%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
|
This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario. An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. |
| World-building - Towns So we have mountains and rivers, now let’s look at where to put people (or any population) – the places they live. In an area, initial settlements will always be around a source of water. If the region rains a lot, then amongst the first things to be built will be large areas to capture water. But water is tantamount. This is in the early days of a settlement, as it grows. Now, the second thing is food. Is it a hunting society? Then there will be areas for wild animals to be living, and often surprisingly close to towns, with the predators that can bring. Is it an agrarian society? In that case, there needs to be the right sort of land, and lots of it, for farms to be established, and to supply enough food for a town, and there has to be roads for transport and a means of getting the water to the crops. Or the town might be a place where trade occurs. In that case, it must be remembered that most heavy trade is water-borne as it is cheaper and easier than horses. But there will also be overland trade, with each town no more than a day away by regular transport (horse, foot, horse team, whatever) from the previous. Yes, I understand pioneers and settlers camped, but we are looking at towns established after initial expansion. Then there is exact location. If the region is filled with warring tribes or warlords who want land, then the town will have fortifications, and most likely be on higher ground, within easy access to the water. It might even be built some way up the slope of a mountain by the water supply. Or, as in the case with Paris, France, it might be on an island in the middle of a large river. Even coastal cities on seas and oceans generally originally occur at the mouths of rivers or bays (which tend to be fed by multiple water supplies) for that water supply. Eventually, of course, trade will increase and water can be brought in from across the waves, and a lot of the original waterways end up being diverted or built up on, and so those streams or rivers are not needed, but at first, they definitely are. But, you cry, my town is beyond the initial settlement phase! It has a population of a hundred thousand and is renowned for being where the finest magical hammers are made! Great… but how did it start? There will be water, or the remnants of a water supply, still evident; there will be those initial food sources still evident. Some of this evidence might be a town on both sides of the river that supplied so much of its trade. It might be the fact the town has very few hills because of the original farms. There might be a fortified walled internal part of the city where old defences had been built. Or, look at our modern cities. We cut down the trees and name the roads after them. We name suburbs after the owners of original farms. Dried up river-beds become highways. Old lakes get filled in and become developments. But the old traces are still there, physically and in town memory. Towns appearing in the middle of nowhere can only exist if there is a large amount of traffic that can bring goods and even water with them. They might have an underground aquifer to supply water, but as civilisation progresses, this will become polluted or even run out. They will rely on traders and travellers to supply everything, and the economy will be based around this sort of trade. So placement of towns is important when looking at the world you are building. The history needs to lend itself to the towns being where they are, and this is important for the current state of the town and how it developed. Even the country it is in, or the world at large. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
