That is, after all, the goal of worldbuilding. You can have thousands of pages of notes about your setting, but until you introduce that information to the game, it's kind of an "if a tree falls in the forest with no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?" situation. (On the other hand, dumping this information isn't fun for players, so you're searching for a happy balance.) The goal of worldbuilding is to have the information available when you need it. Looking back, I can see where my descriptions of homes and businesses have basically boiled down to "fancy" and "not very fancy." That doesn't feel good. So this material will give me a fairly complete image of these places, and I'm able to improvise specific details to further characterize them as I see fit. That's why there are over 30 profiles on details of my homebrew setting on this site--I want broad access to information I can use to subtly add to the story without coming up with everything on the spot. This is a lesson I discussed recently in my reflection on 15 years of GM notebooks: I know that what I need as a GM is jumping off points, something to get my imagination going while still avoiding the exhaustion of overworking my brain. So I work hard to give myself the supplemental information I can, and it has certainly paid off. So let's get started.
Daltoners - These humans tend to decorate their spaces with what might be called "heavy" décor. They utilize dark colors, generally dark browns, dark greys, and black. This applies to essentially all decorations: cloth furniture, curtains, and even wooden furniture, which is stained deep, dark tones. Because of the darkness of the palette, most Daltoner homes are very well-lit with dark metal lanterns and sometimes torches--despite this, the spaces still look dark, and non-Daltoners find their homes and businesses to be very overwhelming and stifling. Daltoners tend to prefer the softer lantern and torch light to natural light, and thick curtains are extremely popular as measures to restrict sunlight and add softness to the room. The one major exception to the "heavy" theme in Daltoner décor is in tapestries--Daltoner tapestries tend to include brighter colors like red, yellow, and blue, and having more than one in a room is considered tacky.
Along class lines, Daltoners tend to decorate similarly, but the quality of decorations increases with wealth. It is common for Daltoners to display a collection of baubles in homes and businesses, usually things associated with either social status, religious piety, or ruthlessness. A sample Daltoner home might include the official crest of the homeowner, a token from a religious elder, and treasure from a rival who was crushed. The class effect determines details about these types of examples: a poorer Daltoner might have the crest of a social organization they are a part of, while a richer Daltoner would have a prestigious governmental crest; the poorer Daltoner's religious token might be a fine holy symbol, whereas the richer Daltoner might have a valuable relic of their deity; the poorer Daltoner's treasure could be the empty coinpurse of a social foe, where the richer Daltoner might have the family jewels of their business foe. A person can determine the wealth of a homeowner by how fine the quality of a Daltoner's décor--poorer Daltoners have threadbare curtains and rickety furniture, and richer Daltoners have lush fabrics and solid furniture.
One special feature of Daltoner homes is the expansion of the typical garden into a larger and more decorative feature called the yard. Daltoners cultivate the land surrounding their home, and while the other groups do so in order to create sustainable gardens to feed themselves, Daltoners grow decorative plants such as grasses, shrubs, and sometimes flowers. Like the interior of their homes, Daltoners stick with less vibrant colors, so the flowers tend to be white. They strive for a cultivated look, pruning their plants to create structured appearances. Further, Daltoners often build flat structures extending from their houses, which are called porches or decks. These spaces are meant to be a liminal space between the private of the home and the public of the street. The lawn has yet to catch on with other groups, but the porch has begun to increase in popularity, especially among half-elves and dwarves.
Faninites - Faninites primarily desire in decorating to bring the beauty of nature home. As a result, they tend to decorate in earth tones--green, brown, and grey--with a special emphasis on blue, the color of the sky and sea. Faninites emphasize the natural light of the sun and tend to build with large windows, which light up the natural colors of their homes and businesses. Faninites sometimes harvest plants from nature and create temporary displays of their finds, hanging them on walls or placing them in vases. Tapestries are an important part of Faninite decorating. Generally speaking, there are two schools of thought on tapestries: some believe that the beauty of the tapestry matters most, and they buy their tapestries from expert craftspeople; others believe that the effort of a homemade tapestry is more important, and they make their own regardless of talent. As a result, Faninite homes feature a good deal of tapestries, with some homes preferring professional work and others featuring originals. Faninite tapestries are known for impressionistic portrayals of nature.
