Buildings of Heimland

Written by Ken D

Buildings of Heimland come in a plethora of shapes, from the simple mud-hut to the grand stone-temple. Most of the buildings of Heimland are those left over from when the Old Folk called the island their home. A few such buildings might even have messages on them, written in the text of the Folk. It's not uncommon to find a building with an advertisement for an "I-Pad" or "I-Phone" or food from "Pizza Hut" and "KFC" and other foreign and strange inventions of the Old Folk, no longer used by the common people but kept in glass display-cases in grand museums. Some of the most common buildings include simple timber houses with thatched roofs, simple doors and normally no windows. Each race of Heimland has its own preference for a house. For example, the Yea'haa'weh prefer simple bearskin teepees for their dwellings whilst the Surakh and the people of Indagar prefer blackstone temples with massive iron obelisks. Each race also has their own name for "house" or "home". The timber houses of the common people are the easiest to make, as they require no nails or cement to be built. Two timber planks for the roof with straw spliced into their framework, eight timber planks to make the walls with putty or mud packed into the sides and one large and flat timber plank for a door. Windows can be made by punching holes into walls.

Purpose / Function

The buildings or Heimland each serve purposes, from living-quarters to places of worship. The Sun-Temple near the Heimish-Forest is the place of worship for the Yea'haa'weh, who worship "Indawo" ("Great Mother"). The "Factory" is where the machines of the Old Folk tend to live, since they have to place in proper humanoid society. A "Khusela" is an armory, where one can purchase weapons such as crossbows, rifles or even fancy technology left behind by the Folk. A "Kikimora" ("Home of Heart") is a hospital or maternity-clinic. A Manhouse is a zoo, or a place where contestants are forced to fight to the death by the bloodthirsty Surakh. Each building has their own purpose, from dairy-farms to gaming-centers. Of all the buildings in Heimland, the "Mörktornet" ("Black-Tower") is the biggest of them all, and is positioned in the center of Heimland.

Alterations

Originally many buildings in Heimland served completely different purposes. For example, the dairy-farms were once factories where one could purchase "tellyfoons" and other fancy gadgets of the Old Folk. Many of the temples were once art-galleries housing "fottegrafs" and other inventions of the Folk. The Factory was once used to produce machines on a daily basis, but shut down after the Folk vanished. And although there were timber-houses during the time of the Old Folk, most of them had cement and bricks to be built with. The places that sold tech became armories, the police-stations became gladiator-arenas, the music-shops became torture-chambers. Both wonderful and horrible uses for these old buildings have been found by the common people. The Black-Tower is certainly the mysterious one, no one knows where it came from but most assume it was the last thing the Old Folk created before their disappearance.

Architecture

Each race of Heimland decorates their homes with whatever their culture prefers. Yea'haa'weh decorate teepees with simple flower-paint, common people use "spray-paint" and other inventions of the Old Folk, the Surakh decorate their shrines with the skulls and limbs of their victims, the robots prefer to decorate their Factory with deep shades of steel-blue and grey. The buildings that use stone are normally made from fine granite mixed with other substances of the Old Folk the common people can't pronounce. The paints of the Old Folk are still in fact used, but rarely since paint on Heimland is worth six biltu (360 kg) of gold. Any buildings made of metal are rusted or simply ruined. The farms and places that still function are kept in good condition by the machines and common people.

History

After the Old Folk vanished, much of their tech and buildings was left for the remaining inhabitants. Some of the oldest buildings, such as the Factory, continued to work for some time before eventually breaking down with age. A few of the bridges connecting Heimland to the outer world crumbled and fell, isolating Heimland from the rest of whatever was out there. The Black-Tower was at first worshipped by the people, then feared. Strange sounds could be heard from the top. A robot would tell you it was "sub-nuclear atomic cells requiring recharging" but a common man would tell you it was the "sirens of demons". Whatever was at the top, it was enough to keep people out of the Tower.

Alternative Names

gedaaraa, knivasa, sthānayak, jīvanya or yokuhlala

Type

Geographic Feature

Related Ethnicities

• Ethnicities of Heimland