City Plan: Ormsby#

Interactive street plan for ormsby. Enable JavaScript to explore it.

Using the plan. Drag to move, and zoom with the mouse wheel, the + and − buttons, or a pinch. Names come in as you zoom, each set lettered to read at the same size on screen:

Whole city: the pinewoods, the districts and the villages.
About 2½ times: main streets, the markets and the great buildings.
About 6 times: the longer streets and the smaller places.
About 12 times: the name of nearly every street.

The ⤢ button fills the screen. North is up, and the scale bar bottom left is always true.

The city at a glance#


What it is	The capital of the Northern Kingdom of Ormsby: "Ormsby, 1.9 million. Heated streets and covered markets for the long winter." (18:128) The kingdom was "founded by the timber lords of the north" in AL 1203 (17:114).
People	1.9 million (17:668; 18:128), in a state of 17 million (18:131). King Asger XI, of House Whitlock, has reigned since 2279; he is 71 and unwell, and Crown Princess Petra is 44 (18:129).
Government	"The Rimemoot: 120 members, elected every five years, and First Minister Signe Holm." (18:130)
Where	On the northern upland, below "Native high forest, and Earthkin pine plantations cut from it" (17:162). The plan sets the city near 1,000 m, in a shallow river valley.
Climate	−17 °C in the coldest month, 15 °C in the warmest, 540 mm of rain a year (17:179). "In Ormsby, the winter nights are never fully dark." (17:168)
Speech	Northern: "the frontier's names for the stars (Sól, Surtr, Máni, Hati) are common here, though these are not frontier people." (17:679) "Ormsbyans use Sól and Surtr as often as Theia and Hyperion." (18:135)
On the plan	The sheet is 40 × 32 km. About 282 km² is built up, the pinewoods cover 312 km², and 679 km² of the rye country is still farmed. The plan shows 5,702 streets, about 4,960 km of them. 5,539 have names, which is every street longer than 80 m.

The districts#

The pine plantations close the north of the sheet. A river comes down from the north-west, through the town's valley, and away to the south-east. The Old Town stands on its north bank. Every main street in the city is heated, as the canon has it (18:128); the plan draws them in a warmer colour.

District	What is there	Its streets are named for
The Old Town	The kings' town on the river's north bank. The Rimemoot (canon, 18:130) stands at its middle.	the Kings and Queens of Ormsby since AL 1203 (17:562): Hollis Road, Ragna Road, Corvin Lane, Maud Street, Tove Street, Leif Street
The Markets	East of the Old Town: the covered markets (canon, 18:128). The plan roofs three halls, the Winter Market, the Rye Market and the Fur Market, and the Long Arcade, a whole street roofed over from the Old Town.	the winter and what keeps it out: Sledge Street, Snowshoe Street, Pelt Lane, Stove Lane, Chimney Street, Boiler Avenue, Thaw Street, Sleet Lane
Timberside	The yards along the river, where the timber comes down from the pines, with the falls power station upstream	timber and the river's power: Log Street, Raft Way, Lumber Lane, Resin Lane, Tar Street, Flume Street, Weir Way, Falls Street, Pylon Street
The New Town	The planned town north-west of the Old Town	numbered, First Street to Twenty-third Street out from the Old Town, crossed by avenues named for both skies: Sól Avenue, Theia Avenue, Máni Avenue, Pandia Avenue, Hyperion Avenue, Long Night Avenue
Rimeside	The town north of the river, up toward the pines	both skies, the capital's names and the frontier's side by side: Theia Road, Sól Street, Hyperion Street, Surtr Lane, Pandia Street, Máni Street, Ersa Street, Hati Street, Red Night Road, Watchfire Street
The South Bank	The town south of the river, round Ormsby Station	rye and what is made of it: Rye Lane, Sheaf Avenue, Quern Road, Bakehouse Street, Malt Street, Stook Lane, and Fell Water Street, for the pine-resin spirit (18:329)
The Pinewoods	Earthkin pine, cut from the northern forest (17:162), with no streets	-
The rye country	Fields and farms round the city, crossed by old lanes. The villages are Larchby, Hallsten, Rimedale and Frosthaugh.	see How the streets are named

Getting around#

The Stair Railway: "The Stair Railway (1890s) links all seven capitals. Electrified, not maglev." (18:281) On the plan it comes in from Hastholm to the south-east and leaves toward Sallow to the south-west, with Ormsby Station on the South Bank. Out on the upland, the plan marks shaleback crossings: "Shalebacks, six-legged armoured grazers, cross the Hastholm and Ormsby uplands in herds. Railways stop for them." (17:186)
The Rime road runs north through the pines toward the Rime marches.
The Whitefell road runs west toward Whitefell, "The northernmost town, below the peak" (18:407). The canon has "seasonal roads in the north" (18:282).
The Northcombe road runs east toward Northcombe, the market town (18:397).
The Wychford road runs south toward Wychford, on the Sallow border.
Air. There is an airport at Ormsby (18:284). The plan puts Ormsby Airport in the rye country to the east.

Landmarks#

Canon places are marked canon. Their position on the plan is a proposal unless the text gives it.

Place	Where on the plan	Note
The Rimemoot (canon)	The Old Town	120 members, elected every five years (18:130).
The covered markets (canon)	The Markets	"Heated streets and covered markets for the long winter." (18:128) The Winter, Rye and Fur Markets and the Long Arcade are proposals.
The falls power station	Timberside, upstream	Ormsby sells "hydroelectric power ... south" (18:132).
Ormsby Airport (canon)	The rye country, east	An airport at Ormsby (18:284).

How the streets are named#

streets are often numbered;
famous people, leaders above all, get streets, and those streets sit together;
an estate takes a theme, such as flowers;
many streets keep the name of whoever first laid the road;
some streets simply stop at a field whose owner never sold, and the suburbs have their cul-de-sacs.

In Ormsby the rules take this form:

The kings' streets fill the Old Town. The reigning King has no street, and neither has the Crown Princess.
Both skies meet in Rimeside and the New Town. Ormsby names the stars and moons both ways, so Theia Road runs beside Sól Street, and Hyperion Street beside Surtr Lane.
The New Town is numbered, First Street to Twenty-third Street.
Each district names its streets for its work: the winter in the Markets, timber and power in Timberside, rye on the South Bank.
The old lanes keep their founders' names, the north's family names: Dahl's Lane, Stenner's Lane, Brekke's Lane, Lund's Lane, Berg's Lane.
The villages keep their own streets: Bathhouse Lane, Kiln End, Lamp Street, Fold Lane.
Estates were built on the fields that sold, each with a theme:
- the winter (Snow Place, Thaw Gardens, Frost Close);
- flowers (Larkspur Grove, Honeysuckle Way);
- trees (Hazel Way, Hawthorn Drive);
- herbs (Chervil Drive, Borage Road);
- stones (Carnelian Road, Mica Drive);
- birds (Curlew Way, Wren Way).
Fields whose owners never sold are still farmed, with the estates round them.
Every street longer than 80 m has a name: 5,539 of 5,702.
- A name is used once in the city.
- The estates may repeat a name found far off, never within 6 km or in the same locality.
No towers. Ormsby is "Quiet, hardy" (18:135), and does not build upward; it keeps its streets heated instead.

The names avoid everything the naming rules and the canon forbid:

Nothing is taken from Earth's places or history (05:266).
No new name uses the crowded families: "-gate", "-mere", "-combe", "Salt-", "Grey-" and "Hollow-".
Houses Orm and Whitlock, and King Ansel, have no streets. The canon's Orm group, its Whitlock and Whitefell, and its Ansel and Anselm crowd those names already.