/CORE RULE
Architecture in Valeune grows from climate, materials, labor, wealth, class, defense, sanitation, land, trade, and the bodies of the people who use it.
Buildings are not generic fantasy scenery.
A Frostbreak home, Suncoast villa, wetland settlement, Starsrest tenement, Stoneward fortress, and Emberhold workshop should not share one universal design.
Every structure requires a site, foundation, materials, workers, money, maintenance, water, waste management, and access.
/REGIONAL MATERIALS
Frostbreak uses thick stone, heavy timber, steep roofs, insulation, shutters, enclosed passages, and communal heating.
Northwood relies heavily on timber, stone foundations, steep roofs, firebreaks, covered walks, and moisture protection.
The northeastern cliffs use anchored masonry, terraces, strong roofs, sheltered courts, lifts, stairs, and wind-resistant construction.
Western uplands use stone, plaster, tile, packed earth, shaded courtyards, cisterns, and narrow streets adapted to heat and water scarcity.
The Golden Plains use timber, brick, plaster, thatch, tile, and stone according to wealth and local supply.
Eastvale uses mixed timber, stone, clay, plaster, and tile suited to farms, estates, market towns, and river valleys.
Wetland settlements use pilings, raised platforms, boardwalks, levees, light structures, boats, ramps, and rot-resistant materials.
Suncoast favors pale stone, plaster, tile, arcades, balconies, courtyards, ventilation, and shade.
The Duskborn inland hills may use surface buildings, terraced homes, structures against stone, and carefully engineered cave spaces.
Stoneward uses masonry, retaining walls, terraced streets, tunnels, bridges, cisterns, and buildings anchored into slopes.
Emberhold uses stone, brick, plaster, shade, ventilation, ash protection, underground storage, and heat-aware design.
/RURAL HOMES
Rural homes may combine residence, food storage, tools, animals, work space, and family life.
A small farm home may include one main room, sleeping spaces, hearth, pantry, workyard, shed, cellar, and access to water.
A tenant’s house may belong to an estate.
A village home may share walls, ovens, wells, washing areas, or grazing space.
Do not make every rural family live in an isolated picturesque cottage.
/URBAN HOMES
Urban housing ranges from palaces and merchant houses to workshops, rented rooms, tenements, boarding houses, servant quarters, cellars, shelters, and informal structures.
Wealth determines space, privacy, light, sanitation, heating, security, and distance from dangerous work.
Many families share buildings.
A shop may occupy the ground floor with the proprietor, workers, apprentices, or tenants living above.
Crowding should affect noise, disease, fire, conflict, and privacy.
/PALACES AND ELITE RESIDENCES
Palaces and estates contain ceremonial rooms, private apartments, offices, kitchens, servant spaces, storage, stables, guards, gardens, guest rooms, records, and service corridors.
@Crownspire Palace is a royal residence and government institution, not one endless ballroom.
Elite buildings require large staffs and constant supply.
Servants, Artisans, guards, cooks, Launderers, stable workers, and clerks make splendor possible.
Do not let nobles move through immaculate spaces that no one cleans or heats.
/WORKSHOPS
Workshops are shaped by craft.
Forges require fuel, ventilation, water, fire safety, and space for heavy work.
Glassworks and pottery kilns require heat and separation from flammable neighborhoods.
Tailors and Weavers need light, storage, worktables, and dry fabric.
Tanneries require water and waste disposal.
Printers and Bookbinders need dry rooms and protection from fire.
Workshops may be attached to homes, but dangerous crafts create health and neighborhood conflicts.
/MARKETS
Markets require:
Access roads.
Stalls.
Storage.
Water.
Waste removal.
Scales.
Security.
Loading areas.
Shelter.
Public regulation.
A market may be permanent, seasonal, daily, or held on specific days.
@The Lantern Market may represent major public commerce where exact faction and place canon applies.
@The Common Scale may influence measurement, market fairness, and relief distribution.
Markets are civic infrastructure, not merely colorful backdrops.
/STREETS
Street width, paving, drainage, traffic, and use vary.
Major avenues support processions, carts, military movement, and markets.
Older lanes may be narrow, irregular, crowded, and difficult for wagons.
Wetland routes may be canals or boardwalks.
Mountain streets may be stairs and switchbacks.
Tails, wings, horns, carts, animals, porters, vendors, and mobility devices require space.
Aerial movement does not eliminate ground congestion.
/PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Public buildings may include:
Courts.
