Lifestyle And Economy In Adel I

Wealth in Adel can be measured in many ways. There are people with no need of it, traveling the world with a sword at their side and adventures to partake in. There are people who’s wealth is the community they live in and share with, pooling resources and land together to help each other thrive. Then there are people who’s wealth is in coins and notes. Culture in Adel can also be measured in many of the same ways. The rural villager’s plays and songs, their feasts and even the basic labor they perform to stay alive are all part of their culture. The scholars in their spires, the stone streets, the very look and feel of a city is part of its culture. Such cultures and economies differ.

This article is an overview of rural village living in Adel. Geographical differences and special circumstances can change the phenomena described below. If something feels wrong for your game, you should look at your own campaign and what you can change from this article to better fit you.

Rural Living

The majority of Adel is rural. Civilization is comparatively uncommon: the majority of Adel’s civilized land consists of rural villages and small towns in the plains, mountains, coasts and forests. Each of the Nations is well known for their two or three largest cities, such as Impel and Oomash in Andaliel. These cities are not the norm. They exist in the focal points of commerce or atop the most valuable resources of the land, or in the most defensible positions of the Nation. This makes them rather unique and greatly romanticized. The most common, and smallest, unit of civilization in Adel is the rural village.

Population

A rural village’s population varies with area, but anywhere between 50 to 500 is the average. Larger villages of 1000 people are more likely to exist near cities. The average family unit consists of 5-8 members, but childless couples or single villagers are a significant amount. Populations fluctuate as youth can die or leave the village in search of adventure or the exotic allures of town and city life, or become infertile, or just never have children due to their sexual orientations.

Ownership

A rural village is owned by the community in general. Typically the true ownership is given to the village spirit as a courtesy. Should any government official or wealthy noble come with ideas of trying to own a village, they will likely be subjected to the people’s wrath. The village spirit in particular tends to view the villagers as its responsibility (at worse, it might view them as pets) and defend them from intrusion with all of its might. In all the Nations persists the idea that the land of a rural village belongs to the community. Governments do not interrupt the socialistic little villages.

Each individual living in a village has access to nearby resources and can use community land to grow crops and build homes large enough to support a family, or if space allows, raise a few animals. Individual households or groups might specialize. You might find a village where one group of people tend to the community crops, others fish, others forage and others hunt and raise animals, and they trade with one another. They might change duties certain years, but the roles tend to be traditional.

Most homes in a rural village are sturdy tents, sometimes made from the hides of wild beasts or monsters such as wyverns and drakes brought down by the villagers, or even the scales of large river fish, or other strange materials, stitched together with cloth and plants. The tents are often vaguely square in shape and held up in a skeleton of bamboo, or they might be hung up from central poles and their edges nailed to the ground. Though tents are common, mud brick houses and other styles, varying with the region, may be more prominent to certain cultures or even to certain families.

Diet

The Standard Adelian Diet is in full effect: soy, grains, auroch or goat milk, berries, insects, fruits and veggies, with little meat. This can vary from village to village and the diet tends to be tied to the land. It is said among Adelians that villagers are known for their lean bodies, while townspeople are more plump – while not altogether true, villagers find it hard to grow fat on their food, with all the effort that goes into it, and the kinds of food that they tend to eat.

Economy

Barter is common among settled villagers. A villager can offer favors, services or goods to another villager in exchange for his or her favors, services and goods. This keeps the community trading internally using things important to them – coin typically isn’t. But Coin is not completely neglected. Villages with small inns or dedicated shops, that are purchased primarily with coin, are more common in villages near an important route, such as a major river, that sees outsiders often. Some villagers have coin on themselves or tucked away to do business with passing travelers and merchants. Villagers with space, such as old families who’s children have their own homes now, typically rent out space for travelers, thus gaining some “free” coins from them. It is not uncommon for all families to have some notable old keepsakes that can be sold or traded for their coin value, such as jewels.

Taxation

Most of Adel’s governments possess enormous resources. The taxes placed on communities are mostly reasonable, and are typically paid by labor, goods and by the tributes given to the village Spirit. Villages generate manpower, crops and lumber, meat and fish, rare herbs and gems, and relative security for travelers. The village Spirit has no need for any of the things it receives, so it will stockpile them and give it up to government collectors when the time is right, covering some of the tax.

