I'm going to repost this from the Worldbuilding Reddit to get a bit more feedback:
One of my main races in my fantasy world is mostly a forest dwelling race. They stand 4-5 feet tall, and are adept climbers and carpenters. My world is paced with sprawling, densely treed forests, but fit this race well due to their diminutive stature. Thus, I have these guys living in the forests, except for their massive capital city and farming communities not far from the forests. My problem I faced, though, is this: This race is very skilled at climbing, and they live mostly in forests, but I would hate to have them live in just treehouse like structures above the ground. It would just be too complicated for me to write, and also rather impractical to build and move everything up. So here is what I came up with:
This race is big in the lumber industry as it is the main resource in this world. For bigger settlements, a whole clearing would be made at once, and build a settlement there. However, most of the settlements are smaller ones where buildings are constructed in the empty spaces where trees have been removed. Some buildings can be built completely standalone, but many others utilize the surrounding trees as posts, building walls between trees, and creating buildings by connecting the dots sort of. As for defense: There are no outer walls to these settlements. Instead, a big network of small tree forts surround settlements and are also posted throughout the forest as guard and patrol posts. These are really nothing more than big platforms built around the tree trunk. The reason for this is twofold: 1. All of the other humanoid races are an average human size, a good foot taller on average than this forest dwelling race. They attack from above, whether on the small tree forts, or just on the branches and tree trunks. 2. Their culture. This race worships a sun god, as each race worships one thing that gives life to all like sun, water, the planet's core. However, they view this sun god as very powerful, and unable to control its power, hence the constant heat and light beating down on the land. They take shelter from this god in the shade of their forests, knowing that it is not wise to constantly be in direct view of their god. Dwelling in living quarters higher up in the air would provide less shade, so this is just how they see things.
What do you guys think? How practical does this sound, especially compared to settlements constructed in the branches and canopies of trees? What problems would you think arise? Just want some feedback.
One of my main races in my fantasy world is mostly a forest dwelling race. They stand 4-5 feet tall, and are adept climbers and carpenters. My world is paced with sprawling, densely treed forests, but fit this race well due to their diminutive stature. Thus, I have these guys living in the forests, except for their massive capital city and farming communities not far from the forests. My problem I faced, though, is this: This race is very skilled at climbing, and they live mostly in forests, but I would hate to have them live in just treehouse like structures above the ground. It would just be too complicated for me to write, and also rather impractical to build and move everything up. So here is what I came up with:
This race is big in the lumber industry as it is the main resource in this world. For bigger settlements, a whole clearing would be made at once, and build a settlement there. However, most of the settlements are smaller ones where buildings are constructed in the empty spaces where trees have been removed. Some buildings can be built completely standalone, but many others utilize the surrounding trees as posts, building walls between trees, and creating buildings by connecting the dots sort of. As for defense: There are no outer walls to these settlements. Instead, a big network of small tree forts surround settlements and are also posted throughout the forest as guard and patrol posts. These are really nothing more than big platforms built around the tree trunk. The reason for this is twofold: 1. All of the other humanoid races are an average human size, a good foot taller on average than this forest dwelling race. They attack from above, whether on the small tree forts, or just on the branches and tree trunks. 2. Their culture. This race worships a sun god, as each race worships one thing that gives life to all like sun, water, the planet's core. However, they view this sun god as very powerful, and unable to control its power, hence the constant heat and light beating down on the land. They take shelter from this god in the shade of their forests, knowing that it is not wise to constantly be in direct view of their god. Dwelling in living quarters higher up in the air would provide less shade, so this is just how they see things.
What do you guys think? How practical does this sound, especially compared to settlements constructed in the branches and canopies of trees? What problems would you think arise? Just want some feedback.