Pre-Class Rules:  Please don't chat during class.  Please do not post until you see the word QUESTIONS, and stop posting question when you see CLASS.  I'll be glad to discuss any of this material later if there are any questions.

 

Welcome to Lee Killough's Checking on Culture -- A checklist for Cultural Building, Class 3.  The Killough book is the primary work I've used for this class.  Definitions come from the Random House Webster's College Dictionary.

 

Lee Killough has several books available from Meisha Merlin Press: Blood Walk and Blood Games, Bridling Chaos, and the upcoming Wilding Nights.  You can find more information on these books here: http://www.meishamerlin.com

You can also learn more about Lee Killough and contact her through her AuthorsDen website at: http://www.authorsden.com/leekillough

Lee Killough's book, Checking on Culture, is available.  Anyone who wishes to can order this little gem by sending $5.00 plus $3.00 for postage and postage materials:

 

Lee Killough/PO Box 1167/Manhattan KS 66505-1167 (Be sure to tell her it is for Checking on Culture.)

Class one and two covered Part One of the material.  Today we'll start on Part two which will take at least three or more classes as well.

Part Two: Community Interaction

 

5. Government

 

Definition: The political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states.

 

Killough:  What kind of government does your people have?  A chief or headman of a patrilocal band?  A council of elders?  Hereditary rulers?  Elected government?

 

Can anyone participate in government or only individuals of the right sex or bloodlines, or with enough wealth or military might?

 

What is local government like as opposed to the regional or national/imperial government?  What method or agency do they use for law enforcement? What are their symbols of power?  Their ceremonies of power?

 

Zette:  Government is more than a form imposed on a people. It grows from their culture, and changes with their history, including adapting when invasions bring new rulers.

 

When a society stands on the edge of change between one or more customs, it can create serious problems for the traditional leadership.  African Chiefs, dealing with tribal custom and laws, often found themselves up against Colonial law as well.

 

In such cases, the role of government can break down.  Government creates and maintains institutions, from the military to tax collection to street maintenance.   A change of form also changes what the people can expect to be done for them.

 

Government comes in many forms.  I wrote an article for Vision -- The Alternative Rules -- detailing two such forms (Sparta, Greece and Heian, Japan).  You can find it at: http://www.sscdc.net/hlvision/Issue%202/altzette.htm . 

 

At the end of the article is an extensive (but by no means complete) list of different forms of government.

 

Examining the different forms of government can give you a unique twist to your story, but you have to examine how such a government would work within your world as you have already created it.

 

If you have a society of winged beings, they might have a matriarchy based on nesting rights (following the bird relationship).  Such a society might not do well with a despotic government by the simple fact that the people can just fly away.

 

Who gets to decide what type of government your society lives under?  Who votes, or chooses, the leadership?

 

Who runs things at the lower levels?  A Queen, President, etc. doesn't have the ability to oversee everything in his lands. Define the lines of hierarchy?  Who does the farmer turn to when the neighbor's horses eat half the new sprouts in his field?

 

If a low ranking city guard suspects his superiors of treason, how likely is he to get straight to the king with news like this? Who stands between him?  Who else can he turn to?

 

Just how effective is your government?  Good at a local level, but corrupt in the higher?  Or is it just the opposite, so that the good king is constantly trying to bring his rebellious nobles into line?

 

What power does it hold over the outlying areas?  At what point does the government start to break down?  Do people outside cities live in lawless abandon?  Do the people in cities live by their own laws?

 

What is the aim of your government?  Does it exist to protect the rights of nobility?  To give rights to all?  To impose moral beliefs?  To make the rich richer? To expand control and take over the universe?

 

