Does Your City Need Walls?
When you’re creating a map for a city or town, one thing you’ll need to decide is whether your settlement should have walls or not. Answering this depends a lot on where the city is built, the available resources to build a wall and the cultural climate of the times. Not every city needs a wall, especially if the city is not immediately under threat or is centrally located within a larger kingdom.
But when people live somewhere that demands constant protection from an invading force, it becomes much more likely that the residents will be motivated to take action to keep their families and possessions safe. Walls have been a staple throughout history because they add a very effective layer of defense. Just beware of orcs with explosives!
As I said before though, not every settlement absolutely needs walls. So before you begin drawing out a map, what should you take into consideration to decide if yours does? Here are a few questions to think through for your city.
A Few Quick Questions to Consider
- How large is the settlement?
If it's less than 7,000 people it is less likely to have a wall. There needs to be enough labor available to construct the fortification. The exception to this could be a wooden palisade.
- Is the settlement in danger of attack?
Do the people who live in your settlement feel their lives are threatened? Or are they more protected because their residence is centrally located in the kingdom?
- What resources are readily available?
Can stone be sourced locally? What about wood or mud brick? If the resources to build a wall are not readily available then it is increasingly unlikely to find one there.
- Is the entire city fortified or just a keep?
Rather than a wall being around the entire town, you could have a fortified castle or keep where people can fall back on in case of attack.
Construction Materials
Obviously, walls have been a feature of cities and fortresses throughout human history because even though they are time-consuming to construct they are an effective layer of defense. But when you examine human history for examples of how the walls were built, you’ll begin to see variations in the building materials, depending on the climate and availability of resources.
Typically, when we think of walls we tend to picture something made of stone, but they may not have been as common as you think. Stone walls are very expensive to build; not only in materials but also labor. One option that was actually very common in the medieval period was to use wood. While wood is obviously far less effective, especially against fire, it takes a lot less labor and the resources are more readily available. Another option I would argue that we in the fantasy community seem to overlook is mud brick. The ancient Egyptians, the Hittites, and cities in the Levant frequently employed mud brick to build some of the most impressive fortifications of the ancient world.
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In the end, if your city should have walls or not is ultimately up to you. But, I would encourage you to think through some of the questions above and consider what building materials would make more sense in your setting. While the story you’re writing may be a fantasy, it’s little details that reflect our own experience with reality that add up to creating a more believable world.
Since the release of The City Map Builder, it's been great to see a lot more questions about cities and towns coming in. If you have a question yourself don’t hesitate to EMAIL ME and I’ll do my best to answer your questions!
Happy Mapping!
- Josh
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