A Magical Medieval City Guide (DnD Other)
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[edit] A Magical Medieval City Guide
[edit] Introduction
In the two months since the release of A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, we at Expeditious Retreat Press have fielded more questions concerning cities, than other questions combined. Because of this tremendous interest in city creation and the utter lack of material to support needy GMs, we've decided to gather all the city specific information from A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe into one free product. A Magical Medieval City Guide is the complete third and fourth chapters from A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe and we believe it is the most useful free product so far produced for d20. If you like what you see and wish to pick up A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, it is available in hardcopy at our website WWW.EXP.CITYMAX.COM (May 15th, 2003 release date) or you can purchase the PDF from WWW.RPGNOW.COM (or through this direct link http:// www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=711&). Either way, don't forget to stop by our website for more free web supplements to support this product and don't forget, as this is an excerpt from a larger work, some referenced material is not in this free product. We have to get you to buy it somehow! Thank you for your time and enjoy! Suzi Yee Joseph Browning Expeditious Retreat Press
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
[edit] Origins
The generative force of magical medieval cities is security. Most settlements begin in the shadow of strongholds, towers, castles, or great churches. As these settlements grow in size and number, coupled with an increase in population and trade from newfound stability, a network of towns, cities, and their surrounding villages appear on the map. Most urban communities do not grow past a few thousand souls, the majority remaining towns for their entire existence. Only towns in strategic locations, active in trade, and with plenty of surplus food and people develop into small cities, large cities, and metropolises. In the magical medieval period, small and large towns are usually five miles apart while small and large cities are 20 miles apart. All of these communities feed on the surplus food and people of the surrounding countryside. Towns serve the immediate surrounding countryside by selling goods, buying surplus, and offering the services of craftsmen and professionals. The city is a larger extension of the town, but has its own benefits and problems that do not grace the magical medieval town. Though titled On the Magical Medieval City, this chapter discusses trends found in all urban environments, from small towns to metropolises. Towns are usually the conservative side of the trend, while metropolises demonstrate the extreme of the trend.
[edit] Movable Wealth
In the manorial system, the land and its fruits are the lord's wealth. With cities, lords have access to movable wealth that is not directly tied to the land, namely coin. Lords get coin from cities in various manners. The most obvious is bribes and payments. Attaining new charters, renewing old charters, gaining certain rights as a citizen of the city, and holding positions in the city government are usually negotiable with enough coin. Lords get regular payments from cities, as well as money rents, opposed to the four capons and the bushels of wheat he gets on the manor. Trade is another source of income for the lord with a city in his demesne. Cities are consumers for the surplus off a lord's manor, ensuring his surplus grain always has a buyer. Some lords use cities to increase their wealth at the detriment of other lords. Lords may found or charter a city and offer benefits to peasants who settle the new city. Of course, these benefits do not apply to peasants from his demesne, but they certainly apply to another lord's serfs. Lords attract people to towns and cities, because more people generate more local trading. As towns and cities have more money flow (or more goods and money are changing hands), a lord reaps higher taxes and payments from his urban communities, and usually in coin. A lord's magical taxation also increases from the concentration of higher-powered spellcasters found in urban environments.
[edit] Lord's Interest
The development of the magical medieval city is largely due to the lord of the manor. Without the lord's protection, backing and surplus, towns and cities, which are filled with people who do not work the land for a living, could not exist. A lord's main advantage in possessing urban communities within his demesne is receiving wealth without dealing in the particulars. Magical medieval towns and cities are organized to run themselves. A lord does not have to hire administrative and managerial staff for a city. A lord does not have to maintain a city's infrastructure, because he allows his city enough rights to maintain their own. In return, he simply collects his money. Lords also benefit from towns and cities because they create a free (non-servile) labor pool. As the magical medieval economy goes from bartering to a coin-economy, feudal obligations are transferred into money payments. This means lords can transfer manorial rents and labor obligations into coin. This allows lords to hire day labor from the urban labor pool. These laborers are considered more efficient than the labor from manorial obligation. A lord also has fewer social obligations to a laborer than he as to one of his peasants. Although heavily weighted on the lord's side, the feudal system does provide peasantry with some protections usually withheld from laborers.
[edit] Fortification
Towns and cities also have a military benefit for the lord. Almost every city has a wall and behind every wall are people who have self-interest in building and manning the wall. Lords typically give the city dwellers, unlike manorial peasants, the right to bear arms and protect themselves. The lord gets a defensive structure built by unpaid labor, manned with a defensive force that he does not have to support, and who have a stake in protecting the city that makes him money. Some lords found cities along borders, creating a fortified line around their interests.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
[edit] Guilds
Guilds provide structure and self-regulation in a city. Lords give cities the right to form guilds as listed in their charter. In the early days of the city, the guild replaces manorial obligation and organization in peasant society. Members of guilds pay dues and are subject to the guilds' rules and regulations. Guild membership, in conjunction with oath taking, brings free peasants citizenship and all its benefits. Guilds also act as insurance policies. If a merchant or craftsman dies, the guild takes care of his family and gives him a proper burial. The guild also provides assistance to guild members when their business is struggling. Guild members eat together, drink together, celebrate together, live near each other, and perform together, creating private theater troops in the magical medieval city. Guilds commonly sponsor public activities and plays, using such occasions to demonstrate their wealth and influence. Guilds and their members, called burghers, also man the city walls in early cities. In magical medieval cities, guilds are very powerful, especially merchant guilds. It is not uncommon for guild influence to rival town lord's influence. For guilds as power centers, read further in this chapter under Power Centers-Craft Guilds and Merchant Guilds.
[edit] Peasant's Interest
City development is a balance of concessions by the lord and money from the peasants. As the magical medieval markets move from barter economy to coin economy, cities become more desirable for the manorial lord. When a lord wants to develop his cities quickly, he offers more concessions to entice surplus peasants. When a community seeks a charter, and therefore a measure of self-determination, they pay the lord for every concession in coin. As cities grow larger and wealthier, they begin to wield a power of their own, meeting the town lord as an equal at the negotiation table. Revolt and armed conflict also lead to these concessions. When developing a city for a campaign, there are endless combinations of lord's and city dwellers' rights spelled out in the city charter. It is important to remember that any right the city holds is only by concession of the town lord. The idea of inherent rights of individuals, cities as natural selfdetermining entities, and inherent rights of citizenship are modern ideas that do not occur in a magical medieval society.
[edit] City Council
Lords usually grant their cities the right to form a city council, although a lord can continue to assign officials in key positions if he wishes. The actual rights of the city council vary. A municipal governing body provides the city a foundation for taxation, a city justice system, regulating trade, and other matters of civic concern.
[edit] Justice
Lords may grant freedom from manorial court to urban dwellers, meaning they cannot be taken from the town or city to answer for their transgressions in manorial court. Granting this freedom leads to the creation of civic justice, though there are other ways of gaining the right to justice. Cities that win this right have a source of income and possess power over their own inhabitants. Lords are hesitant to give cities the right
[edit] Freedom
As the saying goes "town air makes free." If a serf lives in a city for a year and a day, he becomes a freeman by virtue of his urban dwelling. Freedom of this magnitude has many implications for the serf. Gone are the feudal obligations, both in labor and coin. A lord cannot prohibit a freeman's movement; a freeman can move where he pleases and leave the city. Along with a free status, a lord may also offer protection of property, which means if a peasant lives in a dwelling for a year and a day, he has a recognized claim on that dwelling. Medieval cities also give peasants another kind of freedom, the freedom of profession. Artisans, craftsmen, and other professions flourish when peasants are provided an alternative to agriculture. Remember that these common rights are won from the lord via charter negotiations and do not exist in every city. Freedom is not a guarantee of citizenship, but it is a prerequisite.
