2 ;
number 3 ;
number 4* PEG's:
Mountain Theme Pack + Addons* SFBT's:
Rural Power supply* Deadwoods':
BSC Forest Trail Lotsnote: Even though the city is fictional, much of the history is not. I wouldn't recommend this MD for a school project or history presentation though, some stuff is completely made up
This update is also a dedication to a great movie, guess the movie for some extra points..I would like to take you all back, way back into time. I would like to take you to the year 3000 B.C., the period where pictographic writing was created in Sumer, the time the Maya civilization started in South America and their invention of growing corn on designated fields to feed bigger cities. In Egypt the people and their faraos are starting to build Pyramids and more early civilization is on it's way for a few hundreds of years in Greece. Many great inventions are happening all around the world, but not in the part we are looking at today, right in the northern part of the Netherlands: Biroud

Here you see a landscape that is complety influenced by the Noordzee (North Sea). The tides control this rugged lands, the human nomad tribes that do live here can only walk from one 'island' to the other when it's ebb. This is the exact reason many tribes are still nomadic, only on a few selected places high above sea-level will have small settlements and even there you aren't safe.. Every now and then a superstorm sweeps away most things around the shoreline, it's a hard life living these days... Why do people want to live in this kind of area you might ask, well land that gets flooded every decade or two is extremely fertile. There's a lot of food available here if you know where to look for it or know how to grow it
Let's have a look at the central island. It seems that a nomad tribe called 'the Bir' has found a sweet water spring on a high piece of land, something quite rare close to shore in these salty regions. Are they here to fill their feedbags and then move on? or...let's have a look!
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Aren't they a smart bunch! It looks like the Bir have finally found a place to call home. The Bir leader, the elder one (in Dutch: 'de oude') has blessed this settlement with his own name, from now on this village will be called Biroud! (Originally Bir-oude, wich with the sands of time turned into Biroud)
Right in the village's centre you can see the sweet water pool and the sacred mushroom shaped big rock. That rock is really a big deal for the Bir, it was sent by their gods a few days after they settled here and it's shape reminds the villagers of the fruits of nature, the rock must be worshipped if the tribe wants to have plenty of food. Four times a day the people of Biroud come to pray to the Gods at the altar at the left of the holy rock, hoping for sunny weather and the blessings of a good harvest. You can also see some small homes made of wood,straw, clay and...animal droppings. In each home a set of families and their livestock would live together, that with a fire burning in each home..must have smelled great!. There's even a small farm with some cows to feed the villagers and a 'bridge' leading towards a forest for some basic foraging. Wow they have come far in such a short period of time! Let's jump forward about 2500 years to the year of 500 B.C, I'm curious if this settlement is here to stay!
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Oh my, this is starting to look like a serious village!
Please have a look at the wooden towers if you will. In times of big storm, all the people of the lower parts of the village can take refuge in several towers that are placed in Biroud. These towers are strengthened and have deep foundations to keep them at the same place, they are...by far not undestructable though. But now when there does come a big wave, usually all it will take is your home and no longer your life! However, the people of Biroud have found a new way to fight these storms, but more about that later.
The homes are now made of stone, clay, wood and...animal droppings and look a lot more cosey (in Real life the homes didn't look at all like on the pic, but I couldnt find any better ones).
Did you notice the holy rock is now shattered to pieces? Well some long periods of famine, big storms and disease made the villagers curse their gods and now they have taken on a new set of gods. These days they only pray twice a day, the people of Biroud are hardworking and friendly people and their gods are a reflection of their characters. Without fear of the supernatural and Biroud's natural protection against enemy settlements, the people of Biroud are very happy and peaceful. Because of this Biroud is actually quite ahead of it's surrounding settlements. Take a look at the next pic for an example:
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As you can see, some more cow farms are created at the edge of town and close to the small fishing port at the bottom you will see the village woodcutters working on 3 more homes, it looks like Biroud is really starting to blossom. Good for them!
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This is Biroud's latest invention against storms I was talking about earlier. With a great collective effort the people of Biroud have made a big piece of elevated land, a manmade hill to live on and to be safe from the sea! For now all they built on it is the gathering place and lookout tower but Im sure that the rest of the homes will follow once this method of building has proven itself..
We can't say that the people of Biroud are the ones who should take full credit for this invention, many early settlements started to create manmade hills around 500 BC, in general they are called a
terp but are also known as
wierde, veenberg (in Dutch) or
warft (in German). This is a major breakthrough for these parts of North-Western Europe, now they will not have to rebuild their homes and towns after every storm or flood! Unfortunately it's still impossible to create dry land everywhere so the people would have more land to farm and live on..for this they will have to wait for another 1500 years. Thankfully it's possible for us to jump into time, so in my next update you will learn how Biroud developes into a farming metropole in the period of 500 BC - 1500 AD.
I hope you enjoyed.