Help me build a town - Grammarspire

[Steve]

Grammarspire is the name of a centuries old wizard’s tower located on the edge of a forest with an ancient history of faerie enchantments and dangerous magical beasts that attracted the original builder of the tower here when he was an adventurer, but it has been fairly quiescent for many decades thanks to the irregular efforts of various roving bands of adventurers passing through from time to time as well as past wizards plundering the slowly dwindling magical resources from the woodlands. Years might pass between visits by such adventuring companies nowadays. 
 

While not located on a major trade road, it still sees some occasional visitors and generally needs to fend for itself. The local population, while kind of insular and maybe a little creepy at times due to the lingering powers of the Faewood, is not anywhere close to the level of malevolent, gothic weirdness like Innsmouth from Lovecraft lore, just some minor quirkiness.
 

The tower is what gave the town its name and has been handed down from master to apprentice since it was first built several hundred years ago, occasionally added on to with things like an alchemical lab or enlarging the library. Wizardry is a very, very rare gift, requiring an inborn talent that few have, so the presence of the wizard is a point of pride to the locals.
 

During the course of time, a small town has risen up around the tower, taking advantage of the presence of the wizards who provide the heavy artillery of the town’s protection with their magics. The local Duke sends a new sheriff to manage law and order every decade or two, and the wizard allows this to keep from being bothered to deal with every minor bandit problem or suchlike. If things rise to a level beyond what the sheriff and his few deputies can handle, the current apprentice will be sent out to handle things. If that still isn’t enough, then the wizard will get involved.

 

I’m looking for input in what sort of individuals or businesses might congregate around such a place to provide needed services and products for the current wizard and any apprentices or who would feel comfortable living on the edge of an enchanted wood that still has a few mysteries deep within it and remnants of Fae enchantments. Since it’s been around a while, some of the local families might have been present for ten or more generations.

[L. Marcus]

The Fae of the forest owes fealty to Aurora, the Winter Queen. One can reach her realm in the Otherworld through a passage in a cairn raised on a bare hill in the middle of the woods. She has little interest in the mundane world, but she has been known to take lovers from men who have found their way to her cold land.

 

Almost invariably, they have been afflicted by frostbite in sensitive areas.

 

"Worth it," they all said.

 

Sorry.

[archer]

Even though it's not on a major trading road, it's likely some trading company would have a major presence there. The locals have to produce something and need something else. And a business being able to ask favors from the wizard and point out your importance to the community as an inducement for her to grant it would be a powerful fringe benefit.

 

Banking since it sounds like the place is stable financially. Heck, any place that's not in danger of being raided and has law enforcement is practically heaven so I'd expect every occupation to be there if the tower has been around long enough.

 

There's likely a logging industry, particularly if there's a river to send the logs down. Though likely the wizard, the fae, or the local government limits the amount or types of trees which can be downed.

 

Fishing if there's a river or lake along with docks and perhaps a port facility. Boatmakers if there's a port. Ferrymen if there's a river. Makers of sails, rope, nets, anchors, etc.

 

Likely a monastery or large church presence if the place is as safe as you are telling us. Young monks need to learn their letters and numbers somewhere and better that it's somewhere safe. Perhaps a large scholastic presence if there's church-owned books which need to be transcribed from older languages to new. Winery for monks.

 

Granary and mills.

 

Glassworks if there's a beach for sand. Saltworks if there's an ocean. Saltery for preserving fish.

 

Weavers for making grain bags. Crockers for crockery. Coopers.

 

Tanners if there's good hunting in the forest. Bowyers/fletchers for the hunters. Cobblers and armor-makers if there's a steady supply of leather.  

 

Orchards. Chestnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts since those are easily stored and are found naturally in many forests. Also the more typical fruit trees.

 

Swineherding since pigs will eat acorns, leaves, and other forest debris.

 

Quarry and stonemasons. Miners. Blacksmith.

 

Apothecary

 

Surgeon/dentist/barber

 

Candlemaker

 

Wainwright, wheelwright, carpenter

 

Hostler, stableboy 

 

Innkeep, cook, maid, waitress

 

Clerk (accountant), scribe

 

Cockfights, dogfights, pit fights

 

Soapmaker, basket-weaver, spinster, baker, teamster

[archer]

14 minutes ago, archer said:

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

If the forest has been subject to Fae enchantments and powerful wizardries for centuries, that's likely to have mutated the local flora and fauna. Not necessarily enough to produce "monsters," but at least some of its indigenous wildlife may have changed in ways that would make them valuable for commercial exploitation: birds with unusually hued feathers, distinctive fur-bearing animals, ornately horned or antlered creatures, unique herbs or spices, wood of unusual hardness or beauty, flowers to make perfumes from, trees with exotic fruit which can be dried or fermented, etc.

