Lhomarrian Settlements
This section will discuss the distribution of the Lhomarrian population, and the appearance and structure of their homes.
Due to their long settlement on Suridal, most Lhomarrians live in cultivated, well-settled regions. Villages and towns literally dot the landscape, and the network of roads connecting them would look much like a spider’s web from above. Despite this fact, however, there are still many open spaces free of settlement, as well as pristine woodlands.
The majority of Selhomarr’s population of about five million lives in such innumerable towns and villages, while around 628,000 people live in the capital and other large towns and cities. Most of the population (about 45%) are farmers or herdsmen, while another 30% are involved in fishing, and another 1% are miners. The remainder are politicians, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, soldiers, and other sorts of more urban tradespeople, who live in the cities.
Most Lhomarrian houses are single-storey affairs, being built of stone and covered with plaster. Most often, the outside walls are covered with colourful murals and frescoes depicting heroic scenes or beautiful visions, or even telling a story. Even the smallest homes will have some such adornment - a home is just not a home without it, according to the Lhomarrians. As a result, the streets of any reasonably-sized settlement are virtually a riot of colour, as images of all sorts crowd each other on buildings. The roofs of buildings are also colourful, built as they are of baked clay tiles of various shades of red and brown. The average Lhomarrian would find settlements on the surface to be drab by comparison.
The layout of the average Lhomarrian home is based upon the idea of a courtyard - all of the rooms open onto a pillared central room, which is often open to the sky at its centre - though there is often a means of covering the opening during storms. Most Lhomarrians decorate their interior walls by hanging family heirlooms on them, or by growing small plants in hanging planters, so that the leaves and stems grow to cover portions of them. The tiled stone floors are often covered with carpets, and brass lanterns often hang from the ceiling in each room. Lhomarrian furniture is almost always wooden, and functional in appearance, though many do sport the occasional decorative painting or carving on them. Great use is often made of tables and benches - they are present in almost every room of a house.
In larger settlements, where space is at more of a premium, it is possible to find taller buildings - some up to three storeys high. Even with the greater height, many buildings have decorative images on their surfaces, with some of the tallest buildings being used to tell epic poems and tales using colourful pictures. These taller building often lack the central chamber common in single dwellings, though there is often a large room somewhere in the building where people may gather to talk or relax. In most cases, the ground floor houses a business of some sort, while the upper floors are occupied by the family of the business owner, or tenants, or both. The roads are also different in proper towns and cities. While all roads are paved in Selhomarr, they widen considerably in urban areas - sometimes wide enough to accommodate four horse-drawn wagons abreast. Often, trees are planted along the middle of the road.
One feature that remains constant in almost every settlement is the temple of Xeron. In the centre of each urban area, there will be a central intersection, in the middle of which a temple to Xeron is built. Unlike the other buildings, their walls are unadorned, built of the purest quartz - seeming to glow in their own right. The interiors are truly inspiring, with graceful pillars and statues, and rows of polished wooden benches upon which the devoted may pray.
Notes on Various Lhomarrian Cities
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The information below will detail the various settlements numbered on the colour map of the empire of Selhomarr. Each settlement will be detailled in terms of its population, date of founding, and notable features. These descriptions are not intended to be exhaustive; rather, they should provide a general impression of what goes on in the place. The various towns and cities are coded with numbers, which match those on the map of Selhomarr.