Urban (range)

Urban ranges are densely settled areas relating to concentrated towns or cities, and with few exceptions, villages as well. The dwellers in urban ranges work primarily on non-agricultural tasks; while some settled population areas include orchards or fields located inside their environs, these parts are correctly thought of as rural and not urban. Urban describes dense streets, buildings, drainage for sanitation and masonry for defense and managing the population.

Urban ranges are built to take in tremendous supplies of food and materials for consumption and manufacturing, the latter being transported outwards. Cities and towns resemble a great bellows, with the movement of ships, boats and wagons flowing in and out. Quays, docksides along rivers and large holding areas collect stores of goods which are sheltered under sheds or within great storehouses — which may overflow, depending upon the produce and which season it is, into the streets and lots. This is especially true of agricultural produce, which pours into the urban center more quickly than it can be transshipped outwards again.

The urban center also serves as an administrative and defensive bulwark of the province or kingdom — and so a substantial portion of the population relates to accounting, decision-making and maintaining order (not only of the urban space but also its environs). Authority is far from centralized; it is divided between nobles, military orders, guilds, cabals and religious entities, each of whom liaison with one another while subtly vying for control of the urban center's people and wealth. This competition for power descends through the strata of the inhabitants, so that factions grapple for control of neighbourhoods, markets and even the streets themselves, marking off territories and jealousy defending their dominance. Status-seeking incorporates a quest for allies and trusted henchmen, while isolating, negating or eliminating one's enemies.

Conditions

If the characters have money, urban ranges are the safest places anywhere.