Tribe Villages

*"My village is my home, my family, and my life. I was born here, grew up here, and will die here. My sons and daughters will do the same. The life of the villages goes on throughout the ages, and my part of it will be there forever. I love this place. It is my home."*

Villages are the focal point of Tribe life. They are the civilization of the Tribes, and they are scattered all throughout the Great Forest. There are countless villages and the Tribes they support are just as numerous. Villages are areas of land carved out of the forest upon which a Tribe builds its home. The name village refers to the homes and other structures within the area. It also refers to the nearby farmland and any immediate surrounding areas. Villages are what the Tribesfolk refer to as their home. They are most often named after the Tribe that inhabits them.

A Typical Village Layout

## Common Structures

Villages can be comprised of many different structures, almost all of which are built from either stone, mud, thatch, hide, or some combination of those things. Most homes and structures appear as little more than crudely constructed tents, built by tying dried logs together to form a frame and then covering that frame in hide, cloth, and leaves. Since the Great Forest provides a nearly perfect year round temperature, there is little need for structures in a village to protect its inhabitants from the cold. Instead, they merely need to provide a dry place. Most structures have dirt floors, but particularly hard working people may polish large rocks and embed them in the ground to provide a floor. These crude structures provide most of the housing and other structures in the village. This may range from workshops, to homes, and to mills.

Larger, more elaborate, and more sturdy structures are typically made of timber that is hand lathed and cut. Such structures are often built communally as they require a lot of hand work and carpentry, and as a result are most of the communal halls of the Tribe or any other important gathering structures. Often, the home of a Chieftain and Druid are made of such timbers in reverence of their position within the Tribe. It is very obvious when entering a village which of the structures are the more important structures.

Windows into homes and other buildings are not made of glass but are holes in the wall that are covered with hide draping. They are not common. The doorways to most structures are covered in hides or cloth flaps. They are used for privacy but also to help keep out bugs, creatures, and wind. They are commonly held in place with fiber strings.

Hide working and weaving are important building components of the Tribes. As such, an industry usually exists within any village dedicated to the creation of such material. Hide is easy to come by through hunting. Weaving is done by finding plant fiber and working it either by spinning or by hand into strands. These can then be sewn and used as construction material. Hides and cloth can also be dyed many vibrant colors using special plants that can be found all throughout the forest, boiled in water, and applied to the material. As such, the coverings of many homes, especially doors and windows, can have vibrant, cololrful designs which are often the pride of the home.

Stone is also a common building material, especially for structures that need to be fire resistant. If there is a local workshop to produce metal or glass, for example, that requires heat resistance, stone and mud mortar may be used to build that structure. Further, many larger structures such as the communal hall often have stone floors around a giant fire pit which provides protection. Almost all structures have an open hole in the center of the roof where smoke can escape from fires that are built into fire pits within. These pits may be used for heat, cooking, drying, or other mundane purposes.

Wells are also another common structure of a village. The water table in the Great Forest is quite high, and thus, water is usually easy to draw from the earth. If not, a village may be built near a stream from which water can be drawn. Stone work may be put in place around streams to divert water to a central holding area where the entire village can extract water. Well walls are often also made of stone to withstand the pressures.

The size and number of people in the village is the primary dictator of the number of structures that are typically found. This obviously dictates the number of homes. Further, villages will often have several communal structures, such as areas to draw water, to clean animal carcasses, to prepare hide, to wind and make thread, to work metal, stone, or glass, or to create and display art. These extra structures are often about the size and construction of a home, and they are used communally. Further, all villages will have a communal hall, which is a source of village pride. This hall will be a large gathering area for the whole Tribe as well as for visitors and is often simply a very large room. Druids, Chieftains, and some Elders usually have nicer, wooden homes which are a symbol of their status. Past that, most villages have areas dedicated to martial training, to the processing of crops, and to many other requirements of Tribe daily life.

## Layout of a Village

The most common layout of a Tribe village is with a communal hall in the center of the land area. Around it will typically be other communal structures such as those used for working or processing. Grain and food storage structures are also built around the communal hall granting equal access for anyone in the village. From there, usually arranged in concentric circles are the homes and other structures of the village. The outskirts of the village will often be the homes of farmers as they need easier and regular access to the fields.

Most villages are then surrounded by farm land. To get to a village from the Great Forest usually requires walking down a dirt path that winds between fields or simply by walking across the fields themselves.

## Fields

The fields that surround a village are a primary food source for the village outside of the bounty of the forest. Hunting and gathering are common, but they are not undertaken lightly as the forest can be dangerous. The crops most commonly grown in those fields are commonly variations on native plant life. These includes various types of beans, corn, some types of wheat, and berry or other fruit plants. Tribes will often exchange seeds to each other as part of trade deals, especially if one Tribe has access to a particular crop that another Tribe doesn't.

Fields can be quite large, depending on the size of the Tribe. The total acreage is dependent on the need. If the population of a Tribe grows, the entire community may set to work preparing new field land. Maintaining crops is vital to the whole village, and as such, plowing new land is a community task. During harvest seasons, some fields may grow so tall as to block the view of the village from the forest.

## Village Growth

Villages do not grow quickly. But they can grow in size. A village will almost always expand outward in concentric circles. Since most homes are crude structures and hardly permanent, it is easy to tear down and rebuild sections of a village as more room is needed. Fields can be expanded or moved. More of the forest can be cleared. More homes can be built.

## Walls

It takes a very large and industrious village to build walls. However, it is not unheard of for particularly rich and powerful Tribes to build walls around their villages. These are mostly used to keep the forest out, not to keep out aggressors. Such walls can be constructed of timber, and the forest around the village can be cleared. Often these walls do not encircle the whole village, instead usually encapsulating the inner most communal buildings. In times of danger, the villagers can hide within the walls as this is also where the food reserves are stored and often wells.

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--Neil (talk) 17:11, 25 October 2016 (AST)