Quel Thalas Library

Here are a few screens of the map I'm currently working on. It's gonna be a cinematic in the middle of my campaign, but I might release it separately before (there are little chances that my campaign will ever be released before people get tired of playing wcIII, since I'm making it alone (don't like to cooperate)).
So basically it is the library of Quel Thalas. In my campaign this library will in fact not be in Quel Thalas but in a secret island, but it will be connected to the King's palace by a secret waygate.
Any comments are welcome.

it looks really good, youve realy give the fel of indors well, and i especialy like the walls of books with the ladders, but why is there a handfull of trees in there?

Well, it is an elvish library, so it has to be a quiet place were you would like to sit and rest a while, a book in each hand. Nowadays it is very common to see trees in libraries. I'm aware that it would have been a problem to have plants and water (you can't see it, but there are also two fountains and a pool with and hydra in it) in medieval times, but magic can solve many technical problems.
In addition to that, this section of the library is dedicated to magical plants, the section on the other side of the main allee (the one withh the hydra) being the one of magical animals. There is also a section for elvish (and foreign) litterature and poetry, another for astronomy and sciences in general, a section divided in two parts for secrets of the arcanes and magical artifacs and craftmanship, two sections (at the rear of the room) for spells and more common magical stuff. The section in the middle of the rear part of the room is dedicated to very rare and important tomes, the ones you can't read without an authorization of the council of the Silver Moon.

Not to shabby. Looks really well done, I feel that the little patch of trees is something that should be taken out since they don't seem to fit in with the whole scene....maybe a little garden or so.

Bravi!!!

thanks makes sence now, i dont realy know the plot of warcraft and dont know what Quel Thalas is. i have one sugestion that may look good, instead of having a lower pool with trees you could try a broken fountain with a tree comeing through the middle of it then cover the tree with viny plants and cliff vines

Thanx but I alredy have two fountains, I think that would be too much. Also the idea for this part was just to create a "mini-magical-ecosystem", with many normal vegetals but also plants, herbs and mushrooms with magical properties (and some little magic animals).

Looks amazing, truly amazing, you captured that enlightened feel about it. Realy nice.

Looks pretty nice. only problem i'd see is the bookcases. i mean, every case has 1 book standing like / instead of |. if they'd turned them all right in those bookcase's they could put in an additional 200 books ^^. though that's not your fault, since there is only 1 bookcase model i guess...

Mozared

What did you use for the ceiling? I can't quite recognize it.

Quel'Thalas (one word with a ' in between I think) is the city of the High Elves before they became Blood Elves and before Arthas along with the Scourge demolished it.

Settlement of Lordaeron (from WoW Strategy: WoW Lore )

The Highbourne braved the dangers of the Maelstrom and came upon the land that humanity would someday call Lordaeron. There, they established their own magical kingdom -- Quel'Thalas -- and rejected the night elves' precepts of moon worship and nocturnal activity. Forever after, they would be known as the "high elves."

As part of their new start, the Quel'dorei created a new mystic well from which they would draw their arcane power. This font was born of one of the vials that Illidan had drawn from the first Well of Eternity and that was taken by the Highbourne after his imprisonment. In keeping with the high elves' casting aside the night culture, they called this new font the Sunwell. Though potent indeed, the Sunwell lacked the full power of the Well of Eternity. Mighty though the Quel'dorei magic was, it did not bestow the immortality their cousins enjoyed. Combined with their day-oriented culture, high elf society soon grew significantly different from what they once knew on Kalimdor.

Some of the elves, wary of the Kaldorei's warnings, felt that their use of magic might draw the attention of the banished Burning Legion. They decided to mask their lands within a protective barrier that would prevent anyone from sensing magic within their borders while not restricting their use of it. They constructed huge, monolithic runestones at various points around Quel'Thalas that marked the boundries of the magic barrier. In addition to the runestones, the Convocation of Silvermoon was founded. This group of seven of the greatest high elf lords vowed to watch over and protect their new homeland.

As their empire grew, the high elves skirmished constantly with the savage forest trolls of Zul'Aman. The green-skinned humanoids were disorganized and primitive, but their cunning earned them a place as the most dangerous enemy the high elves faced for many, many years. The high elves also learned that they shared their new continent with humans, but left them to their own crude culture for some time

Exile of the High Elves (from the WC3 Game Manual)

As the centuries passed, the night elves' new society grew strong and expanded throughout the budding forest that they came to call Ashenvale. Many of the creatures and species that were abundant before the Great Sundering, such as furbolgs and quilboars, reappeared and flourished the land. Under the druids' benevolent leadership, the night elves enjoyed an era of unprecedented peace and tranquility under the stars.

However, many of the original high-borne survivors grew restless. Like Illidan before them, they fell victim to the withdrawal that came from the loss of their coveted magics. They were tempted once again, to tap the energies of the Well of Eternity and the exult in their magical practices. Dath' Remar, the brash, outspoken leader of the high-borne, began to mock the druids publicly - calling them cowards for refusing to wield the magic that was theirs by right. Furion and the druids chaffed of Dath' Remar's arguments and warned the high-borne that any use of magic would be punishable by death. In their insolence, Dath' Remar and his followers unleashed a terrible magical storm upon Ashenvale in an ill-fated attempt to convince the druids to rescind their law.

The druids, unable to bring themselves to slaughter so many of their kin, decided to exile the reckless high-borne from their lands. Dath' Remar and his followers, glad to be rid of their conservative cousins at last, boarded a number of specially crafted ships and set sail upon the seas. Though none of them knew what awaited them beyond the waters of the raging Maelstrom, they were eager to establish their own homeland where they could practice their coveted magics with impunity. The high-borne, or "Quel'dorei" as Azshara had named them in ages past, would eventually set shore upon the easter land men would call Lordaeron. They planned to build their own magical kingdom - Quel'Thalas - and reject the night elves' precepts of moon worship and nocturnal activity. Forever after, they would be known only as the "high elves". (Until the Scourge destroy their homeland, and because of their loss of the Sun Well came the loss of their precious magic, they thirsted for, they became the Blood Elves.) [From campaigns]

Well there is some useful bit of Warcraft lore.

could you place the map here (as an attachment)
and just only the map (doesnt HAS to be the cin) so people can look more around. (how you made it)

The ceiling thing is very easy: for the ceiling of the two side parts of the library, I used many repetitions of a modified doodad using the archway model. For the other ceiling, I used modified elevator doodads. Make sure that walkable is "False" in the properties, or the units will walk on the next floor and not under the doodad. They must overlap a little and not only be side to side, else it won't look right. Use ctrl + pageup/down to place the doodads at the right height. These elevator doodads can also be used to create really high walls (see the screenshot :"behind the scene").
(N.B.: There are really clear tutorials (from which I learnt how to do this) on the forums explaining this stuff a lot better than I could.)
G!llas, I don't think I will release the map until everything is done, but I'm open to all your questions and will be glad to help you if I can.

The library really looks nice. I would add some High Elves, to make the library a bit livier, but it is ok anyway.

looks very beautiful and i actually feel like its an indoor inviroment.