# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Pen and Paper / Traditional Methods >  Achatina Titanicus

## wminish

Hi Everyone

It's been a while since I've posted a work in progress here (one that isn't for a challenge anyway) so I thought I would share this new project. This is going to be the first glimpse of a world design that I've been thinking about for a while but up I think I've now fleshed out enough of the detail to start on this map, depending on how it goes there may well be more maps for this setting in the future.

A commission request that I saw a while ago got me thinking about cities on the backs of large creatures. Over time I started to build up a wider and more complex world around this original concept. This first map depicts a small city on the back of a giant land snail. The world I envisaged contains several large planes where different types of these creatures roam. The world itself is largely too dangerous for the humanoid races to settle fixed cities due to other large creatures that roam the world so the humanoids turned to the snails and the two species now rely on each other for survival. The land snails roam the planes and foothills providing the humanoids with fresh lands for foraging. The humanoids help keep the snails clean and parasite free and also provide additional force to help fight off hostile creatures.

Here is my current progress anyway, I had time to sit down for an hour or so this morning and flesh out the basic design.

----------


## Arimel

Really neat idea. I just hope that the giant snails don't produce some other giant creatures... like giant birds to eat giant snails. Things could get fun then! 

Also, with this sort of home, you could probably see humans using more unique materials for things as well. Snails produce a lot of fun slime that could have interesting applications (depending on how much backstory you need). Slime-a-pults sound fun!

----------


## wminish

> Really neat idea. I just hope that the giant snails don't produce some other giant creatures... like giant birds to eat giant snails. Things could get fun then! 
> 
> Also, with this sort of home, you could probably see humans using more unique materials for things as well. Snails produce a lot of fun slime that could have interesting applications (depending on how much backstory you need). Slime-a-pults sound fun!


Thanks Arimel. I have certainly given some thought to giant birds; they may make an appearance, I haven't quite decided yet. I am also definitely thinking along the lines of new materials from the giant snails and other creatures, armour and weapons made from chitin etc. Giant funguses will certainly be making an appearance as well.

----------


## KaiAeon

This looks very interesting. Looking forward to the finished work.

----------


## wminish

I got started on the inking yesterday, here is the current progress.

----------


## wminish

The inking is now complete, here's the latest progress.

----------


## samuel.harven

That looks very nice! Very creative! I just kind of wish I could see the snail's face.

----------


## rdanhenry

It's looking good. And you've been making pretty quick progress, though technically still at a snail's pace. (Hmm... how fast do those big one's move? The expression might bear a different meaning in that setting.)

Maybe add some signs of how they get up and down to interact with the lands about. Some ladders hanging down or a flying carpet in use or whatever it is they manage with.

----------


## wminish

> It's looking good. And you've been making pretty quick progress, though technically still at a snail's pace. (Hmm... how fast do those big one's move? The expression might bear a different meaning in that setting.)
> 
> Maybe add some signs of how they get up and down to interact with the lands about. Some ladders hanging down or a flying carpet in use or whatever it is they manage with.


Thanks, I'm quite pleased with the progress. In terms of getting up and down I have placed a crane on the top which is used to raise and lower a platform of carts for the inhabitants to go out foraging. The placement of this element did end up being a little unfortunate though as the end of the crane is kind of hidden by the edge of the shell, hopefully I can make this element a bit more obvious with the colouring and shading.

----------


## wminish

The piece is now finished, here is the final update.



I've had a lot of fun with this piece and I'm really pleased with the final result. I think I'll definitely be drawing some more snails from this world in the future. I'll also put up a thread in finished maps for this piece when I get time in the next few days.

----------