[edit] Self-Administration
Lords give their cities enough rights to run themselves without siphoning too much power out of the lords' direct control. At the same time, communities and communes are pushing for autonomy from the town lord. This conflict creates vibrant, dynamic situations leading to interesting developments.to have their own court, judges, and subsequently, their own jurisdiction, but usually do for larger urban communities. For more about justice, see Chapter Seven: On Those Who Rule.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
[edit] Types of Cities
There are five general types of cities, though each city has its own unique and sordid past.
[edit] Taxes
A lord usually grants his city rights to taxation on a limited scale. The most common taxation is trade taxes. Gates, fords, ports, and harbors become tax checkpoints for incoming goods. As merchants and tradesmen bring in goods, the city taxes them according to their wares. Wine tax, beer tax, grain tax; if the city can monitor the movement of a commodity, it can tax it. City councils may also tax guilds, much like what the lord does to the city. Cities often levy taxes in times of emergency, such as war taxes, and neglect to revoke them once the emergency has passed, such as an indefinite war tax. The bulk of magical medieval taxes come from the use of public infrastructure (bridge tolls, entrance fees) and financial transactions.
[edit] Commune
The commune is a community in which the members pledge allegiance to the other members of the community. Much like cooperative living, the commune treats itself as one entity, sharing the work, woes, and rewards among people who are bound together by oath and mutual affiliation. Communes spring up across the countryside without an official lord or protector. Lords do not favor such communities, because they receive no financial benefits from them. Some lords disperse and destroy communes as they are commonly seen as seeds of dissent in their demesnes. Other lords give charters to substantiate the commune's existence. Bringing a commune under a charter provides payments and taxes to the lord, but not all lords are willing to chance the fidelity of communes.
[edit] Citizenship
The city is the birthplace of magical medieval citizenship. Although people previously held associations and social ties to their home, the citizen as a member of a civic society only develops with the rise of the city. Only free persons can become citizens by belonging to a guild and taking an oath to the city. Numerous privileges come with citizenship. The most common privileges are tax exemptions on certain goods sold in the city, some toll exemptions, and advantages on wholesale goods. Citizenship also creates social distinctions that fuel the class tensions common in later magical medieval cities. As guilds fill up and more peasant immigrants enter the city, guilds close their doors to new members by only allowing new membership through heredity; by reducing the number of apprentices, journeymen, and masters in the city; or through high guild entry fees. This effectively closes citizenship off for many peasants in the city, creating social stratification re-enforced by economic discrepancies.
[edit] Founded City
When a lord wants a city in his demesne, he can found a city. A lord founding a city does not require permission from his lord or from the king, but he may be pressed for more men in military situations and more taxes. Most of the time, founded cities have little to no city development, but through the lord's concessions, peasants, buildings, and walls soon take root. Founding cities is particularly useful for creating fortified lines, for generating income off unused land, and for populating borderlands.
[edit] Chartered City
Lords and kings grant charters to towns and cities. Charters assign land and rights to a group of settlers forming an urban community. Charters officially recognize pre-existing cities, like communes, or charters create new cities as colonies in recently claimed land. Charters define the city's specifics: the rights of the city and its inhabitants, money owed to the town lord, and when the charter begins and ends. A lord can revoke a charter, refuse to extend a pre-existing charter, or refuse to draft a new charter for an old city. If any of these cases occur, the city reverts to the town lord, and he controls the city and all its holdings and inhabitants. A lord can then re-instate all the feudal obligations, restrictions, and justice on the city. Although strong, larger cities may fight to remain free, smaller towns have problems sustaining revolt against a strong town lord.
[edit] Free City
Free cites have no lord to which they answer. Either their lord or the king granted them status as a free city with independent justice, administration, and municipal government. In practice, free cities still have monetary ties to certain lords and kings, but are not under legal obligation to them. There is a subtle but important distinction between a lord or king's yearly 30,000 gp gift from a free city and a lord or king's yearly right of 30,000 gp from the city. Free cities can wage war against neighboring cities, own land surrounding the city, and in cases of a weak king, eventually become oligarchic city-states, as with Italian cities. Sometimes kings or strong barons declare cities or communes within the demesne of other lords or kings as free cities. They also provide charters to cities within other's demesne. This hampers the lesser lord's ambitions by lowering his income and by forcing him to deal with potentially rebellious communities.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
[edit] City-State
City-states are the most independent type of city in a magical medieval society. They are free from feudal ties to town lords. They have social recognition as a free city, either from a lord, king, or by their own merit. A greater level of autonomy distinguishes citystates from free cities. City-states usually have organized well-equipped armies or professional standing armies to protect their civic interests. City-states have developed infrastructure for taxes, justice, municipal governing, and military operations. Although free cities may own nearby land, city-states hold extensive land with farms, industry, and villages constituting their own separate demesne. City-states are power centers rivaling lords and kings. City-states usually occur when weak kings, rich land, and extensive commerce coexist. Strong kings and lords may take control of free cities and city-states, but these cities have the best defenses and organized forces to counter such a coup.
central open space for market, public buildings and assembly. Old and large planned cities maintain their grid patterns in the city center only, as new growth outside of the original plan tends to follow the organic, radio-centric pattern. Grid cities are less common than their organic counterparts. Cities are often on high ground for strategic positioning, while farms and fields are on the fertile low ground. Cities are usually by rivers, not only for personal use, but also for water mills. Navigable rivers are a predominant mode of transportation for goods and people, because they are more efficient than magical medieval roads. Land inside town walls is obviously more valuable than land outside
[edit] Streets
Following the natural terrain of the land, most streets are far from straight roads laid in grid patterns. Even planned cities eventually spill out of their checkerboard, creating a spider web of small curved streets. Streets form from the paths people and animals naturally walk, opposed to the modern city where streets regulate what paths people take from place to place. In the magical medieval city, streets are predominantly for foot travel, not vehicle traffic. Subsequently, streets are winding narrow affairs, most only 5-10 feet across. In some larger cities or in planned cities, there may be one wider street leading from the gate into town, usually no wider than 20 feet across. Most large cities pave or cobble streets, beginning with the ones leading into the main market. Smaller streets may remain dirt paths, while unused streets become dead ends leading nowhere. Streets usually bear the name of the original craftsmen who founded the suburb. As time passes and people
[edit] Layout
The magical medieval city grows in different patterns depending on its history. In general, the city is an organic growth, bulging here and spilling out there, with extensions to the city walls where they are needed. Villages that grow into towns, usually under a castle or religious center, change slowly over many generations. The end result is narrow winding streets following the natural terrain of land with a radio-centric system of walls extending to encompass yet another suburb. The heart of the city is fairly isolated from the bustle of visitors and sellers coming in at the gates and docks because of this organic growth and continual extension. Planned cities tend to have a different layout. Designed in advance for colonization, they look like checkerboards with a
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
move around the city, the street names have little to do with the people who currently live there. It is not uncommon to have no baker living on Baker Street.
