Editing ALVATIA: Cottage Styles (section)

==Variations and Regional Differences==

The variety of Alvatian cottages is expressed by size, features, and construction details.

Cottars will normally live in a two bay house, with no division wall between the byre and the hall. A single door in the byre bay will serve all of the residents, both animal and human. Two windows, one on each side of the hall, admit air and light.

The slightly better off villeins are typically found in three bay houses. The byre, with cross passage and two doors, is separated from the two-bay hall by a wicker wall. Two to four windows open from the hall.

Most freemen possess a four bay home. The byre will be fully separated from the two-bay hall by a wattle-and-daub wall; the hall will have a door to the outside and two or three windows. The pantry bay, still with cross passage and two doors, has a loft usuable for sleeping. Stone fireplaces, with chimneys, are found in a portion of these cottages; if so, there is probably no floor hearth.

Huts of only one bay are rarely used as dwellings, except by absolutely poor peasants. Instead, they house bakeries, breweries, manorial kitchens, stables, etc.

Stairs, built-in benches, and second stories are uncommon but not unknown. Some cottages have been built with rubble and mortar replacing the wattle-and-daub, in the style of some urban buildings.

Buildings of five or six bays normally represent inns, or are found in the lord's manor yard as barracks, etc. At this size, they may be found built in a "L" shape.

In a few areas where timber is not readily available, peasant cottages are built with unmortared stone walls. These buildings are far more durable, but require vastly more labor than cruck-framed buildings. Details of roofing and floorplan remain much the same.

In the county of Irenndil, almost all buildings are painted with whitewash; this helps to waterproof and preserve the wattle-and-daub walls. The ridge-beams here are extended three or four feet past the gables, and carved into strange rams-horn curls.

The prosperous peasants of the Fimark build elaborate ceramic fireplace hoods and tubular chimneys; most houses of three bays or more will have a proper fireplace here. Some will also have tiled floors in the hall and pantry. Trellises of lath, and simple window boxes, decorate the exterior of these cottages.

Along the coast of Axemoor, large flat rocks are placed on the thatch, and tied down; this helps prevent the roof from blowing off during winter storms.

In some of the more remote southern parts of Vilgarth, the woodsmen roof their cottages with shingles.