QUESTIONS

• @zette2 --  QUESTIONS
• Nonny --  I'm questionless.
• Danielle --  brain reels --
• Robert --  This is tied in closely with economics and military power in most of what I've read.
• Peggy --  One thing that needs to be mentioned (if it wasn't in the other class) is, what separates one government from another?
• @zette2 --  In our society that is often true, Robert.  But writers might look for something different.
• Robert --  But there are all these things like Plato's Republic where assorted philosophers have tried doing designer government. Experimental Government can really work for a colony world.
• Kay --  Observation-- at least one aim of every government is to keep itself in power. 
• @zette2 --  Good question Peggy.
• Nonny --  Sometimes it's the only aim, Kay.
• Anne_Marble --  There's a recent book tying civilization in to who could grow how much food and other "macro" thingies.
• Kay --  true, but it's always one of them
• Peggy --  Anne--the contrarian in me has to ask whether "civilization" as we know it is the only alternative.
• Peggy --  (I suspect not, but don't have enough sociological background to offer counterexamples)
• Robert --  I think you could get a government that tried to get everything done and disband itself if it were a cultural factor that serving in government was an unpleasant necessity without perks.
• Jehane --  The comment about societies on the edge of change is interesting, since that happens a lot around here, with Aboriginal tribal law and Australian judicial law.
• @zette2 --  Couldn't you think of a government that wasn't there to keep control?  An interim sort of thing?
• Anne_Marble --  By civilization, I mean all across the world, not just what was often called "civilized."
• @zette2 --  Yeah, I bet, Jehane!
• Peggy --  Robert--that would follow much along Clark, I think, who said that No one who wants to be elected should be allowed to run.
• Robert --  Yep and somewhat even with Plato's idea of a philosopher king, who'd rather quit and just be a philosopher.
• Kay --  one of the most exciting things about sci-fi and fantasy is that you DO get to play out different political scenarios with assorted variables like Zette's winged creatures who could just fly away from a despot, unless... there was a needed resource under control or something
• Peggy --  (And here's a really twisted thought--what if the government officials were criminals sentenced to serve politically?)
• Robert --  The idea tends to be appealing to people who have been stuck with tyrants who liked it.
• karenth --  interesting, Peggy!
• Julia Neal --  lol @ Peggy
• Robert --  Yep, and election comes after their term, at which time they're sentenced by the electorate.
• Nonny --  LOL Peggy
• Anne_Marble --  I think we have that. It's called Congress. ;- --
• Danielle --  What sort of government might come to power in a civil emergency?
• karenth --  heh
• Peggy --  ROFL Anne, only their serving isn't punishment.
• @zette2 --  As someone who's husband has been a city councilman a couple times, I can tell you that not all politics is a question of power.
• Peggy --  Well, not for them.  For the rest of us, maybe.....
• Peggy --  Zette--absolutely.
• @zette2 --  Okay, back to class or we aren't going to get anywhere!

  

CLASS

 

 

6. Law

 

Definition:  The principles and regulations established by a government or other authority and applicable to a people, whether by legislation or by custom enforced by judicial decision.

 

Killough:  Law begins long before statutes and regulations with custom -- common law -- and group members taking complaints to the headman or chief, who then makes a judgment and assigns penalties if necessary.

 

Only later does law become codified, statutory law.  The form varies.  The USA bases its law on British Law and British Common Law... giving us our "Innocent until proven guilty."

 

Europe follows the Napoleonic Code, which, while not saying outright 'Guilty until proven innocent' gives the most power to the judge and prosecutor and little to the defendant.

 

Zette: Anarchy is society without government or law.  Draconian Law, at the other end of the spectrum, is unusually harsh and strict.  People living in dangerous times are apt to have stricter laws.

 

Law has several functions, one of which is to define relationship in a group of people and to make plain what activities they can take part in.  Another function is to determine who can apply physical coercion to enforce those laws.

 

In some primitive societies, the authority to enact the law is in the hands of the entire community, which is often a brutal means of justice. When such actions are taken by modern society, it leads to lynch law.

 

During certain times conflicting law systems might be in place.  During the Roman ages, for instance, people who were accused of a crime would want to claim to be under the legal system that offered the least punishment.

 

They would try to claim the right to be tried under the system that would give them the least punishment -- i.e. wergild (sp) instead of one that demanded an eye for an eye.

 

A group of people, working together in the same crime could, in fact, be tried under different courts depending on their background. Generally it was best to be a Roman Citizen -- until the taxes became untenable.

 

If your characters commit crime, let the reader know there is a price to be paid if they are caught.  Someone shoplifting candy today may do it as a lark because the 'payment' is low. 

 

However, a peasant caught stealing a cake in another society might have their hand cut off.  They won't commit this crime as a lark.  Even if your people do not intend to commit a crime, knowing what is not allowed can give you areas of conflict.

 

Who does the young woman in town turn to when she's assaulted?  The King is unlikely, even if she lives in the capital.  The local lord?  A city Leader?  City guard?  Neighborhood patriarch? 

 

Does she go to a religious leader, or a clan leader, or her brothers?  Consider the laws of the area, and the fear of anarchy, in such a situation. 

 

Also look at the level of wealth between both the young woman and the attackers.  If one or the other is far richer, the scales are likely to be balanced in that person's favor.