There is very little variation in class among Faninites since their society emphasizes caring for everyone within the community, but the small range of wealth among their communities expresses itself with the addition of the "home tree," a live tree planted within the foundation of the house. This tree is tended for years, and the house is slowly altered around the growing tree with cuts around the floorboards and ceiling. A home tree is difficult to tend, and it is expensive to constantly alter one's house, so only the wealthy have the time and money to manage it. However, the home tree is considered perhaps the ultimate status symbol in Faninite society, as it connects the home directly to nature. The variety of home tree has a significance: the birch tree symbolizes strength with others, the oak represents strength alone, and the yew tree stands for resilience.
One special feature of Faninite homes is that the garden is tended far differently than in other cultures. Where other groups tend gardens as cultivated land, Faninites don't use organization because they feel it is closer to nature to have scattered plants. The refusal to tame nature makes it difficult to perceive where property lines are, which is not considered a problem in Faninite society since community is emphasized over personal property. The result of all of this is that Faninite homes tend to be surrounded by edible plants which appear to be wild, but which were in fact planted by the homeowner. In some Faninite communities, homes are placed far back from any nearby roads, and the dense forest of seemingly-untamed plants gives the appearance that there are no homes at all. This phenomenon has led travelers in Faninite communities to coin the term "food forest," which communicates the idea that there is more to the situation than is obviously apparent.
Dwarves - Where the humans of Evanoch tend to use fabrics and natural woods in their decorating, dwarves are more inclined to use metals in their décor. Metal furniture, with and without cushions, have been a popular staple in dwarven decorating for centuries. It is considered good decorating sense to use matching metals throughout a home or business, and it is also considered proper to use the same color scheme throughout an entire building. Dwarves tend to decorate in greys, browns, dark reds, and dark blues, and typically the place is decorated by pairing two shades. Metal decorations are common, namely forged family crests and ornamental weaponry and armor. Dwarven tapestries are falling out of style, but traditional homes still typically display grand battle scenes in bas relief sculptures and castings.
Class differences are immediately apparent in dwarven homes. The amount of metal decorations is one sure sign of wealth--the most well-off dwarves typically have as much metal as possible, while the lower classes tend to have more stone items. Some people joke that the shinier a dwarven room is, the more wealthy the owner. Another detail revealing wealth is the type of metal. There is a hierarchy in dwarven culture: the poorest dwarves tend to have reinforced aluminum decorations; the next dwarves up use iron; the upper-middle class of dwarves uses steel; and the wealthiest of dwarves use copper, the metal held most precious in dwarven culture. Thus, metals can indicate a dwarf's class quite easily: a home with a few aluminum decorations and a home with dozens of copper decorations would both tell the visitor about the homeowner.
One special feature of dwarven decoration is special space created by the shape of dwarven homes. Below is an image of a dwarven home from above.
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| Note the area above the entry way--the green space between kitchen/living room and private quarters. |
This space, called by dwarves the rittert, or welcome step, is decorated in a variety of ways. Some dwarves leave it entirely undecorated, meaning instead to emphasize the house itself. Others place large carvings or castings in the space, usually paying homage to the gods, the dwarven leadership, or family ancestors. Still others place statues of significant people, and some pay personal guards to stand in the space imposingly. A small group have taken to transplanting mosses and lichens onto sculptures, creating the appearance of a living figure that can survive in the underground environment of dwarven homes. Currently, the most popular trend among dwarves is to the use the rittert to provide steps down into a more buried home or business, and some older homes have even taken to expanding their homes to include a lower level and adding the staircase.
