Cities, cities, cities

[trentonian7]

I have a great joy for ancient and medieval cities, though specifically cities prior to gunpowder. What are your cities like? How many people? Do they have walls? A guard? What are the fortifications like? What is the city itself like? Does it have a palace or castle? Any monuments or special places? What do people do for entertainment there?

 

[Swordfry]

For all of my books set in my first main fantasy world, all of the civilizations are still pretty primitive. I've gotten used to calling this my own "extended Stone Age" because my fictional planet has very little easily accessible metal to mine as most of it is deep underground. So in terms of how advance they are, my civilizations are beyond stone age, but rely only on stone age resource like wood, stone, bone, and giant sea shells and coral for my world.

That said, the biggest of any of my cities are hill forts. Just cities built on top of hills with wooden walls. They start off as literally just forts, but eventually learn how to build artificial hills and expand them more and more into actual functional cities. I like building on this idea, because there are not many other options for fortifications when you do not have the best tools for stone cutting and working. I have not worked out exactly what the populations are for my individual cities, though.

 

[Gurkhal]

So far its mostly been primitive Norse-towns, kind of more like huge villages than towns, and some Bronze Age Mesopotamian towns which are of course more sophisticated.

 

[BeigeCerberus]

My cities are big, sealed walled affairs, each self governed and a bastion against the not so nice outside world. The cities are large, multi tiered and ancient.

also lots of plants

 

[johnsonjoshuak]

My world being set in a more industrial revolution era, my larger, older cities have retained their walls from the previous centuries of warfare but the most vibrant of them have grown beyond their walls and have spilled out as the sprawling things of industry.

The exception to this is the capital city of a relatively young colony which was formed after the advent and common use of Gunpowder. Because of this, it was built without walls and instead designed to maximize efficiency with rail lines leading right up to the waterfront.

It's so different from the rest of the world that the characters notice the lack of walls and an "Old City" that they are accustomed to seeing.

 

[trentonian7]

My capital city lays on an island just narrowly separated from the mainland by a river. Five arched bridges varying in design lead to large gates set in the city's walls, the walls rising perhaps two stories above the city streets inside. The wall's towers are round and rise a story above the walls. On the gates and walls immediately bordering the gates are mounted siege engines, primarily scorpions and similar machines. Stone animals carved into the gates are built to pour boiling oil from their mouths and onto foes below should they attempt to break into the city. The gates themselves are thick oak gilded with iron, though rarely are they closed. Behind this, metal portcullises are able to be dropped.

The population of the city itself is roughly 425,000 or so and this figure would render it the biggest city in the kingdom. The City Guard is made up of 2000 soldiers with an additional 500 part time watchmen.

The island, longer than it is wide and traveling north to south, is focused primarily in the north and east. The northern most tip of the island rises up into a modest hill, where lies the Temple and its grounds and outbuildings. On the northeastern side, rises a very large hill, the higher slopes on which the rich and powerful own residences. At the very top of the hill sits the royal palace, the chief center of royal administration and residency.

The palace overlooks the walled harbor on the eastern side of the island, where ships from distant and domestic lands are to be found docked. Lighthouses border each side of the harbor. Just south of the harbor extend several blocks of warehouses filled with goods and patrolled by hired guards.

North of the warehouses and leading right to the harbor is the city's red- light district, where brothels and other such establishments are permitted to operate.

West of the harbor towards the center of the island is the great market, where vendors are permitted to build temporary stands and tents to sell their wares and where permanent, stone shops selling goods of all kinds are to be found.

East of the markets but west of the harbor lays the great granite forum built by the king for his people's pleasure. There is an amphitheater, various arenas, race tracks and spacious grounds.

 

[Saigonnus]

I have many cities to play with. One from my principal WIP is as follows:

Ash at the ford: a Talutah Ooljee community. The whole city is grown from 42 massive trees that were grown 5 concentric rings, all interconnected with walkways, promenades, bridges and ramps. The homes, businesses and industries (handcraft) are grown directly into the core of the trees, most with columns within that house the "veins" of the tree so they always receive water and stay healthy. The central ring is two trees so intertwined that is nearly impossible to tell one from the other, and houses the council chambers, where the elders meet.

There are no walls, or barracks, stables or anything you'd associate with human defensive structures. Since the culture is a warrior culture, everyone sees to the defense of the city, quartered among their own families. They patrol the area, and know there are only 2 different ways to get to the council chambers, protecting them first and foremost.

Magical runes keep "magic users" out of the city; ones not Talutah Ooljee at any rate. They can be pacified if you know how.


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[DanJames]

I have a few different things for different places, the West is associated heavily with magic and their buildings reflect that. They are built with a rock/stone emalgimation - one that gives it a white look with the appearance of silvery/metal shine under light - imbued with magic to help withstand the elements and resist the effects of aging - the magic properties giving it a blue/purple glow at night time, the vibrancy of the colour and brightness of it varies dependent on the magic user that forges the brickwork. Think aesthetically like Minas Tirith, but without the split levels, and more magic.

