Wolfen cities

[Soldier of Od]

Greetings and Salutations. Links for Soldier of Od (including the one Dark Elf linked as well as the other two, keeping all three in one post):

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=31144
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=31106
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=31063

Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.

Thanks guys for sorting out those links. No-one's commented on them yet - I guess everyone's more concerned right now with whether wolfen can ride horses!

So, on that subject - I totally forgot about their tails in my earlier post! But I'm sure they can make a saddle that can cope with that, just like other tailed riders already included in the books. I certainly don't think we need to work out the details of exactly what it will look like - how does that help the gaming experience? Just say 'this is a human saddle', 'this is a wolfen saddle', 'this is an eandroth saddle' etc.

Wolfen must use horses for something as there are at least 200 head of horses in Shadowfall according to the wolfen empire book (that were trained for riding and pulling carriages - not for food!). Perhaps they use them to pull carts (and ploughs), but they are not ridden, just led along by their wolfen masters?

So I think it is definitely possible for wolfen to ride (large) horses. But I'm not saying that it is common. Perhaps only wolfen knights and palladins ever learn this rare skill. Foot would definately be the mode of choice for wolfen travelling in the forests of the north.

With the Roman influence in their society, I have them more often using chariots if anything (but only where the terrain allows). Perhaps (like other Roman influenced aspects) this is a relatively new innovation, intentionally pushed forward in anticipation of a war with the Eastern Territory. Also, in the open tundra of the far north, they may use sleds/sleighs (drawn by horses? Dogs? Wolves? Reindeer? Bears?!) rather than ride anything.

[glitterboy2098]

Reindeer might show up as a beast of burden, but they tend to be no bigger than horses (smaller than most) so probably not a good riding animal for wolfen. might work for kankoran though, both in terms of size, and in terms of cultural aspect .real world cultures that raise reindeer as beasts of burden/mounts include the Sami of Finland, who use them as beasts of burden, and the Dukha people of Mongolia, who use them as both beasts of burden and mounts. they tend to be nomadic and tightly tied to living in tune with nature. using some of their cultural elements for the kankoran would fit rather well.

for Wolfen, i'd imagine that Moose might work. Domesticated moose exist, though they are fairly rare nowadays, with the main population being in russia. but the russians, finnish, and swedes had looked into use Moose as cavalry mounts in the past. the idea was never really followed up on because by the time the idea became feasible, mounted cavalry was on the way out. (logistics for it would have been trickier too, since moose can't live on oats and hay for long periods, they need more green plants.)

Bison too might be viable. while there hasn't been many attempts IRL, if you start training them young enough you can make a Bison docile enough to ride. and there are cultures around the world which ride old world buffalo, mostly in asia. old world buffalo are just as big and mean as Bison, so with enough generations of domestication, you should be able to raise bison as mounts and draft animals. bison are also fairly closely related to Cattle and Oxen, which suggests domestication is feasible.

of course what would be really neat would be Mastodons and Mammoths..

[glitterboy2098]

managed to find only a few sources on the nature of buildings and such in roman held Germania and Britannia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_C ... ppinensium = one of the northern most colonial cities built by the romans in Germania (would eventually evolve into the modern day city of Cologne)


from britannia, you have a recreation of one of the military forts along hadrians wall (pretty much the northernmost part of the roman empire period)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemag ... otostream/ - look through the whole gallery.

the BBC has a page on Hadrians wall with a few pictures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhis ... f_britain/
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/schoo ... _recon.jpg
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/schoo ... _house.jpg

also several other articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhis ... _scotland/


the romans in the colonial areas were big fans of 'planned cities', and tended to recreate the styles of their mediterrainian communities, just with accomidation to the climate. smaller windows, thicker walls, greater use of barriers in the windows like glass panes (usually very irregular and thick because of the difficulty in making flat sheets) or thick curtains/shutters.
http://www.apx.lvr.de/media/apx/lvr_arc ... ve_800.jpg

a good article about how the average person would have lived in roman Britain.. beyond the rich in their villa's or the miltiary in their forts.
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2012/07/th ... -one/47692

for the pre-imperial side of the wolfen..
an article on the celts of britain in roman times: http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingLists ... mnonia.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuneburg - a Celtic fortress from 600bc, located on the upper Danube.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havr%C3%A1nok - Havránok, a celtic community from around 100bc, also has some stuff from earlier and later periods.