 

A community may be under several different, and conflicting, law systems as well.  Local law, the King's Law, and the Church's Law might all have to be considered.  Local law would be the common law and be the rules by which the villagers are most likely to live.

 

However, a new king might bring in new rules.  Usually a king is not concerned with the day-to-day rules of how a people live, so long as they don't incite sedition against him, pay their taxes, and serve in the levy when called. 

 

A local magistrate from this king or other ruler enforced such laws, and quite often -- even if chosen from among the locals -- became disliked and distrusted. This can be true in ancient, medieval and future societies.  

 

The people who represent a distant power over local population can find themselves in a dangerous and disliked position.  The more the distant power needs local cooperation, the more 'back up' the local magistrate will have, often in foreign guards.

 

And Church Law usually reached beyond the boundaries of kingdoms.  However, it might also have the least physical power to be enforced.  A religious rule only works if the people truly believe in something better or worse in another life.

 

Law is not just the setting down of rules.  They must also be enforced, as well as having penalties for breaking them.

 

QUESTIONS

• Robert --  Religious rules can work just on penalties in the here and now, like Amish Shunning though.
• @zette2 --  Yes, that's true.
• Robert --  I think it would be ironic to write up a community of anarchic dragons insulted that tyranny's called "draconian" law
• @zette2 --  But that will not affect a person who leaves that community.
• karenth --  snarf
• Kay --  And church interaction with british common law provided for one of the choice of penalty situations Zette Described
• Nonny --  lol Robert
• @zette2 --  Yes, I remember reading something about that, Kay.  It's interesting to see how those things interact sometimes.
• Kay --  Often a priest could escape the death penalty by claiming "benefit of clergy"
• Danielle --  I suppose culture's ideas of what punishment is meant to achieve will be different, too.
• Kay --  there would be a penalty, but it would be less
• @zette2 --  Oh yes, Benefit of clergy -- which at one time could be claimed by anyone who could prove they could read.
• Nonny --  I didn't know that, Zette. Interesting ...
• Peggy --  Also remember that it is possible to prosecute a churchman under civil laws, if you have the structure for it set up.  (as the Catholic Church may be facing now with all the pedophily charges)
• Robert --  Legal oddities in history are good sources for ideas. I used the rule about prisons and pregnant women in a story already, female pirate got pregnant by the jailer in The Last Executioner. dad got custody, she got a 9 month reprieve from being hung.
• @zette2 --  Yes, Danielle. This is the kind of stuff that you can play around with in your Culture.
• Danielle --  Couldn't women claim 'the belly', i.e. if they were pregnant, they could avoid some types of punishment?
• Nonny --  Depends on the crime and culture, I'd think.
• Peggy --  Danielle--and if they did, and they lied, would their punishment be worse?
• Robert --  That situation Zette described about a young woman assaulted, in some places that might mean the rapist owned her and she's hiding because she's the one penalized.
• @zette2 --  Yes, and this is all about looking at different ideas that you can adapt to a culture you create -- so don't stick too close to 'known' laws and cultures.
• Peggy --  Exactly, Robert.  In some cultures a rapist had to take his victim into his household and care for her.
• Peggy --  Marry her, really.
• Anne_Marble --  In some countries today, women are still accused of adultery if they are raped.
• Kay --  what fun!
• Danielle --  Ick, Peggy.
• Peggy --  Came as a result of the virginal ideal--he raped her, she's not a virgin so she has no value on the marriage market.
• Peggy --  In effect, the rapist stole property (i.e., dowry) from the girl's family.
• @zette2 --  There are all kinds of interesting things you can do with laws, customs, etc... but you need to make them fit into the culture you are creating for the book.  This is just one part of all the other stuff we've covered.
• Danielle --  Reparation.
• Kay --  came as the result of law not giving a good god damn about women
• Anne_Marble --  BRB -- I can spell my pizza. :- --
• Peggy --  LOL at the typo, Anne.
• Danielle --  lol@Anne
• Kay --  you can can you, can you spell me one too?
• Robert --  Reparation in something that harshly patriarchal might mean the girl's dad gets the rapist's sister.
• @zette2 --  But you could turn that around in a book, Kay.  It might be fun.
• Peggy --  Robert--but only if the sister were a virgin, too.
• Kay --  it might be
• Robert --  Right
• @zette2 --  Onward to next section!
• Peggy --  Or maybe the father got the sister's dowry...

 

 

CLASS

7. Warfare and Weapons

 

Definition: The process of military struggle between two nations or groups of nations; war.