[edit] Street Markets
The street market is small and provides the ward its food and basic goods. The name is indicative of its layout. Strung along a narrow street, shopkeepers display their wares from grain to local crafts. The smell of food vendors tempting shoppers and passersby amidst the sound of livestock, haggling, laughing, and playing children is a common scene on the street market. Daily shopping is a time for city dwellers to visit each other and talk about the weather and the ridiculous price of grain.
[edit] Buildings
Buildings vary from towns to cities. Towns are not as structurally dense as cities, allowing green space and more independent buildings. In cities people build homes in blocks, with open space for gardens within the block of homes. The wall of one house backs into the wall of another house, making the homes within a block safer from crime, warmer in the winter, and providing a communal feeling to city life. In early cities, craftsmen of the same vocation live together in the same block, rendering the naming of streets and buildings after the craftsmen who originally settled there. As more people enter the city and space becomes limited, occupational segregation lessens, and the open spaces within the block become sheds, extra storage, workshops, or even extra housing. Although these grouped homes sharing external walls are called blocks, that is no reflection on their shape, size, or orientation. A block of cobblers may squeeze in ten families into irregularly shaped houses on a triangular piece of land wedged between the weavers, fullers and cloth cutters. Stone foundations, stone walls and slate roofs are preferable building materials, but the cost of stone and its carriage is often too much for the simple craftsmen. Most urban buildings are wattle and daub or wood with thatch roofs. Work and domestic life intermingle in the magical medieval city. Shopkeepers live above their shops, and workshops often occupy the same space as the home. Apprentices and journeymen live with the master craftsmen's family. The master craftsmen's wife also knows and facilitates the family enterprise. Zoning is unheard of except in professions involving unpleasant odor, namely tanning, leatherworking, dyers, and butchers. Professions that rely on a steady source of water, like blacksmithing and water mills, are also zone specific. These professions are generally practiced on the outskirts of town, though some cities prefer to regulate the place where butchers work to ensure proper sanitation. In the medieval period this usually means cutting and selling in reserved pavilions in the market.
[edit] Water Fountains and Wells
Every ward has a water supply, either a well or a gravity fountain fed by a cistern. Pipes and aqueducts are other options for water supply, but both are advanced and expensive engineering for most magical medieval cities. Like the street market, the water fountain is a place for work and socializing. In the morning, women and children congregate at the fountain to draw the water for daily family use. This leads to much gossip and playing as well.
[edit] Baths
Most cities have public bathhouses for cleaning. Baths are small stone buildings, serving 20-30 people at a time. Some are public pools, like the Roman baths, while other baths use private tubs with attendants. They are usually sex-segregated, although some baths become seedy, brothel-like hangouts.
[edit] Hospitals
Hospitals are quite common in magical medieval society and are found in most wards. They are usually run by religious orders, though some cities found municipal hospitals. Hospitals are small, usually stone, buildings that serve few people. Most have less than 20 beds, while the largest have as many as 75. Magical medieval hospitals have a different function than their modern counterpart. Hospitals take care of sick people, but they are not a place people go to get treated for illnesses. Hospitals take in people that would otherwise die alone on the streets and give them a bed and solace. Hospitals are a form of charity in the city. Medieval cities had two types of hospitals, those that served lepers and those that served everyone else. Cure disease should remove the need for leprosy hospitals in magical medieval cities, but nothing magical relieves the need for personal care of the elderly and poor.
[edit] Wards
The ward is the basic living unit in a magical medieval city. Also called districts or quarters, the ward provides the physical and spiritual necessities for living. In places of strong patron gods or monotheism, wards also act as religious divisions for organizational purposes. The ward is a social unit where people meet, congregate, celebrate, and gossip. It is a true neighborhood, where everyone knows each other, where people vouch for each other, and where people perform their everyday routine. Particular wards vary in size, shape, and composition. Walling in suburbs during early city development typically creates wards and their specific characteristics. Different types of wards in magical medieval cities include patriciate, merchant, craftsmen, administration, gates, docks (rivers/bridges and sea/ocean), odiferous business, military, and market wards. Slums and shantytowns are usually dilapidated wards within the city or communities outside of the city walls. For more on generating wards, see Chapter Four: Generating Towns and Cities.
[edit] Churches
Religion plays a prominent role in magical medieval societies. Though every city has a large church near the main market,
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
individual wards have smaller churches. Churches are stone buildings that house the priests and lay brothers as well as serve the public. For more about religion in a magical medieval society, see Chapter Six: On Those Who Pray. For more information about religious institutions as power centers in the city, see "Patron God of the City" in Chapter Six: On Those Who Pray.
[edit] Main Markets
The main market is one of the few open spaces inside the city. Though not strictly geometrically shaped, the main market has the benefit of cleared space in a city teeming with buildings and people. Usually paved or cobbled, the main market sometimes has pavilions, covered walkways with shops on either side. It is where wholesale merchants, local craftsmen, and traveling merchants come to trade. The main market is also where public assemblies take place. Public trials, executions, and other events usually occur in the main market, because it is one of the few open spaces in the city.
[edit] Prominent Structures
City dwellers take pride in their city's appearance and architecture. Though these buildings serve a physical purpose, they also symbolize something greater to the average city dweller. A symbol of definition and boundaries, a show of wealth, proof of blessing, and a source of civic pride, these prominent structures are part of the medieval mindset as well as part of the city.
[edit] Commodity Markets
Commodity markets are specialized markets. Spread throughout the city, numerous commodity markets provide wholesale merchants and local citizens with goods. Vegetable markets, cloth markets, spice markets, grain markets, horse markets, wood markets, and wool markets are a few of the various commodity markets. In some cities, commodity markets replace the presence of a main market, while others have both commodity markets and a main market.
[edit] City Walls
The city walls separate the city from its surrounding, offering protection and regulating people and goods going in and out of the city. They are often thick stone walls, some as thick as 20 feet and as high as 30 feet. Towers may abut the wall for fortification. Some walls are wooden with ditches and pikes to prevent invaders from breaching the walls. City walls expand to encompass new suburbs as the city grows in population. The determining factor in extending the city wall is the importance of the people living in the suburb. Merchants and craftsmen usually have little problems convincing the city to protect them, but peasants and laborers are not so fortunate. From an aerial view, the walls are a system of circular growths with streets cutting across a former part of the wall, connecting the new suburb to the rest of the city. Besides protection, the wall offers a mental definition for its citizens: inside the wall is "us", outside is "them." The wall compliments the need for definition and classification in the magical medieval mindset. In cities where invasion is not a large concern, a certain laxity behind the martial use of the wall turns the wall into a place of socializing. Guards, who are simply local guild members in most towns and some small cities, patrol the walls and streets, stopping to talk and chat with people they know. On hot summer days, people climb on top of the walls to catch a cool breeze and talk about local affairs.
[edit] Great Churches
A great church is the most common type of impressive architecture in a city. Larger and grander than the ward church, a great church varies from an upscale church to magnificent structures that rival cathedrals. The grandeur of a great church depends on the size and wealth of the community. Standing taller than most structures in town and with fine craftsmanship throughout, great churches are architectural wonders compared to other structures in the city. Such buildings take many years, sometimes decades, and lots of money. It is not unusual for construction to cease for a few years, because the church ran out of money. But once erected, a great church often becomes a symbol of the city.
