In this entry: Building Luma, Light of the Locked World's first city area, a high-level hub.

December 18

Started the work on Luma. Just went through my notes about the city a couple of times, made a rough sketch of the place.
Luma timeline:

Year 90

First inhabitants come to the shores of the abyst-rich bay and begin lifting. A haphazardly constructed town of wooden buildings and dangerous abyst lifting docks appears.

Year 103

First fire. Luma almost completely burned down.

Year 104

Second fire.

Year 104

The City Council established. The first constitution was written. The most notorious of the new laws was the Stone Law which prohibited the construction of wooden buildings.

Year 95-131

Luma's Abyst Rush period. Massive growth. In those forty years, the dirty and dangerous town turned into a real city.

Year 130

The evacuation. Order Tempest gave the world of Kayos one year to evacuate. During this year Luma lost ~20% of the population.

Year 131

The world is locked.

Year 132

The loss of independence. During the chaos after the world is locked the Celerath family took over Kayos and created the Kingdom of Azu'urunn. The City Council was forced to accept the supreme leadership of the Kingdom.

Year 131-141

The Dark Decade. Famines, riots, shortages of all kinds - all because access to the riches of the Linked Worlds was lost.

Year 141-151

The Gray Decade. The time of slow progress. After farmlands were established in Eir Meadows and Spirit Pastures, there were no more famines. Material shortages were still common.

Year 151-204

Luma grows again, profits from abyst lifting. The City Council begins to talk about making the city independent from the Kingdom.

Year 204

The City Council sends a delegation to Azu'urunn and demands autonomy. The city suffers a year of economic blockade, is forced to sign an agreement that prevents the City Council from even asking for independence.

Year 211

The City Council makes an attempt to create the Coastal League. The intention is to unite coastal cities against the Kingdom. The Council is penalized with another economic blockade and the creation of a legate position within the Council. The legate is appointed by the King and oversees the Council, limiting its freedom even further.

Year 218

The Shadow Council is created by the City Council's members that are loyal to the idea of independence. The Shadow Council's goal is the liberation of Luma. The Shadow Council is uncovered the same year, all of the known members are executed, the City Council is disbanded and the legate becomes a one-person ruler of Luma. The Shadow Council isn't destroyed completely.

Year 218-254

First legate's rule. The Shadow Council grows in power. Assembles an army in secrecy, acquires companies, forms an alliance with the Foreign Aid Bureau of the Immigrant Guild.

Year 254

The First Rebellion. Legate escapes Luma, the City Council is briefly reestablished.

Year 254

Luma's army crushed completely in the short battle just outside the city gates. The Council faces a devastating defeat.

Year 254-259

Occupation. Luma is ruled not even by a legate, but by a general of the King's Army. The general knows she will rule temporarily, so she uses that temporary power to rob the city.

Year 259-279

The Preparation. The oppression of the army only fuels the desire for independence. The Shadow Council's power continues to grow. During this period Luma is ruled by a "Sleeping Legate" who barely interacts with the city. The real decisions are made by the legate's advisor - Sivetaana Ke'Tale, a member of the Shadow Council. Sivetaana is often called the Legate of Shadows for her achievements in that position. Sivetaana succeeds in forming the Coastal League during the legate's visits to other coastal cities, pulls off countless schemes, makes the legate get vast loans from the Kingdom's treasury. King happily authorizes the loans, hoping to cripple Luma further, but it backfires, as Luma - thanks to Sivetaana Ke'Tale - invests that money into building infrastructure: Iron Stronghold, walls around the city. Some of the money even ends up in the budgets of the Shadow Council and the Coastal League. Through the Coastal League Luma forms a new army.

Year 279-286

The War.

Year 279

The beginning of the War. Sivetaana Ke'Tale and the Shadow Council emerge from the shadows and declare Luma an independent city once more. Legate is made a rogue in front of a cheering crowd. Luma's new army comes to the city and swiftly takes it under control, Luma's second open rebellion ends in success. The City Council is reestablished. The Kingdom responds by sending an army, but it is unable to reach Luma as Iron Stronghold turns out to be completely under Luma's control. What everyone feared happens - the Kingdom refuses to accept Luma's independence and declares a war on Luma and its allies. Several months pass, and Luma remains independent. Siege of Iron Stronghold drags out, with the Kingdom unable to break through the soon-to-be-legendary fortification. The War truly begins after the Kingdom stops a caravan of supplies traveling from Berelem to Luma - the Coastal League's attempt to aid the independent city. The King sensing that his control of the Coastal Cities is rapidly weakening, orders city councils of Berelem, Grawas, and Korrev to disband and choose a legate loyal to the Kingdom. After that, the entirety of the Coastal League joins Luma's war for independence.

Year 284

Luma's army liberates Korrev that was occupied by the Kingdom in 283.

