Traditional Snefaldian village

The Traditional Snefaldian village is a famous institution in the Centralized Mountain States of Snefaldia, and is common to all the regions of the country with only minor regional variation. Many modern Snefaldians continue to live in the villages, which often only have electricity in certain buildings or only offer communal baths and toilets. To the average Snefaldian, however, these are not necessities, and it is the very friendly and lively village life that is the main facet of village life.

Structure

The layout of villages is quite common across the board, with only minor variations based on climate, material, and region. The village is usually walled, or at least constructed with very small streets and contiguous housing. At the center of the town is the central plaza, often called the Quad, which is very similar in function to the palazzo. This plaza is very large, sometimes with a fountain or a man-made pool in the center.

The Quad forms the heart of the village, a community without one is almost unheard of. The local Aatem Nal instution is on the Quad, along with the town's Endiri shrine. A full circular amphitheatre, or one of square or rectangular shape, is found at one end of the Quad, usually opposite a tall tower, and kitty-corner to the Library and the shrine. The Quad is very large, and must be big enough to accomodate both the inhabitants of the village and the surrounding farms. It is almost always paved in stone, but is sometimes pounded soil, bricked, and very rarely mosaic.

Since the Quad is in the shape of a rectangle, or sometimes ovoid, there are a minimum of four main streets leading to the rest of the city, sometimes more. Buildings are built close together, with alleyways, basements, and roofs in common. It is common for villages to have one or two entrances, sometimes gated, but larger villages have more.

Markets are usually found in the residential areas, but is sometimes its own district just off the Quad. The Quad is almost never used for commerce, outside of restaurants or festivals. Larger villages, or villages with many surrounding farms, will often have wooden structures outside of the village that serve as seasonal markets.

By law, all villages are required to have a hospital or clinic available to service the village and surrounding area. Only the most rural and traditionalist of villages do not have some form of modern medical care.

Infrastructure

Even in the modern age, most Snefaldian villages lack electricity and indoor plumbing. What is even more interesting is that there is little drive to acquire these trappings of modern life. Electricity is usually only needed for the Aatem Nal building and the town's tower, in order to keep in contact with the rest of the nation. Some cities have electrified lights in the Quad, and even fewer have streetlights everywhere.

Plumbing is an interesting affair. Many villages are built near or on artesian wells by purpose, and build cisterns to hold the water; or use aqueducts to carry water into the town. These cisterns then disperse the water through a series of smaller aqueducts, which dispense it to various fountains, public toilets, and the baths. The system is almost always gravity-fed, but in areas where artesian wells are common the water is self-pumped; and electrified towns have the ability to pump their water.

Bathing and toiletry are sometimes shocking for outsiders. It is highly uncommon for individual households to have their own baths and toilets, villages having their own municipal baths and toilet blocks throughout the village. The system of distribution is usually called the Well-Block system, where square blocks of eight buildings share the central plot as a plaza, well, toilet-house, and bath. Larger villages have larger bathhouses, which resemble Roman-style baths to an amazing degree.