SETTING THESAURUS

MEDIEVAL VILLAGE (SPECULATIVE)



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HELPFUL TIP:

Settings should always be chosen with care. Consider the emotion you want your viewpoint character to feel and how setting choices, weather elements, and symbolism might build a specific mood in the scene, create tension and conflict, or even raise the stakes.
SIGHTS:
A village proper consisting of individual homes and community buildings
A small series of dirt roads or paths (in larger villages)
The village might be set along or near a major road or it could be completely isolated
Communal pastureland surrounding the village that yielded certain crops depending on the season (there might also be a pasture left fallow each year)
Forests or marshes on the outskirts
Wattle-and-daub homes arranged near the village center made of sticks and twigs, marsh reeds, or whatever inexpensive materials were available (bare floors, thatched roofs with a hole to release smoke from cook fires, straw mattresses on the ground, chests for clothing and precious items, tools and household items hanging on the walls, animals living inside with the residents, etc.)
Individual garden plots behind each home, fenced-in and privately-owned for growing the herbs and food items specific to the region and season
Barns—individually owned or a communal building shared by all
A church with a chancel area (housing an altar), the nave (where villagers stood to hear services), and a tower (which sometimes contained a bell)
A small parish for the priest to live in (though sometimes the church tower contained rooms for the priest's residence)
The manor house (a large and better-built home with its own buildings and land for growing crops and raising livestock), where the baron or head of the village lived
A mill, often set at the edge of a river or pond (which contained fish for fishing)
A village green (a large area used for community gatherings and pastureland)
Other possible structures, depending on the size and wealth of the village: a well, market, blacksmith's forge, granary, brewery, bakehouse, tavern, inn

SOUNDS:
A river chuckling or rushing by
Tree branches groaning in the wind
Birds singing and insects chirping
The wind sighing through grain crops
Rain drumming on a thatched roof
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PEOPLE COMMONLY FOUND IN THIS SETTING:
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SETTING NOTES AND TIPS:
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SETTING DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE:
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