Yeah not sure if those elves would necessarily use cranes as we know them. I’d imagine more organic and basic roped-pulley systems would be more common place tbqh.
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OVERALL LAYOUT
The city is divided into 4 sections (red lines), corresponding to 4 comminities of about 25-30 elves. Every section/community will have his own social spaces, feashall and dedicated workhops. In this way we can recreate the typical organisaion of the villages around the forest. This doesn’t mean the city will be totally divided: most of the workshops will be at the use of the whole city and the division won’t really be that visible, but we thought it was necessary basically because the city is too big to be considered as a single community (no way you could fit all of the city into a single feashall) and because it helps us to have more organized work.
Orange crosses: trees hosting community related activities (feasthall, storage, ecc…)
Yellow crosses: trees hosting workshops
Light blue lines: group of trees hosting the sleeping flets, possibly connected by bridges, making up some kind of sub-communities. Don’t consider these too much, they are there mostly to have the city a bit more organized in the building process.
This layout doesn’t show the location of the ground builidings because it would end up into a complete mess, but they are all marked ingame already.
EVERY SECTION WILL FEATURE
- Feasthall and kitchen (up on a tree, with some stuff on the ground)
- Storage (tree and ground)
- Allotments
- Main meeting area (ground)
- Community tree (artistic activities, music playing, ecc…) (tree)
- Weaver, tailor, cobbler workshops (tree)
Every section will also host some other workshops, which won’t be related to it but at the use of the entire city.
SECION 1
- MIlitary stuff (forges, bowyer/fletcher, armory, training area) (all on the ground)
- Carpenter/cooper (ground)
SECTION 2
- Beekeeper and beehives (ground)
- Lampwright (tree)
- Bathhouse (ground)
- Potter (ground)
- Dyer (ground)
SECTION 3
- Theatre and related activities (ground and tree)
- Instrument maker (ground)
- Parchemnter/scrbe and a very tiny library (ground and tree)
- Brewery and vineyard (ground)
SECTION 4
- Lembas Crop
- Flax field for ropes
- Carpenter/cooper (ground)
- Potter (ground)
I hope this is all clear.
The definitive post about the building style will come as soon as possible.
Cheers
14 Likes
THE POST THAT WAS PROMISED
After many months of hard work, I’m glad to announce that the building style for Caras Galadhon is finally set! Now I’ll try to summarize everything I’ve been up to. I know many of these informations are not necessary and useless, but I don’t care and I will torture you with a complete explanation; just for personal satisfaction.
The main goal of my endless and autistic building style development was to re-create and make visible the evolution of the architecture and so of the lifestyle of the elves living in the city.
In a chronological order, this evolution makes sense to be Cloth roofed flets => Treehouses => Ground buildings.
CLOTH ROOFED FLETS
This is the simplest and most primitive structure, realistically used by the first inhabitants of the city (which happend to be the same of latest ones, since elves are immortal). The basic idea is to have the cloth looking like it was just dropped over the flets and the 4 little pillars sustaining it, going deep down below the floor level.
All of the “private” sleeping flets will be done this way, leaving the treehouses only to public use dedicated buildings.
TREEHOUSES
The treehouses should be the most logic and realistic evolution of the cloth roofed flets. For this reason I kept the idea of the cloth hanging down below the floor, simply turning it into a more solid roof and giving it a more sinuous and organic shape. One possible problem of this design is that when seen from the inside, the treehouse feels a bit too “closed” and almost claustrophobic, contradicting the very open look of the houses of the villages; however, this design makes the interior feel much more intimate and safe (they are about 40 meters above the ground), other than looking very sexy. It is also somehow close to the image that most of the people have when they think about Caras Galdhon (just google it and you willl find plenty pf similar designs) and I think that what people expect from a buidling is also something to be taken into account.
Fully roofed treehouses will probably be used in a very restricted number of buildings (feashalls). Workshops and other public buildings will proabably have some cloth parts alongside the golden and silver roofs, while, as I said, sleeping flets will be all done with cloth.
GROUND BUILDINGS
In the very limited Tolkien’s writings where Lorien is directly described, we get the information that ground structures where a later development, while in the beginning elves only lived up on the trees. Caras Galadhon is the only place where the so called Talan are still common, for this reason we palnned the ground structure to be as few as possible, but they are still necessary to host the workshops that simply don’t make any sense to be up on the trees.
I kept the same roofshape of the treehouses, with the roof meeting with the ground on the sides, underlining the fact that these were done once the style had already been developed.
Having them half dug into the terrain is something almost necessary because of the very steep terrain, but it also reminds the shape of a cave, which, alongside tents and treehouses, is the most ancestral and primitive type of shelter used by the first populations in prehistoric ages. I think this can underline the very simple and a natural lifestyle of the elves of Lorien and show once again the deep connection they have with the land.
I hope everything was understandable enough, I tried my best to explain it with my not so flowing english; I also hope this matches with what you had imagined this city to look like. But I warn you that after all the time, energies and autism crisis I’ve put into this, any objecion or suggestion will be utterly rejected, so spare your words.
Cheers.
9 Likes
Can I make a complete and total change suggestion or two… or ten?
Depends on how many “Fuck off” you want to hear 
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Ladies and gentlemen,
after many delays, the first section of Caras Galadhon is finally OPEN TO PUBLIC.
For the moment we are focusing on the trees and the flets built upon them: no one is to do any work on the ground, except for what concerns the tree he has claimed. Ground work will come with time, we still have to figure out some things.