[edit] Town Halls
Town halls are seats of civic government. Early cities use taverns, homes, and other places for city council meetings, but as cities become more prosperous, stone buildings on the main market become the seats of civic governing. Town councils sometimes share town halls with guilds to reduce building and maintenance costs.
[edit] Guildhalls
Guildhalls are similar to town halls in construction, but they house particular guilds. The merchant guild, usually the most lucrative guild in the city, has its own hall. Other guilds usually do not have the finances to build independent guildhalls. Sometimes guilds pool their resources and build communal guildhalls, sharing the building between all the contributing guilds. Guildhalls are places for meetings, posting news and notices, and for recreation, such as theater performances, music shows, and other entertainment the guild members put on through the year. However, most guild performances occur in public spaces.
[edit] City Gates
Gates are where the city and the outside world collide. There is usually more than one gate into a city, and each gate is manned to regulate and tax people and goods coming into the city. Certain gates see more traffic, usually on roads linking the city to other urban centers. These gates become the city's main gates. City gates also regulate who enters the city, and some cities keep records of the comings and goings at the gate. Rows of stalls and shops line the streets leading from the city gates. Since city gates have a constant influx of people and goods, it is a prime location, second only to the main market, for traders and sellers.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
[edit] Libraries
Magical medieval libraries are private libraries where people can enter for a price. Most libraries are not owned by a single person, but by groups. Books cannot be taken from the library, and librarians can always refuse service. Libraries often require people to use a guide or a librarian to expedite searches, as well as to prevent theft and damage to the books. These assistants are, of course, also compensated in coin. Because of magic, other restrictions are in place in some libraries. Libraries may require complete disrobing of their patrons. These patrons receive official library robes and must purchase their pen and papers from the libraries' personal stores. Even stranger measures may ensure the security of the collection. There are many different types of libraries in magical medieval societies. Medical, legal, magical, civic, scholastic, and religious libraries all offer different benefits for its users. Stored knowledge is the main benefit provided by libraries. This is especially useful for knowledge checks because having access to a relevant library adds a circumstance bonus. Libraries also house small scholarly social groups, allowing them interaction with other like-minded groups. Libraries are another form of public display through architecture. Built of stone and elaborately decorated and carved, a magical medieval library can be as grand as any cathedral.
[edit] Fire
Cities contend with fire on a regular basis. Fires are common because of the medieval lifestyle. Cooking fires are in open pits and hearths, people pile on top of each other, and lots of wooden buildings with thatch roofs are built in close proximity. Fires are everyone's concern since cities are small and fires spread fast. Municipal groups and city councils take measures to reduce fire risk. Magic can reduce some of the threat, but more effective than magic are stone buildings with slate roofs and fire brigades that form at the very end of the magical medieval period. Unfortunately, the expense of stone buildings makes them possible only for the well-to-do, and many poor wards regularly break municipal fire codes out of necessity. Some cities encourage whitewashed thatch roofs in the poorer wards, as they are slightly more fireproof than plain thatch roofs. A few cities even whitewash thatch roofs for the poor at no expense. However, fire is not completely detrimental to a city: one unforeseen benefit from fire is its disinfecting power. It kills vermin along with bacteria and viruses. Fires allow more city planning, as destroyed buildings provide opportunities for better, newer construction.
[edit] Universities
Magical medieval universities are centers of learning, and attending university is usually a step towards a profession. Medicine, science, history and law are common professions that spring from university attendance. Wizards, with their dedication to research and learning, have a natural propensity to found universities to further learning. Students pay professors at the end of class, and their pay is a measure of the professor's performance in the classroom. The university is a community between teachers and their students. Not unlike craftsmen of the same guild, they drink together, talk together, socialize together, and celebrate together. Generally, magical medieval universities are private endeavors of affluent organizations and citizens.
[edit] Sanitation
When people live close together, sanitation is a problem. The practices of the country become sanitation nightmares in close quarters. Disposing waste, burying the dead, finding clean water, and insuring food sanitation are some of the problems faced by cities. Though magic alleviates some of these concerns, it is important to keep a medieval perspective when applying magic to the city. People do not eat rancid meat and do not drink unclean water, because they smell and taste bad. Cities know that dumping waste in the same river from which they draw drinking water is a bad health practice, but they do not know about germs, bacteria, and giardia. Buried dead may pollute the ground water, but the medieval person usually buries their dead instead of burning them, unless there is an epidemic or plague. Certain magic practices like create water and purify food and drink make magical medieval cities cleaner than their historic counterparts. Active city councils may require street cleaning with prestidigitation, and proselytizing churches may offer clean water to the public via fountains filled by decanters of endless water.
[edit] Urban Concerns
Size and Population Medieval towns and cities are small, usually less than a mile in diameter, and rarely grow larger than a few thousand souls. Most urban environments average a population density of 2060 people per acre. Larger cities, royal cities, or cities on major trade routes have higher growth potential because of the amount of money flowing through the city. Population density in these cities is as high as 200 people per acre. City walls may keep size and population under control in the early stages of city development, but as people settle outside the walls for lack of space inside the city, merchants, craftsmen, and peasants create suburbs. As these groups become important to the city, town lords, city officials and other high-ranking people extend the walls to protect the suburb. With rapid growth and limited resources, some cities' walls do not extend fast enough, leaving whole wards outside of the walls. Cities that build upward can accommodate more people in the same footprint, but at the cost of construction concerns, higher fire risks, and greater sanitation problems.
[edit] Plague
Plague still affects the magical medieval society. Only the greatest magics can reverse effects that decimate a third to a half of a kingdom's population, wiping out entire cities and villages across the countryside. Such magic is only accessible to experienced spellcasters, who usually reside in urban communities. Religious institutions bolster themselves for such
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an event with scrolls, potions, and even wands of remove disease, but the sheer number of people and the rapid spread of plague make preventing or ending plagues almost impossible. Paladins live up to heroic expectations in plagues with their divine health and class ability to remove disease. Any spellcaster who can cast or make an item with remove disease has an instant insurance policy, as well as a cash cow. Two groups within magical medieval societies are protected from plague: those who can cast remove disease and those that can buy it. Plague no longer "levels of playing field," blind to wealth and social standing as it historically was. Even wealthy people who die from the plague can come back with a remove disease followed by a raise dead. Such magic changes the social effects plagues traditionally have upon feudal societies, because there is little social turmoil for the aristocracy. Wards, guilds, and housing blocks create smaller communities within an urban space, making "little villages" within city walls. Though vastly different in certain ways, urban living in the medieval period is not far from the village society.