Orcs - The trend in orcish decoration is to use hides and skins. It is expected that all elements of an animal be used when killed, and because ordinary hunting and trapping supplies more than enough hides to cover practical needs, many hides are used in decoration. In the last few hundred years, this has evolved into rather elaborate methods of use. Plenty of orcish homes still employ hides as wall coverings (some orcs completely covering their walls with hides), but an increasing amount use them as covering for other decorations. Taxidermy, an orcish development, has become a popular way to preserve the hunted animals in a more natural form. Hides are also used to border tapestries like frames, and these tapestries tend to depict animals (a revered source of sustenance) and scenes of battle (typically against rival clans or the elves).
Class is a complicated issue in orcish society--there are no distinct social classes, though social roles do carry social weight. As a result, most orcs hold equal places in the economy, which largely exists to facilitate trades and bartering. The social roles do afford different privileges in terms of decoration. One notable example is in the display of religious relics. For ordinary orcs, the display of religious tokens is considered highly inappropriate--that is specifically for the gorshen, or holy room, which is entirely private to a homeowner and their family. However, the wise woman of a clan is not only entitled but expected to display a variety of impressive holy relics in the public space of her home, which serves as a public area for orcs to seek wisdom. Similarly, military leaders in orcish society are allowed and even encouraged to display a grisly symbol of their status: the preserved bodies of slain enemies. The development of taxidermy almost immediately led to the practice of preserving fallen foes; Ragnars, or war chiefs, sometimes keep as many as five preserved bodies in the entryway of their homes.
One special feature of orcish homes is the way they are built: orcish homes are the only structures in Evanoch which typically have more than one story. An average orcish home has two levels, and some buildings can stretch even higher in densely-populated areas. To decorate the outsides of their tall homes, orcs paint murals on the outer walls of their homes and businesses. These murals vary widely, but typical themes include camouflage for the surrounding area, symbols of clan and rank, and animals that the owner identifies with (leopards and crocodiles are common, as are watersnakes and ibises). Colors in orcish murals are bright and vibrant (unless camouflage is the intention), featuring brilliant warm colors and lush cool colors. Orcish mural painters have become one of the more respected professions as this tradition has been established.
Elves - Elven decoration tends to focus on the way the home incorporates nature. Some elves choose to live in homes cut into living trees, and this is considered the height of this theme. Other expressions of it are more common, such as growing a variety of plants inside the home in pots as well as decorating the home with fresh flowers. Elves prize bright colors, and flowers and tapestries are used to provide these colorful tones. Flowers are cultivated in gardens to add pinks, purples, and yellows to homes, while tapestries include light blues, light greens, reds, and oranges in their elaborate and abstract depictions of nature. All cloths are made from lightweight materials, and these too come in bright and vibrant colors--there is a special emphasis on thinking of fabric on furniture and in homes in general as the clothing of the house, and these are cleaned often.
Class separates elven homes along class lines fairly cleanly. There are three general echelons of home decorating among elves: the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy. The poor tend to decorate in cheaply available materials, leading to rougher fabrics in less vibrant of colors--these homes look similar to Faninite homes in their simplicity and focus on nature. The middle class tends to aspire to the upper class, but without the quality of craftspersonship, so there is a good deal of living plants growing, but the finer tapestries are still too expensive, so that element is not quite up to wealthy standards. The wealthy usually represent their class through their homes and dress, and at home, this means a variety of living plants (especially flowers) and only the finest tapestries in the brightest colors. It is worth noting that in recent years, the Faninite home tree has become popular among middle class elves, who can aspire to a wealthy standard connection to nature without the resources of the upper class.
One special feature of elven homes is that the property around them is as segmented as the home. Elves tend to divide their property into three sections, which match the three sections of the house itself. One section is a food garden, another is a flower and herb garden, and the last is the outdoor communal space. The gardens are fairly standard, but the outdoor communal space can change quite dramatically between the homeowner. Some elves use the space as a sort of patio and host garden parties; others create outdoor art studios (painting is a popular pastime among elves); still others place a telescope and use the space for stargazing. An emerging trend even has elves digging out and filling in small ponds and maintaining fish in the resulting pools--this is a new tradition that honors the climate of the elves on their home on the Lathien Islands, where pools with fish exist everywhere.