Year 286

The Kingdom ends the fruitless siege on Iron Stronghold and sends the army to Luma on a newly built road that goes the long way around it. Luma and Berelem send armies to stop the Kingdom. The armies meet and after a battle that lasts a week, the Kingdom's side declares defeat. The Kingdom is occupied by the Coastal League's forces, the capital - Azu'urunn - is surrounded. The rest of the Coastal Cities declare independence. The Coastal League demands a surrender from the Kingdom - a delegation is sent to Azu'urunn when Talyaan the Fourth agrees to begin negotiations. When the delegation enters the Royal Palace, Talyaan casts an apocalyptic spell that floods a vast area with auric energy. Thousands die, including most members of the royal family, Sivetaana Ke'Tale, other prominent figures of the Coastal League. The Kingdom's cities - Azu'urunn, Deldrayon, and Mirinit - are destroyed. Refugees flee to the Coastal Cities.

Year 286-309

Post-war times. Luma - as the most capable of the Coastal League's cities - combats countless crises as the world attempts to withstand the aftereffects of the War and the Kingdom's fall. No longer oppressed by the Kingdom and open to refugees Luma rapidly grows. Vast wealth accumulated by the city that became a hub of commerce is spent almost to the last coin to keep the civilization from collapsing. Luma prevents famines by sharing the food grown in Eir Meadows with the other cities. Luma builds protective walls around the Kingdom's ruins, as it becomes infested by demons and other magical anomalies - a major threat to the now-free cities. Luma aids the survivors of Grawas destruction and invests in the construction of New Grawas, preventing a refugee crisis. Luma handles the Korrev crisis when the unfortunate city falls to the Glow. Luma funds banisher campaigns to reduce the demon population that grew during and after the War.

December 19

Today's goal was to set the Luma's layout. To clarify, I'm not building the entire city as originally planned - I'm only making one street. That's because, obviously, building a whole city as detailed as Locul or Eastern Trilith is insane. One street will be more than enough. The main goal is to create something that looks like the city skyline from the game's official artwork. Independence Street will have these features: - Three matter kilns with tier 3 and 4 equipment recipes. - Coffee house. I guess I'm implementing coffee with this update! - Library. About time to implement books as well. - Statue of Sivetaana, the Legate of Shadows. - Guard spire. Guard captain will sell Luma faction items here. - Immigrant Guild. Minor spoiler: A hub for most story quests! - Adventurer Guild. I think NPC here will sell explosives to clear rocks and create shortcuts. - Supply store. Healing and replenishing consumable merchants. - Luma treasury with a talkstone chest. - Several talkstone pillars to teleport to. - Street merchants. Once the layout was ready, I decided to make one building. It's the Library of Luma, the city's largest building - an allusion to the importance of data in modern times.
Well, that's a start. Now only if I could put a dome on that roof, or gargoyle statues or something...

December 20

Looking again at the library, it's clear that it's not going to work. Wooden doors and windows worked for small towns of Locul and Eastern Trilith, but it doesn't feel right for megapolis. So today I was making new assets - here's the new version of the library:
I've got an exterior of another spire done as well.
Walking between those giants feels exactly how I wanted, it's working!

December 22

Today I was placing building exterior tiles and added a bunch of new assets.

December 23

Another day of tile placing. Also started working on water graphics:

December 26

Water is done:
I've also added a few new assets for the water's edge part of Luma:
Then I have decided that I'm not a fan of weird windows, so I have started to make new ones, inspired by narrow windows on Locul buildings. They are quite elegant and have that shape/composition that creates the skyscraper feel.

December 27

Done some serious progress today, Luma is starting to look quite good. No screenshots for this day because I want to wait until I have something more finished.

December 28

More progress!

December 29

Added advertisement columns and vertical construction barriers, expanded the city, added several fake houses outside the limits of the area. It's confirmed: Fake buildings work and will speed up the development of the area significantly. The city should be done within a week from now.

December 31

Getting close to finishing the city exteriors now. Made new assets - building signs and flags.

Luma flag

The symbol is a stylized shape of Luma Bay. The black color of the bay symbol means that the bay is rich with abyst. It's the color of abyst crystals. The blue color symbolizes water, an important theme for a coastal city.

Immigrant Guild flag

The symbol depicts immigration to Kayos: Triangles pointing to the shape of a world. Blue and white colors show the peaceful nature of the organization.

Adventurer Guild flag

The arrow cross symbolizes opportunities and freedom, it's a symbol used by adventurers and explorers. The white symbol in a red field stands for conquest to achieve an honorable goal, the fight not for wealth or power, but for the betterment of the world. While most adventurers are treasure seekers, the Guild itself is created to guide adventurers to more meaningful adventures.

January 2

So 2020 is over, huh? Neat! Anyway, made more assets today - only a few more are needed. It will take more time than planned to finish the city, still about a week of work is needed. And, uh... Yeah, that's all for this entry - in the next one, I'll hopefully start making gold and amalgam equipment. Thanks for reading!