 

Killough: Authors writing books with the military or space or ground battles central to their plot will want to develop this category in detail, even with subcategories. 

 

The rest of us can use it to paint in information the subject in broad strokes.

 

This is a good place to give information on general violence in your society, and cover feuds that may exist.  For The Leopard's Daughter I listed the weapons the Dasa used, spent a short paragraph on their standard fighting technique...

 

What is your military's code of conduct/honor? For Liberty's World, I listed weapons and their use, the rules by which the Hees fought their wars, including the fact that soldiers earned the belongings and the hide of anyone they killed in battle.

 

What vehicles do your military use?  High-tech armies have high-tech equipment.  Low-tech armies may use more mundane vehicles.

 

Zette:  I suspect that anyone writing a story based around a war will have most of this worked out, so I'll keep this section short.

 

Look at the reasons behind any war you create.  Just because there is a border between two lands does not automatically mean a war.  And land acquisition is not the sole purpose of war.

 

Religious battles are often worse because they can pit people within the same community against one another.  Revolution in one country can weaken it and make it suddenly susceptible to invasion.

 

This might even be a good reason for a war -- the friendly country to the south helping it's neighbors cast out a group that has taken over.  However, how much cooperation will even a friendly invading army get?  How much will they need?

 

What would they expect in return?  It might be that casting out the invaders keeps their own borders safe... but would they leave part of the army behind to ensure the land stayed 'free?'  When do they start becoming the new invaders?

 

In the late Middle Ages the role of peasants had changed when viewed in war.  They now became legitimate targets, where they had formerly been more of the innocent bystanders, caught up in battles.

 

By this time the general economy of battle had changed, and peasants contributed a great deal to keeping an army in the fields. Therefore, it became important to stop supplies. 

 

Just burning fields was no longer sufficient to slow the enemy.   Disruption of the entire supply system became important, especially as wars stopped being 'seasonal' events and carried on throughout the year.

 

There are questions to consider if your people are at war.  Does a war have to be officially declared to be considered a legitimate war? Can one side deny there is a war while the other side insists that they are fighting one?

 

Who can declare such wars?  Does it have to be the governments involved?  Can the people declare war?  Do the people have a right to veto a declaration of war?

Who fights the war?  In some societies, war was the game of the nobility, and while they could conscript men within their control as 'canon fodder' the true battles were often fought between men of training.

 

Is your army conscripted?  Drafted?  Voluntary?  Who can be called up?  Who is immune from the demands for service?  What protection is left to a family if the adult age males are called to battle?

 

If there is none, if the family is left to the ravages of whoever might come along, then it is unlikely that the men are going to willingly go off to war, no matter how much force is applied.

 

One group is more likely to declare war over another group if they find that they have a strategic advantage.  The expansion of an army, or the creation of a new weapon should be reason for any neighbors to worry.

 

When one side does have an improvement in weapons, the other side may not quite understand the sweeping transformation it will make in battle. Other factors may affect who wins. 

 

Where the battle is fought is often as important as the weapons involved or the number of troops involved.  An army fighting on home ground is also less likely to give way than an invading group.

 

Take a look at something like the Random House Word Menu to get an idea of ranks you might want to use.  The Writer's Digest Flip Dictionary is another good book .

 

If you have a battle to work out, you should consider drawing out the lines and keeping close track of what is happening not only along the lines, but behind them.

 

Even better, if you can manage it, is to set the battle up on something like the old SPI boards (gaming company) and use chits to represent (depending on the size of the battle) individuals, companies, regiments, etc.

 

You don't need to learn the game.  You are only using this for visualization.  Making your own board and chits works, too -- and may be better for map reasons.  However, it also takes a lot longer. 

 

You don't want to spend as much time creating the material for this battle as it would take to put the real troops in the field, after all.  Adapt where you can by cutting out mountains and villages and such to drop into place.  You can reuse them for other books

 

Set up your battle.  Look for weaknesses on both sides of the line.  Either shore up those weaknesses, or exploit them.  The better you can visualize where your armies are standing and how they are moving, the more complex you can make that section of the story.

 

However, always remember that you are not writing a military instruction.  Details can get boring.  And also remember that while actions all along a line of battle are simultaneous, they are not visible to everyone.  Even in the age of radio communications, news has to spread.

 

Below are just a few examples of how you can use changes in battle to provide variations.

 

Bronze weapons gave way to iron, which was far more difficult to smelt and shape -- but was also far stronger than relatively soft bronze.  Iron Age armies overwhelmed Bronze Age opponents.

