Cities in Lloegyr

I had begun to write about Caerlot, which is the setting for the next series of games and an important setting element.  However, a comment by a player suggested that I need to revisit the idea of "town" and perhaps establish the sort of society that exists in Lleogyr.

One my major struggle when dealing with anachronisms is not actually technological.  It doesn't matter very much to me if you want castles with gatehouses and moats, or stirrups, or heraldry.  You can have all of that.  What I need to maintain is the proper sense of society, and that requires me to maintain a "proto-feudal"society... one that has not yet progressed to manoralism.

At this point in time "feudalism" is little more than a pecking order between very large gangs.  There's a king, and he has lords, but power dynamic is very much determined by individual personalities.  The earls each have a space, and they stay out of each other's territory, and they each obey the king to varying degrees.  However, their influence is primarily martial... how many soldiers can they send to the king.  Likewise, the king's influence is primarily martial... what happens if you disobey him?  Taxes are still in the form of tribute.  There's not a great deal of centralized administration.  Most importantly, Earldoms are not held in the name of the king, and subdivided into regions of smaller administration.

There are Thanes and Reeves, of course, but there's not the sense that every parcel of land is an economic asset, and each parcel has to be used and directly managed.  The Heorots are not that sophisticated (yet... and the Vincian's are, so this will likely happen in a generation or two).  When land is managed in this manner, a noble can only directly manage a relatively small area (about half a day's travel from his manor), and will have to subdivide the land.  When this happens, the lord's manor becomes the center of economic and political life, and has tremendous importance.  This is also when large-scale towns begin to develop.

Lloegyr isn't at this point yet.  Towns do exist, but they are uncommon, because they have yet to become a necessity.  The towns that do exist are generally (with some exceptions in the Heartlands) political and military centers, and have that sort of character.  

This is to say that that there's probably no "tavern" in most towns.  There's a brewer, probably a number of them, and you can go to his home to buy beer, and these are probably social centers.  However, this is still a friend's home.  Similarly, inns are a relatively rare phenomenon, as travelers in small numbers aren't that numerous.  You're not going to have many shops yet.  A town like Caerlot or Senton is a unique thing in that they have a number of establishments, instead of a central market, simply because they have enough trade to support such establishments.  

Now... Caerlot is a large city.  Lothan is larger.  Farpont and Senton are both capable of having these establishments, and Bessex and Kenton are getting there.  Lamark is practically Vincian in this regard.  But apart from these places, there's probably no "Inn of the Prancing Pony," because if there's an inn there, it's just "the Inn."