User:Downzorz/Tome of Steel/Types of Cities

= Types of Cities =

Mercantile Cities
Mercantile cities are built around economic needs. In the real world, they are generally built near major trade routes, such as rivers. This holds true for Iron Age, medieval, and colonial-style nations, but breaks down in neo-modern and magical nations. When interacting with the Wish economy, transportation is far less relevant. Therefore, there are two reasons for mercantile city placement- either it is placed at an advantageous location, or it is placed at a location that was advantageous in the past. This holds true with real-life cities as well- Coastal cities in America tend to be much larger because they developed during times when overseas trade was the main form of commerce.

In D&D, newly built mercantile cities are usually built around some sort of method of transportation. At Iron Age levels, this might be a very popular road, or a convenient location along the coast. At medieval ages, the cities could be created along particularly large rivers or trade roads. At the Colonial level, small rivers are commonly used. At neo-modern or magical ages, the only thing that justifies the creation of a mercantile city is a magical portal of large size, capable of moving very large objects or large volumes of objects quickly.

Fortresses
Fortresses are built for war. In pre-modern times, fortresses were usually built as houses for soldiers and as armories. In modern times, some scientific institutions are built as fortresses. This means that in neo-modern and magical societies, there might be libraries containing magical information, or enchanted locations that might be as well protected as a modern military institution. For libraries, this usually means they are built underground. For magical locations, they are either surrounded with a 40' wall or otherwise dimensionally locked. This can even include aerial locations, with a 40' thick sphere built and suspended around the location.

Fortresses in Iron Age or medieval settings are generally walled. Colonial-era forts are more generally fortified, with walls surrounding the top as well as the sides. This protects from aerial bombardment. Colonial-era through magical fortresses all need to be protected against teleportation, as these are all considerations with magical warfare. Neo-modern fortresses are often underground, and some of them are connected together or to the surface by series of portals, as opposed to tunnels. Magical fortresses tend to be extremely well-protected, and the best of them are on alternate planes, or even private demiplanes.

Resource Camps
Resource camps are built to harvest natural resources. In Iron Age, medieval, or colonial nations, resource camps can be used to harvest natural, nonmagical resources. However, neo-modern nations tend to have less resource camps for common, nonmagical materials and more for magical materials. In magical nations, the Wish economy means that the only things worth harvesting are magical materials that cannot be gained by Wishes. This means that most of the resources harvested by magical nations are harvested across planar boundaries, meaning that there are trade routes that must pass through cross-planar portals.