 

Armies caught in enemy territory might have to fight their way out.  When a group of mercenary Greeks backed the wrong person for the Persian throne, they had to make a fighting retreat to the sea. (The Retreat of the Ten Thousand)

 

When the Europeans invaded North America, they pitted their firearms against Stone Age cultures.  Even the Middle and South American Empires were hardly more than Bronze Age in development.

 

In the Middle Ages, mounted horsemen, including knights, found a drastic change in warfare when line soldiers stopped retreating back to the fortifications, but instead stood their ground with long pikes braced against the earth.

 

From around 1420 soldiers began to use 'corned' gunpowder, which was gunpowder damped with wine or spirits, rolled into granules and dried. This improved the combustion.

 

Suleiman (715-717) led an Arab army to Chalcedon, across the Bosphorous from the great city of Constantinople.  Although he laid siege to the city for fourteen months, he could not take it.

 

On May 29, 1453 an army led by Sultan Muhammad II used canon and gunpowder to breach those same walls.  He also dragged his ships OVERLAND across a small peninsula so that they sailed behind the line of defense made by the Byzantine ships.

 

At the onset of World War I, mounted cavalry found themselves going up against the first of the mechanized tanks.  This, by the way, was still the case when Poland faced Germany in World War II.

 

Victors tend to think they will fight using the same tactics as the last war, and are often surprised. The American Civil War was so bloody because the generals used Napoleonic mass tactics while rifling had improved accuracy to three times the range.

 

WWI was a stalemate, but France fell to Germany in a matter of weeks thanks to the ability of tanks to break lines and allow troops to encircle, then capture the enemy, rather than allow retreats and new battles.

 

Russia beat Hitler by trading empty land for time, and then contesting urban cities where enemy troops to live through the winter. This placed "civilian" populations in the middle of the war, rather than protecting them by surrendering the city.

 