Half-Elves - Most of the time, half-elves follow a combination of what their elven and Faninite forebears follow; some of the time, though, they forge a new path that becomes the new standard for Evanoch. In this case, half-elves have created a form of decoration that is increasingly becoming the standard for the continent. Half-elven decoration features an adherence to nature that so many of the cultures strives for, but with modern departures from style that make it their own. The thing that defines half-elven décor is that it adds an almost cartoonish twist to tradition. Where most Evanine homes feature a limited palette of colors, half-elven décor demands the use of many colors at once. Additionally, this style includes borrowed elements of other cultural inspirations--the most notable is the use of leather to decorate. Half-elven homes and businesses place strips of leather around and near featured pieces like tapestries (the most dreamlike in the land) and preserved plants (typically colorful or metaphorically resonant ones), which is both natural and humanoid-made at once. New homes across Evanoch use this style as a universally-appreciated one.
Class divisions have emerged as the half-elven style has become popular, but not as a result of the designs of the half-elves. One of the striking elements of half-elven decoration is that it is simple and cheaply-made for the most part, so essentially anyone can afford to decorate with it. However, as the style has caught on, artists have created more refined versions of the style to differentiate it across class. A few such developments are worth mentioning. Middle class people who use the half-elven style sometimes elevate their décor by including metal embellishments to the leather pieces, which tends to evoke the dwarven style. Wealthier folks using the half-elven style frequently employ colorful paint to cover a home, a nod to the orcish style. And the very wealthiest have taken to displaying a new style of tapestry which blends most of the dominant art styles--these pieces are meant to show the broad cultural taste of the owner. Only a few artists use this style, so their pieces are in high demand.
One special feature of half-elven homes which has not caught on as a wide phenomenon but which is common in half-elven homes is the use of moving walls. Half-elven architecture relies on relatively little space, so to maximize that space, half-elven builders have taken to building moving walls which can twist and turn to change a space. One of the more popular implementations of this is in transforming the public space--tradition demands a public space, but the architecture leaves little room for this. The public space can have one mode in which it serves as an entertainment space and reception area, but with the movement of a few walls, that public space can become a large study and library. Similar structures allow the private quarters, which are typically quite small in a half-elven home, to transform to go from closets and storage to a private studio or workspace. Construction methods for this practice have come down in price considerably, but most non-half-elves regard the moving walls as more trouble than they are worth.
Gnomes - The gnomish style of decoration involves a great deal of invented devices meant to simplify everyday life. Typical devices include the page holder, meant to keep one's place in a book without touching it; the air refresher, meant to circulate air in a space; and the slate, which can be marked with chalk and erased (unlike typical pen and paper). These devices are typically given a very industrial look meant to evoke the technology's modern nature. Gnomish decorating also uses this industrial look. Like dwarven decorating, gnomish decorating uses metals (usually alloys) to accent or create spaces. Additionally, glass is a standby in gnomish decorating. Uses include the elaborate fish tanks gnomes are known for, skylights, and glass figurines. Gnomes create synthetic fabrics in specially dyed colors, giving them a colorful decoration style similar to elven homes and businesses.
Class divisions are complicated in gnomish society: generally, the gnomish economic model means that no gnomes are truly poor, and yet the upper echelons of gnomish society are marked by especially wealthy individuals. As a result, any given gnomish building will have a budget for decorating in an elaborate and individual way, but wealthier gnomes set themselves apart with markedly finer decorations. An average gnomish home decorates each of the six typical rooms of a gnomish dwelling in distinct ways: the entryway is reserved for the brightest of colors and most impressive of artistic displays; the living space tends to be decorated with calming colors and plush furniture; the kitchen usually bears light colors with depictions of nature and agriculture; the laboratory bears the most industrial decoration of any space, especially metal plating according to recent trends; the study is decorated in earthy tones and wooden furniture; the private quarters tend to vary widely, but most include favorite colors and matched furniture styles along with tapestries of personal significance. Wealthier gnomes add more elaborate decorations, often with the inclusion of status symbols and working inventions.
