Town Midpoints and Altitude (Part 2)

Having rested a few days in Dawnstar in order to recover from the ordeals suffered on the roads of Skyrim, Magnus the Cartographer sets off with renewed vigor. There's midpoints to determine and altitude to measure, dammit!

Morthal - this point on the main drag, in front of Jarl Idgrod's longhouse and near the junction with that long boardwalk, should do fine. With a towering elevation of 1m, Morthal is the lowest-lying city in Skyrim (although Dawnstar is also at sea level, it climbs up the banks a bit more).






 

Dragon Bridge - right at the end of the eponymous bridge. Not 100% central, but this way Magnus can use the "bypass" in his official road measurements. Elevation: 21m.







Solitude - the major cities are always tricky. Too big to have just one junction or something to take as the midpoint. I settled on this spot (conveniently marked by a manhole), which isn't really near anything but seems roughly equidistant to the gate, the Blue Palace and Castle Dour. Elevation: 80m.





Karthwasten - reached only after a long and hard battle with the bandits at Robber's Gorge just south of Dragon's Bridge. Doing Skyrim a public service, Magnus is. Anyways, midpoint for this sad little mining town is in front of that guy Ainethach's house (I think). Elevation 112m.


 

Markarth - perhaps the trickiest of all the cities. Has by far the greatest elevation differences of any of them. The market and inn are too low and close to the gate and Understone Keep is way too high up and far from everything, so I chose this point about halfway between the two, outside of the Treasury House. I'm not 100% satisfied, but it'll have to do. Elevation: 157m, a bit lower than I'd expected from the most mountainous city.

Rorikstead - no, Rorik, the town isn't named after you, so stop trying to spread that around! Anyways, the point is here, between the inn on the right and that one farm on the left. Elevation: 138m.

And finally, Whiterun - back where we started. In my earlier posts I was measuring the distance from Whiterun's gates, but obviously that won't do as a midpoint, so the market it is (the other major candidate was the Gildergreen "roundabout" - Dragonsreach is a bit too high up). Elevation: 152m.





So that's taken care of. Magnus' Tour de Skyrim is over, the midpoints and altitudes officially noted down (at 359m, Riften is Skyrim's loftiest city, incidentally...I wouldn't have thought that either). Back to measuring road distances for our Cartographer. Until then, watch the skies.