QUESTIONS

• Peggy --  Two points:  One, never discount mercenaries, or condottiere, or freelances, or hired troops.
• @zette2 --  Take your time to read this!
• Peggy --  Two, Roads developed as a result of armies.
• @zette2 --  Very true!  I meant to mention buying troops, but forgot!
• Robert --  If you do the map, the chips, the troop designations and the scenario, you are three quarters done with a subsidiary rights Wargame Project and can sell your world building if it's fun to play.
• Julia Neal --  wow, this gives me some GREAT ideas! And at just the right time, too! (big grin)
• Anne_Marble --  What about the use of magic in battles? That can throw everything into even more chaos!
• Kay --  The Napoleonic wars include good examples of friendly armies not getting much cooperation from the locals who invited them in.
• @zette2 --  No more so than Canon against troops who have only bows, Anne.
• Danielle --  Pacts and ceasefires can be good dramatic fodder, too.
• @zette2 --  True, Danielle!
• Peggy --  And zette's point about communications is good, too.  What if there's a peace declared, but some remote outpost doesn't find out about it?
• Anne_Marble --  Although a really powerful spell might be more like a nuclear explosion. :-
• Jehane --  Wars don't have to be about pitched battles - there are guerilla tactics too
• Danielle --  And spies probably play a big part in warfare.
• @zette2 --  WWI is a fascinating war to study, by the way.  I read a wonderful eight-book history by General March.
• Anne_Marble --  That happened during the War of 1812, although remote was New Orleans.
• Robert --  The particular magic would create its own conditions like any new military technology
• @zette2 --  It's a great way to see how the drastic change in technology can affect wars. 
• @zette2 --  Tanks fighting against horse soldiers is ... dramatic.
• Peggy --  Anne--suddenly thinking of the magical equivalent of Fat Man and Little Boy.
• Robert --  Spies have always been that valuable. Sun Tzu specifically said your spy is your most important soldier, pay him a lot, take care of his family and always be nice to him.
• Anne_Marble --  I think the Battle of New Orleans was fought weeks after the truce.
• Danielle --  I like that, Robert - take care of his family.
• Anne_Marble --  Actually weren't the Italian tanks pushed back by Ethiopian warriors?
• @zette2 --  Sun Tzu had a lot of very good points on warfare.  The book is short, and you should read it if you are going to do any battle related material.
• Robert --  I got my copy as a little tiny pocket book at Borders, and it's very convenient.
• Peggy --  There could be some conflict, too, Robert--the spies get better quarters than the generals.
• karenth --  what a fantastic image, Anne...
• Anne_Marble --  Then again, the Italian army in WWII isn't a good example to use.
• @zette2 --  But once again, remember that no matter how important your battle is to your book, don't weigh the story down by it.  Most people don't want to follow step by step through a battle.
• Robert --  That and A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi are great reading and will give your military characters such *competence* on both sides.
• @zette2 --  And if they do, they aren't reading much fiction.
• Anne_Marble --  I think you can download Sun Tzu from various web sites.
• Peggy --  ----- wouldn't want to WRITE a battle step by step.
• Nonny --  Sorry, got kicked.
• Danielle --  wb Nonny!
• @zette2 --  Yes, you can download it.  I have it on my Visor.
• Nonny --  What are we on now?
• @zette2 --  Makes good light reading while Russ is in the store.  (grin)
• karenth --  (uh, oh...got to go.  thanks everybody! thanks zette!)
• Peggy --  War....
• Nonny --  Bye Karen
• @zette2 --  Warfare, Nonny.
• Julia Neal --  bye, Karen
• Nonny --  Damn! The fun part!
• Peggy --  Bye, Karen.
• Jehane --  bye karen
• Danielle --  bye Karenth!
• @zette2 --  Bye Karen!  We'll have a transcript up later!
• Robert --  ne thing that works for me pretty well is to know all of what went on - play it out with the board - and show only the parts the characters see.
• Peggy --  Robert--good idea.
• Robert --  Which is usually very little since battles are chaotic and dangerous and you need to pay attention to what's coming at ya.
• @zette2 --  You can make a board too, and chits -- but easier to buy a cheap used one.
• Anne_Marble --  Buy some plastic soldiers. ;- --
• @zette2 --  They're too bulky.  boards and chits are much easier to deal with.
• Nonny --  Board? I'm thinking the community board here ...
• Robert --  I miss my Ral Partha fantasy figures! I had such a great Army of Evil...
• Anne_Marble --  But plastic soldiers are _fun_.
• Peggy --  No, no, Nonny.
• Danielle --  lol @ robert
• Peggy --  Sorry, we're talking about a grid board you can use to lay out the battles.
• @zette2 --  LOL,  Gaming board old SPI games and such.
• Robert --  Plastic soldiers or individual figures are good for melees with known characters. Do the war on the board and the cahracter's brawl with the figures.
• Peggy --  Those Ral Partha figures were great.
• Nonny --  Huh, that could be helpful ...
• Anne_Marble --  That can work even if you're not writing battle scenes. If you're just doing little battles or skirmishes or chases.
• @zette2 --  I have a bunch of the old Ral Partha figurines somewhere.  But that's entirely different from what I'm talking about.  (grin)
• Robert --  Very. It lets you see whether the archer you used to try to save the character's life is in line of sight of that enemy mage's fireball.
• Peggy --  Robert--I suspect magic might better be used in guerilla tactics than in all out war.
• Anne_Marble --  At my parents, I have a plastic model castle made in Germany.
• Peggy --  Mages are notoriously easy to kill.  No armor.
• Robert --  Depends on the spells.
• @zette2 --  Okay!  Let's see if we can get another long section and maybe a shorter one after that. We're heading back into 'living with each other' stuff now.
• Peggy --  Oh, cool, Anne.

 

CLASS

 

8. Architecture & Housing

Definition:  (Architecture) the character or style of a building

 

Killough:  (Architecture) This category will not apply to all cultures, not to hunter-gatherers and possibly not to aquatic species...  Whether we talk about tepees or town halls, however, habitat and anatomy influence building styles.

 

Until a society becomes technically advanced enough to produce synthetic material, habitat determines what a people can use for building ... animal skins, grass, branches, stone, wood, adobe, rammed earth.

 

Habitat also influences how a people build.  Low structures withstand heavy gravity better than taller ones. Thick walls keep out cold, or heat. Small rooms heat better than larger ones.  Verandas and colonnades catch moving air, making them comfortable places in hot climates.

 

...Also keep anatomy in mind. Doorways need to be wide enough or tall enough for your people to pass through. Entrances for a winged race might be near the roof rather than at ground level...

 

Zette:  If you are creating a primitive culture, architecture is going to be very simple and locked into the material that can be gathered at hand.  Even the art of making sun baked bricks came late in man's overall history.

 

Climate will also play a very large part in what type of buildings your people create.  Living on a windswept shore is not conducive to flimsy huts.  Primitive people who live in areas of returning cold are not going to build very large buildings.  They're too hard to heat.

 

Until very recent times, the architecture of church buildings lagged far behind the rest of the buildings in an area, often by several hundred years.  That meant that even new buildings were constructed in an outdated style.

