>From my point of view it will depend a lot on the clan, as Jeff said.
For most people, the 'main' village of the clan is a better place to live. It is more secure, there is more interaction with the powerful of the clan, perhaps more opportunities for your children, there is more entertainment, perhaps more chance of trickle down wealth, etc.
But I remember travelling through the rich farmlands in north central France, and noticing that you were never out of sight of a church steeple, that villages were only a mile or two apart. The reason is simple: commute time. People will tolerate only so much of their day spent travelling to and from 'work' before the cost of that drives them to move closer to work if possible. (especially when it is done on foot, along muddy foot-paths, rather than sitting in a modern car). Depending on how rich the farm land around that main village is, it will only support so many farmer who want to live there.
The other villages will still want to be within signalling range of the main village, and not too long of a walk, as people will need to go back and forth a fair bit. This tends to put a natural limit on the practical size of a tula--if the chief and his/her weaponthanes are so far away that you can't get them to come help you in case of trouble, and going to a holy ceremony adds most of a day of travel on each side of the holy day itself....maybe you are better off on your own?
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> I didn't go into that level of detail because the answer is really "it depends".
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> Most Orlanthi communities are based around a central walled village with a number of outlying farms. See Old Man Village for the Orlmarth clan as a good example.
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> The village tends to be the center of many clan activities. The chief, council, redsmith, and so on are all probably there. If you live in the village, you deal with members of your clan from other bloodlines on a daily basis. The local temple is usually nearby.
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> The outlying farms are more remote. You might not see people from the village on a daily basis.
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> As an aside, raids are not something that happens constantly. And if most of your neighbors are Orlanthi, you probably aren't going to get raided by them on the holy days of Orlanth or Ernalda.
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> Jeff
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> >
> > I'm looking to start my first Sartar campaign and am trying to envision the day-to-day life.
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> > Many published Clans consist of a few separate villages or Steads; but it is the Clan that seems to be the key for much of the worship, politics, wealth, raids, decision making etc.
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> > To what extent is the daily life centred on the Stead vs the Clan? How much daily interaction would there be between Steads? On Orlanth's holy day do all the clan members travel the few miles to the clan's Orlanth temple (leaving the Stead unguarded)? How would a clan raid be arranged? How would defence against a raid be coordinated? Would it be a Stead party or a Clan party who took sheep to the summer pastures? Etc etc.
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> > I've not found any published work that goes into this level of detail, have I missed something?
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> > Any thoughts would be gratefully received.
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>