Caerville

**Caerville** is the town where most the Shrinking Woods population lives, as well as the main residency of the Knights and the Villagers. Caerville and its depending areas outside the town itself are the only locations of the region where state institutions rule, with a matching military/police (the Knights) and collected taxes.

## Architecture and geography

[Some text about the plain where Caerville is built + the sea + the adjacent areas]

Caerville is made of a residential area built around a castle and surrounded by fields to supply itself with food. In order to keep the towns separated from the dangerous outside, the fields belt around the town is protected by a patrolled stone wall that means the edge of the town.

The town was built in medieval style, using a lot of wood and stone. However there is a sharp difference between both main areas of Caerville : the castle aside of the beautiful rich district where the Knights live, and the Villagers residential area where the other inhabitants are more crowded inside low ceilinged houses and shops. Stone is mostly dedicated to the Knights buildings and fortifications, the castle even being adorned with gold, silver and iron. In contrast the Villagers building are mostly made of wood, often leaving them with high levels of humidity.

## Social structure

As architecture shows, the inhabitants can be divided into two main social groups : the Knights ruling class and the Villagers working class.

### Villagers

#### Farmers

Most Villagers are farmers, dedicating their time to agriculture and livestock, the most common and necessary activities for the town. However agricultural labour is known to be physically demanding and repetitive. This harshness added to low technology, cheap agricultural products, and huge taxes, causes these farmers to remain poor and less healthy than the other town inhabitants.

#### Artisans and merchants

The remaining Villagers (excluding the Knights) are almost all artisans and merchants. They craft or sell tools and various items for the other inhabitants (including items obtained from witches for Illegal merchants), which brings them some more money than agriculture would. Though, like the farmers, artisans and merchants are heavily taxed. This causes most of the protestors against the domination and taxation by the Knights to come from these professions.

### Knights

The other main social group is the Knights, both the ruling and fighting class of Caerville. Their main figures decide the law and how it's applied, and they collect most of the town wealth through consequent gold and agricultural products taxing. This wealth is both used to let the Knights live in luxury, and provide them equipment to protect the town from Witches and keep order in the town (especially among the Villagers).

This class in particular is mostly hereditary, as legitimate knights must be born from two knight parents to be a member of the Knights class. Although a few Villagers can permanently join the military, they can't get the title of 'knight' without personally getting it from an important Knights figure.

### Witches

Since their presence is theoretically illegal inside Caerville, Witches are down the social scale. The ones who live there don't have any right, often kept shrunk in order to prevent them from fleeing or attacking other Humans. They are actually mostly used as merchandise or pets. The owners of these captured witches are often knights, who use to see them as prestigious properties among their own class.

However free witches are also occasionally present inside Caerville to secretly trade food, manufactured products, and forest materials with Illegal merchants.