[edit] Power Centers
Power centers assert their will over others'; that is their defining trait. This occurs in differing degrees and varies according to social groups. In larger communities, determining power centers is not always clear-cut. Generating the type and alignment of power structures is in core rulebook II. This section addresses possible power centers in an urban community, and the special manners in which they assert their power in towns and cities. In a magical medieval society, power centers are usually groupdefined. In a world where definition and classification are vital in social interaction and understanding, a person is defined by his relationships: what he does, where he lives, who he is related to, where he moved from, what guild he is a member of, and what pub he drinks at. Power comes to groups, not to individuals. Individuals use their status within the group to attain personal power. This is the magical medieval way. Lords have power because people have an implicit understanding of landed aristocracy. Leaders of strong religions are more powerful because of the religious symbol on their robes. It is extremely rare that an individual wields power independent of a social organization. Laws, rights, and customs are all results of social interaction. Individuals have great difficulty wielding social power outside of the social system. Although cooperation within groups is normal, cooperation does not exclude the possibility for internecine conflict. In general, earlier magical medieval towns and cities have one power center, the town lord. All other groups are relatively equal in power, meaning no others posses the ability to assert their will over other groups. They do not have the resources and connections to have that kind of power. Older and larger cities develop more potential for multiple power centers and usually have a handful that contend for control of events, social issues, and money. Toward the end of the magical medieval period, the aristocracy, namely strong lords or a king/emperor figure, regains control of the cities that do not have enough power to maintain their independence. Tracking power centers within a specific city is a juggling act. GMs should constantly weigh the wealth, might, and influence of different groups and their agendas. Many small rebellions occur everyday in the city when religions contend for favor, members of the patriciate fight the town lord for more control and less extortion, and craftsmen guilds argue over who gets the guildhall for their Michaelmas performance and feast. Though physical might simplifies matters, social interaction is another battlefield that adds extra complexity to any campaign. For generating statistics on urban power centers, see Chapter Four: Generating Towns and Cities. Guild memberships, official appointments, tax exemptions, personal favors for friends and family, blatant extortion and bribery, and bending rules for personal benefit are all old, wellestablished means through which power centers manipulate their surroundings. This following describes how power centers exert power unique to their station.
[edit] Stockpiling
Towns and cities stockpile food and supplies for emergency events, like war, siege, or famine. Sealed jars of grain, weapons, magic, and equipment are a few of the things cities stockpile. The stockpile is usually under the control of the city council, which leads to disputes and revolt if the peasants and citizens do not agree with the city council's distribution system.
[edit] Crime
Crime is a constant companion of the city; the larger the city, the higher the incidence of crime. Most crime in cities is theft, not violent crime. City courts hear civil cases between citizens and try individuals on infringement of the municipal codes. Early cities rely heavily on guilds to enforce their own regulations and social pressure to enforce civic codes. Magic greatly facilitates crime. It improves stealth, allows easy access to private locations, and provides excellent information regarding security. However, it also deters crime through many of the same measures. The powerful and wealthy will be adequately protected from crime mostly through the threat of retaliation. It may be fairly easy to steal the guild master's chest, but keeping it is another matter.
[edit] Country-Grown
Regardless what type of town or city, all urban environments in a magical medieval society are of the country, not dichotomously opposed to the country. Medieval cities are the products of surplus food and surplus people from rural communities, and they have a stake in the success of rural pursuits. Farms and villages surround most cities, producing enough surplus food for city dwellers. Some urban dwellers still have to help with harvest at the bequest of the town lord.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
Craft Guilds Craft guilds usually wield the least amount of power among power centers. They control the production of their craft, the progression of their craftsmen, and the selling price of their products. In the early magical medieval period, craft guilds may require the permission of the town lord or the city council to exist, but as the period progresses, craft guilds become very common. Every imaginable kind of craft can embody a craft guild: butchers, fletchers, cobblers, candle makers, masons, and tanners, to clothiers, cloth cutters, weavers, fine cloth sellers, smiths, and toy makers. Most early magical medieval city dwellers are guild members. As more people immigrate to the cities, guilds become increasingly selective with their membership and with their members' progressions within the guild. Some guilds charge exorbitant entry fees, while others only allow entry through heredity or marriage to a guild member's daughter. These limitations make guild membership socially exclusive and financially beneficial for those with influential guild positions. Every craft guild has varying amounts of control over their members and influence in their city. This determines the level of restriction enforced by the guild. Apprentice: Craft guilds are stratified into three types of craftsmen: the master craftsmen, the journeymen, and the apprentice. All three are members of the guild and pay dues according to their station. All are subject to the guild's rules on methods of production, materials used in production, who can make certain items, and the items' selling price. The apprentice is the lowest of craftsmen. Taken in by a master craftsman, he usually lives and works in the master craftsman's home. The apprentice is not allowed to make or sell any item without the permission and approval of his master craftsman. Often the master craftsman has his apprentices do the laborious tasks of the craft or produce the smallest and simplest items. When the apprentice makes items and the master craftsman sells them, he must pay the apprentice a small cut from the sale price. The apprentice earns a paltry amount of money and pays the least amount of dues to the guild. The guild promotes apprentices to journeymen on the recommendation of their master craftsmen. Journeymen: Journeymen are the intermediary strata in the craft guild. They can independently make and sell items, though some craft guilds require journeymen to have a master craftsman's supervision and implicit permission. The craft guild limits the products journeymen make and the selling price of those products. Complicated tasks, which master craftsmen exclusively perform, are not within the journeymen's repertoire. Of the products that journeymen and master craftsmen both make, journeymen must sell their product for a lesser price. Since the man who made the item is not a master craftsman, magical medieval society assumes an implicit inferiority of quality. This is similar to the modern concept of buying name brand products. If a journeyman wants to progress to a master, he must produce an exceptional item and deliver it to the guild masters. If it is of worthy quality, the journeyman may become a master. However, becoming a master is not only dependent on the quality of the journeyman's craft, but also on several social and fiscal factors. How well liked is the prospective journeyman? Who does he know? Is he married to the daughter of another master? Can he pay the entry fee to become a master? The answers to all of these questions are usually more important that the ability of the candidate, as long as he is competent. Master Craftsmen: Masters are the ruling class in the craft guild. Socially and financially, they receive the greatest return from the guild and its regulations. They decide who become journeymen and master craftsmen. They determine the selling price for products of their craft based on the item and the level of the craftsmen who makes the item. They are ambassadors of the craft in civic matters and in dealing with the merchant guild. Besides controlling their craft and those who practice it, craft guilds also affect the city at large. Rebellions, revolts, and hostile takeovers have all found a start in the craft guild at one time or another. Weavers banding together in opposition to the merchant guild's regulations on their craft, cobblers not agreeing with the large tax on fine foreign leather coming into the city, and masons striking because the master mason in charge of building the new church is not a local master mason are all common examples of craft conflict.