 

Take a look at your culture and see if there is any part of it that is likely to be old-fashioned, staid.  You can mold buildings or even a section of a city to reflect this attitude.

 

And if you are working in a fantasy, remember that castles are not likely to be 'old -fashioned' if they are in use.  Square towers gave way to round (harder to hit with canons, etc.), and window designs reflected the use of projectiles.

 

Since castles are built for defense and intimidation, any lord who didn't keep up on the latest improvements was not likely to hold on to the building for long.

 

Looking at more mundane buildings means looking at the size of the settlement.  A village is not going to have areas of rich and poor, for instance.  Usually everyone in a village will be at about the same level, although in the Middle Ages an overseer for the area might have a fancier home.

 

Once cities of any size start to appear, the dichotomy between rich and poor becomes more apparent.  In early history, shanty towns grew up on the edges of cities, but now days it is more likely to be the inner city that becomes a slum.

 

Does your city have room to grow, or is bounded by some obstacles?  A city founded on an island (or group of islands, like Venice) is going to have a very limited area to expand.

 

This means taller, cramped buildings, narrow passages. However, a city built on a wide plain may only be limited in size by building supplies and the ability to provide for such a city.

 

It is estimated that in today's world, large cities are no more than two days away from the start of starvation because they rely so much on outside resources.  If there is a breakdown in civilization, cities will be the first to suffer.

 

How are individuals housed?  By family -- and if so, how much of a family? Where I live, the older three story family homes are now almost entirely subdivided into apartments.  This shows a huge change in life styles.

 

What services are provided in the home?  In Rome in ancient times, and in many large cities later, those who were not rich enough to own a 'town house' huddled into small, cramped apartments.

 

There were no facilities for cooking, and 'fast food' was often bought on the way home from vendors along the street.  Many of the most damaging fires occurred when people tried to either heat or cook in these apartments.

 

QUESTIONS

• Peggy --  Following up on that, zette--in Rome, the streets were generally very narrow (outside of the civic center) and there was practically no room between buildings.
• Peggy --  Thus making the fires that much more devastating and regular.
• @zette2 --  Yes!
• Robert --  This is something where if I want something particularly esthetic - like lacy multicolored spires ala old fantasy novel covers, I can back work the culture to give them a reason for multicolored spires.
• Danielle --  I read somewhere that places with large militaries may have triumphal wide streets, too, at least in part of the city.
• @zette2 --  There was no way to stop them, unless you could get far enough out to have enough time that you could knock down buildings in the path... but that was very unlikely.
• Anne_Marble --  And Nero didn't have a fiddle. ;- --
• Robert --  Wouldn't it work both ways?
• Peggy --  Zette--then there was Crassus with his own private fire brigade......
• Jehane --  Most houses where I live are elevated (on stilts) for cooling purposes.  Louvres are also common.
• Anne_Marble --  I want one style for the ancient part of my city (built by ancient mages) and a more practical style for the newer buildings (built as part of the prison surrounding the old part).
• @zette2 --  Oh, that's neat, Jehane!  They're that way in Hawaii, too, in places.
• Anne_Marble --  I always liked the lake people. They had cool houses.
• Peggy --  Anne--you have a justification for at least two different architectural styles there.  Go for it.
• Danielle --  Overseas guests have been surprised at the amount of wooden housing here - culturally to them, that's impermanent. Not good for a family.
• Robert --  Yeah, I think paying attention to the architecture raises a lot of interest.
• Julia --  I've seen stilted homes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, so in case of hurricanes they won't flood
• @zette2 --  Most cities do have multiple styles.  No city grows up overnight.
• Steven --  unless they just had a fire.
• Nonny --  My sentient felines started out by building houses in dugouts, down in the earh, almost like dens.
• Robert --  I love the multiple styles, because that gives me the city's history.
• @zette2 --  I suspect that's part of the reason for them in Hawaii, too, Julia.
• Peggy --  And, you may have a situation like we have in Las Vegas.  Our University grew up over 40 years.... you have a progression of architectural styles all in one place.
• Nonny --  Because of that, they don't live very close to rivers ...
• Danielle --  We have a whole town here that's art deco in style, because it was all rebuilt after an earthquake.
• Robert --  Buildings themselves can have multiple styles. I did an old manor house in Piarran Add-On wings through numerous generations...
• @zette2 --  That's good, Nonny!
• Jehane --  Some of the houses around here are built like bomb shelters, to withstand cyclones...mostly built just after Cyclone Tracy flattened the place
• Anne_Marble --  Peggy, you have a progression of styles on the Strip. ;- --
• @zette2 --  Okay I'm going to throw in one more quick section, and then we can discuss them all!