The east is a desert sea, but once a year a large door reveals itself in the desert allowing its people to return home briefly. It is a rudimentary city for the most part and only exists for the birthing of their young in safety, away from the dangers of the outside world. As such, most of the remaining are female - the tend to the young as wet nurses and some times temporary mothers in the case of when their mother leaves and won't be returning for nearly a full year.

because the path is only revealed at one point during the year and seals over afterwards until the following year, and witht he city underground, there is not much need for buildings. Most live, eat and sleep on the streets. With only nobilty and various warrior classes having permanent fixtures within which to sleep. I couldn't think of any comparison for a 'village under the desert'.

The North lives high up in the trees, very basic technologies and natural resources forced them to do so as they had little in the ways of defence other than height. Walkways from ground level are rare as the enitre race is adept at climbing and move from tree to tree without them. The capital is in the centre of the woods, but only serves as the capital due to its large clearing with a large central tree within which the residing chieftain lives.

There is technically only one city, as each 'district' amongst the trees is connected together to form a nexus of walkways between each settlement, without ever needing to touch the ground. Very similar to a multitude of ideas, just standard wood elf type things, with maybe a little planet of the apes influence here and there.

To the south we have the great sunken cities, mining villages that dug so deep it became inefficent to climb back to the surface after a while. So they built their cities within their mines and quarries. hundreds of layers deep. Trains each layer running around in circles picking people up and dropping them off, with elevators to take them up and down to the different levels.

As nothing more than large holes in the ground they are very susceptible to attack, however their technologies vastly out weigh everyone elses (more for necessity than anything, their race is the only one to have no affinity to magic whatsoever). The created machines of war; siege weapons, automatons and mobile transports (some of which are weaponised) exist on the surface, ever vigilant against potential threats.

That's some bare bones stuff that I've already discussed with my writing partner, we've still many decisions to make.

 

[WooHooMan]

In my WIP, 3/4 of the city is underground. There are houses and other building built along tunnel walls. It's pretty claustrophobic. Needless to say, the economy is reliant on mining.
The above-ground city mostly consists military fortifications, government building and cannon turrets. There are a lot of cannons.
There are walls but they're arranged more like a grid rather than a ring or line. I don't know if there's a term for that kind of fortification.

One book I did was set in a port city primarily based on Medieval Germanic trade cities and a few Australian/Polynesian cities.
The city's primary military force was their navy. The army and city guard were the other military branches.
The city-state was divided into six districts each with their own cultures and political factions.
There were some old walls around the city but since it was the only major city on an island in a mostly World War era-inspired setting, there wasn't much practical use for these walls. They were mostly monuments. Some old kings tried to out-do each other by building extravagant structures around the city. There was like 10 royal castles scattered around the city. Ironically, the current king didn't live in any of them. He preferred living in a more modern mansion.
Music (especially jazz and blues) and sports (particularly martial arts) were popular forms on entertainment.

 

[ChasingSuns]

I am currently working on a story that incorporates a continent with 10 different kingdoms. Each has very different kinds of cities/towns, depending on the kingdom. Some are more primitive and tribal with very little in the way of cities. Others have massive walled cities. I also have a floating city.

 

[MeanMachine]

My current story has cities of various sizes, the biggest being the capitals of the three continent-spanning empires that occupy most of the setting. They’re about the size of early 20th century Paris, and with populations between 1.5 and 2.5 millions. Other than that, provincial capitals and sometimes major economic centers have populations varying between 100K to 250K. The tallest buildings are 8 floors high above ground, but most are between 3 and 5 floors high.
The tech level in the world is akin to that of mid-19th century Europe and America, with lots of Magitech thrown in. Public transport within the large cities is mostly trains, and transport between settlements is done by foot, on the back of animal, by long distance trains, or by skyships. The later is the sole way of travel in between Sky Lands.
Because monsters of various sorts are an omnipresent threat, and also because war can rear its ugly head at anytime, virtually all settlements are surrounded by walls, patrolled and guarded by volunteer militia, professional town guards, or either state or imperial armed forces. Large cities also have magic powered barriers that they deploy in case of emergency, mostly against airborne threats like Skyships, siege weapon ordnance, or major monster threats.
The center of capitals, either imperial or provincial, is always some sort of palace that is the seat of the ruler/governor. The cities proper, and that goes for all other major settlement, are governed mostly by a mayor elected with varying degrees of democracy, but sometimes it’s a straight up appointed official.

 

[Bruce McKnight]

My world is very much a stereotypical medieval-Europe setting. Humans haven't discovered gunpowder, but dwarves have. They have cannons and perform some "magic" with it, but they haven't made guns because I don't like guns in my setting.

Villages usually spring up by a water source, fertile farmland, hunting grounds, or a resource. They start as a cluster of communal cabins with farm fields growing out in a circle around them. As the population grows, more cabins are added, the circle of buildings gets bigger, and the farm fields expand likewise. The citizens may build their cabins close together to form "walls" on the outside for protection and make gates along the opening streets, while the farm fields around the outside provide line of sight warning for approaching danger. If the population grows big enough, it can develop into a city with stone walls.

Government tends to start as a council of elders for the smaller village, growing to a mayor when it gets to be town sized. The ruling structure above that size depends on the region. In the less populated areas, "kings" rule cities, but in the more civilized and advanced souther regions, the king rules over an entire country with a series of other rulers beneath him.