[edit] Merchant Guilds
All cities have a merchant guild, even the earliest of magical medieval cities. Merchant guilds usually develop before any other guilds. Socially, they rank above craft guilds, though craftsmen may belong to the merchant guild. In absence of a city council, the merchant guild acts as the city council. They negotiate rights, taxes, and rents with the town lord, make municipal bylaws, and pick city officials. If there is a city council, prominent merchant guild members are almost always members of the council. Most merchant guild members are wholesale merchants. They are not concerned with the production of crafts and goods, but rather the transporting, buying, and selling of goods. Some wholesale merchants are concerned with buying local goods and transporting and selling them to neighboring cities, fairs, regions, or possibly kingdoms. Others concentrate on
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
importing sought-after goods into the city. Selling staple products like grain and coarse cloth are quite profitable; other wholesale merchants specialize in luxury goods like wine, furs, silks, and fine linen. In smaller cities, all merchants may belong to one merchant guild. In larger cities, merchants may form multiple guilds according to their specific commodity. Unlike the craft guild, merchant guilds are concerned with city commerce on a larger level, due to their concern with wholesale goods. They determine how much tax should be imposed on various foreign items, i.e. any item that was not made in the city by a craftsman of the city. They have monopoly powers, determining who can sell what, where, and when. They establish trading partners for certain commodities along river and land routes. Merchant guilds designate particular areas as the "territory" of a particular merchant for specific goods. They can limit which cities' merchants can come into the city and sell their goods. They can also determine to which cities a merchant can export a particular commodity. Merchant guilds usually wield exclusive power on trade in the city, although strong town lords and independent city councils try to curb the merchant guild's power. sing after pitchers of ale are legendary. Wizards also enjoy the settled ease of knowing someone understands them when they say over cards, "Yes, I tried to reverse the metamagic field by polarizing the phlogiston; unfortunately, upon opening the box, I found the cat dead." The guild acts as a police force for its craft, both on guild members and on outsiders within the guild's territory. If there is a wizards' guild in a city, being a member of the guild is not a luxury; it is a prerequisite. As with other professional and craft guilds, membership is compulsory to practice wizardry in the city, which includes casting spells for others, selling wizardly services, and making magic items for sale. Unauthorized practitioners risk retribution by the guild if word leaks out. This does not mean that it does not happen; it just means that guilds have a socially and legally supported right to pursue such transgressors. The guild also creates its regulations and bylaws. Any number of restrictions may be a part of a wizards' guild. Though the particular laws of any given wizards' guilds are campaign specific, here are a few ideas. Wizards' guilds limit who can make what magical items. They restrict what level of spells a wizard can cast for hire, depending on level or status in the guild. They regulate the prices at which wizards sell magic items, potions, scrolls, or spells they cast from memory. They determine who can create new spells and what new spells are created. They determine who becomes a wizard, through controlling membership and taking on apprentices. They even create codes of conduct for foreign wizards who enter the city. They create specializations within the guild, like battle wizards, caravan wizards, research wizards, and production wizards. However, with guild membership comes guild obligation. Service, magic items, scrolls, potions, research, spells, unique components, or plain coin cover membership fees and other payments. The combination of payments depends on the particular guild. The guild itself has feudal obligations it must fulfill. The amount of comparative power the guild holds, the lord or city council that gives the guild a charter, and the arrangements made with other groups determine the feudal obligations a wizards' guild owes to other groups and power centers in the city. It is important to remember that despite the camaraderie and rules for self-policing, wizards' guilds have just as much internecine fighting, backstabbing, individual power grabs, systematic rule-breaking, and dirty play as any other magical medieval guild. Although lords may grant a city the right to form a wizard's guild, they will never relinquish control over their rights of magical taxation and service, unless physically forced otherwise. Wizards' guilds are potentially one of the most powerful groups in a city. Such organizations have the magical power, and most likely the wealth, to compete against other guilds and power centers for attention and influence. Wizards provide magic that improves crime solving, intelligence gathering, and diplomacy. Wizards' guilds are full of learned men and their comprehensive libraries, facilities held in high esteem as places of learning and prominent architecture. A city's wizards'
[edit] Wizards' Guilds
No magical medieval city is complete without a wizards' guild. Like other members of society, wizards need a community and group insurance. To determine a viable wizards' guild, one needs to remember why people form them: what benefits they offer, what financial and social payments its members pay for the privilege of membership, and the guild's role as regulator in the city. These ideas are integral to maintaining medieval thought among magical times. The unique magical ability of wizards also adds complication in creating a guild structure. The guild is for camaraderie, insurance, and social distinction according to one's profession or craft. A wizards' guild offers many benefits for its members, both social and arcaneoriented. If a wizard dies an untimely death, then the guild insures proper burial and a stipend for the widow and children left behind. For members wealthy enough to afford coming back, the guild can ensure the member's return. In larger cities with wealthy guilds, the guild can grant access to research facilities, laboratories, special materials, and spell components. Where else can a wizard safely find the snake off a medusa's head, even if he has to pay the outrageous guild price? Other possibilities are shared magical learning, spell trading, and lend/lease magic items. Holiday feasts and theater productions must be a riot at the guildhall, and the types of songs wizards
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
guild is immensely useful in places where military concerns are strong, or in times of war. In smaller communities, it is possible to have an arcane guild, opening the guild concept to sorcerers and bards, but such an organization is unlikely where enough learned wizards gather and look down upon their unlearned and undisciplined arcane counterparts. Thieves thrive off illegal activities. The activities that are not illegal per se are probably immoral. This includes pick pocketing, robbery, theft, smuggling, burglary, gambling, and other illicit entertainment. Despite the differences in goals, thieves and their guild coexist in a magical medieval city that has laws. Unless the entire society and the leaders of the city are all of the goodly persuasion, thieves' guilds probably exist in cities, provided there is enough movable wealth for thieves to make a decent living. The first explanation for the easy existence of thieves' guilds in urban society is the implicit social agreement between thieves and their victims. People expect crime, (crime in a magical medieval city is usually not violent crime but some form of theft) and they tolerate a certain level of crime. The level of tolerable crime changes with the alignment of the population, the ruling and civic power centers, and the wealth of the city. As long as the thieves operate at or near the level of tolerable crime, little attention is usually brought to their organization. Now if the thieves' guild pulls a job on the church of the patron god, stealing one of their treasured relics or pulls a huge heist on an influential merchant, there may be trouble and lots of it. The connections and alliances forged with other guilds and city factions are another reason for the continued existence of thieves' guilds. Thieves' guilds may bribe enough civic officials to keep the guild in business, and most wealthy members of society have enough coin to pay protection money. Even with the aid of magic, it is certainly easier to co-exist than to uproot an entire illegal organization especially considering the majority of those making rules within the city can protect themselves from theft more readily by accepting the guild than fighting it. Perhaps the leader of the thieves' guild also happens to be the leader of the merchant guild. Thieves' guilds also serve a civic function for those who need discrete yet slightly illegal resolutions. In more hostile environments, thieves' guilds usually have close connections with the wizards' guild, gaining the wizards' concealing magic in exchange for roguish favors. Most indicative of the unique magical medieval culture, the final reason for a thieves' guild in a city is the multiplicity of law. Given the five common sources of law, (See Chapter Seven: On Those Who Rule) actions may be illegal in one court, but legal in another. Crafty thieves quickly discover these points of contention and exploit them. Maritime law, charter law and royal law in particular often come in profitable conflict.
