New Pavis is an Oasis town in a region where rain is rare and flat roofs are an option. IMO Garhound suffers much the same fate.
Ian Cooper:
> I don't think we really disagree. Many elements of it are wrong for
> Sartar, and I think we both percieve Heortling towns as more Viking.
Viking towns are a fair guide to city development in a barbarian region, but taking a look at early mediaeval Germany doesn't hurt either. People were building up towns and cities in slavic territory, bringing in their own settlers. If you want to go for Viking cities, I recommend to look at the Irish cities founded by the Vikings (Galway, Limerick, Donegal etc.), in a state about 200 to 300 years after the foundation.
Towns were parceled out, and these early parcels can still be found in many cities from this time. Buildings started as enclosed stand-alone affairs, though too close to be really effective against fire hazard.
(One place which still has retained this kind of parceling is the old town of Rauma in Finland, admittedly with over-wide roads after a particularly devastating fire in the 16th or 17th century, IIRC. Still has wooden houses around small enclosed courts.)
Stone houses started with the fortified houses of the noble families within a city. Less noble buildings may have used some stone (or, depending on regional resources, baked clay bricks), but wooden frames filled with clay-plastered thatchwork are the rule in most of the German medieval cities. Brick facades often are a later addition/improvement.
When speaking about Heortling cities, I think of 3rd Age Heortland and
Sartar. Imperial Age architecture was permeated by draconism, late
Dawn
Age architecture by Dara Happan influences (Bright Empire, Palangio's
reign).
Original Heortling architecture seems to have evolved in Silver Age Kethaela. Panaxles the Architect and Sestarto the Artist are cited as the designers of the monumental sites of the Heortling region - apparently they favoured a ziggurat-like artificial mountain design for their public buildings, retained in the Imperial Age (Sun Dome temples, Pavis Temple). I'm fairly sure I get the founding date wrong, but the City of Whitewall might be an example for a defensive structure from this time.
IMO the most lasting influence was the Western influence. The God
Learners brought their architecture to Kethaela, and it has always
been good Heortling style to steal achievements from their foes, so
urban structures of Western cities will be found in Heortland cities.
Which makes them pretty much "quasi-mediaeval", given a similar
organisation.
On top of this, during the Third Age western style has become a
fashion, resulting in "knights" rather than "weaponthanes" even with
Heortling leaders.
Modern Heortland uses city structures which could have been at home in mediaeval Europe. Most town and city foundations leave some free room inside the city confines, which, depending on the success of the city, get filled out within a generation or three, causing the city dwellers to quit spreading about and piling storeys one upon another, and building houses wall-to-wall with the neighbours.
Is there an Orlanthi requirement for a house, or a chieftains hall, to let the wind access from all directions? This might cause stand-alone buildings in the better districts of town. In the crafters' sections, with many non-Heortling residents, wall-to-wall buildings probably will be the rule. (They make nicer thieves' alleys, too.)
The cities founded by Sartar - Wilmskirk, Jonstown and Swenstown, plus Duck Point - probably started out as Viking-style towns with districts built and inhabited by immigrants from Heortland, skilled craftspeople and professionals. Probably a far hick from tribal Heortling cottage industry, taken from the pool of Kethaelan urban craftspeople, including non-Heortlings (Aeolians, Esrolian matriarchs, God Forgot tinkerers, Islander or even Caladran shopkeepers or specialists).
A place like Wilmskirk would start with four tribal quarters and a larger crafters' quarter inhabited by the immigrants. The Kultain and Locaem tribes probably would have huge "urban steads" showing off their wealth, possibly with one or two clans strongly involved in the city's affairs. The Sambari might have run a slave market, whereas the recently beaten Balmyr would have flooded the city with landless refugees from the warfare preceding the city's foundation.
The stronger tribes would maintain their traditional urban steads. Would these be considered part of the rural clans' tulas?
Available skill and material might rebuild these halls as not so traditional variants of the Orlanthi longhouse, possibly including revolutionary designs like upper-floor chambers or integrated watchtowers.
Successful crafters quarters would show two- or even three-storey houses, whereas less successful quarters would see no need to abandon the Viking-style housing for something more space-effective.
For those who own Chaosium's/Midkemia Press' "City of Karse" supplement (based on the 14th century English/Welsh foundation of Caernarfon), there is a mixture of stone buildings, high wooden frame houses, and Viking-style urban houses. Inside the city wall, there are only few old style buildings, around the outgrowth before the city wall (though most probably within a fence or palisade nonetheless) there is a more spacious arrangement of houses, some representative, others squatting.
I find this appropriate for the city on the Marzeel River mouth because this is a recently (300 years ago) re-founded city, which experienced an increase in importance when the seas opened 38 years ago. (IMG there also is a port district missing from the main map, also housing a Vadeli ghetto).
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