Since I haven't had time to drive around and visit real places lately, I decided to take a litlle virtual vacation last night and visit a city that doesn't exist outside the video game for which it was constructed.
Paradis is the largest city and the unofficial capital of The Living Lands. This place, called The Living Lands, is a rugged island, part of the world called Eora, in which the games Pillars of Eternity and Avowed are set.
The Living Lands is a wild frontier. Civilization is slowly expanding across the island, but the laws and infrastructure are very sparse and fragile in this part of Eora.
The settlements across the island are small and far apart. Paradis, the only major city, isn't much bigger than other settlements of this mostly untamed land.
Paradis is situated on the southern coast of the island, in the region known as Dawnshore, and is the first place in The Living Lands that a newcomer sees.
Being a wild frontier, this place attracts adventurers and explorers in search of new, exciting stuff, but also people (which means various types of inteligent fantasy humanoids) who are searching for a better life or a fresh new start. Those who run from the law can also be sometimes found here, hiding in dark alleys of Paradis or somewhere in the dangerous wilderness.
The loose law enforcement that can't cover much of the territory makes the island a mecca for smugglers, pirates, and some very shady trading organizations.
This screenshot shows the slum outside the thick stony walls of the city.
Everything is made of wood in this place.
By everything, I mean wooden shacks and barracks upon barracks, that's all there is, and everything looks like it could collapse at any moment.
One of the cool things about this game is the way the light paints the environments, and the way everything changes as the day turns into the night, and vice versa. This screenshot shows the slum at night, while in the following one ...
... you can see the same place early in the morning. I love the juicy, saturated colors in this game.
By the way, the name of the game is Avowed, if you haven't already guessed it. I post quite often about it lately.
This screenshot shows a small, shady shop in the slum.
It seems that quite a few of those who come to The Living Lands in search of a better life end up spending the rest of their lives here.
Here you can see a cool, relatively small wagon on one of the squares inside the city walls. It looks like something a mobile vendor would use.
This screenshot shows the interior of a large, elegant villa.
Here, the focus is on the inner courtyard of the same villa.
All around the city, you can see large fabrics stretched from rooftop to rooftop or from a rooftop to the city wall. I can't tell you what their function is. Maybe they are here only to make a bit of shade.
At some point, I decided to try out how resilient those fabrics are. That's how the hole in the fabric shown in this screenshot came to be.
Here you can see another interior.
This is the large, well-equipped kitchen of another villa.
Here, you can take a look at a good chunk of the city at night.
In this street life scene, someone is lecturing, preaching, or declaiming on a stage of sorts in front of a modest audience.
Here you can see a wagon and some buildings. Nothing special, just another urban scene.
I found these mysterious symbols in one of the small, dark alleys I usually avoid.
The architecture in Paradis is fairly varied.
It's a mix of styles from various regions of The Living Lands.
The accommodation isn't expensive.
Nighthlife isn't glamorous, but at least you can easily get robbed or killed, which can be exciting, and you can bring home great stories if you survive.
The food isn't the best, but it has a certain local charm which isn't always easy to swallow.
This is the most renowned tavern in the city. The Grinning Balarok. That's the name. Balaroks are rare, ferocious, underground creatures that no one has ever seen.
This tavern is situated in the part of Paradis unofficially known as the Underbelly. Smugglers, pirates, and all kinds of cutthroats congregate there. The place is far from being safe, but the cuisine is surprisingly refined...and poisonous, if needed. For the right price, you can order a murder as easily as lunch or dinner there.
Here you can see the dark, humid alley behind the tavern. Glowing mushrooms are one of the local attractions.
This nighttime scene from the Underbelly shows, among other things, two people talking. The conversation is probably quite shady.
Here you can see the same area early in the morning.
The underbelly definitely shares some stuff with the slum outside the walls of the fortified city.
This is the home of a local fortuneteller, a scammer, of course. The place is a luxury villa - of course.
Another expensive place, can't tell you who this one belongs to.
This is one of the larger squares of the city.
I'm a bit tired of writing right now. That's why I won't write anything under this picture. Oops - I just wrote something.
Here you can see some lovely details of an inner courtyard of one of the large, stylish buildings on the main square.
In this screenshot, I'm standing on the rooftop of a building near the market. The market is the structure in the center of the picture.
Here you can see some decorative wagons, pots, and flowers near the market.
This is yet another scene from the interior of a villa I introduced much earlier in the post.
Nothing special here, just another corner of the city.
The same here ...
... and here ...
... here as well.
A lovely postcard from the slum.
This last screenshot shows the loading screen I had to watch for about 30 seconds upon entering the city.
