Re: Some Building Descriptions

From: BEThexton <bethexton_at_-B9VYq778mqlicq4mZIMsRcdzY1HCIM6NjwQ0XxH_irFCai4UOdWs-Y <bethexton_at_-B9VYq778mqlicq4mZIMsRcdzY1HCIM6NjwQ0XxH_irFCai4UOdWs-YQWPzysHiYIxElm>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 21:55:42 -0000

Thank you for this, Peter! Great stuff. However, as Jeff can attest, when I see something I really like, I tend to start churning it around in my mind and coming up with all sorts of questions and comments. Hence, please take the length of the following as a compliment.....

How do these compare in grandeur/status to other steads? Is it shameful that the loom house is sod and thatch, or a point of pride that the main hall is shingled? Or is this about normal?

Which bits are typical, and which are distinctive? (useful as a reference to the less educated amongst us).

What sort of state of repair are these in? i.e. does the loom house roof sag? Is the main hall freshly chinked?

How is the stead split between people and animals? End and end, or side and side? And which compass points are each of them at?

The map has an earthen ridge running roughly east-west, with the land falling down towards water (Mud Lake to the north, the bay on the river to the south) on both sides. The buildings are shown slightly to the south side of the peak of the ridge (in the worst floods the waters approach the top of the north side of the ridge, but are lower on the south side). There really is no really flat area, so if the main hall is running north-south, how do they deal with the changes in elevation? Is the floor of the hall sloped or stepped? Or is the north end sunk into the ridge, and the south end built up on a platform? If the north end is for the animals, it may have a sloping floor, being quite low at one end (the sheep go there?). The southern part of the hall may only have to deal with three or four feet of vertical drop off, which could be handled with only minor digging at one end and build up at the other, but slope or stepping could be a cool distinctive feature.

It probably makes sense to have the loom house sink into the ridge, as the nearby hills are a ways off from the proposed building site, and are noted as being very rocky.

I'm sure this isn't an official feature, but off the loom house, also burrowed into the soil, how about "Asrelia's cave," a stash of last ditch emergency rations? A stash that the men may vaguely know is there, but they don't know how much is in it, or when the grandmothers will hand it out, so even the Harst planners omit it from their planning. (contents probably include sealed jars of various things, acorns gathered by the children (if there are oaks around the stead), and other things that will last a long time buried deep into the earth).

In the shrine, perhaps the four providers have better than typical statues, given that the stead has a particular history of supporting all four of them? Presumably there will also be a figure for the river daimone.

You'll notice that the thrust of most of the above is: `what is special about this place?' I know we are trying to make a typical steading, but no person or place is completely average in all respects. I think the best way to show ordinary is to have many small distinct features, showing the ordinary variations between steads. Things like "The colorful shingles on the main hall and the shrine are one of the steadings' prides. Each adult male is required to provide at least one wooden shingle each year, and the grandest of these are used on the shrine. The men compete to produce the most decorative shingles. Visitors from more refined areas might find the result garish, but the stead inhabitants know that they are just jealous." This tells that these building have varied painted and decorated shingles, but that most places don't have anything so, uh, colorful. (Also not saying that we have to have the shingles that way, just offering an example that popped into my head)

I'm sorry if any of that seems nit-picky, it isn't the intent. Please accept it in the spirit of discussion!

--Bryan            

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