While not absolute, most settlements on Wyrlde are located along, across, or very near a river, usually a navigable one with a strong flow. This is especially critical for Villages and larger places, as the rivers are what power the mills and enable the barges and riverboats and Boats to reach the docks for trade.
Wyrlde is deeply agrarian, with farming and ranching making up about 80% of the daily work life of most people. The peculiar structure of nobility allows for much of this to move through the markets of the large settlements fairly easily, aided by the extensive and broad approach to transportation such as Skyships and the Train for more easily spoiled produce and the Riverboats for the rest. The greatest challenge is tithes, taxes, and levies.
Cities can generally only produce enough food for about a third to half of its population, with the rest coming from the towns, villages, and hamlets that are seen as supporting it and dependent upon it.
Cities do not perform a real census, relying instead on the reports of those who are assigned to support and uphold the local laws as well as oversee the guards and provide protection. Each city has the ability to send up to one regiment out to defend each Village.
Settlements will generally try to remain within about 30 miles of each other. This is not always possible, but by doing it to the best of their ability, they can often link up Patrols and ensure greater safety of the populace. In Lyonese, for example, it is not uncommon for there to be a string of Villages along a worn dirt road spaced roughly every thirty miles out, only beginning to link with the Imperial Roads when it is necessary.
Steadings and Hamlets are often the least well protected, and many will have an Arbiter who will travel broadly to try and encourage young, newly married couples to move and relocate, even possibly promising them some small startup funds. This is because that kind of work is essential to the survival of everyone, and all the aspects of life feed into the overarching pursuit of security in a world where Goblins do not hesitate to attack, or Imps seek to infiltrate.
One particular aspect of Wyrlde settlement is that Towns and Cities are almost always built using a “bastion” style development that follows the terrain as much as possible – that is, they are going to be star-shaped, with broad moats around them, typically 30 to 50 feet wide and often quite deep, usually supplied by a nearby water source. This style of building and fortification lifts the settlements above the terrain and ensures that they have clear lines of sight all around the settlement.
Villages and smaller spaces will often have something similar at least partially laid out, but rarely will such be finished, as it depends on enough of a population built up to create such.
