OK....
>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?
My feeling is that they are about average. Swenstead is supposed to be a more or less average stead. Some elements may be extra-nice (the shingled roof of Swenskalli), but others may be poorer -- Swenskalli and the Shrine have the nicest roofs in the stead, all others are dead average. Maybe other steads have exceptionally nice thatching, hall-pillars with remarkable blessings, etc. On the other hand, for the stead inhabitants, Swenstead is clearly the BEST, barring the chiefs stead. I mean, it stands to reason....
I think the Loom House, for example, does not really stand out as special. Obviously, the women who worship there are fond of it, but outsiders would not be particularly impressed. Every stead should have a Storm Tribe shrine, all a little different in organization. For some reason, I imagine that Swenstead has a pretty rich carving tradition, but less in the way of metalwork, beads, etc. Correct me if we've established something different.
By the way, I've created some characters in my description -- Chisel-Heoral, Swen's brother, for example -- does anyone want to tell me if I have contradicted an already existing family tree?
>Which bits are typical, and which are distinctive? (useful as a
>reference to the less educated amongst us).
Swensskali is large for a Heortling main hall.
>What sort of state of repair are these in? i.e. does the loom house
>roof sag? Is the main hall freshly chinked?
I assume that Heortlings are, as a rule, pretty house proud -- the main buildings of the stead are kept up because death could be the result of neglect. Individuals living on the edge of a stead might be slovenly or let their huts fall apart, but the group-maintained buildings are carefully kept up.
>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.
Ha. I hadn't double checked the map when I rewrote the description. I can't remember if I had a reason for the north-south direction (something in Storm Tribes, maybe?), but East-West sounds more likely with the lay of the land. On the other hand, if we feel there is a ritual reason for it, the stepped design of the hall could be a feature that sets Swenstead apart. I doubt anyone would want the barn uphill for fear of urine running into the human section of the hall. The hall will be divided humans and animals across the long axis of the building, so the barn is roughly 50 x 40 feet.
By the way, I think we agreed there is a second large dwelling -- also a kalli, but with a thatched roof and smaller in scale (80 x 30 feet?). That houses another big chunk of the stead's inhabitants. There may be some sort of covered walkway between the two for bad weather which might serve as a defensive wall, although I doubt the whole stead area is walled.
>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.
This is how I was envisioning it, more or less.
>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).
Sounds good to me. They could be buried on Asrelia's holy day as an offering and returned by the Grandmother as a blessing in difficult times.
>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.
Sure. I didn't want to be too detailed, to give other people a chance to suggest things. Producing or providing a figure is probably a fairly common (if grand) act of sacrifice. Some figures may need to be remade every season or year -- Voria might be a figure woven out of flowers that fade in the fall and need to be remade by the girls in the spring, etc.
>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)
Great. As I said above, I think outstanding features of the buildings are:
Other than that, I don't imagine the stead looks all that special to those familiar with the Heortlings.
>I'm sorry if any of that seems nit-picky, it isn't the intent.
>Please accept it in the spirit of discussion!
It's all good. I am also happy to be corrected. If people feel there would have to be a special reason for a lot of people carving, for example, the stead does not need to be specially blessed by another god. If there is some feature obviously left out, let's discuss that, too.
Peter Larsen
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