Ok, Zach, based on monastarial and the mirari map you showed us earlier, you have my vote.
A quick review of monastarial:
It starts out in a very rainy cloister, nighttime with white clouds. The rain is very thick and this adds to the general moodiness of the starting image. There is a pool that seems to have been filled with water by the rain. On each side of this cloister there are entrances with three arches each, two short arches besides a tall arch. This adds to the monastery feel, and tends to take you to that type of architecture.
As I began to explore, the first thing i found was a deep pool with 4 angel statues at the bottom. That was extremely creepy. There was a teleport down there and it teleported me to the same cloister, but this time with 4 angels at the corners of the rain-filled pool (mentioned above). In the middle of this pool there is a teleport that sends you back to the first pool, which has a quad damage. You are forced to pick it up by the teledest location.
So now I'm back at the starting pool, with quad damage. I begin to explore another room, this time a larger pool with a waterfall. There is steam at the bottom of the waterfall, a well-known effect for adding a bit of waterfall. Apparently, it makes the water seem hot and steamy. With some stairs, this room leads to another waterfall room, this time with a ladder. After another stair set, you end up at the first floor of the initial cloister. It's pretty spacious, with some carved-in 45 degree corners, with various pickups in each of them. One thing i noticed, there are mapmodel columns - my problem with these is that they get old after you've seen them a few times, so i'm in favor of custom mapmodels, to keep freshness. Also, the column model in sauer is egyptian-styled, which didn't fit in 100% with the monastery theme. There is a railing at the edge, which is really thick. This 1st floor has 4 exits wich basically lead back to the ground floor.
There is another room going from the starting area, with a fountain and a small pool. They seem decorative. They're not greatly detailed, but the fountain seems finished. It's a big blocky thing splurting out water into a small surrounding pool with a raised edge. After that a ladder leads to another room with ladders and water at the bottom. They lead into another empty and dark (unlit?) room which leads back to the first floor walkway. This seemed kind of pointless, but i suppose it adds to the flow. Perhaps a few more weapons and such might have been placed here, to lure players/circulation in there.
Another room going from the starting area contains a very small pool with bullets floating above it, another ladder, another room with water at the bottom (and grenades in the water beneath the walkway), and that leads back to the 1st floor walkway.
Going back to the room with the pool and the angels at the bottom of the pool, looking above the pool there is an overhang with a jump-pad that flings you into another ladder room with water at the bottom and then up to the 1st floor walkway.
So that's it for details. It seems that the key feature of this map is the angels thing. You go to the bottom of a pool, then you see the angels (creeeepy), and when you touch them they disappear and when you climb out of the pool they're now at the corners of the rain-filled pool
. Assuming you ignore the teleport sound
The lighting is simplistic. The open part uses a dark bluish skylight, which looks fine, and the other areas use the lamp mapmodel with simple one-point lights, some areas being unlit (but visible due to ambient light).
I guess some parts could have been more detailed, the lights more subtle and moody.
This is all fine. ChaoStar has my vote based on this map (definately not a noob map, but one can always improve), and on the mirari map which he has shown us (a work-in-progress).
