Cities by Culture

All the above example cities assume a human-dominated culture. If this is not the case in your campaign, you might wish to modify your city descriptions to better fit a dominant nonhuman outlook.

DWARF CITIES

Other than humans, dwarves are the most prolific city-builders among the common humanoid races. Dwarves work with stone, pure and simple. Wood is for burning, for buttressing tunnels to prevent cave-ins, or to provide a framework for heavier materials.

The traditional image of the underground dwarf complex is roughly accurate, but it represents only one method of construction. Dwarves who build underground carve entire cities out of the rock: rooms, hallways, massive chambers, even wide-open spaces such as town squares and temples. Where they can, dwarves build within and around preexisting caves. Some underground cities consist of simple rooms shaped from the existing space, while others are true buildings—complete with walls, roofs, and windows—erected within enormous caverns.

Surface-dwelling dwarves also prefer to build in stone, recreating the earthen womb from which their race hails. These surface cities are usually well defended, built within isolated valleys or surrounded by walls so thick that they contain rooms themselves. Buildings have heavy doors and relatively few windows, giving them an even greater sense of weight.

In either case, dwarves prefer to build vertically rather than horizontally, a practice dating from a time when their race was restricted to cramped underground caverns. A dwarf city takes advantage of natural elevation, so that squat-looking buildings actually rise several stories. In some cases, one level of the city shares a single ceiling, which also serves as the fl oor for a second layer of buildings above.

For more on dwarf culture and communities, see Races of Stone.

ELF CITIES

Elves build their cities in conjunction with nature, rather than in opposition to it. This attitude doesn’t mean that every community consists of tree houses, as some smaller elf villages do, but rather that buildings incorporate their surroundings into their construction. The long-lived elves can afford to slowly shape and grow their environment as they desire.

Many elven buildings use living trees as support columns, or leave room for trees to grow through floors and ceilings. Tree branches might be woven together to form bridges between city districts. Some structures have no constructed floor on the ground level, instead retaining the existing soil with living grass. In communities where magic is commonplace, elves might use spells to shape nonliving materials such as quartz into buildings. Magic can also form living trees into habitable structures. Many communities have running water and sewer systems; rather than using pipes and pumps, they employ magically created channels to and from nearby rivers, or even create/ destroy water spells.

Elf cities are always constructed near sources of fresh water and always have some means of defense. Examples are a surrounding wall of trees to serve as archery platforms, and a city built atop a high rise. For more on elf culture and communities, see Races of the Wild.

GNOME CITIES

Gnomes often build underground, but their communities are quite different from those of dwarves. They rarely build complex structures, but simply carve comfortable homes out of the rock. Their cities remain near the surface, for ease of farming and gardening—some are not subterranean at all. Surface-dwelling gnomes build simple homes from wood, stone, or whatever materials are handy. Humans are often surprised by how much gnome buildings resemble their own (allowing for the difference in scale, of course).

Gnomes do not overplan their cities, expanding them as the need arises rather than conforming to a prearranged layout. Their cities are lightly defended, if at all. Gnomes prefer escape routes and ambush points over fortifications. For more on gnome communities, see Races of Stone.

HALFLING CITIES

Halflings rarely build their own cities. Many are nomadic, and those who choose to settle usually establish small settlements or live amid human cities. The rare halfling town that grows large enough to qualify as a city is little more than a jumble of wooden structures. Halfling cities grow from and into their environment, in much the same way as Cliffside (see page 20). Halflings do not build solely around natural elements as elves do, but they work the natural surroundings into their buildings’ features. Halfling homes are often adorned with colorful plants, or roofed in thatch and heavy leaves. Many are open to the outside, with large windows or even entire missing walls, using sheets of canvas for protection against storms. Like elves, halflings prefer to build near natural water sources and fertile soil. For more on halfl ing communities, see Races of the Wild.

ORC AND GOBLINOID CITIES

While a few exceptions exist (notably hobgoblins), orcs and the various goblinoids have primitive cultures, which are reflected in their cities. A typical city consists primarily of rough wooden buildings, with few taller than two or three stories. Construction is crude: Doors might not fit well in their frames, or might be merely hide curtains, while roofs are often thatch or simple wood. Roads are rarely paved and follow no real plan. Most such communities have some sort of defensive perimeter, such as a wooden wall, a spiked moat, or a series of guard towers on stilts or built in trees.

Many orc and goblinoid cities are subterranean and use stone rather than wood, but they otherwise resemble surface cities. They exploit defensible locales, rich natural resources, or nearby communities on which to prey. Underground cities are more oriented toward defense, often being built in caverns with limited entrances.

Such cities are crudely functional, with little thought for aesthetics. Decoration is minimal: trophies from prior kills, or walls daubed with bright colors, with little sculpture or artwork. Other races assume that these primitive humanoids have no interest in beauty. Although this is true to an extent, the main factor is that orcs and goblinoids expect their communities—even the larger cities—to be temporary. They constantly struggle with other races, other tribes of their own kind, and marauding adventurers. Thus, they view any effort beyond providing the necessities of life as a waste of time and energy.

PLANAR CITIES

Some campaigns take characters far from familiar lands, even their own planes of existence. Cities on other planes have alien appearances. Variable laws of gravity and magic present unusual architectural and engineering challenges, at least from the human perspective. The ultimate example is Sigil, the City of Doors. Here on the hub of the Concordant Domain of the Outlands, reality bends over itself: Anywhere within the city, one can look up into the sky and see the same city.

Like elves, the builders and inhabitants of planar cities are extremely long-lived, and their urban centers reflect an awareness of history and of the passage of time. At the same time, a planar city embodies a sense of eternity—it always has been and always will be as it is today. A city’s cultural outlook depends on its place in the multiverse. Cities of the Outer Planes reflect the character of the area’s native inhabitants. For example, the portal town of Ribcage in the Outlands, which borders the Nine Hells of Baator, is inhabited by fiends and petitioners of that plane. For more on planar communities, see Manual of the Planes.