and lets not forget that the wolfen have a major viking feel to them in some ofthe PFRPG material (especially their navy)
a simple viking farming/ranhing community might look like this:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/ima ... 9lljpg.jpg

article on towns and villages:
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/article ... llages.htm
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/article ... /Towns.htm

while larger communities were morel iek this: https://arranqhenderson.files.wordpress ... -1000.jpeg
(Dublin was one of the largest cities the viking ever built)

when the vikings got into building fortifications (fairly late in their history),they tended to look somewhat liek this:
http://i23.servimg.com/u/f23/14/73/82/96/fort10.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73 ... e99d11.jpg

the vikings tended to prefer large and long houses. often with several closely related families living together.
generally these were made of wood: http://www.davidbarber.org/circumambula ... ghouse.JPG
but in places where wood was scarce, stone and Sod was used to suppliment wood: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... LC0165.jpg
or even replace nearly all of it: http://www.historyonthenet.com/sites/de ... k=fnaabgGP
(in places like iceland and greenland, where wood was increasingly scarce, viking settlements could almost go unnoticed because they'd look rather like hills) http://www.hurstwic.org/history/article ... Houses.htm

usually part of the house was built as a stable, to house the animals during the colder parts of the year. usually near the stable section was the storehouses, sometimes with a small area jutting off the house that is partly dug into the ground and lined with thick stones, to provide year round cool storage.
the living area of the house was usually one big room lined with bench/beds along the sides, with fires down the center. belongings tended to be stored under the beds or on the walls.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/article ... ghouse.htm

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73 ... 92d30a.jpg

of course, other types of buildings existed too in more developed areas..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_ ... chitecture

Jorvik (a viking town that evolved into modern day city of York)
had more reconizable wood houses, thatched with straw, and actually having basements! (the basement was part of the strucutre of the house, helping it keep it's shape.)
http://archeurope.eu/uploads/images/Pag ... n%20PH.jpg
http://www.ivargault.com/bilder/jorvik_1.jpg (indoor recreation for a museum)
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... d49d63.jpg building layout. the interior isn't much different than the 'longhouses' found in otherl ocations,but they were smaller, usually just one or two families living there.
PDF with more details on construction
http://jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/who-w ... they-live/
http://www.viking.no/e/england/york/lif ... ouses.html
Jorvik was mostly a crafts center.. metal smithing of various types, carpentry, tanning, etc. it was a major marketplace and trading hub as well.


the viking Stave chruches would make an excellent style of building for the wolfen to conduct the worship of the northern pantheon.

for viking stuff, the Hurstwick site is a goldmine..
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/text/history.htm



and since this is fantasy, feel free to use some of the fantasy style buildings. the Rohirim of the lord ofthe rings and their buildings would fit right in, just swap the horse emblems for wolf ones.
http://eyeofthefish.org/wp-content/uplo ... Sunday.jpg
http://laurenceinman3d.weebly.com/uploa ... 3_orig.jpg
https://middleeartharchitectures.files. ... /09/01.jpg
http://laurenceinman3d.weebly.com/uploa ... 9_orig.jpg


as would the architecture of the Beowulf film..
http://www.matherart.com/digimather/con ... dHall1.jpg
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/now ... 0521185856

[tmbn]

Great post Glitterboy!

Back to the first question of how a Wolfen city would look like and roman influences. Romans didnt care much for Scandinavia so I think we need to look at towns in Germany (Germania) and England. Also as Glitterboy said. Also since they would build more north and with the wast resources of trees I guess they would build more with lumber than with stones. Like the old Scandinavian buildings.

I found this example from Exeter:

Most Roman towns started as military forts. See picture in PDF.

https://www.rammuseum.org.uk/web/data/p ... -Notes.pdf

http://www.exeter.gov.uk/media/image/e/ ... arge_1.jpg

http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2958

Size: It was 440m by 350m.
It had:
• Ramparts made of squashed clay, 20 Roman feet wide
RAMM Learning Resources : Romans in Devon
Unless otherwise stated, © Exeter City Council and Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
For educational purposes only
• A timber palisade (fence) on top and a walkway for sentries
• Four gates, one on each side.
• Towers on the ramparts at exactly 100 Roman feet apart
• Two ditches running round the outside – one huge one called a Punic
ditch which is a ditch you cannot escape from!
• Roads 20 Roman feet wide
• The Commander’s house
• 6 Tribunes’ house
• Hospital
• Barracks for soldiers to sleep in
• Workshops for making and mending equipment
• An HQ for the Commander with offices, meeting rooms, armoury,
treasure, standards shrine and tribunal (for calling all soldiers together and
hearing legal cases)
• A very smart bath house with an aqueduct for getting water to it. The
aqueduct may have run at head height on stone arches.
• Granaries for storing grain and other foodstuffs.

All of the buildings (except the bath house) were wooden.

In the bigger towns importans buildings would be in stone in Wolfen Empire to act as fortress and prevent fire. Also since Wolfen have Fur they would not care that much about isolation of the building.

Also I guess as romans. Wolfen would be mad about walls and watchtowers. The watchtowers was the thin that hold the empire together. So would expect Wolfen empire to have a lot of watchtowers. Romans had over 800 watchtowers only in Germania.

http://2eyeswatching.com/2012/08/26/rom ... f-its-end/

[SittingBull]

You can tell who has high speed by the number of links they post. (Me zero equalling dial-up...) Great posts both of you.