Re: A community creative challenge

From: bethexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 21:53:25 -0000

I think this makes good sense.
>
> The other really obvious difference is that you're going to see
armed women
> rather than men and the people you have to speak with are
invariably women.
> None of this equal opportunity guff that you get in Heorlting
villages, they
> know the proper order of things:-)

My reading of Greg's comments would suggest this isn't exactly so. Most warriors and weaponthanes will still be men, most caretakers will be women, according to the "biology always wins" theory. But there probably are _more_ female warriors and male caretakers than in heortling society. Also fully agreed that the warriors of whichever gender would escort strangers to the female leaders.

I think another difference would be less visible patrols. The more fertile land means that each stead needs less land on which to live. Also, there is less forest and very little real wilderness. The overall result is that from the central stead, assuming it is on a high spot, you can usually see the borders of your land. Therefore the few warriors can stay at the stead and still keep an eye out for trouble. If visitors are known and look peaceful they may not even be met at the border, but allowed to come up to the clan hall to present themselves. On the other hand, you can probably see onto most of your neighbours tulas too, so often strangers will be met at the edge of the tula, handed from one escort over to the next.

If the village in question sits on a high traffic route, the clan may be able to demand tolls, so then of course there would be a permanent presence of warriors at the road/bridge/ford to make sure they get their payments. The village would probably be near, but not right at, the place in question.

To go with the square building shapes, the village may be laid out in a square. The four corners would be the chief's house, the loom house, The Ernalda temple/shrine, and something along the lines of a storehouse or drying shed. Other buildings would run between these, joining them up into almost a complete square. Not quite fortified, but getting in or out means coming in through the main entrance, climbing over a roof, or breaking through a wall. The central square is where most of life takes place. There is a reason for this secure arrangement--with the smaller sized tula's, when invaders do hit there is little time to gather people out of their homes to a strong point, so you need to make sure that the homes are part of the strong point. (by the way, this layout is roughly what you'll see from many old french villages, built in the middle of high density, fertile land not so far from Paris). This arrangement would be less likely in the most secure inner lands, but I suspect that in many parts of Esrolia there have been enough invasions, feuds, and bandits that villages are still build defensively.

Finally, because it has been settled so densely for so long, habitation patterns will be more strongly etched on the landscape. Villages might be rising somewhat on their own mounds, hedgerows have been built up over the generations of rocks being dumped there from the fields, lanes have sunk more. So although the land is heavily populated and with little wilderness, it is not all open and rolling fields. Locals know all the short cuts of course, but outsiders may find it somewhat maze like.

I'll try and think some more over the next couple of days.

--Bryan

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