What Kind of Abode Do your Characters Live in

[Queengilda]

I'm trying to decide whether to use actual 9th and 10th century English buildings for my villagers, or is I should go back and stick some round houses in from back in the 3rd and 4th century AD. The round houses have a great deal of character, but so do the wattle and daub houses with their timber supports, and thatch roofs.

If I go with round houses, I could make the village reeve's house a wheel house, which is built of stone on the bottom with a number of rooms all around the edge and a large room in the middle.

How do you decide what kind of abodes you characters will live in?

 

[mythique890]

Mine live in a cave. They're dragons. But it's a fancy cave, because one of them is an artist when it comes to manipulating rock.

 

[Hëradïn]

depends on the when we are talking about, if it is the time since the planet's creation (PC) then they live in stone buildings that have fire pits and such. If we are talking PC 1700 to the interim period (IP) then they didn't live in houses or anything like that. if we are talking after the war of strife (AW) then they are beginning to relearn lost building techniques lost during the war. Diijra of the new kingdom of Orïtïs even asks the gods help in building a mansion of sorts.

 

[SarahM.]

It all depends on the time period and the culture for me. I'm currently writing a story where one half takes place in a "Roman" empire at it's height and the other half takes place in a "West African" island. Both places have palaces, but that means two completely different things, even within the countries on the island!

 

[sashamerideth]

Mine live in a kind of tipi, or just out under the stars. They are nomads, and not very well liked.

 

[ScipioSmith]

My main character is a gladiator, so he lives in the slave pens underneath the arena.

For your problem, I'd say whichever feels more authentic to the rest of the world you've created. If it has more of a Dark Age setting, go with the wheel houses, but to be honest the mention of a reeve sounds more Saxon England, with Shire Reeves standing below the Ealdorman in social status. So, although this is just my opinion, I'd go with the 9th C houses.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

The main POV character in my novel is a woman who was recently raised to the nobility, by way of marrying a wealthy merchant who wa subsequently granted peerage for services rendered to the crown. They live in a manse (sort of a large townhouse) in the capital city. However, prior to the events of the story, her husband died suddenly after a short illness, so she lives alone (well, with her servants) there.

 

[Queengilda]

My main character is a gladiator, so he lives in the slave pens underneath the arena.

For your problem, I'd say whichever feels more authentic to the rest of the world you've created. If it has more of a Dark Age setting, go with the wheel houses, but to be honest the mention of a reeve sounds more Saxon England, with Shire Reeves standing below the Ealdorman in social status. So, although this is just my opinion, I'd go with the 9th C houses.

Yes the Shire Reeve is a Saxon title, that was why I was thinking of going with the 9th century houses. Thanks your your thoughts, because, I too have been thinking about it a lot, and I've realized that I really need to go with the 9th century houses. They will work better with the small village set up.

 

[Ghost]

Since my characters live on a planet that has different cultures and terrains, housing changes. I have tents made of hides, imperial palaces, cottages, etc. Later, as people move to urban centers buildings grow taller and closer together. A lot of my characters live in dorms or apartments. When I know the setting, it dictates where my character sleeps because the setting tells me what I need to know.

How do you decide what kind of abodes you characters will live in?

I look at what sort of climate they're in, what tools they have, and what resources they have. I wouldn't build flat-roofed houses in snowy mountains. I don't do glass windows for nomads or, in earlier times, the poor folk. There are no stone castles in the middle of my sand dunes.

I've usually decided on what the people in my character's culture value and what the local terrain is like since I need to know their staple crops. Knowing what the family units are like helps me. If they tend to live with extended family, they need a house that reflects that. A longhouse or a house with a larger central room reflects that. If they are farmers, they may have smaller outbuildings around the main house. I just go with whatever makes sense to me.

 

[SeverinR]

My recent book, its cave too. Not dirt walls cave, but a finished cave, actually underground facility.
Same reason dragons.

Much safer to guard a cave from attack then an open castle when dragons are involved.

 

[Devor]

In one of the stories I'm working on the technology is more advanced and the culture is somewhat artistic, so I'm spending more time on making the homes distinct because of their style and haven't given a thought to how the wood is put together.

In the other story I'm trying to keep it true to the real-world time period, and I actually want to include some of the different homestyles that developed over the course of about a hundred years in that culture. To try and do so, in my notes I have a grandfather-type character who lives in one of the oldest styles of homes and other characters who mock him for it. I have a few other notes on how to show off the different housing styles which are prevalent in different time periods as well.

I would suggest you consider whether there is some advantage to one style of home over another - for instance, it might be built faster or with local materials or it might make the town easier to defend - and then consider how recently homes may have changed over time. Older homestyles might not have an advantage, except that they've already been built and there may be no reason to tear them down.

 

[Laughing_Seraphim]

I would go from a critical and functional perspective.
What are they built from and why?
If your people live in a desert, log cabins wouldn't make sense. If they are surrounded by thick black oak forests the huts would all but have to be made of small trees as large black oaks are hard to work with.
Are the houses meant to hold up against snow? Rain? Heat?
Flat roofs and walls where snow piles up is a bad idea.
How long ago relative to your story were they built?
Were they designed with small or large extended families in mind? Religious purposes or influences? Designed to resist monsters or wars?
I.e. German villages tend to be sort of cramped up, semi-circular layouts made of two story wooden houses and shops. They are close together to make defending the village easier, two story to produce more room (also defense) and made of wood because it was abundant and easy to work with in Germany. You may also notice older villages resisted using rain gutters, because they wanted the water to fall off the roof to douse any fires an enemy would be using against them. The singular main road left enemies with little room to run around.
Eskimos use ice huts, igloos because ice is available, the round shape holds up to strong winds and high snow. The Swedish( I think) use a lot of A-Frame houses so that the snow slides off, but they are built of pine very often.

Now in your case, with dude(ine) being rich, using foreign or exotic materials that cost more could serve as a way to separate the protagonist from the general population. Such as a house made from bricks of marble whereas everyone else lives in grass huts.

 

[Laughing_Seraphim]

In one of the stories I'm working on the technology is more advanced and the culture is somewhat artistic, so I'm spending more time on making the homes distinct because of their style and haven't given a thought to how the wood is put together.

How advanced? Advanced enough to grow trees in the needed shape? Like the Japanese do with watermelons maybe? Wood so well engineered at a genetic level that it has to be cut and polished with lasers?

 

[Devor]

How advanced? Advanced enough to grow trees in the needed shape? Like the Japanese do with watermelons maybe? Wood so well engineered at a genetic level that it has to be cut and polished with lasers?

Sorry, advanced for a medieval setting, not sci-fi. I do have a great idea for a sci-fi novel but I don't really enjoy writing in that genre.

 

[Laughing_Seraphim]

I see. Advanced for medieval times is going to be wrought iron, fitted stonework and engraved things like gargoyle statues and embossed metal plates on doors. Gears and such.

That being said I highly recommend referring to the world you created for materials. I'm actually fairly well educated on primitive building materials/techniques/sustainable and so on. The most common materials were sod, small timber and animal hide during the dark ages. That was followed up by stone/mortar and concrete in a few places, large timbers and lastly metalwork. The more stone and metal a person saw on a house, the richer it's resident would have been.
Old churches in Scotland are excellent examples of this. Lavish carvings, bronze mantelpieces, copper flooring, marble pillars. The surrounding village would've been a mix of mud homes, wooden homes and so on. Some would have un-mortared stone walls, which were drafty and and thus often had a combination of dung, mud and straw applied like stucco.

 

[Worldbreaker]

Mine lives in a warehouse filled with others of his kind to start lol