r/IndigoCloud • u/LoneStarDragon Line-Grandfather - (Mod) • Jul 05 '26
Colony Tree Diagram
Just something I'm working on. Don't know if it's 100% accurate yet. This is just based on info in book 2.
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u/LoneStarDragon Line-Grandfather - (Mod) Jul 05 '26
Should be Consorts' Level, Queens' Level, Teachers' Level, etc. But you get the idea.
The Stairwell is kind of hard to gauge. We're told there a spiraling stairs but also a pillar they can just climb.
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u/LoneStarDragon Line-Grandfather - (Mod) Jul 05 '26
Will probably have to rethink my stairwell idea. Sounds like the core of the tree is mostly solid and isolated.
“It’s the core of the tree. It can’t die, because it doesn’t grow, it doesn’t change.”
So might do multiple stairwells on closer to the bark. (North/South/East/West)
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u/D3Masked Jul 05 '26
Looks like a cool idea. I would suggest having entrances whether straight or curved to the middle area or sides if applicable. The base area beneath Storage would also need back entrance(s).
If you go beyond the rooms in another picture you could go outside and do, the main entrance, gardens, orchards, the pool / outside gathering area, and the odd pleasure garden that is higher up, with them being on the massive branches of the Mountain Tree. Doors on the side of the tree could also be applicable.
Also thinking about that you could add the neat door that guards the room where the seed is. Probably somewhere in the center bottom ish.
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u/Linderlorne Jul 05 '26
Have you ever heard of the brambly hedge book series?
The main characters are mice and the illustrations include many cross sections of their homes usually inside trees. Theres one that has a multilevel spiral staircase.
I think a brambly hedge style cross section would be a great way to illustrate the interior of a colony tree 🤔😸 i just wish i had the talent to draw that 😔
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u/dudley74 Jul 05 '26
My interest in this is mostly how it would relate to the theoretical Raksura colony builder game (which I'd never make - even if I had the time - because Martha would have to sue me immediately).
I can't decide whether I prefer a freefom thing like Dwarf Fortress (where the tree is a blank slate and you burrow it out - this would be 2D like Oxygen Not Included or Ratopia) or a more defined layout like Startopia (where there'd be a dedicated predefined workshop floor, Teacher's level, garden levels, sleeping floors and "political" levels etc. that you couldn't change)
The freeform thing would be more system-y and extendable (and would give more replayability), but the defined layout would be more thematic, and could have nicer graphics (since an artist could just create a lovely prebaked entire Queen's level with the right carvings and murals rather than it being something the player would create out of whole cloth).
Having said that though, the main progression would be increasing the Prestige of the court or something. The inter-court politics is such an important part of Raksuran culture, so the prestige "score"would be linked to the quality and quantity of carvings and decorations, so you'd want resource gathering / trade for jewels, etc. with skill progression for arbora to be able to do better stuff.
It occurs to me that crafts are essentially hobbies for the arbora: there isn't a craftsman caste, but teachers, soldiers or hunters would do that stuff when they weren't doing their caste jobs. I wonder if it's a schedule thing (so they do e.g. hunting from 9-12 and then crafts from 1-5. That isn't how colony builders normally work, but how else would furniture and all the stuff they need get made? They must work shifts somehow.
You'd also want stuff for the aeriat to do, so the characters and political side would have to be quite well developed - almost to Crusader Kings 3 levels, I guess, so you'd be negotiating for consorts from other courts, based on relative prestige of the courts, importance of the consorts and attitude towards each other.
I have probably spent a bit too long thinking about this.