Svartalfar Cities?

[Freya]

Hi folks!
I'm making a graphical mod where i exchange the citygraphics for most civs to something i find more appropriate, for example a more crazy-carnivale styled citygraphic for the bals, treetop villages for the ljosalfar and darker, gloomier cities for the sidar (instead of the current bright eastern one). Now, i'm almost finished and the turn has come to the last civ of the bunch: the Svartalfar. However, i'm rather uncertain about how a svartalfar city should look. I was thinking of doing a treetop village style similar to the ljosalfar one, but darker and colder looking. But then I came to think that since the svarts turned their back on the god of nature and now worship Esus according to lore, they might not actually live in trees anymore, or do they?
So my question is what do you think a svartalfar city should look like?

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Like you described it. Like lothlorien in the LOTR movies at night. Blue, coldish lights, dark trees, etc.

 

[evanb]

Or Darnassus.

 

[Freya]

Darnassus? what would that be like?

 

[evanb]

Darnassus is the Night Elven capital city in World of Warcraft

 

[Charybdis]

Darnassus is the Night Elven capital city in World of Warcraft

They're not Night Elves out of a link to shadow and nastiness like the Dark Elves/Svartalfar come off as, they're called Night Elves because their principle deity is that of the moon, and their culture generally revolves about that.

Darnassus would suit the Ljosalfar if the purples/blues were simply replaced with golds/reds etc.

 

[loocas]

I imagine their cities wouldn't be in the treetops, but in the undergrowth. You know, the eyes peeking out of dark bushes. Dark and gloomy, like Echovald in Guild Wars, but less petrified.

Here: http://www.gamersvault.net/forum/f16/kurzickstan-10085/

Like I said, less stony (the forest was petrified and the neighboring sea turned to jade in a catastrophic event).

 

[evanb]

They're not Night Elves out of a link to shadow and nastiness like the Dark Elves/Svartalfar come off as, they're called Night Elves because their principle deity is that of the moon, and their culture generally revolves about that.

Darnassus would suit the Ljosalfar if the purples/blues were simply replaced with golds/reds etc.

I'm aware of their history. It's just that the purples and the blues and the building styles suit the Svartalfar IMO (rooftops and terraces at least, if not the tree dwellings which would be more of a Ljosalfar thing).

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I get the impression that the Unseelie Court/Svartalfar used/uses a lot of glass in their architecture, especially ornately crafted windows. (I don't have a lot to base that on, just that right before Arendel Phaedra complenments the beauty of the Unseelie Court she marvels at the craftsmanship of the windows while also silently lamenting how it separates the palace from the forest.) I'd expect much of this to be stained glass, and none of it to be flat and distortion free. In keeping with the Shadow theme, all the glass should be designed to create optical illusions, making many Svartalfar structures resemble a far subtler version of a Balseraph House of Mirrors. I also picture many prisms, and chandeliers that bear a strong resemblance to icicles on tree limbs, as this is the winter court. I picture their buildings as more enclosed that those of their cousins (as they have from the beginning had to keep the cold air out), and imagine they have gardens (sometimes indoors) composed of as many realistic sculptures of plants as real plants. I definitely imagine they have things resembling the famous Willow Tree Fountain of Chatsworth House. Their cities could look as forested as the Ljosalfars and let be almost sterile.



In general though, the Svartalfar cities should be all but impossible to find, so very few should have a clue how they look. The Svartalfar also probably use lots of charms and enchantments that can make their dwellings look very different to different people at different times, and can make it very hard to remember how it looked once one leaves.