[edit] Thieves' Guilds
Thieves' guilds are associations between people who thieve for a living. Members of the thieves' guild do not have to be rogues, nor do rogues have to delve in the shadier use of their skills. Being a part of a thieves' guild provides the same basic benefits of all guilds: insurance, training, and tricks of the trade. Members get training and specialized class tools, which may not be available at typical stores. If a member of the guild gets into some legal trouble, the guild may pull some strings, especially if there is coin or favor in return. Thieves' guilds gather like-minded individuals who make alliances, plan jobs, and get information on buildings, people, and security measures. Another benefit to guild membership, besides two unbroken legs, is more sophisticated thievery. Sophistication allows such things as protection rackets, where people pay the thieves' guild to insure they, their homes, and their buildings are not burgled. This only works with implicit cooperation from guild members. If the guild leader says, "do not rob this place," he really means, "do not rob this place." Guilds also build up a repertoire of snitches, informants, bribed officials, and magic connections that other guild members may use. Smuggling goods, either for direct profit or through fencing, is also easier when thieves work together. The officials may catch one or two thieves, but the operation continues. Maintaining a slim margin of honor among thieves is very tricky, which is why the most successful thieves' guilds are lawful. In order to keep a thieves' guild together, the guild must be strong and powerful enough to police their members and independent thieves that trespass on the guild's territory. Once a merchant pays the guild protection money, the guild's reputation is now on the line. Who wants a thieves' guild you can't trust? Guilds with enough authority allot territory to various factions within the guild to help keep the peace and reward favored members. The guild decides whether the Red Footpads or the Black Tigers get gambling and girl rights in the docks ward, while pick pocketing and begging on Baker Street goes to the Unseen. Such territory distribution also leads to internal contention that guild rulers use for their benefit. The Law: Law in magical medieval times is not like modern law. Laws are codifications of social custom. In larger cities where people come from many different places, laws become guidelines for easier coexistence. Sometimes laws are enforced with fiscal or physical punishment; other times laws are a formality thrown to the wayside due social necessity. Only those with power can force others to abide by the laws, whether they are guild laws, civic laws, manorial laws, or royal laws. Laws do not necessarily work as a deterrent from certain behaviors, nor are their transgressors always prosecuted.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
Magic: Like other secret societies, magic jeopardizes the thieves' guild's secrecy. If someone wishes to rid the city of a thieves' guild or simply find out who is in charge of the guild, they can employing a spellcaster with charm person, dominate, zone of truth, discern lies, scrying, commune, prying eyes, or greater scrying. Anyone who knows anything about the guild is a potential information leak, either through enchantment, force, coin, or divination. Several of these enchantment or divination spells are high level, but using simple magics to accentuate force threatens the guild's prized secrecy. Thieves' guilds may employ counter magics, especially from cross-classed rogue/clerics or rogue/ wizards. Employing a cell structure is the typical non-magical method of averting magical prying. A typical cell structure is where a thief only reports to one person above him, and the person who receives the reports of several thieves reports to only one person above him. By reducing the number of connections, the guild minimizes exposure and mimics the feudal environment with roguish secrecy. The easier alternative for the guild is try not to anger anyone too important, and if they have to, make some powerful and influential friends first. However, some families separate from their mercantile roots through land purchases and minor aristocratic titles. Positions in the merchant guild open doorways to financial and commercial benefits. Obtaining prime mercantile territory or applying pressure on craft guilds via the merchant guild are two common examples of fiscal gerrymandering. The social benefits of the patriciate include getting children into prestigious guilds, universities, or religious hierarchies; arranging advantageous marriages; and the potential of joining the aristocracy. Being a member of the patriciate does not require civil office holding or a prominent position in the merchant guild to wield power. Easily movable wealth, a rarity in the magical medieval period, carries a power of its own. However, even very wealthy families are subject to the guild. Even within the patriciate, power comes from the social group, not the individual. Patriciates are the deep pockets of the city. Although they regularly obtain tax exemptions and more favorable trade agreements because of their social class, the patriciate are the favored target when town lords, city councils, or simple raiders desire coin. If the city needs a new dock, more than likely a member of the patriciate loans the money to the city, either voluntarily or by force. Patriciates are also community supporters and patrons of art, religion, guilds, and city projects. In a city of multiple religions, having the social and financial support of a member of the patriciate is very important for a religious hierarchy. If the patriciate favors arcane guilds over religion, that favor lends more power to a wizards' guild over religious institutions. Patriciates give alms to the poor, like lords of the manor, though the sheer amount of poor people flocking to the cities often makes their alms inadequate.
[edit] Religion
See "Patron God of the City" in Chapter Six: On Those Who Pray.
[edit] Patriciate
The patriciate forms the upper crust of urban society. Socially, financially, and politically, the patriciate distinguishes itself from the common burgher, creating the immense class tension found in the later magical medieval city. Although members of the patriciate may own land, they are usually not large landholders. Instead, they gain status from movable wealth and lots of it. The patriciate often has social tensions with the landed aristocracy because their wealth does not come from landownership. Much like the English viewed late 19th century America's wealth, magical medieval aristocrats see the patriciate as upstarts who have little refinement and distinction in their methods of attaining wealth. Comprised of wealthy merchants and other city dwellers, the patriciate rarely contains members of the peerage. However, as in all things magical medieval, the complete opposite is also true. Such distinctions are a measure of individual magical medieval societies. The patriciate are the best families in the city. They create fashion and wear it, they speak with a distinct accent and vocabulary, they live and associate with the well-to-do portion of town, and they have immense power in many regards. Members of the patriciate are usually in the city council and have greater ability to benefit from civic manipulations. Patriciates are usually leading members of the merchant guild.
[edit] City Council
The city council is the municipal head of the city. The right to have a city council and the rights of the city, which the city council oversees, are spelled out in the city charter. Almost all cities have the right to tax and form a militia for civic defense. The right of taxation includes levying various taxes, such as poll taxes, gate taxes, taxes on luxury goods, tax on magical items, mercantile taxes, war taxes, and emergency taxes. The right to levy taxes creates an entire financial system for collecting taxes and accounting, as well as other financial practices like forced loans. Forced loans are loans to the city from a merchant or patriciate by physical force, revoking special privileges, or threat of confiscation or exile. Although the name implies unpleasantries, most of the time wealthy merchants and patriciates pay forced loans without too much duress. They even earn interest on the loan from the city. City councils have been known to over-tax their citizens, pay their town lord, and pocket the difference. However, the city treasury is usually in debt from military expense, poor financial practices
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
(toll/tax exemptions granted in recompense for personal gain), and inflation. The right to form a militia includes stockpiling weapons, magic, food, other logistic materials, and men for military use. Most city militias are just burghers who bring their own simple weaponry. Cities with more to protect often develop their military forces into a professional standing army. Cities also hire mercenaries to man the walls, especially in the later magical medieval period, when burghers opt out of guard duty. Cities usually have their own judicial system separate from their lord's court. Although a city's jurisdiction is only within city limits, city courts generate income and give the city leaders more power over the city and its inhabitants. They also make city ordinances on sanitation, curfews, guilds, and nightly patrol of the streets. They oversee city projects and city planning, and in free cities, the city council can even charter guilds. Everyone belongs to a family, a manor, a lord, a guild, a religious order, or some other form of group identity. In the time of uncertainty that precedes the magical medieval period, safety and survival comes in numbers. One's craft, familial relations, and interests are not merely a means of understanding through classification; they are protection for the individual from a society that tends to persecute others who are different from them. It is not far from modern times, except that the modern mindset allows for a greater diversity within definition. Groups police themselves, vouch for their members, and create smaller communities within the bustling city. Similar to the early 20th century American cities, living on Baker's Street, being a member of the butcher's guild, or attending certain churches define someone's personality. Within every group, there is further stratification. It is not enough to know that a person is a member of the clothier guild. Are they a master, journeyman, or an apprentice? Who did they work under as an apprentice? When did the guild make them a master? Who does that person associate with from the guild? Do they work with linen, silk, or course cloth? Stratification does not stop at craft specifics, but continues on to include economics, social factors, and community involvement. Citizenship has its own importance. People in the magical medieval period are not nearly as mobile as modern people. Generations of the same family farming the same land, being a master of the same guild, or living in the same city is typical in the magical medieval period. Rooting a family in a social network dependent on geography means that the family is subsequently rooted to that specific geography. This is why exile from one's city is one of the most heinous kinds of civic punishment. It is the immediate removal of identity, definition, and social understanding, both personally and externally. A person may travel because of business and spend long periods of time away from home, but most magical medieval people only feel truly at home in the place where they were born. This sentiment is not to be confused with nationalism per se. Nationalism does not develop until after the magical medieval period.