 

Given the size of town you want, there's probably not enough of those things to create a major economic boom, but still worth apothecaries, woodcarvers, tanners and clothiers, and the like setting up shop there. However, if there was originally more, the arrival of the wizard might have led to a minor "gold rush" and a larger settled population for a time, until over-exploitation caused the resources to wane.

[dougmacd]

7 hours ago, Steve said:

I’m looking for input in what sort of individuals or businesses might congregate around such a place

 

First, I love the name of the town.  🙂

 

Putting aside typical occupations for a town -- @archer has covered it better than I could -- it seems like businesses to support the tower would focus on collecting/creating "wizardly materials":

• paper/vellum/ink/bookbinding - scribes, supported by spinsters/tanners
• candles to read them by - candlemakers, supported by beekeepers?
• flasks/vials/fine metalwork - glassworks/silversmiths, supported by miners?
• generic "material components" - So many apothecaries, supported by scouts/rangers/gatherers (not sure the correct occupation name), who are in turn regulated by a forester

Then again, it's entirely possible these are jobs for which the apprentices are responsible....

 

 

Doug

A great resource: https://gamingballistic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Medieval-Demographics-Made-Easy-1.pdf

[L. Marcus]

A fairy-infested forest is not easy to navigate. Unseasonable mists, paths that seems to meander, a closed, dense canopy that makes it hard to see the sun and landmarks ... And hey, did that tree just move? And then, there's the faeries, too.

 

If you want to explore such a place, what you need is a faery woods expert. And Grammarspire's leading expert in the field is Ordgar the tracker, a short, dark, slightly scruffy man around forty years of age. But what strikes people who makes his acquaintance the most is the impression he gives of being absent even when speaking with you. He rarely smiles, and friends of his say that he hasn't actually laughed in a couple of decades. He doesn't get angry, either -- a cocked eyebrow is the most annoyance he's shown in a long time, and that was when he had broken a leg.

 

He loves the forest. If anyone mortal can be said to know the woodland on his five fingers, it is he. Also an excellent archer, a fair hand with a spear, an indifferent horseman, and a tracker second to none.

 

So, if you want to go through Grammarspire woods and come out again, with good odds of keeping most of your limbs, speak to Ordgar.

[Steve]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

Yes, I was thinking businesses providing wizardly materials would most likely be the town's core industries, so making paper, vellum and ink, along with bookbinding would indeed be thriving businesses. And any excess not needed by the wizard and apprentice could be traded to other towns and faraway cities for items not made locally. Spinners and tanners would also find buyers for their wares, and sheepherders and their flocks would support them in turn. Likewise, for candlemakers, glassworks and silversmiths. I had not thought of beekepers in all this, but the beeswax and honey might have some minor magical properties from fairy dust-infused pollens the bees picked up from flowers in the woods and grasslands surrounding it and so be in demand by wizards and temples for their properties.

 

Grammarspire is not huge, perhaps only a few hundred people or so (about 500 or less), and there is a certain "Grammarspire Look" among the locals whose families have been here for more than a generation, a certain Fae quality to them. Visitors to the town have also noticed that the local women, those who did not originate from elsewhere, are all very attractive specimens, even those who are past their youth. This is due to a town secret: no girl children have ever been born here, long believed by the locals to be some kind of fairy curse on the town. This situation has gone on for so many generations now that no one living knows why things are like this, and it caused the founders of the town to look to the woods for a solution when they first realized the problem. Young men nowadays have a rite of passage when they reach a certain age, taking with them a special charm necklace provided by the wizard and seeking out one of the nymph glades to capture themselves a bride. The binding charm only lasts until the human dies or releases their mate, freeing the captured nymph to retreat back to the woods, forgetting their brief years (or decades) among humans as they revert back to their Fae selves and abandon the more human-like guise the charm imposed upon them, even causing them to appear to very gracefully age if they remain longer than a few years. At any given time, there are dozens of such nymph brides in town, taking care of households and children, and working alongside their "husbands" in local businesses and trades. They are constantly smiling and always appear happy, giving off a "Stepford Wife" sort of vibe.

[Steve]

Maeve Tanner is an example of such a nymph bride, the mother of two young boys who bakes excellent apple tarts that she sells in the marketplace to make some extra coins for the family, and she is always smiling and humming happy melodies. Her husband Edwin Tanner is of the ninth generation here and owns a small tannery near their home that he inherited from his father, specializing in making vellum for the wizards and selling his excess product to traders passing through. He is a quiet, meek sort of man who tries to be a good father and husband, but he is haunted by lingering guilt about what he did to make Maeve his wife and knows she will someday return to the woods after he is dead, forgetting all about him and their children, just as his own mother did after his father died. Just as happened in all the generations before his did.