All villages know now, in the increasingly interconnected culture of the world, that they are not lonely units of life, but part of a greater whole. They have national pride and identity now that they did not possess prior to and during the Intolerable War, so they give to their Nation rather willingly – to a point. Often a bad year will see some angry tax negotiation as the government collector investigates how much he or she can take from the village that would be “fair.”

Magic Use

Each Village has a local Spirit. Village Spirits are typically not possessed of incredible strength. Most really powerful Spirits avoid becoming beholden to mortals. They are still, however, extremely formidable to even the most heroic Adelian. Spirits become guardians of villages mostly for companionship, shelter and worship. A Spirit provides some useful service to aid the village as opposed to solving all of its problems. Spirits limit to how much they are willing to do for mortals – if they do too much, they risk their own health, as such magic can be very draining to them.

Just having a health spirit provides passive benefits to the village. Such a place tends to have crops that mature marginally faster, animals that produce just a bit more, and some convenient magic tricks dependent on the Spirit’s purview. For example, a water Spirit can help power a mill so that it does not have to be built near an actual source of rushing water. It will not do this indefinitely, but the village can schedule grain days for the Spirit.

Villages don’t tend to have dedicated magic users, but if they do, unless the magic user is a hermit living five miles from the village (or feared by the population) you can bet the village will try to put them to some use. A magic user can find a comfortable life in a village. They’ll certainly be provided for all services rendered, though the most useful magic can often only be performed sparingly or at cost. It is not like villagers perceive it – it is not “essentially free.”

Education

Most village Adelians are taught common reading skills by their village spirit or by an elder. Rural villagers can read, but usually not at a truly advanced level. Aside from poetry, hymns and scriptures, most villagers are unlikely to be avid readers, and they are unlikely to read as a scholarly pursuit. Most of the books read by villagers are stories. Simple mathematics are also taught by the village Spirit. Village spirits mostly teach based on aptitude. If a child struggles for most of its life with simple math, the spirit is going to give up on it even if it could teach it algebra by trying very hard.

Recreation

Sports and martial arts feature prominently in rural villages. Adelian villagers have no issues with gender or sex segregation. Boys and girls play together and can partake of whatever toys or tasks they want. Toys feature prominently. Solid balls of rubber are made by the adult villagers for their children to play games with. Dolls allow children an imaginary but physical subordinate to nurture or boss around just like the adults nurture and boss them around. Toy weapons feature very prominently, as they are easy to make and allow children to feel empowered and heroic.

As teens and young adults the children continue to follow whatever interested them most. Some wish to trade their wooden toy weapons for larger, heavier and sharper ones. Some might turn a love of stories and songs into a love of writing stories and singing songs. The nurturers among them (both boys and girls) who played with and manufactured dolls may want to become caretakers and educators. Romance also begins to blossom, which can be entertaining itself. Unlike stuffier town and city folk, village Adelians don’t have much shame about their bodies, and are positive about sex. That being said they still partake of it privately as they can – particularly when they’re very young and have somewhat stuffier parents.

Every village has festival dates unique to its own culture and location. These dates are the most important in the calendar. Everyone works hard so that there is plentiful food and entertainment during festival days, even if it means greater toil leading up to it. Festivals are also times where the village can earn outside income easily. Passers by are pulled into the spirit of festivity, to watch the folk plays, dances, hear the songs and taste the food of a small culture, in exchange for whatever they can contribute.

Use In The Game

Rural stories will play a great part in an Adel campaign. The village can serve a a launching point to exploring nearby wilderness. The interaction with the villagers can be interesting and fun. Villagers aren’t helpless observers, whom the adventurers can lord over. However, they are also not always built with iron-clad nerves or the ability to organize and lead into danger. This is where adventurers come in. Adventurers are set apart because they dare to do things others wouldn’t.

For players, many of their characters will likely be pulled from such settings. Most characters can have their origins in a rural village. Ask yourself some questions about your character: where is your home, who do you know that’s still back there? Would you want to return, and why? Perhaps to convince a childhood sweetheart to come with you? Perhaps because your village is threatened? You could also have characters begin as members of a village. The PCs could begin in a small village, a calamity occurs, and village life is disrupted. The villagers need to respond to the crisis, but out of them only the PCs (and perhaps a few helpful NPCs) are truly cut out to perform the task at hand, and save their peers.