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Zigurat in the Sands (part 1)

Added 2016-02-23 15:20:44 +0000 UTC

This post has a lot more drawings than usual (3 exterior shots and 2 versions of the first level of the map), so I recommend heading on over to the blog to get a view of them all - https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/the-ziggurat-in-the-sand-part-1/

Over the years I’ve tried to pass off a few stepped pyramids as ziggurats. So I figured it was finally time to end this trend with something akin to the real thing. To start off the process, I pulled out a pad of isometric paper and a straight edge and drew out an external plan of the structure in question. This was particularly weird for me as I have never used a straight edge in the six years I’ve been drawing maps for the blog. But it was kind of necessary to get this piece to work.

Now, the person who wanted the ziggurat also wanted it to be mostly buried in sand since it has been mostly abandoned for untold ages. So another pair of shots of the exterior of the ziggurat were drawn up - one showing the parts sticking out of the sand and another superimposing the two exterior shots showing the full construction and which parts specifically are above and below the sand line.

From these shots I started working on the interior maps which are broken up into three levels. The uppermost level is the “main entrance” which required walking up a LOT of stairs back when the zigurat wasn’t buried in the sands.

Not a lot on the uppermost level – just the hollow uppermost levels of the two front spires with spiral stairs down into the interior, and the main entrance which is a large chamber that splits into two stairways down into the interior of the pyramid and a small secret chamber between them. In effect, the top level map is just a bit of a tease of the further maps of the two other interior levels which I will be posting on Friday.