One special feature of gnomish decorating is the use of mechanized figures and creatures which are meant to serve the homeowner. This is a distinction from pets--gnomes take pets in large numbers and care for them almost like children, while mechanical servants are viewed as entirely separate. While a gnome would never call upon a pet to serve them, a mechanical servant is quite accepted in gnomish society. Oftentimes, these inventions take the form of humanoids, canine/feline animals, and spiders. These servants are named by the gnome who created or adopted them, usually with a fanciful or ridiculous name such as Bimblebronze or Hackiterat. Further, most all mechanical servants are provided with tailored clothing. One popular trend among contemporary gnomes is to have a humanoid servant which is dressed in only the finest clothing--fashioning the servants as finely-dressed butlers and maids is quite common. It is considered exceptionally poor etiquette for one of these servants to malfunction in front of company, and a reliable mechanical servant is considered a status symbol in and of itself.
Halflings - Halfling decorations are hard to generalize about--a major cultural force for halflings is a stark individualism, and so more effort is made by halflings to depart from cultural norms than to adhere to them. Nevertheless, there are a few customs which can be found in a good amount of halfling homes and businesses. For starters, halflings live in a thick rainforest, and the ingredients for the most colorful dyes come from halfling territory. Halflings decorate utilizing both natural inspiration (tapestries with scenes of nature as well as mostly wooden furniture and building materials) and the vibrant colors available in the rainforest (mostly via dyed fabrics and eye-catching feathers, hides, and plants). Also notable among halflings is the use of baked clay decorations ranging from sculptures (rarely painted) to practical tools (such as water vessels and pots for plants, also rarely painted). Halfling homes and businesses tend to use a similar combination of styles as half-elves, but where half-elven customs have become standard, halfling customs are generally considered idiosyncratic and strange.
Class lines have only one major effect on the decoration of halfling homes and businesses: the size of the building. Because halflings are so small, they require relatively little space; because halfling homes and businesses are dug into the ground and have no surface structures, the time and effort to burrowing often makes a smaller home or business a wiser choice. But truly wealthy halflings who disregard the halfling value of avoiding waste in all things expand their homes to larger sizes. Some of these expanded homes add extra rooms, most often a workshop or studio and occasionally a study or office; most simply make the standard layout for a halfling home more spacious. Since the size of a halfling's home is obscured on ground level, there is a certain cultural phenomenon wherein wealthy halflings don't mention the size of their underground dwellings, living visitors to instead discover the extent of their wealth as they enter the home or business. There has been something of a backlash against expanded halfling homes, and there is new popularity among homes that are even smaller than normal; these homes carry a social prestige of thrift and conservation.
One special feature among halfling decorators is the garden, which does not surround the home, but rather exists on top of it. It is common for a halfling to devote most if not all of their property above ground to sizable gardens. Generally, these gardens are cultivated versions of traditional rainforest plants, most popularly root vegetables which can satisfy the common vegetarian diet of the halflings. Adding to the uniqueness of the halfling garden, the fact that it lies perhaps a foot or maybe only inches above the ceiling of the home complicates care for the garden and the home alike. The most common solution to this problem is to install a wire mesh along the ceiling, preventing roots from entering the home; at the same time, a section of the mesh is made to be removable, and homeowners feed natural fertilizers up into the soil via the ceiling. Because the garden are essentially the only public part of homes and businesses, it is used to characterize a building. Some opt for purely functional food gardens; others mix in colorful flowers; still others create cozy spaces with benches and decorations for a more casual use of the space. It is commonly said that one can learn more about a halfling from inspecting their garden than from speaking with them.
There you have it: a description of each group in my homebrew setting's takes on home decoration. I look forward to describing buildings even more now--before, I had the architecture to describe the outward appearance of places, but now I can describe the interior with confidence and detail easily. As I always say, working on details in your homebrew setting will always open doors for you--you just need to do the work to get there.
That's all for now. Coming soon: , lessons from GMing for children, how to know what class to play, and religious beliefs by cultural group in my homebrew setting. Until next time, happy gaming!
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