[edit] Town Lords
The lord who originally gives the charter to the city is the town lord. Due to feudalism, it is possible to have multiple town lords through one city existing within multiple fiefs. Both the town and the rights of its inhabitants exist by the grace of the town lord. Though the town lord may relinquish some of his privileges (see on "Peasants' Interest"), he may remain an active force in the city if he wishes. Choosing key officials, packing the city council with favored burghers and merchants, and taxing more money out of the city (ground rents, fees, and payments) are a few of the traditional methods town lords exert their influence in the city. Cities are also crucial to the town lord because of the density of spellcasters in the city. On top of coin, the town lord demands magic services, items, scrolls, and potions from the city. In some situations, town lords never revoke feudal obligations or they re-instate them on their cities and its inhabitants. This is especially true of cities in the beginning and end of the magical medieval period.
[edit] Kings
Kings wield power as town lords, but they have the force of the crown behind them, which gives them significantly more power. Even weak kings are as strong as the most powerful of his lords; otherwise he would not be king for long. Kings give and revoke royal charters, and even overrule another lord's charters for a city. Only kings give cities free status, removing the feudal yoke off the town. This means the city no longer has a town lord, and subsequently, no longer makes payments to a town lord. Kings declare cities free as a method of controlling unruly barons and strong lords who oppose them. Kings can also take away free status, or at least threaten to, for additional coin, magic, particular local specialties, or to curb strong power centers in the city. Cities who feel unjustly burdened by their town lord can petition the king for relief. Conversely, cities can also seek strong barons and lords if the king is the town lord tyrant.
[edit] Adventurers
This begs the question of what to do about adventurers, both NPCs and PCs. Adventurers make a profession of taking jobs that others do not want or are unable to do. They do not have a social definition, yet the core rules state that adventurers do not stir any extraordinary attention by virtue of being adventurers. There are a few ways to resolve the magical medieval mindset and the social reaction to adventurers listed in the core rules. The best way of understanding adventurers from a magical medieval mindset is calling them mercenaries.
[edit] The Social City
The cornerstone of a magical medieval society is definition and classification. Although a truism on the manor, this is especially true in the city, where many people live in close quarters and where new people are moving in all the time.
[edit] On the Magical Medieval City
They travel and act as sell swords and solve problems for wealthy people. Some also do some pro bono work, saving the occasional village from orcs or rescuing the farmer's daughter from the goblins' lair. Some wreak terrible damage for personal gain, slaying and pillaging as they go. Like mercenaries, PCs are heroes in armed conflict, but worrisome when the conflict ends. They are a dangerous lot by virtue of their mobility, their paucity of social sponsorship, and de facto, the lack of social restraint. More than likely, PC adventurers draw at least some attention. First, most PCs usually wear armor and are fully equipped for combat and adventuring. This is not very common in a city, unless it is a time of war or a fort city where most people do soldiering. Even then, having a person in full armor with multiple weapons who is not an aristocrat or a knight is rather rare. Anyone showing up at a city's gates in full armor and fully armed, and who wishes to enter the city in such a state, has a lot of explaining to do. Unless they have a writ or badge identifying their social sponsor, most PCs probably have to surrender martial weaponry and all but light armor into the custody of the city until they depart, at which time, they can collect their things. Second, PCs have backpacks stuffed with interesting things that jingle. As they try to enter the gates, such loot attracts attention of sellers, pickpockets, and the guards collecting taxes at the gate. On top of paying an entry tax (see Mundane and Magical Taxes in Appendix V- Magical Medieval Miscellany), PCs pay for the goods they bring into the city, even if PCs claim they are not selling anything in town. Bribery, intimidation, bluff, diplomacy, and magic are always options for bypassing the gates and taxes, but PCs must remember that they are subject to the city laws and the force behind them. Third, should someone have the power to look (in larger cities gate guards are always equipped with detect magic) PCs have lots of magic. Cities tax PCs for the magic items they have, and PCs should obey the civic rules on holding and using magic in the city. Some cities have strong groups that regulate the use and abundance of magic in the city. Some cities require people to surrender certain types of magic items and restrain the use of certain schools of magic in the city. PCs would do well to always get the specifics when entering a new city. Large trade cities through which many people travel through are more acclimated to adventurers, mercenaries, and the shady lot of society. But for the most part, adventurers stick out in society. Retired adventurers are understandable, seen as wanderers who settled down and entered society at that point. Even if they adventure again, the retired adventurer has roots and social connections that tie him to a locale. There is an undercurrent among the urban powerful to invite wandering PC adventurers into social obligations, and in effect, a social classification. Adventurers that accept such invitations become agents of a certain lord, religion, or ideal. Such relationships are also beneficial for PCs. Social connections are very useful, if only in tax savings alone. PCs who establish such ties have home bases, relinquishing rented beds and tourist prices for dinner invitations, choice gossip, and surety should something strange happen in their presence. Another truism of the magical medieval city is that news travels fast, especially bad news, and it seems like everyone knows everyone else's business. When PCs roll into town, it does not take long for everyone to hear about them, know what they look like, and learn how many pitchers of ale they had at lunch. This can make subtlety and covert operations difficult for outsiders. People also know that PCs have lots of money, as displayed by the 50 pounds of metal the fighter wears, the goods they carry into the city, and the amount of magic on their person. This affects the prices they pay for goods and services, the number of touts and beggars that follow them around, and thievery attempts. If the PCs look rough and seasoned or if they come with a social connection, it is possible that no one in town wants that much trouble.
[edit] Trade and Economics
Magical medieval trade and economics are often mistaken for anachronistic modern concepts. Things like supply and demand, purchasing power, and the market do exist, but in a proto-form of its developed descendents. Magical medieval economics are not capitalistic, socialistic, free trade or restrictive. It borrows traits from all four systems and creates an economic system that is neither here nor there to modern economic thinking. The biggest difference between magical medieval economic thought and modern thought is the purpose and conduct of business. Maximizing profits is not the goal of magical medieval trade. Making a profit is much more important. Magical medieval societies do not have the modern tools, resources, or ideas that allow modern societies to hone maximization of profits to an art form. Most people make the goods they sell. There are fewer middlemen in commercial transactions in a magical medieval society. Usually, the only cost associated with a good is the cost of materials and the craftsmen's time. Only wholesale merchants are concerned with base costs and selling goods for more than they bought them, but even wholesale merchants usually buy their goods from the actual craftsmen and producers. Since most people make the goods they sell, a large inventory is not a typical practice in most workshops. A large inventory means things are not being sold or that something has been sitting on the shelf too long. Expensive items are not kept in inventory because they cost too much to make. This is especially true of magic items, expensive in either material cost or the level of skill required in their creation. A ring of protection +1 only costs 4,000 gp, but its forgin