Council halls.
Guard posts.
Hospitals.
Schools.
Temples.
Bathhouses.
Granaries.
Shelters.
Archives.
Customs houses.
Public kitchens.
Their size and quality reflect local wealth and priorities.
/TEMPLES AND SACRED SPACE
Sacred spaces vary by culture.
They may be grand temples, household shrines, ancestor halls, gardens, caves, roadside shelters, oath rooms, memorial walls, or communal kitchens.
No universal four-temple plan exists for the Pulse Figures.
Religious architecture should express local interpretation rather than one standardized pantheon.
/FACTION SPACES
Factions use halls, offices, workshops, clinics, warehouses, refuges, markets, meeting rooms, and concealed sites according to purpose.
@Freedman’s Hall may provide legal services, refuge, education, work, food, and guarded safety connected to @The Broken Yoke.
A faction headquarters does not replace the surrounding city government.
/WATER
Every settlement requires water.
Sources may include:
Wells.
Rivers.
Springs.
Cisterns.
Aqueduct-like systems.
Rain collection.
Canals.
Protected reservoirs.
Water access affects property, class, disease, fire, and growth.
A grand fountain indicates engineering and wealth.
It does not mean every poor household has clean water.
/SANITATION
Waste, sewage, animal manure, workshop runoff, smoke, and dead bodies must be managed.
Systems may include privies, cesspits, drains, sewers appropriate to local technology, collection workers, designated dumping areas, compost, and regulation.
Poor districts often receive worse service.
Wetland, coastal, and river cities risk contaminating their own water.
Magic may assist only through exact spell effects and does not eliminate maintenance.
/FIRE
Fire is a constant urban threat.
Open hearths, candles, ovens, kilns, forges, crowded timber buildings, and stored fuel create danger.
Cities may require water barrels, watch patrols, bells, firebreaks, bucket crews, and building rules.
A fire affects housing, employment, records, and public health.
/DEFENSE
Walls, gates, watchtowers, fortified bridges, cliff positions, passes, and guard stations protect settlements.
Not every village is walled.
A wall requires construction, staffing, repair, and controlled gates.
Defenses built for war may trap residents during fire, flood, or Elder Beast evacuation.
/RACE-AWARE DESIGN
Architecture must accommodate established bodies.
Wingfolk spaces may include landing courts and high routes but still need stairs, ramps, lifts, and safe access for non-flying people.
Tideborn or Marshfolk spaces may include water access without making every room wet.
Horned people need head clearance.
Tailed people need suitable seating.
Large-bodied people need strong floors and furniture.
Antennae and wings require safe doorways and private space.
No settlement should assume one standard body.
/ACCESSIBILITY
Public and private spaces may use:
Ramps.
Handrails.
Resting places.
Wide doors.
Stable surfaces.
Lifts and pulleys.
Tactile markers.
Quiet rooms.
Adapted bathing.
Accessible counters.
Good accessibility reflects design, law, community effort, and wealth.
Do not cure disability because a staircase is inconvenient.
/SETTLEMENT SIZE
A hamlet, village, town, city, and capital require different institutions.
A village may support one market day and local healer.
A town may support courts, inns, several crafts, and guard posts.
A city requires water, sanitation, food supply, archives, markets, housing, administration, and organized defense.
Do not place every service in every settlement.
/GROWTH
Settlements grow around roads, ports, mines, rivers, royal offices, markets, bridges, temples, estates, and defensive sites.
Growth creates housing shortages, new districts, property conflict, waste, labor demand, and political change.
Planning may lag behind population.
New local point-of-interest entries must fit the settlement’s geography and economy.
/PUBLIC SPACE
Squares, gardens, markets, docks, streets, courtyards, bathhouses, taverns, temples, and halls create public life.
Access may be regulated by class, gender custom, race prejudice, hours, fees, or security.
Public space supports celebration, protest, commerce, rumor, courtship, crime, and ordinary rest.
/GENERATION RULES
Match architecture to region, climate, materials, class, and body.
Identify water and sanitation.
Keep servants and construction labor visible.
Do not create buildings larger than the economy can support.
Use public space for ordinary life, not only drmatic scenes.
Do not make every ruin magical.
Do not make every city clean, symmetrical, or fully planned.
/FINAL RULE
Valeune’s built world records who had money, who performed labor, whose body was expected, whose safety mattered, and how communities adapted to land that rarely cared about anyone’s architectural ambitions.