 

CLASS 

 

9. Property

 

Definition: goods, land, etc. considered as possessions

 

Killough:  Consider the matter of property rights among your people.  If they are a sedentary culture, who holds the land?  A wealthy elite... nobility... or may anyone? Who inherits?

 

In some African tribes a man's property -- or his Stool if he is the King -- passes to the son of his oldest sister.

 

Zette:   As important as what can be owned is what can't.  In the US it is illegal to own large quantities of gold.  Is it illegal to own stores of food because your people live communally?  Do they secretly hide supplies in the hills?

 

Is it illegal to own technology?  Is it illegal not to share certain items that if held could allow that person more wealth, power, ease, etc.?  You might be able to come up with some unusual ideas along this line.

 

Property ownership is important, but post death division of those articles is also an important part of a society.  Who inherits is as essential a farmer as it is to the king. 

 

In many societies there are strict laws of inheritance, which help either to limit the concentration of wealth (by limiting or over taxing what a single person can acquire), or by protecting the rich by allowing the transfer of huge amounts of wealth and power without hindrance.

 

Who can rightfully claim any part of an inheritance?  Is there some ritual that they must go through before they can accept something?

 

We think of getting an inheritance as good.  Is there something bad that can be inherited?  Do people inherit obligations as well as property?  Can they symbolically inherit something that is not actually in their control?  (As in Pretenders to a Throne that is in another's hands.)

• @zette2 --  (I appear to have lost part of that section!)
• Steven --  ruh roh
• Nonny --  Zette
• Robert --  Couple of ideas tossed around are "property is illegal, all held in common" and
• Robert --  "land isn't property" and
• Peggy --  There's also frequently a social contract to inheritance.  E.g., eldest son inherits the farm and tools in exchange for taking care of Mom in her declining years.
• Robert --  "inheritance should be illegal so that wealth is redistributed"
• @zette2 --  Those are things to play with in your culture building, Robert.
• Peggy --  And whatever inheritance laws or customs there are, people will find ways around them when they feel they must.
• Jehane --  Aboriginals didn't consider land to be property.  The land sustained them, and they belonged to it, rather than them owning the land
• @zette2 --  What you want out of all of these sections is to just look how the story you write, and the culture you are creating, are both shaped by and shape these things.
• Anne_Marble --  With variation, I think the classic system is... Eldest son inherits, second oldest goes into the army and becomes an officer, the rest often have to become priests.
• @zette2 --  Nothing of what I offered is a 'this is how it has to be' but only a list of possiblities.
• Nonny --  My felines don't feel that they own land -- rather, the only things that pass down in inheritance are personal belongings.
• Peggy --  Anne--or more military types.
• Robert --  Right, I was tossing a couple. Another is to reverse primogeniture and it's the baby that inherits.
• Robert --  Nonny, that really fits for cats.
• Nonny --  I remember reading part of a novel on Critters where it was the youngest daughter who inherited, rather than the oldest child, regardless of gender.
• Danielle --  Intangible inheritances are always interesting to do, with fantasy.
• Robert --  That and I can't remember what tribes, but some matrilocal cultures inheritance was always through women, women held land, men didn't they married it.
• Nonny --  However, if the dead feline is a mouse-farmer or somesuch, his "crop" will be passed down to his kittens.
• Danielle --  lol @ nonny
• Steven --  snarf. mouse-farmer. lol.
• Robert --  Why not, they're civilized and those are domestic food animals.
• @zette2 --  That's fun, Nonny!
• Anne_Marble --  I can see Tom trying to grow Jerry.
• Nonny --  (yup, mouse-farmers. The felines raise all sorts of animals; fish are about the only thing they don't farm)
• Peggy --  snarf --  Anne
• Nonny --  ROFTLMAO Anne!!!
• Julia Neal --  lol @ Anne and Nonny!
• Steven --  exactly, Anne. :P
• @zette2 --  We are about a third to a half way through all the sections, by the way.  We have quite a ways yet to go, but I think some of the later sections will be shorter.
• Nonny --  How many more classes are there, Zette?
• Nonny --  Err, sessions.
• @zette2 --  I really can't say. We're running about fiver or six sections a class, and there are about 50 total.  This is only class four.
• @zette2 --  But the number we get through varies.

 

 

 

 

Lazette Gifford
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