[assault]

Given the size of the town, most of the population would be farmers and similar food producers.

However, given the fae influences, food might be mostly gathered/picked rather than grown in cleared fields, with plowing and all that messy mortal stuff. So lots of orchards and gardens. Probably not monocultures here - various useful plants that can be harvested at different times of year.

But still, bread is useful. The areas that aren't immediately adjacent to the forest could be used to grow grains of various sorts.

Livestock, even mundane plow animals, could have a fae streak in their ancestry. The area might breed "interesting" horses, even if they are scrubby ponies. And once in a while, you might even get a unicorn... They'd be impossible to domesticate, but a horse with unicorn ancestry could be worth a fortune.

 

[Scott Ruggels]

The  presence of the Wizard(s) makes it necessary for some specialized craftsmen.

Book Binders will be busy making folios for the Wizards, and binding notes, and such.

 

A Blacksmith is a given, but tool makers, Glass Blowers and lens grinders will be needed for the instrumentation for the wizard's  experimentation, same with white smiths making small instruments. Tinsmiths for containers, and the like. 

You may see a  specialist trade company, trading in refined materials for these craftsmen, and then trading back refined tinctures and the bulk biproducts that the Wizard(s), plus a side industry in surplus production. 

 

This would make for a very "middle class" sort of  population in the town with a large population of professionals, and a very happy group of farmers that can charge up their produce in the markets.

 

masons would consult with the Apprentices to line the roadways and arrange the buildings in such a way to make the town more defensible with the methods that the Wizard uses.

[Steve]

21 hours ago, assault said:

Given the size of the town, most of the population would be farmers and similar food producers.

However, given the fae influences, food might be mostly gathered/picked rather than grown in cleared fields, with plowing and all that messy mortal stuff. So lots of orchards and gardens. Probably not monocultures here - various useful plants that can be harvested at different times of year.

But still, bread is useful. The areas that aren't immediately adjacent to the forest could be used to grow grains of various sorts.

Livestock, even mundane plow animals, could have a fae streak in their ancestry. The area might breed "interesting" horses, even if they are scrubby ponies. And once in a while, you might even get a unicorn... They'd be impossible to domesticate, but a horse with unicorn ancestry could be worth a fortune.

 

I suppose the wood could have a modest contingent of druids, now that I think of it. The townsfolk look at them as cult-like weirdos, attracting a few impressionable youths now and then, but mostly keeping to themselves and having their own children in a more symbiotic relationship with the human-sized Fae, since they would have no girl children born either. After generations of breeding in the woods without very much human stock being added to dilute the Fae influences, instead of being Fae-touched, they might be more akin to half-elves or full-blooded elves in ability and appearance. Their membership would be in mild contention with the church of the official state religion which has a local priest in residence in the town.
 

Father Ebenezer Grimm is a young, idealistic, missionary sort of priest instead of a die-hard heretic-hunter, seeking to open lines of communications with non-believers to expand his flock. He found it more than a bit disturbing that the local women attending his church with their husbands were bound Fae, but he is gradually being seduced to accept the idea. The many journals kept by his predecessors are helping him along this path, and he wonders if taking his own Fae-wife would gain him greater acceptance by the community.

 

To earn money, the druids maintain small groves of fruit and nut trees, gathering the produce for sale in town in the farmers market. Their appearance causes some concerned murmuring among the townsfolk, but they are not actively discriminated against.

[assault]

Adding druids is a distraction from your main idea, IMHO. Not inherently bad, but I would play them down.

[Lord Liaden]

I concur with assault. OTOH one crazy hermit druid might be fun to add to the mix. Maybe not even a real druid. Perhaps someone committed to "saving" the nymphs from "sexual slavery."

[assault]

22 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Perhaps someone committed to "saving" the nymphs from "sexual slavery."

I wouldn't go there. It's one thing that the community has a sketchy basis - it's another to rub it in and mark it as a target.

[Steve]

4 hours ago, assault said:

Adding druids is a distraction from your main idea, IMHO. Not inherently bad, but I would play them down.

Fair enough. Having the wizards and Fae is already plenty magical. Father Ebenezer does not even have to be a spellcaster, I suppose. He has plenty of drama to offer PCs from wrestling with his own issues and as a potential source of information as more of an outsider to the town despite being a resident for some time.

 

Maybe a low magic feel for most of the town might be better. Yes, there is a wizard and an apprentice, but they may be more cloistered sorts that don’t make many appearances and are more there for background.

 

4 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I concur with assault. OTOH one crazy hermit druid might be fun to add to the mix. Maybe not even a real druid. Perhaps someone committed to "saving" the nymphs from "sexual slavery."