Since making one single tree probably takes almost the same amount of work of a small rohan homestead, you are allowed, (if not suggested!!!), to co-work a tree with someone else, especially for those who will be doing the bigger ones with the roofed treehouses. This can keep your motivation up and hopefully avoid abandoned stuff. Be prepared, that it is not an one-hour commitment and the trees are quite demanding.
On the other hand, we highly recommend you to give a deep look to the guides we have put up for you (/warp caras guides); take all the time you need to practise and do all the tests you need on freebuild. Making the wool layout of the trees is a real pain: please be merciful and start working on the main world only when you are confident enough (Or be ready for some severe critique 
)
Don’t be scared tho, I’m making it sound way more difficult than what it really is, I’m sure you will all contribute to make this beauty. @Neverlegendary and me are here to give any kind of feedback and help.
Happy building 
(/warp CGbuild)
15 Likes
A quick update for the foliage creation. It is used with brushes, so you will need builder+ for it
We use 2 brushes:
1# Brush for creating dence clusters of leaves at the end of each branch. Use it once at each tip. Place them 1 or 2 blocks above the tips. (to reveal slightly the bottom of the branch)
/size 3
/mask 0,1683:12,1683:13,1683:14
/mat 30%1683:13,15%1683:12,15%1683:14,40%0
2# Brush for fluffing up the clusters at their whole circumference. This is very important , as it basicaly creates the whole canopy. Make sure to have empty space between leaf blocks.
/size 1
/mask 0,1683:12,1683:13,1683:14
/mat 8%1683:13,16%1683:12,16%1683:14,60%0
A few pro-tips:
- visit /warp caras guides and give a closer look, at how each cluster looks in the end (turning off better leaves helps and clears the view),
- Don’t be lazy, you can always adjust a few blocks by hand,
- In case of any doubts, ask me or Banana.
If you’ve reach this final step, you should be proud of yourself already.
Good luck!
8 Likes
Here it goes… Section 2 is now officially open to the public.
Yet again, we are focusing on the trees for this section.
Please take your time and don’t hesitate to ask me or @MrBanana for feedback (especially if it is your first tree). As before, co-working with a friend is a big suggestion from our side - one tree is a sizable commitment.
Come, claim a tree and add a little brick to this milestone on our server!
Happy building!
(/warp CGbuild)
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Hello everyone, as promised Section2 features some ground structures you can work on. Since the available stuff is very limited (only two workshops) and we’ve heard that many people have been looking forward to them (cause the trees scare most of you plebs), we have thought of some sort of “competition”. If you do /warp CGcomp, you will find some copies of the areas of the two workshops, the dyer and the potter, which you can claim and detail, following the instructions you find there. The best version of them will be pasted in when we get to detail the ground of that section.
Fell free to ask some feedback when you are doing it, but try to be on your way, we are doing this cause we don’t want to babysit you 
There’s also the possibility for a person or a pair of people to work on the “district” where the beekeper, the candlemaker and the lampwright are packed together (lamps require candles, which require wax, which requires bees). Please PM either me or @Neverlegendary to claim it and receive further instructions; we will be keeping a close watch on you.
Happy building. 
7 Likes
The mighty trees of SECTION 3 are now finally open to public!
As you all probably know, trees and groundwork are pretty much two independent projects, so we’ll cover that part once we are done with the previous sections. Do no attempt to make the roots, there will be a specific guide for them when time comes.
Since this section is the closest one to the warp, and where most of the lore-related stuff takes place, we want it be perfect. Therefore, if you are attempting a tree for the first time, please do some experiments on fb and ask our feedback before going back to the main world.
As always, the suggestion of co-working the trees with someone remains.
Happy building
/warp Caras Galadhon
5 Likes
*inhales *
The trees of the fourth and final section of CG are open for building.
For infos see the former posts. If it’s your first tree, please copy your layout into /warp fblorien first and show it to me or @Neverlegendary before pasting it back.
Enjoy your trees, unless @Danoir makes them all in a week.
/warp Caras Galadhon
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Caras Galadhon has been converted to 1.15 and can now be found on the Moria/freebuild server at -1000 1800 (go to the Misc area and fly west). The project will be completed in 1.15 in order to avoid later revamps.
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This document shows the work that’s still available to claim in Caras section 4. If you’d like to help message @Neverlegendary on Discord
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This project is being placed on hold until a new leader or leaders volunteer to step forward. If you’d like to help finish the city of the Galadhrim in 1.15, please contact me!
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Project Application: Finishing Caras Galadhon.
Player name(s) : Olaf16 and PaladiinRL
Player rank : Builder+
Private or Public : Most of it will be public, other then Mallorn trees. Gardens only by Builder+. If you still want to do them, when you don’t have the rank ask.
Location name : Lothlórien, Caras Galadhon.
Lore : The lore for Galadriels garden and the main tree will be done later in conversation with people that know a lot about the lore.
Overhead plan : Old Plan: Caras Galadhon - Projects / Lothlórien - ArdaCraft Forums
Deadline : Hopefully before we start Minas Tirith (Its been so long would not be surprised if it will be longer).
In-game guide : Hope people are smart enough to look what is next to them and do it from there, otherwise there will one be made in 1.15.
Terrain : Cliffs will be similar to the cliffs that already have been made in 1.15.
Reference Imagery : How 1.15 will look like.
Flat area,
Garden with Cliffs,
How the branches will look like,
This is done like this to make difference not to big in comparison to the older trees.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.
Lets finish one of the most special locations in Middle Earth, have fun building.
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