DOMICILES
Please use the following descriptions as a guide to the layout of your character\'s home. Feel free to write a description of your character\'s home and then PM an Admin to Sticky the topic for you.
ROYALTY & ENTOURAGE: PALACE
Servants\' Quarters
The servants\' quarters lie in the East Wing, so that the morning sun may pour into their windows (if they are lucky enough to have any) and wake them up.
Even though the servants\' rooms are simple, they are still luxurious when compared to other common folk - for this is the palace, and these jobs are coveted.
Each room has a trunk and a wardrobe of good quality. Two single beds for room-mates or one double is provided for those married couples that both serve the royal court. A woven rug, decorative curtains that are a bit thin, but pretty to look at, and a bay of wooden shelving upon which to put things.
With twenty rooms available in total for all servants - including those on cleaning, kitchen, stable, or other duties, the staff cannot comfortably rise above 40 in number. At the moment there are a few rooms free.
Visitors\' Quarters
Those who are paying a visit to the Royal court and are invited to stay awhile are given very plush rooms indeed.
Thick velvet curtains and lush and richly decorated rugs that cover most of the floor space. Tapestries and highly ornamental lanterns to brighten the atmosphere, a large bed that could sleep three, bookshelves with books in them, a couple of armchairs and a settee, a low table upon which to rest drinks, and a wardrobe that could hold an extensive collection.
Royal Quarters
Each royal member decorates their room to their liking, hence the furniture and style varies greatly between the Monarchs and their children. The King and Queen have a separate room available to them, but usually sleep in the King\'s quarters - though the Queen spends the majority of her waking time in her own.
MERCHANTS & NOBLES: ESTATES
Within the Innerkeep a citizen of Oberon Castle will find an array of domiciles that press against the cobbled roads, lit by street lamps.
The homes of successful merchants or people with a bit of power but not quite nobility, are built in a narrow and pressed together format, so that they are lean but tall, as there is limited space within the Innerkeep, which was the first boundary when the Castle was built. These homes are closer to the Palace grounds than the exit, and are usually well tended and well furnished. Many have small private bath-houses, a sitting room for their own leisure (with books as these people have been educated in the art of reading and writing). There are usually enough bedrooms to go around, though children tend to bunk together whenever there is a live-in servant, which is common.
The estates of the truly wealthy - those nobles with titles or thin-blooded royals - are scattered even closer to the Palacial grounds. Usually the quality of the workmanship is superior, and there is a bit of garden around the house for the noble to enjoy. Any riding that is to be done should be done outside the castle walls, for space is limited - therefore houses and estates from older generations tend to be more sizeable than any of those being built.
COMMONERS: LARGE DWELLINGS
There are large buildings that are specially built to house many people for a monthly fee. Many of the poorer families and workers live in these places, and count themselves lucky that they have a place to sleep other than in the alleyways where the thieves are desparate and the beggars are in poor health from being outside day and night.
Most often the boarding rooms will be set up in a similar fashion, with rooms on the second floor level and upward, perhaps in different sizes to house a larger family as opposed to a single person, the rent payable depending on space - so if someone wishes to squeeze a family of six into a tiny room built for one, they can save money for their discomfort.
The kitchens are usually run by the landlord\'s staff, or in exchange for a room. The dining facilities are as like an inn, a large common room. Bathing facilities are usually on the ground floor, with toilets outside in a large bank of stalls.
FARMERS: COUNTRY COTTAGES
Past the castle\'s outer walls, ditch and drawbridge is a vast and lush countryside dotted with many farms. The land of course belongs to the kingdom, but the King generously allows the people to make their living off it, as long as they pay a percentage of their profits upon returning from the markets.
A variety of different farms make for an interesting view of the countryside. Little cottages with large families are often found at the front of their section of farmland, fenced off by a natural cluster of trees or barbed wire.
Leathery skinned and with an enhanced work ethic, these men and women don\'t slack in their duties, for the farm is their livelihood. There are degrees of status played in the harvest fields as well, for those that work potatoes are considered lowlier than those who reap the corn, and both these not as blessed as those who grow and pick grapes to make wine. Those who farm livestock such as fowl, pig, sheep and cows are of a different farming stock altogether. All of these families pay their homage to Adora, Goddess of Life, who makes the lands fertile for their bounty to grow (or to graze).
NOMADS: TENT PITCH
On the Common Grounds on either side of the Free Road heading directly towards the castle, there is no property holder of the land and therefore a favourite place for travellers to pitch their camp. Locally referred to as \'The Tent Pitch\' there are all sorts of makeshift domiciles found here at night after the drawbridge has been pulled up to lock down Oberon Castle and keep it safe.
Caravans, wagons, tents and sometimes nothing at all is set up for the night, with a large quantity of small personal campfires to keep weary travellers warm and the wild animals at bay.
There are wolves in this area, and sometimes they attack, though the sheer quantity of numbers (usually around 30 to 50 campers at a time) at the Tent Pitch keeps them at bay. No matter how sheltered a person you may be, regardless your status or your anti-social ways, the Tent Pitch will always be a favoured stop as opposed to an isolated camping area half an hour\'s ride away.
People will press on in their journey to reach it, and the guards of Oberon look out of their tower to see the Tent Pitch rabble, making games of who will be let in at sunrise, and who will be turned away.