The townsfolk look at what they are doing as a necessity and blame the Fae for the lack of women, I would think. Its a creepy tradition, I admit.

[Steve]

Sheriff Brawn is a brutish-looking man that some whisper might have more than a bit of orc blood flowing in his veins. A widower, his wife was never a strong woman and passed away in the dead of winter less than a year after his assignment here over a decade ago, leaving him with two young children to care for, a girl and boy, both under three years old.

 

Uncertain if it was blasphemy but unable to manage raising his two children alone, he bought a binding charm from the wizard’s apprentice and made his way into the woods two days after his wife’s passing, unwilling to wait for the spring thaw when the unwed local men first start looking for a nymph bride. More often in summertime, but never in winter.

 

His Faewife Ella is a statuesque, Nordic beauty with silver-white hair and ice-blue eyes, always having a sternly imperious gaze in public to go with her very regal bearing. The locals whisper fearfully that she’s a Fae noble of some kind who will bring an endless winter upon them if she is displeased, and the other Faewives keep a respectful distance from her, refusing to say why.

[theinfn8]

Rough draft

[dsatow]

I'd add a few curious people to the town too.

 

The dunken sot, who claims people aren't what they appear.  "Pure evil demons they be."  He's a little loud and obnoxious but doesn't break any major rules other than drinking too much and bathing too little.

 

A little goblin peddler offering substandard goods at substandard prices.  Things like 50' of rope made up of 3-5 sections tied together of various makes and quality.  Or the mace at half price because its just a lump of metal at the end of a relative straight stick.  The waterskin which holds 3/4 what it normally holds because its been patched up badly.  They have tried to chase him away but he's fairly agile and at least smart enough to argue that he deserves just as much a chance as anyone else.  He keeps coming back because people keep buying stuff from him and the stuff works at least a few times before breaking.

 

Harry's Souvenir Shop:  The first of its kind!  Originally a toy maker, Harry Mudd thinks he's got a bright idea for making money.  He sells little porcelain tower trinkets.  Amulets with the image of the tower.  Dolls of the Mighty Morphin Wizard (a cloth, stuffed doll you can pull inside out to make into a stuffed dragon - slow seller because of the lack of little girls in town).  Sherriff Brawn Action figures (also a slow seller but it stokes the ego of the Sherriff which is always good for business).  Toy swords and wands.  Maps of the Tower (almost totally useless and kind of cartoony, like a map of the stars).  Books on the history of the wizard.  Etc.  His most recent product Grammarspire Mud, which he says the women use keep looking young and beautiful by applying it to their skin.  The townsfolk do buy the mud (as a distraction, which they start calling Harry's Mudd.

 

 

 

[Steve]

On 1/29/2022 at 1:53 PM, assault said:

Given the size of the town, most of the population would be farmers and similar food producers.

However, given the fae influences, food might be mostly gathered/picked rather than grown in cleared fields, with plowing and all that messy mortal stuff. So lots of orchards and gardens. Probably not monocultures here - various useful plants that can be harvested at different times of year.

But still, bread is useful. The areas that aren't immediately adjacent to the forest could be used to grow grains of various sorts.

Livestock, even mundane plow animals, could have a fae streak in their ancestry. The area might breed "interesting" horses, even if they are scrubby ponies. And once in a while, you might even get a unicorn... They'd be impossible to domesticate, but a horse with unicorn ancestry could be worth a fortune.

 

As one of the pillars supporting the town, the farmers have long been organized as the Grammarspire Guild of Crofters. The weekly meetings are mainly an excuse for the men to get together and drink and gamble a bit, but they also set prices for grains and gathered nuts and fruits from the woods and come together to support each other during times of trouble, like fires or suchlike. A number of them are decent brewers, sharing their products with each other and selling their wares to passing merchants.

 

They are semi-friendly rivals with the Grammarspire Fraternal Order of Ranchers and Sheepherders, the other main mens group in the town. Grammarspire Wool is known for having a certain softness and sells well in neighboring towns and cities. The milk from the local cows stays fresh for far longer than normal and makes quite excellent cheeses, which makes for a decent trade with merchants. They also sell their excess sheep and cattle for eventual butchering.

 

The Craftsmen Guild is smaller than the other two but its membership includes businesses in town such as candlemakers, silversmiths, paper makers, bookbinders and so forth. Wine is their favored drink, viewing it as a bit more highbrow than the ales and beers the farmers and sheepherders drink.

 

The Quill and Parchment Club is even smaller and includes those men who provide scribe and accounting services. As a clergyman and a man of letters himself, Father Ebenezer socializes with them. They are more the brandy and tea sort of drinkers.

[theinfn8]

Colorized and expanded a little